TCM Schedule for Friday, May 11, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: Starring Lesley-Anne Down

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is featuring films of director Tod Browning, today best remembered for his biggest hit, Dracula (1931). Then in prime time, TCM has a pair of films starring British actress Lesley-Anne Down. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- MGM PARADE SHOW #7 (1955)
Ray Bolger performs in a clip from "The Great Ziegfeld"; Debbie Reynolds introduces a clip from "The Tender Trap." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-26 mins,


6:30 AM -- UNHOLY THREE (1925)
In this silent film, a ventriloquist masquerades as an old lady to front a crime ring.
Dir: Tod Browning
Cast: Lon Chaney, Mae Busch, Matt Moore
BW-86 mins,

During the scene where Echo and company are fleeing the pet store, Echo decides to take his pet ape with them. The "Ape" was actually a three-foot-tall chimp who was made to appear gigantic with camera trickery, an especially built smaller scale set to make it look bigger, and perspective shots. When Echo removes the ape from his cage, the shot shows Echo (with his back turned to the camera) unlocking the cage and walking the ape to the truck. The ape appears to be roughly the same size as Echo. This effect was achieved by having dwarf actor Harry Earles (who played "Tweedledee" in the film) play Echo for these brief shots, and then cutting to the normal sized Lon Chaney, making it seems as though the Ape is gigantic.


8:05 AM -- EQUESTRIAN ACROBATS (1937)
This short film focuses on a circus family that perform acrobatic feats while riding horses.
Dir: David Miller
BW-8 mins,


8:15 AM -- THE UNKNOWN (1927)
In this silent film, an escaped killer pretends to be a sideshow's armless wonder.
Dir: Tod Browning
Cast: Lon Chaney, Norman Kerry, Joan Crawford
BW-50 mins,

Joan Crawford always considered The Unknown (1927) a big turning point for her. She said it wasn't until working with Lon Chaney in this film that she learned the difference between standing in front of a camera and acting in front of a camera. She said that was all due to Chaney and his intense concentration, and after that experience she said she worked much harder to become a better actress.


9:15 AM -- THE SHOW (1927)
In this silent film, a sideshow dancer secretly loves the show's amoral barker.
Dir: Tod Browning
Cast: John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Lionel Barrymore
BW-76 mins,

To get the illusion of a vicious attack on the iguana, the crew placed the reptile on a metal plate and sent electricity through it.


10:45 AM -- WEST OF ZANZIBAR (1928)
In this silent film, a mad African dictator plots revenge on the trader who stole his wife.
Dir: Tod Browning
Cast: Lon Chaney, Lionel Barrymore, Mary Nolan
BW-65 mins,

In the ceremonial tribal dances the local extras had difficulty dancing to the drums.To remedy the situation a radio was brought to the set and played Jazz tunes by a local station.


12:00 PM -- THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR (1929)
A phony medium tries to prove her protege innocent of murder.
Dir: Tod Browning
Cast: Conrad Nagel, Leila Hyams, Margaret Wycherly
BW-73 mins,

Completed July 16 1929, the first sound feature in which Bela Lugosi's famous Hungarian tones were heard.


1:14 PM -- HOT DOG (1930)
A married dog is out on the town with her lover boyfriend, which leads to conflict when the husband shows up in this Dogville short.
Dir: Zion Myers
BW-15 mins,


1:30 PM -- FREAKS (1932)
A lady trapeze artist violates the code of the side show when she plots to murder her midget husband.
Dir: Tod Browning
Cast: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova
BW-62 mins, CC,

F. Scott Fitzgerald was a member of the MGM writing department at the time the movie was in production. It is said, one day as he came into the studio commissary for lunch and saw the Hilton sisters, one reading the menu and the other seemingly understanding it, he was horrified, became nauseous and left the lunchroom. He would later go on to write of a studio filming a "circus" picture.


2:45 PM -- FAST WORKERS (1933)
Construction workers become romantic rivals.
Dir: Tod Browning
Cast: John Gilbert, Robert Armstrong, Mae Clarke
BW-66 mins, CC,

When Bucker (Robert Armstrong) and Mary (Mae Clarke) go to the movies, the unidentified film they see is an MGM production of 1931, Laughing Sinners (1931). Joan Crawford and Neil Hamilton are on screen.


4:00 PM -- MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (1935)
Vampires seem to be connected to an unsolved murder.
Dir: Tod Browning
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allen, Lionel Atwill
BW-60 mins, CC,

Throughout the film, Count Mora (Bela Lugosi) has an unexplained bullet wound on his temple. In the original script Mora was supposed to have had an incestuous relationship with his daughter Luna, and to have committed suicide. After filming began, however, MGM deleted references to the crime (and any remaining references may have been deleted when 20 minutes of footage was removed after the film's preview). Because director Tod Browning's previous film, Freaks (1932), had been a box-office disaster, he was unable to object to any changes made by the studio.


5:15 PM -- THE DEVIL-DOLL (1936)
A Devil's Island escapee shrinks murderous slaves and sells them to his victims as dolls.
Dir: Tod Browning
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Frank Lawton
BW-78 mins, CC,

Madame Mandilip's special dolls are costumed as members of vicious street gangs known as the Apache (pronounced ah-PAHSH), who were involved in theft, prostitution, and the occasional murder in pre-World War I Paris. The dolls even perform the Apache dance popularized by the gangs, in which extremely close steps alternate with seemingly brutal punches, kicks, hair-pulling, spins, and throws; it was usually danced to the Valse des rayons (aka Valse chaloupée) composed by Jacques Offenbach. In the 1930s and 1940s, this dance was still performed by professional dancers and can be seen in several films and even cartoons of the period.


6:34 PM -- DARK MAGIC (1939)
In this comedic short, a father finds a box of magic tricks and performs for his son.
Dir: Roy Rowland
Cast: Robert Benchley, John Scarne, Ruth Lee
BW-10 mins,


6:45 PM -- MIRACLES FOR SALE (1939)
A magician turns detective to investigate murder and a phony seance.
Dir: Tod Browning
Cast: Robert Young, Florence Rice, Frank Craven
BW-71 mins, CC,

According to a book on movie makeups, this is the first known film use of contact lenses to change the color of an actor's eyes.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STARRING LESLEY-ANNE DOWN



8:00 PM -- THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1979)
Three crooks plot to steal a fortune in gold from a moving train.
Dir: Michael Crichton
Cast: Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland, Lesley-Anne Down
C-111 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Sean Connery spent several days running on top of a moving train. The train was supposed to be traveling at 35 miles per hour; Connery argued it was going faster. The train driver was counting telegraph poles to measure the speed. A helicopter pilot confirmed Connery's suspicion - the train was traveling at over 55 miles per hour.


10:00 PM -- HANOVER STREET (1979)
A married nurse in WWII England falls for an American pilot.
Dir: Peter Hyams
Cast: Harrison Ford, Lesley-Anne Down, Christopher Plummer
BW-109 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Harrison Ford shot this movie after being Han Solo in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) and before becoming Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). As such, when this movie was made, it was actually sandwiched between two of Ford's and film history's biggest blockbusters of all time.


12:00 AM -- FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE (1973)
An anthology of four short horror stories revolving around an antique shop and its mysterious owner.
Dir: Kevin Connor
Cast: Peter Cushing, Diana Dors,
C-98 mins, CC,

Based on stories by R. Chetwynd-Hayes.


1:51 AM -- FLORAL JAPAN (1937)
This short film explores the importance of gardens, hairstyles, and clothing in traditional Japanese culture.
C-8 mins,


2:00 AM -- FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES (1970)
The story follows Eddie and a group of transvestites in Japan.
Dir: Toshio Matsumoto
Cast: Peter, Osamu Ogasawara, Toyosaburo Uchiyama
BW-105 mins,

"The Funeral Parade of Roses" gave Stanley Kubrick most of his inspiration to adapt "A Clockwork Orange".


4:00 AM -- CRAZED FRUIT (1956)
During a beach vacation, two brothers fall for a beautiful woman with an agenda.
Dir: Ko Nakahira
Cast: Masahiko Tsugawa, Yujiro Ishihara, Mie Kitahara
BW-86 mins,

François Truffaut was so taken with the film that he recommended it to the Cinematheque; this was the first Japanese film awarded that honor.


5:30 AM -- DATING: DO'S AND DON'TS (1949)
A young man is given advice on what to do (and what not to do) on a date in this short film.
Dir: Ted Peshak
Cast: Jackie Gleason, John Lindsay,
C-13 mins,


5:47 AM -- SOME OF THE GREATEST (1955)
This short film showcases scenes from "Don Juan" (1926), starring John Barrymore.
Dir: Alan Crosland
BW-11 mins,