TCM Schedule for Friday, July 30 -- TCM Prime Time Feature -- Concert Classics

[Staph]

Tonight's films complement last evening's. Last night we saw a collection of teen rock and roll films, movies with a least a suggestion of a story line, from the 1950s and early 1960s. Tonight we've got a trio of rock concert films from the 1970s and 1980s, including the purported original rock concert film, Elvis On Tour (1972). Enjoy!


6:00am -- Danger Signal (1945)
A man suspected of murder charms a secretary into helping him.
Cast: Faye Emerson, Zachary Scott, Dick Erdman, Rosemary DeCamp
Dir: Robert Florey
BW-78 mins, TV-PG

Faye Emerson was the third wife of Elliot Roosevelt, son of Franklin and Eleanor.


7:30am -- Deception (1946)
A woman tries to protect her refugee husband from her rich and powerful ex-lover.
Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, John Abbott
Dir: Irving Rapper
BW-112 mins, TV-PG

Paul Henreid's cello-playing was dubbed by Eleanor Aller (Mrs Felix Slatkin) while she was pregnant with Frederic Zlotkin. Her father, Gregory Aller, coached Henreid in plausible bow movements.


9:30am -- A Likely Story (1947)
A World War II veteran who thinks he's dying gets mixed up with gangsters.
Cast: Bill Williams, Barbara Hale, Lanny Rees, Sam Levene
Dir: H. C. Potter
BW-89 mins, TV-G

Barbara Hale is best remembered as Della Street, secretary to Raymond Burr's Perry Mason, beginning with the 1957-1966 television series, and continuing in dozens of made-for-TV movies until Burr's death in 1993. There were four more Perry Mason Mystery television movies made, with Della helping out friends of Mason, primarily Hal Holbrook as Wild Bill McKenzie.


11:00am -- A Date With Judy (1948)
A teenager thinks her grandfather is involved with a fiery Latin singer.
Cast: Wallace Beery, Jane Powell, Elizabeth Taylor, Carmen Miranda
Dir: Richard Thorpe
C-113 mins, TV-G

Jane Powell and Kathryn Grayson both receive credit for introducing they same movie song in the same year. Showcased in two Technicolor productions from Joe Pasternak is the sprightly refrain, "Love Is Where You Find It" (music by Nacio Herb Brown, lyrics by Earl K. Brent). Miss Powell's rendition comes early in this film, and Miss Grayson has been praised by movie fans and critics for the best song performance in the lavish costume musical, The Kissing Bandit (1948). While Miss Powell had no commercial disc for sale, MGM Records issued as a single Miss Grayson's prerecordings of this lilt and another song from her vehicle, "What's Wrong With Me?" (music by Brown, lyrics by Edward Heyman). Kathryn's two vocals grace a CD devoted to her, called "My Heart Sings," released by Flare, a British label.


1:00pm -- Strange Bargain (1949)
A young bookkeeper is framed for his boss's murder.
Cast: Martha Scott, Jeffrey Lynn, Henry Morgan, Katherine Emery
Dir: Will Price
BW-68 mins, TV-PG

This film was the basis for the 1987 episode of Murder, She Wrote -- The Days Dwindle Down. Jeffrey Lynn, Martha Scott and Harry Morgan appear in the show, as does some of the original footage from the film.


2:15pm -- Black Hand (1950)
In turn-of-the-century New York, an Italian seeks vengeance on the mobsters who killed his father.
Cast: Gene Kelly, J. Carrol Naish, Teresa Celli, Marc Lawrence
Dir: Richard Thorpe
BW-92 mins, TV-PG

Kelly filmed this between On The Town and Summer Stock.


4:00pm -- The Law And The Lady (1951)
A society jewel thief falls for one of her marks.
Cast: Greer Garson, Michael Wilding, Fernando Lamas, Marjorie Main
Dir: Edwin H. Knopf
BW-104 mins, TV-G

Director Edwin Knopf is the brother of publisher Alfred Knopf.


6:00pm -- The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
An unscrupulous movie producer uses everyone around him in his climb to the top.
Cast: Elaine Stewart, Sammy White, Leo G. Carroll, Ivan Triesault
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
BW-118 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gloria Grahame, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Edward C. Carfagno, Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Robert Surtees, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Helen Rose, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Charles Schnee

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Kirk Douglas

Leo G. Carroll's brief appearance as a "demanding" director is a thinly veiled reference to Alfred Hitchcock. When he first came to Hollywood, Hitchcock was under contract to producer David O. Selznick for years. Carroll had roles in many Hitchcock films of this era.


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: CONCERT CLASSICS


8:00pm -- Let the Good Times Roll (1973)
Fifties rock stars reunite 20 years later for a concert.
Cast: Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Chubby Checker
Dir: Robert Abel
BW-99 mins, TV-PG

Despite the fact that he was promoted as one of the main stars of this film, none of Chuck Berry's songs - including his duet with Bo Diddley at the end of the film - appear on the original soundtrack LP.


10:00pm -- Elvis on Tour (1972)
Extensive concert footage highlights this documentary about the King's touring in the early '70s.
Cast: Elvis Presley
Dir: Robert Abel
C-93 mins, TV-G

There is one sequence in the film where the producers chose to show a segment of Elvis performing live READY TEDDY at a Ed Sullivan Show in 1956. Elvis's manager tried hard to convince them not to use this segment as he didn't want Elvis to appear as a nostalgia act. He explained them that Elvis was a modern performer and they didn't have to show this 1956 performance. The producers left the segment in the film and it was released like this.


12:00am -- Let's Spend the Night Together (1982)
Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones perform 24 songs during two 1980 concerts.
Cast: Mick Jagger, Keith Richard, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman
Dir: Hal Ashby
C-90 mins, TV-PG

The two concerts were filmed at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, AZ, and the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, NJ. Director Hal Ashby collapsed on the Arizona location of this film.


2:00am -- Shanks (1974)
A mute puppeteer discovers how to manipulate dead bodies.
Cast: Marcel Marceau, Tsilla Chelton, Philippe Clay, Cindy Eilbacher
Dir: William Castle
C-93 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- Alex North

William Castle's final film as a director. Alex North used parts of his rejected score for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) for this film. For example, the main title music was originally composed for the space station phone call sequence of 2001, but here rearranged with a female vocalist added.


3:45am -- Corruption (1967)
When a plastic surgeon accidentally disfigures his model girlfriend, he becomes obsessed with restoring her face.
Cast: Peter Cushing, Sue Lloyd, Noel Trevarthen, Kate O'Mara
Dir: Robert Hartford-Davis
C-91 mins, TV-14

The original title in the UK was Carnage.


5:30am -- The Relaxed Wife (1957)
The modern miracle of tranquilizers helps working men and their wives deal with life's little problems.
C-13 mins, TV-G

Remarkable, surreal industrial film promoting "Atarax," a tranquilizer marketed by Pfizer, and asserting how "ataraxic medicines" can help us all to achieve the relaxed state we long for.

[Staph]

1. Elvis on Tour (1972)

After years of starring in formulaic musical comedies with interchangeable plots and ingenue leads, Elvis Presley decided it was time for a change. Colonel Tom Parker, his manager, cut a deal with MGM to produce two documentaries that would showcase Elvis in his element - performing live before his adoring fans. There was also an ulterior motive for this. With the singer's record sales and movie receipts slowly dwindling, it was time to remind audiences that he was still the greatest living entertainer in America, if not the world. The first documentary, produced in 1970 and directed by Denis Sanders, was Elvis - That's the Way It Is and it captured the King in rehearsals and on stage during his Las Vegas comeback appearance. The second documentary, Elvis on Tour (1972), focused on Elvis's cross-country, 15-city tour during April of 1972, which began in Buffalo, New York and ended in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The filmmakers behind Elvis on Tour were Pierre Adidge and Robert Abel who established themselves with the groundbreaking, split-screen concert film, Mad Dogs and Englishmen (1971), a document of Joe Cocker's 1970 U.S. tour. (Adidge and Abel would also utilize their split screen technique for this documentary and Let the Good Times Roll (1973), a record of promoter Richard Nader's rock 'n roll revival show featuring Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and others). From the beginning, it was Adidge and Abel's intention to depict Elvis as a folk hero, one who embodied the essence of American roots music. And they were given complete access to the singer - backstage, in his dressing room, even inside his chartered jets and private limos. "I want to shoot you," Abel said (in Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick), "but the trade-off is, you've got to be open with me. If I feel like you're posing or doing something, I'll just turn the camera off. And then MGM will just be out of a lot of money." "I like your honesty," Elvis said. "When do we start?"

One of the dilemmas facing the filmmakers, however, was how to actually present Elvis to audiences. According to Abel, "I went into the rehearsals in a parochial sense, trying to get to know him, and the gospel part of it was a real insight. But I realized with all of the musicians and bodyguards and sycophants around, that these guys had been around for seventeen years now telling the same stories and jokes, and what kind of a life is this? And do I film it? And if I film it, do I show it more than once to make a point?" (from Careless Love). Certainly, one of the most fascinating aspects of Elvis on Tour are the candid, behind-the-scenes moments: Elvis looking exhausted and lost in his own thoughts after a Florida concert; an awkward, strained encounter between "The King" and a Chamber of Commerce representative from Roanoke, Va. who presents Elvis with a flower-decorated guitar; Vernon, Elvis's father, looking completely overwhelmed by the pre-concert activity backstage; a funny impromptu moment during Elvis's performance of "For the Good Times," when Elvis responds to the lyric "How am I doing?" with the ad-lib "Well, I'm sweating a little bit, baby" instead of "Well, I guess I'm doing fine."

Elvis also agreed to a lengthy interview with the filmmakers that was to be used for those sections of the film that briefly encapsulated the singer's early career with photographs and film clips such as his appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Unfortunately, some of the most revealing material - Elvis reflecting on his Hollywood career (a missed opportunity in his opinion) or past resentments (having to dress in top hat and tails and sing to a dog on the Steve Allen show) - did not make it into the film since it would have undercut the filmmakers' mythic treatment of him. Nobody was the wiser though and fans were ecstatic at seeing the live concert footage with Elvis repeatedly striking poses with his cape, arms outstretched like some huge winged bird. Or jabbing the air with karate chops. Or kneeling down to kiss female fans at the edge of the stage while crooning "Love Me Tender."

As for the actual filming, biographer Peter Guralnick wrote "there were eleven cameras in a complicated setup, with sound cued by camera, and all the sound sources fused into a deck from which a temporary scratch track would be created. The cameras operated on a staggered schedule so that, with eleven-minute rolls of film, there would never be a complete shutdown, and with the lightweight state-of-the-art equipment (French Eclair cameras, NASA headsets, Swiss tape recorders to which Abel and Adidge had U.S. rights, and Wally Heider's mobile recording unit), they were able to move and shoot in a way that Denis Sanders had not even been able to contemplate with That's the Way It Is."

The songs featured in Elvis on Tour reflect Elvis' musical interests at the time as well as the current trends in American pop music. And they're a long way from the path blazing R&B and rock 'n roll numbers that took Elvis from obscurity to international fame. Whereas he was once seen as an innovator, some fans now saw him as merely an interpreter, performing mainstream pop that was beneath his talent or better left to lesser talents like Three Dog Night. "Never Been to Spain"? "Bridge Over Troubled Water"? "Memories"? Could these compare to the vitality and urgency of "That's All Right" or "Jailhouse Rock" or "Mystery Train"? Not in the opinion of those fans who prefer the music of Presley's pre-army period. Yet, Elvis on Tour is essential viewing for any genuine Elvis fan; his Las Vegas years and larger than life stage shows in the seventies are a key piece of the overall Elvis puzzle. His workaholic commitment to his fans - and the physical toll it took on him - are certainly on display here but so is his love of all kinds of music from gospel ("Bosom of Abraham") to folk ("An American Trilogy") to pop novelties ("Polk Salad Annie"). Not surprisingly, Elvis on Tour performed much better at the box office than his formula musical romances and went on to win a Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary of 1972. It also provided an early career credit for director Martin Scorsese who worked on the film as "montage supervisor." No one at the time, even Elvis, thought this documentary would be his swan song yet it was the last time Presley participated in a film.

Producer/Director: Robert Abel, Pierre Adidge
Screenplay: Robert Abel, Pierre Adidge
Cinematography: David Myers
Film Editing: Bert Lovitt, Martin Scorsese, Ken Zemke
Cast: Elvis Presley, James Burton, Glen D. Hardin, Charlie Hodge.
C-93m. Letterboxed.

by Jeff Stafford