TCM Schedule for Saturday, January 10, 2015 -- The Essentials - Fritz Lang

[Staph]

Tonight's Essentials feature some of the films of Austrian-American director Fritz Lang. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- FOR THE DEFENSE (1930)
An attorney, who specializes in springing criminals out of prison, is faced with a moral dilemma when his girlfriend drunkenly kills a pedestrian with her car and another man takes the blame.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: William Powell, Kay Francis, Scott Kolk
BW-63 mins, CC,

This was a surprise hit for Paramount. A quickie, it was shot in a mere 15 days and its success immeasurably helped director John Cromwell's career.


7:15 AM -- KNUTE ROCKNE ALL AMERICAN (1940)
Biography of the famed Notre Dame coach and his fight to "win one for the Gipper."
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Pat O'Brien, Gale Page, Ronald Reagan
C-98 mins, CC,

James Cagney, eager to break out of gangster roles, lobbied hard for the part of Knute Rockne. But Cagney had signed a petition in support of the anti-Catholic Republican government in the Spanish Civil War. Notre Dame University had control over all aspects of the filming and would not okay Cagney for the role.


9:00 AM -- BROTHER RAT (1938)
A military cadet and his friends try to keep his marriage a secret.
Dir: William Keighley
Cast: Priscilla Lane, Wayne Morris, Johnnie Davis
BW-89 mins, CC,

Four years after this film Eddie Albert would join the U.S. Navy. He would achieve the rank of Lieutenant in the Naval reserves. At Tarawa he would go on to save nearly 50 marines and help with the rescue of 30 others, all while under fire. He received the Bronze Star for his actions.


10:30 AM -- CARRY ON REGARDLESS (1963)
An employment agency places its bumbling workers in a series of unorthodox positions.
Dir: Gerald Thomas
Cast: Sidney James, Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey
BW-87 mins,

Eleanor Summerfield filmed a scene with Charles Hawtrey, but the entire performance was cut because the scene had censor problems. This was due to a reference by Summerfield to Hawtrey being able to "do your part from the wardrobe". Another BBFC cut meant the alteration of Sam's line to Penny from "you're making it a little bit hard for me madam" to "you're making it a little bit difficult for me madam". These cuts remain in all later releases of the film.


11:59 AM -- ANIMALS IN ACTION (1955)
This short film takes a look at the profession of capturing animals in action on celluloid.
BW-9 mins,


12:15 PM -- THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1936)
A frontier scout rescues the daughters of a British colonial commander from renegades.
Dir: George B. Seitz
Cast: Randolph Scott, Binnie Barnes, Henry Wilcoxon
BW-92 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Assistant Director -- Clem Beauchamp

The scene in which a bare-chested Randolph Scott is tied to a torture-stake inside an Indian village does not appear in James Fenimore Cooper's novel.


2:00 PM -- THUNDER ROAD (1958)
A fast-driving moonshiner locks horns with a Chicago gangster.
Dir: Arthur Ripley
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Gene Barry, Jacques Aubochon
BW-93 mins, CC,

All of the "moonrunner" cars in the film had actually been used by moonshiners in the Asheville, North Carolina, area, where the film was shot. The moonshiners sold the cars to the film company in order to buy newer and faster cars.


3:48 PM -- THE COMEDIANS IN AFRICA (1967)
A behind the scenes short film detailing the making of "The Comedians" (1967).
Dir: Peter Glenville
C-11 mins,


4:00 PM -- BIG JAKE (1971)
A rancher leads the posse out to recover his kidnapped grandson.
Dir: George Sherman
Cast: John Wayne, Richard Boone, Patrick Wayne
C-110 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Final feature film for Maureen O'Hara, until she was lured out of retirement for one last feature film, Only the Lonely (1991), to play the mother of John Candy.


6:00 PM -- THE REIVERS (1969)
A young man comes of age when he stows away in his grandfather's stolen car.
Dir: Mark Rydell
Cast: Steve McQueen, Sharon Farrell, Will Geer
C-111 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Rupert Crosse, and Best Music, Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical) -- John Williams

The Winton Flyer was not a real automobile. It was created from scratch for this movie by Kenneth Howard, aka Von Dutch. The car was designed to resemble a typical vehicle from 1904, but built to withstand the rigors of filming. Steve McQueen called the car "the real star of the picture", and took possession of it after filming ended. It remained in his collection until his death in 1980. It can be seen in the Peterson Automotive Museum In Los Angeles.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: FRITZ LANG



8:00 PM -- METROPOLIS (1926)
In this silent film, a city of the future is threatened with destruction when a wealthy corporate leader enlists a mad scientist to put down labor reformers.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge
BW-149 mins,

Much to Fritz Lang's dismay, Adolph Hitler and Joseph Goebbels were big fans of the film. Goebbels met with Lang and told him that he could be made an honorary Aryan despite his Jewish background. Goebbels told him "Mr Lang, we decide who is Jewish and who is not". Lang left for Paris that very night.


10:45 PM -- MINISTRY OF FEAR (1944)
When hidden microfilm comes into his possession, an innocent man is drawn into espionage.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond
BW-87 mins, CC,

Forrester works for the Ministry of Home Security, a genuine British governmental department established in 1939 to defend the UK's civilian population against enemy action.


12:30 AM -- THE BLUE GARDENIA (1953)
A telephone operator kills in self-defense but can't remember the details of the encounter.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, Ann Sothern
BW-88 mins, CC,

Sally enjoys reading bloody thrillers written by Mickey Mallet - a spoof on Mickey Spillane, whose novels featuring Mike Hammer are just as gruesome as those Sally describes.


2:15 AM -- MIAMI CONNECTION (1987)
A martial arts rock band tries to take down the motorcycle ninjas running Florida's drug trade.
Dir: Richard Park
Cast: Y K Kim, Vincent Hirsch, Joseph Diamond
C-87 mins, CC,

The film opened to poor box-office, scathing reviews and had long been forgotten. In June 2009, Zack Carlson, a programmer at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, Texas, happened upon on a seller on eBay who was selling a 35 mm print of it. Carlson had never heard of the film but bought it for $50. In April 2010, Carlson screened the film at the Drafthouse and it became wildly popular with cult film fans. More screenings took place to packed theaters. Drafthouse phoned Y.K. Kim about distributing the film. But the film's failure was a painful experience for Kim and he originally thought that the call was a cruel prank. Eventually, Kim relented and saw that his film had become a popular midnight movie 25 years after it's initial failure.


3:44 AM -- 2010 THE ODYSSEY CONTINUES (1984)
This promotional short for "2010" (1984) shows moviegoers how some of the film's visual effects were created.
Dir: Les Mayfield
C-20 mins,


4:15 AM -- FORCED VENGEANCE (1982)
A karate expert takes on gangsters in Hong Kong.
Dir: James Fargo
Cast: Chuck Norris, Mary Louise Weller, Camila Griggs
C-90 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Some of the casino action scene was stock footage from the pilot episode of the Robert Urich show Vega$ that was filmed at the Maxim Hotel Casino, before moving to the Desert Inn for the rest of the series run. Maxim can be seen on the wheel of fortune as well as on the cards at the Black Jack table. This same casino scene was also used for the opening credits for the run of the series.


5:51 AM -- HOLLAND IN TULIP TIME (1934)
This short film focuses on Holland's culture, customs, and those famous tulips.
Dir: Ruth Fitzpatrick
C-8 mins,