TCM Schedule for Thursday, April 19 -- What's On Tonight: Spring Break

[Staph]

Today is full of one of my least favorite movie categories -- horror films. In primetime, TCM is continuing this month's theme of Spring Break, specifically Spring Break on the Beach. It's an evening featuring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, in four of the five official American-International "Beach Party" movies, along with the two Dr. Goldfoot -- James Bond parodies. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Now Playing May (2012)
23 min, CC


6:30 AM -- Red Planet Mars (1952)
Radio broadcasts reveal Mars to be a source of religious inspiration.
Dir: Harry Horner
Cast: Peter Graves, Andrea King, Herbert Berghof
87 min, TV-PG

Don't expect great science in this one. Linda Cronyn (a scientist) states 'Albert Einstein split the atom'. Albert Einstein had no part in the splitting of the atom. His work predicted what would happen if it was split.


8:00 AM -- The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues (1955)
A mutated sea creature attacks people along the beach.
Dir: Earl Harper
Cast: Kent Taylor, Kathy Downs, Michael Whalen
81 min, TV-PG

Really cheesy! In the final scene where the monster is holding Prof. King, the hands of the man in the monster suit are visible around King's neck.


9:30 AM -- The Gamma People (1956)
A mad scientist uses gamma rays to turn the country's youth into either geniuses or subhumans at the bidding of an equally mad dictator.
Dir: John Gilling
Cast: Paul Douglas, Eva Bartok, Leslie Phillips
79 min, TV-PG

Based on an original (though uncredited story) by Robert Aldrich, future director of The Dirty Dozen (1967) and What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962).


11:00 AM -- Riders To The Stars (1954)
Early astronauts try to solve the mysteries of space travel by capturing a meteor.
Dir: Richard Carlson
Cast: William Lundigan, Herbert Marshall, Richard Carlson
C-80 min, TV-G

Cinematographer Stanley Cortez was fired and replaced (by Joseph F. Biroc) after clashing with director Herbert L. Strock, but still retained screen credit.


12:30 PM -- Cyclops (1957)
A scientific expedition discovers a 25-foot tall mutant.
Dir: Bert I. Gordon
Cast: James Craig, Gloria Talbott, Lon Chaney [Jr.]
65 min, TV-PG

Voice specialist Paul Frees is given credit for special voice effects. His contributions included the vocal sounds of the cyclops, the breathing sound of the giant lizard and the "Mexican" voice heard on the plane's radio.


1:45 PM -- Queen of Outer Space (1958)
A space mission to Venus discovers a society of Amazons.
Dir: Edward Bernds
Cast: Zsa Zsa Gabor, Eric Fleming, Lisa Davis
C-80 min, TV-PG

In an interview, director Edward Bernds said that 41-year-old Zsa Zsa Gabor got very "testy" with the actresses playing the Venusian girls. They were mostly beauty contest winners, and were many years - and in some cases a few decades - younger than her. When she noticed that the crew was paying more attention to the tall, leggy, mini-skirted "Venusians" than they were to her, she became very difficult to work with. He said that Gabor gave producer Ben Schwalb such a hard time on the picture that Schwalb eventually wound up in the hospital with ulcers.


3:15 PM -- The Wasp Woman (1959)
A cosmetics executive's search for eternal beauty turn her into a monster.
Dir: Roger Corman
Cast: Susan Cabot, Fred Eisley, Barboura Morris
61 min, TV-PG

The role of the Beekeeper played by Aron Kincaid was added after the film's initial release.


4:18 PM -- Gadgets Galore (1955)
This Warner Bros. short reviews in an often humorous way the impact of the automobile on the United States.
Dir: Robert Youngson
Cast: Barney Oldfield, Dwight Weist, Ward Wilson
11 min,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Robert Youngson


4:30 PM -- The Illustrated Man (1969)
A man's tattoos tell frightening tales of the future.
Dir: Jack Smight
Cast: Rod Steiger, Claire Bloom, Robert Drivas
C-103 min, TV-14, CC

When Jack Smight contacted Ray Bradbury about buying the rights to "The Illustrated Man", Bradbury informed him he would sell it if Smight hired Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman or Rod Steiger for the lead role.


6:19 PM -- Desert Killer (1952)
A hunter tracks a sheep-killing cougar.
Dir: Larry Lansburgh
Cast: Art Gilmore, Marvin Glenn
C-10 min,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Gordon Hollingshead


6:30 PM -- Beast From Haunted Cave (1959)
Dir: Monte Hellman
Cast: Michael Forest, Sheila Carol, Frank Wolff
66 min, TV-PG

This Roger Corman-produced "quickie" was the first directing job for Monte Hellman.


7:38 PM -- The Sports Parade: Granddad Of Races (1950)
The annual horse race held in the Piazza del Campo in Siena is highlighted in all its color, pomp, and pageantry.
Dir: André de la Varre
Narrator: Art Gilmore
C-10 min,

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Gordon Hollingshead

I was in Siena a few years ago, and sat in the Piazzo, eating a granita. The Cathedral of Siena is my favorite of all of the cathedrals that I saw in Italy.


7:51 PM -- The Beach of Nazaré (1957)
This Screenliner short looks at the dress and customs of Nazaré, a fishing village on Portugal's Atlantic coast.
8 min,

According to the legend of Nazaré, the town derives its name from a small statue of the Virgin Mary, a Black Madonna, brought by a monk in the 4th century from Nazareth, Syria Palaestina to a monastery near the city of Mérida, Spain and brought to its current place in 711 by another monk accompanied by Roderic, the last Visigoth king.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: SPRING BREAK



8:00 PM -- Beach Party (1963)
An anthropologist studies the dating habits of the teens hanging out on a nearby beach.
Dir: William Asher
Cast: Bob Cummings, Dorothy Malone, Frankie Avalon
C-98 min, TV-PG, CC

Although "old fogey" Professor Sutwell knew nothing about beach life, actor Robert Cummings was a competent surfer himself, as documented in personal home movies shot in Hawaii by Hollywood's television host and author Ken Murray.


9:44 PM -- Action On The Beach (1964)
Behind the scenes look at the D-Day special effects created in filming The Americanization of Emily.
Cast: Martin Ransohoff, James Garner, Arthur Hiller
6 min,

The D-Day landing scenes were filmed on Mandalay Beach in Oxnard, California. The Mandalay power generating station, then operated by Southern California Edison can be seen in several shots. The plant, still operating in 2010, opened in 1959.


10:00 PM -- Muscle Beach Party (1964)
The beach gang goes head-to-head with the bodybuilders of a new gym that's interfering with their strip on the sand.
Dir: William Asher
Cast: Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Luciana Paluzzi
C-95 min, TV-PG, CC

During the climactic fight scene, Frankie Avalon and Peter Lorre stare at each other for a few seconds with Frankie saying that Lorre looks familiar. This is in reference to the fact that the two of them worked together previously in the film Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.


11:45 PM -- Bikini Beach (1964)
A millionaire tries to prove that his pet chimp is as smart as the local teens.
Dir: William Asher
Cast: Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Martha Hyer
C-100 min, TV-G, CC

Danielle Aubry's voice was dubbed by director 'William Asher's wife Elizabeth Montgomery.


1:30 AM -- Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)
The surfing gang rescues a beautiful singer from evil bikers.
Dir: William Asher
Cast: Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley
C-97 min, TV-G, CC

Nancy Sinatra was the original choice to play Sugar Kane. However, she backed out just before production was supposed to begin because a few months earlier her brother Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped and when she found out that part of the plot involved a kidnapping she decided to back out. Interestingly, it would have been her motion picture debut.


3:15 AM -- Pajama Party (1964)
A Martian teenager sent to prepare for an invasion falls in love with an Earth girl.
Dir: Don Weis
Cast: Tommy Kirk, Annette Funicello, Elsa Lanchester
C-85 min, TV-PG

Frequently referred to as an entry in the "Beach Party" film series, with the relatively brief appearances of Harvey Lembeck as Eric Von Zipper and Candy Johnson as Candy supporting that, the fact that major players Annette Funicello, Jody McCrea and Don Rickles are not in their usual roles (Connie, Big Lunk and Big Bang a Martian here instead of Dolores/Dee Dee a nickname, Bonehead and Jack Fanny/Big Drag/Big Drop the man kept changing his "name" with his career in the other movies, respectively) suggests the contrary with much more strength. However similar the characterizations are, they are at least nominally different characters.


4:42 AM -- On The Trail Of The Iguana (1964)
A behind the scenes look at the filming of The Night of the Iguana (1964).
Dir: Ross Lowell
Cast: Bob Marcato, John Huston, Deborah Kerr
C-14 min,

The Night of the Iguana put Puerta Vallarta, Mexico, on the map - it didn't even have scheduled air service before John Huston shot the film there. Elizabeth Taylor's appearance on the set and her ensuing scandalous affair with Richard Burton made headlines around the world. Now it's a top resort destination with thousands of hotel rooms and is a popular cruise ship port.


5:00 AM -- Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965)
A mad scientist invents an army of bikini-clad robots programmed to seek out wealthy men.
Dir: Norman Taurog
Cast: Vincent Price, Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman
C-89 min, TV-PG

A number of the cast were Beach Party stars from American International Pictures' beach party films. This film was the studio's attempt to take those films into a new area.