TCM Schedule for Saturday, September 2, 2017 -- What's On Tonight: The Essentials - Rogue Computers

[Staph]

The subject of tonight's Essentials is Rogue Computers. I'm sadly disappointed that they aren't showing Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970). It may not be one of the great classics, but I remember it scaring the bejeezus out of me when I first saw it. And Stephen Hawking said in 2014 that artificial intelligence could end mankind. (Cue the scary theme from The Twilight Zone!) Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Daughters Courageous (1939)
A father returns to the family he left years earlier and tries to solve their problems.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: John Garfield, Claude Rains, Jeffrey Lynn
BW-107 mins

Because John Garfield was playing a Mexican general in Juarez (1939) when the Epstein brothers were writing the screenplay to this movie, they made his character Hispanic as a joke.


8:00 AM -- Tycoon (1947)
While building a tunnel through the Andes, an engineer falls in love with his possessive boss's daughter.
Dir: Richard Wallace
Cast: John Wayne, Laraine Day, Sir Cedric Hardwicke
C-129 mins, CC

James Agee's review of the film included one of the most famous critical quotes of all time: "Several tons of dynamite are set off in this film, none of it under the right people."


10:30 AM -- The Phantom Thief (1946)
A reformed thief tries to stop a murderous blackmailer.
Dir: D. Ross Lederman
Cast: Chester Morris, Jeff Donnell, Richard Lane
BW-65 mins, CC

Eleventh of fourteen Boston Blackie films, starring Chester Morris.


12:00 PM -- Cheers For Miss Bishop (1941)
On her retirement, students wonder why their favorite teacher never married.
Dir: Tay Garnett
Cast: Martha Scott, William Gargan, Edmund Gwenn
BW-94 mins

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Edward Ward

Film debut of Rosemary DeCamp.


1:45 PM -- Rancho Notorious (1952)
A cowboy infiltrates a bandit hideout in search of his girlfriend's killer.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Kennedy, Mel Ferrer
C-89 mins, CC

Cinematographer Hal Mohr, who had previously photographed Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again (1939) attempted to resign from the film due to Dietrich's insistence that he achieve for her, greater youth-through-lighting, than he felt possible.


3:30 PM -- The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956)
A public relations man must cope with revelations about a wartime romance.
Dir: Nunnally Johnson
Cast: Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones, Fredric March
C-153 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

One of Gregory Peck's movie children was played by Portland Mason, who was the daughter of actor James Mason, and an Italian delivery boy was played by Johnny Crawford a few years before he would achieve fame on the popular TV Western, "The Rifleman".


6:15 PM -- A Conversation with Gregory Peck (1999)
Gregory Peck discusses his life and career during a series of personal appearances and family outings.
Dir: Barbara Kopple
Cast: Gregory Peck,
C-98 mins, CC

Features clips from Days of Glory (1944), The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), Spellbound (1945), The Yearling (1946), Duel in the Sun (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Twelve O'Clock High (1949), The Gunfighter (1950), Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951), David and Bathsheba (1951), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), Roman Holiday (1953), Moby Dick (1956), Designing Woman (1957), The Big Country (1958), On the Beach (1959), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Cape Fear (1962), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Arabesque (1966), Jack Benny's New Look (1969) (TV Special), The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (1972), MacArthur (1977), The Boys from Brazil (1978), Old Gringo (1989), Cape Fear (1991), The Portrait (1993) (TV Movie), and Moby Dick (1998) (TV Mini-Series).



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: THE ESSENTIALS: ROGUE COMPUTERS



8:00 PM -- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Classic sci-fi epic about a mysterious monolith that seems to play a key role in human evolution.
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester
C-149 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects -- Stanley Kubrick (Stanley Kubrick was not present at the awards ceremony. Presenters Diahann Carroll and Burt Lancaster accepted the award on his behalf.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Stanley Kubrick, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Anthony Masters, Harry Lange and Ernest Archer

By the year 2001, some of the product placements had become outdated. RCA Whirlpool, the maker of the zero-gravity food preparation unit on the moon shuttle, had become Whirlpool. The Bell System had been divested and the long-distance service became AT&T. Pan Am had ceased operations as an international air carrier (in fact, the Whirlpool change had already happened by the time of the film's original release).


10:45 PM -- Westworld (1973)
A future fantasy park turns deadly when robot workers go on a killing spree.
Dir: Michael Crichton
Cast: Richard Benjamin, Yul Brynner, James Brolin
C-89 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Michael Crichton became inspired to write this film after a trip to Disneyland, where he saw the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and was impressed by the animatronic characters. Furthermore, the ride is mentioned in Jurassic Park (1993), when Malcolm says the "Pirates didn't come to life and kill people", unlike what happens in this film. Jurassic Park (1993) was based on the novel by Westworld director Michael Crichton.


12:30 AM -- Demon Seed (1977)
A sophisticated computer falls in love with its creator's wife and terrorizes her.
Dir: Donald Cammell
Cast: Julie Christie, Fritz Weaver, Gerritt Graham
C-95 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The movie was produced 10 years before the popular 3.5"HD Diskette was introduced, and the information loaded into the "Enviromod Security System" was via a 8" Floppy Disk (which had the potential of 6Mb of data).


2:15 AM -- Scanners (1981)
A scientist sends a man with extraordinary psychic powers to hunt others like him.
Dir: David Cronenberg
Cast: Michael Ironside, Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill
C-103 mins

David Cronenberg once called this the most frustrating film he'd ever made. The film was rushed through production - filming had to begin without a finished script and end within roughly two months so the financing would qualify as a tax write-off, forcing Cronenberg to write and shoot at the same time. Cronenberg also cited difficulty with and antagonism between the leads, particularly Patrick McGoohan and Jennifer O'Neill.


4:15 AM -- Them! (1954)
Federal agents fight to destroy a colony of mutated giant ants.
Dir: Gordon Douglas
Cast: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon
BW-92 mins

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects

Walt Disney screened the movie because he was interested in casting James Arness as Davy Crockett. However, he was so impressed by Fess Parker as the "Crazy Texan Pilot" that he chose him for the part.

[Laffy Kat]

1. Don't judge me but I'm excited about "Them".

I have a thing for giant mutant ants. I remember watching that movie with my boys when they were little. We were all cuddled together under a blanket. It was the perfect amount of scary for seven and four-year-old boys.

[longship]

2. Do you suffer from formication?

Not a misspelling.

Here: formication

[Laffy Kat]

4. I do now. Thanks a lot.

[longship]

5. No charge, my friend. Happy to oblige.

(BTW, ants communicate via formic acid trails. Hence formication. Not to be confused with fornication.)

My best to you and your newly acquired formication.
Keep scratching. That'll help.

[Laffy Kat]

6. .....

[longship]

3. Not showing "Colossus: The Forbin Project" here is criminal.

Starring Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, William Schallert, Marion Ross, a troup of noted TV players. Braeden is still active in soap opera The Young and the Restless (or as I call it, Restless? Watch This to Cure Insomnia).

But this film is a very workable, well done, dystopic film. Braeden and Clark stand out, albeit in a low key sense, which works very well here. The supporting cast is quite good as well.

In short, this is top knotch film making. One of the best of its genre. Maybe #2 behind 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Not featuring it here is a monumental mistake.

Trailer:

[Auggie]

7. +1

I haven't seen this film around for a while. I wonder if it's locked-up in some kind of rights or legal conflict?