TCM Schedule for Thursday, October 5, 2017 -- What's On Tonight: Childhood Adventures

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is featuring films from director Jacques Tourneur. And in prime time, we're off on a quintet of childhood adventures, with the 1960 version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Kim (1951), Stand by Me (1986), Time Bandits (1981), and Captains Courageous (1937). Enjoy!

(And my apologies for the late posting. I got out of the hospital Thursday. The doctors have finally discovered a gastric ulcer below my stomach that has put me in the hospital four times this summer. We have a medical plan to treat it and to watch carefully so that it doesn't start bleeding again. Thanks to all of you for your kind thoughts!)


6:00 AM -- BERLIN EXPRESS (1948)
Allied agents fight an underground Nazi group in post-war Europe.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Merle Oberon, Robert Ryan, Charles Korvin
BW-87 mins, CC,

The picture's crew was the first to receive permission to film in Berlin's Russian zone. (At the time of this production, Berlin was divided into three separate sectors, which were controlled by the English, Russian and American armed forces.)


7:30 AM -- ROMANCE OF RADIUM (1937 )
This short film tells the story of the discovery of radium and how it is used in medicine.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: André Cheron, James Conaty, Margaret Bert
BW-10 mins,


7:45 AM -- WICHITA (1955)
Wyatt Earp fights to straighten out a crooked cow town.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Joel McCrea, Vera Miles, Lloyd Bridges
C-81 mins, CC,

Sam Peckinpah, plays a bit part as a bank teller in this picture.


9:15 AM -- PHANTOM RAIDERS (1940)
Detective Nick Carter tries to stop enemy agents from sabotaging the Panama Canal.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Donald Meek, Joseph Schildkraut
BW-70 mins,

Second of a series featuring private detective Nick Carter. The first was Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939), followed by Sky Murder (1940).


10:30 AM -- EXPERIMENT PERILOUS (1944)
A small-town doctor tries to help a beautiful woman with a deranged husband.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Hedy Lamarr, George Brent, Paul Lukas
BW-91 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Albert S. D'Agostino, Jack Okey, Darrell Silvera and Claude E. Carpenter

The title is a common variation of a line from Hippocrates, the Greek Father of Medicine: "Life is short, art is long, decision difficult, and experiment perilous." The line is recited by Nick Bederaux in the film.


12:15 PM -- THE FACE BEHIND THE MASK (1938)
This dramatized short film focuses on the historical mystery of France's "man in the iron mask."
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Harry Worth, Andre Marsaudon, Carlos De Valdez
BW-11 mins,


12:30 PM -- DAYS OF GLORY (1944)
Russian freedom fighters battle the Nazi occupying forces.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Gregory Peck, Lowell Gilmore, Maria Palmer
BW-86 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Vernon L. Walker (photographic), James G. Stewart (sound) and Roy Granville (sound)

Film debut of Gregory Peck.


2:00 PM -- THE INCREDIBLE STRANGER (1942)
This short film, set in 1893, focuses on a stranger that arrives in a small town and keeps a promise he made to his wife.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Ben Hall, Paul Guilfoyle, Connie Leon
BW-11 mins,


2:15 PM -- GREAT DAY IN THE MORNING (1956)
The Civil War triggers unrest in Colorado.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Virginia Mayo, Robert Stack, Ruth Roman
C-92 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Based on the novel of the same name by Robert Hardy Andrews.


4:00 PM -- THE RAINBOW PASS (1937)
A wife challenges her husband's murderer to combat in this short film that introduces audiences to Chinese theater.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Bessie Loo, Chingwah Lee, Walter Soo Hoo
BW-11 mins,


4:15 PM -- STARS IN MY CROWN (1950)
A parson uses six-guns and the Bible to bring peace to a Tennessee town.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Joel McCrea, Ellen Drew, Dean Stockwell
BW-89 mins, CC,

Cast includes a young James Arness and Amanda Blake. They would go on to appear together for 19 seasons in the TV series Gunsmoke (1955) as Matt Dillon and Kitty Russell.


5:47 PM -- SO YOU WANT AN APARTMENT (1948)
In this comedic short, Joe McDoakes goes apartment hunting. Vitaphone Release 1613A.
Dir: Richard Bare
Cast: George O'Hanlon, Jane Harker, Jack Lomas
BW-11 mins,


6:00 PM -- OUT OF THE PAST (1947)
A private eye becomes the dupe of a homicidal moll.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas
BW-97 mins, CC,

Robert Mitchum told Roger Ebert he smoked so much that when the camera was rolling and Kirk Douglas offered him a pack and asked, "Cigarette?", Mitchum, realizing he'd carried a cigarette into the scene, held up his fingers and replied, "Smoking." His improvisation saved the take and they kept it in the movie.


7:40 PM -- STAN KENTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA (1947)
A brief history of Stan Kenton's musical career is explored in this short film, from taxi-dance gigs to his successful big band orchestra. Vitaphone Release 1429A.
Dir: Jack Scholl
BW-10 mins,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: CHILDHOOD ADVENTURES



8:00 PM -- THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1960)
Classic Mark Twain story of a young troublemaker who tries to help a runaway slave.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Tony Randall, Patty McCormack, Neville Brand
BW-107 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The four songs included in the film were originally intended for an M-G-M Technicolor musical version of "Huckleberry Finn" which was supposed to have been filmed in 1952, but was never made. It was supposed to have starred Dean Stockwell as Huck, William Warfield (fresh from his triumph as Joe in Show Boat (1951)) as Jim, and Gene Kelly and Danny Kaye as the two con men. The film was abandoned because Kelly wanted to take advantage of a tax deal that required that he work in Europe for eighteen months.


10:00 PM -- KIM (1951)
Rudyard Kipling's classic tale of an orphaned boy who helps the British Army against Indian rebels.
Dir: Victor Saville
Cast: Errol Flynn, Dean Stockwell, Paul Lukas
C-113 mins, CC,

MGM originally announced the film in 1938 as a vehicle for Freddie Bartholomew and Robert Taylor, but World War II saw this put on hold. In 1942 it was reactivated to star Mickey Rooney, Conrad Veidt (as Red Lama) and Basil Rathbone. However this was postponed out of fear of offending Indians, and also war-time allies the Soviets. In 1948 the Indian government approved the film and the Cold War meant it was permissible to have Russian villains.


12:05 AM -- 100 YEARS AT THE MOVIES (1994)
This short documentary celebrates the centennial of American filmmaking through a montage of clips of influential motion pictures.
Dir: Chuck Workman
C-9 mins,


12:15 AM -- STAND BY ME (1986)
Four friends share a rite of passage on a long walk to view a dead body.
Dir: Rob Reiner
Cast: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman
C-89 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans

After director Rob Reiner screened the movie for Stephen King, Reiner noticed that King was visibly shaking and wasn't speaking. King left the room and upon his return, he told Reiner that the movie was the best adaptation of his work he had ever seen.


2:00 AM -- TIME BANDITS (1981)
A young boy embarks on an adventure through time with a group of runaway dwarfs.
Dir: Terry Gilliam
Cast: Sean Connery, John Cleese, Shelley Duvall
C-116 mins, Letterbox Format

In the original script, King Agamemnon was introduced as: "The warrior took off his helmet, revealing someone that looks exactly like Sean Connery, or an actor of equal but cheaper stature." To Terry Gilliam's surprise, the script ended up in Connery's hands. He expressed interest in the part, and his agent approached them for the role.


4:00 AM -- CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (1937)
A spoiled rich boy is lost at sea and rescued by a fishing boat, where hard work and responsibility help him become a man.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Freddie Bartholomew, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore
BW-117 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Marc Connelly, John Lee Mahin and Dale Van Every, Best Film Editing -- Elmo Veron, and Best Picture

When production finally wrapped in late February 1937, Spencer Tracy was relieved. "Well, I got away with it," he said later. "Want to know why? Because of Freddie, because of that kid's performance, because he sold it 98 per cent. The kid had to believe in Manuel, or Manuel wasn't worth a quarter. The way he would look at me, believe every word I said, made me believe in it myself. I've never said this before, and I'll never say it again. Freddie Bartholomew's acting is so fine and so simple and so true that it's way over people's heads. It'll only be by thinking back two or three years from now that they'll realize how great it was."