TCM Schedule for Thursday, January 30, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: The Magnificent Seven

[Staph]

Last edited Mon Mar 23, 2020, 07:45 PM - Edit history (1)

In the daylight hours, today's theme is New Face, Who This? Tell us more, Roger.

Behind every face is a story, and in this daytime of movies we follow the tales of a number of faces that have been altered, damaged and/or reconfigured.

Another Face (1935) casts Brian Donlevy as a murderous gangster known as "Broken Nose" Dawson who eludes police by having his face changed through plastic surgery. His new mug is so handsome that he goes to Hollywood to become a movie star and is promptly cast as a good-looking gangster! According to Leonard Maltin, the "funny premise" of this satire "clicks most of the time and has some real laughs."

A Woman's Face (1938) is a Swedish film starring a young Ingrid Bergman just a couple of years before she vaulted to Hollywood stardom. This thriller gives her an uncharacteristic role as a ruthless blackmailer with a disfigured face. After her looks are restored, her personality softens and she begins to regret the hard path she has taken. Joan Crawford would star in a 1941 remake at MGM. IonCinema.com called Bergman's performance her "most complex and rewarding from her 1930s work" and revealed that some of her makeup effects were created by her then-husband, dentist Petter Lindstrom.

Dark Passage (1947) is a Delmer Daves crime thriller starring Humphrey Bogart as a man convicted of killing his wife who escapes from prison and undergoes plastic surgery to hide his identity. The opening scenes, before Bogart's "new" face is revealed, are shot from the subjective viewpoint of the character. Bogart's wife, Lauren Bacall, costars as the intrigued woman who comes to his aid.

Nora Prentiss (1947) is a film noir drama with Ann Sheridan in the title role as a nightclub singer and Kent Smith as her married lover, who fakes his own death rather than ask his wife for a divorce. Later, after his face is scarred beyond recognition in an automobile accident, he is accused of his own murder! Film historian Bob Porfirio noted that the film "does not lapse into a romantic melodrama that might detract from the maudit (accursed) sensibility, the quintessential element of film noir."

Hollow Triumph (1948) has Paul Henreid in a double role as the mastermind of a casino robbery and a lookalike psychoanalyst he plots to murder. To be a dead ringer, the robber must carve a scar on his face - but chooses the wrong side! Joan Bennett, an experienced noir player, costars as the doctor's secretary who suspects that something is amiss but doesn't seem to mind. According to The New York Times, the "story moves along briskly, the performances are sound, and there is always the promise of more violence just around the corner."

House of Wax (1953) is a horror thriller starring Vincent Price as a disfigured sculptor who uses the corpses of his murder victims as figures in his wax museum. The film, a remake by Warner Bros. of its 1933 Mystery of the Wax Museum, was originally released as the first color 3D film from a major American studio. According to the Rotten Tomatoes website, the film is a "horror delight that combines the atmospheric eeriness of the wax museum with the always-chilling presence of Vincent Price."

Eyes Without a Face (1960) is a French-Italian horror film about a brilliant surgeon (Pierre Brasseur) who, after causing an accident that left his daughter disfigured, tries to give her a new visage by kidnapping young women and attempting face transplants. The film was not well-reviewed at the time of its release but was later re-evaluated, with J. Hoberman describing it in The Village Voice as "a masterpiece of poetic horror and tactful, tactile brutality."

The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) is an American sci-fi horror thriller in which a mad doctor (Jason Evers) develops a means to keep the severed head of his fiancée (Virginia Leith) alive. To secure a body for her, he plots to commit murder. TV Guide described the film as "one of the most genuinely bizarre 'brain' movies." Interestingly, it has inspired several different adaptations as a stage musical!

by Roger Fristoe

In prime time, TCM is showing the classic American film The Magnificent Seven (1960), based on Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954), along with three sequels. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1959)
A surgeon steals young women's faces hoping to heal his daughter's scars.
Dir: Georges Franju
Cast: Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, Edith Scob
BW-90 mins,

Hubert de Givenchy created the gowns that Christiane wears throughout the movie.


7:45 AM -- ANOTHER FACE (1935)
Plastic surgery turns a gangster into a movie star.
Dir: Christy Cabanne
Cast: Wallace Ford, Brian Donlevy, Phyllis Brooks
BW-69 mins, CC,

This film had the working titles of Two Faces and It Happened In Hollywood.


9:15 AM -- DARK PASSAGE (1947)
A man falsely accused of his wife's murder escapes to search for the real killer.
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett
BW-106 mins, CC,

Humphrey Bogart's complete uncovered face is not seen clearly until 62 minutes into the movie, when his character finally removes his bandages and looks into a mirror. All previous scenes with the character are either shown from his point of view or have his face obscured with shadows or bandages.


11:15 AM -- NORA PRENTISS (1947)
An ambitious singer ruins a doctor's life.
Dir: Vincent Sherman
Cast: Ann Sheridan, Kent Smith, Bruce Bennett
BW-111 mins, CC,

Sheilah Graham reported that Ann Sheridan had an infection in one ear during production, and during the final shots of the film, could only be photographed from one side.


1:15 PM -- HOLLOW TRIUMPH (1948)
A crook on the lam poses as a psychiatrist.
Dir: Steve Sekely
Cast: Paul Henreid, Joan Bennett, Eduard Franz
BW-82 mins, CC,

Film debut of Jack Webb.


2:45 PM -- A WOMAN'S FACE (1938)
Plastic surgery gives a bitter, scarred woman a new chance at life.
Dir: Gustaf Molander
Cast: Tore Svennberg, Anders Henrikson, Ingrid Bergman
BW-101 mins,

Director Cukor wanted Anna's recital of her life story to be done in a tired, mechanical fashion, so he had Crawford repeat the multiplication tables over and over until he got the monotonous tone he was looking for. Then, he rolled the cameras.


4:45 PM -- THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE (1962)
A scientist keeps his wife's severed head alive until he can find a new body for her.
Dir: Joseph Green
Cast: Virginia Leith, Herb Evers, Adele Lamont
BW-82 mins, Letterbox Format

At least a few of Virginia Leith's lines were dubbed by Doris Brent, who played a nurse in this film. Reportedly Leith hated the film so much she refused to return for post-production.


6:15 PM -- HOUSE OF WAX (1953)
A scarred sculptor re-populates his ravaged wax museum with human corpses.
Dir: Andre DeToth
Cast: Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk
C-88 mins, CC,

Vincent Price liked to attend screenings of the film incognito. As the thespian once told biographer Joel Eisner, he'd regularly go out and see House of Wax during its run. Happily for Price, the requisite 3D glasses could usually conceal his identity in the back of a dimly lit theater. But one night, he decided to make his presence known. At a showing in New York City, Price quietly took a seat behind two teenagers. Right after a particularly frightening scene, he leaned forward and asked "Did you like it?" In Price's words, "They went right into orbit!"



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN



8:00 PM -- THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960)
Seven American gunmen hire themselves out to protect a Mexican village from bandits.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen
C-128 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Elmer Bernstein

The "bandit gang" hired for Calvera adopted Eli Wallach as one of their own. In the mornings before shooting started, but after Wallach was in costume, he and the group would go riding together for an hour. Additionally, members of the gang insisted on doing the final checks for Wallach's horse tack and prop gun before he was allowed to use either.


10:15 PM -- RETURN OF THE SEVEN (1966)
A notorious gunman organizes a team of specialists to save Mexican villagers from an insane rancher.
Dir: Burt Kennedy
Cast: Yul Brynner, Robert Fuller, Julián Mateos
BW-96 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Elmer Bernstein

Yul Brynner insisted he would only make this film if Steve McQueen was not involved. McQueen initially expressed interest in appearing, but then decided the plot was too absurd and turned the film down.


12:00 AM -- GUNS OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1969)
The last of the original seven assembles a new crew of experts to rescue a captive rebel leader.
Dir: Paul Wendkos
Cast: George Kennedy, James Whitmore, Monte Markham
BW-106 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Despite bearing no resemblance to Yul Brynner, including a full head of hair, George Kennedy took over the role of Chris Adams, played by Brynner in the first two films. Even Adams' trademark dark clothing is gone. What remains is the steel resolve, and affinity for cigars.


2:00 AM -- THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN RIDE! (1972)
A retired gunman fights to save a group of kidnapped women from the man who raped and murdered his wife.
Dir: George McCowan
Cast: Lee Van Cleef, Stefanie Powers, Michael Callan
BW-100 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

When Noah is interviewing Chris for a biography, he asks Chris about a clash that he participated in called The Battle of Adobe Walls, and Chris replies that it was a fight between 28 buffalo hunters and 600 Comanche Indians led by Quanah Parker, and among the white participants was William Barclay 'Bat' Masterson. The Battle of Adobe Walls was a real-life siege by approximately 700 Comanche, Kiowa and Cheyenne warriors of the small trading settlement of Adobe Walls, TX, on June 27, 1874, in which Masterson did indeed participate (this was the only time in the "Magnificent Seven" film series that a real-life gunfighter was mentioned). The siege lasted almost three days, and the Indians attacked the post several times but were driven back each time. The battle ended when one of the buffalo hunters, a man named Billy Dixon, used his long-range rifle and shot and killed a Cheyenne warrior sitting atop his horse at a distance of approximately 1500 yards; it so unnerved the Indians--whose medicine man had promised that they would be immune from bullets--that they turned around and left. Total casualties were four whites dead (one of whom accidentally shot himself in the head) and approximately 20 Indian warriors killed and at least that many wounded.


4:00 AM -- THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN HAWKS (1959)
A ship's captain gets mixed up with murder during the hunt for lost Nazi treasure.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Robert Taylor, Nicole Maurey, Linda Christian
BW-92 mins, CC,

Based on the novel The House of the Seven Flies by Victor Canning.