TCM Schedule for Friday, July 12 -- What's On Tonight: Sam Fuller

[Staph]

We've got an afternoon of the music of Henry Mancini. Mancini was reassigned to the band unit shortly after he joined the U.S. Army in World War II. This actually saved his life, as the unit to which he'd originally been assigned was wiped out to a man in the Battle of the Bulge. In prime time, TCM is featuring four films both written and directed by a moviemaker that, frankly, I'd never heard of -- Sam Fuller. As a young crime reporter with the New York Evening Graphic, the veteran crime reporter who "showed him the ropes" when he first started out was Rhea Gore, the wife of actor Walter Huston and the mother of John Huston. Fuller's first big "scoop" was when he became the first journalist to report the death of Jeanne Eagels. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)
116 min, TV-PG
A medium kidnaps a child so she can help the police solve the crime.
Dir: Bryan Forbes
Cast: Kim Stanley, Richard Attenborough, Mark Eden

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Kim Stanley

Bryan Forbes looked for that house with the turret as a film location; when he went to the owner for permission, she asked who was in the film. When told that an American actress named Kim Stanley, the woman blanched, stepped back, and said that Stanley was one of her oldest friends whom she had not seen in 17 years.


8:00 AM -- The Lion In Winter (1968)
C-134 min, TV-14
England's Henry II and his estranged queen battle over the choice of an heir.
Dir: Anthony Harvey
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Jane Merrow

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn (Tied with Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl (1968). Hepburn became the third performer to win consecutive awards, and the first to win three awards for lead roles.), Best Music, Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical) -- John Barry, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- James Goldman

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Peter O'Toole, Best Costume Design -- Margaret Furse, Best Director -- Anthony Harvey, and Best Picture

Although Peter O'Toole plays the father of Anthony Hopkins, John Castle and Nigel Terry, he is only five, seven and thirteen years older than them respectively. Moreover, O'Toole is twenty-five years Katharine Hepburn's junior but plays her husband. It should be noted, however, that there was quite a substantial age gap between Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine - she was approximately eleven years his senior. At the time frame set for this film, Christmas 1183, Eleanor of Aquitaine, born 1122, would have been 61 years old, as played by Katherine Hepburn, who was born May 12, 1907, also 61 years old at the time of production (1968). Henry II, born March 5, 1133 was 50 years old during Christmas 1183, as played by Peter O'Toole, born August 2, 1932, only 35-36 at the time of production, approximately 15 years younger than the character he was playing.


10:15 AM -- The Appointment (1969)
C-115 min, TV-14
A man suspects his wife of part-time prostitution.
Dir: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Omar Sharif, Anouk Aimee, Lotte Lenya

Michel Legrand composed the first score for this film, but it was rejected in favor of a score by John Barry, aided by Don Walker. When it was first aired on U.S. television, the CBS network had Barry and Walker's score replaced with a completely new score by Stu Phillips. Only the music by Barry and Walker is heard on the film today.


12:15 PM -- Bachelor In Paradise (1961)
C-109 min, TV-PG
A writer moves into a housing development to study married couples.
Dir: Jack Arnold
Cast: Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Janis Paige

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Henry Mancini (music) and Mack David (lyrics) for the song "Bachelor in Paradise"

In Jim Hutton's early career, he was romantically paired with Paula Prentiss in 4 consecutive films: Where the Boys Are; The Honeymoon Machine; Bachelor in Paradise and The Horizontal Lieutenant. According to Paula Prentiss in her DVD narrative to Where the Boys Are, they were paired because they were, at the time, Hollywood's tallest contract players, he at 6' 5" and she at 5' 10".


2:15 PM -- Soldier in the Rain (1963)
87 min, TV-PG
A story of friendship between a worldly-wise Army Master Sergeant and his naive worshiper.
Dir: Ralph Nelson
Cast: Jackie Gleason, Steve McQueen, Tuesday Weld

Jackie Gleason released a version of the title music as a single on Capitol in early 1964, with another Henry Mancini composition, Bird Brain, as the b-side. This puts Soldier in the Rain in the same category as Thunder Road and Because They're Young: movies which had a version of the theme song performed by a member of the cast and released as a single, while that version wasn't the one used in the movie.


4:00 PM -- Dear Heart (1964)
114 min, TV-PG
A middle-aged postmistress falls for an engaged man during a convention in New York.
Dir: Delbert Mann
Cast: Glenn Ford, Geraldine Page, Michael Anderson Jr.

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Henry Mancini (music), Jay Livingston (lyrics) and Ray Evans for the song "Dear Heart"

At the time this movie was being filmed, the demolition of the above-track-level portions of New York's Pennsylvania Station was beginning. In the opening scene of Evie Jackson's arrival in New York, you can see several panes of station windows broken and replaced with boards. By 1966, the station had been converted from its old to its new form, and the new Madison Square Garden had been added on top of it.


6:00 PM -- Wait Until Dark (1967)
C-108 min, TV-PG
A blind woman fights against drug smugglers who've invaded her home.
Dir: Terence Young
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn and director Terence Young visited a school for the blind to learn more about the visually impaired. Hepburn learned enough Braille to appear to be reading and writing it, although she really isn't, a fact which wasn't apparent to audiences until home video, with rewind and freeze frames. Susy's use of Braille is a change from the Broadway script, where she uses things like sugar cubes to keep track of phone numbers. Writing phone numbers in Braille is a better real-world choice, and realistic touch, that developed from Hepburn's meeting with blind people.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SAM FULLER


8:00 PM -- I Shot Jesse James (1949)
81 min, TV-PG
After shooting his best friend, an outlaw tries to cope with guilt.
Dir: Samuel Fuller
Cast: Preston Foster, Barbara Britton, John Ireland

Director Samuel Fuller said that he wanted to make this picture because, unlike many filmmakers in Hollywood, he did not see the real Jesse James as a "folk hero" or someone to be admired. Fuller saw him as a cold-blooded psychopath who shot down women, children, the elderly, the helpless (his gang once stopped a Union hospital train and executed every wounded federal soldier on it) and, in Fuller's words, Bob Ford "did something that should have been done quite a bit earlier in the life of Jesse Woodson James".


9:30 PM -- Park Row (1952)
83 min, TV-PG
A crusading newspaperman fights to save his paper from a hostile takeover.
Dir: Samuel Fuller
Cast: Bela Kovacs, Herbert Heyes, Tina Rome

Self-financed by its maverick director. At the time, Samuel Fuller had only $201,000 in his bank account. He kept $1,000 for his own personal use, which he spent on cigars and vodka. The rest went on the movie. The film was shot in 14 days.


11:00 PM -- Shock Corridor (1963)
C-101 min, TV-14
A reporter fakes insanity to crack a murder committed in an asylum.
Dir: Samuel Fuller
Cast: Peter Breck, Constance Towers, Gene Evans

According to Samuel Fuller, the film was shot in 10 days, on one set, with no exteriors.


12:45 AM -- The Naked Kiss (1964)
90 min, TV-14
After killing her pimp, a prostitute runs away to small-town America in a futile search for normality.
Dir: Samuel Fuller
Cast: Constance Towers, Anthony Eisley, Michael Dante

'A sweetheart is a bottle of wine, a wife is a wine bottle' is a quote from the French writer, Charles Baudelaire.


2:30 AM -- Fright (1971)
C-87 min, TV-14
A baby sitter and her young charge are terrorized by an escaped mental patient.
Dir: W. Lee Wilder
Cast: Nancy Malone, Eric Fleming, Dean L. Almquist

In an interview with star Honor Blackman she said that she feared the young child in the film would have damaging repercussions from having been in scenes with intense violence. She said that there was no psychical danger at all, as the 'shard of mirror glass' was really a fake prop, but worried the sheer intensity of the actors would be disturbing to the child.


4:00 AM -- What's The Matter With Helen? (1971)
C-101 min, TV-14
After their sons are convicted of murder, two women relocate to Hollywood to start a talent school.
Dir: Curtis Harrington
Cast: Debbie Reynolds, Shelley Winters, Dennis Weaver

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design -- Morton Haack

Shelley Winters decided that after they came in from the rain, her Helen character should have a moment when she kissed Debbie Reynolds Adelle character on the lips. This unscripted moment was filmed but removed from the final print of the movie to avoid attaining an R-rating. (It was 1971, after all!)


5:45 AM -- Voltaire (1933)
72 min, TV-G
The famed French writer becomes the conscience of his country during the French Revolution.
Dir: John G. Adolfi
Cast: George Arliss, Doris Kenyon, Margaret Lindsay

Although the onscreen source of the movie is a novel, it was never published. But modern sources say George Gibbs and E. Lawrence Dudley wrote a play for George Arliss, and it was the source adapted for the movie. The play also was never published or even produced.