TCM Schedule for Friday, June 12 -- Great Directors -- Jacques Tourneur/Woody Allen

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Today's great directors are French native / Hollywood director Jacques Tourneur, best known for his horror films like Cat People (1942), and Woody Allen, actor, writer, director, and very strange human being. Enjoy!


6:00am -- Timbuktu (1959)
A French colonel needs his wife's lover to help him stop an Arabian rebellion.
Cast: Victor Mature, Yvonne De Carlo, George Dolenz, John Dehner
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
BW-92 mins, TV-PG

Born in Paris in 1904, Jacques Tourneur went to Hollywood with his father, director Maurice Tourneur around 1913. He started out as a script clerk and editor for his father, then graduated to such jobs as directing shorts (often with the pseudonym Jack Turner), both in France and America.


8:00am -- Nightfall (1956)
A man on a hunting trip gets mixed up with murderous bank robbers.
Cast: Aldo Ray, Brian Keith, Anne Bancroft, Jocelyn Brando
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
BW-79 mins, TV-PG

Based on a story by noir author David Goodis.


9:30am -- The Fearmakers (1958)
A Korean War veteran discovers his Washington-based PR firm has been taken over by Communist infiltrators.
Cast: Dana Andrews, Dick Foran, Marilee Earle, Veda Ann Borg
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
BW-85 mins, TV-PG

Look for Mel Tormé playing Barney, the timid office brain, behind a pair of thick glasses.


11:00am -- Berlin Express (1948)
Allied agents fight an underground Nazi group in post-war Europe.
Cast: Merle Oberon, Robert Ryan, Charles Korvin, Paul Lukas
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
BW-87 mins, TV-PG

The first Hollywood production in Germany after World War II.


12:30pm -- Out of the Past (1947)
A private eye becomes the dupe of a homicidal moll.
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
BW-97 mins, TV-PG

Humphrey Bogart read the script and, seeing the similarities between this and The Maltese Falcon (1941), wanted to play Jeff. However, Warner Bros. didn't buy the material and RKO produced this movie.


2:15pm -- Curse of the Demon (1958)
An anthropologist investigates a devil worshipper who commands a deadly demon.
Cast: Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis, Maurce Denham
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
BW-96 mins, TV-PG

This film was mentioned in the opening song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) ("Science Fiction Double Feature"): "Dana Andrews said prunes gave him the runes, but passing them used lots of skill".


4:00pm -- The Leopard Man (1943)
When a leopard escapes during a publicity stunt, it triggers a series of murders.
Cast: Dennis O'Keefe, Margo, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
BW-66 mins, TV-PG

The black leopard was named Dynamite. It was the same cat that Val Lewton used for Cat People (1942).


5:15pm -- I Walked With A Zombie (1943)
A nurse in the Caribbean resorts to voodoo to cure her patient, even though she's in love with the woman's husband.
Cast: James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway, Edith Barrett
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
BW-69 mins, TV-PG

Producer Val Lewton did not like the article "I Walked With A Zombie" by Inez Wallace that had been optioned so he adapted the story to fit the novel "Jane Eyre" because he felt the article's plot was too clichéd.


6:30pm -- Cat People (1942)
A newlywed fears that an ancient curse will turn her into a bloodthirsty beast.
Cast: Simone Simon, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Jack Holt
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
BW-73 mins, TV-PG

The film was in theaters for so long that critics who had originally bashed the film were able to see it again and many rewrote their reviews with a more positive spin.


What's On Tonight: GREAT DIRECTORS: WOODY ALLEN


8:00pm -- Woody Allen: A Life in Film (2002)
A TCM original that marks the first time Allen has participated in an American documentary about his career.
Cast: Woody Allen
Dir: Richard Schickel
BW-88 mins, TV-MA

Allen shares anecdotes about his extensive body of work from the past thirty-something years to help audiences understand why these films continue to entertain the public as well as his technique of using both humor and drama to tackle personal issues and explore universal themes such as life, death, religion and sex. Unfortunately, ex-soul-mate Mia Farrow would not allow any film clips of her to be used on the program.


9:45pm -- Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
A small-time agent gets mixed up with gangsters when he falls for a client's girlfriend.
Cast: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Nick Apollo Forte, Milton Berle
Dir: Woody Allen
BW-84 mins, TV-14

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Woody Allen, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Woody Allen

The reason Mia Farrow wears sunglasses most of the film is that Woody Allen did not feel she could pass herself as a tough Italian "broad", so he had her wear the sunglasses most of the film to hide her eyes, making her seem more sultry and mysterious. The only time she removes the sunglasses is when her character is supposed to be more vulnerable.


11:15pm -- Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Three sisters deal with their tangled relationships amidst the wonders of New York City.
Cast: Woody Allen, Moses Farrow, Michael Caine, Mia Farrow
Dir: Woody Allen
C-107 mins, TV-14

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Michael Caine (After losing the Oscar three times Michael Caine was tired of attending the awards ceremony. Ironically he won the first time that year.), Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Dianne Wiest, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Woody Allen

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Stuart Wurtzel and Carol Joffe, Best Director -- Woody Allen, Best Film Editing -- Susan E. Morse, and Best Picture

Many of Hannah's scenes were filmed in Mia Farrow's actual apartment. Allen said that Farrow once had the eerie experience of turning on the TV to a chance broadcast of the movie thus viewing her own apartment on TV while she was sitting in it.


1:15am -- The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
A movie character steps off the screen and into the life of his biggest fan.
Cast: Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello, Dianne Wiest
Dir: Woody Allen
BW-82 mins, TV-14

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Woody Allen

Woody Allen has said more than once that this is his favorite of the movies he's made.


2:45am -- Interiors (1978)
Three sisters fight to adjust to their parents' divorce and their father's re-marriage.
Cast: Diane Keaton, Geraldine Page, E. G. Marshall, Maureen Stapleton
Dir: Woody Allen
C-92 mins, TV-MA

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Geraldine Page, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Maureen Stapleton, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Mel Bourne and Daniel Robert, Best Director -- Woody Allen, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Woody Allen

At this point in his career, Woody Allen was known for comedy, and wanted to break the mold by having no humor at all in this picture. At one point the family is gathered around the table laughing at a joke which Arthur has just told, but we never hear the joke.


4:30am -- Take The Money And Run (1969)
An incompetent criminal becomes the subject of a documentary.
Cast: Woody Allen, Janet Margolin, Marcel Hillaire, Jacquelyn Hyde
Dir: Woody Allen
C-85 mins, TV-14

This film marked Allen's directorial debut. The first cut was deemed to be decidedly unfunny, including his death scene in a slow-mo hail of bullets, like Bonnie and Clyde. Producers Jack Rollins and Charles H. Joffe convinced him to sit with top editor Ralph Rosenblum to see what could be salvaged. The first thing Rosenblum did was cut out the gory ending, then he restructured the film completely, and generally tightened up Allen's loose narrative. This effort transformed the finished film into a comedy classic. Rosenblum subsequently became Allen's editor of choice on most of his next films, including Bananas (1971), Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975) and Annie Hall (1977).

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1. Profiles of Jacques Tourneur and Woody Allen

Jacques Tourneur Profile

Director Jacques Tourneur was born in Paris in 1904 to a renowned filmmaker father, Maurice Tourneur. When Jacques was nine he traveled to America with his father, who successfully transitioned from directing silents in his native France to a career as a well-regarded Hollywood auteur especially known for his impressive set design and lighting.

Tourneur, Jr. began his film career modestly, as an office boy at MGM in 1924. He also acted and served as a script clerk for some of his father's films. After returning to France to work for a time, Tourneur's first film in Hollywood was MGM's A Tale of Two Cities (1935) where he served as a second -unit director and met the producer Val Lewton who would prove so influential in his later career. In 1936 he began directing short subject films for the studio and eventually progressed to a string of distinctive B-movie horror films for RKO.

A gifted director in his own right, Jacques Tourneur was known, like his father, for his subtlety and attention to a sustained mood and for his success with themes of mystery and fantasy. Jacques Tourneur was especially adept at creating a foreboding mood in a string of atmospheric, low-key films as famous for what they did not show as for what they did. Cat People (1942) and I Walked with a Zombie (1943), that he made alongside the head of RKO's horror unit Lewton, are key examples of his distinctive style. But Tourneur excelled at other genres as well, as demonstrated in his mastery of film noir in the 1947 classic Out of the Past, starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer, and also evident by his skills directing swashbucklers (The Flame and the Arrow, 1950) and sword-and-sandal fare (The Giant of Marathon, 1959).

by Felicia Feaster


Woody Allen Profile

With over 40 films to his name and at least four distinct "style phases" evident throughout his long career, Woody Allen was one of very few American filmmakers who could rightly be labeled an auteur. From the irreverent absurdity of his early satires to his chronicles of neurotic New York artists and conflicted European romantics, Allen's obsessions with the yearning for beauty, the balm of psychiatry, intellectual and professional acceptance, and Judaism vs. the elusive WASP world were never far beneath the surface. Unique among contemporary independent filmmakers, Allen had a constant stream of highly personal films produced and distributed with "mainstream" money while still managing to exert creative control over the product. He was nominated for over a dozen Oscars for Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay and maintained a sizeable art house following, though his films rarely grossed more than $10 or $15 million. By keeping his film budgets low, the remarkably prolific filmmaker enabled himself to reach his intelligent and mostly urban audience on a regular basis.

Allen Stewart Konigsberg was born on Dec. 1, 1935, in Brooklyn, NY. He was the only son of Orthodox Jewish parents Nettie, a bookkeeper, and Martin, who held a series of odd jobs, including waiter and jewelry engraver. Growing up in the middle class neighborhood of Midwood, Allen spent his free time at the local movie theaters where he was drawn into the worlds of the Marx Brothers and Humphrey Bogart. In stark contrast to Allen's screen persona as an awkward outsider, he was well-liked in school, playing on the baseball team and entertaining students with card tricks and jokes. When he was still a teenager, he began selling his jokes to newspaper columnists and officially adopted the pen name Woody Allen. He was contributing material to such programs as "The Colgate Comedy Hour" (NBC, 1950-55) and Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows" (NBC, 1950-54) before he even graduated from Midwood High School in 1953. After a brief stint at New York University where he purportedly failed a film course, Allen wrote for Caesar's "Caesar's Hour" (NBC, 1954-57) while writing jokes for comics and nightclub performers including Carol Channing, Art Carney and Buddy Hackett. He eventually took the stage and became a stand-up comedian himself, honing the intellectual "schnook" persona that would become his trademark.

Allen's stage act was uniquely New York - Jewish, intellectual, guilt-ridden and anxious, with an insecure, halting stammer. His monologues poked fun at everything from sex and marriage to religion and politics and his refreshing personal style proved popular in liberal Greenwich Village cabarets and on college campuses. During the early 1960s, Allen found more and more outlets for his imagination and humor, publishing short stories in the New Yorker magazine, co-writing a musical comedy revue called "A to Z" and writing his first feature film, the farcical "What's New, Pussycat?" (1965), directed by Clive Donner. Allen also starred in the film that served as an introduction to career-long recurring themes of romantic complications and a reliance on psychotherapy. He married Broadway actress and singer Louise Lasser in 1966 (an earlier teenage marriage had ended in 1962) and debuted as a filmmaker of sorts when he re-dubbed a minor Japanese spy thriller with his own irreverent dialogue and plot, releasing it as "What's Up Tiger Lily?" (1966). That, along with the James Bond spoof "Casino Royale" (1967), which he co-wrote and acted in, launched one of the most successful and unusual careers in American filmmaking history.

Following the production of two more stage plays - "Don't Drink the Water," about a New Jersey family spying in an Iron Curtain country, and "Play It Again, Sam" (1969) about a film critic who invokes the spirit of Humphrey Bogart to guide him through life - Allen wrote, directed and starred in Take the Money and Run (1969). The unceasingly funny parody of both gangster films and cinema verite documentaries starred Allen as an unlikely escaped convict. The loose structure, lack of technical polish, and indebtedness to his nightclub one-liners was also evident in "Bananas" (1971), a satire lambasting both politics and mass media that starred Lasser as an idealistic leftie with a groupie-like admiration for a South American rebel leader who turns out to be her ex-boyfriend (Allen) in disguise. Another madcap satire, "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)" (1972), consisted of a series of loosely-related shorts debunking various sexual myths while poking fun at the era's self-help craze. The already prolific filmmaker followed up with a screen adaptation of his stage production "Play it Again Sam" (1972), which established Allen's indebtedness to classic films and began his long association with actress Diane Keaton. Allen's marriage to Lasser had ended several years earlier and Keaton took over the role of Allen's girlfriend, muse and star of his films.

As the 1970s progressed, Allen began to find his voice as a filmmaker, rounding out his "slapstick" period with "Sleeper" (1973), about a health food store owner cryogenically frozen and thawed out after 200 years. "Love and Death" (1975) marked a leap forward for Allen, raising philosophical questions and showcasing a love of great literature and arts with its spoof of Russian culture. Allen's aspirations to be considered a "serious" moviemaker were acutely evident in "Annie Hall" (1977), the first of his films to achieve widespread critical and box office popularity. While still anchored in comedy, it clearly tackled themes that reflected his own concerns in life and he utilized sophisticated narrative devices such as breaking the fourth wall, and relied less on slapstick and sight gags. In the lead role as Alvy Singer, the writer-director-actor solidified his screen persona as the urban, Jewish intellectual outsider; this time pursuing the love of a quirky but ethereal WASPY beauty (Keaton). Often considered the quintessential Allen movie - personal and thoughtful yet satiric and entertaining -"Annie Hall" earned four Academy Awards including beating out "Star Wars" for Best Picture, Best Actress (Diane Keaton), Best Director (Allen) and Best Original Screenplay (Allen and Marshall Brickman).

As a surprising follow-up, Allen shifted to more dramatic material and focused on the starchy, repressed WASP milieu in Interiors (1978). Owing more than a passing debt to Ingmar Bergman, Shakespeare and Eugene O'Neill, "Interiors" probed the angst and petty betrayals of an upper-class family with three daughters. Many critics and audience members were confounded by the deadly earnest tone, but inarguably the film was beautifully shot by cinematographer Gordon Willis and strongly acted by a cast that included Geraldine Page, E.G. Marshall, Diane Keaton and Maureen Stapleton. Interiors earned a surprising five Oscar nominations, including nods to Allen for direction and writing. The following year, he re-teamed with Marshall Brickman to write his most profitable (and arguably best) film, "Manhattan" (1979). With its lush Gershwin score, gorgeous black-and-white photography (again by Willis) and brilliant ensemble cast, the film marked a return to comedy peppered with autobiographical and romantic elements. It was also notable as Allen's last film with Diane Keaton for many years, as their off-screen relationship was ending around the same time. The film engendered mild controversy over Allen's on-screen love interest, a teenaged Mariel Hemingway.

In "Stardust Memories" (1980), Allen's character of a film director is exhorted to "make funny movies," something the character is adamant about no longer doing. Allen was sorry that audiences largely interpreted this as autobiographical, though he did follow it up with a return to slapstick in "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" (1982), where he also found a new on-and off-screen leading lady in Mia Farrow. The period mockumentary "Zelig" (1983) melded Allen's fascination with celebrity with his growing grasp of cinematic methods. A marvel of technical wizardry, Allen inter-cut and merged new footage with old to recreate vintage newsreels and sound recordings. Broadway Danny Rose (1984) was primarily dismissed by critics as a minor outing, yet it centered on a marvelous performance from Farrow who was virtually unrecognizable as the Brooklyn-accented former mistress of a gangster. Farrow gave another outstanding lead performance as the timid, Depression-era wife of an abusive husband who
finds refuge at the movie theater in the The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985). Another technical tour de force, the delightful fantasy took a turn when a matinee idol (Jeff Daniels) stepped off the screen to woo the unhappy woman. Tying together several of Allen's major themes - fame, romance, fantasy and art - the film earned Best Screenplay and Best Director Oscar nominations for Allen.

For much of the decade, Allen concentrated on drama with the exception of "Radio Days" (1987), a charming memoir of life in World War II Brooklyn, threaded together by a wonderful soundtrack of the era's hits. He was nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar, an award he had won the previous year for his Chekhovian Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), a chronicle of New York family relationships and a set of very different sisters. The bloodless "September" (1987) and the Bergman-esque "Another
Woman" (1988), featuring a virtuoso leading turn from Gena Rowlands, were further examinations of the emotionally bereft worlds of WASPy New Yorkers. With the outstanding "Crimes and Misdemeanors" (1989), Allen closed the decade with a pessimistic examination of the morality of murder and earned more Oscar nominations for his screenplay and direction. In a lighter mode, 1990's "Alice," a riff on Lewis Carroll's Alice and Wonderland, cast Farrow as a wealthy but shallow uptown woman who receives a
new perspective on life thanks to a Chinatown herbalogist. Allen had a rare starring role in a film not of his own making, playing Bette Midler's husband in Paul Mazursky's seriocomic look at contemporary marriage, "Scenes from a Mall" (1991) - a film which tanked miserably. Back behind the camera, his critically reviled "Shadows and Fog" (1992) was an allegory about anti-Semitism that combined homages to 1930s German expressionism and 1950s European art films but was plagued by one-note characterizations.

Though not without humor, "Husbands and Wives" (1992) marked one of Allen's most emotionally violent films. Highlighted by jittery, hand-held cinema verite camerawork and a pessimistic view of enduring love, the film was released early by its distributor in part to capitalize on its uncanny parallels with the real-life turmoil between Allen and Farrow. Their very public break-up, spurred by Allen's romantic involvement with Farrow's adopted daughter, Soon Yi, was followed by Farrow's public accusations that Allen had molested their adopted daughter, Dylan (now Malone). In the midst of all the Sturm und Drang, Allen made the frothy but fun "Manhattan Murder Mystery" (1993), which reunited him with Marshall Brickman and ex-flame, Diane Keaton. The comic thriller attempted to recreate the banter and urbanity of such seminal films as "The Thin Man," though it proved to be a financial disappointment, overshadowed by Allen's personal troubles - which by this time, were monumental, when Soon Yi left her family to be with Allen. By the time "Bullets Over Broadway" was released in 1994, Allen was out of the headlines and audiences were ready to embrace his work anew. The hilarious period comedy about a 1930s New York playwright (John Cusack as Allen's screen alter ego) banked on a lush, dramatic portrayal of the era's theater world and benefited from an outstanding ensemble cast, including Oscar-winning performances from Dianne Wiest as a past-her-prime stage diva and a nomination for Chazz Palminteri as a gun-toting thug-turned-ghost writer. Under it all, the film was a successful meditation on the definition of an artist.

Allen returned to TV to adapt, direct and co-star in a small screen remake of his 1968 stage play "Don't Drink the Water" (ABC, 1994). On the big screen, "Mighty Aphrodite" (1995) was an uneven attempt that baldly proclaimed its indebtedness to Greek theater with the use of a chorus. Allen played a middle-aged sportswriter searching for the birth mother of his adopted child, who turns out not to be the cultured woman he imagined but a prostitute. With "Everyone Says I Love You" (1996), he combined frothy 1930s musical sensibilities with his familiar themes, resulting in a mixed response that divided audiences and critics. "Deconstructing Harry" (1997) was an Oscar-nominated screenplay - a scatological and complex look at a writer's life employing black comedy and dramatizations of his works to comment on the function of the artist in society. "Celebrity" (1998) with Kenneth Branagh doing a mannered Allen impersonation in the leading role, was considered a misbegotten, poorly cast take on the contemporary obsession with fame. Paying his own price for fame, Allen was in the tabloids again for his 1997 marriage to Soon Yi Previn, 35 years his junior. The marriage reminded all of the sordid story from only six years prior, but the couple seemed in love. The following year, documentarian Barbara Kopple released "Wild Man Blues" (1998). Rather than focusing on Allen the
filmmaker, Allen the amateur clarinet player was the central character, from the Monday evening club engagement he held for decades to a European tour.

Allen the filmmaker continued to put out one movie per year for the next five years. Still dabbling in different genres and new techniques, 1999's clever mockumentary/dramedy hybrid "Sweet and Lowdown" cast Sean Penn in one of his finest performances as a fictional 1930s jazz guitarist and hothead. He followed up with the surprisingly mainstream but highly comic heist picture, "Small Time Crooks" (2000) and the disappointing period faux noir "Curse of the Jade Scorpion" (2001). "Hollywood Ending" (2002), where Allen played a film director who goes blind, was poorly received. The target of much criticism for his series of disappointing films, Allen mined familiar territory in 2003 with "Anything Else," which did little groundbreaking besides casting Jason Biggs in the Allen-esque lead as a young writer bedeviled by his torturous relationship with a neurotic actress (Christina Ricci), with Allen
playing the role of Biggs' conspiracy-minded mentor. He rebounded with the novel "Melinda and Melinda" (2005), which offered two parallel interpretations of the romantic troubles of a neurotic, self-destructive woman (Radha Mitchell) - one tragic and one comic. The film's intriguing structure and fresh cast - including Will Ferrell, Amanda Peet, Chloe Sevigny, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Mitchell as two widely differing Melindas - made the film one of the more satisfying efforts from Allen in recent years.

Even better was his next project, "Match Point" (2005), an entirely serious, morality-minded effort featuring Jonathan Rhys-Myers as a social climbing tennis pro who believes he would rather "be lucky than good," who finds himself torn between his comfortable, practical, status-confirming union with a loving wife (Emily Mortimer) and his torrid affair with a sensual but ultimately demanding American actress (Scarlett Johansson). Allen did not appear as an actor in the film, and even more significantly, neither did New York City: the film was shot entirely in London. "Match Point" demonstrated that Allen still had considerable power as a filmmaker and fresh subject matter to explore as a screenwriter. His continued significance as a writer was validated with an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. "Scoop" (2006), a comedy about an American journalism student in London, and "Cassandra's Dream" (2007), a morality tale about a pair of brothers also set in London, earned lukewarm reviews but his fourth European outing, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (2008) was a critical pick. An evocative new locale and a well-matched cast including Allen's latest muse, Scarlett Johansson, as well as Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, spelled a return to Allen's strength with intelligent and thoughtful romantic comedies. The filmmaker's next project was "Whatever Works"
(2009), starring Larry David.

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