TCM Schedule for Friday, October 1 -- TCM Prime Time Feature -- Hammer Horror Festival

[Staph]

It's nearly Halloween, so TCM is starting the month with a festival of the films of Hammer, with four Dracula films. And today is the 90th anniversary of the birth of Walter Matthau, born on this day in 1920, in New York City. Enjoy!


6:00am -- The Sunshine Boys (1975)
A feuding comedy team reunites for a television comeback.
Cast: Walter Matthau, George Burns, Richard Benjamin, Carol Arthur
Dir: Herbert Ross
C-111 mins, TV-14

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Burns

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Walter Matthau, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Albert Brenner and Marvin March, and Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted From Other Material -- Neil Simon

Based on the lives and careers of vaudeville comics Joe Smith and Charles Dale (né Sultzer and Marks). Unlike the characters in the Broadway play and later film, Smith and Dale were almost inseparable friends. In fact, when Dale died in 1971, Smith commissioned a single tombstone to be prepared for them both, ordering that the inscription read "Smith and Dale."


8:00am -- Plaza Suite (1971)
A New York hotel room is the setting for three stories of romantic squabbles.
Cast: Walter Matthau, Lee Grant, Barbara Harris, Maureen Stapleton
Dir: Arthur Hiller
C-114 mins, TV-14

Maureen Stapleton recreated ONE of her three roles from the stage version. Like the male roles, Neil Simon wrote all three female roles to be played by one actress. George C. Scott and Maureen Stapleton originate all of the roles in the play; Walter Matthau took over for Scott in all three roles - Stapleton kept her role from the first act; the other two roles went to Lee Grant and Barbara Harris.


10:00am -- The Odd Couple (1968)
A divorced neat freak moves in with his sloppy best friend.
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, John Fiedler, Herbert Edelman
Dir: Gene Saks
C-105 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Film Editing -- Frank Bracht, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Neil Simon

The names of the English sisters, Cecily and Gwendolyn, are taken from Oscar Wilde's play "The Importance of Being Earnest".


12:00pm -- The Fortune Cookie (1966)
A crooked lawyer trumps up an insurance case for a cameraman injured at a pro football game.
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ron Rich, Cliff Osmond
Dir: Billy Wilder
BW-126 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Walter Matthau

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Robert Luthardt and Edward G. Boyle, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph LaShelle, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond

This was director Billy Wilder's second film in a row in which one of his lead actors suffered a heart attack. In preceding film, 1964's Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), Peter Sellers' health problem forced Wilder to replace him with Ray Walston. In Fortune Cookie, Walter Matthau suffered attack midway through production but shooting was postponed until he recovered; his drastic weight loss from scene to scene is noticeable.


2:15pm -- Fail Safe (1964)
A failure in the U.S. defense system threatens to start World War III.
Cast: Henry Fonda, Dan O'Herlihy, Walter Matthau, Frank Overton
Dir: Sidney Lumet
BW-112 mins, TV-14

First films for Dom DeLuise, Fritz Weaver and Dana Elcar.


4:15pm -- Ensign Pulver (1964)
A young officer on a World War II supply ship battles his captain to keep the men happy.
Cast: Robert Walker Jr., Burl Ives, Walter Matthau, Tommy Sands
Dir: Joshua Logan
C-104 mins, TV-PG

Walter Matthau appeared in Ensign Pulver (1964), the sequel to Mister Roberts (1955), for which his friend and often co-star Jack Lemmon won an Oscar.


6:00pm -- Onionhead (1958)
An irresponsible student enlists in the Navy expecting to sit out World War II.
Cast: Andy Griffith, Felicia Farr, Walter Matthau, Erin O'Brien
Dir: Norman Taurog
BW-111 mins, TV-PG

The film was written by Nelson Gidding and Weldon Hill from Hill's novel, and was directed by Norman Taurog. It was such a notorious flop that it drove Griffith, who had enjoyed enormous success in A Face in the Crowd and No Time for Sergeants, into television.


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: HAMMER HORROR FESTIVAL


8:00pm -- Horror of Dracula (1958)
The legendary count tries to turn his enemies' women into his bloodthirsty brides.
Cast: Peter Cushing, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Christopher Lee
Dir: Terence Fisher
C-82 mins, TV-PG

In the United States the title was changed to "Horror of Dracula" to avoid confusion with the classic 1931 version (Dracula (1931)). This was a real concern since the Bela Lugosi version was still being booked into theaters (through Realart) until the Shock Theatre package of classic Universal horror films was released to television.


9:30pm -- The Brides Of Dracula (1960)
A handsome vampire stalks the students at a remote girl's school.
Cast: Peter Cushing, Martita Hunt, Yvonne Monlaur, Freda Jackson
Dir: Terence Fisher
C-86 mins

The prop department put a lot of effort into making a realistic model bat. It got lost and had to be replaced on short notice. This explains the rather unconvincing look of the model that got actually used in the movie.


11:00pm -- Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1966)
Four travelers unwittingly revive the bloodsucking count.
Cast: Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley, Andrew Keir, Francis Matthews
Dir: Terence Fisher
C-90 mins, TV-14

Christopher Lee found the lines given to this character so awful that he chose to play it silent.


12:45am -- Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1969)
Dracula goes after the niece of the monsignor who destroyed his castle.
Cast: Christopher Lee, Rupert Davies, Veronica Carlson, Barbara Ewing
Dir: Freddie Francis
C-92 mins, TV-14

Christopher Lee loved to recount the following tale: Hammer was given a Queen's Award to Industry while shooting the final scenes of Dracula impaled on the rocks, with a group of British government dignitaries watching as Lee thrashed around screaming and pouring with gore. After the scene wrapped, a minister turned to wife and said, "That man is a member of my club."


2:30am -- Psychomania (1973)
When her son and his motorcycle gang are killed, a witch brings them back to life.
Cast: Roy Evans, George Sanders, Martin Boddey, Serretta Wilson
Dir: Don Sharp
C-86 mins, TV-14

George Sanders' final feature film.


4:00am -- Daughters of Satan (1972)
After a man buys a painting of a witch that resembles his wife, his wife is possessed by the spirit of the witch and plans his murder.
Cast: Tom Selleck, Barra Grant, Tani Phelps Guthrie, Vic Silayan
Dir: Hollingsworth Morse
C-90 mins, TV-MA

Just after Robertson is chased from the antique shop, a poster for the Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967) can be glimpsed for the briefest of moments on an exterior wall.

[Staph]

1. Walter Matthau Profile

Born: 1920-10-01
Birth place: New York City, New York, USA
Death: 2000-07-01
Death cause: heart attack
Nationality: United States
Profession: soda vendor, director, producer, actor


Once described by a British critic as looking like "a bloodhound with a head cold", the magnificently rumpled Walter Matthau parlayed his marvelous character face, drooping posture, ungainly walk and growling voice into a prolific screen career, first as a villain, later as a comedic and sometimes romantic leading man, and finally as the quintessential (but adorable) grumpy old man. Despite making his professional stage debut at age 11 in the musical "The Dishwasher" (1931), he did not begin acting in earnest until after WWII in a 1946 summer stock production of "Ten Nights in a Bar Room" in Erie, Pennsylvania. Two years later he bowed on Broadway as the aged Bishop Fisher in Maxwell Anderson's "Anne of the Thousand Days", the first of 18 plays in which he would act on the Great White Way. Matthau's Broadway successes included "The Liar" (1950), the 1955 revival of "Guys and Dolls" (as Nathan Detroit), "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" (also 1955) and "A Shot in the Dark" (1961), which earned him his first Tony. He is best remembered, however, for originating the role of Oscar Madison opposite Art Carney's Felix Unger in Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple" (1965), a performance netting him that year's Tony Award as Actor in a Play.

After playing an evil saloon keeper who bullwhips Burt Lancaster in his feature debut, "The Kentuckian" (1955), Matthau got typed as a villain and subsequently essayed a steady diet of reprehensible characters like the cynical newsman investigating 'Lonesome' Rhodes (Andy Griffith) in "A Face in the Crowd" (1957), the violent crime boss at odds with Elvis Presley in "King Creole" (1958), the comically harassed sheriff in "Lonely Are the Brave" (1962) and the Machiavellian advisor (a precursor of Henry Kissinger) in Sidney Lumet's "Fail-Safe" (1964). His only foray to directing came with "Gangster Story" (1959), which he self-deprecatingly calls the "worst film ever made." He also worked frequently during the Golden Age of TV on such classic live shows as "Studio One", "Playhouse 90" (both CBS), "Philco TV Playhouse" and "Kraft Television Theater" (both NBC). It is amazing that he never worked with Jack Lemmon when both young actors were alternating between stage and live TV, though they were both briefly in the Broadway cast of "Room Service" (1953) until Matthau had to withdraw. When they finally did team together in Billy Wilder's caustic comedy "The Fortune Cookie" (1966), it was Matthau's sharp portrayal of unethical lawyer 'Whiplash' Willie that drew all the raves and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar while Lemmon's role as the bedridden victim offered him few chances to shine.

Gene Kelly's "A Guide for the Married Man" (1967) cast Matthau as the lovely Inger Stevens' husband (no wonder he was so loathe to stray), but it was his Oscar-nominated leading turn as the sloppy Oscar to Lemmon's fastidious Felix in Gene Saks' screen adaptation of "The Odd Couple" (1968) that firmly established him as a comedic leading man. Kelly then gave him his chance as a romantic leading man (who sings) opposite Barbra Streisand's Dolly Levi in "Hello, Dolly!" (1968), after which he reteamed with Saks on the mildly amusing "Cactus Flower" (1969), featuring an Oscar-winning supporting performance by Goldie Hawn in her first significant role. Continuing their collaboration, Lemmon directed Matthau to a second Academy Award nod as Best Actor in "Kotch" (1971). They also reteamed in Wilder's uneven remake of "The Front Page" (1974), with Matthau as editor Walter Burns and Lemmon as reporter Hildy Johnson, and Wilder's last film, the slapstick black comedy "Buddy Buddy" (1981). Matthau also got to face off against the formidable comic talents of Elaine May in May's "A New Leaf" (also 1971) and Carol Burnett in Martin Ritt's "Pete 'n' Tillie" (1972), wooing and winning his woman in both.

In addition to "The Odd Couple", Matthau has acted in a number of film comedies scripted by Neil Simon from his plays. He appeared in all three vignettes of "Plaza Suite" (1971), directed by Arthur Hiller, scoring particularly well in the last one as the flustered father of a reluctant bride. He then embarked on the first of three films directed by Herbert Ross from Simon scripts, "The Sunshine Boys" (1975), which paired him with George Burns (a Best Supporting Actor winner for his role) as cranky vaudeville partners coaxed out of retirement for a TV special. He worked again with Ross on "California Suite" (1978), reuniting with Elaine May as her cheating husband, and the listless "I Ought to Be in Pictures" (1981), portraying a screenwriter visited by his teenage daughter (Dinah Manoff). Matthau's lovable gruffness also served him well as coach of "The Bad News Bears" (1976), a motley assortment of little leaguers headed by Tatum O'Neal, and he was equally memorable in several dramatic roles, including the bank robber hero of Don Siegel's "Charley Varrick" (1973) and the embittered protagonist of the ironically-titled thriller "The Laughing Policeman" (1974). His established New Yorker persona abetted one of his strongest performances as a harried NYC cop out to snare a subway hijacker in Joseph Sargent's "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" (1974).

At the height of his big screen success, Matthau made a rare TV appearance in the PBS adaptation of Clifford Odets' "Awake and Sing" (1972) and returned to the stage for the first (and final) time in nearly a decade in a 1974 Los Angeles production of "Juno and the Paycock". The 80s, however, were not kind to him. His turn as a Supreme Court justice in "First Monday in October" (1981) and his peg-leg portrayal of a Cockney-speaking Captain Red for Roman Polanski's commercially unsuccessful "Pirates" (1986) represented his best work of the decade, and, fed up with the kinds of scripts he was getting, he turned to the small screen for renewal. Reteaming with Sargent, Matthau acted for the first time in a made-for-television movie, playing Harmon Cobb, a small-town attorney during World War II who must defend a German POW accused of murder in the Emmy-winning "The Incident" (CBS, 1990). He later reprised the Cobb role in two well-received sequels, "Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore" (CBS, 1992) and "Incident in a Small Town" (CBS, 1994). He also appeared opposite Ellen Burstyn in "Mrs. Lambert Remembers Love" (CBS, 1991) and later reteamed with Carol Burnett in "The Marriage Fool" (CBS, 1998), both helmed by his son Charles.

Matthau returned to leading feature roles as the long-suffering Mr. Wilson in John Hughes' "Dennis the Menace", reaching a whole new audience of pre-adolescents, and dusted off the ol' chemistry with Lemmon to score a major hit with "Grumpy Old Men" (both 1993). Suddenly, the curmudgeonly basset hound was hot again. He teamed with Meg Ryan and Tim Robbins for the would-be modern screwball comedy "I.Q." (1994), garnering the film's best notices for his pleasingly cute and corny portrayal of Albert Einstein, and reunited with Lemmon as "Grumpier Old Men" in 1995. Son Charles cast him against type as the very sweet, very kind and loving Judge Cool in "The Grass Harp" (also 1995), a thoughtful drama based on Truman Capote's evocative memoir of his boyhood in the South featuring one scene between Matthau and Lemmon. He then played a feisty elderly Jew who forms an unlikely friendship with a black boxer (Ossie Davis) in Herb Gardner's "I'm Not Rappaport" (1996). He was back with Lemmon as grumpy old men "Out to Sea" (1997), but "The Odd Couple II" (1998), unfortunately, was once too often to the well for the Simon, Matthau, Lemmon triumvirate. Two years later he was a perfect fit as the irascible father of Diane Keaton, Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow in Keaton's "Hanging Up", recycling the tried-and-true shtick that made him a legend.