TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 30, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: For the Birds

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is giving a salute to director Jacques Tourneur. From his IMDB mini-bio: "Born in Paris in 1904, 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. He was hired to run the second unit for David O. Selznick's A Tale of Two Cities (1935), where he first met Val Lewton. In 1942, when Lewton was named to head the new horror unit at RKO, he asked Tourneur to be his first director. The result was the highly artistic (and commercially successful) Cat People (1942). Tourneur went on to direct masterpieces in many different genres, all showing a great command of mood and atmosphere."

In prime time, TCM is going to the birds! Enjoy!


6:30 AM -- MGM PARADE SHOW #3 (1955)
George Murphy introduces clips from "A Free Soul" with Clark Gable and "Trial."
BW-26 mins,


7:00 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 three "Nick Carter" films from MGM released 1939-40. The other two are Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939) and Sky Murder (1940).


8:30 AM -- CAT PEOPLE (1942)
A newlywed fears that an ancient curse will turn her into a bloodthirsty beast.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Simone Simon, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph
BW-73 mins, CC,

Supervisor Lou L. Ostrow was so dissatisfied with the style of the movie he wanted to replace director Jacques Tourneur after four days of filming. Producer Val Lewton got studio head Charles Koerner to reinstate Tourneur, and when Ostrow insisted on the panther appearing in the drafting room sequence, Lewton had Tourneur use low lighting putting the panther in the shadows.


10:00 AM -- THE LEOPARD MAN (1943)
When a leopard escapes during a publicity stunt, it triggers a series of murders.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Dennis O'Keefe, Margo, Jean Brooks
BW-66 mins, CC,

Tourneur believed that, in wartime, moviegoers want to be scared by the unreal.


11:15 AM -- EASY LIVING (1949)
An aging football star risks his health when his greedy wife won't let him retire.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Victor Mature, Lucille Ball, Lizabeth Scott
BW-77 mins, CC,

Jacques Tourneur never saw a football game prior to working on this movie.


12:45 PM -- 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, Letterbox Format

Director Jacques Tourneur and Joel McCrea did three Westerns together during the 1950's: Stars in My Crown (1950), Stranger on Horseback (1955) and this film.


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 by Robert Hardy Andrews.


4:00 PM -- MISSION OF DANGER (1959)
A military explorer tangles with a French spy and a British officer while searching for the northwest passage.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Keith Larsen, Buddy Ebsen, Don Burnett
C-80 mins, CC,

Digest of three "Northwest Passage" (1958) 30-minute episodes: two by director George Waggner, and the central episode, 'The Break-Out' (first aired 19 October 1958), by Jacques Tourneur.


5:30 PM -- FURY RIVER (1961)
Major Robert Rogers searches for the northwest passage through the U.S. during the French and Indian War.
Dir: Alan Crosland Jr.
Cast: Keith Larsen, Buddy Ebsen, Don Burnett
C-74 mins, CC,

Edited from the television series Northwest Passage (1958).


7:00 PM -- THE BOSS DIDN'T SAY GOOD MORNING (1937)
In this short film, an office worker fears for his job after his boss fails to respond to his "good morning."
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Granville Bates, Sheila Bromley, Ernie Alexander
BW-10 mins,

When the narrator states that John Jones is "almost as contented as a certain famous brand of cows", the reference is to the Carnation company and it's long-running advertising line "Carnation Condensed Milk, the milk from contented cows".


7:15 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: Leonard Penn, Harry Worth, Michael Mark
BW-11 mins,

A part of the movie short series MGM Parade.


7:30 PM -- THE SHIP THAT DIED (1938)
This short film looks at the mystery of the Mary Celeste, a ship that was discovered abandoned for no discernible reason.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Leonard Penn, Rhea Mitchell, Charles Sullivan
BW-10 mins, CC,

An entry in John Nesbitt's Passing Parade.


7:45 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: Paul Guilfoyle, Dorothy Vaughan, Henry Sylvester
BW-11 mins,

Another short in the Passing Parade series.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FOR THE BIRDS



8:00 PM -- BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ (1962)
True story of Robert Stroud, the prison lifer who became an expert on birds.
Dir: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter
BW-149 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Burt Lancaster, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Telly Savalas, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Thelma Ritter, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Burnett Guffey

Robert Stroud really should be known as the "Birdman of Leavenworth," since it was there that he kept his birds and did his research. He was not actually allowed any birds during his time at Alcatraz.


10:45 PM -- THE BIRDS (1963)
In a California coastal area, flocks of birds unaccountably make deadly attacks on humans.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Jessica Tandy
C-119 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects -- Ub Iwerks

Sir Alfred Hitchcock saw Tippi Hedren in a 1961 commercial aired during the Today (1952) show and put her under contract. In the commercial for a diet drink, she is seen walking down a street and a man whistles at her slim, attractive figure, and she turns her head with an acknowledging smile. In the opening scene of this movie, the same thing happens as she walks toward the bird shop. This was an inside joke by Hitchcock.


1:00 AM -- THE RAVEN (1963)
A widowed sorcerer discovers his late wife is alive and living with his mortal enemy.
Dir: Roger Corman
Cast: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff
C-86 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

In casting his spells, Dr. Adolphus Bedlo (Peter Lorre) used several Latin phrases: Veni vidi vici: I came, I saw, I conquered. De mortuis nil nisi bonum: Do not speak ill of the dead. Cave canem: Beware of the dog. Si vis pacem parabellum: If you want peace, prepare for war. Ceterum censio Carthaginem esse delendam: Furthermore, I believe that Carthage must be destroyed.


2:45 AM -- KES (1969)
A young man finds escape from his working-class life training a pet falcon.
Dir: Kenneth Loach
Cast: David Bradley, Lynne Perrie, Freddie Fletcher
C-111 mins, CC,

Kes was filmed in sequence, except for climbing the wall to take a chick, as the kestrels were growing daily and close to gaining their primary feathers used for flight. The film took around eight weeks to shoot, working six days a week through the summer holidays. Suffice to say, it was a memorable experience for all involved cast and crew.


4:45 AM -- THE GIANT CLAW (1957)
A giant anti-matter bird invades the Earth's atmosphere.
Dir: Fred F. Sears
Cast: Jeff Morrow, Mara Corday, Morris Ankrum
BW-74 mins, CC,

In an interview, star Jeff Morrow said that neither he nor anyone on the film saw the title "monster" until they went to the film's premiere in Morrow's home town. It turned out that producer Sam Katzman had contracted with a low-budget model-maker in Mexico City to construct the "Giant Claw" and no one in the cast or crew had any idea it would come out looking as bizarre and, frankly, laughable as it did. Morrow said that the audience roared with laughter every time the "monster" made an appearance, and he wound up slinking in embarrassment out of the theater before the film was over so that no one who knew him would recognize him.