TCM Schedule for Friday, March 20 -- Hall of Fame Running Backs as Actors

[Staph]

If the best theme that TCM can devise for today is Hall of Fame Running Backs as Actors.... Yes, we are celebrating the best of the award-winning acting careers of O. J. Simpson and Jim Brown. Actually, after his record-breaking nine years as a fullback for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League, Jim Brown had a successful career in supporting roles in movies and television. O. J. Simpson -- not so successful.... Enjoy!


6:00am -- Beyond the Rocks (1922)
In this silent film, a young woman on her honeymoon with her aging millionaire husband falls for a handsome younger man.
Cast: Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, Edythe Chapman, Alec B. Francis
Dir: Sam Wood
BW-80 mins, TV-PG

Lost for most of the 20th century, a copy of this film was discovered in April 2003 in Haarlem (The Netherlands) in a private collection. It was restored by the Nederlands Film Museum and the Hagheflim Conservation and was screened in 2005, complete with English dialogue screens in place of the original Dutch, at the Cannes film festival. It made its television debut on May 21, 2006, on Turner Classic Movies as part of a nine-film tribute to Rudolph Valentino.


7:30am -- Valentino (1951)
The famed silent screen star is torn between love and his career.
Cast: Eleanor Parker, Richard Carlson, Patricia Medina, Joseph Calleia, Anthony Dexter
Dir: Lewis Allen
BW-104 mins, TV-PG

Anthony Dexter was reputed to have won the role of Valentino (his first film role) over 75,000 aspiring Valentinos.


9:15am -- Anna Lucasta (1958)
A reformed streetwalker falls in love with the man her family wants her to fleece.
Cast: Eartha Kitt, Frederick O'Neal, Henry Scott, Rex Ingram, Sammy Davis Jr.
Dir: Arnold Laven
BW-97 mins, TV-PG

A remake of Philip Yordan's play, first filmed in 1949 with an all-white cast, with Paulette Goddard and John Ireland in the roles played here by Eartha Kitt and Sammy Davis Jr.


11:00am -- The Key (1958)
The key to a woman's apartment may hold bad luck for her lovers.
Cast: William Holden, Sophia Loren, Trevor Howard, Oscar Homolka
Dir: Carol Reed
BW-126 mins, TV-G

I love the tagline for this film -- "He had the life expectancy of a match."


1:15pm -- The Long Ships (1964)
Viking seamen battle a Moorish prince for possession of a golden bell.
Cast: Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Rosanna Schiaffino, Russ Tamblyn
Dir: Jack Cardiff
C-126 mins, TV-PG

Gruesome! Film known for a torture contraption called the "Mare of Steel" depicted as a huge curved blade as large as a Trojan Horse, which unlucky prisoners were forced to climb and ride down on their exposed bellies, hands tied, splaying them open at it's base and impaling them on a bed of two foot steel spikes.


3:30pm -- Billion Dollar Brain (1967)
A retired spy gets mixed up with plans to overthrow Communism using a new supercomputer.
Cast: Michael Caine, Karl Malden, Ed Begley, Oscar Homolka
Dir: Ken Russell
C-108 mins, TV-PG

This was the third Harry Palmer film, after The Ipcress File (1965) and Funeral in Berlin (1966). Michael Caine had originally signed a five-picture deal, but when he was reluctant to return to the role, producer Harry Saltzman let him out of the contract. Much later, though, he did make two more Harry Palmer films: Bullet to Beijing (1995) and Midnight in Saint Petersburg (1996).


5:30pm -- The Executioner (1970)
A British spy tracks down a beautiful double agent.
Cast: George Peppard, Joan Collins, Judy Geeson, Oscar Homolka
Dir: Sam Wanamaker
C-111 mins, TV-PG

American director Sam Wanamaker was the founder of the International Shakespeare Globe Centre, The Globe Theater, Bankside, Southwark, London, and father to Zoë Wanamaker, best known as flying instructor Madame Hooch in the first Harry Potter film. Although Sam Wanamaker was instrumental in the rebuilding of the Globe Theatre in London, England, he did not get to see the theatre's grand opening in 1997, having died of prostate cancer four years earlier.


7:30pm -- Festival of Shorts #31 (2000)
TCM promotes three featurettes that focus on art direction;
Anthony Adverse: Making of a Motion Picture (1936)
Narrated documentary of the making of Anthony Adverse (1936), featuring many clips from the actual film.
BW-7 mins

The Art Director (1949)
A backstage look at the job of the motion picture art director.
BW-7 mins

Moscow in Madrid (1965)
This promotional film gives viewers a short look at the Doctor Zhivago set under construction outside Madrid, Spain.
C-4 mins, TV-G

Anthony Adverse won Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gale Sondergaard, Best Cinematography -- Tony Gaudio, Best Film Editing -- Ralph Dawson, and Best Music, Score -- Leo F. Forbstein (head of department) and Score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and was nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Anton Grot, Best Assistant Director -- William H. Cannon, and Best Picture

Doctor Zhivago won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- John Box, Terence Marsh and Dario Simoni, Best Cinematography, Color -- Freddie Young, Best Costume Design, Color -- Phyllis Dalton, Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Maurice Jarre, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Bolt, and was nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Tom Courtenay, Best Director -- David Lean, Best Film Editing -- Norman Savage, Best Sound -- A.W. Watkins (M-G-M British SSD) and Franklin Milton (M-G-M SSD), and Best Picture


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: HALL OF FAME RUNNING BACKS AS ACTORS


8:00pm -- Capricorn One (1978)
The government fakes a Mars landing then sets out to kill the astronauts involved.
Cast: Elliott Gould, James Brolin, Brenda Vaccaro, Sam Waterson
Dir: Peter Hyams
C-123 mins, TV-14

Barbra Streisand's two husbands, Elliott Gould and James Brolin, both star in this movie.


10:15pm -- The Dirty Dozen (1967)
A renegade officer trains a group of misfits for a crucial mission behind enemy lines.
Cast: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown
Dir: Robert Aldrich
C-150 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Sound Effects -- John Poyner

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- John Cassavetes, Best Film Editing -- Michael Luciano, and Best Sound

The operation count-off is as follows:
- One: down to the road block we've just begun
- Two: the guards are through
- Three: the Major's men are on a spree
- Four: Major and Wladislaw go through the door
- Five: Pinkley stays out in the drive
- Six: the Major gives the rope a fix
- Seven: Wladislaw throws the hook to heaven
- Eight: Jiminez has got a date
- Nine: the other guys go up the line
- Ten: Sawyer and Gilpin are in the pen
- Eleven: Posey guards points Five and Seven
- Twelve: Wladislaw and the Major go down to delve
- Thirteen: Franko goes up without being seen
- Fourteen: Zero hour, Jiminez cuts the cable Franko cuts the phone
- Fifteen: Franko goes in where the others have been
- Sixteen: we all come out like it's Halloween


12:45am -- Private Screenings: Ernest Borgnine (2009)
Host: Robert Osborne
Dir: Sean Cameron
C-60 mins

Borgnine won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Marty (1955)

At the age of 92, he has four movies in the pipeline, Death Keeps Coming (2009) (pre-production), The Lion of Judah (2009) (post-production), Wishing Well (2009) (TV) (post-production), and Another Harvest Moon (2009) (completed).


2:00am -- The Legend of Hell House (1973)
Scientists and psychics team to crack the secrets of a murderously haunted house.
Cast: Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill, Gayle Hunnicutt
Dir: John Hough
C-94 mins

The original novel was set in New England, with an American team of psychic investigators. The storyline was changed, to fit the movie's production in England, with British actors playing the investigators.


3:45am -- 13 Ghosts (1960)
A family inherits a house haunted by 13 ghosts and a living killer.
Cast: Charles Herbert, Jo Morrow, Martin Milner, Rosemary DeCamp
Dir: William Castle
BW-82 mins, TV-PG

The movie was filmed in "Illusion-O" and a pair of special glasses where needed to see the ghosts. This resulted in a number of sources incorrectly stating that the film was originally shown in 3D. The "ghost viewers" contained a red filter and a blue filter but unlike 3D viewers, both eyes would look through the same color filter. One color would cause the ghostly images to intensify while the other color caused the images to fade.

[Staph]

1. The Dirty Dozen (1967)

The Dirty Dozen (1967) has been continually popular since it first exploded in 1967 as one of that year's biggest hits. Four Oscar® nominations (with one win for Best Sound Effects by John Poyner) certainly didn't hurt and it's so critically respected that the film has even been shown at the Museum of Modern Art. In fact it's captured imaginations across the world: there's even a Hong Kong remake starring Haing S. Ngor (The Killing Fields, 1984) and Samo Hung! One reason for the success is that despite its superficial appearance as yet another film about soldiers sent on a desperate mission behind enemy lines, The Dirty Dozen strikes the perfect balance between taut action and artistic integrity. Director Robert Aldrich said of this film, "The nature of war is dehumanizing. There's no such thing as a nice war."

The premise is pretty simple: During World War II, the Allies need to destroy a chateau hosting a Nazi conference. The catch is that it's so far behind enemy lines and so well guarded that few soldiers making the attempt can be expected to survive. The solution is to recruit twelve prisoners and misfits with an unspecific promise of pardons if they survive. Since the twelve are a nasty assortment of murderers, psychopaths and other cultural offenders the mission isn't likely to be an easy or pleasant one.

The film is adapted from E.M. Nathanson's novel, which Aldrich had wanted to film even before it was published though rights were bought by MGM. Reportedly Aldrich wasn't happy with the original script, feeling it was too conventional. But bringing the dark cynicism he showed in Kiss Me Deadly and The Big Knife (both filmed in 1955), Aldrich transformed the action film into something more substantial. Shooting started April 25, 1966 in England (three studios were used there) and lasted about six months. Since England isn't the best place to find a French chateau one had to be built. Unfortunately construction was so successful that trying to explode it as planned would have been far too dangerous so a mock-up was used.

The cast apparently enjoyed England, spending a lot of time in what was then swinging London though Lee Marvin would occasionally disappear on one of his motorcycle outings. Clint Walker (who plays Posey) had an unusual experience. He was a well-known TV star for Cheyenne with some film roles under his belt. Walker visited Buckingham Palace and marveled at the famously immobile guards but as he started to walk away, one asked for an autograph out of the side of his mouth! Walker's role was originally meant to be an Indian and include a rain dance. However, some characters were scaled back and others built up such as the part of Robert T. Jefferson. When Cleveland Browns' fullback Jim Brown signed on as Jefferson, director Aldrich beefed up his part because he was such a big football fan. In fact, it was while making The Dirty Dozen that Brown announced his retirement from football. One of the biggest beneficiaries from the film was John Cassavetes who nabbed a Best Supporting Actor nomination. The fame helped him bankroll films as a director just as he was embarking on perhaps his most productive period. In 1998, Joe Dante made his sharp attack on militarism Small Soldiers and for voices of his model-animated characters reunited The Dirty Dozen actors Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, George Kennedy and Clint Walker.

The Dirty Dozen was released in June 1967 and proved to be a big hit, the year's highest grossing film. Aldrich was able to buy a studio with the money he made though it eventually closed a few years later. The actors found more offers coming their way. In the 1980s there would be three TV movie sequels and even a short-lived series. Of course the original is the best and still as exciting now as it was then.

Producer: Kenneth Hyman
Director: Robert Aldrich
Screenplay: Nunnally Johnson, Lukas Heller, based on the novel by E.M. Nathanson
Cinematography: Edward Scaife
Sound Effects: John Poyner
Film Editing: Michael Luciano
Original Music: De Vol
Principal Cast: Lee Marvin (Maj. John Reisman), Ernest Borgnine (Maj. Gen. Worden), Charles Bronson (Joseph T. Wladislaw), Jim Brown (Robert T. Jefferson), John Cassavetes (Victor R. Franko), Richael Jaeckel (Sgt. Bowren), George Kennedy (Major Max Armbruster), Telly Savalas (Maggott), Robert Ryan (Colonel Breed), Donald Sutherland (Vernon L. Pinkley), Trini Lopez (Pedro), Clint Walker (Samson Posey).
C-150m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning. Descriptive Video.

by Lang Thompson