TCM Schedule for Thursday, September 24 -- 120th Anniversary of US Marshals

[Staph]

Today is a day full of the non-musical films of Vincente Minnelli. And tonight we celebrate the 120th anniversary of the United States Marshals Service. At least, according to TCM, it's the 120th anniversary. According to the U.S. Marshals Service, it's the 220th anniversary. On September 26, 1789, George Washington signed the commissions of the first 13 marshals, one for each state, and added three more for Kentucky, Maine and New Hampshire.

At least seven of the sixteen lived their entire lives in the Districts they served as Marshal. Most of the remainder spent several decades in their Districts, although one lived in his District only four years before his appointment as Marshal. Their average age at the time of their appointment was 42. The youngest was 25, the oldest 57. They remained in office an average of approximately six years, though this ranged from a tenure of one year to twenty years. After leaving office, five transferred to more lucrative posts within the federal government, such as collector or customs or supervisor or inspector of revenue. One became Secretary of War under Thomas Jefferson, and three represented their communities in Congress. One was killed in the line of duty and one died of disease while in office. The remainder retired to their private affairs. The descendants of the first sixteen Marshals included a Supreme Court Justice, a Civil War general, and a Secretary of State. (from the U.S. Marshals website -- http://www.usmarshals.gov/history/firstmarshals/marshals1.htm)

I guess that TCM doesn't have rights to The Fugitive (1993). Enjoy!


4:15am -- Gold Is Where You Find It (1938)
A gold strike in California triggers a bitter feud between farmers and prospectors.
Cast: George Brent, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Rains, Margaret Lindsay
Dir: Michael Curtiz
C-94 mins, TV-G

Claude Rains' only western.


6:00am -- The Passionate Friends (1949)
A married woman has one last fling with her childhood sweetheart.
Cast: Ann Todd, Claude Rains, Isabel Dean, Betty Ann Davies
Dir: David Lean
BW-91 mins, TV-PG

Based on a novel by H. G. Wells.


7:45am -- Thunder Road (1958)
A fast-driving moonshiner locks horns with a Chicago gangster.
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Gene Barry, Jacques Aubochon, Keely Smith
Dir: Arthur Ripley
BW-93 mins, TV-PG

All of the "moonrunner" cars in the film had actually been used by moonshiners in the Asheville, North Carolina, area, where the film was shot. The moonshiners sold the cars to the film company in order to buy newer and faster cars.


9:30am -- Young Billy Young (1969)
A mysterious stranger bent on revenge helps out a young gunfighter.
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Angie Dickinson, Robert Walker Jr., David Carradine
Dir: Burt Kennedy
C-89 mins, TV-PG

A fictionalized version of Wyatt Earp and the war with the Cowboys after the gunfight at the OK corral. Mitchum is the Earp character, Robert Walker's Billy Young is meant to be Johnny Ringo, and David Carradine is the Ike Clanton character.


11:15am -- Home From The Hill (1960)
A southern landowner's family is torn apart by the revelation that he has an illegitimate son.
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Eleanor Parker, George Peppard, George Hamilton
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
C-150 mins, TV-PG

First suggested as a vehicle for Bette Davis and Clark Gable.


2:00pm -- The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse (1962)
Members of an Argentinian family fight on opposite sides during World War II.
Cast: Glenn Ford, Ingrid Thulin, Charles Boyer, Lee J. Cobb
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
C-153 mins, TV-PG

Vincente Minnelli did all he could to sign Alain Delon for the role of Julio, but the producers were set on having an American star in the lead.


4:45pm -- Two Weeks In Another Town (1962)
A recovering alcoholic film director tries for a comeback in Rome.
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Charisse, George Hamilton
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
C-107 mins, TV-PG

The old film of Kirk Douglas's character Jack that is being screened is The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).


6:45pm -- Minnelli on Minnelli: Liza Remembers Vincente (1987)
Liza Minnelli shares memories of her famous father while showing clips from his greatest movies.
Cast: Liza Minnelli
Dir: Richard Schickel
BW-69 mins

Vincente Minnelli is one of the few Hollywood studio directors who can truly be said to have an unmistakable mise-en-scene. Minnelli was at first a set and costume designer before being allowed to direct by Arthur Freed, head of the MGM musical unit. His visual touch in Technicolor is sometimes garish, some might say close to vulgar, but in his best work (Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)) every visual element is a reflection of his singularly original visual talent.


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: 120TH ANNIVERSARY OF U.S. MARSHALS


8:00pm -- 3:10 To Yuma (1957)
A sheriff must run the gauntlet to get his prisoner out of town.
Cast: Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr, Leora Dana
Dir: Delmer Daves
BW-92 mins, TV-PG

This film, along with the equally allegorical High Noon (1952), was a deciding factor in making Howard Hawks turn out Rio Bravo (1959), a return to simpler, less revisionist Westerns.


10:00pm -- Hour Of The Gun (1967)
Wyatt Earp tracks down the survivors of the Clanton Gang after the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Cast: James Garner, Jason Robards Jr., Robert Ryan, Albert Salmi
Dir: John Sturges
C-101 mins, TV-14

Prior to production, United Artists had made it quite clear to director John Sturges that none of the primary roles were to be filled by the actors who played the same characters in Sturges' previous Wyatt Earp film, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). Wanting to distinguish this film from the previous one, they demanded different actors be cast in the roles. However, Sturges believed that the roles of Virgil and Morgan Earp from the previous film were small enough that the same actors who played them could do it again without harming the film's uniqueness. The studio agreed and allowed Sturges to cast John Hudson (Virgil Earp) and DeForest Kelley (Morgan Earp). Unfortunately, Hudson had retired from acting in the early '60s and was unwilling to do the role. Kelley, on the other hand, was currently working on the TV series "Star Trek" (1966) and was unable to break away to play Morgan Earp. Thus, both Earp brothers were recast.


12:00am -- Badman's Territory (1946)
A sheriff and a newspaperwoman take on a band of outlaws invading the Oklahoma panhandle.
Cast: Randolph Scott, George "Gabby" Hayes, Ann Richards, Ray Collins
Dir: Tim Whelan
BW-98 mins, TV-G

Ben Johnson appears uncredited as a member of Marshal Hampton's posse. He even has a line or two of dialogue. He and the marshal and another deputy dismount and enter a building on location. In the next shot, the studio interior, Hampton and the deputy come through the door, but not Ben, he has disappeared and is seen no more.


2:00am -- Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid (1973)
The legendary outlaw clashes with his former best friend, now the sheriff.
Cast: James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan, Jason Robards Jr.
Dir: Sam Peckinpah
C-115 mins, TV-MA

At various stages of the film's gestation, there was talk of Marlon Brando and Jon Voight, Robert Redford and Sam Shepard, and Jack Nicholson and John Denver playing the lead roles.


4:15am -- Billy The Kid (1930)
A town marshal struggles to capture a rebellious kid turned outlaw.
Cast: John Mack Brown, Wallace Beery, Kay Johnson, Wyndham Standing
Dir: King Vidor
BW-95 mins, TV-G

The pistols carried by Johnny Mack Brown were the actual pistols that belonged to the real Billy the Kid. They were loaned to the studio for the picture by William S. Hart, who had them in his private collection.

[Staph]

1. 3:10 to Yuma (1957)

An offbeat Western in many aspects, 3:10 to Yuma is one of the best from a director who helped redefine the genre in the 1950s. Van Heflin plays a farmer struggling to hold on to his land and way of life during a severe drought. He sees a way out for himself and his family when he is offered a big chunk of money to take the captured leader of an outlaw gang (Glenn Ford) in secret to a nearby town and make sure he is placed on board a train that will carry him to trial in Yuma. The two men hole up in a hotel near the station where the smooth-talking criminal tries to mentally and emotionally manipulate his captor into letting him go. The film wrings a great deal of suspense from their battle of wills and from the increasing threat of the outlaw's gang who are on their way to Yuma.

In a career stretching from 1915 (he made his acting debut at 11 in a silent version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol) to 1965, Delmer Daves racked up credits as actor, writer, producer and director of every type of film Hollywood ever produced, but he did his best and most memorable work in Westerns. Along with a handful of films by other directors, notably High Noon (1952), to which this story bears resemblance, Daves ushered in a new era in the genre with Broken Arrow (1950), starring Jeff Chandler as Apache warrior Cochise, one of the few films to treat Indians with dignity and understanding. Daves' films brought modern psychological themes, a breakdown in romantic stereotypes, and moral ambiguities to a genre often characterized by good guy/bad guy gunplay. He is ably assisted in bringing out the movie's gray-shaded themes and rising tension by the performances of Heflin, casting his solid American plainness in a role similar to the actor's work in Shane (1953), and Glenn Ford, playing against type as a villain, although a charming one who displays a measure of decency at the end.

The film is as noteworthy for its technique as for its theme and characters. Daves shot 3:10 to Yuma in black and white in a time when color had become the standard for Westerns. One of the most significant departures from the genre is its setting, much of it takes place not in the great outdoors but within the confines of a single room. But the exterior sequences are also very striking; Daves used red filters to give a heightened, harsher sense of a land ravaged by drought. One of the other oddities in this project is its adaptation from a story by Elmore Leonard. Although he started his career with several interesting Western stories, particularly his novel Valdez Is Coming, made into a Burt Lancaster film in 1971, Leonard is best known today for complex, darkly funny modern crime stories. Two of his most popular books have been turned into critically and commercially successful films: Get Shorty (1995) and Out of Sight (1998). Interesting note: Leonard wrote the script for the television sequel High Noon Part II: The Return of Will Kane (1980).

This was Daves' second film with Glenn Ford, following the Othello-based Western Jubal (1956), which also starred Felicia Farr, who appears in 3:10 to Yuma and Daves' earlier film The Last Wagon (1956). Daves' next project after this was Cowboy (1958), which paired Ford with Farr's husband-to-be Jack Lemmon.

Director: Delmer Daves
Producer: David Heilweil
Screenplay: Halsted Welles , based on a story by Elmore Leonard
Cinematography: Charles Lawton, Jr.
Editing: Al Clark
Art Direction: Frank Hotaling
Music: George Duning, Ned Washington
Cast: Glenn Ford (Ben Wade), Van Heflin (Dan Evans), Felicia Farr (Emmy), Henry Jones (Alex Potter), Richard Jaeckel (Charlie Prince).
BW-93m. Letterboxed

by Rob Nixon