TCM Schedule for Thursday, September 2 -- TCM Spotlight -- Acts of Revenge

[Staph]

A wonderful evening of revenge -- as they say in the original Klingon, it's a dish best served cold. TCM has named Acts of Revenge as one of their themes in September. Enjoy!


4:15am -- The Notorious Landlady (1962)
A junior diplomat in London falls in love with his landlady even though she's a murder suspect.
Cast: Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Fred Astaire, Lionel Jeffries
Dir: Richard Quine
BW-123 mins, TV-PG

Larry Gelbart's film writing debut.


6:30am -- Baby Doll (1956)
A child bride holds her husband at bay while flirting with a sexy Italian farmer.
Cast: Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach, Mildred Dunnock
Dir: Elia Kazan
BW-115 mins, TV-14

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Carroll Baker, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Mildred Dunnock, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Boris Kaufman, and Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Adapted -- Tennessee Williams

When the film was released in 1956, it was enormously controversial for its extremely risque subject matter. The Legion of Decency condemned the film for its "carnal suggestiveness". Francis Cardinal Spellman condemned the film in a stunning attack from the pulpit of St. Patrick's Cathedral two days before the film opened, saying that the film had been "responsibly judged to be evil in concept" and was certain that it would "exert an immoral and corrupting influence on those who see it", and exhorted all Catholics to refrain from patronizing the film "under pain of sin". Cardinal Spellman's condemnation of the film led to the Legion of Decency's first-ever nationwide boycott of an American-made film produced by a major studio. All over the country, almost 20 million Catholics protested the film and picketed theaters that showed it. The Catholic boycott nearly killed the film; it was cancelled by 77% of theaters scheduled to show it, and it only made a meager $600,000 at the box office. The film was also condemned by Time Magazine, which called it the dirtiest American-made motion picture that had ever been legally exhibited. Surprisingly, despite the film's sordid elements, the Production Code Administration gave it a seal of approval, but only after nearly a year of arguments. This was one of many examples of how the lax attitude of new Code official Geoffrey Shurlock, the successor at the PCA to the strict Catholic militant Joseph Breen, would lead to a schism with the Legon of Decency and the PCA's own downfall over the next few years. After this film, the PCA drifted farther and farther away from its traditional guidelines until it was replaced by the MPAA ratings system in 1968.


8:30am -- Caged (1950)
A young innocent fights to survive the harsh life in a women's prison.
Cast: Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead, Ellen Corby, Hope Emerson
Dir: John Cromwell
BW-97 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Eleanor Parker, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Hope Emerson, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Virginia Kellogg and Bernard C. Schoenfeld

In order to do research for the film, Virginia Kellogg pulled some strings to incarcerate herself in a woman's prison. What she wrote once she was out was not so much a screenplay, but a kind of almanac of everything she witnessed while in prison. Warner Bros. then got their screenwriters to make a screenplay out of it.


10:15am -- So Big (1953)
A schoolteacher-turned-farmer fights to save the land and her son.
Cast: Jane Wyman, Sterling Hayden, Nancy Olson, Steve Forrest
Dir: Robert Wise
BW-102 mins, TV-PG

Tommy Rettig and Jon Provost both portrayed a young Dirk (played as an adult by Steve Forrest). They both were also cast as Lassie's boy master in the TV series.


12:00pm -- Inside Daisy Clover (1965)
A girl on the road to stardom fights the dehumanizing effects of Hollywood life.
Cast: Natalie Wood, Christopher Plummer, Robert Redford, Roddy McDowall
Dir: Robert Mulligan
C-128 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ruth Gordon, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Robert Clatworthy and George James Hopkins, and Best Costume Design, Color -- Edith Head and Bill Thomas

This is an interesting movie for film buffs since many scenes feature shots in various areas and departments of Warner Bros. Studios, in Burbank, California. The actual studio appeared as the mythical "Swann Studios" in the film.


2:15pm -- By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953)
A small-town girl's love life goes ballistic when her sweetheart returns from World War I.
Cast: Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Leon Ames, Rosemary DeCamp
Dir: David Butler
C-102 mins, TV-PG

Selections from the film score were featured on a Doris Day 10-inch LP for Columbia which crested in third place on the "Billboard" popular albums chart.


4:00pm -- The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964)
A World War II 4-F saves the U.S. Navy when he's transformed into a dolphin.
Cast: Don Knotts, Carole Cook, Jack Weston, Andrew Duggan
Dir: Arthur Lubin
C-99 mins, TV-G

This was the final animated film work released by Warner Brothers before the animation studio was shut down. Warners would continue to release theatrical shorts produced by Depatie-Freleng Enterprises until 1969.


5:49pm -- One Reel Wonders: So You Think You're Not Guilty (1949)
A simple traffic violation turns into a 10-year jail sentence for Joe McDoakes (George O'Hanlon).
Cast: George O'Hanlon, Ralph Sanford, Art Gilmore
Dir: Richard Bare
BW-11 mins

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Gordon Hollingshead

A rare entry in the Joe McDoakes series because there is no narrator.


6:00pm -- About Face (1952)
Two military school cadets discover their best friend is married.
Cast: Gordon MacRae, Eddie Bracken, Dick Wesson, Virginia Gibson
Dir: Roy Del Ruth
C-94 mins, TV-G

Joel Grey's film debut.


7:46pm -- One Reel Wonders: The Movie Makers - Wild Rovers Featurette (1971)
This is a short promotional film for the feature film Wild Rovers (1971).
Cast: Julie Andrews, Blake Edwards, William Holden, Ryan O'Neal.
Dir: Ronald Saland.
C-12 mins

Wild Rovers was filmed in Monument Valley and Arches National Park in Utah, and Old Tucson and Sedona, Arizona.


What's On Tonight: TCM SPOTLIGHT: ACTS OF REVENGE


8:00pm -- Once Upon a Time in the West (1969)
A mail-order bride enlists an outlaw and a mystery man to help protect her land from a ruthless cattleman.
Cast: Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards Jr., Charles Bronson
Dir: Sergio Leone
C-165 mins, TV-14

After completing the Dollars trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)), Sergio Leone didn't want to do another western and began working on Once Upon a Time in America (1984). However, after the huge success of the Dollars Trilogy in the States in 1967 Leone wanted to produce films in the United States and he began selling the idea for Once Upon a Time in America, but studios wouldn't let him do it until he made another Western for them. After thinking about it, Leone concluded that he should do another trilogy which begins with Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), develops into Duck, You Sucker (1971), and ends with Once Upon a Time in America (1984). "Three historical periods which toughened America."


10:51pm -- One Reel Wonders: The Making Of Cannery Row (1982)
Promotional short for the movie based on the John Steinbeck novel.
Cast: Nick Nolte, Michael Phillips, David S. Ward, Debra Winger.
Dir: Robert Ward
C-8 mins

Nolte and Winger are required to act with snakes and learn to jitterbug for their roles.


11:00pm -- High Plains Drifter (1973)
A mysterious gunman signs on to protect a small town from bandits.
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill, Mitch Ryan
Dir: Clint Eastwood
C-105 mins, TV-14

One of the headstones in the graveyard bears the name Sergio Leone as a tribute. Other headstones bear the names of Don Siegel (Clint Eastwood's director on five films, four of which preceded this one) and Brian G. Hutton (director of Where Eagles Dare (1968) and Kelly's Heroes (1970)). Patrick McGilligan's 2002 Eastwood biography quotes the star as saying, "I buried my directors."


12:55am -- One Reel Wonders: Impression Of The Merriest Musical Of 1938 (1938)
BW-4 mins

I can't find a lick of information about this short subject. I guess I'll have to stay up and watch it!


1:00am -- The Count of Monte Cristo (1934)
After escaping prison, an innocent man seeks revenge on the men who framed him.
Cast: Robert Donat, Elissa Landi, Louis Calhern, Sidney Blackmer
Dir: Rowland V. Lee
BW-113 mins, TV-PG

One of nearly 30 different renditions of the Alexandre Dumas story. Other Edmund Dantes portrayers include James O'Neill (he played the role on stage more than 6000 times -- he is also the father of playwright Eugene O'Neill), John Gilbert, Louis Jourdan, Richard Chamberlain, Guillaume Depardieu (son of Gerard), and James Caviezel.


3:00am -- They Made Me a Fugitive (1947)
After being framed for a policeman's murder, a criminal escapes prison and sets out for revenge.
Cast: Sally Gray, Trevor Howard, Griffith Jones, Rene Ray
Dir: Cavalcanti
BW-101 mins, TV-PG

Trevor Howard was cast at very short notice after the actor first cast dropped out.

[Staph]

1. Acts of Revenge Introduction

Alfred Hitchcock described it as "sweet, but not fattening," while an old proverb refers to it as "a dish best served cold." However you slice it, revenge can make a tasty and satisfying meal -especially as served up by the talented moviemakers in this month's TCM Spotlight, which is unusual in that it's based on a theme rather than a film genre, person or period.

Each evening of "revenge" films is divided into two variations on the theme, allowing for tremendous depth and breadth of programming and resulting in a festival that is quirky and diverse despite its very precise subject matter. "Revenge Westerns" include Once Upon a Time in the West (1969), in which lone avenger Charles Bronson's intention to settle the score with gunslinger Henry Fonda has "something to do with death," and High Plains Drifter (1973), with Clint Eastwood taking revenge on an entire town.

One of the most famous examples of "A Prisoner's Revenge" is the often-filmed The Count of Monte Cristo, played with particular relish by Robert Donat in the 1934 version of Alexandre Dumas' 1846 adventure novel about a wrongly imprisoned man who vows vengeance upon those who framed him.

"Biblical Revenge" is the subject of Cecil B. De Mille's Samson and Delilah (1949), in which beefy strongman Victor Mature is betrayed by vengeful beauty Hedy Lamarr. "A Spurned Lover's Revenge" was never acted to more dramatic effect than by Olivia de Havilland as The Heiress (1949), a jilted spinster who turns the tables on her fortune-hunting beau, Montgomery Clift. And "A Con Artist's Revenge" is deliciously delivered by Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve (1941), in which poor Henry Fonda makes the mistake of jilting the lady merely because she's a double-dealing card sharp!

by Roger Fristoe