TCM Schedule for Thursday, June 30 -- TCM Spotlight: Drive-in Double Features

[Staph]

Today we're celebrating the films of Anthony Mann, born on this day in 1906, in San Diego. Tonight is the last of the Drive-in Double Features (thank heavens! I'm not a big fan of monster movies.) Enjoy!



7:15 AM -- Sing Your Way Home (1945)
A war correspondent assembles young European entertainers to put on a show for the troops.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Jack Haley, Marcy McGuire, Glenn Vernon.
72 min, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Allie Wrubel (music) and Herb Magidson (lyrics) for the song "I'll Buy That Dream"


8:30 AM -- The Bamboo Blonde (1946)
A nightclub singer inspires a World War II flyer who names his bomber after her.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Frances Langford, Ralph Edwards, Russell Wade.
68 min, TV-G

Snippets of this film were included in Make Me Laugh (1949)


9:45 AM -- The Tall Target (1951)
A detective tries to prevent the assassination of President Lincoln during a train ride.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Dick Powell, Paula Raymond, Adolphe Menjou.
78 min, TV-G, CC

One of two MGM films NOT to have a music score. The other is Mogambo (1953).


11:15 AM -- Follow Me Quietly (1949)
Police track a mysterious killer nicknamed "The Judge."
Dir: Richard O. Fleischer
Cast: William Lundigan, Dorothy Patrick, Jeff Corey.
59 min, TV-14, CC

Mann's directing was uncredited on this film.


12:30 PM -- Two O'Clock Courage (1945)
An amnesiac discovers he's wanted for murder.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Tom Conway, Ann Rutherford, Richard Lane.
66 min, TV-PG

Remake of Two in the Dark (1936), starring Walter Abel, Margot Grahame and Wallace Ford.


1:45 PM -- Desperate (1947)
An innocent trucker takes it on the lam when he's accused of robbery.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Steve Brodie, Audrey Long, Raymond Burr.
73 min, TV-PG, CC

Based on a story by Dorothy Atlas and Anthony Mann.


3:00 PM -- The Black Book (1949)
Opponents plot to bring down Robespierre during the French Revolution.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Robert Cummings, Richard Basehart, Richard Hart.
90 min, TV-PG

Also known as Reign of Terror.


4:30 PM -- Border Incident (1949)
Police try to crack down on the illegal immigration racket.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Howard Da Silva.
96 min, TV-PG, CC

Near movie's end, Pablo Rodriguez (Montalban) is almost fully submerged in quicksand. However, immediately upon being pulled out, he looks like he's had a shower; the quicksand that had been on his face and hair is completely gone.


6:15 PM -- Devil's Doorway (1950)
A Native American Civil War hero returns home to fight for his people.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Robert Taylor, Louis Calhern, Paula Raymond.
84 min, TV-PG, CC

Mann's first Western. He followed this with Winchester '73 (1950), Bend Of The River (1952), The Man From Laramie (1955), and Cimmaron (1960).



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: DRIVE-IN DOUBLE FEATURES



8:00 PM -- The Blob (1958)
A misunderstood teen fights to save his town from a gelatinous monster from outer space.
Dir: Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.
Cast: Steven McQueen, Aneta Corseaut, Earl Rowe.
C-82 min, TV-PG, CC

The title song "The Blob" was co-written by Burt Bacharach and is on his album "Look of Love: the Burt Bacharach Collection." Paramount tapped Bacharach and Mack David (brother of Hal David) to come up with a non-threatening theme that would prevent the faint of heart from going into nostril-flaring terror during the opening credits. Together the two men concocted "The Blob," a goofy musical creature that is one part "Temptation" to two parts "Tequila." Session singer Bernie Nee does the champagne-cork-popping honors by pulling his finger out of his cheek seven times. Only Ralph Carmichael's score received a screen credit, giving credence to the notion that the song was a last-minute addition. The Five Blobs turned out to be a phantom group that consisted of Bacharach, a bunch of musicians for hire, and Nee, who tracked his voice five times to achieve that Boris Karloff-esque quality.


9:30 PM -- The H-Man (1958)
Nuclear tests create a radioactive man who can turn people into slime.
Dir: Inoshiro Honda
Cast: Yumi Shirakawa, Kenji Sahara, Akihiko Hirata.
C-79 min, TV-PG

In the original Japanese version, the detectives make a big deal out of the fact that Chikako owns a television. At the time this was made, 1958, a television set was still beyond the budget of the typical Japanese family.


11:00 PM -- The Magnetic Monster (1953)
A new radio-active element could destroy the world by absorbing the planet's energy.
Dir: Curt Siodmak
Cast: Richard Carlson, King Donovan, Jean Byron.
75 min, TV-PG

Although credited to Curt Siodmak, most of the film was actually directed by Herbert L. Strock, who was hired by Ivan Tors for his skills as an editor, which were viewed as essential for a film which relied so much on stock footage.


12:30 AM -- X The Unknown (1956)
A radioactive ooze terrorizes a remote Scottish village.
Dir: Leslie Norman
Cast: Dean Jagger, Edward Chapman, Leo McKern.
80 min, TV-14, CC

The movie began under the direction of Joseph Losey (working as Joseph Walton), exiled to England because of the Hollywood blacklist. However, when Dean Jagger arrived, he refused to work with a director he thought of as a Communist sympathizer, and Losey was replaced by Leslie Norman before shooting began. Losey's departure was publicly attributed to "illness". It has also been reported that Losey simply didn't want to make the film and left the project, to be replaced by Leslie Norman who also didn't want to make the film, but did anyway.


2:00 AM -- The Thing From Another World (1951)
The crew of a remote Arctic base fights off a murderous monster from outer space.
Dir: Christian Nyby
Cast: Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite.
87 min, TV-PG, CC

According to IMDB, this was filmed partly in Glacier National Park and at a Los Angeles ice storage plant. According to my dad, it was also filmed on the tarmac at Cut Bank International Airport, Cut Bank, Montana. (Dad worked there before WWII, and had friends there in the 1950s. Why is the Cut Bank Airport an international one? Because it's located 50 miles south of Canada, and used to get the occassional flight from north of the border.)


3:30 AM -- It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958)
A blood-sucking monster stalks the crew of a U.S. spaceship.
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: Marshall Thompson, Shawn Smith, Kim Spalding.
69 min, TV-PG

The mask of the monster suit was altered considerably. When Ray Corrigan was fitted for the monster suit, the mask was initially too tight. Paul Blaisdell, the maker of the monster suit, had to remove and rebuild the monster's lower jaw so the mask would fit better. Unfortunately, Corrigan's chin stuck out through the opening made in the mask. Blaisdell made up Corrigan's chin to look like the monster's tongue. The mask's original eyes (large and catlike, a Blaisdell trademark) were also removed so that we see Corrigan's own eyes behind the mask.


4:45 AM -- Watch the Skies! (2005)
This TCM original documentary explores the history of the science fiction genre beginning in the 1950s. Features interviews with George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Ridley Scott.
C-56 min, TV-PG, CC

Features clips from Metropolis (1927 - This movie's robots influenced George Lucas's creation C3PO), Miracle on 34th Street (1947 - Steven Spielberg mentions that Edmund Gwenn, Santa in "Miracle..." is also in Them! (1954)), Groundhog Day (1993 - Steven Spielberg compares ending of Invaders from Mars (1953) (repeating loop) to Groundhog Day), The Flying Saucer (1950), Rocketship X-M (1950), Destination Moon (1950), The Thing from Another World (1951), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Flight to Mars (1951), The Atomic City (1952), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953), Invaders from Mars (1953), It Came from Outer Space (1953), The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), The War of the Worlds (1953), Them! (1954), Tarantula (1955), Forbidden Planet (1956), The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), The Monolith Monsters (1957), The Space Children (1958), Teenagers from Outer Space (1959), and War of the Worlds (2005)