TCM Schedule for Friday, October 18, 2013 -- Friday Night Spooklight

The daylight theme is films directed by George Stevens and David Butler, and the evening's theme is more scary stuff. Enjoy!


7:00 AM -- Bachelor Bait (1934)
A romantic starts a marriage agency so he can play Cupid.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Stuart Erwin, Rochelle Hudson, Pert Kelton
BW-75 mins, TV-G,

Director George Stevens was nominated five times for an Academy Award as Best Director, winning twice, and six of the movies he produced and directed were nominated for Best Picture Oscars. In 1953 he was the recipient of the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award for maintaining a consistent level of high-quality production. He served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences from 1958 to 1959.


8:30 AM -- Kentucky Kernels (1935)
Two musicians try to get an orphaned heiress through hillbilly country to claim her inheritance.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Mary Carlisle
BW-75 mins, TV-G,

This film is one of the few feature films starring George "Spanky" McFarland, the Spanky from the Our Gang comedies.


9:50 AM -- Donkey Baseball (1935)
This short film pays tribute to America's favorite pastime, which requires speed, knowledge, and occasionally donkeys.
Narrator: Pete Smith
BW-8 mins,

Donkey baseball was a gimmick used often by promoter Ray Doan. All players, except for pitcher and catcher, were required to ride donkeys during the course of the game. They fielded the ball while on the donkey, or as far as the reins would allow them. Hitters batted in the normal manner, but once the ball was hit, they had to mount a donkey and navigate their way around the bases.


10:00 AM -- The Nitwits (1935)
Two cigar-stand attendants get mixed up in a murder investigation.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Fred Keating
BW-82 mins, TV-G,

One of 21 movies made by popular comedy duo Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey between 1929 and 1937, before Woolsey died in 1938. It is also the last minor feature directed by film luminary George Stevens before he broke through with Alice Adams.


11:30 AM -- Vigil in the Night (1940)
A good nurse ruins her career by covering up for her sister's careless mistake.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Carole Lombard, Brian Aherne, Anne Shirley
BW-96 mins, TV-PG,

The production of the movie was held up several weeks due to Carole Lombard's appendectomy.


1:15 PM -- The More the Merrier (1943)
The World War II housing shortage brings three people together for an unlikely romance.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Charles Coburn
BW-104 mins, TV-G, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Charles Coburn

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Jean Arthur, Best Director -- George Stevens, Best Writing, Original Story -- Frank Ross and Robert Russell, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Richard Flournoy, Lewis R. Foster, Frank Ross and Robert Russell, and Best Picture

The unusual little car Connie's friends drive is a Fiat Topolino convertible. 'Topolino' means 'little mouse' in Italian.


3:15 PM -- Have A Heart (1934)
A street vendor tries to help a dancing teacher who's lost the use of her legs.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Jean Parker, James Dunn, Una Merkel
BW-80 mins, TV-G,

David Butler was a survivor of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which happened when he was 11 years old. He said the quake shook the city so violently and for so long that he remembered his father saying, "I think this is the end. Get down and pray". He and his family escaped uninjured.


4:45 PM -- The Littlest Rebel (1935)
A Confederate officer risks everything to go home and see his daughter.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Shirley Temple, John Boles, Jack Holt
BW-74 mins, TV-G, CC,

Both John Boles and Bill Robinson nearly drowned while trying to cross a raging, fifteen-foot river for an escape scene that was cut from the film.


6:04 PM -- Fishing Feats (1951)
Several fishing adventures are presented in this short film.
Narrator: Pete Smith
BW-10 mins,

Filmed on location in California, Oregon, and on Guadalupe Island, Mexico.


6:15 PM -- The Command (1954)
A high-minded doctor suddenly finds himself leading a Cavalry troop through hostile territory.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Guy Madison, Joan Weldon, James Whitmore
C-94 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format

This movie is loosely based upon the career of Dr. Leonard Wood. Wood participated in the last campaign against Geronimo in 1886. He took over an infantry detachment after the officers were killed and was awarded the Medal of Honor of that and for carrying dispatches 100 miles through hostile territory. Wood formed the Rough Riders with Teddy Roosevelt and was eventually Chief of Staff of the Army.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOOKLIGHT



8:00 PM -- Burn, Witch, Burn (1962)
A skeptical college professor discovers that his wife has been practicing magic for years.
Dir: Sidney Hayers
Cast: Janet Blair, Peter Wyngarde, Margaret Johnston
BW-89 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

When Norman hides in the classroom "I Do Not Believe" is written on the chalk board with other key words related to witchcraft. Something off screen appears to him and he backs up to the chalkboard in fear. After the PA system is silenced, he walks back to the door. The blackboard has been smudged, creatively revealing the phrase "I Do...Believe".


9:45 PM -- The Tomb Of Ligeia (1964)
A man's obsession with his dead wife leads to trouble for his new bride.
Dir: Roger Corman
Cast: Vincent Price, Elizabeth Shepherd, John Westbrook
C-82 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Director Roger Corman has referred to this movie as the biggest and most exciting of all his Edgar Allan Poe adaptations. He wanted to break away from his standard technique of shooting his "Poe" features entirely on soundstages. There are many scenes, including the entire first reel, that were shot outdoors.


11:15 PM -- The Seventh Victim (1943)
A girl's search for her missing sister puts her in conflict with a band of satanists.
Dir: Mark Robson
Cast: Tom Conway, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell
BW-71 mins, TV-G, CC,

The original story for the film (outlined by DeWitt Bodeen) was to be about an orphaned heroine caught in a web of murder against a background of the Signal Hills oil wells. If she didn't find out the killer's identity in time, she would become his seventh victim. Producer Val Lewton wanted the story to go in a different direction and called in a second writer to help reshape it.


12:30 AM -- Curse of the Demon (1958)
An anthropologist investigates a devil worshipper who commands a deadly demon.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis
BW-82 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

This film was mentioned in the opening song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show ("Science Fiction Double Feature&quot : "Dana Andrews said prunes gave him the runes, but passing them used lots of skill".


1:58 AM -- Ontario: Land Of Lakes (1949)
This travel short takes the viewer to the province of Ontario.
Narrator: James A. FitzPatrick
C-10 mins,

The soundtrack includes both The Maple Leaf Forever (the unofficial Canadian national anthem), and O Canada (which became the official national anthem in 1980).


2:15 AM -- I Walked With A Zombie (1943)
A nurse in the Caribbean resorts to voodoo to cure her patient, even though she's in love with the woman's husband.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway
BW-69 mins, TV-PG, CC,

The legal disclaimer at the end of the credits, which roll at the start of the film, makes light of the film's subject. The disclaimer states: "The characters and events depicted in this photoplay are fictional. Any similarity to actual persons, living, dead, or possessed, is purely coincidental."


3:30 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, TV-PG, CC,

In the Summer of 1952, RKO reissued this film as a double feature with King Kong. RKO "cashed in", as young theatergoers, due to this film's title, were expecting to see a second "creature" film.


4:45 AM -- The Window (1949)
A boy who always lies witnesses a murder but can't get anyone but the killer to believe him.
Dir: Ted Tetzlaff
Cast: Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart
BW-74 mins, TV-G, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Frederic Knudtson

This film was shot in the latter part of 1947 but shelved by RKO boss Howard Hughes and released in 1949. When Bobby Driscoll got his Oscar "for the outstanding juvenile actor of 1949" in 1950 he was 13 years old.