TCM Schedule for Thursday, October 24, 2013 -- Star of the Month - Vincent Price

In the daylight hours, TCM is featuring westerns from the early 1950s. And in prime time, TCM's Star of the Month is Vincent Price. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Barricade (1950)
Two fugitives try to prove the head of a mining camp is a murderer.
Dir: Peter Godfrey
Cast: Dane Clark, Raymond Massey, Ruth Roman
C-75 mins, TV-PG,

Remake of The Sea Wolf (1941) and based on the novel of that name by Jack London.


7:19 AM -- Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys (1944)
Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys perform several musical numbers in this short film.
Dir: LeRoy Prinz
BW-11 mins,

The soundtrack of this short film includes Ride On! My Prairie Pinto - written by Alice Blackmore and Carmen Cortez,
Chicken Reel (traditional), My Adobe Hacienda - written by Louise Massey and Lee Penny, Mama Don't Allow (traditional), and San Antonio Rose - written by Bob Wills.


7:30 AM -- Dallas (1950)
A renegade Confederate officer tries to hide his identity while bringing law and order to the West.
Dir: Stuart Heisler
Cast: Gary Cooper, Ruth Roman, Steve Cochran
C-94 mins, TV-PG,

Revealing mistakes - Each time characters shoot at a can to demonstrate their marksmanship, there is a slight delay between the gunshots and the can's movement. In reality, there would be an almost instantaneous reaction.


9:15 AM -- Dynamite Pass (1950)
Highwaymen invade a road built by cowboys.
Dir: Lew Landers
Cast: Tim Holt, Lynne Roberts, Regis Toomey
BW-60 mins, TV-G,

At the peak of his career in the 1940s "B" westerns, Tim Holt was the "fastest draw" in the movies with the ability to draw his revolver in five frames of film (slightly over one-sixth of a second).


10:30 AM -- Rocky Mountain (1950)
A Confederate troop makes a last desperate attempt to build up an army in the West.
Dir: William Keighley
Cast: Errol Flynn, Patrice Wymore, Scott Forbes
BW-83 mins, TV-PG,

Errol Flynn's last western, and the film debuts of Slim Pickens and Sheb Wooley.


12:00 PM -- Best Of The Badmen (1951)
A band of notorious outlaws help a friend against a corrupt federal agent.
Dir: William D. Russell
Cast: Robert Ryan, Claire Trevor, Jack Buetel
C-84 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Follows Badman's Territory (1946) and Return of the Bad Men (1948).


1:30 PM -- Inside Straight (1951)
A tycoon rises to the top in 19th-century San Francisco through greed and corruption.
Dir: Gerald Mayer
Cast: David Brian, Arlene Dahl, Barry Sullivan
BW-87 mins, TV-PG,

Written by Guy Trosper, who also wrote The Pride Of St. Louis (1952), and Birdman Of Alcatraz (1962).


3:00 PM -- My Outlaw Brother (1951)
A ranger tries to pry his brother from the Mexican bandit gang he's joined.
Dir: Elliot Nugent
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Wanda Hendrix, Robert Preston
BW-82 mins, TV-G,

Filmed at Estudios Tepeyac, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico.


4:30 PM -- Slaughter Trail (1951)
An Indian hating bandit's reign of terror could lead to a range war.
Dir: Irving Allen
Cast: Brian Donlevy, Gig Young, Virginia Grey
C-77 mins, TV-PG,

As reported by Robert Osborne during a TCM airing of the film, Howard Da Silva was originally cast in this film and performed the role in it's entirety. However, just before it was distributed, he was denounced as a communist sympathizer in the McCarthy hearings. Producer Howard Hughes (a staunch anti-Communist) ordered all of Da Silva's scenes to be re-shot using Brian Donlevy. So the film was overhauled to incorporate Donlevy and he became the leading man.


6:00 PM -- 3:10 To Yuma (1957)
A sheriff must run the gauntlet to get his prisoner out of town.
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr
BW-92 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

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


7:44 PM -- Two Hearts In Wax Time (1935)
After overindulging in alcohol, a department store employee witnesses the store's mannequins come to life in this musical short.
Cast: Gus Shy, Shirley Ross, Sam McDaniel
C-15 mins,

Early use of Technicolor -- unusual in a short film.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: VINCENT PRICE



8:00 PM -- House Of Wax (1953)
A scarred sculptor re-populates his ravaged wax museum with human corpses.
Dir: Andre DeToth
Cast: Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk
C-88 mins, TV-PG, CC,

The alcoholic sculptor was a heroin addict in the original version of the film, Mystery of the Wax Museum, but that had to be changed for the remake because the Production Code forbade any mention of drug addiction. (Ironically, a character played by Vincent Price had got away with confessing to drug addiction in Dragonwyck, made seven years before "House of Wax.&quot


9:45 PM -- The Mad Magician (1954)
Betrayed by his manager, a master magician uses his skills to seek revenge.
Dir: John Brahm
Cast: Vincent Price, Mary Murphy, Eva Gabor
BW-73 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

The first movie to be broadcast on television in 3-D.


11:00 PM -- House Of Usher (1960)
A young man tries to rescue the woman he loves from her demonic brother.
Dir: Roger Corman
Cast: Vincent Price, Mark Damon, Myrna Fahey
C-79 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Roger Corman learned that there was an old barn in Orange County, CA, that was about to be demolished. He was able to strike a deal that would allow him to burn the barn at night and film it. The resulting footage was so good that it was used not only in the climax of this film but in later "Poe" films as well.


12:30 AM -- Diary of a Madman (1963)
The body of a French magistrate is taken over by the soul of a murderer.
Dir: Reginald Le Borg
Cast: Vincent Price, Nancy Kovack, Chris Warfield
C-97 mins, TV-14, Letterbox Format

Diary of a Madman is based on a short story, The Horla by French writer Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893). The story was adapted for the movie by American film-maker Robert Kent, who also co-produced the movie.


2:15 AM -- The Tingler (1959)
A scientist discovers an organism that lives on fear.
Dir: William Castle
Cast: Vincent Price, Judith Evelyn, Darryl Hickman
C-82 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

The earliest film to depict an LSD trip.


3:45 AM -- House On Haunted Hill (1959)
A millionaire offers total strangers a fortune to spend the night in a haunted house.
Dir: William Castle
Cast: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long
BW-75 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

The Ennis Brown House in Los Angeles, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1924, and now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was used for the exterior shots of the haunted house during the film's opening sequence.


5:15 AM -- The Bat (1959)
A female mystery novelist turns detective to unmask a demented killer.
Dir: Crane Wilbur
Cast: Vincent Price, Agnes Moorehead, Gavin Gordon
BW-80 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Her role as Judy became the final on-screen feature film role for former child star Darla Hood of Our Gang/Little Rascals fame.