TCM Schedule for Friday, June 26, 2015 -- TCM Spotlight - Summer of Darkness

TCM is continuing their new special program, Summer of Darkness, featuring 24 hours of film noir every Thursday in June and July. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Illicit lovers plot to kill the woman's older husband.
Dir: Tay Garnett
Cast: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway
BW-113 mins, CC,

This caused a stir amongst 1940s audiences who were shocked when it seemed clear to them that John Garfield uses his tongue in one of his kissing scenes with Lana Turner.


8:00 AM -- They Won't Believe Me (1947)
A faithless husband is charged with a murder he didn't commit.
Dir: Irving Pichel
Cast: Susan Hayward, Robert Young, Jane Greer
BW-80 mins, CC,

Based on a story by Gordon McDonell.


9:29 AM -- The Friendship Train (1947)
This short film details the history of the "Friendship Train," created to travel across the U.S. to collect food for war ravaged countries in Europe.
BW-14 mins,


9:45 AM -- The Woman On The Beach (1947)
A coast guardsman begins to think his mistress's blind husband can really see.
Dir: Jean Renoir
Cast: Joan Bennett, Robert Ryan, Charles Bickford
BW-71 mins, CC,

Based on Mitchell Wilson's novel None So Blind.


11:00 AM -- Lady in the Lake (1947)
Philip Marlowe searches for a missing woman in this mystery shot entirely from the detective's viewpoint.
Dir: Robert Montgomery
Cast: Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan
BW-103 mins, CC,

The entire movie plot unfolds from lead Robert Montgomery's point of view, thus creating a rarity in film: the principal character is only seen on-screen as a reflection in mirrors and windows, and as the narrator speaking directly to the audience.


1:00 PM -- Out of the Past (1947)
A private eye becomes the dupe of a homicidal moll.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas
BW-97 mins, CC,

Robert Mitchum told Roger Ebert he smoked so much, that when the camera was rolling on this film and Kirk Douglas offered him a pack and asked, "Cigarette?", Mitchum, realizing he'd carried a cigarette into the scene, held up his fingers and replied, "Smoking." His improvisation saved the take, and they kept it in the movie.


2:45 PM -- Possessed (1947)
A married woman's passion for a former love drives her mad.
Dir: Curtis Bernhardt
Cast: Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, Raymond Massey
BW-108 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Joan Crawford

Star Joan Crawford and director Curtis Bernhardt spent time in real psychiatric wards in Santa Monica, Santa Barbara and Pasadena, observing mental patients as research for the film. On one of these visits, Crawford and Bernhardt witnessed, without asking permission, a woman undergoing electro convulsive shock therapy. Warner Bros. was later forced to pay substantial damages to the woman, who claimed their presence was an invasion of privacy.


4:45 PM -- Act Of Violence (1948)
An embittered veteran tracks down a POW camp informer.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh
BW-82 mins, CC,

All the credits except for the title are at the end of the movie, highly unusual for that time.


6:08 PM -- Calgary Stampede (1949)
This short film shows how the city of Calgary celebrates the annual festival of Stampede Week. Vitaphone Release 1686A.
Dir: Saul Elkins
C-18 mins,


6:30 PM -- The Set-Up (1949)
An aging boxer defies the gangsters who've ordered him to throw his last fight.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter, George Tobias
BW-73 mins, CC,

The clock on the square at the beginning shows 9:05PM, and the same clock at the end shows 10:16PM. The movie takes place in real time. Other notable examples of this narrative device are High Noon (1952) and Nick of Time (1995).


7:51 PM -- Modern Guatemala City (1945)
This short film takes the viewer to Guatemala City, focusing on the sights, customs, and history.
C-8 mins,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: SUMMER OF DARKNESS



8:00 PM -- The Mask Of Dimitrios (1944)
A meek novelist investigates the mysterious death of a notorious scoundrel.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson
BW-96 mins, CC,

For a scene taking place in the Parisian subway,which was rebuilt and filmed on Warner sound stage,the name of subway station "Balard" is misspelled and written "Ballard".


9:45 PM -- Berlin Express (1948)
Allied agents fight an underground Nazi group in post-war Europe.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Merle Oberon, Robert Ryan, Charles Korvin
BW-87 mins, CC,

The first Hollywood production in Germany after World War II.


11:30 PM -- The Stranger (1946)
A small-town schoolteacher suspects her new husband may be an escaped Nazi war criminal.
Dir: Orson Welles
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, Orson Welles
BW-95 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Victor Trivas

In one of the final scenes, when Orson Welles lifts Loretta Young one-handed into the clock tower from a ladder, this is not a special effect. Young stated that this was actually filmed in the church with her dangling dangerously many feet above the church floor.


1:15 AM -- The Third Man (1949)
A man's investigation of a friend's death uncovers corruption in post-World War II Vienna.
Dir: Carol Reed
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles
BW-104 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Robert Krasker

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Carol Reed, and Best Film Editing -- Oswald Hafenrichter

The Vienna Police Dept. has a special unit that is assigned solely to patrol the city's intricate sewer system, as its network of interlocking tunnels make great hiding places for criminals on the run from the law, stolen property, drugs, etc. The "actors" playing police officers in the film were actually off-duty members of that unit.


3:00 AM -- Point Blank (1967)
A gangster plots an elaborate revenge on the wife and partner who did him dirty.
Dir: John Boorman
Cast: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn
C-92 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Lee Marvin faked the recoil from the .44 Magnum when he shoots in Lynne's bed. These were in fact blanks, but afterward when shooting in Alcatraz they tried with real bullets and there was no recoil at all. Marvin said to director John Boorman, "Fiction overtakes reality". Marvin's revolver was a Smith & Wesson Model 19. It's a .38/.357 Magnum, not a .44 Magnum.


4:45 AM -- The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Story (1950)
A collection of MGM previews with an introduction by Lionel Barrymore.
Dir: Herman Hoffman
C-57 mins, CC,


5:49 AM -- Adventures In South America (1945)
This short film explores various areas of South America, focusing on the people of Peru and Bolivia. Vitaphone Release 1460A.
Dir: Lewis N Cotlow
C-10 mins,