TCM Schedule for Friday, October 13, 2017 -- Star of the Month: Anthony Perkins

During the daylight hours, TCM has a selection of horror films . . . oh, yes, it is October!Then in prime time, it's more of Star of the Month Anthony Perkins. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- MGM PARADE SHOW #2 (1955)
Judy Garland and Bert Lahr perform in a clip from "The Wizard of Oz"; Gene Kelly introduces a clip from "It's Always Fair Weather." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-25 mins,


6:30 AM -- KISS OF THE TARANTULA (1976)
A disturbed teenage girl unleashes her pet tarantula against her "enemies."
Dir: Chris Munger
Cast: Eric Mason, Suzanne Ling, Herman Wallner
C-84 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Tarantulas are a favorite of science fiction and horror directors because they look menacing, are slow moving, and photograph well. But in truth, the bite of a tarantula is not as deadly as the movies make it out to be. Their fangs are small and cannot penetrate the skin enough to reach anything vital. And even if it did, the poison is not particularly toxic to humans.


8:00 AM -- SNAKE WOMAN (1961)
A man injects his wife with snake to cure her insanity that leads to future mayhem.
Dir: Sidney J. Furie
Cast: John McCarthy Jr., Susan Travers, Geoffrey Danton
C-68 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Also known as The Terror of the Snake Woman.


9:30 AM -- VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1961)
After a mysterious blackout, the inhabitants of a British village give birth to emotionless, super-powered offspring.
Dir: Wolf Rilla
Cast: George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, Martin Stephens
BW-77 mins, CC,

The novel this film was based on was called "The Midwich Cuckoos", by John Wyndham. The title refers to the fact that when cuckoo birds lay eggs, they deposit them in the nests of other (unsuspecting) birds, who then raise the cuckoo chicks as their own. Compounding the insidious nature of this process, the cuckoo chicks often kill their nestmates in competition for food and parental attention.


11:00 AM -- THE NANNY (1965)
A disturbed young man tries to prove his nanny is out to kill him.
Dir: Seth Holt
Cast: Bette Davis, Wendy Craig, Jill Bennett
BW-93 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The role of the Nanny was originally intended for Greer Garson who first accepted then declined, saying the script would not be good for her career. Jimmy Sangster who wrote and produced the film later said, "I went to Santa Fe and met with Greer, and she said she liked the script, and everything was fine. When I got back to London, we had a message from L.A. saying that Greer Garson didn't think the script would do her career much good. I didn't like to say she didn't have a career in those days."


1:00 PM -- THE INNOCENTS (1961)
A governess convinces herself the children in her charge are haunted.
Dir: Jack Clayton
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Peter Wyngarde, Megs Jenkins
BW-99 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

At one point when Deborah Kerr's character wanders around the house at night with only a candelabra for illumination, you might think you see something in the corner of your eye. You do. It's the clapperboard which had briefly wandered into shot. Jack Clayton decided to keep it in because he liked the idea of something almost subliminal being present to add to the air of unease.


2:45 PM -- A PLACE OF ONE'S OWN (1945)
An elderly woman's caregiver becomes possessed by a murdered girl's spirit.
Dir: Bernard Knowles
Cast: Margaret Lockwood, James Mason, Barbara Mullen
BW-93 mins,

Both James Mason and Barbara Mullen were in their early thirties playing a couple in at least late middle-age. Mason in particular wanted to show his range, playing against type as an avuncular, older Yorkshireman (he was from Huddersfield). In his autobiography he admitted that his performance was a failed experiment, and indeed his accent slips sometimes and his make-up and hair-lace are very obvious in close-ups. He realised that in as far as his Gainsborough Pictures roles were concerned he was better as, and expected to be, "only some heroic lady-killer, or better still: lady-basher".


4:30 PM -- THE BAD SEED (1956)
A woman suspects that her perfect little girl is a ruthless killer.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Gage Clarke, Jesse White, Joan Croyden
C-129 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Nancy Kelly, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Eileen Heckart, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Patty McCormack, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Harold Rosson

The book Rhoda claims to have won in Sunday School, "Elsie Dinsmore," was a story with religious themes about a pious eight-year-old who, in sharp contrast to Rhoda, was obedient to her elders to an alarming point, even enduring verbal abuse from a nasty parent. It was written by Martha Finley in 1867.


6:45 PM -- THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (1944)
A lonely child creates an imaginary playmate with surprisingly dangerous results.
Dir: Gunther V. Fritsch
Cast: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph
BW-70 mins, CC,

The theme within the film, a child on the verge of insanity because she lives in a fantasy world, was personal to producer Val Lewton who behaved in a similar way as a child. His wife has said that she felt he never truly came back to the real world as an adult.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: ANTHONY PERKINS



8:00 PM -- FIVE MILES TO MIDNIGHT (1963)
A woman tries to free herself from her husband by helping him fake his own death.
Dir: Anatole Litvak
Cast: Sophia Loren, Anthony Perkins, Gig Young
BW-108 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The picture on the bedroom wall in Lisa and Bob's apartment is a print of a painting by Henri Rousseau, called "The Sleeping Gypsy," painted in 1897. It is a fantastical depiction of a lion musing over a sleeping woman on a moonlit night.


10:15 PM -- PHAEDRA (1962)
A tycoon's restless wife seduces her stepson.
Dir: Jules Dassin
Cast: Melina Mercouri, Anthony Perkins, Raf Vallone
BW-116 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Theoni V. Aldredge

The car Phaedra buys her stepson is a 1960 Aston Martin DB4 MkII.


12:30 AM -- GREEN MANSIONS (1959)
A young adventurer falls in love with a mystical woman in the South American jungle.
Dir: Mel Ferrer
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Anthony Perkins, Lee J. Cobb
C-104 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

During the film, Rima is shown accompanied by a fawn. In order for the animal to properly bond with the actress, Audrey Hepburn effectively adopted the baby deer in the weeks preceding production.


2:30 AM -- KING SOLOMON'S MINES (1950)
A spirited widow hires a daredevil jungle scout to find a lost treasure in diamonds.
Dir: Compton Bennett
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Stewart Granger, Richard Carlson
C-103 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert Surtees, and Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters and Conrad A. Nervig

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

While filming on location in Carlsbad National Park's New Cave, Deborah Kerr took her lipstick and wrote the initials "DK" on a cave formation near the Klansman formation that was used as a background. An electrician also took a burned out lamp and tossed it in a hole under that formation. Since the cave is still 'active', meaning the formations are still slowly being encased in more minerals, the initials and the lamp are now solidly encased in a layer limestone that is thin enough to see through but thick enough to prevent removal. The Carlsbad Park Rangers refer to the "DK" as the Deborah Kerr formation. Both are still visible to this day.


4:15 AM -- THE ARRANGEMENT (1969)
A car crash causes a rich man to reconsider the life he leads.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Faye Dunaway, Deborah Kerr
C-126 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Critics were overwhelmingly negative when the film came out, and it was the consensus that Elia Kazan should never have filmed his own best-selling novel, which was panned by most literary critics as trash when it was published in 1967. It was widely known that the lead role had been turned down by Marlon Brando, who had won three Academy Award nominations and one Oscar under Kazan's direction at the beginning of his film career and was the heart and soul of some of Kazan's best work as a movie director. By the late 1960s, after a string of flops, most critics felt Brando was through as a movie star and that he desperately needed Kazan to turn his career around, both as an artist and as a box-office star. When the film came out, Kirk Douglas' lead performance was roundly panned, and most critics felt that even Brando at his best couldn't save what was, in essence, a melodramatic potboiler. The failure of "The Arrangement" was the end of Kazan's own career as an A-list director.