TCM Schedule for Friday, November 3, 2017 -- What's On Tonight: 70s Thrillers

During the daylight hours, TCM is telling true stories about athletes. Then in prime time, we're getting a selection of thrillers from the 1970s, including one of my all-time favorite films, The China Syndrome (1979). Enjoy!


7:15 AM -- HUMAN VOICE (2014)
An aging beauty tries desperately to win back a lover drawn to a younger woman.
Dir: Edoardo Ponti
Cast: Sophia Loren, Enrico Lo Verso, Alessandra Bonarotta
C-26 mins, Letterbox Format

Based on a play by Jean Cocteau.


7:45 AM -- BABE RUTH STORY (1948)
A childlike oaf becomes the greatest star in baseball.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth
Cast: William Bendix, Claire Trevor, Charles Bickford
BW-106 mins, CC,

William Bendix had been a bat boy at Yankee Stadium during the early 1920s, and had personally seen Babe Ruth hit over 100 home runs. Bendix was fired from his job after fulfilling Ruth's request for an order of 15 hot dogs and sodas before a game. After consuming the huge order, Ruth developed gastritis, and was unable to play that day, resulting in a Yankee loss.


9:45 AM -- THE WINNING TEAM (1952)
Baseball great Grover Cleveland Alexander fights his way back from a blinding injury.
Dir: Lewis Seiler
Cast: Doris Day, Ronald Reagan, Frank Lovejoy
BW-98 mins, CC,

According to TMC Ronald Reagan had lobbied hard to play the title role in "The Stratton Story" but Warner Bothers didn't want to take a chance on a baseball film and passed on the project. After "The Stratton Story" became a huge hit they picked up the Grover Cleveland Alexander story about another ball player who made a comeback after being forced from professional baseball.


11:34 AM -- LOOKING AT LISBON (1953)
This short film explores the local architecture, history, and culture of Lisbon, Portugal.
C-8 mins,


11:45 AM -- THE JOE LOUIS STORY (1953)
In this biography, champion boxer Joe Louis fights to make a name for himself.
Dir: Robert Gordon
Cast: Coley Wallace, Paul Stewart, Hilda Simms
BW-87 mins,

Louis' cultural impact was felt well outside the ring. He is widely regarded as the first African American to achieve the status of a nationwide hero within the United States, and was also a focal point of anti-Nazi sentiment leading up to and during World War II. He was instrumental in integrating the game of golf, breaking the sport's color barrier in America by appearing under a sponsor's exemption in a PGA event in 1952.


1:20 PM -- GLIMPSES OF MOROCCO AND ALGIERS (1951)
This short film visits the city of Algiers in Algeria, and the cities of Casablanca, Rabat, and Marrakesh in Morocco.
C-8 mins,


1:30 PM -- THE IRON MAJOR (1943)
In this true story, Frank Cavanaugh proves himself as a football coach and a World War I hero.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Pat O'Brien, Ruth Warrick, Robert Ryan
BW-85 mins, CC,

Through the latter stages of the film it is shown that Cavanaugh was losing his sight. However, a fact not revealed is that when he died he was also broke. According to "Tales from the Boston College Sideline" (Reid Oslin) he warned former player Joe McKenney (later a coach) to "get out of coaching while you can - the end of every coaching career is disaster."


3:00 PM -- THE BOB MATHIAS STORY (1954)
The story of the first man to win two Olympic Gold Medals in the Decathlon.
Dir: Francis D. Lyon
Cast: Bob Mathias, Ward Bond, Melba Mathias
BW-81 mins, CC,

One of the few biopics where the star is the real person! Mathias went on to star in three more films and a television series (Troubleshooters (1959-1960)).


4:30 PM -- MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID (1952)
True story of Annette Kellerman, the world's first great swimming star.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Esther Williams, Victor Mature, Walter Pidgeon
C-110 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- George J. Folsey

In an interview Esther Williams said that she met and spoke with Annette Kellerman before filming began while attempting to get Kellerman's approval of Williams in the lead role. After the meeting Kellerman gave her complete approval and said she was pleased with the casting choice.


6:30 PM -- THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY (1950)
Jackie Robinson plays himself in this true story of the man who broke Major League Baseball's color barrier.
Dir: Alfred E. Green
Cast: Jackie Robinson, Ruby Dee, Minor Watson
BW-77 mins, CC,

This was Jackie Robinson's only acting role.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 70'S THRILLERS



8:00 PM -- THE CHINA SYNDROME (1979)
A television newswoman stumbles onto deadly secrets at a nuclear power plant.
Dir: James Bridges
Cast: Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas
C-122 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Jack Lemmon, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Jane Fonda, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Mike Gray, T.S. Cook and James Bridges, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- George Jenkins and Arthur Jeph Parker

When the film was first released on 16 March 1979, nuclear power executives soon lambasted the picture as being "sheer fiction" and a "character assassination of an entire industry". Then twelve days after its launch, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident occurred in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. It was commented how the events had left nuclear executives embarrassed with egg on their faces.


10:15 PM -- THE WILBY CONSPIRACY (1975)
An African activist and an Englishman join forces to battle a corrupt government official in South Africa.
Dir: Ralph Nelson
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Michael Caine, Nicol Williamson
C-106 mins, CC,

The movie, set in South Africa, often refers to "Kaffirs". A "Kaffir", according to Wikipedia, "...was used in the former South Africa to refer to a black person. Now an offensive ethnic slur, it was previously a neutral term for black southern Africans. The word is derived from the Arabic term Kafir, which means 'disbeliever' or literally, 'one who conceals (the truth)' . . . In South Africa today, the term is regarded as highly racially offensive, in the same way as "nigger" is in other countries. It is seldom used as an isolated insult, but rather is used systematically, by openly racist individuals, when talking about black people, and as such was very common in the Apartheid era. Use of the word has been actionable in South African courts since at least 1976 under the offense of crimen injuria: "the unlawful, intentional, and serious violation of the dignity of another"." The use of the word was a significant plot point, in Lethal Weapon 2 (1989).


12:15 AM -- THE MACKINTOSH MAN (1973)
A British agent goes undercover as a jewel thief to nab a Communist spy.
Dir: John Huston
Cast: Paul Newman, James Mason, Dominique Sanda
C-99 mins, CC,

In his autobiography cinematographer Oswald Morris recalled how John Huston showed very little interest or enthusiasm for directing the picture and often arrived late on set largely unprepared for the days schedule. It was often left to Morris and the crew to filll the gap and set up the shots for the day for when he eventually arrived and also to help Paul Newman, who was also very disappointed by Huston's attitude.


2:00 AM -- COMA (1978)
A lady doctor investigates a series of strange deaths and disappearing bodies at her hospital.
Dir: Michael Crichton
Cast: Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, Elizabeth Ashley
C-113 mins, CC,

Producer Martin Erlichman first read the film's source novel when it was in galley form. Erlichman once said that for this movie he wanted to do for hospitals what Jaws (1975) had done to people with the ocean and sharks. He said: "People have a primal fear of the ocean and Jaws titillated that phobia. In a similar manner, Coma (1978) accents one's primal fears of hospitals. This is an even stronger phobia because a person can always refrain from going into the water, but cannot always avoid the necessity of going into hospital!".


4:00 AM -- FRENZY (1972)
When a temperamental man's ex-wife falls victim to a serial killer, he becomes the number one suspect.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Jon Finch, Barry Foster, Barbara Leigh-Hunt
C-116 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Midway through the film, there is a famous continuous shot in which the camera backs away from the door of Rusk's upper-floor apartment and descends the staircase, seemingly without a cut, to the ground level, out the building's front door, and then to the opposite side of the street. The interiors were shot with an overhead track in a studio, and there is an imperceptible cut as a man passes by the front door, carrying a sack of potatoes. This is subtly blended into a new shot of the camera pulling away from the building exterior that was actually used on location.