TCM Schedule for Friday, January 26, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: TCM Spotlight - Survival Movies

In the daylight hours, it's a celebration of the real ol' blue eyes, Paul Newman, born on January 26, 1925, in Shaker Heights, Ohio. One of the memorable Newman quotes: "Being on (President Richard Nixon's) enemies list was the highest single honor I've ever received. Who knows who's listening to me now and what government list I'm on?" And in prime time, TCM ends their month of survival movies on Friday nights. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- LOST HORIZON (1972)
Plane crash survivors travel to a mystical land where nobody ages.
Dir: Charles Jarrott
Cast: Sally Kellerman, Peter Finch, Liv Ullmann
C-138 mins, Letterbox Format

This movie was the first one Columbia Pictures filmed after it moved onto the Warner Bros. studio lot in 1972, creating The Burbank Studios to facilitate both production companies. The castle set from Camelot (1967) was recycled as Shangri-La. The medieval turrets were removed and replaced with Tibetan gables to simulate Himalayan Buddhist monasteries. Most of the castle's lower levels remained intact, and the courtyard was replaced with layered steppes and fountains. The set remained on the studio's back lot for several years before it was torn down to make way for a new office building.


8:30 AM -- A MATTER OF TIME (1976)
An eccentric countess teaches a hotel chambermaid to follow her dreams.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Liza Minnelli, Charles Boyer
C-98 mins, CC,

This is the only film in which both Ingrid Bergman (Countess Sanziani) and her daughter Isabella Rossellini (Sister Pia) appear together.


10:15 AM -- THE PRIZE (1963)
An American Nobel Prize-winner mixes it up with spies when he travels to Stockholm to collect his award.
Dir: Mark Robson
Cast: Paul Newman, Edward G. Robinson, Elke Sommer
C-135 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Bears many plot similarities, similar scenes, and actors in common with North by Northwest (1959) due to both being written by Ernest Lehman.


12:45 PM -- CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1958)
A dying plantation owner tries to help his alcoholic son solve his problems.
Dir: Richard Brooks
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives
C-108 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Newman, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Taylor, Best Director -- Richard Brooks, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Richard Brooks and James Poe, Best Cinematography, Color -- William H. Daniels, and Best Picture

This film was originally to be filmed in black and white, as was the standard practice with "artistic" films in the 1950s. (Virtually all film adaptations of the plays of Tennessee Williams had been in B&W up to that time.) However, once Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor were cast in the leads, director Richard Brooks insisted on shooting in color, in deference to the public's well known enthusiasm for Taylor's violet and Newman's strikingly blue eyes.


2:45 PM -- SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH (1962)
A young gigolo returns to his southern hometown in search of the lost love of his youth.
Dir: Richard Brooks
Cast: Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Shirley Knight
C-120 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ed Begley

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Geraldine Page, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Shirley Knight

Because of its then-shocking subject matter, this film was given a pre-rating advisory of restricted by the MPAA, prohibiting anyone under the age of 18 from attending. This was pre-rating equivalent of an X (later NC-17) rating. By today's standards, the film is so tame that, when shown on Turner Classic Movies, it's rated TV-PG.


5:00 PM -- COOL HAND LUKE (1967)
A free-spirited convict refuses to conform to chain-gang life.
Dir: Stuart Rosenberg
Cast: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, J. D. Cannon
C-127 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Kennedy

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Newman, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson, and Best Music, Original Music Score -- Lalo Schifrin

Originally, the scene where Luke plays "Plastic Jesus" as an ode to his mother was scheduled for the beginning of the shoot, but after Paul Newman insisted on learning the instrument, Stuart Rosenberg delayed it a few weeks. When they tried it and the playing was unsatisfactory, it was bumped until the next-to-last day of production. Newman and Rosenberg had a shouting match after Newman still couldn't get it down. In what Kennedy remembered as a "tense, electrically charged, quiet" place, Newman tried again. When he finished, Rosenberg called "Print." Newman insisted he could do better. "Nobody could do it better," Rosenberg replied.


7:15 PM -- MGM PARADE SHOW #5 (1955)
Tony Martin performs in a clip from "Till the Clouds Roll By"; John Hodiak introduces a clip from "Trial." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-26 mins,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: SURVIVAL MOVIES



8:00 PM -- LORD OF THE FLIES (1963)
Schoolboys marooned on a Pacific island create their own savage civilization.
Dir: Peter Brook
Cast: James Aubrey, Tom Chapin, Hugh Edwards
BW-91 mins, CC,

Eleven-year-old Hugh Edwards, who plays Piggy in the film, landed his role by writing a letter to the director which read, "Dear Sir, I am fat and wear spectacles."


9:45 PM -- MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN (1969)
As young Sam Gribley runs away he learns about nature.
Dir: James B. Clark
Cast: Teddy Eccles, Theodore Bikel, Tudi Wiggins
BW-100 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The winter scenes where they show the lake frozen, were not shot in the winter. They had to construct a winter scene by sinking cinder blocks into the pond and then covering it with plywood, before adding the "snow" topping.


11:45 PM -- PANIC IN YEAR ZERO (1962)
A vacationing family tries to survive the aftermath of nuclear war.
Dir: Ray Milland
Cast: Ray Milland, Jean Hagen, Frankie Avalon
BW-92 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

This film inspired the Steely Dan song 'King of the World' on their second album 'Countdown to Ecstacy.' Donald Fagen of the band referred to this in interview.


1:30 AM -- NO BLADE OF GRASS (1970)
A family tries to escape an environmental holocaust.
Dir: Cornel Wilde
Cast: Nigel Davenport, Jean Wallace, John Hamill
C-97 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

According to actress Wendy Richard, who played a supporting role: "It came from a brilliant book, but Cornel Wilde, God rest his soul, I don't think he did it justice when it came to the screenplay. He seemed to go over the top and get some bits of egg on his face."


3:30 AM -- WALKABOUT (1971)
Two children are stranded in the Australian outback and are forced to cope on their own.
Dir: Nicolas Roeg
Cast: Jenny Agutter, Lucien John, David Gumpilil
C-100 mins, CC,

Jenny Agutter was embarrassed when doing the scene of her swimming naked in the lake, so as many as possible of the crew were sent away. When shooting was done they returned, stripped naked, and went for a swim.