TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 12 -- 31 Days of Oscar -- Biochemistry

At TCM University this morning we have applied chemistry, with Professors Fred MacMurray, Louis Pasteur, and Marie Curie. This afternoon, we have a serious discussion of pyrotechnics, used in the service of crime or war. In prime time our subject is biochemistry, including lectures by two different Dr. Jekylls, as well as witchcraft and narcotic substances of various stripes. Enjoy!


5:30am -- Mighty Joe Young (1949)
Showmen try to exploit a giant ape raised by an orphan.
Cast: Terry Moore, Ben Johnson, Robert Armstrong, Frank McHugh
Dir: Ernest B. Schoedsack
C-94 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects

This was the first feature film for which Ray Harryhausen used his newly created stop-motion technique.


7:15am -- The Absent Minded Professor (1961)
A college professor fights off corrupt businessmen to market his new anti-gravity invention.
Cast: Fred MacMurray, Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn, Tommy Kirk
Dir: Robert Stevenson
BW-96 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Carroll Clark, Emile Kuri and Hal Gausman, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Edward Colman, and Best Effects, Special Effects -- Robert A. Mattey and Eustace Lycett

At the height of the film's popularity, Time Magazine printed the Disney Special Effects Department's recipe for Flubber, as used in the movie. It read as follows: "To one pound of salt water taffy add one heaping tablespoon polyurethane foam, one cake crumbled yeast. Mix till smooth, allow to rise. Then pour into saucepan over one cup cracked rice with one cup water. Add topping of molasses. Boil till lid lifts and says 'Qurlp'." It is not recorded whether this also carried the standard warning "do not try this at home".


9:00am -- The Story Of Louis Pasteur (1935)
True story of the French scientist's battle to establish modern medical methods.
Cast: Paul Muni, Josephine Hutchinson, Anita Louise, Donald Woods
Dir: William Dieterle
BW-86 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Muni, Best Writing, Original Story -- Pierre Collings and Sheridan Gibney, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Pierre Collings and Sheridan Gibney

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Paul Muni is one of only six actors to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his first screen appearance. (The other five actors are: Orson Welles for Citizen Kane (1941), Lawrence Tibbett for The Rogue song (1930), Alan Arkin for The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming (1966), James Dean for East Of Eden (1955), and Montgomery Clift for The Search (1948).)


10:30am -- Madame Curie (1943)
The famed female scientist fights to keep her marriage together while conducting early experiments with
radioactivity.
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Henry Travers, Albert Basserman
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
BW-124 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Walter Pidgeon, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Herbert Stothart, Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD), and Best Picture

Director Mervyn LeRoy replaced Albert Lewin, who was fired shortly before production began.


12:35pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Mr. Blabbermouth! (1942)
Wartime or peacetime, for safety's sake, please engage brain before putting mouth in gear.
Narrator: John Nesbitt
Dir: Basil Wrangell
BW-19 mins

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary

Includes archive footage of Chiang Kai-Shek, Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, Douglas MacArthur, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.


1:00pm -- White Heat (1949)
A government agent infiltrates a gang run by a mother-fixated psychotic.
Cast: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien, Margaret Wycherly
Dir: Raoul Walsh
BW-114 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Virginia Kellogg

If the surprise expressed by James Cagney's fellow inmates during "the telephone game" scene in the prison dining room appears real, it's because it is. Director Raoul Walsh didn't tell the rest of the cast what was about to happen, so Cagney's outburst caught them by surprise. In fact, Walsh himself didn't know what Cagney had planned; the scene as written wasn't working, and Cagney had an idea. He told Walsh to put the two biggest extras playing cons in the mess-hall next to him on the bench (he used their shoulders to boost himself onto the table) and to keep the cameras rolling no matter what.


3:00pm -- The Dam Busters (1955)
British flyers try to cripple the Nazis by taking out their dams.
Cast: Richard Todd, Michael Redgrave, Ursula Jeans, Basil Sydney
Dir: Michael Anderson
BW-125 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects

This is one of the films that George Lucas used clips from to edit the rough cut of Star Wars (1977) (which utilizes many features of the finale of this film quite closely, notably the briefing, the ground staff waiting for news, the troika formation of the attacking aircraft and so on). In addition, the following exchange from this film is reproduced almost verbatim (with the exception of the characters' names) in "Star Wars": Gibson: "How many guns d'you think there are, Trevor?" Trevor: "I'd say there's about 10 guns - some in the field and some in the tower".


5:15pm -- The Guns of Navarone (1961)
A team of Allied saboteurs fight their way behind enemy lines to destroy a pair of Nazi guns.
Cast: Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, Stanley Baker
Dir: J. Lee Thompson
C-157 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Bill Warrington (visual) and Chris Greenham (audible)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- J. Lee Thompson, Best Film Editing -- Alan Osbiston, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Dimitri Tiomkin, Best Sound -- John Cox (Shepperton SSD), Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Carl Foreman, and Best Picture

The plot went through so many twists that Gregory Peck finally submitted his own version to writer/producer Carl Foreman: "David Niven really loves Anthony Quayle and Gregory Peck loves Anthony Quinn. Tony Quayle breaks a leg and is sent off to hospital. Tony Quinn falls in love with Irene Papas, and Niven and Peck catch each other on the rebound and live happily ever after."


What's On Tonight: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: BIOCHEMISTRY


8:00pm -- Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1932)
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of a scientist who unleashes the beast within.
Cast: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart, Holmes Herbert
Dir: Rouben Mamoulian
BW-96 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Fredric March (He tied with Wallace Beery for The Champ (1931).)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Karl Struss, and Best Writing, Adaptation -- Percy Heath and Samuel Hoffenstein

The remarkable Jekyll-to-Hyde transition scenes in this film were accomplished by manipulating a series of filters in front of the camera lens, filters which alternately revealed and obscured portions of Fredric March's Hyde makeup. During the first transformation scene, the accompanying noises on the soundtrack included portions of Bach, a gong being played backwards, and, reportedly, a recording of director Rouben Mamoulian's own heart.


9:42pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Menu (1933)
A chef helps a housewife cook a duck dinner that will not give her husband indigestion.
Cast: Luis Alberni, Una Merkel, Franklin Pangborn
Dir: Nick Grinde
C-10 mins

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Novelty -- Pete Smith

Una Merkel began her long career as a stand-in for Lillian Gish.


10:00pm -- Bell, Book and Candle (1959)
A beautiful witch puts a love spell on an unknowing publisher.
Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs
Dir: Richard Quine
C-102 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color -- Cary Odell and Louis Diage, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White or Color -- Jean Louis

Gillian's cat is named Pyewacket. This name has become a popular one for cats because of this movie, but few know its origin: Pyewacket was one of the familiar spirits of a witch detected by the "witchfinder general" Matthew Hopkins in March 1644 in the town of Maningtree, Essex, UK. He claimed he spied on the witches as they held their meeting close by his house, and heard them mention the name of a local woman. She was arrested and deprived of sleep for four nights, at the end of which she confessed and named her familiars, describing their forms. They were: - Holt - Jarmara - Vinegar Tom - Sacke and Sugar - Newes - Ilemauzer - Pyewacket - Pecke in the Crowne - Griezzel Greedigutt - Hopkins says he and nine other witnesses saw the first five of these, which appeared in the forms described by the witch. Only the first of these was a cat; the next two were dogs, and the others were a black rabbit and a polecat. So it's not clear whether Pyewacket was a cat's name or not. As for the meanings,
Hopkins says only that they were such that "no mortall could invent." The incident is described in Hopkins's pamphlet "The Discovery of Witches" (1647).


12:00am -- The Man With The Golden Arm (1955)
A junkie must face his true self to kick his drug addiction.
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Eleanor Parker, Kim Novak, Arnold Stang
Dir: Otto Preminger
BW-119 mins, TV-14

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Frank Sinatra, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Joseph C. Wright and Darrell Silvera, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Elmer Bernstein

In a conversation with Robert Osborne, Frank Sinatra Jr. said the hands in the tight shots of Frankie's second dealing belong to Milton Berle.


2:15am -- Easy Rider (1969)
A cross-country trip to sell drugs puts two hippie bikers on a collision course with small-town prejudices.
Cast: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Antonio Mendoza, Phil Spector
Dir: Dennis Hopper
C-96 mins, TV-MA

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Nicholson, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern

Peter Fonda wore the Capt. America jacket and rode his chopper a week around L.A. before shooting began to give them a broken-in look and to get used to riding the radically designed bike. The American flag on the back of the jacket and on the gas tank of the bike caused him to be pulled over several times by the police.


4:00am -- Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1941)
A scientist's investigations into the nature of good and evil turn him into a murderous monster.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner, Donald Crisp
Dir: Victor Fleming
BW-113 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, Best Film Editing -- Harold F. Kress. and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Franz Waxman

The concept of the two female loves of Jekyll/Hyde's life, aristocratic Beatrix Emery and barmaid Ivy Petersen, actually originated in the original stage version of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", as adapted by T.R. Sullivan for the great 19th century stage actor Richard Mansfield. The Stevenson novella mentions no female love interest of any sort for either Jekyll or Hyde.

The biggest box office hit of 1955 in England and honored with three BAFTA nominations for Best British Film, Best British Screenplay and Best Film from any Source, The Dam Busters (1955) is less well known in the U.S. but is nonetheless one of the most realistic and faithful accounts of an incident in WWII that is credited with hastening Germany's defeat in the war. On May 16, 1943, the newly formed 617 Squadron under the command of Guy Gibson launched "Operation Chastise," a covert operation that attacked the Ruhr dams in Germany under the light of a full moon. The resulting damage was extensive and a major blow to the German war machine forcing that nation to dedicate more resources to the defense of key installations while trying to rebuild the Ruhr dams at the same time. The toll on the British side was considerable as well; of the 133 fliers who departed from the Scampton, England airbase that fateful night, only 73 returned. Yet, it was the bravery of the men and their heroic mission that triumphed in a British victory that strengthened the country's morale during a dark period.

Unlike most of the war movies of its era, The Dam Busters was atypical in its presentation of the events. Taking a much more documentary-like approach, the film was divided into two sections. The first concentrated on the development and laborious testing of the "bouncing bomb" (created by British engineer Barnes Wallis) that skipped across water, avoiding torpedo nets and creating earthquake-like damage upon detonation with dams; The second section detailed the carefully orchestrated preparations for the mission and its execution.

Shot in black and white by cinematographer Erwin Hillier in order to more fully integrate stock footage and give it the immediacy of a newsreel, The Dam Busters also avoided any fabricated romantic subplots for box office insurance, choosing instead to focus solely on the facts and the participants involved, all of whom were played by a first rate British cast.

Michael Redgrave, who plays Dr. Wallis in the film, relished his part because it allowed him "to create a character totally different from my own." In his autobiography, In My Mind's I, he wrote, "It was Barnes Wallis himself, incidentally, who gave me the clue to my performance in The Dam Busters, a film which I enjoyed making more than any since The Browning Version. We were introduced, and Wallis, who was a good deal shorter than I and rather slim, burst out laughing. We 'clicked' at once. At our second meeting I said, "I'm not going to mimic you, you know.' His reply was interesting, not so much because he was evidently relieved as for what it showed of the method he would use to tackle a problem, even in the field of acting. 'No, of course. Your problem is not to imitate a person, but to create him.' It illustrated, I thought, his scientific approach to the very essence of what he was considering. A quality - not at all to be confused with the stereotype of the absent-minded professor - of setting aside everything but the essential, which must have driven him on and sustained him through countless
set-backs and disappointments."

Richard Todd, who was cast in the role of Wing Commander Guy Gibson, was a rising star in both British and American films of the fifties, having already received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his performance in The Hasty Heart <1949>. At first he had some concerns about the choice of director for The Dam Busters. Michael Anderson had spent most of his career as a second unit director and had only helmed a few low-budget programmers when he was tapped by executive producer Robert Clark to direct his first major film. The Dam Busters turned out to be an important calling card for Anderson and led to his selection by Michael Todd to direct the even more lavish and ambitious epic, Around the World in 80 Days <1956>.

In preparation for The Dam Busters, Todd recalled in his memoirs In Camera, "Together Michael and I saw footage of the special effects photography that had already been shot and which was crucial to the making of the film. Without believable shots of the actual demolition of the dams there could be no picture, and I was amazed how realistically the special effects boys had contrived the explosions, the collapse of the two enormous stone dams and the release of vast torrents of water...And together we also met and talked with many of those who had been connected with the famous raid, including the pilot Guy Gibson's widow, Eve, and his frail old father; Mickey Martin, his second in command, and other survivors; and above all Dr. Barnes Wallis, inventor of the 'bouncing' bomb. Sheriff , too, had met them and there was not a line of dialogue or a single incident enacted on the screen which was not true to the events."

The special effects work, the scripting and the preparation of the aircraft scenes alone took almost two years before production began on The Dam Busters. A large part of the budget was also consumed by the RAF which supplied bombers and pilots to the studio, Associated British, at a cost of 130 pounds per hour per plane. According to one source, "The 150 hours of flying time accounted for roughly 10% of the budget." Most of the movie was shot in the Peak District, in the north of England, and at the RAF Hemswell in Lincolnshire.

"The actual shots of the Wellington bomber dropping its huge dambusters," noted Todd in his autobiography, "were cleverly contrived by Michael Anderson from some rather poor-quality archive film shot in 1943 during the original tests. He framed it in such a way as to make it appear that it was seen by us through our binoculars, which explained the difference in quality of the 1943 material." As for Todd's own scenes during the flying sequences, he recalled, "My first few days in the studios were spent strapped into the pilot's seat in a Lancaster fuselage...The greatest difficulty for me and for other crew members who had to be photographed in the aircraft was lack of space. The Lancaster fuselage was cramped and bristling with instrumentation at any time, but with the addition of the camera, lights, cables, microphones, camera and sound crews there was scarcely room to breathe. And it was dreadfully hot, too, as we sweated in our helmets and Mae West jackets. It was I, perforce, who spent
most of the time in these conditions. Once I was in my seat, there was no means of getting out again until all the equipment had been removed, so for days on end I was strapped in by about 8:15 am, released for lunch and re-incarcerated from about 2 pm until the end of shooting at 6 pm. The needs of nature occasionally caused total chaos and a lengthy hold-up."

It was all worth the extra effort and uncomfortable conditions because The Dam Busters was not only a huge financial success but was praised by the critics. "Excuse me while I rave about the finest flying picture I've seen," wrote Reg Whitley in the Daily Mirror and Dilys Powell, in the Sunday Times, said "Mr. Anderson has handled the final scenes in particular with sympathy, and understatement is never allowed to become the cliche it often is in British films of this kind." In the U.S., the film was well received also with the Variety review typical of its reception: "...told with painstaking attention to detail...The production is a personal triumph for Michael Anderson. Michael Redgrave, particularly, gives a vividly human portrayal of Dr. Barnes Wallis the scientist while Richard Todd makes a distinguished showing as Guy Gibson the RAF commander." In addition, The Dam Busters was nominated for an Oscar® for Best Special Effects.

When watching The Dam Busters keep your eyes peeled for brief appearances by Robert Shaw as Flight Sergeant Pulford, George Baker (On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me) as Flight Lt. Maltby, John Fraser (Tunes of Glory, Repulsion) as Flight Lt. Hopgood, and Patrick McGoohan as a guard. In Roger Langley's biography Patrick McGoohan: Danger Man or Prisoner?, the actor admitted, "The first time I found myself on a film set was for The Dam Busters. I had exactly one day's filming and perhaps five lines."

When The Dam Busters was released in the U.S., "Warners employed an editing short cut," according to Peter Van Gelder in That's Hollywood, "that raised questions in the House of Commons. In two years of preparation for filming the makers aspired to absolute accuracy about the raids, even going so far as to send a copy of the completed script to every surviving member of the Squadron for vetting. But in trimming the action down for the American market the Warners editors spliced in an extra shot of a plane crashing. The only example they could find was a USAF Flying Fortress. This was immediately seized upon by pedantic, mid-fifties Can You Spot-ters and the two offending seconds were promptly excised."

There was one more minor detail about The Dam Busters that gave Warners pause and it was Guy Gibson's devoted dog who was beloved by the entire 617 squadron and was named Nigger. In some markets the hound's name was dubbed as Trigger for obvious reasons.

Director: Michael Anderson
Screenplay: R.C. Sherriff; Paul Brickhill (book); Wing Comdr. Gibson (book "Enemy Coast Ahead")
Cinematography: Erwin Hillier
Art Direction: Robert Jones
Music: Leighton Lucas
Film Editing: Richard Best
Cast: Michael Redgrave (Doctor B. N. Wallis, C.B.E., F.R.S.),Ursula Jeans (Mrs. Wallis), Wing Commander Guy Gibson (Richard Todd), Charles Carson (doctor), Stanley Van Beers (Sir David Pye, C.B., F.R.S.), Colin Tapley (Doctor W.H. Glanville, C.B., C.B.E.), Frederick Leister (committee member), Eric Messiter (committee member), Laidman Browne (committee member), Raymond Huntley (official, National Physical Laboratory), Hugh Manning (official, Ministry of Aircraft Production), Patrick Barr (Captain Joseph 'Mutt' Summers, C.B.E.).
BW-105m.

by Jeff Stafford

SOURCES:
In My Mind's I by Michael Redgrave (Viking Press)
In Camera by Richard Todd (Hutchinson)
Patrick McGoohan: Danger Man or Prisoner? by Roger Langley (Tomahawk Press)
That's Hollywood by Peter Van Gelder
www.screenonline.org.uk/
IMDB