TCM Schedule for Friday, December 11 -- Primetime Feature -- Stories from South Africa

As a lead-in to the premiere of Invictus this weekend, with Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, the theme for this evening is Stories from South Africa. Enjoy!


6:00am -- The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
A Spanish dancer becomes an international star but still longs to get her feet in the dirt.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Marius Goring
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
C-130 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Edmond O'Brien

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Joseph L. Mankiewicz

The character of Maria Vargas is said to be based on Rita Hayworth, who was actually offered the part.


8:15am -- The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)
An invalid poetess defies her father's wishes to marry a dashing young poet.
Cast: Norma Shearer, Fredric March, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan
Dir: Sidney Franklin
BW-109 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Norma Shearer, and Best Picture

Concerned about the public's reaction, the disturbing subplot about Father Barrett's incestuous designs on his daughter was toned down by the studio. However, Charles Laughton famously remarked that they couldn't censor the "gleam" in his eye.


10:15am -- This Land Is Mine (1943)
A soft-spoken school teacher tries to prove he's not a Nazi collaborator.
Cast: Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, George Sanders, Walter Slezak
Dir: Jean Renoir
BW-103 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Stephen Dunn (RKO Radio SSD)

The singing of "Die Lorelei" by the German soldiers was a subtle dig at the anti-semitic regime of the Nazis, since the words were written by banned Jewish poet Heinrich Heine. Many of his books, considered "un-German," were burned in the book-burning episode at Opernplatz, Berlin, Germany, on 10 May 1933. However, his works were so popular that they were still published, but "author unknown" was the listed writer. In his 1821 play "Almansor," Heine also prophetically wrote "Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen." ("Where they burned books, they will in the end in burn people.")


12:15pm -- The Canterville Ghost (1944)
A ghost who died a coward tries to inspire U.S. GIs to become heroes.
Cast: Charles Laughton, Robert Young, Margaret O'Brien, William Gargan
Dir: Jules Dassin
BW-96 mins, TV-G

After 38 days of shooting, director Jules Dassin replaced Norman Z. McLeod. Although a news item stated it was due to a "difference of opinion," many believe it was done on the insistence of Charles Laughton. At the same time, William H. Daniels replaced Robert Planck as director of photography.


2:00pm -- The Bribe (1949)
A sultry singer tries to tempt a federal agent from the straight-and-narrow.
Cast: Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton, Vincent Price
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
BW-98 mins, TV-PG

In a memoir written after his death, Laughton's widow, Elsa Lanchester, stated they never had children because he was homosexual. According to Maureen O'Hara, however, Laughton once told her that not having children was his biggest regret, and that it was because Elsa could not bear children as a result of an botched abortion she had early in her career while performing burlesque. It is possible both stories are true. Whether Lanchester ever had an abortion (which would have been illegal at the time) is not known, but it is known that Charles Laughton was gay. That fact, however, would not have precluded parenthood. There is, additionally, Laughton's reputed great dislike of children. It is possible he said what he did to Maureen O'Hara because he knew she was a VERY devout Roman Catholic and, having been schooled by Jesuits himself, he wanted to play a little joke on her sensibilities.


3:45pm -- The Bigamist (1953)
A woman discovers her husband has another family in another city.
Cast: Joan Fontaine, Ida Lupino, Edmund Gwenn, Edmond O'Brien
Dir: Ida Lupino
BW-79 mins, TV-PG

This would be the last feature film directed by Ida Lupino for more than 12 years until The Trouble with Angels (1966).


5:15pm -- D.O.A. (1950)
The victim of a slow-acting poison tracks down his own killer.
Cast: Edmond O'Brien, Pamela Britton, Luther Adler, Beverly Campbell
Dir: Rudolph Maté
BW-84 mins, TV-14

The scene in which Bigelow runs in panic through the streets after learning he has been poisoned was a stolen shot. The pedestrians had no idea a movie was being made and no warning that Edmond O'Brien would be plowing through them.


6:45pm -- The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
A dangerous madman kidnaps two businessmen on a hunting trip.
Cast: Edmond O'Brien, Frank Lovejoy, William Talman, José Torvay
Dir: Ida Lupino
BW-71 mins, TV-PG

In an interview William Talman recalled an incident that happened shortly after the release of The Hitch-Hiker (1953), in which he gave a chilling portrayal of escaped murderer and serial killer Emmett Meyers. He was driving his convertible in Los Angeles with the top down, and he stopped at a red light. Another driver in a convertible who was stopped next to him stared at him for a few seconds, then said, "You're the hitchhiker, right?" Talman nodded, indicating that he was. The other driver got out of his car, went over to Talman's car and slapped him across the face, then got back in his car and drove off. In recalling the story, Talman said, "You know, I never won an Academy Award but I guess that was about as close as I ever will come to one."


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: STORIES FROM SOUTH AFRICA


8:00pm -- Cry, the Beloved Country (1952)
A South African minister travels to Johannesburg to find his missing son.
Cast: Canada Lee, Sidney Poitier, Charles Carson, Michael Goodlife
Dir: Zoltan Korda
BW-108 mins, TV-14

The film was shot in South Africa. Since the country was ruled by strict apartheid (enforced racial separation) laws, stars Sidney Poitier and Canada Lee and producer/director Zoltan Korda cooked up a scheme where they told the South African immigration authorities that Poitier and Lee were not actors but were Korda's indentured servants; otherwise, the two black actors and the white director would not have been allowed to associate with each other while they were in the country.


10:00pm -- A World Apart (1988)
A white girl in South Africa experiences Apartheid through the eyes of her activist mother and black housekeeper.
Cast: Barbara Hershey, Jodhi May, Jeroen Krabbe, Carolyn Clayton-Cragg
Dir: Chris Menges
C-113 mins, TV-14

First film of Jodhi May.


12:00am -- The Wilby Conspiracy (1975)
An African activist and an Englishman join forces to battle a corrupt government official in South Africa.
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Michael Caine, Nicol Williamson, Prunella Gee
Dir: Rod Amateau
C-101 mins, TV-14

Based on a novel by Peter Driscoll.


2:00am -- Performance (1970)
A wounded mobster holes up in a reclusive rock star's decaying mansion.
Cast: James Fox, Mick Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, Michèle Breton
Dir: Nicolas Roeg
C-106 mins, TV-MA

Keith Richards was so angry about the sex scenes between Mick Jagger and his girlfriend Pallenberg that he refused to play while the Stones recorded "Memo from Turner" for the soundtrack. Ry Cooder filled in, giving the song its signature slide guitar accompaniment.


3:45am -- Persona (1966)
An actress recovering from a breakdown exercises a strange hold over her nurse.
Cast: Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Gunnar Björnstrand, Jörgen Lindström
Dir: Ingmar Bergman
BW-83 mins, TV-MA

According to himself, Ingmar Bergman fell in love with Liv Ullmann during the making of the movie.


5:15am -- Mental Hospital (1953)
A schizophrenic enters the Oklahoma State Hospital for treatment.
Dir: Layton Maybrey.
BW-20 mins

According to scriptwriter Dwight Swain, patients were played by producers, crew and friends, since actual patients weren't legally competent to sign talent releases.

From its startling opening sequence in which a man wanders into a police precinct house to report a murder - his own - to its inevitably fatal conclusion, D.O.A. (1950) is a relentlessly dark tale told in flashback, a technique that adds inmeasurably to the film's complex plot as flashbacks occur within flashbacks, pulling you deeper into an endless rabbit hole. The journey into darkness begins as Frank Bigelow (Edmond O'Brien), a small-town businessman, travels to San Francisco to enjoy a final bachelor weekend before marrying his fiancee Paula (Pamela Britton). Once there, Bigelow hooks up with some fellow conventioneers who make their way to The Fisherman, a smoky waterfront pub where the jazz is like wild and crazy, man. Amid the pounding rhythm of the band and the transfixed patrons, a stranger slips up to the bar unnoticed to swap Bigelow's drink with a lethal cocktail. From here the story quickly spirals into a nightmare as Bigelow discovers he has been poisoned with iridium, a toxic mineral, and that he has only a few days to live. His final act is to track down his assassin and learn the reason for his own murder.

One of the most imaginative and frenetic entries in the film noir genre, D.O.A. works as both a detective thriller and as a bleak, nihilistic melodrama. Its doomed central character is distinctly different from most protagonists in this genre in that he is completely reckless and often takes dangerous personal risks. But after all, he has nothing to lose since he's a walking dead man anyway. Edmond O'Brien is ideally cast here and author Eddie Muller pays him a fitting homage in his book, The Lost World of Film Noir (St. Martin's Griffin): "Realizing that the convoluted plot is little more than a succession of gab-happy interrogation scenes, director Rudolph Mate gave O'Brien free rein to push the proceedings to a fever pitch. O'Brien responded with a performance more animated than Daffy Duck. He frantically lunges in and out of rooms; you can almost see the animated motion lines poof from the doorframes. He skitters and slides down hallways, outrunning his feet in the best Chuck Jones tradition. O'Brien is so overheated he can't stand still for a moment, lest he drown in a pool of sweat."

D.O.A. was based on Der Mann, Der Seinen Morder Sucht, a 1931 German film directed by Robert Siodmak, which dealt with a dying man's investigation of his forecoming demise. Rudolph Mate stuck to the original premise but adapted a much darker tone that presents a chaotic view of contemporary society. The film also offers two alternate tours of San Francisco and Los Angeles which aren't on any tourist map. These aren't the colorful local attractions you've seen in postcards but noctural glimpses of police stations, waterfront dives, and dark, deserted streets that are inexorably linked like a giant maze with no exit. In 1988, Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, the creators of Max Headroom remade D.O.A. with Dennis Quaid as the doomed hero but it was universally panned by the critics and not popular with audiences either.

Of interest to collectors of film trivia is the presence of Diana Barrymore in an uncredited bit part in D.O.A.. The daughter of famous actor and legendary alcoholic John Barrymore, Diana also led a troubled personal life and was at the lowest point in her career when she appeared in D.O.A. She made her final movie appearance the following year - also in an uncredited bit - in The Mob but made a brief comeback effort in 1958 with the publication of her autobiography, Too Much, Too Soon. Despite the book's success, she took her own life in 1960.

Producer: Leo C. Popkin
Director: Rudolph Mate
Screenplay: Clarence Greene, Russell Rouse
Art Direction: Duncan Cramer Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
Costume Design: Maria P. Donovan
Film Editing: Arthur H. Nadel
Original Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
Principal Cast: Edmond O'Brien (Frank Bigelow), Pamela Britton (Paula Gibson), Luther Adler (Majak), Beverly Garland (Miss Foster), Lynne Baggett (Mrs. Philips), Neville Brand (Chester), William Ching (Halliday).
BW-84m.

by Jeff Stafford