TCM Schedule for Friday, February 19 -- 31 Days of Oscar

Here are the actor connections from film to film for today's schedule:

• (In Cold Blood -- Bells Are Ringing) -- Ruth Storey
  
• (Bells Are Ringing -- Some Came Running) -- Len Lesser
  
• (Some Came Running -- Love Me Or Leave Me) -- Roy Engel
  
• (Love Me Or Leave Me -- Forbidden Planet) -- James Drury
  
• (Forbidden Planet -- Blackboard Jungle) -- Anne Frances
  
• (Blackboard Jungle -- Lilies of the Field) -- Sidney Poitier
  
• (Lilies of the Field -- Breakfast at Tiffany's) -- Stanley Adams
  
• (Breakfast at Tiffany's -- Hud) -- Patricia Neal
  
• (Hud -- Shane) -- Brandon De Wilde
  
• (Shane -- The Blue Dahlia) -- Alan Ladd
  
• (The Blue Dahlia -- All The King's Men) -- Will Wright
  
• (All The King's Men -- Julius Caesar) -- William Cottrell
  

Enjoy!


5:30am -- In Cold Blood (1967)
Two vagrants try to outrun the police after committing a savage crime in this real-life shocker.
Cast: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe, Paul Stewart
Dir: Richard Brooks
BW-134 mins, TV-14

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Conrad L. Hall, Best Director -- Richard Brooks, Best Music, Original Music Score -- Quincy Jones, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Richard Brooks

To get the authenticity he wanted, Richard Brooks filmed in all the actual locations including the Clutter house (where the murders took place) and the actual courtroom (6 of the actual jurors were used). Even Nancy Clutter's horse Babe was used in a few scenes. The actual gallows at the Kansas State Penitentiary were used for filming the executions, however, in a 2002 interview, Charles McAtee (who was State Corrections Director for Kansas in the 1960's), clarified the hangman in the film was an actor, not the real deal.


7:45am -- Bells Are Ringing (1960)
An answering service operator gets mixed up in her clients' lives.
Cast: Judy Holliday, Dean Martin, Fred Clark, Eddie Foy Jr.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
C-126 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- André Previn

The building that housed the phone answering service was a unique old building that was the only one on the block. Steven Spielberg used it 25 years later for the setting of *batteries not included (1987) which was supposedly owned by the only holdout in the middle of a construction project.


10:00am -- Some Came Running (1958)
A veteran returns home to deal with family secrets and small-town scandals.
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, Martha Hyer
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
C-136 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Arthur Kennedy, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Shirley MacLaine, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Martha Hyer, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White or Color -- Walter Plunkett, and Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "To Love and Be Loved"

It was during the making of this film that Shirley MacLaine found herself welcomed into what would later be called the "Rat Pack" fraternity that included Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, her co-stars in this film. Shirley MacLaine says the group known as the "Rat Pack" was actually called "The Clan" by the members while "Rat Pack" was a term given in the 1950s to Humphrey Bogart and his pals.


12:30pm -- Love Me Or Leave Me (1955)
True story of torch singer Ruth Etting's struggle to escape the gangster who made her a star.
Cast: Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell, Robert Keith
Dir: Charles Vidor
C-122 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Daniel Fuchs

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Cagney, Best Music, Original Song -- Nicholas Brodszky (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "I'll Never Stop Loving You", Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Percy Faith and George Stoll, Best Sound, Recording -- Wesley C. Miller (M-G-M), and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Daniel Fuchs and Isobel Lennart

Doris Day wrote in her autobiography that she hesitated before accepting the lead in this film. Ruth Etting was a kept woman who clawed her way up from seamy Chicago nightclubs to the Ziegfeld Follies. It would require her to drink, wear scant, sexy costumes and to string along a man she didn't love in order to further her career. There was also a certain vulgarity about Ruth Etting that she didn't want to play. Producer Joe Pasternak convinced Day to accept the role because she would give the part some dignity that would play away from the vulgarity.


2:45pm -- Forbidden Planet (1956)
A group of space troopers investigates the destruction of a colony on a remote planet.
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens
Dir: Fred McLeod Wilcox
C-99 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie, Irving G. Ries and Wesley C. Miller

David Rose, composer of light orchestral music such as "Holiday For Strings", was originally hired to write the score. He was relieved of his contract by producer Dore Schary in December 1955 when Schary discovered avant-garde electronic music creators Louis and Bebe Barron in a nightclub in Greenwich Village, New York, and hired them on the spot. The only confirmed piece of music which still remains from Rose's discarded original score is his Main Title Theme, which he released as a single on MGM Records in 1956.


4:30pm -- Blackboard Jungle (1955)
An idealistic teacher confronts the realities of juvenile delinquency.
Cast: Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern, Margaret Hayes
Dir: Richard Brooks
BW-101 mins, TV-14

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell, Edwin B. Willis and Henry Grace, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Russell Harlan, Best Film Editing -- Ferris Webster, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Richard Brooks

The lead "juvenile delinquents" were played by Vic Morrow and Sidney Poitier; in the year of film's release, Morrow was 26 and Poitier was 28.


6:15pm -- Lilies of the Field (1963)
An itinerant handyman in the Southwest gets a new outlook on life when he helps a group of German nuns build a chapel.
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Lilia Skala, Lisa Mann, Isa Crino
Dir: Ralph Nelson
BW-94 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Sidney Poitier

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Lilia Skala, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ernest Haller, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- James Poe, and Best Picture

Since the story's action was tied to the chapel's construction, crew had to work through the night to keep up with it "progress" in the film. The actual building was real and could have stood for decades, but because it was built on rented property, it had to be demolished immediately after the filming was completed.


What's On Tonight: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: Prime Time Lineup


8:00pm -- Breakfast At Tiffany's (1961)
A young writer gets caught up in a party girl's carefree existence.
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen
Dir: Blake Edwards
BW-115 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Henry Mancini (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "Moon River", and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Henry Mancini

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Audrey Hepburn, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson, Sam Comer and Ray Moyer, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- George Axelrod

The famous black dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in the opening scenes of this movie was sold for $807,000 on December 4, 2006 at Christie's Auction House in London, making it the second most expensive piece of movie memorabilia ever sold. The first is the Best Picture Oscar for Gone with the Wind (1939).


10:00pm -- Hud (1963)
An amoral modern rancher clashes with his rigid father.
Cast: Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal, Brandon de Wilde
Dir: Martin Ritt
BW-112 mins, TV-14

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Melvyn Douglas (Melvyn Douglas was not present at the awards ceremony. His co-star Brandon De Wilde accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Patricia Neal (Patricia Neal was not present at the awards ceremony. Annabella accepted the award on her behalf.), and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- James Wong Howe

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Newman, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Hal Pereira, Tambi Larsen, Sam Comer and Robert R. Benton, Best Director -- Martin Ritt, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr.

Paul Newman played the part of Hud as a villain. He was later stunned that so many young moviegoers had a poster of Hud and viewed him as their hero.



12:00am -- Shane (1953)
A mysterious drifter helps farmers fight off a vicious gunman.
Cast: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon de Wilde
Dir: George Stevens
C-118 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Loyal Griggs

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Brandon De Wilde, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Palance, Best Director -- George Stevens, Best Writing, Screenplay -- A.B. Guthrie Jr., and Best Picture

In the funeral scene, the dog consistently refused to look into the grave. Finally, director George Stevens had the dog's trainer lie down in the bottom of the grave, and the dog played his part ably. The coffin (loaded with rocks for appropriate effect) was then lowered into the grave, but when the harmonica player began to play "Taps" spontaneously, the crew was so moved by the scene that they began shoveling dirt into the grave before remembering the dog's trainer was still there.


2:15am -- The Blue Dahlia (1946)
A veteran fights to prove he didn't kill his cheating wife.
Cast: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, William Bendix, Howard Da Silva
Dir: George Marshall
BW-99 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Raymond Chandler

Shortly after this film released, a young woman named Elizabeth Short was murdered in Los Angeles. The local newspapers dubbed the case the "Black Dahlia" as a morbid twist on this film's title. Unlike the movie, the Short murder case is still unsolved.


4:00am -- All the King's Men (1949)
A backwoods politician rises to the top only to become corrupted.
Cast: Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Joanne Dru, John Derek
Dir: Robert Rossen
BW-110 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Broderick Crawford, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Mercedes McCambridge, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- John Ireland, Best Director -- Robert Rossen, Best Film Editing -- Robert Parrish and Al Clark, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Robert Rossen

Residents of the area around Stockton, California were used as extras in the film; often, director Robert Rossen would give them speaking parts and film the "rehearsals" to get a more spontaneous effect.

Forbidden Planet (1956) is one of those rare science fiction movies that is admired even by filmgoers who don't usually enjoy the genre. Though originally intended for younger audiences, Forbidden Planet draws on real sci-fi ideas and boasts a groundbreaking electronic music score that gives it unexpected substance. In fact, the basic storyline is based on Shakespeare's The Tempest but it's a free adaptation in the same way that Clueless (1995) was loosely modeled on Jane Austen's Emma: If you recognize the source fine, but it's not essential to your enjoyment of the film.

The basic premise of Forbidden Planet would serve as the blueprint for a slew of sci-fi films and TV shows in its wake such as the television series, Star Trek. The film opens with the approach of Cruiser C-57D toward Altira IV, a planet with a strange history. It seems an exploration ship vanished there twenty years earlier. The cruiser's crew (commanded by Leslie Nielsen) discovers that only two people are left from the previous expedition: the scientist Morbius (two-time Oscar nominee Walter Pidgeon) and his beautiful daughter Altaira (Anne Francis). These two have built a home above the remains of an ancient civilization (one of the benefits of which is their servant Robby the Robot). However, Morbius surprisingly refuses to return to Earth, a decision that becomes all the more mysterious when an invisible force attacks the ship.

Forbidden Planet was initially conceived as a much different - and decidedly cheaper - film. The producer/writer/special effects team of Allen Adler and Irving Block ran a popular optical effects company, working on numerous schlock films but also classics like The Night of the Hunter (1955). They came up with the idea for something called Fatal Planet as a potential project for one of the B-movie studios. Instead they pitched it to the high-rollers at MGM, a process that required the duo to act out the story, including an impersonation of the invisible monster, for the benefit of the investors. To everybody's surprise, the studio decided to make this their first science fiction film and budgeted the film at $1 million, later expanding it to almost double that amount.

For the script they enlisted novelist Cyril Hume, a descendant of philosopher David Hume whose main claim to film was writing screenplays for the popular Tarzan series (He also worked on the first version of Ransom (1956) and Nicholas Ray's classic melodrama, Bigger Than Life, 1956). Luckily, Hume's script for Forbidden Planet brings unusual depth to what might have been yet another tacky science fiction film. It also has its down side: MGM insisted Hume add several "humorous" scenes revolving around the ship's cook, Cookie (played by Earl Holliman). It's Hollywood executive decisions like this that lead some viewers to agree with literary historian James Kincaid's famous essay, "Who Is Relieved by Comic Relief?" Interestingly enough, a scene where the cook's constant comments about the scarcity of women on the planet are answered by Robby bringing him a female chimp was never filmed.

Forbidden Planet was made inside MGM studios (except for a handful of shots) and used a 10,000 foot circular painting as a backdrop. One oddity about Forbidden Planet is that the film we see today is more or less an unfinished rough cut. What happened is that experimental composers Louis and Bebe Barron had been asked to supply the music for the film. (They'd previously only scored a few avant-garde shorts.) It would turn out to be a landmark score, utilizing only generated sounds (no conventional instruments like violins or pianos) and paved the way for both new forms of film scoring and for a more open approach to music. But the studio was a bit uneasy about the eerie score so they arranged a sneak preview to see how audiences would react. The response was so positive that MGM decided to release the film as it was, not even letting the editor tighten up the pacing or rework some rough patches.

Robby the Robot was such a hit that he was used again the following year for The Invisible Boy (1957) but then vanished from the screen until a cameo in 1984's Gremlins (where he reuses some dialogue from Forbidden Planet). The 6-foot, 11-inch creation required a person inside to man the controls as well as some outside electronic manipulation, none of which kept Robby from occasionally toppling over (One popular rumor reported that Robby was a drunk). The robot's voice was supplied by Marvin Miller who did vocal chores on projects ranging from MASH to Electra Woman and Dyna Girl though he also did acting in front of the camera (he was the guy giving out checks on the TV show The Millionaire). Miller even won two Grammies for audio versions of Dr. Seuss stories.

The mysterious marauding monster was the creation of Disney animators, one of the few times they have ever worked on an outside film. But it's the unique look of the surreal landscapes of Altira IV to the detailed spaceship to the design of the strange underground civilization that earned the film an Academy Award nomination for Best Special Effects (the award went that year to The Ten Commandments).

If you're a hardcore Forbidden Planet fan, here are some more fun trivia facts. For example, actor Harry Harvey Jr., who plays Randall in the film, also appeared in the exploitation classic Reefer Madness (1936) and ended his career with an uncredited role as a slave in Spartacus (1960). James Drury (future star of the TV series, The Virginian, 1962) and James Best (Shock Corridor, 1963) also turn up in supporting roles. Also, you might notice a sudden jump in a scene toward the end of the film that looks like something was cut: It was but not by TCM. The filmmakers wanted to speed things up and just clipped out a few seconds thinking nobody would ever care.

Director: Fred M. Wilcox
Producer: Nicholas Nayfack
Screenplay: Cyril Hume (based on a story by Irving Block and Alan J. Adler)
Cinematography: George J. Folsey
Editing: Ferris Webster
Music: Bebe and Louis Barron
Principal Cast: Walter Pidgeon (Dr. Morbius), Leslie Nielsen (Commander John J. Adams), Anne Francis (Altaira Morbius), Warren Stevens (Doc Ostrow), Earl Holliman (Cookie), Richard Anderson (Chief Quinn), Jack Kelly (Lt. Farman), Robert Dix (Grey).
C-99m. Closed captioning. Letterboxed.

by Lang Thompson