TCM Schedule for Friday, March 26 -- Ray Harryhausen

During the day -- film noir (there's something wrong about watching film noir in daylight!). Then tonight, I suppose to celebrate the coming release of a new version of Clash of the Titans, we have a trio of films that feature the special effects of the great Ray Harryhausen, including the original Clash of the Titans (1981). Enjoy!


6:00am -- MGM Parade Show #17 (1955)
Cyd Charisse and Ann Miller perform in a clip from "The Kissing Bandit"; George Murphy introduces a clip from "Diane." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-26 mins, TV-G

This seems to be the most frequently played short on the TCM network. What kind of pull does the Murphy estate have with TCM?


6:30am -- Ambush (1949)
A Westerner searches for a white woman held by the Apaches.
Cast: Robert Taylor, John Hodiak, Arlene Dahl, Don Taylor
Dir: Sam Wood
BW-89 mins, TV-G

Jean Hagen's first film, and director Sam Wood's last.


8:00am -- A Life Of Her Own (1950)
An innocent small-town girl climbs to the top of the modeling business man by man.
Cast: Lana Turner, Ray Milland, Tom Ewell, Louis Calhern
Dir: George Cukor
BW-109 mins, TV-PG

The ending in the original script had washed-up model Lily James, played by Lana Turner, at forty-five years of age working as a hotel maid. The original ending as filmed had Lily James committing suicide, following in the footsteps of Mary Ashton, the older model Lily meets earlier in the film who jumps to her death from a window. After filming finished in late March 1950 the film was shown to test audiences who gave such a negative reaction to this ending that retakes were done in mid-April 1950, to provide the film with the happier ending that's used in the finished film, much to the dismay of director George Cukor.


10:00am -- Side Street (1950)
A New York City mailman is chased by both cops and crooks when he steals a shipment of dirty money.
Cast: Farley Granger, Cathy O'Donnell, James Craig, Paul Kelly
Dir: Anthony Mann
BW-83 mins, TV-PG

The drugstore that Joe Norson calls from is the set of another MGM film noir, Tension (1950), which was shooting at approximately the same time.


11:30am -- No Questions Asked (1951)
A young lawyer's primrose path to success gets him framed for murder.
Cast: Barry Sullivan, Arlene Dahl, George Murphy, Jean Hagen
Dir: Harold F. Kress
BW-81 mins, TV-PG

Jean Hagen sings I've Got You Under My Skin in this film -- an interesting contrast to her most memorable film role as the screechy, tone-deaf Lina Lamont in Singin' In The Rain (1952).


1:00pm -- Night Into Morning (1951)
After a fire kills his family, a college professor sinks into alcoholism.
Cast: Ray Milland, John Hodiak, Nancy Davis, Lewis Stone
Dir: William Beaudine Jr.
BW-86 mins, TV-G

In the promotional film The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Story (1951), this film is referred to only under its working title, "People in Love".


2:30pm -- The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
A gang of small time crooks plots an elaborate jewel heist.
Cast: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, James Whitmore
Dir: John Huston
BW-112 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sam Jaffe, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Harold Rosson, Best Director -- John Huston, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Ben Maddow and John Huston

The musical scoring (by Miklós Rózsa) is extremely scant, occurring only for the main titles, continuing through the opening sequence up to the point where Handley enters the cafe, and then returns some 107 minutes later when Handley and Doll return to his boyhood farm. Total scoring just under 6 minutes.


4:30pm -- Johnny Guitar (1954)
A lady saloon owner battles a female rancher out to frame her for murder.
Cast: Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Scott Brady
Dir: Nicholas Ray
C-110 mins, TV-PG

Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge fought both on and off camera. One night, in a drunken rage, Crawford scattered the costumes worn by McCambridge along an Arizona highway. Cast and crew had to collect the outfits.


6:30pm -- Suddenly (1954)
Gunmen take over a suburban home to plot a presidential assassination.
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, James Gleason, Nancy Gates
Dir: Lewis Allen
BW-76 mins, TV-PG

This is the film that Lee Harvey Oswald supposedly watched just a few days before assassinating President John F. Kennedy.


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: RAY HARRYHAUSEN


8:00pm -- Jason And The Argonauts (1963)
The legendary hero enlists the help of the gods to steal the golden fleece.
Cast: Todd Armstrong, Nancy Kovack, Gary Raymond, Laurence Naismith
Dir: Don Chaffey
C-104 mins, TV-PG

It took Ray Harryhausen four months to produce the skeleton scene, a massive amount of time for a scene which lasts, at the most, three minutes.


10:00pm -- Clash Of The Titans (1981)
A Greek hero fights a series of monsters, including the dreaded gorgon, to win the woman he loves.
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom, Maggie Smith, Burgess Meredith
Dir: Desmond Davis
C-118 mins, TV-14

Screenwriter Beverley Cross was a student of mythology and he developed a storyline centering on Perseus and Andromeda which linked together a number of myths. He took the idea to producers Charles H. Schneer and Ray Harryhausen. The story was modified to add more creatures. Cross's wife, actress Maggie Smith, appeared in the film as Thetis.


12:15am -- The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad (1973)
Sinbad battles a fiendish magician and his many monsters.
Cast: John Phillip Law, Tom Baker, Caroline Munro, Douglas Wilmer
Dir: Gordon Hessler
C-105 mins, TV-PG

The closed-captioner for this movie decided to have some fun with Prince Koura's lines. When Koura says his unintelligible magic spells to summon the dark spirits against Sinbad and his crew, the captions for the first time he does that read, "SSFUP AOCOC ROF OOKCUC MI" (which is IM CUCKOO FOR COCOA PUFFS spelled backwards); and subsequently, "TTIBBAR YLLIS. YLNO SDIK ROFERA XIRT" (that reverses to TRIX ARE FOR KIDS ONLY. SILLY RABBIT).


2:15am -- Race With The Devil (1975)
Two vacationing couples who witness a satanic sacrifice suddenly find their lives threatened.
Cast: Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Loretta Swit, Lara Parker
Dir: Jack Starrett
C-88 mins

Director Jack Starrett claims he hired real life Satanists as cult-member extras.


3:45am -- Hot Rods To Hell (1967)
A family traveling through the desert is set up by a teen gang.
Cast: Dana Andrews, Jeanne Crain, Mimsy Farmer, Laurie Mock
Dir: John Brahm
C-100 mins, TV-PG

Originally made for television in 1966, but released first in theaters and drive-ins instead.


5:30am -- Short Film: Shake Hands With Danger (1970)
Safety film about dangers associated with earthmoving equipment operation, showing many simulated accidents on construction sites
C-23 mins, TV-PG

Filmed on location in Lawrence, Kansas.

Regarded as one of the most creative craftsmen in his field of model animation, special effects master Ray Harryhausen won the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for Technical Achievement at the 1992 Academy Awards. Born in Los Angeles in 1920, Harryhausen came under the spell of stop-motion animation when he first saw Willis O'Brien's effects for King Kong (1933). Harryhausen, who would later describe himself as a "King Kong addict," was soon making his own animated films in his family's basement.

During World War II service in the Signal Corps, Harryhausen created stop-motion shorts including How to Bridge a Gorge and Guadalcanal. After the war he created a series of "Mother Goose" and "Fairy Tale" films; among the best of the lot are Rupunzel (1951) and The Story of King Midas (1953). After assisting George Pal on his "Puppetoons" shorts, Harryhausen was able to work with his idol, Willis O'Brien, on Mighty Joe Young (1949), the story of a giant ape in the King Kong tradition. Harryhausen reportedly did 80% of that movie's actual animation.

His other spectacular effects include the dueling skeletons who fight live actors in The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958) and Jason and the Argonauts (1963); the sea monster and oversized scorpions of Clash of the Titans (1981); the sword-wielding six-armed statue of Kaki and a cyclopean centaur in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973); and the giant creatures in Mysterious Island (1961), a "Captain Nemo" story for which Harryhausen creates the animation and his friend and collaborator, composer Bernard Herrmann, provides the music.

by Roger Fristoe


* Films in Bold Air on TCM