TCM Schedule for Friday, March 22, 2019 -- What's On Tonight: Wartime Intrigue

[Staph]

During the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating Women of the West. Take it away, Roger!

Think of the average Western movie and the images that come to mind are likely to be rugged landscapes populated by hard-riding cowboys. But some Hollywood films have considered the Women of the West, who were often forced by circumstances to be as tough and resourceful as their men. Whether finding their own independent way or establishing a household and raising a family, these women coped with harsh living conditions, frequent lawlessness and, in the early days of settling the West, gun battles and raging conflicts with the land's natives. TCM presents a series of films that look at the legendary American West with a focus on the female perspective.

Montana Moon (1930) is a pre-Code Western romance and an early sound vehicle for Joan Crawford. As a wealthy and impulsive party girl living the high life in New York City, she returns to her family ranch in Montana and has a fling with one man (Ricardo Cortez) but marries a Texas cowboy (Johnny Mack Brown). Crawford gets to sing and dance here, while Cliff Edwards introduced the concept of the singing cowboy to the movies.

The Renegade Ranger (1938) is a low-budget Western made by RKO and featuring Rita Hayworth a few years before she became a major star at Columbia Pictures. Hayworth plays outlaw queen Judith Alvarez, an accused murderess leading a gang in a range war against crooked government officials. George O'Brien and Tim Holt costar.

Gentle Annie (1944) has Marjorie Main in the title role as a gruff but loving Southern woman who settles in the West after the Civil War with her two grown sons (Harry Morgan and Paul Langton). After the boys are involved in a train robbery, a U.S. Marshall (James Craig) investigates. Donna Reed costars.

Westward the Women (1951) is a surprisingly gritty MGM Western, directed by William Wellman and starring Robert Taylor as the leader of a wagon train filled with various types of pioneer women of the 1850s, who are traveling to California to become mail-order brides. One of Taylor's best vehicles, the film also provides a showcase for the actresses involved including Hope Emerson, Denise Darcel and Julie Bishop.

Many Rivers to Cross (1955) also stars Robert Taylor, this time as a Kentucky trapper of 1798 who is determined not to marry. Eleanor Parker shines in this lively backwoods comedy as the tomboyish beauty who simply won't take no for an answer. The movie is dedicated to frontier women.

The First Traveling Saleslady (1956) stars Ginger Rogers in the title role as a corset shop owner of 1897, who changes her wares and attempts to sell barbed wire to Texas ranchers. The comedy-with-music costars Carol Channing, Barry Nelson and David Brian and features future stars James Arness and Clint Eastwood--who delivers his first screen kiss to Channing!

Fort Dobbs (1958) casts Virginia Mayo as a brave frontier woman who must trust a stranger (Clint Walker) to escort her and her young son (Richard Eyer) to the safety of a fort after her husband is killed and Comanches are on the warpath. On the journey she begins to suspect that the stranger may be her husband's killer.

A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966) is a comedy set in the Old West--specifically Laredo, Texas--where a family man with a gambling problem (Henry Fonda) is drawn into a high-stakes poker game despite the disapproval of his wife (Joanne Woodward). When her husband collapses, the "little lady" is compelled to finish the game. Fielder Cook directed an exemplary cast that also includes Jason Robards, Paul Ford, Burgess Meredith, Charles Bickford and Kevin McCarthy.

by Roger Fristoe

Then in prime time, it's spies vs. Nazis! Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- MONTANA MOON (1930)
A flapper weds a cowboy and has to adjust to life out West.
Dir: Malcolm St. Clair
Cast: Joan Crawford, John Mack Brown, Dorothy Sebastian
BW-89 mins, CC,

The film introduced the concept of the singing cowboy to the screen.


7:45 AM -- MANY RIVERS TO CROSS (1955)
A pioneer woman sets her sights on a trapper.
Dir: Roy Rowland
Cast: Robert Taylor, Eleanor Parker, Victor McLaglen
C-95 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Third and final film in four years to co-star Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker, who play lovers in all three films.


9:30 AM -- FORT DOBBS (1958)
A frontierswoman suspects the man who rescued her from the Comanches of killing her husband.
Dir: Gordon Douglas
Cast: Clint Walker, Virginia Mayo, Brian Keith
BW-90 mins, CC,

Film debut of Clint Walker. For those of us of a certain age, he will always be Cheyenne Bodie, of the television series Cheyenne (1955-1962).


11:15 AM -- RENEGADE RANGER (1938)
A Texas Ranger discovers the man he's chasing for murder is a woman.
Dir: David Howard
Cast: George O'Brien, Rita Hayworth, Tim Holt
BW-59 mins, CC,

A four-minute-long scene near the end of this film is an exact copy--line for line and shot for shot--of a scene in Tim Holt's Come On Danger (1942). It begins with the hero and two sidekicks listening outside a window as the villain discusses murdering the heroine, followed by a fight in which the villain's cook comes out of the kitchen and disrupts the fight by cutting the rope that holds up a suspended wagon-wheel chandelier. In "Come on Danger" the hero is Holt and his sidekicks are Ray Whitley and Lee 'Lasses' White. In this film the hero is O'Brien and his sidekicks are Ray Whitley (again)--and none other than Tim Holt. In both versions, Holt pretends to be injured and staggers past two guards, then he falls over while his two companions jump the distracted guards.


12:30 PM -- OKLAHOMA OUTLAWS (1943)
In this short western, a gang of outlaws threatens a family. Vitaphone Release 1145A.
Dir: B. Reeves Eason
Cast: Pat McKee, Jack Mower, Erville Alderson
BW-20 mins,

First episode in WB's series of Santa Fe Trail 2-reel Westerns


1:00 PM -- GENTLE ANNIE (1944)
A frontierswoman turns her family into a band of bank robbers.
Dir: Andrew Marton
Cast: James Craig, Donna Reed, Marjorie Main
BW-80 mins, CC,

Production of the movie actually began in October 1942 with W.S. Van Dyke as director and Robert Taylor, Susan Peters, Spring Byington, Charley Grapewin, Van Johnson, Morris Ankrum and James Craig. The production was halted and finally shelved when Van Dyke became ill after 4 weeks of shooting, and when it was revived in 1944, only Ankrum and Craig remained in the cast, but in different roles.


2:30 PM -- A BIG HAND FOR THE LITTLE LADY (1966)
A pioneer woman replaces her ailing husband in a poker game after he loses most of their money.
Dir: Fielder Cook
Cast: Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards Jr.
C-95 mins, CC,

Final film of Charles Bickford.


4:15 PM -- THE FIRST TRAVELING SALESLADY (1956)
A corset designer takes a job selling barbed wire in the wild West.
Dir: Arthur Lubin
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Barry Nelson, Carol Channing
C-92 mins, CC,

Ginger Rogers and Carol Channing jokingly called this "Death of a Saleslady", claiming that it was a "terrible picture".


6:00 PM -- WESTWARD THE WOMEN (1951)
A frontiersman leads a wagon train full of mail-order brides.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: Beverly Dennis, Renata Vanni, John McIntire
BW-116 mins, CC,

Denise Darcel's French-language dialog includes a few words which prove that no one in the 1950s version of the Hays Office understood French. Some of the terms she used while angry at "Buck Wyatt" would never have gotten past the censors in English.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: WARTIME INTRIGUE



8:00 PM -- MORITURI (1965)
The English blackmail a German expatriate into a Nazi rubber shipment.
Dir: Bernhard Wicki
Cast: Marlon Brando, Yul Brynner, Janet Margolin
BW-123 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Conrad L. Hall, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Moss Mabry

Brando initially refused to go on a tour to meet the press and promote the film. The studio threatened him, as he was contractually required to promote the film, so Brando made an appearance at one press conference. He said to the press, "You will be unable to proceed in life unless you see Morituri." The studio released him from having to do any more press appearances after this sarcastic statement.


10:15 PM -- NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH (1940)
A British agent masquerades as a Nazi officer to protect an inventor and his daughter.
Dir: Carol Reed
Cast: Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison, Paul von Henreid
BW-95 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Gordon Wellesley

The second of six cinematic appearances by Charters and Caldicott (played by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne). They first appeared in The Lady Vanishes (1938), also written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder. They later appeared in Crook's Tour (1940), Millions Like Us (1943), and It's Not Cricket (1949), which were also written by Gilliat and Lauder, and in Dead of Night (1945).


12:15 AM -- I WAS AN AMERICAN SPY (1951)
A war widow spies for the U.S. in Japanese-occupied Manila.
Dir: Lesley Selander
Cast: Ann Dvorak, Gene Evans, Douglas Kennedy
BW-85 mins, CC,

It would seem evident that the woman decorated at the end of the movie was the real Claire Phillips. There could be no other reason for director Lesley Selander to use a woman other than Ann Dvorak, who played Claire, in this scene.


2:00 AM -- LIFEFORCE (1985)
A race of space vampires arrives in London and infects the populace, beginning an apocalyptic descent into chaos.
Dir: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay
BW-116 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Sir Patrick Stewart has his first on-screen kiss with Steve Railsback in this movie.


4:00 AM -- QUEEN OF BLOOD (1966)
An alien ambassador to Earth turns out to be a vampire.
Dir: Curtis Harrington
Cast: John Saxon, Basil Rathbone, Judi Meredith
BW-78 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Czech actress Florence Marly was a personal friend of director Harrington. He later said that he had to fight with Roger Corman in order to hire her "because she was an older woman. Harrington would say, "I'm sure he had some bimbo in mind, you know? So I fought for Marly because I felt she had the required exotic quality that would work in the role."Harrington also said Dennis Hopper "was like a part of my little team by then," so he agreed to also appear.


5:30 AM -- THE HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE (1954)
Military tests demonstrate the dangers of poor home maintenance in the event of a nuclear attack in this short film.
C-12 mins,

Unintentionally funny short put out by the National Clean Up-Paint Up-Fix Up Bureau (yes, really) and the Civil Defense Administration. The gist of it is that you should keep your house clean and tidy with a fresh coat of paint because if there's a nuclear war your house will survive it. You'll be atomized but your house will still be standing. Did my mother have something to do with the writing of this film?