TCM Schedule for Friday, November 27, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: TCM Spotlight: Under the Big Top

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, it's the rest of the Hitchcock-a-thon. Then in prime time, TCM completes their month-long look at the circus. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- The Lady Vanishes (1938)
1h 37m | Comedy | TV-G
A young woman on vacation triggers an international incident when she tries to track an elderly friend who has disappeared.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas

In an interview with Peter Bogdanovich, Sir Alfred Hitchcock revealed that this movie was inspired by a legend of an Englishwoman who went with her daughter to the Palace Hotel in Paris in the 1880s, at the time of the Great Exposition: "The woman was taken sick and they sent the girl across Paris to get some medicine in a horse-vehicle, so it took about four hours. When she came back she asked, 'How's my mother?' 'What mother?' 'My mother. She's here, she's in her room. Room 22.' They go up there. Different room, different wallpaper, everything. And the payoff of the whole story is, so the legend goes, that the woman had bubonic plague and they dared not let anybody know she died, otherwise all of Paris would have emptied." The urban legend, known as the Vanishing Hotel Room, also formed the basis of one segment of the German portmanteau movie Eerie Tales (1919), So Long at the Fair (1950) (in which the missing person was the young woman's brother as opposed to her mother) and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) season one, episode five, "Into Thin Air", starring Hitchcock's daughter Patricia Hitchcock.


7:45 AM -- Strangers on a Train (1951)
1h 36m | Drama | TV-PG
A man's joking suggestion that he and a chance acquaintance trade murders turns deadly.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Robert Burks

The relationship between Raymond Chandler (who co-wrote this screenplay) and Sir Alfred Hitchcock was not a happy one. The main bone of contention between the two men was that Chandler's writing paid more attention to character motivation, while Hitchcock was more interested in the visual development and formal structure of the movie laid out in the treatment. In a letter to a studio executive, Chandler said he preferred to work with a director "who realizes that what is said and how it is said is more important than shooting it upside down through a glass of champagne." The two men also had different meeting styles. Hitchcock enjoyed long, rambling off-topic meetings where often the movie would not even be mentioned for hours, while Chandler was strictly business and wanted to get out and get writing. He called the meetings "god-awful jabber sessions which seem to be an inevitable although painful part of the picture business." Chandler was also a hard drinker and a difficult person with whom to get along under the best of circumstances. Interpersonal relations deteriorated rapidly until finally Chandler became openly combative. When Hitchcock arrived at Chandler's house for a story meeting, Chandler hollered from his window, "Look at the fat bastard trying to get out of his car!" When his secretary warned that Hitchcock might be able to hear him, Chandler said he didn't care.


9:30 AM -- Saboteur (1942)
1h 48m | Thriller | TV-PG
A young man accused of sabotage goes on the lam to prove his innocence.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings, Otto Kruger

When the French liner, the S.S. Normandie burned and partially sank in New York City harbor, Sir Alfred Hitchcock quickly dispatched a Universal newsreel crew to the scene to get footage that he incorporated into this movie, intercut with studio shots of the saboteur smiling from the back seat of a taxi as he looks out on the supposedly sabotaged ship.


11:45 AM -- Torn Curtain (1966)
2h 8m | Thriller | TV-PG
A U.S. scientist pretends to defect to follow his mentor behind the Iron Curtain.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Lila Kedrova

According to the book "It's Only a Movie", Sir Alfred Hitchcock said, "There was an ending written which wasn't used, but I rather liked it. No one agreed with me except my colleague at home (his wife Alma). Everyone told me that you couldn't have a letdown ending after all that. Paul Newman would have thrown the formula away. After what he has gone through, after everything we have endured with him, he just tosses it. It speaks to the futility of all, and it's in keeping with the kind of naiveté of the character, who is no professional spy, and who will certainly retire from that nefarious business."


2:00 PM -- Marnie (1964)
2h 10m | Romance | TV-PG
A rich man marries a compulsive thief and tries to unlock the secrets of her mind.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery, Diane Baker

Sir Alfred Hitchcock, following his usual practice, bid for the movie rights to Winston Graham's novel anonymously, so as to keep the price down. However, in this instance, the scheme backfired, the anonymity of the purchaser made Graham suspicious, although he regarded the amount of money on offer as extremely generous. He instructed his agent to ask for twice as much. Hitchcock agreed, on condition that the deal be closed immediately. When Graham discovered who it was who had bought the rights, he said he would have given them away free for the honor of having one of his stories filmed by Sir Alfred Hitchcock.


4:15 PM -- The Trouble with Harry (1955)
1h 39m | Comedy | TV-PG
A corpse creates a world of trouble for several passersby who each believe they may have caused the death.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Mildred Natwick

This movie was Sir Alfred Hitchcock's experiment to see how audiences would react to a non-star-driven movie. He was of the opinion that oftentimes having a big star attached actually hindered the narrative flow and style of the story. He also developed the movie to test how American audiences would react to a more subtle brand of humor than they were used to.


6:00 PM -- Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
1h 48m | Drama | TV-PG
A young girl fears her favorite uncle may be a killer.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Macdonald Carey

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

The producers assigned scouts to find an appropriate house to serve as a setting for this movie in Santa Rosa, where this movie was to be shot on-location. Sir Alfred Hitchcock had provided specific instructions that the house was to be nice, but somewhat worn-down to emphasize the Newton family's middle class background. The scouts selected the house which appears in the movie, and Hitchcock was delighted by the photographs of their selection. The house was well-built with both a charming interior and exterior. However, it was an older house that was slightly out of fashion at the time, needed a few cosmetic repairs, had a bit of an overgrown lawn and garage area, and the exterior painting was faded and chipped. Hitchcock believed that the expensive and sturdy, but weathered and worn, look to the house would give the suggestion that the Newton family could be anyone, just the average American family in any average American town. Hitchcock gave the scouts the authority to rent the house from its owners as a temporary filming location, much to the owners' pride and delight. He was horrified, however, when he appeared at the house to begin filming. The owners, excited by the prospect of a major movie being shot at their house, had freshly painted the entire house, manicured the lawn, and made a few repairs to the exterior. Hitchcock had to have his effects team artificially age the wear to the house and shoot around the owners' most-effective recent renovations.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: UNDER THE BIG TOP



8:00 PM -- 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)
1h 40m | Western | TV-PG
A Chinese showman uses his magical powers to save a Western town from itself.
Director: George Pal
Cast: Tony Randall, Barbara Eden, Arthur O'connell

Winner of an Oscar Honorary Award for William Tuttle for his outstanding make-up achievement for 7 Faces of Dr. Lao

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects -- Jim Danforth

Tony Randall shaved his head for the role of Dr. Lao. It also made it easier to apply the make-up for the different characters he played. The studio publicity department wanted to photograph Randall getting his head shaved but arrived at the barber too late. They had the make-up artist glue hair back on Randall's head so Randall could pose for photos while getting the hair cut off again.


10:00 PM -- Jumbo (1962)
2h 5m | Comedy | TV-G
The daughter of a circus owner fights to save her father from a takeover spearheaded by the man she loves.
Director: Charles Walters
Cast: Doris Day, Stephen Boyd, Jimmy Durante

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- George Stoll

This was Doris Day's last appearance in a full-on musical - and one of the last of the lavishly-budgeted MGM musicals as well. Despite Day being ranked the #1 box office star at the time of its release, it was widely considered a box office failure.


12:15 AM -- At the Circus (1939)
1h 27m | Comedy | TV-G
The Marx Bros. team up to keep a circus from going bankrupt.
Director: Edward Buzzell
Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx

For Groucho Marx' performance of "'Lydia, the Tattooed Lady", additional lyrics were written by lyricist E.Y. Harburg exclusively for screenings of the film for Allied servicemen in European war zones. The special lyrics included the line "When she stands the world grows littler; When she sits, she sits on Hitler.' The version of the song featuring the special lyrics was filmed, and included in prints of the film distributed in Great Britain and France. The version of the song containing the special lyrics was greeted with marked enthusiasm during screenings in those countries.


2:00 AM -- Born in Flames (1983)
1h 30m | Drama | TV-14
In a future where a socialist government gains power, a group of women decides to organize to fight back.
Director: Lizzie Borden
Cast: Honey, Adel Bertei, Jean Satterfield

Eric Bogosian made his first screen appearance in this film. He is one of the TV technicians who is forced at gunpoint to play the Women's Army videotape on the air. Director Kathryn Bigelow, in her screen acting debut, appears as the character, Kathy Larsen, a newspaper editor.


3:30 AM -- The Fog (1980)
1h 31m | Horror | TV-14
Dead sailors use a deadly fog to haunt a coastal town.
Director: John Carpenter
Cast: Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh

Although this was essentially a low budget independent movie, John Carpenter chose to shoot the movie in anamorphic widescreen Panavision. This decision gave the movie a grander feel for the viewer so this didn't seem like a low budget horror movie.


5:15 AM -- Time Out for Trouble (1961)
19m | Documentary | TV-PG
The spirit of an evil mantle clock examines various household accidents in this short film.
Director: David S. Glidden
Cast: Bonnie Hammett, John Nesom, Alice Spann

Depicts husband and wife in same bed, uncommon for the time.