TCM Schedule for Friday, February 5, 2021 -- What's On Tonight: Journalists in Danger

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM has films that feature Warren Oates. Then in prime time, TCM has Journalists in Danger, from many years before the Trump administration. Enjoy!


6:30 AM -- To Have and Have Not (1944)
1h 40m | Romance | TV-G
A skipper-for-hire's romance with a beautiful drifter is complicated by his growing involvement with the French resistance.
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan, Lauren Bacall

The most famous scene in the film is undoubtedly the "you know how to whistle" dialog sequence. It was not written by Ernest Hemingway, Jules Furthman, or William Faulkner, but by Howard Hawks. He wrote the scene as a screen test for Bacall with no real intention that it would necessarily end up in the film. The test was shot with Warner Bros. contract player John Ridgely acting opposite Bacall. The Warners staff, of course, agreed to star Bacall in the film based on the test, and Hawks thought the scene was so strong he asked Faulkner to work it into one of his later drafts of the shooting script.

Humphrey Bogart kisses Lauren Bacall ... find out who Bacall kisses in prime time next Thursday!


8:30 AM -- Hollywood My Hometown (1965)
52m | Documentary | TV-G
In this special, Ken Murray hosts his own behind-the-scenes home movies of some of Hollywood stars.
Director: William Martin
Cast: Ken Murray, Ben Alexander, Richard Arlen

Footage of Jayne Mansfield shows her with her husband, Mickey Hargitay, and the youngest of their three children, Mariska Hargitay.


9:30 AM -- The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960)
1h 41m | Crime | TV-PG
A small-time thief kills his way to the top of the New York rackets.
Director: Budd Boetticher
Cast: Ray Danton, Karen Steele, Elaine Stewart

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Howard Shoup

In an interview about the making of this film, cinematographer Lucien Ballard recalled, "We wanted to go for an authentic atmosphere for the 1920s where the film was showing. So after seeing some of the rushes, the producer went to Boetticher [director Budd Boetticher] and said, 'I thought you said Ballard was a great cameraman - this looks like it was shot in 1920!' And Budd said, 'It's SUPPOSED to look like it was shot in 1920!'*


11:15 AM -- Ride the High Country (1962)
1h 34m | Western | TV-PG
Two aging gunslingers sign on to transport gold from a remote mining town.
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, Mariette Hartley

This was Peckinpah's second film. The cast includes R.G. Armstrong, L. Q. Jones, John Davis Chandler, and Warren Oates. They were frequently cast in future Peckinpah films, and became part of a quasi "Sam Peckinpah Stock Company", like the famous "John Ford Stock Company" associated with Ford.


1:00 PM -- The Shooting (1966)
1h 22m | Western | TV-PG
A hired gun seeks to enact revenge on a group of bounty hunters in the Old West.
Director: Monte Hellman
Cast: Warren Oates, Jack Nicholson, Millie Perkins

In Warren Oates' biography, he says that he had a crush on co-star Millie Perkins.


2:30 PM -- Welcome to Hard Times (1967)
1h 43m | Western | TV-PG
A broken-down sheriff tries to help his town stand against a mysterious outlaw.
Director: Burt Kennedy
Cast: Henry Fonda, Janice Rule, Keenan Wynn

Originally made for television in 1966, but released to theaters instead, before being shown on TV because of its violent content.


4:30 PM -- Chandler (1971)
1h 28m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-14
A former private eye lands in hot water when he agrees to protect a government witness.
Director: Paul Magwood
Cast: Warren Oates, Leslie Caron, Alex Dreier

According to "Uprising at MGM," a Time Magazine article of Dec. 27, 1971, director Paul Magwood and producer Michael Laughlin placed a black-bordered ad in the Hollywood Reporter apologizing for the movie, claiming that MGM studio chief James T. Aubrey had severely re-cut Chandler (1971) and added previously deleted scenes, in Aubrey's judgment, to simplify the plot. Aubrey also allegedly changed the film score from 1940s-type music to something more contemporary. The producer and director also claimed that Magwood was denied entry to the editing room while Aubrey revised the film.


6:15 PM -- Badlands (1973)
1h 35m | Crime, Drama | TV-14
A teenager from a dead-end town decides to join a charming older boy on his shooting spree.
Director: Terrence Malick
Cast: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates

Sissy Spacek later said that working with Terrence Malick completely changed her whole attitude to film-making. She believes she would have had a much different career if she and Malick hadn't crossed paths.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- JOURNALISTS IN DANGER



8:00 PM -- The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)
1h 55m | Drama | TV-14
An Australian reporter and photographer get more than they'd bargained for during an Indonesian revolution.
Director: Peter Weir
Cast: Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Linda Hunt

Linda Hunt is the first actress to have won an Academy Award for portraying a member of the opposite sex. Hunt is also the only actress ever to win an Academy Award for playing a man, with no cross-dressing or transgenderism involved. Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry (1999)) received one for playing a biological female who identifies as a man, while Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love (1998)) received one for playing a woman, pretending to be a man, pretending to be a woman.


10:15 PM -- Under Fire (1983)
2h 7m | War
Three journalists get caught in the middle of the rebellion against President Somoza in Nicaragua.
Director: Ron Shelton, Roger Spottiswoode
Cast: Nick Nolte, Ed Harris, Gene Hackman

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Score -- Jerry Goldsmith

The movie is partially based on true events in Nicaragua. In 1979, the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza Debayle was overthrown by Sandanista leftist rebels. Gene Hackman's character, Alex Grazier, is based on ABC News reporter Bill Stewart. On June 20, 1979, Stewart was traveling in a van that was stopped at a checkpoint in Managua, the capitol city of Nicaragua. Although he identified himself as an American journalist, Stewart was shot and killed by soldiers of the Nicaraguan National Guard, the main force behind Somoza's dictatorship. As depicted in the film, the murder was filmed by Stewart's cameraman, and was later broadcast repeatedly on U.S. TV news reports. Public outrage over the murder forced the U.S. Government to drop its military support of the Somoza regime. In July, 1979, Somoza resigned and fled to Paraguay, where he was later assassinated by Sandanista hit men in September, 1980.


12:30 AM -- The Killing Fields (1984)
2h 14m | Epic | TV-MA
An American journalist and his Cambodian adviser fight to survive the country's communist takeover.
Director: Roland Joffe
Cast: Sam Waterson, John Malkovich, Haing S Ngor

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Haing S. Ngor, Best Cinematography -- Chris Menges, and Best Film Editing -- Jim Clark

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Sam Waterston, Best Director -- Roland Joffé, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Bruce Robinson, and Best Picture

In real life, Haing S. Ngor's wife died under the Khmer Rouge regime, hemorrhaging during childbirth (the baby also died). She knew that she couldn't contact her husband as doctors were all being murdered by the regime so by keeping her silence and dying of internal bleeding, she effectively saved his life.


3:00 AM -- Friday Foster (1975)
1h 30m | Action, Adaptation, Crime
In her swan song as queen of the B's, Pam Grier stars as fashion photographer Friday Foster.
Director: Arthur Marks
Cast: Ed Cambridge, Bebe Drake, Pam Grier, Yaphet Kotto

The film is based on a newspaper comic strip by Jim Lawrence and Jorje Longeron that debuted January 18, 1970. It was the first mainstream comic strip with a black lead character. The end credits thank Chicago Tribune Syndication, which licensed the comic strip to newspapers. Ironically, the movie was released after the strip ended.


4:45 AM -- Drug Stories (2019)
Educational | TV-14
A compilation of classroom scare films about the dangers of using drugs.