TCM Schedule for Friday, February 26, 2021 -- What's On Tonight: Starring Laurence Harvey

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM's theme is Strange Magic! Then in prime time, TCM is featuring films starring Laurence Harvey. From Wikipedia:

Laurence Harvey (born Zvi Mosheh Skikne; 1 October 1928 – 25 November 1973) was a Lithuanian-born British actor and film director. He was born to Lithuanian Jewish parents and emigrated to South Africa at an early age, before later settling in the United Kingdom after World War II. In a career that spanned a quarter of a century, Harvey appeared in stage, film and television productions primarily in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Known for his clipped, refined accent and cool, debonair screen persona; his performance in Room at the Top (1959) resulted in an Academy Award nomination. That success was followed by the roles of William Barret Travis in The Alamo and Weston Liggett in BUtterfield 8, both films released in the autumn of 1960. He also appeared as the brainwashed Sergeant Raymond Shaw in The Manchurian Candidate (1962). He made his directorial debut with The Ceremony (1963). He continued acting into the 1970s, until his sudden death in 1973 of cancer.

Enjoy!


6:30 AM -- Ninotchka (1939)
1h 50m | Comedy | TV-G
A coldhearted Soviet agent is warmed up by a trip to Paris and a night of love.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greta Garbo, Best Writing, Original Story -- Melchior Lengyel, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch and Billy Wilder, and Best Picture

The tagline "Garbo laughs!" came before the screenplay was written; the film was built around that single, now legendary, slogan. This slogan was itself a reference to another legendary advertising slogan about Greta Garbo. Garbo, a famous leading lady of the silent film era, made her first talking picture, Anna Christie (1930). That film was advertised, to great success, with the slogan "Garbo Talks!". When she made this comedy the "Garbo Laughs!" tagline resonated with her fans.

Greta Garbo kisses Melvyn Douglas ...


8:30 AM -- Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
1h 35m | Comedy | TV-G
A woman's two lives as small-town innocent and author of torrid romances collide.
Director: Richard Boleslawski
Cast: Irene Dunne, Melvyn Douglas, Thomas Mitchell

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, and Best Film Editing -- Otto Meyer

The dialogue from this film is re-used in the film Bedtime Story (1941), in which Fredric March portrays a playwright and Loretta Young his actress wife. All the dialogue in March's new "play" is actually from the screenplay of this film. It's virtually word for word, with only the heroine's name changed. The "gardener" referred to in the dialogue is of course Melvyn Douglas. Columbia Pictures, the distributor of "Bedtime Story," made this film, too, but none of the writers overlap between the films. Interestingly, in "Bedtime Story," the actors playing the onstage scene are not meant to be in a comedy. What is borrowed is the confrontation over the gardener between Theodora, her aunt, and the local club ladies. Also, in an early scene, March has an inspiration for the last line of his play - something about nobody in the town ever calling the heroine "baby" before - an idea that figures in "Theodora Goes Wild" as well.

Melvyn Douglas kisses Irene Dunne, who was the first kisser on February 4, when she kissed Cary Grant. Lucky lady!


10:15 AM -- Magic Boy (1959)
1h 22m | Adventure | TV-G
An adolescent sorcerer uses magic to save his sister from an evil witch.
Director: Akira Daikubara
Cast: Akira Daikubara, Kazuo Dan, Ray Ellis

This was the first anime feature ever to be released in the United States.


11:45 AM -- Their Big Moment (1934)
1h 8m | Comedy | TV-G
A phony psychic conjures up a real ghost who asks her to solve his murder.
Director: James Cruze
Cast: Zasu Pitts, Slim Summerville, William Gaxton

Walter C. Hackett's play, "Afterwards," opened in London on 7 November 1933. It had no Broadway production.


1:00 PM -- Miracles for Sale (1939)
1h 11m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
A magician turns detective to investigate murder and a phony seance.
Director: Tod Browning
Cast: Robert Young, Florence Rice, Frank Craven

The character of Michael Morgan seems to be loosely based on Houdini, who created illusions for his own magic act (Morgan merely sells them to others) and made a life-long dedication to exposing fake psychics and mediums.


2:15 PM -- Fingers at the Window (1942)
1h 20m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
A magician uses hypnosis to create an army of murderers.
Director: Charles Lederer
Cast: Lew Ayres, Laraine Day, Basil Rathbone

Lew Ayres changed his military status from "conscientious-objector" to "non-combatant" in April 1942 causing great consternation at M-G-M, which already re-shot the "Dr Kildare" film he had just completed, removing him from the cast completely. By the time this film was released, the furor had died down and it opened without incident. In fact, one reviewer noted the business was brisk, possibly because of Ayres' honesty and courage in jeopardizing his movie career for the sake of his principles.


3:45 PM -- The Strange Mr. Gregory (1946)
1h 3m | Suspense/Mystery
A magician fakes his own death to catch a murderer.
Director: Phil Rosen, Seymour Roth
Cast: Edmund Lowe, Jean Rogers, Don Douglas

Based on a story by Myles Connolly.


5:00 PM -- The Mad Magician (1954)
1h 12m | Horror/Science-Fiction
Betrayed by his manager, a master magician uses his skills to seek revenge.
Director: John Brahm, Hal Herman
Cast: Vincent Price, Mary Murphy, Eva Gabor

Film debut of Patrick O'Neal.


6:15 PM -- Two on a Guillotine (1965)
1h 47m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
A magician's estranged daughter must stay in his mansion for seven nights alone to inherit his fortune.
Director: William Conrad
Cast: Connie Stevens, Dean Jones, Cesar Romero

Prolific composer Max Steiner's last film for Warner Bros. after nearly 30 years with that studio.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- STARRING LAURENCE HARVEY



8:00 PM -- The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
2h 6m | Drama | TV-PG
A Korean War hero doesn't realize he's been programmed to kill by the enemy.
Director: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Angela Lansbury, and Best Film Editing -- Ferris Webster

According to Executive Producer Howard W. Koch, the budget was two million two hundred thousand dollars. Of that amount, one million dollars went for Frank Sinatra's salary, with another two hundred thousand dollars for Laurence Harvey, leaving only one million dollars for everything else.


10:15 PM -- BUtterfield 8 (1960)
1h 49m | Drama | TV-PG
A party girl ruins her life when she falls for a married man.
Director: Daniel Mann
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, Eddie Fisher

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Taylor

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Joseph Ruttenberg and Charles Harten

Dame Elizabeth Taylor and her husband, Mike Todd, had planned for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) to be her final movie, as she intended to retire from the screen. Todd had made a verbal agreement about this with MGM, but after his death, MGM forced Taylor to make this movie in order to fulfill the terms of her studio contract. As a result, Taylor refu


12:15 AM -- Of Human Bondage (1964)
1h 38m | Drama | TV-PG
A medical student risks his future when he falls for a low-class waitress.
Director: Ken Hughes
Cast: Kim Novak, Laurence Harvey, Robert Morley

This was something of a catastrophe for "MGM." Filming began early in 1963, but Henry Hathaway resigned as director and Bryan Forbes, who had a prominent supporting role, did a week of directing before also leaving the film. He tried without success to have his credit as writer of the screenplay removed and was replaced as an actor by Jack Hedley. (However, Forbes can be glimpsed, more or less as an extra, in one or two scenes). Ken Hughes finished the film and reportedly had a very bad time; the film was many months in the editing rooms and was not seen until late in 1964, nearly a year after its scheduled release date. It ran for only 99 minutes - a surprise, as the novel is about 800 pages. It was a commercial and critical disaster, being released in the UK on the lower half of a double-bill. It has only infrequently been see since, even on TV.


2:00 AM -- Hiding Out (1987)
1h 39m | Action, Comedy, Drama
After a 29-year-old bond trader testifies against a mob boss in court, his life is in danger.
Director: Bob Giraldi, Carol Wood
Cast: John David Ward, Jon Cryer, Gretchen Cryer

The character played by Annabeth Gish, Ryan, writes a paper which criticizes the presidency of Richard Nixon. Less than a decade later in Nixon (1995), Gish played Julie Nixon Eisenhower, daughter of Richard Nixon, who, as it turns out, offers to publicly defend her father from the very things described in Ryan's paper.


4:00 AM -- Out of Bounds (1986)
1h 33m | Action, Crime, Thriller
Daryl Cage's parents think that he will have a better life if he leaves the family farm and goes to live with his brother in the city.
Director: Richard Tuggle, James M Arnett
Cast: Raymond J Barry, Ted Gehring, Jerry Levine

The picture was designed to alter the "geek" image of lead actor Anthony Michael Hall by playing a more "macho" type role. Hall had become typecast playing such "nerd" types in 1980s teenpics.

[ratchiweenie]

1. I also loved him in Summer and Smoke with Geraldine Page. Two of my favorites.