TCM Schedule for Friday, September 17, 2021 -- What's On Tonight: Mellencamp

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is looking at Movie Magic. Then in prime time, it's the first of two nights of John Mellancamp as the guest programmer.

6 Movies / September 17 and 24

Singer/songwriter/artist John Mellencamp joins TCM as a special guest for two nights of hosted conversations about some of his favorite classic movies and performers. Mellencamp’s film choices offer a lineup of the “new breed” of earthy, Method-trained actors who changed the tone of film performances beginning in the 1940s and continuing through the 1950s and ‘60s: John Garfield, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, James Dean and Paul Newman.

Mellencamp, born in the small town of Seymour, Indiana, in 1951, was fronting a soul band by the time he was 14. He was known for a time as Johnny Cougar and later as John Cougar Mellencamp. His first album was released in 1976 and, beginning in 1982, he amassed a series of 22 Top 40 hits. Mellencamp has sold more than 30 million albums in the U.S. and 60 million worldwide. He has won a Grammy Award and been nominated for a dozen others. His most recent album, Sad Clowns and Hillbillies, was released in 2017 to critical acclaim. He has several film credits as an actor.

He is also an accomplished visual artist, specializing in portraits with an influence of German Expressionism. His artwork has been the subject of several exhibitions. Below are the actors and films showcased by Mellencamp during his TCM appearance.

John Garfield (1913-1952) stars with Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr in Tortilla Flat (1942), based on John Steinbeck’s 1935 novel about life in a poor Mexican community near Monterey, California. Garfield, an alumnus of the famous Group Theatre, introduced a new kind of naturalism with his acting in this and other films including The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) and He Ran All the Way (1951). Mellencamp once said of Tortilla Flat, “It’s a movie about possessions and how useless they are.”

Montgomery Clift (1920-1966) has a relatively minor role in The Misfits (1961), playing a battered rodeo rider in support of stars Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable. But a decade earlier Clift had been the ultimate sensitive young leading man in such films as A Place in the Sun (1951) and From Here to Eternity (1953).

Marlon Brando (1924-2004) won a Best Actor Oscar for On the Waterfront (1954) for playing Terry Malloy, a dockworker embroiled with the mob. He also stars in The Fugitive Kind (1960) as drifter Val Xavier, a character created by Tennessee Williams. Brando, who established his reputation as the most exciting actor of his generation in Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), also attracted attention in the 1953 film The Wild One. It was his appearance as a trouble-prone biker in this film that inspired Mellencamp’s lyric in his song “You’ve Got to Stand for Somethin’”: “I saw Marlon Brando/On a motorcycle/He was actin’ out rebellion.”

James Dean (1931-55) made his cinematic debut starring in East of Eden (1955) and appeared in only two more films before his life was cut short by a car accident. Dean, who specialized in playing alienated young loners, was also a master of attitude. Again, Mellencamp used the name of one of the actors he most admires in his lyrics. In his song “Jack and Diane,” young Jack does “his best James Dean” to impress Diane with how cool he is.

Paul Newman (1925-2008), the star of Cool Hand Luke (1967), was the successor to James Dean in certain ways, taking over some of the late star’s roles and proving his own skill at playing rebels who were tough on the outside but sensitive underneath. Newman’s other memorable vehicles included Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) and Hud (1963). Mellencamp has commented that Newman was “the first movie star I liked.” He was especially intrigued by Cool Hand Luke and “the whole thing of this guy who was really at war with the system.”

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- The Magician (1926)
1h 23m | Silent | TV-14
A devil worshiper tries to seduce a young innocent.
Director: Rex Ingram
Cast: Alice Terry, Paul Wegener, Ivan Petrovich

This movie, especially the explosion of the laboratory, influenced James Whale while making the Frnakenstein movies.


7:30 AM -- The Magician (1958)
1h 42m | Drama | TV-PG
A traveling magician must outwit townspeople out to prove him a fake.
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Cast: Max von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand

Distantly inspired by G.K. Chesterton's play "Magic" which was a favorite of Ingmar Bergman's. He staged a theater production of that play in Swedish.


9:30 AM -- 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

According to a book on movie makeup, this is the first known film use of contact lenses to change the color of an actor's eyes.


10:45 AM -- 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.


12:15 PM -- The Phantom of Paris (1931)
1h 13m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
A magician is charged with killing his fiancee's father.
Director: John S. Robertson
Cast: John Gilbert, Leila Hyams, Lewis Stone

This film is adapted from the novel "Cheri-Bibi," written by Gaston Leroux, who is better known for his novel "The Phantom of the Opera."


1:45 PM -- Carnival of Sinners (1943)
1h 20m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
A magic talisman grants a man whatever he wishes for, but after a year, he has to pay for it.
Director: Maurice Tourneur
Cast: Pierre Fresnay, Josselyne Gael, Noel Roquevert

Original French title: La main du diable.


3:15 PM -- The Hypnotic Eye (1960)
1h 18m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
A city is stricken by a wave of self-mutilations performed by beautiful women who appear to be in a trance.
Director: George Blair
Cast: Jacques Bergerac, Merry Anders, Marcia Henderson

In a small role as a "hospital doctor" is Fred Demara, otherwise known as Ferdinand W. Demara, whose own life story was being depicted that same year in The Great Impostor (1960) starring Tony Curtis.


4:45 PM -- Death Curse of Tartu (1966)
Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-14
After a group of archaeology students disturb the grave of a Seminole witch-doctor, they are haunted by an apparition.
Director: William Grefé
Cast: Fred Pinero, Babette Sherrill, Mayra Cristine

All the animals in this movie are owned by Frank Weed. Frank Weed is actually a animal handler. The scenes showing the penned animals are actually filmed on Frank Weed's property in Florida.


6:15 PM -- The Devil's Own (1966)
1h 30m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-14
Following a horrifying experience with the occult in Africa, a schoolteacher moves to a small English village.
Director: Cyril Frankel
Cast: Joan Fontaine, Kay Walsh, Alec McCowen

This was Joan Fontaine's final film due to its disastrous box office reception.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- GUEST PROGRAMMER JOHN MELLENCAMP



8:00 PM -- Tortilla Flat (1942)
1h 45m | Drama | TV-PG
Inhabitants of a Southern California fishing village strive for the simple pleasures of life.
Director: Victor Fleming
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, John Garfield

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Frank Morgan

A scene for 'Tortilla Flat' required five dogs to jump on Frank Morgan simultaneously while he was sitting in church. For a time it seemed like an impossibility until director Victor Fleming started hiding things in the beard Morgan wears for the role. Bits of meat, a rubber mouse, fish and bacon were tried. The meat did the trick. 'How do you feel,' Fleming asked Morgan when a good 'take' was finally made. 'With five dogs getting lunch out of my beard,' said Morgan, 'I feel like an automat' . . . "


10:00 PM -- Cool Hand Luke (1967)
2h 9m | Drama | TV-14
A free-spirited convict refuses to conform to chain-gang life.
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Cast: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, J. D. Cannon

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Kennedy

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Newman, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson, and Best Music, Original Music Score -- Lalo Schifrin

Film debut of Ralph Waite and Anthony Zerbe.


12:15 AM -- The Misfits (1961)
2h 4m | Drama | TV-PG
A sensitive divorcee gets mixed up with modern cowboys roping mustangs in the desert.
Director: John Huston
Cast: Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift

A doctor was on call 24 hours a day for both Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift during the filming because both were experiencing health problems with alcohol and medical stimulants. Ironically, Clark Gable died of a heart attack right after production ended. According to writer Arthur Miller, Gable had already seen a rough cut of the movie by the last day of filming, and said, "This is the best picture I have made, and it's the only time I've been able to act."


2:30 AM -- Cyborg (1989)
1h 25m | Action | TV-14
A half-woman, half-robot, possesses knowledge that may include the solution to the plague that threatens to destroy mankind.
Director: Albert Pyun
Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Vincent Klyn, Alex Daniels

The test screening was a disaster. Only one out of 100 people surveyed liked the film. Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus tried to convince Jean-Claude Van Damme to allow them to release the movie as it was. Instead, Van Damme convinced both producers to let him edit the film, as he had done with Bloodsport (1988), and asked them for 2 months. Cyborg was finally released 2 months later.


4:30 AM -- Bloodmatch (1991)
1h 25m | Action
A kickboxer challenges the world's greatest kickboxers to find out which one killed his brother.
Director: Albert Pyun
Cast: Thom Mathews, Michel Qissi, Benny Urquidez

One of the few movies where Playboy Playmate Hope Marie Carlton didn't get naked.