TCM Schedule for Friday, April 29, 2022 -- What's On Tonight: Guest Programmer Brian Cox

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is showing Sixties Psychos. You know, they say that if you remember the Sixties, you really weren't there! Then in prime time, actor Brian Cox is guest programmer. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- The Sorcerers (1967)
1h 25m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
A great hypnotist develops a technique for controlling minds.
Director: Michael Reeves
Cast: Boris Karloff, Catherine Lacey, Ian Ogilvy

In the scene with the exploding car, the fire apparently got so out of control that the real police and fire brigade were on their way. The film crew had to get the shot and leave in a hurry, as they had not obtained any permission from anyone to shoot the scene.


7:30 AM -- Hysteria (1965)
1h 25m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
An amnesiac stumbles on to a murder plot.
Director: Freddie Francis
Cast: Robert Webber, Anthony Newlands, Jennifer Jayne

The piece of jewellery Marianne Stone wears around her upper left arm was previously worn by her in the Edgar Wallace Mystery Act Of Murder (1964) and Lolita (1962).


9:00 AM -- The Strangler (1964)
1h 29m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
A lab technician with low self esteem, brought on by his dominant mother, becomes a serial killer of female nurses.
Director: Burt Topper
Cast: Victor Buono, David Mclean, Diane Sayer

Victor Buono plays the mother-fixated Leo Kroll. Psychiatrists have theorized that the Boston Strangler had a mother fixation.


10:45 AM -- Spider Baby (1964)
1h 20m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
Greedy relatives try to repossess the decaying mansion of an inbred Southern family.
Director: Jack Hill
Cast: Lon Chaney Jr., Carol Ohmart, Quinn Redeker

Thought to be a "lost" film in the 1990s, it was learned there was a badly-dubbed 16mm VHS copy in release. Writer/director Jack Hill found the original negative, got a clean digital transfer from it and put that in circulation. As the picture was not copyrighted, he was able to market it on his own. Hill added a scene cut from the original theatrical release and promoted it as the Director's Cut.


12:15 PM -- Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
2h 13m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-14
A wealthy southern spinster fights to keep her family's secrets hidden.
Director: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Bette Davis, Olivia De Havilland, Joseph Cotten

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Agnes Moorehead, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph F. Biroc, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- William Glasgow and Raphael Bretton,
Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Norma Koch, Best Film Editing -- Michael Luciano, Best Music, Original Song -- Frank De Vol (music) and Mack David (lyrics) for the song "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte", and Best Music, Substantially Original Score -- Frank De Vol

Director Robert Aldrich had to take three planes, a train and a taxi up a goat trail to get to Olivia de Havilland's house, which was in the mountains of Switzerland. It took him four days to convince her to step in and replace Joan Crawford.


2:30 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

Some of the set interiors (particularly the hallway with the stairs and the study) are recycled from My Fair Lady (1964). The wallpaper is distinctive, as well as the lower landing of the staircase.


4:30 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 hypnotic 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.


6:00 PM -- It! (1967)
1h 35m | Horror
Often cited as the film that inspired ALIEN, this fast paced B thriller takes place on an earthbound ship with a mysterious stowaway.
Director: Herbert J. Leder
Cast: Roddy Mcdowall, Jill Haworth, Paul Maxwell

Jill Haworth detested this film and only made it for the money, but she enjoyed working with Roddy McDowall. Years later, when she was visited by McDowall, he brought her a poster for this film, took out a pen and wrote "SH" before the title.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- GUEST PROGRAMMER BRIAN COX



8:00 PM -- The Last Hurrah (1958)
2h 1m | Drama | TV-PG
A political boss faces changing times as he runs for re-election.
Director: John Ford
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Jeffrey Hunter, Dianne Foster

Early in the film Skeffington says that his signature will never be as valuable as Button Gwinnet's, who apparently had publicly signed few documents in his life. Gwinnet, a delegate from Georgia, was the second signer of the Declaration of Independence, after John Hancock. Gwinnet's signature is quite rare and is considered the most valuable American signature by collectors, with sales recorded as high as $150,000, matched or exceeded only just behind signatures of Gaio Giulio Cesare (aka Julius Caesar) and William Shakespeare. However, it is not quite so rare as suggested by Skeffington, as there are at least 51 examples of Gwinnet's signature known to exist, and at one time during the 1920s five samples of his signature were owned by a dealer in rare books named Rosenbach.


10:15 PM -- This Sporting Life (1963)
2h 14m | Drama | TV-MA
A rugby player finds the violence in his professional life tainting his personal relationships.
Director: Lindsay Anderson
Cast: Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Richard Harris, and Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Rachel Roberts

It was William Hartnell's appearance in this film that brought him to the attention of Verity Lambert, producer of Doctor Who (1963).


12:45 AM -- Bringing Up Baby (1938)
1h 42m | Comedy | TV-G
A madcap heiress upsets the staid existence of a straitlaced scientist.
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles

Howard Hawks had some difficulty getting Katharine Hepburn to stop overacting during the early stages of production. "The great trouble is people trying to be funny", Hawks observed. "If they don't try to be funny, then they are funny. I couldn't do any good with her, so I went over to an actor who was a comic for the Ziegfeld Follies and everything, Walter Catlett, and said, "Walter, have you been watching Miss Hepburn?" He said, 'Yeah.' "Do you know what she's doing?" 'Yeah.' And I said, "Will you tell her?" He said, 'No.' "Well," I said, "supposing she asks you to tell her?" 'Well then, I'll have to tell her.' So I went over to Kate, and I said, 'We're not getting along too well on this thing. I'm not getting through to you, but there's a man here who I think could. Do you want to talk to him?' She came back from talking with him and said, 'Howard, hire that guy and keep him around here for several weeks, because I need him.' And from that time on, she knew how to play comedy better, which is just to read lines". Hepburn also asked Hawks to give Catlett a role in the film so she could call on him for further help. Hawks cast him as the town constable.


2:45 AM -- The Loveless (1982)
1h 22m | Action | TV-MA
Trouble ensues when a motorcycle gang stops in a small southern town while heading to the ...
Director: Monty Montgomery
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Robert Gordon, Marin Kanter

Debut credited role in a movie of Willem Dafoe, and debut feature film directed by Kathryn Bigelow (but co-directed with Monty Montgomery).


4:15 AM -- The Hunger (1983)
1h 39m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-MA
A centuries-old female vampire falls for a beautiful young research doctor.
Director: Tony Scott
Cast: David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, Catherine Deneuve

David Bowie said that, in order to make his voice suitably hoarse for when he aged so drastically in the movie, he stood on the George Washington Bridge every night and screamed all the punk rock songs he knew.