TCM Schedule for Friday, January 27 -- What's On Tonight: Directed by James Whale

[Staph]

This evening, TCM is featuring a quartet of films by director James Whale. You undoubtedly are familiar with his film of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the last of tonight's featured films. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Numbered Men (1930)
A convict learns that a fellow prisoner has been messing with his woman.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Conrad Nagel, Bernice Claire, Raymond Hackett
65 min, TV-G

In September 1928, Warner Bros. Pictures purchased a majority interestin First National Pictures and from that point on, all "First National" productions were actually made under Warner Bros. control, even though the two companies continued to retain separate identities until the mid-1930's, after which time "A Warner Bros.-First National Picture" was often used.


7:15 AM -- Personal Property (1937)
The bailiff charged with disposing of a financially strapped widow's estate pretends to be her butler.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: Jean Harlow, Robert Taylor, Reginald Owen
84 min, TV-G

Throughout the film, Jean wears a star sapphire ring, a sort of engagement ring from her boyfriend William Powell.


8:45 AM -- Each Dawn I Die (1939)
A crusading reporter becomes a hardened convict when he's framed.
Dir: William Keighley
Cast: James Cagney, George Raft, Jane Bryan
92 min, TV-PG , CC

This was Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's favorite American movie.


10:30 AM -- Millionaires In Prison (1940)
Four convicts volunteer as medical guinea pigs to win early paroles.
Dir: Ray McCarey
Cast: Lee Tracy, Linda Hayes, Raymond Walburn
64 min, TV-G

Director Ray McCarey is the brother of the much more well known director Leo McCarey.


11:45 AM -- The Get-Away (1941)
A jailed cop befriends a mob chieftain and stages a breakout with him.
Dir: Edward Buzzell
Cast: Robert Sterling, Charles Winninger, Donna Reed
89 min, TV-PG , CC

Donna Reed's first film.


1:16 PM -- One Reel Wonder: Historic Maryland (1941)
This Traveltalks visit to Maryland spends the majority of its time in Annapolis, the capital city and home of the U.S. Naval Academy.
Narrator: James A. FitzPatrick
C- 8 min,

Filmed in Annapolis, Frederick, and Baltimore.


1:30 PM -- Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case (1943)
A wheelchair-bound doctor tries to prove a convicted killer's innocence.
Dir: Willis Goldbeck
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Van Johnson, Keye Luke
89 min, TV-PG

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the scene with the little girl in a febrile coma and the interns working hard to get it down; Dr. Gillespie is seen looking at an oral thermometer that was supposedly used to check her temp. In this sort of situation that is highly unlikely. Even in this era oral and rectal thermometers were different shapes so no mistakes could be made.


3:15 PM -- Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison (1951)
A warden and his assistant clash over prison reform, triggering a violent riot.
Dir: Crane Wilbur
Cast: Steve Cochran, David Brian, Philip Carey
87 min, TV-14

Johnny Cash has said that when he saw this movie he was inspired to write "Folsom Prison Blues".


4:45 PM -- Women's Prison (1955)
A crusading psychiatrist battles a sadistic female warden to improve conditions at a women's prison.
Dir: Lewis Seiler
Cast: Ida Lupino, Jan Sterling, Cleo Moore
80 min, TV-PG

During a sequence showing concurrent events at a co-ed prison (men on one side of wall, women on the other), the women are seen in the yard in sunny weather with short-sleeved uniforms, while the men's side is rainy, with prisoners in heavy coats.


6:15 PM -- House Of Numbers (1957)
A man tries to spring his twin brother from prison.
Dir: Russell Rouse
Cast: Jack Palance, Harold J. Stone, Edward Platt
92 min, TV-PG , CC

Filmed in part at San Quentin State Prison in California.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: DIRECTED BY JAMES WHALE



8:00 PM -- The Great Garrick (1937)
French actors set out to deflate the ego of legendary stage star David Garrick.
Dir: James Whale
Cast: Brian Aherne, Olivia de Havilland, Edward Everett Horton
89 min, TV-G , CC

The play opened in London, England, UK on 18 May 1937.


9:45 PM -- One More River (1934)
An abused wife flees her husband and finds love, but at a price.
Dir: James Whale
Cast: Diana Wynyard, Colin Clive, Mrs. Patrick Campbell
88 min, TV-14 , CC

Jane Wyatt's film debut.


11:15 PM -- The Invisible Man (1933)
A scientist's experiments with invisibility turn him into a madman.
Dir: James Whale
Cast: Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart, William Harrigan
71 min, TV-PG , CC

When screenwriter R.C. Sherriff came to Hollywood to write The Invisible Man, he asked the staff at Universal for a copy of the H.G. Wells novel he was supposed to be adapting. They didn't have one; all they had were 14 "treatments" done by previous writers on the project, including one set in Czarist Russia and one set on Mars. Sherriff eventually found a copy of the novel in a secondhand bookstore, read it, thought it would make an excellent picture as it stood, and wrote a script that (unlike the Universal versions of Dracula and Frankenstein) was a closer adaptation of the book.


12:30 AM -- Frankenstein (1931)
A crazed scientist creates a living being from body parts, not realizing it has a madman's brain.
Dir: James Whale
Cast: Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles
70 min, TV-PG , CC

In one scene, the Monster (Boris Karloff) walks through a forest and comes upon a little girl, Maria, who is throwing flowers into a pond. The monster joins her in the activity but soon runs out of flowers. At a loss for something to throw into the water, he looks at Maria and moves toward her. In all American prints of the movie, the scene ends here. But as originally filmed, the action continues to show the monster grabbing Maria, hurling her into the lake, then departing in confusion when Maria fails to float as the flowers did. This bit was deleted because the censors objected to the violent end of the little girl. This scene is restored in the DVD reissue.


2:00 AM -- Possession (1981)
In search of his missing wife, a man uncovers a deadly motive for her behavior.
Dir: Andrzej Zulawski
Cast: Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Margit Carstensen
C- 123 min, TV-MA

Sam Waterston was considered for the role of Mark. The role was played by Sam Neill.


4:15 AM -- Repulsion (1965)
Strange dreams haunt a beautiful young woman left alone in her apartment.
Dir: Roman Polanski
Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser
105 min, TV-PG

This film, along with Rosemary's Baby and The Tenant, forms a loose trilogy by Roman Polanski about the horrors of apartment/city dwelling.