TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 9, 2015 -- What's On Tonight - Alien Invasion

[Staph]

It's an evening of old school, 1950/1960s alien invasion films. Klaatu barada nikto, and enjoy!


6:45 AM -- The Boy With Green Hair (1948)
An orphaned boy mystically acquires green hair and a mission to end war.
Dir: Joseph Losey
Cast: Pat O'Brien, Robert Ryan, Barbara Hale
C-82 mins, CC,

Unfortunately for the film's director, Joseph Losey, the eccentric, politically conservative Howard Hughes took over RKO while this film was being shot and, hating the film's pacifist message, did his best to sabotage it. Losey, however, managed to protect the integrity of his project. Screenwriter Ben Barzman, who was also later blacklisted along with Losey, would later recall that "Joe shot the picture in such a way that there wasn't much possibility for change. A few lines were stuck in here and there to soften the message, but that was about it". Barzman also remembered that 12-year-old Dean Stockwell was called into Hughes' office and Hughes told him that when the other children spoke of the horror of war, he should say, "And that's why America has gotta have the biggest army, and the biggest navy, and the biggest air force in the world!" According to Barzman, little Stockwell was so in sympathy with the film's message that he dared to respond, "No, sir!" Even after Hughes started to scream at him, the boy held his ground and refused to do it.


8:15 AM -- Finger of Guilt (1956)
Blackmail threatens an American filmmaker's attempts to rebuild his career in England.
Dir: Joseph Losey
Cast: Richard Basehart, Mary Murphy, Constance Cummings
BW-84 mins, CC,

On its release the directorial credit was given to producer Alec C. Snowden, rather than the (then) blacklisted Joseph Losey.


10:00 AM -- Time Without Pity (1957)
A father comes to the aid of his son who is on Death Row.
Dir: Joseph Losey
Cast: Michael Redgrave, Ann Todd, Leo McKern
BW-85 mins,

Shot June 25-July 28 1956, copyright 1957. This was the last film Peter Cushing made before gaining screen stardom in Hammer's "The Curse of Frankenstein".


11:30 AM -- Dead of Night (1945)
Guests at a country estate share stories of the supernatural.
Dir: Charles Crichton
Cast: Mervyn Johns, Hartley Power, Roland Culver
BW-103 mins, CC,

Parratt and Potter, the very-English characters portrayed by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne in the Golfing Story are derivatives of Charters and Caldicott, created for Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938). The double-act proved to be so popular that Radford and Wayne were paired up as similar sport-obsessed gentlemen (or occasionally reprising their original rôles) in a number of productions, including this one. The name-change neatly sidestepped any copyright issues.


1:30 PM -- Mourning Becomes Electra (1947)
Repressed passions and shameful secrets destroy a New England family.
Dir: Dudley Nichols
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Michael Redgrave, Raymond Massey
BW-159 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Michael Redgrave, and Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Rosalind Russell

Rosalind Russell received an Academy Award nomination for her role in this film. Apparently, she was so sure she was going to win that, when the winner was about to be announced, she had risen from her seat to accept it... only to discover that the winner was Loretta Young for her performance in The Farmer's Daughter (1947).


4:30 PM -- The Happy Road (1957)
Two single parents join forces when their children run away from a French boarding school.
Dir: Gene Kelly
Cast: Gene Kelly, Barbara Laage, Bobby Clark
BW-100 mins, CC,

The company that coproduced is called Kerry, after Gene Kelly's daughter.


6:15 PM -- The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner (1962)
A boy from the Irish slums reviews his troubled past while training for a school race.
Dir: Tony Richardson
Cast: Tom Courtenay, Michael Redgrave, Avis Bunnage
BW-104 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

There is a running scene in which the camera catches both the rising sun and the setting moon. Walter Lassally recalled a critic writing of this scene: "'What consultation of ephemerides there must have been to capture that precious moment'...which only goes to show that critics don't know a great deal about how movies are made, because you can't possibly plan a thing like that. It would take forever, and fall well outside your schedule." The shot was actually one of those happy accidents that sometimes happen in filmmaking. Two cameras were set up, one with a wide angle lens and one with a long focus. It was pure luck that the two celestial bodies were caught.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: ALIEN INVASION



8:00 PM -- Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (1956)
Space invaders attack the nation's capital.
Dir: Fred F. Sears
Cast: Hugh Marlowe, Joan Taylor, Donald Curtis
BW-84 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The supposed satellite launches are actually stock footage of Viking rockets, high-altitude probes that were the predecessors of the Vanguard, intended to be the first satellite launcher. The later shots of rockets crashing at takeoff are really German V-2s, since none of the first 12 Vikings ever failed. Ironically, the 13th Viking, now called Vanguard, blew up on the launch pad, just like in the movie.


9:30 PM -- It Came From Outer Space (1953)
No one believes an amateur astronomer's spaceship sighting until the town's people begin disappearing.
Dir: Jack Arnold
Cast: Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush, Charles Drake
BW-80 mins,

The Universal make-up department submitted two alien designs for consideration by the studio executives. The design that was rejected was saved and then later used as the Mutant in Universal's This Island Earth (1955).


11:00 PM -- The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
An alien demands that Earth's leaders choose between peace and destruction.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe
BW-92 mins, CC,

Patricia Neal has admitted in interviews that she was completely unaware during the filming that the film would turn out so well and become one of the great science-fiction classics of all time. She assumed it would be just another one of the then-current and rather trashy flying saucer films that were popular at the time, and she found it difficult to keep a straight face while saying her lines.


1:00 AM -- The Man From Planet X (1951)
A space visitor uses hypnotic powers to enslave a Scottish island.
Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer
Cast: Robert Clarke, Margaret Field, Raymond Bond
BW-71 mins, CC,

To stretch his meager budget, director Edgar G. Ulmer was able to use sets from the big-budget epic Joan of Arc (1948).


2:30 AM -- Invisible Invaders (1959)
Invisible aliens use newly raised corpses to conquer the Earth.
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: John Agar, Jean Byron, Philip Tonge
BW-67 mins, CC,

The footage of a car crashing into an electrical substation is recycled from the end of Thunder Road (1958).


3:45 AM -- They Came From Beyond Space (1967)
Scientists investigating a meteor shower uncover an alien invasion.
Dir: Freddie Francis
Cast: Robert Hutton, Jennifer Jayne, Zia Mohyeddin
C-85 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

To save costs, the production used many sets and props from the Amicus movie Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966) filmed earlier.


5:30 AM -- MGM Parade Show #8 (1955)
Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant perform in a clip from "The Philadelphia Story"; George Murphy introduces a clip from "The Tender Trap." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-26 mins,

[longship]

1. Of course, Ray Harryhausen did the special effects in "Earth vs the Flying Saucers"

It is not a great SciFi film, but the effects raise the bar a bit. Thanks to Ray.

Then, there's Robert Wise's brilliant "The Day the Earth Stood Still" which sets the standard.

I note that there is also "It Came from Outer Space" and "The Man from Planet X", both fairly good fair for the period. I give the nod to the former, mainly because of the visualization, and Barbara Rush.