TCM Schedule for Friday, December 8, 2017 -- What's On Tonight: Christmas Double Feature

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, we are chasing those evil Nazis, before, during and after WWII. (Unfortunately, nothing about Charlottesville, Virginia's Nazis, but hurrah for TCM for reminding their viewers that Nazis are evil!) Then in prime time, there's more of the TCM Christmas Double Feature. Tonight's themes are A Christmas Carol (A Christmas Carol (1951 - the Alistair Sim version) and Scrooge (1935)), and Christmas Crime (Lady in the Lake (1947) and Lady on a Train (1945)). Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- ACT OF VIOLENCE (1949)
An embittered veteran tracks down a POW camp informer.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh
BW-82 mins, CC,

All the credits except for the title are at the end of the movie, highly unusual for that time.


7:45 AM -- THIS LAND IS MINE (1943)
A soft-spoken school teacher tries to prove he's not a Nazi collaborator.
Dir: Jean Renoir
Cast: Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, George Sanders
BW-103 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Stephen Dunn (RKO Radio SSD)

The singing of "Die Lorelei" by the German soldiers was a subtle dig at the anti-semitic regime of the Nazis, since the words were written by banned Jewish poet Heinrich Heine. Many of his books, considered "un-German," were burned in the book-burning episode at Opernplatz, Berlin, Germany, on 10 May 1933. However, his works were so popular that they were still published, but "author unknown" was the listed writer. In his 1821 play "Almansor," Heine also prophetically wrote "Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen." (Where they burned books, they will in the end in burn people.)


9:45 AM -- CONFESSIONS OF A NAZI SPY (1939)
An FBI agent risks his life to infiltrate Nazi sympathizers in the U.S.
Dir: Anatole Litvak
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Francis Lederer, George Sanders
BW-104 mins, CC,

According to the article "Hollywood Goes to War" by Colin Shindler in the film history tome "The Movie", "Warner Brothers, who had made the one explicitly anti-Nazi film of the (US) pre-war period (1939, Confessions of a Nazi Spy) were unofficially told by the (US) government not to make any more such pictures. In April 1940 the news filtered back to Hollywood that several Polish exhibitors who had shown "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" had been hanged in the foyers of their own cinemas."


11:45 AM -- CASABLANCA (1942)
An American saloon owner in North Africa is drawn into World War II when his lost love turns up.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid
BW-103 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Director -- Michael Curtiz, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Humphrey Bogart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Claude Rains, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Arthur Edeson, Best Film Editing -- Owen Marks, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

Conrad Veidt, who played Maj. Strasser, was well known in the theatrical community in Germany for his hatred of the Nazis, and his friendship with Jews (including his Jewish wife), and in fact was forced to hurriedly escape the country when he found out that the SS had sent a death squad after him because of his anti-Nazi activities. Veidt had it in his contract that he only played villains because he was convinced that playing suave Nazi baddies would help the war effort.


1:30 PM -- BERLIN EXPRESS (1948)
Allied agents fight an underground Nazi group in post-war Europe.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Merle Oberon, Robert Ryan, Charles Korvin
BW-87 mins, CC,

At the end of their bus ride through bombed-out Frankfurt, the main characters arrive at the massive I.G. Farben building. Completed in 1930, it was once the largest office building in Europe and home to the giant chemical business. From 1945 to 1952 it was the location of SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters, Allied European Forces). From 1952 to 1994 it was the headquarters of the U.S. Army's V Corps. In 1996 the building was acquired by the state of Hesse, and after a $25M renovation became the Westend Campus of the University of Frankfurt. The small, continuous elevators seen in the film, called paternoster lifts, are still in use.


3:00 PM -- THE MORTAL STORM (1940)
The Third Reich's rise tears apart a German family.
Dir: Frank Borzage
Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young
BW-100 mins, CC,

Nazi leader Adolf Hitler banned this film from release in Germany because of its strong anti-Nazi sentiments. In addition, all MGM films from that point until the end of the war were also banned in Germany because the studio made this one.


5:00 PM -- HITLER'S CHILDREN (1943)
A German-American girl is forced to enter a Hitler youth program.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Tim Holt, Bonita Granville, Kent Smith
BW-82 mins, CC,

Edward Dmytryk in his biography 'It's a Hell of a Life But Not a Bad Living', states: "A friend of mine, Irving Reis, had prepared and actually started shooting a film called 'Hitler's Children', an exploitation B. Irving was rather headstrong and somewhat touchy - a bad combination in Hollywood. After a few days, he got into a fight with producer Doc Golden (Robert Golden). Getting his back up, he quit the film, expecting, so he told me later, to win a quick apology and a free hand. Instead, the studio said, 'As you wish,' and asked me to take over the direction. He gave me his blessing, asking only that his name be completely removed from the film's credits. The studio was willing and I went to work. I finished on schedule, cut and dubbed it, and turned it over to the distribution department. None of us at the studio was sure of what we had."


6:30 PM -- DAYS OF GLORY (1944)
Russian freedom fighters battle the Nazi occupying forces.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Gregory Peck, Lowell Gilmore, Maria Palmer
BW-86 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Vernon L. Walker (photographic), James G. Stewart (sound) and Roy Granville (sound)

Film debut of Gregory Peck.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: CHRISTMAS DOUBLE FEATURE



8:00 PM -- A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1951)
Ghosts visit a miser during the holidays to teach him the errors of his ways.
Dir: Brian Desmond-Hurst
Cast: Alastair Sim, Kathleen Harrison, Mervyn Johns
BW-86 mins, CC,

Although this film is widely regarded as the best film version of Charles Dickens' story, it is the only one which omits Scrooge's famous line: "If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled in his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart". Alastair Sim would eventually get a chance to say it however, when he reprised his role in the animated A Christmas Carol (1971) which also featured Michael Hordern returning as Marley.


9:45 PM -- SCROOGE (1935)
The legendary miser searches his past, present and future to discover the true meaning of Christmas.
Dir: Henry Edwards
Cast: Seymour Hicks, Donald Calthrop, Maurice Evans
BW-78 mins,

This was the second time Seymour Hicks had portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge on film. The first was in Old Scrooge (1913), 22 years earlier. This was also the first full-length sound production of the story.


11:15 PM -- LADY IN THE LAKE (1947)
Philip Marlowe searches for a missing woman in this mystery shot entirely from the detective's viewpoint.
Dir: Robert Montgomery
Cast: Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan
BW-103 mins, CC,

The entire movie plot unfolds from lead Robert Montgomery's point of view, thus creating a rarity in film: the principal character is only seen on-screen as a reflection in mirrors and windows, and as the narrator speaking directly to the audience.


1:15 AM -- LADY ON A TRAIN (1945)
A young woman enlists a mystery writer to help her solve a murder when the corpse vanishes.
Dir: Charles David
Cast: Deanna Durbin, Ralph Bellamy, David Bruce
BW-94 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Bernard B. Brown (Universal SSD)

Based on an original story by Leslie Charteris, creator of The Saint.


3:00 AM -- FITZWILLY (1967)
When an aging philanthropist goes broke, her butler robs from the rich so she can give to the poor.
Dir: Delbert Mann
Cast: Dick Van Dyke, Barbara Feldon, Edith Evans
C-103 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

At the beginning of the film, Fitzwilly rides around New York to do his "shopping" in a 1963 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III saloon. It was the last body-on-frame car produced by the company. Only 2,044 were built from 1963 to 1966. In excellent condition, at auction this car can fetch upwards of $130,000 in 2016.


4:45 AM -- LARCENY, INC. (1942)
An ex-convict and his gang try to use a luggage store to front a bank robbery, but business keeps getting in the way.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, Broderick Crawford
BW-95 mins, CC,

Woody Allen loved this film so much he remade it in 2000, calling it Small Time Crooks.

[longship]

1. Larceny, Inc. is an interesting film.

Anthony Quinn plays an iconic heavy role. Jackie Gleason in an early role, plays a soda jerk. And, as always, Edward G. Robinson is in fine form. On the whole a light comedy romp.

A luggage store????

Recommended.

[Staph]

2. Haven't seen it.

Thanks for the recommendation!

[longship]

3. You won't regret it.

Worth a view alone for Quinn as the iconic heavy and Gleason mugging for the camera, both very early in their careers. Gleason's may be his first in celluloid, if not Quinn also. (on edit: oopsie! Neither.) The plot is ridiculous, but such are these filmic comedic escapades.