TCM Schedule for Friday, June 29, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: Matriarchy Movies

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is three days late in celebrating the birth of Peter Lorre, born László Löwenstein on June 26, 1904 in Rózsahegy, Austria-Hungary (now Ruzomberok, Slovakia). He is one of the great actors of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, playing a range of roles from frightening villains to the comic relief.

In prime time, TCM is focussing on strong women. Tell me more, Roger!

The word "matriarchy" has been defined as "a family, group or government controlled by a woman or a group of women." TCM presents a night of fantastic films celebrating the power of the feminine spirit in fanciful, time-tripping terms on locations ranging from the wilds of the African jungle to the reaches of outer space.

She (1965), based on the much-filmed H. Rider Haggard novel and produced by Britain's Hammer Film Productions, stars Ursula Andress as Ayesha, the immortal high priestess discovered by Edwardian archeologists in the lost African city of Kuma. John Richardson plays the young man Ayesha believes to be the reincarnation of her long-dead lover, with Hammer regulars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in other important roles. She was the first Hammer Film to be built around a female star and the most expensively movie produced in the company's history at that point.

Prehistoric Women (1967), another Hammer production, tells the story of a jungle guide (Michael Latimer) who is kidnapped by natives, then travels backward in time to a kingdom of brunette Amazons who enslave blondes! Martine Beswick plays the beautiful, all-powerful (and, of course, dark-haired) Queen Kari. Hammer used sets and costumes left over from another film featuring Beswick, One Million Years B.C. (1966), which starred Raquel Welch.

Tarzan and the Amazons (1945) has Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan and Johnny Sheffield as Boy falling into the clutches of a tribe of Amazon women who enslave men for their labor. Brenda Joyce plays Jane, Tarzan's mate, and the formidable Maria Ouspenskaya is the matriarch of the Amazons.

Queen of Outer Space (1958) is set on Venus, which is discovered by visiting spacemen who find the planet to be inhabited by beautiful women who have taken control and subjugated men. The masked Queen Yllana (Laurie Mitchell) has plans to destroy Earth but faces opposition from a beautiful Venusian scientist (Zsa Zsa Gabor, of all people). This minor camp classic is based on an original story by, believe it or not, the esteemed Ben Hecht.

by Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!



6:15 AM -- OLIVER! (1968)
Musical version of the Dickens classic about an orphan taken in by a band of boy thieves.
Dir: Carol Reed
Cast: Ron Moody, Shani Wallis, Oliver Reed
C-153 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Honorary Oscar Award for Onna White for her outstanding choreography achievement for Oliver!

Winner of Oscars for Best Director -- Carol Reed, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- John Box, Terence Marsh, Vernon Dixon and Ken Muggleston, Best Sound, Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation) -- Johnny Green, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Ron Moody, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Wild, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Vernon Harris, Best Cinematography -- Oswald Morris, Best Costume Design -- Phyllis Dalton, and Best Film Editing -- Ralph Kemplen

While filming the scene where Oliver gets a peek at Fagin's treasure, director Carol Reed was not satisfied with the reaction on Mark Lester's face. Later, while re-shooting the scene, he hid a small white rabbit in his pocket and stood behind the camera. As Ron Moody opened the box of treasures, Reed pulled the rabbit out of his pocket. Lester's reaction to the sight of the rabbit was then used in the final film.


9:00 AM -- M (1931)
The mob sets out to catch a child killer whose crimes are attracting too much police attention.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Peter Lorre, Theo Lingen, Otto Wernicke
BW-110 mins,

Although he was thrilled to play such a major part, Peter Lorre came to hate it later as people tended to associate him with being a child murderer in real life. Before making this, Lorre had mainly been a comedic actor.


11:00 AM -- THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1934)
A British family gets mixed up with spies and an assassination plot while vacationing in Switzerland.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Nova Pilbeam
BW-76 mins, CC,

When Peter Lorre arrived in Great Britain, his first meeting with a British director was with Alfred Hitchcock. By smiling and laughing as Hitchcock talked, the director was unaware that Lorre, a Hungarian, had a limited command of the English language. Hitchcock subsequently decided to cast Lorre in this film, and the young actor learned much of his part phonetically.


12:30 PM -- MAD LOVE (1935)
A mad doctor grafts the hands of a murderer on to a concert pianist's wrists.
Dir: Karl Freund
Cast: Peter Lorre, Frances Drake, Colin Clive
BW-68 mins, CC,

Charles Chaplin called Lorre the screen's best actor after seeing his performance in "Mad Love."


1:45 PM -- STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR (1940)
A newspaperman serves as key witness in a circumstantial murder case.
Dir: Boris Ingster
Cast: Peter Lorre, John McGuire, Margaret Tallichet
BW-64 mins, CC,

This film, or The Maltese Falcon (1941), are often cited by film historians as the "first film noir," while M (1931) is considered an important precursor to film noir. Peter Lorre stars in all three and Elisha Cook Jr. is in the two American films.


3:00 PM -- THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)
Hard-boiled detective Sam Spade gets caught up in the murderous search for a priceless statue.
Dir: John Huston
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George
BW-100 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sydney Greenstreet, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Huston, and Best Picture

There is an inordinate amount of smoking done by the main actors in this film. According to then-studio employee (and future screenwriter) Stuart Jerome, this resulted in a feud between studio head Jack L. Warner and stars Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre. Warner hated to see actors smoking on the screen, fearing it would prompt smokers in the movie audience to step out into the lobby for a cigarette. During filming he told director John Huston that smoking should be kept to a minimum. Bogart and Lorre thought it would be fun to annoy Warner by smoking as often as possible, and got their co-stars, Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet, to go along with the joke. During the initial filming of the climactic confrontation, all four actors smoked heavily. After seeing the rushes, Warner furiously called Huston to his office and threatened to fire him from the picture if he didn't tell Bogart and Lorre to knock it off. Realizing their prank had backfired, Bogart and Lorre agreed to stop smoking on camera. However, when the next series of rushes came back, it was obvious that the "lack" of smoking by the actors was taking away from the sinister mood of the scene. Huston went back to Warner and convinced him that the smoking added the right amount of atmospheric tension to the story, arguing that the characters would indeed smoke cigarettes while waiting nervously for the Maltese Falcon to arrive.


4:45 PM -- THE CONSPIRATORS (1944)
A guerilla leader falls in love with a mysterious woman in World War II Lisbon.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Hedy Lamarr, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet
BW-101 mins, CC,

This film has many tangential connections to Casablanca (1942) besides its plot line of anti-Nazi intrigue. It features Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, who all appeared in "Casablanca". Behind the scenes, the film features music by Max Steiner and cinematography by Arthur Edeson, who both worked on "Casablanca". Like "Casablanca", it was produced by Warner Bros. It also features Hedy Lamarr, who was originally considered for the role of "Ilsa", which was eventually played by Ingrid Bergman. Lamar had also previously appeared in Algiers (1938), which also had a plot line similar to "Casablanca".


6:30 PM -- THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS (1946)
After a famous pianist's murder, his hand returns to wreak vengeance.
Dir: Robert Florey
Cast: Robert Alda, Andrea King, Peter Lorre
BW-88 mins, CC,

The piece of piano music played by Francis Ingram (Victor Francen) and later, his disembodied left hand, is the "Bach Chaconne in D Minor", as arranged to be played by the left hand alone by Johannes Brahms. It was selected by Max Steiner because the story required a piece of music that could be performed by a pianist with only his left hand, and Steiner, who was born in Vienna and whose family were friendly with Brahms, rather than composing his own original piece, immediately recognized its potential in underscoring such a grim tale. Legendary Hungarian-American pianist Ervin Nyiregyhazi performed the music played by the severed hand.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: MATRIARCHY MOVIES



8:00 PM -- SHE (1965)
Explorers uncover a lost kingdom ruled by an immortal queen.
Dir: Robert Day
Cast: Ursula Andress, John Richardson, Peter Cushing
C-106 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Ursula Andress was re-voiced by Nikki Van der Zyl, the same actress who earlier dubbed her voice in the James Bond feature Dr. No (1962).


10:00 PM -- PREHISTORIC WOMEN (1967)
A jungle guide time travels to an era of evil brunettes with blonde slaves.
Dir: Michael Carreras
Cast: Martine Beswick, Edina Ronay, Michael Latimer
C-90 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Shot in only four weeks using sets and costumes from One Million Years B.C. (1966), in order to offset the earlier film's cost of 140,000 pounds.


11:45 PM -- TARZAN AND THE AMAZONS (1945)
Archaeologists trick Boy into helping them find a hidden valley ruled by women.
Dir: Kurt Neumann
Cast: Johnny Weissmuller, Brenda Joyce, Johnny Sheffield
BW-76 mins, CC,

Returning after a several film absence, the character of Jane is played here by Brenda Joyce, replacing Maureen O'Sullivan, who had left the Tarzan films when RKO took over the franchise from M-G-M. Joyce would go on to play Jane in four subsequent Tarzan movies, then find herself frequently typecast as a jungle adventuress for the rest of her film career.


1:15 AM -- QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE (1958)
A space mission to Venus discovers a society of Amazons.
Dir: Edward Bernds
Cast: Zsa Zsa Gabor, Eric Fleming, Lisa Davis
C-80 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

In an interview, director Edward Bernds said that Zsa Zsa Gabor got very "testy" with the actresses playing the Venusian girls. They were mostly beauty contest winners, and were many years - and in some cases a few decades - younger than her. When she noticed that the crew was paying more attention to the tall, leggy, mini-skirted "Venusians" than they were to her, she became very difficult to work with. He said that Gabor gave producer Ben Schwalb such a hard time on the picture that Schwalb eventually wound up in the hospital with ulcers.


2:45 AM -- THE MACK (1973)
A powerful pimp takes on two corrupt cops out to take him down.
Dir: Michael Campus
Cast: Max Julien, Don Gordon, Richard Pryor
C-110 mins, CC,

The Ward brothers, who played themselves, were real-life pimps and drug pushers in Oakland, California. They offered protection to the filmmakers to be included in the film. The Black Panthers heard about the film, and shook down Director Michael Campus for five thousand dollars to film in Oakland. When the Ward brothers heard, they felt betrayed by the production. During one day of shooting, glass bottles rained down from buildings as retaliation from the brothers.


4:45 AM -- CLEOPATRA JONES (1973)
A female drug agent locks horns with a violent drug dealer.
Dir: Jack Starrett
Cast: Tamara Dobson, Bernie Casey, Brenda Sykes
C-89 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Cleo's car is a customized black and silver 1973 Corvette Stingray. When she opens the door to get out, the T-bar panel in the roof above the driver's seat automatically opens, so she can get out without squashing her afro.

[CBHagman]

1. Peter Lorre's birthday is coming and I haven't had time to bake anything!

But I'll definitely celebrate.

Thank you for the great post.