TCM Schedule for Friday, July 13, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: Women in Medicine

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is dealing with black magic - zombies, voodoo, haunted houses, ghosts. In prime time, TCM has a selection of films about women doctors. Enjoy!



6:15 AM -- DEAD MEN WALK (1943)
A small-town doctor's twin returns from the grave seeking vengeance.
Dir: Sam Newfield
Cast: George Zucco, Mary Carlisle, Nedrick Young
BW-63 mins,

George Zucco's estate from an earlier PRC film, The Mad Monster (1942), serves as the crypt for the evil twin.


7:30 AM -- THE MYSTERIOUS DOCTOR (1943)
Nazi agents use a headless ghost as a front.
Dir: Ben Stoloff
Cast: John Loder, Eleanor Parker, Bruce Lester
BW-56 mins,

Takes place in Cornwall -- shot in Hollywood!


8:30 AM -- THE DISEMBODIED (1957)
African explorers discover a voodoo cult in the heart of the jungle.
Dir: Walter Grauman
Cast: Paul Burke, Allison Hayes, John E. Wengraf
BW-66 mins, CC,

In 1957, Allied Artists packaged this on a double bill with From Hell It Came (1957). This was on the lower half of the bill.


9:45 AM -- THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES (1966)
A small town noble uses zombies to work his tin mine and kill his enemies.
Dir: John Gilling
Cast: Andre Morell, Diane Clare, Brook Williams
C-90 mins, Letterbox Format

Filmed back-to-back with The Reptile (1966), using many of the same sets, most noticeably the main village set on the back lot at Bray Studios.


11:30 AM -- THE DEVIL'S OWN (1966)
Following a horrifying experience with the occult in Africa, a schoolteacher moves to a small English village, only to discover that black magic resides there as well.
Dir: Cyril Frankel
Cast: Joan Fontaine, Kay Walsh, Alec McCowen
C-91 mins, Letterbox Format

Joan Fontaine reportedly purchased the film rights to Norah Lofts' novel (written under the nom-de-plume of Peter Curtis) and brought the project to Hammer. This is Fontaine's final film.


1:15 PM -- I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943)
A nurse in the Caribbean resorts to voodoo to cure her patient, even though she's in love with the woman's husband.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway
BW-69 mins, CC,

Val Lewton did not like the article "I Walked With A Zombie" by Inez Wallace that had been optioned, so he adapted the story to fit the novel "Jane Eyre" because he felt the article's plot was too clichéd.


2:30 PM -- BLACK MAGIC (1949)
An 18th century gypsy masters hypnotism to avenge his parents' murder.
Dir: Gregory Ratoff
Cast: Orson Welles, Nancy Guild, Akim Tamiroff
BW-105 mins, CC,

Orson Welles often said that making this film was the most sheer fun he had ever had, working in the cinema.


4:30 PM -- THE HYPNOTIC EYE (1960)
A city is stricken by a wave of self-mutilations performed by beautiful women who appear to be in a hypnotic trance.
Dir: George Blair
Cast: Jacques Bergerac, Merry Anders, Marcia Henderson
BW-78 mins, CC,

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 (1961) starring Tony Curtis.


6:00 PM -- TWO ON A GUILLOTINE (1965)
A magician's estranged daughter must stay in his mansion for seven nights alone to inherit his fortune.
Dir: William Conrad
Cast: Connie Stevens, Dean Jones, Cesar Romero
BW-107 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Prolific composer Max Steiner's last film for Warner Bros. after nearly 30 years with that studio. After that, he composed music for a Disney studio film, Those Calloways (1965), and an episode of the Desilu television series Vacation Playhouse in 1967.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: WOMEN IN MEDICINE



8:00 PM -- THE GIRL IN WHITE (1952)
Biography of Emily Dunning, the first woman doctor to practice in a New York hospital.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: June Allyson, Arthur Kennedy, Gary Merrill
BW-93 mins, CC,

The kind of sentiment that a woman doctor faced during this period didn't resemble the prejudice towards blacks or other ethnic or religious groups. Legal experts call it "romantic paternalism". There was no hostility towards women in general. (How could there be? Everyone has a mother.) Rather it was thought that a woman's God-given place was at home, that they were too delicate for professional life.


9:45 PM -- YOU BELONG TO ME (1941)
A playboy marries a woman doctor then grows jealous of her male patients.
Dir: Wesley Ruggles
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Edgar Buchanan
BW-95 mins, CC,

The last filming pairing of Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck.


11:30 PM -- STRANGE LADY IN TOWN (1955)
The arrival of a female doctor sets a Western town on its ear.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Greer Garson, Dana Andrews, Cameron Mitchell
C-112 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Margaret O'Brien was originally considered for the role of Spurs O'Brien, played by Lois Smith.


1:30 AM -- DOCTOR MONICA (1934)
A female doctor learns that her husband loves another woman.
Dir: William Keighley
Cast: Kay Francis, Warren William, Jean Muir
BW-53 mins, CC,

The Production Code Administration (PCA) requested that this film be pulled from theaters because of references to adultery and pregnancy. Trade papers announced this film as running 65 minutes. The surviving print runs only 53 minutes, The censors trimmed scenes involving adultery, pregnancy, unwed mothers, and suicide.


2:30 AM -- NEVER TOO YOUNG TO DIE (1986)
A top secret Agent is murdered, so his estranged son, a high school gymnast, teams up with his dad's attractive female partner to stop the psychopathic hermaphroditic gang leader who killed him, and now plans a major terrorist attack.
Dir: Gil Bettman
Cast: John Stamos, Vanity, Gene Simmons
BW-97 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The movie was intended as the starting point for a "Son of Bond"-type franchise. It not only flopped at the box-office, but was shunned by its own co-star, Gene Simmons. Years later, when a fan recognized him as "Velvet Von Ragnar", Simmons exclaimed "Don't tell me you SAW that thing!"


4:15 AM -- THE LAST DRAGON (1985)
A young man faces a variety of trials in his search for a master to teach him a secret martial arts technique.
Dir: Michael Schultz
Cast: Taimak, Vanity, Chris Murney
C-108 mins, Letterbox Format

During the introductory training sequence, Leroy Green (Taimak) karate-chops an arrow as it soars past him. It was a real stunt that took 2 hours to get right.