TCM Schedule for Wednesday, January 2 -- STAR OF THE MONTH: JAMES CAGNEY

[Longhorn]

4:15am Warriors, The (1979)
A gang is framed for the murder of rival gang's leader.
Cast: Michael Beck, James Remar, Dorsey Wright. Dir: Walter Hill. C-93 mins, TV-MA

6:15am Devil Doll, The (1936)
A Devil's Island escapee shrinks murderous slaves and sells them to his victims as dolls.
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Frank Lawton. Dir: Tod Browning. BW-78 mins, TV-PG

7:45am Freaks (1932)
A lady trapeze artist violates the code of the side show when she plots to murder her midget husband.
Cast: Wallace Ford, Olga Baclanova, Harry Earles. Dir: Tod Browning. BW-62 mins, TV-PG

8:48am Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Beau Hunks (1931)
After being dumped by his girlfriend, "Jeanie-Weenie," Oliver makes Laurel join the Foreign Legion with him.
Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy BW-37 mins

9:30am Mad Love (1935)
A mad doctor grafts the hands of a murderer on to a concert pianist's wrists.
Cast: Peter Lorre, Frances Drake, Colin Clive. Dir: Karl Freund. BW-68 mins, TV-PG

10:45am Beast With Five Fingers, The (1946)
After a famous pianist's murder, his hand returns to wreak vengeance.
Cast: Peter Lorre, Robert Alda, J. Carrol Naish. Dir: Robert Florey. BW-89 mins, TV-PG

12:15pm Living Ghost, The (1942)
A former detective investigates a wealthy kidnap victim who returns with brain damage.
Cast: James Dunn, Joan Woodbury, Paul McVey. Dir: William Beaudine. BW-61 mins

1:30pm Ghost Ship, The (1943)
A young innocent signs on with a ship whose captain is going mad.
Cast: Richard Dix, Russell Wade, Edith Barrett. Dir: Mark Robson. BW-69 mins, TV-PG

2:45pm Woman In White, The (1948)
Classic mystery about the adventures of a young tutor sent to a ghostly country estate.
Cast: Gig Young, Eleanor Parker, Sydney Greenstreet. Dir: Peter Godfrey. BW-109 mins, TV-G

4:45pm Scared To Death (1947)
A beautiful murder victim recalls how she met her untimely end.
Cast: Bela Lugosi, Douglas Fowley, Joyce Compton. Dir: Christy Cabanne. C-68 mins, TV-PG

6:00pm Picture of Dorian Gray, The (1945)
A man remains young and handsome while his portrait shows the ravages of age and sin.
Cast: Hurd Hatfield, Angela Lansbury, Donna Reed. Dir: Albert Lewin. BW-110 mins, TV-G

What's On Tonight: STAR OF THE MONTH: JAMES CAGNEY

8:00pm Sinner's Holiday (1930)
A jealous young man frames his sister's boyfriend.
Cast: Grant Withers, James Cagney, Joan Blondell. Dir: John G. Adolfi. BW-60 mins, TV-PG

9:15pm Public Enemy, The (1931)
An Irish-American street punk tries to make it big in the world of organized crime.
Cast: James Cagney, Edward Woods, Jean Harlow. Dir: William A. Wellman. BW-84 mins, TV-PG

10:45pm White Heat (1949)
A government agent infiltrates a gang run by a mother-fixated psychotic.
Cast: James Cagney, Edmond O'Brien, Virginia Mayo. Dir: Raoul Walsh. BW-114 mins, TV-PG

12:45am James Cagney: Top of the World (1992)
Michael J. Fox hosts this documentary featuring film clips and rare behind-the-scenes footage that traces superstar James Cagney's rise to the top.
Cast: James Cagney, Michael J. Fox, Jack Lemmon. Dir: Carl Lindahl. C-47 mins, TV-G

1:45am Roaring Twenties, The (1939)
Three WWI Army buddies get mixed up with the mob in peacetime.
Cast: James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart. Dir: Raoul Walsh. BW-107 mins, TV-G

3:45am Smart Money (1931)
A barber's good luck turns him into a big-time gambling boss.
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Evalyn Knapp. Dir: Alfred E. Green. BW-81 mins, TV-G

[Longhorn]

1. Scared To Death (1947)

"Pardon me, Professor, but didn't I just see you outside baying at the moon?"

Exactly the sort of dialogue you'd expect to hear in a Bela Lugosi film from his later years. By the time Scared to Death (1947) was made, Lugosi was a long way down from the glory days of Dracula (1931) and just starting his final decade, a period marked by morphine addiction, financial ruin, and personal and professional disappointments. A distinguished stage actor, first in his native Hungary, then in Germany (where he fled in 1919 after engaging in the radical effort of organizing an actors union), he played a range of matinee-idol parts before donning the famous vampire cape in the highly successful 1927 Broadway version of Bram Stoker's horror novel. The success of the film version made him a star of the genre but also typecast him forever as the creepy movie villain.

In Scared to Death, Lugosi stars as Professor Leonide, a hypnotist who figures into the mysterious (and incredibly convoluted) story of a beautiful murder victim. The cheaply made thriller is no Sunset Blvd. (1950), but it does prefigure that classic's structural quirk by having the tale narrated by a corpse. From a slab in the morgue, the dead woman weaves a tale of murder involving a midget and a masked figure. And if you're looking for connections to other film classics, the victim thinks she's being driven to insanity by an unloving husband, the basic premise of Gaslight (1944). But once again, the comparison ends there.

Despite Lugosi's descent to Poverty Row employment and eccentric personal behavior (doing press interviews from a coffin, attending premieres with a gorilla on his arm), he treats his role in Scared to Death with great seriousness. And there are interesting performances as well from a few other actors who had seen better days. Nat Pendleton is not a household name today, but he was a dependable and popular character actor in a 25-year career that included roles in Abbott & Costello movies, almost all the Dr. Kildare/Dr. Gillespie series, and several major productions The Thin Man (1934), The Great Ziegfeld (1936), the Marx Brothers' At the Circus (1939). George Zucco's face should certainly be familiar to horror film fans from The Mummy's Hand (1940), The Mad Monster (1942), and the Lugosi movie Voodoo Man (1944) and appearances in A-budget classics like Conquest (1937) with Greta Garbo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) with Charles Laughton, and Captain from Castille (1947) with Tyrone Power, one of eight films the prolific Zucco made that year.

And speaking of prolific, director Christy Cabanne chalked up one of the most prolific resumes of any filmmaker in Hollywood at that time, nearly 150 films in 36 years. His best known was probably The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1937), based on the Bret Harte story. Cabanne chose to film Scared to Death in color, unlike most horror films of the 30s and 40s and the film remains Lugosi's only appearance in color.

Director: Christy Cabanne
Producer: William B. David (uncredited)
Screenplay: Walter Abbott
Cinematography: Marcel Le Picard
Editing: George McGuire
Art Direction: Harry Reif
Original Music: Carl Hoefle
Cast: Bela Lugosi (Professor Leonide), George Zucco (Dr. Joseph Van Ee), Molly Lamont (Laura Van Ee), Nat Pendleton (Bill "Bull" Raymond), Joyce Compton (Jane Cornell).
C-68m.

By Rob Nixon

[Sparkly]

2. I'm definitely going to DVR "Mad Love" and "Beast with Five Fingers"

I'm a pianist and these look hilariously bizarre!! (I think I tried to videotape them once, but I can't work the VCR. Thank goodness I don't need that anymore!)