TCM Schedule for Thursday, January 27, 2022 -- What's on Tonight: True Crime

[Staph]

During the daylight hours, we're watching boys turn into men. Then in prime time, it's the final week of True Crime. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Boys' Ranch (1946)
1h 37m | Western | TV-G
A ball player creates a ranch for troubled kids from the city.
Director: Roy Rowland
Cast: Jackie "Butch" Jenkins, James Craig, Skippy Homeier

Based on a real-life "boys' ranch" founded by Cal Farley outside of Amarillo, Texas in 1939. As of 2021 it is still in operation, serving boys and girls ages 5 to 18 who have had a troubled past.


7:45 AM -- Men in Exile (1937)
58m | Drama | TV-G
Gun smugglers clash with an island dictator.
Director: John Farrow
Cast: Dick Purcell, June Travis, Victor Varconi

General Alcatraz quotes Feeble in Shakespear's The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, Act 3, Scene 2, "...let it go which way it will, he that dies this year is quit for the next".


8:45 AM -- The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters (1954)
1h 6m | Comedy | TV-G
The Bowery Boys battle a family of mad scientists.
Director: Edward Bernds
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey

This movie was inspired by Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), which originally was entitled "Abbott and Costello Meet The Monsters ". "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein " was their biggest hit and this movie was The Bowery Boys' biggest hit.


10:00 AM -- Men of America (1933)
58m | Western | TV-G
A modern-day rancher faces lynching when he's suspected of a mob killing.
Director: Ralph Ince
Cast: William Boyd, Charles "Chic" Sale, Dorothy Wilson

William Boyd directed the scenes in which director Ralph Ince acted.


11:00 AM -- Follow the Boys (1963)
1h 35m | Comedy | TV-G
Four Navy wives create mayhem as they follow their men around the Riviera.
Director: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Connie Francis, Paula Prentiss, Dany Robin

The second of three Connie Francis films to include the phrase "the boys" in the title. The other two are Where the Boys Are (1960) and When the Boys Meet the Girls (1965).


12:45 PM -- Men of Chance (1932)
1h 3m | Drama | TV-G
Gamblers go after a man with a knack for picking winning horses.
Director: George Archainbaud
Cast: Ricardo Cortez, Mary Astor, John Halliday

The 5,000 franc bet Johnny makes about what drink will be ordered next would equate to about $200 at the time, or about $3,500 in 2016.


2:00 PM -- Wild Boys of the Road (1933)
1h 17m | Drama | TV-PG
An impoverished girl masquerades as a boy to run with a gang of young hobos.
Director: William A. Wellman
Cast: Frankie Darro, Edwin Phillips, Rochelle Hudson

Film debut of Alan Hale Jr. -- the Skipper from Gilligan's Island (1964-1992).


3:15 PM -- Men of the North (1930)
1h 1m | Drama | TV-G
Mounties track gold mine robbers.
Director: Hal Roach
Cast: Gilbert Roland, Barbara Leonard, Arnold Korff

In the early days of sound films, before dubbing was perfected, foreign-language versions were made of many talkies. Roach also directed versions of this in French, Spanish, German and Italian. The Spanish version also had Gilbert Roland in the role of "Louis LeBey," while the character was played by (future director) John Reinhardt for the German version, André Luguet in the French one and Franco Corsaro in the Italian one. Additionally, Barbara Leonard, who spoke five languages, also appeared in the French, German and Italian versions.


4:30 PM -- Boys' Night Out (1962)
1h 55m | Comedy | TV-PG
A psychology student researches infidelity by becoming a platonic kept woman for four buddies.
Director: Michael Gordon
Cast: Kim Novak, James Garner, Tony Randall

The only film of Kim Novak's production company, Kimco. It was meant to resurrect her career, which had floundered since the death of Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn in 1958. But the film was not well received by either critics or moviegoers, losing $262,000 (the equivalent of more than $2.3 million in 2021, adjusted for inflation). But it helped redirect James Garner's career from mostly westerns and war movies to some lighter fare. Six of his next eight films were comedies and included some of his biggest hits.


6:30 PM -- 'G' Men (1935)
1h 25m | Crime | TV-PG
A mob protege joins the FBI when a friend is gunned down.
Director: William Keighley
Cast: James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay, Ann Dvorak

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Darryl F. Zanuck (Write-in candidate, not an official nominee. The official AMPAS records list the pseudonym 'Gregory Rogers' as nominee.)

Initially, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and U.S. Attorney General Homer S. Cummings disapproved of the film. Their primary reason was that it portrayed an FBI agent as insubordinate (Davis being a smart ass to McCord) and acting on his own (Davis leaving the hospital to find Collins). However, when the movie became a success, Hoover and Cummings realized that the film could be used to promote the image of the FBI and they changed their minds and began openly endorsing it.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- TRUE CRIME



8:00 PM -- A Place in the Sun (1951)
2h 2m | Drama | TV-PG
An ambitious young man wins an heiress' heart but has to cope with his former girlfriend's pregnancy.
Director: George Stevens
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters

Winner of Oscars for Best Director -- George Stevens, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Michael Wilson and Harry Brown, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- William C. Mellor, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head, Best Film Editing -- William Hornbeck, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Franz Waxman

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Montgomery Clift, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Shelley Winters, and Best Picture

The novel contains a scene in which Alice Tripp goes to a country doctor and tentatively asks about an abortion. Shelley Winters relates in her autobiography that George Stevens initially planned to drop the scene because "it's rather censorable, but I think if we handle it delicately, it will illuminate the factory girl's terrible plight." Winters was given the new script pages one morning and asked to memorize the lines; Stevens planned to rehearse once, then immediately film the scene for spontaneity. "When he called, 'Action!' I was already crying," Winters wrote. "I twisted my white handkerchief into a shredded ball. The scene was nine minutes long. A full camera load. Boy, did I ever act!" Stevens had Winters do the scene again after letting her realize that tears would only frighten the doctor, and that Alice must try and refrain from crying. "Of course, when we saw the two takes the next day, the one in which I followed his exact direction was remarkable, even if I say so myself. Every time I've seen that scene in a theater, every man in the audience groans and every woman weeps. George had taught me another life-long acting lesson: don't indulge yourself. Make the audience weep."


10:15 PM -- Double Indemnity (1944)
1h 47m | Crime | TV-PG
An insurance salesman gets seduced into plotting a client's death.
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Fred Macmurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Barbara Stanwyck, Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- John F. Seitz, Best Sound, Recording -- Loren L. Ryder (Paramount SSD), Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa, and Best Picture

Curiously, given how well they've stood the test of time, neither Fred MacMurray nor Edward G. Robinson were Oscar nominated for their roles in this film. In Robinson's case, it's possible that Academy voters split their votes for him between Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, resulting in his not being nominated in either category.


12:15 AM -- The Phenix City Story (1955)
1h 40m | Crime | TV-14
A crusading lawyer takes on the corrupt machine running a Southern town.
Director: Phil Karlson
Cast: John Mcintire, Richard Kiley, Kathryn Grant

In the film, John Patterson (Richard Kiley) is depicted as supportive of African-American Zeke Ward (James Edwards) and his family. In real life, following his term as Alabama attorney general (1954-58), Patterson ran for governor in 1958 in an openly racist campaign and won. One of his opponents, George Wallace, had run as a racial moderate and told his friends after the election, "John Patterson out-niggered me, and I'm never gonna be out-niggered again." Four years later, in 1962, Wallace won the governorship of Alabama as an avowed segregationist.


2:00 AM -- I Want to Live! (1958)
2h | Drama | TV-PG
True story of the small-time lady crook who fought to escape the gas chamber.
Director: Robert Wise
Cast: Susan Hayward, Simon Oakland, Virginia Vincent

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Susan Hayward

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Robert Wise, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Nelson Gidding and Don Mankiewicz, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Lionel Lindon, Best Sound -- Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), and Best Film Editing -- William Hornbeck

Barbara Graham's actual response to the guard advising her to "take a deep breath, it's easier" was supposedly "how _the hell_ would you know". Apparently, it had to be cleaned up for the 1958 audience, which is ironic given the rather graphic nature of the scene.


4:15 AM -- The Wrong Man (1956)
1h 45m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
A musician is mistaken for a vicious thief, with devastating results.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle

Alfred Hitchcock utilized some of the actual real-life locations where the events took place including some of the actual witnesses. Among these are the jail cell where the real Manny Balestrero was incarcerated, the caretakers at the country inn and the inn itself, and the sanitarium where Manny's wife was committed. As much as Hitchcock hated filming his movies on location, he felt that authenticity was crucial to this film due to its real-life "elements that are stranger than all the fiction" he had filmed in his movies prior to this.