TCM Schedule for Thursday, November 29, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: Edgar Award Winners

During the day, TCM has a bunch of doctors, both villans and victims. Then in the evening, TCM has a quintet of movies that are winners of the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay, and my, they're a wonderful collection. My favorite is the first, Charade (1963), with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. The mystery is intriguing and the dialogue is to die for! One of the best exchanges, that I have used in the real world (imagine Grant and Hepburn at a ski resort, saying these lines with just a touch of cynicism!):

Peter Joshua: Do we know each other?
Reggie Lampert: Why, do you think we're going to?
Peter Joshua: How would I know?
Reggie Lampert: Because I already know an awful lot of people, so until one of them dies I couldn't possibly meet anyone else.
Peter Joshua: Well, if anyone goes on the critical list, let me know.

Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- DOCTOR X (1932)
A reporter investigates a series of cannibalistic murders at a medical college.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Lee Tracy
C-76 mins, CC,

For a time Warner Brothers did not have a print of the original Technicolor version and it was assumed to be lost. The Technicolor version was finally discovered in the private collection of studio head Jack L. Warner after his death in 1978 and restored by the UCLA Archives.


7:30 AM -- THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X (1939)
A murderer returns from the grave with a thirst for blood.
Dir: Vincent Sherman
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Rosemary Lane, Wayne Morris
BW-62 mins, CC,

Humphrey Bogart said of this film: "This is one of the pictures that made me march in to [Warner Bros. studio chief Jack L. Warner] and ask for more money again. You can't believe what this one was like. I had a part that somebody like Bela Lugosi or Boris Karloff should have played. I was this doctor, brought back to life, and the only thing that nourished this poor bastard was blood. If it had been Jack Warner's blood or Harry Warner's or Sam Warner's maybe I wouldn't have minded as much. The trouble was, they were drinking mine and I was making this stinking movie."


8:45 AM -- ALIAS THE DOCTOR (1932)
Brothers with different work ethics clash while attending medical school.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Richard Barthelmess, Marian Marsh, Norman Foster
BW-61 mins, CC,

Based on the play "A Kuruzslo" by Emric Foeldes, it was also filmed in France in 1933 as Le cas du docteur Brenner.


10:00 AM -- BEDSIDE (1934)
A fake doctor sets up a lucrative high-society practice.
Dir: Robert Florey
Cast: Warren William, Jean Muir, Allen Jenkins
BW-66 mins, CC,

Based on a story by Manuel Seff and Harvey Thew.


11:15 AM -- THE GORILLA MAN (1942)
A wounded soldier discovers his hospital is secretly run by the Nazis.
Dir: D. Ross Lederman
Cast: John Loder, Ruth Ford, Marian Hall
BW-64 mins,

The photograph of Nurse Kruger's husband is that of Glen Cavender. He's an interesting character who was a Spanish-American war hero, a vaudevillian, and a Keystone Kop. He has 339 acting credits on IMDB, starting in 1914 and ending with The Fountainhead (1949), where he played Pedestrian Onlooker.


12:30 PM -- OBSESSION (1949)
A jealous husband plots to dispose of his wife's lover in an acid bath.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Robert Newton, Naunton Wayne, Phil Brown
BW-98 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Director Edward Dmytryk was in the UK after being blacklisted as part of "The Hollywood Ten" who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He was granted a work permit in the country by the Ministry of Labour as part of a "directors quota" in place to protect film industry jobs in the UK.


2:15 PM -- EXPERIMENT ALCATRAZ (1951)
A doctor testing drugs on convicts gets mixed up in a murder investigation.
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: John Howard, Joan Dixon, Walter Kingsford
BW-59 mins, CC,

Based on a story by George W. George and George F. Slavin.


3:30 PM -- THE BODY SNATCHER (1945)
To continue his medical experiments, a doctor must buy corpses from a grave robber.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Henry Daniell
BW-78 mins, CC,

This film featured the 8th and last on-screen teaming of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. Filming took place October 25-November 17 1944, delaying the completion of Karloff's Isle of the Dead (1945).


5:00 PM -- SIGNPOST TO MURDER (1965)
A convicted murderer, who escaped from a mental institution, hides out in the home of a woman whose husband is missing.
Dir: George Englund
Cast: Joanne Woodward, Stuart Whitman, Edward Mulhare
BW-77 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The Indian theatre and film community loved the film so much that they adapted it several times. It was adapted as a stage play "Dhummas", meaning fog, and was first made in Gujarati, then Marathi and finally in Hindi. Veteran theatre actress Sarita Joshi played the lead in all three versions. Then, it was made into the hit Hindi film "Ittefaq" (1969) with Nanda and Rajesh Khanna, followed by a remake, also titled "Ittefaq" (2017).


6:30 PM -- GREEN LIGHT (1937)
An idealistic doctor sacrifices his career to protect an elderly surgeon.
Dir: Frank Borzage
Cast: Errol Flynn, Anita Louise, Margaret Lindsay
BW-85 mins, CC,

After his first two starring films, "Captain Blood" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade," Errol Flynn asked Warners to find him a non-swashbuckling role. "Green Light" was the result. However, he was back with sword in hand for his next, "The Prince and the Pauper."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: EDGAR AWARD WINNERS



8:00 PM -- CHARADE (1963)
A beautiful widow tries to find her husband's lost fortune while eluding the killers who want it themselves.
Dir: Stanley Donen
Cast: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau
C-113 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Henry Mancini (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "Charade"

It was agreed Cary Grant would keep all of his clothes on when he took a shower, as he was nearly sixty and slightly overweight. However, they then decided the scene was funnier that way.


10:15 PM -- 12 ANGRY MEN (1957)
A jury holdout tries to convince his colleagues to vote not guilty.
Dir: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley
BW-96 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Sidney Lumet, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Reginald Rose, and Best Picture

Speaking at a screening of the film during the 2010 Fordham University Law School Film festival, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor stated that, seeing the film while she was in college influenced her decision to pursue a career in law. She was particularly inspired by immigrant Juror #11's monologue on his reverence for the American justice system. She also told the audience of law students that, as a lower-court judge, she would sometimes instruct juries to not follow the film's example, because most of the jurors' conclusions are based on speculation, not fact. Sotomayor noted that events such as Juror #8 entering a similar knife into the proceedings, doing outside research into the case matter in the first place, and ultimately the jury as a whole making broad, wide-ranging assumptions far beyond the scope of reasonable doubt (such as the inferences regarding the "Old Woman" wearing glasses) would never be allowed to occur in a real-life jury situation, and would, in fact, have resulted in a mistrial (assuming, of course, that applicable law permitted the content of jury deliberations to be revealed).


12:15 AM -- THE BIG HEAT (1953)
A police detective whose wife was killed by the mob teams with a scarred gangster's moll to bring down a powerful gangster.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando
BW-90 mins, CC,

As Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) leaves The Retreat after he first sees Vince Stone (Lee Marvin) face to face, the music in the background is "Put the Blame on Mame," a reference to Glenn Ford's performance in Gilda (1946).


2:00 AM -- THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1979)
Three crooks plot to steal a fortune in gold from a moving train.
Dir: Michael Crichton
Cast: Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland, Lesley-Anne Down
C-111 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The character of Clean Willy was played by one of Britain's premiere ballet dancers, Wayne Sleep, from The Royal Ballet Company. He actually did his own stunts, including scaling the Newgate prison walls, at the tremendous risk of falling and hurting himself.


4:00 AM -- Z (1969)
A political assassination uncovers a hotbed of corruption.
Dir: Costa-Gavras
Cast: Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jacques Perrin
C-127 mins,

Winner of Oscars for Best Film Editing -- Françoise Bonnot, and Best Foreign Language Film -- Algeria

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Costa-Gavras, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Jorge Semprún and Costa-Gavras, and Best Picture

The movie is based on the events surrounding the assassination of democratic Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis. On May 22, 1963, Lambrakis was attacked and struck on the head (in the same manner depicted in the film) by right-wing extremists after giving an anti-war speech in Thessaloniki. He died of brain injuries from the attack on May 27, 1963. Following Lambrakis's assassination, a military junta of right-wing generals seized control of the Greek government in 1967. During this time, the letter Z (meaning "He is alive&quot became a common piece of protest graffiti in Greek cities, in memory of Lambrakis and his democratic ideals. The military junta banned the use of the letter "Z" as graffiti, in response to these protests. The Greek junta collapsed in 1974, following a disastrous invasion of Cyprus by Turkey (which led to the occupation of almost half Cyprus by the Turkish army), and democracy was restored to Greece. In the film, the Examining Magistrate (played by Jean-Louis Trintignant) is in reality Christos Sartzetakis, who later served as President of the Hellenic Republic (1985-1990).