TCM Schedule for Friday, May 1, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: We Come In Peace

In the daylight hours, TCM is giving us films based on the plays of Tennessee Williams. Be prepared for angst and drama! Really good drama. Then in prime time, we have a selection of films about aliens coming to earth - but these are the good movies, not the Saturday matinee bug-eyed monster thrillers. Enjoy, and have a happy May Day!


6:15 AM -- Hollywood My Hometown (1965)
In this special, Ken Murray hosts his own behind-the-scenes home movies of some of Hollywood's greatest stars.
BW-53 mins, CC,


7:15 AM -- The Night of the Iguana (1964)
A defrocked priest surrenders to the sins of the flesh in a Mexican hotel.
Dir: John Huston
Cast: Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr
BW-118 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Dorothy Jeakins

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Grayson Hall, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Gabriel Figueroa, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Stephen B. Grimes

According to one of the biographies of Tennessee Williams, "The Kindness of Strangers," by Donald Spoto, the character of Maxine, who is portrayed in this film by Ava Gardner, was purportedly based upon Williams' landlady of the apartment he rented in Santa Monica while he was working at MGM Studios in the 1940s. Her mannerisms, attitudes and even her distinctive one-syllable laugh were detailed by Williams and are expertly performed by Gardner.


9:30 AM -- Period of Adjustment (1962)
A newlywed couple's honeymoon is disrupted by their friends' marital problems.
Dir: George Roy Hill
Cast: Tony Franciosa, Jane Fonda, Jim Hutton
BW-111 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- George W. Davis, Edward C. Carfagno, Henry Grace and Richard Pefferle

The original Broadway production of "Period of Adjustment" by Tennessee Williams opened at the Helen Hayes Theater in New York on November 10, 1960 and ran for 132 performances. The play was adapted for this movie by Isobel Lennart.


11:30 AM -- Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)
A young gigolo returns to his southern hometown in search of the lost love of his youth.
Dir: Richard Brooks
Cast: Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Shirley Knight
C-120 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ed Begley

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Geraldine Page, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Shirley Knight

Spoiler alert: Because of strict censorship rules, certain elements of the stage play didn't make it into the screenplay. In the play, Heavenly didn't become pregnant with Chance's child, and end up having an illegal abortion; instead, Chance infected her with a venereal disease, and she was forced to have a hysterectomy. And in the end, rather than merely being beaten by Boss Finley's thugs, he is also castrated (offstage).


1:45 PM -- The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961)
A fading stage star gets caught up in the decadent life of modern Rome when she hires a male companion.
Dir: José Quintero
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Warren Beatty, Lotte Lenya
BW-104 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Lotte Lenya

This was Tennessee Williams' personal favorite film adaptation of any of his works.


3:45 PM -- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
A dying plantation owner tries to help his alcoholic son solve his problems.
Dir: Richard Brooks
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives
C-108 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Newman, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Taylor, Best Director -- Richard Brooks, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Richard Brooks and James Poe, Best Cinematography, Color -- William H. Daniels, and Best Picture

Tennessee Williams wrote the role of "Big Daddy" Pollitt with Burl Ives in mind. Prior to the original stage production, Ives was known primarily as a folk singer, and many within the theatre community questioned Williams' decision. Ives won rave reviews in the role on stage and screen, and went on to a long and prestigious acting career.


5:45 PM -- Baby Doll (1956)
A child bride holds her husband at bay while flirting with a sexy Italian farmer.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach
BW-115 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Carroll Baker, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Mildred Dunnock, Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Adapted -- Tennessee Williams, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Boris Kaufman

Tennessee Williams' first choice for the title role was Marilyn Monroe (who was straining to improve herself as an actress at the time and wanted the role badly), but Elia Kazan preferred newcomer Carroll Baker, whose work he was familiar with from the Actors Studio in New York. According to Baker's autobiography, Monroe acted as an usherette at the premiere, which was a benefit for The Actors Studio.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: WE COME IN PEACE



8:00 PM -- Cocoon (1985)
A group of elderly people are rejuvenated by aliens after swimming in a pool.
Dir: Ron Howard
Cast: Don Ameche, Steve Guttenberg, Hume Cronyn
C-117 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Don Ameche, and Best Effects, Visual Effects -- Ken Ralston, Ralph McQuarrie, Scott Farrar and David Berry

According to Ron Howard, several members of the cast liked to get into hypothetical discussions about the chance their characters were offered in the film. Maureen Stapleton was dead against it, while Don Ameche said he'd be the first in line.


10:15 PM -- It Came From Outer Space (1953)
No one believes an amateur astronomer's spaceship sighting until the town's people begin disappearing.
Dir: Jack Arnold
Cast: Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush, Charles Drake
BW-80 mins, CC,

Steven Spielberg has credited this film, and its plot focused on benign alien visitors seemingly uninterested in helping or harming human beings, as the main inspiration for his film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).


11:45 PM -- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
A blue-collar worker's encounter with a UFO leaves him a changed man.
Dir: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Terry Garr
C-135 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Cinematography -- Vilmos Zsigmond

Winner of a Special Achievement Award Oscar for Frank E. Warner for sound effects editing

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Melinda Dillon, Best Director -- Steven Spielberg, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Joe Alves, Daniel A. Lomino and Phil Abramson, Best Sound -- Robert Knudson, Robert Glass, Don MacDougall and Gene S. Cantamessa, Best Film Editing -- Michael Kahn, Best Effects, Visual Effects -- Roy Arbogast, Douglas Trumbull, Matthew Yuricich, Gregory Jein and Richard Yuricich, and Best Music, Original Score -- John Williams

After a while, François Truffaut found the long shoot tiring and he was frustrated over not being able to get on with his own directing work. He also got a good dose of Hollywood reality, noting to Teri Garr that for the $250,000 it cost to do a single helicopter shot, he could make an entire movie. Still, the experience gave him good insight into what it takes to act in film. All in all, Truffaut respected Steven Spielberg for his outward calm, patience and good humour and found that despite his own relative lack of experience in front of the camera (having acted only twice in his own movies), "several times during the shooting [Spielberg] made me...come out of myself. Thanks to that, I discovered a real pleasure as an actor." Truffaut also added, "In the face of overwhelming hardships and innumerable complications that would, I suspect, have discouraged most directors, Steven Spielberg's perseverance and fortitude were simply amazing."


2:15 AM -- Maniac (1963)
A beautiful woman seduces a drifter so he can help free her murderous husband from an insane asylum.
Dir: Michael Carreras
Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Nadia Gray, Donald Houston
BW-86 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The film was on Hammer's 1960 schedule but for unclear reasons it was shelved. It would have starred Peter Cushing and George Sanders.


3:45 AM -- Stop Me Before I Kill (1961)
After surviving an accident, a race car driver begins to suffer violent impulses.
Dir: Val Guest
Cast: Claude Dauphin, Diane Cilento, Ronald Lewis
BW-108 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Sean Connery visited the set during filming in the South of France. He was dating Diane Cilento at the time.


5:30 AM -- Ask Me, Don't Tell Me (1961)
In this short film, San Francisco gang members turn their lives around working on community service projects.
Dir: David Myers
Cast: Stanley Mosk,
BW-22 mins