TCM Schedule for Friday, May 15, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: Families in Peril

In the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating the birth of James Mason, born James Neville Mason on May 15, 1909, in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, UK. Today is a day for listening - Mason was a good actor and had the most amazing voice. Then in prime time, we've got families in peril - appropriate for these times. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- HOTEL RESERVE (1946)
An Austrian refugee tries to figure out which guest at a French resort is a spy.
Dir: Victor Hanbury
Cast: James Mason, Lucie Mannheim, Raymond Lovell
BW-79 mins, CC,

Clare Hamilton, who plays Mary Skelton, was the sister of Maureen O' Hara. This would be her one and only screen appearance.


7:30 AM -- JULIUS CAESAR (1953)
An all-star adaptation of Shakespeare's classic about Julius Caesar's assassination and its aftermath.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: John Doucette, George Macready, Michael Pate
BW-121 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Edward C. Carfagno, Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Marlon Brando, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa, and Best Picture

James Mason and Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz enjoyed a strong working relationship following 5 Fingers (1952). Marlon Brando was very conscious of this, and saw that Mankiewicz was favoring Mason in many of the key scenes. Brando threatened to walk off the movie unless the balance was restored to his character.


9:45 AM -- LOLITA (1962)
Vladimir Nabokov's racy classic focuses on an aging intellectual in love with a teenager.
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: James Mason, Sue Lyon, Shelley Winters
BW-153 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Vladimir Nabokov

During filming, James Mason realised Peter Sellers was stealing the picture. He confided in friends, had he known, he should have insisted on playing Quilty himself.


12:30 PM -- ODD MAN OUT (1947)
A wounded IRA man faces betrayal on all sides when the British put a price on his head.
Dir: Carol Reed
Cast: James Mason, Robert Newton, Kathleen Ryan
BW-116 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Fergus McDonell

Richard Burton recorded in his diary a story he had heard Stewart Granger tell frequently about the movie: offered the lead role, Granger skimmed through the script, saw how little dialogue he had and rejected it, realizing his mistake later when the film transformed James Mason's career.


2:30 PM -- A STAR IS BORN (1954)
A falling star marries the newcomer he's helping reach the top.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson
C-176 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Mason, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Judy Garland (Judy Garland couldn't attend the ceremony because she was giving birth to her third child and only son, Joey Luft. Even though she did not win the Academy Award she always stated that Joey was the best "Academy Award" she ever received that night.), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Malcolm C. Bert, Gene Allen, Irene Sharaff and George James Hopkins, Best Costume Design, Color -- Jean Louis, Mary Ann Nyberg and Irene Sharaff, Best Music, Original Song -- Harold Arlen (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) for the song "The Man that Got Away", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Ray Heindorf

The film featured some ironic parallels to the real lives of its two loads. Norman Maine is a has-been actor who has fallen into substance abuse. This is in marked contrast to James Mason, who worked steadily until his death. In real life, it was Judy Garland whose career had suffered this fate. She even had her own Oscar-night disappointment when she lost the award to Grace Kelly. Like his character, however, Mason did discover another actor whom he mentored into a successful career, that being Sam Neill.


5:30 PM -- NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
An advertising man is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason
C-136 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Ernest Lehman, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- William A. Horning, Robert F. Boyle, Merrill Pye, Henry Grace and Frank R. McKelvy, and Best Film Editing -- George Tomasini

In numerous interviews, Martin Landau said that he made a decision on his own to play the character of Leonard as gay and in love with Phillip Vandamm (James Mason). In an October 2012 interview with Devin Faraci, Landau said that he was cast in this movie when Sir Alfred Hitchcock "saw me in a play called 'Middle of the Night', Paddy Chayefsky's first Broadway play, with Edward G. Robinson, which I toured with after the Broadway run. He was there opening night. I played a very macho guy, one hundred eighty degrees from Leonard, who I chose to play as a homosexual, very subtly. Because he wanted to get rid of Eva Marie Saint with such a vengeance. James Mason, to the day he died, he became a friend of mine, the most often asked question of James was whether Vandamm, his character, was bisexual. He said, 'No he wasn't, but Landau made a choice, and there's nothing I can do about it.' I actually caused him some grief. Everyone told me not to do that because it was my first big movie and people would think I was gay. I'm an actor. I said it wasn't going to be my last movie, and it certainly wasn't. I've never played a character like that since. I also felt it was something people would know or not know. It was very subtle. I thought, 'in Boise, Idaho they might not notice.'" Landau also said that after he made the decision to play Leonard as gay, Hitchcock and Screenwriter Ernest Lehman were very supportive of the idea. "Ernie Lehman added a line which was not in the script. 'Call it my woman's intuition' was not in the original script. It was a very daring line for the 1950s. Men didn't say things like that. Hitchcock loved what I did, and left me alone."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FAMILIES IN PERIL



8:00 PM -- RANSOM! (1956)
A wealthy couple tries to cope with the press and the police when their son is kidnapped.
Dir: Alex Segal
Cast: Glenn Ford, Donna Reed, Leslie Nielsen
BW-102 mins, CC,

Film debut of Leslie Nielsen.


10:00 PM -- CAPE FEAR (1962)
An ex-convict plots to destroy the district attorney who sent him to prison.
Dir: J. Lee Thompson
Cast: Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen
BW-106 mins, CC,

According to Polly Bergen, Robert Mitchum cut his hand on a cabinet during their scene. "His hand was covered in blood, my back was covered in blood. We just kept going, caught up in the scene. They came over and physically stopped us."


12:00 AM -- THE NIGHT HOLDS TERROR (1955)
Escaped convicts take over a suburban home.
Dir: Andrew Stone
Cast: Jack Kelly, Hildy Parks, Vince Edwards
BW-86 mins, Letterbox Format

Based on a true story that happened in February 1953.


2:00 AM -- FROM BEYOND (1986)
A group of scientists have developed the Resonator, a machine which allows whoever is within range to see beyond normal perceptible reality.
Dir: Stuart Gordon
Cast: Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ken Foree
BW-85 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

During scenes in the mental hospital when Katherine meets Crawford for the first time and releases him as her patient, two automatic doors use the infamous door opening sound from Star Trek: The Original Series. The second instance is a reversed version of the sample.


3:30 AM -- DOLLS (1987)
A group of people stop by a mansion during a storm and discover two magical toy makers and their haunted collection of dolls.
Dir: Stuart Gordon
Cast: Ian Patrick Williams, Carolyn-Purdy Gordon, Carrie Lorraine
BW-78 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Stuart Gordon was, at one point, very interested in directing a sequel to this film. The initial storyline would have followed Judy and Ralph back to Boston, where Ralph would have indeed married Judy's mother and they would all become a family. One day Judy would receive a box sent from England that would contain the toy makers, Gabriel and Hilary, as dolls.


5:00 AM -- GOOD EATING HABITS (1951)
In this educational short film, tips on proper nourishment are given.
BW-10 mins,


5:00 AM -- AGE 13 (1955)
In this short film, a troubled teen deals with the death of his mother and ill treatment by his stepfather.
Dir: Arthur Swerdloff
Cast: Michael Keslin,
C-27 mins,

Like many films produced and directed by Sid Davis, this one was recorded silently. The sound was recorded later and synched to fit the picture; in many cases, Arthur Swerdloff, the editor, cut to another shot to allow him to re-sync the audio and the video. See also, Gang Boy (1954).


5:00 AM -- ONE GOT FAT (1963)
Children wearing monkey masks pay the price for bad bicycle safety habits in this instructional short.
Dir: Dale Jennings
Cast: Diane Chambers, Charles Hagens, Dan Whitehead
C-15 mins,

The opening car crash sound effects from Signal 30 (1959) are copied for when the last monkey is hit by a car in the dark.


5:00 AM -- MATCH YOUR MOOD (1968)
Westinghouse shows women how to improve their lives by decorating their refrigerators in this short film.
C-6 mins,