TCM Schedule for Saturday, September 12, 2020 -- The Essentials: Directed by Jacques Tourneur

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, TCM finally returns to the Essentials. Tonight, Ben Mankiewicz and special co-host Brad Bird are showing a pair of films directed by Jacques Tourneur. Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER (1938)
A gangster finds the straight life ain't so simple.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Bryan, Allen Jenkins
BW-85 mins, CC,

The $462,000 owed by Marco would be a little over $8.5 million in 2019 dollars.


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: DROOPY'S DOUBLE TROUBLE (1951)
Droopy and his identical twin brother Drippy are assigned to look after a house, and are told to deal violently with strangers.
Dir: Tex Avery (Fred)
Cast: Bill Thompson, Daws Butler
BW-7 mins, CC,


8:09 AM -- HIGH DIVE KIDS (1956)
In this short film, children from preschool age through age 14 are shown diving from various heights into a swimming pool.
BW-8 mins,


8:18 AM -- SITKA AND JUNEAU: A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1940)
This short film takes the viewer to Alaska, focusing on the cities of Sitka and Juneau.
C-9 mins,


8:28 AM -- DAREDEVIL DRIVERS (1938)
Rival bus companies find an unusual go-between in a former auto racer.
Dir: B. Reeves Eason
Cast: Beverly Roberts, Dick Purcell, Gloria Blondell
BW-60 mins,

The first movie of Gloria Blondell, sister of Joan Blondell.


9:30 AM -- TERRY AND THE PIRATES: PYRE OF DEATH (1940)
Dr. Herbert Lee, an archaeologist seeking to decipher ancient Mara inscriptions, is aided by his son, Terry, Terry's pal, Pat Ryan, and Normandie Drake.
Dir: James W. Horne
Cast: William Tracy, Jeff York, Joyce Bryant
BW-17 mins, CC,

Fourteenth episode of fifteen.


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: PIP-EYE, PUP-EYE, POOP-EYE AN' PEEP-EYE (1942)
Popeye's four nephews try to sneak out instead of eating their spinach.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Seymour Kneitel (uncredited)
Cast: Jack Mercer
BW-6 mins, CC,

This is the first appearance of the nephew named Poopeye, In Wimmin Is a Myskery (1940), where the other 3 children debuted he was called Pepeye.


10:08 AM -- THE LION HUNTERS (1951)
Bomba the Jungle Boy defends his animal friends from a team of unscrupulous hunters.
Dir: Ford Beebe
Cast: Johnny Sheffield, Morris Ankrum, Ann Todd
BW-80 mins, CC,

Fifth of twelve Bomba the Jungle Boy episodes.


11:30 AM -- THE REAR GUNNER (1943)
This short film, produced in cooperation with the U.S. War Department, focuses on a small-town Kansas boy who fulfills his dream of becoming a tail gunner in a bomber. Vitaphone Release 1111A.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Ronald Reagan, Burgess Meredith, Dane Clark
BW-20 mins,

Burgess Meredith, an actual Lieutenant in the US Army Air Corps at the time of filming (later reached the rank of Captain), portrayed a Private in the movie and was promoted to Corporal late in the movie.


12:00 PM -- DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)
An insurance salesman gets seduced into plotting a client's death.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson
BW-108 mins, CC,

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

Author James M. Cain later admitted that if he had come up with some of the solutions to the plot that screenwriters Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler did, he would have employed them in his original novel.


2:00 PM -- BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ (1962)
True story of Robert Stroud, the prison lifer who became an expert on birds.
Dir: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter
BW-149 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Burt Lancaster, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Telly Savalas, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Thelma Ritter, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Burnett Guffey

The film's release prompted an outpouring of letters demanding Robert Stroud's release. The fact that the real Stroud was nothing like he was portrayed in the film--he was actually a vicious psychopath who murdered several people before he went to prison and also while he was in prison--ensured that this never happened.


4:45 PM -- THE SAND PEBBLES (1966)
A naval engineer stationed in 1926 China defies local authorities to rescue a group of missionaries.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Richard Crenna
C-179 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Steve McQueen, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Mako, Best Cinematography, Color -- Joseph MacDonald, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Boris Leven, Walter M. Scott, John Sturtevant and William Kiernan, Best Sound -- James Corcoran (20th Century-Fox SSD), Best Film Editing -- William Reynolds, Best Music, Original Music Score -- Jerry Goldsmith, and Best Picture

The movie is often described as being intended as an allegory for the Vietnam War, even though Richard McKenna, the author of the best-selling novel on which the movie was based, served on U.S. Navy gunboats in China during the 1930s and based the book on his own experiences. In an American Film Institute article, director Robert Wise confirmed that the parallels with Vietnam were intentional: "I was showing that the American military might displayed around the world had been unpopular for many years, that the phrase 'Yankee Go Home!' was not just something that came out of post-World War II, but had been in existence the whole century...PEBBLES came along just at the time when we were starting to get into Vietnam....For me, the message of the film was to make that point, that Vietnam should be seen in this historical context."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: DIRECTED BY JACQUES TOURNEUR



8:00 PM -- OUT OF THE PAST (1947)
A private eye becomes the dupe of a homicidal moll.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas
BW-97 mins, CC,

In terms of developing her character, Jane Greer got helpful but minimal direction from Jacques Tourneur. "Zzjjane, do you know what ahm-pahs-eeve mean?" he asked the actress. "Impassive? Yes." "No 'big eyes', no expressive. In the beginning you act like a nice girl. But then, after you kill the man you meet in the little house, you become a bad girl. Yes? First half, good girl. Second half, bad." "I get you," she said. That was his direction, Greer recalled. "But I did throw in a few big eyes anyway. I couldn't help myself." Tourneur also discussed with her his plan for the character's wardrobe, something typical of his films' subtle, insidious visual design. "At first you wear light colors. After you kill the man, darker colors. In the end, black."


10:00 PM -- EXPERIMENT PERILOUS (1944)
A small-town doctor tries to help a beautiful woman with a deranged husband.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Hedy Lamarr, George Brent, Paul Lukas
BW-91 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Albert S. D'Agostino, Jack Okey, Darrell Silvera and Claude E. Carpenter

The title is a common variation of a line from Hippocrates, the Greek Father of Medicine: "Life is short, art is long, decision difficult, and experiment perilous." The line is recited by Nick Bederaux (Paul Lukas) in the film.


12:00 AM -- DANGER SIGNAL (1945)
A man suspected of murder charms a secretary into helping him.
Dir: Robert Florey
Cast: Faye Emerson, Zachary Scott, Dick Erdman
BW-78 mins, CC,

The pin Ronnie steals off another man's coat on the bus at the beginning of the film is the Honorable Service Lapel Button. It was awarded to honorably discharged veterans of World War II. It is also nicknamed the "Ruptured Duck".


1:30 AM -- THE CHINA SYNDROME (1979)
A television newswoman stumbles onto deadly secrets at a nuclear power plant.
Dir: James Bridges
Cast: Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Richard Herd
C-122 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Jack Lemmon, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Jane Fonda, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Mike Gray, T.S. Cook and James Bridges, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- George Jenkins and Arthur Jeph Parker

Producer Michael Douglas feels that what The China Syndrome (1979) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) share in common is the classic dramatic situation of man versus institutions. In the case of The China Syndrome (1979) those institutions are the many-headed monsters of modern media and technological corporations. Douglas said: "It's Man vs. Machinery. Basically, I find I like stories about heroes and, frankly, I think most people do. When I first read 'The China Syndrome', I was knocked out to find a very exciting story in which the leading characters are faced with dramatic choices, decisions that could make them heroic.This is the same plane on which 'Cuckoo's Nest' [One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)] was so involving". Douglas added: "Although we're dealing with complicated and controversial issues, the story is presented in a straightforward fashion, just as in 'Cuckoo's Nest' [One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)] . There were a lot of people who thought Big Nurse [(Louise Fletcher)] was right, that she was just doing her job. Conclusions belong to the audience, not the filmmakers".


3:45 AM -- COMA (1978)
A lady doctor investigates a series of strange deaths and disappearing bodies at her hospital.
Dir: Michael Crichton
Cast: Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, Elizabeth Ashley
C-113 mins, CC,

Producer Martin Erlichman first read the film's source novel when it was in galley form. Erlichman once said that for this movie he wanted to do for hospitals what Jaws (1975) had done to people with the ocean and sharks. He said: "People have a primal fear of the ocean and Jaws titillated that phobia. In a similar manner, Coma (1978) accents one's primal fears of hospitals. This is an even stronger phobia because a person can always refrain from going into the water, but cannot always avoid the necessity of going into hospital!"