TCM Schedule for Friday, July 23, 2021 -- Primetime Theme: Friday Night Neo Noir

In the daylight hours, the theme is the Magical Middle East. We get films ranging from 1926's The Adventures of Prince Achmed to 1963's Captain Sindbad (sic). Then in prime time, TCM has the fourth week of Friday Night Neo Noir -- we get a fifth session next week. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Kismet (1955)
1h 53m | Musical | TV-G
In this Arabian Nights musical, the "king of the beggars" infiltrates high society when his daughter is wooed by a handsome prince.
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Howard Keel, Ann Blyth, Dolores Gray

The word kismet comes from the Arabic word kismat, meaning "division, portion, lot". Basically, it means your fate or your destiny. It was Hajj's destiny to succeed.


8:00 AM -- The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)
1h 6m | Silent | TV-G
This silent silhouetted animation is based on the Arabian Nights' tales.
Director: Lotte Reiniger
Cast: Berthod Bartosch, Alexander Karadan, Carl Koch

The earliest feature-length animated film to have survived. Only two Argentinean films by Quirino Cristiani, both presumed lost, predate it. Lotte Reiniger cut figures out of black cardboard with scissors, and joined movable parts with thread in order to animate them. From 1923-26 about 250,000 frame-by-frame stills were made and 96,000 were used in the film. Her husband, Carl Koch, was responsible for the photography in all her films until his death in 1963.


9:15 AM -- The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
1h 46m | Adventure | TV-G
A young thief faces amazing monsters to return Bagdad's deposed king to the throne.
Director: Ludwig Berger
Cast: Conrad Veidt, Sabu, June Duprez

Winner of Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Georges Périnal, Best Art Direction, Color -- Vincent Korda, and Best Effects, Special Effects -- Lawrence W. Butler (photographic) and Jack Whitney (sound)

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Score -- Miklós Rózsa

Filming began in Britain, but because of the Blitz--the German air raids on London--the production relocated to Hollywood. There was such a long break in production that Sabu's early scenes had to be re-shot because he had grown several inches. When filming began in the US, the stricter censorship codes of the Hays Office there were applied. One of the most obvious differences between the scenes shot in the UK and those filmed in the US is that the tops of the actresses' costumes were buttoned up all the way to satisfy the Hays Office. That kind of clue makes it easier to identify the US-shot scenes than trying to spot differences in the sets.


11:15 AM -- Bowery to Bagdad (1955)
1h 4m | Comedy | TV-G
The Bowery Boys unleash an Arabian nightmare when they find Aladdin's magic lamp.
Director: Edward Bernds
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey

Final film of Eric Blore. He had not made a picture since Fancy Pants (1950).


12:30 PM -- Arabian Tights (1933)
19m | Short | TV-PG
A trip to Paris turns sour for Charley Chase and his friends when they are captured by an Arabian sultan.
Director: Hal Roach
Cast: Charley Chase, Muriel Evans, Carlton Griffin


1:00 PM -- The Golden Arrow (1964)
1h 31m | Adventure | TV-PG
An Arabian bandit discovers he's the long lost son of a Sultan.
Director: Antonio Margheriti
Cast: Tab Hunter, Rossana Podestà, Umberto Melnati

The opening of the movie takes place in Damascus, which is a city in southern Syria. Damascus is one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in the world, having been occupied since about 6300 B.C.


2:45 PM -- Sinbad the Sailor (1947)
1h 57m | Adventure | TV-PG
The Arabian Nights hero sets off to find the lost treasure of Alexander the Great.
Director: Richard Wallace
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak

RKO had to scuttle its plan to present this film as a 1946 Christmas-season attraction when a strike at the Technicolor processing plant delayed the making of prints. The wide-release date would be moved up to January 13, 1947, with the Manhattan opening at the Palace Theatre following on January 22, 1947. Needing a black-and-white movie for its 1946 yuletide schedule, RKO chose a film destined to become a holiday perennial: Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946).


4:45 PM -- Son of Sinbad (1955)
1h 31m | Adventure | TV-PG
The legendary pirate's son fights an evil caliph over a magical secret.
Director: Ted Tetzlaff
Cast: Dale Robertson, Sally Forrest, Lili St. Cyr

Filmed in 1953, not released until 1955 mostly due to censorship troubles over Lili St. Cyr's risqué belly-dance.


6:30 PM -- Captain Sindbad (1963)
1h 25m | Adventure | TV-PG
Sindbad takes on an evil wizard to save the princess he loves.
Director: Byron Haskin
Cast: Guy Williams, Heidi Brühl, Pedro Armendáriz

Guy Williams, who played Sindbad, was no stranger to swashbuckling--he played the masked hero in the Disney TV series Zorro (1957).



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- FRIDAY NIGHT NEO NOIR



8:00 PM -- Blood Simple (1984)
1h 35m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-MA
A Texas bar owner hires a private eye to kill his cheating wife and her boyfriend.
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (uncredited)
Cast: John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya

The title is based on a phrase from the Dashiell Hammett novel "Red Harvest," in which "blood simple" is a term coined to describe the addled, fearful mindset people are in after a prolonged immersion in violent situations. Blood Simple writers Joel Coen and Ethan Coen later made Miller's Crossing (1990), which is loosely based on that novel.


10:00 PM -- Night Moves (1975)
1h 39m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-MA
An L.A. private detective puts aside his own marital woes while tracing a topless nymphet to the Florida Keys.
Director: Arthur Penn
Cast: Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Susan Clark

Harry (Gene Hackman) refers to playing against Alex Karras in his football career. As it turned out, Karras would eventually marry Susan Clark, who plays Harry's wife in this film.


11:45 PM -- Cutter's Way (1981)
1h 49m | Adaptation | TV-PG
Richard spots a man dumping a body, and decides to expose the man he thinks is the culprit with his friend Alex Cutter.
Director: Ivan Passer
Cast: Jeff Bridges, John Heard, Lisa Eichhorn

Before the production started on this film, Ivan Passer and producer Paul Gurian went to Jeff Bridges' house to ask him if he would agree to play Bone. But after both entered Bridges' property, the actor's dog, a big German shepherd, attacked Gurian biting him on the jaw. Gurian nearly died. Jeff Bridges later confessed that, after this incident, he had no choice but to accept the role in order to avoid to be sued for several million dollars.


2:00 AM -- When a Stranger Calls (1979)
1h 37m | Adaptation
A babysitter is tormented by a series of ominous phone calls.
Director: Fred Walton
Cast: Charles Durning, Carol Kane, Colleen Dewhurst

Throughout the opening segment, director Fred Walton gradually increased the feeling of suspense by making each subsequent phone call ring a touch louder than the previous one. They escalate from eerie to jarring and finally infuriating.


3:45 AM -- Alice, Sweet Alice (1977)
1h 48m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-MA
Suspicion falls on 12-year-old Alice for killing her sister and others with a butcher knife.
Director: Alfred Sole
Cast: Linda Miller, Mildred Clinton, Paula Sheppard

Paula E. Sheppard, who played 12-year-old Alice, was 19 during the making of the film.


5:45 AM -- The House in the Middle (1954)
12m | Short | TV-PG
Military tests demonstrate the dangers of poor home maintenance in the event of a nuclear attack.