TCM Schedule for Thursday, October 21, 2021 -- What's On Tonight: Star of the Month Lucille Ball

In the daylight hours, TCM is showing a Hammer Horror Mini-Festival. Then in prime time, it's week three of the salute to Star of the Month Lucille Ball. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- The Nanny (1965)
1h 33m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-14
A disturbed young man tries to prove his nanny is out to kill him.
Director: Seth Holt
Cast: Bette Davis, Wendy Craig, Jill Bennett

The role of the Nanny was originally intended for Greer Garson who first accepted then declined, saying the script would not be good for her career. Jimmy Sangster who wrote and produced the film later said, "I went to Santa Fe and met with Greer, and she said she liked the script, and everything was fine. When I got back to London, we had a message from Los Angeles saying that Greer Garson didn't think the script would do her career much good. I didn't like to say she didn't have a career in those days."


7:45 AM -- Dracula--Prince of Darkness (1965)
1h 30m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-14
Four travelers unwittingly revive the bloodsucking count.
Director: Terence Fisher
Cast: Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley, Andrew Keir

In the scene where Dracula is being "resurrected" from a coffin into which his ashes have been spread, from blood dripping down from a poor victim (provided by Klove) Dracula is made to "manifest himself" over a period of about a minute. This was achieved by overlapping "dissolves" of a series of twelve locked-down camera shots, involving first the ashes, then a skeleton, then some body-fat on the skeleton, et cetera, along with swirling mist, until we finally perceive the full form of Dracula. He doesn't appear fully dressed as is usually the case. The shot moves to outside the coffin and a bare arm reaches out. The vampire's clothes were seen in earlier scenes awaiting his return.


9:30 AM -- Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
1h 32m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-14
Baron Frankenstein puts a wrongly executed man's brain into a beautiful woman's body.
Director: Terence Fisher
Cast: Peter Cushing, Susan Denberg, Thorley Walters

Frankenstein Created Woman was originally mooted as a follow-up to The Revenge of Frankenstein during its production in 1958, at a time when Roger Vadim's Et Dieu créa la femme (And God Created Woman) was successful (in fact, the film's original working title was And Then Frankenstein Created Woman). The film finally went into production at Bray Studios on 4 July 1966. It was Hammer's penultimate production there.


11:15 AM -- Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1969)
1h 32m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-14
Dracula goes after the niece of the monsignor who destroyed his castle.
Director: Freddie Francis
Cast: Christopher Lee, Rupert Davies, Veronica Carlson

Sir Christopher Lee loved to recount the following tale: Hammer was given a Queen's Award to Industry while shooting the final scenes of Dracula impaled on the rocks, with a group of British government dignitaries watching as Lee thrashed around screaming and pouring with gore. After the scene wrapped, a minister turned to his wife and said, "That man is a member of my club."


1:00 PM -- Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1970)
1h 37m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-14
Baron Frankenstein blackmails a brother and sister into helping him with a brain transplant.
Director: Terence Fisher
Cast: Peter Cushing, Simon Ward, Veronica Carlson

The controversial rape scene was added at the last minute, after shooting was nearly complete. Veronica Carlson talked about it in a 2011 interview. She said originally the plan was to have Peter Cushing strip off her blouse exposing her breasts, but Cushing refused. "We were all disgusted with it. (Hammer studio head) Jimmy Carreras came onto the set one day obviously upset because he'd had word from the higher-ups, the distributors, that there wasn't enough sex in the movie; there had to be a rape scene. Terry thought he was quite cross--I remember that--and I thought that was out of character for Jimmy, because he was a lovely, all-fatherly figure. Peter Cushing told me 'Darling, I don't like this any more than you do.' So we worked out how to do it, between us. They wanted him to strip me, to take hold of my neckline and tear it down to my waist, you see. Peter said, 'I'm not going to do this.' That's why we worked it out between ourselves. We assured Terry (Fisher) that we knew what we were doing. He let us do what we were comfortable with. After we shot the scene, Peter just held me. I was trembling and HE was trembling. We were both so upset. We just stayed there, very, very still until we composed ourselves and then we got up and walked out. It was the only time that I felt such a somber atmosphere on a Hammer film. It was terrible to remember, actually."


2:45 PM -- Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)
1h 35m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
Count Dracula takes revenge on the businessmen who killed his faithful servant.
Director: Peter Sasdy
Cast: Christopher Lee, Geoffrey Keen, Gwen Watford

The film was originally not going to feature Dracula at all, much like The Brides of Dracula (1960), due to Christopher Lee becoming increasingly reluctant to reprise the role and the producers not expecting to be able to convince him to do so. Lee's increasing salary demands were also a factor. Ralph Bates would have played the lead. The script was re-written to include Dracula after the producers were finally able to coax Lee back to the role after "Warner-Seven Arts" refused to back this movie without the actor's participation.


4:30 PM -- Crescendo (1972)
1h 23m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
Research on a recently deceased composer gets a music student mixed up with his dysfunctional family.
Director: Alan Gibson
Cast: Stefanie Powers, James Olson, Margaretta Scott

James Carreras unsuccessfully pursued Joan Crawford for the role ultimately played by Margaretta Scott.


6:15 PM -- Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
1h 40m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
Cult members unwittingly resurrect Dracula in swinging London.
Director: Alan Gibson
Cast: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Stephanie Beacham

Peter Cushing appears here 5 years before Star Wars. Christopher Lee appears here 29 years before The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring, and 30 years before Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- STAR OF THE MONTH LUCILLE BALL



8:00 PM -- Du Barry Was a Lady (1943)
1h 41m | Musical | TV-G
A night club employee dreams he's Louis XV, and the star he idolizes is his lady love.
Director: Roy Del Ruth
Cast: Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Gene Kelly

MGM hairstylist Sydney Guilaroff dyed Lucille Ball's hair flame red for this film, the color that she kept for the rest of her life and became her trademark.


10:00 PM -- The Big Street (1942)
1h 28m | Romance | TV-G
A nightclub waiter, who's in love with a selfish showgirl, gets to prove his love when she's injured.
Director: Irving Reis
Cast: Henry Fonda, Lucille Ball, Barton MacLane

Lucille Ball's favorite of her films. She felt her performance was unjustly ignored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).


12:00 AM -- Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949)
1h 27m | Comedy | TV-G
An inept secretary goes to work for a bogus real estate firm thinking it's for real.
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Lucille Ball, William Holden, Janis Carter

Rita Hayworth was going to star in this movie, but Hayworth requested script revisions, and went on suspension to avoid making it.


2:00 AM -- The Fuller Brush Girl (1950)
1h 25m | Comedy | TV-G
A daffy door-to-door saleswoman blunders into a murder investigation.
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Lucille Ball, Eddie Albert, Carl Benton Reid

When Sally is mistaken for a babysitter and tied up by some children playing Cowboys and Indians, she is rescued by the real babysitter, played by actress Gail Bonney. Two years later, Gail Bonney would play Mrs. Hudson in the I Love Lucy episode "The Amateur Hour," hiring Lucy Ricardo to babysit her twin boys, who would tie Lucy up while playing Cowboys and Indians.


4:00 AM -- Her Husband's Affairs (1947)
1h 22m | Comedy | TV-G
An ad man fights off his wife's attempts to help him market an embalming fluid that doubles as a hair remover.
Director: S. Sylvan Simon
Cast: Lucille Ball, Franchot Tone, Edward Everett Horton

Titles considered for the film were "The Mating Call", "The Yes Woman" and "The Lady Knew How."