TCM Schedule for Thursday, September 15, 2022 -- Star of the Month Humphrey Bogart

In the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating the birth of Fay Wray, born September 15, 1907, in Cardston, Alberta. From her IMDB mini-bio:

Canadian-born Fay Wray was brought up in Los Angeles and entered films at an early age. She was barely in her teens when she started working as an extra. She began her career as a heroine in westerns at Universal during the silent era. In 1926 the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers selected 13 young starlets it deemed most likely to succeed in pictures. Fay was chosen as one of these starlets, along with Janet Gaynor and Mary Astor. Fame would indeed come to Fay when she played another heroine in Erich von Stroheim's The Wedding March (1928). She continued playing leads in a number of films, such as the good-bad girl in Thunderbolt (1929). By the early 1930s she was at Paramount working with Gary Cooper and Jack Holt in a number of average films, such as Master of Men (1933). She also appeared in such horror films as Doctor X (1932) and The Vampire Bat (1933). In 1933 Fay was approached by producer Merian C. Cooper, who told her that he had a part for her in a picture in which she would be working with a tall, dark leading man. What he didn't tell her was that her "tall, dark leading man" was a giant gorilla, and the picture turned out to be the classic King Kong (1933). Perhaps no one in the history of pictures could scream more dramatically than Fay, and she really put on a show in "Kong". Her character provided a combination of sex appeal, vulnerability and lung capacity as she was stalked by the giant beast all the way to the top of the Empire State Building. That was as far as Fay would rise, however, as this was, after all, just another horror movie. After "Kong", she began a slow decline that put her into low-budget action films by the mid '30s. In 1939 her 11-year marriage to screenwriter John Monk Saunders ended in divorce, and her career was almost finished. In 1942 she remarried and retired from the screen, forever to be remembered as the "beauty who killed the beast" in "King Kong". However, in 1953 she made a comeback, playing mature character roles, and also appeared on television as Catherine, Natalie Wood's mother, in The Pride of the Family (1953). She continued to appear in films until 1958 and television into the 1960s.

Then in prime time, it's night three of Star of the Month Humphrey Bogart, with the theme of This Means War! Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- Captain Thunder (1931)
1h 6m | Comedy | TV-G
A Mexican bandit kidnaps a wedding party.
Director: Alan Crosland
Cast: Fay Wray, Victor Varconi, Charles Judels

Based on a story by Pierre Couderc and Hal Davitt.


7:30 AM -- Doctor X (1932)
1h 16m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
A reporter investigates a series of cannibalistic murders at a medical college.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Lee Tracy

This is the film for which Michael Curtiz is quoted as saying: "This will make your blood curl!"


9:00 AM -- The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
1h 3m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
A big game hunter decides to stalk human prey.
Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack
Cast: Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong

The actor playing "Ivan the Cossack" was Noble Johnson, a multi-talented black American who was a childhood friend of Lon Chaney. This is the earliest known instance of a black actor playing a Caucasian character.


10:15 AM -- King Kong (1933)
1h 40m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
A film crew discovers the "eighth wonder of the world," a giant prehistoric ape, and brings him back to New York, where he wreaks havoc.
Director: Merian C. Cooper
Cast: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot

After completing her scenes, Fay Wray spent a day in the sound studio recording a series of screams she dubbed her "Aria of the Agonies."


12:15 PM -- Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
1h 12m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
A disfigured sculptor turns murder victims into wax statues.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell

The wax figures look like real people because they ARE real people. The original plan was to use actual wax figures, but they melted under the heat of the lights used at the time to film two-strip Technicolor.


1:45 PM -- The Vampire Bat (1933)
1h 3m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
Villagers suspect the town simpleton of being a vampire.
Director: Frank Strayer
Cast: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Melvyn Douglas

To keep production costs down, low-budget studio Majestic Pictures filmed at night on Universal's European village set, which was used for Frankenstein (1931). The interior of Lionel Atwill's house is the set from The Old Dark House (1932).


3:00 PM -- One Sunday Afternoon (1933)
1h 10m | Romance | TV-G
A small-town dentist longs for revenge on an old friend who stole his love, but discovers there's no need.
Director: Stephen Roberts
Cast: Gary Cooper, Fay Wray, Neil Hamilton

When Biff asks for a package of Sen-Sen at the pool hall, audiences at the time would have known he was buying a popular brand of breath freshener. It was produced from the late 1800s until 2013.


4:15 PM -- The Richest Girl in the World (1934)
1h 16m | Romance | TV-G
To put off fortune-hunters, an heiress trades places with her secretary.
Director: William A. Seiter
Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea, Fay Wray

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Norman Krasna

Including this film, Fay Wray (Sylvia) was in 11 movies in 1934. She also was in 11 films the previous year (1933), including King Kong.


5:45 PM -- The Cobweb (1955)
2h 4m | Drama | TV-PG
Inmates and staff at a posh asylum clash over love and lunacy.
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Richard Widmark, Lauren Bacall, Charles Boyer

Marks the return of Lillian Gish to MGM after a 22-year absence.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- STAR OF THE MONTH: HUMPHREY BOGART



8:00 PM -- Tokyo Joe (1949)
1h 28m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
An American in post-war Japan gets caught up in the black market.
Director: Stuart Heisler
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Alexander Knox, Florence Marley

This was the first movie allowed to film in post-war Japan.


9:45 PM -- The Caine Mutiny (1954)
2h 5m | Drama | TV-PG
Naval officers begin to suspect their captain of insanity.
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Jose Ferrer, Van Johnson

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Humphrey Bogart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Tom Tully, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Stanley Roberts, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), Best Film Editing -- William A. Lyon and Henry Batista, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner, and Best Picture

Humphrey Bogart's tour-de-force performance in the climactic courtroom scene was so powerful, that it completely captivated the onlooking film technicians and crewmen. After the scene's completion, the company gave Bogart a round of thunderous applause.


12:00 AM -- Chain Lightning (1950)
1h 34m | Drama | TV-PG
A reckless jet pilot goes to work for a demanding aviation tycoon.
Director: Stuart Heisler
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Eleanor Parker, Raymond Massey

Humphrey Bogart's character was in the 323rd Bomb Squadron that flew out of Bassingbourn Air Base, near Cambridge, England. This base was given to the USAAF (United States Army Air Force) by the RAF (Royal Air Force) as the first home of the B-17s in the UK. This base was the home of The Memphis Belle and was visited by the royal family on two occasions. Clark Gable even flew out of Bassingbourn once, though he was not stationed here during his tour as a side gunner.


1:45 AM -- Action in the North Atlantic (1943)
2h 7m | War | TV-G
A Merchant Marine crew fights off enemy attacks at the start of World War II.
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Guy Gilpatric

Very few early World War II films featured African-Americans in the US military. Humphrey Bogart was quoted in "The Pittsburgh Courier" on 26 September 1942 as saying that he wanted to have a black Merchant Marine captain in this film. He said, "In the world of the theatre or any other phase of American life, the color of a man's skin should have nothing to do with his rights in a land built upon the self-evident fact that all men are created equal."


4:00 AM -- Passage to Marseille (1944)
1h 49m | War | TV-PG
Devil's Island escapees join up with the Allies during World War II.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Michèle Morgan

During filming, Lauren Bacall was brought to the set in order to gauge her chemistry with Humphrey Bogart, with whom she would soon be co-starring in To Have and Have Not (1944). This was the famous duo's first meeting, though it would be months before their romance began.