TCM Schedule for Thursday, October 20, 2022 -- What's On: 75th Anniversary of Hollywood Blacklist

In the daylight hours, TCM is taking note of Halloween by giving films directed by Tod Browning and Val Lewton. Then in prime time, it's Night Two of the 75th Anniversary of the Hollywood Blacklist. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- The Thirteenth Chair (1929)
1h 12m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-G
A phony medium tries to prove her protege innocent of murder.
Director: Tod Browning
Cast: Conrad Nagel, Leila Hyams, Margaret Wycherly

Circa minute 44:20, Bela Lugosi points to the sitting medium and pronounces her name, Madame La Grange, with a flawless French accent. As he did in White Zombie (1932) and in The Black Cat (1934) when pronouncing French phrases, Bela completely drops his Hungarian accent and does not roll his R's as was customary for him when he spoke English with his thick native accent, but rather uses the same guttural R's as the French do. Not only that, but his French "an" sound is flawless, and nasal like a native Parisian, without a trace of any foreign accent. This would indicate that Bela Lugosi was probably fluent in French. For Bela to be able to so easily switch from one accent to the other, he would have had to have learned French as a child, and most likely before the age of 7 to be able to speak it like native, as he did. Where he learned it is a mystery, as he is only known to have lived in Germany besides Hungary and USA, and documentaries indicate that Bela dropped off school at the age of 12. The mystery therefore persists and has yet to be revealed.


7:30 AM -- Freaks (1932)
1h 30m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
A lady trapeze artist violates the code of the side show when she plots to murder her husband.
Director: Tod Browning
Cast: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova

Director Tod Browning worked at a circus in his youth, both as a clown and a contortionist. His familiarity with circus folk inspired him to create this film.


8:45 AM -- Mark of the Vampire (1935)
1h 1m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
Vampires seem to be connected to an unsolved murder.
Director: Tod Browning
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allen, Lionel Atwill

Throughout the film, Count Mora (Bela Lugosi) has an unexplained bullet wound on his temple. In the original script Mora was supposed to have had an incestuous relationship with his daughter Luna, and to have committed suicide. After filming began, however, MGM deleted references to the crime (and any remaining references may have been deleted when 20 minutes of footage was removed after the film's preview). Because director Tod Browning's previous film, Freaks (1932), had been a box-office disaster, he was unable to object to any changes made by the studio.


10:00 AM -- The Devil-Doll (1936)
1h 19m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
A Devil's Island escapee shrinks murderous slaves and sells them to his victims as dolls.
Director: Tod Browning
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'sullivan, Frank Lawton

Malita is made up as reminiscent of two famous horror supporting characters. She's slightly hunchbacked as was Dr. Frankenstein's Igor, and has a white streak in her hair similar to The Bride of Frankenstein. Further, her facial makeup gives her a rather deathly appearance, not unlike a vampire. (Tod Browning directed Dracula (1931).)


11:30 AM -- Miracles for Sale (1939)
1h 11m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
A magician turns detective to investigate murder and a phony seance.
Director: Tod Browning
Cast: Robert Young, Florence Rice, Frank Craven

Last film directed by Tod Browning before he went into retirement.


1:00 PM -- The Leopard Man (1943)
1h 6m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
When a leopard escapes during a publicity stunt, it triggers a series of murders.
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Dennis O'keefe, Margo, Jean Brooks

Val Lewton was a master of invoking terror without actually showing anything truly horrifying or graphic, and "that's something that we as filmmakers have lost. We now feel we have to show everything. Every plunge of the knife, every moment of pain and agony that the victims have to go through, that's what you see in horror films today. People cut up by hacksaws, people ripped apart at the hands of alien creatures." William Friedkin says the things we don't see live longer in our nightmares.


2:15 PM -- Isle of the Dead (1945)
1h 12m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
The inhabitants of a Balkans island under quarantine fear that one of their number is a vampire.
Director: Mark Robson
Cast: Boris Karloff, Ellen Drew, Marc Cramer

According to producer Val Lewton, the film was inspired by the painting "The Isle of the Dead" by Arnold Boecklin (1827-1901), which can be seen in the opening credits. The painting also inspired the 1913 Danish film The Isle of the Dead (1913).


3:30 PM -- The Body Snatcher (1945)
1h 17m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
To continue his medical experiments, a doctor must buy corpses from a grave robber.
Director: Robert Wise
Cast: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Henry Daniell

This film featured the 8th and last on-screen teaming of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. Filming took place October 25-November 17 1944, delaying the completion of Karloff's Isle of the Dead (1945).


5:00 PM -- The Ghost Ship (1943)
1h 9m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
A young innocent signs on with a ship whose captain is going mad.
Director: Mark Robson
Cast: Richard Dix, Russell Wade, Edith Barrett

Very shortly after its theatrical release in December of 1943, producer Val Lewton was sued for plagiarism by Samuel R. Golding and Fritz Falkenstein, who claimed that Lewton based his script on a play which they had written and submitted to Lewton's office at the time "The Ghost Ship" was being developed. Although Lewton had the opportunity to settle out of court, he chose to have the case tried. Despite Lewton's claims that their manuscript was returned unread, the court ruled against Lewton and RKO (a decision upheld at appeal), and The Ghost Ship (1943) was withdrawn from circulation. It remained unavailable for viewing for the next 50 years until the copyright was not renewed and it fell into the public domain. RKO paid the authors $25,000 in damages and $5,000 for attorney fees and lost all rights to future income and the right to sell the film to television.


6:30 PM -- Martin Scorsese Presents, Val Lewton: The Man In The Shadows (2007)
1h 16m | Documentary | TV-PG
This looks at the imaginative producer who fashioned a lasting body of beautiful and unsettling films.
Director: Kent Jones
Cast: Val Lewton, Martin Scorsese, Elias Koteas

David O. Selznick had a story that nobody would make. Lewton was assigned to turn around and pitch it to Samuel Goldwyn to try to dump it. Lewton gave a dramatic, heartfelt retelling of the story that had Goldwyn in tears. Goldwyn asked for a moment to recollect himself. He wiped his eyes, then said, "It stinks." Selznick couldn't believe that it took Goldwyn to tears so he asked Lewton to pitch it to him so that he could see how it sounded. Lewton again gave the same heartfelt, dramatic retelling. Selznick, through his tears and sobbing, managed to say, "Goldwyn's right. This does stink!"



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HOLLYWOOD BLACKLIST



8:00 PM -- Salt of the Earth (1954)
1h 34m | Documentary | TV-PG
The wives of striking mine workers fight to keep the union going.
Director: Herbert J. Biberman
Cast: Will Geer, David Wolfe, David Sarvis

This film was made by blacklisted director Herbert J. Biberman, screenwriter Michael Wilson, producer Paul Jarrico and composer Sol Kaplan largely in retaliation for being blacklisted. They reasoned that since they weren't allowed to work in Hollywood, they might as well make a film as pro-Communist as possible to fit the "crime" for which they had been accused by the feculent Un-American House Activities Committee.


10:00 PM -- A King in New York (1957)
1h 45m | Comedy | TV-PG
A European king loses his money while stranded in the U.S.
Director: Charles Chaplin
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Maxine Audley, Jerry Desmonde

The first film that Sir Charles Chaplin made in the UK after his exile from America, and his last leading role in a movie.


12:00 AM -- The Brave One (1956)
1h 40m | Drama | TV-G
A Mexican boy saves his pet bull from death in the bull ring by securing a pardon from the president.
Director: Irving Rapper
Cast: Michel Ray, Rodolfo Hoyos, Elsa Cardenas

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Dalton Trumbo (Because he was not permitted to work due to the Hollywood blacklist, Trumbo wrote the story - and was nominated - under the pseudonym Robert Rich, who had nothing to do with the film industry and is a nephew of the King Brothers, producers of the film. Although there were rumors at the time that this was the case, the film's producer repeatedly denied the suggestion. It was not acknowledged until several years later that Trumbo had been the writer. He finally received his award on May 2, 1975, presented by then Academy president Walter Mirisch, shortly before his death - although the official screen credit was not changed until many years afterward.)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Buddy Myers (RKO Radio), and Best Film Editing -- Merrill G. White

After "The Brave One' won the Oscar for Best Screenplay, independent producer Edward Nassour sued its producers the King Brothers over plagiarism. It seems the script for "The Brave One' bore an uncanny resemblance to that for "Ring Around Saturn," a stop-motion animation feature Nassour had been working on with a script written by Paul Rader. The rights were originally owned by Jesse L. Lasky, who had wanted to produce it as "Valley of the Mist." The King Brothers settled the dispute by paying out to Nassour the sum of $750,000 in an out-of-court settlement. It turned out that blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo had written the script for "The Brave One" using the pseudonym of Robert Rich.


2:00 AM -- Time Without Pity (1957)
1h 28m | Crime | TV-PG
A father comes to the aid of his son who is on Death Row.
Director: Joseph Losey
Cast: Ann Todd, Leo Mckern, Michael Redgrave

Director Joseph Losey departed the U.S. in the 1950s during the McCarthy era. This was his first European film to be released in his native country with his actual name credited as director, instead of that of a friend or a pseudonym.


3:30 AM -- The Boy with Green Hair (1948)
1h 22m | Drama | TV-G
An orphaned boy mystically acquires green hair and a mission to end war.
Director: Joseph Losey
Cast: Pat O'brien, Robert Ryan, Barbara Hale

Unfortunately for the film's director, Joseph Losey, the eccentric, politically conservative Howard Hughes took over RKO while this film was being shot and, hating the film's pacifist message, did his best to sabotage it. Losey, however, managed to protect the integrity of his project. Screenwriter Ben Barzman, who was also later blacklisted along with Losey, would later recall that "Joe shot the picture in such a way that there wasn't much possibility for change. A few lines were stuck in here and there to soften the message, but that was about it". Barzman also remembered that 12-year-old Dean Stockwell was called into Hughes' office and Hughes told him that when the other children spoke of the horror of war, he should say, "And that's why America has gotta have the biggest army, and the biggest navy, and the biggest air force in the world!" According to Barzman, little Stockwell was so in sympathy with the film's message that he dared to respond, "No, sir!" Even after Hughes started to scream at him, the boy held his ground and refused to do it. Dean Stockwell later played Howard Hughes in Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988).


5:00 AM -- Soundies: A Musical History (2007)
1h 16m | Documentary
Before MTV and the age of television, there were soundies, three minute black-and-white films featuring artie
Director: Chris Lamson
Cast: Van Alexander, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie

The visual jukebox that played these "soundies" was called a Panoram. It was produced by the Mills Novelty Company of Chicago from 1939 to 1947, when television made it practically obsolete. Each unit contained eight black and white 16mm films on a continuous loop, each segment lasting about 2 1/2 to 3 minutes long. One play cost a dime (ten cents), and there was no selector, so the customer had to view whatever the next film was on the loop. The company used RCA projectors and audio equipment. The initial production order by Mills was the largest by a single customer at the time for RCA projectors, amplifiers and speakers and it filled seventeen rail cars. Each unit cost a distributor $695 and the customer was charged $1,000. As for content, over 1,800 "soundies" were made from various producers.

The format was revived in the 1960's and '70s with improvements such as color, the ability to select what film one wanted to see, and there were many more films to choose from in each unit. The machines had names like Scopitone, Cinebox, and Color-Sonic. But they had proprietary technologies and sold only a few hundred units each and were not economically successful.