TCM Schedule for Friday, June 26, 2020 -- Cinematic Pride: LQBTQ Critics' Choice

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating the birth of Peter Lorre. Tell us more, Roger!

Peter Lorre was a brilliant and highly original actor whose physical characteristics - small frame, bulging eyes and nasal voice - often led to roles in which he was a suspicious and sometimes deranged outsider. His friend and frequent costar Vincent Price said of Lorre, "Peter was the most inventive actor I've ever known. He was a great scholar, an accomplished dramatic actor and masterful comedian. Peter liked to make pictures which entertained people, not critics. He didn't have any pretensions about conveying messages to the world."

Lorre was born László Löwenstein in Rózsahegy, Hungary, on June 26, 1904, to Jewish parents. His mother died when he was four years old and his father remarried. Educated at elementary and secondary schools in Vienna, Austria, he began acting onstage there when he was 17. With only a couple of minor parts in German films to his credit, Lorre was virtually unknown when director Fritz Lang cast him in the role that brought him international fame: the psychopathic child murderer of M (1931).

He appeared in about a dozen other movies in Germany before leaving as the Nazis gained control of the country. He made films in Paris and London, including Alfred Hitchcock's original version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934).

Lorre arrived in 1934 in Hollywood, where he played crazed heavies in Mad Love and Crime and Punishment (both 1935) before being cast as Japanese detective Mr. Moto in a series of eight "B" pictures from 20th Century-Fox between 1937-39. He made films at MGM and RKO before signing at Warner Bros. in 1941, the same year he became a naturalized citizen.

At Warners, Lorre formed a relationship with fellow character actor Sydney Greenstreet in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and continued the partnership through eight other movies including Casablanca (1942). After departing Warners, his film career lost momentum and he turned to stage and TV work. He had his final role as a TV director in the Jerry Lewis comedy The Patsy (1964), and four days after completing that film he died of a stroke on March 23 in Los Angeles.

These are the films in our birthday tribute to Peter Lorre:

M is the Fritz Lang masterpiece in which Lorre stars as Hans Beckert, a serial killer of little girls. When the police fail to apprehend Beckert, local mobsters and thieves capture him and subject him to a mock trial. BFI critic Matthew Thrift called Lorre's work here "a performance for the ages... [His] biggest coup, in his greatest screen performance, is to imbue his monstrous character with pity - sympathy even."

Strange Cargo (1940), based on an allegorical novel by Richard Sale about fugitive prisoners from a French penal colony, was an MGM vehicle for popular costars Clark Gable and Joan Crawford. Lorre plays the supporting role of M'sieu Pig, a lecherous bounty hunter who wants to marry the Crawford character. Joseph L. Mankiewicz produced and Frank Borzage directed this offbeat film.

Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), an RKO picture, is considered one of the earliest examples of film noir. Lorre gets top billing as "The Stranger," a mysterious man who seems to have been involved in a pair of murders. John McGuire and Margaret Tallichet costar under the direction of Boris Ingster.

You'll Find Out (1940), also from RKO, was a vehicle for bandleader Kay Kyser in which he and his orchestra are invited to perform at a sinister old mansion where a murder plot unfolds. Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and a scene-stealing Lorre guest-star to lend menace and considerable humor. David Butler directed.

The Maltese Falcon, writer-director John Huston's debut film (and masterpiece), elevated Humphrey Bogart to superstardom in the role of Sam Spade, Dashiell Hammett's laconic private investigator. Lorre plays an accomplice of the sinister "Fat Man" (Sydney Greenstreet). The movie won three Oscar nominations including those for Best Picture, Screenplay and Supporting Actor (Greenstreet).

Hotel Berlin (1945) is a Warner Bros. drama set at a Berlin hotel near the end of World War II and based on a novel by Vicki Baum, author of Grand Hotel. Once again, a collection of disparate characters face dramatic circumstances. The cast includes Raymond Massey, Faye Emerson, Helmut Dantine and Lorre as a doctor who worked for the Nazis but has become disgusted by them. Peter Godfrey directed.

Scent of Mystery (1960), produced by Mike Todd Jr., was originally presented in theaters in Smell-O-Vision, a process in which odors related to happenings in the film could be smelled by the audience. Based on a novel by Kelley Roos, the story concerns a mystery novelist who learns of the planned murder of an heiress while on holiday in Spain. Lorre plays the taxi driver who escorts the writer across the Spanish countryside. Jack Cardiff directed, and Elizabeth Taylor (at one time Mike Todd Jr.'s stepmother) has an uncredited cameo as the endangered heiress.

by Roger Fristoe

Then in prime time, TCM completes their salute to Pride Month.

LGBTQ themes have been present in films since the early days of cinema, and this month TCM invites two special guest critics to discuss a series of films with these themes that have been meaningful in their personal journeys.

Alonso Duralde is co-host of the Linoleum Knife, Who Shot Ya?, and Breakfast All Day podcasts. Duralde is the author of two books, Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas (Limelight Editions) and 101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men (Advocate Books), and is married to his Linoleum Knife co-host, film critic Dave White.

B. Ruby Rich is a film scholar and critic, the editor in chief of Film Quarterly, and a professor of Film and Digital Media at UC Santa Cruz. Among her many contributions to the world of film criticism, she is known for coining the term "New Queer Cinema."

Today, Rich will cover the following films:

Mädchen in Uniform (TCM premiere, 1931), a German film directed by Leontine Sagan and Carl Froelich, is set at an all-girls boarding school where a student (Hertha Thiele) falls in love with a female teacher (Dorothea Wieck). The film, one of the first features in any country to address the subject of lesbianism, was considered very bold in pre-Nazi Germany.

The Watermelon Woman (TCM premiere, 1996) is an independently made comedy/drama written, directed and edited by Cheryl Dunye. She also stars as a black lesbian filmmaker who wants to make a movie about an actress who played "mammy" roles in movies of the 1930s. This is considered the first feature film directed by a black lesbian.

Orlando (TCM premiere, 1992) is a British period piece that plays with the notion of gender set during the Elizabethan era. It follows a young androgynous nobleman named Orlando (Tilda Swinton), who is bequeathed land and financial stability by the Queen Elizabeth I (Quentin Crisp) on her deathbed, under the condition that he not grow old.

by Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!


6:30 AM -- STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR (1940)
A newspaperman serves as key witness in a circumstantial murder case.
Dir: Boris Ingster
Cast: Peter Lorre, John McGuire, Margaret Tallichet
BW-64 mins, CC,

Peter Lorre owed RKO two days on his contract and was given this role with few scenes and few lines, but received top billing.


8:00 AM -- YOU'LL FIND OUT (1940)
Kay Kyser and his band fight to save a young girl trapped in a haunted mansion.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Kay Kyser, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff
BW-97 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy McHugh (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "I'd Know You Anywhere"

Filmed August 8-October 11 1940, the 7th of 8 features to star Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, and the only time that fellow Hungarians Lugosi and Peter Lorre ever shared the screen.


10:00 AM -- STRANGE CARGO (1940)
A prostitute and some prisoners attempt to escape from a penal colony in French Guiana.
Dir: Frank Borzage
Cast: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Ian Hunter
BW-113 mins, CC,

Director Frank Borzage said Joan Crawford was a trouper but did not mention a particular day in the jungle when Crawford, preceded by Clark Gable passed under a tree with an eight-foot python coiled on a branch overhead. "That son-of-a-b-h is alive!" screamed Crawford, looking upward. "Yes, but its jaws are shut tight with a rubber band," Borzage explained. "What happens if the f-king rubber band snaps?" Crawford asked, and refused to repeat the scene.


12:00 PM -- HOTEL BERLIN (1945)
During World War II's final days, people with a variety of problems converge on a Berlin hotel.
Dir: Peter Godfrey
Cast: Faye Emerson, Helmut Dantine, Raymond Massey
BW-98 mins, CC,

The novel upon which this film is based was published in 1943, and was considered a "sequel" to the same author's earlier novel, which had served as the basis for the 1932 Best Picture Oscar winner, Grand Hotel. Production took place from late 1944 into early 1945, with the screenplay being continually revised to remain up-to-date on the fast-moving events of the final year of World War II into account.


1:42 PM -- STRANGE TESTAMENT (1941)
This short film focuses on the strange effect a girl at Mardi Gras has on a poor immigrant.
Dir: Sammy Lee
Cast: Ava Gardner, Edward Ashley, Dorothy Morris
BW-11 mins,


2:00 PM -- SCENT OF MYSTERY (1960)
Vacationing Englishman Oliver Larker stumbles upon a plot to kill a young American tourist in Spain.
Dir: Jack Cardiff
Cast: Denholm Elliott, Peter Lorre, Beverly Bentley
BW-109 mins, Letterbox Format

During filming in Cordoba, Spain, Peter Lorre collapsed due to blocked arteries. A convention of Spanish doctors were in town and examined the unconscious actor on his hotel room table, concluding that he probably only had an hour to live. As a last resort, one suggested the old technique of blood-letting, and within a few hours, Lorre was out of danger and speaking in French. Advertisements were placed in the Spanish press, and a double was found for any scenes that involved running.


4:00 PM -- THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)
Hard-boiled detective Sam Spade gets caught up in the murderous search for a priceless statue.
Dir: John Huston
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George
BW-100 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sydney Greenstreet, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Huston, and Best Picture

The first pairing of Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, who would go on to make nine more movies together.


6:00 PM -- M (1931)
The mob sets out to catch a child killer whose crimes are attracting too much police attention.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Theo Lingen, Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke
BW-110 mins,

Peter Lorre's character is introduced by the musical cue "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Edvard Grieg's "Peer Gynt Suite No. 1". This was one of the very first times that a musical theme was used to signify a character, a technique known as a 'leitmotif' borrowed from the world of opera that is now a staple of filmmaking.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPECIAL THEME: CINEMATIC PRIDE: LGBTQ CRITICS' CHOICE



8:00 PM -- MADCHEN IN UNIFORM (1931)
At an all-girls boarding school, Manuela falls in love with a teacher, to terrific consequences.
Dir: Leontine Sagan
Cast: Hedwig Schlichter, Marte Hein, Else Ehser
BW-91 m

The movie was banned when first released in Germany and the United States. It wasn't until First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt saw the importance of the movie that the ban was lifted.


9:45 PM -- WATERMELON WOMAN (1995)
A young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played 'mammy' archetypes.
Dir: Cheryl Dunye
Cast: Cheryl Dunye, Guinevere Turner, Valarie Walker
BW-85 mins, CC,

According to writer/director Cheryl Dunye, much about the character she plays in the film is autobiographical, but the historical references to the Watermelon Woman are fictional: "The Watermelon Woman came from the real lack of any information about the lesbian and film history of African-American women. Since it wasn't happening, I invented it."


11:30 PM -- ORLANDO (1992)
An immortal noble experiences four centuries of sexual politics.
Dir: Sally Potter
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Billy Zane, Quentin Crisp
C-94 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Ben van Os and Jan Roelfs, and Best Costume Design -- Sandy Powell

To help find the character of Orlando, Sally Potter and Tilda Swinton rented some costumes from Bermans & Nathans in London and did a photo shoot. Orlando's looks to the camera and asides to the audience were one of the key character aspects that came out of the photo shoot.


1:19 AM -- WONDERFUL WORLD OF TUPPERWARE (1965)
This short industrial film focuses on the making of Tupperware.
Dir: George J. Yarbrough
C-29 mins,


2:00 AM -- THE PRIVATE FILES OF J. EDGAR HOOVER (1977)
The story of the late J. Edgar Hoover, who was head of the FBI from 1924-1972, from his racket-busting days through his reign under eight U.S. presidents.
Dir: Larry Cohen
Cast: Broderick Crawford, Jose Ferrer, Michael Parks
BW-113 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Director Larry Cohen wanted to film at various authentic locations, but was repeatedly turned down for permission. However, when First Lady Betty Ford - a former dancer - found out that Dan Dailey was in Washington to make a film, she invited him and Broderick Crawford to the White House for lunch, as she had always liked Dailey's films and work. Larry Cohen then started calling locations such as the FBI's training facility in Quantico, Virginia, and said that he wanted to film there but couldn't do so the next day because the cast was having lunch at the White House; likely supposing that the film had official backing, every location soon made themselves available.


4:00 AM -- IT'S ALIVE (1974)
A couple's use of an experimental fertility drug produces a monstrous infant.
Dir: Larry Cohen
Cast: Guy Stockwell, Sharon Farrell, Andrew Duggan
C-91 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

For the design of the baby monster, Larry Cohen drew a picture of what he wanted it to look like to Rick Baker, with the oversized forehead and pulsating veins running through the head, Cohen and Baker based it off the Starchild from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and a wolf.


5:30 AM -- THE DROP OUT (1962)
A young man drops out of high school and struggles to find a job in this short "scare" film.
BW-11 mins,

Produced with the cooperation of the Santa Monica Police Department and the Santa Monica Unified School District. Santa Monica is a Los Angeles suburb that at the time this short film was produced (1962) had a population of about 84,000.


5:30 AM -- THE HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE (1954)
Military tests demonstrate the dangers of poor home maintenance in the event of a nuclear attack in this short film.
C-12 mins,