TCM Schedule for Friday, March 5, 2021 -- What's On Tonight: Movie MacGuffins, Part I

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, we're spending the day in the slammer. Then in prime time, TCM begins a two-part look at Movie MacGuffins, to be continued next Friday. Tell us all about it, Roger!

The film term “MacGuffin” was coined by British screenwriter Angus MacPhail, who worked with Alfred Hitchcock, and was popularized by Hitchcock himself. The word is defined by Merriam-Webster as “an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance.” As the plot progresses, the MacGuffin may be minimized or even forgotten. It has been derisively referred to as a “plot coupon,” and Hitchcock once remarked that it is actually “nothing at all.”

With this programming, TCM hosts Ben Mankiewicz and Eddie Muller will further define the MacGuffin and look at a half-dozen examples of films that depend upon the plot device. Suitably, three of these movies are Hitchcock thrillers where the MacGuffin is the reason for the suspense to occur.

In The 39 Steps (1935) it is the plan for an advanced airplane engine as stored in the memory of a vaudeville performer. In Psycho (1960) the “nothing” is a packet of stolen money that the Janet Leigh character takes with her on her fateful visit to the Bates Motel. And in North by Northwest (1959) it is government secrets on a roll of microfilm that places Cary Grant in great danger of the sinister James Mason.

In non-Hitchcock films, perhaps the most famous MacGuffin of them all is the title object of The Maltese Falcon (1941). It’s the fabled piece of art that many of the characters are seeking in this classic film noir directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart.

A close runner-up is “Rosebud” in Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941). It is the final word from the lips of the dying Charles Foster Kane (Welles), and its meaning isn’t revealed until the ending of this celebrated film. On the off chance that anyone reading this hasn’t seen the movie, it won’t be revealed here!

In Casablanca (1942), the iconic wartime romance in which Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman play star-crossed lovers, the MacGuffin is the coveted “letters of transit” that allow free travel through Nazi-occupied countries. The letters form the catalyst that seals the couple’s fate – even though such letters were a fictional invention that did not exist in reality.

Filmmakers have continued to employ MacGuffins in contemporary movies. Here are a few notable examples through the decades: the robot R2-D2 in the original Star Wars film (1977); “Project Genesis,” the life-enabling research project in the Star Trek movies of the mid-1980s; Private Ryan himself in Saving Private Ryan (1998); the object code-named “Rabbit’s Foot” in Mission: Impossible III (2006); and the mysterious death of the crime novelist played by Christopher Plummer in Knives Out (2019).

To further clarify (or confuse) the subject, Hitchcock liked to tell this story: “A man says, ‘Well, what is a MacGuffin? You say, ‘It’s an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands.’ Man says, ‘But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands.’ Then you say, ‘Then that’s no MacGuffin!’”

By Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- The Big House (1930)
1h 20m | Crime | TV-PG
An attempted prison break leads to a riot.
Director: George Hill
Cast: Chester Morris, Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone

Winner of Oscars for Best Writing, Achievement -- Frances Marion, and Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (sound director)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Wallace Beery, and Best Picture

Writer Frances Marion toured prison facilities and interviewed prisoners and prison personnel to research her screenplay.


7:30 AM -- Hold 'Em Jail (1932)
1h 13m | Comedy | TV-G
Two salesmen sent to jail on trumped-up charges build a prison football team.
Director: Norman Taurog
Cast: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Edna May Oliver

Based on a story by Tim Whelan and Lew Lupton.


8:45 AM -- Millionaires in Prison (1940)
1h 4m | Comedy | TV-G
Four convicts volunteer as medical guinea pigs to win early paroles.
Director: Ray Mccarey
Cast: Lee Tracy, Linda Hayes, Raymond Walburn

Based on a story by Martin Mooney.


10:00 AM -- Revolt in the Big House (1958)
1h 19m | Crime, Drama, Prison
An imprisoned racketeer kingpin tries to manipulate his young cellmate into staging a riot and prison break.
Director: R. G. Springsteen
Cast: Gene Evans, Robert Blake, Timothy Carey

Robert Blake's character is a former Hispanic gang member, which was rare in movies at this time, especially being the only protagonist of the inmates. Also, Robert Blake had played a lot of Spanish characters throughout his career leading to this point, including the little boy who sells Humphrey Bogart the winning lottery ticket in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. He played Native Americans as well, and later, a "part Cherokee" criminal in his most famous role, In Cold Blood. It wasn't until later that he would be cast primarily as what he actually was, an Italian American.


11:30 AM -- Numbered Men (1930)
1h 10m | Crime, Drama | TV-G
A convict learns that a fellow prisoner has been messing with his woman.
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Cast: Conrad Nagel, Bernice Claire, Raymond Hackett

In September 1928, Warner Bros. Pictures purchased a majority interest in First National Pictures and from that point on, all "First National" productions were actually made under Warner Bros. control, even though the two companies continued to retain separate identities until the mid-1930's, after which time "A Warner Bros.-First National Picture" was often used.


12:45 PM -- 6,000 Enemies (1939)
1h 2m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
A prison riot traps an innocent couple.
Director: George B. Seitz
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Rita Johnson, Paul Kelly

Based on a story by Wilmon Menard and Leo L. Stanley.


2:00 PM -- We Who Are About to Die (1936)
1h 22m | Drama | TV-PG
A San Quentin inmate's death row conviction is reversed.
Director: Christy Cabanne
Cast: Preston Foster, Ann Dvorak, John Beal

Based on the novel by David Lamson.


3:30 PM -- Ladies They Talk About (1933)
1h 8m | Drama | TV-G
A lady bank robber becomes the cell block boss after she's sent to prison.
Director: Howard Bretherton
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Preston S. Foster, Lyle Talbot

Based on the play "Women in Prison" by Dorothy Mackaye of her own experiences while serving a sentence for concealing and distorting facts regarding the manslaughter trial of Paul Kelly. Kelly, who was having an affair with Mackaye, and Ray Raymond, Mackaye's then-husband, got into a violent, alcohol-induced fight on April 16, 1927. Raymond was seriously beaten about the head, lingered for two days, but succumbed to a brain hemorrhage. Kelly was found guilty of manslaughter and served a little over two years. Mackaye had tried to convince police that Raymond had died of "natural causes". She was released after 10 months.


4:45 PM -- House of Women (1962)
1h 25m | Crime | TV-PG
A young woman is wrongly implicated in a crime and sent to prison for five years.
Director: Walter Doniger
Cast: Shirley Knight, Andrew Duggan, Constance Ford

Produced by Bryan Foy, of the original Seven Little Foys, two of his sisters, Mary Foy and Madeline Foy also appear in the film in uncredited roles as inmates.


6:15 PM -- Brute Force (1947)
1h 38m | Crime, Drama | TV-14
Tough, disgruntled prisoners plan a daring, possibly bloody escape while on a drain pipe detail. Director: Jules Dassin
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford

Inspired by the 1946 Battle of Alcatraz in which a riot ran out of control in the prison for two days.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- MOVIE MACGUFFINS, PART I



8:00 PM -- The 39 Steps (1935)
1h 27m | Suspense/Mystery, Crime | TV-G
A man falsely suspected of killing a spy races across Scotland handcuffed to the beautiful blonde who turned him in.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim

In Chapter 10 of "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist Holden Caulfield recounts the admiration that he and his younger sister, Phoebe, have for this movie: "Her favorite is "The 39 Steps (1935)," though, with Robert Donat. She knows the whole goddam movie by heart, because I've taken her to see it about ten times. When old Donat comes up to this Scotch farmhouse, for instance, when he's running away from the cops and all, Phoebe'll say right out loud in the movie, right when the Scotch guy in the picture says it, 'Can you eat the herring?' She knows all the talk by heart."


9:45 PM -- Psycho (1960)
1h 49m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
A woman on the run gets mixed up with a repressed young man and his violent mother.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Janet Leigh, Best Director -- Alfred Hitchcock, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- John L. Russell, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Joseph Hurley, Robert Clatworthy and George Milo

The shot of the knife appearing to enter Marion's abdomen was achieved by pressing it against her body so as to dent the skin slightly, withdrawing it rapidly, and then playing that shot backwards.


11:45 PM -- North by Northwest (1959)
2h 16m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
An advertising man is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Ernest Lehman, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- William A. Horning, Robert F. Boyle, Merrill Pye, Henry Grace and Frank R. McKelvy, and Best Film Editing -- George Tomasini

The final shot of the train entering the tunnel is a sexual reference. Sir Alfred Hitchcock came up with the innuendo and considered it one of his finest, naughtiest achievements. Ernest Lehman's screenplay just ended with "the train heads off into the distance", or words to that effect. "There's no way I can take credit for (the tunnel)", Lehman said, adding: "Dammit."


2:15 AM -- Robocop (1987)
1h 43m | Horror/Science-Fiction
In crime-ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop is rebuilt as a powerful machine, code named Robocop.
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Cast: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy

Winner of an Oscar Special Achievement Award for Stephen Hunter Flick and John Pospisil for sound effects editing

Nominee for Oscars for Best Sound -- Michael J. Kohut, Carlos Delarios, Aaron Rochin and Robert Wald, and Best Film Editing -- Frank J. Urioste

During Murphy's death scene, director Paul Verhoeven's finger can be seen briefly in front of the camera by accident. Rather than re-shoot the scene, it was left in the final film. The cast and crew dubbed it "Verhoeven's cameo". He had another one during the dance club scene later in the movie.


4:15 AM -- Robocop 2 (1990)
2h | Action, Adventure, Crime
Cyborg law enforcement continues, this time battling a new, addictive designer drug, nuke.
Director: Irvin Kershner
Cast: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Belinda Bauer

Robocop 2 had the second highest body count in movies released in 1990. It killed off 58 people, following Die Hard 2 (1990) 162.