TCM Schedule for Friday, March 19, 2021 -- What's On Tonight: Texas Crime

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM has a birthday tribute to Betty Compson. A mini-bio from IMDB:

Betty Compson was born Eleanor Luicime Compson on March 19, 1897, in Beaver, Utah. After her father's death she dropped out of school to help her family. She began her show business career as a violinist and toured with her mother in vaudeville. Betty was offered a contract with Al Christie in 1915. Over the next five years she appeared in more than forty short films.

Her career really took off when she costarred with Lon Chaney in the 1919 drama The Miracle Man. She was called "The Prettiest Girl in Pictures" and became one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood. Betty was also one of the first women to run her own production company. In 1921 she starred in and produced the movie Prisoners Of Love.

She married actor James Cruz in 1925, but they had a rocky relationship and separated several times. Unlike some other silent stars, Betty was able to make the transition to talkies. She was nominated for an Academy award in 1928 for her performance in The Barker. Betty finally ended her marriage to Cruze in 1930 and was left nearly bankrupt by their divorce. She was forced to sell her home and many of her possessions.

Betty continued to make several movies a year and even started her own cosmetics line. She auditioned for the role of Belle in Gone With The Wind but did not get the part. Her second marriage, to producer Irving Weinberg, lasted just four years. At their divorce trial she testified that he left her home alone while he went out with other women.

In 1944 she married professional boxer Silvius John Gall and decided to retire from Hollywood. Her final film was the comedy Here Comes Trouble. Betty and her husband went into business together and were happily married until his death in 1962. Betty died from a heart attack on April 18, 1974. She is buried at the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, California.

Then in prime time, TCM is taking a look at crime in Texas. No, not Cruz or Abbott or Cornyn! Real crime, including the feature film debut of the Coen Brothers, Blood Simple (1984). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- The Show of Shows (1929)
2h 9m | Musical | TV-G
Warner Bros. stars perform a series of musical and dramatic sketches.
Director: John G. Adolfi
Cast: Frank Fay, William Courtenay, H. B. Warner

The film contains John Barrymore's only screen appearance as Richard III, one of his greatest stage successes. However, the excerpt is not from the play "Richard III", but from William Shakespeare's "Henry VI: Part III", a "prequel" to "Richard III" in which he also appears.


8:30 AM -- Blondes at Work (1938)
1h | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
Even a jail term for contempt can't keep reporter Torchy Blane from investigating the case of a murdered department store owner.
Director: Frank Mcdonald
Cast: Glenda Farrell, Barton Maclane, Tom Kennedy

Fourth of nine "Torchy Blane" films from Warner Brothers made from 1937-39.


9:45 AM -- Torchy Blane in Panama (1938)
58m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
An ambitious newspaper woman traces bank robbers to an ocean liner.
Director: William Clemens
Cast: Lola Lane, Paul Kelly, Tom Kennedy

Betty Compson's second appearance in the Torchy Blane series, though she plays Kitty in this film and Blanche Revelle in Blondes at Work.


11:00 AM -- On With the Show (1929)
1h 38m | Musical | TV-G
An inexperienced newcomer steps in for a musical comedy's ailing star.
Director: Alan Crosland
Cast: Betty Compson, Louise Fazenda, Sally O'neil

This early sound backstage movie made in 1929 demonstrates how African-American performers were treated on Broadway and in film in this period. The great Ethel Waters, who are few years later in 1933 would triumph at the Cotton Club with her rendition of "Stormy Weather," is just another speciality act among many, singing two songs "in one" before the curtain but she does not figure in the story. These stand-alone musical moments were especially designed this way so that they could be cut out of the picture when the film played in Southern states.


12:45 PM -- Weary River (1929)
1h 29m | Crime | TV-G
A jailed criminal's life turns around when he fronts the prison band.
Director: Frank Lloyd
Cast: Richard Barthelmess, Betty Compson, Louis Natheaux

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Director -- Frank Lloyd (No official nominees had been announced this year.)

The film is part silent, with intertitles, and part sound, which was important to feature the main character's talent as a singer, although the title song Weary River was nevertheless dubbed by a professional singer. One scene near the end features an orchestra playing on-screen on set that is a radio studio, while traditional silent movie sound is substituted for real sound. Then the scene technology audibly changes to sound recorded on film, with the same orchestra appearing to play for real (possibly dubbed) as the main character begins to sing (although he is listed as dubbed) in a radio performance that prompts his sweetheart to call the radio studio. The scene is an unusual mix of technologies during a period of transition from silents to sound.


2:30 PM -- The Gay Diplomat (1931)
1h 10m | Adventure | TV-G
A Russian diplomat takes on a notorious female spy in Bucharest.
Director: Richard Boleslawski.
Cast: Ivan Lebedeff, Genevieve Tobin, Betty Compson

According to producer Pandro S. Berman, the filmmakers were aware that the picture was a "disaster" from the start, and were therefore stunned when audience preview cards came back raving about the talents of leading man Ivan Lebedeff, comparing him to Rudolph Valentino. Later he discovered that Lebedeff had in fact stolen the cards and written all the comments himself.


3:45 PM -- The Lady Refuses (1931)
1h 12m | Drama | TV-G
A millionaire hires an out-of-work girl to lure his son from a gold digger.
Director: George Archainbaud
Cast: Betty Compson, John Darrow, Gilbert Emery

Some of the dialogue is reminiscent of Downtown Abbey!

Sir Gerald Courtney: Just see to the aperitifs, will you?

[Dobbs, the butler, walks out of the frame and returns with a tray upon which is a carafe, presumably containing sherry]

Sir Gerald Courtney: Dobbs, you're... you're downright Victorian. We must have cocktails, Dobbs, cocktails!

Dobbs: [horrified] N-not cocktails, sir!

Sir Gerald Courtney: Yes. Now don't tell me that it isn't British. You're deplorably behind the times. I drink 'em m'self. What's more, I can mix 'em. Mix is the word.

Dobbs: They tell me they even put *ice* in them in America.

Sir Gerald Courtney: Yes, well, I don't think we'll go quite that far.

5:15 PM -- Here Comes Trouble (1948)
50m | Comedy | TV-G
A newspaper publisher and his ace reporter try to solve the murder of a blackmailing stripper.
Director: Fred Guiol
Cast: William Tracy, Joe Sawyer, Emory Parnell

Final film appearance of Oscar-nominated Betty Compson, who has more than 200 film credits dating back to 1915.


6:15 PM -- Street Girl (1929)
1h 31m | Musical | TV-G
A girl from the wrong part of town finds a new life managing a jazz band.
Director: Wesley Ruggles
Cast: Betty Compson, John Harron, Ned Sparks

Promotional material claimed Betty Compson was an accomplished violinist and was playing live in her musical scenes, but, in actuality, her playing was mimed to previously recorded violin solos by off screen Russ Columbo who also appears on screen as an uncredited member of Gus Arnheim's Orchestra. This information was later revealed by the music's composer, Oscar Levant. Compson did learn to play the violin in her youth and played professionally in theaters and vaudeville since the age of 16. So, her bow movements and fingering appear authentic. Her character in Inside the Lines (1930) also plays the violin.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- TEXAS CRIME



8:00 PM -- The Houston Story (1956)
1h 19m | Crime
A Texas oil driller schemes to steal millions of dollars in oil.
Director: William Castle
Cast: Gene Barry, Barbara Hale, Edward Arnold

Lee J. Cobb was to star. After rehearsing, he had a heart attack and was not able to film. Producer Sam Katzman wanted to keep going, so director William Castle played Cobb's character in long-shots. After it was sure Cobb couldn't return, Gene Barry stepped in.


9:30 PM -- The Chase (1966)
2h 13m | Drama
A convict's escape ignites passions in his hometown.
Director: Arthur Penn, James Havens
Cast: Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford

Film critic Rex Reed famously said about this film, "the worst thing that has happened to movies since Lassie played a war veteran with amnesia." He also said "Marlon Brando, who gave up acting shortly after On the Waterfront (1954), sounds like he has a mouth full of wet toilet paper."


12:00 AM -- Blood Simple. (1984)
1h 35m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-MA
A Texas bar owner hires a private eye to kill his cheating wife and her boyfriend.
Director: Joel Coen
Cast: John Getz, Frances Mcdormand, Dan Hedaya

The title is based on a phrase from the Dashiell Hammett novel "Red Harvest," in which "blood simple" is a term coined to describe the addled, fearful mindset people are in after a prolonged immersion in violent situations. Blood Simple writers Joel Coen and Ethan Coen later made Miller's Crossing (1990), which is loosely based on that novel.


2:15 AM -- Fleshpot on 42nd Street (1972)
1h 20m | Experimental | TV-MA
Dusty Cole leaves her boyfriend and becomes a prostitute.
Director: Andy Milligan
Cast: Lynn Flanagan, Neil Flanagan, Harry Reems

Originally shot on 16mm film and blown up to 35mm for distribution to theaters - which explains some of the picture's graininess.


3:45 AM -- Guru the Mad Monk (1970)
1h 2m | Horror | TV-MA
A prison colony chaplain exploits his position to gain power through murder and grave robbery.
Director: Andy Milligan
Cast: Neil Flanagan, Judy Israel, Paul Lieber

Goofs: Guru plays the organ with both hands. The organ continues to play a two-handed melody as he lifts one hand off the keys. Then he lifts the other hand and it still plays.


5:00 AM -- Narcotics Pit of Despair (Part 1) (1967)
28m | Short, Drama | TV-14
A drug dealer seduces a high school student into drug addiction.
Director: Mel Marshall
Cast: Kevin Tighe, Gerald Leroy, Julie Conners

Film debut of Kevin Tighe.


5:30 AM -- Shake Hands With Danger (1970)
23m | TV-PG
Short safety film about the dangers associated with earthmoving equipment operations.
Cast: Charles Oldfather, John Clifford, Herk Harvey