TCM Schedule for Friday, July 9, 2021 -- Primetime Theme: Friday Night Neo Noir

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is Letting the Sun Shine, with a bunch of films with Sun in the title. Then in prime time, TCM has the second week of Friday Night Neo Noir. Tell us more, Roger!

Neo-Noir With Ben and Eddie
By Roger Fristoe
June 22, 2021
Fridays in July / 15 Movies

The term “neo-noir” has been defined as a style in which more contemporary directors knowingly reflect the noir style of the 1940s and ’50s. The newer films are often shot in color as opposed to the glittering black-and-white of the classic era. But these newer films often retain the unusual angles, provocative use of light and shadow and, above all, a prevailing mood of anxiety and alienation. Eddie Muller, TCM’s resident film noir expert, has said of neo-noir: “I think you see filmmakers paying homage to the earlier films, but they’re excited about the possibility of doing it in a freer and more open way without the constraints that were placed on the filmmakers back in the classic era.”

In promotion of Muller’s latest book, a revised and expanded edition of Dark City (released this month by Running Press), the author joins TCM host Ben Mankiewicz in discussions of the evolution of noir. The duo will trace the form from its post-War origins into the neo-noir films of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. Included in our lineup of films are 15 important neo-noir classics spanning from 1966 into the 1980s, with five being shown as TCM premieres. All five are in color.

Body Heat (1981), written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan, is a witty update of Billy Wilder’s 1944 noir Double Indemnity. Kathleen Turner plays a dissatisfied Florida wife who persuades a none-too-bright lawyer (William Hurt) to murder her wealthy husband. The film, which made a star of Turner, has been described as “the first conscious neo-noir.”

Cutter’s Way (1981), directed by Ivan Passer, stars Jeff Bridges as a man who thinks he’s witnessed the brutal murder of a young girl. John Heard plays his friend Alex Cutter, a Vietnam vet who is compelled to investigate the case. Early critical reception of the film was negative, but it later earned glowing reviews and was eventually hailed as a “neo-noir masterpiece.”

Blade Runner (1982), directed by Ridley Scott, is a legendary sci-fi cult favorite set in a futuristic Los Angeles. Harrison Ford stars as a “blade runner,” or cop whose job it is to hunt down “replicants” – synthetic humans prowling the streets of the city. The Guardian placed this neo-noir among the “top ten sci-fi movies of all time.”

To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), directed and co-written by William Friedkin, is an edgy action film starring William Petersen as a Secret Service agent determined to nab the counterfeiter (Willem Dafoe) who killed his partner. Writers and editors at the Los Angeles Times voted this neo-noir to be one of the 20 best films set in L.A. in the past 25 years.

Tequila Sunrise (1988), written and directed by Robert Towne, is a colorful cocktail of a romantic thriller spinning a story of two longtime friends on opposite sides of the law. Mel Gibson plays a drug dealer and Kurt Russell is the narcotics officer who knows too much about his old pal. A very glamorous Michelle Pfeiffer is the woman who comes between them. Conrad Hall was Oscar-nominated for his evocative cinematography.

Other titles appearing in our showcase include: Harper (1966) starring Paul Newman; Point Blank (1967) starring Lee Marvin; Warning Shot (1967) starring David Janssen; Get Carter (1971) and Pulp (1972) both starring Michael Caine; The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) starring Robert Mitchum, whose turn as Jeff Bailey in 1947’s Out of the Past made him a film noir icon; Chinatown (1974), starring Jack Nicholson in an Oscar-nominated Best Actor performance; The Coen Brother’s feature film debut Blood Simple (1984); Night Moves (1975) starring Gene Hackman; and Mona Lisa (1986) starring Bob Hoskins.

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Charro! (1969)
1h 38m | Western | TV-PG
A reformed outlaw takes on his former cohorts to defend a Western town.
Director: Charles Marquis Warren
Cast: Elvis Presley, Ina Balin, Victor French

Elvis Presley was really keen on the project, as it afforded him the chance to break out of the rut of cheap musicals he had been turning out. This was his opportunity to be seen as a serious actor but he was hugely disappointed when he showed up on the first day of filming to find that the script had been completely rewritten and was a pale shadow of what he had originally signed on for. Contractually, he was obligated to fulfill the role.


8:00 AM -- Sunny (1930)
1h 17m | Musical | TV-PG
A showgirl falls for a society boy but has to win over his family.
Director: William Seiter
Cast: Marilyn Miller, Lawrence Gray, Joe Donahue

Later remade by RKO, Sunny (1941), starring Anna Neagle and Ray Bolger.


9:30 AM -- Sunnyside (1919)
27m | Silent | TV-G
In this silent film, an overworked farmhand dreams of marrying the farmer's daughter.
Director: Charles Chaplin
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Albert Austin

Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller visited the Chaplin Studio on LaBrea Avenue in Hollywood while Chaplin was at work on this film. Keller and Sullivan were photographed on still-standing sets from Shoulder Arms (1918) communicating with Chaplin.


10:15 AM -- Run for the Sun (1956)
1h 39m | Adventure | TV-PG
A British traitor hunts humans in the jungles of Mexico.
Director: Roy Boulting
Cast: Richard Widmark, Trevor Howard, Jane Greer

When Latimer (Richard Widmark) is speculating about Browne's (Trevor Howard) background, he talks about a British citizen broadcasting for the Germans during World War 2. This is a reference to Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce), an American who became a German citizen in 1940. Browne himself is probably based on an amalgam of Lord Haw Haw and John Amery, leader of the British Freikorps.


12:00 PM -- Dark of the Sun (1968)
1h 40m | Drama | TV-14
A mercenary band fights to get refugees and a fortune in diamonds out of the Congo.
Director: Jack Cardiff
Cast: Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Peter Carsten

Trade paper Variety erroneously reported in its review that this Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie was shot in Africa. The exteriors were filmed in Jamaica in the Caribbean as it could not be shot in Africa due to political unrest. Ironically, around the same, another picture from MGM, Graham Greene's The Comedians (1967), was set in the Caribbean, but filmed in Benin, West Africa.


2:00 PM -- The Sunshine Boys (1975)
1h 51m | Comedy | TV-14
A feuding comedy team reunites for a television comeback.
Director: Herbert Ross
Cast: Walter Matthau, George Burns, Richard Benjamin

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Burns

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Walter Matthau, Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted From Other Material -- Neil Simon, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Albert Brenner and Marvin March

Based on the lives and careers of vaudeville comics Joe Smith and Charles Dale (né Sultzer and Marks). Unlike the characters in the Broadway play and later film, Smith and Dale were almost inseparable friends. In fact, when Dale died in 1971, Smith commissioned a single tombstone to be prepared for them both, ordering that the inscription read "Smith and Dale". The pair's strained relationship is based on another old-time vaudeville duo, Gallagher and Shean, the latter of whom was Groucho Marx's uncle.


4:00 PM -- The Sun Comes Up (1949)
1h 33m | Drama | TV-G
Lassie helps an embittered woman find happiness with an orphaned boy.
Director: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Jeanette Macdonald, Lloyd Nolan, Claude Jarman Jr.

"The Sun Comes Up" is mainly based on the 1936 short story "A Mother in Mannville" by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. According to the University of South Carolina Libraries description of Rawlings's works, in 1946 MGM asked Rawlings to do a story that could star Lassie with Claude Jarman, Jr. Rawlings started with her 1936 short story "A Mother in Mannville". Although her adaptation never became a novel, the "Saturday Evening Post" published it as "Mountain Prelude", a 6-part serial during April 26 to May 31, 1947.


5:45 PM -- A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
2h 8m | Drama | TV-PG
The Younger family strives to get out of their ghetto neighborhood on the south side of Chicago.
Director: Daniel Petrie
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Claudia Mcneil, Ruby Dee

The play was originally brought to Sidney Poitier's attention by an old friend, Philip Rose, who would also produce the movie. The play was inspired by playwright Lorraine Hansberry's family's purchase of a house in an all-white Chicago neighborhood. (The community's reaction resulted in Hansberry vs. Lee, one of the most important housing cases to ever reach the Supreme Court.) Poitier was overwhelmed by the power of the material and was happy to play in it. It's been said that "A Raisin In The Sun" would never have been done if Poitier had not agreed to appear in it.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- FRIDAY NIGHT NEO NOIR



8:00 PM -- Get Carter (1971)
1h 52m | Crime | TV-14
A small-time gangster searches for the truth behind his brother's death.
Director: Mike Hodges
Cast: Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, Britt Ekland

Writer and director Mike Hodges was surprised that a star of Sir Michael Caine's stature would want to play such a thoroughly unlikeable person as Carter. Giving his reasons for wanting to be involved with this movie, Caine said "One of the reasons I wanted to make that picture was my background. In English movies, gangsters were either stupid or funny. I wanted to show that they're neither. Gangsters are not stupid, and they're certainly not very funny." He identified with Carter as a memory of his working class upbringing, having friends and family members who were involved in crime and felt Carter represented a path his life might have taken under different circumstances: "Carter is the dead-end product of my own environment, my childhood. I know him well. He is the ghost of Michael Caine."


10:00 PM -- The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)
2m | Crime | TV-MA
An aging hood turns police informer, with deadly results.
Director: Peter Yates
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan

This film is based on the George V. Higgins novel of the same name. Higgins also wrote Cogan's Trade, which the 2012 film Killing Them Softly is based on. The character 'Dillon' appears in both, played by Peter Boyle (The Friends of Eddie Coyle) and Sam Shepard (Killing Them Softly).


12:00 AM -- Chinatown (1974)
2h 11m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-MA
An LA private eye unwittingly sets up an innocent man for murder, then joins his widow to unearth the corruption behind the crime.
Director: Roman Polanski
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, Perry Lopez

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Robert Towne

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Jack Nicholson, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Faye Dunaway, Best Director -- Roman Polanski, Best Cinematography -- John A. Alonzo, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Richard Sylbert, W. Stewart Campbell and Ruby R. Levitt, Best Costume Design -- Anthea Sylbert, Best Sound -- Charles Grenzbach and Larry Jost, Best Film Editing -- Sam O'Steen, Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- Jerry Goldsmith, and Best Picture

The screenplay is now regarded as being one of the most perfect screenplays ever written and is now a main teaching point in screenwriting seminars and classes everywhere.


2:30 AM -- Remember My Name (1978)
1h 34m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-MA
A woman just released from prison begins stalking a married construction worker.
Director: Alan Rudolph
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Geraldine Chaplin, Moses Gunn

Film debut of Berry Berenson. Berenson was married to Anthony Perkins in real life.


4:15 AM -- Drug Stories (2019)
Short | TV-14
A compilation of classroom scare films about the dangers of using drugs.

Edited from LSD-25 (1967) (Short), LSD: Insight or Insanity? (1967) (Short), The Bottle and the Throttle (1968) (Short), The Trip Back (1970) (Short), and Users are Losers (1971) (Short).