TCM Schedule for Friday, June 8 -- What's On Tonight: Creepy Old Mansions

Today we're celebrating the beautiful, elegant Alexis Smith, born Gladys Smith on June 8, 1921, in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada. And in prime time, TCM is showing films that take place in creepy old mansions. It's chills and thrills tonight! Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- The Smiling Ghost (1941)
71 min, TV-PG
A newswoman investigates a haunted house.
Dir: Lewis Seiler
Cast: Wayne Morris, Brenda Marshall, Alexis Smith

Based on a story by Stuart Palmer.


7:15 AM -- Dive Bomber (1941)
C-133 min, TV-G
A crusading scientist fights to prevent bomber pilots from blacking out.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Errol Flynn, Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Bert Glennon

One of the pilots who flew the planes in the film footage was Navy Lt. Edward "Butch" O'Hare. O'Hare served as a fighter pilot in the Pacific and shot down five Japanese planes in his first battle, earning ace status and the Medal of Honor. O'Hare would go on to down 12 planes total and become one of the top heroes of the war before he was killed in action off the Gilbert Islands in November, 1943. O'Hare International Airport in Chicago was later named for him.


9:30 AM -- The Constant Nymph (1943)
112 min, TV-PG
A composer finds inspiration in his wife's romantic cousin.
Dir: Edmund Goulding
Cast: Charles Boyer, Joan Fontaine, Alexis Smith

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Joan Fontaine

Joan Fontaine got the lead role of Tessa by a lucky chance. One day, she was having lunch at Romanoff's in Hollywood, with her husband, actor Brian Aherne. The two had just flown in by airplane from their grape ranch in Indio, California, and Fontaine was in a leather flight suit with her hair done in pigtails. Director Edmund Goulding walked into the restaurant, and stopped by their table to say hello to his good friend Aherne. Goulding complained that he was having trouble casting a lead actress for his next movie, "The Constant Nymph." Although he had considered Joan Leslie, she was wrong for the part. And, Goulding explained, "Jack Warner wants a star in the lead, but she has to be consumptive, flat-chested, anemic, and fourteen!" "How about me?" said Fontaine. "Who are you?" asked Goulding, not recognizing the freckled girl in pigtails sitting next to him. "Joan Fontaine," said the actress. Goulding looked startled. "You're perfect!" Fontaine was signed for the part the next day, and later called it "the happiest motion-picture assignment of my career."


11:30 AM -- The Horn Blows At Midnight (1945)
78 min, TV-G
An angel is sent to destroy the earth with a trumpet blast.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Jack Benny, Alexis Smith, Dolores Moran

For the rest of his career Jack Benny used the failure of this movie as one of his best jokes.


1:00 PM -- Conflict (1945)
86 min, TV-PG
A man murders his wife so he can be free to marry her sister.
Dir: Curtis Bernhardt
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith, Sydney Greenstreet

The statue of the Maltese Falcon is clearly displayed as an ornament on the top of the wooden filing cabinet in Det. Lt. Egan's office when Richard visits. A few years earlier, Bogart and Greenstreet has appear in the movie about this statue, by the same name. No reference to it in the dialogue is made.


2:30 PM -- Of Human Bondage (1946)
106 min, TV-PG
A medical student risks his future when he falls for a low-class waitress.
Dir: Edmund Goulding
Cast: Paul Henreid, Eleanor Parker, Alexis Smith

In an exchange which had Warner Bros. loaning to RKO the services of Joan Leslie for The Sky's the Limit and John Garfield for The Fallen Sparrow, Warners acquired the production rights to W. Somerset Maugham's classic novel, which RKO already had adapted to the screen in 1934, featuring memorable performances by Bette Davis and Leslie Howard.


4:30 PM -- Stallion Road (1947)
97 min, TV-G
A veterinarian and a novelist compete for the heart of a lady rancher.
Dir: James V. Kern
Cast: Ronald Reagan, Alexis Smith, Zachary Scott

The role of Rory Teller, played by Alexis Smith, was intended for Lauren Bacall, who turned it down and briefly incurred a studio suspension.


6:15 PM -- Montana (1950)
C-76 min, TV-PG
An Australian gets caught in the battle between ranchers and sheep men.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakall

Filmed in 1948, though not released until 1950.


7:40 PM -- Winning Your Wings (1942)
18 min
Inspirational short film designed to encourage recruits for the American Army Air Forces.

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary -- (U.S. Army Air Force).



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: CREEPY OLD MANSIONS


8:00 PM -- The Spiral Staircase (1945)
84 min, TV-14
A serial killer stalks a mute servant girl in a remote mansion.
Dir: Robert Siodmak
Cast: Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ethel Barrymore

While this film was based on Ethel Lina White's 1933 novel "Some Must Watch," there are several major differences. In the novel, the maid stalked by the killer was crippled, not mute. It was also set in contemporary England, not early 1900's New England. Finally, the title of the film and the idea of incorporating a "spiral staircase" as a thematic element comes from another source entirely: Mary Roberts Rinehart's 1908 novel "The Circular Staircase."


9:30 PM -- The Innocents (1961)
99 min, TV-PG
A governess convinces herself the children in her charge are haunted.
Dir: Jack Clayton
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Peter Wyngarde, Megs Jenkins

At one point when Deborah Kerr's character wanders around the house at night with only a candelabra for illumination, you might think you see something in the corner of your eye. You do. It's the clapperboard which had briefly wandered into shot. Jack Clayton decided to keep it in because he liked the idea of something almost subliminal being present to add to the air of unease.


11:15 PM -- The Black Cat (1934)
65 min, TV-PG
A Satanist faces off with the vengeful man whose wife and daughter he has stolen.
Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer
Cast: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners

The first film collaboration of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, who at the time were unquestionably the two biggest stars of horror film. Despite rumors that the two stars were personally very competitive, this marked the beginning of a pleasant working relationship between the two. While Lugosi and Karloff never became close personal friends, they were quite amicable to each other and enjoyed working together.


12:30 AM -- Gaslight (1940)
84 min, TV-PG
A turn-of-the-century bride moves into the house where her aunt was murdered and begins to fear she's going mad.
Dir: Thorold Dickinson
Cast: Anton Walbrook, Diana Wynyard, Frank Pettingell

When later remade as Gaslight with Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman, the studio (MGM) attempted to have all prints of this earlier version destroyed. Fortunately, it was unsuccessful (in fact it is thought that director Thorold Dickinson surreptitiously struck off a print himself before the negatives were binned).


2:00 AM -- The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1977)
C-90 min, TV-14
A small Texas town is terrorized by a hooded serial killer.
Dir: Charles B. Pierce
Cast: Ben Johnson, Andrew Prine, Dawn Wells

This movie is a semi-documentary based on the real-life string of mysterious killings that terrorized the people of Texarkana, Texas, in 1946. The murder spree became known as the "Texarkana Moonlight Murders" and ultimately would claim five lives and injure many others. The only description of the killer ever obtained was of a hooded man. To this day no one has been convicted and these murders remain unsolved.


3:30 AM -- In Cold Blood (1967)
134 min, TV-14
Two vagrants try to outrun the police after committing a savage crime in this real-life shocker.
Dir: Richard Brooks
Cast: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Conrad L. Hall, Best Director -- Richard Brooks, Best Music, Original Music Score -- Quincy Jones, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Richard Brooks

To get the authenticity he wanted, Richard Brooks filmed in all the actual locations including the Clutter house (where the murders took place) and the actual courtroom (6 of the actual jurors were used). Even Nancy Clutter's horse Babe was used in a few scenes. The actual gallows at the Kansas State Penitentiary were used for filming the executions, however, in a 2002 interview, Charles McAtee (who was State Corrections Director for Kansas in the 1960's), clarified the hangman in the film was an actor, not the real deal.