TCM Schedule for Thursday, December 18 -- A Day In The Life

[Staph]

A day of the films of director Jules Dassin and an evening of a day in the life -- days like the 24 hours of Le Mans and long hours in a claustrophobic jury room with twelve angy men. Enjoy!


4:15am -- Caesar And Cleopatra (1945)
Julius Caesar gives the famed Egyptian queen lessons in government.
Cast: Claude Rains, Vivien Leigh, Stewart Granger.
Dir: Gabriel Pascal.
C-128 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- John Bryan

It was the last film version of a George Bernard Shaw play made during his lifetime. His verdict afterward on Leigh's performance: "She's not right at all."


6:30am -- Reunion In France (1942)
A Frenchwoman tries to help a downed U.S. flyer escape the Nazis.
Cast: Joan Crawford, John Wayne, Philip Dorn.
Dir: Jules Dassin.
BW-104 mins, TV-PG

Originally scheduled as a February 1943 release under the name "Reunion", the movie was moved up to a Christmas 1942 release with the final title because of the increased interest in the war in France. Most trade papers reviewed the film with the title "Reunion" due to early press previews, and the copyright registry bears that title also.


8:15am -- Short Film: From The Vaults: Jimmy Fund - At Home With Joan Crawford (1953)
Joan Crawford urging the audience to donate to the Jimmy Fund to end childhood cancer.
Cast: Joan Crawford
BW-4 mins

The Jimmy Fund was launched with the help of the Variety Club of New England (now the Variety Children's Charity of New England). The club organized a radio broadcast from the bedside of a young cancer patient dubbed Jimmy as he was visited by members of the Boston Braves baseball team. Contributions poured in to buy Jimmy a television set so he could watch the Braves play.


8:30am -- Brute Force (1947)
Tough, disgruntled prisoners plan a daring, possibly bloody escape while on a drain pipe detail.
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Vince Barnett, Hume Cronyn.
Dir: Jules Dassin.
BW-98 mins, TV-14

Former Warner Bros. producer Mark Hellinger, who had started his own independent production unit at Universal-International, wanted Wayne Morris to star in his first picture, The Killers (1946). Warners wouldn't loan Morris out, so Hellinger cast the unknown Burt Lancaster in his first movie. It made Lancaster a star.


10:15am -- The Naked City (1948)
A step-by-step look at a murder investigation on the streets of New York.
Cast: Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart.
Dir: Jules Dassin.
BW-96 mins, TV-14

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- William H. Daniels, and Best Film Editing --
Paul Weatherwax

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Malvin Wald

Most of the street scenes were shot on location in New York without the public's knowledge. Photographer William H. Daniels and his uncredited assistant Roy Tripp filmed people on the streets using a hidden camera from the back of an old moving van. A juggler was hired to distract the crowds.


12:00pm -- Phaedra (1962)
A tycoon's restless wife seduces her stepson.
Cast: Melina Mercouri, Anthony Perkins, Raf Vallone.
Dir: Jules Dassin.
BW-116 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Theoni V. Aldredge

Jules Dassin and Melina Mercouri were married from May 1966 until her death in 1994.


2:00pm -- Topkapi (1964)
An international band of thieves plots to steal a priceless treasure from a heavily guarded museum.
Cast: Melina Mercouri, Maximilian Schell, Peter Ustinov.
Dir: Jules Dassin.
C-119 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Peter Ustinov (Peter Ustinov was not present at
the awards ceremony. Sophia Loren accepted the award on his behalf.)

Cited by "Mission: Impossible" (1966) TV series creator Bruce Geller as the inspiration for his own
series.


4:15pm -- Goodbye Again (1961)
A 40-year-old woman swaps her sophisticated lover for a young law student.
Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Anthony Perkins, Yves Montand.
Dir: Anatole Litvak.
BW-120 mins, TV-PG

Also known as Time On Her Hands in the US and Aimez-vous Brahms? in France.


6:16pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Bargain Madness (1951)
A humorous look at women battling for bargains in a department store.
Narrator: Pete Smith.
Dir: Dave O'Brian.
BW-10 mins

The "Pete Smith Specialties" for MGM covered just about every subject imaginable, from the animal
world to the latest technology to how to handle annoying patrons in movie theaters, all delivered with
Smith's trademark wry, bemused narration. Many of the later shorts were written and directed by actor
Dave O'Brien, using the name David Barclay. Sixteen entries in the series were nominated for Oscars, and two of them won. The series came to an end in 1954, though there were enough made to continue releasing into 1955.


6:30pm -- Rage In Heaven (1941)
A jealous man plots to fake his death and incriminate his wife's suspected lover.
Cast: Robert Montgomery, Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders.
Dir: W.S. Van Dyke II.
BW-85 mins, TV-PG

W.S. Van Dyke took over the direction of the movie from Robert B. Sinclair, who became ill shortly
after shooting began. Van Dyke was in the Marines, but was granted a 14-day leave to finish the picture. Neither Sinclair nor Van Dyke was available for retakes, which were then directed by Richard Thorpe.


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: A DAY IN THE LIFE


8:00pm -- Le Mans (1971)
During a deadly endurance race, a driver faces the trauma of a past accident.
Cast: Steve McQueen, Siegfried Rauch, Elga Andersen.
Dir: Lee H. Katzin.
C-109 mins, TV-PG

Steve McQueen was a car-racing fanatic and owned a Porsche 908. Driving this car during the 12 Hours
of Sebring's 1970 edition with professional driver Peter Revson, he finished a close second behind Mario Andretti, who was determined "not to be beaten by a movie star". Andretti was driving a Ferrari 512. McQueen also wanted to be in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but was denied permission by the film's producers. His Porsche eventually did participate, driven by Herbert Linge and Jonathan Williams, with three cameras to get "live" footage for the movie. Despite the spoiled aerodynamics and frequent stops to change film rolls, the car managed to finish ninth. According to a persistent rumor, McQueen may have driven it secretly after all.


10:00pm -- 12 Angry Men (1957)
A jury holdout tries to convince his colleagues to vote not guilty.
Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall.
Dir: Sidney Lumet.
BW-96 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Sidney Lumet, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material
from Another Medium -- Reginald Rose, and Best Picture

At the beginning of the film, the cameras are all positioned above eye level and mounted with wide-angle lenses to give the appearance of greater distance between the subjects. As the film progresses the cameras slip down to eye level. By the end of the film, nearly all of it is shot below eye level, in close-up and with telephoto lenses to increase the encroaching sense of claustrophobia.


11:45pm -- Model Shop (1969)
A young drifter falls for a beautiful model.
Cast: Anouk Aimee, Gary Lockwood, Alexnadra Hay.
Dir: Jacques Demy.
C-97 mins

Harrison Ford was Jacques Demy's first choice for the main character instead of 'Gary Lockwood', but Columbia didn't want Ford, saying he wouldn't make any money.


1:30am -- Shampoo (1975)
A hairdresser expresses his fear of commitment by seducing his female clients.
Cast: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn.
Dir: Hal Ashby.
C-110 mins, TV-MA

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Lee Grant

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Warden, Best Art Direction-Set
Decoration -- Richard Sylbert, W. Stewart Campbell and George Gaines, and Best Writing, Original
Screenplay -- Robert Towne and Warren Beatty

Loosely based on "The Country Wife," a Restoration comedy written in 1675 by William Wycherley, whose
protagonist Horner feigns impotence in order to be allowed into the company of married women, who he then seduces. George in "Shampoo" would be considered non-threatening due to the stereotype that hair-dressers are gay, such as the scene in Jackie's bathroom when Lester walks in and the bistro sequence when George is fluffing Lester's hair. "Shampoo" only retains a distant reflection of the Horner character, but reportedly, the screenplay was inspired by the 1969 Chichester Festival production, according to a 2003 edition of the play edited by James Ogden.


3:30am -- The Out-of-Towners (1969)
A man's New York job interview turns into a non-stop nightmare.
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Sandy Dennis, Anne Meara.
Dir: Arthur Hiller.
C-97 mins, TV-14

Unlike many Neil Simon efforts, which were written as plays and then adapted into a film, Simon wrote this directly for the screen when he realized that a play would have difficulty portraying the many different locations involved.

[Staph]

1. Topkapi

In 1954, while he was living in exile in France after being blacklisted by Hollywood, writer/director/actor Jules Dassin, made Rififi, a dark, fatalistic thriller that is considered the granddaddy of all heist movies. Ten years later, he returned to the genre though this time he served up a brilliant spoof entitled Topkapi. The plot, which involves the efforts of Elizabeth Lipp (played by Dassin's real-life wife, Melina Mercouri) and her gang of jewel thieves to steal a jeweled dagger from the impenetrable Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul, is markedly different from Rififi in almost every detail. The hardened criminals of Rififi have been replaced by an eccentric crew who approach their objective with supreme confidence and good humor. Whereas Dassin effectively worked in black and white to capture the grinding poverty and squalid surroundings of the thieves in Rififi, he uses lush color photography and the exotic locales of Turkey and Greece to create a light, sparkling entertainment in Topkapi. But there is one similarity the two films share and that is the climatic heist sequence. Filmed without dialogue and only minimal sound effects to heighten the tension, the theft of the jeweled dagger in Topkapi lasts forty minutes and improves on the burglary sequence in Rififi by virtue of its sheer technical virtuosity. In fact, director Brian de Palma and Tom Cruise would later pay homage to this scene in Mission: Impossible (1996).

In spite of an excellent ensemble cast, which included Ms. Mercouri, Maximilian Schell, and Robert Morley, critics singled out Peter Ustinov for his performance as Arthur Simpson, a bumbling tourist guide who is manipulated by both the jewel thieves and the local police. In the 1964 Oscar® race for Best Supporting Actor, Ustinov even beat out such worthy contenders as John Gielgud in Becket and Stanley Holloway in My Fair Lady for the prized statuette. Later the actor admitted (in Ustinov in Focus by Tony Thomas), "I have a special affection for Topkapi. The character is so absurd. I love the idea of a man who aims low and misses. Simpson is the kind of man who wears blazers a little too consistently, the kind with military presumptions, who has to belong to a cricket club. He's a man who hovers between the more reprehensible columns of The News of the World and oblivion."

On an interesting side note, Topkapi inspired an actual theft shortly after its release. Three men broke into the American Museum of Natural History in New York and escaped with the famous Star of India, De Long Ruby, and other priceless treasures. They were eventually apprehended and admitted in custody that they had seen Topkapi prior to their robbery.

Director/Producer: Jules Dassin
Screenplay: Eric Ambler (novel The Light of Day), Monja Danischewsky
Cinematography: Henri Alekan
Music: Manos Hadjdakis
Principle Cast: Melina Mercouri (Elizabeth Lipp), Peter Ustinov (Arthur Simpson), Maximilian Schell
(Walter Harper), Robert Morley (Cedric Page), Jess Hahn (Fischer), Gilles Segal (Giulio), Akim Tamiroff
(Geven), Titos Vandis (Harback)
C-120m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.

by Jeff Stafford

[Sparkly]

2. 12 Angry Men

A great movie. The description never sounded very interesting, but once I saw it I found it fascinating. I never noticed the camera angles you describe though -- wow! I am definitely going to check that out!

[Longhorn]

3. I've seen that movie a dozen times and never thought about the camera angles

though I can see them in my mind. It really is a great movie. I show parts of it to my math classes to demonstrate inductive and deductive reasoning.