TCM Schedule for Monday, November 12 -- GUEST PROGRAMMER: JACK KLUGMAN

[Longhorn]

4:30am Blue Gardenia, The (1953)
A telephone operator kills in self-defense but can't remember the details of the encounter.
Cast: Anne Baxter, Raymond Burr, Richard Conte. Dir: Fritz Lang. BW-88 mins, TV-PG

6:00am Dick Tracy (1945)
Dick is faced with a series of murders in which the victims all come from different social and economic backgrounds.
Cast: Morgan Conway, Anne Jeffreys, Mike Mazurki. Dir: William A. Berke. BW-61 mins, TV-PG

7:15am Dick Tracy Vs. Cueball (1946)
A police detective uses his girlfriend to track down a homicidal maniac.
Cast: Morgan Conway, Anne Jeffreys, Dick Wessel. Dir: Gordon Douglas. BW-62 mins, TV-PG

8:30am Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947)
Dick Tracy takes on "The Claw" in this crime thriller
Cast: Ralph Byrd, Lyle Latell, Kay Christopher. Dir: John Rawlins. BW-60 mins, TV-PG

9:45am Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947)
Dick Tracy tracks down a bank robber using nerve gas.
Cast: Boris Karloff, Ralph Byrd, Anne Gwynne. Dir: John Rawlins. BW-65 mins, TV-PG

11:00am Saint In New York, The (1938)
The Saint goes undercover to get the goods on New York's mob kingpins.
Cast: Louis Hayward, Kay Sutton, Jonathan Hale. Dir: Ben Holmes. BW-72 mins, TV-G

12:15pm Saint Strikes Back, The (1939)
The Saint helps a young beauty take vengeance on the mobsters who ruined her father.
Cast: George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Barry Fitzgerald. Dir: John Farrow. BW-64 mins, TV-G

1:30pm Saint In London, The (1939)
The Saint's investigation of a counterfeiting ring uncovers a nest of spies.
Cast: George Sanders, David Burns, Sally Gray. Dir: John Paddy Carstairs. BW-72 mins, TV-G

2:44pm Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Looking At London (1946)
C-10 mins

3:00pm Saint's Double Trouble, The (1940)
Reformed jewel thief Simon Templer lands in hot water when a look-alike smuggles stolen goods out of Egypt.
Cast: George Sanders, Jonathan Hale, Bela Lugosi. Dir: Jack Hively. BW-67 mins, TV-G

4:15pm Saint Takes Over, The (1940)
Reformed jewel thief Simon Templar tries to help a police inspector whose been framed on bribery charges.
Cast: George Sanders, Jonathan Hale, Wendy Barrie. Dir: Jack Hively. BW-70 mins, TV-G

5:30pm Saint In Palm Springs, The (1941)
Reformed jewel thief Simon Templer's efforts to deliver a fortune in rare stamps are complicated by murder.
Cast: George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Jonathan Hale. Dir: Jack Hively. BW-66 mins, TV-G

6:45pm Saint Meets The Tiger, The (1943)
The Saint infiltrates a small English village run by smugglers.
Cast: Hugh Sinclair, Jean Gillie, Clifford Evans. Dir: Paul L. Stein. BW-69 mins, TV-G

What's On Tonight: TCM GUEST PROGRAMMER: JACK KLUGMAN

8:00pm 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

9:45pm City For Conquest (1940)
A truck driver risks his eyesight when he boxes to pay for his brother's education.
Cast: James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Arthur Kennedy. Dir: Anatole Litvak. BW-104 mins, TV-G

11:45pm None but the Lonely Heart (1944)
A young ne'er-do-well tries to get his life on track to help his ailing mother.
Cast: Cary Grant, Ethel Barrymore, Barry Fitzgerald. Dir: Clifford Odets. BW-113 mins, TV-PG

1:45am Inherit The Wind (1960)
In the twenties, a schoolteacher creates a national furor when he breaks the law against teaching evolution.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly. Dir: Stanley Kramer. BW-128 mins, TV-PG

4:00am Time Machine, The (1960)
A turn-of-the-century inventor sends himself into the future to save humanity.
Cast: Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Alan Young. Dir: George Pal. C-103 mins, TV-G

[Longhorn]

1. Blue Gardenia, The (1953)

Beyond the profound influence that his expressionistic efforts in Germany and America had upon the development of the film noir cycle of the '40s and '50s, German director Fritz Lang would spend his latter years in Hollywood actively contributing to the form. With such brooding, stylized explorations of the underworld as Scarlet Street (1945), The Big Heat (1953) and While the City Sleeps (1956) to his credit, the Viennese craftsman rendered some of the most memorable suspense films of the period.

Neither Lang nor many of his champions would go on to accord such status to The Blue Gardenia (1953), a thriller that the director took on contract for Warner Brothers and crafted within a tidy twenty days. Regardless, the atmospheric touches, jarring visuals and sense of paranoia with which Lang imbued this studio quickie prevent it from warranting such simple dismissal.

Adapted from a short story by Laura author Vera Caspary, the narrative introduces all the principals involved in a scattershot fashion before reaching the dramatic thrust. Norah Larkin (Anne Baxter), a Los Angeles switchboard operator sharing an apartment with two co-workers, is devastated when an anticipated letter from her fiance in Korea turns out to be of the "Dear Jane" variety. Intercepting a phone call meant for her roommate (Ann Sothern), she eventually gives a why-not response to the caller's entreaties for a date.

Arriving at the trendy nightspot of the film's title, she makes her rendezvous with Harry Prebble (Raymond Burr), a slick-talking commercial draftsman with a predilection for calendar girls that isn't merely vocational. After multiple rounds of cocktails, the now-impaired Norah agrees to make a stop back at Prebble's studio. Once Harry attempts to force himself on her, however, she struggles, shattering a mirror as she passes out. Norah recovers enough consciousness to stagger her way home and collapse.

The dawn, however, brings far worse consequences than a mere hangover, as the tabloids and airwaves bear reports of Prebble's death at the hands of an unknown assailant. Casey Mayo (Richard Conte), a high-powered newspaper columnist and acquaintance of Prebble's, dubs the mystery woman with whom Prebble was last seen alive "the Blue Gardenia," and begins a public drumbeat for her to turn herself in. Wracked with guilt, and causing concern to her friends with her increasingly paranoid behavior, Norah has a torturous struggle over whether to put herself in Mayo's hands.

Lang may have regarded The Blue Gardenia as no more than a rushed job for hire, but the circumstances didn't quell his hunger for innovation. Working in conjunction with Nicholas Musuraca, the cinematographer who shot Lang's Clash by Night (1952) and many other memorable noir efforts for RKO, the filmmakers devised a revolutionary dolly that allowed for sustained tracking shots, and which provides the film's narrative with an intimacy comparable to handheld photography. "The practice of cutting in close-ups not only seems unnatural, but oftentimes interrupts and disturbs the filmic train of thought," the director once told interviewer Friedrich Porges. "The photographic apparatus becomes the constant companion of the actors; it becomes a sharp observer of the events, capturing the drama more intensively as it draws quickly nearer when something decisive is done or said."

Musuraca's lighting choices for The Blue Gardenia may have, on balance, owed more to then-prevalent television standards than his prior work, but the film still boasts many expressionistic visuals. From the vortex that envelopes Norah at the point of her collapse to the rain-streaked window looking in at the peak of her vulnerability, The Blue Gardenia creates a sustained sensation of impending doom and offers much of what lent Lang his enduring distinction in the field.

The Blue Gardenia also benefits from the game efforts of its players. Baxter hits the right notes as the conscience-plagued heroine; Burr is wonderfully smarmy as her would-be seducer; and Sothern engagingly delivers in a familiar assignment as the wisecracking confidante. Worked into the plotline with surprising frequency is Nat "King" Cole's smoky rendition of the title tune.

Producer: Alex Gottlieb
Director: Fritz Lang
Screenplay: Charles Hoffman, based on the story by Vera Caspary
Art Direction: Daniel Hall
Cinematography: Nicholas Musuraca
Editing: Edward Mann
Music: Raoul Kraushaar
Cast: Anne Baxter (Norah Larkin), Richard Conte (Casey Mayo), Ann Sothern (Crystal Carpenter), Raymond Burr (Harry Prebble), Jeff Donnell (Sally Ellis), Nat "King" Cole (Himself), Richard Erdman (Al).
BW-89m.

by Jay Steinberg

[lavenderdiva]

2. Thanks for highlighting this film-

I've seen it twice now, and enjoyed it both times. Great performances all around, especially Anne Baxter- :hi: