TCM Schedule for Thursday, 1/23/2020 -- What's On Tonight: Overlooked African American Performance

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Last edited Mon Mar 23, 2020, 06:33 PM - Edit history (1)

In prime time (and also on January 20), TCM is showing some of the great performances by African Americans.

This month, film historian and author Donald Bogle will present a two-night showcase of films featuring powerhouse performances by African Americans that have largely been forgotten or overlooked by the Academy and history. In 2015, the #OscarsSoWhite campaign brought attention to the lack of diversity in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' voting committee, which has resulted in films by and starring African Americans and other minorities being largely underrepresented. Since then, there have been more black Academy Award wins and nominees than ever before.

An authority on African American representation in Hollywood, Bogle has authored over a dozen books including Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks, Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood and his newest book, Hollywood Black. Some of the films featured in our two nights of programming include performances that weren't starring roles and some even have limited screen time or dialogue. Nevertheless, the talent of the actors featured is undeniable and a testament to their incredible skill. The films in our lineup include:

Nothing But a Man (1964) is a drama directed and co-written by Michael Roemer about Duff Anderson (Ivan Dixon), an African-American railroad worker whose life in a racist small town in Alabama is elevated after he marries a local preacher's daughter (Abbey Lincoln). Julius Harris plays Duff's father and Gloria Foster is the father's girlfriend. Both women deliver honorable performances. The film was well received by critics but did not receive Academy attention.

Edge of the City (1957) is a film noir directed by Martin Ritt and starring John Cassavetes and Sidney Poitier as stevedores in Manhattan who form an interracial friendship that is resented by some of their fellow workers, leading to tragic results. Ruby Dee costars as Poitier's wife, in which she delivers an emotionally sound performance. The film is based on a 1955 teleplay, A Man Is Ten Feet Tall, which also starred Poitier.

The Landlord (1970) is a bittersweet comedy-drama directed by Hal Ashby about a spoiled young white man (Beau Bridges) who becomes landlord of an inner-city Brooklyn tenement, planning to evict the tenements and build a nice home for himself. His attitude changes after he becomes involved with two of the female tenements, Marki Bey and Diana Sands. Louis Gossett Jr. co-stars as Sands' husband, who is devasted by an affair. Pearl Bailey also costars as a palm reader who lives in the tenement.

The Tall Target (1951) is an historical thriller directed by Anthony Mann and starring Dick Powell as a New York police sergeant attempting to stop the assassination of Abraham Lincoln as he travels to his inauguration. Ruby Dee, a newcomer to Hollywood at the time, plays Rachel, a slave who helps uncover the murder conspiracy.

Films featured on our January 23 night include:

Imitation of Life (1934) is the first film version of the 1933 novel by Fannie Hurst about a white woman (Claudette Colbert) and her life-changing relationship with the black housekeeper (Louise Beavers) who becomes her best friend. The film, Oscar-nominated as Best Picture of 1934, was remade in 1959 with Lana Turner and Juanita Moore, who received an Oscar nomination for role originally played by Beavers. Though Beavers had been working in Hollywood since the silent era, she was largely overlooked due to playing maids and mammy types, the only roles Hollywood offered her.

Body and Soul (1947) is a film noir directed by Robert Rossen and starring John Garfield as a conflicted young boxer who faces some difficult choices after signing on with corrupt management. Canada Lee plays a boxer who suffers brain damage after a match with Garfield and becomes the other fighter's trainer and moral compass. In real life, both Garfield and Lee were blacklisted and died in 1952 at tragically young ages. (Garfield was 38, Lee 44.)

The Member of the Wedding (1952), directed by Fred Zinnemann, is a film version of the 1950 Broadway play and the 1946 Carson McCullers novel on which it was based. Repeating their roles from the stage drama are Oscar nominee Julie Harris as the Southern girl who is traumatized by her older brother's wedding, Brandon De Wilde as her young cousin, and Ethel Waters as the big-hearted housekeeper who cares for them. Waters had won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for her stage performance but no Academy Award nominations.

Intruder in the Dust (1949) is a drama directed by Clarence Brown and based on the 1948 novel by William Faulkner. Juano Hernandez, an Afro-Puerto Rican actor who had a career in Hollywood films from the 1930s through 1970, takes the leading role of Lucas Beauchamp, a wealthy and respectable black man unjustly accused of murdering a white man. Attempting to help him prove his innocence are a teenage boy (Claude Jarman Jr.), the town lawyer (David Brian), and an elderly woman (Elizabeth Patterson). For his performance, Hernandez won a Golden Globe as Most Promising Male Newcomer and was nominated by the New York Film Critics Circle Award as Best Actor. Faulkner himself commented, "That Juano Hernandez is a fine actor -- and man, too."

Enjoy!



6:15 AM -- SOMBRERO (1953)
Three sets of lovers are caught between feuding Mexican villages.
Dir: Norman Foster
Cast: Ricardo Montalban, Pier Angeli, Vittorio Gassman
C-103 mins, CC,

When Cecil B. DeMille saw this movie he said " When I saw Yvonne DeCarlo as Maria I knew I had my Sephora for "The Ten Commandments". DeMille had always wanted to work with Yvonne DeCarlo since she was under contract to Paramount Pictures in the early 1940's. He wanted her for Delilah in "Samson and Delilah". However Paramount wanted either of three actresses for the part of Delilah; Betty Hutton, Maria Montez or Hedy Lamarr. Of course Lamarr won the part.


8:03 AM -- DANCING ROMEO (1944)
In this short film, a boy is taken with a young girl he sees dancing and decides to give a dance recital in the hopes of winning her over.
Dir: Cy Endfield
Cast: Buckwheat Thomas, Billy Laughlin, Janet Burston
BW-11 mins,

The final Our Gang comedy to be released.


8:15 AM -- ROMEO AND JULIET (1937)
Shakespeare's classic tale of young lovers from feuding families.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, John Barrymore
BW-125 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Norma Shearer, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Basil Rathbone, Best Art Direction -- Cedric Gibbons, Fredric Hope and Edwin B. Willis, and Best Picture

The film's literary consultant was Professor William Strunk Jr., co-author of the famous treatise on the English language, Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style." Producer Irving Thalberg hired Strunk to work with the screenwriters to make sure that the Hollywood adaption of Shakespeare's play stayed true and respectful to its original source. Thalberg told Strunk, "Your job is to protect Shakespeare from us."


10:30 AM -- STORM OVER WYOMING (1950)
Two drifters get caught in the middle during a cattlemen-sheep men feud.
Dir: Lesley Selander
Cast: Tim Holt, Noreen Nash, Richard Powers
BW-61 mins, CC,

Western fans will notice that this movie offers a unique slant on the old "cattlemen-vs.-sheepherders" story. In this film the cattlemen are willing to live peacefully with the sheepherders, but the boss of the big sheep ranch is a ruthless man willing to kill his own henchmen when they fail to help him drive away the cattle ranchers. The credit for this wonderful reversal in a typical western story goes to screenwriter Ed Earl Repp, who worked from 1944-57, a 13-year career that included contributions to 49 westerns.


11:36 AM -- STORM (1943)
This short film takes a look at how the U.S. weather bureau tries to warn farmers about potentially hazardous storms.
Dir: Paul Burnford
BW-8 mins,


11:45 AM -- MANPOWER (1941)
Power linemen feud over the love of a sultry nightclub singer.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Marlene Dietrich, George Raft
BW-103 mins, CC,

While visiting his friend George Raft on the set, Bugsy Siegel was introduced to Virginia Hill. In the scene where Raft gets into a brawl with Barton MacLane, Hill appears as the hat-check girl to whom Raft gives a piece of leg from a smashed chair as he leaves the nightclub. The brawl scene and Bugsy Siegel's first meeting with Virginia Hill on the gas station movie set are recreated in Bugsy (1991).


1:30 PM -- THE PAINTED DESERT (1931)
A cowboy and his girlfriend try to settle a feud between their fathers.
Dir: Howard Higgin
Cast: Bill Boyd, Helen Twelvetrees, William Farnum
BW-75 mins,

William Boyd and Clark Gable, during the making of the film (11 October 1930), narrowly escaped serious injury from falling rock after two tons of explosives went off with considerably more force than planned in Dinosaur Canyon, some 70 miles northwest of Flagstaff, Arizona. While Boyd and Gable were 200 feet from the blast, rocks and boulders rained down between where they were standing. Not so lucky were a number of technicians, some 15 of whom were taken to hospitals in Flagstaff and Tuba City, and director Howard Higgin, who suffered a broken ankle and various cuts. The female lead, Helen Twelvetrees, had already returned to Los Angeles, as most of the principal photography was completed. Dynamite and black powder had been placed in the face of a 400-foot cliff and in an old mine tunnel, the explosion being expected to crumble the cliff. Unexpected presence of hard rock lent the blast violence that had not been anticipated, and showered rock and stone over an area of nearly half a mile.


3:00 PM -- BENEATH THE 12-MILE REEF (1953)
Love brings together two families of rival sponge fishers.
Dir: Robert D. Webb
Cast: Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, Gilbert Roland
C-101 mins, Letterbox Format

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Edward Cronjager

For many years it was widely believed that the failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright had resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market were either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) 16mm pan/scan television copies of the film purchased on the underground market. The legal status of the film was eventually resolved by 20th Century-Fox, and the movie was rescued from public domain so that a quality DVD could be released through Fox Cinema Archives. Fans are now able to enjoy the movie with stereo sound and a quality picture--complete with the "lost" scene in which Gilbert Roland stuffs a cigar into Peter Graves' mouth after beating him in a fistfight.


4:45 PM -- PURE FEUD (1934)
In this comedic short, two siblings on vacation find themselves stuck between an odd family feud. Vitaphone Release 1638.
Dir: Joseph Henabery
Cast: Edgar Bergen, Vicki Cummings, Valerie Bergere
BW-10 mins, CC,


5:00 PM -- THE VOICE OF BUGLE ANN (1936)
A Missouri farmer's love for his hunting dog triggers a feud that divides the county.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Eric Linden
BW-72 mins, CC,

Based on a novel of the same name by MacKinlay Kantor.


6:16 PM -- SPORT SLANTS #8 (1931)
This short entry in Ted Husing's "Sport Slants" series covers greyhound racing and diving. Vitaphone Release 1382.
BW-11 mins,


6:30 PM -- SPORTING BLOOD (1940)
A young man trying to rebuild the family racing stables falls for the daughter of a bitter rival.
Dir: S. Sylvan Simon
Cast: Robert Young, Maureen O'Sullivan, Lewis Stone
BW-82 mins,

Bradbury Foote wrote the original script entitled "One Came Home", also used as the working title. Since the onscreen credit states "original screenplay" by Grace Norton, it is not known if any of Foote's material was used in the film.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: OVERLOOKED AFRICAN AMERICAN PERFORMANCES



8:00 PM -- IMITATION OF LIFE (1934)
A widow and her housekeeper go into business together but almost lose their daughters.
Dir: John M. Stahl
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Rochelle Hudson
BW-111 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Assistant Director -- Scott R. Beal, Best Sound, Recording -- Theodore Soderberg (sound director) and Universal Pictures (studio sound department), and Best Picture

Fredi Washington (Peola, Aged 19) was a light-skinned African-American. After playing this role, she was criticized by some in the black community who labored under the misconception that the actress herself practiced self-hatred and would rather 'pass' herself off as white. Ms. Washington was, in fact, an avid civil rights activist.


10:00 PM -- BODY AND SOUL (1947)
A young boxer slugs his way out of the slums only to fall prey to organized crime.
Dir: Robert Rossen
Cast: John Garfield, Lilli Palmer, Hazel Brooks
BW-106 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Francis D. Lyon and Robert Parrish

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- John Garfield, and Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Abraham Polonsky

To get a more fluid camera movement in the boxing ring, cinematographer James Wong Howe filmed the fight while holding the camera and being pushed by an assistant as he wore roller skates.


12:00 AM -- THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING (1952)
When her brother marries, a 12-year-old girl faces the awkward pains of adolescence.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Ethel Waters, Julie Harris, Brandon de Wilde
BW-89 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Julie Harris

Julie Harris, Ethel Waters, and Brandon De Wilde all reprised their roles from the original Broadway production.


1:45 AM -- INTRUDER IN THE DUST (1949)
Only a young boy and an old woman stand between an innocent black man and a lynch mob.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: David Brian, Claude Jarman Jr., Juano Hernandez
BW-87 mins, CC,

The film is generally considered as breaking new ground in its depiction of blacks on screen. In 1949 it was certainly highly progressive in the way it portrayed African-Americans.


3:17 AM -- THE NEW PUPIL (1940)
In this comedic short, two boys fall in love with a new girl at school, but are forced to join her in a tea party.
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: Buckwheat Thomas, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Paul Hilton
BW-11 mins,

Debut of Billy 'Froggy' Laughlin. He would remain with the series until its demise in 1943 (final entries released into 1944).


3:30 AM -- WITHIN OUR GATES (1920)
In this silent film, a black schoolteacher finds the battle against racism is everywhere when she goes North to raise money for better schools.
Dir: Oscar Micheaux
Cast: Evelyn Preer, Flo Clements, James D. Ruffin
BW-74 mins,

This is the earliest known surviving film directed by an African-American.


5:00 AM -- THE SYMBOL OF THE UNCONQUERED (1921)
In this silent film, a black heiress fights off the Ku Klux Klan to save her land.
Dir: Oscar Micheaux
Cast: Iris Hall, Walker Thompson, Lawrence Chenault
BW-59 mins,

One of the three out of twenty-four silent films made by Oscar Micheaux that are known to have survived - although some of this film is missing, the parts are identified by title cards by the restorers. The other two pictures are Body and Soul (1925) and Within Our Gates (1920).