By David in TN
Friday, May 27, 2022 at 4:05:00 P.M. EDT
TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is John Sturges’ Bad Day at Black Rock (1955).
Spencer Tracy plays a one-armed veteran going into a town with “a dark secret.” Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine, and Lee Marvin play a rogue’s gallery of villains. This has never been considered a film noir. Eddie Muller will probably put his own spin on it.
Since this is Memorial Day Weekend, TCM is showing almost all of the famous war movies. They start Friday Night-Saturday Morning at 12:15 a.m. ET with William Wellman’s Battleground (1949), which we have discussed several times.
N.S.: There’s a story, which I probably got from Red Eddie Muller, about the time Ernie Borgnine needed to take off a day from shooting Black Rock, to go to Hollywood to audition for the eponymous lead role in Paddy Chayefsky’s Marty. Spence assured him he’d get the role—and he did!
The way Borgnine knew he’d won the role was when he read a scene (sitting), in which Marty confronts his mother, who desperately wants her only child to meet and marry a nice girl, and bless her with some grandchildren. “I’m an ugly man, Ma! A ugly, ugly man!”
Ernie said he knew he’d landed the role when he looked to his right, and saw tears streaming down Paddy Chayefsky’s cheeks.
And that got him his Oscar.
[“Combat! ‘Hills are for Heroes’: Director Vic Morrow’s Masterpiece, Feature-Length, Two-Part Story (Presented Without Commercial Interruption)”; and
“William ‘Wild Bill’ Wellman’s 1949 WWII Masterpiece, Battleground.”]
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2 comments:
I read these movie summaries and wonder if TCM stands for The Caucasian Moviefile.In 67 short years,since "Bad Day at Black Rock" was produced,if you now desire to view similar programming without a flood of blacks in it--here's where you must go to see them:TCM or AntennaTV,though even the latter likes to throw in shows like "Amen" for the negroes,it still is,basically, "Leave it to Beaver" and "I Dream of Jeannie".
When do these shows and movies get banned--as part of the destruction of White history--is the next logical question.
--GRA
TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 am ET is Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past (1947) with Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Steve Brodie, Virginia Huston, Paul Valentine.
Film Noir Guide in conclusion: "Mitchum is sensational as the classic noir protagonist, doomed because he has stumbled into the web of a lethal femme fatale, convincingly played by the beautiful Greer. Douglas is terrific as the vicious, but lovesick, gangster who will forgive Greer anything, including shooting him four times. Despite its convoluted plot, Out of the Past really delivers and is worthy of its reputation as the quintessential film noir."
David In TN: Eddie Muller showed Out of the Past a few years ago on Noir Alley.
Our friend, author of The Criminal Justice Club Walt Lewis' father had a job with the studios. One of his father's girlfriends was Rhonda Fleming--"On one of his visits, he brought with him his then current girlfriend, movie star Rhonda Fleming. We took a ride in his black convertible...Ms. Fleming had a wonderful singing voice. She was singing along with a song playing on the radio. While I was watching her sing, her long, red hair blowing in the wind, I remember thinking this was the most gorgeous creature I had ever seen. Even at age 14, I had a real appreciation for female beauty."
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