Anne Francis movies on TCM: ‘Summer Under the Stars’ series continues with A Lion Is in the Streets, Impasse
As part of its “Summer Under the Stars” film series, Turner Classic Movies is showing 12 Anne Francis movies today, including three TCM premieres. Those are actor-director William Conrad’s Brainstorm (1965), veteran Raoul Walsh’s A Lion Is in the Streets (1953), and actor-director Richard Benedict’s Impasse (1969).
Brainstorm is about a scientist intent on killing the husband of the woman he loves. The B thriller stars performers who had seen better big-screen days in the 1940s and/or 1950s: Jeffrey Hunter, Dana Andrews, Viveca Lindfors, and Francis. At the time, however, Francis was doing well for herself on television in the series Honey West, in which she played a sexy gumshoe whose partner was an ocelot.
Based on a novel by Adria Locke Langley, A Lion Is in the Streets (1953) is a political drama that got made probably thanks to Robert Rossen’s 1949 Oscar winner All the King’s Men. James Cagney stars as a Southern peddler-turned-political demagogue; Barbara Hale plays the peddler’s wife, a teacher named Verity Wade; and Francis is a bayou sexpot named Flamingo McManamee. Making sure this is clear: A Lion Is in the Streets is a political drama, not a political satire. But then again, in movies as in life, it’s a fine line between the two.
In the B adventure drama Impasse, Francis gets enmeshed with Burt Reynolds and a group of World War II veterans looking for buried gold in the Philippines. Impasse costars Lyle Bettger, probably best remembered as the guy who goes flying after his car gets hit by a train in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth.
William Wyler’s Funny Girl (1968) would have seemed less long had Anne Francis’ role not been pared down. Whether or not wearing a miniskirt, Francis could enliven a movie just by being there with her prominent beauty mark. Admittedly, Barbra Streisand does her best as Fannie Brice; in fact, this blockbuster that earned Streisand a shared Best Actress Oscar (with Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter) is one of Wyler’s most by-the-book efforts. Omar Sharif, veteran two-time Oscar nominee Walter Pidgeon (Mrs. Miniver, 1942; Madame Curie, 1943), and Best Supporting Actress nominee Kay Medford costar.
Richard Brooks’ Blackboard Jungle (1955) is notable for its rock-and-roll music and for Glenn Ford’s performance as a teacher at odds with a bunch of hoodlum-students, among them Vic Morrow, future filmmaker Paul Mazursky, and Sidney Poitier. Good intentions, however, don’t necessarily a good movie make. As for Fred M. Wilcox’s Forbidden Planet (1956), its cult classic reputation is well-deserved for a variety of reasons. Among those are: Robby the Robot, the still very much relevant theme of the dangers of technology in the hands of stupid humans, and Anne Francis’ futuristic mini skirt. Walter Pidgeon and Leslie Nielsen costar.
Anne Francis movies: TCM schedule (EDT)
6:00 AM SUMMER HOLIDAY (1948)
Director: Rouben Mamoulian.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Gloria DeHaven, Walter Huston, Frank Morgan, Jackie Jenkins, Marilyn Maxwell, Agnes Moorehead, Anne Francis.
93m7:45 AM SO YOUNG SO BAD (1950)
Director: Bernard Vorhaus.
Cast: Paul Henreid, Catherine McLeod, Cecil Clovelly, Anne Jackson, Rita Moreno, Anne Francis.
91m9:30 AM BATTLE CRY (1955)
Director: Raoul Walsh.
Cast: Van Heflin, Aldo Ray, Mona Freeman, Dorothy Malone, Nancy Olson, Tab Hunter, James Whitmore, Raymond Massey, William Campbell.
148m12:00 PM BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (1955)
Director: John Sturges.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, John Ericson, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan.
82m1:30 PM SUSAN SLEPT HERE (1954)
Director: Frank Tashlin.
Cast: Dick Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Anne Francis, Glenda Farrell.
98m3:15 PM THE GREAT AMERICAN PASTIME (1956)
Director: Herman Hoffman.
Cast: Tom Ewell, Anne Francis, Ann Miller, Dean Jones.
90m5:00 PM FUNNY GIRL (1968)
Director: William Wyler.
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Omar Sharif, Kay Medford. Anne Francis.
157m8:00 PM BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (1955)
Director: Richard Brooks.
Cast: Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern, Margaret Hayes, John Hoyt, Richard Kiley, Basil Ruysdael, Warner Anderson, Sidney Poitier, Vic Morrow, Paul Mazursky, Jamie Farr.
101m10:00 PM FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956)
Director: Fred M. Wilcox.
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly, Richard Anderson, Earl Holliman, George Wallace, Robert Dix, Jimmy Thompson, James Drury, Peter Miller, Morgan Jones, Robby the Robot.
99m12:00 AM BRAINSTORM (1965)
Director: William Conrad.
Cast: Jeffrey Hunter, Dana Andrews, Anne Francis, Viveca Lindfors, Stacy Harris, Kathie Browne, Michael Pate, Strother Martin.
105m2:00 AM A LION IS IN THE STREETS (1953)
Director: Raoul Walsh.
Cast: James Cagney, Barbara Hale, Anne Francis, Warner Anderson, John McIntire, Jeanne Cagney, Lon Chaney Jr., Frank McHugh, Larry Keating, Onslow Stevens, James Millican, Sara Haden, Ellen Corby.
88m4:00 AM IMPASSE (1969)
Director: Richard Benedict.
Cast: Burt Reynolds, Anne Francis, Lyle Bettger, Rodolfo Acosta, Jeff Corey.
100m
“Anne Francis Movies on TCM” notes
Anne Francis movie schedule via the TCM website.