Jack Palance movies on TCM: Titles include the 1955 drama The Big Knife and the 1966 Western The Professionals
Jack Palance movies on Turner Classic Movies on Aug. 18, as TCM’s “Summer Under the Stars” series continues.
Villains of the Jack Palance sort are oftentimes more interesting, more charismatic than the heroes – John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Charlton Heston, et al. – that they’re trying to vanquish. It’s tough, however, to root for someone like Jack Palance, no matter how unappealing his straight-and-narrow foe.
Of Palance’s TCM movies, the top recommendation is Once a Thief, Ralph Nelson’s largely forgotten and generally disliked downbeat tale about a handsome ex-con in distress. Palance is one of the distressing elements, but most viewers will likely have eyes only for antihero Alain Delon and Ann-Margret as the woman in his life.
In The Big Knife, Robert Aldrich’s big-screen version (adapted by James Poe) of Clifford Odets play, Rod Steiger plays a nasty movie mogul (Harry Cohn/Louis B. Mayer as one) and Palance an actor who has chosen box office over art. Steiger shamelessly gobbles up the scenery in this appallingly stilted exemplar of filmed theater, fully abetted by Palance and Ida Lupino. Recommended to those who enjoy watching performers sink their teeth into not only their roles and also everything else around them.
Richard Brooks’ Western The Professionals – which earned the filmmaker a Best Director Oscar nomination – has its moments, but it should have been shorter.
Jack Palance’s creepiness terrifies Linda Darnell in the moderately engrossing Second Chance, which deserves better than the currently available faded print. Robert Mitchum costars.
Another Robert Aldrich effort, the post-World War II drama Ten Seconds to Hell, is worth a look because of Palance’s costars: Jeff Chandler and Martine Carol. Also, as it revolves around a Berlin-based bomb disposal unit, Ten Seconds to Hell may remind viewers of Kathryn Bigelow’s Best Picture Oscar winner The Hurt Locker.
Jack Palance movies on TCM: ‘Summer Under the Stars’ schedule (PDT) – Aug. 18
3:00 AM Man in the Attic (1953)
Director: Hugo Fregonese.
Cast: Jack Palance, Constance Smith, Frances Bavier.
82m4:30 AM The Spy in the Green Hat (1966)
Director: Joseph Sargent.
Cast: Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Jack Palance, Janet Leigh.
93m6:15 AM Ten Seconds to Hell (1959)
Director: Robert Aldrich.
Cast: Jack Palance, Jeff Chandler, Martine Carol.
93m8:00 AM Attack (1956)
Director: Robert Aldrich.
Cast: Jack Palance, Eddie Albert, Lee Marvin.
108m10:00 AM The Man Inside (1958)
Director: John Gilling.
Cast: Jack Palance, Anita Ekberg, Anthony Newley.
97m11:45 AM House of Numbers (1957)
Director: Russell Rouse.
Cast: Jack Palance, Barbara Lang, Harold J. Stone.
92m1:30 PM Once a Thief (1965)
Director: Ralph Nelson.
Cast: Ann-Margret, Alain Delon, Jack Palance, Van Heflin.
106m3:30 PM Second Chance (1953)
Director: Rudolph Maté.
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Linda Darnell, Jack Palance.
82m5:00 PM The Big Knife (1955)
Director: Robert Aldrich.
Cast: Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters.
114m7:00 PM Monte Walsh (1970)
Director: William A. Fraker.
Cast: Lee Marvin, Jeanne Moreau, Jack Palance.
99m9:00 PM The Professionals (1966)
Director: Richard Brooks.
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Claudia Cardinale, Jack Palance, Woody Strode.
118m11:00 PM The Mercenary (1968)
Director: Sergio Corbucci.
Cast: Jack Palance, Franco Nero, Tony Musante.
106m1:00 AM Kill a Dragon (1967)
Director: Michael D. Moore.
Cast: Jack Palance, Fernando Lamas, Aldo Ray.
91m
“Jack Palance Movies: The Big Knife, The Professionals” notes
Jack Palance movie schedule via the TCM website.