TCM Schedule for Friday, January 13 -- What's On Tonight: Le Petit Caporal

[Staph]

TCM has the most intriguing ideas for their daily themes. Today's theme is the little corporal himself, Napoleon Bonaparte. And the films for this theme range from the expensive Garbo vehicle, The Conquest (1937) to Woody Allen's delightfully silly Love and Death (1975) to the Oscar-winning Anthony Adverse (1936). Enjoy!



6:49 AM -- One Reel Wonder: So You Want An Apartment (1948)
Forever behind-the-eight-ball Joe McDoakes begins an impossible search for an apartment after his wife suggests they move in with her mother. Along the way Joe narrowly avoids falling into countless housing traps, only to end up where he started.
Dir: Richard Bare
Cast: George O'Hanlon,
11 min,

Twelfth of the more than sixty So You Want To .... shorts.


7:00 AM -- The Apartment (1960)
An aspiring executive lets his bosses use his apartment for assignations, only to fall for the big chief's mistress.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray.
125 min, TV-PG , CC

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Alexandre Trauner and Edward G. Boyle, Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Film Editing -- Daniel Mandell, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Jack Lemmon, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Kruschen, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Shirley MacLaine, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph LaShelle, and Best Sound -- Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)

In 1968, playwright Neil Simon adapted the screenplay as the book for the Broadway musical "Promises, Promises". It spawned the hit song "I'll Never Fall in Love Again", composed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. "Promises, Promises" opened at the Shubert Theater on December 1, 1968 and ran for 1281 performances. The first Broadway revival opened at the Broadway Theater April 25, 2010 starring Kristin Chenoweth.


9:15 AM -- Any Wednesday (1966)
A young businessman catches his boss keeping a mistress in the company apartment.
Dir: Robert Ellis Miller
Cast: Jane Fonda, Jason Robards Jr., Dean Jones.
C-109 min, TV-PG , CC

The original Broadway production of "Any Wednesday" opened on Feb. 18, 1964 at the Music Box Theater and ran for 983 performances. Sandy Dennis won the 1964 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play but did not recreate the role in the movie version. Rosemary Murphy was nominated for the 1964 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play and recreated her role in the movie version.


11:15 AM -- Sunday in New York (1963)
A philandering pilot gets real moral, real fast when his sister contemplates a premarital fling.
Dir: Peter Tewksbury
Cast: Rod Taylor, Jane Fonda, Cliff Robertson.
C-105 min, TV-PG , CC

The New York production of the musical "Sunday in New York" by Norman Krasna opened at the Cort Theater in New York on November 27, 1961 and ran for 188 performances. The original Broadway cast included a young Robert Redford.


1:15 PM -- Boys' Night Out (1962)
A psychology student researches infidelity by becoming a platonic kept woman for four buddies.
Dir: Michael Gordon
Cast: Kim Novak, James Garner, Tony Randall.
C-113 min, TV-PG , CC

Originally, the movie's title song was to be sung by Frank Sinatra. His version was recorded on March 6, 1962, almost three months before the film's premiere. At last wind, Patti Page recorded her version which was initially optioned for use while Sinatra's original languished in the Columbia vaults until 1995 when his Reprise box-set was issued.


3:30 PM -- Bachelor In Paradise (1961)
A writer moves into a housing development to study married couples.
Dir: Jack Arnold
Cast: Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Janis Paige.
C-109 min, TV-PG , CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Henry Mancini (music) and Mack David (lyrics) for the song "Bachelor in Paradise"


5:30 PM -- The Tender Trap (1955)
A swinging bachelor finds love when he meets a girl immune to his line.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, David Wayne.
C-111 min, TV-PG , CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song &quot Love Is) The Tender Trap"

The original Broadway production of "The Tender Trap" by Max Shulman and Robert Paul Smith opened at the Longacre Theater on October 13, 1954 and ran for 102 performances. The original cast included Robert Preston and Kim Hunter.


7:30 PM -- Now Playing January (2012)
21 min, TV-PG , CC



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: LE PETIT CAPORAL



8:00 PM -- Conquest (1937)
A Polish countess sacrifices her virtue to Napoleon to save her homeland.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Greta Garbo, Charles Boyer, Reginald Owen.
112 min, TV-PG , CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Charles Boyer, and Best Art Direction -- Cedric Gibbons and William A. Horning

The lavish ballroom set where Napoleon dances with Marie Walewska is actually identical to that used in Maytime - the Jeanette McDonald/Nelson Eddy operetta released in March 1937. It has simply been redressed and given a different floor covering and shot from a different angle.


10:00 PM -- Love And Death (1975)
A devout coward vows to assassinate Napoleon in the name of love.
Dir: Woody Allen
Cast: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Georges Adet.
C-85 min, TV-14 , CC

When Boris' father visits him in his prison cell, near the end of the movie, he tells him about Raskolnikov killing two women and about getting told by the brothers Karamazov. Rodion Raskolnikov is the protagonist in Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic "Crime and Punishment", in which he murders two women and does not know how to deal with the moral consequences afterwards. "The Brothers Karamazow" is another epic book by the same Russian writer. The dialogue also evokes "The Possessed", "Raw Youth", "The Idiot", "The Insulted and Injured" (usually "The Insulted and Humiliated&quot , "The Gambler", "The Double", "Bobok", all of them novels by Dostoyevsky.


11:30 PM -- Anthony Adverse (1936)
An orphan runs off to a life of adventure, then returns to France in search of the girl he left behind.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Fredric March, Olivia de Havilland, Donald Woods.
141 min, TV-G , CC

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gale Sondergaard, Best Cinematography -- Tony Gaudio, Best Film Editing -- Ralph Dawson, and Best Music, Score -- Leo F. Forbstein (head of department) and (Warner Bros. Studio Music Deprtment) with score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Anton Grot, Best Assistant Director -- William H. Cannon, and Best Picture

Humphrey Bogart tested for the role of Napoleon; Bette Davis and Kitty Carlisle were among the many others who auditioned for roles.


2:00 AM -- Hausu (1977)
A schoolgirl spends her summer vacation in a haunted house.
Dir: Nobuhiko Obayashi
Cast: Kimiko Ikegami, Eriko Tanaka, Kumiko Ohba.
88 min, TV-MA


3:30 AM -- The Haunting (1963)
A team of psychic investigators moves into a haunted house that destroys all who live there.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson.
112 min, TV-PG , CC

Claire Bloom was intrigued to the play the role of a woman who was attracted to another woman. She said she got along with everyone on the set, except for Julie Harris, who tried everything to avoid her and not talk to her. At the end of the shoot, Harris went over to Bloom's house with a present and explained that the reason she had kept to herself was to stay in character, because Harris' role in the film was that of an outsider that none of the others understand or will listen to. Bloom was happy to hear the real reason behind Harris' behavior, since Bloom stated that she really liked Harris and could not understand what she herself had done wrong to be treated like that by her co-star.


5:30 AM -- We Learn About the Telephone (1965)
Dir: Jean Yarbrough
Cast: Pam Ferden, William Boyett, Pat Cardi.
25 min, TV-G

[CBHagman]

1. Happy Friday the 13th, everybody!