TCM Schedule for Friday, May 9, 2014 -- Friday Night Spotlight - Australian Cinema

[Staph]

In the morning, TCM is featuring Stu Erwin, who specialised in playing the average Joe, also hayseeds and semi-buffoonish sidekicks. He is best remembered as boxer Joe Palooka of comic strip fame (Palooka (1939)) and as Judy Garland's dense brother in Pigskin Parade (1936), which earned him an Academy Award nomination. In the afternoon, it's films written by James Edward Grant, who started as a newspaperman in Chicago in the 1920s. He moved to Hollywood to write under contract with Republic. His passions were bullfighting and writing. He spent the last years of his life in Spain. In prime time, TCM is continuing this month's Friday night look at Australian cinema, with three films directed by Peter Weir. Enjoy!



6:30 AM -- Before Dawn (1933)
Detectives compete to solve the murders at a mysterious mansion.
Dir: Irving Pichel
Cast: Stuart Erwin, Dorothy Wilson, Warner Oland
BW-61 mins,

Hollywood Reporter news items had Gregory Ratoff, Hobart Cavanaugh and Lal Chand Mehra as cast members, but they did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie. At one point, several arrested psychics exited a police van, but only the back of their heads were visible. One was wearing a turban, a common costume for Mehra.


7:45 AM -- The Band Plays On (1934)
Four street kids mend their ways when they take up football.
Dir: Russell Mack
Cast: Robert Young, Stuart Erwin, Leo Carrillo
BW-87 mins,

Based on the story Backfield by Byron Morgan and J. Robert Bren, and on the story The Gravy Game by Harry Stuhldreher and W. Thorton Martin.


9:15 AM -- Women Are Trouble (1936)
A small-town news hen goes after a big-city job by investigating a vicious protection racket.
Dir: Errol Taggart
Cast: Stuart Erwin, Paul Kelly, Florence Rice
BW-58 mins,

Based on a story by George Harmon Coxe.


10:15 AM -- Our Town (1940)
Small town lovers search for happiness.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Frank Craven, William Holden, Martha Scott
BW-89 mins,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Martha Scott, Best Art Direction, Black-and-White -- Lewis J. Rachmil, Best Sound, Recording -- Thomas T. Moulton (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), Best Music, Score -- Aaron Copland, Best Music, Original Score -- Aaron Copland, and Best Picture

Martha Scott was not considered for the role of "Emily" at first, because of her poor screen test for the role of "Melanie" in Gone with the Wind (1939), but she was chosen after much auditioning of other actresses.


11:49 AM -- So You'Re Going To Be A Father (1947)
In this comedic short, Joe McDoakes faces numerous anxieties in becoming a new father. Vitaphone Release 1552A.
Dir: Richard Bare
Cast: George O'Hanlon, Fred Kelsey, Oliver Blake
BW-11 mins,


12:00 PM -- Father Is a Bachelor (1950)
Five orphans 'adopt' a loner and set out to find him a wife.
Dir: Norman Foster
Cast: William Holden, Coleen Gray, Mary Jane Saunders
BW-84 mins, CC,

In 1938, Erwin was booked to play Dagwood opposite Una Merkel as his blonde missus, when Chic Young's Blondie comic-strip couple hit the screen. Finally, the role (in some 28 films across 12 years) went to Arthur Lake and Penny Singleton. Ironically, Erwin made one film in the much-loved series, Blondie for Victory (1942).


1:30 PM -- Boom Town (1940)
Friends become rivals when they strike-it-rich in oil.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert
BW-119 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Harold Rosson, and Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic) and Douglas Shearer (sound)

This was the last of three films (after San Francisco (1936) and Test Pilot (1938)) that Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy did together. After this film, Tracy insisted on a clause in his MGM contract that he would receive equal billing with Gable in all future films. While the two remained lifelong friends, they were never again paired together in a movie because MGM wasn't sure how to handle the equal billing.


3:30 PM -- Belle Of The Yukon (1944)
Saloon entertainers get mixed up with a bank robbery.
Dir: William A. Seiter
Cast: Randolph Scott, Gypsy Rose Lee, Dinah Shore
C-84 mins,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Johnny Burke (lyrics) for the song "Sleighride in July", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Arthur Lange

Bob Burns was known for a bizarre musical instrument that he invented and which he plays in this film. Basically a long tube with a cone on the end called a "bazooka". GIs in WW2 took the name for the rocket firing anti-tank weapon since it resembled the instrument.


5:00 PM -- Johnny Allegro (1949)
A reformed hoodlum gets mixed up with counterfeiters and a deadly manhunt.
Dir: Ted Tetzlaff
Cast: George Raft, Nina Foch, George Macready
BW-81 mins, CC,

Filmed in part in the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanical Garden.


6:30 PM -- The Sheepman (1958)
A tough sheep farmer battles the local cattle baron for land and a beautiful woman.
Dir: George Marshall
Cast: Glenn Ford, Shirley MacLaine, Leslie Nielsen
C-86 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- William Bowers (screenplay) and James Edward Grant (screenplay/story)

Filmed in part in Montrose, Colorado.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: AUSTRALIAN CINEMA



8:00 PM -- Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)
When a group of schoolgirls mysteriously disappear, the survivors find their lives changed forever.
Dir: Peter Weir
Cast: Martin Vaughan, Rachel Roberts, Dominic Guard
C-107 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Executive producer Patricia Lovell admits to being genuinely afraid of Hanging Rock. In an interview she explained that she has only gone back to Hanging Rock once since the shooting. It was ten years later in 1985 and Lovell said she got so frightened at the location she left almost immediately. She refuses to go back to this day.


10:00 PM -- The Last Wave (1977)
A Sydney lawyer defends five Aborigines in a ritualized murder and in the process learns disquieting things about himself.
Dir: Peter Weir
Cast: Richard Chamberlain, Olivia Hamnett, David Gulpilil
C-106 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

First and only ever Australian theatrical film for actor Richard Chamberlain. Chamberlain did however later star in the two USA-Australian produced TV series, The Thorn Birds (1983) and its sequel, The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years (1996). The Last Wave (1977) represented Chamberlain's first visit to Australia.


12:00 AM -- The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) (In the U.S., released as The Cars That Eat People)
A small town in rural Australia makes its living by causing car accidents and salvaging any valuables from the wrecks.
Dir: Peter Weir
Cast: Terrance Camilleri, John Meillon, Melissa Jaffer
C-88 mins, Letterbox Format

The opening scenes that feature a couple driving in a car and smoking prominently displayed cigarettes were a parody of a commercial aired on Australian television at the time of the film's original release. Website 'Peterweircave' says of this: "The opening "advertisement", which many viewers seem to take as blatant product placement for Coke and Alpine cigarettes, was actually a spoof in itself. At the time it was made, movies in Australia were often preceded by ads for cigarettes and such. By putting this before the opening credits, Weir was fooling the viewers into thinking this was yet another ad."


1:32 AM -- Paris On Parade (1938)
This short film takes the viewer to the Paris International Exposition of 1937.
Dir: James A. FitzPatrick
C-9 mins,


1:45 AM -- Walkabout (1971)
Two children are stranded in the Australian outback and are forced to cope on their own.
Dir: Nicolas Roeg
Cast: Jenny Agutter, Lucien John, David Gumpilil
C-100 mins, Letterbox Format

Luc Roeg was actually sun-burnt in the scene where the aboriginal boy treats his back by rubbing him with fat from a wild boar. Director Nicolas Roeg thought it would make a good scene for the film so he picked up the camera and shot it.


3:33 AM -- See Holland Before It Gets Too Big (1969)
This scenic short film showcases the landscape and culture of Holland. Vitaphone Release 3430A.
Dir: Norman Weissman
C-11 mins,


3:45 AM -- The Story of Film: An Odyssey: 1969-1979 - Radical Directors in the 70s Make State of the Nation Movies (2011)
The tenth episode in this 15-part history of cinema speaks of the movies that tried to change the world in the 1970s.
C-64 mins, CC, Letterbox Format


5:00 AM -- MGM Parade Show #1 (1955)
Judy Garland sings "You Made Me Love You" in a clip from "Broadway Melody of 1938"; Cyd Charisse introduces a clip from "It's Always Fair Weather." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-26 mins,


5:35 AM -- Glimpses Of Java And Ceylon (1937)
This short film focuses on the land, people and customs of Java and Ceylon.
C-9 mins,


5:45 AM -- San Quentin (1937)
A convict's sister falls for the captain of the prison guards.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan
BW-70 mins, CC,

Humphrey Bogart plays Ann Sheridan's kid brother in this film, even though in real life he was actually older than her by eleven years.