TCM Schedule for Saturday, July 19, 2014 -- The Essentials - Music by John Williams

[Staph]

Tonight's Essentials features the music of John Williams, with a pair of his films -- one directed by Steven Spielberg, and one not. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- A Southern Yankee (1948)
A bellboy masquerades as a spy and lands behind enemy lines during the Civil War.
Dir: Edward Sedgwick
Cast: Red Skelton, Brian Donlevy, Arlene Dahl
BW-91 mins, CC,

No one could figure out a simple, yet funny way to get Aubrey out of the house when he was being held captive by the angry dog. Buster Keaton, employed by MGM as a roving gag man, was called to the set, looked at the set up, and came up with the idea of removing the door hinges and letting the dog in as Aubrey got out. The most famous gag in the movie took Keaton all of five minutes to devise.


7:30 AM -- Watch the Birdie (1951)
A photographer falls for a rich girl and gets mixed up with crooks.
Dir: Jack Donohue
Cast: Red Skelton, Arlene Dahl, Ann Miller
BW-71 mins, CC,

The Great Turkey Escape scenes were filmed in an under-construction housing development in the Northwest quadrant of Crenshaw Boulevard and 190th Street, Torrance, California. The turkeys required persuasion to leave their enclosure on the back of a truck. Encouragement was applied by men with poles, out of camera view. The scene required at least two takes, with the birds rounded up from their pen (also out of view) and returned to the truck.


8:45 AM -- Texas Carnival (1951)
A penniless carnival worker runs up a mountain of debts when he's mistaken for a millionaire.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Howard Keel
C-77 mins, CC,

At the time "Texas Carnival" was filmed, Red Norvo's trio included an African-American musician, bassist Charles Mingus, and when they recorded their number for this film (backing Ann Miller on "It's Dynamite&quot Mingus played on the soundtrack. But when the number was filmed MGM executives insisted that a white bassist substitute for Mingus on screen.


10:15 AM -- Carson on TCM: Red Skelton (12/6/83) (2013)
TCM presents an interview from The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, with Red Skelton from 12/6/83.
C-10 mins, CC,


10:45 AM -- Nancy Drew...Trouble Shooter (1939)
A teen-aged sleuth tries to clear one of her father's friends of a murder charge.
Dir: William Clemens
Cast: Bonita Granville, Frankie Thomas, John Litel
BW-68 mins,

Third of the four Nancy Drew films, based on the stories by Mildred Wirt Benson.


12:00 PM -- The Wasp Woman (1959)
A cosmetics executive's search for eternal beauty turn her into a monster.
Dir: Roger Corman
Cast: Susan Cabot, Fred Eisley, Barboura Morris
BW-61 mins,

This was Susan Cabot's final movie.


1:15 PM -- Raintree County (1957)
In this sumptuous Civil War story, a willful southern belle goes mad out of fear that she may be part black.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint
C-173 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Taylor, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- William A. Horning, Urie McCleary, Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt, Best Costume Design -- Walter Plunkett, and Best Music, Scoring -- Johnny Green

On May 12, 1956, during the shooting of this film, Montgomery Clift was involved in a serious car accident on his way back home from a party at the house of Elizabeth Taylor. His friend Kevin McCarthy witnessed the accident from his car, drove back and informed Taylor and her then husband Michael Wilding, who immediately drove to the location together with Rock Hudson. Taylor entered the car through the back door, crawled to the front seat and removed the two front teeth from Clift's throat that threatened to choke him. Hudson finally managed to pull him out of the wreck and together they protected him from being photographed until the ambulance arrived. This was necessary because soon after the emergency call had come in to the local police station, reporters were already on their way and arrived at the scene when Clift was still in the car. The accident was well publicized. After nine weeks of recovery and with plastic surgery, Clift returned to the movie set and finished the film, but with considerable difficulties. His dashing looks, though, were gone forever. If you notice in some scenes, his nose and chin look different, and the left side of his face is more or less immobile.


4:15 PM -- Bad Day At Black Rock (1955)
A one-armed veteran uncovers small-town secrets when he tries to visit an Asian-American war hero's family.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis
C-82 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy, Best Director -- John Sturges, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Millard Kaufman

According to one biographer of Spencer Tracy, the script did not originally call for the lead character to be a one-armed man. The producers were keen to get Tracy but didn't think he'd be interested, so they gave the character this disability with the idea that no actor can resist playing a character with a physical impairment.


5:45 PM -- Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)
The famed 19th century hero defeats enemy fleets and courts an admiral's widow.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty
C-117 mins, CC,

The rights to the novel were originally acquired by Warners with Errol Flynn in mind, but after the financial failure of Adventures of Don Juan (1948) and growing difficulties with the actor, he was not cast. Warners was already building up Burt Lancaster as its new swashbuckler, but the role of a British sea captain seemed out of his range, so Gregory Peck was ultimately cast.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: MUSIC BY JOHN WILLIAMS



8:00 PM -- The Sugarland Express (1974)
An ex-convict springs her husband from prison to keep their child from being adopted.
Dir: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Goldie Hawn, Ben Johnson, William Atherton
C-110 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

This filmed marked the beginning of Spielberg's friendship with John Williams. As of 2012 (including Lincoln), Williams has scored every Spielberg-directed theatrical film except The Color Purple (1985) and the anthology film Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983).


10:00 PM -- AFI's Master Class - The Art of Collaboration: Spielberg-Williams (2011)
The composer and the director discuss their work.
C-52 mins, CC, Letterbox Format


11:00 PM -- The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973)
A kidnapped woman joins forces with her captors in the old West.
Dir: Richard C. Sarafian
Cast: Burt Reynolds, Sarah Miles, Lee J. Cobb
C-123 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Michel Legrand was originally hired to compose the musical score for the film. He composed his score in Paris in May 1973 and recorded a little over twenty minutes of it in Hollywood the following month, whereupon director Richard C. Sarafian and studio executives James Aubrey and Daniel Melnick informed Legrand that his score was not what they felt the film needed and that he was being dismissed. John Williams was then hired to compose the music.


2:00 AM -- The Visitor (1979)
A young girl with telekinetic powers becomes the center of a battle between good and evil.
Dir: Michael J Paradise
Cast: Mel Ferrer, Glenn Ford, Lance Henriksen
C-109 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Paige Conner had trouble saying harsh profanity to Glenn Ford in her big confrontation scene with him.


3:45 AM -- Tentacles (1977)
A giant octopus attacks a seaside resort.
Dir: Ovidio G Assonitis
Cast: Shelley Winters, Henry Fonda, Bo Hopkins
C-102 mins, Letterbox Format

The octopus that is "killed" by the Orca's in the finale was a real octopus. However, it was bought from a local market and was already dead.


5:30 AM -- Perversion For Profit (1965)
This anti-porn short film shows a floodtide of filth engulfing the country in the form of newsstand obscenity.
Cast: Damian O'Flynn,
C-31 mins,