TCM Schedule for Thursday, May 28, 2015 -- What's On Tonight - Time Travel

[Staph]

All but one of today's daylight films is by writer/producer/director Jane Murfin. (The exception is 1933's Professional Sweetheart.) And in prime time, it's the end of this world as we do a little travelling through time. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Dance Hall (1929)
A dance trophy winning young couple is temporarily split up when a playboy aviator leads the girl to believe he's in love with her.
Dir: Melville Brown
Cast: Olive Borden, Arthur Lake, Margaret Seddon
BW-59 mins,

The soundtrack is dubbed on to an already finished film. The actors' voices say the words but are just a little off, sometimes speaking too fast or slow (sometimes in the same scene), to perfectly match their onscreen selves' mouth movements. Sound effects also can be similarly affected. It's obviously a talkie, and is definitely not a case of an out of synch track. It's a re-do. A very strange and apparently unique happenstance.


7:04 AM -- Georgie Price In "Don't Get Nervous" (1929)
Georgie Price performs his musical routine in this short film.
Dir: Bryan Foy
BW-9 mins,


7:15 AM -- Street Girl (1929)
A girl from the wrong part of town finds a new life managing a jazz band.
Dir: Wesley Ruggles
Cast: Betty Compson, John Harron, Ned Sparks
BW-87 mins,

This was the first "official" RKO production.


8:44 AM -- Lambchops (1929)
In this short film, George Burns and Gracie Allen perform a comic routine along with the musical number, "Do You Believe in Me? I Do." Vitaphone Release 891.
BW-8 mins,


9:00 AM -- The Runaway Bride (1930)
A criminal gang goes after the jewels their dying leader stashed in a woman's handbag.
Dir: Donald Crisp
Cast: Mary Astor, Lloyd Hughes, David Newell
BW-66 mins,

Based on the play Cooking Her Goose by H. H. Van Loan and Lolita Ann Westman.


10:15 AM -- Smilin' Through (1932)
A young woman falls in love with the son of an old family enemy.
Dir: Sidney Franklin
Cast: Norma Shearer, Fredric March, Leslie Howard
BW-98 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Fredric March commented to his first cousin, Kathryn Davis, about working with Norma Shearer, that, yes, she was a great actress, professional, etc., but could be difficult, because she constantly expected perfection. When Davis asked what that specifically meant, March replied, "She was never satisfied, kept having us do take after take." Pausing, he continued, unabashed, "Especially our love scenes. She always wanted to redo all the love scenes, several times!" Davis wanted to ask why he supposed Shearer always wanted to retake the love scenes in particular, but thought better of it and kept silent.


12:00 PM -- What Price Hollywood? (1932)
A drunken director whose career is fading helps a waitress become a Hollywood star.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Constance Bennett, Lowell Sherman, Neil Hamilton
BW-88 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Adela Rogers St. Johns and Jane Murfin

Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson's first movie.


1:35 PM -- Bone Crushers (1933)
This short film short showcases professional wrestling.
Dir: Ward Wing
BW-8 mins,


1:45 PM -- Professional Sweetheart (1933)
A radio star's pure image leads to a fake engagement to a hayseed.
Dir: William A. Seiter
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Norman Foster, ZaSu Pitts
BW-73 mins, CC,

"Professional Sweetheart" was Ginger Rogers' first film for RKO and - ironically, since so much of the plot revolves around getting Rogers' character to sign a radio contract - she had not yet signed a long-term contract with RKO when she made this film.


3:05 PM -- Studio Highlights (1934)
This short promotional film offers a brief look at "Flirtation Walk" (1934), followed by a short trailer for the film.
Cast: Ruby Keeler,
BW-8 mins,


3:15 PM -- The Life of Vergie Winters (1934)
A politician marries while maintaining a second, illegitimate family on the side.
Dir: Alfred Santell
Cast: Ann Harding, John Boles, Helen Vinson
BW-82 mins, CC,

The movie was placed on the Catholic Church's "to be boycotted" list in July 1934, and was banned in Chicago.


4:45 PM -- Alice Adams (1935)
A small-town girl with social ambitions falls in love with a local playboy.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Fred MacMurray, Fred Stone
BW-99 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn, and Best Picture

There was a disagreement among Katharine Hepburn and George Stevens about the post-party scene. The script called for Hepburn to fall onto the bed and break into sobs, but Stevens wanted her to walk to the window and cry, with the rain falling outside. Hepburn could not produce the tears required, so she asked Stevens if she could do the scene as scripted. Stevens yelled furiously at Hepburn, which did the trick and the scene was filmed Stevens' way, and Hepburn's tears are real.


6:30 PM -- Romance In Manhattan (1935)
A New York chorus girl helps an illegal immigrant build a new life in the big city.
Dir: Stephen Roberts
Cast: Francis Lederer, Ginger Rogers, Arthur Hohl
BW-77 mins, CC,

Based on a story by Norman Krasna and Don Hartman.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TIME TRAVEL



8:00 PM -- Berkeley Square (1933)
A young American man is transported back to London in the time of the American Revolution and meets his ancestors.
Dir: Frank Lloyd
Cast: Leslie Howard, Heather Angel, Valerie Taylor
BW-88 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Leslie Howard

S. T. Joshi points to Berkeley Square, a 1933 fantasy film, as an inspiration for The Shadow Out of Time: "Lovecraft saw this film four times in late 1933; its portrayal of a man of the twentieth century who somehow merges his personality with that of his eighteenth-century ancestor was clearly something that fired Lovecraft's imagination, since he had written a story on this very theme himself--the then unpublished The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927)." Lovecraft called the film "the most weirdly perfect embodiment of my own moods and pseudo-memories that I have ever seen--for all my life I have felt as if I might wake up out of this dream of an idiotic Victorian age and insane jazz age into the sane reality of 1760 or 1770 or 1780." Lovecraft noted some conceptual problems in Berkeley Square's depiction of time travel, and felt that he had "eliminated these flaws in his masterful novella of mind-exchange over time."


9:45 PM -- Time After Time (1979)
When Jack the Ripper steals his time machine, author H.G. Wells travels to modern-day San Francisco to track him down.
Dir: Nicholas Meyer
Cast: Malcolm McDowell, David Warner, Mary Steenburgen
C-112 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Malcolm McDowell listened to recordings of H.G. Wells to prepare for the role. According to him, Wells' voice was high-pitched and Cockney-accented so he decided not to imitate his voice.


11:45 PM -- La Jetee (1962)
In the aftermath of WWIII, a man is sent back and forth through time to find a solution to the world's fate in this experimental short film.
Dir: Chris Marker
Cast: Davos Hanich, Helene Chatelain, Jacques Ledoux
BW-28 mins, Letterbox Format

This short film was the inspiration for the 1995 Terry Gilliam film "Twelve Monkeys".


12:30 AM -- Dr. Who And The Daleks (1965)
The eccentric Time Lord and his companions help a peaceful race fight off murderous mutant robots.
Dir: Gordon Flemyng
Cast: Peter Cushing, Roy Castle, Jennie Linden
C-83 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

A number of changes were made to the main characters in the process of transferring "Doctor Who" to the big screen. Most importantly, The Doctor is shown to be a human scientist named Dr. Who. In the TV series, the lead character is an alien time-traveler, specifically a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, whose name is never revealed, and who is referred to simply as "The Doctor".


2:01 AM -- Prologue The Artist Who Did Not Want To Paint (1965)
This short promotional short film to "The Agony and the Ecstasy" (1965) focuses on the life and sculptures of Michelangelo.
Dir: Vincenzo Labella
C-13 mins,


2:15 AM -- The Time Machine (1960)
A turn-of-the-century inventor sends himself into the future to save humanity.
Dir: George Pal
Cast: Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux
C-103 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Gene Warren and Tim Baar

The plaque on the control panel of time machine reads "Manufactured by H George Wells," that is, H.G. Wells, author of the source novel.


4:05 AM -- We Never Sleep (1956)
This short film highlights the work of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, the U.S.A.'s oldest private detective company.
Dir: Larry O'Reilly
BW-8 mins,


4:15 AM -- World Without End (1955)
Astronauts returning from a voyage are caught in a time warp and are propelled into a post-Apocalyptic Earth populated by mutants.
Dir: Edward Bernds
Cast: Hugh Marlowe, Nancy Gates, Nelson Leigh
C-81 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Although the films had nothing in common except time travel, the H.G. Wells estate sued the producers for plagiarism, citing similarities to Wells' novel "The Time Machine". Ironically, the producers of the film made from that story, The Time Machine (1960), used Rod Taylor, who starred in this film.


5:37 AM -- Golden Glamour (1955)
This short film takes a look at the history and uses of gold.
Dir: Lawrence E. Williams
BW-15 mins,

[CBHagman]

1. "The Life of Vergie Winters"

That's closer to reality than one might expect. I haven't seen the movie, but I remember hearing rumors that the late Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) had a secret family. After his death it was revealed that he had fathered a biracial child out of wedlock.