TCM Schedule for Friday, May 29, 2015 -- Friday Night Spotlight - Orson Welles

[Staph]

This evening is the last of this month's Friday night theme of the films of Orson Welles, including The Third Man (1949), Tomorrow Is Forever (1946), The V.I.P.s (1963), and A Man For All Seasons (1966). As a fan of the recent Masterpiece mini-series Wolf Hall, I am looking forward to watching A Man For All Seasons again. I love that film, but I've never been a fan of goody-two-shoes Thomas More. Comparing the two so soon after watching Wolf Hall will be interesting. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- The Case of the Lucky Legs (1935)
Perry Mason tries to stay on the wagon while investigating the murder of a crooked beauty contest promoter.
Dir: Archie L. Mayo
Cast: Warren William, Genevieve Tobin, Patricia Ellis
BW-78 mins, CC,

Supporting players Baron MacLane and Lyle Talbot would later appear in the Perry Mason TV series starring Raymond Burr.


7:30 AM -- Miss Pacific Fleet (1935)
Two stranded showgirls enter a beauty contest to win the fare back home.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Joan Blondell, Glenda Farrell, Hugh Herbert
BW-66 mins,

A sad footnote, in retrospect: Kewpie (Allen Jenkins) is a crew member of the USS Arizona, which six years later was sunk in the attack on Pearl Harbor.


8:45 AM -- Page Miss Glory (1935)
A con artist creates a composite photo to win a beauty contest, then has to find the real thing.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Marion Davies, Pat O'Brien, Dick Powell
BW-93 mins, CC,

The original play, by Joseph Schrank and Phillip Dunning, opened in New York at the Mansfield Theater on 27 November 1934 and ran for 63 performances.


10:30 AM -- Meet the Missus (1937)
A woman's mania for entering contests leads her family on a madcap trip to Atlantic City.
Dir: Joseph Santley
Cast: Victor Moore, Helen Broderick, Anne Shirley
BW-61 mins,

Based on the story Lady Average by Jack Goodman and Albert Rice.


11:45 AM -- The Singing Marine (1937)
A young Marine develops an inflated ego after winning a talent contest.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Dick Powell, Doris Weston, Lee Dixon
BW-105 mins, CC,

One of the musical numbers from this film was featured in the 1943 short Three Cheeers for the Girls.


1:45 PM -- Fast And Furious (1939)
Married book-dealers Joel and Garda Sloane get mixed up with murder during a beauty pageant
Dir: Busby Berkeley
Cast: Franchot Tone, Ann Sothern, Ruth Hussey
BW-73 mins, CC,

The ship that Jerry Lawrence was booked on for her "world cruise" in August 1939 was the SS Panama. In reality in August of 1939, the SS Panama was celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal. The SS Panama and her two sister ships, the Ancon and the Cristbol, were part of the Panama Line and were billed as "The Safest Ships in the World" by their owners The Panama Railroad Company. These ships provided service between New York, Haiti, and the Canal Zone. At a cost of $4,000,000 each, they were 493 feet in length and had a top speed of 19 knots.


3:00 PM -- Blackmail (1939)
A man in prison on false charges escapes to save his family from a blackmailer.
Dir: H. C. Potter
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Hussey, Gene Lockhart
BW-81 mins, CC,

Based on a story by Endre Bohem and Dorothy Yost.


4:30 PM -- Married Bachelor (1941)
A married gambler has to pose as a bachelor to pay off his debts.
Dir: Edward Buzzell
Cast: Robert Young, Ruth Hussey, Felix Bressart
BW-81 mins,

When director Edward Buzzell was sidelined with a cold, Norman Taurog temporarily took over as director, and Sam Taylor as assistant director.


6:00 PM -- Tender Comrade (1943)
Lady welders pool their resources to share a house during World War II.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Robert Ryan, Ruth Hussey
BW-102 mins, CC,

This film was introduced as evidence when director Edward Dmytryk and writer Dalton Trumbo were hauled before the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was investigating them on suspicion of being Communists. Despite the film's many flag-waving speeches, the communal living arrangements of the ladies in the film was cited as evidence of how Dmytryk and Trumbo attempted to brainwash unsuspecting American moviegoers with Communist "propaganda". As even more damning "evidence", there was the use of the word "Comrade" in the title.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: ORSON WELLES



8:00 PM -- The Third Man (1949)
A man's investigation of a friend's death uncovers corruption in post-World War II Vienna.
Dir: Carol Reed
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles
BW-104 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Robert Krasker

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Carol Reed, and Best Film Editing -- Oswald Hafenrichter

The huge ferris wheel that Martins and Lime ride on in the Prater was erected in 1897. Sigmund Freud claimed to have used it to induce seasickness in patients while experimenting with cocaine as a treatment.


10:00 PM -- Tomorrow Is Forever (1946)
A scarred veteran presumed dead returns home to find his wife remarried.
Dir: Irving Pichel
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles, George Brent
BW-104 mins, CC,

Richard Long's film debut.


12:00 AM -- The V.I.P.S (1963)
Wealthy passengers fogged in at London's Heathrow Airport fight to survive a variety of personal trials.
Dir: Anthony Asquith
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Louis Jourdan
C-119 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Margaret Rutherford (Margaret Rutherford was not present at the awards ceremony. Peter Ustinov accepted the award on her behalf.)

Based on a true story, the movie was a thinly disguised account of screenwriter Terence Rattigan's life friend Vivien Leigh and her attempt to leave her husband Laurence Olivier for Australian actor Peter Finch. Leigh and Finch made it to the London airport, but their plane was delayed by incoming fog giving Olivier time to confront the two and bring Leigh home. Leigh abandoned the plan after hours of fog delay.


2:15 AM -- A Man for All Seasons (1966)
A devout scholar gets caught in the middle of Henry VIII's plans to break with the Catholic Church.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Leo McKern
C-121 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Scofield (Paul Scofield was not present at the awards ceremony. His co-star Wendy Hiller accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Director -- Fred Zinnemann, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Bolt, Best Cinematography, Color -- Ted Moore, Best Costume Design, Color -- Elizabeth Haffenden and Joan Bridge, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Shaw, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Wendy Hiller

Robert Bolt borrowed the title from Robert Whittinton, a contemporary of Thomas More, who in 1520 wrote of him: "More is a man of an angel's wit and singular learning; I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity: a man for all seasons."


4:30 AM -- Act Of Violence (1948)
An embittered veteran tracks down a POW camp informer.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh
BW-82 mins, CC,

All the credits except for the title are at the end of the movie, highly unusual for that time.

[avebury]

1. Tomorrow Is Forever is a great film!

Not as big a fan of The Third Man. When I went to Austria, on the city tour of Vienna they kept saying stuff like "As you will recall in the movie The Third Man.." or In the movie The Third Man...." I am not sure that everyone on the tour had ever heard of the film but I am sure that everyone looked to rent it when they got back home.