TCM Schedule for Saturday, October 10, 2015 -- The Essentials - Le Tour Eiffel

[Staph]

Tonight's Essentials are films featuring the most famous structure built by Alexandre Gustave Bönickhausen (his family changed their name to Eiffel in 1880, after the Eifel mountains of western Germany and eastern Belgium). Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)
An Eddie Cantor look-alike organizes an all-star show to help the war effort.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Eddie Cantor, Bette Davis
BW-127 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Arthur Schwartz (music) and Frank Loesser (lyrics) for the song "They're Either Too Young or Too Old"

Reportedly the only film in which Bette Davis actually sings. The Oscar-nominated song "They're Either Too Young or Too Old" introduced here by Davis became a hit for Jimmy Dorsey with vocalist Kitty Kallen.


8:08 AM -- The Road To Victory (1944)
Hollywood stars entertain and sing to help bolster war bond sales during World War II.
Dir: LeRoy Prinz
Cast: Olive Blakeney, Jimmy Lydon, Charlie Ruggles
BW-11 mins,


8:30 AM -- Horse Feathers (1932)
In an effort to beef up his school's football team, a college president mistakenly recruits two loonies.
Dir: Norman McLeod
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx
BW-67 mins, CC,

Professor Wagstaff's exclamation, "Jumpin' anaconda!" is actually a reference to a company, Anaconda Copper, whom Groucho Marx had invested in heavily. When the stock market crash of 1929 occurred, Marx lost several hundred thousand dollars, hence the curse word in the movie.


9:39 AM -- Goofy Movies Number Six (1934)
In this short film, Pete Smith provides comedic narration over silent film footage involving dangerous car stunts.
BW-8 mins,


10:00 AM -- Batman and Robin: Batman's Last Chance (1949)
Batman and Robin search for a machine stolen by a mysterious, cloaked-and-hooded figure known only as The Wizard.
BW-17 mins,


10:30 AM -- Bulldog Drummond in Africa (1938)
Drummond, his girlfriend and his butler try to free an high post of Scotland Yard who has been kidnapped.
Dir: Louis King
Cast: John Howard, Heather Angel, H. B. Warner
BW-58 mins,

The thirteenth of 25 Bulldog Drummond films.


11:45 AM -- X The Unknown (1956)
A radioactive ooze terrorizes a remote Scottish village.
Dir: Leslie Norman
Cast: Dean Jagger, Edward Chapman, Leo McKern
BW-80 mins, CC,

The movie began under the direction of Joseph Losey (working as Joseph Walton), exiled to England because of the Hollywood blacklist. However, when Dean Jagger arrived he refused to work with a director he thought of as a Communist sympathizer, and Losey was replaced by Leslie Norman before shooting began. Losey's departure was publicly attributed to "illness". It has also been reported that Losey simply didn't want to make the film and left the project, to be replaced by Norman, who also didn't want to make the film, but did anyway.


1:15 PM -- Under Capricorn (1949)
Newly arrived in Australia, a man discovers his childhood love is now an alcoholic.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Michael Wilding
C-117 mins, CC,

Many French critics consider Under Capricorn as one of Hitchcock's finest films. But then again, they think that Jerry Lewis is a great comedic genius. Judge for yourself!


3:20 PM -- The Art Director (1949)
This short film offers a backstage look at the job of the motion picture art director.
Dir: Otto Lang
BW-7 mins,


3:30 PM -- My Darling Clementine (1946)
When the Clantons steal his family's cattle and kill his brother, Wyatt Earp signs on as sheriff of Tombstone and vows to bring them in.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature
BW-97 mins, CC,

Director John Ford, who in his youth had known the real Wyatt Earp, claimed the way the OK Corral gunfight was staged in this film was the way it was explained to him by Earp himself, with a few exceptions.


5:30 PM -- Sunrise at Campobello (1960)
After a bout with polio, future president Franklin Roosevelt fights to save his political career.
Dir: Vincent J. Donehue
Cast: Zina Bethune, Tim Considine, Alan Bunce
C-144 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Edward Carrere ad George James Hopkins, Best Costume Design, Color -- Marjorie Best, and Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD)

Responding to the protests of the children of Franklin D. Roosevelt & Eleanor Roosevelt to the inaccurate and largely fictitious depiction of their grandmother Sara as a controlling and domineering harridan, the writer of the play and screenplay Dore Schary cheerfully responded, "Every play needs a villain!"



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: LE TOUR EIFFEL



8:00 PM -- Ninotchka (1939)
A coldhearted Soviet agent is warmed up by a trip to Paris and a night of love.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire
BW-110 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greta Garbo, Best Writing, Original Story -- Melchior Lengyel, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch and Billy Wilder, and Best Picture

Allegedly, after a test screening of Ninotchka, one audience member wrote on the preview card: "I laughed so hard, I peed in my girlfriend's hand!"


10:00 PM -- The Lavender Hill Mob (1952)
An overlooked gold transporter with twenty years service plots to steal a million pounds of gold.
Dir: Charles Crichton
Cast: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sidney James
BW-81 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- T.E.B. Clarke

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Alec Guinness

Audrey Hepburn was considered for a larger role in this film, but stage work made her unavailable. Alec Guinness was impressed with the young actress and arranged for her to appear in a bit part. This is considered to be Hepburn's first appearance in a major film.


11:30 PM -- Zazie Dans Le Metro (1960)
A little brat turns Paris upside down during a two-day visit with her uncle.
Dir: Louis Malle
Cast: Catherine Demongeot, Philippe Noiret, Hubert Deschamps
C-93 mins,

In the scene where the characters are looking down from the balcony at the cab driver and the waitress embracing, after the line: 'Okay, hurry up', there is an overhead shot of a man eating at a table. Next to him, there is an issue of the October 1959 issue of Mad Magazine.


1:15 AM -- Robert Osborne's 20th Anniversary Tribute (2015)
A look back at Robert Osborne's life and career as host of Turner Classic Movies.
C-47 mins, CC,

I love the way his mind works, and his love for film. "Somebody, I think it was Pauline Kael, called Around The World In Eighty Days the worst Best Picture, and y'know, I'd like to slap her silly for that. It's very hard to judge, because it may look like a mistake to you today, judging from 2010 while watching it on TCM or whatever, but at the time it meant something totally different. In the case of Around The World In Eighty Days, that's a movie that truly has to be seen on a big screen, preferably in Todd-AO and all of that. Because when I saw that in those conditions, it was a fabulous movie."


2:15 AM -- The Street Fighter (1974)
A master of martial arts offers protection to the daughter of a business magnate when she is pursued by the Yakuza.
Dir: Shigehiro Ozawa
Cast: Sonny Chiba, Charles Bronson, James Coburn
C-91 mins, Letterbox Format

First film to ever get an X rating for violence.


4:00 AM -- Enter the Dragon (1973)
A U.S. agent enters a martial arts tournament to spy on an international super-villain.
Dir: Robert Clouse
Cast: Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Jim Kelly
C-103 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Bruce Lee actually struck Jackie Chan in the face with one of his fighting sticks. He immediately apologized and insisted that Chan could work on all of his movies after that. Unfortunately, Lee died before he could keep his promise.


5:45 AM -- Wild at the Wheel (1970)
This short film looks at the importance of traffic rules to avoid serious automobile accidents.
Dir: Bob Ellis
C-10 mins,

[left-of-center2012]

1. Are times listed Eastern?

Eh?

[Staph]

2. Yep -- all Eastern time.

I suppose that I should be more specific and not so east-coastcentric!