TCM Schedule for Thursday, January 7, 2015 -- TCM Spotlight: William Cameron Menzies

[Staph]

It's a day of bank stories and the first evening of a month-long celebration of the films of art director / production designer / director William Cameron Menzies. Enjoy!


8:00 AM -- Grand Old Girl (1935)
Gamblers engineer a veteran schoolteacher's firing.
Dir: John Robertson
Cast: May Robson, Mary Carlisle, Fred MacMurray
BW-71 mins,

Fred MacMurray's first credited movie part.


9:15 AM -- The Conquerors (1932)
Newlyweds go West and build a banking empire in Nebraska.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: Richard Dix, Ann Harding, Edna May Oliver
BW-86 mins,

Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher had a major supporting role which wound up largely deleted before the film's release. He does appear, albeit uncredited, in the final film.


10:48 AM -- High Spots Of The Far East (1932)
This short film focuses on the culture, people, and history of several locations in Asia.
Dir: E. M. Newman
BW-10 mins,


11:00 AM -- Prosperity (1932)
Feuding mothers almost wreck their children's marriage.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Marie Dressler, Polly Moran, Anita Page
BW-87 mins,

Based on a story by Sylvia Thalberg (sister of Irving Thalberg) and Frank Butler.


12:35 PM -- Swing Cat's Jamboree (1938)
In this short musical, Louis Prima and his jazz quartette play such musical selections as "Please Be Kind" and "Loch Lomond." Vitaphone Release B138.
Dir: Roy Mack
BW-9 mins,


12:45 PM -- Larceny, Inc. (1942)
An ex-convict and his gang try to use a luggage store to front a bank robbery, but business keeps getting in the way.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, Broderick Crawford
BW-95 mins, CC,

Remade in 2000 as Small Time Crooks.


2:30 PM -- Penelope (1966)
A neglected wife turns to bank robbery to get her husband's attention.
Dir: Arthur Hiller
Cast: Natalie Wood, Ian Bannen, Dick Shawn
C-98 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

There seems to be a scene cut from the movie, perhaps a fantasy sequence. Some lobby cards show Natalie Wood and her husband in the film in their beds. The husband looks bored and uninterested in Natalie. In others from the same scene he reads a newspaper or has a boardroom meeting while Natalie sits in bed looking gorgeous.


4:30 PM -- The Great Bank Robbery (1969)
Outlaws pose as a religious group to mask their attempt to rob a Western bank.
Dir: Hy Averback
Cast: Zero Mostel, Kim Novak, Clint Walker
C-97 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Bob Steele's character name is Duffy. He also played a character named Duffy two years earlier in F-Troop.


6:15 PM -- The Great Bank Hoax (1977)
Small town bankers try to cover up a missing $100,000 from the bank examiner.
Dir: Joseph Jacoby
Cast: Burgess Meredith, Richard Basehart, Ned Beatty
C-89 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

According to a 1977 Christian Science Monitor interview with Burgess Meredith, the film was shot under the title "Remember Those Poker-Playing Monkeys."


7:49 PM -- Fortune Seekers (1956)
This short film highlights the seemingly small inventions that have become part of daily life.
Dir: Larry O'Reilly
BW-8 mins,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: WILLIAM CAMERON MENZIES



8:00 PM -- Bulldog Drummond (1929)
A British adventurer helps a blonde beauty rescue her uncle from an unscrupulous psychiatrist.
Dir: F. Richard Jones
Cast: Ronald Colman, Joan Bennett, Lilyan Tashman
BW-89 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Ronald Colman, and Best Art Direction -- William Cameron Menzies

Goldwyn paid $100,000 for the screen rights.


9:45 PM -- Chandu the Magician (1932)
A hypnotist fights to stop a madman from destroying the world.
Dir: Marcel Varnel
Cast: Edmund Lowe, Irene Ware, Bela Lugosi
BW-71 mins, CC,

This movie was based on "Chandu the Magician," a radio show that was airing at the time. Chandu was the basis for many of the later magician characters, including DC's Sandor the Mystic and Marvel Comics's Dr. Strange.


11:00 PM -- Alice In Wonderland (1933)
A trip through the looking glass and down a rabbit hole sends an English girl into a world of fantastic characters and strange potions.
Dir: Norman McLeod
Cast: Leon Errol, Louise Fazenda, Ford Sterling
BW-76 mins, CC,

Virtually the entire star stable was thrown into this movie because Paramount was trying to keep from going bankrupt and thought that such a star-laden movie could save the studio from failing. It didn't work since most of the stars couldn't be recognized because of their costumes. Instead, two Mae West movies, She Done Him Wrong (1933) and I'm No Angel (1933) saved the studio from bankruptcy instead.


12:30 AM -- The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
An Arabian thief sets out on a magical adventure to win a beautiful princess.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Snitz Edwards, Charles Belcher
BW-149 mins,

For the early scene where the Thief leaps in and out of the giant clay pots in the marketplace, Douglas Fairbanks had small trampolines placed inside each pot, allowing him to bounce easily from pot to pot.


3:15 AM -- Her Night Romance (1924)
An impoverished lord goes after an invalid's money only to fall in love.
Dir: Sidney A. Franklin
Cast: Constance Talmadge, Ronald Colman, Jean Hersholt
BW-85 mins,

William Cameron Menzies was educated at Yale University, the University of Edinburgh and at the Art Students League in New York. He entered the film industry in 1919, after serving with the U.S. Expeditionary Forces in World War I.


4:45 AM -- Two Arabian Knights (1927)
In this silent film, two American soldiers fight to escape the Germans while squabbling over a beautiful harem girl during World War I.
Dir: Lewis Milestone
Cast: William Boyd, Mary Astor, Louis Wolheim
BW-92 mins,

Won an Oscar for Best Director, Comedy Picture -- Lewis Milestone

This film was once believed to have been lost. A copy was found in the vaults of producer Howard Hughes, following his death, along with copies of two other "lost" films produced by Hughes, The Racket (1928) and The Mating Call (1928). The print for this film that was found was recovered just in the nick of time - there are points in the film where severe damage (and near-disintegration) can be seen, although the restorers did their utmost to undo the damage.