TCM Schedule for Friday, March 25, 2016 -- What's On Tonight: Star of the Month - Merle Oberon

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is featuring an interesting selection of animated (or at least, partially animated) films. In prime time, it's the last of the films of Star of the Month Merle Oberon. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964)
A World War II 4-F saves the U.S. Navy when he's transformed into a dolphin.
Dir: Arthur Lubin
Cast: Don Knotts, Carole Cook, Jack Weston
C-99 mins, CC,

This was the final animated film work released by Warner Brothers before the animation studio was shut down. Warners would continue to release theatrical shorts produced by Depatie-Freleng Enterprises until 1969.


7:45 AM -- Magic Boy (1959)
Animated adventures of a young man who studies magic to battle an evil witch.
Dir: Akira Daikubara
Cast: Katsuo Nakamura, Hiroko Sakuramachi, Teruo Miyazaki
C-83 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

First theatrical anime feature in widescreen, and first anime feature released in the U.S.


9:15 AM -- Twice Upon a Time (1983)
A despot tries to turn the world into a non-stop nightmare.
Dir: John Korty
Cast: Lorenzo Music, Marshall Efron, Judith Kaham Kampmann
C-74 mins, CC,

At a recent Q&A at BAM Cinematek, John Korty revealed why there was a version of the film with strong language. The film was always intended to be appropriate for young children, and Korty's final cut was almost identical to the 1991 home video release. After answer prints had been made based off his final cut, Korty went to New York to begin pre-production on another project while test screenings of "Twice Upon a Time" were taking place in California. Bill Couturié, one of the film's producers and co-writers, noted that college-aged audience members frequently walked out during the first ten minutes. After nearly the entire audience at a screening at USC walked out, Couturié reassembled most of the voice actors to record more profane versions of the film's dialogue in the hopes that it would keep teens and adults interested enough to watch the film to completion. John Korty was kept completely out of the loop on these changes and didn't find out until he was watching the film at its premier. Korty was furious, even more so when he found out release prints were made using this more profane version. Theater owners didn't know these changes had been made either, and one of the few theaters in the country to show the film ran it on a double bill with the G-rated The Secret of NIMH (1982). When outraged parents notified theater management, Twice was pulled from further showings.

I'm not sure which version that TCM will be showing. You have been warned!


10:45 AM -- The Phantom Tollbooth (1970)
A bored boy enters a fantasy world where letters and numbers are at war.
Dir: Chuck Jones
Cast: Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, Candy Candido
C-89 mins, CC,

This film was actually made in 1968 but due to MGM's financial problems and frequently changing management, the film was not heavily promoted. When it was released in 1970, it was not a box office success.


12:30 PM -- Gulliver's Travels (1939)
A human doctor washes ashore on an island inhabited by little people locked in a foolish war.
Dir: Dave Fleischer
Cast: Jessica Dragonette, Lanny Ross ,
C-76 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Ralph Rainger (music) and Leo Robin (lyrics) for the song "Faithful Forever", and Best Music, Original Score -- Victor Young

This was the first American animated feature from a studio other than Disney. After viewing it, Walt Disney reportedly said, "We can do better than that with our second-string animators."


2:00 PM -- Gay Purr-ee (1962)
Animated musical in which a French country cat becomes entranced with Parisian city life.
Dir: Abe Levitow
Cast: Judy Garland, Robert Goulet, Red Buttons
C-85 mins, CC,

When Judy Garland was approached about doing this film, it was she who reportedly suggested that her two good friends (and The Wizard of Oz (1939) collaborators) Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg provide the music and lyrics, respectively. It was to be both men's last full-length score for any medium.


3:30 PM -- The Lord of the Rings (1978)
Frodo the Hobbit joins a group of adventurers to destroy the one true ring before it can fall into the wrong hands.
Dir: Ralph Bakshi
Cast: Christopher Guard, John Hurt, Anthony Daniels
C-133 mins, CC,

Director John Boorman originally envisioned making the entire trilogy as a single 100 minute film. Ralph Bakshi heard that he was going to do this, and, as a fan of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and J.R.R. Tolkien, was horrified. When Boorman's plans to bring Tolkien's novels to the screen fell apart, Bakshi approached J.R.R. Tolkien's daughter to do the novels as a trilogy of animated films. Tolkien's daughter loved Bakshi's fantasy Wizards (1977), so she gave him the rights to The Lord of the Rings. Bakshi filmed "The Fellowship of the Rings" and "The Two Towers" (which were collapsed into a single two-and-a-half hour film), and had planned to film "The Return of the King", but the trilogy was never completed.


5:50 PM -- Meeting The Challenge: International Velvet (1978)
This promotional short for the film "International Velvet" (1978) offers a behind-the-scenes look at how actress Tatum O'Neal prepared for her role.
Dir: Ronald Saland
C-9 mins,


6:00 PM -- Watership Down (1978)
When their home is destroyed group of rabbits fight to survive in a violent world.
Dir: Martin Rosen
Cast: John Hurt, Richard Briers, Ralph Richardson
C-92 mins, Letterbox Format

Considered to be the most violent animated PG-rated film ever made.


7:41 PM -- Season In Tyrol (1969)
This short film looks at various seasonal activities offered in the Tyrol region of Austria. Vitaphone Release 3452A.
Dir: Kurt Jetmar
C-18 mins,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: MERLE OBERON



8:00 PM -- Desiree (1954)
A young woman wins the heart of Napoleon, though the two can never be together.
Dir: Henry Koster
Cast: Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Merle Oberon
C-110 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Lyle R. Wheeler, Leland Fuller, Walter M. Scott and Paul S. Fox, and Best Costume Design, Color -- Charles Le Maire and René Hubert

Although Marlon Brando didn't take his role seriously - despite every effort by director Henry Koster - "Desiree" outgrossed his other 1954 film, On the Waterfront (1954).


10:00 PM -- Hotel (1967)
A New Orleans hotel owner fights off a corporate raider while his guests struggle through a variety of personal problems.
Dir: Richard Quine
Cast: Rod Taylor, Catherine Spaak, Karl Malden
C-125 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

In an odd twist of fate that could not be appreciated for at a decade, Karl Malden plays a hotel thief who breaks into guest rooms and steals wallets; following one lowly heist that nets him him only a few dollars in actual cash, he bemoans that his livelihood is being snuffed out by rampant popularity of credit cards - which ironically later became his real-life late-career claim to fame as spokesman for American Express credit cards: "Don't leave home without it!"


12:15 AM -- Deep in My Heart (1954)
Musical biography of composer Sigmund Romberg, who fought to bring serious music to Broadway.
Dir: Stanley Donen
Cast: Jose Ferrer, Merle Oberon, Helen Traubel
C-132 mins, CC,

In an interview José Ferrer disclosed that he had to redo the "Jazza-Jazza-Doo-Doo" routine several times because the crew kept laughing out loud and interfering with the sound track. The director finally cleared the set of everyone not needed to film the segment and this time they got it on film.


2:30 AM -- Berlin Express (1948)
Allied agents fight an underground Nazi group in post-war Europe.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Merle Oberon, Robert Ryan, Charles Korvin
BW-87 mins, CC,

Merle Oberon was married to the cinematographer of the film, Oklahoma-born Lucien Ballard, at the time "Berlin Express" was made.


4:00 AM -- Night Song (1947)
A socialite pretends to be blind to win the love of a blind concert pianist.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Dana Andrews, Merle Oberon, Ethel Barrymore
BW-102 mins, CC,

"The Screen Guild Theater" broadcast a 30 minute radio adaptation of the movie on December 2, 1948 with Merle Oberon and Hoagy Carmichael reprising their film roles.


5:45 AM -- Affectionately Yours (1941)
A foreign correspondent hurries home to stop his wife from getting a divorce.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Merle Oberon, Dennis Morgan, Rita Hayworth
BW-88 mins, CC,

Warner Bros. technicians duplicated a Boeing 14 Trans-Atlantic clipper in order to match studio shots with those filmed on location at Lisbon and LaGuardia airports.