TCM Schedule for Saturday, June 18, 2016 -- What's On Tonight: The Essentials: Based on Jane Austen

[Staph]

According to the TCM website, the Essentials are back (though apparently without Robert Osborne -- I wonder if he is ill?). And tonight, TCM is featuring a trio of films based on the novels of Jane Austen. This makes me hungry for a Jane Austen film/tv marathon. As best as I can tell from IMDB, there have been at least 15 versions of Pride and Prejudice (not counting adaptations like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) or The Lizzie Bennett Diaries (2012)), ten versions of Emma, eight versions of Sense and Sensibility, four versions of Northanger Abbey, three versions of Mansfield Park, five versions of Persuasion, and a brand new film called Love & Friendship (based on her early novel Lady Susan but named after another early work titled Love and Freindship (sic)). Enjoy!



6:45 AM -- Criss Cross (1949)
A man tries to save his fickle ex-wife from her criminal lover.
Dir: Robert Siodmak
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo, Dan Duryea
BW-88 mins, CC,

Film debut of both Vito Scotti and Tony Curtis.


8:15 AM -- Way Out West (1937)
A pair of tenderfeet try to get the deed to a gold mine to its rightful owner.
Dir: James W. Horne
Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Sharon Lynne
BW-65 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Score -- Marvin Hatley

In an interview on Turner Classic Movies, The Simpsons (1989) creator Matt Groening said that Homer's famous "Doh!" came about because Dan Castellaneta knew that James Finlayson sometimes said that in his movies, including this one. One example: when Finlayson's character, Mickey Finn, accidentally fires his rifle in bed.


9:30 AM -- Ace Drummond: Bullets of Sand (1936)
In Chapter Five of Ace Drummond ace pilot tries to escape an aerial attack from one of The Dragon's planes.
BW-19 mins,


10:00 AM -- Ace Drummond: Evil Spirits (1936)
In Chapter Six of Ace Drummond ace pilot's junior sidekick is trapped in a large urn being filled with water.
BW-21 mins,


10:30 AM -- Here Come The Marines (1952)
When they're drafted Bowery Boys set out to solve a murder.
Dir: William Beaudine
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Hanley Stafford
BW-66 mins, CC,

The 26th of 48 Bowery Boys movies.


11:48 AM -- Dogs 'N Ducks (1953)
In this short film boy trains his new golden retriever for a duck retrieving competition, much to the chagrin of his first dog.
Dir: Norman Wright
BW-10 mins,


12:00 PM -- The Old Man and the Sea (1958)
A Cuban fisherman believes his long dry spell will end when he catches a legendary fish.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Felipe Pazos Jr., Harry Bellaver, Spencer Tracy
C-87 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Dimitri Tiomkin

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy, and Best Cinematography, Color -- James Wong Howe

Mary Hemingway, who was Ernest Hemingway's fourth wife and widow, plays the blonde tourist at the end of the film. She crosses the street and takes a seat in the café. She has no lines.


1:45 PM -- Robin And The 7 Hoods (1964)
A Chicago gangster stumbles into philanthropic work during a gang war.
Dir: Gordon Douglas
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr.
C-123 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "My Kind of Town", and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Nelson Riddle

Making this film should have been fun. Instead, by more than one account, it was a waking nightmare for all involved. John F. Kennedy was assassinated soon after filming started, casting a pall over the entire set. Not long after that, Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped from his dressing room at Lake Tahoe, Nevada (Upon payment of a large ransom, he was released, unharmed, a few days later). Victor Buono, who played Deputy Sherrif Alvin Potts, later observed that it was a minor miracle that filming was completed at all.


4:00 PM -- On the Waterfront (1954)
A young stevedore takes on the mobster who rules the docks.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb
BW-108 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Marlon Brando, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Eva Marie Saint, Best Director -- Elia Kazan, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Budd Schulberg, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Boris Kaufman, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Richard Day, Best Film Editing -- Gene Milford, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Lee J. Cobb, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Karl Malden, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Rod Steiger, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Leonard Bernstein

In his biography of Elia Kazan, Richard Schickel describes how Kazan used a ploy to entice Marlon Brando to do the movie. He had Karl Malden direct a scene from the film with an up-and-coming fellow actor from the Actors Studio playing the Terry Malloy lead role. They figured the competitive Brando would not be eager to see such a major role handed to some new screen heartthrob. The ploy worked, especially since the competition had come in the form of a guy named Paul Newman.


6:00 PM -- Hearts Of The West (1975)
An aspiring western novelist in thirties Hollywood becomes a low-budget cowboy star.
Dir: Howard Zieff
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Andy Griffith, Donald Pleasence
C-102 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Donald Pleasence's character, "A.J. Nietz", is named after prolific western / "B" picture director Alan James (real name Alvin J. Neitz), who started out in silent films and lasted through the talkie era, and who directed westerns with such stars as Ken Maynard, Jack Hoxie and Tim McCoy, among others.


7:48 PM -- You Can't Win (1948)
In this comedic short series of mishaps happen to a homeowner while he takes a day off from the office.
Dir: Dave O'Brien
Cast: Dave O'Brien
BW-8 mins, CC,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: BASED ON JANE AUSTEN



8:00 PM -- Pride and Prejudice (1940)
Jane Austen's comic classic about five sisters out to nab husbands in 19th-century England.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier, Mary Boland
BW-118 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse

Marsha Hunt noted that the 1830s style gowns were difficult to maneuver in the narrow restroom stalls of the studio soundstage during brief bathroom breaks. Speaking as a Civil War reenactor, I can heartily say that handicap stalls in public restrooms are a Victorian-dressed woman's best friend!


10:15 PM -- Persuasion (1995)
After turning down a previous marriage proposal years earlier young woman is thrown into company with her former beau.
Dir: Roger Michell
Cast: Amanda Root, Ciarán Hinds, Susan Fleetwood
C-107 mins, CC,

Made for British television and originally screened by the BBC in April 1995, the film was released theatrically around the rest of the world.


12:15 AM -- Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Jane Austen's classic tale of two sisters with different romantic notions.
Dir: Ang Lee
Cast: Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Kate Winslet
C-136 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published -- Emma Thompson

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Emma Thompson, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Kate Winslet, Best Cinematography -- Michael Coulter, Best Costume Design -- Jenny Beavan and John Bright, Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- Patrick Doyle, and Best Picture

There is an ironic twist surrounding the casting of Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson and Greg Wise. Although they portray love interests on screen, Kate Winslet and Greg Wise only dated briefly in reality before Greg took to Winslet's on-screen sister Emma Thompson. Thompson and Wise were together for 8 years before getting married. Together they have one adopted son and one biological daughter. Interestingly, Richard Lumsden who portrays Thompson's on-screen brother-in-law Robert Ferrars, is her brother-in-law in real life. Lumsden is married to Emma's younger sister, Sophie Thompson, who was also featured in two movie adaptations of Jane Austen's books, Screen Two: Persuasion (1995).and Emma (1996). Sophie Thompson portrayed in Screen Two: Persuasion (1995). the younger sister of the story's main character Anne Elliot, who was portrayed by Amanda Root, who ironically enough was sought for the role of Marianne in Sense and Sensibility (1995). Root, however, could not appear due to her obligations to film Persuasion. In a nutshell, Amanda Root landed a role in a Jane Austen adaptation and was coincidentally asked to star in another one. When she could not appear, another actress who dated the future husband of her on-screen sister's sister was given the role, and her on-screen sister's real life husband portrayed the on-screen brother-in-law of his real life sister-in-law in the same film that she could not star in.


2:45 AM -- The Hunger (1983)
A centuries-old female vampire falls for a beautiful young research doctor.
Dir: Tony Scott
Cast: David Bowie, Cliff De Young, Susan Sarandon
C-96 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

In The Celluloid Closet (1995), the 1995 documentary about the history of homosexuality in film, actress Susan Sarandon said that the screenplay for The Hunger (1983) originally called for her to be demonstrably drunk in the lead-up to her sex scene with Catherine Deneuve, but Sarandon asked for it to be changed so that her character had only a single sip of wine and then spilled the rest of the glass. She said she wanted to make it clear that her character was choosing to have sex with Miriam instead of doing it because of the alcohol, and also because "you wouldn't have to get drunk to bed Catherine Deneuve, I don't care what your sexual history to that point had been".


4:30 AM -- Absolute Beginners (1986)
A young photographer seeks media stardom to keep the love of a beautiful model.
Dir: Julien Temple
Cast: Eddie O'Connell, Patsy Kensit-Healy, David Bowie
C-108 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

After submitting the film for a 15 certificate producer Stephen Woolley was contacted by the BBFC and told that Patsy Kensit had revealed a nipple in one of the film's scenes. Despite Woolley's assurance that this was not the case because Kensit had been insistent during filming about not revealing her body, UK censor James Ferman painstakingly trawled through the movie using a BBFC "freeze frame" machine until he was finally convinced that the original information was incorrect. Only then did he grant the film an uncut certificate.

[CBHagman]

1. Film and TV executives ought to get down on their knees and thank God for Jane Austen...

...but they won't, mostly because too many of them are busy worshiping special effects and butts-in-seats casting.

But I quite agree with your Jane Austen marathon idea, as it's night-impossible to exhaust the possibilities: Bridget Jones's Diary (not a great film, but Pride and Prejudice did provide the inspiration), Clueless (a much-loved modern take on [b
Emma), The Jane Austen Book Club, Becoming Jane, and more that aren't coming immediately to mind.

1995 was a remarkable year for Austen adaptations, and Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility richly deserve their spots on TCM's roster.

Persuasion is psychologically astute and unabashedly romantic despite reminding the audience that our ancestors' lives were decidedly prosaic -- muddy boots and skirt hems, windburned faces, red noses and all.

Sense and Sensibility's team included the great director Ang Lee and one of the wittiest and most intelligent people in show business, screenwriter and actress Emma Thompson.

[rdmtimp]

2. No "Essentials" branding tonight...

...they used Robert Osborne's intro animation, but Madeline Stowe actually did the intro just now.

[CBHagman]

3. I hope Robert Osborne's not ill...

...but I would have liked to have seen Madeleine Stowe. I wasn't aware she had any association with TCM, though I think I recall she was a guest programmer once.

[rdmtimp]

4. She's been doing Fridays and Saturdays this month. eom