TCM Schedule for Saturday, December 31, 2016 -- What's On Tonight - New Year's Eve

[Staph]

This is a great day to snug up in front of the television with popcorn and hot chocolate. In the daylight hours, you can swoon over Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn as Robin and Marian (1976), cross the desert sands with Peter O'Toole as Lawrence of Arabia (1962), go on the lam with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot (1959), and invade the Earth in The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951). In prime time, it's a rare chance to watch That's Entertainment, Parts One, Two and Three, along with That's Dancing! Enjoy, and have a safe and happy new year!


6:45 AM -- ROBIN AND MARIAN (1976)
An aging Robin Hood comes home to resume his relationship with Maid Marian and his battles against the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Dir: Richard Lester
Cast: Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Shaw
C-107 mins, CC,

Audrey Hepburn was convinced to take the role of Marian, in part, from the insistence of her sons. Once her young sons learned that Sean Connery had been cast as Robin Hood, they begged their mother to take the part so she could act with "James Bond." She happily complied.


8:45 AM -- FRENCHMAN'S CREEK (1944)
A British noblewoman flees the life of the court to run off with a French pirate.
Dir: Mitchell Leisen
Cast: Joan Fontaine, Arturo de Córdova, Basil Rathbone
C-113 mins,

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Hans Dreier, Ernst Fegté and Sam Comer

The only film featuring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in which they do not play Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.


10:45 AM -- HOT SHOTS (1956)
The Bowery Boys get jobs as sitters for a temperamental child star.
Dir: Jean Yarbrough
Cast: Huntz Hall, Stanley Clements, Robert Shayne
BW-62 mins, CC,

The 43rd of 48 Bowery Boys movies.


12:00 PM -- LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)
A British military officer enlists the Arabs for desert warfare in World War I.
Dir: David Lean
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn
C-227 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Director -- David Lean, Best Cinematography, Color -- Freddie Young, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- John Box, John Stoll and Dario Simoni, Best Sound -- John Cox (Shepperton SSD), Best Film Editing -- Anne V. Coates, Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Maurice Jarre, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Peter O'Toole, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Omar Sharif, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson (The nomination for Wilson was granted on 26 September 1995 by the Academy Board of Directors, after research at the WGA found that the then blacklisted writer shared the screenwriting credit with Bolt.)

King Hussein of Jordan lent an entire brigade of his Arab Legion as extras for the film, so most of the "soldiers" are played by real soldiers. Hussein frequently visited the sets and became enamored of a young British secretary, Antoinette Gardiner, who became his second wife in 1962. Their eldest son, Abdullah II King Of Jordan, ascended to the throne in 1999.


4:00 PM -- SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
Two musicians on the run from gangsters masquerade as members of an all-girl band.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon
BW-122 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Orry-Kelly

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Jack Lemmon, Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Ted Haworth and Edward G. Boyle

Jack Lemmon wrote that the first sneak preview had a bad reaction with many audience walkouts. Many studio personnel and agents offered advice to Billy Wilder on what scenes to reshoot, add and cut. Lemmon asked Wilder what he was going to do. Wilder responded: "Why, nothing. This is a very funny movie and I believe in it just as it is. Maybe this is the wrong neighborhood in which to have shown it. At any rate, I don't panic over one preview. It's a hell of a movie." Wilder held the next preview in the Westwood section of Los Angeles, and the audience stood up and cheered.


6:15 PM -- THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951)
An alien demands that Earth's leaders choose between peace and destruction.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe
BW-92 mins, CC,

Whether the makers of the movie intended or not, there is a striking resemblance between Klaatu and the head of the Manhattan Project, Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer was known to make corrections on the blackboards of theoreticians at the Project, similar to the scene where Klaatu corrects the work of Professor Barnhardt. Oppenheimer's other-worldly brilliance and association with destructive power that could threaten the existence of the world seem like more than a coincidence.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: NEW YEAR'S EVE



8:00 PM -- THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! (1974)
An all-star cast, including Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra, introduces clips from MGM's greatest musicals.
Dir: Jack Haley Jr.
C-135 mins, CC,

This was among the last MGM films shot on the studio's renowned back lot, of which there were actually six distinct satellite parcels of land west and south of the main lot, or Lot 1. Lot 2, the last of them to serve as a working back lot, was in use until late 1978. Development for residential housing on Lots 3-6 began the year "That's Entertainment!" filmed its new material with the studio's stars strolling the various standing sets, which had been allowed to deteriorate for well over a decade before their demolition. This is particularly noticeable in the train station set where Fred Astaire gives his introduction, and Bing Crosby refers to the English Lake area as looking rather "scruffy". On the other hand, the entire purpose of the film is nostalgia, and the use of the 'scruffy' facade, clearly aged and unused, helps to set the tone as one of a brief return to the glamor of the past, even though it was all make-believe.


10:30 PM -- THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! II (1976)
Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly dance together again for the first time in more than 30 years as they introduce classic musical numbers and comedy bits.
Dir: Gene Kelly
Cast: Fred Astaire,
C-129 mins, CC,

During the clip from Kiss Me Kate (1953), Gene Kelly identifies Ann Miller and Tommy Rall, Bob Fosse and Carol Haney, and Bobby Van, but does not give the name of Van's dancing partner, who was Kelly's second wife, Jeanne Coyne. Kelly was still saddened by her death from leukemia three years earlier.


12:45 AM -- THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! III (1994)
Classic musical numbers and rare behind-the-scenes footage show how MGM created the screen's greatest musicals. Featuring clips with Gene Kelly, Lena Horne and Debbie Reynolds.
Dir: Bud Friedgen
Cast: Ann Miller, Mickey Rooney, Esther Williams
C-120 mins, CC,

Final screen appearance of Gene Kelly.


3:00 AM -- THAT'S DANCING! (1985)
Gene Kelly, Liza Minnelli and Mikhail Baryshnikov host this compilation of some of the greatest dance numbers in movie history.
Dir: Jack Haley Jr.
BW-104 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The final feature film appearance of Ray Bolger. He passed away almost exactly two years after the release of this film.


5:00 AM -- HOLLYWOOD: THE DREAM FACTORY (1972)
Dick Cavett narrates this documentary about the MGM auction and the studio's glorious history.
C-51 mins, CC,

Includes clips from The Great Train Robbery (1903) (Short), Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), 1925 Studio Tour (1925) (Short), Our Dancing Daughters (1928), Show People (1928), Mata Hari (1931), Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), Grand Hotel (1932), Dinner at Eight (1933), Los Angeles: 'Wonder City of the West' (1935) (Short), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), San Francisco (1936), Camille (1936), A Day at the Races (1937), The Candid Camera Story (Very Candid) of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures 1937 Convention (1937) (Short), Boys Town (1938), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Babes in Arms (1939), Ninotchka (1939), Gone with the Wind (1939), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Go West (1940), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), National Velvet (1944), Adam's Rib (1949), Show Boat (1951), Singin' in the Rain (1952), Ivanhoe (1952), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).