TCM Schedule for Saturday, May 6, 2017 -- What's On Tonight: The Essentials - Kirk Douglas

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Hurrah! The Essentials are back! And tonight's Essentials are all about the amazing Kirk Douglas. From the TCM website:

Kirk Douglas, who celebrated 100 years on Earth last December, has become synonymous with Hollywood stardom. Born Issur Danielovitch Demsky in Amsterdam, NY, Douglas served in the U.S. Army during WWII but was discharged for war injuries in 1944. He began his acting career in theater and radio before entering films in 1946.

In celebration of his mastery in the art of film acting, TCM presents three essential films in his distinguished career, all of which brought him Best Actor Oscar® nominations. In his breakthrough Champion (1949), Douglas plays a boxer corrupted by success in the ring, bringing harrowing realism to his fight scenes and equal authenticity to the character's personal conflicts.

Two MGM movies by Vincente Minnelli were high points in Douglas' career. He plays a ruthless producer who manipulates others for his own ambitions in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). In Lust for Life (1956), a biography of Vincent van Gogh, Douglas vividly captures the physical presence of the Dutch artist and the required sense of inner turmoil. Minnelli remarked that "there was never any other choice" for the role, since Douglas "was born to play (it)."

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- SARATOGA TRUNK (1945)
A woman with a past returns to 19th-century New Orleans for revenge.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Flora Robson
BW-135 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Flora Robson

Jack L. Warner purchased the rights to Edna Ferber's novel with the hopes to star Olivia de Havilland and Errol Flynn. But scheduling conflicts with both performers caused them to turn down the project.


8:30 AM -- TARZAN AND HIS MATE (1934)
The jungle king fights to protect his wife from a greedy ivory hunter.
Dir: Cedric Gibbons
Cast: Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, Neil Hamilton
BW-104 mins, CC,

The infamous nude swimming scene was originally filmed in three different versions: with Jane wearing her traditional costume, with Jane topless and with Jane fully nude. US states were empowered at that time to enact individual censorship laws, and three different versions of the scene were filmed in order to allow individual states to select the version of the scene which best conformed to its laws. All three versions were eventually removed from the film due to protests from conservative religious groups, particularly the powerful Catholic Legion of Decency. The nude version of the scene was discovered in the vaults of Turner Entertainment during the late 1990s following its purchase of the MGM film library, and was restored to most subsequent versions of the film on the direct orders of Turner Entertainment chairman Ted Turner. In the restored version of the scene, Tarzan is depicted wearing his traditional loincloth while Jane appears fully nude, her costume having been torn off when Tarzan playfully tosses her from a tree to the water below. The scene as it exists today is approximately four minutes in duration.

Maureen O'Sullivan does not appear as Jane during the nude swimming sequence. O'Sullivan is instead doubled by Josephine McKim, a member of the 1924 and 1928 U.S. Womens' Olympic Swim Teams and one of the four U.S. swimmers on that team to win the 1928 gold medal in the 400-Meter Freestyle Relay.


10:30 AM -- UP GOES MAISIE (1946)
A showgirl working for an inventor battles crooks out to steal his ideas.
Dir: Harry Beaumont
Cast: Ann Sothern, George Murphy, Hillary Brooke
BW-89 mins, CC,

The ninth of ten movies starring Ann Sothern as the heroine Maisie Ravier.


12:15 PM -- SHE (1965)
Explorers uncover a lost kingdom ruled by an immortal queen.
Dir: Robert Day
Cast: Ursula Andress, John Richardson, Peter Cushing
C-106 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Peter Cushing and Bernard Cribbins spent a day at Chessington Zoo learning to ride camels. They bonded over this and a mutual love of birdwatching.


2:15 PM -- LOGAN'S RUN (1975)
A future police officer uncovers the deadly secret behind a society that worships youth.
Dir: Michael Anderson
Cast: Michael York, Richard Jordan, Jenny Agutter
C-118 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won a Special Achievement Award Oscar for L.B. Abbott, Glen Robinson and Matthew Yuricich for visual effects

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Ernest Laszlo, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Dale Hennesy and Robert De Vestel

When the Old Man is showing Logan some of the portraits that used to hang on the walls of the capital, one of them was originally to have been of President Richard Nixon; "They used to call him tricky... something". According to Michael Anderson, the gag was considered too controversial at the time and was dropped.


4:30 PM -- SPARTACUS (1960)
An heroic slave leads a revolt against the corrupt Roman Empire.
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons
C-196 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Peter Ustinov, Best Cinematography, Color -- Russell Metty, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Alexander Golitzen, Eric Orbom, Russell A. Gausman and Julia Heron, and Best Costume Design, Color -- Valles and Bill Thomas

Nominated for Oscars for Best Film Editing -- Robert Lawrence, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Alex North

The original version included a scene where Marcus Licinius Crassus (Laurence Olivier) attempts to seduce Antoninus (Tony Curtis). The Production Code Administration and the Legion of Decency both objected. At one point Geoffrey Shurlock, representing the censors, suggested it would help if the reference in the scene to a preference for oysters or snails was changed to truffles and artichokes. In the end the scene was cut, but it was put back in for the 1991 restoration. However, the soundtrack had been lost in the meantime and the dialogue had to be dubbed. Curtis was able to redo his lines, but Olivier had died. Joan Plowright, his widow, remembered that Anthony Hopkins had done a dead-on impression of Olivier and she mentioned this to the restoration team. They approached Hopkins and he agreed to voice Olivier's lines in that scene. Hopkins is thanked in the credits for the restored version.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: KIRK DOUGLAS



8:00 PM -- THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (1952)
An unscrupulous movie producer uses everyone around him in his climb to the top.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon
BW-118 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gloria Grahame, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Charles Schnee, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Robert Surtees, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Edward C. Carfagno, Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Helen Rose

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Kirk Douglas

The character of Shields (played by Kirk Douglas) is regarded as a mixture of producer David O. Selznick, Orson Welles and producer Val Lewton. Georgia (Lana Turner), the alcoholic daughter of an iconic actor, is very clearly based on Diana Barrymore. Bartlow (Dick Powell), the college professor turned best-selling author turned screenwriter, is thought to be based on Paul Green, a UNC professor who followed a similar career track. Gilbert Roland's appearance as "Gaucho" is seen as a self-parody; the Mexican-born actor, once a star in silent dramas, had just appeared as "The Cisco Kid" in a string of "B" westerns.


10:15 PM -- CHAMPION (1949)
An unscrupulous boxer claws his way to the top.
Dir: Mark Robson
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Marilyn Maxwell, Arthur Kennedy
BW-99 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Harry W. Gerstad

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Kirk Douglas, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Arthur Kennedy, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Carl Foreman, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Franz Planer, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Dimitri Tiomkin

Hal March, a popular 50s stage, film and TV personality, is seen here, as a mob enforcer meeting out punishment against Midge Kelly (Kirk Douglas) for Kelly's failure to "throw" a fight. March would later be implicated in a real life "fix", as he was host of the popular but ill fated TV quiz show "The $64,000 Questiion&quot 1955-57). This quiz show was cited in the 50s "Quiz Show Scandal", where some former contestants testified under oath that they were given information pertaining to the questions that they may be asked, in advance of their appearances on the show.


12:15 AM -- LUST FOR LIFE (1956)
Passionate biography of painter Vincent van Gogh, whose genius drove him mad.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, James Donald
C-122 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Anthony Quinn

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Kirk Douglas, Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Adapted -- Norman Corwin, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Hans Peters, E. Preston Ames, Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason

Parts of the film were shot in Auvers-sur-Oise, where Vincent van Gogh lived and died. Kirk Douglas had his hair cut specially in the style of the artist and had it dyed to a similar reddish tint. This was enough to make some of the older inhabitants of the town believe that Van Gogh had returned.


2:30 AM -- OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN (1983)
An up-and-coming businessman is tormented by rats in his brownstone.
Dir: George Cosmatos
Cast: Peter Weller, Jennifer Dale, Lawrence Dane
C-89 mins, CC,

First lead starring role in a film or television production of actor Peter Weller.


4:00 AM -- THE SWARM (1978)
Killer bees extend their territory into the U.S., with devastating effect.
Dir: Irwin Allen
Cast: Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark
C-116 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design -- Paul Zastupnevich

Michael Caine stated in an interview, that during filming, he thought the little yellow spots left by the bees on his clothing was honey, so he began to eat it, unaware he was eating bee poop.