TCM Schedule for Saturday, July 15, 2017 -- The Essentials - Romance On Screen and Off

[Staph]

The Essentials tonight features a trio of films that have romances both within the screenplay and outside the studio. The three couples, in their first films together, include Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and Steve McQueen and Ali MscGraw. Enjoy!



6:30 AM -- ALL THE BROTHERS WERE VALIANT (1953)
Brothers on a whaling schooner become romantic rivals.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Robert Taylor, Stewart Granger, Ann Blyth
C-95 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- George J. Folsey

Final film of Lewis Stone, who is probably best remembered as Andy Hardy's father, Judge Hardy.


8:30 AM -- ESCAPE ME NEVER (1947)
A composer forsakes his innocent bride to romance his brother's fiancee.
Dir: Peter Godfrey
Cast: Errol Flynn, Ida Lupino, Eleanor Parker
BW-104 mins, CC,

Flynn and Lupino became life-long friends per this movie. She is quoted as saying, "I loved Errol Flynn, who was one of my dear, dear, dear friends...He was just marvelous. Fun and well, a very kind person, very sensitive." She called Flynn "The Baron," while he called her "Little Scout."


10:30 AM -- BOSTON BLACKIE BOOKED ON SUSPICION (1945)
A reformed thief accidentally sells a phony first edition of Dickens, which triggers a murder.
Dir: Arthur Dreifuss
Cast: Chester Morris, Lynn Merrick, Richard Lane
BW-67 mins, CC,

Eighth of the fourteen Boston Blackie films featuring Chester Morris as Boston Blackie. There were nine silent films from 1918 to 1827 and a television series in 1951.


12:00 PM -- ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD (1951)
The short-tempered manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates mends his ways in return for a little divine assistance.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Paul Douglas, Janet Leigh, Keenan Wynn
BW-99 mins, CC,

The uncredited hat check girl was played by Barbara Billingsley, future mother of Beaver Cleaver and the jive talking interpreter in Airplane! (1980). And the uncredited radio announcer was played by Peter Graves, future Impossible Missions Chief and pilot in Airplane! (1980).


2:00 PM -- ROAD TO MOROCCO (1942)
Two castaways get mixed up in an Arabian nightmare when they're caught between a bandit chief and a beautiful princess.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour
BW-82 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Frank Butler and Don Hartman, and Best Sound, Recording -- Loren L. Ryder (Paramount SSD)

The scene where the camel spits in Turkey's (Bob Hope's) face wasn't planned. The camel did it of its own accord while the cameras were rolling, and Hope's recoil and Bing Crosby's reaction were so funny that it was left in the final cut of the film.


3:45 PM -- TOPAZ (1969)
A French agent is sent to Cuba to spy for the CIA.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: John Forsythe, Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin
C-126 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

According to Alfred Hitchcock, this was another of his experimental movies. In addition to the dialogue, the plot is revealed through the use of colors, predominantly red, yellow and white. He admits that this did not work out.


6:00 PM -- FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH (1968)
Subway excavations unearth a deadly force from beyond space and time.
Dir: Roy Ward Baker
Cast: James Donald, Andrew Keir, Barbara Shelley
C-98 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

If you look closely at the London Underground station walls, you can see quite a few posters from other Hammer projects such as The Reptile (1966), Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) and The Witches (1966), as well as My Fair Lady (1964) and Hotel (1967). An old, partially-ripped poster for Sex and the Single Girl (1964) can be seen on the wall opposite the entrance to Hobbs End station.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: ROMANCE ON SCREEN AND OFF



8:00 PM -- WOMAN OF THE YEAR (1942)
Opposites distract when a sophisticated political columnist falls for a sportswriter.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter
BW-114 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner Jr.

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn

The first scene shot was the characters' first date, in a bar. Katharine Hepburn was so nervous she spilled her drink, but Spencer Tracy just handed her a handkerchief and kept going. Hepburn proceeded to clean up the spill as they played the scene. When the drink dripped through to the floor, she tried to throw Tracy off by going under the table, but he stayed in character, with the cameras rolling the entire time.


10:15 PM -- TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944)
A skipper-for-hire's romance with a beautiful drifter is complicated by his growing involvement with the French resistance.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan, Lauren Bacall
BW-100 mins, CC,

The most famous scene in the film is undoubtedly the "you know how to whistle" dialog sequence. It was not written by Ernest Hemingway, Jules Furthman or William Faulkner, but by Howard Hawks. He wrote the scene as a screen test for Bacall, with no real intention that it would necessarily end up in the film. The test was shot with Warner Bros. contract player John Ridgely acting opposite Bacall. The Warners staff, of course, agreed to star Bacall in the film based on the test, and Hawks thought the scene was so strong he asked Faulkner to work it into one of his later drafts of the shooting script.


12:15 AM -- THE GETAWAY (1972)
When a bank robbery goes bad, an ex-con and his wife take it on the lam.
Dir: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Ben Johnson
C-123 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

According to "The Garner Files", Luis Delgado was working as Steve McQueen's stand-in. Luis' wife bought him a custom van, built by Tony Nancy, for his birthday. James Garner volunteered to drive the van from Los Angeles to San Antonio to surprise Luis. While on the set, Jim drove an orange VW Beetle in the robbery scene (you can see it through the rear window of the blue Ford that Steve is driving away from the front porch he just wrecked). When Jim asked Sam Peckinpah to be paid for the car stunt, Sam asked "How much do you want?". Jim said "Just give me what you think it's worth." Sam reached in his pocket pulled out $1. Jim later said he had so much fun doing the stunt, he would have paid Sam.


2:30 AM -- THE NINTH CONFIGURATION (1980)
The new commander of a military mental hospital hides a terrible secret.
Dir: William Peter Blatty
Cast: Stacy Keach, Scott Wilson, Jason Miller
C-118 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

William Peter Blatty has said that he considers this movie to be the true sequel to The Exorcist (1973) as opposed to a mere follow-up. The novel and film of "The Exorcist" deals with the existence of both good and evil, "The Ninth Configuration" deals with the mystery of good, and the third novel, "Legion," deals with the human's punishment of evil for original sin. Capt. Cutshaw is the same astronaut whom Regan warns "You're gonna die up there" in "The Exorcist".


4:30 AM -- SHOCK CORRIDOR (1963)
A reporter fakes insanity to crack a murder committed in an asylum.
Dir: Samuel Fuller
Cast: Peter Breck, Constance Towers, Gene Evans
C-101 mins, CC,

According to Samuel Fuller, the film was shot in 10 days, on one set, with no exteriors.