TCM Schedule for Friday, July 21, 2017 -- What's on Tonight: TCM Spotlight - 50 Years of Hitchcock

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is featuring films about families, including Louisa May Alcott's two best known stories, Little Women (the 1933 Katharine Hepburn version) and Little Men (1940). And in prime time, there is more of 50 Years of Hitchcock. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- LITTLE WOMEN (1933)
The four March sisters fight to keep their family together and find love while their father is off fighting the Civil War.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Paul Lukas
BW-116 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Adaptation -- Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- George Cukor, and Best Picture

Mr. Davis, the school teacher who could not bring himself to punish Amy, was portrayed both the 1933 and 1949 Little Women by the same actor, Olin Howland, apparently in the same outfit. In both movies he holds up Amy's slate with the same exact writing and cartoon drawing of the teacher, with a huge nose, with cartoon balloon stating, "YOUNG LADIES MY EYES ARE UPON YOU".


8:00 AM -- LITTLE MEN (1940)
A con artist tries to save the boarding school where his son has found a home.
Dir: Norman Z. McLeod
Cast: Kay Francis, Jack Oakie, George Bancroft
BW-83 mins, CC,

This film uses several of the Gone with the Wind (1939) exterior sets, including Tara, the train shed, and several of the Atlanta street buildings. One of the best close-up views of Tara's front porch and door.


9:30 AM -- YOURS, MINE AND OURS (1968)
A widow with eight children marries a widower with ten, then gets pregnant.
Dir: Melville Shavelson
Cast: Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, Van Johnson
C-111 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

When the television show, The Brady Bunch (1969) was in the beginning phases of production, the makers of "Yours, Mine and Ours" threatened to sue claiming that the concept was too similar to their own. The threat was withdrawn, however, when Brady Bunch producer Sherwood Schwartz countered the action with documentation that his original script was shown to have a copyright date before that of the movie. The final evidence that halted any legal proceedings was the fact that the original Brady Bunch title, according to the original draft of Schwartz's script, was "Yours and Mine."


11:30 AM -- SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954)
When their older brother marries, six lumberjacks decide it's time to go courting for themselves.
Dir: Stanley Donen
Cast: Howard Keel, Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn
C-102 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Adolph Deutsch and Saul Chaplin

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich and Dorothy Kingsley, Best Cinematography, Color -- George J. Folsey, and Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters, and Best Picture

The censors weren't too happy about the line in the song "Lonesome Polecat" where the brothers lament "A man can't sleep when he sleeps with sheep". By not showing any sheep in the same shot as the brothers, the film-makers were able to get away with it.


1:30 PM -- PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES (1960)
A drama critic and his family try to adjust to life in the country.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Doris Day, David Niven, Janis Paige
C-111 mins, CC,

During an argument with her husband, Kate, played by Doris Day, facetiously claims that she had a "rendezvous with Rock Hudson." Day's previous film had been the very successful Pillow Talk (1959) which starred Hudson as her romantic interest. Day and Hudson would eventually become a famous, on-screen, romantic pairing and would appear in a total of three romantic comedies together.


3:30 PM -- THE COURTSHIP OF EDDIE'S FATHER (1963)
A young boy plays matchmaker for his widowed father.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Glenn Ford, Shirley Jones, Stella Stevens
C-119 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Appearing in "Courtship of Eddie's Father" in his film debut in the uncredited role of Child at Party in Indian headdress is Ron Howard's (Eddie) younger brother, Clint Howard. This marks the beginning of a career for Clint punctuated by appearing in film and television work that also involves his brother Ron.


5:45 PM -- CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (1937)
A spoiled rich boy is lost at sea and rescued by a fishing boat, where hard work and responsibility help him become a man.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Freddie Bartholomew, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore
BW-117 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Marc Connelly, John Lee Mahin and Dale Van Every, Best Film Editing -- Elmo Veron, and Best Picture

When production finally wrapped in late February 1937, Spencer Tracy was relieved. "Well, I got away with it," he said later. "Want to know why? Because of Freddie, because of that kid's performance, because he sold it 98 per cent. The kid had to believe in Manuel, or Manuel wasn't worth a quarter. The way he would look at me, believe every word I said, made me believe in it myself. I've never said this before, and I'll never say it again. Freddie Bartholomew's acting is so fine and so simple and so true that it's way over people's heads. It'll only be by thinking back two or three years from now that they'll realize how great it was."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: 50 YEARS OF HITCHCOCK



8:00 PM -- REAR WINDOW (1954)
A photographer with a broken leg uncovers a murder while spying on the neighbors in a nearby apartment building.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey
C-112 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Alfred Hitchcock, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Michael Hayes, Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert Burks, and Best Sound, Recording -- Loren L. Ryder (Paramount)

Alfred Hitchcock spent a great deal of time with Edith Head on Grace Kelly's look, which was characteristic of his often obsessive relationship with his leading ladies. One costume he fretted over was the negligee Lisa wears to spend the night at Jeff's. He quietly pulled Head aside and suggested falsies to give Kelly a bustier look. The designer and the actress, however, made only a few changes in costume construction and posture. Hitchcock was fooled into thinking Kelly had been padded and approved the look.


10:15 PM -- THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (1955)
A corpse creates a world of trouble for several passersby who each believe they may have caused the death.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Mildred Natwick
C-99 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The film was originally designed by Alfred Hitchcock as an experiment in seeing how audiences would react to a non-star-driven film. He was of the opinion that oftentimes having a big star attached actually hindered the narrative flow and style of the story. He also developed the film with a view to test how American audiences would react to a more subtle brand of humor than that which they were used to.


12:15 AM -- THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1956)
International spies kidnap a doctor's son when he stumbles on their assassination plot.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: James Stewart, Doris Day, Brenda de Banzie
C-120 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jay Livingston and Ray Evans for the song "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)"

At first Doris Day refused to record "Que Sera, Sera" as a popular song release, dismissing it as "a forgettable children's song." It not only went on to win an Academy Award but also became the biggest hit of her recording career and her signature song (so much for being forgettable). She would go on to sing the same song in two more movies, Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960) and The Glass Bottom Boat (1966), and it was used as the theme song for all 124 episodes of her TV series, The Doris Day Show (1968).


2:30 AM -- THE WRONG MAN (1956)
A musician is mistaken for a vicious thief, with devastating results.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle
BW-105 mins, CC,

The scene where Henry (Manny) Fonda is taken to prison was filmed in a real prison. As he is led to his cell , you can hear one of the inmates yell out "What'd they get ya for, Henry??", and a bunch of other prisoners laughing.


4:30 AM -- FONDA ON FONDA (1992)
Jane Fonda recalls her father Henry's career as a star of stage and screen.
Dir: David Heeley
BW-46 mins, CC,

Features clips from Slim (1937), Jesse James (1939), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Lady Eve (1941), The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), My Darling Clementine (1946), Fort Apache (1948), Mister Roberts (1955), 12 Angry Men (1957), Fail-Safe (1964), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), The Cheyenne Social Club (1970), Clarence Darrow (1974) (TV Movie), Wanda Nevada (1979), The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts (1979) (TV Special), The 53rd Annual Academy Awards (1981) (TV Special), and On Golden Pond (1981)


5:30 AM -- PRIVATE SCREENINGS: ROBERT OSBORNE (2014)
TCM host Robert Osborne sits down with Alec Baldwin to discuss Osborne's life and career.
C-74 mins, CC,

[longship]

1. Rear Window!

Make sure that you follow Thelma Ritter through the script, in what is surely a best supporting actress performance, sadly not even nominated. The film is delightful.

Re: Doris Dog in The Man Who Knew Too Much... horribly miscast, and that utterly wretched song, completely ruins Hitch's remake.