TCM Schedule for Saturday, July 29, 2017 -- The Essentials - Starring Tony Curtis

[Staph]

The Essentials tonight features a trio of films starring pretty boy Bernard Schwartz, aka Tony Curtis, films that prove that Curtis was much more than just another pretty face. Enjoy!



7:45 AM -- BEAUTY AND THE BOSS (1932)
After being distracted by a string of pretty secretaries, a banker hires a plain Jane, only to fall in love with her.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth
Cast: Marian Marsh, David Manners, Warren William
BW-65 mins,

The original play, by Ladislaus Fodor, opened in Budapest, Hungary, on 2 December 1927.


9:00 AM -- THE AFFAIRS OF DOBIE GILLIS (1953)
A lovesick teenager searches for romance at college.
Dir: Don Weis
Cast: Debbie Reynolds, Bobby Van, Barbara Ruick
BW-73 mins, CC,

Hollywood is a small village. Lurene Tuttle plays the mother of Debbie Reynolds, as she also does in Give a Girl a Break (1953). In real life, however, she was the mother of costar Barbara Ruick. Barbara Ruick was married to composer John Williams, who composed the score for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). This was a breakout role for Debbie Reynolds's daughter, Carrie Fisher.


10:30 AM -- A CLOSE CALL FOR BOSTON BLACKIE (1946)
A reformed thief fights to clear himself of murder charges.
Dir: Lew Landers
Cast: Chester Morris, Lynn Merrick, Richard Lane
BW-60 mins, CC,

Tenth of the 14 Boston Blackie films starring Chester Morris.


12:00 PM -- SEVEN DAYS IN MAY (1964)
An American military officer discovers his superiors are planning a military coup.
Dir: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Fredric March
BW-118 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Edmond O'Brien, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cary Odell and Edward G. Boyle

The "Eleanor Holbrook" subplot was based on a real-life incident involving Gen. Douglas MacArthur. In 1934, the general sued journalists Drew Pearson and Robert Allen for libel. He dropped the suit when the defendants announced they intended to take testimony from Isabel Rosario Cooper, a Eurasian woman who had been the general's mistress.


2:15 PM -- TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH (1949)
The head of a World War II bomber squadron cracks under the pressure.
Dir: Henry King
Cast: Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill
BW-132 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Dean Jagger

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gregory Peck, and Best Picture

This film is used by the U.S. Navy as an example of leadership styles in its Leadership and Management Training School. The Air Force's College for Enlisted Professional Military Education also uses this film as a education aid in its Noncommissioned Officer Academies. This film is also used as a teaching tool for leadership at the Army Command and General Staff College. The film has also been used for leadership training in civilian non-military seminars. This film is also frequently cited by surviving bomber crew members as the only accurate depiction from Hollywood of their life during the war.


4:45 PM -- BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (1955)
A one-armed veteran uncovers small-town secrets when he tries to visit an Asian-American war hero's family.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis
C-81 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy, Best Director -- John Sturges, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Millard Kaufman

According to one biographer of Spencer Tracy, the script did not originally call for the lead character to be a one-armed man. The producers were keen to get Tracy but didn't think he'd be interested, so they gave the character this disability with the idea that no actor can resist playing a character with a physical impairment.


6:15 PM -- THEM! (1954)
Federal agents fight to destroy a colony of mutated giant ants.
Dir: Gordon Douglas
Cast: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon
BW-92 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects

Walt Disney screened the movie because he was interested in casting James Arness as Davy Crockett. However, he was so impressed by Fess Parker as the "Crazy Texan Pilot" that he chose him for the part.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: STARRING TONY CURTIS



8:00 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.


10:15 PM -- TRAPEZE (1956)
An aging trapeze star and his protegee fall for the same woman.
Dir: Carol Reed
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Gina Lollobrigida
C-106 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The 41-year-old Burt Lancaster performed all but one of the trapeze stunts himself, having worked in a circus before entering films. He insisted on doing the climactic triple somersault, but technical adviser Eddie Ward initially was hesitant on Lancaster performing the stunt, so Ward doubled for Lancaster during the first weeks of shooting. Director Carol Reed eventually hired Lancaster's longtime friend, stuntman Nick Cravat to perform the stunt.


12:15 AM -- THE DEFIANT ONES (1958)
Two convicts, a white racist and an angry black, escape while chained to each other.
Dir: Stanley Kramer
Cast: Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Theodore Bikel
BW-96 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith (Nedrick Young had been blacklisted at the time and the Oscar went to his pseudonym 'Nathan E. Douglas'. In 1993 AMPAS restored Young's credit upon the request of his widow and recommendation of the Academy's writers branch.), and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Sam Leavitt

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Tony Curtis, Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Sidney Poitier, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Theodore Bikel, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Cara Williams, Best Director -- Stanley Kramer, Best Film Editing -- Frederic Knudtson, and Best Picture

Tony Curtis was very keen to make the film as he saw it as an opportunity to break out of the mindless, pretty boy roles he was usually assigned. Director Stanley Kramer initially had some misgivings but ultimately relented.


2:00 AM -- THE HIDDEN (1987)
An alien parasite drives those that it infects to commit violent crimes.
Dir: Jack Sholder
Cast: Michael Nouri, Kyle Maclachlan, Ed O'Ross
C-97 mins, CC,

Claudia Christian (Brenda the stripper) likes to tell two stories about her experience in this film. First is the design of her wardrobe: the producers found her breasts visually inadequate, and so designed her costumes to emphasize her buttocks instead. Second is her eye injury: the material exploding from a prop gun scratched her cornea painfully. Because of this, whenever she had to fire a prop gun on Babylon 5 (1994) she would instinctively turn her face away when pulling the trigger, even though this was unnecessary because the Babylon 5 prop guns did not really fire, as all visual effects were to be added in later.


3:45 AM -- DEADLY FRIEND (1986)
A boy tries to save his friend by implanting robotic microchips in her brain.
Dir: Wes Craven
Cast: Matthew Laborteaux, Kristy Swanson, Anne Twomey
C-90 mins, CC,

Wes Craven wasn't attracted to the story of 'Deadly Friend' because Samantha goes on a killing spree when she's revived as an undead monster. Craven was much more interested in exploring the adults around her, all of whom seem to be monsters in human skin. In his own words: "The scares don't come from her, but from the ordinary people, who are actually much more frightening - a father who beats a child is a terrifying figure. That's the one person you're afraid of in the movie...the idea is along the lines that adults can be horrible, without being outside what society says is acceptable."


5:45 AM -- THE RELAXED WIFE (1957)
A short industrial film that seeks to help working men and their wives deal with life's little problems.
C-13 mins,