TCM Schedule for Thursday, November 9, 2017 -- What's On Tonight: Non-Musical Versions

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, it's war films that are mostly World War II (including one story from the Japanese point of view). And in prime time, TCM is showing the original films that were later turned in musicals like The King and I (1956), Kismet (1955), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Mame (1974), and Gigi (1958). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- THE BIG PARADE (1925)
In this silent film, a young innocent enlists for World War I service but soon learns the horrors of war.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Hobart Bosworth
BW-151 mins,

The famous scene in which Jim (John Gilbert) teaches Melisande (Renée Adorée) to chew gum was improvised on the spot during filming. Director King Vidor observed a crew member chewing gum and later recalled, "Here was my inspiration. French girls didn't chew or understand gum; American dough boys did...Gilbert's efforts to explain would endear him to her and she would kiss him...[It was] one of the best love scenes I ever directed." Gilbert also claimed that neither he nor Vidor expected Adorée to swallow the gum, which proved to be the scene's comic highlight.


8:45 AM -- CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT (1965)
An aging knight uses his wits to survive in war and peace.
Dir: Orson Welles
Cast: Orson Welles, Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford
BW-116 mins,

The film was based on the play "Five Kings". It was written by Orson Welles and condensed William Shakespeare's "Henry IV, V, VI" and "Richard III" into one show. He produced the show in New York in 1939 but the opening night, during which Part 1 was performed, was a disaster and Part 2 was never put on. He revamped the show and revisited it in 1960. Again, it was not successful. However, this later production was used as the basis for the movie.


10:45 AM -- THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967)
A renegade officer trains a group of misfits for a crucial mission behind enemy lines.
Dir: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson
C-150 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Sound Effects -- John Poyner

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- John Cassavetes, Best Sound, and Best Film Editing -- Michael Luciano

Production on the film ran for so long that Jim Brown was in danger of missing training camp for the up-coming 1965-1966 football season. As training camp and the NFL season approached, the NFL threatened to fine and suspend Brown if he did not leave filming and report to camp immediately. Not one to take threats, Brown simply held a press conference to announce his retirement from football. At the time of his retirement, Brown was considered to be one of the best in the game and even today is considered to be one of the NFL's all-time greats.


2:00 PM -- THE STEEL HELMET (1951)
Americans trapped behind enemy lines fight off Communists during the Korean War.
Dir: Samuel Fuller
Cast: Robert Hutton, Steve Brodie, James Edwards
BW-84 mins,

Although it looks like there are quite a bit more, there were actually only 25 extras in this picture, playing both American and North Korean soldiers, and all of them were students from UCLA (the battle scenes were shot in Griffith Park).


3:30 PM -- THE BURMESE HARP (1956)
A Japanese musician keeps up the spirits of his fellow soldiers as they flee Burma during World War II.
Dir: Kon Ichikawa
Cast: Rentaro Mikuni, Tanie Kitabayashi, Shoji Yasui
BW-116 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film -- Japan

According to the Bloomsbury Foreign Film Guide by Ronald Bergan and Robyn Karney, this World War II film was "one of the first Japanese films concerned with pacifist themes related to the defeat of Japan in 1945."


5:30 PM -- THEY WERE EXPENDABLE (1945)
A Navy commander fights to prove the battle-worthiness of the PT boat at the start of World War II.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, Donna Reed
BW-135 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD), and Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic), Donald Jahraus (photographic), R.A. MacDonald (photographic) and Michael Steinore (sound)

Though many had questioned John Wayne's getting an exemption from military service during World War II, it was not entirely his fault. Wayne was exempted from service due to his age (34 at the time of Pearl Harbor) and family status, classified as 3-A (family deferment). He repeatedly wrote to John Ford, asking to be placed in Ford's military unit, but consistently postponed it until "after he finished one more film", Wayne did not attempt to prevent his reclassification as 1-A (draft eligible), but Republic Pictures was emphatically resistant to losing him; Herbert J. Yates, President of Republic, threatened Wayne with a lawsuit if he walked away from his contract and Republic intervened in the Selective Service process, requesting Wayne's further deferment.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: NON-MUSICAL VERSIONS



8:00 PM -- ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM (1946)
A young Englishwoman becomes royal tutor in Siam and befriends the King.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Irene Dunne, Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell
BW-128 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Arthur C. Miller, and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lyle R. Wheeler, William S. Darling, Thomas Little and Frank E. Hughes

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gale Sondergaard, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sally Benson and Talbot Jennings, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Bernard Herrmann

Rex Harrison intensely researched his role and spent time working with a private coach to work out the speech patterns and physicality of this new character.


10:30 PM -- KISMET (1944)
In the classic Arabian Nights tale, the king of the beggars enters high society to help his daughter marry a handsome prince.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, James Craig
C-100 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Charles Rosher, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Daniel B. Cathcart, Edwin B. Willis and Richard Pefferle, Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD), and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Herbert Stothart

Broadway choreographer Jack Cole worked out all the harem dance routines, and Marlene Dietriech's exotic movements for her specialty dance routine. Jack Cole was uncredited for his film participation. In the 1955 MGM musical film adaptation of the 1953 Broadway musical "Kismet", Producer Arthur Freed brought Jack Cole back to the MGM Lot to replicate and re-stage his Broadway choreography for the film musical.


12:30 AM -- LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960)
A clumsy young man nurtures a bloodthirsty plant that forces him to kill to feed it.
Dir: Roger Corman
Cast: Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles
BW-72 mins, CC,

When asked where Seymour got the plant, he replies that the seeds were obtained by a Japanese gardener who found the bulb in a "plantation next to a cranberry farm." This joke is lost on modern audiences. In 1959, it was announced that cranberry crops were tainted with traces of the herbicide aminotriazole, and as a result, cranberry sales plummeted.


2:00 AM -- AUNTIE MAME (1958)
An eccentric heiress raises her nephew to be a free spirit.
Dir: Morton DaCosta
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Forrest Tucker, Coral Browne
C-143 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Rosalind Russell, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Peggy Cass, Best Cinematography, Color -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color -- Malcolm C. Bert and George James Hopkins, Best Film Editing -- William H. Ziegler, and Best Picture

The line, "Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death," does not appear in the book. It is derived from the stage play, where it was originally, "Life is a banquet and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death." Though "damn" and "hell" are both heard in the film, "sons-of-bitches" was apparently thought too rough.


4:45 AM -- GIGI (1948)
In this original French version, a young girl who has been trained to be a kept woman, sets out to reform the young man who wants to keep her.
Dir: Jacqueline Audry
Cast: Daniele Delorme, Gaby Morlay, Philippe Noiret
BW-83 mins,

The main theme that permeates the score was not composed by the film's credited composer, but by F.D. Marchetti, who wrote it in 1932. The melody was the basis for the popular song "Fascination", with English lyric by Dick Manning. The song's copyright was renewed in 1945, and again in 1954. It was used to great effect in the film Love In The Afternoon, resulting in its major success on the hit parade.