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Staph

(6,245 posts)
Wed May 23, 2018, 08:27 PM May 2018

TCM Schedule for Thursday, May 24, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: Star of the Month Marlene Dietrich

In the daylight hours, TCM's series on movie serials continues with Perry Mason and Dick Tracy. Criminals, beware! Then in prime time, TCM continues with the films of Star of the Month Marlene Dietrich. Enjoy!



6:45 AM -- THE CASE OF THE HOWLING DOG (1934)
Perry Mason gets caught between feuding neighbors who claim to be married to the same woman.
Dir: Alan Crosland
Cast: Warren William, Mary Astor, Allen Jenkins
BW-74 mins, CC,

First time the character Perry Mason ever appeared on film and the first of four Perry Mason films played by Warren William.


8:04 AM -- MOVIES ON SUNDAYS (1935)
A promotional short encouraging Pennsylvania's citizens to allow movie showings on Sundays.
Cast: Warner Oland,
BW-8 mins,


8:15 AM -- THE CASE OF THE CURIOUS BRIDE (1935)
Perry Mason helps a young woman whose supposedly dead husband suddenly returns to life.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Warren William, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Woods
BW-80 mins, CC,

In The Case of the Curious Bride (1935), one of Errol Flynn's earliest films, his role consisted of lying on a marble slab as a corpse. There was also a flashback sequence towards the end of the film showing how Flynn was killed. The film in question has appeared at least twice on Turner Classic Movies during Errol Flynn festivals despite his very limited (certainly less than two minutes) screen time.


9:45 AM -- THE CASE OF THE LUCKY LEGS (1935)
Perry Mason tries to stay on the wagon while investigating the murder of a crooked beauty contest promoter.
Dir: Archie L. Mayo
Cast: Warren William, Genevieve Tobin, Patricia Ellis
BW-78 mins, CC,

Supporting players Baron MacLane and Lyle Talbot would later appear in the Perry Mason TV series starring Raymond Burr.


11:15 AM -- THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS (1936)
Perry Mason's honeymoon with Della Street is interrupted by the murder of a scandal-sheet publisher.
Dir: William Clemens
Cast: Warren William, Claire Dodd, Winifred Shaw
BW-63 mins, CC,

This is Claire Dodd's second try at the character of Della Street. She also played Della in the series' second entry, "The Case of the Curious Bride."


12:21 PM -- WATER SPORTS (1935)
This short film focuses on various water sports and stunts performed off the coast of San Diego.
Dir: Ray McCarey
BW-8 mins,


12:30 PM -- THE CASE OF THE BLACK CAT (1936)
Perry Mason looks into a trio of murders heralded by the shriek of a cat.
Dir: William McGann
Cast: Ricardo Cortez, June Travis, Jane Bryan
BW-66 mins, CC,

Reportedly, Erle Stanley Gardner, the author of the books, did not approve of the casting of Ricordo Cortez as Perry Mason. He was therefore replaced by Donald Woods after doing only one movie. Ironically, many feel that Cortez' performance and this movie in general is the best of the series.


1:45 PM -- THE CASE OF THE STUTTERING BISHOP (1937)
Perry Mason tries to find out if a long-lost heiress is the real thing.
Dir: William Clemens
Cast: Donald Woods, Ann Dvorak, Anne Nagel
BW-70 mins, CC,

Unlike in the TV series, in which District Attorney Burger's last name was pronounced as in "hamburger," here it rhymes with "merger."


3:00 PM -- DICK TRACY (1945)
Dick is faced with a series of murders in which the victims all come from different social and economic backgrounds.
Dir: William Berke
Cast: Morgan Conway, Anne Jeffreys, Mike Mazurki
BW-61 mins, CC,

The first of four classic Dick Tracy feature films produced by RKO from 1945 to 1947, although Ralph Byrd had previously starred in Dick Tracy serials at Republic.


4:03 PM -- IT LOOKS LIKE RAIN (1945)
This short film takes a look at the tools and methods used to forecast the weather.
Dir: Paul Burnford
BW-10 mins,


4:15 PM -- DICK TRACY VS. CUEBALL (1946)
A police detective uses his girlfriend to track down a homicidal maniac.
Dir: Gordon M. Douglas
Cast: Morgan Conway, Anne Jeffreys, Lyle Latell
BW-62 mins,

Ian Keith as "Vitamin Flintheart" is doing a wicked but devastatingly accurate impersonation of John Barrymore.


5:21 PM -- HOLLYWOOD SCOUT (1945)
This short film focuses on a day in the life of a Hollywood talent scout assigned to cast animals.
Cast: Celia Travers, Paul Sydell, William H. O'Brien
BW-8 mins,


5:30 PM -- DICK TRACY'S DILEMMA (1947)
Dick Tracy takes on "The Claw" in this crime thriller
Dir: John Rawlins
Cast: Ralph Byrd, Lyle Latell, Kay Christopher
BW-60 mins,

Ralph Byrd, who had previously played Dick Tracy in four serials Republic produced in the late '30s and early 40's, was hired to replace Morgan Conway because, after the two previous films (Dick Tracy (1945) and Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946)), exhibitors complained. To them, Byrd was Dick Tracy, and only Byrd would do. RKO accepted this and hired him to finish the series. Unfortunately for Byrd, because of this he spent his career typecast as Dick Tracy.


6:45 PM -- DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME (1947)
Dick Tracy tracks down a bank robber using nerve gas.
Dir: John Rawlins
Cast: Boris Karloff, Ralph Byrd, Anne Gwynne
BW-65 mins,

Filmed April 1-late April 1947, the last of RKO's four classic Dick Tracy features, and the only one in which Ralph Byrd takes second billing. He would continue playing the character on television, until his untimely death in 1952.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: MARLENE DIETRICH



8:00 PM -- A FOREIGN AFFAIR (1948)
A prim Congresswoman gets caught up in the romantic decadence of post-war Germany.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Jean Arthur, Marlene Dietrich, John Lund
BW-116 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and Richard L. Breen, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang

Upon completion of location shooting, Billy Wilder headed back home by way of Paris, where he stopped in to see Marlene Dietrich to convince her to take the part of the German cabaret singer and former Nazi official's mistress. Dietrich had spent most of the war travelling among Allied troops, justly lauded for her anti-fascist efforts, often at the front lines, popping back to the States only occasionally for movie roles. Her immediate reaction when Wilder brought his offer to her at the Hotel Georges V where she was staying was a quick and vehement no. She had no intention of playing a woman with a Nazi past, but Wilder wouldn't take no for an answer. He swayed her with the promise that her songs in the picture would be written by her old friend and frequent composer Friedrich Hollaender. One story has it that eventually he showed her screen tests of other actresses he claimed to be considering for the role and that did the trick (reportedly, one of them was June Havoc), although Wilder denied that such a ploy was ever used. More likely what swayed her was the fact that her screen popularity had waned and she needed a hit movie. It also helped considerably that she would be paid $110,000 with an additional $66,000 promised for overtime.



10:03 PM -- ALLURING ALASKA (1941)
This short film takes the viewer to Alaska.
C-9 mins,


10:15 PM -- THE SPOILERS (1942)
An Alaskan prospector fights a crooked federal agent for a beautiful saloon singer.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott, John Wayne
BW-87 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- John B. Goodman, Jack Otterson, Russell A. Gausman and Edward R. Robinson

Poet of the Yukon Robert Service (1874-1958) makes a cameo appearance as himself having just finished his most famous work "The Shooting of Dan McGrew". According to biographer G.W. Lockhart, Service found Dietrich's voice so distracting that it took seventeen takes for him to get his few lines right, only to be told: "It's lousy, but we'll let it go". Service most enjoyed watching the filming of the climactic fistfight and wrote the verse:
"Johnny Wayne and Randy Scott
they fought and fought and fought and fought
With joy they shed each other's gore
And then they paused and fought some more...".



11:50 PM -- A VITAPHONE PICTORIAL REVUE NO. 2-6 (1937)
This short film contains three segments, showcasing Arabian trick and race horses, hockey, and footwear. Vitaphone Release B56.
Dir: Willard Du Brul
BW-7 mins,

The sequence showing the manufacturing of women's shoes is in color.


12:00 AM -- 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,

Nominee 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

It was during this film that Dietrich began wearing her now famous but then little known 'foundation', a flesh colored nylon body stocking from neck to crotch that, once poured and zipped into it, re-created the shape that she had become famous for in her youth, but which had now begun to sag as she faced her mid-40s, and which she continued to wear for all public and professional appearances the rest of her life.



1:47 AM -- ELECTRICAL POWER (1939)
This short film looks at how electricity generated at Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) is sent to Hollywood movies studios to make films.
BW-10 mins,


2:00 AM -- MANPOWER (1941)
Power linemen feud over the love of a sultry nightclub singer.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Marlene Dietrich, George Raft
BW-103 mins, CC,

While visiting his friend George Raft on the set, Bugsy Siegel was introduced to Virginia Hill. In the scene where Raft gets into a brawl with Barton MacLane, Hill appears as the hat-check girl to whom Raft gives a smashed chair as he leaves the nightclub. The brawl scene and Bugsy Siegel's first meeting with Virginia Hill on the gas station movie set are recreated in Bugsy (1991).


4:00 AM -- MARTIN ROUMAGNAC (1946)
A builder in a small town falls for a glamorous woman.
Dir: Georges Lacombe
Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Jean Gabin, Daniel Gelin
BW-103 mins,

Also known as The Room Upstairs.


5:47 AM -- HOW TO RAISE A BABY (1938)
This comedic short makes light of raising and taking care of a baby.
Dir: Roy Rowland
Cast: Robert Benchley, Ricardo Lord Cezon, Paul Clark
BW-9 mins,


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