TCM Schedule for Thursday, November 14, 2013 -- What's On Tonight -- Bob's Picks

[Staph]

During the morning hours, TCM is featuring Star of the Month Burt Lancaster, the afternoon is all about director William Seiter, and the evening has been chosen by host Robert Osborne. And very late night/early morning, it's some great backstage musicals (Dames (1934) and 42nd Street (1933)), featuring the music of Harry Warren. Enjoy!


6:30 AM -- The Devil's Disciple (1959)
A preacher and a rebel leader change places during the Revolution.
Dir: Guy Hamilton
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier
BW-83 mins, TV-PG,

The scene near the end of the movie where Gen. Burgoyne invites Richard Dudgeon and Mrs. Anderson to dine with him and his lady friend is based loosely on the historical fact that after the British surrender at Saratoga, Gen. Burgoyne and the American commander Gen. Horatio Gates and their staffs then ate a simple lunch together (on Friday, October 17, 1777).


8:00 AM -- The Hallelujah Trail (1965)
Indians, soldiers and temperance women fight to control a wagon train hauling whiskey across the West.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Lee Remick, Jim Hutton
C-155 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Burt Lancaster was forced by United Artists to make four films for $150,000 a picture in the 1960s: The Young Savages, Birdman of Alcatraz, The Train and The Hallelujah Trail rather than his normal fee of $750,000, because of cost overruns at his production company, Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, for which he was personally responsible.


10:45 AM -- Back Pay (1930)
A small-town flirt jilts her soldier boyfriend, but changes her mind when he returns from the front a blind man.
Dir: William Seiter
Cast: Corinne Griffith, Grant Withers, Montagu Love
BW-56 mins, TV-G,

Although the film originally ran 77 minutes, the running time was reduced to 57 minutes by the time it opened in New York City in May 1930, and the surviving version as shown on Turner Classic Movies now runs only 54 minutes.


11:45 AM -- Professional Sweetheart (1933)
A radio star's pure image leads to a fake engagement to a hayseed.
Dir: William A. Seiter
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Norman Foster, ZaSu Pitts
BW-73 mins, TV-G,

Ginger Rogers was dubbed by Etta Moten; this is reputedly the only film in which Rogers did not do her own singing.


1:00 PM -- Rafter Romance (1933)
A salesgirl falls for a night worker without realizing they share the same apartment.
Dir: William Seiter
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Norman Foster, George Sidney
BW-73 mins, TV-G, CC,

Ellen Corby (Grandma Walton!), as one of the telephone solicitors, can be seen among those gathering around Robert Benchley when he announces the "banquet", and again at the picnic as one of a trio of prize winners. She's the dark haired one with her back to the camera.


2:15 PM -- Sing and Like It (1934)
A gangster tries to turn his tone-deaf girlfriend into a singing star.
Dir: William A. Seiter
Cast: ZaSu Pitts, Pert Kelton, Edward Everett Horton
BW-72 mins, TV-G,

Although the Catholic Church of Detroit placed this movie on its "to be boycotted" list in July 1934, the Production Code Administration gave it an approval certificate for its re-release in 1935, when the its Code was more rigorously enforced.


3:30 PM -- We're Rich Again (1934)
A society couple gone broke tries to land a wealthy husband for their daughter.
Dir: William A. Seiter
Cast: Edna May Oliver, Billie Burke, Marion Nixon
BW-71 mins, TV-G, CC,

Based on a play by Alden Nash that opened in Hollywood on February 2, 1934.


4:45 PM -- The Life of the Party (1937)
A young girl tries to escape the suitors her mother has picked for her.
Dir: William A. Seiter
Cast: Joe Penner, Gene Raymond, Parkyakarkus
BW-77 mins, TV-G,

Based on a story by Joseph Santley.


6:15 PM -- Destroyer (1943)
The crew of a torpedoed ship fights to take out an enemy sub.
Dir: William A. Seiter
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Glenn Ford, Marguerite Chapman
BW-99 mins, TV-G,

The ship being launched in the movie is actually the USS Hobby, DD-610, though it is referred to as the USS John Paul Jones. The number 610 can be seen on the hull near the bow. The USS John Paul Jones (DD-932) was commissioned in 1956 and decommissioned in 1982 as DDG-932. There was no such named ship in active service during WWII.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: BOB'S PICKS



8:00 PM -- My Name Is Julia Ross (1945)
A young girl finds herself entrenched in a murder cover-up when she goes to work for a wealthy widow.
Dir: Joseph H. Lewis
Cast: Nina Foch, Dame May Whitty, George Macready
BW-65 mins, TV-PG, CC,

In a 1988 interview about this movie, Nina Foch said the idea that Dame May Whitty had George Macready as a son was "hysterically funny in a bizarre sort of way."


9:15 PM -- Ziegfeld Follies (1946)
Legendary showman Flo Ziegfeld imagines the kind of Follies he could produce with MGM's musical stars.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer
C-110 mins, TV-G, CC,

At the beginning of the "Bring On The Beautiful Girls" number, several older women are shown. These were women who had actually appeared in the original Ziegfeld Follies on stage.


11:15 PM -- The Lady From Shanghai (1948)
A romantic drifter gets caught between a corrupt tycoon and his voluptuous wife.
Dir: Orson Welles
Cast: Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane
BW-87 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Near the end of shooting, Orson Welles told Columbia executives that he wanted a complete set repainted on a Saturday for shooting on Monday. Columbia exec Jack Fier told Welles it was impossible, because of union rules and the expense that would be incurred by calling in a crew of painters to work on a weekend. Welles and several friends broke into the paint department that Saturday and repainted the set themselves, and when they were finished they hung a banner on the set that read "The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fier Himself". When the union painters arrived at work on Monday and saw that the set had been repainted by someone else, they refused to work, threw a picket line around the studio and threatened to stay on strike until a union crew was paid triple time for the work that had been done (which was why Fier had refused to authorize the work in the first place). To placate the union, Fier agreed to pay them what they wanted but put the cost on Welles' personal bill. In addition, he had the union painters paint a banner saying "All's Well That Ends Welles".


1:00 AM -- The Tall Target (1951)
A detective tries to prevent the assassination of President Lincoln during a train ride.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Dick Powell, Paula Raymond, Adolphe Menjou
BW-78 mins, TV-G, CC,

Interestingly, Dick Powell's character is named John Kennedy!


2:30 AM -- Dames (1934)
A reformer's daughter wins the lead in a scandalous Broadway show.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler
BW-91 mins, TV-G, CC,

In the "Dames" number, Dick Powell as a Broadway producer doesn't want to see composer George Gershwin, but when asked by his secretary about seeing Miss Dubin, Miss Warren and Miss Kelly, he lets them enter his office. This is an inside joke, referring to Al Dubin and Harry Warren, who wrote the music for this film, and Orry-Kelly, who was the costume designer.


4:15 AM -- 42nd Street (1933)
The definitive backstage musical, complete with the dazzling newcomer who goes on for the injured star.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent
BW-89 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (sound director), and Best Picture

At the end of the "42nd Street" number, Billy and Peggy pull down a curtain or shade with the word "Asbestos" written on it. This can be a confusing reference to 21st-century viewers, who may only be familiar with asbestos as a mineral composite which is now known to cause the lung cancer mesothelioma, but during the first part of the 20th century, asbestos was an often-used flame-retardant component in building materials. It also would have been a reference familiar to theater people, since live-performance theaters were at the time required to have a curtain made of asbestos that would separate the stage from the audience in the event of an on-stage fire. In that context, the presence of the curtain in the film is the movie's way of implying that whatever Billy and Peggy are going to do behind the curtain, it will surely be "hot."


5:45 AM -- Harry Warren: America'S Foremost Composer (1933)
Songwriter Harry Warren performs several of his own compositions in this musical short film.
Dir: Ray McCarey
BW-9 mins,

Harry Warren won Oscars for the song "On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe", in The Harvey Girls (1946), shared with Johnny Mercer (lyrics); for the song "You'll Never Know", in Hello Frisco, Hello (1943), shared with Mack Gordon (lyrics); and for the song "Lullaby of Broadway", in Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935), shared with Al Dubin (lyrics)

He was nominated for Oscars for the song "An Affair to Remember", in An Affair to Remember (1957), shared with Harold Adamson (lyrics) and Leo McCarey (lyrics); for the song "That's Amore", in The Caddy (1953), shared with Jack Brooks (lyrics); for the song "Zing a Little Zong", in Just for You (1952), shared with Leo Robin (lyrics); for the song "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo", in Orchestra Wives (1942), shared with Mack Gordon (lyrics); for the song "Chattanooga Choo Choo", in Sun Valley Serenade (1941), shared with Mack Gordon (lyrics); for the song "Down Argentine Way", in Down Argentine Way (1940), shared with Mack Gordon (lyrics); for the song "Jeepers Creepers", in Going Places (1938), shared with Johnny Mercer (lyrics); and for the song "Remember Me", in Mr. Dodd Takes the Air (1937), shared with Al Dubin (lyrics).