TCM Schedule for Thursday, May 7, 2015 -- TCM Special Theme - Disaster Movies!

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating the birth of Frank James Cooper (aka Gary Cooper), born on May 7, 1901, in Helena, Montana. And in prime time, it's the end of the world as we know it -- at least the end of the world in the sky. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- The Hanging Tree (1959)
A doctor saves a man from hanging then tries to run his life.
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: Gary Cooper, Maria Schell, Karl Malden
C-107 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jerry Livingston (music) and Mack David (lyrics) for the song "The Hanging Tree"

The last western Gary Cooper starred in, and the film debut of George C. Scott.


8:00 AM -- Man Of The West (1958)
A reformed outlaw is among the hostages when his former colleagues rob a train.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Gary Cooper, Julie London, Lee J. Cobb
C-99 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Gary Cooper was, at 56, a decade older than Lee J. Cobb who played his "Uncle" Dock Tobin. In the film Cooper and John Dehner talk about being children together - Dehner was actually fourteen years younger than Cooper.


9:45 AM -- Love in the Afternoon (1957)
An aging American tycoon overcomes his inhibitions to court a young Parisian.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier
BW-130 mins, CC,

To dispel any impression that Audrey Hepburn and Gary Cooper actually have sex in their many afternoon meetings in his hotel room, a line was dubbed into the release print. When his back is turned to the camera in Chevalier's office, Cooper is heard to say, "I can't get to first base with her."


12:00 PM -- Springfield Rifle (1952)
A Union officer goes undercover to root out Confederate raiders.
Dir: Andre DeToth
Cast: Gary Cooper, Phyllis Thaxter, David Brian
C-93 mins, CC,

Released the same year as Gary Cooper's most famous Western High Noon (1952), which also starred Lon Chaney Jr. in a secondary role.


1:45 PM -- Bright Leaf (1950)
Two tobacco growers battle for control of the cigarette market.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Gary Cooper, Lauren Bacall, Patricia Neal
BW-111 mins, CC,

To add authenticity to the film, an authentic, turn of the century cigarette maker was purchased as a prop.


3:45 PM -- The Fountainhead (1949)
An idealistic architect battles corrupt business interests and his love for a married woman.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, Raymond Massey
BW-113 mins, CC,

Ayn Rand was furious when she heard that Howard Roark's speech at the trial was being trimmed, chiefly because it was considered long, rambling and confusing, especially to Gary Cooper who didn't understand it. Ayn Rand was furious that Roark's courtroom speech was edited down for time, and as a result refused to allow for a film adaptation of Atlas Shrugged during her lifetime.


5:45 PM -- The Pride Of The Yankees (1942)
Baseball legend Lou Gehrig faces a crippling disease at the height of his success.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Babe Ruth
BW-128 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Daniel Mandell

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gary Cooper, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Teresa Wright, Best Writing, Original Story -- Paul Gallico, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Herman J. Mankiewicz and Jo Swerling, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Rudolph Maté, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Perry Ferguson and Howard Bristol, Best Sound, Recording -- Thomas T. Moulton (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), Best Effects, Special Effects -- Jack Cosgrove (photographic), Ray Binger (photographic) and Thomas T. Moulton (sound), Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Leigh Harline, and Best Picture

Multiple published sources have asserted that Gary Cooper, who was right-handed, could not master a convincing left-handed throw or swing like Lou Gehrig. To remedy the problem, the story went, he was filmed throwing right-handed while wearing a mirror-image uniform, and for batting sequences he would swing from the right side of the plate, then run to third instead of first base; technicians then reversed the print of the film. However, Tom Shieber, a curator at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, has shown that Cooper did indeed learn to bat left-handed, and never wore a backwards Yankees uniform nor ran to third base after swinging. Film footage was "flipped" only once, during a brief sequence portraying Gehrig's minor-league days at Hartford, in order to make Cooper appear to be throwing left-handed. Scenes requiring Cooper to throw a ball as a Yankee were filmed using his stand-in, Babe Herman.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPECIAL THEME: DISASTER MOVIES!



8:00 PM -- Airport (1970)
A mad bomber plots to blow up a jet on a snowy night.
Dir: George Seaton
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jean Seberg
C-137 mins, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Helen Hayes (Helen Hayes was not present at the awards ceremony. 'Rosalind Russell' accepted the award on her behalf.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Maureen Stapleton, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- George Seaton, Best Cinematography -- Ernest Laszlo, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Alexander Golitzen, E. Preston Ames, Jack D. Moore and Mickey S. Michaels, Best Costume Design -- Edith Head, Best Sound -- Ronald Pierce and David H. Moriarty, Best Film Editing -- Stuart Gilmore, Best Music, Original Score -- Alfred Newman, and Best Picture

The field and terminal scenes were filmed entirely at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport due to the abundance of snowfall during the winter months there, although at first the film's producers were forced to use bleached sawdust as a supplement, to make up for the lack of falling snow, until a snowstorm hit the Twin Cities area during the production of the film.


10:30 PM -- The Crowded Sky (1960)
A passenger jet and a private plane head for a collision.
Dir: Joseph Pevney
Cast: Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
C-105 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

In this film, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. plays a military jet pilot who crashes his plane into the commercial DC-6 piloted by Dana Andrews. About a decade and a half later, Andrews would return the favor as his character's private plane crashed into Zimbalist's commercial jet in Airport 1975 (1974).


12:30 AM -- The Hindenburg (1975)
Sabotage causes the airship Hindenburg to crash on arrival at New York in this disaster film.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: George C. Scott, Anne Bancroft, William Atherton
BW-125 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Special Achievement Award Oscars for Peter Berkos for sound effects, and for Albert Whitlock and Glen Robinson for visual effects.

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Robert Surtees, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Edward C. Carfagno and Frank R. McKelvy, and Best Sound -- Leonard Peterson, John A. Bolger Jr., John L. Mack and Don Sharpless

WLS radio announcer Herbert Morrison was present at the scene of the Hindenburg crash, along with his engineer Charlie Nehlsen, and recorded an eyewitness account of the unfolding tragedy. This audio clip can be heard at the end of the film. However, Nehlsen's recorder was running a bit slow, so that when the recording is played back at normal speed, the pitch of Morrison's real speaking voice is raised slightly. Also note that a slight cracking is audible at one point during the recording. This was caused by the shockwave of the explosion reaching the recorder just after Morrison shouts "It's burst into flames!"


2:45 AM -- Five Came Back (1939)
Survivors of a jungle plane crash realize that their repaired airplane can only carry five passengers.
Dir: John Farrow
Cast: Chester Morris, Lucille Ball, Wendy Barrie
BW-75 mins, CC,

According to Turner Classic Movies, there were real trees on the set for the jungle scenes. In one scene, Lucille Ball was leaning against one of the prop trees and spiders crawled out of it and into her hair, sending her and the rest of the cast screaming & running.


4:15 AM -- Skyjacked (1972)
A mad bomber forces a jet to re-route to Moscow.
Dir: John Guillermin
Cast: Charlton Heston, Yvette Mimieux, James Brolin
C-101 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Jeanne Crain's final film appearance. She lived another 31 years.