TCM Schedule for Thursday, September 14, 2017 -- What's On Tonight: Counter Culture Classics

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is showing, well, it took me a while to figure out what the heck the daytime theme was. My final guess is that the theme is "Oscar nominated or winning wartime films featuring a civilian point of view". Like I said, complicated.

In prime time, TCM is getting their groove on. From the TCM website:

In the 1960s and '70s, a burgeoning counterculture had the youth of America rejecting the values and standards of their parents in such matters as materialism, support for the Vietnam War, racial segregation, sexual mores and women's rights. The growing political movements for equality and justice also gave rise to an explosion of creativity in music and cinema, often propelled or enhanced by drugs.

With three nights of special programming, TCM celebrates the 50th anniversary of the counterculture movement and its influence on pop culture, as hippies and other rebellious types were turning on, tuning in and dropping out.

The category Turn On (Politics/Sexual Liberation) includes such films as Zabriskie Point (1970), in which Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni takes an unflinching look at America's materialistic society; and Butterflies Are Free (1972), a romantic comedy about a blind young man (Edward Albert) who falls for a sexually liberated girl (Goldie Hawn).

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- MRS. MINIVER (1942)
A British family struggles to survive the first days of World War II.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright
BW-134 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Teresa Wright,
Best Director -- William Wyler (William Wyler was not present at the awards ceremony because he was overseas shooting for the Army Air Force. His wife Margaret Tallichet on his behalf.), Best Writing, Screenplay -- George Froeschel, James Hilton, Claudine West and Arthur Wimperis, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Walter Pidgeon, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Henry Travers, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- May Whitty, Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD), Best Film Editing -- Harold F. Kress, Best Effects, and Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic), Warren Newcombe (photographic) and Douglas Shearer (sound)

The closing speech, delivered by the vicar (Henry Wilcoxon) at the end of the film, was actually written by Wilcoxon and director, William Wyler, the night before it was filmed. Wyler had grown dissatisfied with the speech the screenwriters had come up with, and convinced Wilcoxon to help him improve it. The speech proved to be integral to the film's success, and was distributed across America and Europe in order to boost wartime morale amongst soldiers and civilians alike.


8:15 AM -- GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS (1939)
A cold-hearted teacher becomes the school favorite when he's thawed by a beautiful young woman.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn
BW-114 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Robert Donat

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Director -- Sam Wood, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Eric Maschwitz, R.C. Sherriff and Claudine West, Best Sound, Recording -- A.W. Watkins (Denham SSD), Best Film Editing -- Charles Frend, and Best Picture

34-year-old Robert Donat ages 63 years (1870-1933) over the course of the film. He remarked: "As soon as I put the mustache on, I felt the part, even if I did look like a great Airedale come out of a puddle."


10:15 AM -- RANDOM HARVEST (1942)
A woman's happiness is threatened when she discovers her husband has been suffering from amnesia.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Ronald Colman, Greer Garson, Philip Dorn
BW-126 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Ronald Colman, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Susan Peters, Best Director -- Mervyn LeRoy, Best Writing, Screenplay -- George Froeschel, Claudine West and Arthur Wimperis, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell, Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Herbert Stothart, and Best Picture

The person Greer Garson spent the most time with on set was cameraman Joseph Ruttenberg, who was her favourite photographer. She appreciated his using a woman's stocking over the lens to soften and glamorize her features. In addition, he quickly realized that she looked best shot from the right and made sure the sets were constructed so he could favour that side.


12:30 PM -- LITTLE WOMEN (1949)
The four daughters of a New England family fight for happiness during and after the Civil War.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Margaret O'Brien
C-122 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert H. Planck and Charles Edgar Schoenbaum

Mr. Davis, the school teacher who could not bring himself to punish Amy, was portrayed both the 1933 and 1949 Little Women by the same actor, Olin Howland, apparently in the same outfit. In both movies he holds up Amy's slate with the same exact writing and cartoon drawing of the teacher, with a huge nose, with cartoon balloon stating, "YOUNG LADIES MY EYES ARE UPON YOU".


2:45 PM -- DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965)
Illicit lovers fight to stay together during the turbulent years of the Russian Revolution.
Dir: David Lean
Cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Julie Christie, Tom Courtenay
C-200 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Bolt, Best Cinematography, Color -- Freddie Young, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- John Box, Terence Marsh and Dario Simoni, Best Costume Design, Color -- Phyllis Dalton, and Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Maurice Jarre

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Tom Courtenay, Best Director -- David Lean, Best Sound -- A.W. Watkins (M-G-M British SSD) and Franklin Milton (M-G-M SSD), Best Film Editing -- Norman Savage, and Best Picture

The film was shot in Spain during the regime of Gen. Francisco Franco. While the scene with the crowd chanting the Marxist theme was being filmed (at 3:00 in the morning), police showed up at the set thinking that a real revolution was taking place and insisted on staying until the scene was finished. Apparently, people who lived near where filming was taking place had awoken to the sound of revolutionary singing and had mistakenly believed that Franco had been overthrown. As the extras sang the revolutionary Internationale for a protest scene, the secret police surveyed the crowd, making many of the extras pretend that they didn't know the words.


6:15 PM -- CASABLANCA (1942)
An American saloon owner in North Africa is drawn into World War II when his lost love turns up.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid
BW-103 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Director -- Michael Curtiz, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Humphrey Bogart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Claude Rains, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Arthur Edeson, Best Film Editing -- Owen Marks, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

Back in the early-to-mid 2000s, Madonna wanted to remake Casablanca with her playing IIsa Lund and Ashton Kutcher in the role of Rick Blaine. Madonna pitched the idea to every studio but was unanimously rejected by every studio with one studio executive telling her "That film is deemed untouchable". The project has since been scrapped by Madonna. I'm sorry, that is just horrifying!



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPECIAL THEME: COUNTER CULTURE CLASSICS



8:00 PM -- I LOVE YOU, ALICE B. TOKLAS (1968)
A henpecked L.A. lawyer escapes into the world of hippies and free love.
Dir: Hy Averback
Cast: Peter Sellers, Jo Van Fleet, Leigh Taylor-Young
C-94 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The film's title is a tribute to Gertrude Stein's lifelong partner, Alice B. Toklas, who published a cookbook in 1954 that contained the first printed recipe for hash fudge. In one of the movie's most famous scenes Harold Fine unknowingly serves marijuana-laced brownies baked by Nancy to his parents and fiancée.


9:45 PM -- BUTTERFLIES ARE FREE (1972)
A blind man trying to escape his protective mother falls for an aspiring actress.
Dir: Milton Katselas
Cast: Goldie Hawn, Edward Albert, Eileen Heckart
C-109 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Eileen Heckart

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Charles Lang, and Best Sound -- Arthur Piantadosi and Charles T. Knight

Ingrid Bergman, Olivia de Havilland, and Angela Lansbury were all considered for the role of Mrs. Baker which in the end was cast with actress Eileen Heckart.


11:30 PM -- ALICE'S RESTAURANT (1969)
A young folksinger becomes a fugitive after dumping trash in the wrong place.
Dir: Arthur Penn
Cast: Arlo Guthrie, Pat Quinn, James Broderick
C-111 mins, CC,

It is said that the song "Alice's Restaurant" is as long as the length of tape erased from the President Richard M. Nixon's Watergate tapes - 18:34.


1:30 AM -- ZABRISKIE POINT (1970)
A young girl helps a student radical escape the police.
Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni
Cast: Mark Frechette, Daria Halprin, Rod Taylor
C-114 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Michelangelo Antonioni's leftist politics made the film controversial from the start. The production was harassed by groups opposed to the movie's alleged "anti-Americanism." FBI agents tailed cast and crew members. Filming locations were besieged by right-wingers protesting an alleged scene of flag desecration, which never happened. Militant anti-establishment students worried they were being "sold out". The sheriff of Oakland, California, accused Michelangelo Antonioni of provoking the riots he had come to film. Death Valley park rangers initially refused to allow Michelangelo Antonioni to shoot at Zabriskie Point because they thought he planned to stage an orgy at the site; it was conceptualized, but never seriously considered. The U.S. Attorney's office in Sacramento opened grand jury investigations into both the film's alleged "anti-Americanism" and possible violations of the Mann Act, a 1910 law prohibiting the transportation of women across state lines "for immoral conduct, prostitution or debauchery," during the Death Valley filming. The investigation was dropped, reluctantly, when they learned that Zabriskie Point was at least 13 miles west of the California-Nevada border.


3:45 AM -- THE STRAWBERRY STATEMENT (1970)
A college student joins a group of revolutionaries to meet girls but ends up committed to their goals.
Dir: Stuart Hagmann
Cast: Bruce Davison, Kim Darby, Bud Cort
C-102 mins, CC,

The film was originally to be shot on Columbia University's campus. However, Columbia withdrew their offer and the crew moved to Berkeley instead. The book had not gained notoriety yet and Berkeley was more or less in the dark about the content of the film and what events the director would be staging on the campus. This explains the tongue-in-cheek scrolling "thank-you-to-Berkeley" title card scrolling in the opening of the film.


5:45 AM -- WILD IN THE STREETS (1968)
A young man gains significant political influence as the leader of a counterculture rock band with his rallying cry of voting rights for teenagers.
Dir: Barry Shear
Cast: Shelley Winters, Christopher Jones, Diane Varsi
C-97 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Fred R. Feitshans Jr. and Eve Newman

American International Pictures originally offered the role of Max Frost to noted folk singer-songwriter Phil Ochs, who was known at the time to want to branch out into film work. However, after reading the screenplay, Ochs rejected it, stating the story presented the youth counterculture of the 1960s in a badly distorted light.