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Staph

(6,245 posts)
Wed May 30, 2018, 02:11 PM May 2018

TCM Schedule for Saturday, June 2, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: Stranger Danger

In the daylight hours, TCM is beginning Saturday morning matinee programming for the month of June. That's your cue, Roger!

Inspired by weekend family programming in movie theaters across the country from the 1930s into the 1950s, TCM is offering similar lineups of movies, shorts and cartoons on Saturdays throughout the month of June.

Whether it was Tarzan or cowboy adventures, travelogues or "how to" shorts, Popeye cartoons or adventure serials, in the old days there was something to entertain everyone from the very young to the very old. So gather up your children, grandkids, nieces, nephews and neighborhood kids--not to mention friends and relatives old enough to remember the real thing--and enjoy our "Saturday Morning Matinees"!

Here's a sample rundown showing our programming for Saturday, June 2, with similar lineups to follow on June 9, 16, 23 and 30:

A Day at the Beach (1938) is one of a series of MGM cartoons featuring "The Captain and the Kids," developed from the Rudolph Dirks comic strip The Katzenjammer Kids. In this outing, filmed in sepia tones, the family has misadventures at the beach involving a stubborn umbrella, a sand castle, inebriated sea life and a bottomless boat. Friz Freleng directed, and voice talent includes Billy Bletcher as the Captain and Mel Blanc as John Silver.

Tennis Technique (1932) is an eight-minute short designed to help you improve your style on the court. The MGM travelogue Colorful Bombay (1937), narrated by James FitzPatrick, offers a nine-minute tour of the most populous city of India in the days when it was still under British control. Among the locations visited are the Taj Hotel, a racetrack, a fishing area and a food marketplace.

Scarlet River (1933) is an hour-long RKO Western produced by David O. Selznick and scored by Max Steiner in the days before these two powerhouses collaborated on Gone With the Wind (1939). The film is part of a series of "Poverty Row" Westerns of the 1930s starring Tom Keene. Otto Brower directed this story of a cowboy star (Keene) who shoots a film at a ranch where he discovers the foreman (Lon Chaney, Jr., then billed as Creighton Chaney) is rustling the cattle. Myrna Loy, Joel McCrea and other actors appear as themselves in a scene shot in the RKO commissary.

The Enemy Within (1938) is the penultimate episode (Chapter 12) in the popular "Red Barry" serial produced by Universal Pictures and based on the Will Gould comic strip distributed to newspapers by King Features Syndicated, Inc., known for their popular comic strips throughout the years. Buster Crabbe, who also starred in four other Universal serials, plays Barry, an undercover police detective who is tracking $2 million in stolen bonds. Edna Sedgewick costars as Natacha, and the serial was directed by Ford Beebe and Alan James.

Strong to the Finich (1934) is part of the series of 109 "Popeye the Sailor" cartoons produced from 1933 to 1942 by Fleischer Studios for Paramount Pictures. The studio was founded by Polish-American brothers Max and Dave Fleischer, who adapted Popeye from a comic strip and turned the character into one of the most successful in cartoon history, at times even eclipsing Disney's Mickey Mouse. The title of the cartoon comes from a lyric in Popeye's trademark song, "I'm strong to the finich 'cause I eats my spinach!"

Tarzan and the Mermaids (1948) is the last of 12 Tarzan features to star Johnny Weissmuller as the "Ape Man" who sprang from the imagination of Edgar Rice Burroughs. (Lex Barker would be the next actor in the Tarzan succession, and Weissmuller would move on to playing Jungle Jim.) The plot of this installment has Tarzan and Jane (Brenda Joyce) coming to the aid of a native girl facing a forced marriage to a con man (Fernando Wagner) who poses as a god. The Tarzan series, which began at MGM, had by now settled at RKO Radio Pictures.

What Price Safety! (1938) is a 22-minute dramatic short in the "Crime Does Not Pay" series, this one focusing on a construction company facing ruin because a racketeer is sabotaging its buildings with plans to take over the business. Probably not by coincidence, MGM began its "Crime Does Not Pay" shorts in 1935, as the industry's Production Code was newly in force and a sense of moral responsibility was expected in films. The series encompassed 50 shorts and continued to be produced through 1947.

The remaining Tarzan movies in our "Saturday Morning Matinees," all featuring Lex Barker, are Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949), Tarzan and the Slave Girl (1950), Tarzan's Peril (1951) and Tarzan's Savage Fury (1952). Other Westerns, each starring Tom Keene, running about an hour and released in 1932, are The Saddle Buster, Beyond the Rockies, Come on Danger! and Freighters of Destiny (1931).

More "Popeye" cartoons in our lineup, all released in 1934, are Shiver Me Timbers!, Axe Me Another, A Dream Walking and The Two-Alarm Fire. Other cartoons include Sleepy-Time Squirrel (1954), Papa Gets the Bird (1940), Three Little Pups (1953) and Cellbound (1955). Short subjects cover a wide range of topics as reflected in such titles as Poetry of Nature (1939), More About Nostradamus (1941), The Monroe Doctrine (1939), How I Play Golf by Bobby Jones No. 8 - The Brassie (1931), So You're Going to Be a Father (1947), Nertsery Rhymes (1933), Color Scales (1932), How to Eat (1939), Mendelssohn's Wedding March (1939) and The Old Grey Mayor (1935).

by Roger Fristoe


In prime time, the not-Essentials features films about stranger danger. Find your kids! Enjoy!




6:00 AM -- Dinner at Eight (1933)
A high-society dinner party masks a hotbed of scandal and intrigue.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery
BW-111 mins,

Marie Dressler was impressed with Jean Harlow. She recalled in her autobiography, "It was whispered behind more than one hand that Jean Harlow, Metro's much-advertised platinum menace, was picked for parts that called for more allure than art. And in Dinner at Eight, she had to throw a bomb in the works by proving that she is a first-rate actress! Her performance as the wife of the hard-boiled, self-made politician played by Wallace Beery belongs in that limited category of things which may with reason be called rare. The plain truth is, she all but ran off with the show!"


8:00 AM -- Colorful Bombay (1937)
This short film focuses on the history, people, and landscapes of Bombay.
Cast: James A. FitzPatrick
C-8 mins, CC


8:00 AM -- Scarlet River (1933)
During location shooting, a movie cowboy is called upon to act like the real thing.
Dir: Otto Brower
Cast: Tom Keene, Dorothy Wilson, Creighton Chaney
BW-54 mins,

Stuntman Yakima Canutt broke his shoulder while doubling for Tom Keene in a transfer from a horse to a wagon team.


8:00 AM -- Tennis Technique (1931)
A professional tennis champion offers advice to tennis players on how to improve their game.
Dir: Ray McCarey
Cast: William T. Tilden, Eric Hatch
BW-8 mins,

Bill Tilden was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1959.


8:00 AM -- MGM Cartoons: A Day at the Beach (1938)
The whole family is at the beach for an outing, and each is having their own little adventure.
Dir: Dick Lundy
Cast: Billy Bletcher, Robert Winkler
BW-10 mins,


9:30 AM -- Red Barry: The Enemy Within (1938)
A famous detective sets out to discover who stole $2 million in bonds.
Dir: Ford Beebe, Alan James
Cast: Buster Crabbe, Frances Robinson, Edna Sedgewick
BW-19 m

Twelfth and penultimate episode.


10:00 AM -- Tarzan and the Mermaids (1948)
Tarzan and Jane try to keep a woman from being forced to marry a con artist.
Dir: Robert Florey
Cast: Johnny Weissmuller, Brenda Joyce, George Zucco
BW-68 mins,

Final appearance of Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan.


10:00 AM -- Popeye: Strong to the Finich (1933)
Popeye demonstrates the value of spinach to the students of Olive Oyl's boarding school.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Seymour Kneitel
Cast: William Costello, Bonnie Poe, Mae Questel
BW-7 mins, CC

The title comes from Popeye's theme song and shows his pronunciation of "Finish" so he can rhyme it with "Spinach".


11:30 AM -- What Price Safety! (1938)
Racketeers move in on construction business and endanger public safety in this short film.
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: G. Pat Collins, George Houston, Ben Welden
BW-21 mins, CC

Number 14 in MGM's Crime Does Not Pay series.


12:00 PM -- Dial M for Murder (1954)
A straying husband frames his wife for the murder of the man he'd hired to kill her.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings
C-105 mins,

Alfred Hitchcock had chosen a very expensive robe for Grace Kelly to wear when she answered the phone. The actress balked and said that no woman would put on such a robe, just to answer the ringing telephone while she was asleep alone, but would answer it in her nightgown. Hitchcock agreed to do it her way and liked the way the rushes turned out. The director agreed to allow the actress to make all costume decisions for herself in their subsequent films together, afterwards.


2:00 PM -- Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
A Victorian gentleman bets that he can beat the world's record for circling the globe.
Dir: Michael Anderson
Cast: David Niven, Cantinflas, Shirley MacLaine
C-182 mins, Widescreen, CC

Winner of Oscars for Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Adapted -- James Poe, John Farrow and S.J. Perelman, Best Cinematography, Color -- Lionel Lindon, Best Film Editing -- Gene Ruggiero and Paul Weatherwax, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Victor Young (Posthumously.), and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Michael Anderson, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- James W. Sullivan, Ken Adam and Ross Dowd, and Best Costume Design, Color -- Miles White

The film created the idea of "cameo roles" as a way to invite established stars to participate in a production. The cameos include Finlay Currie as Andrew Stuart, Reform Club member, Robert Morley as Gauthier Ralph, Reform Club member and Bank of England Governor, Ronald Squire as a Reform Club member, Basil Sydney as a Reform Club member, Noël Coward as Roland Hesketh-Baggott, London employment agency manager, Sir John Gielgud as Foster, Fogg's former valet, Trevor Howard as Denis Fallentin, Reform Club member, Harcourt Williams as Hinshaw, a Reform Club steward, Martine Carol as a girl in the Paris railway station, Fernandel as a Paris coachman, Charles Boyer as Monsieur Gasse, balloonist, Evelyn Keyes as a Paris flirt, José Greco as a flamenco dancer, Luis Miguel Dominguín as a bullfighter, Gilbert Roland as Achmed Abdullah, Cesar Romero as Abdullah's henchman, Alan Mowbray as the British Consul at Suez, Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Sir Francis Cromarty, Melville Cooper as Mr. Talley, steward on the RMS Mongolia, Reginald Denny as a Bombay police inspector, Ronald Colman as a Great Indian Peninsular Railway official, Robert Cabal as an elephant driver-guide, Charles Coburn as a Hong Kong steamship company clerk, Peter Lorre as a steward on the SS Carnatic, George Raft as the bouncer of the Barbary Coast Saloon, Red Skelton as a drunk at the saloon, Marlene Dietrich as the saloon hostess, John Carradine as Col. Stamp Proctor of San Francisco, Frank Sinatra as the saloon pianist, Buster Keaton as a train conductor (San Francisco to Fort Kearney), Col. Tim McCoy as a US Cavalry Colonel, Joe E. Brown as the Fort Kearney stationmaster, Andy Devine as the first mate of the SS Henrietta, Edmund Lowe as the engineer of the SS Henrietta, Victor McLaglen as the helmsman of the SS Henrietta, Jack Oakie as the Captain of the SS Henrietta, Beatrice Lillie as a London revivalist leader, John Mills as a London carriage driver, Glynis Johns as a Sporting Lady, Hermione Gingold as a Sporting Lady, Edward R. Murrow as the prologue narrator, A. E. Matthews as a Reform Club member, Ronald Adam as a Reform Club steward, Walter Fitzgerald as a Reform Club member, Frank Royde as a clergyman, Mike Mazurki as a Hong Kong drunk, Richard Wattis as Inspector Hunter of Scotland Yard (uncredited), Keye Luke as an old man at Yokohama travel office (uncredited), Felix Felton as a Reform Club member (uncredited), Philip Ahn as Hong Kong citizen (uncredited), and James Dime.



5:15 PM -- Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
True story of Robert Stroud, the prison lifer who became an expert on birds.
Dir: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter
BW-149 mins, CC

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Burt Lancaster, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Telly Savalas, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Thelma Ritter, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Burnett Guffey

The real Robert Stroud died a year after the film's release. He had been incarcerated for the last 54 years of his life (he died at the age of 73) with 42 of those years being spent in solitary confinement. He was never allowed to see the film about his life. He died on November 21, 1963, so his death went unnoted in the aftermath of the assassination of John Kennedy.




TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STRANGER DANGER



8:00 PM -- Three Strangers (1946)
Three people who share a sweepstakes ticket travel a tangled road to collect their winnings.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Sydney Greenstreet, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Peter Lorre
BW-93 mins, CC

According to Robert Osborne of TCM, this film was at one point intended to be a sequel to "The Maltese Falcon." Following the success of that film, Warner Bros. wanted to make a sequel. Falcon write/director John Huston said he'd previously written an un-filmed scrip for Warner Bros. that would be appropriate and would only required the character names to be changed to the Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet and Mary Astor characters. However, Warner Bros. discovered they did not own the rights to the characters except for their appearance in "The Maltese Falcon."


10:00 PM -- Strangers on a Train (1951)
A man's joking suggestion that he and a chance acquaintance trade murders turns deadly.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker
BW-101 mins, CC

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Robert Burks

Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Walker worked out an elaborate series of gestures and physical appearance to suggest the homosexuality and seductiveness of Bruno's character while bypassing censor objections.



12:00 AM -- The Letter (1940)
A woman claims to have killed in self-defense, until a blackmailer turns up with incriminating evidence.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson
BW-95 mins, CC

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- James Stephenson, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Tony Gaudio, Best Film Editing -- Warren Low, Best Music, Original Score -- Max Steiner, and Best Picture

After shooting was completed, William Wyler watched a rough cut and decided that he wanted the character of Leslie to be more sympathetic. He ordered some re-writes and planned to shoot them. Bette Davis recalled - "I was heartbroken," she said, "as I felt, after reading the rewrites, that my performance could be ruined with these additions. I asked Willie if I could see the film before doing the retakes. To my horror I was crying at myself at the end of the showing. There was dead silence in the projection room when the lights came up. I said, 'If we film these retakes, we will lose the intelligent audience. It is impossible to please everyone with any one film. If we try to accomplish this, we can lose all audiences.' Plus, to my shame, even though I played the part, I deeply sympathized with Leslie Crosbie. We only made one small addition to the original film. Wyler had agreed with me. Thank God!"



2:00 AM -- Exodus (1960)
A young Israeli activist fights to set up a homeland for his people.
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson
C-208 mins, Widescreen, CC

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Ernest Gold

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sal Mineo, and Best Cinematography, Color -- Sam Leavitt

For the massive crowd scene where Barak Ben Canaan announces that the UN is to partition Palestine, they needed at least 20,000 extras. Production manager Eva Monley came up with the idea of holding a lottery where the main prize was 20,000 Israeli pounds and 6 free trips to the New York premiere. Over 40,000, or a quarter of the Jerusalem population, turned up.



5:30 AM -- MGM Parade Show #8 (1955)
Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant perform in a clip from "The Philadelphia Story"; George Murphy introduces a clip from "The Tender Trap." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-26 mins, CC


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