TCM Schedule for Saturday, January 18, 2020 -- The Essentials: Filmmaker Journeys

[Staph]

Last edited Mon Mar 23, 2020, 07:32 PM - Edit history (1)

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, The Essentials is back! (or should that be The Essentials are back?), with trailblazing producer, director and screenwriter Ava DuVernay, who will join primetime host Ben Mankiewicz to discuss the films she has chosen. Tonight's theme is filmmakers and their journeys. Enjoy!

P. S. Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday, dear Staph! Happy birthday to me! (After the health issues I've been through in the last year, I'm thrilled to still be here to celebrate another one!


6:00 AM -- WHERE THE BOYS ARE (1960)
College coeds go looking for love during spring break in Fort Lauderdale.
Dir: Henry Levin
Cast: Dolores Hart, Yvette Mimieux, Barbara Nichols
C-99 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Dolores Hart left Hollywood shortly after this movie and became a Benedictine nun, and has been a Mother Superior for many years.


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: THE UNWELCOME GUEST (1945)
Barney Bear runs afoul of a foul-smelling skunk who wants to steal his berries.
Dir: George Gordon
BW-7 mins, CC,


8:09 AM -- THE COURTSHIP OF THE NEWT (1938)
A zoology professor provides a spoof biology lesson in this comedic short.
Dir: Roy Rowland
Cast: Robert Benchley, Jacques Lory,
BW-8 mins,


8:18 AM -- WANDERING THROUGH WALES (1948)
This short film focuses on the history, culture, and people of Wales.
Narrator: James A. FitzPatrick
C-9 mins,


8:28 AM -- NIGHT SPOT (1938)
An undercover cop tries to catch a gang of jewel thieves at a high-society nightclub.
Dir: Christy Cabanne
Cast: Parkyakarkus, Allan Lane, Gordon Jones
BW-60 mins,

From a story by Anne Jordan.


9:30 AM -- THE MYSTERIOUS MR. M: HIGHWAY EXECUTION (1946)
An evil scientist known as "Mr. M." uses a drug he has developed called "hypnotreme" to help steal submarine equipment.
Dir: Lewis D. Collins, Vernon Keays
Cast: Dennis Moore, Pamela Blake, Richard Martin
BW-17 mins, CC,

Episode five of thirteen.


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: FIGHTIN' PALS (1933)
Popeye travels alone through Darkest Africa to find his fist-fightin' pal, Bluto.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Willard Bowsky (uncredited)
Cast: Pinto Colvig, Jack Mercer
BW-7 mins, CC,

Includes a spoof of Stanley and Livingstone (1939).


10:08 AM -- SMUGGLERS' COVE (1948)
The Bowery Boys take on a gang of German smugglers.
Dir: William Beaudine
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell
BW-66 mins, CC,

When Slip is punching the smuggler in the stomach, punches don`t match the sound effects. Obviously the sound is the rhythmic blows on a punching bag and Slip is punching more erratically.


11:30 AM -- UPS AND DOWNS (1937)
In this short musical, an elevator operator and an engaged girl in love dodge the girl's fiancee and attempt to win over her father.
Dir: Roy Mack
Cast: June Allyson, Hal LeRoy, Phil Silvers
BW-22 mins,

Early role for Phil Silvers who plays Charlie. Silvers is best known as Sgt. Bilko from the Phil Silvers show of the mid 1950s. Also, of note, Phil still has his hair.


12:00 PM -- LAURA (1944)
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating.
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb
BW-88 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph LaShelle

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Clifton Webb, Best Director -- Otto Preminger, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein and Elizabeth Reinhardt, and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lyle R. Wheeler, Leland Fuller and Thomas Little

When Otto Preminger had a chance to look at the first batch of dailies that came back, he was aghast--"I had chosen a simple dressing gown for Judith Anderson but [Rouben Mamoulian], influenced perhaps by association [by] the Medea role for which she was famous, had dressed her in something flowing and Grecian. It was totally wrong for a contemporary story and so were his sets. The performances were appalling. Judith Anderson was overacting, Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney were amateurish and there was even something wrong with Clifton Webb's performance." Preminger promptly had the rushes air-mailed to Darryl F. Zanuck in New York so that he could see for himself what was happening with "Laura". Zanuck agreed that it was a mess and ordered Rouben Mamoulian to shoot everything over again. Preminger, he reiterated, was still barred from the set. When the second set of dailies proved to be just as bad as the first, if not worse, Darryl F. Zanuck decided to remove Rouben Mamoulian from the film altogether. Finally the words that Otto Preminger had wanted to hear all along came from Zanuck's mouth when he returned to Los Angeles. "Monday," he told Preminger, "you can start directing 'Laura'. From scratch."


1:45 PM -- THE MAN WHO CHEATED HIMSELF (1950)
A veteran homicide detective who has witnessed his socialite girlfriend kill her husband sees his inexperienced brother assigned to the case.
Dir: Felix E. Feist
Cast: Lee J. Cobb, Jane Wyatt, John Dall
BW-82 mins, CC,

According to TCM, Jack M. Warner casting Jane Wyatt, one of Hollywood's most wholesome actresses, as a homicidal socialite was unexpected: "To say this role fit her like a glove, I'd have to be talking about a big old catchers mitt, or a boxing glove."


3:15 PM -- FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON (1958)
Lifelong rivals collaborate on a 19th-century moon rocket.
Dir: Byron Haskin
Cast: Joseph Cotten, George Sanders, Debra Paget
C-100 mins, CC,

This was one of the last films produced for RKO. By the time it was completed, RKO had ceased production and distribution. It was released through Warner Brothers.


5:15 PM -- TORA! TORA! TORA! (1970)
The Japanese take advantage of American blunders to launch a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
Dir: Richard Fleischer
Cast: Martin Balsam, So Yamamura, Jason Robards Jr.
C-149 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects -- A.D. Flowers and L.B. Abbott

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Charles F. Wheeler, Osamu Furuya, Shinsaku Himeda and Masamichi Satoh, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Jack Martin Smith, Yoshirô Muraki, Richard Day,Taizô Kawashima, Walter M. Scott, Norman Rockett and Carl Biddiscombe, Best Sound -- Murray Spivack and Herman Lewis, and Best Film Editing -- James E. Newcom, Pembroke J. Herring and Shinya Inoue

The African-American mess attendant who fired the machine gun on the West Virginia was Seaman First Class Doris "Dorie" Miller. He was the first African-American to be awarded the Navy Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor in the U.S. Armed Forces Order of Precedence. Without any training, he fired the unattended machine gun at the Japanese aircraft until it was out of ammunition. In this film, he is played by Elven Havard. Cuba Gooding Jr. portrayed him in Pearl Harbor (2001).



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: FILMMAKER JOURNEYS



8:00 PM -- LES RENDEZ-VOUS D'ANNA (1978)
While on a promotional tour, a female movie director deals with a series of people making unwanted demands.
Dir: Chantal Akerman
Cast: Magali Noel, Helmut Griem, Aurore ClTment
C-128 mins,

Also known in the U.S. as The Meetings of Anna, and as Anna's Meetings in other English-speaking countries..


10:15 PM -- TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN (1962)
A recovering alcoholic film director tries for a comeback in Rome.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Charisse
C-107 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Jo Van Fleet was originally considered as Kruger's wife but the casting of Claire Trevor was hoped would rekindle the chemistry she showed opposite Robinson in the earlier "Key Largo," for which she won an Oscar.


12:15 AM -- THE CAPTIVE CITY (1952)
A small-town newspaper editor defies threats to expose the mob.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: John Forsythe, Joan Camden, Harold J. Kennedy
BW-91 mins, CC,

According to director Robert Wise, the movie was shot entirely in Reno, NV in 22-23 days. They used the newspaper office there, the City Hall, the street. Not one shot was filmed in the studio.


2:15 AM -- CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954)
Scientists track a prehistoric monster in the South American jungle while it tracks them.
Dir: Jack Arnold
Cast: Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning
BW-79 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Julie Adams noted that making the film was an extremely pleasant process and that the cast and crew got along quite well. She also explained that she felt sympathetic toward the monster. Adams said, "there always is that feeling of compassion for the monster. I think maybe it touches something in ourselves, maybe the darker parts of ourselves, that long to be loved and think they really can't ever be loved. It strikes a chord within us."


3:45 AM -- THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953)
Nuclear tests set a dormant prehistoric monster on a path of destruction.
Dir: Eugene Lourié
Cast: Paul Christian, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway
BW-80 mins, CC,

While visiting his friend Ray Harryhausen on the set, Ray Bradbury was given a copy of the script (which was going under the working title "Monster From the Sea&quot and was asked if he could possibly do some rewriting on it. After reading the script, he remarked about a scene in the story (which featured the monster destroying a lighthouse) that seemed very similar to a short story that he had published in "The Saturday Evening Post" several years earlier called "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms". Bradbury's story was about a dinosaur that destroys a lighthouse. The next day he received a telegram offering to buy the film rights to the story for $2,000. After the sale, the film's title was changed to "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms". When Bradbury's story was reprinted years later, he changed its title to "The Fog Horn".


5:15 AM -- THE GIANT BEHEMOTH (1959)
A radioactive dinosaur plots a deadly path to London.
Dir: Eugene Lourie
Cast: Gene Evans, Andre Morell, John Turner
BW-80 mins, CC,

Many of the sound effects are taken from King Kong (1933), including Fay Wray's scream.

[mopinko]

1. i'm excited. her pics for last season were great.

i watched most of them on the second round, too.
excited to see what she has for this season.