TCM Schedule for Thursday, March 31 -- Employee Picks

[Staph]

During the day, there are a series of movies based on novels, by authors like Erskine Caldwell, John Steinbeck, and Rumer Godden. And in primetime we have the last night of employee picks (with the employees' names and departments included in curly brackets). Enjoy!



6:15 AM -- Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
A team of flyers risks their lives to deliver the mail in a mountainous South American country.
Cast: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth.
Dir: Howard Hawks.
BW-121 min, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Walker, and Best Effects, Special Effects -- Roy Davidson (photographic) and Edwin C. Hahn (sound)

When Rita Hayworth couldn't play her drunk scene well enough, Hawks told Cary Grant to throw a bucket of water on her head, dry her hair, and to only say his lines.


8:30 AM -- Love Me Tonight (1932)
A Parisian tailor falls in love with a princess.
Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Charlie Ruggles.
Dir: Rouben Mamoulian.
BW-89 min, TV-G

For its post Production Code re-release (after 1934), this film was trimmed down to 96 minutes. Those missing minutes have never been restored and are presumed lost. Among the deletions in the film's 1949 reissue was Myrna Loy's portion of the "Mimi" reprise. In the Production Code era, Miss Loy's negligee was deemed too revealing.


10:00 AM -- The Children's Hour (1961)
A malicious student tries to destroy the teachers at a girls' school.
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner.
Dir: William Wyler.
BW-108 min, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Fay Bainter, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Fernando Carrere and Edward G. Boyle, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Franz Planer, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Dorothy Jeakins, and Best Sound -- Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)

Screenwriter John Michael Hayes was so faithful to Lillian Hellman's play that large chunks of the dialogue are identical to the dialogue in These Three (1936), the 1936 film version of The Children's Hour, for which Lillian Hellman herself wrote the adaptation and screenplay - this, despite the fact that These Three (1936) was a watered-down, censored version of The Children's Hour.


12:00 PM -- God's Little Acre (1958)
A dirt-farmer lets his family fall apart while he hunts for his grandfather's buried gold.
Cast: Robert Ryan, Aldo Ray, Tina Louise.
Dir: Anthony Mann.
BW-118 min, TV-PG

A 1967 re-release attempted to appeal to the new generation by playing up the sex in the advertisements. The '67 poster featured the drawing of a topless woman underneath a bare-chested man on a bed, as well as a topless (but chaste) photo of co-star Fay Spain that was definitely not in the picture itself! For this re-release, Tina Louise was given top-billing and Michael Landon went from tenth billing in 1958 to second billing this time.


2:00 PM -- Of Mice and Men (1939)
A drifter and his slow-witted pal try to make their way in the West.
Cast: Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney, Jr., Betty Field.
Dir: Lewis Milestone.
BW-106 min, TV-14

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Score -- Aaron Copland, Best Music, Scoring -- Aaron Copland, Best Sound, Recording -- Elmer Raguse (Hal Roach SSD), and Best Picture

The movie was released by the production company of Hal Roach, producer of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and "Our Gang" comedies. During one of Roach's last interviews, television talk-show host Tom Snyder complimented him on the film. Roach responded, "It could've used more laughs."


4:00 PM -- Trapeze (1956)
An aging trapeze star and his protige fall for the same woman.
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Gina Lollobrigida.
Dir: Carol Reed.
C-106 min, TV-PG

Burt Lancaster performed all of the trapeze stunts himself, having worked in a circus before entering films. He insisted on doing the climactic triple flip, but technical adviser Eddie Ward initially was hesitant on Lancaster performing the stunt, so Ward doubled for Lancaster during the first weeks of shooting, but Lancaster told director Carol Reed that he knew how to do the stunt from the get-go so it is Lancaster you see in the final cut of the film.


6:00 PM -- Black Narcissus (1947)
Nuns founding a convent in the Himalayas are tormented by the area's exotic beauty.
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Sabu, Jean Simmons.
Dir: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger.
C-101 min, TV-14

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Alfred Junge, and Best Cinematography, Color -- Jack Cardiff

The much admired Himalayan scenery was all created in the studio (with glass shots and hanging miniatures). The backdrops were blown-up black and white photographs. The art department then gave them their breathtaking colors by using pastel chalks on top of them.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: EMPLOYEE PICKS



8:00 PM -- All About Eve (1950) {Gabrielle Ballard, Marketing}
An ambitious young actress tries to take over a star's career and love life.
Cast: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
BW-138 min, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Sanders, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head and Charles Le Maire, Best Director -- Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Best Sound, Recording -- 20th Century-Fox Sound Dept., Best Writing, Screenplay -- Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Anne Baxter, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Celeste Holm, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Thelma Ritter. Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lyle R. Wheeler, George W. Davis, Thomas Little and Walter M. Scott, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Milton R. Krasner, Best Film Editing -- Barbara McLean, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Alfred Newman

In 1970 the story was adapted into a Broadway musical called "Applause" and in 1973 a made-for-TV movie (Applause (1973)). Lauren Bacall played Margo Channing. When Bacall left the show, the actress who took over the role was Anne Baxter, who had played the role of Eve in the film.


10:30 PM -- The Last Of Sheila (1973) {Alexa Foreman, TCM Studio Production}
A game of murder among wealthy vacationers turns into the real thing.
Cast: Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, James Coburn.
Dir: Herbert Ross.
C-119 min, TV-14

The plot is based on murder-mystery party games that co-authors and puzzle enthusiasts Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim wrote and performed in their homes. Perkins and Sondheim plotted sophisticated games with very esoteric clues for their own and their friends' entertainment, as James Coburn's character does, and the film grew from that.


12:45 AM -- Splendor in the Grass (1961) {Crystal Wheeler, TCM Studio Production}
Sexual repression drives a small-town Kansas girl mad during the roaring twenties.
Cast: Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat Hingle.
Dir: Elia Kazan.
C-124 min, TV-14

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- William Inge

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Natalie Wood

As filmed, this film included a sequence in which Wilma Dean Loomis takes a bath while arguing with her mother. The bickering finally becomes so intense that Wilma jumps out of the tub and runs nude down a hallway to her bedroom, where the camera cuts to a close-up of her bare legs kicking hysterically on the mattress. Both the Hollywood censors and the Catholic Legion Of Decency objected to the hallway scene, finding the bare backside unsuitable for public display. Consequently, director Elia Kazan dropped the piece, leaving an abrupt jump from tub to bed.


3:00 AM -- The Story Of G.I. Joe (1945) {Barry M. Burnett, Technical Millwork}
War correspondent Ernie Pyle joins an Army platoon during World War II to learn what battle is really about.
Cast: Burgess Meredith, Robert Mitchum, Freddie Steele.
Dir: William A. Wellman.
BW-108 min, TV-14

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Mitchum, Best Music, Original Song -- Ann Ronell for the song "Linda", Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Louis Applebaum and Ann Ronell, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Leopold Atlas, Guy Endore and Philip Stevenson

The extras in the film were real American GIs, in the process of being transferred from the war in Europe to the Pacific. Many of them were killed in the fighting on Okinawa - the same battle in which Ernie Pyle was killed by a Japanese sniper - never having seen the movie in which they appeared.


5:00 AM -- Men in Exile (1937)
Gun smugglers clash with an island dictator.
Cast: Dick Purcell, June Travis, Alan Baxter.
Dir: John Farrow.
BW-58 min, TV-G

John Farrow's first credited direction of a feature film.