TCM Schedule for Friday, April 22 -- Melodrama Heroines

[Staph]

Today TCM is celebrating Doris Day, born on April 3, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Then in primetime we have a trio of melodramatic heroines. Enjoy!



6:30 AM -- Julie (1956)
A stewardess is stalked by her psychotic estranged husband.
Cast: Doris Day, Louis Jourdan, Barry Sullivan.
Dir: Andrew L. Stone.
98 min, TV-PG , CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Leith Stevens (music) and Tom Adair (lyrics) for the song "Julie", and Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Original -- Andrew L. Stone

While making this film on location, Doris Day repeatedly complained to her husband Martin Melcher, whose first film as a producer this was, that she felt ill and needed a rest. He insisted that she adhere to her Christian Science beliefs - and the film's shooting schedule - and "have faith" that whatever was ailing her would pass. Once shooting was completed, Day consulted her doctor in Beverly Hills, and discovered a large ovarian tumor, which required her to have a hysterectomy.


8:23 AM -- Words & Music (1931)
Singer Ruth Eton is looking for some new songs to use in her act.
Cast: Ruth Etting, Don Tomkins.
Dir: Roy Mack.
21 min

This stars the real Ruth Etting that Doris Day plays in Love Me Or Leave Me.


8:45 AM -- Love Me or Leave Me (1955)
True story of torch singer Ruth Etting's struggle to escape the gangster who made her a star.
Cast: Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell.
Dir: Charles Vidor.
C-122 min, TV-PG, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Daniel Fuchs

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Cagney, Best Music, Original Song -- Nicholas Brodszky (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "I'll Never Stop Loving You", Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Percy Faith and George Stoll, Best Sound, Recording -- Wesley C. Miller (M-G-M), and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Daniel Fuchs and Isobel Lennart

Doris Day wrote in her autobiography that she hesitated before accepting the lead in this film. Ruth Etting was a kept woman who clawed her way up from seamy Chicago nightclubs to the Ziegfeld Follies. It would require her to drink, wear scant, sexy costumes and to string along a man she didn't love in order to further her career. There was also a certain vulgarity about Ruth Etting that she didn't want to play. Producer Joe Pasternak convinced Day to accept the role because she would give the part some dignity that would play away from the vulgarity.


11:00 AM -- My Dream Is Yours (1949)
A talent scout turns a young unknown into a radio singing star.
Cast: Jack Carson, Doris Day, Eve Arden.
Dir: Michael Curtiz.
C-101 min, TV-G, CC

The set for Gary Mitchells' apartment is made up using sections of the apartment from "Rope" (1949).


12:45 PM -- Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960)
A drama critic and his family try to adjust to life in the country.
Cast: Doris Day, David Niven, Janis Paige.
Dir: Charles Walters.
C-111 min, TV-G, CC

Beginning her feature-film career portraying Katharine Hepburn's mother in Little Women (1933), Spring Byington closed her movie years playing Doris Day's mother in this film.


2:45 PM -- Romance on the High Seas (1948)
A singer on a Caribbean cruise gets mixed up in a series of romantic problems.
Cast: Doris Day, Jack Carson, Janis Paige.
Dir: Michael Curtiz.
C-99 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "It's Magic", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Ray Heindorf

This was Doris Day's first ever acting role, and she was extremely naive about how films were made. She wrote in her autobiography that the first scenes to be filmed would be aboard the cruise ship, and the first day she walked onto the sound stage and asked when they would be leaving for the boat? The crew broke up laughing.


4:30 PM -- The Tunnel of Love (1958)
A married couple endures endless red tape when they try to adopt a child.
Cast: Doris Day, Richard Widmark, Gig Young.
Dir: Gene Kelly.
98 min, TV-PG, CC

Doris Day wrote that her manager/husband Martin Melcher was terribly concerned over the box-office failure of this film and It Happened to Jane (1959). Their failures caused Day to drop out of the Top Ten Box Office Stars. Day and Melcher had words about him hustling her into almost any film for the money instead of waiting to find good scripts that would have produced better results.


6:15 PM -- With Six You Get Eggroll (1968)
A widow and a widower have to contend with hostile children when they fall in love.
Cast: Doris Day, Brian Keith, Barbara Hershey.
Dir: Howard Morris.
C-95 min, TV-G, CC

This was Doris Day's final big screen appearance, following a 20 year career in the movies.


TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: MELODRAMA HEROINES


8:00 PM -- Daisy Kenyon (1947)
On the rebound from a married man, a woman marries a veteran, just as her lover becomes available.
Cast: Joan Crawford, Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews.
Dir: Otto Preminger.
99 min, TV-PG, CC

Joan Crawford later said about this film, "If Otto Preminger hadn't directed it, the picture would have been a mess. It came off. Sort of."


9:49 PM -- Don Redman and His Orchestra (1934)
In a nightclub setting, Don Redman and His Orchestra perform three songs.
Dir: Joseph Henabery.
10 min

The songs include "Yeah, Man" with music by J. Russel Robinson and lyrics by Noble Sissle, "Ill Wind (You're Blowin' Me No Good)" with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Ted Koehler, and "Nagasaki" with music by Harry Warren and lyrics by Mort Dixon.


10:00 PM -- Stella Dallas (1937)
After divorcing a society man, a small-town woman tries to build a better life for their daughter.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Anne Shirley, John Boles.
Dir: King Vidor.
106 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Barbara Stanwyck, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Anne Shirley

The movie was so popular it became a radio serial on 25 October 1937, dramatizing the later lives of characters in the movie. The serial lasted for eighteen years.


12:00 AM -- Susan Slade (1961)
A pregnant teen allows her mother to pass the baby off as her own.
Cast: Troy Donahue, Connie Stevens, Dorothy McGuire.
Dir: Delmer Daves.
C-116 min, TV-PG, CC

Based on the 1961 novel The Sin of Susan Slade by Doris Hume.


2:00 AM -- Strange Behavior (1981)
A scientist's experiments on teenagers turn them into killers.
Cast: Michael Murphy, Louise Fletcher, Dan Shor.
Dir: Michael Laughlin.
C-99 min, TV-MA

Though the film is set in suburban Illinois, the production couldn't find any "authentic" looking locales for a small American town so the production was moved to New Zealand.


3:51 AM -- The Goodbye Girl Featurette (1977)
C-9 min

Richard Dreyfuss based his character of Elliot Garfield on that of his friend, science fiction author Harlan Ellison.


4:00 AM -- Deathline (1973)
Tunnel dwellers use the London Underground as a hunting ground.
Cast: Hugh Armstrong, James Cossins, Sharon Gurney.
Dir: Gary Sherman.
C-88 min, TV-MA

The film is set at an uncompleted London Underground station called "Museum", on a non-completed Underground line somewhere near the real Underground stations Russell Square and British Museum (the latter of which closed in 1933). No such line or station exists, but it is notable that this was partly filmed at Aldwych, which has become more famous as a film set since its closure in 1994 (and more profitable than during its life as a working tube station). Currently, Aldwych may reopen as part of the expansion of the Docklands Light Railway, which would reopen the most convenient station for the London office of High Commission of India.


5:30 AM -- Mental Hospital (1953)
A schizophrenic enters the Oklahoma State Hospital for treatment.
Dir: Layton Maybrey.
20 min, TV-14

[CBHagman]

1. I liked "Daisy Kenyon."

It's been eons since I've seen it, but what I recall is Fonda's likability and the relatively racy theme, namely choosing between Mr. Available and Mr. Crumpet. If you know what I mean.