TCM Schedule for Friday, September 28 -- What's On Tonight: Western Spoofs

[Staph]

During the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating the classic movie musicals produced by the Freed Unit, a team of writers, directors, composers and performers that created popular and critically-acclaimed musicals during the Golden Age of MGM. And in prime time, we have western spoofs that were not made by Mel Brooks. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Babes in Arms (1939)
A group of second-generation entertainers puts on a show to launch their careers.
Dir: Busby Berkeley
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Charles Winninger
BW-96 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Mickey Rooney, and Best Music, Scoring -- Roger Edens and George Stoll

MGM Studio's biggest money grosser of 1939, surpassing The Wizard of Oz for that production year.


7:45 AM -- Ziegfeld Follies (1946)
Legendary showman Flo Ziegfeld imagines the kind of Follies he could produce with MGM's musical stars.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer
C-110 mins, TV-G, CC,

The horse ridden by Lucille Ball is the Lone Ranger's Silver.


9:45 AM -- Summer Holiday (1948)
Musical remake of Ah, Wilderness!, about a small-town boy's struggles with growing up.
Dir: Rouben Mamoulian
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Gloria De Haven, Walter Huston
C-93 mins, TV-G, CC,

In the opening sequence, the groups seen listening to the off-screen high-school choir are close approximations to those seen in paintings by the celebrated American painter Grant Wood, now known only for the gaunt farmer with a pitchfork and his grim-faced wife in "American Gothic."


11:30 AM -- Pagan Love Song (1950)
An American tourist romances a Tahitian beauty.
Dir: Robert Alton
Cast: Esther Williams, Howard Keel, Minna Gombell
C-77 mins, TV-G, CC,

The original title for this film was "Tahiti." The writers of the music for the film, 'Harry Warren' and Arthur Freed, wrote a song by that title, but when the title of the movie was changed, the song was dropped and Nacio Herb Brown and Freed's "Pagan Love Song" was added.


1:00 PM -- The Belle Of New York (1952)
A turn-of-the-century playboy courts a Salvation Army girl.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Fred Astaire, Vera-Ellen, Marjorie Main
C-81 mins, TV-G, CC,

Based on the first American stage musical to play London's West End, where it was a big hit in 1897.


2:30 PM -- Brigadoon (1954)
Two American hunters in Scotland discover a mystical village that only materializes once every century.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, Cyd Charisse
C-108 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, E. Preston Ames, Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason, Best Costume Design, Color -- Irene Sharaff, and Best Sound, Recording -- Wesley C. Miller (M-G-M)

Star Gene Kelly and director Vincente Minnelli both wanted to film scenes on location in Scotland but the studio bosses at MGM insisted the film be shot entirely at the studio. When the movie was released critics noted the staged studio feel of the movie.


4:30 PM -- Silk Stockings (1957)
A straitlaced Soviet agent is seduced by Paris and a high-stepping film producer.
Dir: Rouben Mamoulian
Cast: Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Janis Paige
C-118 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

Cyd Charisse's striptease to the title number was met with a least a couple of raised eyebrows from the Hays film censors. For one 2-second instance, she is seen at length in a silk camisole exposing her legendary legs. This was considered too risqué by the Hays office, and a high-back chair was quickly integrated into the dance for her to run behind. When she next emerges from behind the chair she has quickly slipped on a swirling petticoat, but it is transparent and gives quick glimpses of her legs anyway, which by now were what most viewers wanted to see anyway.


6:30 PM -- Musicals Great Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit at MGM (1996)
A one-time songwriter rises to produce some of the screen's greatest musicals.
Dir: David Thompson
Cast: Irving Brecher, Leslie Caron, Saul Chaplin
C-86 mins, TV-G,

Features clips from The Broadway Melody (1929), The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929), 42nd Street (1933), Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Babes in Arms (1939), Strike Up the Band (1940), Cabin in the Sky (1943), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Ziegfeld Follies (1945), Yolanda and the Thief (1945), The Harvey Girls (1946), The Pirate (1948), Easter Parade (1948), That Midnight Kiss (1949), On the Town (1949), Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Royal Wedding (1951), Show Boat (1951), An American in Paris (1951), Singin' in the Rain (1952), The Band Wagon (1953), It's Always Fair Weather (1955), Guys and Dolls (1955), and Gigi (1958).



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: WESTERN SPOOFS



8:00 PM -- Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)
A cowboy drifts into a lawless town and brings things back together.
Dir: Burt Kennedy
Cast: James Garner, Joan Hackett, Walter Brennan
C-93 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

The film's title is a parody of a bumper sticker popular around the time it was made, "Support Your Local Police" part of the "law-and-order" movement led by such politicians as Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George Wallace.


10:00 PM -- Along Came Jones (1945)
A mild-mannered cowboy is mistaken for a notorious outlaw.
Dir: Stuart Heisler
Cast: Gary Cooper, Loretta Young, William Demarest
BW-90 mins, TV-G, CC,

Loretta Young was pregnant with her son Christopher Lewis during shooting and was told by her doctor to take it easy because of all the horseback riding she had to do during filming.


12:00 AM -- Carry On Cowboy (1966)
Inhabitants of a beleaguered Western town mistake a plumber for the new Marshall.
Dir: Gerald Thomas
Cast: Jim Dale, Sid James, Joan Sims
C-95 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

The main street has a turn at each end to disguise the fact that there was no wild prairie at Pinewood.


2:00 AM -- Multiple Sidosis (1970)
A short film utilizing quick cuts and multiple angles of a one-man-band musical performance.
C-10 mins, TV-PG,

The first of four films made by former vaudevillian Sid Lauvrents.


2:00 AM -- The Sid Saga Part 1 (1985)
A filmmaker chronicles his 100 year odyssey in a variety of different professions.
C-27 mins, TV-14,


2:00 AM -- The Sid Saga Part 2 (1987)
A filmmaker chronicles his 100 year odyssey in a variety of different professions.
C-31 mins, TV-14,


2:00 AM -- The Sid Saga Part 3 (1989)
A filmmaker chronicles his 100 year odyssey in a variety of different professions.
C-31 mins, TV-14,


3:45 AM -- Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)
Cameras capture the backstage drama as acting students audition for a film.
Dir: William Greaves
Cast: Patricia Ree Gilbert, Don Fellows, Jonathan Gordon
C-75 mins, TV-MA,

Followed by Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 1/2 (2005), featuring many of the same performers.


5:00 AM -- Crisis in Morality (1962)
BW-26 mins, TV-PG,

Produced by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles.


5:30 AM -- Age 13 (1955)
A troubled teen deals with the death of his mother and ill treatment by his stepfather.
C-27 mins, TV-G,

Like many films produced and directed by Sid Davis, this one was recorded silently. The sound was recorded later and synched to fit the picture; in many cases, Arthur Swerdloff, the editor, cut to another shot to allow him to re-sync the audio and the video.