TCM Schedule for Thursday, April 28 -- Bernard Herrmann

[Staph]

In the daytime, TCM is celebrating Gregory Peck, born April 5, 1916, in La Jolla, California. And in primetime, you can listen to the equisite music of Bernard Herrmann. Enjoy!



6:10 AM -- Hollywood Scout (1945)
One of Pete Smith's assistants auditions animal acts for his short subjects.
Narrator: Pete Smith
8 min


6:30 AM -- Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)
The famed 19th century hero defeats enemy fleets and courts an admiral's widow.
Cast: Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, James Robertson Justice.
Dir: Raoul Walsh.
C-117 min, TV-G, CC

The rights to Hornblower were originally acquired by Warners with Errol Flynn in mind but after the financial failure of "The Adventures of Don Juan" in 1948 and growing difficulties with the actor, he was not cast. Warners was already building up Burt Lancaster as their new swashbuckler, but the role of a British sea captain seemed out of his range, so Peck was ultimately cast.


8:30 AM -- The Chairman (1969)
An American scientist infiltrates Red China to steal scientific secrets.
Cast: Gregory Peck, Anne Heywood, Arthur Hill.
Dir: J. Lee Thompson.
C-98 min, TV-PG

This film used the lab set left over from Fox's Fantastic Voyage (1966).


10:09 AM -- King Of The Duplicators (1968)
This short shows how William Tuttle, chief of MGM's makeup department for over 30 years, makes life masks of performers.
Cast: William Tuttle, Wayne Thomas, Charles H. Schram
C-12 min

Photographs of Barry Atwater as Abraham Lincoln, Natalie Wood as Penelope (1966), and Tony Randall in 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964) are shown as examples of Tuttle's expertise.


10:30 AM -- Night People (1954)
Communists kidnap a U.S. officer in cold war Berlin.
Cast: Gregory Peck, Broderick Crawford, Anita Bjork.
Dir: Nunnally Johnson.
C-94 min, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Jed Harris and Tom Reed

Their uniforms indicate both Van Dyke and Eddie were combat veterans of World War II. Van Dyke served in Italy with the 5th Army and earned the 2nd highest award for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross, plus a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. Eddie fought with the 4th Infantry Division in France and won both the Silver Star and Bronze Star for valor.


12:20 PM -- Beach Of Nazare (1957)
This Screenliner short looks at the dress and customs of Nazaré, a fishing village on Portugal's Atlantic coast.
Narrator: Peter Roberts
Dir: Van Campen Heilner
8 min

People there wear colorful plaids and tartans, reflecting the Scottish invasion of the area during the Napoleonic Wars.


12:30 PM -- On The Beach (1959)
After a nuclear war, U.S. sailors stationed in Australia deal with the end of civilization.
Cast: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire.
Dir: Stanley Kramer.
134 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Film Editing -- Frederic Knudtson, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Ernest Gold

According to Philip R. Davey, author of the book "When Hollywood Came to Melbourne: The Story of the Making of Stanley Kramer's 'On The Beach'", director Stanley Kramer experienced many problems with the thousands of bathers who stood in shoulder-deep water to watch the proceedings, and who applauded the cast after each take. Their enthusiasm was gratifying in this respect if not in others, such as when thousands of people began crowding forward to get a closer look at Ava Gardner, they repeatedly moved into camera range, thus necessitating many frustrating retakes.


2:51 PM -- Big Blue Goose (1956)
In this short, naturalist Van Campen Heilner travels to the Louisiana bayou country.
Narrator: Harry Wismer
Dir: Van Campen Heilner
8 min


3:00 PM -- The Big Country (1958)
Feuding families vie for water rights in the old West.
Cast: Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Charlton Heston.
Dir: William Wyler.
C-167 min, TV-PG, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Burl Ives

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Jerome Moross

Only film to feature Gregory Peck and his sons Jonathan Peck, Carey Paul Peck and Stephen Peck.


TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: BERNARD HERRMANN


6:00 PM -- The Snows Of Kilimanjaro (1952)
As he fights a deadly jungle fever, a hunter remembers his lost loves..
Cast: Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward, Ava Gardner.
Dir: Henry King.
C-114 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Lyle R. Wheeler, John DeCuir, Thomas Little and Paul S. Fox, and Best Cinematography, Color -- Leon Shamroy

In the scene where Gregory Peck lifts up Ava Gardner, he threw out his knee and production had to close down while he recovered. Unfortunately, all the scenes of his lying down in his sickbed had been shot already.


8:00 PM -- The Wrong Man (1956)
A musician is mistaken for a vicious thief, with devastating results.
Cast: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock.
105 min, TV-PG, CC

When Manny (Henry Fonda) is taken to prison was filmed in a real prison...as he is led to his cell , you can hear one of the inmates shout, "What'd they get ya for, Henry?" and several of the other prisoners laughing.


10:00 PM -- North by Northwest (1959)
An advertising man is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock.
C-136 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- William A. Horning, Robert F. Boyle, Merrill Pye, Henry Grace and Frank R. McKelvy, Best Film Editing -- George Tomasini, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Ernest Lehman

It was journalist Otis L. Guernsey Jr. who suggested to Alfred Hitchcock the premise of a man mistaken for a nonexistent secret agent. He was inspired, he said, by a real-life case during WW II, known as Operation Mincemeat, in which British intelligence hoped to lure Italian and German forces away from Sicily, a planned invasion site. A cadaver was selected and given an identity and phony papers referring to invasions of Sardinia and Greece. A British film, The Man Who Never Was (1956), recounted the operation.


12:30 AM -- The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
A possessive son's efforts to keep his mother from remarrying threaten to destroy his family.
Cast: Tim Holt, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead.
Dir: Orson Welles.
88 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Agnes Moorehead, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Albert S. D'Agostino, A. Roland Fields and Darrell Silvera, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Stanley Cortez, and Best Picture

Orson Welles suspected that author Booth Tarkington based the lead character George on Welles himself for a variety of reasons: Tarkington was a friend of the Welles family, Welles had a reputation for being a spoiled, difficult child and Welles's full name was George Orson Welles, so he was called George or Georgie while growing up.


2:15 AM -- On Dangerous Ground (1951)
A tough cop sent to help in a mountain manhunt falls for the quarry's blind sister.
Cast: Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Ward Bond.
Dir: Nicholas Ray.
82 min, TV-PG, CC

After being completed, the film was shelved for two years, which was not uncommon in RKO under the control of Howard Hughes. Upon Hughes insistence, 10 minutes was cut out of the film, and a scene which originally was just before the ending, the assassination of Myrna, was moved to the ending of the first part of the film.


4:00 AM -- One Million Years, B.C. (1966)
A rebellious caveman leaves his tribe in search of a better life.
Cast: Raquel Welch, John Richardson, Martine Beswick.
Dir: Don Chaffey.
C-100 min, TV-PG

As the Shell People are attacked by a giant turtle, the women call it "Achelon" which is the real scientific name for the animal.


5:43 AM -- A Look Back At Crossbow (1965)
This promotional film for Operation Crossbow gives the historical background for the movie's plot.
Cast: Herschel Bernardi, Winston Churchill, Robert H. Goddard
10 min

The title, Operation Crossbow, was (briefly) changed by MGM for the US release to "The Great Spy Mission" because the studio thought that having the word "operation" in the title might make people think it was either a medical film or a Robin Hood-type movie, a genre that wasn't doing well at the box office at the time.