TCM Schedule for Friday, June 10 -- What's On Tonight - Secrets and Blackmail

[Staph]

Happy birthday to Judy Garland, born on this day in 1922, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, as Frances Ethel Gumm. We get a day of her films (including her Oscar-nominated role in A Star Is Born (1954)). In primetime, TCM is featuring a trio of films about secrets and blackmail, including two excellent political thrillers, The Best Man (1964) and Advise & Consent (1962). I wonder if TCM set today's schedule before the Anthony Weiner scandal started! Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Everybody Sing (1938)
A theatrical family tries to put on a show but is upstaged by their servants.
Dir: Edwin L. Marin
Cast: Allan Jones, Judy Garland, Fanny Brice.
91 min, TV-G , CC

A boys choir was used to provide the singing voices for the schoolgirl chorus that backs Judy on her numbers.


7:32 AM -- MGM's March On In 1934-35 (1934)
In 1934, MGM held a convention in Chicago to preview the films scheduled for the 1934-1935 exhibition season.
Cast: Felix E. Feist, Norman Pyle, William Bishop
8 min,

Also known as Convention of the Century.


7:45 AM -- Girl Crazy (1943)
A womanizing playboy finds true love when he's sent to a desert college.
Dir: Norman Taurog
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Gil Stratton.
99 min, TV-G , CC

Judy Garland's character's name, Ginger Gray, is a tribute to Ginger Rogers, who played the part on Broadway when the character was named Molly Gray. Ginger Rogers wrote that one night onstage in the play, her costar Allen Kearns accidentally said: "Ginger, I love you" instead of "Molly". The mistake got such a huge laugh from the audience that they decided to continue to do that in subsequent performances, pretending it was a mistake. (Source: "Ginger: My Story". New York: Harper-Collins, 1991)


9:30 AM -- The Clock (1945)
A G.I. en route to Europe falls in love during a whirlwind two-day leave in New York City.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Judy Garland, Robert Walker, James Gleason.
90 min, TV-PG , CC

This film, Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and A Child Is Waiting (1963)_ are Judy Garland's only non-singing movies.


11:15 AM -- The Pirate (1948)
An actor poses as a notorious pirate to court a romantic Caribbean girl.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Walter Slezak.
C-102 min, TV-PG , CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Lennie Hayton

Gene Kelly fought to get The Nicholas Brothers (Fayard Nicholas and Harold Nicholas) included in the movie. When one dance sequence was being rehearsed, Harold Nicholas was just going through the motions, and Gene Kelly accused him of not knowing the routine - so Nicholas danced the whole routine, alone, full-out and flawlessly. Kelly was speechless.


1:04 PM -- Moments In Music (1949)
This short shows that no matter what type of music a person likes, he will find it at the movies.
Cast: Bing Crosby, Xavier Cugat, Nelson Eddy
10 min

Features clips from New Moon (1940), Ziegfeld Girl (1941) (clip of Judy Garland singing "You Never Looked So Beautiful Before"), Up in Arms (1944) (clip of Danny Kaye singing "Tchkawvsky"), Two Girls and a Sailor (1944), The Stork Club (1945), Holiday in Mexico (1946), Carnegie Hall (1947) (clip of Lily Pons singing), Road to Rio (1947) (clip of Bing Crosby crooning to Dorothy Lamour), and Neptune's Daughter (1949).


1:15 PM -- Summer Stock (1950)
A farmer gets sucked into show business when a theatrical troupe invades her farm.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Eddie Bracken.
C-109 min, TV-G , CC

Judy Garland is said to have been at the height of her drug addiction throughout filming, resulting in her weight changes, mood-swings, and unexplained illnesses. It was due to this behavior that MGM fired her after filming completed. One one particular day of fiming, Judy Garland was said to be "not in a fit state to work" so Gene Kelly feigned a fall so that she would be able to take the day off.


3:15 PM -- A Star Is Born (1954)
A falling star marries the newcomer he's helping reach the top.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson.
C-176 min, TV-PG , CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Mason, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Judy Garland, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Malcolm C. Bert, Gene Allen, Irene Sharaff and George James Hopkins, Best Costume Design, Color -- Jean Louis, Mary Ann Nyberg and Irene Sharaff, Best Music, Original Song -- Harold Arlen (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) for the song "The Man that Got Away", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Ray Heindorf

Groucho Marx called Judy Garland not winning an Oscar for A Star Is Born (1954), "the biggest robbery since Brink's." Hedda Hopper later reported that her loss to Grace Kelly for The Country Girl (1954) was the result of the closest Oscar vote up till that time that didn't end in a tie, with just six votes separating the two. In any event, it was a heartbreak from which she never really recovered and which has remained a matter of some controversy ever since.


6:15 PM -- I Could Go On Singing (1963)
An American singing star in London tries to reclaim the son she gave up for adoption.
Dir: Ronald Neame
Cast: Judy Garland, Dirk Bogarde, Jack Klugman.
C-99 min, TV-G , CC

Judy Garland's final film.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SECRETS & BLACKMAIL



8:00 PM -- The Best Man (1964)
Two presidential hopefuls get caught up in the dirty side of politics.
Dir: Franklin J. Schaffner
Cast: Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, Edie Adams.
102 min, TV-PG , CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Lee Tracy

Ronald Reagan was rejected for a role in this film because a studio executive didn't think he had "that presidential look."


10:00 PM -- Advise & Consent (1962)
A controversial presidential nomination threatens the careers of several prominent politicians.
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Don Murray.
138 min, TV-PG , CC

The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Allen Drury, who was a congressional correspondent for The New York Times during the 1950s, while he was writing the book. Nearly every character is based on a real person (Lafe Smith is based on John F. Kennedy; Orrin Knox is based on Robert A. Taft, Fred Van Ackerman is based on Joseph McCarthy and the president is modeled on Franklin Delano Roosevelt). Even the blackmailing pf Brig Anderson, and how it's resolved, is based on a real incident. And the Leffingwell nomination is based on the House Un-American Activities Committee investigation of Alger Hiss.


12:30 AM -- Victim (1961)
A closeted lawyer risks his career to bring a blackmailer to justice.
Dir: Basil Dearden
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Sylvia Syms, Dennis Price.
100 min, TV-PG

Although, by the time of this movie, the British police were tending towards leniency in their treatment of homosexual offenders, it would not be until the Sexual Offences Act 1967 (citation 1967 c.60) that homosexuality between consenting males over the age of 21 was decriminalized. Even then, this established an uneven age of consent (16 for heterosexual activity), applied only to England and Wales (Scotland followed in 1980 and Northern Ireland in 1982) and did not apply to the Merchant Navy or the Armed Forces. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 reduced the homosexual age of consent to 18 and the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000 further reduced it to 16, bringing parity with heterosexual activity.


2:15 AM -- Road Games (1981)
A truck driver's attempt to find a vanished hitchhiker leads police to suspect him of her murder.
Dir: Richard Franklin
Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Marion Edward, Stacy Keach Sr..
C-101 min, TV-14

This film has frequently been compared to Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954), which isn't just coincidence. Director Richard Franklin gave writer Everett De Roche a copy of the 'Rear Window' script while working on their previous film Patrick (1978). After reading the script De Roche suggested to Franklin that the open highways of the Australian outback would be an ideal place for a similar suspense story. He then proceeded to write 'Roadgames'.


4:00 AM -- Hot Rods to Hell (1967)
A family traveling through the desert is set up by a teen gang.
Dir: John Brahm
Cast: Dana Andrews, Jeanne Crain, Mimsy Farmer.
C-100 min, TV-PG

Originally made for television in 1966, but released first in theaters and drive-ins instead.


5:45 AM -- The Corvair In Action (1960)
Technicians herald the arrival of a new car that "delivers the goods as no other compact car can."
C-6 min, TV-G

[CBHagman]

1. "A Star Is Born."

Whatever you do, don't miss Judy singing "The Man That Got Away." Whoa.