TCM Schedule for Thursday, November 7, 2013 -- What's On Tonight -- Nurse Night

[Staph]

During the morning hours, TCM is featuring Burt Lancaster, the afternoon is all about William Wellman, and the evening is nurses. A typically strange combination from TCM, so enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Jim Thorpe--All American (1951)
The famous Native American athlete fights prejudice in his pursuit of sports stardom.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Charles Bickford, Steve Cochran
BW-105 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Although some people may be confused at the sight of Burt Lancaster playing a native American, in fact, Thorpe himself was not a full-blooded Native American, being part Irish on his mother's side.


7:46 AM -- Pro Football (1934)
In this short film, the Chicago Bears football team demonstrate various plays.
Dir: Ray McCarey
BW-9 mins,


8:00 AM -- The Flame and the Arrow (1950)
Roman rebels fight against invading barbarians.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Virginia Mayo, Robert Douglas
C-88 mins, TV-PG,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Ernest Haller, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

Nick Cravat, who plays Piccolo, was an acrobat who was teamed with Burt Lancaster before Lancaster became a star. He appears in many of Lancaster's movies. In this one, and in The Crimson Pirate, he plays a mute. The reason was that his thick Brooklyn accent, which he could not lose, would have been wildly out of place in such period pieces.


9:30 AM -- Apache (1954)
Refusing to accept peace, a renegade leads a one-man war against the U.S. Cavalry.
Dir: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Jean Peters, John McIntire
C-87 mins, TV-PG, CC,

There really was a renegade Apache warrior called Massai, who was a bloodthirsty killer renowned for stealing, raping and murdering. He did indeed escape from a prison train bound for Florida and made his way back to his homeland. It is, however, doubtful that he was six feet tall and had blue eyes like Burt Lancaster.


10:58 AM -- Red Men On Parade (1941)
This short film takes the viewer to a large inter-tribal meeting of Native Americans from all over the western United States.
C-9 mins,


11:15 AM -- The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
War correspondent Ernie Pyle joins an Army platoon during World War II to learn what battle is really about.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: Burgess Meredith, Robert Mitchum, Freddie Steele
BW-109 mins, TV-14, CC,

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

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 machine gunner - never having seen the movie in which they appeared.


1:15 PM -- This Man's Navy (1945)
Two Navy vets compete to see whose son is the bigger hero.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: Wallace Beery, Tom Drake, James Gleason
BW-100 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Based on an idea by Commander Herman E. Halland U.S. Navy Ret.


3:00 PM -- The Happy Years (1950)
Friends and family try to tame an unruly student at the turn of the century.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: Dean Stockwell, Darryl Hickman, Scotty Beckett
BW-110 mins, TV-G, CC,

Filmed (at least in part) on location at the The Lawrenceville School, where the real story takes place. MGM dug up the paved paths around the school to make it look like it did during the time of the story. Most of the school looks the same still today with only a few building added over the last century.


5:00 PM -- The Next Voice You Hear... (1950)
The voice of God mystically appears on the radio, changing all who hear it.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: James Whitmore, Nancy Davis, Gary Gray
BW-83 mins, TV-G, CC,

The voice of God is never actually heard in the movie. The screenplay is written in such a way that the consequences of each of God's broadcasts are seen, but the broadcasts themselves are omitted.


6:30 PM -- It's A Big Country (1952)
Eight stories celebrate the glorious diversity of American life.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Ethel Barrymore, Keefe Brasselle, Gary Cooper
BW-89 mins, TV-PG, CC,

The directors of the segments are, in alphabetical order, Clarence Brown, Don Hartman, John Sturges, Richard Thorpe,
Charles Vidor, Don Weis, and William A. Wellman.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: NURSE NIGHT



8:00 PM -- A Farewell to Arms (1957)
The story of an affair between an English nurse and an American soldier on the Italian front during World War I.
Dir: Charles Vidor
Cast: Rock Hudson, Jennifer Jones, Vittorio De Sica
C-152 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Vittorio De Sica

Ernest Hemingway was not shy about expressing his dismay over producer David O. Selznick casting his 38-year old wife Jennifer Jones in the role of the 21-year-old nurse Catharine in the remake of his second novel, "A Farewell to Arms" (1957). Selznick had earlier tried to generate publicity for the film by making a token payment to Hemingway for the novel, even though he was not required to do so as Hemingway had sold away the rights to his book a generation before. The gesture did not earn Hemingway's goodwill.


10:45 PM -- Sister Kenny (1946)
True story of the Australian nurse who fought to gain acceptance for her polio-treatment methods.
Dir: Dudley Nichols
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Alexander Knox, Dean Jagger
BW-116 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Rosalind Russell

Based on the real-life story of Elizabeth Kenny, a bush nurse with no formal training, who came up with a radically different treatment for polio victims in the days before the polio vaccine prevented the disease. From the Wikipedia entry on Elizabeth Kenny, "Alan Alda credits the Sister Kenny treatments he received from his mother as a young boy for his complete recovery from polio, stating in his autobiography Never Have Your Dog Stuffed that he has no question about their efficacy."


12:45 AM -- The White Angel (1936)
In this true story, Florence Nightingale defies military leaders to organize humanitarian nursing services during the Crimean War.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, Donald Woods
BW-92 mins, TV-G, CC,

Much disagreement to the origin of the source material exists. Some contemporary sources believed the source was Lytton Strachey's 1918 biographical essay in "Eminent Victorians". Others contend Michael Jacoby was the author. Warner Bros. executive Hal B. Wallis contended that the life of Florence Nightingale was in the public domain, and that screenwriter Mordaunt Shairp did his own research. The MPAA agreed with Wallis; no source credit was necessary.


2:30 AM -- Cry 'Havoc' (1943)
A group of war nurses fights to survive the siege of Bataan.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Margaret Sullavan, Ann Sothern, Joan Blondell
BW-97 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Joan Crawford was offered the lead role but turned it down, saying "It should have been called The Women Go to War". Her part was played by Joan Blondell.


4:15 AM -- Four Girls In White (1939)
Student nurses cope with life's problems.
Dir: S. Sylvan Simon
Cast: Florence Rice, Una Merkel, Ann Rutherford
BW-74 mins, TV-G,

Based on an original story by Nathalie Bucknall and Endre Bohem.


5:30 AM -- Now Playing November (2013)
BW-21 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format