TCM Schedule for Friday, January 24, 2014 -- Friday Night Spotlight: Science in the Movies

[Staph]

Today is a continuation of Star of the Month Joan Crawford, followed by the Friday Night Spotlight -- Science in the Movies, focussing on inventors - real and fictional. Enjoy!



7:15 AM -- Harriet Craig (1950)
A woman's devotion to her home drives away friends and family.
Dir: Vincent Sherman
Cast: Joan Crawford, Wendell Corey, Lucile Watson
BW-94 mins, TV-PG,

In this film, Harriet recounts to several people her negative experiences having to work in a laundry in her youth. In her own life, Joan Crawford also had to work in a laundry in her youth because of her family's poverty, and hated it. Crawford's adopted daughter Christina theorized that this hatred led to the famous "wire hangers" incident described by her in 'Mommie Dearest.'


9:00 AM -- Goodbye, My Fancy (1951)
When she returns to her alma mater to pick up an honorary degree, a congresswoman re-ignites an old flame.
Dir: Vincent Sherman
Cast: Joan Crawford, Robert Young, Frank Lovejoy
BW-108 mins, TV-G, CC,

According to Ida Lupino biographer William Donati, director Vincent Sherman was summoned to the office of Warner Bros. studio chief Jack L. Warner--to whom he was under contract at the time--and accused of having an affair with Warners star Joan Crawford. Sherman, who had been at the studio since 1937, replied that what he did on his own tome was none of Warner's business. Warner ordered the director to stop making so many close-ups of the actress, an order Sherman disobeyed. Warners used that pretext to end its relationship with him. The director eventually found out that the studio exec had purposely provoked the confrontation with him because he thought Sherman was a Communist. When that turned out not to be true, Sherman was hired by the studio eight years later to do The Young Philadelphians (1959).


11:00 AM -- This Woman Is Dangerous (1952)
A female gangster learns she is losing her vision.
Dir: Felix Feist
Cast: Joan Crawford, Dennis Morgan, David Brian
BW-97 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Joan Crawford told the audience at the Town Hall "Legendary Ladies" show in 1972 that she considered this her worst film.


12:45 PM -- Torch Song (1953)
A tempestuous musical theatre star falls for a blind pianist.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Joan Crawford, Michael Wilding, Gig Young
C-90 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated
Oscar Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Marjorie Rambeau

This film marked Joan Crawford's return to MGM after a ten year absence. She was previously under contract to MGM from 1925-1943.


2:15 PM -- Just What I Needed (1955)
This short film provides a humorous look at "unwanted" gifts.
Dir: Dave O'Brien
Cast: Leon Tyler, Dave O'Brien,
BW-9 mins,


2:30 PM -- Queen Bee (1955)
A manipulative Southern socialite sets out to destroy the lives of all those around her.
Dir: Ranald MacDougall
Cast: Joan Crawford, Barry Sullivan, Betsy Palmer
BW-95 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Jean Louis

The oil portrait of the gentlemen above the fireplace is that of Luke Cosgrove. It was originally created for the 1938 Columbia film Holiday with Katherine Hepburn.


4:15 PM -- Autumn Leaves (1956)
A woman falls for a younger man with severe mental problems.
Dir: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Joan Crawford, Vera Miles, Lorne Greene
BW-106 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

In an interview for a much later documentary on Joan Crawford, Cliff Robertson recounts his first meeting with her, at her home. Already somewhat intimidated by working with the legendary Crawford, he is let in, then hears her call from poolside, where she's sunning, "Come on out, dear boy. We've been waiting for you." Robertson has nothing but admiration for Crawford's talent and incredible technical disciple. At one point, director Bob Aldrich wanted Crawford to cry, but only slightly. A tear or two. "Which eye?" Robertson recalls Crawford asking. Then repeats the anecdote, amazed, "'Which EYE?'"


6:15 PM -- The Story of Esther Costello (1957)
A bitter divorcee works to educate a deaf and blind girl.
Dir: David Miller
Cast: Joan Crawford, Rossano Brazzi, Heather Sears
BW-102 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Joan Crawford, then on the Pesi-Cola board of directors, demanded that product placement shots be included in all her films of this era. Look for it here prominently displayed in signs in an airport lobby.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: SCIENCE IN THE MOVIES



8:00 PM -- Edison, The Man (1940)
Thomas Edison fights to turn his dreams into reality.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Rita Johnson, Lynne Overman
BW-107 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Hugo Butler and Dore Schary

In the film, Edison and his wife communicate with each other by tapping out Morse code. In the movie this is presented as a charming endearment, but in fact Edison was so deaf the only way he and his wife could talk was by tapping Morse code on each other's hands.


10:00 PM -- The Magic Box (1951)
A successful photographer becomes obsessed with inventing a motion picture projector.
Dir: John Boulting
Cast: Robert Donat, Margaret Johnston, Maria Schell
C-108 mins, TV-G, CC,

William Friese-Greene's son Claude Friese-Greene continued to develop his father's colour process and produced a series of colour travelogues of Britain in the 1920s. These never achieved contemporary commercial success but formed the basis of a very popular 3-part BBC Television broadcast The Lost World of Friese-Greene (2006), after being preserved by the British Film Institute.


12:00 AM -- It Happens Every Spring (1949)
A scientist invents a baseball that can't be hit.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Ray Milland, Jean Peters, Paul Douglas
BW-87 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Shirley W. Smith and Valentine Davies

All the baseball teams are identified by their city but never by their nicknames. Even the home team uniforms, which should have the team nicknames, list the city instead. The reason is because the commissioner of baseball, Happy Chandler, would not sanction the movie because of the cheating element in the movie. So 20th Century Fox could not use the the name of the teams or even use cameo baseball player walk ons like the studio wanted to do.


1:45 AM -- The Man in the White Suit (1951)
A young inventor threatens the business world when he creates a cloth that can't tear or wear out.
Dir: Alexander Mackendrick
Cast: Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Cecil Parker
BW-85 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Roger MacDougall, John Dighton and Alexander Mackendrick

Alec Guinness performed the stunt of climbing down the side of the mansion. He was convinced by a technician that the piano wire holding him up would not break, since only piano wire with kinks in it would be prone to breaking. As he got to about four feet from the ground, the wire did in fact break.


3:15 AM -- Bye Bye Birdie (1963)
A rock star's personal appearance turns a small town into a disaster area.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Janet Leigh, Dick Van Dyke, Ann-Margret
C-112 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound -- Charles Rice (Columbia SSD), and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Johnny Green

The throng of uncredited teenagers included future actresses and celebrities Melinda Marx (daughter of Groucho Marx), Kim Darby (co-star of True Grit (1969)), Linda Henning (Betty Jo Bradley in Petticoat Junction (1963)), Elaine Joyce (actress, game show guest star and wife to Bobby Van and Neil Simon) and Melody Patterson (Wrangler Jane on F Troop (1965)).


5:15 AM -- TCM Presents Elvis Mitchell Under the Influence: Bill Murray (2008)
Celebrities reveal the classic movies that influenced their lives in interviews with acclaimed film critic/interviewer Elvis Mitchell.
C-29 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format


5:49 AM -- Film Fun (1955)
This short film provides a nostalgic look at film clips from the Silent Era.
BW-9 mins,

[frazzled]

1. I've been enjoying the Friday night Science in the Movies series

Surprisingly, because I'm not a science person.

The intros by the Cal Tech physics professor are useful and entertaining. I enjoyed both Madame Curie last week and Edison, The Man last night, which was surprisingly compelling (I was on the edge of my seat wondering if the 9,0001th attempt to create the lightbulb would work!). I felt it was well written and a concise, compelling narrative exposition. I'm sure both are the Hollywood version of these biographies, but then, this is about how Hollywood approached the exposition of scientific achievement. It doesn't have to be completely authentic.

The Magic Box, not so much. Which is equally surprising, given the promise of a screenplay by Eric Ambler and the star-studded cast (Donat, Olivier, Ustinov, Redgrave, etc.)—and given that the early history of cinema is an interest of mine. But what a yawn. I called it the "Inside Llewyn Davis" of British biopics. I mean, two and a half hours of watching a really failed person alienate everyone around him and even fail after inventing the camera/projector to make anything of it. Sorry, but history writes itself: because Edison and the Lumieres actually propelled their inventions into industry by making their own films, they are always going to be seen as the winners in the race to moving pictures, no matter what the details. The one scene of Olivier as the cop watching the "invention" unreel on screen was the only scene worth watching.