TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 10, 2014 -- What's On Tonight - Classic Documentaries

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is featuring episodes from Screen Director's Playhouse, a television series from the mid-1950s featuring short films directed by (and starring) those best known for their work in films. In prime time, we have an evening of great documentaries. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- MGM Parade Show #30 (1955)
Walter Pidgeon discusses Greta Garbo's early career; Irene Papas introduces behind-the-scenes footage from "Tribute to a Badman."
BW-25 mins,


6:30 AM -- Unexpected Uncle (1941)
A bored retiree decides to play matchmaker.
Dir: Peter Godfrey
Cast: Anne Shirley, James Craig, Charles Coburn
BW-67 mins,

Based on a novel by Eric Hatch, who also wrote My Man Godfrey (1936) and Topper (1937).


7:50 AM -- The United States Army Band (1943)
This patriotic wartime short showcases the U.S. Army Band along with war and peacetime footage of the U.S. Army. Vitaphone Release 1076A.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
BW-9 mins,


8:00 AM -- Screen Directors Playhouse: The Carroll Formula (1956)
A college professor accidentally discovers how to shrink things.
Dir: Tay Garnett
Cast: Michael Wilding, Havis Davenport, Dayton Lummis
BW-26 mins,


8:30 AM -- The Big Fisherman (1959)
Drama that focuses on the later life of Peter, one of the closest disciples of Jesus.
Dir: Frank Borzage
Cast: Howard Keel, Susan Kohner, John Saxon
C-165 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Lee Garmes, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- John DeCuir and Julia Heron, and Best Costume Design, Color -- Renié

Walt Disney originally rejected the filming of the novel, due to his distaste for religious film. His brother Roy backed the production, releasing it using the studio's Buena Vista arm.


11:15 AM -- Screen Directors Playhouse: The Day I Met Caruso (1956)
A Quaker girl's resentment of the great tenor's worldliness competes with her admiration for his voice.
Dir: Frank Borzage
Cast: Walter Coy, Sandy Descher, Barbara Eiler
BW-26 mins,


11:45 AM -- Lizzie (1957)
A mousy woman discovers she has two other personalities.
Dir: Hugo Haas
Cast: Eleanor Parker, Richard Boone, Joan Blondell
BW-81 mins,

Based on a novel by Shirley Jackson. Yes, that Shirley Jackson. The one the disturbed the sleep of generations of high school students required to read her short story The Lottery.


1:07 PM -- The Golden Equator (1956)
This short film focuses on the evolving country of Ecuador.
Dir: Hamilton Wright
BW-18 mins,


1:30 PM -- Screen Directors Playhouse: The Dream (1956)
A young man's dreams about searching for his dead father fill his mother with fear.
Dir: Hugo Haas
Cast: George Sanders, Sal Mineo, Patricia Morison
BW-26 mins,


2:00 PM -- Man to Man (1931)
A young man attempts to overcome the memory of his father, who was sent to jail for committing a murder.
Dir: Allan Dwan
Cast: Phillips Holmes, Grant Mitchell, Lucille Powers
BW-68 mins,

In September 1928, Warner Bros. Pictures purchased a majority interest in First National Pictures and from that point on, all "First National" productions were actually made under Warner Bros. control, even though the two companies continued to retain separate identities until the mid-1930's, after which time "A Warner Bros.-First National Picture" was often used.


3:15 PM -- Screen Directors Playhouse: High Air (1956)
Father and son must reconcile to deal with a tunnel disaster.
Dir: Allan Dwan
Cast: William Bendix, Dennis Hopper, John Alderson
BW-26 mins, CC,


3:45 PM -- Teresa (1951)
An Italian war bride has problems dealing with her husband's possessive mother.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Pier Angeli, John Ericson, Patricia Collinge
BW-102 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Alfred Hayes and Stewart Stern

The first film for both Rod Steiger and Ed Binns.


5:30 PM -- Screen Directors Playhouse: Markheim (1956)
Another episode of the Screen Directors Playhouse, which ran from 1955-1956.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Ray Milland, Rod Steiger, Jay Novello
BW-26 mins, CC,


6:00 PM -- Fight For Your Lady (1938)
A wrestling promoter helps an opera singer with his love life.
Dir: Ben Stoloff
Cast: John Boles, Jack Oakie, Ida Lupino
BW-66 mins,

Based on a story by Jean Negulesco and Isabel Leighton.


7:07 PM -- Spills For Thrills (1940)
This short film pays tribute to Hollywood's stunt men and women with clips of difficult stunts on land and in the air. Vitaphone Release 9793-9794.
Dir: De Leon Anthony
Cast: John Ridgely,
BW-19 mins,


7:30 PM -- Screen Directors Playhouse: No. 5 Checked Out (1956)
A young deaf women confronts desperate crooks who are using one of her remote resort cabins for a hideout.
Dir: Ida Lupino
Cast: Teresa Wright, Peter Lorre, William Talman
BW-25 mins, CC,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: CLASSIC DOCUMENTARIES



8:00 PM -- Salesman (1968)
The adventures and misadventures of four door-to-door salesmen.
Dir: David Maysles
Cast: Paul Brennan, Charles McDevitt, James, U. S. Baker
BW-91 mins,

This film was selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1992.


9:45 PM -- The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
This documentary focuses on the successful career and assassination of San Francisco's first elected gay councilor.
Dir: Robert Epstein
Cast: Harvey Milk, Anne Kronenberg, Tory Hartmann
C-88 mins,

Despite his short career in politics, Milk became an icon in San Francisco and a martyr in the gay community. In 2002, Milk was called "the most famous and most significantly open LGBT official ever elected in the United States". Anne Kronenberg, his final campaign manager, wrote of him: "What set Harvey apart from you or me was that he was a visionary. He imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us." Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.


11:30 PM -- Come Back, Africa (1959)
A documentary that chronicles the life of a black South African living under the rule of the harsh apartheid government in 1959.
Dir: Lionel Rogosin
Cast: Zacharia (Mgabi), Vinah (Mgabi), Arnold
BW-86 mins, CC,

The South African musician Lulu Masilela (Gumboots from Paul Simon's Graceland album) claims that he was the young penny whistler (seen in center of the poster) in Come Back, Africa. The group performing here was actually a combination of two separate groups, both of whom Lulu was playing with at the time, the Meyerton Bright Boys and the Snaketown Shambas.


1:13 AM -- The Sky Divers (1969)
This promotional short film offers a behind-the-scenes look at "The Gypsy Moths" (1969), focusing exclusively on skydiving.
Dir: Dale Mackey
C-15 mins,


1:30 AM -- Calcutta (1969)
The city of Calcutta and its 8 million inhabitants come to life.
Dir: Louis Malle
Cast: Louis Malle,
C-99 mins,

Nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival.


3:30 AM -- Sans Soleil (1982)
A woman shares her thoughts as the camera traces her travels and memories.
Dir: Chris Marker
Cast: Florence Delay, Alexandra Stewart, Kazuko Kawakita
C-104 mins, Letterbox Format

The narration refers to the Japanese word "Tora" as the name of an individual pet cat. The literal translation of the word "Tora" in English is "Tiger".


5:15 AM -- An Adventure In Filmmaking: The Making Of The Blue Lagoon (1980)
This promotional short film presents the making of the motion picture, "The Blue Lagoon" (1980).
C-9 mins,


5:30 AM -- God Respects Us When We Work But Loves Us When We Dance (1968)
This short documentary looks at the 1967 Los Angeles Easter Sunday Love-In.
Dir: Les Blank
C-20 mins,