TCM Schedule for Friday, March 20, 2015 -- Friday Night Spotlight - Roadshow Musicals

[Staph]

Tonight's films continue this month's Friday theme of recreations of Broadway musicals, with a lovely selection of Julie Andrews' films, including Victor/Victoria (1982), one of my all-time favorites. Enjoy!



6:15 AM -- Glory Alley (1952)
A boxer's drinking problem threatens his career and his love life.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Ralph Meeker, Leslie Caron, Kurt Kaszner
BW-79 mins, CC,

This was the only black-and-white film in which Leslie Caron sang and danced.


7:35 AM -- Cruise Of The Zaca (1952)
In this short film, Erroll Flynn takes a group of scientists on an expedition aboard his schooner, The Zaca. Vitaphone Release 2175A.
Dir: Errol Flynn
C-18 mins,

The schooner "Zaca", featured in this film, was acquired in 1946 by Errol Flynn, an actor famed for his "swashbuckling" roles in numerous movies. It is featured prominently in the Orson Welles film The Lady from Shanghai (1947). Flynn owned the yacht until his death in 1959.


8:00 AM -- Thunder Road (1958)
A fast-driving moonshiner locks horns with a Chicago gangster.
Dir: Arthur Ripley
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Gene Barry, Jacques Aubochon
BW-93 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

All of the "moonrunner" cars in the film had actually been used by moonshiners in the Asheville, North Carolina, area, where the film was shot. The moonshiners sold the cars to the film company in order to buy newer and faster cars.


9:42 AM -- Beauty And The Bull (1954)
In this short film, a group of models attend a bullfight. Vitaphone Release 2454A.
Dir: Larry Lansburgh
Cast: Bette Ford,
C-17 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel -- Cedric Francis

Film debut of Bette Ford, (born Harriet Elizabeth Dingeldein on June 24, 1937 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania), an actress and former model and professional bullfighter. She was the first American woman to fight on foot in the Plaza México, the world's largest bullfight arena.


10:00 AM -- Highway 301 (1950)
A brutal bank robber fights internal divisions within his gang.
Dir: Andrew Stone
Cast: Steve Cochran, Virginia Grey, Gaby Andre
BW-83 mins, CC,

The film's title, "Highway 301" refers to a U.S. highway that connects Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina - where the Tri-State gang committed their crimes. The route itself was never mentioned in the film.


11:30 AM -- Park Row (1952)
A crusading newspaperman fights to save his paper from a hostile takeover.
Dir: Samuel Fuller
Cast: Bela Kovacs, Herbert Heyes, Tina Rome
BW-83 mins, CC,

Self-financed by its maverick director. At the time, Samuel Fuller had only $201,000 in his bank account. He kept $1,000 for his own personal use, which he spent on cigars and vodka. The rest went on the movie.


1:04 PM -- Things You Never See On The Screen (1935)
This short film presents a series of bloopers from various Warner Bros. productions.
Cast: Robert Armstrong, Johnny Arthur, Busby Berkeley
BW-10 mins,


1:15 PM -- 42nd Street (1933)
The definitive backstage musical, complete with the dazzling newcomer who goes on for the injured star.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent
BW-89 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (sound director), and Best Picture

One of the lines in the song "Shuffle off to Buffalo" is "when she knows as much as we know/she'll be on her way to Reno/while he still has dough." Contemporary audiences would have recognized this as a reference to the fairly common practice of moving to Reno, Nevada, for a short-term stay to obtain a divorce. At the time of the movie's release (and for at least twenty-five years afterward), Nevada had some of the most lenient divorce laws in the country, especially compared to New York, where there were few accepted grounds for divorce, and the standards of proof for those grounds were so high as to be almost impossible (for instance, evidence of adultery had to be in the form of eyewitness testimony or photographic records of the act); and even then, divorces took a year to be final. By contrast, Nevada granted a divorce for almost any reason after only a six-week-residency period.


3:00 PM -- Berkeley Square (1933)
A young American man is transported back to London in the time of the American Revolution and meets his ancestors.
Dir: Frank Lloyd
Cast: Leslie Howard, Heather Angel, Valerie Taylor
BW-88 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Leslie Howard

S. T. Joshi points to Berkeley Square, a 1933 fantasy film, as an inspiration for H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Out of Time: "Lovecraft saw this film four times in late 1933; its portrayal of a man of the twentieth century who somehow merges his personality with that of his eighteenth-century ancestor was clearly something that fired Lovecraft's imagination, since he had written a story on this very theme himself--the then unpublished The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927)." Lovecraft called the film "the most weirdly perfect embodiment of my own moods and pseudo-memories that I have ever seen--for all my life I have felt as if I might wake up out of this dream of an idiotic Victorian age and insane jazz age into the sane reality of 1760 or 1770 or 1780." Lovecraft noted some conceptual problems in Berkeley Square's depiction of time travel, and felt that he had "eliminated these flaws in his masterful novella of mind-exchange over time."


4:30 PM -- Fifth Avenue Girl (1939)
To annoy his family, a millionaire hires an out-of-work girl to pose as a gold digger.
Dir: Gregory La Cava
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Walter Connolly, Verree Teasdale
BW-83 mins, CC,

The original ending of the movie just had Mary Grey leaving the Borden House, walking down Fifth Avenue, but the sneak preview audience complained at what it considered an unhappy ending. So the ending was changed to its current form, which essentially made it more palatable.


6:00 PM -- St. Martin's Lane (1938)
A street performer helps a young pickpocket find a new career as a dancer.
Dir: Tim Whelan
Cast: Charles Laughton, Vivien Leigh, Rex Harrison
BW-86 mins,

Made in London just before England's entrance into the Second World War, this film was co-produced by a refugee from Hitler - the great German producer of "Metropolis" and many other classic UFA films - Erich Pommer. It was directed by an American from Hollywood, Tim Whelan, and features another American, the great harmonica virtuoso, Larry Adler, who was to return to live in exile in England after the war when he was blacklisted in the U.S. Adler went on write and play the score for the classic English comedy Genevieve (1953). The role of the tall busker Gentry is played by Tyrone Guthrie who would be knighted and would one day become Artistic Director of Canada's Stratford Festival and founder of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. The film is edited by Robert Hamer who would go on to direct the Ealing Studio comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).


7:30 PM -- MGM Parade Show #2 (1955)
Judy Garland and Bert Lahr perform in a clip from "The Wizard of Oz"; Gene Kelly introduces a clip from "It's Always Fair Weather." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-25 mins,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: ROADSHOW MUSICALS



8:00 PM -- Darling Lili (1970)
A World War I flyer falls for a beautiful enemy spy.
Dir: Blake Edwards
Cast: Julie Andrews, Rock Hudson, Jeremy Kemp
C-143 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Costume Design -- Donald Brooks and Jack Bear, Best Music, Original Song -- Henry Mancini (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "Whistling Away the Dark", and Best Music, Original Song Score -- Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer

A very troubled production, the film went way over budget and was a box office flop when released. Blake Edwards used the experience of making this film as the inspiration for the script to S.O.B. (1981).


10:30 PM -- Star! (1968)
Gertrude Lawrence rises to stage stardom at the cost of happiness.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Julie Andrews, Richard Crenna, Michael Craig
C-173 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Daniel Massey, Best Cinematography -- Ernest Laszlo, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Boris Leven, Walter M. Scott and Howard Bristol, Best Costume Design -- Donald Brooks, Best Sound, Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "Star!", and Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation) -- Lennie Hayton

This film grew out of a massive attempt by Twentieth Century-Fox to duplicate its earlier success with The Sound of Music (1965) by producing three expensive, large-scale musicals over a period of three years, Doctor Dolittle (1967) and Hello, Dolly! (1969) being the others. Unfortunately, tastes in popular entertainment were beginning to change and all three films' box-office performance reflected this. All were released amidst massive pre-release publicity and all lost equally massive amounts of money for the studio. The result was that several top studio executives lost their jobs, and the studio itself went into such dire financial straits that it only produced one picture for the entire calendar year of 1970. In truth, it would never recoup its losses until a highly successful theatrical reissue of "The Sound of Music" in early 1973.


1:30 AM -- Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)
A small-town girl hits the big city in search of romance Roaring Twenties style.
Dir: George Roy Hill
Cast: Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Channing
C-152 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Music Score -- Elmer Bernstein

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Carol Channing, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Alexander Golitzen, George C. Webb and Howard Bristol, Best Costume Design -- Jean Louis, Best Sound, Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn for the song "Thoroughly Modern Millie", and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- André Previn and Joseph Gershenson

Beatrice Lillie's last film. She was showing early signs of Alzheimer's disease, and had trouble memorizing her lines. During filming, Julie Andrews stood off-camera and repeated Lillie's lines to her, so Lillie could complete her scenes.


4:15 AM -- Victor Victoria (1982)
An unemployed female singer poses as a female impersonator and becomes a star.
Dir: Blake Edwards
Cast: Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston
C-134 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score -- Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Julie Andrews, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Preston, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Lesley Ann Warren, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Blake Edwards, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Rodger Maus, Tim Hutchinson, William Craig Smith and Harry Cordwell, and Best Costume Design -- Patricia Norris

The costume worn by Julie Andrews, in the number "The Shady Dame From Seville", is in fact the same costume worn by Robert Preston at the end of the film. The costume was made to fit Preston, and then, using a series of hooks and eyes at the back, it was drawn in tightly to fit Andrews' shapely figure. Additional black silk ruffles were also added to the bottom of the costume, to hide the differences in height. It's a pleasure to watch the costume being purposefully damaged by Preston. Now in a private collection, the rips and tears are still present. The fabric is a black and brown crepe, with fine gold threads woven into it, which when lit, appears to have an almost wet look about it.