TCM Schedule for Saturday, December 12, 2015 -- The Essentials - Afterlife Adventures

[Staph]

Tonight's Essentials are films that take place in the great beyond. Enjoy, and be nice, not naughty!



6:00 AM -- One Way Passage (1932)
An ocean voyage leads to romance for a dying heiress and a condemned criminal.
Dir: Tay Garnett
Cast: William Powell, Kay Francis, Aline MacMahon
BW-68 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Robert Lord

Although the character's name would change, Frank McHugh plays the same part in the remake titled 'Til We Meet Again (1940).


7:15 AM -- Between Two Worlds (1944)
Passengers on a luxury liner realize they are en route to the afterlife.
Dir: Edward A. Blatt
Cast: John Garfield, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet
BW-112 mins, CC,

First made in 1930 as Outward Bound, starring Leslie Howard, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Beryl Mercer.


9:15 AM -- Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947)
Dick Tracy takes on "The Claw" in this crime thriller
Dir: John Rawlins
Cast: Ralph Byrd, Lyle Latell, Kay Christopher
BW-60 mins,

Ralph Byrd, who had previously played Dick Tracy in four serials Republic produced in the late '30s and early 40's, was hired to replace Morgan Conway because, after the two previous films (Dick Tracy (1945) and Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946)), exhibitors complained. To them, Byrd was Dick Tracy, and only Byrd would do. RKO accepted this and hired him to finish the series. Unfortunately for Byrd, because of this he spent his career typecast as Dick Tracy.


10:30 AM -- Hard Boiled Mahoney (1947)
The Bowery Boys try to expose a phony fortune-teller.
Dir: William Beaudine
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan
BW-63 mins, CC,

The sixth of 48 Bowery Boys movies.


11:39 AM -- City Of Children (1949)
This short film looks at a community in Illinois that is the home for orphaned children.
BW-10 mins,


12:00 PM -- That's Entertainment! II (1976)
Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly dance together again for the first time in more than 30 years as they introduce classic musical numbers and comedy bits.
Dir: Gene Kelly
Cast: Fred Astaire,
C-129 mins, CC,

When introducing a clip of Cyd Charisse early in the film Fred Astaire says "Cyd Charisse. Lovely Cyd Charisse. How she danced." A little later Gene Kelly says exactly the same line when introducing another clip of her.


2:15 PM -- National Velvet (1944)
A British farm girl fights to train a difficult horse for the Grand National Steeplechase.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp, Elizabeth Taylor
C-124 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Anne Revere, and Best Film Editing -- Robert Kern

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Clarence Brown, Best Cinematography, Color -- Leonard Smith, and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Urie McCleary, Edwin B. Willis and Mildred Griffiths

The Pie was played by King Charles, a grandson of Man o' War and whose owner had trained him as a show jumper.


4:30 PM -- 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
BW-90 mins, CC,

The escalator in the Penn Station scene where Alice loses her shoe heel had unusually high sides to disguise that fact that it wasn't a real escalator at all. Wartime material shortages and restrictions prohibited MGM from building a real escalator, so the studio compromised with a conveyor belt. At no time in the scenes do you actually see escalator steps.


6:15 PM -- Suspicion (1941)
A wealthy wallflower suspects her penniless playboy husband of murder.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Sir Cedric Hardwicke
BW-100 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Joan Fontaine

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Franz Waxman, and Best Picture

In interviews, Alfred Hitchcock said that an RKO executive ordered that all scenes in which Cary Grant appeared menacing be excised from the film. When the cutting was completed, the film ran only fifty-five minutes. The scenes were later restored, Hitchcock said, because he shot each piece of film so that there was only one way to edit them together properly.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: AFTERLIFE ADVENTURES



8:00 PM -- Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
A prizefighter who died before his time is reincarnated as a tycoon with a murderous wife.
Dir: Alexander Hall
Cast: Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, Claude Rains
BW-94 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- Harry Segall, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Robert Montgomery, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- James Gleason, Best Director -- Alexander Hall, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Walker, and Best Picture

Columbia chief Harry Cohn had serious misgivings about this adaptation of Harry Segall's minor stage play. He preferred to reserve his more lavish budgets for surefire successes (i.e., anything featuring the studio's biggest star, Rita Hayworth). However, Sidney Buchman was eventually able to talk Cohn into forking out for costly celestial sets and Farnsworth's elaborate mansion and also into hiring Robert Montgomery on loan-out from MGM. Buchman was also able to convince Cohn that he had a better appreciation of what the public would pay to see than the Wall Street bankers who Cohn answered to.


9:49 PM -- Those Good Old Days (1941)
In this short film, an old vaudeville performer entertains his granddaughter with stories of his past. Vitaphone Release 369A.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Janet Chapman, Juanita Stark, William T. Orr
BW-10 mins,


10:00 PM -- Heaven Can Wait (1943)
An old roué arrives in Hades to review his life with Satan, who will rule on his eligibility to enter the Underworld.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Gene Tierney, Don Ameche, Charles Coburn
C-112 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Ernst Lubitsch, Best Cinematography, Color -- Edward Cronjager, and Best Picture

In his conversations with Billy Wilder, Cameron Crowe asked Wilder about Ernst Lubitsch's touch. Wilder replied like this - "It was the elegant use of the Superjoke. You had a joke, and you felt satisfied, and then there was one more big joke on top of it. The joke you didn't expect." In this film, the audience sees Charles Coburn (Grandfather) giving a big pat on young Albert's back. After that, Young Albert goes to downstairs and starts wearing his hand gloves. Grandfather (who is upstairs) takes the glass of water and pours the water on Young Albert's head.


12:00 AM -- A Matter of Life and Death (1947)
An injured aviator argues in celestial court for the chance to go on living.
Dir: Michael Powell
Cast: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Robert Coote
C-104 mins, CC,

It was during a visit to Hollywood in 1945 that director Michael Powell decided to cast the then-unknown Kim Hunter as June, the American servicewoman, largely upon the recommendation of Alfred Hitchcock, who had done a series of screen tests of actors and actresses auditioning for parts in his upcoming production, Notorious (1946). The trouble was that in these tests, Hunter was not seen but, rather, heard off-camera, feeding lines and cues to the actors Hitchcock was actually testing. But Hitchcock assured Powell that he would arrange a "face-to-face" with Hunter and her agent, so that he could see for himself whether she fit the requirements of the "all-American" girl Powell had envisioned opposite David Niven. And upon first encountering Hunter, Powell agreed with Hitchcock that she indeed was a perfect choice for the role.


2:00 AM -- The House by the Cemetery (1984)
A scientist moves into a deceased friends haunted house to continue his research.
Dir: Lucio Fulci
Cast: Catriona MacColl, Paolo Malco, Ania Pieroni
C-86 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Though the final line ("No one will ever know whether the children are monsters or the monsters are children&quot is attributed to Henry James, it was actually fabricated by Lucio Fulci.


3:30 AM -- The Walking Dead (1936)
A framed man comes back from the dead to seek revenge.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Boris Karloff, Ricardo Cortez, Edmund Gwenn
BW-65 mins, CC,

The "glass heart" machine used to revive Karloff's dead character was said to be "nearly a prefect replica" of an actual perfusion pump--a device designed to keep organs alive outside an organism's body--which had been built by Charles Lindbergh, when the legendary pilot and engineer was working with a Nobel-winning scientist at New York's Rockefeller Institute research labs in the mid-1930s.


4:45 AM -- Booked for Safekeeping (1960)
In this short documentary, police officers are trained in the assistance and management of mentally ill and confused persons.
Dir: George C Stoney
BW-32 mins,


4:45 AM -- Narcotics Pit of Despair (Part 1) (1967)
In this short film drug dealer seduces a high-school student into drug addiction.
Dir: Mel Marshall
Cast: Kevin Tighe, Gerald LeRoy, Julie Conners
C-29 mins,


ETA -- corrected the thread title. Bad cut-and-paste job!