TCM Schedule for Saturday, July 2, 2016 -- What's On Tonight: The Essentials: Musical Americana

[Staph]

TCM is calling tonight The Essentials, but I still don't know if Robert Osborne will be back. The theme for tonight is Musical Americana, and we'll get to see the first That's Entertainment (1974 -- well worth the time for us musical fans), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and On The Town (1949). Enjoy!



7:30 AM -- Anthony Adverse (1936)
An orphan runs off to a life of adventure, then returns to France in search of the girl he left behind.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Fredric March, Olivia De Havilland, Donald Woods
B/W-140

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gale Sondergaard, Best Cinematography -- Tony Gaudio, Best Film Editing -- Ralph Dawson, and Best Music, Score -- Leo F. Forbstein (head of department) with score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Anton Grot, Best Assistant Director -- William H. Cannon, and Best Picture

Tony Curtis was a huge fan of the book. He changed his name from Bernard Schwartz to Tony Curtis in homage to the lead character and was even buried with a copy of the novel.


10:00 AM -- The Irish In Us (1935)
The sons of an Irish family have to choose among police work, prize fighting and love.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Olivia De Havilland
B/W-84, CC

Olivia de Havilland's film debut.


11:30 AM -- Alibi Ike (1935)
A brash baseball star gets mixed up with gamblers and a pretty young girl.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Joe E. Brown, Olivia De Havilland, Ruth Donnelly
B/W-72, CC

All the uncredited roles of major league players were played by current or former professional baseball players.


12:45 PM -- Moonfleet (1955)
A British buccaneer is torn between three seductive women.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Stewart Granger, George Sanders, Joan Greenwood
C-87, CC, Letterbox Format

Filmed entirely on the MGM backlot, apart from some scenes of the Californian coast. Stewart Granger wanted the film to be made in Cornwall. He was dismayed that it did not follow the book.


2:30 PM -- Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
A one-armed veteran uncovers small-town secrets when he tries to visit an Asian-American war hero's family.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis
C-81, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy, Best Director -- John Sturges, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Millard Kaufman

According to one biographer of Spencer Tracy, the script did not originally call for the lead character to be a one-armed man. The producers were keen to get Tracy but didn't think he'd be interested, so they gave the character this disability with the idea that no actor can resist playing a character with a physical impairment. The script called for the character to light matches one-handed. Spencer Tracy had difficulty with this and convinced director John Sturges to let him use a Zippo lighter, as every veteran he ever met had one.


4:00 PM -- Bullitt (1968)
When mobsters kill the witness he was assigned to protect, a dedicated policeman investigates the case on his own.
Dir: Peter Yates
Cast: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset
C-114, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Frank P. Keller

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound

The cops that Steve McQueen rode around with wanted to test his mettle so they took him to a morgue. They had to admit that the star was pretty cool when he showed up, eating an apple.


6:00 PM -- The Carey Treatment (1972)
A doctor uncovers a hotbed of corruption when he tries to clear a colleague of a murder charge.
Dir: Blake Edwards
Cast: James Coburn, Jennifer O'Neill, Pat Hingle
C-101, CC, Letterbox Format

Based on a novel entitled 'A Case of Need', published in 1968 and credited to Jeffrey Hudson. Decades later, Hudson was revealed to be a pseudonym for Michael Crichton.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: MUSICAL AMERICANA



8:00 PM -- That's Entertainment! (1974)
An all-star cast, including Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra, introduces clips from MGM's greatest musicals.
Dir: Jack Haley Jr.
C-135, CC

This was among the last MGM films shot on the studio's renowned back lot, of which there were actually six distinct satellite parcels of land west and south of the main lot, or Lot 1. Lot 2, the last of them to serve as a working back lot, was in use until late 1978. Development for residential housing on Lots 3-6 began the year "That's Entertainment!" filmed its new material with the studio's stars strolling the various standing sets, which had been allowed to deteriorate for well over a decade before their demolition. This is particularly noticeable in the train station set where Fred Astaire gives his introduction, and Bing Crosby refers to the English Lake area as looking rather "scruffy". On the other hand, the entire purpose of the film is nostalgia, and the use of the 'scruffy' facade, clearly aged and unused, helps to set the tone as one of a brief return to the glamor of the past, even though it was all make-believe.


10:30 PM -- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
When their older brother marries, six lumberjacks decide it's time to go courting for themselves.
Dir: Stanley Donen
Cast: Howard Keel, Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn
C-102, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Adolph Deutsch and Saul Chaplin

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich and Dorothy Kingsley, Best Cinematography, Color -- George J. Folsey, Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters, and Best Picture

For the famous barn raising dance sequence, the cast rehearsed for three weeks in order to get the intricate choreography down. It was during one of these rehearsals that Russ Tamblyn wandered over to the set along with Jeff Richards to see how the scene was coming along. "Michael Kidd called me over and said, 'Rusty, somebody told me that you're a good tumbler, that you can do some flips'," said Tamblyn in a 2004 interview. "So I did a back flip for him. 'Fantastic!' he said. 'We'll put it in a number.' I told him I really wasn't a dancer, except for some tap dancing. But he said, 'Listen, this is just like square dancing. All you have to do is lift your legs high. You can do a lot of acrobatic stuff. It's perfect.' That's how I became a dancer in Seven Brides."


12:30 AM -- On the Town (1949)
Three sailors wreak havoc as they search for love during a whirlwind 24-hour leave in New York City.
Dir: Gene Kelly
Cast: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett
C-98, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Roger Edens and Lennie Hayton

When Gene Kelly dismisses the beauty of a passing New York girl, Jules Munshin asks, "Who you got waiting for you in New York, Ava Gardner?" Frank Sinatra was having an affair with Gardner at the time.


2:15 AM -- Sisters (1973)
A small-time reporter tries to convince the police she saw a murder in the apartment across from hers.
Dir: Brian De Palma
Cast: Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning
C-92, CC

Margot Kidder and Jennifer Salt were roommates in Southern California in the early 1970s while they were struggling performers. They held parties for their friends and neighbors who included Paul Schrader, Blythe Danner, Bruce Paltrow and Brian De Palma. One year at Christmas, Kidder and Salt opened separate boxes under their Christmas tree and each one contained the script to this film. This project was De Palma's gift to them.


4:00 AM -- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
A crazed, aging star torments her sister in a decaying Hollywood mansion.
Dir: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono
B/W-134

Won an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Norma Koch

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Victor Buono, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ernest Haller, and Best Sound -- Joseph D. Kelly (Seven Arts-Warner Bros. Glen Glenn Sound Department)

According to Bette Davis in her book "This N' That", the film was originally going to be shot in color. Davis opposed this, saying that it would just make a sad story look pretty.