TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 14, 2016 -- What's On Tonight - TCM Spotlight: America in the 70s
This is Staph, speaking from somewhere without Internet, with the able assistance of CBHagman!
"In the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating summer, with an interesting time capsule of beach films from the 1950s and 1960s. What an innocent world they portray (and oh, how they miss the real America of that time!). This is the world that Tea Party Republicans want to go back to, though they don't realize that this world never existed outside a Hollywood soundstage. And in prime time, TCM is continuing this month's theme of America in the 1970s with films showing what life was like for ordinary people. One of my favorites, showing in the early morning hours of Friday, is Breaking Away (1979). Paul Dooley is a family friend, and he is wonderful in this role as an everyman father who simply doesn't get his bicycle-crazy son. Enjoy!"
7:00 AM -- THE CATALINA CAPER (1967)
A group of teens try to foil a group of crooks searching for a stolen scroll.
Dir: Lee Sholem
Cast: Tommy Kirk, Del Moore, Peter Duryea
C-82 mins,
Filmed in 1965 on Santa Catalina Island, California.
8:30 AM -- IT'S A BIKINI WORLD (1967)
When a female scientist turns down a playboy's pass, he poses as his own brother to win her heart.
Dir: Stephanie Rothman
Cast: Deborah Walley, Tommy Kirk, Robert Pickett
C-85 mins, Letterbox Format
The film was originally released by Transamerica Films as "The Girl in Daddy's Bikini", then American-International bought it and released it as "It's a Bikini World".
10:15 AM -- WHERE THE BOYS ARE (1960)
College coeds go looking for love during spring break in Fort Lauderdale.
Dir: Henry Levin
Cast: Dolores Hart, Yvette Mimieux, Barbara Nichols
C-99 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
Dolores Hart left Hollywood a few years after this movie and became a Benedictine nun, and has been a Mother Superior for many years.
12:00 PM -- GIDGET (1959)
A young girl dreams of winning acceptance from a gang of surfers.
Dir: Paul Wendkos
Cast: Sandra Dee, James Darren, Cliff Robertson
C-95 mins, CC,
James Darren was originally not selected to play Moondoggie because the role required two songs to sing and Darren was not well established as a singer. On his own, he cut a single with the studio's recording subsidiary Colpix Records which charted. Columbia changed their minds and gave him the role despite the fact that he couldn't surf and was a weak swimmer. He became a huge teen idol and subsequently repeated the Moondoggie role in Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) and Gidget Goes to Rome (1963)with two other Gidgets: Deborah Walley and Cindy Carol.
2:00 PM -- MUSCLE BEACH PARTY (1963)
The beach gang goes head-to-head with the bodybuilders of a new gym that's interfering with their strip on the sand.
Dir: William Asher
Cast: Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Luciana Paluzzi
C-95 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
Film debut of Peter Lupus, who is playing Flex Martian under the name "Rock Stevens". This would lead to an early career in Europe where he would play the lead role in various sword and sandal/mythological muscleman movies that were then in vogue. He is best remembered as Willy Armitage in the television series Mission: Impossible (1966-1973).
4:00 PM -- BEACH BLANKET BINGO (1965)
The surfing gang rescues a beautiful singer from evil bikers.
Dir: William Asher
Cast: Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley
C-97 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
Nancy Sinatra was the original choice to play Sugar Kane. However, she backed out just before production was supposed to begin because a few months earlier her brother Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped and when she found out that part of the plot involved a kidnapping she decided to back out. Interestingly, it would have been her motion picture debut.
6:00 PM -- HOW TO STUFF A WILD BIKINI (1965)
When he's stationed in Tahiti sailor hires a witch doctor to keep an eye on his girlfriend.
Dir: William Asher
Cast: Annette Funicello, Dwayne Hickman, Brian Donlevy
C-93 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
The last "Beach Party" film to feature Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. Because Avalon asked producers Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson for more money, his role was cut down to what amounts to a small cameo of about six minutes of screen time.
TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPECIAL THEME: AMERICA IN THE 70'S
8:00 PM -- ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE (1974)
A widow dreaming of a singing career ends up waiting tables in Phoenix.
Dir: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Kris Kristofferson, Diane Ladd
C-112 mins, CC,
Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ellen Burstyn (Ellen Burstyn was not present at the awards ceremony. Martin Scorsese accepted the award on her behalf.)
Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Diane Ladd, and Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Robert Getchell
Coming hot off her success in The Exorcist (1973), the studio granted Ellen Burstyn total creative control over this project. She had two goals: to make a film about woman with real-life problems, and to secure an up-and-coming film maker as the director. Upon selecting this script, Brian De Palma brought Francis Ford Coppola to Burstyn's attention who suggested she consider Scorsese. While impressed with Scorsese's talent after viewing Mean Streets (1973), Burstyn still hesitated to hire the director, fearing he could only direct men. When she asked Scorsese what he knew about women, Scorsese replied "Nothing, but I'd like to learn." Satisfied with his enthusiasm, Burstyn immediately hired Scorsese.
10:00 PM -- THE STEPFORD WIVES (1975)
A recent arrival in suburbia suspects a sinister reason for the local women's model behavior.
Dir: Bryan Forbes
Cast: Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson
C-115 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
Author Ira Levin was originally going to write this as a stage play, until he realized there were too many characters and opted to turn it into a novel instead, which the film was based on.
12:15 AM -- LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR (1977)
The singles scene takes its toll on a young teacher.
Dir: Richard Brooks
Cast: Diane Keaton, Tuesday Weld, William Atherton
C-136 mins, CC,
Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Tuesday Weld, and Best Cinematography -- William A. Fraker
The film was made and released about five years after the murder of 28 year old New York City school-teacher Roseann Quinn whose death the film and its source novel was based on.
2:45 AM -- THE PAPER CHASE (1973)
A law student discovers that his girlfriend is the daughter of his toughest professor.
Dir: James Bridges
Cast: John Houseman, Timothy Bottoms, Lindsay Wagner
C-111 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- John Houseman
Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- James Bridges, and Best Sound -- Donald O. Mitchell and Larry Jost
Director James Bridges once said of actor John Houseman: "Almost every major theater in America is run by a Houseman protégé. Before there was (Professor) Kingsfield there was John Houseman. He was the Kingsfield to many of the actors, producers, directors on the American stage today". Houseman helped to found the Mercury Theatre along with Orson Welles, worked on a Federal Theater Project of the WPA, and helped develop the acting program at New York's famous Julliard School for the Arts.
4:45 AM -- BREAKING AWAY (1979)
Working-class teens compete with a college cycling team.
Dir: Peter Yates
Cast: Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Barbara Barrie
C-101 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Steve Tesich
Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Barbara Barrie, Best Director -- Peter Yates, Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score -- Patrick Williams, and Best Picture
The term "Cutters" heard in the film is used to represent Bloomington, Indiana townies who work cutting rock in the local limestone quarries. The production team decided to call the Bloomington townies "cutters" because they felt the actual local nickname ("stoners" or "stonies"
would draw a parallel to drug references for viewers who were not raised in the area.
