TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 21, 2016 -- What's On Tonight - TCM Spotlight: America in the 70s

[Staph]

In daylight, TCM is celebrating C. Aubrey Smith, born July 21, 1860, in London. In prime time, TCM continuing their spotlight on America in the 1970s for the month, with five more films. Enjoy!

(And my apologies for being so late with today's schedule. This afternoon I returned from a couple of weeks in Europe. We left Nice on the morning of July 14, about 15 hours before the attack on the Promenade des Anglais. I'm still unnerved at the thought that some of the charming folks that I met on our three days in that city could have been victims. Bless them all!)

(And my thanks to CBHagman for filling in for me last week!)



7:15 AM -- AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (1945)
Guests at a remote island mansion realize a crazed killer is stalking them.
Dir: René Clair
Cast: Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward
BW-97 mins, CC,

This movie, as all existent versions of "Ten Little Indians," is based not on the novel by Agatha Christie but on her very similar play. While the identity of the murderer is the same in both versions, the outcome of who survives the murderer's plot is very different.


9:00 AM -- MADAME CURIE (1943)
The famed female scientist fights to keep her marriage together while conducting early experiments with radioactivity.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Henry Travers
BW-124 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Walter Pidgeon, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt, Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD), Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Herbert Stothart, and Best Picture

The film makes no mention of the rather ironic fact that Maria Sklodowska-Curie died of aplastic anemia at the age of 66, most likely because of her handling of radium in her lifetime. Her lab books are kept under lock and key, as they are still irradiated more than 100 years after use. Her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie and son-in-law Frédéric Joliot-Curie, who continued her research, also died of radiation-based illnesses.


11:15 AM -- LITTLE WOMEN (1949)
The four daughters of a New England family fight for happiness during and after the Civil War.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Margaret O'Brien
C-122 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert H. Planck and Charles Edgar Schoenbaum

Last film of C. Aubrey Smith, released posthumously.


1:30 PM -- WATERLOO BRIDGE (1940)
A ballerina turns to prostitution when her fiance is reported killed in World War I.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Lucile Watson
BW-109 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, and Best Music, Original Score -- Herbert Stothart

Rita Carlyle played (uncredited) the Old Woman on Bridge in BOTH Waterloo Bridge (1931) & Waterloo Bridge (1940). It was the woman who dropped her basket of potatoes and cabbage in the earlier version and the flower lady in the later version.


3:30 PM -- THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1937)
An Englishman who resembles the king of a small European nation gets mixed up in palace intrigue when his look-alike is kidnapped.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll, C. Aubrey Smith
BW-101 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Lyle R. Wheeler, and Best Music, Score -- Alfred Newman

In 'Salad Days', his first autobiography, Douglas Fairbanks Jr said that when Raymond Massey told Sir C. Aubrey Smith, who played Col. Zapt, that he didn't understand his own part of Black Michael, Smith said 'Ray, in my time I've played every part in Zenda except Princess Flavia, and I've never understood Black Michael either'.


5:15 PM -- QUEEN CHRISTINA (1933)
Romantic tale of the 17th-century Swedish queen and her romance with a Spanish diplomat.
Dir: Rouben Mamoulian
Cast: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Ian Keith
BW-99 mins, CC,

The scene where Christina goes around the room at the inn, remember the night she spent with her lover, was choreographed so meticulously that Greta Garbo performed the scene to a metronome.


7:00 PM -- HOLLYWOOD MY HOMETOWN (1965)
In this special, Ken Murray hosts his own behind-the-scenes home movies of some of Hollywood's greatest stars.
BW-53 mins, CC,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPECIAL THEME: AMERICA IN THE 70'S



8:00 PM -- THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE (1974)
Gunmen hold a New York subway train and its passengers for ransom.
Dir: Joseph Sargent
Cast: Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam
C-104 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Ever since the release of the film. No #6 train has ever been scheduled to leave Pelham Bay Park Station at either 13:23 or 01:23 by the New York City Transit Authority. This was the practice for many years until the policy was discontinued. But continued as a kind of tradition and caution. Trains are still not scheduled to leave the Pelham Bay Park Station at either 1.23 am or pm.


10:00 PM -- DOG DAY AFTERNOON (1975)
A man robs a bank to pay for his lover's operation.
Dir: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Al Pacino, John Cazale, Carol Kane
C-125 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Frank Pierson (Frank Pierson was not present at the awards ceremony. Presenter Gore Vidal accepted the award on his behalf.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Al Pacino, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Chris Sarandon, Best Director -- Sidney Lumet, Best Film Editing -- Dede Allen, and Best Picture

The entire film is mostly improvised, though around the script. After rehearsing the script for weeks with his cast, Sidney Lumet took the improvisations that were made while rehearsing and made that the official screenplay.


12:15 AM -- SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977)
A Brooklyn roughneck's love for disco dancing makes him realize that he wants more out of life.
Dir: John Badham
Cast: John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney, Barry Miller
C-119 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- John Travolta

When they shot the first bridge scene, director John Badham kept secret from Donna Pescow the fact that when the guys "fell off" the bridge, they actually landed on a platform a few feet below. Badham and the other actors did not tell her about the platform because they wanted a genuine look of horror and anger on Annette's face when Tony, Double J. and Joey appeared to fall off. Therefore, Donna's reaction to them falling, and her facial expressions turning from horror and shock to outright anger, were real, and her next line, "You fuckers!", was not scripted.


2:30 AM -- SHAFT (1971)
A slick black detective enlists gangsters and African nationals to fight the mob.
Dir: Gordon Parks
Cast: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi
C-100 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Isaac Hayes (For the song "Theme from Shaft&quot

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- Isaac Hayes

Shaft is seen reading a copy of Essence Magazine in his girlfriend's apartment. Gordon Parks is a co-founder of Essence. The magazine is spotted when Shaft is engaging in a conversation with a blind newsstand vendor during the opening sequence.


4:15 AM -- THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)
Two New York narcotics cops set out to bust a French drug smuggling ring.
Dir: William Friedkin
Cast: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider
C-104 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gene Hackman, Best Director -- William Friedkin, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Ernest Tidyman, Best Film Editing -- Gerald B. Greenberg, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Roy Scheider, Best Cinematography -- Owen Roizman, and Best Sound -- Theodore Soderberg and Christopher Newman

The early scene where Doyle and Russo chase down a drug dealer with Doyle dressed in a Santa Claus suit is based on a real-life tactic used by Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso. While on stakeouts in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Egan and Grosso discovered drug dealers could easily spot undercover cops, and would often flee the scene before the cops could arrest them. One Christmas, Egan came up with the idea of dressing in a Santa Claus suit, figuring the dealers would never suspect Santa Claus of being a cop. As depicted in the film, Egan walked the neighborhood streets as Santa Claus, singing Christmas carols with local kids. When he saw a deal going down, Egan sang "Jingle Bells" as a signal to his partners to move in and make the arrest. The tactic worked beautifully, and Egan and his partners made dozens of Christmas arrests over several years.