TCM Schedule for Saturday, October 1, 2016 -- The Essentials - Jack Carson & Dennis Morgan

[Staph]

The Essentials for tonight features good buddies Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan, who made fifteen films, shorts and television appearances together. Enjoy!



6:30 AM -- FIRST TO FIGHT (1967)
A former war hero returning to train new recruits can't decide if he should stay in the military, or settle down.
Dir: Christian Nyby
Cast: Chad Everett, Marilyn Devin, Dean Jagger
C-97 mins, Letterbox Format

Chad Everett and Claude Akins also appeared together in Claudelle Inglish (1961), The Dakotas : The Chooser of the Slain (1963) and Medical Center : Time of Darkness (1973).


8:15 AM -- JAMAICA INN (1939)
A young woman on the British coast stumbles onto a ring of bloodthirsty scavengers.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Charles Laughton, Horace Hodges, Hay Petrie
B/W-100 mins, CC

Was reportedly one of Alfred Hitchcock's most unhappy directing jobs. He felt caught between Charles Laughton and Laughton's business partners. Later, he said that he did not so much direct the film as referee it. Alfred Hitchcock made no cameo appearance in this movie.


10:00 AM -- MGM PARADE SHOW #3 (1955)
George Murphy introduces clips from "A Free Soul" with Clark Gable and "Trial."
B/W-26 mins, CC


10:30 AM -- PRIVATE EYES (1953)
The Bowery Boys open a detective agency when one of them develops mind-reading talents.
Dir: Edward Bernds
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey
B/W-65 mins

The thirty-second of forty-eight Bowery Boys movies.


12:00 PM -- ANNIE GET YOUR GUN (1950)
Fanciful musical biography of wild West sharpshooter Annie Oakley.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, Louis Calhern
C-107 mins

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

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Charles Rosher, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Richard Pefferle, and Best Film Editing -- James E. Newcom

Ginger Rogers wrote in her 1991 autobiography that she told her agent Leland Hayward to aggressively go after this film for her, and that money was no object. She wrote that she would have worked for one dollar, to make it legal. Hayward spoke with Louis B. Mayer, who said: "Tell Ginger to stay in her high-heel shoes and her silk stockings, she could never be as rambunctious as Annie Oakley has to be".


2:00 PM -- DODGE CITY (1939)
A soldier of fortune takes on the corrupt boss of a Western town.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland, Ann Sheridan
C-104 mins, CC

Country rock band Pure Prairie League, which had a mid-'70s hit called "Amie" and later employed future country star Vince Gill as lead singer for hits like "Let Me Love You Tonight" and "I'm Almost Ready," took their name from a temperance union portrayed in this film.


4:00 PM -- THE LAST CHALLENGE (1967)
A young gun wants to make his name by shooting it out with the town marshal.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Glenn Ford, Angie Dickinson, Chad Everett
C-96 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The final film of veteran director Richard Thorpe.


6:00 PM -- HANG 'EM HIGH (1968)
A mysterious drifter survives a lynching then goes back for revenge.
Dir: Ted Post
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Inger Stevens, Ed Begley
C-115 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Writers Mel Goldberg and Leonard Freeman were first told that Clint Walker was cast in the lead but were severely disappointed when they were informed that it was actually Clint "Easterwood." Needless to say it worked out better than if it had been Clint Walker.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: JACK CARSON & DENNIS MORGAN



8:00 PM -- TWO GUYS FROM MILWAUKEE (1946)
A runaway prince in disguise takes up with a taxi driver.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie, Jack Carson
B/W-90 mins, CC

Watch for Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in a brief cameo on an airplane.


9:45 PM -- TWO GUYS FROM TEXAS (1948)
Two vaudevillians on the run from crooks try to pass themselves off as cowboys.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Dorothy Malone
C-86 mins, CC

Thanks to director Friz Freleng, this was the first feature film appearance of Warners' most famous cartoon character, Bugs Bunny.


11:30 PM -- IT'S A GREAT FEELING (1949)
When nobody at Warner Bros. will work with him, movie star Jack Carson decides to turn an unknown into his co-star.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Dennis Morgan, Doris Day, Jack Carson
C-85 mins, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "It's a Great Feeling"

Joan Crawford does a cameo and directs a short speech to Jack Carson before slapping his face. It's the same speech she gives to Ann Blyth in Mildred Pierce (1945) before slapping her face. Carson co-starred in that film with Crawford. Patricia Neal, still wearing the black fur-trimmed evening gown from The Fountainhead (1949) came directly from that set to film her ballroom scene cameo.


2:00 AM -- ROAR (1981)
An environmentalist's estranged family discovers his African home overrun with wild animals.
Dir: Noel Marshall
Cast: Tippi Hedren, Melanie Griffith, Noel Marshall
C-102 mins, CC

During filming in 1977, Melanie Griffith was mauled by a lion and required plastic surgery. Griffith reportedly received fifty stitches to her face. It was feared she would lose an eye, but she recovered and was not disfigured. On another occasion, a lion grabbed her hair and wouldn't let go. That moment made it into the film.


3:45 AM -- BORN FREE (1965)
A game warden and his wife face a wrenching decision when the lion cub they've raised becomes too big to keep.
Dir: James Hill
Cast: Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers, Geoffrey Keen
C-95 mins, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- John Barry (music) and Don Black (lyrics) for the song "Born Free", (John Barry was not present at the awards ceremony.) and Best Music, Original Music Score -- John Barry (Paul B. Radin accepted the award.)

The lions "Boy", "Girl" and "Ugas" were freed upon completion of filming. Under protest by the film studio who wanted to sell the lions to zoos to get some money back from filming.


5:30 AM -- THE DISTANT DRUMMER: A MOVABLE SCENE (1970)
An education short film that exposes drug use and drug culture.
Dir: William Templeton
C-22 mins, CC