TCM Schedule for Saturday, January 28, 2017 -- What's On Tonight - SAG Lifetime Achievement Award

[Staph]

From the TCM website:

This year's recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award is the incomparable Lily Tomlin, who will receive the honor during the 23rd Annual SAG Awards as simulcast live on sister networks TNT and TBS on January 29 at 8 pm (ET). This multi-talented actress/comedian/writer/producer enjoyed her breakthrough to national fame with Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In in the 1970s and was Oscar®-nominated for her performance in Robert Altman's musical epic Nashville (1975), in which she plays a married gospel singer involved in a troubled love affair with a self-centered rocker (Keith Carradine). She continues to captivate audiences with her Emmy-nominated performance in the current comedy series Grace and Frankie.

In announcing the award, SAG President Gabrielle Carteris said of Tomlin that she "is an extraordinary actress, as equally adept at narrative drama as in comedy roles. But it is through her many original characters that Lily's creative genius fully shines. She has an ability to create diverse and distinct characters that are at once familiar, eccentric and oh so honest--in a way that illuminates life's hidden corners."

TCM celebrates Tomlin's latest honor with screenings of two of her vivid movie performances, both directed by Altman. In The Late Show (1977), Art Carney and Tomlin share a wistful romance as an aging detective and his whimsical client/sidekick as they investigate the murder of his partner. In the Hollywood satire The Player (1992), Tomlin has a cameo as herself.

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- WORLD WITHOUT END (1955)
Astronauts returning from a voyage are caught in a time warp and are propelled into a post-Apocalyptic Earth populated by mutants.
Dir: Edward Bernds
Cast: Hugh Marlowe, Nancy Gates, Nelson Leigh
C-81 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

This film was produced directly by Allied Artists (formerly Monogram Pictures). It was made in hopes of shedding Monogram's "poverty row" image. It was given a larger budget, shot in color and CinemaScope and ran a full reel longer than their usual 60- to 70-minute running time common to "B" pictures. Allied Artists was able to book it under percentage contracts rather than flat rates.


7:45 AM -- FLIGHT OF THE LOST BALLOON (1961)
An adventurous professor fights to keep his hot air balloon safe on a rescue mission.
Dir: Howard Alston
Cast: Mala Powers, Marshall Thompson, James Lanphier
C-91 mins,

An advertising gimmick used for this film was the giveaway of "motion sickness pills" to ticket buyers. The critics had a field day with it.


9:30 AM -- UP IN SMOKE (1957)
The Bowery Boys' leader sells his soul to the devil for help betting on the horses.
Dir: William Beaudine
Cast: Huntz Hall, Stanley Clements, David Gorcey
BW-64 mins, CC,

This film, and In the Money (1958), were the last two films in the Bowery Boys series. They were made because Huntz Hall still had two films left on his contract with Allied Artists.


10:45 AM -- IN THE MONEY (1958)
The Bowery Boys escort a diamond concealing poodle on a cruise.
Dir: William Beaudine
Cast: Huntz Hall, Stanley Clements, Patricia Donahue
BW-61 mins, CC,

The last of the 48 Bowery Boys movies and the final film of screenwriter Al Martin.


12:00 PM -- DIARY OF A MADMAN (1963)
The body of a French magistrate is taken over by the soul of a murderer.
Dir: Reginald Le Borg
Cast: Vincent Price, Nancy Kovack, Chris Warfield
C-97 mins, Letterbox Format

Based on some stories by Guy de Maupassant.


2:00 PM -- RODAN (1958)
Miners uncover the nest of a giant pterodactyl.
Dir: Inoshiro Honda
Cast: Kenji Sawara, Yumi Shirakawa, Akihiko Hirata
BW-72 mins, CC,

In his autobiography, George Takei says that this was his first professional acting job, and all dialogue voices were provided by himself, Keye Luke, "another man" (Paul Frees) and one woman.


3:30 PM -- THE LONG VOYAGE HOME (1940)
A merchant ship's crew tries to survive the loneliness of the sea and the coming of war.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter
BW-106 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Dudley Nichols, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Gregg Toland, Best Film Editing -- Sherman Todd, Best Effects, Special Effects -- R.T. Layton (photographic), Ray Binger (photographic) and Thomas T. Moulton (sound), Best Music, Original Score -- Richard Hageman, and Best Picture

John Wayne was asked by director John Ford to play the part of Ole Olson, who was Swedish. Wayne wasn't sure he could pull off the Swedish accent and was worried that the audience would laugh. Ford persuaded him to take the role.


5:30 PM -- THE QUIET MAN (1952)
An Irish ex-boxer retires to Ireland and searches for the proper wife.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald
C-129 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Director -- John Ford, and Best Cinematography, Color -- Winton C. Hoch and Archie Stout

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Victor McLaglen, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Frank S. Nugent, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Frank Hotaling, John McCarthy Jr. and Charles S. Thompson, Best Sound, Recording -- Daniel J. Bloomberg (Republic Sound Department), and Best Picture

At the film's conclusion, after the credits, we see Kate and Sean standing in their garden waving good-bye. Maureen O'Hara turns to John Wayne and whispers something in his ear, evoking a priceless reaction from Wayne. What was said was known only to O'Hara, Wayne and director John Ford. In exchange for saying this unscripted bit of text, O'Hara insisted that the exact line never be disclosed by any involved parties. In her memoirs she says that she refused to say the line at first as she "couldn't possibly say that to Duke", but Ford insisted, claiming he needed a genuine shock reaction from Wayne. After the death of Maureen O'Hara in 2015, the line will never be known.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SAG LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD



8:00 PM -- THE LATE SHOW (1977)
An aging private eye hooks up with a Hollywood eccentric to investigate his partner's murder.
Dir: Robert Benton
Cast: Art Carney, Lily Tomlin, Bill Macy
C-93 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Robert Benton

The movie featured Group Theatre founder actress Ruth Nelson portraying the landlady Mrs. Schmidt, this character name being a spoof of the German aircraft manufacturing company "Messerschmitt". This film was astonishingly Nelson's first theatrical film role in almost thirty years.


9:45 PM -- THE PLAYER (1992)
A rising producer tries to cover up the accidental killing of a screenwriter who was stalking him.
Dir: Robert Altman
Cast: Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward
C-124 mins, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Robert Altman, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published -- Michael Tolkin, and Best Film Editing -- Geraldine Peroni

The opening tracking shot, which is eight minutes long, includes people talking about famous long tracking shots in other movies. The scene was rehearsed for a day, shot for half a day. Fifteen takes were done, five were printed, and the third one was used in the film. The entire sequence was unscripted, and all the dialogue is improvised, (which makes you wonder. What were they actually rehearsing?)


12:00 AM -- NASHVILLE (1975)
Country music stars get caught up in tangled affairs and an independent's political campaign.
Dir: Robert Altman
Cast: Henry Gibson, Lily Tomlin, Ronee Blakley
C-158 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Keith Carradine for the song "I'm Easy"

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ronee Blakley, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Lily Tomlin, Best Director -- Robert Altman, and Best Picture

The role of Linnea Reese was created for and by Louise Fletcher, who herself was the daughter of two deaf parents and knew sign language. The role was eventually played by Lily Tomlin. Tomlin concluded that things worked out in the end because she was offered the role of Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and turned it down, which enabled Fletcher to eventually get it, so in a sense they simply traded roles.


2:45 AM -- SCANNERS (1981)
A scientist sends a man with extraordinary psychic powers to hunt others like him.
Dir: David Cronenberg
Cast: Michael Ironside, Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill
BW-103 mins,

David Cronenberg once called this the most frustrating film he'd ever made. The film was rushed through production - filming had to begin without a finished script and end within roughly two months so the financing would qualify as a tax write-off, forcing Cronenberg to write and shoot at the same time. Cronenberg also cited difficulty with and antagonism between the leads, particularly Patrick McGoohan and Jennifer O'Neill.


4:30 AM -- COMA (1978)
A lady doctor investigates a series of strange deaths and disappearing bodies at her hospital.
Dir: Michael Crichton
Cast: Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, Elizabeth Ashley
C-113 mins, CC,

Background artists playing the coma patients being suspended by wires in the coma clinic underwent such great a physical strain that they could only be filmed in six minute bursts. Because of this, the extras were paid extras. Director Michael Crichton said that "It was technically very complicated because the people could only hang for six minutes...You see, the suspension was actually only from the hips and neck. But because you had to act like you were suspended by wires everywhere, a great strain was put on the back...We had special tables built that were on jacks, like car jacks, and people would sit on these tables in between shots. And then they would be hung, and the tables would be rolled down and moved out...I think we used sixteen real people and fifteen dummies...But most of what the camera sees is real people."

[longship]

1. Too bad no "9 to 5"

Lily Tomlin playing off Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda is something very special.