TCM Schedule for Saturday, October 6, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: How To Win Back Your Wife

[Staph]

Tonight's non-Essentials Essentials are tales of avoidance of divorce. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (1937)
A devoted couple faces the harsh economic realities of growing older.
Dir: Leo McCarey
Cast: Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi, Fay Bainter
BW-92 mins, CC,

When Leo McCarey received his 1938 Best Director Oscar for The Awful Truth (1937), he reportedly said that he got it for the wrong film, a clear reference to his fondness for this film.


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: CAPTAIN'S PUP (1938)
The Captain brings home a rescue dog, and the Captain's wife objects.
Dir: Chuck Jones
Cast: Billy Bletcher, Martha Wentworth
BW-9 mins,


8:10 AM -- LET'S SING A SONG FROM THE MOVIES (1948)
In this short film, a compilation of musicals are shown and the audience is invited to sing along. Vitaphone Release 1607A.
Dir: Jack Scholl
Cast: The Melody Makers, Art Gilmore, Ethel Waters
BW-11 mins,

Features clips from The Silent Man (1917), On with the Show! (1929), Footlight Parade (1933), San Antonio (1945), and The Time, the Place and the Girl (1946).


8:21 AM -- TAKE A CUE (1939)
In this short film, Charles C. Peterson demonstrates how to play billiards.
Dir: Felix E. Feist
Cast: Doodles Weaver, Charles Peterson,
BW-9 mins,


8:30 AM -- COWBOY CAVALIER (1948)
A ranch's foreman tries to protect the land from a blackmailer.
Dir: Derwin M. Abrahams
Cast: Jimmy Wakely, "Cannonball" Taylor, Jan Bryant
BW-55 mins, CC,

Jimmy Wakely performs Night After Night (written by Jimmy Wakely and Doris Mayer, and Mine, All Mine (written by Lee 'Lasses' White), and Dub Taylor sings That Old White Mule of Mine (written by Bob Nolan).


9:30 AM -- MANDRAKE, THE MAGICIAN: SHADOW ON THE WALL (1939)
A 12-episode serial, with Mandrake the Magician taking on the masked crime lord known as the Wasp.
Dir: Norman Deming, Sam Nelson
Cast: Warren Hull, Doris Weston, Al Kikume
BW-30 mins,


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: KING OF THE MARDI GRAS (1933)
Popeye and Bluto fight over Olive Oyl at a Mardi Gras celebration.
Dir: Dave Fleischer
Cast: Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, Gus Wickie
BW-8 mins, CC,

This was the first Popeye cartoon with Jack Mercer as the voice of the eponymous spinach-eating sailor.


10:10 AM -- THE SAINT STRIKES BACK (1939)
The Saint helps a young beauty take vengeance on the mobsters who ruined her father.
Dir: John Farrow
Cast: George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Jerome Cowan
BW-64 mins, CC,

The novel upon which this film is loosely based was also published under the titles "The Saint Meets His Match" and "She Was a Lady", the latter being its original publication title. Many changes were made, including changing the locale from Europe to San Francisco, replacing Scotland Yard inspector Teal with NYPD Inspector Fernack, and changing the female lead's name from Jill Trelawney to Valerie Travers. Jill/Valerie was also British in the original book. Leslie Charteris' novel, which is given official credit in titles, is "Angels of Doom."


11:30 AM -- THE LITTLEST DIPLOMAT (1937)
In this short film, a young girl helps negotiate a diplomatic truce in India. Vitaphone Release 7948-7949.
Dir: Bobby Connolly
Cast: Charles Austin, Lumsden Hare, Sam Harris
C-19 mins,

Actors Patric Knowles and Jean Muir appear in photograph form as Sybil's parents. They do not, however, appear on screen in person.


12:00 PM -- YOUNG MR. LINCOLN (1939)
The future president considers a political career while practicing law.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, Alice Brady, Marjorie Weaver
BW-100 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Lamar Trotti

Henry Fonda's makeup was based on photographs taken when Lincoln was about 45 years old and had lost weight due to the stresses of his job as a lawyer and his grief over the loss of Anne Rutledge; they were the earliest photos of Abraham Lincoln available at the time. It was not until years after this film was released that a photograph of Abraham Lincoln aged about 25 surfaced in a photograph collection. Ir was entitled "Photograph of a young man" and had been taken in 1844. The photograph shows that at the time it was taken, Lincoln was a sturdily built young man with a lean bony face and high cheekbones that made him very good looking if not handsome.


1:45 PM -- OBJECTIVE, BURMA! (1945)
An American platoon parachutes into Burma to take out a strategic Japanese outpost.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Errol Flynn, James Brown, William Prince
BW-142 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- Alvah Bessie, Best Film Editing -- George Amy, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Franz Waxman

Errol Flynn was criticized for playing heroes in World War II movies. Tony Thomas in his book "Errol Flynn: The Spy Who Never Was" states that Flynn had tried to enlist in every branch of any armed services he could but was rejected as unfit for service on the grounds of his health--he had a heart condition, tuberculosis, malaria and a back problem. Flynn felt he could contribute to America's war effort by appearing in war films, and subsequently made such pictures as Edge of Darkness (1943); Northern Pursuit (1943); Dive Bomber (1941) and Uncertain Glory (1944). Reportedly, Flynn was at his most professional and co-operative he ever was whilst working on Second World War movies. The studios apparently did not diffuse the criticism of Flynn's state-of-health as they wished to keep it quiet for fear of his box-office draw waning.


4:15 PM -- THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951)
The crew of a remote Arctic base fights off a murderous monster from outer space.
Dir: Christian Nyby
Cast: Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite
BW-87 mins, CC,

When one character is asked if he knows how to use a Very pistol, his response was, "I saw Gary Cooper in Sergeant York (1941)". He then proceeds to lick his finger and run it along the gun sight like York did throughout the film. Sergeant York (1941) was also directed by Howard Hawks.


6:00 PM -- WELCOME TO HARD TIMES (1967)
A broken-down sheriff tries to help his town stand against a mysterious outlaw.
Dir: Burt Kennedy
Cast: Henry Fonda, Janice Rule, Keenan Wynn
C-103 mins, CC,

Originally made for television in 1966, but released to theaters instead, before being shown on TV because of its violent content.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: HOW TO WIN BACK YOUR WIFE



8:00 PM -- LET'S MAKE IT LEGAL (1951)
The nearly-final divorce of the Halsworths suddenly gets complicated when Miriam's old flame comes to town.
Dir: Richard Sale
Cast: Claudette Colbert, MacDonald Carey, Zachary Scott
BW-77 mins, CC,

Claudette Colbert was nearly ten years older than both Macdonald Carey and Zachary Scott, though she does not look it.


9:45 PM -- BLUME IN LOVE (1973)
A divorced lawyer can't accept the fact that his wife's left him.
Dir: Paul Mazursky
Cast: George Segal, Susan Anspach, Kris Kristofferson
C-116 mins,

The role which ultimately went to Marsha Mason was originally given to another actress that was going to shoot another film. She called to ask the director, who declined, to push production of the film back for a couple of months. Mazursky hung up the phone and contacted his casting director, asking about Mason who just so happened to be at the casting office. When the actress walked in, the director hired her on the spot.


12:00 AM -- ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW (1959)
Desperate losers plan a bank robbery with unexpected results.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters
BW-96 mins, CC,

Harry Belafonte starred in this, the first film-noir with a black protagonist. Belafonte selected Abraham Polonsky, who had written and directed a famous noir, Force of Evil (1948), to write the script. As a blacklisted writer Polonsky used a front, John O. Killens, a black novelist and friend of Belafonte's. (In 1997, the Writers Guild of America officially restored Polonsky's credit.)


2:00 AM -- CALIFORNIA SPLIT (1974)
A down on his luck gambler and a free spirit take an unscheduled gambling trip to Tijuana.
Dir: Robert Altman
Cast: George Segal, Elliott Gould, Ann Prentiss
C-108 mins, Letterbox Format

To make George Segal feel the pain of losing, the director and writer set him up in a game against actual poker players, including the legendary 'Amarillo Slim' Preston (who appears in the Reno poker game) and made him use his personal money. They told him he was going to lose a couple thousand of his own dollars. But the cards ran his way, and Segal was the only winner in the game.


4:00 AM -- SCARECROW (1973)
Two hitchhikers with wildly different backgrounds become fast friends.
Dir: Jerry Schatzberg
Cast: Gene Hackman, Al Pacino, Dorothy Tristan
C-112 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Before shooting, Gene Hackman and Al Pacino both dressed as hobos and hitchhiked through California to get into their characters.