TCM Schedule for Friday, June 22 -- What's On Tonight: Summertime

[Staph]

We are celebrating the birthday of Billy Wilder, born Samuel Wilder on June 22, 1906, in Sucha, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Sucha Beskidzka, Malopolskie, Poland). Billy was a triple threat -- writer, director and producer, and won six Oscars. In the evening, TCM is taking note of Wednesday's first day of summer, with five films about hot and lazy summer days. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Ninotchka (1939)
110 min, TV-G
A coldhearted Soviet agent is warmed up by a trip to Paris and a night of love.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greta Garbo, Best Writing, Original Story -- Melchior Lengyel, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch and Billy Wilder, and Best Picture

Greta Garbo did not wear any makeup for her scenes where she is the stern envoy.


8:00 AM -- The Seven Year Itch (1955)
104 min, TV-PG
A married man whose wife is on vacation falls for the blonde bombshell upstairs.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Tommy Ewell, Evelyn Keyes

In the early 1980s 20th Century-Fox (which has the film rights) wanted to remake this movie. Al Pacino was rumored to play Richard Sherman and Melanie Griffith was rumored to play the Girl. However, the project was turned down and, as of 2009, it remains in development hell. Thank heavens!


10:00 AM -- Love In The Afternoon (1957)


130 min, TV-G
An aging American tycoon overcomes his inhibitions to court a young Parisian.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier

Cary Grant was offered the part of Frank Flannigan but turned it down because of the age difference between him and Audrey Hepburn. Gary Cooper was three years older than Grant.


12:15 PM -- The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)
C-135 min, TV-G
Charles Lindbergh risks his life to complete his historic flight from New York to Paris.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: James Stewart, Murray Hamilton, Patricia Smith

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Louis Lichtenfield

James Stewart was given the role of Charles Lindbergh after John Kerr had turned it down, owing to his disapproval of Lindbergh's pro-Nazi sympathies and his racist and anti-Semitic views. This was despite the fears of the producers that Stewart was too old for the part.


2:45 PM -- Some Like It Hot (1959)
121 min, TV-PG
Two musicians on the run from gangsters masquerade as members of an all-girl band.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon

Won an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Orry-Kelly

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Jack Lemmon, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Ted Haworth and Edward G. Boyle, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang, Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond

Stories of the difficulty that cast and crew had with Marilyn Monroe during the making of this film have grown to almost mythical proportions. In the "farewell" telephone conversation between Monroe and Tony Curtis, her side-to-side eye movements clearly reveal that she was reading her lines directly from an off-screen blackboard. According to Curtis, Monroe was routinely 2 to 3 hours late to the set, and occasionally refused to leave her dressing room.


5:00 PM -- The Apartment (1960)
125 min, TV-PG
An aspiring executive lets his bosses use his apartment for assignations, only to fall for the big chief's mistress.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Alexandre Trauner and Edward G. Boyle, Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Film Editing -- Daniel Mandell, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Jack Lemmon, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Kruschen, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Shirley MacLaine, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph LaShelle, and Best Sound, Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)

Billy Wilder originally thought of the idea for the film after seeing Brief Encounter and wondering about the plight of a character unseen in that film. Shirley MacLaine was only given forty pages of the script because Wilder didn't want her to know how the story would turn out. She thought it was because the script wasn't finished.


7:15 PM -- MGM Parade Show #12 (1955)
26 min, TV-G
George Murphy introduces clips featuring Vincente Minnelli and Arthur Freed from "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" and visits the set of "Kismet."


7:50 PM -- Yamekraw (1930)
10 min
Dir: Murray Roth
Cast: Jimmy Mordecai

A print of this film survives in the Library of Congress.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMERTIME


8:00 PM -- Street Scene (1931)
79 min, TV-14
A husband's violent reaction becomes the talk of the neighborhood when he catches his cheating wife in the act.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: Sylvia Sidney, William Collier Jr., Estelle Taylor

The entire tenement district set including the elevated station was built on the back lot of the United Artists Studio in Hollywood. If you look closely at the end of the street under the twin staircases that go up to the train station you'll see they used a huge painted backing to extend the street.


9:30 PM -- You're Only Young Once (1938)
78 min, TV-G
Andy Hardy and his sister find romance during a family vacation in Catalina.
Dir: George B. Seitz
Cast: Lewis Stone, Cecilia Parker, Mickey Rooney

This is the second of sixteen Andy Hardy films starring Mickey Rooney, and the first film that Lewis Stone played Judge Hardy.


11:00 PM -- Stand by Me (1986)
C-89 min, TV-MA
Four friends share a rite of passage on a long walk to view a dead body.
Dir: Rob Reiner
Cast: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans

While practicing his lines, Jerry O'Connell was incredibly impressed that, as an 11-year old, he was being allowed to swear.


12:30 AM -- Last Summer (1969)
C-95 min, TV-MA
Three vacationing students set out to humiliate an insecure girl.
Dir: Frank Perry
Cast: Barbara Hershey, Richard Thomas, Bruce Davison

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Catherine Burns

A subplot involving a wounded seagull affected Barbara Hershey sufficiently for her to change her surname to Seagull for a couple of years.


2:15 AM -- Little Darlings (1980)
C-95 min, TV-14
Girls at a summer camp compete to see who can find romance first.
Dir: Ron Maxwell
Cast: Tatum O'Neal, Kristy McNichol, Armand Assante

Kristy McNichol took up smoking as part of the preparation for the role, but couldn't quit the habit.


4:00 AM -- Modern Girls (1986)
84 min, TV-14
Dir: Jerry Kramer
Cast: Clayton Rohner, Daphne Zuniga, Virginia Madsen


5:36 AM -- Plan For Destruction (1943)
A look at the roots of Nazi Germany's drive for geographic expansion.
C-22 min
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: Lewis Stone, Frank Reicher, George Lynn

[CBHagman]

1. "The Seven Year Itch."

I had no idea they'd considered remaking it, though I shouldn't be surprised. Certainly dodged a bullet there.

About Wilder being a triple threat: I was on IMDB once and someone posted the opinion that Ball of Fire, which Wilder co-wrote, had too many characters and should have been cut down to three figures: the gangster, Professor Potts, and Sugarpuss. On the Internets, anybody can be an expert.