TCM schedule for Monday, February 16 --- 31 Days of Oscar University: Gangs and Gang Behavior

[Dem2theMax]

TCM schedule for Monday, February 16
31 Days of Oscar University


Juvenile Delinquency

6:00 AM They Shall Have Music (1939)
A runaway tries to help the students at a school for musical prodigies.
Cast: Jascha Heifetz, Joel McCrea, Andrea Leeds. Dir: Archie Mayo. BW-102 mins, TV-G


7:49 AM Short Film: A Night At The Movies (1937)
The mishaps of a married couple simply trying to attend a local movie show.
BW-10 mins


8:00 AM Boys' Town (1938)
True story of Father Flanagan's fight to build a home for orphaned boys.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull. Dir: Norman Taurog. BW-93 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS


9:37 AM Short Film: Sons Of Liberty (1939)
A patriotic short chronicling the efforts of underground leader and military financier Haym Salomon during the American Revolution.
Starring Claude Rains as Haym Salomon. Directed by Michael Curtiz. Cast: Claude Rains Dir: Michael Curtiz C-21 mins


10:00 AM Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)
Childhood friends on opposite sides of the law fight over the future of a street gang.
Cast: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart. Dir: Michael Curtiz. BW-97 mins, TV-G, CC


11:48 AM Short Film: Cavalcade Of Dance (1943)
BW-11 mins



Homicide Investigation


12:00 PM Boomerang (1947)
A prosecutor fights to prove the defendant in a scandalous murder case is innocent.
Cast: Dana Andrews, Jane Wyatt, Lee J. Cobb. Dir: Elia Kazan. BW-88 mins, TV-PG, CC


1:30 PM Naked City (1948)
A step-by-step look at a murder investigation on the streets of New York.
Cast: Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart. Dir: Jules Dassin. BW-96 mins, TV-14, CC


3:15 PM Short Film: Sure Cures (1946)
BW-11 mins


3:30 PM Double Indemnity (1944)
An insurance salesman gets seduced into plotting a client's death.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson. Dir: Billy Wilder. BW-108 mins, TV-PG, CC


5:30 PM In Cold Blood (1967)
Two vagrants try to outrun the police after committing a savage crime in this real-life shocker.
Cast: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe. Dir: Richard Brooks. BW-134 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format


Gangs and Gang Behavior


8:00 PM Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Two free-spirited bank robbers flee railroad detectives and head for Bolivia.
Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross. Dir: George Roy Hill. C-110 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format


10:00 PM Some Like It Hot (1959)
Two musicians on the run from gangsters masquerade as members of an all-girl band.
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis. Dir: Billy Wilder. BW-121 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format


12:15 AM Bugsy (1991)
The famed gangster running the mobs in Los Angeles tries to turn Las Vegas into a vacation paradise.
Cast: Warren Beatty, Annette Benning, Joe Mantegna. Dir: Barry Levinson. C-136 mins, TV-MA, Letterbox Format


2:45 AM Shaft (1971)
A slick black detective enlists gangsters and African nationals to fight the mob.
Cast: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi. Dir: Gordon Parks. C-100 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox Format


4:30 AM The Public Enemy (1931)
An Irish-American street punk tries to make it big in the world of organized crime.
Cast: James Cagney, Edward Woods, Jean Harlow. Dir: William A. Wellman. BW-84 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS


Movie Highlights

Why this movie? Because I LOVE it! I went to see it four times in the movie theater. Thank goodness those were 1969 prices. ;)
I expected a much better article from TCM about this movie. But this is all they've got.



Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid


The tagline for the ad campaign for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) was "Not that it matters, but most of it is true." What does matter is that the film is a wonderfully entertaining western which at once debunks the myth of the Old West, and mourns its passing. What also matters is that it gave huge boosts to the careers of stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford, director George Roy Hill, and screenwriter William Goldman.

Butch and Sundance are a pair of amiable, not-too-bright robbers, members of the legendary Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. But they're finding it harder to practice their profession, since they're relentlessly pursued by a super-posse intent on wiping them out. They escape to Bolivia, and become legends all over again as the "Yanqui banditos," but once again the law closes in.

Writer William Goldman was fascinated with the saga of Robert Leroy Parker (AKA Butch Cassidy) and Harry Longbaugh (AKA the Sundance Kid), which, surprisingly, had never been made into a film before. Goldman researched their story on and off for eight years before writing the screenplay. During that period, he was writing novels (Harry Longbaugh was one of the many pseudonyms he used) and eventually, screenplays. Most of the story was, indeed, true. It's true that Butch never killed anyone until he got to Bolivia and he really did use too much dynamite to blow up a safe, destroying the money as well. A super-posse really was formed to hunt them down, and the boys really did run off to Bolivia because of it (although they left before the posse actually began pursuit). There really was an Etta Place, and she did go with them. The circumstances of the final shootout, if not the details, are also true.

Goldman wrote the screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with Jack Lemmon and Paul Newman in mind for the leads. 20th-Century-Fox, which bought the script, had other ideas. They thought Newman was fine, but wanted Steve McQueen as his co-star. McQueen was interested...until he found out that Newman would get top billing. Fox head of production Richard Zanuck tried and failed to get Marlon Brando, then offered the part to Warren Beatty. Newman was not happy about that, and was having other doubts, too. His past efforts at comedy had flopped, and he decided he couldn't play comedy. Director George Roy Hill had to convince him otherwise, eventually persuading the actor to support his own choice for Sundance - a rising young actor named Robert Redford.

Newman and Redford became fast friends, and all of the participants remember a production filled with raucous but friendly arguments, and many practical jokes. Even a problem in filming one sequence was turned into an asset. The New York montage had been written as a dialogue scene and Hill hoped to shoot these sequences on a huge New York set which had been built for Hello Dolly! (1969), then in production. But Hello Dolly! would not open until after Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Fox executives didn't want to dilute the set's impact, so they refused Hill permission to use it. Possibly inspired by photographs of the real Butch, Sundance, and Etta in New York, Hill settled for shooting stills on the Dolly sets, and making the sequence a montage of the photos. It proved to be an excellent pacing device, and an effective marker between the two halves of the film.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid received mixed reviews from the critics, but the public cast the final vote. The film took in well over $30 million, and became the highest grossing western in history. Paul Newman became king of the box office that year, and Robert Redford became a bankable star. George Roy Hill and William Goldman also became major Hollywood players. The film won four Academy Awards; for the song, "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head," and for cinematography, screenplay, and original score. It was nominated for three more: Best Picture (Midnight Cowboy won), Best Direction, and Best Sound. Hill, Newman and Redford reunited for The Sting (1973), which was even bigger at the box office than Butch Cassidy, and won a Best Picture Oscar.

The affection both Newman and Redford felt for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and their characters is evidenced in the names they've given to their favorite personal projects: Redford's Sundance Institute, a center for training and supporting new filmmakers, and Newman's Hole-in-the-Wall camp for children with debilitating illnesses.

Director: George Roy Hill
Producer: Paul Monash, John Foreman
Screenplay: William Goldman
Editor: John C. Howard, Richard C. Meyer
Cinematography: Conrad Hall
Costume Design: Edith Head
Art Direction: Jack Martin Smith, Philip Jefferies
Music: Burt Bacharach
Cast: Paul Newman (Butch Cassidy), Robert Redford (Sundance Kid), Katharine Ross (Etta Place), Strother Martin (Percy Garris), Henry Jones (bike salesman), Jeff Corey (Sheriff Bledsoe), Cloris Leachman (Agnes), Ted Cassidy (Harvey Logan), Kenneth Mars (Marshal).
C-112m. Letterboxed.

By Margarita Landazuri


~for Kendra~

[Matilda]

1. You have to wonder about critics sometimes...

what's not to like?

Writing's superb, directing excellent, acting brilliant. And what a
team those two made - of all the famous names considered for Sundance,
it's impossible to imagine anyone other than Redford being such a
perfect match with Newman.

What more could they want?

:shrug: