TCM Schedule for Friday, April 24 -- Funny Ladies

[Staph]

Happy birthday, Shirley MacLaine! I can't believe that she's 75 years old today, at least in this lifetime and her present body. We've got some of her best during the day, including her first film, Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble With Harry (1955), The Children's Hour (1961) and her Oscar-nominated turn in Irma La Douce (1963). Tonight's other funny ladies include Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin. And we've got a late-night trio of really creepy exploitation films. Enjoy!


6:00am -- Sabotage Agent (1943)
An undercover agent battles Nazis to save an aviation plant.
Cast: Robert Donat, Valerie Hobson, Walter Rilla, Glynis Johns
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
BW-111 mins, TV-PG

The poem that Donat and the others quote is from English poet William Wordsworth:
"I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils"


8:00am -- High Wall (1947)
Psychiatry provides the key to proving a veteran flyer innocent of his wife's murder.
Cast: Robert Taylor, Audrey Totter, Herbert Marshall, Dorothy Patrick
Dir: Curtis Bernhardt
BW-100 mins, TV-PG

Robert Taylor's second film after returning to MGM after WWII.


9:41am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Vaudeville Days (1942)
A sort of vaudeville historical revue from Warner Bros. A recreation of the first vaudeville act is staged, followed by several impersonation acts representing the growth in vaudeville in 1880s-1890s. Finally, contemporary acts from vaudeville of the day (1940s) are performed.
Cast: Rio Brothers, The Duffins, Whirling Camerons, Eddie Garr
Dir: LeRoy Prinz
BW-20 mins

Comedian Eddie Garr is the father of actress Teri Garr.


10:00am -- Rage In Heaven (1941)
A jealous man plots to fake his death and incriminate his wife's suspected lover.
Cast: Robert Montgomery, Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders, Lucile Watson
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II
BW-85 mins, TV-PG

W.S. Van Dyke took over the direction of the movie from Robert B. Sinclair, who became ill shortly after shooting began. Van Dyke was in the Marines, but was granted a 14-day leave to finish the picture. Neither Sinclair nor Van Dyke was available for retakes, which were then directed by Richard Thorpe.


11:30am -- Irma La Douce (1963)
A Parisian policeman gives up everything for the love of a free-living prostitute.
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Lou Jacobi, Bruce Yarnell
Dir: Billy Wilder
BW-143 mins, TV-14

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- André Previn

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Shirley MacLaine, and Best Cinematography, Color -- Joseph LaShelle

The pimps' union is called the "Mec's (tough guy's) Paris Protective Association" (MPPA), which also stands for "Motion Picture Producers Association", an organization which had given director Billy Wilder some trouble.


2:00pm -- Two For The Seesaw (1962)
A conservative attorney considering a divorce gets involved with an emotionally fragile dancer in New York.
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Shirley MacLaine, Edmon Ryan, Elisabeth Fraser
Dir: Robert Wise
BW-119 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ted D. McCord, and Best Music, Original Song -- André Previn (music) and Dory Previn (lyrics) (as Dory Langdon) for the song "Song from Two for the Seesaw (Second Chance)"

Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman were both set to do this film but when Taylor became ill during the early filming of Cleopatra (1963), Newman was able to do The Hustler (1961) instead.


4:15pm -- The Trouble With Harry (1955)
A corpse creates a world of trouble for several passersby who each believe they may have caused the death.
Cast: Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Mildred Natwick, Mildred Dunnock
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
C-99 mins, TV-PG

Due to the indifferent weather conditions in Vermont, boxes and boxes of autumnal leaves were shipped back to California where they were painstakingly pinned onto trees on a studio soundstage.


6:00pm -- The Children's Hour (1961)
A malicious student tries to destroy the teachers at a girls' school.
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner, Miriam Hopkins
Dir: William Wyler
BW-108 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Fay Bainter, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Fernando Carrere and Edward G. Boyle, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Franz Planer, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Dorothy Jeakins, and Best Sound -- Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)

Shirley MacLaine, in the documentary The Celluloid Closet (1995), said that nobody on the set of The Children's Hour (1961) discussed the ramifications of the issues regarding homosexuality that are implied, but never spoken about outright, in the film. She said, "none of us were really aware. We might have been forerunners, but we weren't really, because we didn't do the picture right. We were in the mindset of not understanding what we were basically doing. These days, there would be a tremendous outcry, as well there should be. Why would Martha break down and say, 'Oh my god, what's wrong with me, I'm so polluted, I've ruined you.' She would fight! She would fight for her budding preference. And when you look at it, to have Martha play that scene--and no one questioned it--what that meant, or what the alternatives could have been underneath the dialog, it's mind boggling. The profundity of this subject was not in the lexicon of our rehearsal period. Audrey and I never talked about this. Isn't that amazing. Truly amazing."


What's On Tonight: STAR OF THE MONTH: FUNNY LADIES


8:00pm -- The World's Greatest Athlete (1973)
A washed-up coach saves his career when he discovers a jungle boy who's a natural athlete.
Cast: Tim Conway, Jan-Michael Vincent, John Amos
Dir: Art Vitarelli
C-92 mins, TV-PG

Current USC head football coach Pete Carroll appears uncredited; he's the one running back the interception for a hundred-yard touchdown. Carroll played as a defensive back at University of the Pacific.


9:36pm -- Short Film: From The Vaults: The Lion Roars Again (1975)
An MGM promotional featurette advertising its resurgence into the movie industry in the mid-1970s. Showcased movies include "Logan's Run" (1976), "The Sunshine Boys" (1975), and "The Wind and the Lion" (1975).
C-17 mins

Footage is also included from That's Entertainment Part II (1976), Sweet Revenge (1976), and Hearts of the West (1975).


10:00pm -- Seems Like Old Times (1980)
A liberal lady lawyer tries to hide her ex-husband when he's wrongly accused of bank robbery.
Cast: Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn, Charles Grodin, Robert Guillaume
Dir: Jay Sandrich
C-102 mins, TV-14

As Nick walks away from Glenda after kissing her in front of the courthouse near the end of the film, he whistles the theme to the John Wayne classic The High and the Mighty (1954).


12:00am -- All Of Me (1984)
A lawyer's body is invaded by the soul of a recently deceased female client.
Cast: Steve Martin, Lily Tomlin, Victoria Tennant, Madolyn Smith
Dir: Carl Reiner
C-92 mins, TV-14

Steve Martin met his future wife on this picture, Victoria Tennant. They have since divorced.


1:41am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: The Two Barks Brothers (1931)
Twin brothers are separated at birth when one is stolen by gypsies. One becomes a district attorney. The other becomes a drifter.
Dir: Zion Myers, Jules White
BW-17 mins

From the Dogville series of shorts from MGM. You do realize that means that the twin brothers are dogs?


2:00am -- The Road to Ruin (1934)
An innocent girl falls in with a crowd devoted to pot and free love.
Cast: Helen Foster, Nell O'Day, Glen Boles, Bobby Quirk
Dir: Mrs. Wallace Reid
BW-64 mins, TV-14

Remake of The Road To Ruin (1928) -- someone must have decided that the world needed a sound version of this exploitation film.


3:15am -- Escort Girl (1941)
A woman tries to hide her job as a paid escort from her visiting daughter.
Cast: Betty Compson, Margaret Marquis, Bob Kellard, Wheeler Oakman
Dir: Eddie Kaye
BW-57 mins, TV-14

Included in Cult Classics 20 movie pack.


4:30am -- Perversion For Profit (1965)
An anti-porn documentary.
Cast: George Putnam narrates.
BW-31 mins, TV-MA

George Putnam: "Hello there. I'm George Putnam. I'd like to begin with a fact, a simple yet shocking fact. It is this - a floodtide of filth is engulfing our country in the form of newsstand obscenity and is threatening to pervert an entire generation of our American children."

I was eleven years old in 1965. I guess I am one of the perverted generation of American children. Any other perverts out there?
:evilgrin:


5:15am -- Ask Me, Don't Tell Me (1961)
San Francisco gang members turn their lives around working in community service projects.
Cast: William Winters narrates, Stanley Mosk.
Dir: David Myers.
BW-22 mins, TV-14

Short film documenting the 'Youth for Service' program in San Fransico which gives gang members something positive to do and helps give them a sense of purpose. The program assigns projects to members of these 'jacket clubs' in which they help out the under privileged and elderly.

[Staph]

1. The Trouble with Harry

There's no arguing that Alfred Hitchcock was responsible for several of the greatest motion pictures of all time. But when asked to name his personal favorite, he often mentioned The Trouble with Harry (1955), one of his rare critical and box office bombs. The story of a group of small-town Vermonters who have no qualms whatsoever about repeatedly digging up and hiding a corpse, Harry was fairly outrageous when it was released back in 1955. Nowadays, though, its subtle, absurdist humor goes down smoothly, and it features a charming debut performance by a young pixie named Shirley MacLaine. This is hardly Hitchcock's most impressive film, but it's good, quirky fun, and MacLaine is adorable throughout.

"With Harry," Hitchcock said, "I took melodrama out of the pitch-black night and brought it out into the sunshine. It's as if I had set up a murder alongside a rustling brook and spilled a drop of blood into the clear water. These contrasts establish a counterpart; they elevate the commonplace in life to a higher level."

The film opens with a very young boy (Jerry Mathers, before he gained fame as Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver on the TV series, Leave It to Beaver) stumbling upon a dead body while playing in the golden New England countryside. Wholly unperturbed by the discovery, he alerts his mother, Jennifer Rogers (MacLaine), who recognizes the body as being her ex-husband, Harry Worp. Jennifer recently struck Harry across the head with a bottle, and she's afraid she may have killed him.

Ah, but Jennifer isn't the only possible killer. There's also a retired sea captain (Edmund Gwenn) who thinks he may have shot Harry while hunting rabbits, and a doddering old woman (Mildred Natwick) who believes she may have done him in. This incites a round-robin of people burying Harry, then digging him up again, as they attempt to dispose of the body. A local painter (John Forsythe) is enlisted to help the "killers," and, as you might expect, he finds himself falling in love with MacLaine. Gwenn and Natwick also develop a romance, but, frankly, who cares when there's a body in the bathtub?

MacLaine was as surprised as anybody that she was suddenly starring in an Alfred Hitchcock movie...or any movie at all, for that matter. Originally, Hitchcock wanted Grace Kelly for the role, but she was unavailable. Then he briefly considered Brigitte Auber. But he decided he'd rather not wrestle her French accent in such an American picture. The cast and crew was headed to New England without a lead actress when producer Hal Wallis mentioned MacLaine, a 21 year-old chorus girl who had triumphantly stepped into the lead role for one night in Broadway's The Pajama Game. Having nothing to lose, Hitchcock agreed to interview MacLaine, and was thoroughly charmed by her. He was also intrigued by the prospect of directing a performer who had no film or television experience. None. MacLaine was floored when he told her, "All this simply means is that I shall have fewer bad knots to untie. You're hired." Almost 50 years later, MacLaine is still in the game.

Hitchcock intended to film all of The Trouble with Harry on location, in the towns of Stowe, Morrisville, Craftsbury, and Sugarbush. Unfortunately, the weather didn't always cooperate, and the shoot became a headache. Many scenes where staged on sets that were built at a local gymnasium. Even that was tough, however, as rainfall regularly echoed off the building's tin roof, ruining takes. Later, the woods had to be partially reconstructed on a Hollywood lot, so that Hitchcock could get a few more shots of Harry lying in the leaves. To make it even more difficult, the actor who played the corpse was in New York City, so a double was cast and his head was hidden by a bush to maintain continuity. As a finishing touch, one character's reference to Daniel Boone was changed to Davy Crockett in post-production, to take full advantage of the Crockett-mania that was then sweeping the nation. All in the name of art.

This was Hitchcock's first film with Bernard Herrmann, who would go on to write legendary scores for such pictures as North by Northwest (1959), Vertigo (1958), and Psycho (1960). Herrmann's work on The Trouble with Harry is no less impressive than the above. But, this time around, he served Hitchcock particularly well by inserting Funeral March of the Marionette as temporary music over Harry's opening credit sequence. It later became Hitch's trademark when it was used as the theme song to TV's Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

By the way, if you're looking for Hitchcock's cameo, this one is a little hard to catch. He can be seen through the window of the general store, walking past a Rolls Royce.

Produced and Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay: John Michael Hayes
Editing: Alma Macrorie
Cinematography: Robert Burks
Art Direction: John B. Goodman and Hal Pereira
Music: Bernard Herrmann
Costume Design: Edith Head
Set Design: Sam Comer, Emile Kuri
Makeup: Wally Westmore
Principal Cast: Edmund Gwenn (Capt. Albert Wiles), John Forsythe (Sam Marlowe), Shirley MacLaine (Jennifer Rogers), Mildred Natwick (Miss Ivy Gravely), Jerry Mathers (Arnie Rogers), Royal Dano (Calvin Wiggs), Parker Fennelly (Millionaire), Barry Macollum (Tramp), Dwight Marfield (Dr. Greenbow).
C-100m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.

by Paul Tatara