TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 16 -- TCM Spotlight - 1939

[Staph]

Happy birthday, Barbara Stanwick! Tonight we continue the tribute to the films of 1939, through the night and wrapping up Friday morning with Only Angels Have Wings, The Real Glory, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Man In The Iron Mask. Enjoy!


4:30am -- The Dick Cavett Show: Woody Allen (1971)
Woody Allen appears on The Dick Cavett Show in an interview that originally aired October 20, 1971.
C-67 mins, TV-PG

Quick quiz -- who's taller, Dick Cavett or Woody Allen? Answer at the end of the post. (I was surprised!)


5:38am -- Short Film: From The Vaults: Rowan And Martin At The Movies (1969)
A public service short for U.S. Savings Bonds.
Cast: Dan Rowan, Dick Martin.
Dir: Jack Arnold
C-11 mins

If you don't remember (or do remember but hated) Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, the humor in this short will make no sense to you.


6:00am -- The Locked Door (1929)
A woman once kidnapped by a wealthy womanizer tries to save her sister from him.
Cast: Rod La Rocque, Barbara Stanwyck, William Boyd, Betty Bronson
Dir: George Fitzmaurice
BW-74 mins, TV-G

Barbara Stanwick's first credited film appearance.


7:30am -- Remember the Night (1940)
An assistant D.A. takes a shoplifter home with him for Christmas.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson
Dir: Mitchell Leisen
BW-94 mins, TV-G

American Film Institute Catalog of Feature Films 1931-1940 claims that, except for Double Indemnity (1944), this was Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray's only joint screen appearance. Fact is, they also co-starred in The Moonlighter (1953 and There's Always Tomorrow (1956).


9:00am -- Double Indemnity (1944)
An insurance salesman gets seduced into plotting a client's death.
Cast: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Porter Hall
Dir: Billy Wilder
BW-108 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Barbara Stanwyck, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- John F. Seitz, Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa, Best Sound, Recording -- Loren L. Ryder (Paramount SSD), Best Writing, Screenplay -- Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder, and Best Picture

The movie was based on the novel by James M. Cain, which in turn was based on the true story of Ruth Snyder, the subject of a notorious 1930s murder trial. Author James M. Cain later admitted that if he had come up with some of the solutions to the plot that screenwriters Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler did, he would have employed them in his original novel.


11:00am -- The Great Rupert (1950)
A squirrel becomes the guardian angel for an impoverished family.
Cast: Jimmy Durante, Terry Moore, Tom Drake, Frank Orth
Dir: Irving Pichel
BW-88 mins, TV-G

The stop-motion animation used in creating the illusion of a dancing squirrel (Rupert) was so realistic that director George Pal received many inquiries as to where he got a squirrel that was trained to dance.


12:30pm -- The Strongest Man in the World (1975)
A student discovers the key to super strength by mixing chemicals with his breakfast cereal.
Cast: Kurt Russell, Joe Flynn, Eve Arden, Cesar Romero
Dir: Vincent McEveety
C-92 mins, TV-PG

This was the last appearance on film for Joe Flynn. He died of a heart attack a year before this film was released.


2:15pm -- The Importance Of Being Earnest (1952)
A proper Englishman gets caught leading a double life.
Cast: Michael Redgrave, Edith Evans, Joan Greenwood, Michael Denison
Dir: Anthony Asquith
C-96 mins, TV-G

The director, Anthony Asquith, was the son of H.H. Asquith who, as Home Secretary, brought the charges of immorality which led to Wilde's imprisonment.


4:00pm -- A Woman's Face (1941)
Plastic surgery gives a scarred female criminal a new outlook on life.
Cast: Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas, Conrad Veidt, Osa Massen
Dir: George Cukor
BW-106 mins, TV-PG

A remake of En kvinnas ansikte (1938), starring Ingrid Bergman in the Joan Crawford role.


5:57pm -- Short Film: From The Vaults: Will Rogers Memorial Hosp. (Cary Grant) (1940)
Cary Grant asking moviegoers to donate to the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital, a hospital and recovery center for tuberculosis patients.
Cast: Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra
BW-2 mins

The Will Rogers Memorial Hospital treated patients with tuberculosis and conducted research to find a cure. The hospital closed in 1975, after discovery of treatment for TB greatly diminished the number of patients. Today, the Will Rogers Institute funds four acclaimed research hospitals and nine fellowships across the United States and is located in Los Angeles, California. The Institute is making strides every day in understanding, treating, and curing pulmonary diseases and disorders.


6:00pm -- Father Goose (1964)
A WWII drifter finds himself protecting schoolgirls and their beautiful teacher.
Cast: Cary Grant, Leslie Caron, Trevor Howard, Jack Good
Dir: Ralph Nelson
C-116 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- S.H. Barnett (story), Peter Stone (screenplay) and Frank Tarloff (screenplay)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Film Editing -- Ted J. Kent, and Best Sound -- Waldon O. Watson (Universal City SSD)

In later years, Cary Grant always claimed his role in this film was most like his real personality. He claimed he kept in touch with most of the girls as they grew up and had families of their own.


What's On Tonight: TCM SPOTLIGHT: 1939


8:00pm -- Stanley and Livingstone (1939)
An American newspaper searches Africa for a lost explorer.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Nancy Kelly, Richard Greene, Walter Brennan
Dir: Henry King
BW-101 mins

Otto Brower and Osa Johnson followed Stanley's path through Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda with their crew and returned with 100,000 feet of film for use in the safari sequences. Neither Spencer Tracy nor Walter Brennan ever actually went to Africa during the making of this film. Stand-ins for both of them were used in the long shots during the safari sequences, and whenever Tracy or Brennan were shown "on safari" in close-up against African scenery, they were acting in front of a rear projection screen.


9:45pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Africa Speaks English (1933)
Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy's plane runs out of gas and lands in the African jungle.
Cast: Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy
Dir: Roy Mack
BW-11 mins

13th episode in the 1932-1933 Pepper Pot one-reel comedy series.


10:00pm -- Beau Geste (1939)
Three brothers in the French foreign legion fight off murderous Arabs and a sadistic sergeant.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy
Dir: William A. Wellman
BW-113 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Brian Donlevy, and Best Art Direction -- Hans Dreier and Robert Odell

At the film's world premiere, the first reel of the 1926 silent version of "Beau Geste" was shown just before the entire 1939 sound version, in an effort to demonstrate how far films had advanced in thirteen years. This almost backfired because the 1939 film apparently followed the 1926 one extremely closely, and some of the first-night critics were annoyed rather than pleased at this, feeling that the 1939 version should have been more imaginative. However, this did not keep the 1939 version from becoming a smash hit and a film classic.


12:00am -- Golden Boy (1939)
A crooked promoter lures a young violinist to give up music for boxing.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Adolphe Menjou, William Holden, Lee J. Cobb
Dir: Rouben Mamoulian
BW-99 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Score -- Victor Young

William Holden was so grateful to Barbara Stanwyck for her insistence on casting him in Golden Boy (1939), his first big role, that he reportedly sent her flowers every year on the anniversary of the first day of the filming.


1:43am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Ancient India (1952)
This travel short provides an insight into the ancient world of India, including its origins, customs, lifestyle and architecture. Specifically explored are the ancient cities of Bundi and Jaipur in the Northwest corner of the country. Visits to the palatial estates of the maharajas of these two cities are also included.
Cast: James A. FitzPatrick
C-9 mins

Filmed in Bundy, Jaipur and Amber.



2:00am -- Gunga Din (1939)
Three British soldiers seek treasure during an uprising in India.
Cast: Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Sam Jaffe
Dir: George Stevens
BW-117 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph H. August

Sabu was first choice to play Gunga Din; when it became clear he was unavailable, Sam Jaffe was hired in his place. In an interview years later, Jaffe (a Jewish Russian-American) was asked how he so convincingly played an Indian Hindu. Jaffe replied he kept telling himself to "Think Sabu."



Woody Allen is 5'5". Dick Cavett is 5'3".

[Staph]

1. Father Goose (1964)

Suave, dapper Cary Grant, who had wanted for some time to play against type, had considered taking on the role of the aging poker player in The Cincinnati Kid (1965) that was eventually played by Edward G. Robinson. Instead Grant settled on Universal's Father Goose (1964) for his change of image, playing what screenwriter Peter Stone described as "a drunk, disgusting, irascible, misanthropic character." Grant himself elaborated: "I was a bum. I was all broken down, in jeans and a beard. It was me. After dressing so carefully for my films for so many years, I wanted to do the opposite."

The film is set during World War II on a remote South Sea Island, where Grant's character is coerced into becoming a lookout for the Australian Navy and taking on a pretty teacher (Leslie Caron) and her seven young female charges. Stone, who rewrote a script by Frank Tarloff (from a story by S. H. Barnett called A Place of Dragons), did not meet his fellow writer until the 1965 Academy Awards, when the team won Oscars for Best Original Screenplay. In his acceptance speech Stone said, "I want to thank Cary Grant, who keeps winning these things for other people." The movie also was nominated for Best Sound and Film Editing. Although ignored by Oscar, the film's theme song, "Pass Me By," with music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, became a hit for Peggy Lee. Coleman has said that he based the song's tempo on Grant's jaunty walk.

Grant originally wanted Audrey Hepburn, his costar from Charade (1963), to play the comely schoolteacher. Caron, happy to be second choice, said of her costar: "Cary kept you on your toes. He electrified the set; You had to be as bright and brilliant as possible." Trevor Howard, playing a naval commander in the film, also was inspired by the star, even though the plot required that most of their communication be through radio. "Grant was always there on the set," Howard recalled. "If a line of comedy didn't work he'd immediately call up his writers to polish it up, and, consequently, I think I played some of my best comedy scenes in Father Goose."

Father Goose opened at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, where it broke a box office record established by Grant's Charade.

Producer: Robert Arthur
Director: Ralph Nelson
Screenplay: Peter Stone, Frank Tarloff, from story by S.H. Barnett
Art Direction: Henry Bumstead, Alexander Golitzen
Cinematography: Charles B. Lang
Costume Design: Ray Aghayan
Editing: Ted Kent
Original Music: Cy Coleman
Principal Cast: Cary Grand (Walter Eckland), Leslie Caron (Catherine Freneau), Trevor Howard (Commander Frank Houghton), Jack Good (Lieutenant Stebbins), Sharyl Locke (Jenny), Dickie Moore (Joseph Meister).
C-117m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.

by Roger Fristoe