TCM Schedule for Friday, July 17 -- Prime Time Feature -- Ma and Pa Kettle

[Staph]

Happy birthday, Jimmy Cagney! After finishing up four more great films of 1939, we get a salute to the birthday boy on the 110th anniversary of his birth. Then this evening we get the second through the fifth films in the Ma and Pa Kettle series, starring the delightful Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride. Enjoy!


4:00am -- Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
A team of flyers risks their lives to deliver the mail in a mountainous South American country.
Cast: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess, Rita Hayworth
Dir: Howard Hawks
BW-121 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Walker, and Best Effects, Special Effects -- Roy Davidson (photographic) and Edwin C. Hahn (sound)

Howard Hawks and Jean Arthur did not get along during filming. Arthur was not used to Hawks' highly improvisational style, and when Hawks wanted Arthur to play Bonnie much in a subtly sexy way (not unlike his other "Hawksian women"), Arthur flatly said, "I can't do that kind of stuff." Hawks told Arthur at the end of the shoot, "You are one of the few people I've worked with that I don't think I've helped at all. Someday you can go see what I wanted to do because I'm gonna do this character all over again." Years later Hawks returned home to find Arthur waiting for him in his driveway. She had just seen his To Have and Have Not (1944) and confessed, "I wish I'd done what you'd asked me to do. If you ever make another picture with me, I'll promise to do any goddamn thing you want to do. If a kid can come in and do that kind of stuff, I certainly could do it." Hawks and Arthur never collaborated again.


6:15am -- The Real Glory (1939)
A U.S. military doctor stationed in the Philippines helps the natives fight off invaders.
Cast: Gary Cooper, David Niven, Andrea Leeds, Reginald Owen
Dir: Henry Hathaway
BW-97 mins, TV-G

The New York Times reported that the dam destruction scene had to be re-shot, costing more than $10,000.


8:00am -- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939)
Mark Twain's classic troublemaker helps a runaway slave escape to the North.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Walter Connolly, William Frawley, Rex Ingram
Dir: Richard Thorpe
BW-91 mins, TV-G

When the con-men Walter Connolly and William Frawley advertise "Romeo & Juliet" as the play they were to present, they say it stars "David Garrick" and "Mrs. 'Sarah Kemble Siddons'", two of the most famous British actors of the 18th century. David Garrick and Sarah Kemble Siddons were both long dead by the year in which "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is supposed to take place.


9:32am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Old Natchez On The Mississippi (1939)
This Traveltalks short focuses on the city's preservation of the architecture, apparel, and customs of the antebellum South.
C-9 mins

View this through the lens of 1939 -- as quoted on IMDB, "The travelogue also notes the contributions to music, dance, and folklore of 'the colored folks,' one pipe-smoking former slave is quoted assuring that 'no merrier people ever lived than the colored folks of the pre-war South.'


9:45am -- The Man in the Iron Mask (1939)
The Three Musketeers rescue the king's unjustly imprisoned twin.
Cast: Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, Warren William, Joseph Schildkraut
Dir: James Whale
BW-112 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Score -- Lud Gluskin and Lucien Moraweck

Nearly all of the characters in this film actually existed, but none of the characters who die in it actually died that way in real life.


11:45am -- The McGuerins From Brooklyn (1942)
Two cab drivers try to make a beat up cab into their ticket to success.
Cast: William Bendix, Grace Bradley, Arline Judge, Max Baer
Dir: Kurt Neumann
BW-46 mins, TV-G

Followed by Brooklyn Orchid (1942) and Taxi, Mister (1943), about the same characters.


12:30pm -- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
Shakespeare's classic about two pairs of lovers and an amateur actor who get mixed up with fairies.
Cast: Ian Hunter, Verree Teasdale, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dick Powell
Dir: William Dieterle
BW-143 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Hal Mohr (First and only write-in nominee to actually win!), and Best Film Editing -- Ralph Dawson

Nominated for Oscars for Best Assistant Director -- Sherry Shourds, and Best Picture

Film debut of Olivia de Havilland, although it was released after her next two films, Alibi Ike (1935) and The Irish in Us (1935).


3:00pm -- Something to Sing About (1936)
A New York bandleader takes Hollywood by storm.
Cast: James Cagney, Evelyn Daw, William Frawley, Mona Barrie
Dir: Victor Schertzinger
BW-92 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Score -- C. Bakaleinikoff (musical director) with score by Victor Schertzinger.

Known as "the picture that broke Grand National". Grand National Pictures, which produced and distributed this film, was a "B" studio known mostly for low-budget westerns and action pictures. It signed James Cagney during one of his frequent disputes with Warner Bros. and saw this picture as its chance to compete with the major studios by doing a lavish musical with a major star. It poured more than $900,000 into this film, not much by MGM or 20th Century Fox standards but a tremendous sum for a small studio like Grand National. Unfortunately the film was a major flop and the studio lost just about all the money put into it. Grand National folded just a few years later, having never recovered from the financial beating it took on this picture.


4:45pm -- Love Me Or Leave Me (1955)
True story of torch singer Ruth Etting's struggle to escape the gangster who made her a star.
Cast: Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell, Robert Keith
Dir: Charles Vidor
C-122 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Daniel Fuchs

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Cagney, Best Music, Original Song -- Nicholas Brodszky (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "I'll Never Stop Loving You", Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Percy Faith and George Stoll, Best Sound, Recording -- Wesley C. Miller (M-G-M), and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Daniel Fuchs and Isobel Lennart

This was the only time, after becoming a star in the 1930s, that James Cagney ever accepted second billing for a major role. He thought that Doris Day's character was more central to the film's plot, and so ceded top billing to her.


7:00pm -- James Cagney: Top of the World (1992)
Michael J. Fox hosts this documentary featuring film clips and rare behind-the-scenes footage that traces superstar James Cagney's rise to the top.
Cast: Mae Clarke, Michael J. Fox, Julius Epstein, David Huddleston
Dir: Carl H. Lindahl
C-47 mins, TV-G

According to James Cagney's autobiography Cagney By Cagney, (Published by Doubleday and Company Inc 1976, and ghost written by show biz biographer Jack McCabe), a Mafia plan to murder Cagney by dropping a several hundred pound klieg light on top of him was stopped at the insistence of George Raft. Cagney at that time was president of the Screen Actors Guild, and was determined not to let the mob infiltrate the industry. Raft used his many mob connections to cancel the hit.


7:48pm -- Short Film: From The Vaults: You, John Jones! (1943)
John Jones (James Cagney) is on duty as air raid warden when he realizes how fortunate he is to live safely with his family while others around the world suffer from the war.
Cast: Margaret O'Brien, Ann Sothern, James Cagney
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
BW-10 mins

Six year old Margaret O'Brien appears in her second credited role, reciting the Gettysburg Address.


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: MA AND PA KETTLE


8:00pm -- Ma And Pa Kettle (1949)
On the verge of eviction, the hillbilly family wins a slogan contest and moves into an automated home.
Cast: Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, Richard Long, Meg Randall
Dir: Charles Lamont
BW-76 mins, TV-G

The second of the adventures of the Kettle clan -- the first was The Egg and I (1947), starring Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert, with the Kettles as supporting characters.


9:30pm -- Ma And Pa Kettle Go To Town (1950)
The hillbilly farmers win a contest and take off for New York City.
Cast: Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, Richard Long, Meg Randall
Dir: Charles Lamont
BW-79 mins

Ma and Pa stick their heads out of the top of a taxi when riding from the railroad station to the Hotel. The car is a Desoto, a hard-to-find car line that was built by Chrysler from 1928 to 1961.


11:00pm -- Ma And Pa Kettle Back On The Farm (1951)
The hillbilly farmers take off in search of uranium.
Cast: Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, Richard Long, Meg Randall
Dir: Edward Sedgwick
BW-81 mins

This marked the final appearance of Richard Long as the eldest, and college educated, son Tom. In later films the character would be referred to in dialog but not seen.



12:30am -- Ma And Pa Kettle At The Fair (1952)
Cast: Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, James Best, Lori Nelson
Dir: Charles Barton

In one scene Geoduck and Crowbar make references to Abbott and Costello. Director Charles Barton, and especially writer John Grant, are veterans of the Abbott and Costello features which were also being made at Universal.


2:00am -- Venus in Furs (1969)
A musician attracted to a young woman finds her dead--or does he?
Cast: James Darren, Barbara McNair, Maria Rohm, Klaus Kinski
Dir: Jess Franco
C-86 mins

Spanish director Jesus Franco had a number of pseudonyms, including Joan Almirall, Rosa M. Almirall, Rosa Maria Almirall, Rosa María Almirall, Clifford Brawn, Clifford Brown Jr., Clifford Brown, Juan G. Cabral, Betty Carter, Candy Coster, Terry De Corsia, Rick Deconinck, Raymond Dubois, Chuck Evans, Toni Falt, Dennis Farnon, Jess Franck, J. Franco, Jesse Franco, Jess Franco, Jesús Franco, A.M. Frank, Adolf M. Frank, Anton Martin Frank, Jeff Frank, Jess Frank, Wolfgang Frank, Manfred Gregor, Jack Griffin, Robert Griffin, Lennie Hayden, Frank Hollman, Frank Hollmann, Frarik Hollmann, Rick Deconinck in Italy, B.F. Johnson, J.P. Johnson, James Lee Johnson, James P. Johnson, David J. Khune, David Khune, David Khunne II, D. Khunne Jr., D. Khunne, David J. Khunne, David Khunne, David H. Klunne, David Kuhne, David Kunne, David Kühne, Lulu Laverne, Lulú Laverne, Franco Manera, J. Franck Manera, J. Frank Manera, Jesus Franco Manera, Jesús Manera, Jeff Manner, Roland Marceignac, A.L. Mariaux, A.L. Marioux, John O'Hara, Preston Quaid, P. Querut, Lowel Richmond, Dan L. Simon, Dan Simon, Dave Tough, Pablo Villa, Joan Vincent, Robert Zinnermann, Cole Polly in French version, and James Gardner in French version.


3:40am -- Short Film: From The Vaults: A Statue For The Sandpiper (1965)
Edmund Kara creates a statue of Elizabeth Taylor, which will be featured in The Sandpiper (1965).
BW-4 mins

The Sandpiper won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Johnny Mandel (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics) for the song "The Shadow of Your Smile"


3:45am -- Blow-Up (1966)
A photographer discovers a murder in the background of a candid photo.
Cast: Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, David Hemmings, John Castle
Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni
C-111 mins, TV-MA

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Michelangelo Antonioni, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Michelangelo Antonioni (screenplay/story), Tonino Guerra (screenplay) and Edward Bond (screenplay)

As a way of bypassing the Production Code (i.e. censors), MGM created "Premiere Productions". This was a dummy company which had no agreement or affiliation with the Production Code and, therefore, did not have to adhere to its standards. MGM did not have to cut the full frontal nudity or other sexually explicit scenes and maintained all rights to the film.


5:45am -- Short Film: The Golden Years (1960)
In this instructional film, bowling is made respectable and appealing to middle-class Americans through modernization and design.
BW-14 mins, TV-G

There are many forms of bowling, with one of the most recent being ten-pin bowling and the earliest dating back to ancient Egypt. Other places where bowling was first seen were ancient Finland and Yemen, and in 300 A.D. in Germany. The first standardized rules were established in New York City, on September 9, 1895.

[Staph]

1. James Cagney Profile

He was The Public Enemy, one of the most ruthless movie gangsters. He was the song and dance man George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy and the macabre Lon Chaney in The Man of a 1000 Faces. He was a patriotic all American kid and an Irish immigrant every man.

One thing James Cagney wasn't was the typical Hollywood star. He wasn't strong and silent or tall and dark. His tough guy wasn't just tough; he was all attitude. Who else could get away with twisting a grapefruit into his girlfriend's face? But the life he lived and the character he played couldn't have been more different. James Cagney left the New York ghetto not as a gangster but as an actor and dancer. He was known to write poetry as he awaited his call on the set. Off screen he was quiet and introspective but once the cameras rolled, Cagney went off like a brick of firecrackers all at once. On screen and off he was the poet of the underworld.

Cagney's first impression of Hollywood was "no different than any other vaudeville stop, though the weather was nicer. It was a nice place to hole up for awhile and do another show." Being a movie star was a job - but there was good weather and a decent paycheck.

The Golden Coast of California was a much different world from the congested crime ridden neighborhood that Cagney grew up in. Born in 1899 on the lower east side, Cagney developed a thick skin and a tough attitude. He became a boxer, winning pocket money in bare fisted bouts. He always claimed that the rhythm of a fighter was the basis of his dancing skill. If you watch him dance, you'll see that he wasn't far wrong.

One day on his way to an amateur match his mother stopped him. Cagney later claimed that she wouldn't let him go-that he'd have to lick her first before she'd let him out the door. And that was the end of his boxing career. He became a dancer and joined the chorus.

On stage he was teamed with Joan Blondell and her no-nonsense attitude complemented his hard headed toughness. Together they left Broadway for the Hollywood and debuted together in Sinner's Holiday (1930). Sound was new to Hollywood and Hollywood had just discovered a unique sounding star with an Irish brogue and a gangster's slang.

Although he later became famous as one of Hollywood's quintessential gangsters (along with Edward G. Robinson), Cagney at heart was always a song and dance man. He was never anything less than masculine, and each of his musical roles has a bit of his gangster attitude--witness his ruthless director in Footlight Parade (1933), or his rooster-like strut in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1941). Cagney illustrated the close relation of a suave killer on the dance floor and a ruthless killer in the underworld. When he met Fred Astaire, a Hollywood talent he admired, Cagney swelled with pride, "You know Freddie, you've got a touch of hoodlum in you !"

"Casey would waltz with the strawberry blonde and the band played on" - The Strawberry Blonde (1941) was a nostalgic look back at the "gay 1890s." While shooting the film, Cagney's mother came to visit and director Raoul Walsh quickly cast her as an extra in the beer garden scene. Watch the scene to see who James is really taking orders from.

While Cagney could look affectionately back to a simpler past in The Strawberry Blonde, Yankee Doodle Dandy made later that same year was a flag waving patriotic sign of its time. Playing the real life entertainer George M. Cohan (writer of "Give My Regards to Broadway," and "Over There"), Cagney let loose a musical tour de force. The dynamic performance won him the Best Actor Oscar®.

How could this gangster type prove so convincing in a musical? Quoting George M. Cohan himself, Cagney simply told audiences "Once a song and dance man, always a song and dance man."

But let's get back to those gangster parts. Frank Sinatra once asked Cagney how his villain could always be so attractive to audiences. "Francis," Jim responded, "always sprinkle the goodies along the way. Be as tough as you want but sprinkle the goodies for laughs here and there. 'Cause anything they can laugh at they can't hate."

It was his fifth film. Edward Woods had been cast in the leading role but director William "Wild Bill" Wellman felt that the lead didn't have enough of the gutter qualities that a supporting player had. He switched the two actors and Cagney had his shot at a starring role. It was The Public Enemy (1931), a juicy role that Cagney savored. His gangster was sadistic, shocking but also funny. Platinum bombshell Jean Harlow played a brazen harlot and together they made the picture a box office hit and set the standard for gangster flicks.

He was tough. He was tense. A dirty rat had killed his brother. Cagney's gangster was brutal, a loose cannon, volatile and dangerous. In The Public Enemy he smashes a grapefruit in Mae Clarke's face. In Lady Killer (1933) he hauls Clarke out of bed by her hair and drags down a hallway. The audiences cheered him on. Hollywood couldn't allow the bad guy to be so successful, so in G-Men (1935), the studio bosses remade their newest star from gangster into a government man. As a good guy, Cagney could kick just as much butt, but was more acceptable as a do-gooder.

By 1938 Cagney and his off-screen pal Pat O'Brien discovered a winning combination in Angels with Dirty Faces. In the film they play childhood friends; Cagney grows up to be a gangster, O'Brien a priest. The counter point became a standard Hollywood plot device, two friends forever separated by their fate. With the Dead End Boys in supporting roles and a young Humphrey Bogart, Angels has a realistic feel and a universal scope.

No one else in Hollywood could play a gangster like James Cagney. But after Angels it was 11 years until he would play one again. When Cody Jarrett arrived, Cagney sensed the possibilities of the complex character. Cody was a shrewd cold blooded killer with a swollen Oedipal complex. He needed his mother and without her was helplessly impotent. Raoul Walsh directed the incendiary White Heat (1949) with Spartan style. The film is a rare gem and the final scene remains one of the most memorable in all of Hollywood. Cagney was the undisputed champion of the gangster film. He made it, "Ma, Top of the World!"

A gentleman and a scholar, James Cagney devoured books and wrote while he waited for his scenes. Joan Blondell once asked him what he was writing and he responded in verse:
"Making verse I cannot help
As a pregnant female her brood must whelp
Each will come in it's given time
So there's naught to do but write and rhyme."
It wasn't what you'd expect from a gangster.

In 1933 the Screen Actors Guild was born and Cagney was elected to the board of directors. He stayed clear of the Hollywood party scene to instead enjoy his leisure hours with his best friends Pat O'Brien, Spencer Tracy and Robert Montgomery. After World War II, Cagney led the Hollywood Victory Committee across the country to make personal appearances joined by Joan Blondell, Claudette Colbert, Bing Crosby, Cary Grant and Bob Hope.

In March of 1974 James Cagney was honored with AFI's Life Achievement Award. The stars came out to celebrate the toughest gangster, among them were Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman, Doris Day, Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye, Mick Jagger and John Lennon. A diverse crowd and one that stands as a testament to the range Cagney appealed to.

Watching his films, too, you'll see a parade of stars. In a career that spanned over five decades from the 1930s to the 1980s, James Cagney worked with generations of actors. From Edward G. Robinson to George Raft; Bette Davis to Rita Hayworth; a young Humphrey Bogart took supporting roles on his own way to gangster stardom and in City for Conquest (1940), future director Elia Kazan plays a small role.

James Cagney defied expectations, he wasn't what he appeared to be. He seemed tough and hard, but he was known to travel in separate cars from his wife because she smoked and he hated cigarettes. His sensitive side is seen in one of his later poems, written in his twilight years:

Why do you weep poor old man?
It hurts me when you weep.
I weep for the long lost wonderful years
I once thought were mine to keep.

by Jeremy Geltzer