TCM Schedule for Thursday, December 3 -- Primetime Feature -- Christmas Classics

[Staph]

It must be hunky guy day -- we've got a morning of John Garfield and an afternoon of Paul Newman. Then this evening, we have the first of a series of Christmas films. Enjoy!

(And my humble apologies for missing the posting of last Thursday and Friday's films. I was visiting family for the week, with only dial-up access, and the modem in my computer died!)


5:00am -- One Fatal Hour (1936)
A radio-station manager tries to keep tabloid journalists from reviving a 20-year-old murder case.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Beverly Roberts, Henry O'Neill
Dir: William McGann
BW-56 mins, TV-G

Originally called Two Against The World in the US and The Case Of Mrs. Pembroke in the UK.


6:00am -- Flowing Gold (1940)
A fugitive from justice tries to get work in a western oil field.
Cast: John Garfield, Frances Farmer, Pat O'Brien, Raymond Walburn
Dir: Alfred E. Green
BW-81 mins, TV-G

Based on a novel by Rex Beach, who was a member of the US water polo team at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, USA which won the silver medal.


7:30am -- The Fallen Sparrow (1943)
Nazi spies pursue a Spanish Civil War veteran in search of a priceless keepsake.
Cast: John Garfield, Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak, Patricia Morison
Dir: Richard Wallace
BW-94 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- C. Bakaleinikoff and Roy Webb

Active in liberal political and social causes, John Garfield found himself embroiled in Communist scare of the late 1940s. Though he testified before Congress that he was never a Communist, his ability to get work declined.


9:15am -- Nobody Lives Forever (1946)
A con artist falls for the rich widow he's trying to fleece.
Cast: John Garfield, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Walter Brennan, Faye Emerson
Dir: Jean Negulesco
BW-100 mins, TV-G

Humphrey Bogart refused the role of Nick Blake, which was then played by Garfield.


11:00am -- Three Strangers (1946)
Three people who share a sweepstakes ticket travel a tangled road to collect their winnings.
Cast: Sydney Greenstreet, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Peter Lorre, Joan Lorring
Dir: Jean Negulesco
BW-93 mins, TV-PG

John Huston was inspired to write the story after he bought an odd statue in London.


12:45pm -- It's A Great Feeling (1949)
When nobody at Warner Bros. will work with him, movie star Jack Carson decides to turn an unknown into his co-star.
Cast: Dennis Morgan, Doris Day, Jack Carson, Bill Goodwin
Dir: David Butler
C-85 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "It's a Great Feeling"

Joan Crawford does a cameo and directs a short speech to Jack Carson before slapping his face. It's the same one she gives to 'Ann Blythe' in Mildred Pierce (1945) before slapping her face. Jack Carson was also a star in that film with Joan.


2:11pm -- One Reel Wonders: Hollywood Wonderland (1947)
Tour guides take visitors on a promotional guide of Warner Brothers' studios.
Narrator: Knox Manning
Dir: Jack Scholl
C-16 mins

Features musical numbers edited from earlier Warner Bros. Technicolor shorts: "The Blue Danube" from Gypsy Sweetheart "Drifting on the Rio Grande" from Swingtime in the Movies "Swinging Through the Kitchen Door" from Swingtime in the Movies "Annie Laurie" from The Changing of the Guard "Dancing is the Darndest One" from Ride, Cowboy, Ride "Beyond the Open Road" from Sunday Roundup.


2:30pm -- Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1958)
A dying plantation owner tries to help his alcoholic son solve his problems.
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Jack Carson
Dir: Richard Brooks
C-108 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Newman, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Taylor, Best Cinematography, Color -- William H. Daniels, Best Director -- Richard Brooks, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Richard Brooks and James Poe, and Best Picture

This film was originally to be filmed in black and white, as was the standard practice with "artistic" films in the 1950s. (Virtually all film adaptations of the plays of Tennessee Williams had been in B&W up to that time.) However, once Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor were cast in the leads, director Richard Brooks insisted on shooting in color, in deference to the public's well known enthusiasm for Taylor's violet and Newman's strikingly blue eyes.


4:25pm -- One Reel Wonders: Jimmy Fund - Deborah Kerr (1956)
Deborah Kerr urges the audience to donate to the Jimmy Fund to eradicate childhood cancer.
Cast: Deborah Kerr
BW-3 mins

The Jimmy Fund started in 1948 when the Variety Club of New England (now the Variety Children's Charity of New England) and the Boston Braves baseball team joined forces to help a 12-year-old cancer patient dubbed "Jimmy." On a national radio broadcast, millions heard the boy visit with his heroes from the Braves as they stood by his hospital bed. Contributions poured in from people everywhere, launching an effort that continues to bring hope to thousands of children and adults facing cancer throughout the world.


4:30pm -- Until They Sail (1957)
Four sisters in New Zealand fall for Allied sailors en route to World War II.
Cast: Jean Simmons, Joan Fontaine, Paul Newman, Piper Laurie
Dir: Robert Wise
BW-95 mins, TV-PG

Sandra Dee's debut.


6:15pm -- The Rack (1956)
A Korean War veteran is accused of cracking under enemy torture.
Cast: Paul Newman, Wendell Corey, Walter Pidgeon, Edmund O'Brien
Dir: Arnold Laven
BW-100 mins, TV-14

Oscar winning art director Cedric Gibbons' last feature film.


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: CHRISTMAS CLASSICS


8:00pm -- A Christmas Carol (1938)
In this adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic tale, an elderly miser learns the error of his ways on Christmas Eve.
Cast: Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart, Terry Kilburn
Dir: Edwin L. Marin
BW-69 mins, TV-G

This was the only film in which Gene Lockhart (Bob Cratchit) appeared with his wife Kathleen Lockhart (Mrs. Cratchit) and their daughter June Lockhart (Belinda Cratchit).


9:15pm -- Little Women (1949)
The four daughters of a New England family fight for happiness during and after the Civil War.
Cast: June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Margaret O'Brien, Elizabeth Taylor
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
C-122 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert H. Planck and Charles Edgar Schoenbaum

In the scene where Beth (Margaret O'Brien) tells Jo (June Allyson) that she doesn't mind dying, June Allyson's tears were real. She was so moved by Margaret O'Brien's performance that she was sent home early, still crying, and had to pull over several times on her journey home as her tears rendered her unable to drive.


11:30pm -- Tenth Avenue Angel (1948)
A child of the tenements helps an ex-con find a new life.
Cast: Margaret O'Brien, Angela Lansbury, George Murphy, Phyllis Thaxter
Dir: Roy Rowland
BW-74 mins, TV-G

Filmed between March 11 and May 15, 1946, with retakes shot in April 1947, the movie was held back until its nationwide release on February 20, 1948. Moreover, the picture was not given a contemporary New York Times review.


1:00am -- 3 Godfathers (1948)
Three outlaws on the run risk their freedom and their lives to return a newborn to civilization.
Cast: John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz, Harry Carey Jr., Ward Bond
Dir: John Ford
C-106 mins, TV-G

When John Wayne is "greasing" the baby boy, Robert William Pedro, it is evident that the baby boy is actually a baby girl.


3:00am -- Hell's Heroes (1930)
Three cowboys risk their lives to get an abandoned baby to civilization.
Cast: Charles Bickford, Raymond Hatton, Fred Kohler, Fritzi Ridgeway
Dir: William Wyler
BW-68 mins, TV-PG

One of many retellings of the story of three desperate men trying to return a baby to its family, including Broncho Billy and the Baby (1915), The Three Godfathers (1916), Marked Men (1919), Three Godfathers (1936), and 3 Godfathers (1948) -- the movie shown at 1:00 am.


4:09am -- One Reel Wonders: Heroes At Leisure (1939)
What lifeguards do in the off-season.
Narrator: Pete Smith
Dir: Charles T. Trego
BW-10 mins

"If that's a life of fun and sport," intones the narrator, "I'll take vanilla."


4:30am -- Bush Christmas (1947)
A group of children track down rustlers they accidentally helped steal their father's horses.
Cast: Chips Rafferty, John Fernside, Stan Tolhurst.
Dir: Ralph Smart
BW-77 mins, TV-G

No, it's not about that Bush. Or that kind of bush. It's just Christmas in Australia, starring one of Australia's first film stars, Chips Rafferty.

[Staph]

1. Three Godfathers (1948)

In 1947, John Ford directed and released an uncharacteristic failure, the offbeat Henry Fonda picture, The Fugitive. The miserable experience of shooting The Fugitive and its disappointing box office returns instigated a change of direction in Ford's career. From then on, he relied on westerns to sustain a healthy career. And since Argosy, Ford's production company co-owned with Merian C. Cooper, was then on the brink of bankruptcy, another western seemed like a good bet. This western project eventually became 3 Godfathers (1948). Ford chose to remake Peter B. Kyne's story of "The Three Godfathers." Harry Carey, Sr. had starred in two different silent versions of the story, Three Godfathers in 1916 and the Ford-directed Marked Men in 1929. MGM had made the last version of the Kyne story in 1936, and still owned the rights, so Ford would have to make 3 Godfathers at MGM under another old lion of Hollywood, studio chief Louis B. Mayer. Ford made it clear though that he would not defer to MGM's unfriendly policies towards maverick directors. In September 1947, before the project took root, Carey, a life-long mentor and friend to Ford, died of a coronary thrombosis. To pay homage to Carey, Ford decided to give his son, Harry Carey, Jr., a proper launch for his budding acting career with a starring role in 3 Godfathers.

Ford chose John Wayne and Mexican star Pedro Armendariz to co-star with Harry Carey, Jr. in the tale of three bad men who find redemption in a barren land. Ford's treatment of actors on his set was legendary. From John Wayne to supporting players, Ford's behavior was often nothing less than harsh. An unfortunate recipient of this abuse on the set of 3 Godfathers was Pedro Armendariz, who happened to be a big star in Mexico. Armendariz showed up on location in Death Valley dressed in a skin-tight black leather costume with silver studs and a big sombrero, thinking he was to be the star of the picture. Ford took him aside and instructed him to forget about looking like a hero, since Armendariz's character was a bandit, a rogue, and a low-life. Ford refitted him with a pair of pants with conchos on the sides, a gringo shirt with flowers on it, a Mexican vest, and an old beat up sombrero. Armendariz went into a rage, but Ford just ignored him. For a horse, an old swaybacked mare with a Mexican saddle was used. Every time Armendariz would complain about his wardrobe or his horse, Ford would go over to the prop truck and get a coffee pot or a frying pan and hang it on Armendariz's saddle, thus accentuating the unglamorous nature of the character.

However, Ford treated no one worse on the 3 Godfathers set than Harry Carey, Jr. Even though Carey had called Ford "Uncle Jack" all his life, he became too frightened of Ford on the set to refer to him by the intimate title. Initially, Ford made it clear to Carey that he was "going to hate my guts before this picture is over," but he did not say exactly why. Ford didn't waste time making his prediction come true. On some days, Ford would demand that Carey bend over so that he could kick him hard for some infraction or mistake Carey had made during a scene. When Carey once had trouble continuing a scene, Ford picked up a rock and lobbed it straight at Carey's face. The actor ducked, and the rock landed square in Pedro Armendariz's stomach. Most often though, Ford simply taunted Carey with audible pronouncements such as, "We should have gotten Audie Murphy!"

But despite his cruelty, Ford was still capable of sensitivity towards Carey. Once Carey's final scenes were shot, Ford commanded him to go home. Carey refused, thinking Ford was just being mean, but Ford won out in the end. As it turns out, Ford still had to shoot the film's pre-credit title sequence, dedicated to the memory of Carey's father. The title read, "Dedicated to Harry Carey, a bright star in the early western sky." Cliff Lyons doubled Harry Carey as the lone rider on Sonny, Carey's favorite horse. The sequence shows Lyons as Carey riding in silhouette to the top of a hill, pushing his hat back on his head, and looking off. Ford knew that watching the scene shot might be too much for the young Carey, so he shielded Carey from it, as a doting "uncle" would a "nephew."

Director: John Ford
Producer: Merian C. Cooper, John Ford
Screenplay: Laurence Stallings, Frank S. Nugent, Peter B. Kyne (story)
Cinematography: Winton Hoch
Editor: Jack Murray
Art Direction: James Basevi
Music: Richard Hageman
Cast: John Wayne (Robert Marmaduke Sangster Hightower), Pedro Armendariz (Pedro Roca Fuerte), Harry Carey Jr. (William Kearney, The Abilene Kid), Ward Bond (Perley "Buck" Sweet), Mae Marsh (Mrs. Perley Sweet).
C-107m. Closed captioning.

by Scott McGee

[Matilda]

2. You've got rather a treasure trove there today.

All the John Garfield movies early on - he was such a good actor, and what happened to him was a tragedy.

I rather like "Three Strangers" too - I've seen it a couple of times. Rather a pot-boiler, but the actors are all
so good, it's very watchable. And I'm a sucker for anything with Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet together.

I always prefer the older versions of "A Christmas Carol" to newer ones, although I think the best had to be the one
with Alastair Sim. This story always made me a bit scared when I was a child, and it's rather delicious to be scared
in that way. The more modern versions are way too sugary and nice (I don't even want to think what Disney's done
to it). But the Reginald Owen version is good, and to my mind, has the right feeling.

The cringe-making film though is "Until They Sail" - I thought Newman was wasted in this, although others might
disagree, but the big thing for me is that, fine actresses though they all are, none of the women could ever in a
million years pass as Kiwis. Of course they can't get the accent - it's a hard one even for us Aussies to do -
but the whole feeling is wrong. Australia in the fifties was about ten years behind the US socially and culturally,
and New Zealand was about fifteen years behind us. These women in reality would have been sweet and lovely people,
but hopelessly conservative and traditional. Even in the late sixties, when I lived there for a while, that's
how they were. I could never get past my disbelief enough to enjoy this film at all.

[CBHagman]

3. Thanks for the perspective!

I have seen snippets of Until They Sail and wouldn't have been able to judge how right or wrong it was. I notice, though, that casting decisions don't seem to have changed much in 50 years, and that name recognition matters a good deal more than authenticity.

Accents are a really sore point with me. I always wanted to be one of those people who could hear an accent and name the street in the Bronx where a speaker spent his childhood, but of course I can't, and at times I'm afraid to guess accents for fear of offending someone.

But when it comes to movies/TV and accents, all bets are off, and between screenplays littered with anachronisms and poorly prepared (or just plain incompetent) actors, authenticity takes a beating. One of the scariest examples for me was The Thorn Birds, where it appeared most of the cast didn't have the slightest clue about their characters' backstories and therefore how they should sound. At least Bryan Brown was a Queenslander playing a Queenslander, if I recall correctly.

Getting to your other topic, A Christmas Carol, the Alistair Sim version has a wonderful score on top of everything else. I forget the composer's name, but he incorporates old tunes like "Oranges and Lemons" and "Barbara Allen" to good effect.

Years ago I saw the colorized version of the Alistair Sim film (usually known as Scrooge) and was duly horrified. The moody effect of the black-and-white photography was gone, and the whole thing looked like an Easter basket!

[Staph]

4. I am generally horrified by costumes and hairstyles!

I'm quite interested in historical clothing, and period films and TV shows (except those by the BBC!) are usually bad examples of the correct look of the time period.

My friends and I adore Gone With The Wind, but laugh at Scarlet's 1939 poofy bangs and curls, and her tight-sleeved dresses in the middle of a fashion trend of voluminous sleeves. Surprisingly, Melanie's hair and clothing are mostly historically correct. I have often wondered if Vivian Leigh pushed the costume and hair departments to make her beautiful (for 1939), and Olivia de Havilland opted for period correctness.