TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 25 -- 31 Days of Oscar

[Staph]

We've got a curiosity this afternoon -- the only feature length Our Gang film! Who knew? Here are the actor connections from film to film for today's schedule:

• (Mrs. Brown -- Room at the Top) -- Richard Pasco
  
• (Room at the Top -- The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm) -- Laurence Harvey
  
• (The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm -- Step Lively) -- Walter Slezak
  
• (Step Lively -- There Goes My Heart) -- Eugene Pallette
  
• (There Goes My Heart -- General Spanky) -- Irving Pichel
  
• (General Spanky -- A Day at the Races) -- Robert Middlemass
  
• (A Day at the Races -- Mr. Deeds Goes To Town) -- Douglass Dumbrille
  
• (Mr. Deeds Goes To Town -- Hail the Conquering Hero) -- Jack Norton
  
• (Hail the Conquering Hero -- The Killers) -- Harry Hayden
  
• (The Killers -- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) -- Edmond O'Brien
  
• (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance -- The Dirty Dozen) -- Lee Marvin
  
• (The Dirty Dozen -- Ice Station Zebra) -- Ernest Borgnine
  
• (Ice Station Zebra -- An American Dream) -- Lloyd Nolan
  

Enjoy!


5:15am -- Room at the Top (1959)
A young accountant claws his way to the top in the boardroom and the bedroom.
Cast: Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret, Heather Sears, Donald Wolfit
Dir: Jack Clayton
BW-117 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Simone Signoret, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Neil Paterson

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Laurence Harvey, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Hermione Baddeley, Best Director -- Jack Clayton, and Best Picture

Initially no British cinema chains wanted to touch the film as the British Board of Film Classification had given it an X certificate, then usually synonymous with exploitation fare. Eventually the ABC chain took a chance and picked it up for distribution, scoring a huge critical and commercial hit in the process.


7:15am -- The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm (1962)
Fanciful biography of the German fairy-tale collectors, with reenactments of three of their stories.
Cast: Laurence Harvey, Karl Boehm, Claire Bloom, Walter Slezak
Dir: Henry Levin
C-136 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Color -- Mary Wills

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- George W. Davis, Edward C. Carfagno, Henry Grace and Richard Pefferle, Best Cinematography, Color -- Paul Vogel, and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Leigh Harline

The major reason that 'Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm' has never been restored is because the original 3-panel Cinerama camera negatives were heavily water damaged in a warehouse fire. The film was never transferred to a 70mm version after it was made so the only surviving prints are edited 35mm composite prints with the three joined panels. The surviving print are not the roadshow version and do not contain all three panels of information. The left area of the A panel and the right area of the C panel are missing from the composite prints. In addition, the color is badly faded. It is doubtful we will ever see a properly restored version of this film.


9:45am -- Step Lively (1944)
Fly-by-night producers dodge bill collectors while trying for one big hit.
Cast: Frank Sinatra, George Murphy, Adolph Menjou, Gloria De Haven
Dir: Tim Whelan
BW-88 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Albert S. D'Agostino, Carroll Clark, Darrell Silvera and Claude E. Carpenter

Based on the play Room Service, by Allen Boretz and John Murray, later made into the Marx Brothers film Room Service (1938).


11:15am -- There Goes My Heart (1938)
An heiress takes a job as a department store clerk.
Cast: Fredric March, Virginia Bruce, Patsy Kelly, Alan Mowbray
Dir: Norman Z. McLeod
BW-83 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring -- Marvin Hatley

According to a New York Times article on 16 October 1938, the Citizen's Chiropractic Committee of New York State sued the film producers, authors and Alan Mowbray for $100,000 claiming damages to the profession. One doctor was very upset that the film implied it was possible to go through a chiropractic school through a correspondence course. The outcome of the suit is not known.


12:45pm -- General Spanky (1936)
Three youngsters get mixed up in a crucial Civil War battle.
Cast: Spanky McFarland, Phillips Holmes, Ralph Morgan, Irving Pichel
Dir: Fred Newmeyer
BW-72 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Elmer Raguse (Hal Roach SSD)

The initials of R. P. W. C. R. C. W. M. R. (Spanky's Confederate Army) stands for "The Royal Protection of Women and Children, Regiment Club of the World and Mississippi River".


2:00pm -- A Day At The Races (1937)
A group of zanies tries to save a pretty girl's sanitarium.
Cast: Groucho , Chico , Harpo , Allan Jones
Dir: Sam Wood
BW-109 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Dance Direction -- Dave Gould for "All God's Children Got Rhythm".

The "Grand Steeplechase" sequence at the end had to be shot twice. Both times a crew member persuaded Chico Marx to gamble on it and not only to bet on the outcome of a rigged non-race, but to bet on a horse other than the one scripted to win. Chico, all his life an avid gambler, could offer as excuse only, "The odds were 20 to one."


4:00pm -- Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
When he inherits a fortune, a small-town poet has to deal with the corruption of city life.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft, Lionel Stander
Dir: Frank Capra
BW-116 mins, TV-G




6:00pm -- Hail The Conquering Hero (1944)
A group of veterans help a small-town fraud convince his family he was a war hero.
Cast: Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines, Raymond Walburn, William Demarest
Dir: Preston Sturges
BW-101 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Director -- Frank Capra

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gary Cooper, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), Best Writing, Screenplay -- Robert Riskin, and Best Picture

Columbia and Frank Capra intended to make a sequel to this movie, starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur, entitled "Mr. Deeds Goes to Washington" , based on the story "The Gentleman from Wyoming" (alternately called "The Gentleman from Montana" by both contemporary and modern sources) by Lewis Foster. This story was instead turned into the 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), directed by Frank Capra and starring Arthur and James Stewart.


What's On Tonight: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: Prime Time Lineup


8:00pm -- The Killers (1946)
An insurance investigator uncovers a string of crimes when he tries to find a murdered boxer's beneficiary.
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Albert Dekker
Dir: Robert Siodmak
BW-102 mins, TV-14

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Robert Siodmak, Best Film Editing -- Arthur Hilton, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Anthony Veiller

This was Burt Lancaster's first important movie role. He was the third choice for the part of The Swede, and was signed only after actors Wayne Morris and Sonny Tufts proved unavailable. Lancaster was an ex-circus acrobat from Union City, New Jersey. When producer Mark Hellinger saw the first rushes of Lancaster's performance in a private screening room, he was so pleased that he yelled "So help me, may all my actors be acrobats!"


10:00pm -- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
An experienced gunman and a peace-loving tenderfoot clash with a Western bully.
Cast: James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin
Dir: John Ford
BW-123 mins, TV-14

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head

Several reasons have been put forward for the film being in black and white. John Ford once claimed it added to the tension, however others involved with production said Paramount was cutting costs and so they had to make the movie on sound stages at the studio. Without the budget restraints, Ford would have been in Monument Valley using Technicolor stock. It has also been suggested that since both John Wayne and James Stewart were playing characters thirty years younger than they actually were (Wayne was 54 when the movie was filmed in the autumn of 1961 and Stewart was 53), the movie needed to be in black and white because they would never have got away with it in color. The age difference was particularly noticeable in Stewart's case, since he was playing a young lawyer who had only just graduated from law school and had moved West without even practicing law back East.


12:15am -- The Dirty Dozen (1967)
A renegade officer trains a group of misfits for a crucial mission behind enemy lines.
Cast: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown
Dir: Robert Aldrich
C-150 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Sound Effects -- John Poyner

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- John Cassavetes, Best Film Editing -- Michael Luciano, and Best Sound

The operation count-off is as follows:
- One: down to the road block we've just begun
- Two: the guards are through
- Three: the Major's men are on a spree
- Four: Major and Wladislaw go through the door
- Five: Pinkley stays out in the drive
- Six: the Major gives the rope a fix
- Seven: Wladislaw throws the hook to heaven
- Eight: Jiminez has got a date
- Nine: the other guys go up the line
- Ten: Sawyer and Gilpin are in the pen
- Eleven: Posey guards points Five and Seven
- Twelve: Wladislaw and the Major go down to delve
- Thirteen: Franko goes up without being seen
- Fourteen: Zero hour, Jiminez cuts the cable Franko cuts the phone
- Fifteen: Franko goes in where the others have been
- Sixteen: we all come out like it's Halloween


3:00am -- Ice Station Zebra (1968)
A sub commander on a perilous mission must ferret out a Soviet agent on his ship.
Cast: Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown
Dir: John Sturges
C-152 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Daniel L. Fapp, and Best Effects, Special Visual Effects -- Hal Millar and J. McMillan Johnson

Patrick McGoohan was filming his famous TV series "The Prisoner" (1967) at the time he appeared in this movie. In order to allow him to take time off from his TV series, the episode "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling" was written in which McGoohan's character, Number Six, has his mind transferred into the body of another man. "The Girl Who Was Death" was also altered so that No 6 wore a Sherlock Holmes disguise, so that his double Frank Maher could film a lot of the scenes.

[Staph]

1. General Spanky (1936)

In 1922 legendary producer Hal Roach unveiled his latest comic creation, Our Gang, the stories of a ragtag group of children and their varied hijinks and escapades. Roach, who first experienced success by launching Harold Lloyd's career several years earlier, would later go on to even greater triumphs with such comedy acts as Charley Chase and Laurel and Hardy. But Our Gang, with its charismatic pint-sized actors like Farina, Buckwheat, and Stymie, charmed the nation in a series of single and twin-reelers, numbering over 220 between 1922 and 1944. In 1936, Roach decided it was time for the major Our Gang players to make their feature film debut. General Spanky, clocking in at 72 minutes, was released to great expectations, but it wasn't successful enough to inspire any sequels and remains the only full-length film for the Our Gang characters.

Not only was the film the only feature length showcase for Our Gang, it was also the only production with a period setting, that of the Civil War. The film came on the heels of the Shirley Temple vehicles The Littlest Rebel and The Little Colonel (both 1935), and hoped to capitalize on the then-popular Confederate-styled theme (in fact, the working title of the movie was Colonel Spanky). The film actually borrowed Civil War stock footage from Buster Keaton's The General (1927) and the D.W. Griffith film Abraham Lincoln (1930) for many of its scenes.

General Spanky was co-directed by Gordon Douglas and Fred C. Newmeyer; it was the first full length film for Douglas, who had just helmed what would be a 1937 Oscar winner for Best Short Subject - an Our Gang twin-reel offering entitled Bored of Education (1936). Gordon would go on to direct such films as the sci-fi classic Them! (1954) and the Rat Pack fave Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964). Newmeyer was known more for his direction of several Harold Lloyd shorts, but in an ironic twist, he had actually directed the original Our Gang pilot which was scrapped and re-shot with another director.

General Spanky employed the talents of many: Our Gang regulars Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer stepped into their famous roles to join the star of the flick, George "Spanky" McFarland. Dapper thirties leading man Phillips Holmes and prolific character actor Irving Pichel played feature roles, as did Ralph Morgan, the brother of Frank Wizard of Oz Morgan. Perhaps the most interesting aspects of the casting were the supporting roles played by two early pioneers of black film acting, Willie Best and Louise Beavers. Best, derogatorily nicknamed "Sleep n' Eat," was a regular fixture in many Charlie Chan films as the character "Chattanooga Brown." Beavers had made her film debut in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927), but her masterpiece is widely regarded as Imitation of Life (1934). Starring alongside Claudette Colbert, Beavers wowed audiences with a breakthrough performance during a time when blacks were often portrayed in a racist and stereotypical light. Other bit players of note include Slim Whitaker, the prolific B-western actor, and Ham Kinsey, a.k.a. Stan Laurel's stand-in.

General Spanky was a family affair of sorts: Hal's brother, Jack Roach, scouted the locations for the water scenes, settling on the Sacramento River as a stand-in for the mighty Mississippi. He also chartered an old steamboat, The Cherokee, to help capture an authentic feel for the deep South. Musical backgrounds in the film were provided by the Elk Chanters, a group affiliated with a local Los Angeles Elks Club. Although falling short of its expectations, the film did pick up a Best Sound Oscar nomination for Elmer Raguse, the head of sound at Hal Roach Studios. You may notice, however, that Raguse's name was inadvertently omitted from the credits!

General Spanky was intended to mark the end of the Our Gang shorts and be the first of many feature length films, but due to its muted success, Hal Roach returned to the shorter format and once again found success on screen, and later on television, with his Little Rascals.

Producer: Hal Roach
Director: Gordon M. Douglas, Fred C. Newmeyer
Screenplay: Richard Flournoy, John Guedel, Hal Yates, Carl Harbaugh
Cinematography: Art Lloyd, Walter Lundin
Editing: Ray Snyder
Music: Marvin Hatley
Cast: George "Spanky" McFarland (Spanky), Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer (Alfalfa), Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas (Buckwheat), Phillips Holmes (Marshall Valiant), Ralph Morgan (Yankee General), Irving Pichel (Simmons), Rosina Lawrence (Louelia), Louise Beavers (Mammy Cornelia), Willie Best (Henry), Hobart Bosworth (Colonel Blanchard).
BW-72m.

by Eleanor Quin