TCM Schedule for Thursday, September 9 -- TCM Spotlight -- Acts of Revenge

[Staph]

This evening continues the month's spotlight theme of Acts of Revenge. But it's a much cheerier day, with musicals starring Mickey Rooney, and Judy Garland, and Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. Enjoy!


6:00am -- Babes in Arms (1939)
A group of second-generation entertainers puts on a show to launch their careers.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Charles Winninger, Guy Kibbee
Dir: Busby Berkeley
BW-96 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Mickey Rooney, and Best Music, Scoring -- Roger Edens and George Stoll

The parody sequence, "My Day," featuring Mickey Rooney as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Judy Garland as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, was removed from the negative after the president's death on April 12, 1945. The routine, for many years thought to be lost, was rediscovered on 16-millimeter film and now can be viewed on Warner Home Video's DVD, "The Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland Collection."


7:45am -- Strike Up the Band (1940)
A high-school band sets out to win a national radio contest.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, June Preisser
Dir: Busby Berkeley
BW-120 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Roger Edens and George Stoll for the song "Our Love Affair", and Best Music, Score -- George Stoll and Roger Edens

The puppet orchestra made of fruit that comes to life playing instruments for Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland on a kitchen table, was the work of animator George Pal. He had just arrived in Hollywood from Europe via New York and this was among his first projects. Pal's work was relatively unknown by American audiences, thus he was uncredited. The idea for the sequence was that of another New York-to-Hollywood transfer: Vincente Minnelli.


10:00am -- Little Nellie Kelly (1940)
The daughter of Irish immigrants patches up differences between her father and grandfather and rises to the top on Broadway.
Cast: Judy Garland, George Murphy, Charles Winninger, Douglas McPhail
Dir: Norman Taurog
BW-99 mins, TV-G

This movie has Judy Garland performing "Singin' in the Rain" more than 10 years before Gene Kelly most famously sang it in Singin' in the Rain (1952). The song was first heard on screen in The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929).


11:45am -- Girl Crazy (1943)
A womanizing playboy finds true love when he's sent to a desert college.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Gil Stratton, Robert E. Strickland
Dir: Norman Taurog
BW-99 mins, TV-G

Judy Garland's character's name, Ginger Gray, is a tribute to Ginger Rogers, who played the part on Broadway when the character was named Molly Gray. Ginger Rogers wrote that one night onstage in the play, her costar Allen Kearns accidentally said: "Ginger, I love you" instead of "Molly". The mistake got such a huge laugh from the audience that they decided to continue to do that in subsequent performances, pretending it was a mistake. (Source: "Ginger: My Story". New York: Harper-Collins, 1991)


1:30pm -- Till The Clouds Roll By (1946)
True story of composer Jerome Kern's rise to the top on Broadway and in Hollywood.
Cast: June Allyson, Lucille Bremer, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson
Dir: Richard Whorf
C-136 mins, TV-G

When MGM originally began planning this film, it asked Jerome Kern what he thought about Robert Walker being cast. He said it sounded all right, but he wanted to hear his wife's opinion. He phoned her from the office and she told him to stay and play himself and send Walker home to her.


4:00pm -- Words And Music (1948)
Songwriters Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart search for love while rising to the top.
Cast: Perry Como, Mickey Rooney, Ann Sothern, Tom Drake
Dir: Norman Taurog
C-121 mins, TV-G

The song "I Wish I Were In Love Again" was the last time Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney appeared on screen together.


6:03pm -- One Reel Wonders: World Famous Musical Hits (2000)
A short promotional reel showcasing six MGM musicals: "Three Little Words," "Because You're Mine," "Till The Clouds Roll By," "The Band Wagon," "Words and Music," and "Singing In The Rain."
C-9 mins


6:15pm -- Summer Holiday (1948)
Musical remake of Ah, Wilderness!, about a small-town boy's struggles with growing up.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Gloria De Haven, Walter Huston, Frank Morgan
Dir: Rouben Mamoulian
C-93 mins, TV-G

Filmed between June 17 and mid-October 1946, the movie's wide release was held back until April 16, 1948. The Manhattan opening at Lowe's State Theatre followed on June 11, 1948.


What's On Tonight: TCM SPOTLIGHT: ACTS OF REVENGE


8:00pm -- Cornered (1946)
A World War II veteran hunts down the Nazi collaborators who killed his wife.
Cast: Dick Powell, Walter Slezak, Micheline Cheirel, Nina Vale
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
BW-103 mins, TV-PG

"The best thing about switching from being an actor to being a director is that you don't have to shave or hold your stomach in anymore." -- Dick Powell


10:00pm -- Act Of Violence (1949)
An embittered veteran tracks down a POW camp informer.
Cast: Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, Mary Astor
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
BW-82 mins, TV-PG

"Louis B. Mayer once looked at me and said, "You will never get the girl at the end". So I worked on my acting." -- Van Heflin


11:30pm -- Point Blank (1967)
A gangster plots an elaborate revenge on the wife and partner who did him dirty.
Cast: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn, Carroll O'Connor
Dir: John Boorman
C-92 mins, TV-14

Lee Marvin faked the recoil from the .44 Magnum when he shoots in Lynne's bed. These were in fact blanks, but afterward when shooting in Alcatraz they tried with real bullets and there was no recoil at all. Marvin said to director John Boorman, "Fiction overtakes reality".


1:15am -- Get Carter (1971)
A small-time gangster searches for the truth behind his brother's death.
Cast: Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, Britt Ekland, John Osborne
Dir: Mike Hodges
C-112 mins, TV-14

When Carter (Michael Caine) enters Cyril Kinnear's house, there is a Zulu shield and assegais on the wall. This is an in-joke about Michael Caine's first screen success in Zulu (1964).


3:15am -- Johnny Cool (1963)
A deported gangster trains an Italian convict to take over his operations in the U.S.
Cast: Henry Silva, Elizabeth Montgomery, Richard Anderson, Jim Backus
Dir: William Asher
BW-102 mins, TV-PG

Elizabeth Montgomery died on the same day as her Johnny Cool (1963) co-star Elisha Cook Jr..


5:15am -- Now Playing September (2010)

[Staph]

1. Babes in Arms (1939)

Babes in Arms (1939) was the third of eight movies Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney made together (the count actually goes up to ten, technically speaking, if you include the MGM all-star extravaganza Thousands Cheer (1943), in which they both have cameo roles as themselves but don't appear together, and Words and Music (1948) in which Garland and Rooney perform a duet to "I Wish I Were in Love Again"). The partnership started in Thoroughbreds Don't Cry (1937), followed by a Garland turn in Love Finds Andy Hardy in 1938 for Rooney's popular Andy Hardy series. Babes in Arms would be the pair's first picture under director Busby Berkeley, who would direct three more Mickey-Judy movies: Strike Up the Band (1940), Babes on Broadway (1941) and Girl Crazy (1943). It would also be the first film for MGM musical maestro Arthur Freed as producer and head of his own MGM unit.

Arthur Freed got his start writing and performing in New York vaudeville, before being signed to write songs for MGM's new musical department in 1929. His early efforts included writing lyrics for songs in The Hollywood Revue (1929), which introduced the songs "Singin' in the Rain" and "You Were Meant For Me." Both songs were co-written with Freed's frequent partner, Nacio Herb Brown. Freed's tunes were also heard in Bing Crosby's Going Hollywood (1933), The Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) and in Freed's first outing with Garland and Rooney for Thoroughbreds Don't Cry. However, Freed's career would soon encompass more than just songwriting.

In 1939, Arthur Freed was given a test assignment on a little project called The Wizard of Oz. Not only would Freed serve as associate producer for the film, he'd come to play an instrumental part in shaping and preserving an unforgettable piece of Americana - Garland's on-screen rendition of "Over the Rainbow." As the Hollywood legend has it, the producers of The Wizard of Oz and MGM head Louis B. Mayer wanted to cut "Over the Rainbow" from the movie, saying it slowed the story down. But Freed insisted the song stay in, remarking, "the song stays or I go." Freed, of course, got his way. And soon after, his own musical production department at MGM.

Based very loosely on a hit Rodgers and Hart play of the same title, Babes in Arms would be Freed's first project under the watch of his new unit. The movie retained only three of the show's original songs - the title song, "The Lady is a Tramp" and "When or Where." The movie's plot was also changed significantly from the stage version, to enhance Mickey Rooney's part, but still maintained the basic audience-pleasing formula of some talented kids putting on a show. Freed added some of his old tunes to the adaptation including "You are My Lucky Star" and "I Cried For You." He and Brown wrote "Good Morning" especially for the movie. And Oz songwriters E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen (who'd written "Over the Rainbow" as well as "If I Only Had a Brain" and "We're Off to See the Wizard") were called in to write "God's Country" for the big finale.

Freed and Garland had just completed The Wizard of Oz when filming began on Babes in Arms on May 12, 1939. In fact, Freed was still wrapped up in edits of The Wizard of Oz and his battle for Over the Rainbow all through the Babes in Arms shoot. July 18, 1939 turned into quite a big day for Freed. Primary production wrapped on Babes in Arms and the first preview of The Wizard of Oz was screened. "Over the Rainbow" was an instant success. But it hadn't all been smooth sailing on Babes in Arms. It seems Garland and director Berkeley didn't get along terribly well, and that the young star had trouble keeping up with co-star Rooney's energy. Some Garland bios claim she was already on diet pills at this time.

Still, Babes in Arms opened to enthusiastic reviews. It was a vindication for Berkeley who proved he could change with the times and create a hit even without his signature production numbers. Variety's review noted Berkeley's direction saying, "He blends drama, comedy and musical episodes into a fine composite of mass entertainment." Mickey Rooney was nominated for an Oscar for his part, which the actor later said "may have been the best picture I ever made." Judy Garland got her hands and footprints set in cement outside Grauman's Chinese Theater to mark the Babes in Arms premiere. And she was awarded a special Oscar that year "for her outstanding performance as a screen juvenile for the past year."

As for Freed, he became synonymous with MGM's integrated musical and would go on to produce such crowd pleasers as Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Singin' in the Rain (1952) and Gigi (1958). Babes in Arms would be a triumphant beginning for his new musical unit, costing around $600,000 to make and taking in over 2 million dollars domestically to become one of MGM's biggest grossers of 1939. And best of all, the movie led the way for many other Freed productions, that just like Babes in Arms would be what Variety called "topflight filmusical entertainment."

Producer: Arthur Freed
Director: Busby Berkeley
Screenplay: Jack McGowan, Kay Van Riper (based on the play by Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers)
Music: Harold Arlen, Nacio Herb Brown, Bob Carleton, George M. Cohan, Roger Edens, Ernie Erdman, Arthur Freed, Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers
Cinematography: Ray June

Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons
Cast: Mickey Rooney (Mickey Moran), Judy Garland (Patsy Barton), Charles Winninger (Joe Moran), Guy Kibbee (Judge Black), June Preisser (Rosalie Essex), Grace Hayes (Florrie Moran), Betty Jaynes (Molly Moran), Henry Hull (Maddox).
BW-97m. Closed captioning. Descriptive Video.

by Stephanie Thames