TCM Schedule for Friday, November 4 -- What's On Tonight: Gloria Stuart

[Staph]

It seems to be a day for western comedies, and tonight we have a belated tribute to the late Gloria Stuart. Most people remember her as the 100-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater from Titanic (1997), but she was quite the glamorous star in the 1930s. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Melody Cruise (1933)
A playboy finds true love during an ocean cruise.
Dir: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Charlie Ruggles, Phil Harris, Helen Mack.
76 min, TV-G

Phil Harris' first film.


7:30 AM -- Way Out West (1930)
When a carnival barker gets caught conning the local cowboys, he's forced to work off his sentence on the open range.
Dir: Fred Niblo
Cast: William Haines, Leila Hyams, Polly Moran.
70 min, TV-G

Following the Great Depression and a tight crackdown on morality, MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer insisted William Haines leave his lover and publicly marry a woman. Haines refused and was fired. His relationship with longtime lover, Jimmie Shields, lasted fifty years.


9:00 AM -- Two Guys From Texas (1948)
Two vaudevillians on the run from crooks try to pass themselves off as cowboys.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Dorothy Malone.
C-86 min, TV-G , CC

Thanks to director Friz Freleng, this was the first feature film appearance of Warners' most famous cartoon character, Bugs Bunny.


10:30 AM -- The King And Four Queens (1956)
When four outlaw brothers are killed, a con man tries to win the confidence of their widows.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Clark Gable, Eleanor Parker, Jean Willes.
C-84 min, TV-PG

Clark Gable formed a production company with his The Tall Men co-star Jane Russell and her husband Bob Waterfield in order to produce this film. However, the stress of producing took such a toll on the 55-year-old Gable's already guarded health that he never produced another movie.


12:00 PM -- Hearts Of The West (1975)
An aspiring western novelist in thirties Hollywood becomes a low-budget cowboy star.
Dir: Howard Zieff
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Andy Griffith, Donald Pleasence.
C-102 min, TV-14

Donald Pleasence's character, "A.J. Neitz", is named after prolific western / "B" picture director Alan James (real name Alvin J. Neitz), who started out in silent films and lasted through the talkie era, and who directed westerns with such stars as Ken Maynard, Jack Hoxie and Tim McCoy, among others.


2:00 PM -- The Paleface (1948)
An inept dentist must rescue his outlaw wife from the Indians.
Dir: Norman Z. McLeod
Cast: Bob Hope, Jane Russell, Robert Armstrong.
C-91 min, TV-G , CC

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jay Livingston and Ray Evans for the song "Buttons and Bows"

Though the story here is fictional, there was a real dentist who called himself 'Painless' - 'Painless Parker'. Edgar Parker was a dentist who struggled to run a street dental business, and so he took his practice on the road. He worked in the 1890s, in the era of 'amusement'. Inspired by P.T. Barnum, he had a horse-drawn office, show girls and buglers. Parker promised that he could extract a rotten tooth painlessly for 50 cents. If the extraction was not painless, he would give the customer $5.00. Parker had a band that he used to attract people to his office. The band also served to distract the patients and to drown out any moans of pain emitted from the patients. Patients were served with a cup of whiskey or a solution of cocaine (called 'hydrocaine'). Parker is said to have legally changed his first name to 'Painless' to avoid charges of false advertising.


4:00 PM -- Alias Jesse James (1959)
An insurance agent lands in hot water when people mistake him for the infamous western outlaw.
Dir: Norman Z. McLeod
Cast: Bob Hope, Rhonda Fleming, Wendell Corey.
C-92 min, TV-PG , CC

The last period film made by Bob Hope. The rest of his films were contemporary comedies. This was also the final film of Ward Bond (who died in 1960) and the final theatrical film of James Arness, who, of course, went on to have a long career as Marshall Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke (1955-1975).


6:00 PM -- A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966)
A pioneer woman replaces her ailing husband in a poker game after he loses most of their money.
Dir: Fielder Cook
Cast: Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards Jr..
C-95 min, TV-G

This film provides the final screen appearance of comedian Chester Conklin, who had appeared in about 300 movies from 1913.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: GLORIA STUART



8:00 PM -- The Invisible Man (1933)
A scientist's experiments with invisibility turn him into a madman.
Dir: James Whale
Cast: Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart, William Harrigan.
71 min, TV-PG , CC

Boris Karloff had been the studio's original choice for the role of the Invisible Man. He turned down the role because he would not be seen on screen until the end. Director James Whale wanted someone with more of an "intellectual" voice than Karloff. He selected Claude Rains after accidentally hearing Rains's screen test being played in another room. (Until this film, Rains had primarily been a stage actor. Although he had appeared in one silent movie in 1920, this was his first sound film.)


9:30 PM -- Gold Diggers Of 1935 (1935)
A socialite is bamboozled into producing a stage show in her home.
Dir: Busby Berkeley
Cast: Dick Powell, Adolphe Menjou, Gloria Stuart.
95 min, TV-G , CC

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics) for the song "Lullaby of Broadway"

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Dance Direction -- Busby Berkeley for "Lullaby of Broadway" and "The Words Are in My Heart".

Wini Shaw's recording of "Lullaby Of Broadway" was an unlikely hit in Britain in 1976.


11:15 PM -- Here Comes the Navy (1934)
A cocky naval cadet clashes with an old friend serving with him.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Gloria Stuart.
87 min, TV-PG , CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

The movie was filmed in the spring of 1934 on the U.S.S. Arizona, which was sunk on 7 December 1941 at Pearl Harbor.


1:00 AM -- Maybe It's Love (1935)
A young couple suffers through in-law and employment problems.
Dir: William McGann
Cast: Gloria Stuart, Ross Alexander, Frank McHugh.
63 min, TV-G

The original play, Saturday's Children, opened 26 January 1927 in New York. It was also filmed, as Saturday's Children, in 1929 (starring Corinne Griffith and Grant Withers) and 1940 (starring Anne Shirley and John Garfield). It was also an episode of the television anthology show Golden Showcase (1962 -- starring Inger Stevens and Cliff Robertson).


2:15 AM -- Let's Scare Jessica To Death (1971)
A woman has bizarre experiences after moving into a supposedly haunted country farmhouse .
Dir: John Hancock
Cast: Zohra Lampert, Barton Heyman, Kevin O'Connor.
C-89 min, TV-PG

The first night the film crew arrived to the farmhouse location, an eerie fog rolled into the area. They quickly made use of this by shooting the outside of the house as this happened, and that footage was used for transitions throughout the film.


3:45 AM -- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
A crazed, aging star torments her sister in a decaying Hollywood mansion.
Dir: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono.
134 min, TV-PG , CC

Won an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Norma Koch

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Victor Buono, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ernest Haller, and Best Sound -- Joseph D. Kelly (Seven Arts-Warner Bros. Glen Glenn Sound Department)

Bette Davis had been nominated for Best Actress in her film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, which also starring Joan Crawford. If Bette had won, it would have set a record number of wins for an actress. According to the book "Bette & Joan - The Divine Feud" by Shaun Considine, the two had a life long mutual hatred, and a jealous Joan Crawford actively campaigned against Bette Davis for winning Best Actress, and even told Anne Bancroft that if Anne won and was unable to accept the Award, Joan would be happy to accept it on her behalf. According to the book - and this may or may not be 100% true, but it makes a good anecdote - on Oscar night, Bette Davis was standing in the wings of the theatre waiting to hear the name of the winner. When it was announced that Anne Bancroft had won Best Actress for The Miracle Worker, Bette Davis felt an icy hand on her shoulder as Joan Crawford said "Excuse me, I have an Oscar to accept".

[CBHagman]

1. I hadn't heard the story about Claude Rains in "The Invisible Man."

I knew about his extensive work in stage (and not just at the beginning of his career) but didn't realize how he'd been picked for The Invisible Man.