TCM Schedule for Thursday, January 24 -- Romance Films

[Staph]

Most of today is devoted to Star of the Month James Cagney, followed by a trio of Ernest Borgnine films. This evening continues the Romantic Films, including Dying Romance (Camille (1936) and Love Story (1970)), Tragic Romance (Anna Karenina (1945) and Waterloo Bridge (1940)), and Flashback Romance (The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) and tomorrow morning's All This And Heaven Too (1940)). Enjoy!



5:00am -- The Oklahoma Kid (1939)
A cowboy sets out to avenge his father's lynching.
Cast: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Rosemary Lane.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon.
BW-81 mins, TV-PG

Humphrey Bogart was widely quoted as saying that co-star James Cagney looked like "a mushroom" in his costume.


6:30am -- Tribute to a Bad Man (1956)
A brutal rancher has to soften his ways to win the woman he loves.
Cast: James Cagney, Irene Papas, Don Dubbins.
Dir: Robert Wise.
C-96 mins, TV-PG

Spencer Tracy was cast as Jeremy Roderick, but was replaced by James Cagney.


8:15am -- These Wilder Years (1956)
A wealthy businessman sets out to find his long-lost illegitimate son.
Cast: James Cagney, Barbara Stanwyck, Walter Pidgeon.
Dir: Roy Rowland.
BW-91 mins, TV-PG

First film role for Michael Landon.


9:51am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Ireland "The Emerald Isle" (1934)
In this "Traveltalk," we see the people, land, and culture of rural Ireland.
Cast: James A. Fitzpatrick
Dir: Ruth Fitzpatrick.
C-8 mins

Filmed in part at Castleblayney, Ireland. Unfortunately at 8:21 PM on Sunday, 7th March, 1976, a car bomb exploded in the centre of the main street of Castleblayney killing one man, injuring seventeen others and causing widespread damage in the Main Street of the town. This event brought Castleblayney into the full contact with the Northern Troubles. It came as a great shock to the local people that Castleblayney should have been targeted for such an atrocity. But no explanation was ever given, other than the rather unhelpful Barron Report (Independent Commission of Inquiry) on 5 July 2006 which stated that “Under the circumstances, the only conclusion one can come to is that someone from Northern Ireland was responsible for this outrage.” No one was ever arrested for this bombing.


10:00am -- The Irish In Us (1935)
The sons of an Irish family have to choose among police work, prize fighting and love.
Cast: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Olivia de Havilland.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon.
BW-84 mins, TV-G

One of Olivia de Havilland's earliest films.


11:30am -- Jimmy The Gent (1934)
An unscrupulous detective makes a killing locating missing heirs.
Cast: James Cagney, Bette Davis, Allen Jenkins.
Dir: Michael Curtiz.
BW-68 mins, TV-G

One of two Davis/Cagney collaborations - the other is The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941).


12:45pm -- The St. Louis Kid (1934)
A hotheaded truck driver gets mixed up in a labor dispute.
Cast: James Cagney, Patricia Ellis, Hobart Cavanaugh.
Dir: Ray Enright.
BW-67 mins, TV-G

Former stage actor Allen Jenkins became a Warner contract player in the early 30s. Mostly he played supporting parts, the hero's side-kick, as he does in this film for James Cagney. In the episode of "M*A*S*H" (1972) titled 'Rainbow Bridge', Hawkeye is upset with Frank's choices of sending the wounded off a bus into OR. When Hawkeye overrides his orders, Frank screams, "This is mutiny! I'm the commander on this bus!" To which Hawkeye says to Father Mulcahy, "'Mutiny on the Bus' - It was a B picture. Allen Jenkins played the bus driver."


1:53pm -- Short Film: From The Vaults: James Cagney Biography (1962)
BW-4 mins

Originally a very left-wing Democrat activist during the 1930s, Cagney later switched his viewpoint and became progressively more conservative with age. He supported his friend Ronald Reagan's campaigns for the Governorship of California in 1966 and 1970, as well as his Presidential campaigns in 1980 and 1984. President Reagan delivered the eulogy at Cagney's funeral in 1986.


2:00pm -- Bad Day At Black Rock (1955)
A one-armed veteran uncovers small-town secrets when he tries to visit an Asian-American war hero's family.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis.
Dir: John Sturges.
C-82 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy, Best Director -- John Sturges, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Millard Kaufman

According to one biographer of Spencer Tracy, the script did not originally call for the lead character to be a one-armed man. The producers were keen to get Tracy but didn't think he'd be interested, so they gave the character this disability with the idea that no actor can resist playing a character with a physical impairment.


3:30pm -- The Catered Affair (1956)
A working-class mother fights to give her daughter a big wedding whether the girl wants it or not.
Cast: Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, Debbie Reynolds.
Dir: Richard Brooks.
BW-94 mins, TV-G

Originated as a Paddy Chayefsky-written episode of the Philco Television Playhouse, broadcast in May 1955.


5:15pm -- The Badlanders (1958)
Western outlaws join forces for a daring gold robbery in this remake of The Asphalt Jungle.
Cast: Alan Ladd, Ernest Borgnine, Katy Jurado.
Dir: Delmer Daves.
C-84 mins, TV-PG

One of four versions of the W.R. Burnett novel The Asphalt Jungle, including The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Cairo (1963), and Cool Breeze (1972).


6:45pm -- Terror On A Train (1953)
It's a race against the clock to defuse a time bomb on board a speeding train filled with high explosives.
Cast: Glenn Ford, Anne Vernon, Maurice Denham.
Dir: Ted Tetzlaff.
BW-72 mins, TV-PG

Also known as Time Bomb.


What's On Tonight: TCM SPOTLIGHT: ROMANCE FILMS


8:00pm -- Camille (1936)
In this classic 19th-century romance, a kept woman runs off with a young admirer in search of love and happiness.
Cast: Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore.
Dir: George Cukor.
BW-109 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo wore bedroom slippers under all her fancy dresses so she could be comfortable, as well as more naturalistic in her acting.


10:00pm -- Love Story (1970)
Students from opposite sides of the tracks fight for their love.
Cast: Ali MacGraw, Ryan O'Neal, Ray Milland.
Dir: Arthur Hiller.
C-100 mins, TV-MA

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Score -- Francis Lai

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Ryan O'Neal, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- John Marley, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ali MacGraw, Best Director -- Arthur Hiller, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- Erich Segal, and Best Picture

Incoming freshman at Harvard University, where the movie takes place, are traditionally shown a screening of the film at which they indulge in ritualized mass heckling.


11:45pm -- Anna Karenina (1935)
Adaptation of Tolstoy's classic tale of a woman who deserts her family for an illicit love.
Cast: Greta Garbo, Fredric March, Basil Rathbone.
Dir: Clarence Brown.
BW-93 mins, TV-14

Aware that her co-star Fredric March was notorious for seducing his leading ladies, Greta Garbo reportedly wore garlic under her clothes and purposely had bad breath in order to stave off his advances.


1:30am -- Waterloo Bridge (1940)
A ballerina turns to prostitution when her fiance is reported killed in World War I.
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Lucile Watson.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy.
BW-109 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, and Best Music, Original Score -- Herbert Stothart

Of all the classic Hollywood films ever made, this somewhat obscure title happens to be one of the most popular in China, especially among college students. There are even audio guides for students to practice their English by reciting dialogue from this film. The reason for why this particular film has become so endeared among the Chinese is anyone's guess. One possibility is that the popularity of Gone with the Wind (1939) in China led many to seek other movies starring Vivien Leigh.


3:30am -- The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954)
A writer recalls his turbulent marriage to an expatriate heiress.
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Van Johnson, Donna Reed.
Dir: Richard Brooks.
C-116 mins, TV-PG

The film is loosely based upon F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Babylon Revisited".

[Staph]

1. Bad Day at Black Rock

Director John Sturges was a master of suspenseful, well-crafted westerns and action/adventure films. And Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), the story of a hate crime in a small western town, and the bullying attempts by some townspeople to keep an outsider from finding out, certainly fits comfortably into those boundaries. That it also transcends them is not surprising, given the film's history.

Bad Day at Black Rock was made at a time of professional and political upheaval in Hollywood. In 1951, Dore Schary had replaced Louis B. Mayer as head of MGM. Schary, politically liberal, produced "message pictures" reflecting his beliefs. This was the era of blacklisting, of the McCarthy witch-hunts, when even the hint of communist affiliation could destroy careers. Bad Day at Black Rock's contemporary western was the kind of allegory that Schary liked. In fact, he liked it so much that Schary himself replaced Charles Schnee as producer. Richard Brooks, no stranger to message pictures, was set to direct.

Now that the film was shaping up to be an "important" picture, Schary needed a heavyweight star to play John MacReedy, the World War II veteran who stands up to the town. He went after Spencer Tracy, who was reluctant. What finally clinched Tracy was an excellent script revision by Millard Kaufman...and Schary's lie that Alan Ladd was interested in the role.

To keep Tracy happy, Schary also replaced Brooks with John Sturges, who had directed Tracy in The People Against O'Hara (1951). Sturges brought his talent for suspense and action, his skill at choreographing violence, and his eye for casting to Bad Day at Black Rock. Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin both received career boosts from the film. Borgnine's next film, Marty(1955), won him an Oscar -- beating Tracy, who was nominated for Bad Day at Black Rock.

Bad Day at Black Rock was a commercial and critical success. Reviews at the time praised its message of civic responsibility, individual integrity, and the dangers of group complacency. Film historians now also see it as an indictment of the blacklist in Hollywood.

Director: John Sturges
Producer: Dore Schary, Herman Hoffman
Screenplay: Millard Kaufman
Cinematography: William C. Mellor
Editor: Newell P. Kimlin
Art Direction: Malcolm Brown, Cedric Gibbons
Music: Andre Previn
Cast: Spencer Tracy (John J. Macreedy), Robert Ryan (Reno Smith), Anne Francis (Liz Wirth), Dean Jagger (Sheriff Tim Horn), Walter Brennan (Doc T.R. Velie Jr).
C-82m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning. Descriptive Video.

by Margarita Landazuri

[CBHagman]

2. Happy birthday, Ernest Borgnine.

Star of one of my favorite classics, Marty. I'm not sure about the guy's politics (I think he's sadly more in the GOP camp, unlike so many of his contemporaries), but he gave a talk at the National Press Club a couple years back and spoke very fondly of his costar Bette Davis (The Catered Affair).


His credits, as per IMDB:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000308/