TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 10 -- TCM Guest Programmer: Sally Field

[Staph]

What a strange and interesting day! We start with Cab Calloway, and spend most of the daylight hours with movies from the sixties, including the two films starring Herman's Hermits. (For those of you too young to remember, Herman's Hermits were a sort of second rate Beatles or PG-rated Rolling Stones). Tonight, we get four films chosen by Sally Field -- and she chose wisely -- Love with the Proper Stranger, The Awful Truth, All About Eve, and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. Enjoy!


5:40am -- Short Film: CAB CALLOWAY in "HI DE HO" (1937)
In this short, a gypsy sees Cab and his orchestra performing in her tea leaves.
Cast: Cab Calloway and his Cotton Club Orchestra.
Dir: Roy Mack.
BW-11 mins

The oldest featured actor to appear in The Blues Brothers (1980), Calloway outlived co-players John Candy by more than 4 months and John Belushi by better than 12 years and 7 months.


6:00am -- Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter (1968)
Herman's Hermits travel to England for a high-stakes greyhound race.
Cast: Peter Noone, Herman's Hermits, Stanley Holloway.
Dir: Saul Swimmer.
C-95 mins, TV-G

Herman's Hermits' lead guitarist Derek Leckenby passed away June 4, 1994, of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.


7:36am -- Short Film: From The Vaults: The Background Beat (1965)
A short doc by director Ralph Nelson exploring how he uses music and scoring in his pictures. Includes examples from "Once A Thief" (1965).
Cast: Ralph Nelson, Lalo Schifrin.
BW-7 mins

Schifrin's song "Tar Sequence," from the music score for Cool Hand Luke (1967), was used for many years as the theme song for local "Eyewitness News" broadcasts on ABC-owned television stations (i.e. WABC-TV in New York, NY, and WLS-TV in Chicago, IL).


8:00am -- Hold On! (1966)
Rocket scientists consider naming a space ship after Herman's Hermits.
Cast: Peter Noone, Herman's Hermits, Shelley Fabares.
Dir: Arthur Lubin.
C-86 mins, TV-PG

The first Herman's Hermits movie.


9:30am -- Winter A-Go-Go (1965)
A teenaged ski bum tries to turn the lodge he's inherited into a hit music club.
Cast: James Stacy, William Wellman, Jr., Beverly Adams.
Dir: Richard Benedict.
C-88 mins, TV-PG

The first film for Paul Gleason, best remembered for his role as the no-nonsense principal Richard Vernon in The Breakfast Club (1985).


11:00am -- Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963)
A lecherous landlord tries to steal a woman from her fiancé.
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Carol Lynley, Dean Jones.
Dir: David Swift.
C-110 mins, TV-PG

In an uncredited role, you'll see Bill Bixby (My Favorite Martian and The Incredible Hulk) as the coach of the track team.


1:00pm -- Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966)
A sophisticated crook mounts an intricate plan to rob an airport bank.
Cast: James Coburn, Camilla Sparv, Aldo Ray.
Dir: Bernard Girard.
C-107 mins, TV-PG

Pre-release/working title was "Eli Kotch."


3:00pm -- Duffy (1968)
A playboy tries to rob his father with the help of a gentleman crook.
Cast: James Coburn, James Mason, James Fox.
Dir: Robert Parrish.
C-101 mins, TV-PG

"Actors are boring when they are not working. It's a natural condition, because they don't have anything to do. They just lay around, and that's why so many of them get drunk. They really get to be boring people. My wife will attest to that." -- James Coburn


4:45pm -- The Happening (1967)
A kidnapped gangster joins forces with the hippies who abducted him.
Cast: Anthony Quinn, Faye Dunaway, George Maharis.
Dir: Elliot Silverstein.
C-102 mins, TV-PG

Michael Parks has played the character of Earl McGraw in three separate films involving Quentin Tarantino: From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Grindhouse (2007) (both Death Proof (2007) and Planet Terror (2007)).


6:30pm -- Homicidal (1961)
A nurse and her husband conspire to collect a rich inheritance.
Cast: Glenn Corbett, Patricia Breslin, Eugenie Leontovich.
Dir: William Castle.
BW-87 mins, TV-PG

This was one of the most successful knock-offs of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). William Castle and Columbia had this in theaters a year after the release of Psycho (1960). Part of the reason for the delay was that, at the time Psycho (1960) went into release, William Castle was still working on 13 Ghosts (1960).


What's On Tonight: TCM GUEST PROGRAMMER: SALLY FIELD


8:00pm -- Love With The Proper Stranger (1964)
When a one-night stand results in pregnancy, a musician and a young girl try to resolve the issue together.
Cast: Steve McQueen, Natalie Wood, Tom Bosley.
Dir: Robert Mulligan.
BW-100 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Natalie Wood, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson, Sam Comer and Grace Gregory, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Milton R. Krasner, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Arnold Schulman

It's unclear whether this is a bizarre coincidence or an inside joke, but when character played by Natalie Wood is taking a taxi home from the abortionist, cab passes a large billboard advertising a movie starring Wood's former (and future) husband Robert Wagner.


10:00pm -- The Awful Truth (1937)
A divorced couple keeps getting mixed up in each other's love lives.
Cast: Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Ralph Bellamy.
Dir: Leo McCarey.
BW-91 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Director -- Leo McCarey

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ralph Bellamy, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Film Editing -- Al Clark, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Viña Delmar, and Best Picture

The dog playing Mr. Smith in The Awful Truth was in The Thin Man movies as Asta.


11:45pm -- All About Eve (1950)
An ambitious young actress tries to take over a star's career and love life.
Cast: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
BW-138 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Sanders, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head and Charles Le Maire, Best Director -- Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Best Sound, Recording, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Anne Baxter, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Celeste Holm, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Thelma Ritter, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lyle R. Wheeler, George W. Davis, Thomas Little and Walter M. Scott, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Milton R. Krasner, Best Film Editing -- Barbara McLean, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Alfred Newman

Co-star Celeste Holm spoke about her experience with Bette Davis on the first day of shooting: "I walked onto the set ... on the first day and said, 'Good morning,' and do you know her reply? She said, 'Oh shit, good manners.' I never spoke to her again--ever."


2:15am -- The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944)
During World War II, a 4F tries to help the woman he loves cover up a surprise pregnancy.
Cast: Eddie Bracken, Betty Hutton, William Demarest.
Dir: Preston Sturges.
BW-98 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Preston Sturges

The character Gov. McGinty is Dan McGinty, from the earlier film by Preston Sturges, The Great McGinty (1940). Brian Donlevy played the character in both films.


4:00am -- Private Screenings: Betty Hutton (2000)
Singer-comedian Betty Hutton shares stories from her career as one of Hollywood's top stars.
C-56 mins, TV-G

A 9th-grade dropout, Betty Hutton went back to school in the 1970s with the help of a Catholic priest, Father Peter Maguire. She earned a bachelors degree from Salve Regina University and was later awarded an honorary Ph.D. She taught theater for a time at the University.

[Staph]

1. Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round

Steven Spielberg must have taken a good look at Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966) before he started work on Catch Me If You Can (2002) because the look, tone and style of the latter film is highly reminiscent of this quirky 1966 caper film starring James Coburn as a smooth-as-silk con artist. Playing a character named Eli Kotch, Coburn fashions a fascinating portrayal of a completely amoral narcissist, one whose real identity remains a puzzle from the first to the final frame. Changing names and accents as quickly as one changes clothes, Eli masterminds his escape from prison (through the unwitting assistance of a female psychologist he seduced) and begins plotting an elaborate heist with some former colleagues-in-crime. The target is a bank located in the Los Angeles International Airport and Eli's preparation for the robbery involves a series of unorthodox money-raising ventures in Denver and Boston. Along the way Eli poses as a Swiss shoe clerk, a termite exterminator, a Knights of Columbus delegate, an Australian police inspector and he even gets married - to Inger Knudson (Camilla Sparv), the beautiful private secretary of a millionairess - but it's all just part of his master plan.

In case you're wondering what the title means, it's a reference to a novel Eli claims to be writing when he first meets Inger but it's just another smoke screen. In truth, the whole movie is a smoke screen. For all of Eli's clever manipulations of other people, particularly women, he remains an enigma, giving Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round a cool, detached quality that left critics divided over its merits. Unlike most heist films which usually have audiences rooting for the thieves, however, Dead Heat is dispassionate throughout while maintaining an intoxicating surface beauty; Los Angeles landmarks like the futuristic-looking Encounter restaurant at LAX are lovingly photographed as are wintry scenes in snow-covered Boston. The playful music score by Stu Phillips also adds an extra layer of irony to the proceedings, culminating in an unexpected twist ending which makes Eli's self-satisfied smile at the fade-out the biggest joke of all. He doesn't get the "punch line," but the audience does.

Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round was made at the height of James Coburn's popularity. He had only recently attained star status with his breakthrough role in Our Man Flint (1966), which he followed with the Blake Edwards comedy, What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966) and this cult crime comedy. But after making In Like Flint, Waterhole No. 3 and The President's Analyst the following year - 1967 - Coburn experienced a series of commercial failures like Hard Contract (1969) that ended his run as a leading man. By 1975, he was no longer the top name on the marquee, but a well-respected supporting player, assisting Charles Bronson in Hard Times and Gene Hackman in Bite the Bullet. But if you want to see a genuine Hollywood superstar in the making, you can glimpse him briefly in a scene with Coburn in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round. That baby faced bellhop who delivers a message to Coburn's table is none other than Harrison Ford, making his film debut.

Producer: Carter DeHaven
Director: Bernard Girard
Screenplay: Bernard Girard
Art Direction: Walter M. Simonds
Cinematography: Lionel Lindon
Editing: William A. Lyon
Music: Stu Phillips
Cast: James Coburn (Eli Kotch), Camilla Sparv (Inger Knudson), Aldo Ray (Eddie Hart), Nina Wayne (Frieda Schmid), Robert Webber (Milo Stewart), Todd Armstrong (Alfred Morgan), Severn Darden (Miles Fisher), Rose Marie (Margaret Kirby).
C-108m. Letterboxed.

by Jeff Stafford