TCM Schedule for Saturday, March 30, 2019 -- What's On Tonight: Remake / Original

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then tonight, TCM's non-essential Essentials are a film (My Favorite Wife (1940)) and its remake (Move Over, Darling (1963)). Technically, there was nearly another film, Something's Got To Give (1962), starring Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin. It was supposed to begin filming on April 23, 1962, but the schedule was reorganized due to Monroe suffering a sinus infection. Production shot around her scenes using the rest of the cast. Soon enough, the shooting fell 10 days behind schedule. Monroe's last day on the set fell on her birthday, June 1, 1962. When Monroe called in sick again the following Monday, June 4, she was fired a few days later on June 8. Dean Martin refused to continue filming without Monroe, and Marilyn was quietly rehired, but, due to her death, the movie was left unfinished. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- THE GREAT SINNER (1949)
A young man succumbs to gambling fever.
Dir: Robert Siodmak
Cast: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Melvyn Douglas
BW-110 mins, CC,

Deborah Kerr was initially scheduled to co-star with Peck. Then Lana Turner was slotted for the role, and then withdrawn from the production due to her extended European honeymoon with Henry J. Tipping. Finally, Ava Gardner was cast.


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: ROCK-A-BYE-BEAR (1952)
Spike gets a job running the house for a hibernating bear. But the bear is VERY noise-sensitive, and Spike's got a rival that wants his job.
Dir: Tex Avery
Cast: Daws Butler, Bill Thompson
BW-7 mins, CC,

Goof: After the bear kicks Spike his scarf disappears and remains missing for the rest of the cartoon.


8:09 AM -- IT LOOKS LIKE RAIN (1945)
This short film takes a look at the tools and methods used to forecast the weather.
Dir: Paul Burnford
BW-10 mins,

Fifty-first entry in John Nesbitt's Passing Parade.


8:19 AM -- SO YOU'RE GOING ON A VACATION (1946)
In this comedic short, Joe McDoakes goes on a vacation and encounters more than he bargained for. Vitaphone Release 1533A.
Dir: Richard Bare
Cast: Ted Stanhope, Clifton Young, Jane Harker
BW-11 mins,

Ninth of 63 Joe McDoakes short films.


8:30 AM -- PRAIRIE THUNDER (1937)
A scout risks his life to repair telegraph wires torn down by the Indians.
Dir: B. Reeves Eason
Cast: Dick Foran, Ellen Clancy, Smoke the Wonder Horse
BW-55 mins, CC,

Paul Panzer is credited onscreen but was replaced by Buck Connors in the role of "Jed". Similarly Jack Mower is credited onscreen but was replaced by Stuart Holmes in the role of "Camp Foreman".


9:30 AM -- FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE: FLAMING DEATH (1940)
Episode six of the Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe serial.
Dir: Ford Beebe, Ray Taylor
Cast: Buster Crabbe, Carol Hughes, Charles Middleton
BW-21 mins, CC,

This serial was based on Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon comic strip continuity involving Prince Barin and his kingdom of Arboria. Much of the serial's action also takes place in the comic strip kingdom of Frigia. The movie serial characters of Queen Fria, Count Korro, Gen. Lupi and Capt. Sudin all originated in the strip.


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: ORGAN GRINDER'S SWING (1937)
Popeye and Olive are grooving to the sounds of Wimpy the organ grinder, but their neighbor Bluto wants him to move on.
Dir: Dave Fleischer
Cast: Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, Gus Wickie
BW-6 mins, CC,


10:08 AM -- THE CASE OF THE BLACK CAT (1936)
Perry Mason looks into a trio of murders heralded by the shriek of a cat.
Dir: William McGann
Cast: Ricardo Cortez, June Travis, Jane Bryan
BW-66 mins, CC,

Reportedly, Erle Stanley Gardner, the author of the books, did not approve of the casting of Ricordo Cortez as Perry Mason. He was therefore replaced by Donald Woods after doing only one movie. Ironically, many feel that Cortez' performance and this movie in general is the best of the series.


11:30 AM -- WAGON WHEELS WEST (1943)
In this short film, a U.S. marshal seeks vengeance against the man who killed his father. Vitaphone Release 1147A.
Dir: B. Reeves Eason
Cast: George Ernest, Nina Foch, Tex Cooper
BW-17 mins,


12:00 PM -- LARCENY, INC. (1942)
An ex-convict and his gang try to use a luggage store to front a bank robbery, but business keeps getting in the way.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, Broderick Crawford
BW-95 mins, CC,

Woody Allen loved this film so much he remade it in 2000 as Small Time Crooks.


1:38 PM -- UNSEEN GUARDIANS (1939)
This short film focuses on the Postal Inspection Service, which investigates mail order racketeering.
Dir: Basil Wrangell
Cast: Nestor Paiva, Marjorie "Babe" Kane, Jo Ann Sayers
BW-11 mins,

Tenth in the Passing Parade series.


2:00 PM -- THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946)
Illicit lovers plot to kill the woman's older husband.
Dir: Tay Garnett
Cast: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway
BW-113 mins, CC,

James M. Cain was so impressed with Lana Turner's performance he presented her with a leather-bound copy of the book inscribed, "For my dear Lana, thank you for giving a performance that was even finer than I expected."


4:00 PM -- OCEAN'S ELEVEN (1960)
A group of friends plot to rob a Las Vegas casino.
Dir: Lewis Milestone
Cast: Peter Lawford, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra
C-127 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

According to Frank Sinatra Jr. on the DVD Commentary, Sammy Davis Jr. was forced to stay at a "colored only" hotel during the filming because Las Vegas would not allow blacks to stay at the major hotels despite his appearing with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and the others at the Sands Hotel. He was only allowed to stay at the major hotels after Frank Sinatra confronted the casino owners on his behalf, therefore breaking Vegas' unofficial color barrier.


6:15 PM -- MURDER MOST FOUL (1964)
Elderly sleuth Miss Marple joins a small-town theatre to investigate a murder.
Dir: George Pollock
Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Ron Moody, Charles Tingwell
BW-91 mins, CC,

Like Murder at the Gallop (1963), this movie was adapted from a Poirot novel, not a Miss Marple one - in this case, the 1953 book "Mrs. McGinty's Dead".



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: REMAKE / ORIGINAL



8:00 PM -- MOVE OVER, DARLING (1963)
A husband who believes his wife has disappeared is in a for a big surprise.
Dir: Michael Gordon
Cast: Doris Day, James Garner, Polly Bergen
C-103 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Doris Day proved what a trouper she truly was when James Garner accidentally cracked two of her ribs (during the massage scene, when he pulls her off of Polly Bergen). Garner wasn't even aware that Day was injured until the next day, when he felt the bandage while putting his arms around her.


10:00 PM -- MY FAVORITE WIFE (1940)
A shipwrecked woman is rescued just in time for her husband's re-marriage.
Dir: Garson Kanin
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott
BW-88 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- Leo McCarey, Bella Spewack and Sam Spewack, Best Art Direction, Black-and-White -- Van Nest Polglase and Mark-Lee Kirk, and Best Music, Original Score -- Roy Webb

Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, "Enoch Arden," about a fisherman presumed lost at sea who returns to find his wife remarried, was the basis of five prior films: Enoch Arden (1914), Die Toten kehren wieder - Enoch Arden (1919), and D.W. Griffith's Enoch Arden: Part I (1911), Enoch Arden: Part II (1911), and Enoch Arden (1915). Those films adhered to Tennyson's poem. But in My Favorite Wife, Something's Got to Give (1962), and Move Over, Darling (1963), only the basic idea of a spouse who returns is kept, with the spouse presumed lost now being the wife. However, in all of these films, the surname of the couple in question remains "Arden."


11:32 PM -- FORBIDDEN PASSAGE (1941)
This short film documents the U.S. Department of Immigration's efforts to halt the smuggling of illegal immigrants into the country.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Harry Woods, Vernon Downing, William Tannen
BW-21 mins,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel

Number 34 in the Crime Does Not Pay series.


12:00 AM -- BORDER INCIDENT (1949)
Police try to crack down on the illegal immigration racket.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Howard Da Silva
BW-95 mins, CC,

Filmed under the working titles of Border Patrol and Wetbacks.


2:00 AM -- THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984)
A filmmaker documents the history of Spinal Tap, the world's loudest rock band.
Dir: Rob Reiner
Cast: Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean
C-83 mins, CC,

Several rock stars have commented on what an uncannily accurate spoof of the rock and heavy metal world this film was. Ozzy Osbourne said that when he first watched the film, he was the only person who wasn't laughing; he thought it was a real documentary. U2 guitarist The Edge said about this film: "I didn't laugh, I wept. It was so close to the truth." Marillion had five drummers in the space of a year between their first two albums, which guitarist Steve Rothery later admitted was "like Spinal Tap".


3:30 AM -- TICKLE ME (1965)
A singing cowboy signs on with an all-woman dude ranch.
Dir: Norman Taurog
Cast: Elvis Presley, Jocelyn Lane, Julie Adams
C-91 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Elvis Presley made this film in a deal with floundering Allied Artists, in which he took a pay cut and did not record any new material in exchange for 50% of the film's profits. The film was a big earner, costing $1.5 million and grossing about $5 million worlwide. It was credited with saving Allied Artists from bankruptcy.


5:15 AM -- MGM PARADE SHOW #20 (1955)
Esther Williams performs in a clip from "Ziegfeld Follies"; Donna Reed introduces a clip from "Ransom." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-29 mins,