TCM Schedule for Saturday, April 20, 2019 -- What's On Tonight: Best of the Essentials

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. In primetime throughout April

TCM looks back at some of our guests and films from The Essentials, the series with our hosts and special guests introducing and discussing movies considered to be must-see viewing for cinema enthusiasts. The series, which began in 2001, has covered some of the finest movies ever made. Each Saturday in April, we'll show a double feature of The Essentials, with presenters as shown below.

. . .

Norma Rae (1979) earned Sally Field an Oscar for her gritty portrayal of a young factory worker who becomes involved in labor union struggles. Based on a true story, the movie costars Beau Bridges and was directed by Martin Ritt. Field herself presents with host Robert Osborne.

This Is Spinal Tap (1984) is a "mockumentary," a phrase coined by director Rob Reiner to describe this send-up of rock band documentaries. The movie was largely improvised by its cast, which includes Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer. It has become a much-loved cult favorite. Actress Drew Barrymore presents with host Robert Osborne.

. . .


by Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951)
A man's joking suggestion that he and a chance acquaintance trade murders turns deadly.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker
BW-101 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Robert Burks

Sir Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Walker worked out an elaborate series of gestures and physical appearance to suggest the homosexuality and seductiveness of Bruno's character while bypassing censor objections.


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: LONESOME LENNY (1945)
Screwy Squirrel is bought in a pet shop to be the companion of a daft dog so strong that he squeezes his playmates to death.
Dir: Tex Avery
Cast: Tex Avery, Sara Berner, Wally Maher
BW-8 mins, CC,

The last "Screwy Squirrel" cartoon.


8:09 AM -- THE FABULOUS FRAUD (1948)
This short film focuses on Dr. Anton Mesmer, the man who discovered hypnotism.
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: Phyllis Morris, Morris Ankrum, Marcia Mae Jones
BW-11 mins,


8:20 AM -- ISLAND WINDJAMMERS (1956)
This short film looks at an annual yacht race that takes place in the Bahamas.
Dir: Howard Winner
BW-8 mins,


8:29 AM -- SON OF THE BORDER (1933)
A lawman adopts the son of an outlaw he accidentally killed.
Dir: Lloyd Nosler
Cast: Tom Keene, Julie Haydon, Edgar Kennedy
BW-55 mins,

Based on a story by Wellyn Totman.


9:30 AM -- FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE: THE POOL OF PERIL (1940)
Episode nine of the Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe serial.
Dir: Ford Beebe, Ray Taylor
Cast: Buster Crabbe, Carol Hughes, Charles Middleton

Every episode after the first begins with an opening crawl to catch up the audience on the story so far. This inspired the iconic opening crawl of the Star Wars films.


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: THE TWISKER PITCHER (1937)
Baseball: Bluto's Bears vs. Popeye's Pirates, and both Bluto and Popeye have girlfriends cheering them on.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Seymour Kneitel (uncredited)
Cast: Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, Gus Wickie
BW-7 mins, CC,

Parts of this toon were added to another Popeye cartoon, Customers Wanted (1939).


10:08 AM -- TORCHY GETS HER MAN (1938)
Female reporter Torchy Blane tries to crack a counterfeiting case.
Dir: William Beaudine
Cast: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Tom Kennedy
BW-63 mins, CC,

The sixth of nine "Torchy Blane" films released by Warner Brothers from 1937 to 1939.


11:30 AM -- CARNIVAL IN PARIS (1937)
In this short, the janitor of a Paris museum's Egyptology department agrees to help a girl hide from the police.
Dir: William J. Thiele
Cast: Ann Rutherford, Eric Mayne, Henry Brandon
BW-21 mins,


12:00 PM -- THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1948)
A romantic drifter gets caught between a corrupt tycoon and his voluptuous wife.
Dir: Orson Welles
Cast: Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane
BW-87 mins, CC,

According to Orson Welles, this film grew out of an act of pure desperation. Welles, whose Mercury Theatre company produced a musical version of "Around the World in 80 Days," was in desperate need of money just before the Boston preview. Mere hours before the show was due to open, the costumes had been impounded and unless Welles could come up with $55,000 to pay outstanding debts, the performance would have to be canceled. Stumbling upon a copy of "If I Die Before I Wake," the novel upon which this film is based, Welles phoned Harry Cohn, instructing him to buy the rights to the novel and offering to write, direct and star in the film so long as Cohn would send $55,000 to Boston within two hours. The money arrived, and the production went on as planned.


1:45 PM -- ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)
A young stevedore takes on the mobster who rules the docks.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb
BW-108 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Marlon Brando, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Eva Marie Saint, Best Director -- Elia Kazan, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Budd Schulberg, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Boris Kaufman, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Richard Day, Best Film Editing -- Gene Milford, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Lee J. Cobb, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Karl Malden, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Rod Steiger, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Leonard Bernstein

In his biography of Elia Kazan, Richard Schickel describes how Kazan used a ploy to entice Marlon Brando to do the movie. He had Karl Malden direct a scene from the film with an up-and-coming fellow actor from the Actors Studio playing the Terry Malloy lead role. They figured the competitive Brando would not be eager to see such a major role handed to some new screen heartthrob. The ploy worked, especially since the competition had come in the form of a guy named Paul Newman.


3:45 PM -- THE TRIAL (1963)
In this adaptation of Kafka's classic, a man in a nameless country stands trial for an unnamed crime.
Dir: Orson Welles
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider
BW-119 mins, CC,

It has been reported that Orson Welles dubbed 11 voices in the movie, including a few lines of Anthony Perkins dialog. Perkins later said he could never figure out which lines they were.


6:00 PM -- CALIFORNIA SUITE (1978)
Four sets of guests at a posh hotel face personal crises.
Dir: Herbert Ross
Cast: Alan Alda, Michael Caine, Bill Cosby
C-103 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Maggie Smith

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Neil Simon, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Albert Brenner and
Marvin March

Diana Barrie (Dame Maggie Smith) says that she wishes David Niven could accept her award for her because he would be witty and charming. In the play on which the movie is based, the character says "Michael Caine", but it was changed when Caine was cast as her husband.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: BEST OF THE ESSENTIALS



8:00 PM -- NORMA RAE (1979)
A young single mother and her co-worker try to unionize the mill where they work.
Dir: Martin Ritt
Cast: Sally Field, Beau Bridges, Ron Leibman
C-115 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Sally Field, and Best Music, Original Song -- David Shire (music) and Norman Gimbel (lyrics) for the song "It Goes Like It Goes"

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr., and Best Picture

The film is based on a real-life union organizing campaign at J.P. Stevens Mill in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. Norma Rae is based on Crystal Lee Sutton. Reuben Warshowsky, the union organizer, is based on Eli Zivkovich, a 55-year-old former West Virginia coal miner. In 1974, thanks to the efforts of Sutton and Zivkovich, workers at J.P. Stevens Mill voted to join the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. However, it took 10 years for the union to get a contract. Some real-life events are re-created verbatim in the movie, including Norma Rae holding up the "UNION" sign and the plant workers shutting down their machines, and Norma Rae waking up her children to tell them about her relationships with their fathers.


10:15 PM -- 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".


12:00 AM -- WOMAN ON THE RUN (1950)
A woman searches for her husband, who ran off after witnessing a mob hit.
Dir: Norman Foster
Cast: Ann Sheridan, Dennis O'Keefe, Robert Keith
BW-78 mins,

Although the movie's final sequence begins at San Francisco's famed Playland at the Beach amusement park (1913-1972), the roller coaster scenes and the rest of it, were all filmed at Ocean Park in Santa Monica.


2:00 AM -- COOL HAND LUKE (1967)
A free-spirited convict refuses to conform to chain-gang life.
Dir: Stuart Rosenberg
Cast: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, J. D. Cannon
C-127 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Kennedy

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Newman, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson, and Best Music, Original Music Score -- Lalo Schifrin

Morgan Woodward (Boss Godfrey (The Man With No Eyes)) remained in character during breaks between scenes. He would sit in his chair, still wearing his mirrored sunglasses, and not speak to anyone.


4:15 AM -- REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)
An alienated teenager tries to handle life's troubles and an apron-wearing dad.
Dir: Nicholas Ray
Cast: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo
C-111 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sal Mineo, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Natalie Wood, and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Nicholas Ray

The empty pool in which the characters sit and discuss their lives first appeared in Sunset Boulevard (1950). The pool had been built specially for the earlier film, as a condition of renting the site from its owner, Mrs J. Paul Getty.

[BigmanPigman]

1. Half of these I will record to watch again.

I haven't seen Norma Rae in too long and I could never see Spinal Tap enough (my desert island film).