TCM Schedule for Thursday, May 9, 2019 -- What's On Tonight: TCM Spotlight: WWII Homefront

[Staph]

In the daylight today, it's all about life and love in the American West. Then in primetime, TCM continues their salute to the Homefront during World War II. Take it away, Roger!

WWII IN THE MOVIES: THE HOMEFRONT - THURSDAYS IN MAY

This year, TCM honors the 75th anniversary of D-Day with Never Surrender: WWII in the Movies, a two-month salute featuring films from and about the era. This month, to kick off programming and in remembrance of Memorial Day, TCM offers a look at films from various decades that are set during that global conflict and observed from the viewpoint of the American home front. Joining TCM host Ben Mankiewicz to introduce and discuss the movies are five cohosts associated with the National World War II Museum, a military history showcase located in New Orleans, LA.

. . .

Comedy & Romance includes The More the Merrier (1943), which brought Charles Coburn an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a retired millionaire who plays cupid for a couple (Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea) during the wartime shortage of living space in Washington, D.C. The screwball comedy The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943) features what many consider Betty Hutton's best performance as a small-town girl who becomes pregnant after a night of wild partying with soldiers.

. . .

by Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!



6:47 AM -- LET'S SING A SONG OF THE WEST (1947)
This musical short film features four songs associated with the western United States, such as "Home on the Range" and "Oh, Susannah."
Dir: Jack Scholl
Cast: Tex Cooper, Fred Kelsey, Douglas Kennedy
BW-9 mins,


7:00 AM -- THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST (1938)
A frontierswoman shelters a notorious outlaw.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Walter Pidgeon
BW-121 mins, CC,

David Belasco's play originally opened in New York on 14 November 1905. Giacomo Puccini adapted Belasco's play as an opera, La fanciulla del West, which opened in New York in 1910. It's still in the repertoire of major opera companies throughout the world.


9:15 AM -- LET FREEDOM RING (1939)
A crusader returns to his Western hometown to root out corruption.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Nelson Eddy, Virginia Bruce, Victor McLaglen
BW-87 mins, CC,

Based on an original story by Ben Hecht.


10:46 AM -- NATURAL WONDERS OF THE WEST (1938)
This short film takes the viewer to some of the natural wonders of the western United States.
Dir: James H Smith
Cast: Gutzon Borglum, James A. FitzPatrick
C-9 mins,

The short also features one "unnatural" wonder, Mount Rushmore. At the time of filming, only the head of George Washington was close to completion. Thomas Jefferson's face was almost finished; only the upper half of Abraham Lincoln's face is visible; and Theodore Roosevelt's head was not yet started.


11:00 AM -- THE HARVEY GIRLS (1946)
Straitlaced waitresses battle saloon girls to win the West for domesticity.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Ray Bolger
C-101 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Harry Warren (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe"

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Lennie Hayton

In the big production number "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe", from Judy Garland's entrance until the tempo change is one take. Rumor has it they only shot it twice and she was dead-on both times.


12:45 PM -- 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 mins, CC,

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


2:15 PM -- ANNIE GET YOUR GUN (1950)
Fanciful musical biography of wild West sharpshooter Annie Oakley.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, Louis Calhern
C-107 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Adolph Deutsch and Roger Edens

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Charles Rosher, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Richard Pefferle, and Best Film Editing -- James E. Newcom

Ginger Rogers wrote in her 1991 autobiography that she told her agent Leland Hayward to aggressively go after this film for her, and that money was no object. She wrote that she would have worked for one dollar, to make it legal. Hayward spoke with Louis B. Mayer, who said: "Tell Ginger to stay in her high-heel shoes and her silk stockings, she could never be as rambunctious as Annie Oakley has to be".


4:15 PM -- SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954)
When their older brother marries, six lumberjacks decide it's time to go courting for themselves.
Dir: Stanley Donen
Cast: Howard Keel, Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn
C-102 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Adolph Deutsch and Saul Chaplin

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich and Dorothy Kingsley, Best Cinematography, Color -- George J. Folsey, Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters, and Best Picture

For the famous barn raising dance sequence, the cast rehearsed for three weeks in order to get the intricate choreography down. It was during one of these rehearsals that Russ Tamblyn wandered over to the set along with Jeff Richards to see how the scene was coming along. "Michael Kidd called me over and said, 'Rusty, somebody told me that you're a good tumbler, that you can do some flips'," said Tamblyn in a 2004 interview. "So I did a back flip for him. 'Fantastic!' he said. 'We'll put it in a number.' I told him I really wasn't a dancer, except for some tap dancing. But he said, 'Listen, this is just like square dancing. All you have to do is lift your legs high. You can do a lot of acrobatic stuff. It's perfect.' That's how I became a dancer in Seven Brides."


6:15 PM -- THE FASTEST GUITAR ALIVE (1967)
When the Civil War ends, Confederate spies have to return the fortune they just stole.
Dir: Michael Moore
Cast: Roy Orbison, Sammy Jackson, Maggie Pierce
C-87 mins, CC,

There had been plans for Roy Orbison to star in five movies, but after this film proved to be a critical and commercial flop no more were made.


7:48 PM -- DOIN' THEIR BIT (1942)
As part of their contribution to the war effort, a gang of children decide to stage a show for local servicemen in this comedic short.
Dir: Herbert Glazer
Cast: Our Gang, Robert Blake, Janet Burston
BW-11 mins,

This was the first MGM-produced short to lose money upon its initial release.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: WWII HOMEFRONT



8:00 PM -- THE MORE THE MERRIER (1943)
The World War II housing shortage brings three people together for an unlikely romance.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Charles Coburn
BW-104 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Charles Coburn

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Jean Arthur, Best Director -- George Stevens, Best Writing, Original Story -- Frank Ross and Robert Russell, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Richard Flournoy, Lewis R. Foster, Frank Ross and Robert Russell, and Best Picture

Joel McCrea didn't originally think he was right for the part of Joe and thought Cary Grant would have been better suited. Ironically, Grant would appear in the remake, Walk Don't Run (1966), albeit in the Charles Coburn role.


10:00 PM -- 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.
Dir: Preston Sturges
Cast: Eddie Bracken, Betty Hutton, Diana Lynn
BW-99 mins, CC,

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

The long tracking shots of Betty Hutton and Eddie Bracken (and also Hutton and Diana Lynn) delivering pages of dialogue while walking for five minutes down several blocks of the town streets were extremely complex to film for that era. Cameras were placed on tracks and pulled backwards by six crewmembers. The sound crew also walked backwards with handheld boom microphones, while other assistants maneuvered 300 yards of cable, lights and reflectors. Preston Sturges and John Seitz shot more than 11,000 feet of film before they got the desired footage (400 feet) they needed.


12:00 AM -- THE CLOCK (1945)
A G.I. en route to Europe falls in love during a whirlwind two-day leave in New York City.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Judy Garland, Robert Walker, James Gleason
BW-90 mins, CC,

The escalator in the Penn Station scene where Alice loses her shoe heel had unusually high sides to disguise that fact that it wasn't a real escalator at all. Wartime material shortages and restrictions prohibited MGM from building a real escalator, so the studio compromised with a conveyor belt. At no time in the scenes do you actually see escalator steps.


1:45 AM -- MIRACLE IN THE RAIN (1956)
When a lonely woman's wartime lover dies, her loneliness threatens her life.
Dir: Rudolph Maté
Cast: Jane Wyman, Van Johnson, Peggie Castle
BW-107 mins, CC,

One of many of Van Johnson's movies where he is in the military. Some have branded him a draft dodger not being in the military during WWII, but after a car crash in 1943 where he sustained such a serious head injury that he had a plate put in his skull he was classified 4-F (unfit for military service). He had scars that were covered for movies by heavy makeup but he didn't for The Caine Mutiny (1954). Johnson felt that showing scars gave more credence to his naval character.


3:45 AM -- CLASS OF '44 (1973)
Dir: Paul Bogart
Cast: Gary Grimes, Jerry Houser, Oliver Conant
BW-95 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The mezzanine of a BMT subway station in Brooklyn was restored to its 1944 appearance for filming. The subway train consisted of vintage 1927-28 articulating Triplex units which had already been retired from revenue service at the time of filming.


5:30 AM -- THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU (1944)
In-law problems threaten a wartime marriage.
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: Dennis Morgan, Eleanor Parker, Dane Clark
BW-98 mins, CC,

The War Department objected to a scene in the film where a wife learns that her husband has been wounded by reading a casualty list in the newspaper. The studio recalled all prints of the film and changed the scene so she learns of his wounding by telegram from the War Department as per its policy.

[CBHagman]

1. "The More the Merrier": Another case where casting took the right turn.

Cary Grant is delightful, but he would have brought a completely different vibe to The More the Merrier.

As for how that casting turned out, Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea as surprisingly steamy in what is essentially a wholesome story made under the Hays Office. And Charles Coburn is a hoot.