TCM Schedule for Saturday, May 11, 2019 -- What's On Tonight: The Essentials: African Directors

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. In primetime, The Essentials is back! (or should that be The Essentials are back?) Take it away, Roger!

THE ESSENTIALS - SATURDAYS IN MAY

TCM is thrilled to welcome back The Essentials to our lineup, in which a TCM host sits with special guests who have chosen films to be added to our list of "must-sees" for movie lovers. Each Saturday in primetime, this weekly showcase will once again highlight some of the finest movies ever made.

This year's special host for "The Essentials" is the trailblazing producer, director and screenwriter Ava DuVernay, who will join primetime host Ben Mankiewicz to discuss the films she has chosen. DuVernay, who is based in Los Angeles, is a winner of Emmy, BAFTA and Peabody awards.

...

Ashes and Embers (1982), directed by Haile Gerima, is a rarely-seen drama about a troubled black veteran of the Vietnam War (John Anderson) who faces new challenges as he tries to reconnect to urban life. Gerima won a prize for his film at the 1983 Berlin International Film Festival. DuVernay's Array Releasing company acquired the film in 2015 and arranged for a full restoration and its first-ever theatrical release.

...

by Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- DESIGNING WOMAN (1957)
A sportswriter and a fashion designer have a lot of adjusting to do when they marry in haste.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Gregory Peck, Lauren Bacall, Dolores Gray
C-118 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- George Wells

James Stewart and Grace Kelly were intended to be the co-stars of this movie, but when Kelly became betrothed to Prince Rainier of Monaco, Stewart decided not to do it (a decision he later said he regretted), and the leading roles went to Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall.


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: THE FIELD MOUSE (1941)
A lazy field mouse proves his worth to his grandfather by rescuing him from a thresher.
Dir: Robert Allen
Cast: Mel Blanc
BW-9 mins, CC,


8:11 AM -- FISH TALES (1954)
Champion fisherman Ernie St. Claire is after a large fish in this short film.
Dir: Carl Dudley
Cast: Pete Smith, Ernie St. Claire
C-8 mins,

This is a rare Technicolor entry in the Pete Smith Specialty series.


8:20 AM -- CANOEMAN'S HOLIDAY (1956)
This short film takes a look at the Loon Bay Lodge in St. Stephen, Canada.
Dir: Douglas Sinclair
Cast: Harry Wismer, George Wheelock, Jean Wheelock
BW-8 mins,

Sportscopes (1956-1957 season) #3:


8:29 AM -- WYOMING ROUNDUP (1952)
Whip Wilson and his friend gain local attention in a small Western town after breaking up a saloon fight.
Dir: Thomas Carr
Cast: Whip Wilson, Tommy Farrell, Phyllis Coates
BW-53 mins, CC,

In this, his last of 22 starring roles for Monogram Pictures, Whip Wilson didn't even carry his trademark bullwhip. In later years, his co-star Tommy Farrell joked that the notoriously "frugal" company sold his whip to finance the picture.


9:30 AM -- FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE: DOOM OF THE DICTATOR (1940)
The twelfth and final episode of the Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe serial.
Dir: Ford Beebe, Ray Taylor
Cast: Buster Crabbe, Carol Hughes, Charles Middleton
BW-21 mins, CC,

Buster Crabbe (Flash Gordon), Charles Middleton (Ming the Merciless) and Frank Shannon (Dr. Alexis Zarkov) are the only actors to appear in all three "Flash Gordon" serials.


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: I NEVER CHANGES MY ALTITUDE (1937)
Popeye and Bluto fight over Olive Oyl at the airport.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Willard Bowsky (uncredited)
Cast: Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, Gus Wickie
BW-6 mins, CC,

A number of public domain releases of this cartoon mistakenly use the incorrect title "I Never Changes my Attitude".


10:08 AM -- THE FALCON STRIKES BACK (1943)
A society sleuth is framed for murder by criminals running a war-bond racket.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Tom Conway, Harriet Hilliard, Jane Randolph
BW-66 mins, CC,

One of Smiley Dugan's puppets, seen backstage, is of the Walt Disney character Goofy. At this time Disney was releasing his films through RKO, so they presumably had permission.


11:30 AM -- HAPPILY BURIED (1939)
In this short film, two heirs of competing waffle iron companies are getting married, but call off the wedding when they can't agree on the shape of the new iron.
Dir: Felix E. Feist
Cast: Rita Oehmen, Eric Mayne, George Davis
BW-20 mins,


12:00 PM -- MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)
An idealistic Senate replacement takes on political corruption.
Dir: Frank Capra
Cast: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Claude Rains
BW-130 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Lewis R. Foster

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Harry Carey, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Claude Rains, Best Director -- Frank Capra, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sidney Buchman, Best Art Direction -- Lionel Banks, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), Best Film Editing -- Gene Havlick and Al Clark, Best Music, Scoring -- Dimitri Tiomkin, and Best Picture

Bitterly denounced by Washington insiders angry at its allegations of corruption, yet banned by fascist states in Europe who were afraid it showed that democracy works.


2:30 PM -- ALL THE KING'S MEN (1949)
A backwoods politician rises to the top only to become corrupted.
Dir: Robert Rossen
Cast: Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Joanne Dru
BW-110 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Broderick Crawford, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Mercedes McCambridge, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- John Ireland, Best Director -- Robert Rossen, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Robert Rossen, and Best Film Editing -- Robert Parrish and Al Clark

Director Robert Rossen filmed in an unusual manner. Nobody in the cast had a script. Rossen let them read it once and took it away from them. According to Broderick Crawford, "We really had to stay on our toes."


4:30 PM -- 3:10 TO YUMA (1957)
A sheriff must run the gauntlet to get his prisoner out of town.
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr
BW-92 mins, CC,

This film, along with the equally allegorical High Noon (1952), was a deciding factor in Howard Hawks deciding to make Rio Bravo (1959), a return to more optimistic, less revisionist Westerns.


6:15 PM -- DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1964)
A mad United States General orders an air strike against Russia.
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Peter Sellers, George C Scott, Sterling Hayden
BW-95 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Peter Sellers, Best Director -- Stanley Kubrick, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Stanley Kubrick, Peter George and Terry Southern, and Best Picture

The scene where Gen. Turgidson trips and falls in the War Room, and then gets back up and resumes talking as if nothing happened, really was an accident. Stanley Kubrick mistakenly thought that it was George C. Scott really in character, so he left it in the film.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: AFRICAN DIRECTORS



8:00 PM -- ASHES AND EMBERS (1982)
A troubled Vietnam veteran hoping to forget the war and reconnect with American life struggles with disillusionment, self-worth, and cynicism.
Dir: Haile Gerima
Cast: John Anderson, Evelyn A. Blackwell, Norman Blalock
BW-130 mins, CC,

Opening credits title is Ashes and Embers, but the closing credits title is The Second Coming.


10:15 PM -- BLACK GIRL (1966)
A girl from Senegal becomes disillusioned with her life as a servant in France.
Dir: Ousmane Sembene
Cast: Mbissine Thérèse Diop, Anne-Marie Jelinck, Momar Nar Sene
BW-60 mins,

This is believed to be the first feature film made by a black African in sub-Saharan Africa.


12:00 AM -- WHITE HEAT (1949)
A government agent infiltrates a gang run by a mother-fixated psychotic.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien
BW-113 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Virginia Kellogg

Edmond O'Brien was rather in awe of James Cagney. He found out how generous an actor and gentle a person Cagney could be. In a close-up the two were playing together, O'Brien felt Cagney standing with increasing pressure on the top of O'Brien's right foot, forcing the younger actor to move in that direction. O'Brien realized if he had not done so, he would have been out of frame and Cagney would have had the scene to himself. When the cameras were rolling, Cagney would look like "an angry tiger," but as soon as Raoul Walsh yelled cut, the star would quietly go up to O'Brien with a poem he had written and ask him in a whisper, "Would you mind telling me what you think of this?" When it came time to return to work, Cagney would plead, "Please, don't tell anyone about it."


2:00 AM -- A DREAM OF KINGS (1969)
The father of a dying boy tries to find the money to move his family to Greece.
Dir: Daniel Mann
Cast: Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas, Inger Stevens
C-110 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Inger Stevens' last film before her suicide in 1970.


4:00 AM -- FLAP (1970)
An aging Native American mounts a one-man rebellion against the U.S. government.
Dir: Carol Reed
Cast: Anthony Quinn, Claude Akins, Tony Bill
C-106 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

In the final scene, there is a movie marquee with the words: "Now Showing/Nobody Loves a Drunken Indian". That was the title of the novel on which the movie was based.