TCM Schedule for Thursday, December 10, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: Santa Sightings

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, Rosalind Russell is our focus. It's not her birthday, but she's always there for a bunch of good films. A good quote, via IMDB, "Acting is standing up naked and turning around very slowly." Then in prime time, TCM has an eye out for a fat man in a red suit. Enjoy!


6:45 AM -- The Naked and the Dead (1958)
2h 11m | Drama | TV-PG
A green lieutenant comes up against incompetent officers and a sadistic sergeant during World War II.
Director: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Aldo Ray, Cliff Robertson, Raymond Massey

Norman Mailer, the author of the best-selling and critically acclaimed novel on which the film is based, was reported to have said it was the worst movie he had ever seen after viewing the film.


9:00 AM -- Sister Kenny (1946)
1h 56m | Drama | TV-G
True story of the Australian nurse who fought to gain acceptance for her polio-treatment methods.
Director: Dudley Nichols
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Alexander Knox, Dean Jagger

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Rosalind Russell

It was reported at the time that Elizabeth Kenny was paid $100,000 for the rights to her story by RKO. She then donated the amount to a trust fund set up for the benefit of seventeen nephews who were all in the Royal Australian Air Force at the time. And, it was stipulated in her contract with RKO that Rosalind Russell portray her in the film.


11:15 AM -- Mourning Becomes Electra (1947)
2h 50m | Drama | TV-PG
Repressed passions and shameful secrets destroy a New England family.
Director: Dudley Nichols
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Michael Redgrave, Raymond Massey

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Michael Redgrave, and Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Rosalind Russell

Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis were considered for the role of Lavinia before Rosalind Russell was ultimately cast.


2:00 PM -- The Feminine Touch (1941)
1h 37m | Comedy | TV-G
An author writing a book on jealousy discovers his wife is an expert on the subject.
Director: Major W. S. Van Dyke Ii
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Don Ameche, Kay Francis

Don Ameche's first film for MGM. He had made a screen test there in 1935 and was rejected, but was signed the following year by 20th Century-Fox.


3:45 PM -- Gypsy (1962)
2h 29m | Drama | TV-PG
During New York's vaudeville days a tough stage mother tries to get her daughters to become stars.
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Costume Design, Color -- Orry-Kelly, and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Frank Perkins

Before the decision was made to dub most of her vocals, Rosalind Russell attempted to do her own singing. The results are an extra feature on the soundtrack CD. After Ethel Merman died, a tape of the Russell recordings was found in a box in Merman's closet. Merman, furious that she had not been cast in the film, evidently kept a copy of the Russell vocals as a strange, somewhat vengeful consolation prize.


6:15 PM -- His Girl Friday (1940)
1h 32m | Comedy | TV-G
An unscrupulous editor plots to keep his star reporter-and ex-wife-from re-marrying.
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy

Rosalind Russell was insecure during the first days of filming, knowing that she had been far down on the list of choices for the female lead. Making matters worse was the fact that Howard Hawks just watched her initial scenes with Cary Grant without making any comment. Finally, she expressed her frustration to Grant, who counselled, "If he didn't like it, he'd tell you." When she asked Hawks how he felt about her work, he said, "You just keep pushin' him around the way you're doing." That was enough to put her at ease.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT -- SANTA SIGHTINGS



8:00 PM -- Never Say Goodbye (1946)
1h 37m | Comedy | TV-PG
A husband tries to win back his wife before she can divorce him.
Director: James V. Kern
Cast: Errol Flynn, Eleanor Parker, Lucile Watson

When Errol Flynn dons a disguise as Humphrey Bogart, it's Bogart himself who's doing the voice-over.


10:00 PM -- Larceny, Inc. (1942)
1h 35m | Comedy | TV-PG
An ex-convict and his gang try to use a luggage store to front a bank robbery, but business keeps getting in the way.
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, Broderick Crawford

After Jug (Broderick Crawford) gives up a home run in the prison baseball game, he says, "My finger slipped" and obviously raises his middle finger to Pressure (Edward G. Robinson).


12:00 AM -- Mr. Soft Touch (1949)
1h 33m | Drama | TV-G
After being betrayed, a gangster hangs out in a settlement house while seeking revenge.
Director: Gordon Douglas
Cast: Glenn Ford, Evelyn Keyes, John Ireland

The $100,000 Joe steals from his own club (now run by the mob) would be worth just over $1,000,000 in 2016.


2:00 AM -- Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964)
2h 3m | Comedy | TV-PG
A Chicago gangster stumbles into philanthropic work during a gang war.
Director: Gordon Douglas
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr.

Nominee for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "My Kind of Town", and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Nelson Riddle

Robin & The 7 Hoods was the 4th and final Rat Pack movie, the other three being: Ocean's 11 (1960) Sergeant's 3 (1962), and 4 For Texas (1963).


4:15 AM -- Prosperity (1932)
1h 27m | Comedy | TV-G
Feuding mothers almost wreck their children's marriage.
Director: Sam Wood
Cast: Marie Dressler, Polly Moran, Anita Page

One of a number of early 1930s films such as American Madness (1932) and Manhattan Tower (1932) made on the subject of business corruption and banking practices in the wake of the Stock Market Crash of 1939 and the onset of the Great Depression. When reviewing the screenplays of these films prior to production, the censors demanded that such films must inculcate "confidence in banking institutions" and "big business" in the average American. The studios begrudgingly obliged.

[CBHagman]

1. And Rosalind Russell really made "His Girl Friday" her own.

A bit of magic for all time.

[Staph]

2. I love this movie!

I want to be Rosalind Russell if I grow up.