TCM Schedule for Thursday, December 17, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: Religious Favorites

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, we've got films about complicated chauffeurs. I only report 'em, I don't write 'em. Then in prime time, TCM is giving us some religious films, both contemporary (for their time) as well as biographys of Jesus. Enjoy!


6:45 AM -- North by Northwest (1959)
2h 16m | Adventure | TV-PG
A suave, successful New York advertising executive finds himself, through a case of mistaken identity.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Ernest Lehman, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- William A. Horning, Robert F. Boyle, Merrill Pye, Henry Grace and Frank R. McKelvy, and Best Film Editing -- George Tomasini

The final shot of the train entering the tunnel is a sexual reference. Sir Alfred Hitchcock came up with the innuendo and considered it one of his finest, naughtiest achievements. Ernest Lehman's screenplay just ended with "the train heads off into the distance", or words to that effect. "There's no way I can take credit for (the tunnel)", Lehman said, adding: "Dammit."


9:15 AM -- Night Nurse (1931)
1h 12m | Drama | TV-G
A nurse discovers that the children she's caring for are murder targets.
Director: William A. Wellman
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Ben Lyon, Joan Blondell

James Cagney was originally supposed to play Nick, but when The Public Enemy (1931) became a big hit, it was decided that he should no longer be relegated to supporting roles, allowing the relatively unknown Clark Gable to step in instead.


10:30 AM -- Parachute Jumper (1933)
1h 13m | Drama | TV-G
A gangster victimizes three friends trying to get jobs.
Director: Alfred E. Green
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Bette Davis, Frank McHugh

In his autobiography Douglas Fairbanks Jr. claims that Bette Davis thought Director Alfred E. Green's sense of humor as infantile. Fairbanks characterized his co-star as "not particularly pretty; in fact, I thought her quite plain, but one didn't easily forget her unique personality." He also remembered her as "always conscientious, serious... devoid of humor of any kind." Despite this, Producer Fairbanks hired her two decades later to star in "Another Man's Poison."


11:45 AM -- Angel Face (1953)
1h 31m | Drama | TV-G
A woman murders her family for their money.
Director: Otto Preminger
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Mona Freeman

When Robert Mitchum got fed up with repeated re-takes in which director Otto Preminger ordered him to slap Jean Simmons across the face, he turned around and slapped Preminger, asking whether it was this way he wanted it. Preminger immediately demanded of producer Howard Hughes that Mitchum be replaced. Hughes refused.


1:30 PM -- Sworn Enemy (1936)
1h 13m | Drama | TV-G
A law student poses as a fight promoter to catch a notorious gangster.
Director: Edwin L. Marin
Cast: Robert Young, Florence Rice, Joseph Calleia

Based on the story It's All In The Racket by Richard Wormser.


2:45 PM -- Downstairs (1932)
1h 15m | Drama | TV-G
An evil chauffeur seduces and blackmails his way through high society.
Director: Monta Bell
Cast: John Gilbert, Paul Lukas, Virginia Bruce

John Gilbert wanted to do this movie so badly he sold the story to MGM for $1.00. Ads for the movie proclaimed "starring Mr. and Mrs. John Gilbert" since the couple, Gilbert and Virginia Bruce, were married shortly after the production completed filming.


4:15 PM -- Passion Flower (1930)
1h 19m | Drama | TV-G
A society woman courts heartache when she falls in love with her chauffeur.
Director: William De Mille
Cast: Kay Francis, Kay Johnson, Charles Bickford

The second and final film in which Charles Bickford and Kay Johnson appeared together after Dynamite (1929). Passion Flower and Dynamite share several of the same crew members, and the respective films were each directed by a deMille brother.


5:45 PM -- Escape From East Berlin (1962)
1h 34m | Drama | TV-G
An East German helps dig a tunnel beneath the Berlin Wall.
Director: Robert Siodmak
Cast: Don Murray, Christine Kaufmann, Werner Klemperer

East German police on patrol boats tried to disrupt filming by shining searchlights at the cameras. Director Robert Siodmak assembled a decoy crew to distract the East Germans and filmed the scene along the canal a short distance away.


7:30 PM -- MGM Parade Show #7 (1955)
25m | Documentary | TV-G
Ray Bolger performs in a clip from "The Great Ziegfeld".
Cast: George Murphy, Debbie Reynolds, Ray Bolger



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- RELIGIOUS FAVORITES



8:00 PM -- Going My Way (1944)
2h 10m | Comedy | TV-G
A young priest revitalizes a failing parish and brings new life to the elder priest.
Director: Leo McCarey
Cast: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Frank McHugh

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Bing Crosby, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Barry Fitzgerald, Best Director -- Leo McCarey, Best Writing, Original Story -- Leo McCarey, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Frank Butler and Frank Cavett, Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Johnny Burke (lyrics) for the song "Swinging on a Star", and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Barry Fitzgerald (Fitzgerald is the only actor to have received Leading and Supporting Actor nominations for the same performance. Voting rules were altered shortly after this occurred to prevent future such instances.), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Lionel Lindon, and Best Film Editing -- LeRoy Stone

In the film, Father Fitzgibbons said he has been a priest for 45 years. If this was true based on Barry Fitzgerald's actual age, he would have been 11 when he entered the priesthood, as Fitzgerald was only 56 at the time of filming.


10:15 PM -- King of Kings (1961)
2h 48m | Drama | TV-PG
Epic retelling of Christ's life and the effects of his teachings on those around him.
Director: Nicholas Ray
Cast: Jeffrey Hunter, Siobhan McKenna, Robert Ryan

The crucifixion scene had to be re-shot because a preview audience was offended at Jesus having a hairy chest. Not only was Jeffrey Hunter's chest hair shaved for the crucifixion scene but his underarms as well. So much attention has been paid to this situation over the past fifty years that nobody's ever noticed Hunter also wears a false putty nose throughout the film, most evident in the close-ups at the crucifixion scenes. Although Jeffrey Hunter was given some makeup to make him appear as the appropriate ethnicity, he was not fitted with contacts. This led to much criticism of having a Jesus with bright blue eyes.


1:15 AM -- The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
3h 45m | Drama | TV-G
Epic scale chronicle of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
Director: George Stevens
Cast: Max Von Sydow, Dorothy McGuire, Robert Loggia

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- William C. Mellor and Loyal Griggs (William C. Mellor's nomination is posthumous, as he died from a heart attack during the film's production. Loyal Griggs was brought in finish the movie.), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Richard Day, William J. Creber, David S. Hall, Ray Moyer, Fred M. MacLean and Norman Rockett, Best Costume Design, Color -- Vittorio Nino Novarese and Marjorie Best, Best Effects, Special Visual Effects -- J. McMillan Johnson, and Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Alfred Newman

Producer and director George Stevens shot this movie in the American Southwest, in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah. Pyramid Lake in Nevada represented the Sea of Galilee, Lake Moab in Utah was used to film the Sermon on the Mount, and California's Death Valley was the setting of Jesus' forty-day journey into the wilderness. Stevens explained his decision to use the United States rather than in the Middle East or Europe in 1962. "I wanted to get an effect of grandeur as a background to Christ, and none of the Holy Land areas shape up with the excitement of the American Southwest", he said. "I know that Colorado is not the Jordan, nor is Southern Utah Palestine. But our intention is to romanticize the area and it can be done better here." Forty-seven sets were constructed, on-location and in Hollywood studios, to accommodate Stevens' vision.


4:45 AM -- Boys Town (1938)
1h 36m | Drama | TV-G
True story of Father Flanagan's fight to build a home for orphaned boys.
Director: Norman Taurog
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy (Spencer Tracy was not present at the awards ceremony. His wife Louise Treadwell accepted the award on his behalf.), and Best Writing, Original Story -- Eleanore Griffin and Dore Schary

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Norman Taurog, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Meehan and Dore Schary, and Best Picture

There is rumored to be an alternative version of the Spencer Tracy Oscar story: "In February 1939, when he accepted his Oscar for the role, Spencer Tracy responded graciously by spending all of his acceptance speech talking about [Father Edward Flanagan]. 'If you have seen him through me, then I thank you'." An overzealous MGM publicity representative announced that Tracy was donating his Oscar to Flanagan, but did not confer with Tracy about it. Tracy's response was: "I earned the [*beep*] thing. I want it." The Academy hastily struck another inscription, Tracy kept his statuette, and Boys Town got one, too. It read: "To Father Flanagan, whose great humanity, kindly simplicity, and inspiring courage were strong enough to shine through my humble effort. Spencer Tracy.""