TCM Schedule for Saturday, January 16, 2021 -- TCM Spotlight: Novel by Alan Le May

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, TCM returns to the Essentials. Tonight, Ben Mankiewicz and special co-host Brad Bird are showing a pair of films based on novels by Alan Le May. Beyond tonight's two films, Le May also wrote screenplays for North West Mounted Police (1940), Reap the Wild Wind (1942), and Blackbeard the Pirate (1952). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Bhowani Junction (1956)
1h 50m | Drama | TV-PG
An Anglo-Indian beauty falls for a British officer as her country fights for independence.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Ava Gardner, Stewart Granger, Bill Travers

MGM originally planned to film Bhowani Junction on location in India. That is, until the Indian government started making demands seeking script approval and a big tax payment. MGM changed their plans and decided to film instead in Pakistan - whose government was more accommodating and less demanding of the studio.


8:00 AM -- The Discontented Canary (1934)
8m | Comedy
Unhappy with his life in a cage, a canary escapes but soon finds life in the wild isn't as great as he thought it would be.
Director: Rudolf Ising

The first in MGM's Happy Harmonies series, started in imitation of Disney's Silly Symphonies series and Warner Bros.'s Merrie Melodies series. MGM had to use the Cinecolor process since Disney had an exclusive contract with Technicolor to use the new three-strip Technicolor process for animation.


8:10 AM -- Film Fun (1955)
9m | Comedy, Short | TV-G
This short film provides a nostalgic look at film clips from the Silent Era.
Cast: Ward Wilson, Lionel Barrymore, Burton Benjamin

A print of this film survives in the UCLA Film and Television Archives.


8:20 AM -- Mackinac Island (1944)
9m | Documentary | TV-G
This short films takes the viewer to Mackinac Island in Lake Michigan.
Director: James A. Fitzpatrick
Cast: James A. Fitzpatrick

The ship seen at the beginning of the film is the S.S. North American, owned by the Chicago, Duluth & Georgian Bay Transit Company. It was built in 1914 by the Great Lakes Engineering Works at Ecorse, Michigan. She was retired from Great Lakes passenger service in 1964 and sold in 1967 to the Seafarers International Union for use as a training ship. While being towed to Maryland, the ship suddenly sank 25 miles off Nantucket, Massachusetts on September 4, 1967.


8:30 AM -- Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police (1939)
54m | Mystery | TV-G
Bulldog Drummond discovers the house he's rented for his wedding hides a secret treasure.
Director: James Hogan
Cast: John Howard, Heather Angel, H. B. Warner

The plot ultimately derives from Conan Doyle's The Musgrave Ritual.


9:30 AM -- The New Adventures of Tarzan: The Devil's Noose (1935)
Action, Adventure
Tarzan goes to Guatemala to find his lost friend and help discover hidden treasure.
Director: Edward Kull, Wilbur McGaugh
Cast: Frank Baker, Bruce Bennett, Ula Holt

Episode three of twelve.


10:00 AM -- Anvil Chorus Girl (1944)
6m | Animation, Children, Comedy | TV-PG
Female blacksmith Olive Oyl is looking for a strong-man helper. Popeye and Bluto compete for the job with hilarious results.
Director: Izzy Sparber (as I. Sparber), Dave Tendlar (uncredited)
Cast: Jackson Beck, Jack Mercer, Mae Questel

Jackson Beck's first performance as Bluto.


10:08 AM -- Tarzan and the Green Goddess (1938)
1h 12m | Adventure | TV-PG
Tarzan recounts his recent adventures in Guatemala.
Director: Edward Kull
Cast: Herman Brix, Ula Holt, Frank Baker

This feature is edited from chapters 2-12 of the previously released The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935) with a little additional footage.


11:30 AM -- The Policy Girl (1934)
20m | Romance | TV-PG
In this short film, an insurance salesmen tries to use his sister to sell a policy.
Director: Roy Mack
Cast: Gracie Worth, Mitzi Mayfair, Donald Novis

A pre-title insert states, in part: "NRA Code - Motion Picture Industry 1934. Registration no. 31-262. Property of the United States government. Not for sale."


12:00 PM -- Action in the North Atlantic (1943)
2h 7m | Drama | TV-G
A Merchant Marine crew fights off enemy attacks at the start of World War II.
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Guy Gilpatric

Very few early World War II films featured African-Americans in the US military. Humphrey Bogart was quoted in "The Pittsburgh Courier" on 26 September 1942 as saying that he wanted to have a black Merchant Marine captain in this film. He said, "In the world of the theatre or any other phase of American life, the color of a man's skin should have nothing to do with his rights in a land built upon the self-evident fact that all men are created equal."


2:15 PM -- Rachel and the Stranger (1948)
1h 33m | Comedy | TV-PG
A mail-order bride finds herself attracted to a handsome drifter.
Director: Norman Foster
Cast: Loretta Young, William Holden, Robert Mitchum

Loretta Young was famous for placing a "swear jar" on the sets of all of her films, charging anyone in the cast or crew who used foul language 25 cents for doing so, then giving the funds to one of her favorite charities. Whilst making this film with her, Robert Mitchum reputedly held his tongue about his pious co-star until shooting was completed. As he exited the set on the final day of production, Mitchum smiled, dropped a $20 bill into the jar, and said, "This should just about cover everything I've been wanting to say to Loretta."


4:00 PM -- Rear Window (1954)
1h 52m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
A photographer with a broken leg uncovers a murder while spying on the neighbors in a nearby apartment building.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Alfred Hitchcock, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Michael Hayes, Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert Burks, and Best Sound, Recording -- Loren L. Ryder (Paramount)

The entire movie was shot on one set, which required months of planning and construction. The apartment-courtyard set measured ninety-eight feet wide, one hundred eighty-five feet long, and forty feet high, and consisted of thirty-one apartments, eight of which were completely furnished. The courtyard was set twenty to thirty feet below stage level, and some of the buildings were the equivalent of five or six stories high. This movie was shot quickly on the heels of "Dial M for Murder (1954)," November 27, 1953 to January 13, 1954.


6:00 PM -- In the Heat of the Night (1967)
1h 49m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-14
A black detective teams up with a racist white sheriff to solve a murder in a small town in the deep South.
Director: Norman Jewison
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Rod Steiger, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Stirling Silliphant, Best Sound -- Samuel Goldwyn Sound Department, Best Film Editing -- Hal Ashby, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Norman Jewison, and Best Effects, Sound Effects -- James Richard

Sidney Poitier insisted that the movie be filmed in the North because of an incident in which he and Harry Belafonte were almost killed by Ku Klux Klansmen during a visit to Mississippi. That's why Sparta, IL, was chosen for location filming. Nevertheless, the filmmakers and actors did venture briefly into Tennessee for the outdoor scenes at the cotton plantation, because there was no similar cotton plantation in Illinois that could be used. Poitier slept with a gun under his pillow during production in Tennessee. He did receive threats from local racist thugs, so the shoot was cut short and production returned to Illinois.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- NOVEL BY ALAN LE MAY



8:00 PM -- The Searchers (1956)
1h 59m | Drama | TV-PG
A veteran returning to Texas after the Civil War discovers that Comanche Indians have killed his family and kidnapped his niece.
Director: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles

Jean-Luc Godard said that no matter how much he despised John Wayne's right-wing political beliefs, every time that he saw Wayne taking up Little Debbie in his arms at the end of the film, he forgave him for everything.


10:15 PM -- Along Came Jones (1945)
1h 30m | Comedy | TV-G
A mild-mannered cowboy is mistaken for a notorious outlaw.
Director: Stuart Heisler
Cast: Gary Cooper, Loretta Young, William Demarest

The town of Payneville was erected at the Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, California. Gary Cooper had a Western town built at the movie ranch for this film, which was then re-used in other films during the next decade and became a fixture in "B" westerns.


12:00 AM -- Witness to Murder (1954)
1h 23m | Action | TV-PG
A woman fights to convince the police that she witnessed a murder.
Director: Roy Rowland
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, George Sanders, Gary Merrill

Released less than a month before Rear Window (1954), to which the film bears plot similarities.


2:00 AM -- The Falcon And The Snowman (1985)
2h 11m | Crime
Outrage leads two young Americans to sell national secrets to the Soviets in this intense, Cold War era drama that is based on real events.
Director: John Schlesinger
Cast: Nicholas Pryor, Macon McCalman, Herbie Wallace

Timothy Hutton spent six months in Santa Cruz, California learning falconry with technical advisor John Moran. Moreover, Hutton also studied countless press clippings from Christopher Boyce's trial and watched hours of television interviews with Boyce as well as visiting Boyce at Marion Penitentiary in Illinois as research for his role.


4:30 AM -- The Falcon's Brother (1942)
1h 3m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
A gentlemanly detective calls on his brother to help him stop the Nazis from assassinating a key diplomat.
Director: Stanley Logan
Cast: George Sanders, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph

Tom Conway (Tom Laurence) was the real life elder brother of George Sanders (Gay Laurence). This film was Sanders' final appearance as "The Falcon," a role of which he had grown tired. Sanders passed the baton to Conway, who played the role in nine subsequent films until 1946.

[BigmanPigman]

1. I wonder why Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton aren't listed in the cast

of The Falcon and the Snowman?

[Staph]

2. Stupid TCM listings!

Sometimes they publish the wrong cast list info, like pulling the first three names in a cast listed in order of appearance in the film. I try to catch those and fix them, but I missed this one.