TCM Schedule for Saturday, January 30, 2021 -- TCM Spotlight: Small Town Musicals

[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 musicals about small towns, including the obvious choice of The Music Man (1962), and a film I've never seen or heard of - Small Town Girl (1953). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Knights of the Round Table (1953)
1h 55m | Romance | TV-G
Queen Guinevere is torn between love for her husband and Sir Lancelot.
Director: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Mel Ferrer

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Alfred Junge, Hans Peters and John Jarvis, and Best Sound, Recording -- A.W. Watkins (M-G-M Sound Department)

First MGM film to be shot in CinemaScope.


8:00 AM -- Give and Tyke (1957)
6m | Animation, Comedy, Family
A stray dog tries to steal Spike and Tyke's animal licenses by taking their collars.
Director: Hanna/Barbera
Cast: Daws Butler

The score for this cartoon was featured on the audio CD "Tom & Jerry & Tex Avery Too!".


8:08 AM -- So You Want to Enjoy Life (1952)
Comedy | TV-G
Joe McDoakes thinks he only has one month to live.
Director: Richard Bare
Cast: George O'Hanlon

When McDoakes refers to taking the piano out of the Presidential Suite on the transatlantic liner he is sailing on, he is referring to the then current President Harry Truman's penchant for playing the instrument.


8:20 AM -- Singapore and Jahore (1938)
8m | Documentary, Short | TV-G
This travel short takes the viewer to Singapore and Jahore, focusing on the traditions and histories of the people living there.
Cast: James A. Fitzpatrick

This marks one of the very few times that James A. FitzPatrick appears in one of his Traveltalks shorts. The appearance was originally unscripted, but occurred when FitzPatrick greeted the son of the Sultan of Jahor during a chance meeting while the crew was shooting exterior shots of the sultan's palace. FitzPatrick can later be seen talking with the sultan and his son, near the conclusion of the film.


8:29 AM -- A Shot in the Dark (1941)
57m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
A reporter and a police detective sort through the clues in a night-club owner's murder.
Director: William McGann
Cast: William Lundigan, Nan Wynn, Ricardo Cortez

The opening building shot (model) is the same one used in City for Conquest (1940) with James Cagney.


9:30 AM -- The New Adventures of Tarzan: Unseen Hands (1935)
25m | 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 five of twelve.


10:00 AM -- Pitchin' Woo at the Zoo (1944)
6m | Animation, Children, Comedy | TV-PG
Popeye takes Olive on a visit to the zoo and meets up with zoo keeper Bluto, who makes a play for Olive.
Director: Izzy Sparber (as I. Sparber), Nick Tafuri (uncredited)
Cast: Jackson Beck, Jack Mercer, Mae Questel


10:08 AM -- Knockout (1941)
1h 13m | Drama | TV-G
A prizefighter's swelled head endangers his marriage.
Director: William Clemens
Cast: Arthur Kennedy, Olympe Bradna, Virginia Field

Film debut of classic film-noir character actor David Clarke.


11:30 AM -- The Red Shadow (1932)
19m | Musical, Short | TV-PG
This musical short is an adaptation of Sigmund Romberg's "The Desert Song," about a masked renegade named the Red Shadow.
Director: Roy Mack
Cast: Gracie Worth, Bernice Clare, Reginald Carrington


12:00 PM -- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960)
1h 47m | Adventure | TV-G
Classic Mark Twain story of a young troublemaker who tries to help a runaway slave.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Tony Randall, Eddie Hodges, Archie Moore

The four songs included in the film were originally intended for an M-G-M Technicolor musical version of "Huckleberry Finn" which was supposed to have been filmed in 1952, but was never made. It was supposed to have starred Dean Stockwell as Huck, William Warfield (fresh from his triumph as Joe in Show Boat (1951)) as Jim, and Gene Kelly and Danny Kaye as the two con men. The film was abandoned because Kelly wanted to take advantage of a tax deal that required that he work in Europe for eighteen months.


2:00 PM -- Oh, God! (1977)
1h 44m | Comedy | TV-PG
A grocer is selected by God to help spread a message.
Director: Carl Reiner
Cast: George Burns, John Denver, Terry Garr

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Larry Gelbart

Briefly ended Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)'s fifteen-week reign at the number one spot at the box office in October of 1977, before Star Wars returned to the top spot the following week.


3:45 PM -- On the Waterfront (1954)
1h 48m | Drama, Crime | TV-PG
A young stevedore takes on the mobster who rules the docks.
Director: Elia Kazan
Cast: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Marlon Brando, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Eva Marie Saint, Best Director -- Elia Kazan, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Budd Schulberg, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Boris Kaufman, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Richard Day, Best Film Editing -- Gene Milford, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Lee J. Cobb, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Karl Malden, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Rod Steiger, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Leonard Bernstein

In the scene where Terry (Marlon Brando) and Edie (Eva Marie Saint) are talking on the rooftop of Terry's apartment building, Terry looks off to his left, with the next shot (showing what he's looking at) of the Hudson River and Manhattan in the distance. In that shot, a large ocean liner is seen moving down the Hudson on its way out to sea. The ship is the then new Italian liner Andrea Doria, a little more than two years before it was sunk in a collision with the Swedish liner Stockholm off Martha's Vineyard.


5:45 PM -- Captain Blood (1935)
1h 59m | Adventure | TV-G
After being unjustly sentenced to prison, a doctor escapes and becomes a notorious pirate.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland, Lionel Atwill

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Michael Curtiz (This was a write-in candidate, who came in second on the final ballots. It was not an official nomination.), Best Writing, Screenplay -- Casey Robinson (This was a write-in candidate, who came in third on the final ballots. It was not an official nomination.), Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (sound director), Best Music, Score -- Leo F. Forbstein (head of department) with score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (This was a write-in candidate, who came in third on the final ballots. It was not an official nomination.), and Best Picture

The first film to feature a musical score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, one of Hollywood's greatest composers. Korngold was given only three weeks to score the film (later in his career, Warner Bros. thought so highly of Korngold's contribution that they would give him far more lead time to develop his compositions and often re-edit sequences to conform to his music, an almost unheard-of deference to a composer in Hollywood), even as Korngold was at the same time working on adapting the score of an operetta for Paramount called Give Us This Night (1936). He worked nights on the score for this film.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- SMALL TOWN MUSICALS



8:00 PM -- The Music Man (1962)
2h 31m | Comedy | TV-G
A con artist hawks musical instruments and band uniforms to small-town America.
Director: Morton DaCosta
Cast: Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Ray Heindorf

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Paul Groesse and George James Hopkins, Best Costume Design, Color -- Dorothy Jeakins, Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Film Editing -- William H. Ziegler, and Best Picture

When Harold Hill coaches the Buffalo Bills he throws out a line about, "Singing is just sustained talking". Although Hill is usually full of beans, this piece of advice is quite true. Vocal teachers have been saying this to their students for thousands of years; it's the one of cardinal rules of singing.


10:45 PM -- Small Town Girl (1953)
1h 33m | Musical | TV-G
A sheriff's daughter falls for a playboy arrested for speeding.
Director: Leslie Kardos
Cast: Jane Powell, Farley Granger, Ann Miller

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Nicholas Brodszky (music) and Leo Robin (lyrics) for the song "My Flaming Heart"

The film contains Ann Miller's best remembered musical number from the MGM era, "I've Gotta Hear That Beat." The brainchild of master showman Busby Berkeley, the highly inventive sequence placed Miller amidst a sea of disembodied musical instruments that appear to be playing themselves through cut-outs in the floor. While the number has long been considered a feast for the eyes, few are aware that Berkeley complemented the visual experience in audio terms, too, as every time Miller passes a new section of the orchestra, that particular instrument takes the lead on the soundtrack.


12:30 AM -- The Killers (1964)
1h 35m | Adaptation | TV-PG
In this film noir, two hitmen want to find out why their latest victim "just stood there and took it" when they came to shoot him.
Director: Donald Siegel
Cast: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, John Cassavetes

The last film of Ronald Reagan and the only movie in which Reagan plays a bad guy. He reportedly hated doing it.


2:30 AM -- The Late Show (1977)
1h 34m | Comedy | TV-PG
An aging private eye hooks up with a Hollywood eccentric to investigate his partner's murder.
Director: Robert Benton
Cast: Art Carney, Lily Tomlin, Bill Macy

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Robert Benton

The movie featured Group Theatre founder actress Ruth Nelson portraying the landlady Mrs. Schmidt, this character name being a spoof of the German aircraft manufacturing company "Messerschmitt". This film was astonishingly Nelson's first theatrical film role in almost thirty years.


4:15 AM -- The Carey Treatment (1972)
1h 41m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-14
A doctor uncovers a hotbed of corruption when he tries to clear a colleague of a murder charge.+
Director: Blake Edwards
Cast: James Coburn, Jennifer O'Neill, Pat Hingle

Based on a novel entitled 'A Case of Need', published in 1968 and credited to Jeffrey Hudson. Decades later, Hudson was revealed to be a pseudonym for Michael Crichton.