TCM Schedule for Saturday, February 27, 2021 -- TCM Spotlight: Dances With Wolves

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, TCM may or may not be indulging in the Essentials again. I can't find anything scheduled online after January. That said, tonight's Spotlight is the thirty-year-old Dances With Wolves (30 years - I can't believe that!), followed by a couple of semi-related shorts, Teddy the Rough Rider (1940), and Let's Sing a Song of the West (1947). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Gunga Din (1939)
1h 57m | Adventure | TV-PG
Three British soldiers seek treasure during an uprising in India.
Director: George Stevens
Cast: Cary Grant, Victor Mclaglen, Douglas Fairbanks

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph H. August

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017) was influenced by Gunga Din (1939), along with Sahara (1943), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Seven Samurai (1954), Twelve O'Clock High (1949), To Catch a Thief (1955), Three Outlaw Samurai (1964), and Letter Never Sent (1960).


8:00 AM -- Petunia Natural Park (1939)
8m | Animation, Comedy, Family
The Captain and crew head out to Petunia National Park to spend a day with Mother Nature.
Director: I. Freleng
Cast: Mel Blanc, Billy Bletcher, Danny Webb

This cartoon features an animated MGM lion title to replace the standard live one.


8:10 AM -- Sportsmen at Work (1957)
8m | Documentary, Short | TV-G
This short film focuses on how conservationists attempt to protect wildlife.
Director: Larry O'reilly
Cast: Roy Steamrod, Ralph Seaman, John Gould

This is one of several short subjects, already in the can, and slated for release by RKO Radio Pictures as part of their Sportscopes 1956-1957 season, but which received no theatrical distribution at the time, as a result of the demise of RKO. In 1994, they became part of the TCM library and, for the past 20+ years, finally saw the light of day through occasional airings on cable television.


8:19 AM -- Sydney (1938)
9m | Short, Documentary | TV-G
This short film takes the viewer to Sydney, Australia.
Cast: James A. Fitzpatrick, Bertram Stevens

Bertram Stevens was the Premier of New South Wales.


8:29 AM -- The Longest Night (1936)
51m | Crime | TV-G
A department-store head tries to stop a gangland plot.
Director: Errol Taggart
Cast: Robert Young, Florence Rice, Ted Healy

Thought to be the shortest feature ever produced by MGM (the title notwithstanding!).


9:30 AM -- The New Adventures of Tarzan: Angry Gods (1935)
22m | 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 eight of twelve.


10:00 AM -- Tops in the Big Top (1945)
6m | Animation, Children, Comedy | TV-PG
Bluto tries to frame Popeye with a ferocious lion and then outdo him on the flying trapeze.
Director: Izzy Sparber (as I. Sparber), Nick Tafuri (uncredited)
Cast: Jackson Beck, Jack Mercer, Mae Questel


10:08 AM -- Dr. Kildare Goes Home (1940)
1h 18m | Drama | TV-G
A young doctor gives up big-city success to help his father set up a small-town clinic.
Director: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day

Fifth entry in MGM's long-running, progressively more popular and highly profitable Dr. Kildare film franchise. Alongside (and sometimes double-billed with) the same studio's even more successful Mickey Rooney/Andy Hardy series, Kildare's box office returns by this point justified producing an average of two movies each year.


11:30 AM -- Soft Drinks and Sweet Music (1934)
22m | Short, Musical | TV-PG
In this short film, a soda jerk/songwriter dreams of performing his songs on Broadway.
Director: Roy Mack
Cast: George J. Lewis, George Watts, Billie Leonard


12:00 PM -- Knute Rockne--All American (1940)
1h 38m | Drama | TV-G
Biography of the famed Notre Dame coach and his fight to "win one for the Gipper."
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Pat O'brien, Gale Page, Ronald Reagan

James Cagney, eager to break out of gangster roles, lobbied hard for the part of Knute Rockne. But Cagney had signed a petition in support of the anti-Catholic Republican government in the Spanish Civil War. Notre Dame University had control over all aspects of the filming and would not okay Cagney for the role.


1:45 PM -- 12 Angry Men (1957)
1h 35m | Drama | TV-PG
A jury holdout tries to convince his colleagues to vote not guilty.
Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Sidney Lumet, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Reginald Rose, and Best Picture

In 1973 the Spanish television network RTVE broadcast a version of this production, Estudio 1: Doce hombres sin piedad (1973), which followed this film very closely, down to having an American flag in the room and jurors talking about the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles baseball teams. However since it was made during the time of the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco it was not allowed to be shown, as it was considered to be critical of the justice system under Franco. It was finally broadcast in 1995, many years after Franco's death. (FYI - Francisco Franco is still dead.)


3:30 PM -- A Man for All Seasons (1966)
2h | Drama | TV-PG
Sir Thomas Moore opposes Henry VIII's divorce, and events lead inexorably to his execution.
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Leo Mckern

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Scofield (Paul Scofield was not present at the awards ceremony. His co-star Wendy Hiller accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Director -- Fred Zinnemann, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Bolt, Best Cinematography, Color -- Ted Moore, Best Costume Design, Color -- Elizabeth Haffenden and Joan Bridge, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Shaw, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Wendy Hiller

Sir Thomas More was portrayed as being beheaded over his refusal to sign the Oath of Allegiance proclaiming the King as head of the Church in England because it violated his religious principles. What is not portrayed is that while he was Chancellor of England More had multiple persons with whom he disagreed on religion declared heretics and burned them at the stake. (A point of personal privilege -- I think this is a great film, but I find the real Thomas Moore a reptilian hypocrite. If he were alive today, he'd be a Trumpie.)


5:45 PM -- Chariots of Fire (1981)
2h 1m | Drama | TV-PG
In the 1924 Paris Olympics, a Jew and a Scotsman run for Britain.
Director: Hugh Hudson
Cast: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nicholas Farrell

Winner of Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Colin Welland, Best Costume Design -- Milena Canonero, Best Music, Original Score -- Vangelis (Vangelis was not present at the awards ceremony. Co-presenter William Hurt accepted the award on his behalf.), and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ian Holm, Best Director -- Hugh Hudson, and Best Film Editing -- Terry Rawlings

Producer David Puttnam was looking for a story in the mold of A Man for All Seasons (1966), regarding someone who followed his or her conscience. He felt sports provided clear situations in this sense, and happened upon the story by accident while thumbing through an Olympic reference book in a rented house in Los Angeles. Screenwriter Colin Welland took out advertisements in London newspapers seeking memories of the 1924 Olympics. Many athletes were still living, and Aubrey Montague's son sent him copies of the letters his father had sent home, which gave Welland something to use as a narrative bridge in this movie.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- DANCES WITH WOLVES



8:00 PM -- Dances With Wolves (1990)
3h 3m | Western | TV-14
A soldier stationed in North Dakota leaves his post to join a nearby Sioux tribe.
Director: Kevin Costner
Cast: Kevin Costner, Mary Mcdonnell, Rodney A. Grant

Winner of Oscars for Best Director -- Kevin Costner, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Michael Blake, Best Cinematography -- Dean Semler, Best Sound -- Russell Williams II, Jeffrey Perkins, Bill W. Benton and Gregory H. Watkins, Best Film Editing -- Neil Travis, Best Music, Original Score -- John Barry, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Kevin Costner, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Graham Greene, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Mary McDonnell, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Jeffrey Beecroft and Lisa Dean, and Best Costume Design -- Elsa Zamparelli

During the scene where the buffalo is charging at Smiles a Lot, the buffalo is actually charging at a pile of its favorite treat: Oreo cookies.


11:15 PM -- Teddy the Rough Rider (1940)
18m | Short, Drama | TV-G
This follows the political career of president Theodore Roosevelt.
Director: Ray Enright
Cast: Pierre Watkin, Glenn Strange, Selmer Jackson

Winner of an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel

Sidney Blackmer played Theodore Roosevelt in six other films, This Is My Affair (1937), The Monroe Doctrine (1939), In Old Oklahoma (1943), Buffalo Bill (1944), My Girl Tisa (1948), and Never Kick a Man Upstairs (TV movie - 1953).


11:40 PM -- LET'S SING A SONG OF THE WEST (1947)
9m | Short, Musical | TV-G
This musical short film features four songs associated with the western United States.
Director: Jack Scholl
Cast: Tex Cooper, Fred Kelsey, Art Gilmore

The songs include Home on the Range, Oh! Susanna, My Little Buckaroo, and Deep in the Heart of Texas.


12:00 AM -- Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
1h 35m | Crime
Desperate losers plan a bank robbery with unexpected results.
Director: Robert Wise, Charles Maguire
Cast: Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters

Harry Belafonte starred in this, the first film-noir with a black protagonist. Belafonte selected Abraham Polonsky, who had written and directed a famous noir, "Force of Evil (1948)," to write the script. As a blacklisted writer Polonsky used a front, John O. Killens, a black novelist and friend of Belafonte's. (In 1997, the Writers Guild of America officially restored Polonsky's credit.)


2:00 AM -- The Wind and the Lion (1975)
1h 59m | Adventure | TV-MA
An Arab chief triggers an international incident when he kidnaps an American widow and her children.
Director: John Milius.
Cast: Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, Brian Keith.

Nominee for Oscars for Best Sound -- Harry W. Tetrick, Aaron Rochin, William L. McCaughey and Roy Charman, and Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- Jerry Goldsmith

According to Writer and Director John Milius, when this movie was screened for President Gerald Ford, Ford remarked that he recognized the place they filmed in Yellowstone National Park well, because he used to be a Ranger there. Milius refrained from informing him that the entire movie was filmed in and around Spain.


4:15 AM -- Quentin Durward (1955)
1h 41m | Drama | TV-G
A gallant Scots knight falls in love with his uncle's future wife.
Director: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Robert Taylor, Kay Kendall, Robert Morley

The lead was first offered to Grace Kelly, who declined.