TCM Schedule for Friday, March 12, 2021 -- What's On Tonight: Movie MacGuffins, Part II

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, we're at home on the range. Then in prime time, TCM show the second and last part of a look at Movie MacGuffins. Enjoy!


6:30 AM -- As the Earth Turns (1934)
1h 13m | Drama | TV-G
A young couple face the hardships of farm life in Maine.
Director: Alfred Green
Cast: Jean Muir, Donald Woods, Russell Hardie

Warner Bros. purchased the rights to the novel by Gladys Hasty Carroll for $25,000 ($478,000 in 2017).


7:45 AM -- Hide-Out (1934)
1h 22m | Drama | TV-G
Farmers take in an injured racketeer and try to reform him.
Director: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Robert Montgomery, Maureen O'sullivan, Edward Arnold

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Mauri Grashin

Remade as I'll Wait for You (1941), starring Robert Sterling, Marsha Hunt, and Virginia Weidler.


9:15 AM -- So Big (1953)
1h 41m | Romance | TV-PG
A schoolteacher-turned-farmer fights to save the land and her son.
Director: Robert Wise
Cast: Jane Wyman, Sterling Hayden, Nancy Olson

Tommy Rettig and Jon Provost both portrayed the young Dirk, aged 8 and 2 respectively. They also played Lassie's young master in the TV series - Rettig from 1954 to 1957 and Provost from 1957 to 1964.


11:00 AM -- The Mating Game (1959)
1h 37m | Comedy | TV-G
A tax agent falls for a farm girl whose father he's investigating.
Director: George Marshall
Cast: Debbie Reynolds, Tony Randall, Paul Douglas

The movie was taken from a a book by H.E. Bates, "The Darling Buds of May". It is the first of five novels (and novellas) about "Pop Larkin". The original story is English, but the movie changed the setting to Maryland. From 1991-1993 ITV aired "The Darling Buds of May" as a TV series, and the eldest daughter was an early role for Catherine Zeta-Jones.


12:45 PM -- The Sheepman (1958)
1h 25m | Western | TV-PG
A tough sheep farmer battles the local cattle baron for land and a beautiful woman.
Director: George Marshall
Cast: Glenn Ford, Shirley Maclaine, Leslie Nielsen

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- William Bowers (screenplay) and James Edward Grant (screenplay/story)

America has always had a strange relationship with sheep. There were around 7 million head in the early 1800's. they peaked at around 56 million at the end of WWII. There were less than 6 million in 2013.


2:15 PM -- The World Changes (1933)
1h 30m | Drama | TV-PG
When a farmer strikes it rich in business, success goes to his head.
Director: Mervyn Le Roy
Cast: Paul Muni, Aline Macmahon, Mary Astor

Very loosely based on elements of the life of Gustavus Franklin Swift, Sr. (1839-1903), the founder of the meat-packing empire and developer of the first practical ice-cooled railroad car, and his descendants.


4:00 PM -- When the Boys Meet the Girls (1965)
1h 50m | Musical | TV-PG
A wealthy playboy gives up partying to help a Nevada farm girl make her ranch a success.
Director: Alvin Ganzer
Cast: Connie Francis, Harve Presnell, Herman's Hermits

Fifty years after its release, this film has remained the last feature film acting role of Connie Francis.


6:00 PM -- East of Eden (1955)
1h 55m | Drama | TV-PG
Two brothers compete for their father's approval and a woman's love.
Director: Elia Kazan
Cast: Julie Harris, James Dean, Raymond Massey

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Jo Van Fleet

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Dean (This was the first posthumous acting nomination in Academy Awards history, although Jeanne Eagels was retroactively credited with a posthumous nomination for the 2nd Academy Awards in 1930, when no nominees were announced prior to the ceremony.), Best Director -- Elia Kazan, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Paul Osborn

The story is an allegory for Cain and Abel with the names Aron and Caleb being an allusion to the original names. Additionally, Monterrey and Salinas are metaphors for the Garden of Eden and the sinful land outside, and Kate is a metaphor for Eve who rejected a life of purity by eating the apple.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- MOVIE MACGUFFINS, PART II



8:00 PM -- The Maltese Falcon (1941)
1h 40m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
Hard-boiled detective Sam Spade gets caught up in the murderous search for a priceless statue.
Director: John Huston
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sydney Greenstreet, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Huston, and Best Picture

There were several 11.5"-tall falcon props made for use in the film. Some were cast of plastic resin, some of lead. Only two 45-lb. lead falcons and two 5-lb., 5.4-oz. resin falcons are verified to be in existence. One lead falcon has been displayed for years at various venues. The second, which was accidentally damaged at the end of the movie by Humphrey Bogart, was a gift to William Conrad by studio chief Jack L. Warner. It was auctioned in December 1994, nine months after Conrad's death, for $398,500 to Ronald Winston of Harry Winston, Inc. At that time it was the highest price ever paid for a movie prop. It was used to model a ten-pound gold replica displayed at The 69th Annual Academy Awards (1997). The replica has Burmese ruby eyes, interchangeable claws (one set of gold, one set of coral) and holds a platinum chain in its beak with a 42.98-carat flawless diamond at the end. It's valued at over $8 million. The lead and resin falcons are valued in excess of $2 million--coincidentally the value placed on the "real" Maltese Falcon by Kasper Gutman.


10:00 PM -- Casablanca (1942)
1h 42m | Romance | TV-PG
An American saloon owner in North Africa is drawn into World War II when his lost love turns up.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid

Winner of Oscars for Best Director -- Michael Curtiz, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Humphrey Bogart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Claude Rains, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Arthur Edeson, Best Film Editing -- Owen Marks, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

The letters of transit that motivate so many characters in the film did not exist in Vichy-controlled France--they are purely a plot device invented by the screenwriters. Playwright Joan Alison always expected somebody to challenge her about the letters, but nobody ever did.


12:00 AM -- Citizen Kane (1941)
1h 59m | Drama | TV-PG
The investigation of a publishing tycoon's dying words reveals conflicting stories about his scandalous life.
Director: Orson Welles
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles (On Friday, July 19th, 2003, Orson Welles' Oscar statuette went on sale at an auction at Christie's, New York, but was voluntarily withdrawn so the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences could buy it back for just 1 dollar. The statuette, included in a large selection of Welles-related material, was going to be sold by Beatrice Welles, the youngest of the filmmaker's three daughters and the sole heir of his estate and was expected to sell at over 300,000 dollars.)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Orson Welles, Best Director -- Orson Welles, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Gregg Toland, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Perry Ferguson, Van Nest Polglase, A. Roland Fields and Darrell Silvera, Best Sound, Recording -- John Aalberg (RKO Radio SSD), Best Film Editing -- Robert Wise, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Bernard Herrmann, and Best Picture

The sled that Thatcher gives Kane for Christmas has "THE CRUSADER" written on it. (In addition, the Crusader sled is painted with an image of a knight in armor, with his visor down - an apt symbol of the mysterious, closely guarded figure which Kane became after being stripped of his childhood petals.)


2:15 AM -- Scissors (1991)
1h 47m | Thriller
A repressed young woman is assaulted in the elevator of her building, and her neighbors try to help her to recover.
Director: Frank Defelitta
Cast: Will Leskin, Mary Reynard, Ivy Jones, Ronny Cox

The script was written originally to be an episode of the classic Hitchcock TV series. Co-writer of that script, DeFelitta expanded that unsold and unmade screenplay and it became his last credit as a director.


4:15 AM -- Schizoid (1980)
1h 28m | Horror
An advice columnist in the midst of getting a divorce begins receiving threatening notes from an anonymous stalker.
Director: David Paulsen
Cast: Klaus Kinski, Marianna Hill, Craig Wasson

Writer and Director David Paulsen was told by Producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus that he had one month to have a screenplay ready that could be shot for under a million dollars, and that could feature Klaus Kinski, who was under contract. Paulsen also had only one month to secure a crew and shooting locations.