TCM Schedule for Friday, May 7, 2021 -- TCM Spotlight: TCM Classic Film Festival

[Staph]

It's day two of the 2021 TCM Classic Film Festival. Today's highlights are a repeat of a Sophia Loren interview from 2016, a table read of the script from Plan 9 from Outer Space from an annual comedy showcase called SF Sketchfest, followed by the original movie from 1959, and an experimental film called Let me come in (2021), featuring decayed film reels from the lost, German silent film Pawns of Passion (1928). Enjoy!


7:30 AM -- The Fortune Cookie (1966)
2h 5m | Comedy
A crooked lawyer trumps up an insurance case for a cameraman injured at a pro football game.
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ron Rich

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Walter Matthau

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph LaShelle, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Robert Luthardt and Edward G. Boyle

This film marked the first pairing of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, who subsequently worked together on 11 additional films (including Kotch (1971), in which Lemmon directed Matthau). Lemmon and Matthau bonded early in the production process, finding a connection in their mutual love of football. They would remain friends the rest of their lives.


10:00 AM -- The Whistle at Eaton Falls (1951)
1h 36m | Documentary, Drama
A new plant manager hopes to calm labor relations but finds romance.
Director: Robert Siodmak
Cast: Lloyd Bridges, Dorothy Gish, Carleton Carpenter

Film debut of Ernest Borgnine.


11:45 AM -- Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
1h 47m | Musical
Fanciful musical biography of wild West sharpshooter Annie Oakley.
Director: George Sidney
Cast: Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, Louis Calhern

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Adolph Deutsch and Roger Edens

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Charles Rosher, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Richard Pefferle, and Best Film Editing -- James E. Newcom

Both Ethel Merman (who played Annie Oakley on Broadway) and Judy Garland (who was originally cast to play Annie in the movie version of Annie Get Your Gun before she was fired for erratic behavior) were vying to play Annie in the film version of this famous show. Ironically both were shot down and were replaced by Betty Hutton. Also ironically, both performed the famous showstopping theme song from AGYG; "There's No Business Like Show Business"; on Judy Garland's Variety show in the 1960s; as a response to all this.


2:00 PM -- Wuthering Heights (1939)
1h 43m | Romance
A married noblewoman fights her lifelong attraction to a charismatic gypsy.
Director: William Wyler
Cast: Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven

Winner of an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Gregg Toland

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Laurence Olivier, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Geraldine Fitzgerald, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, Best Art Direction -- James Basevi, Best Music, Original Score -- Alfred Newman, and Best Picture

David Niven remembered the filming of Merle Oberon's deathbed scenes (recorded in his bestselling book, The Moon's a Balloon) as less than romantic. After telling William Wyler he didn't know how to "sob", he had been given a menthol mist substance to help it appear as if he were crying, which instead had the effect of making "green goo" come out of his nose. Oberon immediately exited the bed after witnessing it.


4:00 PM -- Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival: Sophia Loren (2016)
1h | Documentary
Sophia Loren discusses her career with her son Edoardo Ponti and a live audience.
Director: Sean Cameron
Cast: Sophia Loren, Edoardo Ponti

She may have been the voluptuous sex goddess as an adult. But, until age 14 she was a skinny child and considered an ugly duckling. Her nickname was "The Stick" and "Toothpick".


5:15 PM -- The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
2h 9m | Adventure
Two con artists set out to take over a remote Asian land with a priceless golden treasure.
Director: John Huston
Cast: Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted From Other Material -- John Huston and Gladys Hill, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Alexandre Trauner, Tony Inglis and Peter James, Best Costume Design -- Edith Head, and Best Film Editing -- Russell Lloyd

John Huston tried to launch the movie version of "The Man Who Would Be King" many times before completing it. It was originally conceived as a vehicle for Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart in the fifties. Bogart died before the movie could be made, and while Huston was considering who could replace Bogart, Gable also passed away. (Source: Stephen H. Bogart, Humphrey's son.) He later re-imagined it as a vehicle for Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, and later for Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole. When it was considered as a vehicle for Robert Redford and Paul Newman, Newman suggested Sir Sean Connery and Sir Michael Caine.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: DAYTIME & PRIMETIME THEME -- TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL



8:00 PM -- SF Sketchfest Presents Plan 9 from Outer Space Table Read (2020)
Comedy, Documentary
SF Sketchfest Presents a table read of Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959).

Television premiere. SF Sketchfest Presents a table read of Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959), adapted by comedian Dana Gould and featuring Maria Bamford, Bobcat Goldthwait, Oscar Nuñez, Laraine Newman, Bob Odenkirk, David Koechner, Janet Varney, Jonah Ray, Paul F. Tompkins, Gary Anthony Williams, Baron Vaughn, Deborah Baker Jr. and Kat Aagesen.


9:30 PM -- Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
1h 19m | Horror/Science-Fiction
Aliens bring the dead to life to conquer the Earth.
Director: Edward D. Wood Jr.
Cast: Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tom Keene

Funded by a Baptist church. Several members of the cast let themselves be baptized. The film's original title was "Grave Robbers from Outer Space", but, supposedly, the Baptist ministers who financed the picture objected to it, so Edward D. Wood Jr. changed it to "Plan 9".


11:00 PM -- Grease 2 (1982)
1h 54m | Comedy, Musical, Sequel
A British student at a 1960s American high school must prove himself to the leader of a girls' gang whose members can only date greasers.
Director: Patricia Birch
Cast: Michelle Pfeiffer, Maxwell Caulfield, Lorna Luft

Jean Sagal and Liz Sagal were each hired at different auditions. It wasn't until they arrived on the set that the director realized they had hired identical twins and the sorority girl roles were created for them. (Their older sister is Katey Sagal, Peggy Bundy of Married with Children and Turanga Leela of Futurama.)


1:15 AM -- The Producers (1968)
1h 28m | Comedy
A Broadway producer decides to get rich by creating the biggest flop of his career.
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Mel Brooks

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Gene Wilder

The original Swedish title for the film was a direct translation of the original title, Producenterna (The Producers). The film didn't arouse much interest from the public. This changed when the title was replaced by Det våras för Hitler (Springtime for Hitler). Then the film became an instant smash. All subsequent Mel Brooks films then got Swedish title starting with Det våras för... e.g. Det våras för Frankenstein (Young Frankenstein (1974))/ ... Sherriffen (Blazing Saddles (1974)) / ... Galningarna (High Anxiety (1977) et cetera except for Brooks' two last films, which received the Swedish titles Robin Hood: Karlar i trikåer (Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)) and Dracula - Död men lycklig (Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995); literally Dracula - Dead but Happy).


3:15 AM -- Let me come in (2021)
Experimental
Bill Morrison’s experimental short featuring decayed film reels from the lost, German silent film Pawns of Passion (1928).


4:00 AM -- Underworld U. S. A. (1961)
1h 39m | Crime
A bitter young man sets out to get back at the gangsters who murdered his father.
Director: Samuel Fuller
Cast: Cliff Robertson, Dolores Dorn, Beatrice Kay, Pa...

Hanging on the wall in Driscoll's office is a certificate bearing the symbol of the U.S. Army's First Infantry Division - the unit that Samuel Fuller served in during World War II and depicted in The Big Red One (1980). The same type style for the infantry's numeral "1" is also featured in a reading campaign poster in front of National Accounts, the gangster headquarters building. The certificate is for the 16th Infantry Regiment in which Fuller was a corporal.

[elleng]

1. See Sophia live, @ 4!

4:00 PM -- Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival: Sophia Loren (2016)
1h | Documentary
Sophia Loren discusses her career with her son Edoardo Ponti and a live audience.
Director: Sean Cameron
Cast: Sophia Loren, Edoardo Ponti

She may have been the voluptuous sex goddess as an adult. But, until age 14 she was a skinny child and considered an ugly duckling. Her nickname was "The Stick" and "Toothpick".