TCM Schedule for Friday, June 11, 2021 -- Primetime Theme: In The Heights

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is saluting LGBTQ icons, today and again on June 28. Tell us more, Frank!

LGBTQ Icons - 6/11 & 6/28
By Frank Miller
May 26, 2021

TCM celebrates Pride Month by devoting daytime programming to actors and actresses who are icons to the LGBTQ community. Some were out in their lifetimes. Some were outed after death. The sexuality of others is still hotly debated. Wherever they fall on the Kinsey scale, these are stars whose on-screen images and/or private lives have endeared them to an audience whose devotion is both fierce and knowledgeable.

Friday, June 11, the focus is on female icons:

Patsy Kelly, the pioneering comedienne who came out in the press in the 1930s, teams with Lyda Roberti, her co-star in a series of Hal Roach comedy shorts, as a pair of daffy nurses in Nobody’s Baby (1937). When Kelly had trouble finding work because of her sexuality and drinking problems, she worked as personal assistant to…

Tallulah Bankhead, who, even without rumors about her sexuality, became a gay icon because of her outsized personality, on display as a socialite who squanders her fortune in Faithless (1932).

Dolores Del Rio’s beauty has obsessed LGBTQ audiences for decades, as have rumors that she hosted get togethers for the “sewing circle,” an alleged group of bisexual Hollywood women. She stars as Madame Du Barry (1934) in a lavish biography of the infamous French courtesan.

Lilyan Tashman was a gifted comedienne and noted clotheshorse. Later biographers have suggested both she and husband Edmund Lowe were gay. That makes the title of her 1930 vehicle The Matrimonial Bed rather ironic. She stars as a society woman who remarries after her husband’s death, only to find he’s still alive but suffering amnesia.

Kay Francis was another noted clotheshorse and an underappreciated actress. One of her biographers claimed to have deciphered her coded diaries to reveal her notes on numerous dalliances with men and women. Her reputation as a Play Girl (1941) adds extra interest to her casting as a fading gold digger.

Greta Garbo’s penchant for wearing pants and her reclusiveness have fueled rumors for years, but it’s her acting that has brought her legions of faithful fans. She had, perhaps, her finest hour in Camille (1936), with George Cukor directing her as the doomed courtesan making one last stab at love with the young Robert Taylor.

Marlene Dietrich rose to stardom as the image of exotic sexuality in Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel (1930), in which she lures staid professor Emil Janning to his downfall. Her affairs with men like Gary Cooper and James Stewart were legendary. She dallied with women, too, as recounted by her daughter, Maria Riva, and other biographers.

. . .

Then in prime time, TCM declares that their theme is In The Heights. I'm not sure if this is intended to be a salute to Lin Manuel-Miranda's Tony-winning Broadway play turned Hollywood film, opening today. We get a trio of musical films tonight, Million Dollar Mermaid (1952), Royal Wedding (1951), and Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). Enjoy!


7:15 AM -- Bad Boy (1949)
1h 26m | Drama | TV-PG
A lawman tries to find the source of a juvenile delinquent's bad behavior.
Director: Kurt Neumann
Cast: Audie Murphy, Lloyd Nolan, Jane Wyatt, James Gleason

With an "In His First Starring Role: Audie Murphy" credit, though he had made two other films.


8:45 AM -- Nobody's Baby (1937)
1h 7m | Comedy | TV-G
Nursing school students have to care for an abandoned baby.
Director: Gus Meins
Cast: Patsy Kelly, Lyda Roberti, Lynne Overman

Lynne Overman was borrowed from Paramount for this film.


10:15 AM -- Faithless (1932)
1h 16m | Drama | TV-PG
A spoiled rich girl is wiped out by the Depression.
Director: Harry Beaumont
Cast: Tallulah Bankhead, Robert Montgomery, Hugh Herbert

Tallulah Bankhead was on loan to MGM from Paramount, where she had just come off five box office flops in a row. This would be her last film until Stage Door Canteen (1943). She focused on stage plays instead. In 1933, while performing in Jezebel, Bankhead nearly died following a five-hour emergency hysterectomy due to gonorrhea, which she claimed she had contracted from George Raft. Weighing only 70 lb (32 kg) when she left the hospital, she vowed to continue her notoriously promiscuous party lifestyle of drugs and sex with men and women, stoically saying to her doctor "Don't think this has taught me a lesson!"


11:45 AM -- Madame Du Barry (1934)
1h 19m | Drama | TV-G
True story of the legendary courtesan who was mistress to France's King Louis XV.
Director: William Dieterle
Cast: Dolores Del Rio, Reginald Owen, Victor Jory

The movie was placed on the Catholic Church's "condemned list."


1:15 PM -- The Matrimonial Bed (1930)
1h 9m | Comedy | TV-G
Amnesia turns a small-town man into a bigamist.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Frank Fay, Lilyan Tashman, James Gleason

Remade as Mr. What's-His-Name? (1935) and Kisses for Breakfast (1941).


2:30 PM -- Play Girl (1940)
1h 17m | Drama | TV-PG
An aging gold digger takes a young woman under her wing.
Director: Frank Woodruff
Cast: Kay Francis, James Ellison, Mildred Coles

Opening credits are shown on different types of signs and cards; a couple are tags included in jewelry boxes, some are sign boards and poster boards for various plays and shows.


4:00 PM -- Camille (1937)
1h 48m | Romance | TV-PG
In this classic 19th-century romance, a kept woman runs off with a young admirer in search of love and happiness.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greta Garbo

Many people found Greta Garbo's process as an actress inscrutable, though no one questioned it because the results spoke for themselves. Her habit was to work out a performance ahead of time in private as much as possible. Too many eyes on her in front of the camera made her uneasy. As George Cukor once explained, "[Garbo] said that when she was acting she had some sort of an ideal picture in her mind - something she was creating - and she never saw the rushes because she was always disappointed in what she saw. But she said while she was acting she could imagine certain things and if she saw people just off the set staring at her, she felt like an ass, like somebody with a lot of paint on her face making faces. It stopped her imagination."


6:00 PM -- The Blue Angel (1930)
1h 44m | Drama | TV-PG
A stodgy professor falls from grace when he's seduced by a nightclub singer.
Director: Josef Von Sternberg
Cast: Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron

There are various accounts of why Marlene Dietrich was cast as Lola Lola, but the one given by director Josef von Sternberg in his autobiography is that Dietrich came to test for the film with a bored, world-weary attitude because she was convinced she wasn't going to get the role and was merely going through the motions - and Sternberg hired her because that world-weary attitude was precisely what he wanted for the character.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- IN THE HEIGHTS



8:00 PM -- Million Dollar Mermaid (1952)
1h 55m | Musical | TV-G
Esther Williams stars in this dramatic true musical romance of turn-of-the century swimming star, Annette Kellerman.
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Cast: Esther Williams, Victor Mature, Walter Pidgeon

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- George J. Folsey

This film is considered the crown jewel of Esther Williams' career largely because, for once, MGM's writers were not called upon to find novel, far-fetched ways to get their star wet. Being the biography of a famous swimming star, the plot allowed Williams to organically spend nearly the entire running time in the water.


10:00 PM -- Royal Wedding (1951)
1h 33m | Musical | TV-G
A brother-and-sister musical team find romance when they tour London for Elizabeth II's wedding.
Director: Stanley Donen
Cast: Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Burton Lane (music) and Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics) for the song "Too Late Now"

The story was loosely based on the real-life partnership of Fred Astaire and his sister, Adele Astaire. In real life, Adele Astaire married Lord Charles Cavendish, son of the Duke of Devonshire, just as Jane Powell, playing Fred's sister, marries an English Lord at the end of this film. As she retired in 1931, and Fred did not make his film debut until 1933, Adele never appeared onscreen with brother. This was the only time in his career that one of Fred Astaire's screen characters ever had a sister.


11:45 PM -- Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
1h 53m | Musical | TV-G
Young love and childish fears highlight a year in the life of a turn-of-the-century family.
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor

Winner of a Juvenile Oscar Award for Margaret O'Brien for outstanding child actress of 1944

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe, Best Cinematography, Color -- George J. Folsey, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- George Stoll, and Best Music, Original Song -- Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin for the song "The Trolley Song"

Also going on at the time of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition were the Third Summer Olympic Games. They were the first Olympic Games to be held in the United States. Originally awarded to Chicago, President Theodore Roosevelt had the Games switched to St. Louis so that they would run at the same time as the World's Fair. This turned out to be a huge mistake. The Games merely became a side attraction to the fair's other events and turned out to be a first-class disaster. They took nearly six months to complete and were very poorly run. Many competitors went to their graves without the world knowing that they had competed in the Olympics. As a result of these Games, the Olympic movement almost came to an end.


2:00 AM -- The Undertaker and His Pals (1967)
1h 3m | Horror | TV-MA
Two motorcyclists use their psychopathic tendencies to supply a mortician with a steady stream of bodies.
Director: T. L. P. Swicegood
Cast: Warrene Ott, James Westmoreland, Marty Friedman

The original cut of the film included clips from training films for surgeons for shock value. After initial showings these were trimmed down, hence the short running time.


3:15 AM -- Motel Hell (1980)
1h 41m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-MA
A brother and sister use their remote motel to turn tourists into sausage.
Director: Kevin Connor
Cast: Rory Calhoun, Paul Linke, Nancy Parsons

United Artists marketed Motel Hell as a straightforward horror movie rather than a horror comedy, fearing that any quirkiness in the trailers or posters would put-off audiences. However, the tagliner "You might just die laughing!" still appeared on several Motel Hell posters.


5:00 AM -- Delicious Dishes (1950)
12m | Short | TV-G
Experts demonstrate such innovative kitchen gadgets as the cheese slicer and the melon baller.
Cast: Arnold Morris


5:30 AM -- Keep Off The Grass (1969)
21m | Short | TV-14
The dangers of marijuana are outlined in this educational short film.
Director: Ib Melchior
Cast: J. Edward McKinley

Al Pacino's film debut.

[CBHagman]

1. This is quite the schedule...

...pre-Code fare, musicals, horror, melon ballers, and a sighting of Classic Films Group patron saint Robert Montgomery.

And yes, I think the reference to In the Heights is intentional. Now that I think of it, I would love to see TCM feature a guest programmer or two from that movie.