TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 29, 2021 -- Primetime Theme: Star of the Month - Elvis!

[Staph]

Today's daylight theme is a birthday salute to William Powell, born July 29, 1892, in Pittsburgh, PA. In 1938, Powell was diagnosed with cancer of the rectum. Rather than undergo a colostomy, he agreed to an experimental treatment where platinum needles containing radium pellets were inserted into Powell's body, where they remained for six months, by which time his cancer had gone into remission. It was many years before he publicly revealed he had had cancer. At the time of his illness and recovery, his agent explained his absence to the press first by saying he was recuperating from an eye injury, and later that he had undergone a routine abdominal operation. Then in primetime, it's the final night for Star of the Month Elvis Presley. Tonight's sub-theme is Smooth Talker. Enjoy!


6:30 AM -- Private Detective 62 (1933)
1h 7m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
A private eye in Paris falls for the beautiful gambling lady he's investigating.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: William Powell, Margaret Lindsay, Ruth Donnelly

Though the film is called "Private Detective 62," neither William Powell's character nor anyone else is actually referred to by that code number.


7:45 AM -- The Emperor's Candlesticks (1937)
1h 29m | Romance | TV-G
Spies on opposite sides fall in love in pre-revolutionary Russia.
Director: George Fitzmaurice
Cast: William Powell, Luise Rainer, Robert Young

The third and last film pairing William Powell and Luise Rainer.


9:15 AM -- Lawyer Man (1933)
1h 12m | Drama | TV-G
Success corrupts a smooth-talking lawyer.
Director: William Dieterle
Cast: William Powell, Joan Blondell, David Landau

As an example that this is a pre-Code film, at the end of the scene when Tony (William Powell) is first out to lunch with Virginia (Claire Dodd), note what he does with the cigar in his mouth.


10:30 AM -- Crossroads (1942)
1h 24m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
A French diplomat who's recovering from amnesia is blackmailed over crimes he can't remember.
Director: Jack Conway
Cast: William Powell, Hedy Lamarr, Claire Trevor

First of two films pairing Hedy Lamarr and William Powell. The other film is The Heavenly Body (1944).


12:00 PM -- The Heavenly Body (1943)
1h 35m | Comedy | TV-G
An astronomer's neglected wife takes up astrology and a handsome astrologer.
Director: Alexander Hall
Cast: William Powell, Hedy Lamarr, James Craig

Joan Crawford was offered the lead role but turned it down saying, "It was about a girl who stands around and does nothing. I told the studio to give the part to Hedy Lamarr."


1:45 PM -- Love Crazy (1941)
1h 40m | Comedy | TV-PG
A businessman concocts a series of harebrained schemes to keep his wife from divorcing him.
Director: Jack Conway
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Gail Patrick

William Powell had a mustache for nearly all of his career, but he shaved it off for this movie for the sequences in which his character poses as a woman. The only other film he appeared in sans mustache was Shadow of the Law (1930).


3:30 PM -- High Pressure (1932)
1h 14m | Comedy | TV-G
A scheming promoter tries to get rich selling artificial rubber.
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Cast: William Powell, Evelyn Brent, George Sidney

In 1932 Warners re-shot this same comedy with French-speaking actors (replacing the original performers), delivering all their dialog in French, at the same Hollywood studio, in the same sets, and using the same script (translated into French), under the French title "Le bluffeur" (The Bluffer). Subtitles weren't yet in vogue, so Warners gave French-speaking audiences a parallel version they could understand, played mostly by French actors. Powell's star part was played by Andre Luguet, Brent's by Lucienne Radisse, Sidney's by Torben Meyer, Kibbee's by Andre Cheron, McHugh's by Jacques Jou-Jerville, Middleton's by Georges Renavent, Beresford's by Christian Rub, and Littlefield's by Emile Chautard. Meyer, Renavent, Rub, and Chautard were already permanently ensconced in Hollywood, while most of the other French-speaking actors were imported from Paris just for these parallel French-language versions in the early 1930s. When subtitles and dubbing were soon "perfected", the US studios ceased making parallel versions like "Le bluffeur".


5:00 PM -- Fashions of 1934 (1934)
1h 18m | Musical | TV-G
A con artist and his beautiful assistant take on the fashion world.
Director: William Dieterle
Cast: William Powell, Bette Davis, Frank McHugh

The only film where Bette Davis and William Powell appeared together. This was Powell's last film at Warner Bros. before he moved to MGM.


6:30 PM -- Double Wedding (1937)
1h 27m | Comedy | TV-G
A dress designer tries to break her sister's engagement to a free-living artist, only to discover the man is falling for her instead.
Director: Richard Thorpe
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Florence Rice

Production was halted because of the June 7, 1937 death of William Powell's fiancée Jean Harlow. Powell later described finishing the movie as "very difficult under the circumstances". Myrna Loy, a good friend of Harlow's, disliked the film because of her death, stating in her autobiography it was "the scapegoat for concurrent despair".



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- ELVIS!



8:00 PM -- Tickle Me (1965)
1h 30m | Musical | TV-PG
A singing cowboy signs on with an all-woman dude ranch.
Director: Norman Taurog
Cast: Elvis Presley, Jocelyn Lane, Julie Adams

This is the only movie for which Elvis Presley did not record a new soundtrack. All the songs had been recorded between 1960-63, and had already been released on several albums or singles.


10:00 PM -- It Happened at the World's Fair (1963)
1h 45m | Musical | TV-G
A pilot's efforts to help a lost girl at the Seattle World's Fair lead to love.
Director: Norman Taurog
Cast: Elvis Presley, Joan O'Brien, Gary Lockwood

Kurt Russell, in his screen debut, plays the boy who kicks Elvis Presley's shins. Recalling the scene years later, Russell says that he didn't want to do it, as Elvis was such a huge star and Russell was a fan of his. He says that finally Elvis paid him $5 to do it. Russell would later go on to play Elvis in the TV movie, Elvis (1979).


12:00 AM -- The Trouble with Girls (1969)
1h 44m | Comedy | TV-PG
A traveling show's star gets involved in a small-town murder case.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Cast: Elvis Presley, Marlyn Mason, Nicole Jaffe

Publicity stills for the movie featured Elvis and Marilyn Mason posing with guns a la Bonnie and Clyde in front of cars, including 1960s Cadillacs, despite the fact that neither use guns in the movie and that it's set in 1927.


2:00 AM -- Girl Happy (1965)
1h 36m | Musical | TV-PG
A rock singer is hired to chaperone a gangster's daughter in Fort Lauderdale.
Director: Boris Sagal
Cast: Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, Harold J. Stone

As influenced by "Beatlemania" and "The British Invasion of 1964", rock groups were the latest trend, putting many solo performers at a disadvantage. With the box-office success of A Hard Day's Night (1964) and the expected success of Help! (1965), three band member buddies--played by Gary Crosby, Jimmy Hawkins and Joby Baker--were added to the plot in order to enhance the film's appeal to a "newer' generation of rock fans and "teenyboppers".


4:00 AM -- This Is Elvis (1981)
1h 41m | Documentary | TV-PG
Staged scenes and vintage clips re-create Elvis Presley's life.
Director: Malcolm Leo
Cast: Elvis Presley, David Wark Scott, Paul Boensch

At the time of its release the film included lots of very rare and never-before-seen footage of Elvis Presley.