TCM Schedule for Saturday, July 31, 2021 -- Primetime Theme: Dollars Double Feature

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, it's a Dollars Double Feature, the first two films about the Man With No Name, A Fistful Of Dollars (1964) and A Few Dollars More (1965). We're skipping the third, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1965). Enjoy!


7:00 AM -- Waterfront (1939)
59m | Drama | TV-PG
A hard-living dockworker finds religion until his brother is murdered.
Director: Terry Morse
Cast: Gloria Dickson, Dennis Morgan, Marie Wilson

Remake of Taxi (1931), starring James Cagney, Loretta Young, and George E. Stone.


8:00 AM -- Lonesome Lenny (1945)
7m | Animation | TV-G
A wealthy woman buys her pet dog Lenny a companion that he can play with --- Screwy Squirrel.
Director: Tex Avery (fred)
Cast: Wally Maher, Sara Berner, Tex Avery

Although Tex Avery created the Screwy Squirrel character, he quickly grew to dislike him and disliked making additional cartoons in spite of the character's popularity with the general public. He later decided to make this particular cartoon the last appearance of Screwy Squirrel by actually showing him dead at the end of the short.


8:10 AM -- Ice Climbers (1956)
8m | Short | TV-G
This short film takes a look at the Austrian sport of "ice climbing."
Cast: Harry Wismer

The mountain climbed in the film is Grossglockner in Austria.


8:19 AM -- Land of the Mayas (1946)
9m | Documentary | TV-G
This focuses on the influence of Mayan culture on the people of the village Chichicastenango, Guatemala.
Cast: James A. Fitzpatrick


8:29 AM -- According to Mrs. Hoyle (1951)
1h | Drama | TV-G
Gangsters buy the shabby hotel where a retired schoolteacher has lived for 25 years.
Director: Jean Yarbrough
Cast: Spring Byington, Anthony Caruso, Brett King

Based on a story by Jean Z. Owen titled "Mrs. Hoyle and the Hotel Royalstom", published in the magazine Good Housekeeping in the January 1, 1944 issue.


9:30 AM -- Batman: Flying Spies (1943)
17m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
The Caped Crusader battles a Japanese scientist turning people into zombies.
Director: Lambert Hillyer
Cast: Lewis Wilson, Douglas Croft, J. Carrol Naish

Douglas Croft, the first Robin, was 16 at the time of filming, making him the youngest actor to play the character in a live action film. Croft died of alcohol-related complications in 1963, and so did not live to see Burt Ward's definitive interpretation of the character in Batman (1966).


10:00 AM -- Snow Place Like Home (1948)
7m | Animation | TV-PG
Popeye and Olive Oyl go to the North Pole.
Director: Seymour Kneitel
Cast: Jack Mercer, Jackson Beck, Mae Questel

Susie Q., the name of Popeye's fishing boat, seems to be a reference to "Susie-Q", a 1939 song by Sonny Boy Williamson.


10:09 AM -- The Falcon's Adventure (1946)
1h 1m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
A society sleuth rescues a kidnapped woman, then is framed for murder.
Director: William Berke
Cast: Tom Conway, Madge Meredith, Edward S. Brophy

Shortly after this film was released, its leading lady Madge Meredith was convicted on a kidnapping charge and sentenced to prison, insisting all along that she was innocent. After spending several years behind bars, she was found to have been falsely convicted, and was personally pardoned by the governor of California. Following her release, she returned to private life, and lived quietly until 2017.


11:30 AM -- SUCKER LIST (1941)
19m | Crime | TV-PG
This "Crime Does Not Pay" short depicts how the police put a horse race betting scam out of business.
Director: Roy Rowland
Cast: Noel Madison, Lynne Carver, John Archer

Thirty-sixth in the Crime Does Not Pay series.


12:00 PM -- Five Came Back (1939)
1h 15m | Adventure | TV-PG
Survivors of a jungle plane crash realize that their repaired airplane can only carry five passengers.
Director: John Farrow
Cast: Chester Morris, Lucille Ball, Wendy Barrie

According to Turner Classic Movies, there were real trees on the set for the jungle scenes. In one scene, Lucille Ball was leaning against one of the prop trees and spiders crawled out of it and into her hair, sending her and the rest of the cast screaming and running.


1:30 PM -- The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
1h 52m | Crime | TV-PG
A gang of small time crooks plots an elaborate jewel heist.
Director: John Huston
Cast: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sam Jaffe, Best Director -- John Huston, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Ben Maddow and John Huston, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Harold Rosson

During the production, Walter Huston came to Hollywood for his son John Huston's 44th birthday party. Two days later, with John at his side, the legendary actor of stage and screen died of heart failure at age 66.


3:30 PM -- Where Eagles Dare (1968)
2h 38m | War | TV-14
An Allied team sets out to free an American officer held by the Nazis in a mountaintop castle.
Director: Brian G. Hutton
Cast: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure

In the scenes where Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood climb the steep fortress walls, Burton moves with ease, while Eastwood is clearly working hard physically. This was due to the fact that Burton, who was a hard-drinker, a chain smoker, and out-of-shape by that point, chose to ride a crane (made invisible by special effects) up the wall, whereas the health-conscious Eastwood was actually climbing the wall. Burton had already been diagnosed with bursitis, possibly aggravated by faulty treatment, arthritis and dermatitis.


6:15 PM -- The Late Show (1977)
1h 34m | Comedy | TV-PG
An aging private eye hooks up with a Hollywood eccentric to investigate his partner's murder.
Director: Robert Benton
Cast: Art Carney, Lily Tomlin, Bill Macy

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Robert Benton

As the movie opens, the camera pans from an old typewriter to a framed photo of Martha Vickers. Vickers played Carmen Sternwood in The Big Sleep (1946), which was a Raymond Chandler story featuring his famous detective Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart). This is one of many nods to film noir of the 1940s.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- DOLLARS DOUBLE FEATURE



8:00 PM -- A Fistful of Dollars (1967)
1h 36m | Western | TV-14
A mysterious stranger plays dueling families against each other in a Mexican border town.
Director: Sergio Leone
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Marianne Koch, Gian Maria Volontè

After considering Henry Fonda, writer and director Sergio Leone offered the role of the Man With No Name to James Coburn, who proved to be too expensive. Charles Bronson then turned it down after describing it as the "worst script I have ever seen." Third choice Richard Harrison also declined the role, but pointed Leone in the direction of Rawhide (1959). Leone then offered the part to "Rawhide" star Eric Fleming, who turned it down but suggested his co-star Clint Eastwood for the part. The rest, as they say, is history. Leone eventually worked with Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), and James Coburn in Duck, You Sucker! (1971).


10:00 PM -- For a Few Dollars More (1967)
2h 10m | Western | TV-14
Two bounty hunters join forces to bring an outlaw to justice.
Director: Sergio Leone
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volontè

The Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood) calls himself Monco in this movie. "Manco" is Spanish for "lame of one hand", "one handed", or "one armed", which is pretty appropriate considering his habit of fighting, drinking, et cetera with his left hand only. His right hand always remains on his gun underneath his trademark poncho.


12:30 AM -- Hollow Triumph (1948)
1h 23m | Crime | TV-PG
A crook on the lam poses as a psychiatrist.
Director: Steve Sekely
Cast: Paul Henreid, Joan Bennett, Eduard Franz

According to contemporary newspaper articles, Paul Henreid decided to produce this film himself, so that he could play a bad guy for once.


2:15 AM -- Secrets & Lies (1996)
2h 22m | Drama | TV-MA
A successful black woman locates her biological mother, a poor, white factory worker in East London.
Director: Mike Leigh
Cast: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Brenda Blethyn, Timothy Spall

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Brenda Blethyn, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Best Director -- Mike Leigh, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Mike Leigh, and Best Picture

To add a spontaneous effect to the performances, Mike Leigh met with each actor individually and only told them what their character would know at the beginning of the film. As filming progressed the actors were hearing the secrets for the very first time. Brenda Blethyn, for instance, didn't know that Marianne Jean-Baptiste was black.


4:45 AM -- The Secret Bride (1935)
1h 16m | Drama | TV-PG
A district attorney secretly marries the daughter of a man he's trying to convict.
Director: William Dieterle
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Warren William, Glenda Farrell

The $10,000 in supposed bribe money would equate to about $186,000 in 2018.