TCM Schedule for Friday, May 20 -- What's On Tonight - Based on William Inge

[Staph]

Happy birthday to Jimmy Stewart, born on this day in 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania. TCM is featuring a day of his films (including his Oscar-winning performance in The Philadelphia Story (1940)), and an evening of films based on the works of William Inge (including his Oscar-winning script for Splendor In The Grass (1961)). Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- You Can't Take It With You (1938)
A girl from a family of freethinkers falls for the son of a conservative banker.
Dir: Frank Capra
Cast: Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart.
126 min, TV-G

Won Oscar for Best Director -- Frank Capra, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Spring Byington, Best Cinematography -- Joseph Walker, Best Film Editing -- Gene Havlick, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Robert Riskin

Shortly before filming began, Lionel Barrymore lost the use of his legs to crippling arthritis and a hip injury. To accommodate him, the script was altered so that his character had a sprained ankle, and Barrymore did the film on crutches.


8:15 AM -- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
An idealistic Senate replacement takes on political corruption.
Dir: Frank Capra
Cast: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Claude Rains.
130 min, TV-G, CC

Won and Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Lewis R. Foster

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Harry Carey, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Claude Rains, Best Art Direction -- Lionel Banks, Best Director -- Frank Capra, Best Film Editing -- Gene Havlick and Al Clark, Best Music, Scoring -- Dimitri Tiomkin, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sidney Buchman, and Best Picture

In 1942, when a ban on American films was imposed in German-occupied France, the title theaters chose Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) for their last movie before the ban went into effect. One Paris theater reportedly screened the film nonstop for thirty days prior to the ban.


10:30 AM -- The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Tabloid reporters crash a society marriage.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart.
112 min, TV-G, CC

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Donald Ogden Stewart

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ruth Hussey, Best Director -- George Cukor, and Best Picture

The film was shot in eight weeks, and required no retakes. During the scene where James Stewart hiccups when drunk, you can see Cary Grant looking down and grinning. Since the hiccup wasn't scripted, Grant was on the verge of breaking out laughing and had to compose himself quickly. James Stewart thought of hiccuping in the drunk scene himself, without telling Cary Grant. When he began hiccuping, Grant turned to Stewart saying, "Excuse me." The scene required only one take.


12:30 PM -- The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)
Charles Lindbergh risks his life to complete his historic flight from New York to Paris.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: James Stewart, Murray Hamilton, Patricia Smith.
C-135 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Louis Lichtenfield

James Stewart was given the role of Charles Lindbergh after John Kerr had turned it down, owing to his disapproval of Lindbergh's pro-Nazi sympathies and his racist and anti-Semitic views. This was despite the fears of the producers that Stewart was too old for the part. Forty-seven year old Stewart was playing a 25 year old Lindbergh.


3:00 PM -- Anatomy Of A Murder (1959)
A small-town lawyer gets the case of a lifetime when a military man avenges an attack on his wife.
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara.
161 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Arthur O'Connell, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George C. Scott, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Sam Leavitt, Best Film Editing -- Louis R. Loeffler, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Wendell Mayes, and Best Picture

The part of the judge was offered to both Spencer Tracy and Burl Ives, but instead went to Joseph N. Welch who was a lawyer in real life who had represented the U.S. Army in the televised Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954.


5:45 PM -- Bell, Book and Candle (1959)
A beautiful witch puts a love spell on an unknowing publisher.
Dir: Richard Quine
Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon.
C-102 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color -- Cary Odell and Louis Diage, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White or Color -- Jean Louis

The title "Bell, Book and Candle" is a reference to excommunication, which is performed by bell, book and candle. It is opened with "Ring the bell, open the book, light the candle," and closed with "Ring the bell, close the book, quench the candle."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: BASED ON WILLIAM INGE



8:00 PM -- Picnic (1955)
A handsome drifter ignites passions at a small-town Labor Day picnic.
Dir: Joshua Logan
Cast: William Holden, Kim Novak, Betty Field.
C-113 min, TV-PG, CC

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- William Flannery, Jo Mielziner and Robert Priestley, and Best Film Editing -- Charles Nelson and William A. Lyon

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Arthur O'Connell, Best Director -- Joshua Logan, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- George Duning, and Best Picture

William Holden refused to do the dance sequence unless he was given an $8,000 "stuntman premium" and was allowed to do the scene while under the influence of alcohol. He didn't believe the studio would do either, but they wound up allowing both. In that scene he is actually intoxicated, and it still remains one of only four movies that he ever danced in (the others being Sabrina (1954), Dear Ruth (1947) and Sunset Blvd. (1950)), and one of the most memorable scenes in the movie.


10:00 PM -- Splendor In The Grass (1961)
Sexual repression drives a small-town Kansas girl mad during the roaring twenties.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat Hingle.
C-124 min, TV-14, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- William Inge

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Natalie Wood

The film's title comes from the poem, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" by William Wordsworth:
"Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendour in the grass,
of glory in the flower,
we will grieve not,
rather find strength in what remains behind."


12:15 AM -- All Fall Down (1962)
A young drifter's romance with an older woman is threatened by his possessive mother.
Dir: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Eva Marie Saint, Warren Beatty, Karl Malden.
110 min, TV-PG, CC

Filmed on location in Key West, Florida.


2:15 AM -- Jigoku (1960)
A student's life changes forever when his friend involves him in a hit and run.
Dir: Nobuo Nakagawa
C-101 min, TV-MA

The film's production company was going out of business while the film was being completed, leading to budget-saving tactics such as the actors helping dig their own holes in the movie's set for Hell. Critics kidded that this film killed the Shintoho Studio.


4:00 AM -- Tokaido Yotsuya kaidan (1959)
A samurai's wife returns from the dead for revenge.
Dir: Nobuo Nakagawa
C-77 min, TV-14

Also known as Ghost Story of Yotsuya


5:30 AM -- Tear Gas In Law Enforcement (1962)
Vintage training film used by police to show tear gas techniques.
C-27 min, TV-PG