TCM Schedule for Friday, May 27 -- What's On Tonight - Memorial Day Weekend

[Staph]

TCM is celebrating Memorial Day Weekend with movies about soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. But we start this evening with films about submariners. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Valley Of The Giants (1938)
A lumberman takes on pirates out to plunder the forest.
Dir: William Keighley
Cast: Wayne Morris, Claire Trevor, Frank McHugh.
79 min, TV-G, CC

Nitrate and safety prints of this film survive in the UCLA Film and Television Archives.


7:30 AM -- The Three Musketeers (1948)
Athletic adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' classic adventure about the king's musketeers and their mission to protect France.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Lana Turner, Gene Kelly, June Allyson.
C-126 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert H. Planck

Fearing pressure from church groups, MGM had the script refer to Richelieu as Prime Minister rather than Cardinal and almost all traces of him being a cardinal or a man of the church at all have been removed, even though other versions of this story kept Richelieu explicitly a cardinal without any repercussions.


9:45 AM -- Mogambo (1953)
In this remake of Red Dust, an African hunter is torn between a lusty showgirl and a married woman.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly.
C-116 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ava Gardner, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Grace Kelly

The censors in Spain did not allow adultery to be shown on the screen. For that reason, MGM changed the relationship of the characters of Linda Nordley (Grace Kelly) and Donald Nordley (Donald Sinden) from wife and husband to sister and brother in the dubbed version released in Spain. However, they did not delete a scene in which both share a bed together.


11:50 AM -- Phonies Beware (1956)
This Screenliner short shows how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) looks at drug claims that may be fraudulent.
Dir: Larry O'Reilly
Narrator: Bob Hite
8 min


12:00 PM -- Blood Alley (1955)
An American sailor breaks out of a Chinese jail and dodges Communist agents on the road to Hong Kong.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Paul Fix.
C-115 min, TV-PG

There was some surprise when Lauren Bacall agreed to make the movie since she was a left-wing Democrat and the film was right-wing propaganda.


2:00 PM -- Operation Crossbow (1965)
Allied agents go behind enemy lines to destroy a German missile base.
Dir: Michael Anderson
Cast: Sophia Loren, George Peppard, Trevor Howard.
C-116 min, TV-PG, CC

The title was (briefly) changed by MGM for the US release to "The Great Spy Mission" because the studio thought that having the word "operation" in the title might make people think it was either a medical film or a Robin Hood-type movie, a genre that wasn't doing well at the box office at the time.


4:00 PM -- The Seventh Cross (1944)
Seven men escape from a concentration camp and fight their way to freedom.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Signe Hasso, Hume Cronyn.
112 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Hume Cronyn

Based on the novel "Das siebte Kreuz" by Anna Seghers.


6:00 PM -- Silver River (1948)
A ruthless gambler's rise to power is cut short by character flaws.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Thomas Mitchell.
109 min, TV-PG, CC

Based on the novel by Stephen Longstreet.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND



8:00 PM -- Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)
Officers on a WWII submarine clash during a perilous Pacific tour.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, Jack Warden.
93 min, TV-PG, CC

The older / younger dynamic (deskbound older commander taking the reins of what was to be the younger commander's first ship, yet keeping the younger officer on as the Exec) was featured prominently in another Robert Wise film some 20 years later: Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).


9:37 PM -- I Won't Play (1944)
On an unnamed Pacific Island, a marine brags that he helped many people in show business advance their careers.
Dir: Crane Wilbur
Cast: Dane Clark, Janis Paige, Warren Douglas
18 min, TV-PG

Based on an original short story by Lawrence Schwab.


10:00 PM -- Destination Tokyo (1943)
A U.S. sub braves enemy waters during World War II.
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: Cary Grant, John Garfield, Alan Hale.
135 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Steve Fisher

The appendectomy operation conducted by the character Pills (William Prince) was inspired by an actual appendix operation performed aboard the submarine "Seadragon" in 1942. The real-life appendectomy was performed by 22-year-old pharmacist's mate Wheeler B. Lipes with the help of an assistant. The two were able to extract the appendix of Seaman Darrell Dean Rector under very trying conditions with limited resources and skills. They used kitchen utensils and equipment including a strainer and bent spoons as retractors; alcohol taken from torpedoes, and sterilized pajamas as surgical gowns. The sub's crew had believed that Lipes was the most qualified person to perform such a life-or-death operation, as he had apparently observed appendectomies before. Lipes was persuaded to do the operation by his fellow crewmen. The operation took place 120 feet below the surface of the South China Sea. Afterwards, Lipes' actions were criticized by US Navy doctors and the US Surgeon General even considered court-martialling him. Over 60 years later, in April 2005, Lipes finally received the US Navy Commendation Medal, two months before his death. According to the 19 April 2005 Los Angeles Times obituary of Lipes, this operation was the first ever performed in a submerged submarine.


12:19 AM -- Modern Tokyo (1935)
This Traveltalks entry looks at pre-World War II Tokyo, highlighting the influences of Western culture.
Narrator: James FitzPatrick
C-9 min

This short documentary depicts the world of the Japanese capitol in the mid-1930s, emphasizing the influence on Western culture on the architecture, dress, and activities of Tokyo. A brief description is given of the massive earthquake which led to the rebuilding of much of the city. Children are seen playing in activities that are either ancient or quite modern in their roots. Finally examples of the old and new in Japanese shipping are exhibited.


12:30 AM -- Up Periscope (1959)
A U.S. frogman infiltrates a Japanese-held island during World War II.
Dir: Gordon Douglas
Cast: James Garner, Edmond O'Brien, Andra Martin.
C-112 min, TV-PG, CC

All underwater miniature submarine shots were reused from the film Destination Tokyo (1943).


2:30 AM -- Torpedo Run (1958)
A submarine commander is forced to blow up a Japanese prison ship carrying his family.
Dir: Joseph Pevney
Cast: Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine, Diane Brewster.
C-95 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie and Harold Humbrock

This movie represents one of a select group of a few World War II submarine movies which have won the one single Academy Award in a technical category, that's just only the one Oscar in either special effects or sound editing. These movies include Crash Dive (1943); The Enemy Below (1957); Torpedo Run (1958) and U-571 (2000). The non-WW II sub-movie, The Hunt for Red October (1990) also won just the one Oscar as did the WW 2 part sub-movie 49th Parallel (1941), but for Best Original Story.


4:15 AM -- Hell Below (1933)
A submarine captain clashes with one of his crew during World War I.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Robert Montgomery, Walter Huston, Madge Evans.
101 min, TV-PG, CC

The destroyer shown sinking in the movie is an actual decommissioned WWI destroyer, USS Moody. Additions were made to the superstructure to replace missing sections, and scuttling charges simulated the torpedo hit.