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6:00 AM -- Secrets (1933)
A New England society girl braves the West to help her husband build his fortune.
Dir: Frank Borzage
Cast: Mary Pickford, Leslie Howard, C. Aubrey Smith.
84 min, TV-G
Marshall Neilan was the original director, but he was fired by producer Mary Pickford for showing up too drunk to work. He was replaced by Frank Borzage.
7:30 AM -- Captured! (1933)
While in a POW camp, a man discovers his best friend was his wife's lover.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth
Cast: Leslie Howard, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Paul Lukas.
69 min, TV-G
The airplane escape sequence at the end used 75 biplanes and 1,500 people, and was filmed at night.
8:45 AM -- British Agent (1934)
An Englishman falls in love with a Russian spy.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Leslie Howard, Kay Francis, William Gargan.
81 min, TV-G
41 different sets were constructed for the film; there were 1500 cast members; 3000 rounds of ammunition was shot in the riot scenes.
10:15 AM -- The Petrified Forest (1936)
An escaped convict holds the customers at a remote desert cantina hostage.
Dir: Archie L. Mayo
Cast: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Genevieve Tobin.
82 min, TV-G, CC
Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart had played the same roles in the stage version. Warner Brothers wanted to put Howard in the film but replace Bogart with Edward G. Robinson. Howard insisted on Bogart, and Robinson was happy to step aside from yet another gangster role. Bogart would later name his second child with Lauren Bacall Leslie, in honor of Howard, the man who gave him his first big break.
11:45 AM -- The Scarlet Pimpernel (1935)
A British aristocrat's effete facade masks a swashbuckling hero rescuing victims of the French revolution.
Dir: Harold Young
Cast: Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, Raymond Massey.
98 min, TV-G
Percy Blakeney refers to one of the boxers as "Mendoza", a reference to Daniel Mendoza, the 17th-century British Jew who revolutionized boxing. Mendoza was the heavyweight champion of England from 1792-5, despite being a middleweight.
1:30 PM -- It's Love I'm After (1937)
A squabbling stage couple gets mixed up with an amorous fan and her jealous suitor.
Dir: Archie L. Mayo
Cast: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland.
90 min, TV-PG, CC
According to a story by Southeast Missourian newspaper, Leslie Howard could be a difficult man to track down, wandering off the set between takes. One day Tay Garnett, while directing Stand-In (1937), had to have several men take him into custody. With the gentleness due a star, they tied him up, clapping leg irons on him. Garnett finally put him on probation, but gave Howard a cowbell and ordered him to bong the bell when on a stroll. It wasn't long before a scene was ready for shooting-- but no Howard. Soon enough they heard the cowbell, though, in a distant corner of the sound stage and up in the catwalks. Converging in on the sound, they found only the bell with a string attached. They traced the string over rafters back to the lighted set where "Stand-In" was suppose to be shooting. There sat Mr. Howard, yanking at the string, plaintively indignant about the absence of Director Garnett.
3:15 PM -- 49th Parallel (1941 - released in the US as The Invaders)
The crew of a stranded German U-boat tries to evade capture in Canada during World War II.
Dir: Michael Powell
Cast: Leslie Howard, Raymond Massey, Laurence Olivier.
122 min, TV-14
Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Emeric Pressburger
Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Rodney Ackland and Emeric Pressburger, and Best Picture
Commissioned by the Ministry of Information to raise worldwide awareness (American in particular) of the Nazi threat. However, it was intended for Canadian consumption also, as many French Canadians did not want to be at war with Germany and did not want to fight. Vichy France was an ally of Nazi Germany, and many French Canadians in Quebec were pro-German. One of the reasons Laurence Olivier, the biggest star in the film, played a French Canadian trapper named Johnny who tells the Nazi officer he is a "Canadian" in the film and not "French" was that it was intended also as propaganda to promote pro-British feeling in Quebec. When Canada resorted to conscription to swell the ranks of its Army, there were draft riots throughout Quebec, so intense was the feeling against the United Kingdom, which of course had subjugated New France less than 200 years before. Anti-war sentiment was so rife throughout Canada, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King declared that only volunteers would be shipped off to Europe.
5:30 PM -- The First of the Few (1942 - also known as Spitfire)
An aircraft designer struggles to create a new kind of fighter plane to take on the Nazis.
Dir: Leslie Howard
Cast: Leslie Howard, David Niven, Rosamund John.
119 min
In the film Leslie Howard's Mitchell says he wants his new fighter to be "a bird that breathes fire and spits out death and destruction; A *spitfire* bird", giving the aircraft its name. In reality, when RJ Mitchell was told the name the RAF had given to his design he is supposed to have said: "That's the sort of bloody silly name they *would* choose!"
Howard's last screen appearance before his death, when the KLM plane he was in was shot down by German fighters over the Bay of Biscay.
7:30 PM -- Now Playing July (2011)
Features highlights of the month's programming on TCM, including festivals and stars.
C-16 min, CC
TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: SINGING COWBOYS
8:00 PM -- The Old Corral (1936)
A sheriff helps a singer who's on the run after witnessing a murder.
Dir: Joseph Kane
Cast: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Hope Manning.
58 min, CC
Roy Rogers appears in this Gene Autry feature as one of The Sons Of The Pioneers' singing group. Better yet, he gets into a fight with Gene, which Gene wins, and then Roy yodels. Gene prophetically replies "Keep singin'".
9:00 PM -- Home on the Prairie (1939)
A boarder inspector fights to keep diseased animals out of the U.S.
Dir: Jack Townley
Cast: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, June Storey.
59 min, CC
Per IMDB, this is one of three films about hoof and mouth disease.
10:15 PM -- Back In The Saddle (1941)
A land grabber frames a rancher who's discovered copper on his land.
Dir: Lew Landers
Cast: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Mary Lee.
72 min, CC
The song Back In The Saddle Again became Autry's trademark song, though not his best seller. That would be Rudolph The Red-nosed Reindeer.
11:45 PM -- Texans Never Cry (1951)
A Texas Ranger tries to bring down counterfeiters selling fake lottery tickets.
Dir: Frank McDonald
Cast: Gene Autry, Champion, Mary Castle.
67 min, CC
Autry used three horses to portray his horse "Champion". The first died in 1947. The third one, who appeared in Autry's television series, died in 1991 at age 42. There was also a fourth horse used for personal appearances, known as "Little Champion".
1:00 AM -- Wagon Team (1952)
A stagecoach agent goes undercover with a medicine show to hunt down the band that stole the Army's payroll.
Dir: George Archainbaud
Cast: Gene Autry, Champion, Gail Davis.
62 min, CC
The big fight sequence between Gene Autry, George J. Lewis and John L. Cason was originally used in The Big Sombrero (1949).
2:15 AM -- The Super Cops (1974)
Two rogue cops enlist a streetwalker to help them stop a deadly drug ring.
Dir: Gordon Parks
Cast: Ron Leibman, David Selby, Sheila Frazier.
C-93 min, TV-MA , CC
The two real-life policemen, David Greenberg and Robert Hantz, upon whose exploits this film is based, appear in bit parts as detectives.
4:00 AM -- Cops and Robbers (1973)
Two police officers turn to crime to augment their pensions.
C-89 min, TV-MA , CC
Last completed cinema film of Kent Smith.
5:30 AM -- MGM Parade Show #4 (1955)
George Murphy tours Lake Metro, where "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Show Boat" were shot, and introduces a clip from "Good News." These clips feature June Allyson and Peter Lawford.
26 min, TV-G
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