TCM Schedule for Friday, April 19, 2013 -- Friday Night Spotlight: A Woman's World

[Staph]

It's a day of juvenile delinquents and an evening of women spouting really snappy dialogue -- Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday (1940), Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year (1942), and Ginger Rogers in Tender Comrade (1943). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Reefer Madness (1936)
Drug dealers lure a pair of young innocents into marijuana addiction.
Dir: Louis Gasnier
Cast: Dorothy Short, Kenneth Craig, Lillian Miles
BW-65 mins, TV-14,

A special-edition DVD of the film was released in 2004, with an outrageously non-realistic colorization (the various characters who smoke all exhale brightly colored pastel smoke) and a satirical commentary track by Michael J. Nelson of Mystery Science Theater 3000.


7:00 AM -- Crime in the Streets (1956)
A social worker tries to end juvenile crime by getting involved with a street gang.
Dir: Don Siegel
Cast: James Whitmore, Sal Mineo, Mark Rydell
BW-91 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Remake of The Elgin Hour: Crime in the Streets (1955) (TV Episode) -- John Cassavetes reprises his role.


8:45 AM -- The Delinquents (1957)
When he's separated from the girl he loves, a teen turns to crime.
Dir: Robert Altman
Cast: Tom Laughlin, Peter Miller, Richard Bakalyan
BW-72 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format

Alfred Hitchcock was impressed with this film. As a result, Robert Altman was hired to direct episodes of Hitchcock's TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.


10:00 AM -- The Young Savages (1961)
An assistant DA suspects one of the delinquents he's prosecuting for murder is his son.
Dir: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Dina Merrill, Shelley Winters
BW-103 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

When Burt Lancaster walked onto the set the first day of shooting, he was startled and dismayed to see the camera on the floor, aiming upward. Lancaster had never before worked with a director who used such innovative camera angles. He grew to trust Frankenhiemer, and they made four more films together.


11:45 AM -- The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner (1962)
A boy from the Irish slums reviews his troubled past while training for a school race.
Dir: Tony Richardson
Cast: Tom Courtenay, Michael Redgrave, Avis Bunnage
BW-104 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

First film of Julia Foster.


1:30 PM -- Blackboard Jungle (1955)
An idealistic teacher confronts the realities of juvenile delinquency.
Dir: Richard Brooks
Cast: Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern
BW-101 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell, Edwin B. Willis and Henry Grace, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Russell Harlan, Best Film Editing -- Ferris Webster, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Richard Brooks

The original novel was based on author Evan Hunter's own experiences as a teacher in South Bronx. Hunter, who found fame as crime writer Ed McBain, said "I thought I was going to give these kids who want to be motor mechanics Shakespeare and they were going to appreciate it and they weren't buying it. I went home in tears night after night".


3:15 PM -- Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
An alienated teenager tries to handle life's troubles and an apron-wearing dad.
Dir: Nicholas Ray
Cast: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo
C-111 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sal Mineo, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Natalie Wood, and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Nicholas Ray

Natalie Wood was first considered too naive and wholesome for the role of Judy. She began changing her looks and eventually attracted the notice of director Nicholas Ray, who began an affair with her but still would not guarantee her the part, though he eventually relented. Both Ray and Wood later claimed that he changed his mind after she was in a car accident with Dennis Hopper and someone in the hospital called her a "goddamn juvenile delinquent".


5:15 PM -- West Side Story (1961)
A young couple from dueling street gangs falls in love.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn
C-153 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Chakiris, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Rita Moreno, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Boris Leven and Victor A. Gangelin, Best Cinematography, Color -- Daniel L. Fapp, Best Costume Design, Color -- Irene Sharaff, Best Director -- Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (For the first time a directing award is being shared.), Best Film Editing -- Thomas Stanford, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, Best Sound -- Fred Hynes (Todd-AO SSD) and Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), and Best Picture

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Ernest Lehman

Opening dance sequences were shot on the upper west side of Manhattan where Lincoln Center stands today. This area was condemned and the buildings were in the process of being demolished to make way for Lincoln Center. The demolition of these buildings was delayed so that the filming of these sequences could be completed.


TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: A WOMAN'S WORLD



8:00 PM -- His Girl Friday (1940)
An unscrupulous editor plots to keep his star reporter-and ex-wife-from re-marrying.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy
BW-92 mins, TV-G, CC,

During the 1930s, Howard Hawks was hosting a dinner party when the topic of dialogue was brought up. He pulled out a copy of "The Front Page" to demonstrate the snappy exchanges between characters, taking the role of Burns. A female guest took the role of Hildy. While reading, Hawks realized the dialogue sounded much better with a female reading, and quickly secured the rights for the film from Howard Hughes. Ben Hecht (the author of "The Front Page&quot approved the gender change and the screenplay was put into production.


10:00 PM -- Woman of the Year (1942)
Opposites distract when a sophisticated political columnist falls for a sportswriter.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter
BW-114 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner Jr.

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn

The reason for the changed ending is revealed in the book 'A Remarkable Woman: A Biography of Katharine Hepburn' by Anne Edwards. It says, "Joseph L. Mankiewicz and George Stevens were concerned that 'the average American housewife, seated next to her husband, staring for two hours at this paragon of beauty, intelligence, wit, accomplishment, and everything else, (could not) help but wonder if her husband (wasn't) comparing her very unfavorably with this goddess he sees on the screen.' Stevens, who for all his charm was a dedicated male chauvinist, decided with Mankiewicz that Tess Harding had to have her comeuppance." This is why the ending was added showing Tess as incompetent in the kitchen. (Personally, I hate the ending, but it seems typical of the time period.)


12:00 AM -- Tender Comrade (1943)
Lady welders pool their resources to share a house during World War II.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Robert Ryan, Ruth Hussey
BW-102 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and director Edward Dmytryk were known for their left-wing political beliefs - they were among the infamous "Hollywood Ten" blacklisted during the McCarthy-era anti-Communist hysteria after the war - and Ginger Rogers, a staunch Republican, began noticing what she interpreted to be "anti-American" speeches in her dialog. Upon complaining, the speeches were given to other actresses.


2:00 AM -- The Devil and Miss Jones (1941)
A department store owner goes undercover as an employee to thwart union activists.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Jean Arthur, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn
BW-92 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Charles Coburn, and Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Norman Krasna

Jean Arthur planned to remake the picture with her as the devil and the title "The Devil and Mr. Jones," but that project never materialized.


4:00 AM -- Norma Rae (1979)
A young single mother and her co-worker try to unionize the milll where they work.
Dir: Martin Ritt
Cast: Sally Field, Beau Bridges, Ron Leibman
C-115 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Sally Field, and Best Music, Original Song -- David Shire (music) and Norman Gimbel (lyrics) for the song "It Goes Like It Goes"

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr., and Best Picture

The movie is based on a true life union organizing campaign at J.P. Stevens Mill in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. The real life Norma Rae is named Crystal Lee Sutton. The union organizer, Reuben Warshowsky, is based on Eli Zivkovich. (In real life, Zivkovich was a 55-year-old former West Virginia coal miner, not a New Yorker, as depicted in the film.) In 1974, thanks to the efforts of Crystal Lee Sutton and Eli Zivkovich, workers at J.P. Stevens Mill voted to join the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. However, it still took 10 years to get a union contract at J.P. Stevens after the workers won the election. Some real-life events from Crystal Lee Sutton's story are re-created verbatim in the movie, including the famous scene where Norma Rae holds up the "UNION" sign and the plant workers shut down their machines, and the following scene where Norma Rae wakes her children to tell them about her relationships with their fathers. Crystal Lee Sutton did both in real life.

[CBHagman]

1. "The Devil and Miss Jones" is a lot of fun...

...and in its own way, progressive. And it's always a pleasure to see S.Z. Sakall (here in a supporting role) and Jean Arthur in the lead. She deserves to be better remembered than she perhaps is today (Barbara Stanwyck, a different type, has a similar problem). She's not a cultural icon but she made a number of extremely watchable and memorable movies.

[Auggie]

2. I saw Reefer Madness this morning ...

first time.

I can understand the appeal of seeing it stoned. I thought it was hilarious stone-cold sober.