TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 4, 2013 -- What's On Tonight -- The 4th on Film

[Staph]

Happy Fourth of July! TCM is celebrating with a day filled with films about the American Revolution and Americana in general. Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- The Howards of Virginia (1940)
A young Virginian joins the American Revolution despite his love for a beautiful Royalist.
Dir: Frank Lloyd
Cast: Cary Grant, Martha Scott, Cedric Hardwicke
BW-116 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Score -- Richard Hageman, and Best Sound, Recording -- Jack Whitney (General Service SSD)

Joan Fontaine was slated to be loaned by David O. Selznick to Columbia for the lead, but abdominal surgery sidelined her, and she was replaced by Martha Scott.


8:15 AM -- The Devil's Disciple (1959)
A preacher and a rebel leader change places during the Revolution.
Dir: Guy Hamilton
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier
BW-83 mins, TV-PG,

The play was first performed as a 'Copyright Performance' on 17 April 1897 in London, with George Bernard Shaw reading the part of Rev. Anderson. He was unhappy with the play and wouldn't permit a public performance at that time. It was first shown in the United States on Broadway's Fifth Avenue Theater in New York City on 4 October 1897, and in London the following year. There were 4 Broadway revivals in the United States, the last in 1988.


9:45 AM -- The Scarlet Coat (1955)
An American officer goes undercover to unmask a Revolutionary War traitor.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Cornel Wilde, Michael Wilding, George Sanders
C-101 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Based loosely on the behind-the-scenes events leading to the treason of Benedict Arnold.


11:30 AM -- Let Freedom Ring (1939)
A crusader returns to his Western hometown to root out corruption.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Nelson Eddy, Virginia Bruce, Victor McLaglen
BW-87 mins, TV-G, CC,

A festival of great character actors, including Victor McLaglen, Charles Butterworth, Edward Arnold, Lionel Barrymore, Raymond Walburn, Guy Kibbee, Gabby Hayes, H. B. Warner, and Louis Jean Heydt.


1:00 PM -- Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949)
A beautiful woman takes over a turn-of-the-century baseball team.
Dir: Busby Berkeley
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly
C-93 mins, TV-G, CC,

The idea for the movie was conceived by Gene Kelly, who wanted to pay tribute to the early days of baseball. The movie takes place between 1909 and 1911, as evidenced by Ryan's picture on a new T206 baseball card.


2:40 PM -- Andy Hardy's Dilemma (1938)
Judge Hardy teaches his son Andy a lesson about charity while used-car shopping.
Dir: George B. Seitz
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone,
BW-18 mins, TV-G,

There are a couple of Gone With The Wind co-stars in this short -- Rand Brooks (who will play Scarlett's first husband Charles Hamilton in 1939), and Ann Rutherford (who will play Scarlett's youngest sister Careen, who is not the sister who was in love with Charles Hamilton).


3:00 PM -- Anchors Aweigh (1945)
A pair of sailors on leave try to help a movie extra become a singing star.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Gene Kelly
C-139 mins, TV-G, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- George Stoll (On 10 September 2001 Kevin Spacey purchased Stoll's Oscar statuette at a Butterfields auction in Los Angeles and returned it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gene Kelly, Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert H. Planck and Charles P. Boyle, Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "I Fall in Love Too Easily", and Best Picture

For the most famous sequence in the film, Mickey Mouse was originally meant to be the dance partner of Gene Kelly. However, when Walt Disney refused to have his most famous character appear in an MGM film. Kelly turned to MGM's own animation studio and used Jerry Mouse of Tom and Jerry fame. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the writer/directors of MGM's "Tom and Jerry" cartoons, supervised the animation for the sequence. When the dance sequence was screened for MGM executives, someone noticed that although Kelly's reflection shone on the floor during his dancing, Jerry's did not. This required animators William Hanna, Joseph Barbera and their team to go back in and draw Jerry's reflection on the floor as he was dancing.


5:30 PM -- Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Spirited musical biography of the song-and-dance man who kept America humming through two world wars.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston
BW-126 mins, TV-G, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Cagney, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Ray Heindorf and Heinz Roemheld, and Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Walter Huston, Best Director -- Michael Curtiz, Best Film Editing -- George Amy, Best Writing, Original Story -- Robert Buckner, and Best Picture

According to James Cagney's autobiography his brother William Cagney (who was also his manager) actively pursued the role of ultra-patriotic George M. Cohan for James as a way of removing the taint of James' political activities in the 1930s, when he was a strong, somewhat radical supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. When Cohan himself learned about Cagney's background as a song-and-dance man in vaudeville, he approved him for the project.


7:43 PM -- Hollywood Wonderland (1947)
In this short film, tour guides take visitors on a promotional guide of Warner Brothers' studios.
Dir: Jack Scholl
Cast: Robert Arthur, Lauren Bacall, John Carroll
C-16 mins,

Features musical numbers edited from earlier Warner Bros. Technicolor shorts: "The Blue Danube" from Gypsy Sweetheart (1935), "Drifting on the Rio Grande" and "Swinging Through the Kitchen Door" from Swingtime in the Movies (1938), "Annie Laurie" from The Changing of the Guard (1936), "Dancing is the Darndest One" from Ride, Cowboy, Ride (1939), and "Beyond the Open Road" from Sunday Roundup (1939).



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE 4TH ON FILM



8:00 PM -- The Music Man (1962)
A con artist hawks musical instruments and band uniforms to small-town America.
Dir: Morton DaCosta
Cast: Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett
C-151 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Ray Heindorf

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Paul Groesse and George James Hopkins, Best Costume Design, Color -- Dorothy Jeakins, Best Film Editing -- William H. Ziegler, Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD), and Best Picture

Even though Robert Preston had played the role of Harold Hill on Broadway, Frank Sinatra was Warner Bros' personal choice to play the role in the movie. However, Meredith Willson told them, "No Robert Preston, no movie." Cary Grant was also offered the lead role, but told Warner Brothers, "Not only will I not star in the movie, if Robert Preston does not star in it, I will not see it."


10:45 PM -- Ah, Wilderness! (1935)
In his only comedy, Eugene O'Neill captures the trials of growing up in small-town America.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Aline MacMahon
BW-98 mins, TV-G, CC,

Will Rogers planned to play Nat Miller in this film, but eventually backed out of the project, enabling him to make the ill-fated airplane trip with Wiley Post to Alaska. The plane crashed, killing them both.


12:28 AM -- Give Me Liberty (1936)
This film presents a dramatization of Patrick Henry's speech before the Virginia legislature in which he argues for colonial independence.
Dir: B. Reeves Eason
Cast: John Litel, Nedda Harrigan, Carlyle Moore Jr.
C-21 mins,

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Color -- (Warner Bros.).

Later edited into The Bill of Rights (1939) (Short), March On, America! (1942) (Short), and My Country 'Tis of Thee (1950 - the scene with Patrick Henry's speech).


12:50 AM -- The Declaration Of Independence (1938)
A short account of the meeting of the Continental Congress in the summer of 1776.
Dir: Crane Wilbur
Cast: John Litel, Richard Bond, Rosella Towne
C-17 mins,

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel -- (Warner Bros.).

Edited into The Tanks Are Coming (1941) (Short), and March On, America! (1942) (Short)


1:08 AM -- Sons Of Liberty (1939)
A patriotic short chronicling the efforts of underground leader and military financier Haym Salomon during the American Revolution.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Claude Rains, Gale Sondergaard, Donald Crisp
C-21 mins,

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel -- (Warner Bros.).

This short is included as a bonus on the Warner DVD of Dodge City (1939).


1:30 AM -- 1776 (1972)
The founding fathers struggle to draft the Declaration of Independence.
Dir: Peter H. Hunt
Cast: William Daniels, Howard Da Silva, Ken Howard
C-165 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography -- Harry Stradling Jr.

Although the Cool, Cool Considerate Men number was cut from the original film release as a favor to Richard Nixon by Jack L. Warner, the cut footage was not destroyed like Warner had done before in similar past circumstances since he was no longer a studio head. For that reason only, the excised segment was found and could be restored to the laserdisc and DVD. Nixon asked the writer Sherman Edwards to cut it out after seeing the play at the White House, but the author steadfastly refused.


4:30 AM -- Winchester '73 (1950)
A man combs the West in search of his stolen rifle.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: James Stewart, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea
C-92 mins, TV-PG, CC,

In the famous scene where James Stewart shoots a bullet through the washer with the postage stamp...that is not Hollywood magic. The shot is performed successfully by renowned marksman Herb Parsons.

[CBHagman]

1. "The Music Man" is a great piece of Americana...

...but I'd also point out that it's about a con man.

As for those casting stories, oy! I'm glad Meredith Willson put his foot down. My stepmother used to say that The Music Man was one of the few musicals she'd seen where the film version ranked with the original stage production.

Of course two decades later Robert Preston would still be winning over audiences, this time as Julie Andrews' gay mentor in Victor/Victoria.

[CBHagman]

2. "1776"

"Sit Down, John!"