TCM Schedule for Thursday, December 26 -- What's on Tonight: Fantasy Worlds

[Staph]

A day of very good films, most of them Oscar winning or nominated. And in prime time, we're visiting folks who live in their own personal fantasy lands -- I suppose because of the premiere of the new version of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- The Narrow Margin (1952)
A tough cop meets his match when he has to guard a gangster's moll on a tense train ride.
Dir: Richard Fleischer
Cast: Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White
BW-72 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Martin Goldsmith and Jack Leonard

Filmed in 1950, not released until 1952. According to director Richard Fleischer, when the film was finished RKO Pictures owner Howard Hughes heard good things about it and ordered that a copy of it be delivered to him so he could screen it in his private projection room. The film stayed in the projection room for more than a year, apparently because the eccentric Hughes forgot about it.


7:15 AM -- Julius Caesar (1953)
An all-star adaptation of Shakespeare's classic about Julius Caesar's assassination and its aftermath.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: John Doucette, George Macready, Michael Pate
BW-121 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Won ab Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Edward C. Carfagno, Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Marlon Brando, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa, and Best Picture

Director John Huston remarked on Brando's intense Method acting in this film as "like a hot furnace opening in a dark room."


9:17 AM -- Capriccio Italien (1953)
In this short film, The MGM Symphony Orchestra performs Tchaikovsky's "Capriccio Italien."
BW-10 mins,

This short was first shown immediately preceding the premiere engagement of MGM's 1953 film version of William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar".


9:30 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
BW-130 mins, TV-G, CC,

Won an 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 Director -- Frank Capra, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sidney Buchman, Best Art Direction -- Lionel Banks, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), Best Film Editing -- Gene Havlick and Al Clark, Best Music, Scoring -- Dimitri Tiomkin, 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.


11:45 AM -- Sweet Bird Of Youth (1962)
A young gigolo returns to his southern hometown in search of the lost love of his youth.
Dir: Richard Brooks
Cast: Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Shirley Knight
C-120 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ed Begley

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Geraldine Page, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Shirley Knight

Was given a pre-rating advisory of restricted by the MPAA, disallowing any persons under the age of 18 from attending. This was pre-rating equivalent of an X (later NC-17) rating. By modern standards the film is so tame, when Shown on Turner Classic Movies, it's rated TV-PG.


2:00 PM -- The Old Man and the Sea (1958)
A Cuban fisherman believes his long dry spell will end when he catches a legendary fish.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Felipe Pazos Jr., Harry Bellaver, Spencer Tracy
C-87 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Dimitri Tiomkin

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy, and Best Cinematography, Color -- James Wong Howe

Ernest Hemingway himself was initially involved in the production, although the extent of his participation after selling his book was to go marlin-fishing off the coast of Peru to try to find a fish worthy enough for the picture. In the end, the producers used a rubber marlin and stock footage of marlin fishing in which Hemingway didn't participate in. After seeing the film, Ernest Hemingway expressed his disappointment and said that Spencer Tracy looked less the Cuban peasant fisherman and more the rich old actor that he was.


3:30 PM -- All This, and Heaven Too (1940)
A French nobleman falls in love with his children's governess.
Dir: Anatole Litvak
Cast: Bette Davis, Charles Boyer, Jeffrey Lynn
BW-143 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Barbara O'Neil, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ernest Haller, and Best Picture

Upon their first meeting, the Duchesse de Praslin asks Henriette how old she is, revealing the answer to be 25-years-old; the Duchesse considers this "so young". Amusingly enough in real life, Barbara O'Neil was twenty-nine years old at the time of filming, while Bette Davis was two years older.


6:00 PM -- Life With Father (1947)
A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really rules the roost.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: William Powell, Irene Dunne, Elizabeth Taylor
C-118 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- William Powell, Best Cinematography, Color -- J. Peverell Marley and William V. Skall, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Robert M. Haas and George James Hopkins, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

Mary Pickford made several tests for the role of Vinnie, but the studio worried about her box office popularity after a 13-year absence from the screen. In the end, director Michael Curtiz vetoed her, as he preferred Irene Dunne.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FANTASY WORLDS



8:00 PM -- The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (1947)
An accountant dreams of being a hero but finds it's not so easy in real life.
Dir: Norman Z. McLeod
Cast: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Boris Karloff
C-110 mins, TV-G, CC,

Author James Thurber acknowledged that the character Walter Mitty was based on his friend, writer Robert Benchley. Thurber said that he got the idea for Mitty from the character created by Benchley in a series of shorts that he made for Fox and MGM, respectively, in the 1920s and 1930s. Thurber is also on record as saying that he hated this film and that Danny Kaye's interpretation of Mitty is nothing at all like he intended the character to be. I wonder what Thurber would think of Ben Stiller and the new version of the story.


10:00 PM -- Billy Liar (1963)
An emotionally stunted clerk retreats into his fantasies.
Dir: John Schlesinger
Cast: Tom Courtenay, Julie Christie, Wilfred Pickles
BW-99 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Keith Waterhouse wrote the novel "Billy Liar" inspired by the cartoon story "Walter Mitty" by James Thurber.


11:49 PM -- Penny Wisdom (1937)
A newspaper columnist saves an important family dinner in this comedic short.
Dir: David Miller
Cast: Gertrude Short, William Worthington, Prudence Penny
C-10 mins,

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Color -- Pete Smith


12:00 AM -- Pennies From Heaven (1981)
A traveling salesman's music-inspired dreams lead to tragedy.
Dir: Herbert Ross
Cast: Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Walken
C-108 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Dennis Potter, Best Costume Design -- Bob Mackie, and Best Sound -- Michael J. Kohut, Jay M. Harding, Richard Tyler and Al Overton Jr.

The "pennies" that are seen raining down from heaven were penny sized sequins. After filming, they blew out the stage door, and could be found in the corners in the streets at MGM studios for almost a year.


2:00 AM -- Juliet of the Spirits (1965)
An aging housewife seeks direction when she catches her husband in an affair.
Dir: Federico Fellini
Cast: Giulietta Masina, Alba Cancellieri, Mario Pisu
C-137 mins, TV-14, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Piero Gherardi, and Best Costume Design, Color -- Piero Gherardi

Director Federico Fellini claimed he took LSD in preparation for making this film.


4:30 AM -- The Projectionist (1971)
A lonely motion-picture projectionist imagines himself within the films he shows.
Dir: Harry Hurwitz
Cast: Chuck McCann, Ina Balin, Rodney Dangerfield
C-85 mins, TV-MA, Letterbox Format

Film debut of Rodney Dangerfield.