TCM Schedule for Saturday, May 30, 2015 -- The Essentials: Small Town Justice

[Staph]

Tonight's Essentials features films about small town justice, including everybody's favorite, To Kill A Mockingbird (1962). Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Till The Clouds Roll By (1946)
True story of composer Jerome Kern's rise to the top on Broadway and in Hollywood.
Dir: Richard Whorf
Cast: June Allyson, Lucille Bremer, Judy Garland
C-135 mins, CC,

When MGM originally began planning this film, it asked Jerome Kern what he thought about Robert Walker being cast. He said it sounded all right, but he wanted to hear his wife's opinion. He phoned her from the office and she told him to stay and play himself and send Walker home to her.


8:30 AM -- The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936)
An ordinary man discovers he can make anything happen just by saying it.
Dir: Lothar Mendes
Cast: Roland Young, Ralph Richardson, Edward Chapman
BW-83 mins,

The first film of Michael Rennie and Nigel Stock.


10:00 AM -- Batman: Embers of Evil (1943)
The Caped Crusader battles a Japanese scientist turning people into zombies.
BW-14 mins,


10:30 AM -- The Lion Hunters (1951)
Bomba the Jungle Boy defends his animal friends from a team of unscrupulous hunters.
Dir: Ford Beebe
Cast: Johnny Sheffield, Morris Ankrum, Ann Todd
BW-80 mins,

Fifth of the twelve Bomba the Jungle Boy films.


12:00 PM -- Another Thin Man (1939)
Not even the joys of parenthood can stop married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles from investigating a murder on a Long Island estate.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Virginia Grey
BW-103 mins, CC,

The elegant car that Nick and Nora ride out to Col. MacFay's estate in is a 1935 Lincoln. This was an expensive, low-production car, with only about 1,400 made that year. The major movie studios kept a number of expensive cars around for executive purposes, and they often did double duty as props as required in production.


2:00 PM -- A Place in the Sun (1951)
An ambitious young man wins an heiress's heart but has to cope with his former girlfriend's pregnancy.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters
BW-122 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Director -- George Stevens, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Michael Wilson and Harry Brown, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- William C. Mellor, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head, Best Film Editing -- William Hornbeck, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Franz Waxman

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Montgomery Clift, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Shelley Winters, and Best Picture

In the scene where Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor are gaily zooming around the lake in a speedboat, director George Stevens wanted the engine to sound more ominous. Recordings of German Stuka dive bombers were used.


4:15 PM -- Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
A one-armed veteran uncovers small-town secrets when he tries to visit an Asian-American war hero's family.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis
C-82 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy, Best Director -- John Sturges, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Millard Kaufman

The sign behind the hotel desk is a quote from English evangelist John Wesley:
"Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can."


5:45 PM -- Mister Roberts (1955)
A naval officer longing for active duty clashes with his vainglorious captain.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell
C-121 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Lemmon

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- William A. Mueller (Warner Bros.), and Best Pictur

Before shooting the scene where Pulver identifies himself and tells Capt. Morton (James Cagney that he's been on the ship for "14 months, sir", Cagney realized that he would have to rehearse the moment with Jack Lemmon again and again so he wouldn't burst out laughing during the actual filming. Lemmon agreed, and when the scene was filmed Cagney claimed he was just barely able to hang on with a straight face, even after all the rehearsal time.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: SMALL TOWN JUSTICE



8:00 PM -- To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
A young girl grows up fast when her lawyer father defends a black man accused of raping a white woman.
Dir: Robert Mulligan
Cast: Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton
BW-129 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gregory Peck, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Horton Foote (Horton Foote was not present at the awards ceremony. Alan J. Pakula, the film's producer, accepted the award on his behalf.), and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Alexander Golitzen, Henry Bumstead and Oliver Emert

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Mary Badham, Best Director -- Robert Mulligan, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Russell Harlan, Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Elmer Bernstein, and Best Picture

The first scene that Gregory Peck shot showed him returning home from his character's law office while his children ran to greet him. Harper Lee was a guest on the set that day, and Peck noticed her crying after the scene was filmed. "Why are you crying?" Peck asked. Peck had looked just like her late father, the model for Atticus, Lee explained; Peck even had a little round pot belly like her father's. "That's not a pot belly, Harper," Peck told her, "That's great acting."


10:30 PM -- Fury (1936)
An innocent man escapes a lynch mob then returns for revenge.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy, Walter Abel
BW-93 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Norman Krasna

This was Fritz Lang's first film in Hollywood and he wasn't accustomed to labor laws that require meal breaks. Shortly after filming began Lang took a quick lunch between set-ups and resumed filming. Some of the crew members wondering about their lunch break asked Spencer Tracy, who in turn pointed out to Lang that it was "1:30 pm and the crew had yet to take their break". Lang replied that it was his set and "that I will call lunch when I think it should be called". Tracy, knowing that it would take at least 90 minutes to set his make-up, subsequently took his hand across his face and smeared the make-up hopelessly, yelled "Lunch!" and promptly walked off the set with the crew.


12:15 AM -- Intruder In The Dust (1949)
Only a young boy and an old woman stand between an innocent black man and a lynch mob.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: David Brian, Claude Jarman Jr., Juano Hernandez
BW-87 mins, CC,

The film is generally considered as breaking new ground in its depiction of blacks on screen. In 1949, it was certainly highly progressive in the way it portrayed African-Americans.


2:00 AM -- Nothing Lasts Forever (1984)
A displaced artist falls in with a group of social outcasts who actually rule the world.
Dir: Tom Schiller
Cast: Zach Galligan, Apollonia van Ravenstein, Lauren Tom
C-82 mins, CC,

John Belushi was supposed to appear in the film, but he died seven weeks before shooting began.


3:30 AM -- The Ice Pirates (1984)
Two space pirates are dragooned into helping a princess find her father.
Dir: Stuart Raffill
Cast: Robert Urich, Mary Crosby, Michael D Roberts
C-94 mins, CC,

One of two movies directed by Stewart Raffill, both science-fiction fantasy, that were released in 1984. The other film was The Philadelphia Experiment (1984). Both pictures involved time travel.


5:15 AM -- The Corvair In Action! (1960)
Technicians herald the arrival of a new car that "delivers the goods as no other compact car can" in this short advertisement.
C-6 mins,


5:15 AM -- Perversion For Profit (1965)
This anti-porn short film shows a floodtide of filth engulfing the country in the form of newsstand obscenity.
Cast: Damian O'Flynn,
C-31 mins,