TCM Schedule for Thursday, June 18, 2015 -- What's On Tonight - Bugging Out

[Staph]

We're spending the day with the musical stylings of Jeannette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. It's actually Jeanette Macdonald's birthday -- June 18, 1903, in Philadelphia. In prime time, it's an evening full of creepy crawlies. Enjoy -- or not!


6:00 AM -- Solomon And Sheba (1959)
Epic tale of the Biblical king's seduction by a pagan queen.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: Yul Brynner, Gina Lollobrigida, George Sanders
C-141 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Co-producer/star Tyrone Power had completed shooting more than half of the film when he collapsed during a duelling scene with George Sanders and died a few minutes later. Power was replaced in the role of Solomon by Yul Brynner, who refilmed all of Power's scenes. Power, however, is still visible in the film in long shots.


8:30 AM -- Forbidden Planet (1956)
A group of space troopers investigates the destruction of a colony on a remote planet.
Dir: Fred McLeod Wilcox
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen
C-98 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie, Irving G. Ries and Wesley C. Miller

Star Trek (1966) creator Gene Roddenberry has been quoted as saying that this film was a major inspiration for that series. Perhaps not accidentally, Warren Stevens, who plays "Doc" here, would later be a guest star in 1968's Star Trek: By Any Other Name (1968), where the true shape of the alien Kelvans, like the Krell in this movie, was implied to be extremely non-humanoid but never shown. 1701, which is the serial number of the Starship Enterprise, allegedly comes from the clock mark 17:01 when the C57D enters orbit around Altair IV.


10:15 AM -- Naughty Marietta (1935)
A French princess in Colonial America gets involved with an Indian scout.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan
BW-104 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (sound director)

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Much to Frank Morgan's annoyance, he was required to shave his mustache, which he hadn't done for 17 years.


12:00 PM -- Rose Marie (1936)
An opera singer goes undercover in the Canadian wilderness to hunt for her criminal brother.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Reginald Owen
BW-111 mins, CC,

According to Louis B. Mayer biographer Charles Higham, Nelson Eddy was reportedly so jealous and insecure about potential competition from tenor Allan Jones that he asked that Jones' footage in the film be reduced; the studio agreed and cut what would have been Jones' only solo number in the film, the famous aria "E lucevan le stelle" from Giacomo Puccini's "Tosca".


2:00 PM -- Sweethearts (1938)
Bickering husband-and-wife stage stars are manipulated into a break-up for publicity purposes.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan
C-114 mins, CC,

Won an Honorary Oscar for Oliver T. Marsh and Allen M. Davey for the color cinematography of the M-G-M production Sweethearts.

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD), and Best Music, Scoring -- Herbert Stothart

The lavish musical number that was staged for the title song, re-uses the enormous, reticulated descending silk curtain that was originally created for the 'Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody' number in "The Great Ziegfeld" in 1936. This remarkable, custom made artifact was also later used in "Babes on Broadway" (closing number) and "Lady be Good" (closing number).


4:00 PM -- Bitter Sweet (1940)
A voice teacher and his star pupil run away together to a life of love and poverty.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, George Sanders
C-93 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Oliver T. Marsh and Allen M. Davey, and Best Art Direction, Color -- Cedric Gibbons and John S. Detlie

Except for a few shots where she was doubled by Audrey Scott, Jeanette MacDonald did most of her own horseback riding.


5:45 PM -- The Miracle of Sound (1940)
This short film provides a behind-the-scenes look at how sound is produced for films.
C-11 mins,


6:00 PM -- New Moon (1940)
A revolutionary leader romances a French aristocrat in Louisiana.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Mary Boland
BW-105 mins, CC,

One of the films included in "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (and how they got that way)" by Harry Medved and Randy Lowell.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: BUGGING OUT



8:00 PM -- The Fly (1958)
A scientist's experiments with teleportation produce a deadly hybrid.
Dir: Kurt Neumann
Cast: Al Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price
C-94 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

In the scene where the fly with Andre Delambre's head and arm is caught in the spider's web, a small animatronic figure with a moving head and arm was used in the spiderweb as a reference for actors Vincent Price and Herbert Marshall. Price later remembered that filming the scene required multiple takes, because each time he and Marshall looked at the animatronic figure, with its human head and insect body, they would burst out laughing.


9:45 PM -- Mothra (1962)
After Godzilla kills a legendary giant moth, its offspring set out for revenge.
Dir: Inoshiro Honda
Cast: Franky Sakai, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kyoko Kagawa
C-101 mins, Letterbox Format

For years it was thought that Rolisica was actually based on the United States. However, it was revealed years later that it was based on both the United States and the Soviet Union. In fact, the name of the nation of Rolisica is a hybrid of Russia and America. The name of the country originally was going to be Roshirica. Also, the Rolisican flag is a hybrid of the American "Stars and Stripes" and the Russian "Hammer and Sickle".


11:45 PM -- Them! (1954)
Federal agents fight to destroy a colony of mutated giant ants.
Dir: Gordon Douglas
Cast: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon
BW-92 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects

Walt Disney screened the movie because he was interested in casting James Arness as Davy Crockett. However, he was so impressed by Fess Parker as the "Crazy Texan Pilot" that he chose him for the part.


1:30 AM -- The Wasp Woman (1960)
A cosmetics executive's search for eternal beauty turn her into a monster.
Dir: Roger Corman
Cast: Susan Cabot, Fred Eisley, Barboura Morris
BW-61 mins, CC,

This was Susan Cabot's final movie.


2:45 AM -- The Swarm (1978)
Killer bees extend their territory into the U.S., with devastating effect.
Dir: Irwin Allen
Cast: Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark
C-116 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design -- Paul Zastupnevich

Managing the bees was a huge challenge on this film. The production went through several bee keepers before finding one who solved the problem by hiring people to clip the stingers off of the bees. This was accomplished in a refrigerated trailer, as bees are incapacitated by freezing temperatures. This operation, which went on all summer, made the bees safer for use around the cast and crew, although a few stingers were missed. But, as it turned out, some lingering venom got into the air on the sound stages and produced some allergic reactions. In addition, everyone had little yellow dots on their clothing - bee poop, probably.


4:45 AM -- The Cosmic Monster (1958)
A scientist's experiments open the doorway to a strange and deadly world.
Dir: Gilbert Gunn
Cast: Forrest Tucker, Gaby Andre, Martin Benson
BW-72 mins,

Co-star Gaby André was French and spoke English with a pronounced French accent. All of her dialogue was dubbed over by an actress with a British accent.

[Number9Dream]

1. What a great bunch of "Chiller Theater" movies!

Them, The Fly, Forbidden Planet, Mothra, etc. all on the same day... excellent!