TCM Schedule for Saturday, November 7, 2015 -- The Essentials - Fighting the System

[Staph]

Tonight's Essentials are examples of strong women standing up for what is right, including Sally Field in her Oscar-winning role as Norma Rae (1979). Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- The White Angel (1936)
In this true story, Florence Nightingale defies military leaders to organize humanitarian nursing services during the Crimean War.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, Donald Woods
BW-92 mins, CC,

Much disagreement to the origin of the source material exists. Some contemporary sources believed the source was Lytton Strachey's 1918 biographical essay in "Eminent Victorians". Others contend Michael Jacoby was the author. Warner Bros. executive Hal B. Wallis contended that the life of Florence Nightingale was in the public domain, and that screenwriter Mordaunt Shairp did his own research. The MPAA agreed with Wallis; no source credit was necessary.


7:34 AM -- An Hour For Lunch (1939)
A man attempts to shows how to budget one's time during lunch hour to get things done efficiently in this comedic short.
Dir: Roy Rowland
Cast: Don Castle, Robert Benchley, Frank McClure
BW-9 mins,


8:00 AM -- The Prowler (1951)
A policeman's obsession with a married woman leads to murder.
Dir: Joseph Losey
Cast: Van Heflin, Evelyn Keyes, John Maxwell
BW-93 mins, CC,

Novelist James Ellroy ("L.A. Confidential", "The Black Dahlia&quot once called this his favorite film and described it as "a masterpiece of sexual creepiness, institutional corruption and suffocating, ugly passion."


9:43 AM -- Clues To Adventure (1949)
This short film presents how separate events led to the creation of three of the rights in the American Constitution.
BW-10 mins,


10:00 AM -- Batman and Robin: The Wizard's Challenge (1949)
An invisible criminal mastermind sets a bomb to kill the Dynamic Duo
BW-17 mins,


10:30 AM -- Live Wires (1946)
In their first film Bowery Boys tackle gangsters.
Dir: Phil Karlson
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Mike Mazurki
BW-65 mins, CC,

The first of 48 Bowery Boys movies. In 1945, when East Side Kids producer Sam Katzman refused to grant Leo Gorcey's request to double his weekly salary, Gorcey quit the series, formed his own production company (owning 40% of it) with his agent Jan Grippo called Jan Grippo Productions, revamped the format including getting rid of the teenaged stories and rechristened the series The Bowery Boys (i.e., "Leo Gorcey and The Bowery Boys&quot .


12:00 PM -- Love Crazy (1941)
A businessman concocts a series of harebrained schemes to keep his wife from divorcing him.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Gail Patrick
BW-99 mins, CC,

William Powell had a mustache for the entire length of his career, but shaved it off when dressed as a woman.


1:45 PM -- The Producers (1967)
A Broadway producer decides to get rich by creating the biggest flop of his career.
Dir: Mel Brooks
Cast: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn
C-89 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Mel Brooks

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Gene Wilder

Roger Ebert recounted how he was in an elevator with Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft in New York after the film premièred. A woman got onto the elevator, recognized him and said, 'I have to tell you, Mr. Brooks, that your movie is vulgar.' Brooks replied, 'Lady,' he said, 'it rose below vulgarity.'


3:30 PM -- 36 Hours (1964)
Nazis kidnap a key American intelligence officer and try to convince him that World War II is over.
Dir: George Seaton
Cast: James Garner, Rod Taylor, Eva Marie Saint
BW-115 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The phony 1950 newspapers given to Major Pike depict "President Wallace". Henry Wallace was Vice President of the United States in 1944, when the film actually takes place. He was not slated on the Democratic ticket later that year and was succeeded as Vice President by Harry S. Truman.


5:45 PM -- The Last of Sheila (1973)
A game of murder among wealthy vacationers turns into the real thing.
Dir: Herbert Ross
Cast: James Coburn, Raquel Welch, Dyan Cannon
C-119 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim used to hosts murder mystery parlor games. One of their guests was director Herbert Ross, who encouraged them to write a script based on this type of party.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: FIGHTING THE SYSTEM



8:00 PM -- Norma Rae (1979)
A young single mother and her co-worker try to unionize the mill where they work.
Dir: Martin Ritt
Cast: Sally Field, Beau Bridges, Ron Leibman
C-115 mins, 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 film is based on a real-life union organizing campaign at J.P. Stevens Mill in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. Norma Rae is based on Crystal Lee Sutton. Reuben Warshowsky, the union organizer, is based on Eli Zivkovich, a 55-year-old former West Virginia coal miner. In 1974, thanks to the efforts of Sutton and Zivkovich, workers at J.P. Stevens Mill voted to join the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. However, it took 10 years for the union to get a contract. Some real-life events are re-created verbatim in the movie, including Norma Rae holding up the "UNION" sign and the plant workers shutting down their machines, and Norma Rae waking up her children to tell them about her relationships with their fathers.


10:15 PM -- Marie: A True Story (1985)
A political appointee risks her job and her life to expose corruption.
Dir: Roger Donaldson
Cast: Sissy Spacek, John Cullum, Jeff Daniels
C-112 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The picture's main movie poster featured a long blurb that read: "Criminals went free. Officials were bribed. Witnesses were threatened. The F.B.I. couldn't stop it. One woman did. She challenged the State of Tennessee and put criminal justice on trial".


12:15 AM -- Blossoms In The Dust (1941)
True-life story of Edna Gladney, who fought for orphans' rights in Texas.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Felix Bressart
C-100 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Urie McCleary and Edwin B. Willis

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Cinematography, Color -- Karl Freund and W. Howard Greene, and Best Picture

The child who portrayed Tony in the movie was a 4-year-old named Pat Barker. It was only when Pat came to Fort Worth to celebrate the movie's premiere that the world discovered that Pat was actually Patricia.


2:00 AM -- Smithereens (1982)
A talent-challenged girl tries to promote herself to stardom in New York's waning punk music world.
Dir: Susan Seidelman
Cast: Susan Berman, Brad Rijn, Richard Hell
C-93 mins, Letterbox Format

Production on this independent film got shut down for six months after actress Susan Berman had an accident on a fire escape whilst improvising a scene. Berman was doing an improvisation with one of her fellow actors in the film which involved her character being tossed and trapped on a fire escape, and responding quite frantically to the situation. In the midst of acting and struggling with the other actor in the scene to let her back inside, Berman fell off the fire escape and broke her leg. Production shut down for six months and the crew picked up shooting again in early 1981.


3:45 AM -- Border Radio (1987)
Two musicians try to find their bandleader, who's disappeared after stealing their fee from a crooked club owner.
Dir: Allison Anders
Cast: Chris D, Chris Shearer, John Doe
C-83 mins,

This movie was originally financed by Vic Tayback, who played Mel the cook on the TV show Alice (1976).


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,