TCM Schedule for Thursday, May 12, 2016 -- What's On Tonight - TCM Spotlight: American International

[Staph]

Happy birthday to Katharine Hepburn, born on May 12, 1907, in Hartford, Connecticut. We have a lovely selection of her films all day today, to make up for the schlock that came from American International Pictures. (Of course, your mileage may vary. I'm a yoooge Hepburn fan, of both varieties of Hepburn, but Roger Corman and ilk are not to my taste.) Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Little Women (1933)
The four March sisters fight to keep their family together and find love while their father is off fighting the Civil War.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Paul Lukas
BW-116 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Adaptation -- Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- George Cukor, and Best Picture

Costume designer Walter Plunkett was forced to rapidly redesign Joan Bennett's costumes in order to disguise her advancing pregnancy, something that she had hidden from George Cukor at the time of her casting. The character of Amy is twelve years old at the start of the story!


8:00 AM -- Stage Door (1937)
Women at a theatrical boarding house try to make their big break happen.
Dir: Gregory LaCava
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou
BW-92 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Andrea Leeds, Best Director -- Gregory La Cava, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Morrie Ryskind and Anthony Veiller, and Best Picture

When Katharine Hepburn delivered her climactic stage speech, Gregory La Cava reduced it to only ten lines and filmed it on a closed set. He later brought the actors and the extras in the audience and had them react to the filmed speech. Many of them broke down.


9:44 AM -- Alibi Mark (1937)
In this short film, an out-of-work man finds himself falsely accused of murder. Vitaphone Release B41.
Dir: Joseph Henabery
Cast: Dennis Moore, Fred Whitehouse, Harry Shannon
BW-13 mins,


10:00 AM -- Holiday (1938)
An unhappy heiress falls in love with her stodgy sister's freethinking fiance.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Doris Nolan
BW-96 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction -- Stephen Goosson and Lionel Banks

Eighteen months before Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind (1939), Katharine Hepburn says "damned" in a Production Code-approved Hollywood movie. The occurrence isn't gratuitous: She's recounting her experience in amateur theatrics and, in camp style, performs a fragment of Lady MacBeth's "Out, damned spot" sleepwalking line from William Shakespeare.


11:51 AM -- Poetry Of Nature (1939)
This short film takes a humorous look at the wildlife that lives in the California redwoods.
Dir: Mervyn Freeman
BW-8 mins,


12:00 PM -- The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Tabloid reporters crash a society marriage.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart
BW-112 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Donald Ogden Stewart

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ruth Hussey, Best Director -- George Cukor, and Best Picture

The film was shot in eight weeks, and required no retakes. During the scene where James Stewart hiccups when drunk, you can see Cary Grant looking down and grinning. Since the hiccup wasn't scripted, Grant was on the verge of breaking out laughing and had to compose himself quickly. Stewart thought of hiccuping in the drunk scene himself, without telling Grant. When he began hiccuping, Grant turned to Stewart saying, "Excuse me." The scene required only one take.


2:00 PM -- Woman of the Year (1942)
Opposites distract when a sophisticated political columnist falls for a sportswriter.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter
BW-114 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner Jr.

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn

The first scene shot was the characters' first date, in a bar. Katharine Hepburn was so nervous she spilled her drink, but Spencer Tracy just handed her a handkerchief and kept going. Hepburn proceeded to clean up the spill as they played the scene. When the drink dripped through to the floor, she tried to throw Tracy off by going under the table, but he stayed in character, with the cameras rolling the entire time.


4:00 PM -- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
An aging couple's liberal principles are tested when their daughter announces her engagement to a black doctor.
Dir: Stanley Kramer
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn
C-108 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn (Katharine Hepburn was not present at the awards ceremony. George Cukor accepted the award on her behalf.), and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- William Rose

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy (Posthumously.), Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Cecil Kellaway, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Beah Richards, Best Director -- Stanley Kramer, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Robert Clatworthy and Frank Tuttle, Best Film Editing -- Robert C. Jones, Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Frank De Vol, and Best Picture

In the scene near the end where Spencer Tracy gives his memorable soliloquy, Katharine Hepburn can be seen crying in the background. This was not acting: she knew how gravely ill her longtime lover was and was moved by his remarks about how true love endures through the years. Katharine Hepburn never saw the completed movie. She said the memories of Tracy were too painful.


6:00 PM -- Desk Set (1957)
A computer expert tries to prove his electronic brain can replace a television network's research staff.
Dir: Walter Lang
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Gig Young
C-104 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Improvised Scene: Sumner is leaving Bunny's apartment, shortly after Mike leaves and Peg arrives, when Bunny and Sumner are recapping the afternoon's events for Peg. Tracy goes "offstage" and returns with his hat pulled down over his ears, his shirt dangling out of his pants, staggering as though drunk and talking crazy. This moment, including the women's hysterical laughter and Hepburn's literally falling out of her chair, is not in the script.


7:50 PM -- Dirt Track Racing (1957)
A short film about Viennese dirt bike racing, following a young racer from technical training to learning how to ride to his first race in Vienna.
Dir: Heinz Scheiderbauer
BW-8 mins,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL PICTURES



8:00 PM -- Pit And The Pendulum (1961)
A young man investigates his sister's death in a mysterious castle.
Dir: Roger Corman
Cast: Vincent Price, John Kerr, Barbara Steele
C-80 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Actor John Kerr was worried about being strapped down to the table with the pendulum above him for the movie's climax. In order to demonstrate that it was perfectly safe, director Roger Corman stood in for Kerr while the scene was being set up.


9:30 PM -- "X"--The Man With The X-Ray Eyes (1963)
A doctor uses special eye drops to give himself x-ray vision, but the new power has disastrous consequences.
Dir: Roger Corman
Cast: Ray Milland, Diana Van Der Vlis, Harold J. Stone
C-79 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The final chase scene involving Ray Milland's erratic driving took place on Soledad Canyon Road between the cities of Santa Clarita and Acton in California--the same place where nearly the entire film Duel (1971) was filmed.


11:00 PM -- Dementia 13 (1963)
Members of an Irish family are being killed off by one of their own who wishes to inherit the family fortune.
Dir: Francis Coppola
Cast: William Campbell, Luana Anders, Bart Patton
BW-75 mins, CC,

Francis Ford Coppola was assisting Roger Corman on the set of The Young Racers (1963) in Ireland. Corman allowed Coppola to use the same set, crew and actors Luana Anders, William Campbell and Patrick Magee for this film if he could shoot around the shooting schedule of Corman's film.


12:30 AM -- Black Sabbath (1964)
A trio of atmospheric horror tales presented by Boris Karloff.
Dir: Mario Bava
Cast: Jacqueline Pierreux, Milly Monti, Michèle Mercier
C-96 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

This film served as inspiration for the naming of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath. In 1968, the band (then called Earth) was playing a small club in Birmingham, England. Across the street was a movie theater showing the film Black Sabbath. The band noticed that more people were in line to see the movie than were to see the band. Realizing that "horror sells tickets" they decided to change the band's name to Black Sabbath.


2:19 AM -- Filmmaking On The Riviera (1964)
This promotional film for "Joy House" (1964) features the cast and crew filming on location along the French Riviera.
BW-10 mins,


2:30 AM -- The Comedy of Terrors (1964)
A dishonest undertaker and his sidekick create their own customers when they cannot find willing ones.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff
C-83 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Boris Karloff was originally hired to play John F. Black but it soon became clear that his severe arthritis would not permit him to undertake such a strenuous role. Karloff was switched to the part of Mr. Hinchley, and Basil Rathbone was brought in to play Black.


4:02 AM -- A Story Of Water (1961)
In this short film young woman tries to go to Paris, but her garden and the whole village is flooded with water.
Dir: Jean-Luc Godard
Cast: Jean-Claude Brialy, Caroline Dim,
BW-12 mins,


4:15 AM -- Master of the World (1961)
A mad genius tries to bomb the world into peace.
Dir: William Witney
Cast: Vincent Price, Charles Bronson, Henry Hull
C-99 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Richard Matheson combined two stories by Jules Verne for this screenplay: "Clipper of the Clouds" (1886) and its sequel "Master of the World" (1904).