TCM Schedule for Saturday, April 15, 2017 -- What's On Tonight - Easter Bunnies!

[Staph]

For those of you celebrating, Happy Easter! And for those not of the Christian faith, TCM has a lovely selection of bunnies that have nothing whatsoever to do with the holiday -- Harvey (1950), The Rabbit Trap (1959), and The Night of the Lepus (1972), plus a couple of MGM rabbit commercials (not Bugs! these are not from Warner Bros.). Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- HOLLYWOOD CANTEEN (1944)
A serviceman and a starlet find love at the star-staffed serviceman's center.
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: Andrews Sisters, Jack Benny, Joe E. Brown
BW-124 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Music, Original Song -- M.K. Jerome (music) and Ted Koehler (lyrics) for the song "Sweet Dreams Sweetheart", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Ray Heindorf

Originally conceived by Warner Bros. as a multi-studio (like the actual Hollywood Canteen) WWII effort with rival studios (Fox, Paramount, MGM, etc.) contributing cameo appearances by its stars. But when other studios balked at having performers appear (even though profits were reportedly earmarked for war effort), Warner turned it into a single-studio affair.


8:30 AM -- ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966)
A rebellious caveman leaves his tribe in search of a better life.
Dir: Don Chaffey
Cast: Raquel Welch, John Richardson, Percy Herbert
C-100 mins, CC,

As the Shell People are attacked by a giant turtle, the women call it "Achelon" which is the real scientific name for the animal.


10:30 AM -- MAISIE GETS HER MAN (1942)
A Brooklyn showgirl launches a stage act with a hick comic.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth
Cast: Ann Sothern, Red Skelton, Leo Gorcey
BW-86 mins, CC,

The sixth of ten movies starring Ann Sothern as the heroine Maisie Ravier.


12:15 PM -- THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1936)
A frontier scout rescues the daughters of a British colonial commander from renegades.
Dir: George B. Seitz
Cast: Randolph Scott, Binnie Barnes, Henry Wilcoxon
BW-92 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Assistant Director -- Clem Beauchamp

This movie features two alumni from the film, King Kong (1933). The actor Bruce Cabot, who plays Magua, (and played John Driscoll in King Kong) and parts of the King Kong music score by Max Steiner, which can most easily be heard during the action sequences.


2:00 PM -- IVANHOE (1952)
Sir Walter Scott's classic tale of the noble knight torn between his fair lady and a beautiful Jew.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine
C-107 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Freddie Young, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa, and Best Picure

One of the archers shooting from the walls of Warwick Castle is John "Mad Jack" Churchill, a World War II veteran who actually carried sword and longbow into battle, and killed an enemy soldier with his longbow in 1940 (being the last British soldier on record to have done so).


4:00 PM -- VALLEY OF THE KINGS (1954)
Archaeologists clash with graverobbers during the search for a priceless Egyptian treasure.
Dir: Robert Pirosh
Cast: Robert Taylor, Eleanor Parker, Carlos Thompson
C-86 mins, CC,

Filming in Egypt included views of the exterior and interior of Abu Simbel. The view also includes the Nile river in the background of one shot. The filming location is no longer accessible having been buried under Lake Nasser with the building of the Aswan dam. The massive complex was cut into large blocks and moved uphill between 1964-1968 to save it from being flooded.


5:45 PM -- MOGAMBO (1953)
In this remake of Red Dust, an African hunter is torn between a lusty showgirl and a married woman.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly
C-116 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ava Gardner, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Grace Kelly

The censors in Spain did not allow adultery to be shown on the screen. For that reason, MGM changed the relationship of the characters of Linda Nordley (Grace Kelly) and Donald Nordley (Donald Sinden) from wife and husband to sister and brother in the dubbed version released in Spain. However, they did not delete a scene in which both share a bed together.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: EASTER BUNNIES



8:00 PM -- HARVEY (1950)
A wealthy eccentric prefers the company of an invisible six-foot rabbit to his family.
Dir: Henry Koster
Cast: Wallace Ford, William Lynn, Victoria Horne
BW-104 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Josephine Hull

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart

Author of the original Broadway play Harvey, Mary Chase, had the idea that film audiences should actually see Harvey at the end of the film because she "didn't want anybody to go out of the theater thinking Elwood is just a lush. He believes in Harvey...and I think the audience ought to believe in Harvey, too." The studio reportedly considered this and experimented with how to show him to the audience, including his appearance in silhouette, and even by attaching a rabbit tail to the taxi driver at the film's conclusion. In the end, however, the studio won out and wisely decided NOT to ruin the illusion. Only once had a giant rabbit actually appeared on stage in the play of Harvey, and the results were disastrous. Theatrical Producer Brock Pemberton recalled in a 1945 interview that at that performance in Boston, "a chill descended on the gathering, which never quite thawed out afterwards."


10:00 PM -- THE RABBIT TRAP (1959)
A working stiff risks his job to save a rabbit left behind during his family's vacation.
Dir: Philip Leacock
Cast: Ernest Borgnine, David Brian, Bethel Leslie
BW-76 mins, CC,

Remake of an episode of Goodyear Playhouse from 1955.


11:30 PM -- NIGHT OF THE LEPUS (1972)
Husband-and-wife scientists unwittingly unleash a horde of giant man-eating rabbits.
Dir: William F. Claxton
Cast: Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun
C-88 mins, CC,

DeForest Kelley's last non-"Star Trek" film.


1:15 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: THE HOUND AND THE RABBIT (1937)
A hunting dog befriends a rabbit.
Dir: Hugh Harman
C-8 mins, CC,


1:15 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: THE HUNGRY WOLF (1942)
A wolf is torn between hunger and his affection for a young rabbit.
Dir: Dick Lundy
Cast: Mel Blanc
C-9 mins, CC,


2:00 AM -- DEATH WATCH (1980)
A man has camera implanted in his brain and is hired by a television producer to film a documentary of dying woman without her consent.
Dir: Bertrand Tavernier
Cast: Romy Schneider, Harvey Keitel, Harry Dean Stanton
C-130 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

At one point of the film, the character played by Max von Sydow tells some historical facts about the Medieval French composer Robert De Bauleac while listening to one of his work on a record player. When the film was released, a good number of music lovers tried to get a copy of the very same record in specialized stores which could never provide any for a very good reason: Robert De Bauleac has never existed and the composition heard in the film is none other than Antoine Duhamel's work. However the concerned peace of music, "Robert De Bauleac's Lament", has been since available as part of the complete movie soundtrack.


4:45 AM -- BOOKED FOR SAFEKEEPING (1960)
In this short documentary, police officers are trained in the assistance and management of mentally ill and confused persons.
Dir: George C Stoney
BW-32 mins,


5:30 AM -- THE SILVER CHALICE (1954)
A silversmith is charged with engraving the Holy Grail.
Dir: Victor Saville
Cast: Virginia Mayo, Pier Angeli, Jack Palance
C-135 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- William V. Skall, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Franz Waxman

When the film ran on television in 1966, Paul Newman took out ads in the Hollywood trade papers, calling it "the worst motion picture produced during the 1950s," apologizing for his performance, and asking people not to watch the film. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect, and many people tuned in to watch it on TV. Newman once screened the movie for friends at his home, giving them whistles, pots, and wooden spoons, and encouraging them to make noisy critiques of the film.

[longship]

1. Never miss a chance to see Harvey!

It is a gem of a film.