TCM Schedule for Friday, January 19, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: TCM Spotlight - Survival Movies

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, it's a celebration of Joel McCrea. It's not his birthday, but it's always a good day to watch Joel McCrea. In prime time, TCM continues their month of survival movies on Friday nights. Enjoy!


7:45 AM -- KEPT HUSBANDS (1931)
A steel worker marries the boss's daughter, then has to teach her about life on a budget.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Dorothy Mackaill, Joel McCrea, Ned Sparks
BW-76 mins,

Katharine Hepburn was a friend of McCrea's and McCrea's wife Frances Dee. Hepburn also felt that McCrea was one of the best actors she had ever worked with and was always disappointed that his career wasn't more successful (she thought he should have been ranking alongside Spencer Tracy or Humphrey Bogart).


9:07 AM -- HOT NEWS MARGIE (1931)
In this short film, a reporter for a tabloid newspaper attempts to find out if a college football star is secretly married. Vitaphone Release 1290.
Dir: Alfred J. Goulding
Cast: Marjorie Beebe, George Offerman Jr., Charles Wilson
BW-7 mins,


9:15 AM -- THE SPORT PARADE (1932)
College team mates follow different paths after they graduate.
Dir: Dudley Murphy
Cast: Joel McCrea, Marian Marsh, William Gargan
BW-64 mins, CC,

From a story by Jerry Horwin.


10:30 AM -- ROCKABYE (1932)
A Broadway star tries to hold onto an adopted child and a younger man.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Constance Bennett, Joel McCrea, Paul Lukas
BW-68 mins,

RKO bought the rights of the play from Gloria Swanson. Director George Fitzmaurice was borrowed from MGM and Phillips Holmes (in the role later played by Joel McCrea) from Paramount. The finished film was considered so bad that George Cukor was summoned by Selznick to direct two weeks of retakes, with McCrea taking over Holmes' role.


11:45 AM -- BORN TO LOVE (1932)
A World War I pilot thought dead turns up after the mother of his child has married.
Dir: Paul L. Stein
Cast: Constance Bennett, Joel McCrea, Paul Cavanagh
BW-81 mins,

Written by Ernest Pascal.


1:15 PM -- BED OF ROSES (1933)
A girl from the wrong side of the tracks is torn between true love and a life of sin
Dir: Gregory LaCava
Cast: Constance Bennett, Joel McCrea, John Halliday
BW-67 mins,

Same theme music is used in The Lady Takes a Sailor (1949).


2:30 PM -- CHANCE AT HEAVEN (1934)
A society girl steals a simple gas station attendant from his working-class girlfriend.
Dir: William Seiter
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Joel McCrea, Marion Nixon
BW-71 mins, CC,

One joke needs explanation. When Joel McCrea brings his bride to their new house, he says that it's all theirs: "No plaster!" She says, "Oh, that's all right, dear. We can have it put on later." In contemporary slang, a plaster was a mortgage.


4:00 PM -- GAMBLING LADY (1934)
Two gamblers fall in love but one is already married to a possible murderer.
Dir: Archie Mayo
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Pat O'Brien
BW-66 mins, CC,

This film was referenced in Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood (2008) (TV Movie) on a printed list of films condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency.


5:15 PM -- THE RICHEST GIRL IN THE WORLD (1934)
To put off fortune-hunters, an heiress trades places with her secretary.
Dir: William A. Seiter
Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea, Fay Wray
BW-76 mins, CC,

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

Remade as Bride By Mistake (1944), The French Line (1953), and Verdens Rigeste Pige (1958).


6:38 PM -- THE 42ND. STREET SPECIAL (1933)
This promotional short, part of Warner Bros. studios publicity campaign for "42nd Street" (1933), presents the send-off for a 7-car train assembled in conjunction with the film.
BW-6 mins,


6:45 PM -- WOMAN WANTED (1935)
An innocent woman is chased by both gangsters and the police.
Dir: George B. Seitz
Cast: Maureen O'Sullivan, Joel McCrea, Lewis Stone
BW-67 mins, CC,

The opening shot of the criminal court building was edited from The Crowd (1928).



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: SURVIVAL MOVIES



8:00 PM -- THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX (1965)
The survivors of a desert plane crash fight to get back in the air.
Dir: Robert Aldrich
Cast: James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch
C-142 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ian Bannen, and Best Film Editing -- Michael Luciano

The plane they leave on at the end of the film was to be a C-82 Boom. The stunt of taking off was too dangerous, so legendary stunt pilot Paul Mantz was asked to merely come in low, run his landing gear along the ground, then take off again, simulating a take-off. On the second take the plane crashed and was destroyed, killing Mantz. As all main footage had already been shot, a North American O-47A observation plane from the Air Museum was substituted for the remaining close-ups.


10:45 PM -- THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972)
Passengers and crew struggle to escape an ocean liner turned upside down.
Dir: Ronald Neame
Cast: Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons
C-117 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn for the song "The Morning After"

Won an Oscar Special Achievement Award for L.B. Abbott and A.D. Flowers for visual effects

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Shelley Winters, Best Cinematography -- Harold E. Stine, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- William J. Creber and Raphael Bretton, Best Costume Design -- Paul Zastupnevich, Best Sound -- Theodore Soderberg and Herman Lewis, Best Film Editing -- Harold F. Kress, and Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- John Williams

Shot in sequence, taking advantage of the fact that the principals became dirtier and more tattered and suffered injuries - some real and some artificial - as they progressed.


12:48 AM -- AMERICA, PREFERRED (1941)
This promotional short asks citizens to purchase U.S. Defense Bonds and Stamps in order to build up the nation's military and infrastructure.
BW-8 mins,


1:00 AM -- FIVE CAME BACK (1939)
Survivors of a jungle plane crash realize that their repaired airplane can only carry five passengers.
Dir: John Farrow
Cast: Chester Morris, Lucille Ball, Wendy Barrie
BW-75 mins, CC,

According to Turner Classic Movies, there were real trees on the set for the jungle scenes. In one scene, Lucille Ball was leaning against one of the prop trees and spiders crawled out of it and into her hair, sending her and the rest of the cast screaming & running.


2:30 AM -- BACK FROM ETERNITY (1956)
When an airliner crashes in the jungle, the repaired plane can only hold five of the survivors.
Dir: John Farrow
Cast: Robert Ryan, Anita Ekberg, Rod Steiger
BW-97 mins, CC,

Barbara Eden's movie debut, and a remake of the 1939 RKO film Five Came Back.


4:08 AM -- SKI-FLYING (1956)
This short film focuses on the rules and safety measures for the sport of ski flying.
Dir: Heinz Scheiderbauer
BW-8 mins,


4:30 AM -- ABANDON SHIP (1957)
After a luxury liner sinks, the officer in charge of an over-crowded lifeboat has to decide who can stay on board.
Dir: Richard Sale
Cast: Tyrone Power, Mai Zetterling, Lloyd Nolan
BW-97 mins, CC,

The film has similarities to the real-life sinking of the American ship 'William Brown' in 1841.