TCM Schedule for Saturday, April 14, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: WWI Aviation

[Staph]

There's another daylight schedule looking like an old-time movie house's Saturday matinee -- cowboy movies, cartoons, and a short travelogue. Then in prime time, we're taking to the air in an evening with a pair of films about the magnificent men in their flying machines, in the midst of the Great War. Both films, The Eagle and the Hawk (1933) and Hell's Angels (1930), predate even the notion of a World War, with or without a number after it. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- ON BORROWED TIME (1939)
An old man and his grandson trap Death in a tree.
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Beulah Bondi
BW-99 mins, CC,

The original Broadway production of On Borrowed Time by Paul Osborn opened at Longacre Theater on February 3, 1938, closing in November 1938 after 321 performances. The major players (with their character names) were Dudley Digges (Julian Northrup - Gramps), Frank Conroy (Mr. Brinks), Dorothy Stickney (Nellie - Granny), Jean Adair (Demetria Riffle) and Peter Miner (Pud).


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: DRAG-A-LONG DROOPY (1954)
Droopy is a shepherd when his sheep graze into the cattle country erupting an angry fight between Droopy and a mean cattle owner.
Dir: Tex Avery
Cast: Bill Thompson
C-8 mins, CC,


8:00 AM -- THE AVENGING RIDER (1943)
Two cowhands are wrongly jailed as members of a murderous gang.
Dir: Sam Nelson
Cast: Tim Holt, Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards, Ann Summers
BW-56 mins,

Based on a story by Harry O. Hoyt.


8:00 AM -- EXOTIC MEXICO (1942)
This travel short focuses on Mexico and presents a bullfight, as well as the Mexican branch of MGM Studios.
Dir: James A. FitzPatrick
C-9 mins,


8:00 AM -- SO QUIET ON THE CANINE FRONT (1931)
This Dogville short presents a spoof of "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930).
Dir: Zion Myers
Cast: Zion Myers, Jules White
BW-16 mins,


9:30 AM -- RED BARRY: THE HUMAN TARGET (1938)
The sixth chapter in the Red Barry serial. An undercover detective must uncover the truth and figure out who stole two million dollars in bonds.
BW-21 mins,


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: WILD ELEPHINKS (1933)
Floating on a raft, Popeye and Olive Oyl land on a jungle island and immediately battle wild elephants and gorillas.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Willard Bowsky
Cast: William Costello, William Pennell, Bonnie Poe
BW-6 mins, CC,


10:00 AM -- TARZAN'S NEW YORK ADVENTURE (1942)
When a circus kidnaps Boy, Tarzan and Jane follow him to New York City.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, Johnny Sheffield
BW-71 mins, CC,

The final time that Maureen O'Sullivan would reprise her role as the character "Jane" in the Weissmuller Tarzan franchise.


11:30 AM -- WELLS FARGO DAYS (1944)
In this short western, a gunman attempts to avoid trouble in a new town. Vitaphone Release 1226A.
Dir: Mack V. Wright
Cast: Lafe McKee, Bob Card, Ed Cassidy
C-20 mins,

Originally made by the Cinecolor Corp. in 1939 as "The Man from Tascosa" and released through Monogram, Warner Bros. bought it in 1944 and released it under this title.


12:00 PM -- ANATOMY OF A MURDER (1959)
A small-town lawyer gets the case of a lifetime when a military man avenges an attack on his wife.
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara
BW-161 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Arthur O'Connell, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George C. Scott, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Wendell Mayes, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Sam Leavitt, Best Film Editing -- Louis R. Loeffler, and Best Picture

The part played by Lee Remick was first offered to Lana Turner, who agreed to take it on the condition that she would wear gowns designed exclusively by her personal couturier, Jean Louis. When director Otto Preminger objected that such gowns were not suitable for the role, Turner turned down the part. Columbia was ready to give in to Turner's demands but Preminger resisted and gave the role to Remick, then almost a beginner.


3:00 PM -- LOLITA (1962)
Vladimir Nabokov's racy classic focuses on an aging intellectual in love with a teenager.
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: James Mason, Sue Lyon, Shelley Winters
BW-153 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Vladimir Nabokov

Stanley Kubrick spotted Sue Lyon on The Loretta Young Show (1953). One thing that convinced him to hire her was the size of her breasts, which were surprisingly mature for her age at the time (13). He reasoned her physical maturity would make Lolita seem older. She was 15 when the film was shot and 16 when it was released.


5:45 PM -- THERE WAS A CROOKED MAN (1970)
A Western crook tries to break out of prison.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Henry Fonda, Hume Cronyn
C-123 mins, CC,

A realistic 1880s territorial prison replica was constructed on four acres in the high-desert country of the Joshua Tree National Monument. Designed by Edward Carrere, Oscar-winning designer of such movies as The Wild Bunch (1969), it was one of the most massive location sets ever built. The prison's 20-foot-high, four-feet-thick walls enclosed 14 buildings, including a guards' barracks, warden's quarters, mess hall, kitchen, hospital, blacksmith shop, a mule shed, corral, seven guard towers, a solitary confinement cell and a gallows. Unlike a typical movie set, the buildings had to be roofed because aerial footage of the location would be filmed. Some 80 loads of rocks were trucked in (and later removed) to create the enormous hard-labor rock pile in the movie. Since no indigenous plants could be harmed, thousands of desert plants also had to be trucked to the location.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: WWI AVIATION



8:00 PM -- THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK (1933)
RAF pilots fight to endure the nerve-wracking ordeal of flying in World War I.
Dir: Stuart Walker
Cast: Fredric March, Cary Grant, Jack Oakie
BW-73 mins,

Footage used for aerial scenes was edited from Wings (1927), especially evident in the scene with the observation balloon.


9:30 PM -- HELL'S ANGELS (1930)
Two buddies take on World War I flying aces and a seductive blonde.
Dir: Howard Hughes
Cast: Ben Lyon, James Hall, Jean Harlow
C-132 mins,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography -- Tony Gaudio and Harry Perry

All color prints of the movie were thought to be lost until a print was found in John Wayne's personal vault in 1989, ten years after the actor's death, by his son Michael Wayne. That explains why the younger Wayne's name appears on the credits of the restored version. It is possible that Wayne received the print from the film's producer/director, Howard Hughes. The actor starred in Jet Pilot (1957) for Hughes in 1949, but the film was not released until 1957 because Hughes continued to have the flying sequences re-shot, a situation not unlike this film.


12:00 AM -- MYSTERY STREET (1950)
Criminal pathologists try to crack a case with nothing but the victim's bones to go on.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Bruce Bennett
BW-93 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Leonard Spigelgass

The concept of a forensic procedural is common in the 21st century, but was brand new when this movie was made. To cap it off, the hero was played by a Hispanic actor, Ricardo Montalban, who was a big star in Mexico, but who had been mostly cast in Hollywood flicks as a Latin lover before this picture.


2:00 AM -- THE IN-LAWS (1979)
The father of the groom drags the bride's father into a series of madcap adventures.
Dir: Arthur Hiller
Cast: Peter Falk, Alan Arkin, Richard Libertini
C-103 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Decades before Peter Falk played the part of a CIA agent, and well before he decided to become an actor, he applied for a job at the CIA (during the "Red Scare" era brought about by Joseph McCarthy). Falk managed to get an interview with the agency, but his interviewer told him that one of the schools he went to, the New School for Social Research, had a "pinkish" reputation, and that because Falk once was a member of the "communist-dominated" Marine Cooks and Stewards Union, he not only couldn't work for the CIA, but wouldn't find work anywhere in Washington.


3:45 AM -- HUSBANDS (1970)
A man's death inspires his three best friends to reevaluate their lives.
Dir: John Cassavetes
Cast: Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, John Cassavetes
C-131 mins, CC,

The scene at the bar where Leola Harlow tries to sing "It Was Just a Little Love Affair" and is repeatedly interrupted and harshly criticized by the drunken three main characters, was completely improvised. Harlow reportedly had no idea that they were filming and thought the lead actors were actually criticizing her performance in the scene, causing the very real hurt apparent in her performance.

[longship]

1. "The In-Laws" is a lot of fun!!

Falk and Arkin play off each other with great aplomb.

Serpentine!! (You'll get that one when you watch this flick.)