TCM Schedule for Friday, January 18, 2019 -- What's On Tonight: Music by John Barry

[Staph]

Last edited Wed Jan 30, 2019, 09:12 PM - Edit history (1)

In the morning hours, TCM is showing films written by Robert Sherwood. Sherwood was a founding member, along with Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley, of the Algonquin Club, the famed ad hoc gathering of many of the literary world's brightest lights during the 1920s. The three just happened to dine there one day, then were subsequently joined by the likes of Alexander Woollcott, Heywood Hale Broun, George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, among others. Alan Rudolph's film Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994) captures this moment--and its evolution--beautifully, recalling a time when the printed word was king.

In the afternoon, TCM is featuring films written playwright Philip Barry. You probably know him best from a pair of his films that starred Katharine Hepburn, Holiday (1938), and The Philadelphia Story (1940).

Then in prime time, TCM is celebrating the music of composer John Barry, five time Oscar winner for the score and the song Born Free (1966), the score for The Lion in Winter (1968), the score for Out of Africa (1985), and the score for Dances With Wolves (1990). Barry's scores remind me of the sweeping emotion of Max Steiner (who only won three Oscars!). (FYI - the two Barrys are not related - John Barry's name is actually John Barry Prendergast.) Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- THE PETRIFIED FOREST (1936)
An escaped convict holds the customers at a remote desert cantina hostage.
Dir: Archie L. Mayo
Cast: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Genevieve Tobin
BW-82 mins, CC,

Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart had played the same roles in the stage version. Warner Bros. wanted to put Howard in the film but replace Bogart with Edward G. Robinson. Howard insisted on Bogart, sending a telegram to Jack L. Warner which read "Insist Bogart play Mantee; no Bogart, no deal." Bogart would later name his second child with Lauren Bacall Leslie, in honor of Howard, the man who gave him his first big break.


7:45 AM -- OVER THE MOON (1940)
A surprise inheritance breaks up a once-impoverished noblewoman and a doctor.
Dir: Thornton Freeland
Cast: Merle Oberon, Rex Harrison, Ursula Jeans
BW-79 mins,

Production began in 1937; by the time the final retakes were completed in 1939, the appearance of Merle Oberon, both in terms of make-up and hairstyle, had changed considerably, and are quite apparent in the finished film.


9:15 AM -- WATERLOO BRIDGE (1940)
A ballerina turns to prostitution when her fiance is reported killed in World War I.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Lucile Watson
BW-109 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, and Best Music, Original Score -- Herbert Stothart

The scene in which Myra and Roy dance to "Auld Lang Syne" was supposed to have dialogue, but nobody could come up with the right words. At about 3:00 in the morning before shooting the scene was to take place, Mervyn LeRoy, a veteran of silent films, realized that there shouldn't be any lines and that the images should speak for themselves. The result is the most celebrated scene of the film.


11:15 AM -- ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS (1940)
An exploration into the domestic and political life of this past president.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Raymond Massey, Gene Lockhart, Ruth Gordon
BW-110 mins, CC,

The original Broadway production of "Abe Lincoln in Illinois " by Robert E. Sherwood opened on October 15, 1938 at the Plymouth Theater, ran for 472 performances and won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1939.


1:15 PM -- SPRING MADNESS (1938)
A Harvard man romances a coed from a nearby college.
Dir: S. Sylvan Simon
Cast: Maureen O'Sullivan, Lew Ayres, Ruth Hussey
BW-67 mins,

Philip Barry's play, "Spring Dance", opened on Broadway in New York City, New York, USA on 25 August 1936 and had 24 performances. The opening night cast included José Ferrer (The Lippencott), Tom Neal (Doc Boyd), Philip Ober (Walter Beckett) and Mary Wickes (Mildred).


2:30 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,

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

Nominee 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 (apparently spontaneously) thought of hiccuping in the drunk scene, without telling Grant. When he began hiccuping, Grant turned to Stewart saying, "Excuse me." The scene required only one take.


4:30 PM -- WITHOUT LOVE (1945)
A World War II housing shortage inspires a widow to propose a marriage of convenience with an inventor.
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball
BW-110 mins, CC,

Spencer Tracy hated making this movie, but did it as a favor to Katharine Hepburn, who had starred in the play.


6:30 PM -- ONE MORE TOMORROW (1946)
A playboy and a lady photographer allow social differences to come between them.
Dir: Peter Godfrey
Cast: Ann Sheridan, Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson
BW-88 mins, CC,

Filmed between early April and early June of 1943, with shooting recommencing between mid-October and early November, this movie finally premiered on May 24, 1946 at the Strand Theatre in Manhattan. Allegedly, the picture had not received a quicker release due to Warner Bros.' lack of confidence in the box office potential.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: MUSIC BY JOHN BARRY



8:00 PM -- SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON (1964)
A medium kidnaps a child so she can help the police solve the crime.
Dir: Bryan Forbes
Cast: Kim Stanley, Richard Attenborough, Mark Eden
BW-117 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Kim Stanley

Director Bryan Forbes looked for the house with the turret as a film location. When he went to the owner for permission, she asked who was in the movie. When told that an American actress named Kim Stanley, the woman blanched, stepped back, and said that Stanley was one of her oldest friends whom she had not seen in seventeen years.


10:00 PM -- KING RAT (1965)
A U.S. officer in a World War II Japanese POW camp tries to raise money to buy his fellow prisoners' freedom.
Dir: Bryan Forbes
Cast: George Segal, Patrick O'Neal, Todd Armstrong
BW-135 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Burnett Guffey, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Robert Emmet Smith and Frank Tuttle

Some of the actors had been P.O.W.s in World War II. Denholm Elliott, while serving in the Royal Air Force, had been shot down and taken prisoner by the Germans.


12:30 AM -- ROBIN AND MARIAN (1976)
An aging Robin Hood comes home to resume his relationship with Maid Marian and his battles against the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Dir: Richard Lester
Cast: Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Shaw
C-107 mins, CC,

Audrey Hepburn was convinced to take the role of Marian, in part, from the insistence of her sons. Once her young sons learned that Sir Sean Connery had been cast as Robin Hood, they begged their mother to take the part, so she could act with "James Bond". She happily complied.


2:30 AM -- BUTCHER, BAKER, NIGHTMARE MAKER (1981)
An orphaned teenager finds himself being dominated by his aunt who's hell-bent on keeping him with her at all costs.
Dir: William Asher
Cast: Bill Paxton, Jimmy Mcnichol, Susan Tyrrell
BW-93 mins, CC,

Though no one involved in the film's creative process has ever given an on-record interview about the genesis for the movie, it apparently began as a novel. A book released around the same time as the movie under the title "Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker" is far more complex than a simple novelization. It includes vivid physical descriptions of the characters that often differ greatly from the actors' onscreen appearance, as well as in-depth backstories for several characters, including secondary characters who receive little screen time. The book also leaves it a mystery until far later in the narrative as to what happened to Billy's parents, and also continues on past the movie's ending, wrapping up the stories of several characters whose fates are not addressed in the film's epilogue.


4:15 AM -- STRAIT-JACKET (1964)
Murder follows an axe murderer home when she's released from a mental hospital.
Dir: William Castle
Cast: Joan Crawford, Diane Baker, Leif Erickson
BW-93 mins, CC,

Film debut of Lee Majors, who got the small role of playing Lucy Harbin's (Joan Crawford's) husband in the flashback scene after his good friend Rock Hudson asked William Castle to please find a part for the twenty-three-year-old actor.