TCM Schedule for Thursday, April 16 -- TCM Fan Programmers

[Staph]

Happy birthday to the Tramp! Charlie Chaplin was born 130 years ago today, and we've got some of his best today, including The Gold Rush (1925), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940). Tonight, TCM's fan pro grammers give us three more special treats, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and Meet John Doe (1941). Enjoy!


4:30am -- Her First Romance (1951)
A high school girl steals from her parents to be with the boy she loves.
Cast: Margaret O'Brien, Allen Martin Jr., Jimmy Hunt, Sharyn Moffett
Dir: Seymour Friedman
C-73 mins, TV-G

So skillful but natural was young Margaret O'Brien that when called upon by a certain director to gush some tears, she quite innocently asked: "When I cry, do you want the tears to run all the way down, or should I stop them halfway down?"


6:00am -- Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914)
In this silent film, a con man dupes a wealthy country girl into marriage.
Cast: Marie Dressler, Charles Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Charles Bennett
Dir: Mack Sennett
BW-72 mins, TV-G

Milton Berle claimed to have played the bit part of the newsboy who gets slapped in the face and kicked by Charles Chaplin. He later confronted Chaplin about having played the role, but Chaplin (nor anyone else, it seems) could recall for certain whether or not it was indeed Berle. Most researchers believe the role to have been played by Gordon Griffith, Keystone's house child actor. However, there are still others who claim that the boy does not resemble Griffith, and could therefore possibly be Berle. There really is no definitive way of obtaining an answer unless some sort of original studio records turn up, so in the meantime this can be considered speculation at best. Berle would have been 6 years old at the time, Griffith would have been 7. The newsboy appears to be somewhat older, so most likely is neither of them.


7:15am -- A Dog's Life (1918)
In this silent film, the Little Tramp finds a stolen fortune with the help of his dog.
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Syd Chaplin
Dir: Charles Chaplin
BW-33 mins, TV-G

Sydney Chaplin (Charles Chaplin's brother), played a small role in this film, and it was the first time the two brothers were on screen together.


8:00am -- A Day's Pleasure (1919)
In this silent short film, a man's attempts to give his family a day out are complicated by their dilapidated car.
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Jackie Coogan
Dir: Charles Chaplin
BW-17 mins, TV-G

While Charles Chaplin is having trouble with the automobile at the beginning, a man across the street in the background walks by and stops, then walks back. This man was most probably a studio employee.


8:30am -- The Kid (1921)
In this silent comedy, an adoptive father schemes to keep his son.
Cast: Jackie Coogan, Edna Purviance, Carl Miller, Charles Chaplin
Dir: Charles Chaplin
BW-50 mins, TV-G

The production company tried to cheat Charles Chaplin by paying him for this six-reel film what they would ordinarily pay him for two-reel film, about half a million dollars. Chaplin took the unassembled film out of state until they agreed to the one-and-a-half million he deserved, plus half the surplus profits on rentals, plus reversion of the film to him after five years on the rental market.


9:30am -- Pay Day (1922)
In this silent film, a bricklayer and his wife clash over his end-of-the-week partying.
Cast: Charles Chaplin
Dir: Charles Chaplin
BW-21 mins, TV-G

Reportedly Charles Chaplin's favorite among his own short films, this is also his final short film.


10:00am -- A Woman of Paris (1923)
In this silent film, when a young woman thinks her fiance has jilted her, she runs off to Paris and a life of sin.
Cast: Edna Purviance, Adolphe Menjou, Carl Miller, Lydia Knott
Dir: Charles Chaplin
BW-78 mins, TV-PG

The re-issue of this film, with a musical score and new cut by Charles Chaplin, was the last work of his entire film career. By then the 87-year-old Chaplin was visibly frail, but still walking. His score was aided by arranger Eric James, and he took a small theme from Monsieur Verdoux (1947), but most of the score was Chaplin's. The film was re-issued posthumously in 1977 with the new score to overwhelming critical and public praise. At that time many critics praised it (as in the trailer) as one of the best films ever made.

Chaplin has a small cameo as a railroad worker, carrying a huge box over his head.


11:19am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: The Movie Album #1 (1935)
BW-10 mins

A look backward (from 1931) at the silent era, with snippets featuring stars like Lionel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, birthday boy Charles Chaplin, and even Leon Trotsky as an extra.


11:30am -- The Gold Rush (1925)
In this silent film, a lost soul in the Yukon seeks love and wealth.
Cast: Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Georgia Hale, Betty Morrissey
Dir: Charlie Chaplin
BW-69 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars (during its re-release in 1942) for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Terr, and Best Sound, Recording -- James L. Fields (RCA Sound)

The scene where The Lone Prospector and Big Jim have a boot for supper took three days and 63 takes to suit director Charles Chaplin. The boot was made of licorice, and Chaplin was later rushed to hospital suffering insulin shock.


12:45pm -- Modern Times (1936)
The Little Tramp tries to build a home with a young slum girl.
Cast: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman, Stanley Sandford
Dir: Charlie Chaplin
BW-83 mins, TV-G

Supposedly was to be Charles Chaplin's first full sound film, but instead, sound is used in a unique way: we hear spoken voices only when they come from mechanical devices, a symbol of the film's theme of technology and dehumanization. Specifically, voices are heard from: the videophones used by the factory president, the phonographic Mechanical Salesman, the radio in the prison warden's office, and the singers in the restaurant. Some scenes include sound effects.

Charles Chaplin allows the Tramp to speak on camera for the first time during the restaurant scene, but insisted that what the Tramp says be universal. Therefore, the song the Tramp sings is in gibberish, but it is possible to follow the story he tells by watching his hand gestures.


2:15pm -- The Great Dictator (1940)
A Jewish barber takes the place of a war-hungry dictator.
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner
Dir: Charles Chaplin
BW-120 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Charles Chaplin, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Oakie, Best Music, Original Score -- Meredith Willson, Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Charles Chaplin, and Best Picture

Charles Chaplin got the idea when a friend, Alexander Korda, noted that his screen persona and Adolf Hitler looked somewhat similar. Chaplin later learned they were both born within a week of each other, were roughly the same height and weight and both struggled in poverty until they reached great success in their respective fields. When Chaplin learned of Hitler's policies of racial oppression and nationalist aggression, he used their similarities as an inspiration to attack Hitler on film.


4:15pm -- A King in New York (1957)
A European king loses his money while stranded in the U.S.
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Maxine Audley, Jerry Desmonde, Oliver Johnston
Dir: Charles Chaplin
BW-100 mins, TV-PG

The first film that Charles Chaplin made in the UK after his exile from America, and his last leading role in a movie.


6:00pm -- Short Film: The Chaplin Revue (1959)
Features three Chaplin shorts:

A Dog's Life (1918)
In this silent film, the Little Tramp finds a stolen fortune with the help of his dog.
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Syd Chaplin
Dir: Charles Chaplin
BW-33 mins, TV-G

Shoulder Arms (1918)
Charlie is a boot camp private who has a dream of being a hero.
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Syd Chaplin
Dir: Charles Chaplin
BW-36 mins, TV-G

The Pilgrim (1923)
The Tramp is an escaped convict who is mistaken as a pastor in a small town church.
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Syd Chaplin
Dir: Charles Chaplin
BW-39 mins, TV-G

To achieve the feel of a modern print, Charles Chaplin stretch-printed the footage, which slowed it down to sound speed so music could be added properly.


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: TCM FAN PROGRAMMERS


8:00pm -- Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954)
When their older brother marries, six lumberjacks decide it's time to go courting for themselves.
Cast: Howard Keel, Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn, Tommy Rall
Dir: Stanley Donen
C-102 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Adolph Deutsch and Saul Chaplin

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- George J. Folsey, Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich and Dorothy Kingsley, and Best Picture

The censors weren't too happy about the line in the song "Lonesome Polecat" where the brothers lament "A man can't sleep when he sleeps with sheep". By not showing any sheep in the same shot as the brothers, the film-makers were able to get away with it.


10:00pm -- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
International spies kidnap a doctor's son when he stumbles on their assassination plot.
Cast: James Stewart, Doris Day, Brenda de Banzie, Bernard Miles
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
C-120 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jay Livingston and Ray Evans for the song "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)".

Throughout the filming, Doris Day became increasingly concerned that Alfred Hitchcock paid more attention to camera setups, lighting and technical matters than he did to her performance. Convinced that he was displeased with her work, she finally confronted him. His reply was, "My dear Miss Day, if you weren't giving me what I wanted, *then* I would have to direct you!"

It was during the making of this film, when she saw how camels, goats and other "animal extras" in a marketplace scene were being treated, that Doris Day began her lifelong commitment to preventing animal abuse.


12:15am -- Meet John Doe (1941)
A reporter's fraudulent story turns a tramp into a national hero and makes him a pawn of big business.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan
Dir: Frank Capra
BW-122 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Richard Connell and Robert Presnell Sr.

Director Frank Capra tested the film in different areas of the US with four different endings to determine which one to keep. In one, John Willoughby commits suicide. In another, Ann Mitchell persuades him not to leap from City Hall. Inspired by a letter signed "John Doe," Capra filmed a fifth and final ending in which Mitchell talks some sense into Willoughby and then faints into his arms.


2:30am -- Private Screenings: Lauren Bacall (2005)
Lauren Bacall discusses her life and career with host Robert Osborne.
BW-50 mins, TV-PG

Bacall was staying in the same New York apartment building (The Dakota) as Beatle John Lennon when he was shot and later died on 8th December 1980. When interviewed on the subject in a recent UK TV program hosted by former model Twiggy, Bacall said she had heard the gunshot but assumed that it was a car tire bursting or a vehicle backfiring.


3:30am -- Private Screenings: Ann Miller (1997)
The screen's fastest-tapping lady dancer shares memories of her career. Hosted by Robert Osborne.
Cast: Robert Osborne, Ann Miller
C-48 mins, TV-G

On an interview on Turner Classic Movies, Ann Miller told a story about how each time she needed to dress for a dance on screen, the tops of her stockings needed to be sewn to the costume she was wearing. This was a tedious process and needed to be repeated each time there was a run, etc. One day, she suggested to the man supplying the stockings that he add a top to the stockings so they could be worn as one piece. ...and that's how pantyhose was born.


4:30am -- Too Many Girls (1940)
Four college football stars are hired to chaperon a reckless heiress to a Wild West college.
Cast: Lucille Ball, Richard Carlson, Ann Miller, Eddie Bracken
Dir: George Abbott
BW-85 mins, TV-G

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz first met on the set of this movie.

[Staph]

1. Tillie's Punctured Romance

Tillie's Punctured Romance, directed by Mack Sennett and released in November 1914, holds the distinction of being the first feature-length comedy film ever made. At the time, feature films were only two years old and were generally the domain of "important" literary adaptations and historic epics, such as Cleopatra (1912), Shakespeare's Richard III (1912) and D.W. Griffith's Judith of Bethulia (1913). Comedy was considered best served in small doses, but Sennett, already a pioneer in the field of slapstick, was confident that the two-reel barrier could be broken.

Marie Dressler stars as Tillie Banks, a vivacious if ungainly farm girl who falls under the spell of Charlie, a big-city chiseler (Charlie Chaplin). Charlie romances Tillie, steals her money, and flees the scene with his girlfriend/confederate (Mabel Normand). When Tillie's wealthy uncle falls from a mountaintop, she stands to inherit a massive fortune, inspiring Charlie to resume their romance. Charlie marries Tillie and they move into a lavish estate, and the jealous Mabel takes a job as a housemaid to be close to her former partner in crime. A series of comic episodes, including a hilariously inept tango, Tillie's discovery of Charlie in a compromising position and the sudden return of Tillie's "deceased" uncle launches the film toward its madcap finale, in which the Keystone Kops are called in to restore order to the newlyweds' disrupted domicile.

Tillie's Punctured Romance originated as a vehicle for Dressler (1869-1934), who had achieved great fame as a star of the musical comedy stage but had never appeared in a motion picture. After securing the actress's services for the phenomenally expensive price of $2,500 per week (for a minimum of 12 weeks), Sennett and company began searching for a story suitable to this high-profile groundbreaking comedy. Keystone Studios screenplay editor Craig Hutchinson struck upon the idea of retooling one of Ms. Dressler's previous successes, Tillie's Nightmare, which had opened at New York's Herald Square Theater on May 5, 1910 (and which debuted the popular song "Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl"). Screenwriter Hampton Del Ruth and Hutchinson supplied the revamped title of the film, which had at various stages of production been known as Dressler No. 1 and She Was More Sinned Against Than
Necessary.

Curiously, the trade publication Moving Picture World stated that Tillie's Punctured Romance would be Dressler's first and last screen appearance but, probably due to the movie's overwhelming popularity, she quickly changed her mind and pursued a film career. Dressler was a screen comedienne throughout the silent era, and even appeared in two revisitations of her lovelorn creation, Tillie's Tomato Surprise (1915) and Tillie Wakes Up (1917), neither of which were produced by Sennett. She faded from the screen in the 1920s, but at the dawn of the sound era, in one of Hollywood's most remarkable comebacks, Dressler suddenly became a top star again. After her Academy Award-winning appearance in Min and Bill (1930), Dressler -- in various incarnations of the aging, overweight battle-ax -- became filmdom's most unlikely leading lady, named the number one box-office attraction in America.

While its unfettered slapstick (complete with pie fight) continues to provoke laughter today, Tillie's Punctured Romance has not aged gracefully, in cinematic terms. But its crude staging and the actors' shameless mugging offer a historic snapshot of cutting-edge comedy in the mid 1910s. Sennett's film would certainly occupy a more obscure spot in film history were it not for the presence of the young Charlie Chaplin, who had landed a contract with Keystone Studios earlier in the year. In his memoirs, Chaplin was rather dismissive of the film, remarking, "It was pleasant working with Marie, but I did not think the picture had much merit." The truth was, Chaplin had begun to direct his own films and enjoyed the creative spirit of on-the-spot experimentation that characterized his sets, and found it difficult to suddenly follow the demands of another filmmaker. Said Chaplin, "I was more happy to get back to directing myself again." With the exception of a few cameo appearances, Chaplin would never again appear in a film directed by anyone other than himself.

Among the directors Chaplin had worked for in the early months of his career was his co-star Mabel Normand. An often overlooked silent screen personality, Normand was among the first women filmmakers in Hollywood, as well as one of its most popular stars. Her skills at comedy were so deft that she could share the screen with slapstick legends such as Chaplin or Fatty Arbuckle without being outshined. For years Normand was involved in an on-again/off-again romantic relationship with Sennett but the pair never married, even though they remained friends and collaborators until Normand's death in 1930.

Before proving his genius at comedy, Sennett had been an actor at the Biograph Studios, often appearing in the films of D.W. Griffith, including The Lonely Villa (1909) and The Last Drop of Water (1911). Supposedly Sennett's entry into show business came about via Dressler. In 1902, he introduced himself to the actress with a letter of referral from the Sennett family's lawyer, Calvin Coolidge. Impressed by the 22-year-old's ambition, Dressler in turn wrote a letter of recommendation to New York producer David Belasco. Although the legendary impresario did not hire Sennett, the young actor's pursuit of stardom was thus set in motion.

While producing films first at Biograph, then at Keystone Studios, Sennett developed a roster of stars that would become a who's who of slapstick cinema: Chaplin, Arbuckle, Al St. John, Ford Sterling, Chester Conklin, Edgar Kennedy, Charley Chase and Mack Swain, among many others. Even though Dressler was instrumental in Sennett's climb to power, the two did not work well together. Sennett wrote in his autobiography, King of Comedy, "In the midst of a comic scene I had planned carefully beforehand, Miss Dressler would say, 'No, Mack, that's wrong. Now this is the way we're going to do it.' I was the head of the studio and I was supervising this particular picture, but neither of these things influenced Marie Dressler. My arguments didn't influence her either. 'Okay, Marie, you do it your way,' I'd say. And I would leave the set. Usually a sweating messenger would arrive within an hour ."

Disputes over the distribution of the film (which had been promised to Dressler's husband, James Dalton) caused the actress to file various lawsuits and appeals against Keystone, but without success, mainly because the promise was verbal rather than written. The actress later claimed that it was she who discovered Chaplin and selected him and Normand to appear in Tillie's Punctured Romance: "I think the public will agree that I am a good picker for it was the first real chance Charlie Chaplin ever had." This was, of course, a bit of an exaggeration. By the time Tillie's Punctured Romance was produced, Chaplin had already appeared in more than 30 films and was soon to leave Keystone for a lucrative contract at the Essanay Studios.

Dressler did, however, have a say in who was cast in the film -- or rather, who was not cast in the film. She refused to allow Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle to co-star with her. Both in terms of screen popularity and physical girth, Dressler insisted upon being the "biggest" star to appear in Tillie's Punctured Romance.

Producer/Director: Mack Sennett
Screenplay: Hampton Del Ruth
Based on the play Tillie's Nightmare by Edgar Smith and A. Baldwin Sloane
Cinematography: Frank D. Williams
Music: Organ score by John Muri (if David Shepard/Blackhawk version)
Principal Cast: Marie Dressler (Tillie Banks), Charles Chaplin (Charlie, the city slicker), Mabel Normand (Mabel, his partner), Mack Swain (Tillie's father), Charlie Murray (Detective), Chester Conklin (Guest), the Keystone Kops.
BW-73m.

by Bret Wood