TCM Schedule for Thursday, October 29 -- Life During the Depression

[Staph]

Today we have a nautical theme, featuring such films as Follow The Fleet (1936), Captains Courageous (1937), Show Boat (1936), and Sinbad the Sailor (1947). This evening we continue the month's theme of Life During the Depression with sextet of films that were filimed in 1932 and 1933. Enjoy!


4:00am -- Five Easy Pieces (1970)
A classical pianist who's dropped out of society returns to the family he deserted.
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Lois Smith, Susan Anspach
Dir: Bob Rafelson
C-98 mins, TV-MA

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Jack Nicholson, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Karen Black, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- Bob Rafelson (story) and Carole Eastman (screenplay/story) (as Adrien Joyce), and Best Picture

The movie's conversation "You want me to hold the chicken, huh?" - "I want you to hold it between your knees." between Robert and the waitress was voted as the #98 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.


5:39am -- Short Film: The Comedians In Africa (1967)
This promotional short shows the hardships faced by the cast and crew of The Comedians (1967), when they filmed the movie in the African nation of Dahomey.
Cast: Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Alec Guiness, James Earl Jones
C-11 mins

The story takes place in Haiti, but political conditions in that country made filming there impossible.


6:00am -- Follow The Fleet (1936)
Two sailors on leave romance a dance-hall hostess and her prim sister.
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott, Harriet Hilliard
Dir: Mark Sandrich
BW-110 mins, TV-G

At the time of production, the Golden Gate Bridge was still under construction, so we see a night shot of the fleet sailing out through the Golden Gate between the towers of the bridge, but the deck isn't in place yet.


8:00am -- Shipmates Forever (1935)
An admiral's son gives up the Navy for a career as a song-and-dance man.
Cast: Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Lewis Stone, Ross Alexander
Dir: Frank Borzage
BW-109 mins, TV-G

The theme to SHIPMATES FOREVER was reworked as a 1939 military programmer titled ON DRESS PARADE (WB, 1939) starring The Dead End Kids, with Leo Gorcey assuming the role originally enacted by Powell, but minus the singing.


10:00am -- Captains Courageous (1937)
A spoiled rich boy is lost at sea and rescued by a fishing boat, where hard work and responsibility help him become a man.
Cast: Freddie Bartholomew, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore, Melvyn Douglas
Dir: Victor Fleming
BW-117 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy

Nominated for Oscars for Best Film Editing -- Elmo Veron, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Marc Connelly, John Lee Mahin and Dale Van Every, and Best Picture

Spencer Tracy was initially reluctant to take on the part of Manuel, mainly because he had to sing in several scenes and get his hair curled. His new curly locks provided a lot of amusement to his friends and fellow actors. Joan Crawford, for instance, referred to him as Harpo (after Harpo Marx, the curly-haired Marx Brother).


12:00pm -- Show Boat (1936)
Riverboat entertainers find love, laughs and hardships as they sail along "Old Man River."
Cast: Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger, Paul Robeson
Dir: James Whale
BW-114 mins, TV-G

Special permission had to be granted from the Hays Office in order to retain the famous "miscegenation" sequence in the film. Miscegenation was banned as a film subject and the scene had been excluded from the 1929 film version.


2:00pm -- Navy Blues (1941)
Honolulu days are far from peaceful for a boatload of amorous sailors.
Cast: Ann Sheridan, Jack Oakie, Martha Raye, Jack Haley
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
BW-108 mins, TV-PG

Film debut of Jackie Gleason.


4:00pm -- Stand By for Action (1942)
A Harvard graduate serving on a battleship is faced with the realities of war.
Cast: Robert Taylor, Charles Laughton, Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
BW-109 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic), Donald Jahraus (photographic) and Michael Steinore (sound)

The world premiere on 31 December 1942 took place simultaneously in 7 US cities: Boston, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; Washington, D.C.; Chicago, Illinois; Norfolk, Virginia; San Diego, California and San Francisco, California. Some earlier screenings may have taken place for naval officers on Treasure Island, California and Mare Island, California.


6:00pm -- Sinbad The Sailor (1947)
The Arabian Nights hero sets off to find the lost treasure of Alexander the Great.
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak, Anthony Quinn
Dir: Richard Wallace
C-117 mins, TV-PG

RKO had to scuttle its plan to present this film as a 1946 Christmas-season attraction when a strike at the Technicolor processing plant delayed the making of prints. The wide-release date would be moved up to January 13, 1947, with the Manhattan opening at the Palace Theatre following on January 22, 1947. Needing a black-and-white movie for its 1946 yuletide schedule, RKO chose a film destined to become a holiday perennial: Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946).


What's On Tonight: TCM SPOTLIGHT: LIFE DURING THE DEPRESSION


8:00pm -- Faithless (1932)
A spoiled rich girl is wiped out by the Depression.
Cast: Tallulah Bankhead, Robert Montgomery, Hugh Herbert, Maurice Murphy
Dir: Harry Beaumont
BW-77 mins, TV-PG

Starring the Patron Saint of the Classic Films Forum...




9:30pm -- American Madness (1932)
A banker fights to keep his independence and protect his customers.
Cast: Walter Huston, Pat O'Brien, Kay Johnson, Constance Cummings
Dir: Frank R. Capra
BW-76 mins, TV-G

Walter Huston (on loan from MGM) worked 4 weeks and 6 days on this production. Louis B. Mayer exercised a provision in his 1931 contract extending it for his participation in this film.


11:00pm -- Prosperity (1932)
Feuding mothers almost wreck their children's marriage.
Cast: Marie Dressler, Polly Moran, Anita Page, Norman Foster
Dir: Sam Wood
BW-87 mins, TV-G

Marie Dressler became 1932's US #1 Box Office Star, according to the industry standard list, compiled by Quigley Publications.


12:30am -- The Crash (1932)
The stock market crash costs a faithless wife her fortune.
Cast: Ruth Chatterton, George Brent, Lois Wilson, Barbara Leonard
Dir: William Dieterle
BW-57 mins, TV-G

Although the story takes place primarily in October 1929, and immediately thereafter, all of Linda Gault's clothes are from 1932 (styles changed dramatically during those three years).


1:30am -- Looking Forward (1933)
A man fights to keep the family department store open during the Depression.
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, Benita Hume, Elizabeth Allen
Dir: Clarence Brown
BW-82 mins, TV-G

The title of the movie was taken from the book written by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and credited to him onscreen.


3:00am -- The Match King (1932)
An ambitious young man corners the market on matches, then faces the destruction of his empire.
Cast: Warren William, Lily Damita, Glenda Farrell, Juliette Compton
Dir: Howard Bretherton
BW-79 mins, TV-G

The film is loosely based on the Swedish industrialist Ivar Kreuger, who killed himself 9 months before this movie was released. The character of Marta Molnar is based on Greta Garbo. Warner Bros. tried unsuccessfully to borrow Garbo from MGM for the role.



4:30am -- I Promise to Pay (1937)
A man goes to a loan shark to finance his family's vacation.
Cast: Chester Morris, Leo Carrillo, Helen Mack, Thomas Mitchell
Dir: D. Ross Lederman
BW-68 mins

Chester Morris was best known for his 14 films as the detective Boston Blackie.

[Staph]

1. Follow the Fleet

For their fourth film together, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers borrowed the most popular elements from previous pictures, but with enough variations to make Follow the Fleet (1936) their second-highest grossing film ever. And although critics would carp about the story taking up too much screen time, it has one of the team's best scores ever (by Irving Berlin), including such hits as "Let's Face the Music and Dance," "Let Yourself Go" and "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket."

The story idea was credited to the 1922 play Shore Leave, about a sailor who falls in love during a 24-hour leave. The play had already been adapted to musical form in 1925 as Hit the Deck, with such Vincent Youmans hits as "Sometimes I'm Happy" and "Hallelujah." Both versions were filmed: the straight play in 1925 and the musical in 1930. Nor would the Astaire-Rogers version mark the plot's last appearance. Hit the Deck, complete with Youmans' score, was given an official remake in 1955 with Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Ann Miller, Vic Damone, Russ Tamblyn and Tony Martin (who had been an extra back in 1936). It would inspire just about every Navy musical ever made, particularly two with different scores, The Fleet's In (1942), with Dorothy Lamour, William Holden, Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton; and Here Come the Waves (1944), with Hutton, Bing Crosby and Sonny Tufts.

Producer Pandro S. Berman assigned the script and score to writers Dwight Taylor and Allan Scott and songwriter Irving Berlin, all of whom had just finished work on what would turn out to be Astaire and Rogers' biggest hit, Top Hat (1935, it opened to SRO crowds and raves as Follow the Fleet was going into production). And just to confuse the story credits more, the writers drew elements from Roberta (1935), in which Fred and Ginger had provided comic relief to a serious love story pairing Randolph Scott with Irene Dunne. The studio wanted to cast Dunne in the new film as Rogers' sister and Scott's love interest, but she had other commitments. As a result, some numbers Berlin had written for her were cut from the score and her big ballad, "Let's Face the Music and Dance," became one of Fred and Ginger's most memorable duets.

As was his custom, Astaire began working on the choreography months before filming started. Helping were choreographer Hermes Pan and pianist-arranger Hal Borne, who had been working with him since the film that introduced him to Rogers, Flying Down to Rio (1933). The comic dance duel "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket" was created to replace a scene in which the stars were to insult each other while practicing a dance routine. Instead, Astaire and Rogers developed a genial collection of terpsichorean mistakes that made it one of the screen's best comic dance numbers. By this point, Rogers had grown so much as a dancer that they even trusted her with a solo routine, a stirring tap solo to "Let Yourself Go."

For the grand finale, a show-within-a-show set on a battleship, the two played a losing gambler and a woman of mystery dancing to "Let's Face the Music and Dance." On the day of shooting, Rogers showed up wearing a beaded dress that weighed 25 pounds. Although Astaire approved it, they both had to adjust to its weight, particularly when she spun around. Astaire wanted to do the dance in one long take, but the first time they tried it, he forgot to dodge the sleeves after one spin and they hit him in the face, almost knocking him out. He managed to complete the take, but could barely remember what he'd done. So they spent the rest of the day doing more than 20 additional takes, none of which worked. The next day they were ready to do it again when they watched the first take and realized it was perfect. Fans still watch for the moment Rogers' costume decks her dancing partner.

Follow the Fleet provided early opportunities for three budding stars. In his film debut, extra Tony Martin almost got the chance to sing "Let's Face the Music and Dance" until the production team decided to give the number to Astaire. He would have to leave RKO to achieve musical stardom in such pictures as Sing, Baby, Sing (1936) with future wife Alice Faye. To replace Dunne, RKO cast popular big-band singer Harriet Hilliard, though she had to dye her blonde hair brown so as not to compete with Rogers. Critics were less than impressed, and many television prints cut her two numbers, but she would go on to fame years later under her married name, Harriet Nelson. And in her largest role to date, newcomer Lucille Ball scored laughs as a wisecracking dancer. Ball had only been with the studio a year, and had almost been dropped until Rogers' mother, acting coach Lela Rogers, threatened to quit if the studio didn't recognize her star potential. Two decades later, Ball would end up buying the RKO lot. In 1936, however, she was comforted by the fact that Follow the Fleet brought her first fan letter: "You might give the tall, gum-chewing blonde more parts and see if she can't make the grade - a good gamble."

Producer: Pandro S. Berman
Director: Mark Sandrich
Screenplay: Dwight Taylor, Allan Scott, based on the play, Shore Leave by Hubert Osborne
Cinematography: David Abel
Art Direction: Van Nest Polglase, Carroll Clark
Music: Irving Berlin
Principal Cast: Fred Astaire (Bake Baker), Ginger Rogers (Sherry Martin), Randolph Scott (Bilge Smith), Harriet Hilliard (Connie Martin), Astrid Allwyn (Iris Manning), Lucille Ball (Kitty Collins), Betty Grable (Singer), Tony Martin (Sailor).
BW-111m. Closed captioning.

by Frank Miller