TCM Schedule for Friday, January 1, 2010! -- Primetime Feature -- The Future is Now

[Staph]

A day of Jimmy Stewart films -- what a wonderful way to start the new year. And TCM has cleverly chosen to emphasize tonight's theme of "The Future is Now" by showing 2010 as their first primetime feature. Enjoy!


5:15am -- Song Of The Thin Man (1947)
Society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles investigate a murder in a jazz club.
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Keenan Wynn, Dean Stockwell
Dir: Edward Buzzell
BW-87 mins, TV-G

Reportedly, Dashiell Hammett based Nick and Nora's banter upon his rocky on-again, off-again relationship with playwright Lillian Hellman .


6:45am -- Bell Book and Candle (1959)
A beautiful witch puts a love spell on an unknowing publisher.
Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs
Dir: Richard Quine
C-102 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color -- Cary Odell and Louis Diage, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White or Color -- Jean Louis

The title "Bell, Book and Candle" is a reference to excommunication, which is performed by bell, book and candle. It is opened with "Ring the bell, open the book, light the candle," and closed with "Ring the bell, close the book, quench the candle."


8:30am -- 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.
Cast: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell
Dir: Otto Preminger
BW-161 mins, TV-PG

Nominated 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 Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Sam Leavitt, Best Film Editing -- Louis R. Loeffler, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Wendell Mayes, and Best Picture

Part of the controversy surrounding this movie was because it included use of the words "bitch", "contraceptive", "panties", "penetration", "rape", "slut" and "sperm". James Stewart's father was so offended by the film, which he deemed "a dirty picture", that he took out an ad in his local newspaper telling people not to see it.


11:15am -- The Stratton Story (1949)
True story of Monty Stratton, the baseball star who fought to continue his career after losing a leg.
Cast: James Stewart, June Allyson, Frank Morgan, Agnes Moorehead
Dir: Sam Wood
BW-107 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Douglas Morrow

After the events of the movie, the real Monty Stratton went on to be a coach for the Chicago White Sox for a couple of years before going back to his home town of Greenville, TX to start his own farm team. In 1946, he shocked the world when he took the mound once again, this time in the minor leagues, and he posted an 18-8 record for that season.


1:15pm -- The Man From Laramie (1955)
A wandering cowboy gets caught in the rivalry between an aging rancher's sons.
Cast: James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp, Cathy O'Donnell
Dir: Anthony Mann
C-102 mins, TV-PG

The last of James Stewart's Western collaborations with Anthony Mann.


3:00pm -- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
An experienced gunman and a peace-loving tenderfoot clash with a Western bully.
Cast: James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin
Dir: John Ford
BW-123 mins, TV-14

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head

Several reasons have been put forward for the film being in black and white. John Ford once claimed it added to the tension, however others involved with production said Paramount was cutting costs and so they had to make the movie on sound stages at the studio. Without the budget restraints, Ford would have been in Monument Valley using Technicolor stock. It has also been suggested that since both John Wayne and James Stewart were playing characters thirty years younger than they actually were (Wayne was 54 when the movie was filmed in the autumn of 1961 and Stewart was 53), the movie needed to be in black and white because they would never have got away with it in color. The age difference was particularly noticeable in Stewart's case, since he was playing a young lawyer who had only just graduated from law school and had moved West without even practicing law back East.


5:15pm -- How the West Was Won (1962)
Three generations of pioneers take part in the forging of the American West.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Carroll Baker, Lee J. Cobb, Henry Fonda
Dir: John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall.
C-165 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Film Editing -- Harold F. Kress, Best Sound -- Franklin Milton (M-G-M SSD), and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- James R. Webb

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- George W. Davis, William Ferrari, Addison Hehr, Henry Grace, Don Greenwood Jr. and Jack Mills, Best Cinematography, Color -- William H. Daniels, Milton R. Krasner, Charles Lang and Joseph LaShelle, Best Costume Design, Color -- Walter Plunkett, Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Alfred Newman and Ken Darby, and Best Picture

No ordinary "single-camera" version was filmed simultaneously with the Cinerama version, resulting in two noticeable dividing lines on the non-Cinerama theater prints, video, TV and DVD versions (indicating the three synchronized film strips originally used). The same problem occurred with the other Cinerama film in release at the time, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962), which had not been shot in a "single-camera" version either. Both were MGM films.


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: THE FUTURE IS NOW


8:00pm -- 2010 (1984)
In this sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, a U.S.-Soviet crew investigates a mysterious monolith orbiting Jupiter.
Cast: Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, Helen Mirren, Bob Balaban
Dir: Peter Hyams
C-116 mins, TV-14

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Albert Brenner and Rick Simpson, Best Costume Design -- Patricia Norris, Best Effects, Visual Effects -- Richard Edlund, Neil Krepela, George Jenson and Mark Stetson, Best Makeup -- Michael Westmore, and Best Sound -- Michael J. Kohut, Aaron Rochin, Carlos Delarios and Gene S. Cantamessa

Victor Milson (James McEachin) states that a U.S. Navy vessel called "U.S.S. Cunningham" participates in a deadly naval engagement with a Russian vessel. Given the film was made less than 10 years following the end of the Vietnam War, it could be held, that a futuristic Navy ship named "Cunningham" may have been named after U.S. Navy Commander Randy "Duke" Cunningham, whom, at the time, was a notable, decorated Vietnam War hero. By 2010, however, Cunningham will be best remembered by the public as a disgraced United States Congressman.


10:00pm -- Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Adaptation of Ray Bradbury's futuristic novel about a society where literature is outlawed.
Cast: Oskar Werner, Julie Christie, Cyril Cusack, Anton Diffring
Dir: François Truffaut
C-112 mins, TV-PG

The film's credits are spoken, not read, in keeping with the film's theme of destruction of reading material.


12:00am -- Rollerball (1975)
The star of a bloodthirsty future sport tries to clean up the game before it kills him.
Cast: James Caan, Ralph Richardson, John Houseman, Maud Adams
Dir: Norman Jewison
C-125 mins, TV-MA

The game sequences were filmed in the Olympic Basketball Arena in Munich. Munich citizens were invited to the filming to serve as spectators to the games. Norman Jewison intended the movie to be anti violence, but audiences so loved the action of the game that there was actually talk about forming rollerball leagues in the wake of the film which horrified him.


2:15am -- Blue Velvet (1986)
A small-town boy unearths a world of corruption when he stumbles upon a severed ear.
Cast: Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern
Dir: David Lynch
C-121 mins

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Director -- David Lynch

The role of Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan) was originally offered to Val Kilmer, who turned it down, describing the script he read as "pornography", although he says he would've done the version that finally made it to the screen.

[Staph]

1. 2010

It's no secret that sequels are often little more than calculated rehashes of popular movies, with extra emphasis placed on re-creating dialogue or bits of action that everyone talked about the first time around. But Peter Hyams' 2010 (1984), the long awaited follow-up to Stanley Kubrick's monumental classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), is a different beast altogether. It may well be the only sequel in movie history that was designed to explain the plot of its predecessor...not that everyone was clamoring for an answer.

2010's relatively straight-forward narrative picks up nine years after the first film ended. The United States government discovers that the Soviets are planning to travel to Jupiter to find out what happened to The Discovery, the doomed ship that served as a sort of metaphysical launching pad in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Soviets eventually contact the U.S. and request that Heywood Floyd (Roy Scheider), the mastermind behind the original mission, accompany them on their journey. It's never explained how Floyd, who was played by William Sylvester in 2001, managed to transform himself into a completely different person between stories.

Floyd and his fellow American astronauts, Walter Curnow (John Lithgow) and Dr. Chandra (Bob Balaban), are welcome additions to the crew, mainly because the Russians have no working knowledge of the HAL 9000 computer that controls The Discovery. Fans of the first film, of course, realize that nobody knows exactly what's going on with HAL. (Note also that 2010 contains a guest appearance by HAL's sister, SAL 9000. SAL speaks with Candice Bergen's mellifluous voice, though Bergen is inexplicably billed in the credits as "Olga Mallsnerd.") Soviet-American political tensions - which were a reality at the time and now may be puzzling to today's viewers - add another dimension to the proceedings. Before it's all over, you may (or may not) have a better idea what Kubrick and co-writer Arthur C. Clarke were getting at with 2001.

One could debate whether there was a need to make 2010 at all. "I certainly would not have not thought of doing the film," Hyams admitted, "if I had not gotten the blessing of Kubrick." Though Kubrick gave Hyams the go-ahead, he always intended 2001: A Space Odyssey to operate somewhere beyond the realm of verbal explanation. The questions it raises aren't designed to be answered directly, since the film's "point" hinges on the unknowable mysteries of human consciousness. It's the kind of picture that can be viewed as profound, pretentious or incomprehensible depending on who's viewing it. Thus the sequel received a mixed reception; some people saw it and some people avoided it out of respect for Kubrick's original, mind-bending experience.

Clarke, for his part, was receptive when a nervous Hyams sent him the screenplay. "I felt like playing a few tricks on you - like a message from my secretary that I was last seen heading for the airport carrying a gun," he told him. However, Clarke added, "I'll say right away that it's a splendid job and you have brilliantly chiseled out the basic elements of the novel, besides adding quite a few of your own."

Whether or not Hyams succeeds in clarifying a deliberately unknowable film will hinge on your eagerness to abandon your personal interpretation of Kubrick's and Clarke's work. Regardless, 2010 can still be appreciated as a solidly entertaining piece of sci-fi, one that was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Sound, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, and Best Visual effects.

Directed by: Peter Hyams
Screenplay: Peter Hyams, based on Arthur C. Clarke’s novel, 2010, Odyssey Two
Art Direction: Albert Brenner
Set Design: Rick Simpson
Cinematography: Peter Hyams
Editing: James Mitchell and Mia Goldman
Music: David Shire, Richard Strauss, and Gyorgi Ligeti
Special Effects: Henry Millar, Jr. and Richard Edlund
Costume Design: Patricia Norris
Principal Cast: Roy Scheider (Heywood Floyd), John Lithgow (Walter Curnow), Helen Mirren (Tanya Kirbuk), Bob Balaban (Dr. Chandra), Keir Dullea (David Bowman), Dana Elcar (Dimitri Moisevitch), Elya Baskin (Maxim Brailovsky).
C-116m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.

by Paul Tatara

[lavenderdiva]

2. So many great Jimmy Stewart movies today!

Jimmmy, aged 53, playing a just-graduated lawyer? Can't say I've seen that one! I will have to DVR it, just to see how he looks! :hi: