TCM Schedule for Friday, September 2 -- What's On Tonight -- Mermaids

[Staph]

Happy September! It's back to school time, and TCM is celebrating (or commiserating!) with a day of films about the joys and sorrows of school life. Good films, too -- 16 Oscar nominations and one win spread across seven films. In primetime, TCM has chosen an unusual theme, mermaids, and done it without a single Disney film or Daryl Hannah. Tonight's mermaids are Ann Blyth, Marta Kristen, Glynis Johns, and Glynis Johns. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Now Playing September (2011)
Features highlights of the month's programming on TCM, including festivals and stars.
16 min, TV-PG, CC


6:30 AM -- To Sir, With Love (1967)
A substitute teacher changes the lives of the slum children in his class.
Dir: James Clavell
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Christian Roberts, Judy Geeson.
C-105 min, TV-PG, CC

The film did so unexpectedly well in America that Columbia Pictures did market research to find out why so many people had gone to it. Their answer: Sidney Poitier. Well, duh!


8:30 AM -- A Patch Of Blue (1965)
A blind white girl falls in love with a black man.
Dir: Guy Green
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters, Elizabeth Hartman.
105 min, TV-PG, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Shelley Winters

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Hartman, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- George W. Davis, Urie McCleary, Henry Grace and Charles S. Thompson, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Robert Burks, and Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Jerry Goldsmith

Patty Duke was offered the lead part of Selina D'Arcy. Her managers, John and Ethel Ross, did not want her to take the part because they felt that playing a blind person so close to the time she portrayed Helen Keller would stereotype her for future roles.


10:30 AM -- Up The Down Staircase (1967)
A novice schoolteacher faces delinquent students and apathetic administrators in a tough inner city high school.
Dir: Robert Mulligan
Cast: Sandy Dennis, Patrick Bedford, Eileen Heckart.
C-124 min, TV-PG, CC

Like Dangerous Minds 28 years later, this movie was filmed in a real-life urban high school building, using real high school kids from the neighborhood as extras, many of whom were believed to be armed on the set.


12:45 PM -- Bright Road (1953)
Teachers at an all-black school fight to save a problem child.
Dir: Gerald Mayer
Cast: Dorothy Dandridge, Philip Hepburn, Harry Belafonte.
68 min, TV-PG, CC

Film debut of Harry Belafonte.


2:00 PM -- Blackboard Jungle (1955)
An idealistic teacher confronts the realities of juvenile delinquency.
Dir: Richard Brooks
Cast: Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern.
101 min, TV-14, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell, Edwin B. Willis and Henry Grace, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Russell Harlan, Best Film Editing -- Ferris Webster, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Richard Brooks

The original novel was based on author Evan Hunter's own experiences as a teacher in South Bronx. Hunter, who found fame as crime writer Ed McBain, said "I thought I was going to give these kids who want to be motor mechanics Shakespeare and they were going to appreciate it and they weren't buying it. I went home in tears night after night".


4:00 PM -- The Corn Is Green (1945)
A dedicated teacher sacrifices everything to send a young miner to Oxford.
Dir: Irving Rapper
Cast: Bette Davis, Nigel Bruce, Rhys Williams.
114 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- John Dall, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Joan Lorring

Richard Waring, who created the role of Morgan on stage in America was signed by Warner Bros. but he was drafted before shooting began and had to be replaced by John Dall. Veteran actor Gareth Hughes was then living in a monastery. An agreement was found with his religious superior so that he could serve as the Welsh dialect coach.


6:00 PM -- Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
A cold-hearted teacher becomes the school favorite when he's thawed by a beautiful young woman.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn.
114 min, TV-PG, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Robert Donat

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Director -- Sam Wood, Best Film Editing -- Charles Frend, Best Sound, Recording -- A.W. Watkins (Denham SSD), Best Writing, Screenplay -- Eric Maschwitz, R.C. Sherriff and Claudine West, and Best Picture

34-year-old Robert Donat ages 63 years (1870-1933) over the course of the film. He remarked: "As soon as I put the mustache on, I felt the part, even if I did look like a great Airedale come out of a puddle."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: MERMAIDS



8:00 PM -- Mr. Peabody And The Mermaid (1948)
A middle-aged man accidentally catches a mermaid and falls in love.
Dir: Irving Pichel
Cast: William Powell, Ann Blyth, Irene Hervey.
89 min, TV-G, CC

"Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid" was shooting near a set where "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" was filming. Tourists were shocked to see Glenn Strange's Frankenstein Monster having lunch with Ann Blyth in her fishtail costume. Both Strange and Lon Chaney in his Wolfman make-up were invited to the Mr. Peabody wrap party, where they hammed it up in make-up.


9:45 PM -- Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)
The surfing gang rescues a beautiful singer from evil bikers.
Dir: William Asher
Cast: Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley.
C-97 min, TV-G

This was the final full appearance in a "Beach Party" movie for Frankie Avalon. He only appears in six minutes of the follow-up, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini.


11:30 PM -- Miranda (1948)
A doctor on fishing holiday catches a mermaid by mistake.
Dir: Ken Annakin
Cast: Glynis Johns, Googie Withers, Griffith Jones.
77 min, TV-G

As the mermaid's tail disappears below the waves, the credit reads "FIN".


1:00 AM -- Mad About Men (1954)
A mermaid trades places with a teacher and finds love.
Dir: Ralph Thomas
Cast: Glynis Johns, Donald Sinden, Anne Crawford
C-85 min

Second film about the adventures of the mermaid Miranda Trewalla.


2:30 AM -- Zombies of Mora Tau (1957)
Sailors try to salvage a sunken treasure guarded by zombie seamen.
Dir: Edward Cahn
Cast: Gregg Palmer, Allison Hayes, Autumn Russell.
69 min, TV-PG

Columbia Pictures released this film on a double bill with The Man Who Turned to Stone with the tag line: "Warning - This is the Most Shocking Horror Bill Ever Shown!"


3:45 AM -- I Walked With A Zombie (1943)
A nurse in the Caribbean resorts to voodoo to cure her patient, even though she's in love with the woman's husband.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway.
69 min, TV-PG, CC

Val Lewton did not like the article "I Walked With A Zombie" by Inez Wallace that had been optioned so he adapted the story to fit the novel "Jane Eyre" because he felt the article's plot was too clichéd.


5:00 AM -- Shake Hands With Danger (1970)
Safety film about dangers associated with earthmoving equipment operation, showing many simulated accidents on construction sites.
Dir: Herk Harvey
Narrator: Charles Oldfather
C-23 min, TV-PG

Filmed in Lawrence, Kansas.


5:30 AM -- Tear Gas In Law Enforcement (1962)
Vintage training film used by police to show tear gas techniques.
C-27 min, TV-PG

Produced in 1962 on behalf of the Lake Erie Chemical Corporation of Wickliffe, Ohio, and filmed in Berkeley, California.

[Graybeard]

1. The funniest scene in Mr. Peabody

William Powell wants to buy some clothes for his new ( and naked) friend. The sweater shop scene proves that there are no small parts, only small actors. The wonderful character actress Mary Field turns this encounter into a comic tour de force.