TCM Schedule for Thursday, June 26 -- Race and Hollywood

[Staph]

We've reached the 1990s/2000s in the series on Asian-Americans in Hollywood, but my favorites for today include The Red Shoes (1948) and Romeo and Juliet (1968). Enjoy!


5:19am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: La Gazza Ladra Overture (1954)
Johnny Green leads the MGM Symphony Orchestra in the title work.
C-9 mins

All the credits are spoken, not shown on the screen.


5:30am -- Man of La Mancha (1972)
The aging Don Quixote follows his dream by traveling the countryside as a warrior knight.
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Sophia Loren, James Coco.
Dir: Arthur Hiller.
C-129 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation -- Laurence Rosenthal

Librettist Dale Wasserman omitted from the screenplay what was apparently one of his most favorite ones
from the play, uttered by Don Quixote, "Facts are the enemy of truth."


7:45am -- A Walk in the Sun (1946)
A platoon of American soldiers captures an Italian farmhouse.
Cast: Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, John Ireland.
Dir: Lewis Milestone.
BW-116 mins, TV-14

President of the Screen Actors Guild from 1963 to 1965, Dana Andrews was one of the first to speak out against the degradation of the acting profession, particularly actresses doing nude scenes just to get a role.


9:45am -- Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)
A crooked press agent stoops to new depths to help an egotistical columnist break up his sister's romance.
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Martin Milner.
Dir: Alexander Mackendrick.
BW-96 mins, TV-PG

Burt Lancaster's character of J.J. Hunsecker is based on famed New York columnist Walter Winchell.


11:30am -- The Blue Gardenia (1953)
A telephone operator kills in self-defense but can't remember the details of the encounter.
Cast: Anne Baxter, Raymond Burr, Richard Conte.
Dir: Fritz Lang.
BW-88 mins, TV-PG

Perhaps unaware that his hands on the keyboard are visible in the mirror behind him, Nat 'King' Cole plays a strikingly different piano arrangement of "Blue Gardenia" than the one we are hearing.


1:00pm -- The Big Wheel (1949)
A mechanic alienates everyone who loves him when he becomes a champion race car driver.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Thomas Mitchell, Spring Byington.
Dir: Edward Ludwig.
BW-91 mins, TV-PG

Hattie McDaniel's last movie.


2:49pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Musical Masterpieces (1946)
Cast: Carlos Ramírez, Lucille Norman.
Dir: Merrill Pye.
BW-10 mins

Musical performances include Flight of the Bumblebee, The Donkey Serenade, and Vienna Waltz.


3:00pm -- The Red Shoes (1948)
A young ballerina is torn between her art and her romance with a young composer.
Cast: Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer.
Dir: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger.
C-134 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Hein Heckroth and Arthur Lawson, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Brian Easdale

Nominated for Oscars for Best Film Editing -- Reginald Mills, Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Emeric Pressburger, and Best Picture

The exterior of The Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate was shown in the rain because Michael Powell had often gone there to see plays or the ballet and he reminisced "it always seemed to be raining when one queued up for Madame Rambert's productions".


5:30pm -- Romeo And Juliet (1968)
William Shakespeare's classic tale of young lovers from feuding families.
Cast: Leonard Whiting, Olivia Hussey, Michael York.
Dir: Franco Zefferelli.
C-138 mins, TV-14

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Pasqualino De Santis, and Best Costume Design -- Danilo Donati

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Franco Zeffirelli, and Best Picture

The first major film production of this play to actually cast leading actors who were close to the ages of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Zeffirelli needed to get special permission to show teenaged Olivia Hussey topless in one scene.


What's On Tonight: TCM SPOTLIGHT: RACE AND HOLLYWOOD


8:00pm -- Rush Hour 2 (2001)
A Hong Kong trip turns into a working vacation when two detectives stumble on a counterfeiting ring.
Cast: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, John Lone.
Dir: Brett Ratner.
C-90 mins, TV-MA

The part of the "Red Dragon" hotel was played by the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, Nevada. The sign was changed to read "Red Dragon" and the lower half of the building was painted red for the filming of the movie. The hotel was closed at the time so evidence of the transformation remained for a while. The Desert Inn was demolished on 23 October 2001.


9:50pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Oriental Paradise (1936)
In this "Traveltalk," we enjoy Japan's trees and flowers in bloom and learn of the significance of flower arrangements.
C-8 mins

Another Fitzpatrick travel talk.


10:00pm -- The Joy Luck Club (1993)
Four Asian-American women work through complicated relationships with their mothers.
Cast: Kieu Chinh, Ming-Na, Rosalind Chao.
Dir: Wayne Wang.
C-139 mins, TV-MA

Towards the end of the movie, June can be seen showing an elderly couple out after the party. She bids farewell to them using their names, Daisy and T.C. Daisy is the American name of Amy Tan's (the author) mother and T.C. was the name of her mother's partner.


12:30am -- The Killing Fields (1984)
An American journalist and his Cambodian adviser fight to survive the country's communist takeover.
Cast: Sam Waterston, Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich.
Dir: Roland Joffe.
C-142 mins, TV-MA

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Haing S. Ngor, Best Cinematography -- Chris Menges, and Best Film Editing -- Jim Clark

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Sam Waterston, Best Director -- Roland Joffé, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Bruce Robinson, and Best Picture

Haing S. Ngor became the first Southeast Asian (and the first Buddhist) to win an Academy Award in an acting role.


3:00am -- Mr. Baseball (1992)
A slumping Major Leaguer is traded to a Japanese team.
Cast: Tom Selleck, Ken Takakura, Ava Takanashi.
Dir: Fred Schepisi.
C-108 mins, TV-MA

At one point in the movie, when the pitchers refuse to pitch to Selleck's character because they don't want him to break the home run record, Selleck turns his bat the other way around and challenges pitchers to pitch to him as a sign of protest. This comes from a real-life incident a few years before the movie in the Japan Leagues when Hanshin Tigers slugger Randy Bass was on the verge of breaking the single season home run record there and pitchers refused to pitch to him. Bass similarly turned his bat upside down to protest.


5:00am -- Fiesta (1941)
A lady rancher upsets her family by bringing home a fiance from the city.
Cast: Anne Ayars, Jorge Negrete, George Givot.
Dir: LeRoy Prinz.
C-44 mins, TV-G

Singer/actor Jorge Negrete was for many years considered the number one entertainer in Latin America. His fame in Latin America and Europe was considered comparable to that of Bing Crosby's in America.