TCM tonight:
8:00 PM -- Cool Hand Luke (1967)
2h 9m | Drama | TV-14
A free-spirited convict refuses to conform to chain-gang life.
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Cast: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, J. D. Cannon
Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Kennedy
Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Newman, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson, and Best Music, Original Music Score -- Lalo Schifrin
A Southern prison camp was built for this movie just north of Stockton, California. A dozen buildings were constructed, including a barracks, mess hall, warden's quarters, guard shack, and dog kennels. While passing by the prison camp set, a San Joaquin County building inspector thought it was a recently constructed migrant workers' complex, and posted "condemned" notices on the buildings for not being up to code.
10:15 PM -- East of Eden (1955)
1h 55m | Drama | TV-PG
Two brothers compete for their father's approval and a woman's love.
Director: Elia Kazan
Cast: Julie Harris, James Dean, Raymond Massey
Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Jo Van Fleet
Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Dean (This was the first posthumous acting nomination in Academy Awards history, although Jeanne Eagels was retroactively credited with a posthumous nomination for the 2nd Academy Awards in 1930, when no nominees were announced prior to the ceremony.), Best Director -- Elia Kazan, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Paul Osborn
John Steinbeck stayed away from the set during production. His son Tom has said that Steinbeck felt it was Elia Kazan's movie and not his and that he didn't want to be an intimidating factor to the director and cast. "He'd bend over backwards to help if he thought you were going in the right direction, and he thought Kazan was," Tom said. "They worked very well together."
12:30 AM -- Tortilla Flat (1942)
1h 45m | Drama | TV-PG
Inhabitants of a Southern California fishing village strive for the simple pleasures of life.
Director: Victor Fleming
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, John Garfield
Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Frank Morgan
Just before the final credits roll, an appeal for the public to support the war bonds drive appears. Such announcements were common in films, newspapers, magazines and on posters during WW2.
2:30 AM -- Cannery Row (1982)
1h 55m | Adaptation | TV-14
A marine biologist falls for a prostitute in an offbeat waterfront town.
Director: David S. Ward
Cast: Nick Nolte, Debra Winger, Audra Lindley
The movie was based on not one but two John Steinbeck novels, the picture taking the setting story and its title from Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" and most plot elements from its sequel, "Sweet Thursday". The idea of using two Steinbeck books had been the concept behind the libretto of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Pipe Dream".
4:45 AM -- Of Mice and Men (1939)
1h 47m | Drama | TV-14
A drifter and his slow-witted pal try to make their way in the West.
Director: Lewis Milestone
Cast: Burgess Meredith, Betty Field, Lon Chaney Jr.
Nominee for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Elmer Raguse (Hal Roach SSD), Best Music, Scoring -- Aaron Copland, Best Music, Original Score -- Aaron Copland, and Best Picture
Lon Chaney Jr. had played the role of "Lennie" in the Los Angeles stage production of "Of Mice and Men," and asked director Lewis Milestone for a screen test. Milestone was planning on casting Broderick Crawford in the role, but agreed to let Chaney feed lines to actresses testing for the part of "Mae." By the end of all the tests, Milestone had changed his mind, and cast Chaney in the part without a test of his own.