TCM Schedule for Friday, March 21, 2014 -- Friday Night Spotlight - Food In The Movies

[Staph]

During the day, TCM is featuring films from the 1930s and 1940s about "bachelor girls". In prime time, it's another high calorie night, when TCM celebrates food, glorious food, in the movies. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Female (1933)
A female CEO who's used to buying love meets her match in an independent young executive.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Ruth Chatterton, George Brent, Lois Wilson
BW-63 mins, CC,

In December 10, 2013, the American car company General Motors announced that it had appointed its first female CEO, Mary Barra, scheduled to assume the role in January, 2014. This announcement marked the first time in history a woman was appointed to head an automobile company anywhere in the world, eighty years after the release of this film.


7:15 AM -- Goodbye Again (1933)
An author's reunion with an old flame angers the secretary who loves him.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Warren William, Joan Blondell, Genevieve Tobin
BW-66 mins,

The original play "Goodbye Again" by Allan Scott and George Haight opened in New York at the Theatre Masque on 28 December 1928 and ran for 216 performances.


8:30 AM -- Biography Of A Bachelor Girl (1935)
A portrait painter is reunited with a lost love when her upcoming memoirs threaten his political career.
Dir: Edward H. Griffith
Cast: Ann Harding, Robert Montgomery, Edward Everett Horton
BW-83 mins,

The line "You used to be quite a nice boy - fun occasionally" prompted a complaint letter to the Hays office from the International Federation of Catholic Alumnae, the members of which heard "You used to be quite a nice boy - fornicationally."


10:00 AM -- Bachelor Mother (1939)
A fun-loving shop girl is mistaken for the mother of a foundling.
Dir: Garson Kanin
Cast: Ginger Rogers, David Niven, Charles Coburn
BW-82 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Felix Jackson

Remake of Little Mother (1935 - Austria Hungary) starring Franciska Gaal, and remade as Bundle of Joy (1956) starring Debbie Reynolds.


11:30 AM -- Third Finger, Left Hand (1940)
A man-shy fashion editor pretends to be married until a suitor claims to be her husband.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Myrna Loy, Melvyn Douglas, Raymond Walburn
BW-97 mins, CC,

The director of the Production Code Administation (PCA) had MGM delete several gags that suggested Margot was pregnant, since, he said, illegitimacy could not be the basis for a comedy.


1:15 PM -- Play Girl (1940)
An aging gold digger takes a young woman under her wing.
Dir: Frank Woodruff
Cast: Kay Francis, James Ellison, Mildred Coles
BW-77 mins, CC,

I love this quote from Kay Francis' character -- Grace Herbert: "You know, Josie, it's a funny thing about men. At 16, they're crazy about girls of 19. At 25, they want girls their own age. At 30, they'll settle for a girl of 25. And at 40, they're right straight back where they started: chasing the 19-year-olds. What's a gal to do when she's past 30?"


2:45 PM -- Cinderella Jones (1946)
A woman can claim inheritance only if she marries a genius.
Dir: Busby Berkeley
Cast: Joan Leslie, Robert Alda, Julie Bishop
BW-89 mins, CC,

Filmed between mid-December 1943 and May 17, 1944, the movie's wide release was held back until March 9, 1946, and then the picture's Manhattan opening at the Strand Theatre followed on March 15, 1946. Snipped out of the release print were several references to "ongoing" World War II, which had ended on August 14, 1945.


4:15 PM -- Two Sisters From Boston (1946)
Two girls with Broadway aspirations find work in a Bowery saloon.
Dir: Henry Koster
Cast: Kathryn Grayson, June Allyson, Lauritz Melchior
BW-112 mins, CC,

Sammy Fain and Ralph Freed wrote additional songs that were not used in the picture: "Autumn Twilight," "Indian Holiday," "Lanterns in the Sky," "More Than Ever" and "Seattle."


6:15 PM -- The Glass Slipper (1955)
Musical adaptation of the story of Cinderella and her magical trip to the prince's ball.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Leslie Caron, Michael Wilding, Keenan Wynn
C-94 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

According to IMDB, there have been at least 64 versions of the Cinderella fairy tale, beginning with Cinderella (1898), starring Laura Bayley.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: FOOD IN THE MOVIES



8:00 PM -- Oliver! (1968)
Musical version of the Dickens classic about an orphan taken in by a band of boy thieves.
Dir: Carol Reed
Cast: Ron Moody, Shani Wallis, Oliver Reed
C-154 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Honorary Oscar Award for Onna White for her outstanding choreography achievement for Oliver!.

Won Oscars for Best Director -- Carol Reed, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- John Box, Terence Marsh, Vernon Dixon and Ken Muggleston, Best Sound, Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation) -- Johnny Green, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Ron Moody, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Wild, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Vernon Harris, Best Cinematography -- Oswald Morris, Best Costume Design -- Phyllis Dalton, and Best Film Editing -- Ralph Kemplen

In the song "Food, Glorious Food" among the foods the boys want are pease pudding and saveloys. Pease pudding is made from split peas, water, salt, and spices which are boiled and then mashed becoming almost like hummus. Saveloys are small spicy red pork sausages that taste much like a hot dog.


10:45 PM -- The Gold Rush (1925)
In this silent film, a lost soul in the Yukon seeks love and wealth.
Dir: Charlie Chaplin
Cast: Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Georgia Hale
BW-89 mins,

Nominated for Oscars (when re-released with added sound!) for Best Sound, Recording -- James L. Fields (RCA Sound), and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Terr

The "dancing dinner rolls" sequence was so popular with audiences that, in some cases (such as the film's Berlin premiere), projectionists stopped the film and replayed the scene.


12:15 AM -- The Loved One (1965)
An Englishman in Hollywood moves into the funeral business.
Dir: Tony Richardson
Cast: Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters, Anjanette Comer
BW-121 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

During the studio canteen scene between Robert Morse and John Gielgud, an extra can be seen in the background wearing the monster mask from The Outer Limits (1963) episode "The Sixth Finger".


2:30 AM -- Cool Hand Luke (1967)
A free-spirited convict refuses to conform to chain-gang life.
Dir: Stuart Rosenberg
Cast: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, J. D. Cannon
C-126 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Kennedy

Nominated 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

Luke is seen as sort of a Savior by the other convicts, as he gives them hope. After the egg-eating contest, he is laid out on the table in a posture resembling the Crucifixion.


4:45 AM -- The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
The bandit king of Sherwood Forest leads his Merry Men in a battle against the corrupt Prince John.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone
C-102 mins, CC

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Carl Jules Weyl, Best Film Editing -- Ralph Dawson, and Best Music, Original Score -- Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Erich Wolfgang Korngold was invited by Warner Brothers to come from his native Austria to Hollywood to see the film with a view to scoring it. He initially turned down the chance as he felt that his musical style was ill-suited for adventure spectaculars. However, while in Hollywood, he learned that the Nazis were about to invade Austria and, feeling he had to secure a source of revenue in the United States, he accepted the assignment. He would go on to win the Oscar. For the rest of his life, Korngold, grateful of how this successful assignment allowed him to stay in America and safe from the Nazis' murderous persecution would playfully quip, "Robin Hood saved my life."

[Auggie]

1. Babette's Feast should be included

Great food film … and one of the new "classics." 1987 Best Foreign Language Film / Academy Awards too.

Looks like Time-Warner doesn't control broadcast rights.

[Staph]

2. Stay tuned!

Babette's Feast will be shown on Friday, March 28, at 8:00 pm!

[Auggie]

4. Ah, thanks.

[CBHagman]

3. "Oliver!" being deemed a food-themed movie is a bit of a stretch...

There's just the one scene, as far as I know. It would be a more fitting entry for Dickens Adaptation Night or similar.

Besides, there are plenty of movies about food, though I can only recall ones that don't come from the Golden Age of Hollywood: Big Night, Chocolat (pictured), Tortilla Soup (a remake of Eat Drink Man Woman, which was shown on TCM), Waitress.

[rdmtimp]

6. "Big Night" will be on 3/28 at 10pm eom

[longship]

5. Mr. Joyboy!!

The Loved One. Rod Steiger plays Mr. Joyboy. The scene with the character's mother is a food scene without any match in cinema.

I have not seen this film in ages. But the cast is very good. Jonathan Winters is awesome as usual.