TCM Schedule for Thursday, April 14, 2016 -- What's On Tonight - George Chakiris

[Staph]

Last edited Fri Apr 15, 2016, 12:37 AM - Edit history (1)

In the daylight hours, TCM is going out on the "trail". In prime time, TCM has a selection of films starring actor / singer / dancer George Chakiris. Enjoy!



6:30 AM -- Sundown Trail (1931)
A ranch foreman and an Eastern lady inherit a ranch.
Dir: Robert F. Hill
Cast: Tom Keene, Marion Shilling, Nick Stuart
BW-53 mins,

Author and screenwriter Frank Gruber listed seven plots for Westerns:

1. Union Pacific story. The plot concerns construction of a railroad, a telegraph line, or some other type of modern technology or transportation. Wagon train stories fall into this category.
   
2. Ranch story. The plot concerns threats to the ranch from rustlers or large landowners attempting to force out the proper owners.
   
3. Empire story. The plot involves building a ranch empire or an oil empire from scratch, a classic rags-to-riches plot.
   
4. Revenge story. The plot often involves an elaborate chase and pursuit by a wronged individual, but it may also include elements of the classic mystery story.
   
5. Cavalry and Indian story. The plot revolves around "taming" the wilderness for white settlers.
   
6. Outlaw story. The outlaw gangs dominate the action.
   
7. Marshal story. The lawman and his challenges drive the plot.
   

This film is obviously a number two - ranch story.


7:30 AM -- The Telegraph Trail (1933)
An Army scout volunteers to string telegraph wires through Indian territory.
Dir: Tenny Wright
Cast: John Wayne, Duke, Frank McHugh
BW-54 mins, CC,

This is the film that James Cagney is shown as an example of talking pictures (and the reason for his impending unemployment) in Footlight Parade (1933).


8:30 AM -- Sagebrush Trail (1933)
A man, wrongly imprisoned for murder, escapes to track down the real killer.
Dir: Armand Schaefer
Cast: John Wayne, Nancy Shubert, Lane Chandler
BW-53 mins,

The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.


9:30 AM -- Trailin' West (1936)
A singing secret agent tracks down renegades at President Lincoln's request.
Dir: Noel Smith
Cast: Dick Foran, Paula Stone, Gordon Elliott
BW-56 mins,

In an outtake which appears in the Warner Club's Breakdowns of 1937 (1937) blooper reel, Dick Foran attempts to mount the saddle of his horse "Smoke", only to fail and angrily shout, "I can't raise my ass off the ground!" Subsequently, the blooper became an annual tradition of the "Breakdowns" series, appearing as the climatic clip up until "Blow-Ups of 1946" (1946). In these repeats, Foran's audio was slightly altered to say, "I still can't raise my ass off the ground!"


10:30 AM -- The Bandit Trail (1941)
A cowboy turns bad for revenge, but cant stomach his new evil ways.
Dir: Edward Killy
Cast: Tim Holt, Ray Whitley, Janet Waldo
BW-60 mins,

Glen Strange, a frequent cast member of Tim Holt westerns, played outlaw boss 'Idaho'. He was comfortable playing in westerns because at various points is his life he'd been a rancher, a deputy sheriff, and a rodeo performer. Glenn Strange is also well known for his roles in House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein - playing the Frankenstein monster.


11:45 AM -- Apache Trail (1942)
An outlaw and his brother are on opposite sides of a stagecoach robbery.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Lloyd Nolan, Donna Reed, William Lundigan
BW-66 mins,

Discarded footage from Stagecoach (1939) was used in this film.


1:00 PM -- The Omaha Trail (1942)
The coming of the railroad to the West triggers an Indian war.
Dir: Edward Buzzell
Cast: James Craig, Pamela Blake, Dean Jagger
BW-62 mins, CC,

Based on a story by Jesse Lasky Jr., son of one of the pioneers of the film industry, Jesse Lasky Sr.


2:15 PM -- Trail Guide (1952)
Two cowhands sign on to protect a wagon train.
Dir: Lesley Selander
Cast: Tim Holt, Linda Douglas, Frank Wilcox
BW-60 mins, CC,

As they say, like father, like son. Cowboy hero Tim Holt avidly followed in the boots of his famous character-actor dad, the granite-jawed Jack Holt (b. Charles John Holt), who appeared in hundreds of silents and talkies (many of them westerns) over the years. The two actually appeared together as father and son in the western The Arizona Ranger (1948), and Jack was glimpsed (as a hobo in the Mexican flophouse that Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, and Tim were staying in) in the classic The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Also a part of the acting Holt clan was the beautiful "prairie flower" Jennifer Holt (nee Elizabeth Marshall Holt), Tim's younger sister, who appeared in scores of 1940s oaters. The three, however, never performed together in a single film.


3:30 PM -- Trail Street (1947)
Bat Masterson fights to make Kansas safe for wheat farmers.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Randolph Scott, Robert Ryan, Anne Jeffreys
BW-84 mins, CC,

Bat Masterson mentions to Allen Harper that he has ambitions to be a journalist someday. The real Masterson lived to be sports editor of the New York Morning Telegraph.


5:00 PM -- The Cariboo Trail (1950)
A cattleman fights to establish a ranch in the middle of gold country.
Dir: Edwin L. Marin
Cast: Randolph Scott, George "Gabby" Hayes, Bill Williams
C-84 mins, CC,

Final feature film appearance of George 'Gabby' Hayes.


6:30 PM -- Slaughter Trail (1951)
An Indian hating bandit's reign of terror could lead to a range war.
Dir: Irving Allen
Cast: Brian Donlevy, Gig Young, Virginia Grey
C-77 mins, CC,

IMDB says "According to Turner Home Entertainment, the film's original negative is lost. Since the original Cinecolor cannot be adequately reproduced, the Turner Home Entertainment VHS edition is in black and white." But TCM says that this version is in color. Inquiring minds want to know. . . .



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: GEORGE CHAKIRIS



8:00 PM -- West Side Story (1961)
A young couple from dueling street gangs falls in love.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn
C-153 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Chakiris, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Rita Moreno, Best Director -- Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (For the first time a directing award is being shared.), Best Cinematography, Color -- Daniel L. Fapp, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Boris Leven and Victor A. Gangelin, Best Costume Design, Color -- Irene Sharaff, Best Sound -- Fred Hynes (Todd-AO SSD) and Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), Best Film Editing -- Thomas Stanford, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, and Best Picture

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Ernest Lehman

When filming "The Taunting Scene", Rita Moreno was reduced to tears when she was harassed and nearly raped by the Jets, as it brought back memories of when she was raped as a child. When she started crying, the Jets immediately stopped what they were doing and tried to comfort her, while pointing out that the audience was going to hate them for what they were doing.


10:45 PM -- The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)
Twin sisters who each want to find romance befriend a couple of visiting carnival workers.
Dir: Jacques Demy
Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac, George Chakiris
C-127 mins, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation) -- Michel Legrand and Jacques Demy

The scene where George Chakiris, Grover Dale and company dance on a bridge was shot on the Rochefort-Martrou Transporter Bridge, one of less than 24 transporter bridges ever built. A transporter bridge (also ferry bridge or aerial transfer bridge) is a type of movable bridge that carries a segment of roadway across a river. It is one of only 12 that continue to be used as of 2014.


1:00 AM -- 633 Squadron (1964)
World War II flyers take on a suicide mission to bomb a Nazi rocket fuel factory.
Dir: Walter Grauman
Cast: Cliff Robertson, George Chakiris, Maria Perschy
C-95 mins, Letterbox Format

Cliff Robertson, an accomplished pilot, wanted to buy one of the Mosquitoes after filming had finished, as he was so impressed with the type. He was not permitted to do this but he later bought a Spitfire Mk IX which he owned until the late 1990s.


2:48 AM -- A Look Back At Crossbow (1965)
This promotional short film for "Operation Crossbow" (1965) gives the historical background for the movie's plot through archival footage.
BW-10 mins,


3:00 AM -- The Big Cube (1969)
LSD almost ruins the life of a former actress and her stepdaughter.
Dir: Tito Davison
Cast: Lana Turner, George Chakiris, Richard Egan
C-98 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Karin Mossberg's dialogue was dubbed by another actress.


4:45 AM -- Meet Me In Las Vegas (1956)
A ballerina becomes a gambler's lucky charm.
Dir: Roy Rowland
Cast: Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Agnes Moorehead
C-112 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- George Stoll and Johnny Green

INSIDE JOKE: Shortly after Maria Corvier (Cyd Charisse) storms off, a man tells her assistant that he would like to meet her and is told that he is out of luck. The man is played by Tony Martin, Charisse's real-life husband.