TCM Schedule for Thursday, September 8, 2016 -- What's On Tonight - Treasures from the Disney Vault

[Staph]

This evening is another of TCM's Treasures from the Disney Vault -- as TCM's website says: "Turner Classic Movies is proud to host an on-air showcase of Treasures from the Disney Vault. Several times a year, TCM will feature a wide array of Disney classics for the entire family to enjoy, including animated shorts, feature films, live-action movies, documentaries, nature films and made-for-television movies." Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- WHISTLING IN THE DARK (1941)
A radio detective is kidnapped and forced to plan the perfect murder.
Dir: S. Sylvan Simon
Cast: Red Skelton, Conrad Veidt, Ann Rutherford
BW-78 mins, CC,

The play opened on Broadway in New York City, New York, USA on 19 January 1932 and had 265 performances. The opening night cast included Edward Arnold, Claire Trevor, Ernest Truex and Arthur Vinton.


7:30 AM -- THE CUCKOOS (1930)
Two tramps-turned-fortune-tellers try to solve a kidnapping.
Dir: Paul Sloane
Cast: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, June Clyde
BW-97 mins,

Three songs were written for the movie but were not used: "Knock Knees" (Music by Harry Ruby & Lyrics by Bert Kalmar), "Looking for the Lovelight in Your Eyes" (Music by Harry Ruby & Lyrics by Bert Kalmar) and "If I Were a Traveling Salesman" (Music by Joe Burke & Lyrics by Al Dubin). The songs were used in Top Speed (1930).


9:15 AM -- BEHIND THE HEADLINES (1937)
A radio station's newsman rushes to the rescue of his peer, who has been kidnapped by bank robbers.
Dir: Richard Rosson
Cast: Lee Tracy, Diana Gibson, Donald Meek
BW-58 mins,

The radio truck used in the film was borrowed from J. Roy Hunt who had built it for his own use. Hunt was a cinematographer with 190 film credits to his name.


10:30 AM -- PETTICOAT LARCENY (1943)
A radio actress researches a role by mixing with gangsters.
Dir: Ben Holmes
Cast: Ruth Warrick, Joan Carroll, Walter Reed
BW-61 mins, CC,

Joan Carroll was supposed to be the next Shirley Temple, but never seemed to get the good scripts to showcase her talent. You will probably remember her as the third daughter, Agnes Smith, in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944).


11:45 AM -- ALIBI IKE (1935)
A brash baseball star gets mixed up with gamblers and a pretty young girl.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Joe E. Brown, Olivia De Havilland, Ruth Donnelly
BW-72 mins, CC,

Although this was the first film to be released of Olivia de Havilland, it was filmed after A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), the first film she had made.


1:15 PM -- LADIES DAY (1943)
To save their team, baseball players try to get their star pitcher married to the right woman.
Dir: Leslie Goodwins
Cast: Lupe Velez, Eddie Albert, Patsy Kelly
BW-62 mins,

Based on a play by Robert Considine, Edward Clark Lilley, and Bertrand Robinson.


2:30 PM -- I LIKE YOUR NERVE (1931)
A bookworm turns himself into a romantic adventurer in Central America.
Dir: William McGann
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Loretta Young, Henry Kolker
BW-62 mins,

The opening scene is missing in the TCM print, according to synopses reported in contemporary reviews. In that scene, the Douglas Fairbanks Jr. character is a bookworm who goes to Central America when advised to do so by a fortune-teller. The missing scene may account for the TCM print being shorter than the reported running time.


3:45 PM -- THREE MEN ON A HORSE (1936)
Gangsters kidnap a timid poet with a knack for picking winning horses.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Frank McHugh, Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee
BW-86 mins,

The Milton Bradley Company released a board game in 1936 called 3 Men on a Horse. The graphics on the box declare it "a sparkling game of chance for everybody" and "from Warner Bros.' laff hit!"


5:15 PM -- HOT MONEY (1936)
Salesman develops fake stock plan in new invention before it's finished.
Dir: William McGann
Cast: Ross Alexander, Beverly Roberts, Joseph Cawthorne
BW-68 mins, CC,

A remake of High Pressure (1932) and Le Bluffeur (1932).


6:30 PM -- ALIAS A GENTLEMAN (1948)
An aging convict tries to keep his daughter from following in his footsteps.
Dir: Harry Beaumont
Cast: Wallace Beery, Tom Drake, Dorothy Patrick
BW-76 mins,

In early 1947, Janet Leigh was set to play the female lead.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TREASURES FROM THE DISNEY VAULT



8:00 PM -- TUGBOAT MICKEY (1940)
Mickey Mouse and his inept crew try to save a sinking ship.
Dir: Clyde Geronimi
Cast: Pinto Colvig, Clarence Nash, Walt Disney
C-7 mins,


8:00 PM -- BOAT BUILDERS (1938)
Mickey, Goofy and Donald try to build their own boat.
Dir: Ben Sharpsteen
Cast: Pinto Colvig, Walt Disney, Marcellite Garner
C-7 mins, CC,


8:30 PM -- TREASURE ISLAND (1950)
A young boy and a pirate clash over buried treasure.
Dir: Byron Haskin
Cast: Bobby Driscoll, Robert Newton, Basil Sydney
C-96 mins, CC,

Disney's first live action movie. Walt Disney started the project when postwar restrictions stopped him from transferring profits from his cartoons out of the United Kingdom. Rather than set up a new animation studio, he used the profits and existing facilities to produce a conventional film. The movie was filmed in England, not in the West Indies, using Disney's frozen U.K. profits.


10:15 PM -- DAVY CROCKETT AND THE RIVER PIRATES (1956)
After competing in a river boat race, Davy Crockett and Mike Fink join forces to fight pirates.
Dir: Norman Foster
Cast: Fess Parker, Buddy Ebsen, George Lewis
C-81 mins, CC,

Fess Parker (Davey Crockett) and Jeff York (Mike Fink) would later go on the following year to do Disney's Old Yeller, but never have a scene together in that movie.


11:45 PM -- DISNEYLAND AROUND THE SEASONS (1966)
Walt Disney introduces viewers to the newest attractions at Disneyland.
Dir: Hamilton Luske
Cast: Pinto Colvig, Walt Disney, Chet Huntley
C-51 mins, CC,

This episode of Walt Disney's TV show, with Walt hosting, would originally air three days after his death, December 18, 1966. Weekly guest hosts would preside over the show for the remainder of the 1966-67 season.


1:00 AM -- THOSE CALLOWAYS (1964)
A fur trapper dreams of building a bird sanctuary.
Dir: Norman Tokar
Cast: Brian Keith, Vera Miles, Brandon de Wilde
C-132 mins, CC,

The only Walt Disney film for which Max Steiner composed the music.


3:30 AM -- WALT DISNEY'S WONDERFUL WORLD OF COLOR: A COUNTRY COYOTE GOES HOLLYWOOD (1965)
After hiding in a moving van, a coyote lands in Hollywood.
Dir: Jack Couffer
Cast: Rex Allen, Chico
C-37 mins,

Rex Allen was the voice of many Disney live action films.


4:15 AM -- MIDNIGHT MADNESS (1980)
College students compete in an all-night scavenger hunt.
Dir: Michael Nankin
Cast: David Naughton, Debra Clinger, Michael J. Fox
C-112 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Disney released this film, its second to be rated "PG" by the MPAA (the first being The Black Hole (1979)), without any mention of its involvement, in hopes that teenage audiences might be more likely to see it if they didn't know that it was a Disney picture.