TCM Schedule for Saturday, January 7, 2017 -- What's On Tonight - On the Road

[Staph]

Tonight's not-quite-the-Essentials are the Road pictures starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. If you've never seen this series, set yourself down to enjoy. They are incredibly silly, but a wonderful way to take your mind off politics for 90 minutes or so. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- COVER-UP (1949)
An insurance investigator smells something wrong when he looks into a small-town suicide.
Dir: Alfred E. Green
Cast: William Bendix, Dennis O'Keefe, Barbara Britton
BW-83 mins,

The original screenplay was written by Jerome Odlum and Dennis O'Keefe (using the name Jonathan Rix).


7:30 AM -- MADNESS OF THE HEART (1949)
A woman going blind falls in love with a French nobleman.
Dir: Charles Bennett
Cast: Maurice Denham, Margaret Lockwood,
BW-90 mins,

Filmed at Denham Studios, UK.


9:00 AM -- AN INNOCENT AFFAIR (1948)
Doing business with an ex-flame drives an ad man's wife mad with jealousy.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Fred MacMurray, Madeleine Carroll, Chas. "Buddy" Rogers
BW-87 mins, CC,

"Screen Director's Playhouse" broadcast a 30 minute radio adaptation of the movie on September 23, 1949 with Fred MacMurray reprising his film role.


10:30 AM -- HOLD THAT HYPNOTIST (1957)
Hypnotism sends the Bowery Boys to battle pirates in the 17th century.
Dir: Austen Jewell
Cast: Huntz Hall, Stanley Clements, Jane Nigh
BW-61 mins, CC,

The 44th of 48 Bowery Boys movies.


12:00 PM -- THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)
Hard-boiled detective Sam Spade gets caught up in the murderous search for a priceless statue.
Dir: John Huston
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George
BW-100 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sydney Greenstreet, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Huston, and Best Picture

Three of the statuettes still exist and are conservatively valued at over $1 million each. This makes them some of the most valuable film props ever made; indeed, each is now worth more than three times what the film cost to make.


2:00 PM -- THE WIND AND THE LION (1975)
An Arab chief triggers an international incident when he kidnaps an American widow and her children.
Dir: John Milius
Cast: Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, Brian Keith
C-119 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound -- Harry W. Tetrick, Aaron Rochin, William L. McCaughey and Roy Charman, and Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- Jerry Goldsmith

The story was based on a historical incident involving the kidnapping of Ion Perdicaris, an American expatriate living in Tangier (changed to a woman for the movie). However, the two children, the American attack on the Bashaw's palace in Tangier, and the climactic battle between the American and German forces, were all inventions of writer-director John Milius.


4:15 PM -- THE FAR COUNTRY (1955)
Two cowboys on the road to Alaska help a wagon train in trouble.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: James Stewart, Ruth Roman, Corinne Calvet
C-97 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

One of James Stewart's favorite stories of his film career concerned his horse, Pie, a sorrel stallion whom Stewart called, "One of the best co-stars I ever had." Pie appeared as Stewart's horse in 17 Westerns, and the actor developed a strong personal bond with the horse. Pie was very intelligent, Stewart recalled, and would often "act for the cameras when they were rolling. He was a ham of a horse." When shooting the climax of "The Far Country," the script called for Stewart's horse to walk down a dark street alone, with no rider in the saddle, to fool the bad guys who were waiting to ambush Stewart. Assistant Director John Sherwood asked Stewart if Pie would be able to do the scene. Stewart replied, "I'll talk to him." Just before the cameras rolled, Stewart took Pie aside and whispered to the horse for several minutes, giving him instructions for the scene. When Stewart let the horse go, Pie walked perfectly down the middle of the street, doing the scene in one take. When Pie died in 1970, Stewart arranged to have the horse buried at his California ranch.


6:00 PM -- TOMORROW (1972)
A lonely farmer cares for an abandoned mother and her infant.
Dir: Joseph Anthony
Cast: Robert Duvall, Olga Bellin, Sudie Bond
C-102 mins, CC,

Robert Duvall based Jackson Fentry's unusual accent on a man he met once whilst walking the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. Duvall was so struck by the man's deep-voiced accent, he never forgot it.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: ON THE ROAD



8:00 PM -- ROAD TO SINGAPORE (1940)
A runaway tycoon and his sailor buddy try to con their way through the South Seas.
Dir: Victor Schertzinger
Cast: Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Bob Hope
BW-85 mins, CC,

After Fred MacMurray and George Burns turned down the chance to make this film, producer Harlan Thompson offered it to Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, whom he'd seen clowning on the Paramount lot and who it seemed to him got along well. This became the first of seven Hope/Crosby "Road" pictures.


9:45 PM -- ROAD TO ZANZIBAR (1941)
A lady con artist scams two out-of-work entertainers into financing a safari.
Dir: Victor Schertzinger
Cast: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour
BW-91 mins, CC,

Originally, this film was not supposed to be a sequel to Road to Singapore (1940); in fact, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope were not even supposed to be in it. The film was first offered to Fred MacMurray and George Burns, who both rejected it. While assembling a list of contract Paramount stars to offer it to, someone at the studio remembered that "Road to Singapore" had done relatively well, and Hope and Crosby "seemed to work well together", so it was offered to them. The rest, as they say, is history.


11:30 PM -- ROAD TO MOROCCO (1942)
Two castaways get mixed up in an Arabian nightmare when they're caught between a bandit chief and a beautiful princess.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour
BW-82 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Frank Butler and Don Hartman, and Best Sound, Recording -- Loren L. Ryder (Paramount SSD)

For one special-effects shot a magic ring was supposed to turn Bob Hope into a monkey. When the director instructed Bing Crosby to keep perfectly still so his position wouldn't change while Hope switched places with the monkey, the singer quipped, "Don't worry, Dave. You're making a monkey out of Ski Nose, and you think I won't stand still for that? Try me, brother. I'll be a real statue."


1:00 AM -- CARSON ON TCM: BING CROSBY (3/5/76) (2013)
TCM presents an interview from The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, with Bing Crosby from 3/5/76.
C-8 mins, CC,

Three things about Bing Crosby were frequent sources of jokes in Hollywood: his inability to sire a daughter, prior to the birth of Mary Crosby (when Bing was 56!); his investment in racehorses that rarely won; and his rather bad, almost colorblind, taste in casual clothes. These jokes often made their way into radio and TV shows, movies and, most often, into the comedy routines of Bob Hope.


1:00 AM -- CARSON ON TCM: BOB HOPE (10/13/78) (2013)
TCM presents an interview from The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, with Bob Hope from 10/13/78.
C-10 mins, CC,

Hope changed his name from Leslie to Bob, because in school they would call the roll as 'Hope, Leslie' and classmates shortened it to hopeless.


1:30 AM -- DOUBLE EXPOSURE (1935)
An aspiring photographer gets more than he bargained for when he snaps a picture of a stranger in this short film.
Dir: Lloyd French
Cast: Bob Hope, Jules Epailly, John Berkes
BW-20 mins,


2:00 AM -- GYMKATA (1985)
A champion gymnast competes to win the U.S. a strategic missile site.
Dir: Robert Clouse
Cast: Kurt Thomas, Tetchie Agbayani, Richard Norton
C-90 mins,

The film's source material ("The Terrible Game" by Dan Tyler Moore) was originally published in 1957. A film version of the book was originally planned in the early-1960s as a Rock Hudson vehicle, but never got off the ground.


3:45 AM -- HEAVENLY BODIES (1985)
A small dance studio fights for its existence against the unscrupulous owner of a rival club.
Dir: Lawrence Dane
Cast: Cynthia Dale, Richard Rebiere, Walter George Alton
C-89 mins, Letterbox Format

Lawrence Dane's first and only credited directorial and writing project.


5:30 AM -- WHY VANDALISM? (1955)
Troubled teens turn to vandalism for emotional release in this short film.
BW-16 mins,