TCM Schedule for Saturday, November 11, 2017 -- The Essentials - Sergeant Stories

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, we get a selection of military stories. Tonight's Essentials are also appropriate for Veteran's Day -- a trio of stories about Army sergeants, both fictional and biographical. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- DRAGON SEED (1944)
Chinese peasants fight to survive the Japanese occupation during World War II.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston, Aline MacMahon
BW-148 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Aline MacMahon, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Sidney Wagner

Filmed in 1943 on the MGM lot in Culver City, CA, the film features an unusual assortment of non-Asian actors with odd accents playing Chinese and Japanese: Russian-born and Stanislavski-trained Akim Tamiroff as Wu Lien; Turhan Bey, Viennese born son of a Turkish father and Czechoslovakian mother as the middle son, Lao Er Tan; New England patrician Katharine Hepburn as his wife; American Aline MacMahon--no longer one of the wisecracking Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)--as the wife of Ling Tang; English-born Henry Travers (best remembered as Clarence the Angel from It's a Wonderful Life (1946)) as the Third Cousin;" Irish-American J. Carrol Naish as the Japanese Kitchen Overseer; and finally Jewish Robert Lewis, co-founder of the Actors Studio and Meryl Streep's teacher at the Yale Drama School, as Japanese Capt. Sato.


8:30 AM -- MGM PARADE SHOW #3 (1955)
George Murphy introduces clips from "A Free Soul" with Clark Gable and "Trial."
BW-26 mins,


9:00 AM -- STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND (1955)
A baseball star takes to the air to help plan the U.S.' aerial defense.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: James Stewart, June Allyson, Frank Lovejoy
C-114 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Beirne Lay Jr.

James Stewart was a colonel in the US Air Force Reserve, a higher rank than his character (Lt. Col.).


11:15 AM -- THE GREEN BERETS (1968)
After vigorous training, two Army detachments see service in Vietnam.
Dir: John Wayne
Cast: John Wayne, David Janssen, Jim Hutton
C-142 mins, CC,

In 1967 John Wayne wrote to Democratic President Lyndon Johnson requesting military assistance for his pro-war film about Vietnam. The Defense Department had previously helped other war films like Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and The Longest Day (1962). Jack Valenti told the President, "Wayne's politics are wrong, but insofar as Vietnam is concerned, his views are right. If he made the picture he would be saying the things we want said." Wayne got enough help from the Defense Department to make this film, which became one of the most controversial movies of all time.


2:00 PM -- WHERE EAGLES DARE (1968)
An Allied team sets out to free an American officer held by the Nazis in a mountaintop castle.
Dir: Brian G. Hutton
Cast: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure
C-155 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

In the scenes where Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood climb the steep fortress walls, Burton moves with ease, while Eastwood is clearly working hard physically. This was due to the fact that Burton, who was a hard-drinker, a chain smoker and out-of-shape by that point, chose to ride a crane (made invisible by special effects) up the wall, whereas the health-conscious Eastwood was actually climbing the wall. Burton had already been diagnosed with bursitis - possibly aggravated by faulty treatment - arthritis and dermatitis.


5:00 PM -- THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)
Three returning servicemen fight to adjust to life after World War II.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews
BW-170 mins, CC,

Won an Honorary Oscar Award for Harold Russell for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance in The Best Years of Our Lives

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Fredric March (Fredric March was not present at the awards ceremony. Cathy O'Donnell accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Harold Russell, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Robert E. Sherwood, Best Film Editing -- Daniel Mandell, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Hugo Friedhofer, and Best Picture

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)

William Wyler, who served as a major in the Army Air Force during World War II, incorporated his own wartime experiences into the film. Just as Fred Derry did in the movie, Wyler flew in B-17s in combat over Germany, although rather than being a bombardier, as Derry was, Wyler shot footage for documentary films (his hearing was permanently damaged when an anti-aircraft shell exploded near his plane while on a bombing raid). Additionally, he modeled the reunion of Al and Milly, in which they first see each other at opposite ends of a long hallway, on his own homecoming to his wife, Margaret Tallichet.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: SERGEANT STORIES



8:00 PM -- NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS (1958)
A hillbilly draftee turns the Air Force upside down.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Andy Griffith, Myron McCormick, Nick Adams
BW-119 mins, CC,

This was Don Knotts' film debut. He met Andy Griffith when he played the same part in Broadway's "No Time For Sergeants". Griffith remembered Knotts when he was looking for someone to play bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show (1960). The two formed a lifelong friendship. After Knotts left Andy Griffith Show, he later made guest appearances on it and another Andy Griffith television series, Matlock (1986). In 2006, Griffith even broke the news of Knotts' passing to the media.


10:15 PM -- SERGEANT RUTLEDGE (1960)
A 19th-century lawyer tries to clear a black man of rape and murder charges.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Jeffrey Hunter, Constance Towers, Billie Burke
C-111 mins, CC,

Unsatisfied with Woody Strode's rehearsal of bullet-wounded drowsiness, director John Ford took his own steps to make Strode appear authentically weary for Rutledge's gunshot early on in the film. The day before the scene was to be shot, Ford got Strode drunk early in the day and had an assistant follow him around for the rest of the day to make sure he stayed that way. When the time came for Strode to shoot the scene with Constance Towers, his hangover gave him the perfect (for Ford) appearance of a man who had been shot.


12:15 AM -- SERGEANT YORK (1941)
True story of the farm boy who made the transition from religious pacifist to World War I hero.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie
BW-134 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gary Cooper, and Best Film Editing -- William Holmes

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Walter Brennan, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Margaret Wycherly, Best Director -- Howard Hawks, Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Harry Chandlee, Abem Finkel, John Huston and Howard Koch, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Sol Polito, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- John Hughes and Fred M. MacLean, Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Max Steiner, and Best Picture

When this film was being made, American public opinion was strongly isolationist and Warner Brothers initially worried that it would be condemned for being seen as too pro-war in attitude. Jesse Lasky went to great lengths to avoid marketing the film as a war picture. By the film's release, however, Adolf Hitler had conquered much of Europe and the public attitude towards war changed greatly, helping the film become one of the studio's biggest moneymakers of all time.


2:45 AM -- RED SONJA (1985)
A woman seeks revenge on the evil queen by stealing her magic orb.
Dir: Richard O. Fleischer
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Brigitte Nielsen, Sandahl Bergman
C-89 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Arnold Schwarzenegger's character was originally intended to be a reprisal of Conan, star of the comic book in which Red Sonja first appeared, but the film did not have the rights to this name. An unofficial explanation endorsed by fans is that Kalidor is one of Conan's "traveling names," a common feature of multi-national mythical/legendary heroes such as Zeus aka Jupiter and J.R.R. Tolkien's Gandalf aka Mithrandir.


4:30 AM -- TARZAN, THE APE MAN (1981)
While on an African expedition with her father, Jane Parker meets Tarzan.
Dir: John Derek
Cast: Bo Derek, Miles O'Keeffe, John Phillip Law
BW-115 mins, CC,

This film was controversial because of sexual content utilized in a traditional story. Bo Derek is seen having a nipple suckled by an animal, a chimpanzee. There are also a number of scenes featuring explicit topless nudity of her. It was these reasons to why the Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate allegedly sued the production of this movie. The case was lost but another litigation took place from the estate in regards to the prevention of the film being released. This case was lost, too. However, apparently the estate was successful in having removed three minutes of footage deleted from the released version.