TCM Schedule for Thursday, June 7, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: TCM Spotlight - Mad About Musicals

[Staph]

Throughout the day TCM is going Mad About Musicals. Tell us more, Roger!

This month TCM salutes a great cinematic art form, and one that has its roots placed firmly in American culture: the movie musical. Our celebration, which traces the development of the genre through the decades, coincides with the third free online course offered by TCM and Ball State University, TCM Presents Mad About Musicals, running June 3-30. This interactive experience offers a deep-dive into the world of the film musical, along with ongoing interactions with fellow fans.

Co-hosting the TCM musical fest alongside our own Ben Mankiewicz, is Vanessa Theme Ament, who has worked as a Foley Artist on such films as Beauty and the Beast and Batman Returns. In addition to her sound work, Ament is also an author, musician, voice talent, songwriter and academic who currently teaches telecommunications at Ball State University.

Viewers can get into the spirit by watching our lineup that traces the development of the musical genre through the decades. Movies range from 1929's Hallelujah, which happened to be one of the first all-black films from a major American studio, to 1975's Tommy, a British film based on a rock opera by The Who.

Musicals of the 1920s and '30s saw the dawning of sound technology that made the genre possible, and its quick development into the sparkling black-and-white Art Deco musicals that put smiles on the faces of Depression-era audiences. The Broadway Melody (1929), was the first musical (and first all-talking film) to win the Academy Award® as Best Picture.

With his kinetic style and kaleidoscopic patterns, director/choreographer Busby Berkeley put his distinctive stamp on such early '30s musicals as Footlight Parade (1933), 42nd Street (1933), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) and Dames (1934). Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy formed a charming pair in such filmed operettas as Naughty Marietta (1935), Rose Marie (1936) and Maytime (1937).

The musical's most popular star couple of the '30s was undoubtedly Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, who glided through such dance vehicles as The Gay Divorcee (1934), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936) and Shall We Dance (1937). The decade ended with a burst of gorgeous Technicolor fantasy in The Wizard of Oz (1939), featuring the young performer who would become arguably the greatest of all movie-musical stars, Judy Garland.

. . .

by Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- THE MERRY WIDOW (1934)
A prince from a small kingdom courts a wealthy widow to keep her money in the country.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Edward Everett Horton
BW-99 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Art Direction -- Cedric Gibbons and Fredric Hope

During a recent showing on TCM, it was stated that Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier did not get along on this film. He called her a "prude" and she called him "a bottom pincher". Their relationship had been deteriorating for some time and this was the last film they appeared in together.


7:45 AM -- LITTLE JACK LITTLE & ORCHESTRA (1936)
In this musical short, Little Jack Little and his orchestra perform several musical numbers of the day, such as "Lady in Red" and "Lulu's Back in Town." Vitaphone Release 1936.
Dir: Joseph Henabery
Cast: Jack Smith, Mildred Fenton,
BW-11 mins,


8:00 AM -- NAUGHTY MARIETTA (1935)
A French princess in Colonial America gets involved with an Indian scout.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan
BW-104 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (sound director)

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Picture

The first of eight movies that Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy made together, as "America's Singing Sweethearts."


9:48 AM -- BEN POLLACK & HIS ORCHESTRA WITH MISS DORIS ROBBINS (1934)
Joined by guest vocalist Doris Robbins, Ben Pollack and his Orchestra play popular big band songs of the era in this short film. Vitaphone Release 1696.
Dir: Joseph Henabery
BW-9 mins,


10:00 AM -- ROSE MARIE (1936)
An opera singer goes undercover in the Canadian wilderness to hunt for her criminal brother.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Reginald Owen
BW-111 mins, CC,

MGM's original intention was to film in Technicolor and to star Grace Moore. If these plans had gone through, this would have been MGM's first feature-length Technicolor film. However, Moore decided to pass on the film, Jeanette MacDonald was cast, photography switched to black-and-white, and this film became one of the biggest musical successes in MGM's history.


12:00 PM -- FOLLOW THE FLEET (1936)
Two sailors on leave romance a dance-hall hostess and her prim sister.
Dir: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott
BW-110 mins, CC,

This is the feature film debut of Harriet Nelson (then known as Harriet Hilliard). A natural blond, she wears a brunette wig so as not to distract from fellow blond actress and, more importantly, the film's star Ginger Rogers. Ironically, Rogers was naturally dark-haired but had already established herself in movies as a blonde. Those of us of a certain age remember Harriet Nelson as the mother of David and Ricky and the wife of Ozzie in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952-1966).


2:00 PM -- THE GAY DIVORCEE (1934)
An unhappily married woman mistakes a suitor for the gigolo hired to end her marriage.
Dir: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Alice Brady
BW-105 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Con Conrad (music) and Herb Magidson (lyrics) for the song "The Continental"

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Van Nest Polglase and Carroll Clark, Best Sound, Recording -- Carl Dreher (sound director), Best Music, Score -- Max Steiner (head of department) with score by Kenneth S. Webb and Samuel Hoffenstein, and Best Picture

This is the only film in which Fred Astaire plays a role that he originated in the Broadway stage production, which opened on Nov. 29, 1932 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and ran for 248 performances. Although Astaire had appeared in both the 1927 Broadway musical play and later the film Funny Face (1957), the stories were entirely different, using many of the same songs. Also, Fred Astaire and his sister Adele had appeared in the stage show "The Band Wagon" (1930) but the stage version was a revue, without a plot at all; a backstage plot was added when Fred Astaire filmed "The Band Wagon" in 1953.


4:00 PM -- SHALL WE DANCE (1937)
A ballet dancer and a showgirl fake a marriage for publicity purposes, then fall in love.
Dir: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton
BW-109 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- George Gershwin (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) for the song "They Can't Take That Away from Me"

The scene where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance on roller skates took about 150 takes, according to one of the VHS versions of the film.


6:00 PM -- SWING TIME (1936)
To prove himself worthy of his fiancee, a dancer tries to make it big, only to fall for his dancing partner.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Victor Moore
BW-104 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jerome Kern (music) and Dorothy Fields (lyrics) for the song "The Way You Look Tonight"

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Dance Direction -- Hermes Pan for "Bojangles of Harlem"

In his 2009 inaugural address, Barack Obama quoted this movie!
"pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off."
This is an allusion to lines in the song, "Pick Yourself Up" (music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Dorothy Fields), sung in the Depression-era movie "Swing Time" by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers: "Nothing's impossible, I have found./For when my chin is on the ground,/I pick myself up, dust myself off,/Start all over again."


7:56 PM -- HOUSTON POST CONTEST WINNERS ARRIVE IN LOS ANGELES (1939)
In this short film, winners of a baby pageant get to visit MGM studios and meet the cast of "The Wizard of Oz" (1939).
Cast: Lucille Wilkins, Delma Fraser, Charley Grapewin
BW-3 mins,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: MAD ABOUT MUSICALS



8:00 PM -- THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)
A Kansas farm girl dreams herself into a magical land where she must fight a wicked witch to escape.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger
C- 102 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Harold Arlen (music) and E.Y. Harburg (lyrics) for the song "Over the Rainbow", and Best Music, Original Score -- Herbert Stothart

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Harold Rosson, Best Art Direction -- Cedric Gibbons and William A. Horning, Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic) and Douglas Shearer (sound), and Best Picture

When the wardrobe department was looking for a coat for Frank Morgan (Prof. Marvel / The Wizard), it decided it wanted one that looked like it had once been elegant but had since "gone to seed." They visited a second-hand store and purchased an entire rack of coats, from which Morgan, the head of the wardrobe department and director Victor Fleming chose one they felt gave off the perfect appearance of "shabby gentility." One day, while he was on set in the coat, Morgan idly turned out one of the pockets and discovered a label indicating that the coat had been made for L. Frank Baum. Mary Mayer, a unit publicist for the film, contacted the tailor and Baum's widow, who both verified that the coat had at one time been owned by the author of the original "Wizard of Oz" books. After the filming was completed, the coat was presented to Mrs. Baum.


10:00 PM -- TOP HAT (1935)
A woman thinks the man who loves her is her best friend's husband.
Dir: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton
BW-100 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Carroll Clark and Van Nest Polglase, Best Dance Direction -- Hermes Pan for "Piccolino" and "Top Hat", Best Music, Original Song -- Irving Berlin for the song "Cheek to Cheek", and Best Picture

For the "Cheek to Cheek" number, Ginger Rogers wanted to wear an elaborate blue dress heavily decked out with ostrich feathers. When director Mark Sandrich and Fred Astaire saw the dress, they knew it would be impractical for the dance. Sandrich suggested that Rogers wear the white gown she had worn performing "Night and Day" in The Gay Divorcee (1934). Rogers walked off the set, finally returning when Sandrich agreed to let her wear the offending blue dress. As there was no time for rehearsals, Ginger Rogers wore the blue feathered dress for the first time during filming, and as Astaire and Sandrich had feared, feathers started coming off the dress. Astaire later claimed it was like "a chicken being attacked by a coyote". In the final film, some stray feathers can be seen drifting off it. To patch up the rift between them, Astaire presented Rogers with a locket of a gold feather. This was the origin of Rogers' nickname "Feathers". The shedding feathers episode was recreated to hilarious results in a scene from Easter Parade (1948) in which Fred Astaire danced with a clumsy, comical dancer played by Judy Garland.


12:00 AM -- THREE SMART GIRLS (1937)
The daughters of a divorced couple try to keep their father from remarrying.
Dir: Henry Koster
Cast: Binnie Barnes, Charles Winninger, Alice Brady
BW-84 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- Adele Comandini, Best Sound, Recording -- Homer G. Tasker (Universal SSD), and Best Picture

This was made at one of the many times when Universal Pictures Corporation was on the brink of bankruptcy. It was Universal's big Christmas release for 1936. It became a critical success and a box office sensation It led to a string of highly popular Deanna Durbin pictures that helped keep Universal in the black through the war years.


1:45 AM -- STOWAWAY (1936)
An American playboy helps an orphan travel from Shanghai to the U.S.
Dir: William A. Seiter
Cast: Shirley Temple, Robert Young, Alice Faye
BW-87 mins, CC,

Shirley Temple was tutored in her Chinese dialogue by Bessie Nyi, a UCLA student from Shanghai. When Shirley tried her phrases on the film's extras, they didn't understand her. Her dialogue was in Mandarin, which was appropriate for her character, but the Chinese community of Los Angeles largely spoke Cantonese, and consequently most of the dialogue spoken by the extras in the movie is in Cantonese, which was not spoken in Shanghai, where this film is set.


3:17 AM -- PHIL SPITALNY AND HIS MUSICAL QUEENS (1934)
Phil Spitalny has his all-woman orchestra perform popular songs in this musical short. Vitaphone Release 1719.
Dir: Joseph Henabery
BW-11 mins,


3:30 AM -- MAYTIME (1937)
An opera star's manager tries to stop her romance with a penniless singer.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, John Barrymore
BW-132 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD), and Best Music, Score -- Nat W. Finston (head of department) with score by Herbert Stothart

When filming began in 1936 (in color), the original opera finale was also recorded, staged and shot. This was to have been Act II of Giacomo Puccini's "Tosca", one of the few operatic works with major roles for baritone (Scarpia) and soprano as equals (Tosca). It also allowed Jeanette MacDonald to sing the famous aria "Vissi D'arte". By the time shooting recommenced in black and white, this idea was scrapped and replaced with an elaborate fake Russian opera "Czaritza" created by Herbert Stothart to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, presumably to allow for a big Duet (in "Tosca", she murders Scarpia by stabbing him through the heart!). The rewritten story of "Maytime" presumably demanded it. Sadly, the Technicolor "Tosca" sequence does not appear to have survived, which is a pity as it would have been fascinating to see MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in a major operatic sequence and in color.


5:47 AM -- CAPRICCIO ITALIEN (1953)
In this short film, The MGM Symphony Orchestra performs Tchaikovsky's "Capriccio Italien."
BW-10 mins,

This short was first shown immediately preceding the premiere engagement of MGM's 1953 film version of William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar".