TCM Schedule for Saturday, September 1, 2018 -- What's On Tonight - Pirates of the Caribbean

[Staph]

Summer Under The Stars is over, and we're back to your regularly scheduled not-quite-the-Essentials, tonight featuring Pirates of the Caribbean. Not the Johnny Depp version(s), but a pair of great classic pirate movies, based more or less on novels of Rafael Sabatini, including The Black Swan (1942) with Tyrone Power and Maureen O'Hara, and Captain Blood (1935) with Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Treasure Island (1934)
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of a young boy out to foil pirates and find a buried treasure.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Lionel Barrymore
BW-103 mins,

Jackie Cooper did not like his performance, writing in his autobiography that he felt an older English boy should have played Jim Hawkins.


8:00 AM -- MGM Cartoons: Dumb-Hounded (1943)
The Wolf escapes from prison but is hounded by the police dog named Droopy.
Dir: Tex Avery
Cast: Bill Thompson, Frank Graham
BW-8 mins, CC,

First appearance of "Happy Hound," later (and better) known as Droopy. The inspiration for Droopy's voice was Truman Capote.


8:09 AM -- Sport Slants #1 (1931)
This short entry in Ted Husing's "Sport Slants" series covers boxing and pocket billiards. Vitaphone Release 1347.
BW-10 mins, CC,


8:18 AM -- Sacred City of the Mayan Indians (1936)
This short film focuses on the city of Chichicastenango and the people who descended from the Mayan Indians.
C-7 mins,


8:25 AM -- The Fargo Kid (1941)
When a lawman is mistaken for a killer, he turns the mistake to his advantage.
Dir: Edward Killy
Cast: Tim Holt, Ray Whitley, Emmett Lynn
BW-63 mins,

Based on the story Sir Piegan Passes by W. C. Tuttle.


9:30 AM -- Tailspin Tommy in the Great Air Mystery: Wings of Disaster (1935)
A 12-episode serial in which Tailspin Tommy evades volcanoes, anti-aircraft shells, and time bombs as he foils a plan by corrupt profiteers to steal an island's oil reserves.
Director: Ray Taylor
Stars: Clark Williams, Jean Rogers, Noah Beery Jr.
BW-20 mins,

Part eight.


10:00 AM -- Popeye: Pleased to Meet Cha! (1935)
Popeye and Bluto come up with creative ways to force the other to leave Olive Oyl's house.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Willard Bowsky
Cast: William Costello, William Pennell, Mae Questel
BW-7 mins,


10:08 AM -- Tarzan and the Trappers (1958)
The jungle king fights off the vengeance-driven brother of an unscrupulous trapper he killed.
Dir: H. Bruce Humberstone
Cast: Gordon Scott, Eve Brent, Rickie Sorenson
BW-70 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Originally intended as a TV series; three episodes were re-edited into a movie after all three networks (this was before all the cable channels) rejected the series.


11:30 AM -- Pony Express Days (1940)
In this short film, Buffalo Bill Cody attempts to help the Pony Express. Vitaphone Release 9834-9835.
Dir: B. Reeves Eason
Cast: Forrest Taylor, Peter Ashley, Frank Wilcox
C-20 mins, CC,


12:00 PM -- Double Indemnity (1944)
An insurance salesman gets seduced into plotting a client's death.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson
BW-108 mins,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Barbara Stanwyck, Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- John F. Seitz, Best Sound, Recording -- Loren L. Ryder (Paramount SSD), Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa, and Best Picture

Author James M. Cain later admitted that if he had come up with some of the solutions to the plot that screenwriters Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler did, he would have employed them in his original novel.


2:00 PM -- Them! (1954)
Federal agents fight to destroy a colony of mutated giant ants.
Dir: Gordon Douglas
Cast: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon
BW-92 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Effects, Special Effects

Walt Disney screened the movie because he was interested in casting James Arness as Davy Crockett. However, he was so impressed by Fess Parker as the "Crazy Texan Pilot", that he chose him for the part.


3:45 PM -- The Time Machine (1960)
A turn-of-the-century inventor sends himself into the future to save humanity.
Dir: George Pal
Cast: Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux
C-103 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Gene Warren and Tim Baar

Yvette Mimieux was actually underage when shooting began (she turned 18 during the shoot) and was not legally supposed to work a full shooting schedule, but did. She was inexperienced, but as she worked on this film she kept getting better and better, so that by the end of the shoot the producers went back and re-shot some of her earliest scenes.


5:45 PM -- Operation Crossbow (1965)
Allied agents go behind enemy lines to destroy a German missile base.
Dir: Michael Anderson
Cast: Sophia Loren, George Peppard, Trevor Howard
C-116 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

As Sophia Loren was blacklisted in Arab countries because of her portrayal of a jewish woman who survived concentration camp in Daniel Mann's "Judith" which was shot in Israel, Operation Crossbow was shown in Beirut Lebanon with all the Sophia Loren middle segment sequences removed. The movie poster was changed and her name removed from the top billing. The film was shown at the Cinema Strand and the audience never suspected Sophia Loren was part of this production.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN



8:00 PM -- The Black Swan (1942)
When he's named governor of Jamaica, a former pirate sets out to clean up the Caribbean.
Dir: Henry King
Cast: Tyrone Power, Maureen O'Hara, Laird Cregar
C-85 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Leon Shamroy

Nominee for Oscars for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Fred Sersen (photographic), Roger Heman Sr. (sound) and George Leverett (sound), and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Alfred Newman

Although it is supposed to be based on Rafael Sabatini's novel "The Black Swan", in fact, the story is completely original, and the only character retained from the original novel is the historical personage Henry Morgan.


9:45 PM -- Captain Blood (1935)
After being unjustly sentenced to prison, a doctor escapes and becomes a notorious pirate.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland, Lionel Atwill
BW-119 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Michael Curtiz (This was a write-in candidate, who came in second on the final ballots. It was not an official nomination.), Best Writing, Screenplay -- Casey Robinson (This was a write-in candidate, who came in third on the final ballots. It was not an official nomination.), Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (sound director), Best Music, Score -- Leo F. Forbstein (head of department) with score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (This was a write-in candidate, who came in third on the final ballots. It was not an official nomination.), and Best Picture

Robert Donat was cast in the title role, but couldn't complete it because of chronic health health issues. Leslie Howard was second choice but was either unavailable or uninterested. Fredric March, Ronald Colman and Clark Gable were also considered by supervisor Harry Joe Brown. After George Brent, Brian Aherne and Errol Flynn were tested, Warners decided to take a gamble on the unknown Tasmanian.


12:00 AM -- The Locket (1946)
A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.
Dir: John Brahm
Cast: Laraine Day, Brian Aherne, Robert Mitchum
BW-85 mins, CC,

The film is noted for a flashback within a flashback within a flashback. Assuming the film begins in the 'present' day and mentions in dialogue, the strands occur variously in 1946, 1938 and beyond, around 1935, childhood scenes around 1925 and back again. Needless to say, hairstyles and fashions pay no attention to this whatsoever.


1:45 AM -- Easy Rider (1969)
A cross-country trip to sell drugs puts two hippie bikers on a collision course with small-town prejudices.
Dir: Dennis Hopper
Cast: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Antonio Mendoza
C-95 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Nicholson, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern

Peter Fonda wore the Captain America jacket and rode his chopper a week around Los Angeles before shooting began, to give them a broken-in look, and to get used to riding the radically designed bike. The American flag on the back of the jacket, and on the gas tank of the bike, caused him to be pulled over several times by the police.


3:30 AM -- The American Friend (1977)
Tom Ripley, who deals in forged art, suggests a picture framer he knows would make a good hit man.
Dir: Wim Wenders
Cast: Bruno Ganz, Dennis Hopper, Lisa Kreuzer
BW-128 mins, CC,

Bruno Ganz carried a real gun during the scene in which he assassinates a man in the train station, because, humorously enough, the filmmakers could not afford a fake gun.