TCM Schedule for Saturday, September 29, 2018 -- What's On Tonight - Sisters in the Big Apple

[Staph]

Tonight's non-Essentials Essentials are tales of siblings in New York. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- MALAYA (1949)
Two men join forces to smuggle rubber out of occupied Malaya during World War II.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, Valentina Cortesa
BW-95 mins, CC,

Sydney Greenstreet's final film.


7:40 AM -- HOLLYWOOD WONDERLAND (1947)
In this short film, tour guides take visitors on a promotional guide of Warner Brothers' studios.
Dir: Jack Scholl
Cast: Robert Arthur, Wanda Hendrix, Tom Wilson
C-16 mins,

Features musical numbers edited from earlier Warner Bros. Technicolor shorts: "The Blue Danube" from Gypsy Sweetheart, "Drifting on the Rio Grande" from Swingtime in the Movies, "Swinging Through the Kitchen Door" from Swingtime in the Movies, "Annie Laurie" from The Changing of the Guard, "Dancing is the Darndest Fun" from Ride, Cowboy, Ride, and "Beyond the Open Road" from Sunday Roundup.


8:00 AM -- TOM AND JERRY: THE HOUSE OF TOMORROW (1949)
A narrator takes us on a tour of the dream house of the future, and its many innovative appliances.
Dir: Tex Avery
Cast: Frank Graham, Joi Lansing, Don Messick
BW-7 mins, CC,

While Don Messick is heard on some prints of the cartoon, his voice was a "looping" of the scene about the pressure cooker. The original narration referenced the year 1975 as being the "tomorrow" of the title, so the line was redone by Messick (Frank Graham having died years before) to advance the year of the future to 2050.


8:08 AM -- STARS ON HORSEBACK (1943)
In this short film, a master blacksmith makes house calls to Hollywood stars' homes to pamper their horse's hooves.
Dir: Myron J. Swartz
Cast: Lou Marcelle, George Garfield, Jerry Colonna
BW-7 mins,

Features clips from Gold Is Where You Find It (1938) -- Olivia de Havilland archival footage, and Dark Victory (1939) -- Bette Davis archival footage.


8:15 AM -- SO YOU WANT TO BE A SALESMAN (1947)
Joe McDoakes is starting a new job as a vacuum cleaner salesman but cannot seem to make any sales in this comedic short. Vitaphone Release 1572A.
Dir: Richard Bare
Cast: Lottie Williams, Charles Sullivan, Rose Plumer
BW-10 mins,


8:26 AM -- LAND OF THE OPEN RANGE (1942)
A landowner's will leaves his ranch to anyone who's served two years in prison.
Dir: Edward Killy
Cast: Tim Holt, Ray Whitley, Janet Waldo
BW-60 mins,

Outtakes from the movie Cimarron (1931) were edited into the land rush scenes.


9:30 AM -- TAILSPIN TOMMY IN THE GREAT AIR MYSTERY: THE LAST STAND (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-19 mins,

Part eleven.


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: YOU GOTTA BE A FOOTBALL HERO (1940)
When football star Bluto sweeps Olive Oyl off her feet during a game, Popeye retaliates by joining the opposing team.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Willard Bowsky (uncredited)
Cast: William Costello, Mae Questel, Gus Wickie
BW-6 mins, CC,

The title (and plot) refers to the 1933 song "You Gotta Be a Football Hero" written by Al Sherman, Buddy Fields and Al Lewis. It is one of the most widely recorded and performed American football anthems of all time.


10:07 AM -- THE SAINT IN NEW YORK (1938)
The Saint goes undercover to get the goods on New York's mob kingpins.
Dir: Ben Holmes
Cast: Louis Hayward, Kay Sutton, Sig Rumann
BW-72 mins, CC,

The first of nine classic RKO movies featuring Simon Templar, The Saint, based on the novels by Leslie Charteris.


11:30 AM -- MY GRANDFATHER'S CLOCK (1934)
In this musical short, a murder has been committed and two detectives are on the case!
Dir: Felix E. Feist
Cast: Charles Judels, Sarah Edwards, Franklin Pangborn
C-17 mins,


12:00 PM -- THE BIG SLEEP (1946)
Private eye Philip Marlowe investigates a society girl's involvement in the murder of a pornographer.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely
BW-114 mins, CC,

The fussy persona that Marlowe adopts upon arriving in Geiger's bookstore has been a subject of argument for years; Lauren Bacall said that Humphrey Bogart came up with it while Howard Hawks claimed in interviews that it was his idea. What both of them failed to notice is that it was in the original book ("I had my horn-rimmed glasses on. I put my voice high and let a bird twitter in it." ); all Bogart did was elaborate on it.


2:00 PM -- ESCAPE FROM FORT BRAVO (1953)
The Civil War complicates the Cavalry's battle against Indians.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: William Holden, Eleanor Parker, John Forsythe
C-98 mins, CC,

William Holden did not shave his chest for his shirtless scene in this movie (as he did for most of his other "beefcake" scenes of the 1950s), thus giving audiences one of their best looks at his normally lush growth of chest hair.


3:45 PM -- WHERE THE SPIES ARE (1965)
A country doctor dabbles in espionage to get a new car.
Dir: Val Guest
Cast: David Niven, Françoise Dorléac, John Le Mesurier
C-113 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

According to John Heseltine, who restored the car for the film, star David Niven couldn't master the idiosyncratic gearbox of the white 1937 Cord 810 Phaeton Convertible, and subsequently it was driven in bottom gear, resulting in it overheating. The scene in the film showing the steaming Cord was hastily rewritten to work around the problem. The car had to be restored from nothing but a rusty collection of parts in just six months to get it ready for filming.


5:45 PM -- THE ODESSA FILE (1974)
A journalist discovers a strange link between his family and a cabal of fugitive Nazis.
Dir: Ronald Neame
Cast: Jon Voight, Maximilian Schell, Maria Schell
C-129 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Publicity for the picture stated, and it was not generally known, the character of Eduard Roschmann in Frederick Forsyth's story, played here by Maximilian Schell, were taken from real-life. What wasn't well-known at the time was there was a real, functioning ODESSA organization during the 1960s when the action of this movie takes place. To add to the verisimilitude of the film, the world's leading authority on Nazi war criminals, Simon Wiesenthal, was a Special Advisor to the producers on the facts behind the suspenseful story. Wiesenthal is a character in the film, and his part is played by a noted Israeli actor Shmuel Rodensky, who was the star of "Fiddler on the Roof" in its long-running German stage production.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SISTERS IN THE BIG APPLE



8:00 PM -- MY SISTER EILEEN (1942)
Two sisters - one smart, one pretty - move to New York to build careers.
Dir: Alexander Hall
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Brian Aherne, Janet Blair
BW-97 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Rosalind Russell

The movie is based on the real-life experiences of Ruth McKinney, and her sister Eileen. In 1934, Ruth and Eileen McKinney moved to New York from Columbus, Ohio. They rented a $45-a-month basement apartment at 14 Gay Street in Greenwich Village, above the Christopher Street subway station. Ruth wrote about their eccentric neighbors and the trials of living in a basement apartment in her column titled, "My Sister Eileen," which was published in the "New Yorker" (called "The Manhattaner" in the movie). As seen in the film, "New Yorker" editor Harold Ross was at first reluctant to publish Ruth McKinney's columns, preferring to keep his magazine a "High Society" publication, but he eventually relented. Ruth's columns were gathered in a book, "My Sister Eileen," which was published in 1938. Eileen McKinney moved to Los Angeles, where she married novelist and screenwriter Nathaniel West (author of the perennial Hollywood novel, "The Day of the Locust" ). Unfortunately, Eileen McKinney and Nathaniel West were both killed in a car accident in Los Angeles on December 22, 1940, only four days before they were scheduled to attend the Broadway opening of the play, "My Sister Eileen." Ruth McKinney died in 1972 at age 60.


9:43 PM -- SHOE SHINE BOY (1943)
In this short film, a young shoeshine boy tries to raise money to purchase a second-hand bugle.
Dir: Walter Hart
Cast: William Norton Bailey, Mel Bryant, Sam Levene
BW-15 mins,

The $6.00 cost of the bugle at the pawn shop would equate to $84.50 in 2017.


10:00 PM -- TWO SISTERS FROM BOSTON (1946)
Two girls with Broadway aspirations find work in a Bowery saloon.
Dir: Henry Koster
Cast: Kathryn Grayson, June Allyson, Lauritz Melchior
BW-112 mins, CC,

In one scene Peter Lawford's character, talking with his mother, says "In his autumn before the winter comes man's last mad surge of youth" to which his mother replies "What on earth are you talking about?". The audio of these two lines, as spoken, start the track "Don't Fall" on the the 1983 debut studio album "Script of the Bridge" by the Chameleons.


12:00 AM -- THE GANGSTER (1947)
A troubled gangster, who has lost all faith in people, loses his weak grip on life.
Dir: Gordon Wiles
Cast: Barry Sullivan, Belita, Joan Lorring
BW-84 mins, CC,

Belita, the British Olympic ice skating queen, was, with this picture, Monogram's highest paid performer, even though this was her only role for them.


1:45 AM -- CINDERELLA LIBERTY (1973)
A lonely sailor falls in love with a single mother during an extended liberty.
Dir: Mark Rydell
Cast: James Caan, Marsha Mason, Kirk Calloway
C-117 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Marsha Mason, Best Music, Original Song -- John Williams (music) and Paul Williams (lyrics) for the song "Nice to Be Around", and Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- John Williams

"Cinderella Liberty" is Navy slang for temporary absence from ship or station, which ends at midnight on the last day. Typical periods of liberty are twenty-four to seventy-two hours.


3:46 AM -- SMART AS A FOX (1946)
In this short film, a fox cub experiences life in the forest. Vitaphone Release 1444A.
BW-10 mins,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Gordon Hollingshead


4:00 AM -- THE FOX (1967)
A sexy male drifter upsets the relationship between two female farmers.
Dir: Mark Rydell
Cast: Sandy Dennis, Keir Dullea, Anne Heywood
C-110 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical) -- Lalo Schifrin

Part of a late 1960's cycle of made for the cinema filmed adaptations of stories by D.H. Lawrence. The films include The Fox (1967), Women in Love (1969) and The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970).