TCM Schedule for Saturday, September 7, 2019 -- The Essentials: Inspiring Teachers

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, The Essentials is back! (or should that be The Essentials are back?), with trailblazing producer, director and screenwriter Ava DuVernay, who will join primetime host Ben Mankiewicz to discuss the films she has chosen. Tonight's theme features films about inspiring teachers - appropriate for September. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- THE INCREDIBLE MR. LIMPET (1964)
A World War II 4-F saves the U.S. Navy when he's transformed into a dolphin.
Dir: Arthur Lubin
Cast: Don Knotts, Carole Cook, Jack Weston
C-99 mins, CC,

This was the final animated film work released by Warner Brothers before the animation studio was shut down. Warners would continue to release theatrical shorts produced by Depatie-Freleng Enterprises until 1969.


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: THE UNINVITED PEST (1943)
Barney is settling in for his hibernation when a squirrel spots his bedtime snack: a bowl of walnuts.
Dir: Rudolf Ising
BW-7 mins,


8:10 AM -- SPREADIN' THE JAM (1945)
In this musical short, a young woman who is unable to pay her rent gets some unexpected help from her fellow tenants.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Helen Boyce, Jan Clayton, Ben Lessy
BW-10 mins,


8:21 AM -- SEEING CEYLON (1953)
This short film explores the culture, customs and natural beauty of the British colony of Ceylon, today known as Sri Lanka.
C-8 mins,


8:30 AM -- COME ON DANGER (1942)
When a woman turns outlaw, she's suspected of murder.
Dir: Edward Killy
Cast: Tim Holt, Frances Neal, Ray Whitley
BW-59 mins,

Singing cowboy Ray Whitley (Tim's sidekick, Smokey) is famous for writing Gene Autry's signature song, 'Back in the Saddle' again. According to Hollywood lore, Whitely received a phone call from RKO one morning asking him to write a song for a movie he'd be appearing in later that same day. He wrote the song in just a few minutes and performed it in the film that afternoon. Soon after that, Gene Autry heard it and used it in his next movie. It became Autry's theme song from then on.


9:30 AM -- LOST CITY OF THE JUNGLE: JUNGLE SMASH-UP (1946)
Episode twelve of thirteen.
Dir: Lewis D. Collins, Ray Taylor
Cast: Russell Hayden, Jane Adams, Lionel Atwill
BW-0 mins,


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: BULL DOZING THE BULL (1933)
Popeye visits the bullfight only because of lovely Senorita Olive.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Willard Bowsky (uncredited)
Cast: Margie Hines, Jack Mercer
BW-6 mins, CC,


10:07 AM -- DIG THAT URANIUM! (1956)
The Bowery Boys battle crooks for control of a uranium mind out West.
Dir: Edward Bernds
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey
BW-61 mins, CC,

Final Bowery Boys film and film of Benny Bartlett and Bernard Gorcey.


11:30 AM -- THE TWO BARKS BROTHERS (1931)
In this Dogville comedy short, twin brothers are separated at birth yet reunite under criminal circumstances.
Dir: Zion Myers
BW-17 mins,

Eighth of nine "Dogville Comedies" released by MGM from 1929 to 1931. These shorts generally spoofed popular films of the day and were hugely popular.


12:00 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.


1:30 PM -- THE WILD ONE (1953)
Motorcycle-riding delinquents take over a small town.
Dir: Laslo Benedek
Cast: Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy, Robert Keith
BW-79 mins, CC,

Director Stanley Kramer hired real biker gangs to play themselves. When Kramer asked one of them what they were rebelling against, one cyclist cracked, "Well, what ya got?" That was incorporated into the script and became one of the film's most quoted lines.


3:00 PM -- THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957)
The Japanese Army forces World War II POWs to build a strategic bridge in Burma.
Dir: David Lean
Cast: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins
C-162 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Alec Guinness (Alec Guinness was not present at the awards ceremony. Jean Simmons accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Director -- David Lean, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Pierre Boulle, Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson (Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson were blacklisted at the time and received no screen credit. They were posthumously awarded Oscars in 1984. Pierre Boulle was not present at the awards ceremony. Kim Novak accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Cinematography -- Jack Hildyard, Best Film Editing -- Peter Taylor (Peter Taylor was not present at the awards ceremony. William A. Lyon accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Music, Scoring -- Malcolm Arnold (Malcolm Arnold was not present at the ceremony. Morris Stoloff accepted the award on his behalf.), and Best Picture

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sessue Hayakawa

Colonel Saito was inspired by Major Risaburo Saito, who, unlike the character portrayed in this movie, was said by some to be one of the most reasonable and humane of all of the Japanese officers, usually willing to negotiate with the P.O.W.s in return for their labor. Such was the respect between Saito and Lieutenant Colonel Toosey (upon whom Colonel Nicholson was based), that Toosey spoke up on Saito's behalf at the war-crimes tribunal after the war, saving him from the gallows. Ten years after Toosey's 1975 death, Saito made a pilgrimage to England to visit his grave.


6:00 PM -- ROOSTER COGBURN (1975)
An aging U.S. Marshal and a minister's daughter join forces to catch a band of outlaws.
Dir: Stuart Millar
Cast: John Wayne, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Zerbe
C-107 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Katharine Hepburn was bemused by co-star John Wayne's tendency to argue with everybody, especially the director, during filming. At the party to celebrate the last day of filming she told him, "I'm glad I didn't know you when you had two lungs, you must have been a real bastard. Losing a hip has mellowed me, but you!"



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: INSPIRING TEACHERS



8:00 PM -- SOUNDER (1972)
Black sharecroppers during the Depression fight to get their children a decent education.
Dir: Martin Ritt
Cast: Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks
C-105 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Winfield, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Cicely Tyson, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Lonne Elder III, and Best Picture

Cicely Tyson commented in a TCM interview that director Martin Ritt's cinematographer (principal cameraman), while shooting the famous "homecoming sequence" with Tyson and co-star Paul Winfield, was so moved by their performances that he was certain he missed framing the action properly in the shots and respectfully asked them to do the difficult scene again. They obliged, but a later examination of daily rushes revealed that they got shot and acting perfect the first time, and take 1 was a print.


10:00 PM -- BRIGHT ROAD (1953)
Teachers at an all-black school fight to save a problem child.
Dir: Gerald Mayer
Cast: Dorothy Dandridge, Philip Hepburn, Harry Belafonte
BW-68 mins, CC,

Film debut of Harry Belafonte.


11:30 PM -- GOODBYE, MISS TURLOCK (1947)
This Oscar-winning short film has an adult looking back at his childhood where he was taught by a stern teacher in a one-room school.
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: Norman Ollestad, Nana Bryant,
BW-10 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Herbert Moulton


12:00 AM -- THE BIG CLOCK (1948)
A corrupt publisher tries to frame a career-driven editor for murder.
Dir: John Farrow
Cast: Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan
BW-95 mins, CC,

The novel on which this film is based was written by its author, poet Kenneth Fearing, as revenge on publisher Henry Luce and his "Time" magazine, where Fearing was obliged to work (for financial reasons) for many years. The fearsome Earl Janoth is often regarded as a libelous parody of Luce, although the book was given a rave review in "Time" when it was first published, as was the film.


2:00 AM -- HOUSE OF USHER (1960)
A young man tries to rescue the woman he loves from her demonic brother.
Dir: Roger Corman
Cast: Vincent Price, Mark Damon, Myrna Fahey
C-79 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Roger Corman learned that there was an old barn in Orange County, CA, that was about to be demolished. He was able to strike a deal that would allow him to burn the barn at night and film it. The resulting footage was so good that it was used not only in the climax of this film but in later "Poe" films as well.


3:30 AM -- RINGO AND HIS GOLDEN PISTOL (1966)
A Mexican bandit teams up with a band of renegade Native Americans to avenge his older brothers.
Dir: Sergio Corbucci
Cast: Andrea Aureli, Ettore Manni, Franco DeRosa
BW-88 mins, CC,

Original title -- Johnny Oro.


5:15 AM -- MGM IS ON THE MOVE! (1964)
This promotional short showcases MGM's upcoming movies of 1964.
C-36 mins, Letterbox Format

[Staph]

2. Don Knotts is from my hometown, Morgantown, West Virginia.

When my dad was a graduate student (in math!), he helped the drama department by working on the lights for university plays. He knew Don Knotts, though not well, but became good friends with Paul Dooley (best known for playing the dad in Breaking Away (1979)).