TCM Schedule for Saturday, January 25, 2020 -- The Essentials: Sidney Poitier

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Last edited Mon Mar 23, 2020, 07:46 PM - Edit history (1)

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 is the work of actor and director Sidney Poitier. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- MY DREAM IS YOURS (1949)
A talent scout turns a young unknown into a radio singing star.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Jack Carson, Doris Day, Lee Bowman
C-101 mins, CC,

Certain elements of the Doris Day character's "back story" were "lifted" from Day's offscreen life at the time. Before being discovered by Warner stalwart Michael Curtiz and cast in her screen debut Romance on the High Seas, Day had been a popular radio singer and recording artist. The subplot of her heartbreak at being separated from her young son in this film also reflected Day's true life experience: While pursuing her career as a big band singer, Day had to park her son Terry with his grandmother and rarely saw her child face-to-face. One of her first decisions after signing a seven year contract with Warners was to move both her son and mother to Burbank and establish a "real home" for her family.


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: THE WINNING TICKET (1938)
John Silver's ship has been repossessed.
Cast: Elvia Allman, Jeanne Dunne, Dave Weber
BW-9 mins, CC,

Based on the comic strip The Katzenjammer Kids (later called The Captain And The Kids) by Rudolph Dirks.


8:11 AM -- DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT (1943)
This short film looks at several historical "truths" that just aren't so...
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: John Nesbitt, Harry Cording, Albert Godderis
BW-10 mins,

Passing Parade No. 41.


8:22 AM -- TOURING NORTHERN ENGLAND (1950)
This short film focuses on the history, culture, and people of Northern England.
Narrator: James A. FitzPatrick
C-9 mins,

Filmed in Cumbria, Lancashire and North Yorkshire.


8:32 AM -- NIGHT WAITRESS (1936)
A girl just out of prison gets mixed up in murder at the restaurant where she works.
Dir: Lew Landers
Cast: Margot Grahame, Gordon Jones, Vinton Haworth
BW-57 mins,

Film debut of Anthony Quinn.


9:30 AM -- THE MYSTERIOUS MR. M: HEAVIER THAN WATER (1946)
An evil scientist known as "Mr. M." uses a drug he has developed called "hypnotreme" to help steal submarine equipment.
Dir: Lewis D. Collins, Vernon Keays
Cast: Dennis Moore, Pamela Blake, Richard Martin
BW-15 mins, CC,

Episode six of thirteen.


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: DOING IMPOSSIKIBLE STUNTS (1940)
Mystery Pictures is looking for a stunt man.
Dir: Dave Fleischer
Cast: Margie Hines, Jack Mercer
BW-7 mins, CC,


10:08 AM -- BLUES BUSTERS (1950)
The Bowery Boys open a night club when a tonsillectomy turns one of them into a singing star.
Dir: William Beaudine
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Adele Jergens
BW-68 mins, CC,

Gabriel Dell's final film with The Bowery Boys.


11:30 AM -- THE SONG OF FAME (1934)
In this musical short, an aspiring singer visits an impresario who can potentially give her a break.
Dir: Joseph Henabery
Cast: Eddie Bruce, Arthur Donaldson, Charles La Torre
BW-21 mins,

Film debut of Judy Canova.


12:00 PM -- THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940)
Oklahoma farmers dispossessed during the Depression fight for better lives in California.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine
BW-129 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Jane Darwell, and Best Director -- John Ford

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Henry Fonda, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Nunnally Johnson, Best Sound, Recording -- Edmund H. Hansen (20th Century-Fox SSD), Best Film Editing -- Robert L. Simpson, and Best Picture

Henry Fonda kept the hat he wore in the movie for the rest of his life, until before he passed away in 1982 he gave it to his old friend Jane Withers. Apparently he and Withers, when she was an 8 year old girl and he a young man, did a play together before Fonda made movies. Fonda was so nervous to go onstage that little Jane took his hand, said a little prayer to ease his nerves, and the two of them became good friends for life.


2:15 PM -- THE DESERT FOX (1951)
Following his work with the Afrika Korps, Field Marshall Rommell joins in a plot to assassinate Hitler.
Dir: Henry Hathaway
Cast: James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke, Jessica Tandy
BW-88 mins, CC,

Apparently, Erwin Rommel's widow, Lucie Marie Rommel acted as a technical consultant and adviser to this movie. She was played by Jessica Tandy in the film itself. Mrs. Rommel lent the production some of her husband's personal artifacts and liaised with Nunnally Johnson, the film's producer and screenwriter. As Frau Lucie Maria Rommel, Mrs Rommel later also acted as a military consultant to the film The Longest Day (1962) made by 20th Century-Fox, the same studio that produced this movie.


4:00 PM -- ACT ONE (1963)
A poor Brooklyn boy joins forces with an experienced playwright to conquer Broadway.
Dir: Dore Schary
Cast: George Hamilton, Jason Robards Jr., Jack Klugman
BW-111 mins, CC,

To promote the upcoming release of the film, George Hamilton appeared on a September 1963 episode of I've Got a Secret (1952), a prime time game show in which a panel of celebrities attempted to discover the guest's "secret." Hamilton's secret? The actor identified as Hamilton and grilled by the panel (who failed to guess his secret) was that he was not actually Hamilton at all but instead a dark-haired handsome sort-of-look-alike pretending to be Hamilton. The real Hamilton showed up at the end of the spot and earned the admiration of panellist Henry Morgan who expressed astonishment that any performer of Hamilton's stature was secure enough to take part in a stunt which, in essence, pointed up the fact that he was unrecognisable to a quartet of supposedly in-the-know celebrities.


6:00 PM -- WISE BLOOD (1979)
An ambitious Southern boy tries to set himself up as a street preacher.
Dir: John Huston
Cast: Brad Dourif, Dan Shor, Harry Dean Stanton
C-106 mins, CC,

Actor Brad Dourif was originally sent the script to audition for the character Enoch Emery. But Brad had such a good feeling about the Hazel Motes character, Dourif asked to audition for that instead. The problem was, another actor, Tommy Lee Jones, was currently director John Huston's first choice for the part. However, things didn't go to plan. Jones had to drop out, giving Dourif the opportunity to audition like he wanted to, and then landing the role of Hazel for himself.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: SIDNEY POITIER



8:00 PM -- A WARM DECEMBER (1972)
A doctor visiting London falls for a mysterious woman.
Dir: Sidney Poitier
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Yvette Curtis, Esther Anderson
C-101 mins, CC,

T.P. McKenna was cast in the role of Dr. Henry Barlow by Director and star Sidney Poitier. However, after the scenes were filmed, Poitier decided to re-cast George Baker, and the relevant scenes were re-shot.


10:00 PM -- BUCK AND THE PREACHER (1972)
A con man helps a group of former slaves survive the perils of the wild West in their search for the promised land.
Dir: Sidney Poitier
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee
C-103 mins, CC,

On the advice of his future wife Joanna Shimkus, Sidney Poitier took over directorial duties from Joseph Sargent when he became dissatisfied with the film's point of view. As a result, this turned out to be Poitier's debut behind the camera and he would go on to direct eight more pictures.


12:00 AM -- TRY AND GET ME! (1950)
A man who is down on his luck falls in with a criminal.
Dir: Cyril Endfield
Cast: Frank Lovejoy, Kathleen Ryan, Richard Carlson
BW-92 mins, CC,

Based upon the 1933 kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart, son of the owner of Hart's Department Store in San Jose, California. Two suspects were arrested and jailed, but a lynch mob broke into the jail, dragged out the suspects and took them across the street to a city park where they hanged them from a tree. Originally titled The Sound Of Fury.


2:00 AM -- THE UNDERWORLD STORY (1950)
A corrupt newspaperman, blacklisted from his big-city paper, becomes involved with a murder case for a small town paper.
Dir: Cyril Endfield
Cast: Dan Duryea, Herbert Marshall, Gale Storm
BW-91 mins, CC,

This was filmed in 1949, but not released until 1950.


4:00 AM -- HELL DRIVERS (1957)
A trucker tangles with a corrupt boss and his thugs.
Dir: Cy Endfield
Cast: Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, Peggy Cummins
BW-103 mins, Letterbox Format

Although Stanley Baker had played major supporting roles in movies to great acclaim for several years, this was the first time he played the leading role in a movie.