TCM Schedule for Thursday, December 9 -- Star of the Month -- Mickey Rooney

[Staph]

It's Mickey Rooney all day long, and tonight we get five of Mickey's films with Judy Garland. Enjoy!


5:30am -- TCM Presents Elvis Mitchell Under the Influence: Laurence Fishburne (2008)
Celebrities reveal the classic movies that influenced their lives in interviews with acclaimed film critic/interviewer Elvis Mitchell.
C-27 mins, TV-MA

Fishburne was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for What's Love Got to Do with It (1993).


6:00am -- Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936)
An American orphan discovers he is heir to a British title.
Cast: Freddie Bartholomew, Dolores Costello Barrymore, C. Aubrey Smith, Guy Kibbee
Dir: John Cromwell
BW-102 mins, TV-G

Due to the demise of Selznick International Productions, this movie is now in the public domain.


8:00am -- Hold That Kiss (1938)
Romance blossoms when a man and woman each think the other is rich.
Cast: Maureen O'Sullivan, Dennis O'Keefe, Mickey Rooney, George Barbier
Dir: Edwin L. Marin
BW-79 mins, TV-G

Maureen O'Sullivan, mother of Mia Farrow, is probably best remembered as "me Jane, you Tarzan".


9:30am -- Lord Jeff (1938)
When a good boy goes bad, his family sends him to a naval military school.
Cast: Freddie Bartholomew, Mickey Rooney, Charles Coburn, Herbert Mundin
Dir: Sam Wood
BW-85 mins, TV-G

Screenwriter James Kevin McGuinness placed an ad in the Hollywood Reporter titled "Facts" breaking down the writing credits for the script by number of lines, as follows: Himself - 853; Walter Ferris - 51; Sam Wood - 17; Frank Davis - 20; Ferris, Val Burton, Endre Bohem and Bradford Ropes - 37; Ropes, Burton and Bohem - 48; Ropes and Burton - 4 for a total of 1,030 lines of dialogue.


11:00am -- Love Is A Headache (1938)
A freak accident gives a fading actress a huge publicity push.
Cast: Gladys George, Franchot Tone, Ted Healy, Mickey Rooney
Dir: Richard Thorpe
BW-73 mins, TV-G

Ted Healy was a US vaudevillian who in 1923 founded a stage act known as "Ted Healy & His Stooges," the latter comprising one Moe Howard and his brother, Shemp Howard, whose roles were to act as foils, or stooges, for Healy's jokes. Joined later by Larry Fine, the Howards later went off on their own, eventually to call themselves "The Three Stooges."


12:30pm -- A Yank At Eton (1942)
An American playboy is sent to a British boarding school to learn discipline.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Edmund Gwenn, Ian Hunter, Freddie Bartholomew
Dir: Norman Taurog
BW-88 mins, TV-G

One of the five theatrical films costarring Rooney and Freddie Bartholomew. Today TCM is showing four of those films -- all but Captains Courageous (1937).


2:30pm -- Killer McCoy (1947)
A lightweight boxer gets mixed up in murder.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Brian Donlevy, Ann Blyth, James Dunn
Dir: Roy Rowland
BW-104 mins, TV-PG

Remake of The Crowd Roars (1938), starring Robert Taylor and Maureen O'Sullivan.


4:30pm -- The Big Wheel (1949)
A mechanic alienates everyone who loves him when he becomes a champion race car driver.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Thomas Mitchell, Mary Hatcher, Michael O'Shea
Dir: Edward Ludwig
BW-91 mins, TV-PG

Hattie McDaniel's last movie.


6:30pm -- Quicksand (1950)
Petty theft leads a mechanic into a life of crime.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Jeanne Cagney, Barbara Bates, Peter Lorre
Dir: Irving Pichel
BW-79 mins, TV-PG

This film has one of the first examples of product placement with a box of Bit-O-Honey candy bars by Jeanne Cagney's cash register. Also, at about 24 minutes, in the bar scene, there are cases of Pepsi in the background. The ditty Shorty sings on the way to his car is the Pepsi jingle of the era with different lyrics.


8:00pm -- Thoroughbreds Don't Cry (1937)
A young jockey goes crooked to land a valuable riding job.
Cast: Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Ronald Sinclair, C. Aubrey Smith
Dir: Alfred E. Green
BW-80 mins, TV-G

This film, the first of 10 to feature both Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, is also the only one in which she is billed ahead of him.


9:30pm -- Babes in Arms (1939)
A group of second-generation entertainers puts on a show to launch their careers.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Charles Winninger, Guy Kibbee
Dir: Busby Berkeley
BW-96 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Mickey Rooney, and Best Music, Scoring -- Roger Edens and George Stoll

MGM Studio's biggest money grosser of 1939, surpassing The Wizard of Oz (1939) for that production year.


11:15pm -- Strike Up the Band (1940)
A high-school band sets out to win a national radio contest.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, June Preisser
Dir: Busby Berkeley
BW-120 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Roger Edens and George Stoll for the song "Our Love Affair", and Best Music, Score -- George Stoll and Roger Edens

The 1930 Broadway production of "Strike Up the Band", with music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, had no relation to the story of this film. That was a political satire that had trouble getting to Broadway, and when it did, it had only a short run of 191 performances. However, the title song became very popular and is included in this film.


1:30am -- Babes on Broadway (1941)
Show-biz hopefuls stage a benefit for an orphanage.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Fay Bainter, Virginia Weidler
Dir: Busby Berkeley
BW-118 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Burton Lane (music) and Ralph Freed (lyrics) for the song "How About You?"

Margaret O'Brien's film debut.


3:45am -- Girl Crazy (1943)
A womanizing playboy finds true love when he's sent to a desert college.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Gil Stratton, Robert E. Strickland
Dir: Norman Taurog
BW-99 mins, TV-G

Judy Garland's character's name, Ginger Gray, is a tribute to Ginger Rogers, who played the part on Broadway when the character was named Molly Gray. Ginger Rogers wrote that one night onstage in the play, her costar Allen Kearns accidentally said: "Ginger, I love you" instead of "Molly". The mistake got such a huge laugh from the audience that they decided to continue to do that in subsequent performances, pretending it was a mistake. (Source: "Ginger: My Story". New York: Harper-Collins, 1991)