TCM Schedule for Friday, March 13, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: Remembering Anne Frank

Last edited Mon Mar 23, 2020, 06:36 PM - Edit history (1)

In prime time, TCM is remembering Anne Frank, who died in February or March of 1945, 75 years ago this month. Enjoy is not the right thing to say this time, so I will simply say, remember.


7:00 AM -- DIME WITH A HALO (1963)
Five Mexican street kids steal from the collection plate to bet on a race horse.
Dir: Boris Sagal
Cast: Barbara Luna, Rafael Lopez, Roger Mobley
BW-94 mins, CC,

This was the last film produced at the Hal Roach Studios.


8:45 AM -- LARCENY, INC. (1942)
An ex-convict and his gang try to use a luggage store to front a bank robbery, but business keeps getting in the way.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, Broderick Crawford
BW-95 mins, CC,

Woody Allen loved this film so much he remade it in 2000 as Small Time Crooks (2000).


10:30 AM -- LUCKY ME (1954)
When the members of a musical troupe take cleaning jobs, their lead singer falls for a famous songwriter.
Dir: Jack Donohue
Cast: Doris Day, Robert Cummings, Phil Silvers
C-101 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Bess Flowers, the "Queen of the Extras", appeared in literally hundreds of movies, partly because many in Hollywood considered it was good luck to have her in a movie. For this movie about luck, she appears 3 different locations and times. The first time, she appears next to her name, in the opening musical number where she stands in front of a storefront with the word "FLOWERS" on it.


12:15 PM -- LUCKY PARTNERS (1940)
Two strangers who share a sweepstakes ticket take it on the lam.
Dir: Lewis Milestone
Cast: Ronald Colman, Ginger Rogers, Jack Carson
BW-99 mins, CC,

Ginger Rogers turned down the role of Hildy Johnson (eventually played by Rosalind Russell) in the Howard Hawks comedy His Girl Friday (1940) so she could co-star with Ronald Colman in this movie.


2:00 PM -- A SUCCESSFUL CALAMITY (1932)
A family pulls together to help a member in financial trouble.
Dir: John G. Adolfi
Cast: George Arliss, Mary Astor, Evalyn Knapp
BW-72 mins, CC,

The play by Clare Kummer originally opened on Broadway at the Booth Theatre on 5 February 1917, and ran for 144 performances before closing for the summer (there was no air conditioning in those days). It then reopened on 10 October 1917 at the Plymouth Theatre. The opening night cast included Katharine Alexander, William Gillette, Estelle Winwood and Roland Young.


3:15 PM -- LUCKY NIGHT (1939)
During a drunken night out, an heiress marries a broken-down gambler.
Dir: Norman Taurog
Cast: Myrna Loy, Robert Taylor, Joseph Allen
BW-82 mins, CC,

The car they win is a 1939 Plymouth 4-door sedan, which sold at that time for about $800.


4:45 PM -- MAN OF THE MOMENT (1935)
A fortune-hunter saves a young woman from drowning, risking his marriage to an heiress.
Dir: Monty Banks
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Margaret Lockwood,
BW-81 mins,

This film had its U. S. television premiere on Turner Classic Movies on 17 September 2007 during TCM's festival of films made by Warner Brothers at Teddington Studios in the UK.


6:15 PM -- FIFTH AVENUE GIRL (1939)
To annoy his family, a millionaire hires an out-of-work girl to pose as a gold digger.
Dir: Gregory La Cava
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Walter Connolly, Verree Teasdale
BW-83 mins, CC,

The original ending of the movie just had Mary Grey leaving the Borden House, walking down Fifth Avenue, but the sneak preview audience complained at what it considered an unhappy ending. So the ending was changed to its current form, which essentially made it more palatable.


7:43 PM -- THAT JUSTICE BE DONE (1945)
Newsreel footage from both sides of World War II make a case for convicting Nazi war criminals.
Dir: George Stevens
BW-11 mins,

One of the last of the films made under the direction of the War Activities Committee. It is a 10 minute documentary produced under the supervision of Ray Kellogg who, at the time, was a Commander in the the Office of Strategic Services (the O.S.S.), which was the forerunner of the C.I.A.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: REMEMBERING ANNE FRANK



8:00 PM -- THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK (1959)
A young girl comes of age while hiding from the Nazis.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Millie Perkins, Joseph Schildkraut, Shelley Winters
BW-180 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Shelley Winters, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- William C. Mellor, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lyle R. Wheeler, George W. Davis, Walter M. Scott and Stuart A. Reiss

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ed Wynn, Best Director -- George Stevens, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Charles Le Maire and Mary Wills, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Alfred Newman, and Best Picture

Audrey Hepburn was first offered the role of Anne Frank, and Otto Frank was among those who nominated her. She refused it for three reasons. Firstly, she had decided to accept the role in Green Mansions (1959). Secondly, she had lived in occupied Holland during the war and had seen the Nazis carry out street executions and watched as they herded Jews onto boxcars to carry them to concentration camps. She knew that making the film would bring back memories that were far too painful for her. However, thirdly, she was 30 and felt that she was too old to play a teenage character convincingly on screen.


11:15 PM -- ANNE FRANK REMEMBERED (1995)
Using previously unreleased archival material in addition to contemporary interviews, this academy award-winning documentary tells the story of the Frank family and presents the first fully-rounded portrait of their brash and free-spirited daughter Anne.
Dir: Jon Blair
Cast: Miep Gies,
BW-117 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Documentary, Features -- Jon Blair

Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank (1929-1945) was a German-Jewish girl from Frankfurt. She moved to the Netherlands in 1934, when only 5-years-old. She spend most of her life in Amsterdam. Anne was formally stripped of her German citizenship in 1941, and was never granted Dutch citizenship. For the last years of her life, Anne was legally stateless.


1:23 AM -- HITLER LIVES (1945)
This short propaganda film, produced at the end of WWII, warns that although Adolf Hitler is dead, his ideas live on.
BW-17 mins,
Dir: Don Siegel (uncredited)
Cast: Knox Manning, Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler

Winner of an Oscar for Best Documentary, Short Subjects

Someone at Warner Bros. discovered a rule that any film done by the army could be shown to the general public if the soundtrack was replaced by a new one. So the original narration was removed and replaced by a new one; contrary to popular belief, it was the short that won the Oscar, not Dr. Seuss (real name Theodore Geisel), who had written the script for the original short.


2:00 AM -- THE BIG DOLL HOUSE (1971)
Female prisoners in the Philippines plot their escape from a sadistic warden.
Dir: Jack Hill
Cast: Judy Brown, Roberta Collins, Pam Grier
C-95 mins, CC,

Pam Grier's first big acting role.


3:45 AM -- SPIDER BABY (1964)
Greedy relatives try to repossess the decaying mansion of an inbred Southern family.
Dir: Jack Hill
Cast: Lon Chaney Jr., Carol Ohmart, Quinn Redeker
BW-84 mins, Letterbox Format

Shot in 12 days in the August of 1964. Many days were extremely hot on a small stage with no air conditioning. Lon Chaney Jr. frequently had to be wiped down between every take on some days.


5:15 AM -- ONE GOT FAT (1963)
Children wearing monkey masks pay the price for bad bicycle safety habits in this instructional short.
Dir: Dale Jennings
Cast: Diane Chambers, Charles Hagens, Dan Whitehead
C-15 mins,

The opening car crash sound effects from Signal 30 (1959) are copied for when the last monkey is hit by a car in the dark.


5:15 AM -- HOLIDAY FROM RULES? (1959)
In this educational short film, a group of young children understand why rules are important.
Dir: William H. Murray
C-11 mins,


5:15 AM -- WHEN YOU GROW UP (1973)
In this short film, children learn about the world of fun that awaits them when they grow up and go to work.
Dir: Jerry Kurtz
C-11 mins,