TCM Schedule for Saturday, March 14, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: Screenplay by William Goldman

Last edited Mon Mar 23, 2020, 06:35 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 features films written by William Goldman, including All The President's Men (1976) and Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- KIM (1951)
Rudyard Kipling's classic tale of an orphaned boy who helps the British Army against Indian rebels.
Dir: Victor Saville
Cast: Errol Flynn, Dean Stockwell, Paul Lukas
C-113 mins, CC,

Errol Flynn was initially excited about going to India, and turned down the studio's offer of the lead in King Solomon's Mines (1950), which ultimately went to Stewart Granger. However all of Flynn's scenes in this film were shot in the studio and matched in the editing room with long shot second unit footage of his double.


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: SHOOTING OF DAN MCGOO (1944)
This is an adaptation of Robert Service's poem The Shooting of Dan McGrew, with Droopy as McGrew.
Dir: Tex Avery
Cast: Bill Thompson, Bea Benaderet, Paul Frees
BW-8 mins, CC,

The title is based on the 1907 narrative poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" by Robert W. Service that takes place in a Yukon saloon during the Yukon Gold Rush of the late 1890s.


8:09 AM -- CITY OF CHILDREN (1949)
This short film looks at a community in Illinois that is the home for orphaned children.
Narrator: John Nesbitt
BW-10 mins,

Final episode in the long running Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Passing Parade one-reel series.


8:20 AM -- IN OLD AMSTERDAM (1949)
This short film looks at the sights, sounds, people, and art masterpieces in the capital of the Netherlands.
Dir: Ralph F. Donaldson
Narrator: James A. FitzPatrick
C-9 mins,


8:30 AM -- SECRETS OF THE FRENCH POLICE (1932)
Strange crimes committed by a hypnotized woman are solved by a French detective.
Dir: Edward Sutherland
Cast: Gwili Andre, Gregory Ratoff, Frank Morgan
BW-58 mins, CC,

The film is based partly on Samuel Ornitz's own unpublished novel The Last Empress.


9:30 AM -- THE MYSTERIOUS MR. M: WHEN FRIEND KILLS FRIEND (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-17 mins, CC,

The eighth episode of thirteen.


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: PUTTIN' ON THE ACT (1933)
Olive rushes over to show Popeye the headline: Vaudeville is coming back.
Dir: Dave Fleischer
Cast: Margie Hines, Jack Mercer
BW-6 mins, CC,

Popeye's impressions are of Stan Laurel, Jimmy Durante and Groucho Marx.


10:07 AM -- NO HOLDS BARRED (1952)
The Bowery Boys enter the wrestling world when one of them develops superhuman powers.
Dir: William Beaudine
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Marjorie Reynolds
BW-65 mins, CC,

The costume that Sach is wearing in the final wrestling match is Klaatu's spacesuit from "The Day the Earth Stood Still".


11:30 AM -- PRISONER OF SWING (1938)
This musical short is a satirical adaptation of "The Prisoner of Zenda."
Dir: Roy Mack
Cast: June Allyson, Hal LeRoy, Bruce Evans
BW-22 mins,

Episode 12 of the 1937-1938 season of Broadway Brevities.


12:00 PM -- RETURN OF THE SEVEN (1966)
A notorious gunman organizes a team of specialists to save Mexican villagers from an insane rancher.
Dir: Burt Kennedy
Cast: Yul Brynner, Robert Fuller, Julián Mateos
BW-96 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Elmer Bernstein

Yul Brynner insisted he would only make this film if Steve McQueen was not involved. McQueen initially expressed interest in appearing, but then decided the plot was too absurd and turned the film down.


1:45 PM -- GULLIVER'S TRAVELS (1939)
A human doctor washes ashore on an island inhabited by little people locked in a foolish war.
Dir: Dave Fleischer
Cast: Jessica Dragonette, Lanny Ross,
C-76 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Ralph Rainger (music) and Leo Robin (lyrics) for the song "Faithful Forever", and Best Music, Original Score -- Victor Young

This was the first American animated feature from a studio other than Disney and only the second overall, the first being Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).


3:15 PM -- RIVER OF NO RETURN (1954)
A frontier farmer takes off with his son and a saloon singer after the man who stole his rifle and his horse.
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Marilyn Monroe, Rory Calhoun
C-91 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

During the difficult shoot, Otto Preminger had to contend with frequent rain, Robert Mitchum's heavy drinking, and an injury to Marilyn Monroe's ankle that kept her off the set for several days and ultimately put her in a cast. Young Tommy Rettig seemed to be the director's sole source of solace. He respected the boy's professionalism and appreciated the rapport he developed with Monroe, which often helped keep the actress on an even keel. When Natasha Lytess, Monroe's acting's coach, began to interfere with Rettig's performance, thereby undermining his confidence, Preminger let the cast and crew know about her behavior. Preminger was delighted to find that they finally began to support him in his efforts to remove her from the set.


5:00 PM -- HOW THE WEST WAS WON (1962)
Three generations of pioneers take part in the forging of the American West.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Carroll Baker, Lee J. Cobb
C-165 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- James R. Webb, Best Sound -- Franklin Milton (M-G-M SSD), and Best Film Editing -- Harold F. Kress

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- William H. Daniels, Milton R. Krasner, Charles Lang and Joseph LaShelle, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- George W. Davis, William Ferrari, Addison Hehr, Henry Grace, Don Greenwood Jr. and Jack Mills, Best Costume Design, Color -- Walter Plunkett, Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Alfred Newman and Ken Darby, and Best Picture

Due to the detail that would have been shown via the Cinerama process, the costumes had to be sewn by hand, rather than with a sewing machine, as they would have been during the time periods depicted in the movie.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SCREENPLAY BY WILLIAM GOLDMAN



8:00 PM -- ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976)
Two Washington Post reporters investigate the Watergate break-in that ended Nixon's presidency.
Dir: Alan J. Pakula
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jason Robards Jr.
C-138 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jason Robards, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- William Goldman, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- George Jenkins and George Gaines, Best Sound -- Arthur Piantadosi, Les Fresholtz, Rick Alexander (as Dick Alexander) and James E. Webb

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Jane Alexander, Best Director -- Alan J. Pakula, Best Film Editing -- Robert L. Wolfe, and Best Picture

Screenwriter William Goldman had to tone down the dialogue from editor Harry Rosenfeld (played by Jack Warden). In real life, Rosenfeld was so hilariously funny that Goldman didn't think that people would believe someone could be so spontaneously witty.


10:30 PM -- BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)
Two free-spirited bank robbers flee railroad detectives and head for Bolivia.
Dir: George Roy Hill
Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross
C-110 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- William Goldman (William Goldman was not present at the awards ceremony. Katharine Ross accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Cinematography -- Conrad L. Hall, Best Music, Original Song -- Burt Bacharach (music) and Hal David (lyrics) for the song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", and Best Music, Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical) -- Burt Bacharach

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- George Roy Hill, Best Sound -- Bill Edmondson and David Dockendorf, and Best Picture

William Goldman first came across the story of Butch Cassidy in the late 1950s and researched it on and off for eight years before sitting down to write the screenplay. He later recalled, "The whole reason I wrote the thing, there is that famous line that F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, who was one of my heroes: 'There are no second acts in American lives.' When I read about Cassidy and Longabaugh and the super posse coming after them, that's phenomenal material. They ran to South America and lived there for eight years, and that was what thrilled me: they had a second act. They were more legendary in South America than they had been in the old West. It's a great story. Those two guys and that pretty girl going down to South America and all that stuff. It just seems to me it's a wonderful piece of material." Goldman said he wrote the story as an original screenplay because he did not want to do the research to make it authentic as a novel.


12:30 AM -- I WAKE UP SCREAMING (1941)
A celebrity promoter is accused of murdering one of his clients.
Dir: Bruce Humberstone
Cast: Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis
BW-82 mins, CC,

In Darryl F. Zanuck's original concept of the film, it was to end with a Grable song, but that idea eventually was discarded. "Daddy" (music and lyrics by Bobby Troup), plugged by Betty Grable in a store's music department, was cut from the film so that Twentieth Century-Fox could showcase Miss Grable in a fully dramatic role. The shooting script had Betty working as a stenographer instead of plugging songs. As her sole musical moment, Miss Grable hummed a bit of the Tchaikovsky-based ballad, "The Things I Love" (music and lyrics by Harold Barlow and Lewis Harris), during a car ride with Victor Mature and Carole Landis. Most of the ditty would be sung by Miss Landis later in the movie. Footage of Miss Grable performing "Daddy" still exists.


2:15 AM -- THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)
Three prospectors fight off bandits and each other after striking-it-rich in the Mexican mountains.
Dir: John Huston
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt
BW-126 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Walter Huston, Best Director -- John Huston, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Huston

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Picture

Humphrey Bogarts portrayal of 'Dobbs' in this film was cited by Steven Spielberg as the main inspiration for the character of Indiana Jones.


4:30 AM -- BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE (1959)
Gangsters on the run in South Dakota awaken a giant monster.
Dir: Monte Hellman
Cast: Michael Forest, Sheila Carol, Frank Wolff
BW-66 mins, CC,

Roger Corman and Gene Corman partly chose their filming location in the Black Hills because they were encouraged to come by the Chamber of Commerce in South Dakota. The Chamber of Commerce offered financial incentives in order to ensure that this, and future Corman films, would be shot in their state.