TCM Schedule for Saturday, April 4, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: Peter Bogdanovich

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, The Essentials are due back at the beginning of May. Tonight is a pair of early films created by actor/director/writer/producer Peter Bogdanovich. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- The Bobo (1967)
To land a job, an aspiring singer has to seduce a heartless gold digger.
Dir: Robert Parrish
Cast: Peter Sellers, Britt Ekland, Rossano Brazzi
C-103 mins, Letterbox Format, ins, CC,

Peter Sellers was legendarily difficult during the making of this film, even falling out with Kenneth Griffith, one of his best friends. He was most hostile towards director Robert Parrish, and made determined efforts, not merely to undermine him, but to replace him as director. Until a short time before the film's release, it seemed that he would get a co-director credit. But eventually, Parrish got sole credit - some have unkindly suggested that Sellers waived his claim because he knew the film would be a critical and financial disaster (which it was).


8:00 AM -- MGM Cartoons: Car of Tomorrow (1951)
A series of demonstrations of the kind of motoring accessories we'll all take for granted in the future.
Dir: Tex Avery (Fred)
Cast: June Foray
BW-6 mins, CC,

Preceded by The House of Tomorrow, and followed by TV of Tommorrow and The Farm of Tomorrow.


8:08 AM -- Home Early (1939)
In this short film, a businessman goes home early to surprise his family and is treated with suspicion by his wife's bridge club.
Dir: Roy Rowland
Cast: Jimmy Lydon, Robert Benchley,
BW-9 mins,


8:17 AM -- Romantic Nevada (1943)
This short film takes the viewer to Nevada, with looks at the natural wonders of the state and the city of Reno.
Cast: James A. FitzPatrick
C-9 mins,

Filmed in Reno, Virginia City, Lake Tahoe and along the Truckee River in Nevada.


8:27 AM -- Bullet Scars (1942)
Hoods kidnap an honest doctor to patch up one of their own.
Dir: D. Ross Lederman
Cast: Regis Toomey, Adele Longmire, Howard Da Silva
BW-59 mins,

Film debut of Adele Longmire.


9:30 AM -- The Mysterious Mr. M, The: The Key to Murder (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,

The eleventh of 13 episodes.


10:00 AM -- Popeye: With Poopdeck Pappy (1933)
Popeye's pappy, age 99, wants to go out at night; Popeye wants him to sleep.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, William Nolan (uncredited)
Cast: Pinto Colvig, Margie Hines, Jack Mercer
BW-6 mins, CC,

One of a number of Popeye shorts which were sent off to Asia in the 80's to undergo the infamous redraw and colorization process.


10:07 AM -- Spy Chasers (1955)
The Bowery Boys get mixed up with an exiled king and a murderous band of spies.
Dir: Edward Bernds
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey
BW-61 mins, CC,

The thirty-eighth of forty-eight Bowery Boys movies.


11:30 AM -- Give Us the Earth! (1947)
This short documentary is aimed at helping Mexican farmers make the best use of the land and farming techniques.
Dir: Gunther von Fritsch
Cast: Emily Hatch, Spencer Hatch
BW-21 mins,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel -- Herbert Morgan

Using a blackboard, Hatch shows a world population of 2.2-billion people. They thought that was the population of the time (1947), but as of 2012, the population is over 3 times as much - over 7-billion.


12:00 PM -- The Kennel Murder Case (1933)
Society sleuth Philo Vance investigates a murder tied to a Long Island dog show.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: William Powell, Mary Astor, Eugene Pallette
BW-73 mins, CC,

Dr Doremus' repeated line "I'm a Doctor not a..." was later used as the catchphrase of DeForest Kelley's character Dr Leonard "Bones" McCoy on the sci-series Star Trek: The Original Series (1966).


1:30 PM -- The Set-Up (1949)
An aging boxer defies the gangsters who've ordered him to throw his last fight.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter, George Tobias
BW-72 mins, CC,

Martin Scorsese is a big fan of the film and was so impressed by the boxing sequences that he had to deliberately avoid copying any of Robert Wise's camera tricks when it came his turn to make a boxing movie, Raging Bull (1980).


3:00 PM -- Winchester '73 (1950)
A man combs the West in search of his stolen rifle.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: James Stewart, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea
C-92 mins, CC,

The filmmakers did not have the budget to pay James Stewart his requested fee of $200,000, so he suggested they take the then-unusual step of paying him a cut of the profits instead. This deal, the first of its kind since the advent of talkies, would soon become the norm and change the studio-agent-actor relationship, leading to the demise of the long-term contract and the studio system. Stewart is believed to have made around $600,000 from this film.


4:45 PM -- Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
In Russia before the revolution, a Jewish milkman tries to marry off his daughters who have plans of their own.
Dir: Norman Jewison
Cast: Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey
C-181 mins, Letterbox Format, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Oswald Morris, Best Sound -- Gordon K. McCallum and David Hildyard, and Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score -- John Williams

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Topol, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Leonard Frey, Best Director -- Norman Jewison, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Robert F. Boyle, Michael Stringer and Peter Lamont, and Best Picture

To get the look he wanted for the film, director Norman Jewison told director of photography Oswald Morris, who was famous for shooting color films in unusual styles, to shoot the film in an earthy tone. Morris saw a woman wearing brown nylon hosiery, and thought; "that's the tone we want," and asked the woman for the stockings on the spot (and shot the entire film with a stocking over the lens). The weave can be detected in some scenes.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PETER BOGDANOVICH



8:00 PM -- Targets (1968)
An aging horror star and a psychotic veteran come face to face at the premiere of the star's most recent film.
Dir: Peter Bogdanovich
Cast: Boris Karloff, Tim O'Kelly, Nancy Hsueh
C-90 mins, CC,

Roger Corman told Peter Bogdanovich he could make any film he wanted to, with two conditions: he had to use stock footage from The Terror (1963), and he had to hire Boris Karloff for two days (Karloff was under contract and owed Corman those two days). Karloff was so impressed with the script that he refused pay for any shooting time over his contracted two days. He worked for a total of five days on the movie.


9:45 PM -- The Last Picture Show (1971)
Changing times take their toll on high schoolers growing up in a small Western town.
Dir: Peter Bogdanovich
Cast: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd
BW-126 mins, Letterbox Format, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ben Johnson, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Cloris Leachman

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jeff Bridges, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ellen Burstyn, Best Director -- Peter Bogdanovich, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Larry McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich, Best Cinematography -- Robert Surtees, and Best Picture

Cloris Leachman's last scene in the movie was printed on the first take without any previous rehearsals. She wanted to rehearse the scene but director Peter Bogdanovich thought it would ruin the scene if it was rehearsed. After she completed the take she said to him, "I can do better." He replied, "No, you can't - you just won the Oscar." Ultimately his sense of direction paid off, as Leachman won the Academy Award for her performance.


12:00 AM -- Address Unknown (1944)
A German-born art dealer finds himself falling for Nazi propaganda.
Dir: William Cameron Menzies
Cast: Paul Lukas, Carl Esmond, Peter Van Eyck
BW-72 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lionel Banks, Walter Holscher and Joseph Kish, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Morris Stoloff and Ernst Toch

K.T. Stevens (real name: Gloria Wood) is the daughter of the film's producer, Sam Wood.


1:45 AM -- Logan's Run (1975)
A future police officer uncovers the deadly secret behind a society that worships youth.
Dir: Michael Anderson
Cast: Michael York, Richard Jordan, Jenny Agutter
C-118 mins, Letterbox Format, CC,

Winner of an Oscar Special Achievement Award for L.B. Abbott, Glen Robinson and Matthew Yuricich for visual effects

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Ernest Laszlo, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Dale Hennesy and Robert De Vestel

In the original novel, the colors of the Life Clock change every seven years: yellow (birth-6), blue (7-13), red (14-20), red and black on Lastday, and black at 21. According to the audio commentary, the movie changed it to 30 because it wasn't realistic to have a cast with all of the characters under 21.


4:00 AM -- 2010 (1984)
In this sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, a U.S.-Soviet crew investigates a mysterious monolith orbiting Jupiter.
Dir: Peter Hyams
Cast: Roy Scheider, Helen Mirren, John Lithgow
C-116 mins, Letterbox Format, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Albert Brenner and Rick Simpson, Best Costume Design -- Patricia Norris, Best Sound -- Michael J. Kohut, Aaron Rochin, Carlos Delarios and Gene S. Cantamessa, Best Effects, Visual Effects -- Richard Edlund, Neil Krepela, George Jenson and Mark Stetson, and Best Makeup -- Michael Westmore

When Dr. Heywood Floyd (Roy Scheider) stands in the doorway of his sleeping son's room, on the wall, to the left of his bed is a poster of an Olympic runner, with the text "Beijing 08" on the bottom. Considering that this movie was made in 1984 and the Olympic Committee did not choose Beijing for the Olympics until July 2001, this is an example of life imitating art and background detail which came true.