TCM Schedule for Thursday, April 9, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: New York in the 1970s

In the daylight hours, we'll see secretaries, both male and female, finding love on the job. Then in prime time, TCM continues our visit to New York City back in the 1970s. Get out your tie-dyed t-shirts and enjoy!



6:00 AM -- HOLD YOUR MAN (1933)
A hard-boiled babe and a con man wear down each other's rough edges.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Stuart Erwin
BW-87 mins, CC,

When Eddie is looking around Ruby's apartment, waiting for his clothes to dry, he spots a pennant on the wall that says "Albany Night Boat". That refers to the steamships that would depart New York City in the early evening for an overnight trip up the Hudson River to Albany. The ships had hundreds of staterooms and were often used - as the film's contemporary audience would know - for romantic getaways or illicit affairs. The pillow Eddie sees next may also have been a souvenir from the ship as it's inscribed "We're here today/Tomorrow we're through. So let's be gay. It is up to you." Such trips peaked in the early 20th century, but started to decline in the 1930's when less costly, speedier, and more efficient modes of transportation by rail and automobile came to the fore. By the 1940's, the Albany Night Boat had virtually ceased to exist.


7:45 AM -- EXPENSIVE WOMEN (1931)
A bright young thing can't decide which of her flirtations should lead to marriage.
Dir: Hobart Henley
Cast: Dolores Costello, H. B. Warner, Warren William
BW-60 mins, CC,

Final starring role of Dolores Costello at Warner Bros. where she had been a leading lady since 1926. Married to John Barrymore, she left the business to care for their two children and would not return to films, in lesser roles, until Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936).


9:00 AM -- BEHIND OFFICE DOORS (1931)
An under-appreciated secretary finds a new job and takes her former boss's success with her.
Dir: Melville Brown
Cast: Mary Astor, Robert Ames, Ricardo Cortez
BW-82 mins, CC,

Duneen hires Daisy at $50/week - prompting a concerned look from Mary. She had a good reason as the average salary for all workers in 1931 was $35/week, and secretaries on average made only $20/week.


10:30 AM -- MAN WANTED (1932)
A female executive falls in love with her male secretary.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: Kay Francis, David Manners, Una Merkel
BW-62 mins, CC,

The Polo match was filmed at the Will Rogers Polo Club-Pacific Palisades, California.


11:45 AM -- FEMALE (1933)
A female CEO who's used to buying love meets her match in an independent young executive.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Ruth Chatterton, George Brent, Lois Wilson
BW-60 mins, CC,

The exterior of Alison Drake's house was shot on location at the famous Ennis House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The house first acquired morbid fame providing the exterior facade for the House on Haunted Hill, a 1959 B movie. The 1975 film The Day of the Locust made extensive use of the house as a private residence, but it was in 1982's Blade Runner that the house gained a popularity of its own among moviegoers, even though only the main character's arrival at the motor court was actually shot at the Ennis House. Its exterior also appears as "The Mansion" occupied by Angelus, Spike, and Drusilla in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There is a ton of more information on Wikipedia.


1:00 PM -- THE RICHEST GIRL IN THE WORLD (1934)
To put off fortune-hunters, an heiress trades places with her secretary.
Dir: William A. Seiter
Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea, Fay Wray
BW-75 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Norman Krasna

When Tony arrives at the cabin in the Adirondacks during a wild rainstorm, he walks in saying "Ain't a fit night out for man or beast." This is a line popularized the year before by W.C. Fields in The Fatal Glass of Beer (1933).


2:30 PM -- EX-LADY (1933)
A female artist is torn between her belief in free love and the constraints of romance.
Dir: Robert Florey
Cast: Bette Davis, Gene Raymond, Frank McHugh
BW-67 mins, CC,

In 1962, producer-director Robert Aldrich was preparing the prologue to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). He chose a scene from Parachute Jumper (1933) and this film to document the fact that the young Jane was a flop as a movie star.


3:45 PM -- SMARTY (1934)
A squabbling couple can't seem to make it to the divorce court.
Dir: Robert Florey
Cast: Joan Blondell, Warren William, Edward Everett Horton
BW-65 mins, CC,

When Tony (Warren William) tells Vicki (Joan Blondell) that he's been going to the movies and there the women are quite different, they get pushed in the face with grapefruit and they love it; he is referring to the film The Public Enemy (1931) with James Cagney. Joan Blondell was also in that film, so this may be an inside joke.


5:00 PM -- SAFE IN HELL (1931)
On the run from the police, a New Orleans prostitute gets stranded in a tropical haven for outlaws
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: Dorothy Mackaill, Donald Cook, Ralf Harolde
BW-73 mins, CC,

At a time when most African-Americans were stereotyped, both Nina Mae McKinney and Clarence Muse were the two most reputable characters in the movie. Although their parts in the script are written in dialect, both spoke normally.


6:30 PM -- THE STRANGE LOVE OF MOLLY LOUVAIN (1932)
A woman's bad taste in men leads to pregnancy out of wedlock.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Ann Dvorak, Lee Tracy, Richard Cromwell
BW-73 mins, CC,

During her intense interview with police, Molly Louvain sarcastically suggests she is responsible for multiple crimes, including the death of "William Desmond Taylor." Taylor, a Hollywood director, was indeed murdered in 1921. The scandal rocked Hollywood. His unsolved death prompted Hollywood's self-imposed Production Code. She also says she killed "Rothstein". This would be Arnold Rothstein, once head of organized crime in New York City. She says she kidnapped Dorothy Arnold - a wealthy socialite who disappeared in New York City on December 12, 1910 and whose case has never been solved. Finally she said she stole Charley Ross. This refers to the kidnapping of Charles Ross, a four year-old child on July 1, 1874 in Philadelphia. This was the first high-profile abduction for ransom case in the U.S. and was never solved. All of these cases would have been familiar to audiences of the day.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: NEW YORK IN THE 70'S



8:00 PM -- ANNIE HALL (1977)
A comedian and an aspiring singer try to overcome their neuroses and find happiness.
Dir: Woody Allen
Cast: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts
C-93 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Diane Keaton, Best Director -- Woody Allen (Woody Allen was not present at the awards ceremony. Co-presenter King Vidor accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman (Woody Allen was not present at the awards ceremony.), and Best Picture

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Woody Allen

Annie's outfits, which caused a brief fashion rage, were Diane Keaton's own clothes.


10:00 PM -- MANHATTAN (1979)
A TV comedy writer falls for his best friend's girl.
Dir: Woody Allen
Cast: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway
BW-96 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Mariel Hemingway, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman

The film's famous black-and-white movie poster featuring an image of a couple sitting on a park bench next to the Queensboro Bridge has become iconic in film history.


11:45 PM -- GIRLFRIENDS (1978)
A young photographer fights to build her career while coping with her best friend's marriage.
Dir: Claudia Weill
Cast: Melanie Mayron, Bob Balaban, Eli Wallach
C-88 mins, CC,

Stanley Kubrick raved about this film in an interview with Vicente Molina Fox, which was conducted during the production of The Shining (1980), and named it his favorite film of 1978.


1:30 AM -- THE LANDLORD (1970)
A spoiled rich boy buys a Brooklyn tenement and gets mixed up in his tenants' lives.
Dir: Hal Ashby
Cast: Beau Bridges, Pearl Bailey, Diana Sands
C-110 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Lee Grant

The opening shot is of director Hal Ashby's actual (and short-lived) marriage to actress Joan Marshall. He is flanked by the film's star, Beau Bridges (his best man) on the left and producer Norman Jewison on the right.


3:30 AM -- I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER (1970)
When his mother dies, a grieving son is torn between his demanding father and his need to live his own life.
Dir: Gilbert Cates
Cast: Melvyn Douglas, Gene Hackman, Dorothy Stickney
C-92 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Melvyn Douglas, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Gene Hackman, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Anderson

Richard Widmark was playwright Robert Anderson's first choice for the son role in both the theatrical and film versions of the play. One proposal had Fredric March as the father, another had it as a TV special with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn as the parents.