TCM Schedule for Saturday, April 11, 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 continues this month's celebration of Peter Bogdanovich. From the TCM website:

Throughout his turbulent and often brilliant career, Peter Bogdanovich has had his share of hits and disappointments, but he has managed to stay relevant as one of the surviving links between the Golden Age of cinema and "New Hollywood."

This month, we honor Bogdanovich's career and his love of cinema as TCM launches its original podcast, "The Plot Thickens: I'm Still Peter Bogdanovich," in which Ben Mankiewicz and Bogdanovich sit down for a series of intimate conversations about Bogdanovich's career.

According to Mankiewicz, he is "enormously excited to bring Peter's complex life in pictures to your ears. He's a living link to Hollywood's golden age through his friendships with Welles, Ford, Hawks and Hitch. But that's only part of his story." To coincide with the release of the podcast, we are presenting a series of nights featuring Bogdanovich's own works, as he joins Mankiewicz to discuss them.

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- TWO TICKETS TO BROADWAY (1951)
A small-town girl finds love on the road to Broadway stardom.
Dir: James V. Kern
Cast: Tony Martin, Janet Leigh, Gloria DeHaven
C-106 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- John Aalberg (RKO Radio)

The roles played by Charles Dale and Joe Smith were orginally intended for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, who had to drop out of the film due to an illness contracted by Laurel while filming Utopia (1950).


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: BLACKBOARD JUMBLE (1957)
A wolf with a Southern accent walks by just as a teacher is getting fed up with his class and walks out.
Dir: Michael Lah
Cast: Daws Butler
BW-6 mins, CC,

The schoolteacher-wolf is depicted as a Confederate sympathizer; he encourages his students to paint a Confederate flag. However, his "theme song," which he whistles several times in the short, is Henry C. Work's "Kingdom Coming" (1862), an anti-Confederate song, celebrating the impending end of slavery in America. (This may be a deliberate joke by the filmmakers, because the dimwitted protagonist may not realize this.)


8:08 AM -- AN HOUR FOR LUNCH (1939)
A man attempts to shows how to budget one's time during lunch hour to get things done efficiently in this comedic short.
Dir: Roy Rowland
Cast: Don Castle, John Butler, Dick Wessel
BW-9 mins,


8:18 AM -- SALT LAKE DIVERSIONS (1943)
This short film takes the viewer to several vacation spots and various other sights around Utah's Salt Lake City.
C-8 mins,


8:27 AM -- BABY FACE HARRINGTON (1935)
A milquetoast has to fight off cops and gangsters when he's mistaken for a criminal.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Charles Butterworth, Una Merkel, Harvey Stephens
BW-62 mins,

The $2,000 from Willie's insurance policy would equate to $36,000 in 2017.


9:30 AM -- THE MYSTERIOUS MR. M: HIGH-LINE SMASH-UP (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-16 mins, CC,

The twelfth of thirteen episodes.


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: POPEYE PRESENTS EUGENE THE JEEP (1933)
Olive sends Popeye a puppy, Eugene the Jeep, for his birthday, but despite Popeye's best efforts to make it sleep outside, it keeps finding its way back into the house.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Grim Natwick (uncredited)
Cast: Pinto Colvig, 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 -- TRIPLE TROUBLE (1950)
When they're framed for a robbery, the Bowery Boys investigate the case from behind bars.
Dir: Jean Yarbrough
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell
BW-67 mins, CC,

Leo Gorcey impersonates Edward G. Robinson and Huntz Hall impersonates James Cagney.


11:30 AM -- HEART TO HEART (1949)
This short film focuses on heart disease and preventive measures an individual should take to avoid heart failures.
Dir: Gunther von Fritsch
BW-21 mins,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Documentary, Short Subjects -- Herbert Morgan


12:00 PM -- THE MATING GAME (1959)
A tax agent falls for a farm girl whose father he's investigating.
Dir: George Marshall
Cast: Debbie Reynolds, Tony Randall, Paul Douglas
C-96 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Debbie Reynolds was 27 when this film was made, and Tony Randall was 39 - but his character states that he's 29 in one scene.


1:45 PM -- THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938)
The bandit king of Sherwood Forest leads his Merry Men in a battle against the corrupt Prince John.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland, Basil Rathbone
C-102 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Carl Jules Weyl, Best Film Editing -- Ralph Dawson, and Best Music, Original Score -- Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Picture

The archery tournament was shot at the now gone Busch Gardens in Pasadena, CA, which was later used for the Wilkes plantation exteriors in Gone with the Wind (1939), among many other films.


3:45 PM -- 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

John Huston was fascinated by mysterious author B. Traven, who was a recluse living in Mexico. Traven approved of the director and his screenplay (by letter, obviously), and sent his intimate friend Hal Croves to the location to be a technical advisor and translator for $150 a week. The general consensus is that Croves was in fact Traven, though he always denied this. Huston was happy not to query him on the subject but his then-wife Evelyn Keyes was certain Croves was the mysterious author, believing that he was continually giving himself away, saying "I" when it should have been "he", and using phrases that were exactly the same as those to be found in Traven's letters to Huston. All very ironic, especially considering that Traven was offered $1000 a week to act as technical advisor on the film. It is known that "B. Traven" was a pen name, and Traven's true identity remains a mystery to this day.


6:00 PM -- THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)
A Kansas farm girl dreams herself into a magical land where she must fight a wicked witch to escape.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger
C-102 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Harold Arlen (music) and E.Y. Harburg (lyrics) for the song "Over the Rainbow", and Best Music, Original Score -- Herbert Stothart

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Harold Rosson, Best Art Direction -- Cedric Gibbons and William A. Horning, Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic) and Douglas Shearer (sound), and Best Picture

In 1898 Dorothy Louise Gage was born to the brother and sister-in-law of Maud Gage Baum, wife of author L. Frank Baum. When little Dorothy died exactly five months later Maud was heartbroken. Baum was just finishing "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and, to comfort his wife, named his heroine after Dorothy, changing her last name to Gale in his second book. Dorothy Gage was buried in Evergreen Memorial Cemetery in Bloomington, IL, where her grave was forgotten until 1996 when it was rediscovered. When Mickey Carroll, one of the last existing Munchkins from the movie, learned of the discovery, he was eager to replace her deteriorated grave marker with a new one created by his own monument company. The new stone was dedicated in 1997 and the children's section of the cemetery renamed the Dorothy L. Gage Memorial Garden, in the hope that bereaved families would be comforted in thinking of their lost children as being with Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PETER BOGDANOVICH



8:00 PM -- WHAT'S UP, DOC? (1972)
The accidental mix up of four identical plaid overnight bags leads to a series of increasingly wild and wacky situations.
Dir: Peter Bogdanovich
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Madeline Kahn
C-94 mins, CC,

The fender bender Judy causes as she crosses the street to the Bristol Hotel was added on the spur of the moment. When no stunt cars were available, Peter Bogdanovich instructed a crew member to rent two cars and make sure he got collision insurance. Then he staged the wreck before returning the battered cars.


10:00 PM -- PAPER MOON (1973)
A fraudulent bible salesman reluctantly adopts a tough little girl who could be his daughter.
Dir: Peter Bogdanovich
Cast: Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal, Madeline Kahn
BW-102 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Tatum O'Neal (Tatum O'Neal, at age 10, became the youngest winner ever in a competitive category. (Shirley Temple had won an Honorary Award at age 6 in 1935.))

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Madeline Kahn, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Alvin Sargent, and Best Sound -- Richard Portman and Les Fresholtz

Peter Bogdanovich has said that the long, one-take sequence where Addie and Moze fight in the car about running out of Bibles took two days and 39 takes to get right. It was shot on a one-mile stretch of road just before hitting a very modern portion of the town, so each time a line was flubbed, they would have to turn everything around and drive back.


12:00 AM -- BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT (1956)
A novelist frames himself for murder to prove the fallibility of circumstantial evidence.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Dana Andrews, Joan Fontaine, Sidney Blackmer
BW-80 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Final American film made by Fritz Lang before returning to Germany. It was a box-office failure.


1:45 AM -- GRAND PRIX (1966)
Auto racers find danger and romance at the legendary European road race.
Dir: John Frankenheimer
Cast: James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand
C-176 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of Oscars for Best Sound -- Franklin Milton (MGM SSD), Best Film Editing -- Fredric Steinkamp, Henry Berman, Stu Linder and Frank Santillo, and Best Effects, Sound Effects -- Gordon Daniel

James Garner was actually too tall for Formula One racing. In order to fit in the cars, the seats had to be removed and Garner sat on the frame with just a towel or a mat protecting his posterior. Additionally, the roll bars needed to be removed and fitted with taller bars, so they would look realistic and not be noticeably shorter than the top of his helmet.


5:00 AM -- THE SILVER CHALICE (1954)
A silversmith is charged with engraving the Holy Grail.
Dir: Victor Saville
Cast: Virginia Mayo, Pier Angeli, Jack Palance
C-135 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- William V. Skall, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Franz Waxman

When the film ran on television in 1966, Paul Newman took out ads in the Hollywood trade papers, calling it "the worst motion picture produced during the 1950s", apologizing for his performance, and asking people not to watch the film. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect, and many people tuned in to watch it on television. Newman once screened the movie for friends at his house, giving them whistles, pots, and wooden spoons, and encouraging them to make noisy critiques of the film.