TCM Schedule for Thursday, April 30, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: TCM Spotlight: New York in the 70s

In the daylight hours, TCM has a tribute to Eve Arden, born Eunice Mary Quedens on April 30, 1908, in Mill Valley, California. She is one of the all-time funniest women in film and in television, and today you have the chance to see why. One of my favorite Eve Arden stories:

While appearing in a stage play, during one performance she was about to launch into her big speech, as a wife berating her husband, when the prop telephone on the set rang. Correctly deducing that this was a practical joke arranged by the actor playing the husband, she grabbed up the phone, and without missing a beat ad-libbed along the lines of "Well, he's busy ... He really can't ... oh, very well ..." and then turned to her grinning cohort and wiped the smile off his face by snapping "It's for you!" and handing him the phone. She stood there tapping her foot while he ad-libbed a rather unconvincing conversation, and then, after he hung up, went on with the scene as if nothing had happened.

Then in prime time, TCM wraps up the spotlight on New York City with films about the Big Apple made in the 1970s. Enjoy!



6:15 AM -- GOODBYE, MY FANCY (1951)
When she returns to her alma mater to pick up an honorary degree, a congresswoman re-ignites an old flame.
Dir: Vincent Sherman
Cast: Joan Crawford, Robert Young, Frank Lovejoy
BW-108 mins, CC,

According to Ida Lupino biographer William Donati, director Vincent Sherman was summoned to the office of Warner Bros. studio chief Jack L. Warner--to whom he was under contract at the time--and accused of having an affair with Warner's star Joan Crawford. Sherman, who had been at the studio since 1937, replied that what he did on his own time was none of Warner's business. Warner ordered the director to stop shooting so many close-ups of the actress, an order Sherman disobeyed. Warner used that refusal as a pretext to terminate Sherman's contract. The director eventually found out that Jack Warner had purposely provoked the confrontation, because he thought Sherman was a Communist. When that turned out not to be true, Sherman was rehired by the studio eight years later to do The Young Philadelphians (1959).


8:15 AM -- THE LADY TAKES A SAILOR (1949)
A woman is saved from drowning by a mysterious submarine, but nobody believes her.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Jane Wyman, Dennis Morgan, Eve Arden
BW-99 mins, CC,

When Bill tells Racquel a violent chemical reaction takes place when he touches her, he mentions H2SO4 and KClO3, which are sulfuric acid and potassium chlorate respectively. Do not mix these together at home as it is potentially explosive.


10:00 AM -- THE UNFAITHFUL (1947)
While her husband is away, a woman gets mixed up in murder.
Dir: Vincent Sherman
Cast: Ann Sheridan, Lew Ayres, Zachary Scott
BW-109 mins,

When Eve Arden tells Anne Sheridan that "Every morning you open up the paper, there's another body in a weed-covered lot," she is referring to the infamous Black Dahlia case that horrified LA earlier that year.


12:00 PM -- ONE FOR THE BOOK (1948)
A lovelorn actress shares her apartment with a lonely soldier.
Dir: Irving Rapper
Cast: Ronald Reagan, Eleanor Parker, Eve Arden
BW-103 mins, CC,

Bill is staying at the Hotel Pennsylvania. Olive finds this out from Sally over the phone in the morning. Olive hangs up and then asks the operator for the Hotel Pennsylvania. She's aggravated that the operator doesn't know the hotel's number. Audiences at the time would have found that very humorous because Glenn Miller's big band made it famous with their 1940 hit tune "PEnnsylvania 6-5000".

Also, this movie was originally released under the title The Voice of the Turtle, the name of the play by John Van Druten.


1:46 PM -- FAMOUS MOVIE DOGS (1940)
Well known canine performers of the 1930s, including Asta from the Thin Man series, vie for a part in an upcoming movie in this short film. Vitaphone Release 9686.
Dir: Del Frazier
Cast: Henry East,
C-10 mins,

Among the featured dogs are Von (General Spanky (1936)), Asta (The Thin Man movies from 1934 to 1944), Corky (a variety of films and The Danny Thomas Show), Rex (the Penrod films in 1938, based on the Booth Tarkington novel), Peggy (Yours For The Asking (1936)), and Whiskers (Princess O'Rourke (1943)).


2:00 PM -- COMRADE X (1940)
An American warms up an icy Russian streetcar conductor.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: Clark Gable, Hedy Lamarr, Oscar Homolka
BW-90 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Walter Reisch

At the time this film was released, in 1940, World War II had already begun in Europe, but the Soviet Union still had a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany. In the film, Mac is able to fool a character by pretending to hear news that Germany has broken the pact and launched an invasion of the USSR. Of course, that's exactly what happened the very next year when Germany launched Operation Barbarossa in summer 1941.


3:45 PM -- MILDRED PIERCE (1945)
A woman turns herself into a business tycoon to win her selfish daughter a place in society.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott
BW-111 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Joan Crawford (Joan Crawford was not present at the awards ceremony and feigned ill that night. Meanwhile she listened to the show on the radio. When she won, she ushered the press into her bedroom, where she finally accepted her Oscar.)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Eve Arden, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ann Blyth, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Ranald MacDougall, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ernest Haller, and Best Picture

There were conflicts between Michael Curtiz and Joan Crawford. He wanted her canned, claiming she was altering the look and interpretation of the character to make her more glamorous. There were the inevitable arguments over shoulders, with Crawford tearfully (and not altogether truthfully) claiming her dowdy off-the-rack Sears dresses were unpadded. Curtiz started referring to her as "Phony Joanie" and "the rotten bitch," laying into her mercilessly in front of cast and crew. Crawford wanted the director fired and replaced "with a human being."


5:39 PM -- THE GREAT AMERICAN PIE COMPANY (1935)
In this comedic short, two pie vendors discuss merging their businesses, but one of them may have an ulterior motive.
Dir: Nick Grinde
Cast: Mary Foy, Spencer Charters, Charles Sale
BW-11 mins,


6:00 PM -- OUR MISS BROOKS (1956)
A high school teacher has to rescue the professor she loves from his grasping mother.
Dir: Al Lewis
Cast: Eve Arden, Gale Gorden, Don Porter
BW-85 mins, CC,

This movie was released about two weeks before the final episode of the TV series on which it was based aired. In the final (4th) season, the show was overhauled and many of the regular characters were dropped (although some came back during the season). Miss Brooks and Mr. Conklin moved to a private elementary school in the San Fernando Valley. The movie ignored all this and all the original regular characters were back at Madison High School for the conclusion of the Brooks-Boynton courtship. Perhaps 30 years later, the final season of the TV show would have been dismissed as a "dream."


7:27 PM -- THE CHILDREN MUST LEARN (1940)
Educators attempt to raise the level of living in an Appalachian community in this short film.
Dir: Willard Van Dyke
BW-13 mins,

The University of Kentucky provided academic oversight for the film, helped to fund it, and the university's history department worked to check the veracity of the film's claims.


7:49 PM -- NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS (1943)
In this comedic short, Robert Benchley answers several questions from audience members.
Dir: Will Jason
Cast: Lon Poff, Robert Benchley, John B. Kennedy
BW-9 mins,



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



8:00 PM -- NETWORK (1976)
Television programmers turn a deranged news anchor into 'the mad prophet of the airwaves.'
Dir: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch
BW-121 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Peter Finch (Nomination and award were posthumous. Finch became the first posthumous winner in an acting category. His widow Eletha Finch and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Faye Dunaway, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Beatrice Straight, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Paddy Chayefsky

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- William Holden, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ned Beatty, Best Director -- Sidney Lumet, Best Cinematography -- Owen Roizman, Best Film Editing -- Alan Heim, and Best Picture

According to Sidney Lumet, the "Mad as Hell" speech was filmed in one and a half takes. Midway through the second take, Peter Finch abruptly stopped in exhaustion. Lumet was unaware of Finch's failing heart at the time, but in any case, did not ask for a third take. What's in the completed film is the second take for the first half of the speech, and the second half from the first take.


10:15 PM -- DOG DAY AFTERNOON (1975)
A man robs a bank to pay for his lover's operation.
Dir: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Al Pacino, John Cazale, Carol Kane
C-125 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Frank Pierson (Frank Pierson was not present at the awards ceremony. Presenter Gore Vidal accepted the award on his behalf.)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Al Pacino, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Chris Sarandon, Best Director -- Sidney Lumet, Best Film Editing -- Dede Allen, and Best Picture

Most of the movie takes place in three locations: inside the bank, on the street outside the bank, and in the barbershop across from the bank. Standard procedure would be to shoot the street scenes on location, and then film the bank and barbershop interiors on sets constructed at a studio (where it's much easier to control lighting, sound, etc.). But Sidney Lumet wanted realistic continuity. He wanted us to see, for example, that when a character enters the bank from the street, he's really doing so -- not walking through a location door and then entering a fake set miles away. So Lumet found a block of a Brooklyn street that suited his purposes, including a vacant warehouse that could be turned into a bank.


12:30 AM -- ACROSS 110TH STREET (1972)
Two New York City cops go after amateur crooks who are trying to rip off the Mafia and start a gang war.
Dir: Barry Shear
Cast: Anthony Quinn, Yaphet Kotto, Anthony Franciosa
BW-101 mins, CC,

Although known primarily as a "blaxploitation" film, it holds many Neo Noir elements including police procedural (including Anthony Quinn as a slightly crooked cop with a good heart); poor sympathetic criminals stealing from unsympathetic rich criminals; and different factions of the mob and/or gangs.


2:30 AM -- TAXI DRIVER (1976)
A loner becomes fixated on a teen prostitute.
Dir: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Albert Brooks
C-114 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Robert De Niro, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Jodie Foster, Best Music, Original Score -- Bernard Herrmann (Posthumously.), and Best Picture

Between the time Robert De Niro signed a thirty-five thousand dollar contract to appear in this film, and when it began filming, he won an Oscar for his role in The Godfather: Part II (1974), and his profile soared. The producers were terrified that De Niro would ask for a deserved large pay raise, since Columbia Pictures was very discomfited by the project, and were looking for excuses to pull the plug on it, but De Niro said he would honor his original deal so the film would get made.

(A brief personal note - this is the only movie that I have ever walked out of, in my entire life. It was the original run, and I was in my early 20s, but the violence and the despicable characters appalled me. I don't think seeing it again would change my mind. It took me many years to learn to appreciate the talents of Robert De Niro.)


4:30 AM -- SISTERS (1972)
A small-time reporter tries to convince the police she saw a murder in the apartment across from hers.
Dir: Brian De Palma
Cast: Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning
C-92 mins, CC,

To indicate the musical effects he wanted, Brian De Palma put together an edit of his film that was dubbed with music from the films of the composer he most wanted to hire, Bernard Herrmann. While he was showing it to Herrmann, the composer stopped him with, "Young man, I cannot watch your film while I'm listening to Marnie (1964)."