TCM Schedule for Saturday, May 2, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: The Essentials: Donald O'Connor

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, TCM finally returns to the Essentials. Take it away, Roger!

Animator/director/screenwriter/producer/voice actor Brad Bird joins Ben Mankiewicz as our newest co-host of the popular TCM franchise, "The Essentials," which presents classic films we consider to be "must-see" viewing.

Phillip Bradley Bird was born in Montana and trained at the California Institute of the Arts. His animated features as director include The Iron Giant (1999), The Incredibles (2004) and Ratatouille (2007). The latter two films brought him Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature Film. Live-action credits include Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) and Tomorrowland (2015). Among his other accomplishments was serving as a creative consultant on The Simpsons and helping to develop that show's style.

Below is a selection of the "Essentials" to be discussed by Bird and Mankiewicz. Singin' in the Rain (1952), the classic MGM film musical and most everybody's favorite, stars Gene Kelly in a performance that seems the embodiment of the joy of performing, along with memorable turns by Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds and Cyd Charisse.

Ace in the Hole (1951), a chilling film noir from auteur Billy Wilder that takes a cynical look at the relationship between a manipulative press and a gullible public. Kirk Douglas stars as a ruthless reporter who exploits the plight of a man trapped in a New Mexico cave.

The General (1926) is considered Buster Keaton's masterpiece and one of the great comedies of the silent era. The film is set during the Civil War, with Keaton cast as a southern railway engineer with "two loves" - his locomotive and his sweetheart Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack).

Casablanca (1942), the standard by which all wartime romantic melodramas are judged, seems perfect in every way - from the cast headed by Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid and Claude Rains to the masterful direction of Michael Curtiz and, of course, that song.

The Red Shoes (1948) is an exquisitely rendered British drama with Moira Shearer as an aspiring ballerina torn between art and love. Written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the film is considered by many to be among the greatest of all British films.

For a more detailed list of the films, visit the official site for THE ESSENTIALS.

by Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Boys' Night Out (1962)
A psychology student researches infidelity by becoming a platonic kept woman for four buddies.
Dir: Michael Gordon
Cast: Kim Novak, James Garner, Tony Randall
C-113 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Originally, the movie's title song was to have been sung by Frank Sinatra. His version was recorded on March 6, 1962, almost three months before the film's premiere. At last wind, Patti Page recorded her version which was initially optioned for use while Sinatra's original languished in the MGM vaults until 1995 when his Reprise box-set was issued.


8:00 AM -- MGM Cartoons: The Bear and the Beavers (1942)
Barney has run out of firewood in mid-winter. Meanwhile, the beavers have been busily cutting and stacking their wood, tempting Barney.
Dir: Rudolf Ising
BW-9 mins, CC,

Closing Credit: The End America Needs your Money Buy Defense Bonds and Stamps Every Payday.


8:10 AM -- Hot News Margie (1931)
In this short film, a reporter for a tabloid newspaper attempts to find out if a college football star is secretly married.
Dir: Alfred J. Goulding
Cast: George Offerman Jr., Charles Wilson, James C. Morton
BW-7 mins


8:18 AM -- Calling on Cape Town (1952)
This short film provides a look at Cape Town South Africa, with an emphasis on the history of its settlers.
Cast: James A. FitzPatrick
C-9 mins


8:28 AM -- You Can't Buy Luck (1937)
A racehorse owner tries to buy victory by performing good deeds, but gets mixed up in murder instead.
Dir: Lew Landers
Cast: Onslow Stevens, Helen Mack, Vinton Haworth
BW-60 mins, CC,

This film made RKO a modest profit of $24,000 according to studio records.


9:30 AM -- Terry and the Pirates: Into the Great Unknown (1940)
Dr. Herbert Lee, an archaeologist seeking to decipher ancient Mara inscriptions, is aided by his son, Terry, Terry's pal, Pat Ryan, and Normandie Drake.
Dir: James W. Horne
Cast: William Tracy, Jeff York, Joyce Bryant
BW-30 mins, CC,

This newspaper comic strip started on October 22, 1934. Milton Caniff quit in 1947, in order to start his "Steve Canyon" strip. "Terry and the Pirates" was continued by George until he retired on February 23, 1973. The Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate then discontinued the strip that once was seen in more that 300 newspapers daily-and-Sunday but declined over the years in popularity to slightly over 100 newspapers.


10:00 AM -- Popeye: Quiet Pleeze (1941)
Poopdeck Pappy has a hangover and asks Popeye to help him by keeping the noise down.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Willard Bowsky (uncredited)
Cast: Jack Mercer
BW-6 mins

Poopdeck Pappy did not appear much after 1941; after the Fleischer brothers were bounced in 1942, and the studio became Famous Studios, Poopdeck Pappy appeared only once or twice. (Eugene the Jeep was not in the 1942-57 Famous Studios cartoons at all, and J Wellington Wimpy was in only a handful.)


10:07 AM -- Bowery Battalion (1951)
The Bowery Boys join the Army to catch a spy ring.
Dir: William Beaudine
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Donald MacBride
BW-69 mins, CC,

Huntz Hall actually did spend time in the army during World War II.


11:30 AM -- Paree, Paree (1934)
In this musical short, a condensed version of "Fifty Million Frenchmen" (1931), a wealthy American meets the girl of his dreams and makes a bet that they will be engaged without her knowing of his riches.
Dir: Roy Mack
Cast: Billie Leonard, Dorothy Stone, Charles Collins
BW-21 mins

Dorothy Stone who plays Lulu in Paree, Paree (1934) was in real life married to Charles Collins who plays Baxter in that same short film.


12:00 PM -- The Public Enemy (1931)
An Irish-American street punk tries to make it big in the world of organized crime.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods
BW-84 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- John Bright and Kubec Glasmon

Several versions exist of the origin of the notorious grapefruit scene, but the most plausible is the one on which both James Cagney and Mae Clarke agree: The scene, they explained, was actually staged as a practical joke at the expense of the film crew, just to see their stunned reactions. There was never any intention of ever using the shot in the completed film. Director William A. Wellman, however, eventually decided to keep the shot, and use it in the film's final release print.


1:30 PM -- My Darling Clementine (1946)
When the Clantons steal his family's cattle and kill his brother, Wyatt Earp signs on as sheriff of Tombstone and vows to bring them in.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature
BW-97 mins, CC,

While the character of Clementine Carter was by and large a product of the movie's fiction, she did have a historical counterpart in Doc Holliday's first cousin named Martha Ann "Mattie" Holliday. Mattie was the eldest daughter of Robert Kennedy Holliday and Mary Anne Fitzgerald. Although romantic relationships and marriage between cousins were common in the Southern United States of the nineteenth century, Mattie's devout Catholic parents wholeheartedly disapproved. When Doc left Georgia in 1873, Mattie was distraught after separating from the only man she truly loved. His farewell to her surely was an emotional time and as a result she never married. There would be no other man for her after John. In 1883, unlike her cinematic counterpart, Mattie decided to enter the Sisters of Mercy Convent to become a Catholic nun. As Sister Mary Melanie she would become an elementary school teacher, exactly like her cinematic counterpart. Although Sister Mary never made a trip out west to bring Doc home, they corresponded via letters for the rest of his life. After Doc's death in 1887 her letters were among the possessions of his sent back to Georgia. Most of these letters were burned after Sister Mary's death in 1939 by her sister, who feared that the letters were tarnish the nun's reputation. What those letters revealed may never be known, but Sister Mary was reborn on screen as Clementine Carter.


3:15 PM -- On the Waterfront (1954)
A young stevedore takes on the mobster who rules the docks.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb
BW-108 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Marlon Brando, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Eva Marie Saint, Best Director -- Elia Kazan, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Budd Schulberg, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Boris Kaufman, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Richard Day, Best Film Editing -- Gene Milford, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Lee J. Cobb, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Karl Malden, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Rod Steiger, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Leonard Bernstein

In his biography of Elia Kazan, Richard Schickel describes how Kazan used a ploy to entice Marlon Brando to do the movie. He had Karl Malden direct a scene from the film with an up-and-coming fellow actor from the Actors Studio playing the Terry Malloy lead role. They figured the competitive Brando would not be eager to see such a major role handed to some new screen heartthrob. The ploy worked, especially since the competition had come in the form of a guy named Paul Newman.


5:15 PM -- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Classic sci-fi epic about a mysterious monolith that seems to play a key role in human evolution.
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester
C-149 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects -- Stanley Kubrick (Stanley Kubrick was not present at the awards ceremony. Presenters Diahann Carroll and Burt Lancaster accepted the award on his behalf.)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Stanley Kubrick, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Anthony Masters, Harry Lange and Ernest Archer

According to Arthur C. Clarke, Stanley Kubrick wanted to get an insurance policy from Lloyds of London to protect himself against losses in the event that extraterrestrial intelligence were discovered before the movie was released. Lloyds refused. Carl Sagan commented, "In the mid-1960s, there was no search being performed for extraterrestrial intelligence, and the chances of accidentally stumbling on extraterrestrial intelligence in a few years' period was extremely small. Lloyds of London missed a good bet."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: DONALD O'CONNOR



8:00 PM -- Singin' in the Rain (1952)
A silent-screen swashbuckler finds love while trying to adjust to the coming of sound.
Dir: Gene Kelly
Cast: Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds
C-103 mins, CC,

Nominee of Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Jean Hagen, and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Lennie Hayton

For the "Make 'em Laugh" number, Gene Kelly asked Donald O'Connor to revive a trick he had done as a young dancer: running up a wall and completing a somersault. The number was so physically taxing that O'Connor, who smoked four packs of cigarettes a day at the time, ended up in a hospital bed for a week after its completion. He suffered from exhaustion and painful carpet burns. Unfortunately, an accident ruined all of the initial footage, so after a brief rest O'Connor--ever the professional--agreed to do the difficult number all over again.


10:00 PM -- Francis (1950)
A talking mule helps a hapless soldier uncover an enemy agent.
Dir: Arthur Lubin
Cast: Donald O'Connor, Patricia Medina, ZaSu Pitts
BW-91 mins, CC,

Donald O'Connor's first of six "Francis" movies.


12:00 AM -- Fallen Angel (1945)
A man is accused of killing a waitress he had tried to seduce with his wife's money.
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell
BW-97 mins, CC,

According to Wade Williams in Biography: Alice Faye: The Star Next Door (1996), when Alice Faye saw a rough cut of the film and realized that Otto Preminger's editing had diminished the impact of her performance in favor of newcomer Linda Darnell, she got up from the screening, drove off the 20th Century Fox lot, threw her dressing room key to the security guard, and vowed never to work for the studio again.


2:00 AM -- Horse Feathers (1932)
In an effort to beef up his school's football team, a college president mistakenly recruits two loonies.
Dir: Norman McLeod
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx
BW-67 mins, CC,

Professor Wagstaff's exclamation, "Jumpin' anaconda!" is actually a reference to a company, Anaconda Copper, in which Groucho Marx had invested heavily. When the stock market crash of 1929 occurred, Marx lost several hundred thousand dollars, hence the curse word in the movie.


3:30 AM -- A Day at the Races (1937)
A group of zanies tries to save a pretty girl's sanitarium.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx
BW-109 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Dance Direction -- Dave Gould for "All God's Children Got Rhythm"

Groucho Marx's character was initially to have been named Dr. Quackenbush, which he and everyone else thought was too silly a name to offend anyone. However, MGM's legal department discovered at least a dozen legitimate U.S. doctors named Quackenbush, so for legal reasons the name was changed to Hackenbush. Although initially dismayed by the name change, Groucho later came to like it. He cited "Dr. Hackenbush" as his favorite character from his films, and even occasionally signed letters to friends using that name.