TCM Schedule for Friday, May 22, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: Rankin and Bass

In the daylight hours, after a few more films from Star of the Month Edward G. Robinson, TCM has a selection of films about unknown actresses on their way to becoming stars. Then in prime time, TCM has a trio of films from Rankin/Bass Productions. Tell us more, Roger!

Rankin/Bass Productions was an American production company founded by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass. The company was known for its whimsical television specials and feature films and particularly noted for its stop-motion animation technique called "Animagic."

Many of the company's most-loved TV specials were holiday-themed, including The Little Drummer Boy (1968), Frosty the Snowman (1969), Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970) and Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979). The company was founded in 1960 and shut down production in 1987. Some of its TV productions are still shown seasonally on American television.

TCM presents three Rankin/Bass theatrical films from the 1960s, all of them featuring the company's distinctive stop-motion animation and one of them including live-action scenes. Jules Bass directed all three movies, which were originally distributed by Embassy Pictures.

The Daydreamer (1966) blends live action and animation to create an anthology of Hans Christian Andersen fairytales, including: "The Little Mermaid," "The Emperor's New Clothes," "Thumbelina" and "The Garden of Paradise." Live-action performers include Ray Bolger, Jack Gilford, Margaret Hamilton and Boris Karloff, while vocal talent was provided by Tallulah Bankhead, Victor Borge, Patty Duke, Sessue Hayakawa, Burl Ives, Hayley Mills, Terry-Thomas and Ed Wynn.

Mad Monster Party? (1967) is an animated musical-comedy horror parody in which Dr. Frankenstein (voiced by Karloff) decides to retire from the business of making monsters. To choose his successor, he summons a roster of horror figures including Dracula, the Wolfman, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and others.

Versatile vocal talent Allen Swift provides the voices for most of the characters, with Phyllis Diller dubbing the Bride of Frankenstein and Gale Garnett voicing the robot Francesca. Although the Rankin/Bass movies are less well-known than the TV specials, this one has emerged as a cult favorite.

The Wacky World of Mother Goose (1967), another animated musical comedy, is based on the nursery rhymes and stories of Charles Perrault. Margaret Rutherford voices Mother Goose, with Bob McFadden as Humpty Dumpty and Bradley Bolke as Crooked Man, the villain who wants to rule the land. Other characters include Old King Cole, Jack and Jill, Simple Simon and Georgie Porgie. Director Jules Bass co-wrote the songs with George Wilkins.

by Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!


7:00 AM -- BLACKMAIL (1939)
A man in prison on false charges escapes to save his family from a blackmailer.
Dir: H. C. Potter
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Hussey, Gene Lockhart
BW-81 mins, CC,

Based on a story by Endre Bohem and Dorothy Yost.


8:30 AM -- SOYLENT GREEN (1973)
A future cop uncovers the deadly secret behind a mysterious synthetic food.
Dir: Richard O. Fleischer
Cast: Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, Edward G. Robinson
C-97 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

During shooting, Edward G. Robinson was almost totally deaf. He could only hear people if they spoke directly into his ear. His dialogue scenes with other people had to be shot several times before he got the rhythm of the dialogue and was able to respond to people as if he could hear them. He could not hear director Richard Fleischer yell "cut" when a scene went wrong, so Robinson would often continue acting out the scene, unaware that shooting had stopped.


10:15 AM -- MORNING GLORY (1933)
A stage struck girl travels to New York determined to make it on Broadway.
Dir: Lowell Sherman
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Douglas Fairbanks, Adolphe Menjou
BW-74 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn (Katharine Hepburn was not present at the awards ceremony.)

The four portraits that Eva sees in the theatre are of Maude Adams, Ethel Barrymore, Sarah Bernhardt and John Drew. Bernhardt is well-known in her own right even now. The portrait of John Drew is likely to be of John Drew Jr. (1853-1927) rather than John Drew Sr. (1827-1862) (an American actor of the early 1800s). John Drew Jr. was a renowned American actor of the late 1800s, the leading matinée idol of his time. Maude Adams (1872-1953) was one of the most popular American actresses of the 1890s and early 1900s, achieving great fame in J.M. Barrie's plays. Drew Jr. and Adams worked together for five years from 1892, achieving great success and making Adams a star. Ethel Barrymore (1879-1959), with brothers Lionel Barrymore and John Barrymore, was one of the Barrymore siblings who achieved greatness on the American stage and in films. The Barrymore siblings were the niece and nephews of John Drew Jr.


11:45 AM -- THE ACTRESS (1953)
True story of Ruth Gordon's early struggles on the road to stage stardom.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Jean Simmons, Teresa Wright
BW-90 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Walter Plunkett

On a January 1, 1980 Dick Cavett interview, Anthony Perkins revealed that he had played this role in summer stock in Delaware. He got himself to Hollywood and tried to get a screen test for the role, on the basis that he had played it. The studio rejected him, but he used to hang around, and when they needed someone to feed lines to an actress they were testing, they tapped him. George Cukor, who was filming the tests, asked Perkins, who was facing away from the camera, to move to the side, so the camera had an unimpeded view of the actress being tested. Perkins pretended not to understand and swung his head around, so the camera would capture his face full on, and when the producers were watching the tests later, they decided against hiring the actress, but gave Perkins the role he had played in stock.


1:30 PM -- THE STAR (1953)
A faded film star fights to hold on to her past glamour despite failing finances.
Dir: Stuart Heisler
Cast: Bette Davis, Sterling Hayden, Natalie Wood
BW-90 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis

At least two different Oscar statuettes were used in the "c'mon, Oscar, let's you and me get drunk" sequence. For the first 18 years, Oscar statuettes had a short base. Starting with the 1946 awards (presented in 1947), Oscar statuettes had a taller pedestal base with a brass collar designed for personalized engraving. The statuette that Maggie holds in her apartment and in front of her old house have the pre-1946 base. The one she sets on the dashboard of her car has the newer pedestal base. The switch was made because the Oscar had to rest its head on the backside of the car's rear-view mirror in order to balance on the dashboard while Maggie drove around. Davis' two pre-1946 Oscars were too short, so a newer Oscar was used during shots of the car's interior.


3:15 PM -- INSIDE DAISY CLOVER (1965)
A girl on the road to stardom fights the dehumanizing effects of Hollywood life.
Dir: Robert Mulligan
Cast: Natalie Wood, Christopher Plummer, Robert Redford
C-128 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ruth Gordon, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Robert Clatworthy and George James Hopkins, and Best Costume Design, Color -- Edith Head and Bill Thomas

Natalie Wood developed a friendship with stage actress Ruth Gordon and insisted Gordon portray her mother in the film, much to the chagrin of the studio, which wanted a name actress in the role.


5:30 PM -- THE LEGEND OF LYLAH CLARE (1968)
An obsessed movie director grooms an unknown to play his deceased movie-star wife.
Dir: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Kim Novak, Peter Finch, Ernest Borgnine
C-130 mins, CC,

Although this was her first film in three years, due to a riding accident and a lack of interest in returning to films, Kim Novak found that she had little enthusiasm for her character. Director Robert Aldrich found it increasingly difficult to elicit a viable performance from her. Aldrich initially blamed her for the film's poor performance at the box office. But, he later stated it wasn't her fault, but his - as director and producer he felt he failed to communicate her character properly to the audience.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: RANKIN AND BASS



8:00 PM -- MAD MONSTER PARTY (1967)
When Dr Frankenstein decides to retire, he calls an international roster of monsters to a creepy convention to elect his successor.
Dir: Jules Bass
Cast: Boris Karloff, Ethel Ennis, Gale Garnett
BW-95 mins, CC,

In order to keep expenses down, the film's producers didn't want to pay royalty rights, for the use of the names "King Kong", "Frankenstein's monster", "The Bride of Frankenstein", "Quasimodo" and "The Creature from the Black Lagoon". That's why the character's - though recognizable - are all called by different names, i.e.; King Kong's "It", Frankenstein's monster is "Fang", the Bride of Frankenstein is simply "The Monster's Mate", Quasimodo is called "the Hunchback of Notre Dame" and The Creature from the Black Lagoon is called simply "Creature". The names "Count Dracula" and "The Invisible Man" were in the public domain at the time of production, and as no fees were required for their use, they appear in the film.


10:00 PM -- THE DAYDREAMER (1966)
The teen-aged Hans Christian Anderson runs away from home and turns his dreams into classic stories.
Dir: Jules Bass
Cast: Paul O'Keefe, Jack Gilford, Ray Bolger
C-99 mins, CC,

This was filmed on-location at the site of the New York World's Fair. With LaGuardia Airport being so close, it caused trouble with filming because of noise from the planes.


12:00 AM -- THE WACKY WORLD OF MOTHER GOOSE (1967)
Animated film based on various fairy tales and nursery rhymes.
Dir: Jules Bass
Cast: Margaret Rutherford,
C-81 mins, CC,

Based on the characters in the stories by Frenchman Charles Perrault.


1:30 AM -- NURSERY RHYME MYSTERIES (1943)
This short film examines the origins of popular nursery rhymes.
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: Mary McLeod, Leonard Mudie,
BW-10 mins,


2:00 AM -- THE HARDER THEY COME (1972)
An aspiring Reggae singer gets mixed up with big-city drug dealers.
Dir: Perry Henzell
Cast: Ras Daniel Hartman, Janet Bartley, Lucia White
C-103 mins, CC,

The movie is in Jamaican Patois, a creole language which can be understood to some extent by English speakers. There are subtitles in English for much of the movie on the original theatrical print.


4:00 AM -- ERASERHEAD (1977)
A cog in the industrial machine tries to cope with his unhappy wife and mutant baby.
Dir: David Lynch
Cast: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Judith Anna Roberts
BW-89 mins, CC,

Though only released at first as a "midnight movie," a number of Hollywood A-list directors saw the film and were impressed by it. John Waters, whose Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1974) played the same venue, often mentioned Eraserhead as a favorite film, urging viewers to see it. Stanley Kubrick reportedly said the same; this was one of the films he made the cast and crew of The Shining (1980) watch to get in the right frame of mind for. Mel Brooks saw it and offered Lynch the chance to direct The Elephant Man (1980); Lynch accepted. George Lucas asked Lynch to direct Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983); Lynch turned it down.


5:45 AM -- THE HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE (1954)
Military tests demonstrate the dangers of poor home maintenance in the event of a nuclear attack in this short film.
C-12 mins,