TCM Schedule for Saturday, September 26, 2020 -- The Essentials: Starring Marius Goring

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, TCM finally returns to the Essentials. Tonight, Ben Mankiewicz and special co-host Brad Bird are showing a pair of films starring British actor Marius Goring. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- LARCENY, INC. (1942)
An ex-convict and his gang try to use a luggage store to front a bank robbery, but business keeps getting in the way.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, Broderick Crawford
BW-95 mins, CC,

Woody Allen loved this film so much he remade it in 2000 as Small Time Crooks (2000).


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: THE FIRST BAD MAN (1955)
The first Texas bad man come running into town a million years B.C.
Dir: Tex Avery (Fred)
Cast: Tex Ritter
BW-7 mins, CC,

Ed Benedict provided uncredited layout designs for this cartoon. Benedict would later work for Hanna-Barbera Studios (which was started by MGM alumni William Hanna and Joseph Barbera), where he would use some of the caveman designs from this cartoon as the basis for characters in "The Flintstones".


8:09 AM -- SALAR, THE LEAPER (1957)
This short film focuses on Atlantic salmon fly-fishing in New Brunswick, Canada.
Dir: Douglas Sinclair
BW-8 mins,

This is one of several short subjects, already in the can, and slated for release by RKO Radio Pictures as part of their Sportscopes 1956-1957 season, but which received no theatrical distribution at the time, as a result of the demise of RKO. In 1994, they became part of the TCM library and, for the past 20+ years, finally saw the light of day through occasional airings on cable television.


8:18 AM -- LAND OF ALASKA NELLIE (1940)
This short film takes the viewer to several scenic locations in Alaska.
C-9 mins,


8:28 AM -- GUN LAW (1938)
A criminal poses as the lawman he's ambushed.
Dir: David Howard
Cast: George O'Brien, Rita Oehmen, Ray Whitley
BW-60 mins, CC,

Paul Fix is listed in modern sources for a role in this film, but he did not appear.


9:30 AM -- WILD WEST DAYS: DEATH RIDES THE RANGE (1937)
Retired lawman Kentucky Wade and his three buddies come to Brimstone and help their friends.
Dirs: Ford Beebe, Clifford Smith
Cast: Johnny Mack Brown, George Shelley, Lynn Gilbert
BW-20 mins, CC,

Chapter one of thirteen.


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: MANY TANKS (1933)
Bluto's in the Army; he tries to sneak off base, but can't, so he changes uniforms with Popeye.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Thomas Johnson (uncredited)
Cast: Margie Hines, Jack Mercer, Tedd Pierce
BW-7 mins, CC,

TCM says that this is from 1933, but IMDB says it's 1942. It's a WWII satire, so I believe the 1942 date.


10:09 AM -- BOMBA AND THE JUNGLE GIRL (1952)
The jungle hero tries to find out who killed his parents.
Dir: Ford Beebe
Cast: Johnny Sheffield, Karen Sharpe, Walter Sande
BW-70 mins, CC,

This film introduced Kimbbo the Chimp, a chimpanzee sidekick for Johnny Sheffield who would serve the same function in the Bomba franchise as Cheetah the Chimp served in the Tarzan films.


11:30 AM -- HEAVENLY MUSIC (1943)
In this short film, a bandleader must prove his worth to enter the Hall of Music in heaven.
Dir: Josef Berne
Cast: Fred Brady, William Yetter, Buckwheat Thomas
BW-22 mins,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel -- Jerry Bresler and Sam Coslow

Tchaikovsky scolds Ted for having used one of his melodies and then says to the Official Recorder to let him "know when that Freddie Martin checks in here (Heaven)". Freddie Martin's biggest hit was "Tonight We Love" in 1941, which heavily borrowed from Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto Number 1 in B-flat Minor. It was such a big hit that Martin began to incorporate melodies from the classics in follow-up songs.


12:00 PM -- THE LONG VOYAGE HOME (1940)
A merchant ship's crew tries to survive the loneliness of the sea and the coming of war.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter
BW-106 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Dudley Nichols, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Gregg Toland, Best Film Editing -- Sherman Todd, Best Effects, Special Effects -- R.T. Layton (photographic), Ray Binger (photographic) and Thomas T. Moulton (sound), Best Music, Original Score -- Richard Hageman, and Best Picture

Initially resistant to the idea of working with a Swedish accent, John Wayne was instructed by Danish actress


2:00 PM -- QUO VADIS (1951)
A Roman commander falls for a Christian slave girl as Nero intensifies persecution of the new religion.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Leo Genn
C-174 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Leo Genn, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Peter Ustinov, Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert Surtees and William V. Skall, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- William A. Horning, Cedric Gibbons, Edward C. Carfagno and Hugh Hunt, Best Costume Design, Color -- Herschel McCoy, Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa, and Best Picture

Announcements by the MGM publicity department ranged from: "In making this film, MGM feel privileged to add something of permanent value to the cultural treasure house of mankind" to "Ancient Rome is going to the dogs, Robert Taylor is going to the lions, and Peter Ustinov is going crazy!"


5:15 PM -- WHERE EAGLES DARE (1968)
An Allied team sets out to free an American officer held by the Nazis in a mountaintop castle.
Dir: Brian G. Hutton
Cast: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure
C-155 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The driving force behind this movie was Richard Burton's stepson, who wanted to see his stepfather in a good old-fashioned adventure movie. Burton approached producer Elliott Kastner for ideas, who asked Alistair MacLean. At that time, most of MacLean's novels had either been made into movies, or were in the process of being filmed. Kastner persuaded MacLean to write a new story. Six weeks later, MacLean delivered the script.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: STARRING MARIUS GORING



8:00 PM -- THE RED SHOES (1948)
A young ballerina is torn between her art and her romance with a young composer.
Dir: Michael Powell
Cast: Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer
C-134 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Hein Heckroth and Arthur Lawson, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Brian Easdale

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Emeric Pressburger, Best Film Editing -- Reginald Mills, and Best Picture

Casting the role of Vicky Page was a tough call for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Ideally they wanted a ballerina who could act and who also was ravishingly beautiful. They were thrilled when they discovered Moira Shearer, who was second to Margot Fonteyn at the famous Sadler's Wells Ballet, but she initially rebuffed them. In the year it took to persuade her to come around, the directors were forced to consider casting actresses like Ann Todd and Hazel Court and cheating with a real ballerina in the ballet sequences.


10:30 PM -- NIGHT AMBUSH (1958)
Two British soldiers are assigned to kidnap a key Nazi commander.
Dir: Michael Powell
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Marius Goring, David Oxley
BW-105 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The General (Marius Goring) was never identified by his first name in this movie. In the credits, he is referred to as "Major General Kreipe". In real-life, he was Major General Heinrich Kreipe. Calling him Karl, as many sources do, seems to have been an invention of the J. Arthur Rank Organisation publicity department.


12:15 AM -- THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME (1947)
A faithless husband is charged with a murder he didn't commit.
Dir: Irving Pichel
Cast: Susan Hayward, Robert Young, Jane Greer
BW-90 mins, CC,

Larry's $500 per month rent would equate to $5,740 per month in 2017. And the $25,000 Larry takes out of the joint checking account would equal $287,000 in 2017.


2:00 AM -- CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954)
Scientists track a prehistoric monster in the South American jungle while it tracks them.
Dir: Jack Arnold
Cast: Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning
BW-79 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Forrest J. Ackerman, a horror and science fiction writer for Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine, bought the mask and claws of the Creature's costume from a young man who had once used them as a Halloween costume. The costume pieces were discarded by Universal after production had finished on the three films (Creature from the Black Lagoon and its two sequels) and were later recovered from the studio's dumpster by a janitor, who thought the ensemble would make a good Halloween costume for his son. Other costume pieces were recently sold at auction by Bud Westmore, who was an assistant to Milicent Patrick, the original designer of the costume.


3:30 AM -- UFO (1956)
Interviews and documentary footage combine with the fictional story of an air-force pilot who encounters aliens.
Dir: Winston Jones
Cast: Captain Willis Sperry, Nicholas Mariana, Chief Photographer Delbert Newhouse
C-88 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Tom Towers, who plays Al Chop, was not an actor. He was the Aviation Editor of the Los Angeles Examiner. He took a leave of absence to appear in this film. The producer hired him to add authenticity to this semi-documentary.


5:15 AM -- MGM PARADE SHOW #4 (1955)
George Murphy tours Lake Metro, where "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Show Boat" were shot, and introduces a clip from "Good News." These clips feature June Allyson and Peter Lawford.
BW-26 mins,