TCM Schedule for Thursday, October 8, 2020 -- TCM Spotlight: Celebrating 30 Years of the Film Founda

In the daylight hours, TCM is featuring films starring Jean Harlow. Interesting fact from IMDB: She was a devoted Democrat and in the year of her death visited President Franklin D. Roosevelt on his birthday at a dinner party being thrown at the White House. A small clip of the event, with her at the microphone, can be found on YouTube with her only words being, "Good evening.".

Then in prime time, TCM continues their celebration of 30 years of the Film Foundation. Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- The Public Enemy (1931)
1h 14m | Drama | TV-PG
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

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

On the set one day, James Cagney stared at Jean Harlow's cleavage and asked, likely in perfect innocence and good humor, "How do you keep those things up?" "I ice them," Harlow said, before trotting off to her dressing room to do just that.


8:15 AM -- Red-Headed Woman (1932)
1h 14m | Comedy | TV-PG
An ambitious secretary tries to sleep her way into high society.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Jean Harlow, Chester Morris, Lewis Stone

Jean Harlow wore a wig for this film. Because this film was filmed in black and white, to make up for the subtle change in hair color by the wig, her makeup was made more dramatic, to highlight the nature of her character.


9:45 AM -- Dinner at Eight (1933)
1h 53m | Comedy | TV-PG
A high-society dinner party masks a hotbed of scandal and intrigue.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery

Marie Dressler was impressed with Jean Harlow. She recalled in her autobiography, "It was whispered behind more than one hand that Jean Harlow, Metro's much-advertised platinum menace, was picked for parts that called for more allure than art. And in Dinner at Eight, she had to throw a bomb in the works by proving that she is a first-rate actress! Her performance as the wife of the hard-boiled, self-made politician played by Wallace Beery belongs in that limited category of things which may with reason be called rare. The plain truth is, she all but ran off with the show!"


11:45 AM -- Saratoga (1937)
1h 34m | Comedy | TV-G
A horse breeder's daughter falls for a bookie.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore

In May of 1937, with the film about 90% completed, Jean Harlow collapsed on the set and died about a week later, reportedly of uremic poisoning. Her remaining scenes were shot with double Mary Dees being filmed only from behind. Paula Winslowe supplied the voice.


1:30 PM -- Hold Your Man (1933)
1h 29m | Romance | TV-PG
A hard-boiled woman and a conman wear down each other's rough edges.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Stuart Erwin

When Eddie is looking around Ruby's apartment, waiting for his clothes to dry, he spots a pennant on the wall that says "Albany Night Boat". That refers to the steamships that would depart New York City in the early evening for an overnight trip up the Hudson River to Albany. The ships had hundreds of staterooms and were often used - as the film's contemporary audience would know - for romantic getaways or illicit affairs. The pillow Eddie sees next may also have been a souvenir from the ship as it's inscribed "We're here today/Tomorrow we're through. So let's be gay. It is up to you." Such trips peaked in the early 20th century, but started to decline in the 1930's when less costly, speedier, and more efficient modes of transportation by rail and automobile came to the fore. By the 1940's, the Albany Night Boat had virtually ceased to exist.


3:15 PM -- Red Dust (1932)
1h 19m | Romance | TV-G
A plantation overseer in Indochina is torn between a married woman and a lady of the evening.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Gene Raymond

During filming of the famous rainbarrel sequence, Jean Harlow reportedly stood up - topless - and called out something along the lines of "one for the boys in the lab!" Director Victor Fleming quickly removed the film from the camera to prevent any footage from reaching the black market.


4:45 PM -- Personal Property (1937)
1h 24m | Comedy | TV-G
The bailiff charged with disposing of a financially strapped widow's estate pretends to be her butler.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke Ii
Cast: Jean Harlow, Robert Taylor, Reginald Owen

Throughout the film, Jean Harlow wears the massive 152 carat star sapphire ring, a round cabochon, which was given to her by her then boyfriend William Powell, supposedly for their engagement. Star sapphire rings were very popular in Hollywood in that era, and Harlow's was said to be the biggest one owned by any film star.


6:15 PM -- Bombshell (1933)
1h 31m | Comedy | TV-G
A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank Morgan

Although based on the life of Clara Bow, many elements of the story also matched Jean Harlow's own life. Harlow grew up in a Georgian home with white interiors, had nine large dogs, and some members of her family exploited her celebrity.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF THE FILM FOUNDATION



8:00 PM -- The Front Page (1931)
1h 41m | Comedy | TV-G
A crusading newspaper editor tricks his retiring star reporter into covering one last case.
Dir: Lewis Milestone
Cast: Adolph Menjou, Pat O'brien, Mary Brian

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Adolphe Menjou, Best Director -- Lewis Milestone, and Best Picture

The last line of the stage play had to be partly obliterated in the film version by the sound of a typewriter being accidentally struck because the censors --even of that day--wouldn't allow the phrase "son-of-a-bitch" to be used in a movie.


10:00 PM -- Detour (1945)
1h 8m | Drama | TV-PG
A hitchhiker takes on a dead man's identity only to face blackmail by an unscrupulous woman.
Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer
Cast: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake

Was the first "B" movie chosen by the Library of Congress for its National Film Registry, in 1992. Also the first Hollywood "Noir" honored.


11:30 PM -- The Man with the Golden Arm (1956)
1h 59m | Drama | TV-14
A junkie must face his true self to kick his drug addiction.
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Eleanor Parker, Kim Novak

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Frank Sinatra, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Joseph C. Wright and Darrell Silvera, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Elmer Bernstein

The Motion Picture Association of America originally refused to issue a seal for this movie because it shows drug addiction. The next year the production code was changed to allow movies to deal with drugs, kidnapping, abortion, and prostitution. The film was eventually assigned certificate no. 17011.


1:45 AM -- Love Affair (1939)
1h 27m | Romance | TV-G
Near-tragic misunderstandings threaten a shipboard romance.
Dir: Leo Mccarey
Cast: Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Maria Ouspenskaya

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Maria Ouspenskaya, Best Writing, Original Story -- Mildred Cram and Leo McCarey, Best Art Direction -- Van Nest Polglase and Alfred Herman, Best Music, Original Song -- Buddy G. DeSylva for the song "Wishing", and Best Picture

In 1957, director Leo McCarey remade the movie as An Affair to Remember (1957), starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. (Cary Grant and Irene Dunne had previously co-starred in The Awful Truth (1937), which was also directed by McCarey.) The movie was remade a second time as Love Affair (1994), starring Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, and Katharine Hepburn, directed by Glenn Gordon Caron. Avoid the 1994 version like the coronavirus - it's awful!


3:30 AM -- A Brighter Summer Day (1991)
3h 5m | Drama | TV-MA
Love draws a Taiwanese youth into the world of street gangs and violence.
Dir: Edward Yang
Cast: Chang Kuo Chu, Elaine Jin, Wang Juan

In an interview, Chen Chang explained different methods for getting performances Edward Yang would use. He describes one scene that left an impression on him. In the scene were Xaio Si'r discovers the slaughter at the pool hall, Chang, being a young boy at the time, had no idea how to convey the kind of emotion (discovering a dead body for the first time). So the day Chang arrived at the shoot, Yang out of nowhere starts yelling at him and told him to sit in a dark room, stare at the wall, and think about the performance. After a half-hour, Yang brings Chang out of the room and immediately shoots the scene. As you can see in the film, Chang is completely petrified.