TCM Schedule for Thursday, October 15, 2020 -- TCM Spotlight: 30 Years of the Film Foundation

In the daylight hours, TCM is featuring films directed by birthday boy Mervyn Leroy, born October 15, 1900, in San Francisco, California. Then in prime time, TCM continues their celebration of 30 years of the Film Foundation. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Three Men on a Horse (1936)
1h 28m | Comedy | TV-G
Gangsters kidnap a timid poet with a knack for picking winning horses.
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Cast: Frank Mchugh, Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee

The original play opened on Broadway in New York City at the Playhouse Theater on 30 January 1935 and closed on 9 January 1937 after 835 performances. Teddy Hart and Sam Levene originated their movie roles in the play, and the cast also included Shirley Booth as Mabel, and Millard Mitchell as Charlie. The popular play had Broadway revivals in 1942, 1970 and 1993.


7:30 AM -- Unholy Partners (1941)
1h 34m | Drama | TV-G
A gangster helps pay a tabloid editor's debts to gain control of the paper.
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Edward Arnold, Laraine Day

The plane crash footage, about a half-hour into the film, was shot at New York's Floyd Bennett Field on September 2, 1933. It shows the attempted take-off of the former Chief of Staff of the Royal Italian Air Force, Gen. Francesco de Pinedo, in a Bellanca J-3-500 named "Santa Lucia". He was attempting a solo distance flight record by flying from New York to Baghdad, Iraq. He died in the crash and subsequent fire.


9:15 AM -- Sweet Adeline (1935)
1h 27m | Romance | TV-G
A gay nineties waitress rises from beer gardens to Broadway.
Director: Mervyn Le Roy
Cast: Irene Dunne, Donald Woods, Hugh Herbert

Like many film musicals adapted from stage successes of the time, the plot line and characters of "Sweet Adeline" bear only a faint resemblance to the ones in the original Broadway show.


11:00 AM -- Happiness Ahead (1934)
1h 26m | Comedy | TV-G
An heiress falls for a singing window washer.
Director: Mervyn Le Roy
Cast: Dick Powell, Josephine Hutchinson, John Halliday

The airplane seen at the end of the film is a 1929 Lockheed Vega, registration NC48M. It was owned by Paul Manz, a famous stunt pilot and aviation entrepreneur. He was a friend of Howard Huges and a technical advisor to Amelia Earhart. He owned United Air Services that provided aircraft and pilots for many films, in addition to having an air ambulance service. This particular aircraft was named the "Honeymoon Express" as it flew newlywed couples to Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada and Yuma, Arizona - honeymoon hot-spots at the time. This aircraft was being used for the film "Only Angels Have Wings" (1939) when it crash upon landing at St. George, Utah and was damaged beyond repair.


12:30 PM -- Big City Blues (1932)
1h 5m | Drama | TV-PG
A country boy finds love and heartache in New York City.
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Cast: Joan Blondell, Eric Linden, Jobyna Howland

Humphrey Bogart's first film for Warner Bros., where he would sign a long-term contract four years later and eventually become a star.


1:45 PM -- The Bad Seed (1956)
2h 9m | Drama | TV-PG
A woman suspects that her perfect little girl is a ruthless killer.
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Cast: Gage Clarke, Jesse White, Joan Croyden

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Nancy Kelly, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Eileen Heckart, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Patty McCormack, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Harold Rosson

In the film, Rhoda feels cheated at not having received the penmanship award; if she really has the best handwriting, as she claims, then her disappointment is justified, and the audience's sympathy is thrown to her side to a certain extent. In the novel, however, the award is for the most improved penmanship. Rhoda's handwriting had been excellent throughout the school year, leaving little room for improvement, unlike Claude Daigle's. This gives even greater emphasis to Rhoda's irrational thinking: she is furious at the loss of an award that she should not have won in the first place.


4:00 PM -- They Won't Forget (1937)
1h 30m | Drama | TV-G
Bigotry flares when a teacher is accused of killing a small-town girl in the South.
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Cast: Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson, Edward Norris

Based on the notorious rigged murder trial and subsequent lynching of Leo Frank, the film does not mention that Frank was Jewish, a fact that contributed more to his being tried for a murder he didn't commit, found guilty and lynched than his Northern background (although that was also a factor). The real-life victim, Mary Phagan, was only 13 years old, a far cry from Lana Turner's post-pubescent sweater girl of 16.


5:45 PM -- Random Harvest (1942)
2h 4m | Romance | TV-G
A woman's happiness is threatened when she discovers her husband has been suffering from amnesia.
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Cast: Ronald Colman, Greer Garson, Philip Dorn

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Ronald Colman, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Susan Peters, Best Director -- Mervyn LeRoy, Best Writing, Screenplay -- George Froeschel, Claudine West and Arthur Wimperis, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell, Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Herbert Stothart, and Best Picture

Ronald Colman and Greer Garson made suggestions on improving the script, though they never did so on set. Instead, they would either meet privately with Mervyn LeRoy or send notes to him and Franklin. Garson's notes were so extensive and helpful, the producer jokingly offered her an office in the writers' building.



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



8:00 PM -- Tunes of Glory (1960)
1h 45m | Drama | TV-PG
When a popular colonel loses a promotion, it sets the stage for conflict with his new superior officer.
Director: Ronald Neame
Cast: Alec Guinness, John Mills, Dennis Price

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- James Kennaway

The name of the Highland regiment portrayed is never mentioned, although Author and Screenwriter James Kennaway served in the Gordon Highlanders. However, the same regimental tartan (designed for this movie) and bonnet badges were worn by the Highland regiment in Carry On Up the Khyber (1968), and so the regiment in this movie may well be the "3rd Foot & Mouth".


10:00 PM -- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
2h 43m | Romance | TV-G
An aging military man looks back on the loves and friends who shaped his life.
Director: Michael Powell
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Roger Livesey, Anton Walbrook

The filmmakers wanted Laurence Olivier to play Clive Candy, but he was prevented from being furloughed from the Navy by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who didn't want the film to be made. Churchill didn't want to bolster the production with an actor and star of Olivier's caliber, as he felt the movie was critical of a type of British patriot. Olivier was allowed to take a leave from the Navy to make a film about William Shakespeare's patriotic King Henry V in Henry V (1944). Roger Livesey was cast instead. A generation later he played Olivier's father, Billy Rice, in The Entertainer (1960), though he was actually less than a year older than Olivier.


1:00 AM -- The Seventh Cross (1944)
1h 50m | Drama | TV-PG
Seven men escape from a concentration camp and fight their way to freedom.
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Signe Hasso, Hume Cronyn

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Hume Cronyn

First joint film appearance of real life couple Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy.


3:00 AM -- The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
2h 50m | Drama | TV-PG
A young girl comes of age while hiding from the Nazis.
Director: George Stevens
Cast: Millie Perkins, Joseph Schildkraut, Shelley Winters

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Shelley Winters, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- William C. Mellor, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lyle R. Wheeler, George W. Davis, Walter M. Scott and Stuart A. Reiss

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ed Wynn, Best Director -- George Stevens, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Charles Le Maire and Mary Wills, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Alfred Newman, and Best Picture

20th Century-Fox was filming most of its movies in the extra-large dimensions of CinemaScope in order to lure patrons out of their homes and away from their small televisions. However, George Stevens felt that the wide spectrum of CinemaScope took away from the claustrophobic feel that being confined in an attic for two years would produce. Therefore, in order to achieve the effect that he desired without defying the order to film in CinemaScope, the director added columns on each side of the set, supposedly to be the beams that were supporting the attic but actually to narrow the width of the screen, thus producing the stifling feel he originally intended.