TCM Schedule for Saturday, May 8, 2021 -- TCM Spotlight: TCM Classic Film Festival

It's the second full day of the TCM Classic Film Festival. Highlights include a couple of documentaries about cartoon master Tex Avery, another documentary about comedy Mike Nichols and Elaine May, and Diana Ross as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues (1972). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Tex Avery: King of Cartoons (1988)
Documentary
No Description available
Director: John Needham
Cast: Chuck Jones, Joe Adamson, Ed Love

Tex Avery was a descendant of Judge Roy Bean and Daniel Boone, but all his grandma ever told him about it was "Don't ever mention you are kin to Roy Bean. He's a no good skunk!!"


7:00 AM -- Tex Avery at MGM (1943)
Animation, Comedy
No Description available
Director: Tex Avery (Fred)
Cast: No Cast Information Available.

Among the many cartoon characters Avery created are Daffy Duck, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, George and Junior and Chilly Willy. Tex Avery is also credited with creating the basic personality of Bugs Bunny. He was the one who coined the phrase "What's up, Doc?"


8:00 AM -- I Love Trouble (1948)
1h 34m | Mystery
A wealthy man hires a detective to investigate his wife's past.
Director: S. Sylvan Simon
Cast: Franchot Tone, Janet Blair, Janis Carter

Based on a magazine story by Roy Huggins, this movie provided the round-about genesis of the TV series 77 Sunset Strip (1958) (also created by Huggins). In this movie, Franchot Tone plays LA detective Stuart Bailey, which is the same name of the detective played ten years later by Efrem Zimbalist Jr. in the 1958 movie Girl on the Run (1958), which, in turn, was spun off into the 77 Sunset Strip (1958) TV series that same year. Oddly, this movie was produced by Columbia Pictures, while subsequent movie and TV series were made by Warner Bros.


10:00 AM -- Ride the High Country (1962)
1h 34m | Western
Two aging gunslingers sign on to transport gold from a remote mining town.
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, Mariette Hartley

Final film of Randolph Scott. He retired from acting once he saw the finished film, saying he wanted to quit while he was ahead and that he would never be able to better his work here.


11:45 AM -- Nichols and May -- Take Two (1996)
1h | Documentary
Documentary about the influential comedy team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May.
Director: Phillip Schopper
Cast: Stanley Donen, Steve Martin, Mike Nichols

An episode of American Masters on PBS.


1:00 PM -- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
2h 11m | Drama
An academic couple reveal their deepest secret to a pair of newcomers during an all-night party.
Director: Mike Nichols
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Taylor (Elizabeth Taylor was not present at the awards ceremony. Anne Bancroft accepted the award on her behalf.), Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Sandy Dennis (Sandy Dennis was unable to attend the Academy Awards presentations, because she was working on a new film, Sweet November (1968), being shot in New York. Mike Nichols accepted the award on her behalf.), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Haskell Wexler, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Richard Sylbert and George James Hopkins, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Irene Sharaff

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Richard Burton, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Segal, Best Director -- Mike Nichols, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Ernest Lehman, Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Film Editing -- Sam O'Steen, Best Music, Original Music Score -- Alex North, and Best Picture

Mike Nichols told journalist John Lahr that the studio was nervous about whether the Catholic Legion of Decency would approve this movie or not. Nichols' solution: "When the Monsignor sees the picture, Jackie Kennedy will sit behind him. When it's over she will say, 'How Jack would have loved it.'" The former First Lady obliged and this movie was cleared.


3:30 PM -- On the Waterfront (1954)
1h 48m | Drama, Crime
A young stevedore takes on the mobster who rules the docks.
Director: Elia Kazan
Cast: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb

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 the scene where Terry (Marlon Brando) and Edie (Eva Marie Saint) are talking on the rooftop of Terry's apartment building, Terry looks off to his left, with the next shot (showing what he's looking at) of the Hudson River and Manhattan in the distance. In that shot, a large ocean liner is seen moving down the Hudson on its way out to sea. The ship is the then new Italian liner Andrea Doria, a little more than two years before it was sunk in a collision with the Swedish liner Stockholm off Martha's Vineyard.


5:45 PM -- Bullitt (1968)
1h 54m | Crime
An all-guts, no-glory San Francisco cop becomes determined to find the underworld kingpin that killed the witness in his protection.
Director: Peter Yates
Cast: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset

Winner of an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Frank P. Keller

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Sound -- Warner Bros./Seven Arts

Chalmers tells Captain Baker that Bullitt has spirited Ross away, asserting that Bullitt did it for his own personal aggrandizement. The Captain agrees with that assessment. While the Bullitt character in the movie would not do such grandstanding, the SFPD inspector upon which the character is based, Dave Toschi, definitely would. During one investigation Toschi sent a letter to the press using a false name, praising himself and his efforts, which resulted in Toschi being pulled off the case and which ruined his chances to become Chief of Police. In real life, Steve McQueen was known to be a determined scene-stealer, often seen in the background fiddling with a prop in order to draw attention to himself and away from what was happening in the foreground.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: DAYTIME & PRIMETIME THEME -- TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL



8:00 PM -- They Won't Believe Me (1947)
1h 20m | Drama
A faithless husband is charged with a murder he didn't commit.
Director: Irving Pichel
Cast: Susan Hayward, Robert Young, Jane Greer

When RKO re-released this in 1957, they cut it down from 95 minutes to 80 minutes, for more convenient double-billing, a typical practice at that time, especially for RKO. Turner Classic Movies repeatedly shows the 80 minute version, despite the fact that the 95 minute version has been restored and is marketed on DVD.


10:00 PM -- Lady Sings the Blues (1972)
2h 24m | Musical
Billie Holliday fights drug addiction to make a name for herself as a jazz singer.
Director: Sidney J. Furie
Cast: Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Diana Ross, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- Terence McCloy, Chris Clark and Suzanne De Passe, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Carl Anderson and Reg Allen, Best Costume Design -- Bob Mackie, Ray Aghayan and Norma Koch, and Best Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation -- Gil Askey

According to Diana Ross, Richard Pryor instructed her on how to behave during the scenes of drug use.


12:45 AM -- Diner (1982)
1h 50m | Drama
A group of friends who hang out in a Baltimore diner face the problems of growing up.
Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Steve Guttenberg, Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Barry Levinson

Barry Levinson had the main actors arrive in Baltimore a week before filming began to get to know each other and build rapport. Predictably, the young male actors went out on the town to clubs and tried to pick up women. Sometimes they would use bogus stories about what they were doing in Baltimore. Tim Daly says he came up with the most popular one, that they were engineers working on a rotating rooftop restaurant.


3:00 AM -- From Broadway to Hollywood (2014)
Documentary, Music
Pianist and historian Richard Glazier explores legendary show tunes from film and television.
Director: No Director Available
Cast: No Cast Information Available.


4:15 AM -- I Know Where I'm Going (1945)
1h 32m | Romance, Drama
A determined young Englishwoman sets out to accomplish her goals even at the risk of her h...
Director: Michael Powell
Cast: Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey, George Carney

In 1947 Emeric Pressburger met the head of the script department at Paramount, who told him that the studio used this film as an example of the perfect screenplay, and was shown to writers stuck for inspiration or who needed a lesson in screenwriting.