TCM Schedule for Friday, May 14, 2021 -- Primetime Theme: Starring Walter Matthau

In the daylight hours, the theme is Silly Schemers - make of it what you will. Then in prime time, we get a trio of films starring one of the original grumpy old men, Walter Matthau, including his Oscar-winning turn in The Fortune Cookie (1966). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Eleven Men and a Girl (1930)
1h 12m | Comedy | TV-G
A college flirt lures the nation's best football players to join her school's team.
Director: null
Cast: Joe E. Brown, Joan Bennett, Frank Mchugh

The cast includes members of the 1928 and 1929 All-American football teams. The "Stuart Erwin" who plays Brown of Harvard is a football player, not the actor of the same name; Ray Montgomery is also a football player, and not the actor of the same name.


7:15 AM -- The Flirting Widow (1930)
1h 12m | Comedy | TV-G
A girl creates an imaginary lover to impress her father, but the lie gets in the way of true romance.
Director: William Seiter
Cast: Dorothy Mackaill, Basil Rathbone, Leila Hyams

In early October 1929 First National Pictures announced this film as Dorothy Mackaill's next project. It was announced that the film would be entitled "Green Stockings" from the play of the same name.


8:30 AM -- Let's Do It Again (1953)
1h 35m | Musical | TV-G
A divorced couple finds it impossible to stay out of each other's lives.
Director: Alexander Hall
Cast: Jane Wyman, Ray Milland, Aldo Ray

Courtney asks Constance to take over a role in his show because Lucy Warriner couldn't do it. Lucy Warriner was the name of the Constance character in the original story and movie, The Awful Truth (1937) that Let's Do It Again (1953) is a musical remake of.


10:15 AM -- Confidentially Connie (1953)
1h 14m | Comedy | TV-G
An expectant mother hatches a series of madcap schemes to improve her husband's financial standing.
Director: Edward Buzzell
Cast: Van Johnson, Janet Leigh, Louis Calhern

Based on a story by Herman Wouk (author of The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance) and Max Shulman.


11:30 AM -- Dulcy (1940)
1h 4m | Comedy | TV-G
A scatterbrained beauty tries to help her fiance's career by throwing a big party.
Director: S. Sylvan Simon
Cast: Ann Sothern, Ian Hunter, Roland Young

In this, the third screen version, Ann Sothern plays the same character Constance Talmadge played in 1923 and Marion Davies played in 1930.


1:00 PM -- The Affairs of Annabel (1938)
1h 15m | Comedy | TV-G
A screen queen suffers through harebrained publicity stunts schemed up by her press agent.
Director: Ben Stoloff
Cast: Jack Oakie, Lucille Ball, Ruth Donnelly

The car that picks up Annabel from prison is a very rare 1938 Cadillac Series 95 model 9053 7-passenger limousine. Only 95 were built and features a V-16 engine. In excellent condition at auction this car could fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2017.


2:15 PM -- They Met in Bombay (1941)
1h 26m | Comedy | TV-G
Rival jewel thieves on the run find love in the Far East.
Director: Clarence Brown
Cast: Clark Gable, Rosalind Russell, Peter Lorre

The opening scene shows a friend of Gerald Meldrick making an imitation of the so-called Star of Asia. The film doesn't say what kind of gem it is. But, there is a real Star of Asia. It's a 330-carat star sapphire. It is in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The deep blue gem was mined in Burma (modern Myanmar), and is said to have belonged to the Maharajah of Jodhpur at one time. An even larger blue sapphire is the Star of India. The 563-carat gem is one of the largest of its kind in the world. It has a colorful history that includes being heisted in 1964 from the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The unusual stone, with stars on both sides, was recovered the following year. It was mined in Sri Lanka around the year 1600, but much of its past before the 20th century is clouded.


4:00 PM -- Mr. Chump (1938)
1h 1m | Comedy | TV-G
A trumpeter's sure-fire moneymaking scheme backfires.
Director: William Clemens
Cast: Johnnie Davis, Lola Lane, Penny Singleton

Actor Johnnie Davis was also a trumpet player and occassional band leader in real life.


5:15 PM -- Hot Money (1936)
1h 8m | Comedy | TV-G
A salesman develops a fake stock promotion to market a new invention before it's finished.
Director: William Mcgann
Cast: Ross Alexander, Beverly Roberts, Joseph Cawthorn

Based on a play by Aben Kandel.


6:30 PM -- The Honeymoon Machine (1961)
1h 27m | Comedy | TV-PG
Two sailors discover a way to beat the roulette tables in a Venice casino.
Director: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Steve McQueen, Brigid Bazlen, Jim Hutton

The premise of this film is that 'Max' the hi tech computer on board the ship can predict the winning numbers on a roulette wheel based on knowledge of the previous winning numbers. In reality, no computer, (then or now), would be able to do this. This is because the only two variants that determine where the ball will land is starting position of the ball on the table and the speed of the rotations applied solely by the croupier, which will be completely different each spin.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- STARRING WALTER MATTHAU



8:00 PM -- The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
1h 44m | Drama | TV-MA
Four ruthless terrorists take over a New York City subway train and hold the passengers for ransom.
Director: Joseph Sargent
Cast: Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam

One of three tough guy action movies that Walter Matthau made in the early to mid 1970s, prior to his bypass surgery in 1976, which prevented him from taking on such roles. The other two were Charley Varrick (1973) and The Laughing Policeman (1973).


10:00 PM -- The Fortune Cookie (1966)
2h 5m | Comedy | TV-PG
A crooked lawyer trumps up an insurance case for a cameraman injured at a pro football game.
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ron Rich

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Walter Matthau

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph LaShelle, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Robert Luthardt and Edward G. Boyle

Production was halted for weeks after Walter Matthau had a heart attack. He had slimmed from 190 to 160 pounds by the time filming was completed and wore a heavy black coat to conceal the weight loss.


12:15 AM -- Hopscotch (1980)
1h 44m | Comedy | TV-MA
A retired CIA agent threatens to publish an embarrassing book of memoirs about his colleages.
Director: Ronald Neame
Cast: Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Seab Worthy

The photograph of Ned Beatty on the desk where Walter Matthau's character is typing his book is first seen with a smiling face. As the writing continues throughout the film, the expression gradually changes to anger and is finally shot off the desk, the bullet hitting the middle of his forehead.


2:15 AM -- Foxes (1980)
1h 46m | Drama | TV-14
Four San Fernando Valley teens turn to sex and drugs to deal with their problems.
Director: Adrian Lyne
Cast: Jodie Foster, Cherie Currie, Marilyn Kagan

Annie (Cherie Currie)'s shoulder tattoo of a cherry is real. Currie had got the tattoo during her tenure as lead singer of The Runaways in reference to their signature song "Cherry Bomb".


4:15 AM -- Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins (1975)
1h 31m | Comedy | TV-MA
Two young women kidnap a driving instructor so he can drive them to New Orleans.
Director: Dick Richards
Cast: Alan Arkin, Sally Kellerman, Mackenzie Phillips

Asked by Dinah Shore on her talk show about his favorite films and performances of his own, Alan Arkin revealed without hesitation. "This one," meaning Rafferty. "Oh," Dinah exclaimed, uncharacteristically incredulous, "come on!" "After your Oscar nods for "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter" and for the Russian officer in "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming," after terrorising Audrey Hepburn in "Wait Until Dark," after Yossarian in "Catch-22," and after the lead in Neil Simon's "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" - after all these - your favorite role is in this little film ...? Why?" Arkin explained that this was the first time he had gotten exactly what he wanted in developing his character.