TCM Schedule for Saturday, May 15, 2021 -- Primetime Theme: Glenn Ford Double Feature

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, we get a pair of Glenn Ford films. Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- The Long, Long Trailer (1954)
1h 36m | Comedy | TV-G
A newlywed couple encounter many difficulties during their honeymoon trip aboard a trailer.
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Marjorie Main

After filming, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz kept the trailer used in the movie at their home. In an interview, daughter Lucie Arnaz recalls using it as the children's playhouse and how much fun they had opening and closing the door to hear the chimes.


8:00 AM -- Wild Honey (1942)
8m | Comedy
Barney Bear sets off to search for some honey but all his various gadgets don't always do the job they're supposed to do.
Director: Rudolf Ising

Also known as Wild Honey, or, How to Get Along Without a Ration Book.


8:10 AM -- Can You Imagine (1936)
9m | Documentary | TV-G
This presents various curiosities of people and nature across the United States.
Cast: Ray Saunders, Dickie McCollin, William Shelton

This short shows various curiosities of people and nature across the United States, in the style of the "Believe It or Not" series. Among the dozen subjects are Milwaukee's Monkey Island; a boy in Salt Lake City who wrestles with his pet lion; a tree that grows out of a courthouse's stone roof; a well shaft in Pennsylvania that freezes in summer and melts in cold weather; and the town crier of Provincetown, Massachusetts.


8:20 AM -- Glimpses of Washington State (1940)
8m | Documentary | TV-G
This takes the viewer to several locations in the state of Washington.
Director: James A. FitzPatrick
Cast: James A. FitzPatrick


8:29 AM -- Main Street After Dark (1944)
56m | Drama | TV-PG
A police clean-up campaign could put a family of pickpockets out of work.
Director: Edward Cahn
Cast: Edward Arnold, Selena Royle, Tom Trout

Film debut of Audrey Totter.


9:30 AM -- Batman: The Electrical Brain (1943)
26m | Action | TV-G
The Caped Crusader battles a Japanese scientist turning people into zombies.
Director: Lambert Hillyer
Cast: Lewis Wilson, Douglas Croft, J. Carroll Naish.

Episode one of fifteen; this was the first filmed version of the Caped Crusader.


10:00 AM -- Klondike Casanova (1946)
7m | Comedy | TV-PG
Popeye and Olive Oyl own the Klondike Cafe. Dangerous Dan McBluto kidnaps Olive Oyl, but spinach comes to the rescue.
Director: Izzy Sparber, Dave Tendlar (uncredited)
Cast: Jackson Beck, Mae Questel, Harry Welch

Jack Mercer was on active military duty and wasn't available to do Popeye's voice for this cartoon.


10:09 AM -- The Falcon Takes Over (1942)
1h 3m | Crime | TV-G
A society sleuth and a lady reporter try to track down a murderous thug's lost girlfriend.
Director: Irving Reis
Cast: George Sanders, Lynn Bari, James Gleason

This is the first of three film versions of Raymond Chandler's "Farewell, My Lovely", with Gay Lawrence standing in for Philip Marlowe. The other films are Murder, My Sweet (1944), with Dick Powell and Ann Shirley, and Farewell, My Lovely (1975), with Robert Mitchum.


11:30 AM -- Artistic Temper (1932)
17m | Musical | TV-G
A woman sets out to pursue a successful singing career despite her husband's wishes.
Director: Roy Mack
Cast: Ruth Etting, Wilfred Lytell, Lucille Sears

Ruth Etting's life story was told, in somewhat fictionalized form, in Love Me or Leave Me (1955), with Doris Day as Etting.


12:00 PM -- The Set-Up (1949)
1h 12m | Drama | TV-PG
An aging boxer defies the gangsters who've ordered him to throw his last fight.
Director: Robert Wise
Cast: Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter, George Tobias

In the original narrative poem published in 1928 by Joseph Moncure March, the boxer is called Pansy Jones (Stoker Thompson in the film), he's black not white and, instead of being devotedly married as he is depicted in the movie, he is a bigamist. The main reason for the change of race was because RKO had no African-American leading men on contract at the time. James Edwards, who appears in the cast, would have fitted the bill, but was not deemed as being sufficiently well-known to carry the movie.


1:30 PM -- East of Eden (1955)
1h 55m | Drama | TV-PG
Two brothers compete for their father's approval and a woman's love.
Director: Elia Kazan
Cast: James Dean, Raymond Massey, Julie Harris

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Jo Van Fleet

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Dean (This was the first posthumous acting nomination in Academy Awards history, although Jeanne Eagels was retroactively credited with a posthumous nomination for the 2nd Academy Awards in 1930, when no nominees were announced prior to the ceremony.), Best Director -- Elia Kazan, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Paul Osborn

In a career that also incorporated a great deal of stage work, Elia Kazan directed only nineteen films. East of Eden (1955) provided the most formidable challenge of his filmmaking career, as it marked his first use of both color and anamorphic cinematography, in this case CinemaScope, which was wider (2.55:1) in the first two years of use before it settled into its standardized aspect ratio (2.35:1) in late 1955. Kazan's only preparation for East of Eden (1955) was the previous year's On the Waterfront (1954), which had been shot in the industry's brand new 1.85:1 ratio, only slightly wider than the academy ratio of 1.33:1 used before 1953. Though Kazan rose admirably and inventively to the challenge of filming anamorphically, he would do so again on only two occasions: Wild River (1960) and The Arrangement (1969).


3:45 PM -- Casablanca (1942)
1h 42m | Romance | TV-PG
An American saloon owner in North Africa is drawn into World War II when his lost love turns up.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid

Winner of Oscars for Best Director -- Michael Curtiz, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Humphrey Bogart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Claude Rains, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Arthur Edeson, Best Film Editing -- Owen Marks, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

The Allies invaded Casablanca in real life on 8 November 1942. As the film was not due for release until spring, studio executives suggested it be changed to incorporate the invasion. Warner Bros. chief Jack L. Warner objected, as he thought that an invasion was a subject worth a whole film, not just an epilogue, and that the main story of this film demanded a pre-invasion setting. Eventually he gave in, though, and producer Hal B. Wallis prepared to shoot an epilogue where Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains hear about the invasion. However, before Rains could travel to the studio for this, David O. Selznick (whose studio owned Bergman's contract) previewed the film and urged Warner to release it unaltered and as fast as possible. Warner agreed and the premiered in New York on November 26. It did not play in Los Angeles until its general release the following January, and hence competed against 1943 films for the Oscars.


5:45 PM -- The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
2h 6m | Drama | TV-PG
A Korean War hero doesn't realize he's been programmed to kill by the enemy.
Director: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Angela Lansbury, and Best Film Editing -- Ferris Webster

In Richard Condon's novel, the relationship between Mrs. Eleanor Shaw Iselin and her son Raymond is more explicitly incestuous, complete with a bed scene. Writer, Producer, and Director John Frankenheimer and Writer and Producer George Axelrod wanted to include that element, but reduced it to the less-than-motherly kiss that Mrs. Iselin plants on Raymond's lips. To appease the censors, Frankenheimer instructed Angela Lansbury to put her hand between their mouths and the camera during the kiss to obscure what she was doing a bit. By the time of Jonathan Demme's The Manchurian Candidate (2004), the incestuous content between the mother and son shown on-screen had been reduced even more, so that the camera cuts away before she kisses her son on the lips, only leaving the implication of that relationship between them.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- GLENN FORD DOUBLE FEATURE



8:00 PM -- The Big Heat (1953)
1h 30m | Drama | TV-14
A police detective whose wife was killed by the mob teams with a scarred gangster's moll to bring down a powerful gangster.
Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando

Listen carefully for the theme song from "Gilda", a film which was pivotal to Glenn Ford's career seven years before "The Big Heat" was made. It is played as Ford is departing from a bar near the end of this movie. Director Fritz Lang slyly inserts "Put the Blame on Mame", which was famously sung by a stunning Rita Hayworth in the earlier movie.


9:45 PM -- Gilda (1946)
1h 50m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
A gambler discovers an old flame in South America, but she's married to his new boss.
Director: Charles Vidor
Cast: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready

In the years since the film's release, many have noticed the strong indication in the final lines and situations of a homosexual undercurrent existing between Johnny and Ballin. Upon hearing of the interpretation, Charles Vidor reportedly said, "Really? I never had any idea those boys were supposed to be like that!" Glenn Ford has also acknowledged the gay subtext, "But it never occurred to us at the time we were filming."


12:00 AM -- Touch of Evil (1958)
1h 35m | Crime | TV-14
A narcotics agent risks his wife's life to investigate a crooked cop.
Director: Orson Welles
Cast: Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles

When Orson Welles first met with Dennis Weaver, he asked Weaver what he thought was the most important characteristic of "Chester," the role Weaver played on the hit TV show Gunsmoke (1955). Weaver said that Chester was very deferential and always hung behind the other characters. Welles then told Weaver that for Touch of Evil (1958) he wanted Weaver to be just the opposite - very pushy and in-your-face.


2:15 AM -- The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
1h 27m | Documentary | TV-MA
This documentary focuses on the successful career and assassination of San Francisco's first gay councilor.
Director: Robert Epstein
Cast: Harvey Fierstein, Harvey Milk, Anne Kronenberg

Winner of an Oscar for Best Documentary, Features -- Rob Epstein and Richard Schmiechen

The film opens with acting mayor Dianne Feinstein breaking the news to the assembled press outside City Hall that mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk had both been shot and killed by city supervisor Dan White. Gus Van Sant opens his biopic Milk (2008) with the exact same footage.


4:00 AM -- Antonio Gaudi (1984)
1h 12m | Documentary | TV-G
The camera explores the buildings of Spanish architect and sculptor Antonio Gaudi.
Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara
Cast: Antonio Gaudi, Isidro Puig Boada, Koji Asari

I have been to the Sagrada Família. It is unearthly, amazing, extraordinary, unique. If you have the opportunity to visit Barcelona, go see the cathedral. You will not regret it.




5:30 AM -- MGM Parade Show #16 (1955)
25m | Documentary | TV-G
Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald perform in a clip from Maytime.