TCM Schedule for Thursday, May 20, 2021 -- Dream State - California in the Movies Part II

The COVID-19 related theme for the daylight hours is I Miss ... Parties! Then in prime time, it's the part two of a series called Dream State, about California in the movies. Enjoy!


7:00 AM -- Hollywood Party (1934)
1h 3m | Musical | TV-G
A movie star's gala celebration creates chaos.
Director: Allan Dwan, Richard Boleslawski, Edmund Goulding, Russell Mack, Charles Reisner, Roy Rowland, George Stevens, Sam Wood
Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Jimmy Durante

For years the "Hot Choc'late Soldiers" animated sequence, created by Walt Disney Studios, could not be shown as part of "Hollywood Party" because in 1934 Disney had licensed only movie-theatre rights and had reserved the TV rights to the sequence for his own company. Finally, in 1992, Ted Turner's company, which then owned the rights to the MGM archive, settled with the Disney company and released a video version of the film containing "Hot Choc'late Soldiers." Unfortunately, the transition scene, with Mickey Mouse at the piano in B&W, the "Hot Choc-late Soldiers" sheet music in Technicolor, was not properly reconstructed, so we only see the Technicolor portion of the scene, but not the B&W portion.


8:15 AM -- The Firemen's Ball (1967)
1h 13m | Comedy | TV-14
A party for a former fire chief turns into chaos when none of the guests behave.
Director: Milos Forman
Cast: Jan Vostrcil, Josef Sebánek, Josef Valnoha

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film -- Czechoslovakia

Director Milos Forman with screenwriters Jaroslav Papousek and Ivan Passer were in the small town of Vrchabi, trying to concentrate on a screenplay after their success with Loves of a Blonde (1965). One evening, on a lark, they went to a real firemen's ball in the town. What they saw there was so remarkable, they abandoned the script they were working on and began writing this film.


9:30 AM -- Operation Mad Ball (1957)
1h 45m | Comedy | TV-G
A peacetime soldier plots to throw a party under his strict captain's nose.
Director: Richard Quine
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Kathryn Grant

Look for Mary Tyler Moore as part of the last couple entering the next to last ambulance to go to the ball (uncredited). This occurs just a few minutes prior to the end of the movie. On the Call Sheet, she's listed as "Mary Moore" which was her acting name at that time.


11:15 AM -- Pajama Party (1964)
1h 25m | Musical | TV-PG
A Martian teenager sent to prepare for an invasion falls in love with an Earth girl.
Director: Don Weis
Cast: Tommy Kirk, Annette Funicello, Elsa Lanchester

First feature film to introduce the new Ford Mustang. Even though "Goldfinger" is commonly credited with this distinction, Goldfinger wasn't released until January, 1965. In Pajama Party, Annette is seen driving the Mustang in several scenes.


12:45 PM -- The Bachelor Party (1957)
1h 33m | Drama | TV-PG
A group of frustrated office workers try to give their engaged friend a big send-off.
Director: Delbert Mann
Cast: Don Murray, E.G. Marshall, Nancy Marchand

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Carolyn Jones

Carolyn Jones nearly quit the film due to difficulties with the script. After some unsuccessful rehearsals she approached screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky and said, "You're going to have to get another actress because I don't know how to play this part. I don't know a girl who would say lines like these". Surprisingly, the headstrong Chayefsky agreed to rewrite the part for her. When Jones read her new dialogue - including the classic line "Just say you love me, you don't have to mean it" - she thought, "Now *that* girl I understand". Her performance, clocking in at just over six minutes, earned Jones an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.


2:30 PM -- Father of the Bride (1950)
1h 33m | Comedy | TV-G
Attorney Stanley T. Banks finds himself unprepared when his daughter, Kay, announces her engagement.
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and Best Picture

In this movie, one of the gifts Kay (Dame Elizabeth Taylor) gets as a present is a Venus de Milo statue with a clock in the stomach, which Stanley T. Banks (Spencer Tracy) refers to as a "stinker". This same gift makes its way into the re-make (Father of the Bride (1991)) amongst the presents, and is still not received well.


4:15 PM -- Dinner at Eight (1933)
1h 53m | Comedy | TV-PG
A high-society dinner party masks a hotbed of scandal and intrigue.
Director: George Cukor,Cullen Tate
Cast: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery

Jean Harlow got along with all of her co-stars, except Wallace Beery. She had worked with him before in The Secret 6 (1931) and the two had developed a dislike for each other that carried over. Beery thought that Harlow wasn't experienced enough as an actress and treated her rudely. Harlow found Beery gruff and boorish. Since the two were playing a husband and wife that can't stand each other, the real-life feelings worked to the comic benefit of the characters.


6:15 PM -- The Party (1968)
1h 38m | Comedy | TV-PG
An Indian actor turns a swank Hollywood party into a disaster.
Director: Blake Edwards
Cast: Peter Sellers, Claudine Longet, Marge Champion

This film was improvised from a 56-page outline. Each scene was shot in sequence, and built upon the previous scene. To aid in this experiment, the film's producers had a video-camera tube attached to the Panavision camera and connected to an Ampex studio videotape machine, allowing the actors and crew to review what they had just filmed.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME --



8:00 PM -- Monterey Pop (1969)
1h 18m | Documentary | TV-14
Concert film about the pre-Woodstock music festival.
Director: D. A. Pennebaker
Cast: Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Ravi Shankar

Most of the artists played for free and were paid only for their expenses. The only performer who was paid for his performance was Ravi Shankar. When John Phillips and Lou Adler took over the promotion of the festival from the original promoters, they decided to honor Shankar's original contract.


9:30 PM -- The Sandpiper (1965)
1h 56m | Romance | TV-14
An Episcopal priest falls for a free-living artist.
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Eva Marie Saint

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Johnny Mandel (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics) for the song "The Shadow of Your Smile"

The local hangout is appropriately named Nepenthe, from the Greek word meaning "drug of forgetfulness," intended to wash away sorrow. Though it is a set built for the film, it's a replica of an actual local restaurant that has been open since 1949.


11:45 PM -- San Francisco (1936)
1h 55m | Epic | TV-G
A beautiful singer and a battling priest try to reform a Barbary Coast saloon owner in the days before the big earthquake.
Director: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy

Winner of an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy, Best Director -- W.S. Van Dyke, Best Writing, Original Story -- Robert E. Hopkins, Best Assistant Director -- Joseph M. Newman, and Best Picture

Despite its realistic portrayal of the San Francisco earthquake, the movie San Francisco did not win the Academy Award for Best Special Effects, because the award did not exist at the time. To rectify this gap, the award was inaugurated in 1938.


2:00 AM -- Born to Kill (1947)
1h 32m | Crime | TV-PG
A murderer marries a young innocent then goes after her more experienced sister.
Director: Robert Wise
Cast: Claire Trevor, Lawrence Tierney, Walter Slezak

The French film maker Jean-Pierre Melville was influenced by the movie. He borrowed the lost, isolated house settings at night; the same kind of settings used in his movie Le Doulos (1962).


3:45 AM -- Petulia (1968)
1h 45m | Romance | TV-MA
A married doctor falls for the young wife of an abusive rich man.
Director: Richard Lester
Cast: Julie Christie, George C Scott, Richard Chamberlain

The studio proposed Robert Redford for the part of "David", but Richard Lester held out for Richard Chamberlain, just as he held out for George C. Scott as "Archie", rather than the Warner Bros. suggestion of either Paul Newman or James Garner.