TCM Schedule for Saturday, May 22, 2021 -- Primetime Theme: Tony Randall 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 Tony Randall comedies. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Lovers Courageous (1932)
1h 17m | Drama | TV-PG
A failed playwright falls for an admiral's daughter.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Robert Montgomery, Madge Evans, Roland Young

The Laurel and Hardy comedy short Beau Hunks (1931) played in front of this film in many theaters during its original theatrical run.


8:00 AM -- What's Buzzin' Buzzard? (1943)
8m | Comedy
Two hungry vultures resort to cannibalism in their desperation.
Director: Tex Avery
Cast: Frank Graham, William Hanna, Kent Rogers

The cartoon is a commentary and satire of the food rationing that was happening in the USA during World War II.


8:10 AM -- The Great American Mug (1945)
9m | Short | TV-G
This short film takes a look at the typical American barbershop.
Director: Cy Endfield
Cast: John Nesbitt, Frank Darien, Harry Barris

The "Police Gazette" mentioned in this film was a national publication established in 1845, originally called National Police Gazette, to differentiate from the British publication of the same name. It was a fore-runner of today's men's lifestyle magazines, featuring sports (boxing in particular), pin-ups, celebrity gossip and other sensational or tabloid-style stories. It ceased print publication in 1977, but is still accessible online as policegazette.us, with new stories as well as archives of earlier publications.


8:20 AM -- Glimpses of Ontario (1942)
8m | Short | TV-G
This explores the history, land and people of the Canadian province, Ontario.
Cast: James A. Fitzpatrick


8:29 AM -- The Big Noise (1936)
57m | Drama | TV-PG
A meek businessman turns hero when he refuses to pay the mob for protection.
Director: Frank McDonald
Cast: Guy Kibbee, Warren Hull, Alma Lloyd

Though brothers Guy Kibbee and Milton Kibbee made 18 movies together, this is the only one in which they share a scene.


9:30 AM -- Batman: The Bat's Cave (1943)
17m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
The search for a kidnapped reporter leads the Dynamic Duo to a rooftop chase.
Director: Lambert Hillyer.
Cast: Lewis Wilson, Douglas Croft, J. Carroll Naish.

Alfred the Butler first appeared in Batman #16, a few months before the release of this serial. The story introduced him as new entering Bruce Wayne's employ. However, records indicate that he was created by the writers of the film, and put into the comic book to conform with the film. In his first few appearances, Alfred was drawn as very chubby and clean shaven. Soon after the release of the film, there was a story where he went to a health spa, he lost weight and began to wear a mustache, which made him look quite similar to William Austin. From then on, the comics (and animated cartoons) Alfred has resembled the Austin image. The comics gave Alfred the surname Beagle in 1945, however he was renamed Alfred Pennyworth in 1969, whether due to an editor's error or a deliberate revision. In the 1970s he was given a backstory as a military hero, and in the mid 1980s his biography was revised so that he was the Wayne family butler in Bruce's childhood.


10:00 AM -- Peep in the Deep (1946)
7m | Comedy | TV-PG
Olive Oyl and Popeye go on a hunt for a sunken treasure ship.
Director: Seymour Kneitel, James Tyer (uncredited)
Cast: Floyd Buckley, Jackson Beck, Mae Questel

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


10:08 AM -- The Falcon's Brother (1942)
1h 3m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
A gentlemanly detective calls on his brother to help him stop the Nazis from assassinating a key diplomat.
Director: Stanley Logan
Cast: George Sanders, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph

Tom Conway (Tom Laurence) was the real life elder brother of George Sanders (Gay Laurence). This film was Sanders' final appearance as "The Falcon," a role of which he had grown tired. Sanders passed the baton to Conway, who played the role in nine subsequent films until 1946.


11:30 AM -- A Modern Cinderella (1932)
17m | Musical | TV-G
A poor shop girl delivers a lavish dress to a snobbish party girl and is mistaken for a rich socialite.
Director: Roy Mack
Cast: Ruth Etting, Adrian Rosley, Barbara Child

This film short is available as an extra in the Warner DVD of Love Me or Leave Me (1955), the film biography of Ruth Etting.


12:00 PM -- Foreign Correspondent (1940)
1h 59m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
An American reporter covering the war in Europe gets mixed up in the assassination of a Dutch diplomat.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Albert Bassermann, Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Charles Bennett and Joan Harrison, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Rudolph Maté, Best Art Direction, Black-and-White -- Alexander Golitzen, Best Effects, Special Effects -- Paul Eagler (photographic) and Thomas T. Moulton (sound), and Best Picture

Shooting was completed on May 29, 1940, after which director Alfred Hitchcock made a visit to England. He returned on July 3 with the word that the Germans were expected to start bombing at any time. Ben Hecht was hurriedly called in and wrote the tacked-on final scene set at a London radio station. It was filmed on July 5, and the real-life bombing started on July 10, 1940.


2:15 PM -- Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)
1h 57m | Adventure | TV-G
The famed 19th century hero defeats enemy fleets and courts an admiral's widow.
Director: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty

The rights to the novel were originally acquired by Warner Brothers with Errol Flynn in mind, but after the financial failure of Adventures of Don Juan (1948), and growing difficulties with the actor, he was not cast. Warner Brothers was already building up Burt Lancaster as its new swashbuckler, but the role of a British sea Captain seemed out of his range, so Gregory Peck was ultimately cast.


4:30 PM -- Point Blank (1967)
1h 32m | Crime | TV-14
A gangster plots an elaborate revenge on his wife and the partner who did him dirty.
Director: John Boorman
Cast: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn

When James Sikking auditioned for the role of the assassin, Boorman rejected him and told him that his face was too nice for a killer. For the next week, though, Boorman would look out his office window at MGM and see Sikking standing outside, partially concealed by a bush or a column, just watching him menacingly. The director eventually walked out and offered him the part.


6:15 PM -- Stagecoach (1939)
1h 36m | Western | TV-G
A group of disparate passengers battle personal demons and each other while racing through Indian country.
Director: John Ford
Cast: Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Andy Devine

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Thomas Mitchell, and Best Music, Scoring -- Richard Hageman, W. Franke Harling, John Leipold and Leo Shuken

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- John Ford, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Bert Glennon, Best Art Direction -- Alexander Toluboff, Best Film Editing -- Otho Lovering and Dorothy Spencer, and Best Picture

Yakima Canutt explained how the stunt was accomplished where, as an Apache warrior attacking the stagecoach, he is "shot", falls off his horse, and then gets dragged underneath the stagecoach: "You have to run the horses fast, so they'll run straight. If they run slow, they move around a lot. When you turn loose to go under the coach, you've got to bring your arms over your chest and stomach. You've got to hold your elbows close to your body, or that front axle will knock them off." After the stunt was completed, Canutt ran to director John Ford to make sure they got the stunt on film. Ford replied that even if they hadn't, "I'll never shoot that again."



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- TONY RANDALL DOUBLE FEATURE



8:00 PM -- Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)
1h 34m | Comedy | TV-PG
A lowly adman tries to better his lot by courting a glamorous Hollywood star.
Director: Frank Tashlin
Cast: Tony Randall, Jayne Mansfield, Betsy Drake

Although uncredited, if the woman promoting Tres Chic, one of the very funny, fake adverts in the film's beginning sounds/looks familiar, that's because it's Majel Barrett. You'll know her as Nurse Christine Chapel and the voice of the computer from Star Trek: The Original Series (1966), along with many other roles in the Star Trek universe.


10:00 PM -- The Brass Bottle (1964)
1h 29m | Adaptation | TV-G
A benevolent genie offers his help to a young architect.
Director: Harry Keller
Cast: Tony Randall, Burl Ives, Barbara Eden

Served as the inspiration for I Dream of Jeannie (1965), also starring Barbara Eden as Jeannie the genie, arguably her most iconic acting role.


12:00 AM -- The Brothers Rico (1957)
1h 32m | Crime | TV-PG
A reformed mob accountant tries to get to his gangster brother before the criminals can.
Director: Phil Karlson
Cast: Richard Conte, Dianne Foster, Kathryn Grant

Mimi Aguglia, who plays Argentina Brunetti's mother, really is her mother.


2:00 AM -- S.O.B. (1981)
2h 1m | Comedy | TV-MA
A movie producer who made a huge flop tries to salvage his career by revamping his film as an erotic production.
Director: Blake Edwards
Cast: Julie Andrews, William Holden, Marisa Berenson

When four of the characters steal another character's corpse, it's a take-off of a real-life incident in which Director Raoul Walsh "borrowed" John Barrymore's corpse after the funeral, and left it propped up in a chair for a drunken Errol Flynn to discover. This incident was referenced by Drew Barrymore, his granddaughter, in a 2006 episode of Saturday Night Live (1975).


4:15 AM -- The In-Laws (1979)
1h 43m | Comedy | TV-MA
The father of the groom drags the bride's father into a series of madcap adventures.
Director: Arthur Hiller
Cast: Peter Falk, Alan Arkin, Richard Libertini

Decades before Peter Falk played the part of a CIA agent, and well before he decided to become an actor, he applied for a job at the CIA (during the "Red Scare" era brought about by Joseph McCarthy). Falk managed to get an interview with the agency, but his interviewer told him that one of the schools he went to, the New School for Social Research, had a "pinkish" reputation, and that because Falk once was a member of the "communist-dominated" Marine Cooks and Stewards Union, he not only couldn't work for the CIA, but wouldn't find work anywhere in Washington.