TCM Schedule for Saturday, May 29, 2021 -- Daytime and Primetime Theme: Memorial Day Marathon

Throughout today and Sunday and Monday, TCM continues their salute to Memorial Day. Go out and have a picnic, thank a vet and enjoy!


7:00 AM -- Thunder Afloat (1939)
1h 35m | Comedy | TV-G
An old sailor is duped into joining the Navy, where he runs into a longtime rival.
Director: George B. Seitz
Cast: Wallace Beery, Chester Morris, Virginia Grey

Because war broke out in Europe in September 1939, MGM released this film a month earlier than scheduled.


9:00 AM -- Destination Tokyo (1943)
2h 15m | War | TV-PG
A U.S. sub braves enemy waters during World War II.
Director: Delmer Daves
Cast: Cary Grant, John Garfield, Alan Hale

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Steve Fisher

The appendectomy operation conducted by the character Pills (William Prince) was inspired by an actual appendix operation performed aboard the submarine "Seadragon" in 1942. The real-life appendectomy was performed by 22-year-old pharmacist's mate Wheeler B. Lipes with the help of an assistant. The two were able to extract the appendix of Seaman Darrell Dean Rector under very trying conditions with limited resources and skills. They used kitchen utensils and equipment including a strainer and bent spoons as retractors; alcohol taken from torpedoes and sterilized pajamas as surgical gowns. The sub's crew had believed that Lipes was the most qualified person to perform such a life-or-death operation, as he had apparently observed appendectomies before. Lipes was persuaded to do the operation by his fellow crewmen. The operation took place 120 feet below the surface of the South China Sea. Afterward, Lipes' actions were criticized by US Navy doctors, and the US Surgeon General even considered court-martialling him. Over 60 years later, in April 2005, Lipes finally received the US Navy Commendation Medal, two months before his death. According to the 19 April 2005 Los Angeles Times obituary of Lipes, this operation was the first ever performed in a submerged submarine.


11:30 AM -- No Time for Sergeants (1958)
1h 59m | Comedy | TV-G
A hillbilly draftee turns the Air Force upside down.
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Cast: Andy Griffith, Myron McCormick, Nick Adams

This was Don Knotts' film debut. He met Andy Griffith when he played the same part in Broadway's "No Time For Sergeants". Griffith remembered Knotts when he was looking for someone to play bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show (1960). The two formed a lifelong friendship. After Knotts left Andy Griffith Show, he later made guest appearances on it and another Andy Griffith television series, Matlock (1986). In 2006, Griffith even broke the news of Knotts' passing to the media.


1:45 PM -- Darby's Rangers (1958)
2h 1m | War | TV-PG
An Army Major leads his men behind enemy lines during World War II.
Director: William A. Wellman
Cast: James Garner, Etchika Choureau, Jack Warden

Leading man James Garner was originally only supposed to have a supporting role here with Charlton Heston being top-billed, but when he signed to a new seven-year contract with Warners, the studio dropped Heston and gave Garner his role. Heston filed a damage suit in the Superior Court against the studio as a result of the switch.


4:00 PM -- Up Periscope (1959)
1h 51m | War | TV-PG
A U.S. frogman infiltrates a Japanese-held island during World War II.
Director: Gordon Douglas
Cast: James Garner, Edmond O'Brien, Andra Martin

Debut of Warren Oates.


6:00 PM -- Imitation General (1958)
1h 28m | Comedy | TV-PG
A sergeant impersonates a slain general at a key moment during World War II.
Director: George Marshall
Cast: Glenn Ford, Red Buttons, Taina Elg

NBC originally scheduled this film for broadcast on November 23, 1963. However it was canceled due to coverage of the death of President John F. Kennedy, and it wasn't broadcast until January 11, 1964.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: DAYTIME AND PRIMETIME THEME -- MEMORIAL DAY MARATHON



8:00 PM -- 36 Hours (1964)
1h 55m | War | TV-PG
Nazis kidnap a key American intelligence officer and try to convince him that World War II is over.
Director: George Seaton
Cast: James Garner, Rod Taylor, Eva Marie Saint

Cameo -- James Doohan: The soon-to-be "Montgomery Scott" of Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) is uncredited as a British orderly in the opening scenes. Doohan served in Canadian forces during the Normandy Invasion (which the film is about) where he lost part of a finger. Star Trek: The Next Generation: Future Imperfect (1990) and Star Trek: Enterprise: Stratagem (2004) were inspired by this film.


10:15 PM -- Nazi Agent (1942)
1h 22m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
An Allied sympathizer discovers his twin brother is a Nazi spy.
Director: Jules Dassin
Cast: Conrad Veidt, Ann Ayars, Frank Reicher

The pinball machine seen in this film is a very rare "Salute" model made by the Baker Novelty and Manufacturing Co. only in 1941. The company only made pinball machines from 1939 to 1941. Baker Novelty starting in 1935 making trade stimulators. This pinball machine was a flipper-less electro-mechanical single-player game that gave five balls for five cents. In excellent playable condition it could be worth $1,500 or more at auction in 2017.


12:00 AM -- Act of Violence (1949)
1h 22m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
An embittered veteran tracks down a POW camp informer.
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh

As Ryan (Joe Parkson) is leaving the car rental lot the billboard advertising "Summer Holiday" with Mickey Rooney is seen. Summer Holiday was also a Metro Goldwyn Mayer studio movie released in 1948.


2:00 AM -- Journey into Fear (1942)
1h 9m | Drama | TV-PG
A munitions expert gets mixed up with gunrunners in Turkey.
Director: Norman Foster
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Dolores Del Rio, Ruth Warrick

The great stage actor Richard Bennett had been brought back to films by Orson Welles for "The Magnificent Ambersons". Although his performance as old Major Amberson has become legendary, it was achieved with great difficulty, as Bennett, by then an old man near death, found it hard to remember his lines and his eyesight was too poor for him to be able to read them off cue-cards. Welles's patience in dealing with these problems has been widely described. When he cast Bennett again in this film, as the ship's captain, he overcame the problems very simply, by giving Bennett no actual dialogue at all, although the character has several memorable scenes. It was to be Bennett's final film role.


3:15 AM -- Merrill's Marauders (1962)
1h 38m | War | TV-PG
A grizzled U.S. general leads his men against the Japanese in Burma during World War II.
Director: Samuel Fuller
Cast: Jeff Chandler, Ty Hardin, Peter Brown

While working on Merrill's Marauders in the Philippines, on April 15, 1961, Jeff Chandler injured his back playing baseball with U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers who served as extras in the film. He had injections to deaden the pain and enable him to finish the production.

On May 13, 1961, he entered a hospital in Culver City, California and had surgery for a spinal disc herniation. There were severe complications; an artery was damaged, and Chandler hemorrhaged. On May 17, in a seven-and-a-half-hour emergency operation over-and-above the original surgery, he was given 55 pints of blood. A third operation followed, on May 27, where he received an additional 20 pints of blood. He died on June 17, 1961. The cause was a blood infection complicated by pneumonia.


5:00 AM -- Dark of the Sun (1968)
1h 40m | Drama | TV-14
A mercenary band fights to get refugees and a fortune in diamonds out of the Congo.
Director: Jack Cardiff
Cast: Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Peter Carsten

Trade paper Variety erroneously reported in its review that this Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie was shot in Africa. The exteriors were lensed in Jamaica in the Caribbean as it could not be shot in Africa due to political unrest. Ironically, around the same, another picture from MGM, Graham Greene's The Comedians (1967), was set in the Caribbean, but filmed in Benin, West Africa.