TCM Schedule for Thursday, June 17, 2021 -- Primetime Theme: Juvenile Delinquents

In the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating Ralph Bellamy, born on June 17, 1904, in Chicago. An interesting tidbit from IMDB:

Known as a champion of actors' rights, Bellamy was one of the founders of the Screen Actors Guild, and also served four terms as President of Actors' Equity from 1952 to 1964. He took office during some of the darkest days of McCarthyism, but positioned Actors' Equity and thus, the Broadway theater to the left of Hollywood by resisting blacklisting. Many of those blacklisted in Hollywood found homes in the theater. Under Bellamy, Actors Equity established standards to protect members against charges of Communist Party membership or "exhibiting left-wing sympathies". (One of the charges levied against legendary stage and film director Elia Kazan, including Rod Steiger at the time Kazan received an honorary Oscar, was that he should have defied the House Un-American Activities Committee and not have named names because he could have remained employed in the theater even if he had been blacklisted in Hollywood.)

Under Bellamy's leadership, Actor's Equity managed to double its assets within the first six years of his presidency and was successful in establishing the first pension fund for actors. It was for his services to the acting community that he was the recipient of an honorary Academy Award in 1987.

Then in prime time, TCM has the third week of the month-long look at Juvenile Delinquents. Tell us more, Roger!

Spotlight: Juvenile Delinquents - Thursdays in June
By Roger Fristoe
May 25, 2021

This month-long Spotlight examines the “juvenile delinquent” movies of the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s, when the subject of youthful alienation and anti-social behavior was a popular one in both exploitation flicks and more serious studies. Movies about youthful crime had been made throughout the 1920s and ‘30s, but it was in the following decades that the issue was presented as a social problem in need of solutions.

. . .

Our category Running Wild takes a look at a group of films in which teens are running wild in the streets. The Young Savages (1961) is a powerful film from United Artists, directed by John Frankenheimer and based on a novel by Evan Hunter that was inspired by the 1959 “Capeman” killings in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen. Burt Lancaster stars as an assistant district attorney working on a case in which three Italian youths are charged with killing a blind Puerto Rican boy.

In the Warner Bros. drama Stakeout on Dope Street (1958), directed by Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back, Never Say Never Again) in his directorial debut, a group of teenage boys find a briefcase that contains uncut heroin, unbeknownst to them. The boys pawn the briefcase only to realize its true contents later, setting them on a journey through the streets of Los Angeles to find the narcotics while a gang is also on the hunt for it. The film was financed by legendary exploitation director and producer Roger Corman.

Also showing: Crime in the Streets (1956), Rumble on the Docks (1956), Four Boys and a Gun (1957) and 13 West Street (1962).

. . .

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Picture Snatcher (1933)
1h 16m | Crime | TV-PG
An ex-con brings his crooked ways to a job as a news photographer.
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: James Cagney, Ralph Bellamy, Patricia Ellis

The scene of Danny photographing an execution is based an actual incident in which Chicago-based crime photographer Tom Howard (who was the grandfather of George Wendt) surreptitiously snapped the famous photo of convicted murderess Ruth Snyder's January 12, 1928 execution in the electric chair at Sing Sing for the New York Daily News.


7:30 AM -- Spitfire (1934)
1h 28m | Drama | TV-G
A backwoods faith healer falls for a married man from the big city.
Director: John Cromwell
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Robert Young, Ralph Bellamy

The rights to the play "Trigger" were purchased with Dorothy Jordan in mind for the lead. However, Katharine Hepburn agreed to star on the condition that she could leave for New York on November 16, 1933 to appear in the play "The Lake". Shooting of the two final scenes ran about 6 hours late on November 15, 1933, but director John Cromwell was dissatisfied with the results and wanted to reshoot them. Miss Hepburn refused at first, citing the terms of her contract. She then demanded, and received, $10,000 (in addition to her $50,000 salary) to stay an extra day for the reshoot.


9:00 AM -- Carefree (1938)
1h 20m | Comedy | TV-G
A psychiatrist falls in love with the woman he's supposed to be nudging into marriage with someone else.
Director: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Van Nest Polglase, Best Music, Original Song -- Irving Berlin for the song "Change Partners and Dance with Me", and Best Music, Scoring -- Victor Baravalle

RKO borrowed Ralph Bellamy from Columbia for this picture.


10:30 AM -- Affectionately Yours (1941)
1h 30m | Comedy | TV-G
A foreign correspondent hurries home to stop his wife from getting a divorce.
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Merle Oberon, Dennis Morgan, Rita Hayworth, Ralph Bellamy

Warner Bros. technicians duplicated a Boeing 314 Clipper in order to match studio shots with those filmed on location at Lisbon and LaGuardia airports. Boeing built only 12 of these airplanes from 1938 to 1941.


12:15 PM -- The Awful Truth (1937)
1h 30m | Comedy | TV-PG
A divorced couple experiences a series of adventures, which brings them closer together.
Director: Leo Mccarey
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy

Winner of an Oscar for Best Director -- Leo McCarey

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ralph Bellamy, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Viña Delmar, Best Film Editing -- Al Clark, and Best Picture

Ralph Bellamy got a good taste of Leo McCarey's working style very early on. He was simply told to show up on the set the following Monday for filming, with no script, no dialogue, or even a hint about his upcoming scene. So he went to see the director, but received no help at all from the perpetually upbeat McCarey. "He just joshed and said not to worry, we'd have lots of fun but there wasn't any script," Bellamy wrote years later. The actor showed up on set for the first day of production to find Irene Dunne at a piano. (McCarey almost always kept a piano on his sets, and he would often sit playing while he thought up a new scene or piece of business he wanted his actors to try.) Dunne was pecking away at the melody to "Home on the Range," and McCarey asked Bellamy if he could sing. "Can't get from one note to the other," the actor replied. "Great!" McCarey said and ordered the cameras to roll while Dunne played and Bellamy sang for all he was worth. When they finished the song, they heard no "Cut." Looking over, they found McCarey by the camera, doubled over with laughter. Finally he said, "Print it!" The scene ended up in the finished picture. That was the way McCarey worked, and Bellamy had to get used to it quickly.


2:00 PM -- His Girl Friday (1940)
1h 32m | Comedy | TV-G
An unscrupulous editor plots to keep his star reporter-and ex-wife-from re-marrying.
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy

The famous in-joke about Ralph Bellamy's character ("There's a guy in a taxi down at the court building looks just like that movie star, what's his name? Ralph Bellamy!" ) was almost left on the cutting room floor: Harry Cohn, the studio head, saw the dailies and responded in fury at the impertinence, but he let Howard Hawks leave it in, and it has always been one of the biggest laughs in the film.


3:45 PM -- Flight Angels (1940)
1h 14m | Romance | TV-G
Airline stewardesses vie for the love of a dashing pilot.
Director: Lewis Seiler
Cast: Virginia Bruce, Dennis Morgan, Wayne Morris, Ralph Bellamy

Wayne Morris became interested in flying during this production and became a pilot. He joined the Navy during WWII, became a fighter ace, and was awarded four Distinguished Flying Crosses and two Air Medals in 57 combat missions.


5:15 PM -- Sunrise at Campobello (1960)
2h 23m | Drama | TV-G
After a bout with polio, future president Franklin Roosevelt fights to save his political career.
Director: Vincent J. Donehue
Cast: Ralph Bellamy, Greer Garson, Hume Cronyn

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Edward Carrere and George James Hopkins, Best Costume Design, Color -- Marjorie Best, and Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD)

Star Ralph Bellamy, who plays Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt, reprising his Broadway stage role in this movie, said of the part in his auto-biography, "When the Smoke Hits the Fan" (1979): "A peculiar thing about Sunrise is that everyone knew the story before they came to the theatre, but in spite of that there was suspense" and "I think the appeal was the indomitability of the human spirit - the courage and will to live."



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- JUVENILE DELINQUENTS



8:00 PM -- The Young Savages (1961)
1h 40m | Drama | TV-14
An assistant DA suspects one of the delinquents he's prosecuting for murder is his son.
Director: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Dina Merrill, Shelley Winters

Burt Lancaster was forced by United Artists to make four films for $150,000 a picture in the 1960s: The Young Savages (1961), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), The Train (1964) and The Hallelujah Trail (1965) rather than his normal fee of $750,000, because of cost overruns at his production company, Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, for which he was personally responsible.


10:00 PM -- Crime in the Streets (1956)
1h 31m | Crime | TV-14
A social worker tries to end juvenile crime by getting involved with a street gang.
Director: Don Siegel
Cast: James Whitmore, Sal Mineo, Mark Rydell

When Wagner tells Frankie that Lenny has plead guilty to violating the "Sullivan Law", he is referring to New York City's Sullivan Act of 1911 which makes possession of a concealable firearm a misdemeanor and possession in public a felony, unless a permit has been issued by, and at the discretion of, the New York City Police Department.


11:45 PM -- 13 West Street (1962)
1h 20m | Crime | TV-14
Despite police warnings, an engineer takes on a teen gang.
Director: Philip Leacock
Cast: Alan Ladd, Rod Steiger, Michael Callan

Penultimate film and last leading role for Alan Ladd before his death in 1964 at age 50. He would appear in one more picture, The Carpetbaggers (1964), but in a supporting role.


1:15 AM -- Four Boys and a Gun (1957)
1h 13m | Crime
The moving story of four young men struggling against overwhelming odds to remain honest.
Director: William Berke
Cast: Frank Sutton, Tarry Green, James Franciscus

Film debut of James Franciscus and Patricia Bosworth.


2:45 AM -- Rumble on the Docks (1956)
1h 22m | Crime | TV-PG
The leader of a New York street gang gets involved with mobster.
Director: Fred F. Sears, Willard Sheldon
Cast: James Darren, Laurie Carroll, Michael Granger

James Darren's first movie.


4:15 AM -- Stakeout on Dope Street (1958)
1h 23m | Crime | TV-PG
Three teens get into the drug business when they discover heroin in a stolen briefcase.
Director: Irving Kershner
Cast: Yale Wexler, Steven Marlo, Jonathon Haze

In the 1950s, the heroin in California came from either Mexico or China - Mexican heroin was brown, and Chinese heroin was white. This was well established in the 1954 U.S. Senate Subcommittee Hearings on Juvenile Delinquency conducted in San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. In this film the cops say the heroin came "across the border" but it is described as (and looks like) a white powder, indicating it came from China. The first person the cops shake down in their search for it is an Asian woman.