TCM Schedule for Friday, July 2, 2021 -- Primetime Theme: Friday Night Neo Noir

Last edited Wed Jun 30, 2021, 10:59 PM - Edit history (1)

Edited to add: I screwed up! This post, that I originally posted as Thursday, July 1, is actually Friday, July 2. I hate when I have to grab the schedule from the daily list rather than the monthly one. That said, the theme for the daylight hours is Keeping the Kids Busy, and the primetime theme is Friday Night Neo Noir. There will probably be a nice write-up on the website about Neo Noir, but it won't be posted until well into July 1.

I'm leaving the rest of the original post here, just as the full requirements of a true mea culpa.



TCM publishes a monthly calendar, with highlights from each day, both daytime and primetime. However, the preview for July in the June calendar is all wrong. It says that the daytime theme is Elvis and the primetime theme is Seeing Double.

Instead, the daytime theme appears to be kids in trouble, and the primetime theme looks like crime stories from the mid-1960s. Or something. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- The Mayor of 44th Street (1942)
1h 26m | Musical | TV-G
A dance-band manager has to cope with hooligans trying to get into the act.
Director: Alfred E. Green
Cast: George Murphy, Anne Shirley, William Gargan

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Harry Revel (music) and Mort Greene (lyrics) for the song "There's a Breeze on Lake Louise"

Based on an article written by Luther Davis and John Cleveland.


7:30 AM -- Youth Runs Wild (1944)
1h 7m | Drama | TV-PG
During World War II, neglected teens on the home front turn to delinquency.
Director: Mark Robson
Cast: Bonita Granville, Kent Smith, Jean Brooks

RKO tested two versions of the film - the one completed by producer Val Lewton and one where several controversial and violent scenes were cut. The final film is the latter version, causing Lewton to disavow the film and tried to have his name removed from the credits.


8:45 AM -- Boys Town (1938)
1h 36m | Drama | TV-G
True story of Father Flanagan's fight to build a home for orphaned boys.
Director: Norman Taurog
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy (Spencer Tracy was not present at the awards ceremony. His wife Louise Treadwell accepted the award on his behalf.), and Best Writing, Original Story -- Eleanore Griffin and Dore Schary

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Norman Taurog, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Meehan and Dore Schary, and Best Picture

Flanagan (Spencer Tracy) is talking to Tony (Gene Reynolds), who wants to be mayor of Boys Town, but thinks he cannot be elected because of his health and disability. Flanagan alludes to another person, who as a child was ill, but grew up to be president of the United States. He is talking about Theodore Roosevelt, who was a sickly child with debilitating asthma, but he overcame his health problems by embracing a strenuous lifestyle, as well as growing out of his asthma naturally in his young adult years.


10:30 AM -- Boys' Ranch (1946)
1h 37m | Western | TV-G
A ball player creates a ranch for troubled kids from the city.
Director: Roy Rowland
Cast: Jackie "Butch" Jenkins, James Craig, Skippy Homeier

Promoted by MGM as a successor to its award-winning Boys Town hit of 1938, the film is loosely based on ex-wrestler Cal Farley's Boys Ranch near Amarillo, Texas. The film was shot on location near Amarillo.


12:15 PM -- Boy Slaves (1939)
1h 12m | Drama | TV-PG
A young runaway ends up in a juvenile labor camp.
Director: P. J. Wolfson
Cast: Anne Shirley, Roger Daniel, James Mccallion

At the end of the film, Mr Albee is charged with "peonage". Peonage is a system where creditors forced debtors to work for them and is a form of involuntary servitude. Peonage was made illegal in the USA by an act of Congress in 1867.


1:30 PM -- Crime School (1938)
1h 26m | Drama | TV-G
A crusading warden sets out to improve conditions at a reform school.
Director: Lewis Seiler
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Gale Page, Billy Halop

The second of seven movies featuring The Dead End Kids.


3:15 PM -- Finishing School (1934)
1h 13m | Drama | TV-PG
A boarding-school girl has to cope with family problems and puppy love.
Director: Wanda Tuchock
Cast: Frances Dee, Billie Burke, Ginger Rogers

The tuition fee for Crockett Hall is $6,000 per year as stated at the beginning of the film. That amount would equate to over $111,000 in 2017.


4:45 PM -- Delinquent Daughters (1944)
1h 12m | Drama | TV-PG
Two teenage girls find trouble when they fall in with the wrong crowd.
Director: Albert Herman
Cast: June Carlson, Fifi D'orsay, Teala Loring

An original screenplay by Arthur St. Claire.


6:00 PM -- The Trouble With Angels (1966)
1h 52m | Comedy | TV-G
Two free spirits cause problems at a convent school.
Director: Ida Lupino
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Binnie Barnes, Camilla Sparv

Mary Wickes, who did not know how to swim, was ordered to take swimming lessons at the YMCA by Producer William Frye for the pool scene with Hayley Mills and June Harding. But for some reason, Wickes didn't take the lessons and wouldn't jump in the pool on the day of shooting. Director Ida Lupino, furious with Wickes, called Frye and he suggested they hire a stunt double to play Wickes from the back and have the double jump in the deep end of the pool. Wickes is only seen in close-up at the shallow end of the pool and had to be escorted in and out of the water by assistants. This incident cost the production several thousands of dollars and put them behind schedule.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- I DON'T KNOW!



8:00 PM -- Harper (1966)
2h 1m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-14
A broken-down private eye sets out to find a rich woman's missing husband.
Director: Jack Smight
Cast: Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris

The opening credits sequence: William Goldman later said he knew he'd succeed as a screenwriter as soon as he wrote the opening scene in Harper (1966) in which Harper is forced to recycle used coffee grounds from the trash for his morning cup of coffee. Harper's dismay at the result, as realized by Paul Newman on screen, immediately created empathy between the character and the audience. Ironically, that opening sequence was the last thing he wrote for that script.


10:15 PM -- Point Blank (1967)
1h 32m | Crime | TV-14
After being double-crossed and left for dead, a mysterious man tries to retrieve the money that was stolen from him.
Director: John Boorman
Cast: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn

This was the first film shot at Alcatraz, the infamous prison which had been shut since 1963, only three years before the production. Two weeks in the abandoned prison facility required the services of 125 crew members.


12:00 AM -- Warning Shot (1967)
1h 40m | Adaptation | TV-14
An officer goes on suspension when he shoots a suspect in self defense but the victim's gun is not found.
Director: Buzz Kulik
Cast: David Janssen, Ed Begley, Keenan Wynn

Pitchers Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax signed to appear in this movie as a tactic in salary negotiations for the 1966 baseball season. Both exercised escape clauses after coming to terms with the Dodgers.


2:00 AM -- What's the Matter with Helen? (1971)
1h 41m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-14
After their sons are convicted of murder, two women relocate to Hollywood to start a dance school.
Director: Curtis Harrington
Cast: Debbie Reynolds, Shelley Winters, Dennis Weaver

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Costume Design -- Morton Haack

According to Debbie Reynolds, Shelley Winters' psychiatrist advised her not to portray a woman having a nervous breakdown because, at the time, she was having a real-life nervous breakdown. "She's the kind of actress who becomes the part she's playing..." said Reynolds, "so all through the film she drove all of us insane!"


3:45 AM -- Fragment of Seeking (1946)
14m | Drama
A man seeks to find himself by exploring his sexuality.
Director: Curtis Harrington
Cast: Curtis Harrington

Two other actors appear uncredited. There is no dialogue.


4:05 AM -- Picnic (1949)
22m | Drama
Beginning in the reality of American middle-class life, PICNIC portrays the idealistic dream-quest of the protagonist, from which he is finally cast off.
Director: Curtis Harrington
Cast: Isabel Harrington, Raymond S Harrington

Shot in the summer of 1948, it was not scored and fully edited until summer-fall of 1949.


4:25 AM -- On the Edge (1949)
6m | Drama
A woman sits knitting on the porch of her home when a man appears and takes the knitting from her.
Director: Curtis Harrington
Cast: Isabel Harrington, Raymond S Harrington

Writer-director Curtis Harrington specifically edited the film to play with the classical composition "The Housatonic at Stockbridge" by Charles Ives.


4:45 AM -- The Assignation (1953)
8m | Drama
The film follows a masked figure through the labyrinthine canals of the city, building to a spectacular climax.
Director: Curtis Harrington

Curtis Harrington's first color film.


5:05 AM -- The Wormwood Star (1956)
10m | Documentary
A short film about the actress and artist Cameron (who used just her surname).
Director: Curtis Harrington
Cast: Marjorie Cameron

The film features paintings by Marjorie Cameron that were later ritually destroyed by her. This film is the only record of some of them.


5:40 AM -- Usher (2000)
40m | Adaptation
Truman Jones, a novice writer, comes into the home of an aging poet, Roderick Usher, seeking wisdom.
Director: Curtis Harrington
Cast: Tyler Hubby, Sean M Nepita, Jeffrey Schwarz

Curtis Harrington's first film was The Fall of the House of Usher (1942), a silent short that he made when he was 14 years old, and this remake was his final film before his death. In both versions Harrington cast himself in dual roles as twins Roderick and Madeline Usher.