TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 15, 2021 -- Primetime Theme: Star of the Month - Elvis!

Today's daylight theme is Nelson and Jeanette, as in Eddy and MacDonald. Expect a day full of over-wrought costumes and well-performed operetta tunes. Then in primetime, TCM returns to Star of the Month Elvis Presley. Tonight's sub-theme is Out of the Army. Enjoy!


6:30 AM -- I Married an Angel (1942)
1h 24m | Musical | TV-G
A playboy drops his many girlfriends when he falls in love with a grounded angel.
Director: Maj. W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Edward Everett Horton

Because the Hays Code had taken effect in the years since this project was first suggested to MGM, the show's "racy" content (the idea of an angel having sex with a mortal) had to be considerably toned down for the film.


8:00 AM -- The Girl of the Golden West (1938)
2h | Musical | TV-G
A frontierswoman shelters a notorious outlaw.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Walter Pidgeon

Giacomo Puccini adapted Belasco's play as an opera, La fanciulla del West, which opened in New York in 1910. It's still in the repertoire of major opera companies throughout the world.


10:15 AM -- Sweethearts (1938)
2h | Musical | TV-G
Bickering husband-and-wife stage stars are manipulated into a break-up for publicity purposes.
Director: W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan

Winner of an Honorary Oscar Award for Oliver T. Marsh and Allen M. Davey for the color cinematography of the M-G-M production Sweethearts

Nominee for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD), and Best Music, Scoring -- Herbert Stothart

The lavish musical number that was staged for the title song, re-uses the enormous, reticulated descending silk curtain that was originally created for the 'Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody' number in "The Great Ziegfeld" in 1936. This remarkable, custom made artifact was also later used in "Babes on Broadway" (closing number) and "Lady be Good" (closing number.


12:15 PM -- Naughty Marietta (1935)
1h 20m | Musical | TV-G
A French princess in Colonial America gets involved with an Indian scout.
Director: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan

Winner of an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (sound director)

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Picture

Jeanette MacDonald very much wanted Allan Jones to star in this film as her leading man. Jones was unable to work on the film due to his role in The Marx Brothers's A Night at the Opera (1935). Jones's scheduling conflict set the stage for Nelson Eddy to act alongside MacDonald, in what would become the first of eight film pairings featuring the two stars.


2:00 PM -- Rose-Marie (1936)
1h 53m | Musical | TV-G
An opera singer goes undercover in the Canadian wilderness to hunt for her criminal brothers.
Director: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Reginald Owen

MGM's original intention was to film in Technicolor and to star Grace Moore. If these plans had gone through, this would have been MGM's first feature-length Technicolor film. However, Moore decided to pass on the film, Jeanette MacDonald was cast, photography switched to black-and-white, and this film became one of the biggest musical successes in MGM's history.


4:00 PM -- New Moon (1940)
1h 45m | Musical | TV-PG
A revolutionary leader romances a French aristocrat in Louisiana.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Mary Boland

In the film as originally shot, Buster Keaton appears in a comic relief supporting part as the prisoner "Lulu". This would have been his first official appearance in an MGM feature production since Louis B Mayer fired him in February 1933. Several stills survive of Keaton in this role, in a scene with Jeanette MacDonald. Although Keaton's scenes were cut before the film was released, he is still visible in the background during several production numbers - particularly "Stout Hearted Men".


5:45 PM -- Maytime (1937)
2h 12m | Musical | TV-G
An opera star's manager tries to stop her romance with a penniless singer.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, John Barrymore

Nominee for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD), and Best Music, Score -- Nat W. Finston (head of department) and score by Herbert Stothart

When filming began in 1936 (in color), the original opera finale was also recorded, staged and shot. This was to have been Act II of Giacomo Puccini's "Tosca", one of the few operatic works with major roles for baritone (Scarpia) and soprano as equals (Tosca). It also allowed Jeanette MacDonald to sing the famous aria "Vissi D'arte". By the time shooting recommenced in black and white, this idea was scrapped and replaced with an elaborate fake Russian opera "Czaritza" created by Herbert Stothart to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, presumably to allow for a big Duet (in "Tosca", she murders Scarpia by stabbing him through the heart!). The rewritten story of "Maytime" presumably demanded it. Sadly, the Technicolor "Tosca" sequence does not appear to have survived, which is a pity as it would have been fascinating to see MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in a major operatic sequence and in color.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- ELVIS!



8:00 PM -- Blue Hawaii (1961)
1h 41m | Musical | TV-PG
A Hawaiian playboy defies his possessive mother to take a job with a tourist agency.
Director: Norman Taurog
Cast: Elvis Presley, Joan Blackman, Nancy Walters

This was the most financially successful of all of Elvis Presley's movies.


10:00 PM -- G.I. Blues (1960)
1h 44m | Musical | TV-G
An American stationed in Germany bets that he can make an icy entertainer fall for him.
Director: Norman Taurog
Cast: Elvis Presley, Juliet Prowse, Robert Ivers

The 3rd Armored Division was Elvis's division when he was in the army, as it is in this movie.


12:00 AM -- Kid Galahad (1962)
1h 35m | Musical | TV-PG
A ruthless fight promoter tries to turn a singing mechanic into a champion.
Director: Phil Karlson
Cast: Elvis Presley, Gig Young, Lola Albright

Edward Asner's movie debut.


2:00 AM -- Elvis: That's The Way It Is 2001 (1970)
1h 48m | Documentary | TV-14
Restored version of the King's classic Vegas concert film.
Director: Denis Sanders
Cast: Elvis Presley, James Burton, Glen D. Hardin

Footage of the party held in Elvis's suite after his August 10th, 1970 opening show finds him in the company of Sammy Davis, Jr., Cary Grant, Kenny Rogers, and Roman Polanski.


4:00 AM -- The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)
1h 10m | Comedy | TV-PG
A nerdy floral shop assistant invents a carnivorous monster plant that feeds on human blood.
Director: Roger Corman
Cast: Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles

Made in 2½ days on a budget of $22,500.


5:30 AM -- MGM Parade Show #18 (1955)
25m | Documentary | TV-G
Greta Garbo and John Barrymore perform in a clip from Grand Hotel.