TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 22, 2021 -- Primetime Theme: Star of the Month - Elvis!

Today's daylight theme is a salute to Irene Dunne, though it's not her birthday. From IMDB:

Her last major movie was as Polly Baxter in 1952's It Grows on Trees (1952). After that she only appeared as a guest on television. Irene knew enough to quit while she was ahead of the game and this helped keep her legacy intact.

In 1957 she was appointed as a special US delegate to the United Nations during the 12th General Assembly by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, such was her widespread appeal. The remainder of her life was spent on civic causes. She even donated $10,000 to the restoration of the town fountain in her girlhood home of Madison, Indiana, in 1976, even though she had not been there since 1938 when she came home for a visit. She died of heart failure on September 4, 1990, in Los Angeles, California.

Then in primetime, TCM returns to Star of the Month Elvis Presley. Tonight's sub-theme is Troubled Youth. Enjoy!


6:30 AM -- Roberta (1935)
1h 25m | Musical | TV-G
A football player inherits a chic Paris fashion house.
Director: William A. Seiter
Cast: Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jerome Kern (music), Dorothy Fields (lyrics) and Jimmy McHugh (lyrics) for the song "Lovely to Look at"

The floor in the "I'll Be Hard to Handle" dance was the only wooden floor in all of the Fred Astaire / Ginger Rogers musicals. They both loved working on it, as they could tap and actually make the sounds of the taps. In the other musicals their taps were dubbed over, as they were too quiet. Their enjoyment is clearly seen, as their giggles at each other are unscripted.


8:30 AM -- Life with Father (1947)
1h 58m | Comedy | TV-G
A financier from New York rules his numerous family members.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: William Powell, Irene Dunne, Elizabeth Taylor

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- William Powell, Best Cinematography, Color -- J. Peverell Marley and William V. Skall, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Robert M. Haas and George James Hopkins, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

Playwrights Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, and Clarence Day's widow were on the set and given veto power on all aspects of this movie. According to author David Chierichetti, Mrs. Day approved Irene Dunne's characterization and even lent some jewelry that belonged to the real Vinnie.


10:45 AM -- Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
1h 35m | Comedy | TV-G
A woman's two lives as small-town innocent and author of torrid romances collide.
Director: Richard Boleslawski
Cast: Irene Dunne, Melvyn Douglas, Thomas Mitchell

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, and Best Film Editing -- Otto Meyer

Irene Dunne's first comedic role. She was so against doing this film that she took a two month trip to Europe in the hopes someo


12:30 PM -- I Remember Mama (1948)
2h 14m | Drama | TV-G
Norwegian immigrants face the trials of family life in turn-of-the-century San Francisco.
Director: George Stevens
Cast: Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes, Oscar Homolka

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Oskar Homolka, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Barbara Bel Geddes, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ellen Corby, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Nicholas Musuraca

Irene Dunne worked with dialect coach Judith Sater for two months to perfect her Norwegian accent. Dunne became so immersed in getting her character's voice down that she used the accent around her home with her family.


2:45 PM -- Sweet Adeline (1935)
1h 27m | Musical | TV-G
A gay nineties waitress rises from beer gardens to Broadway.
Director: Mervyn Le Roy
Cast: Irene Dunne, Donald Woods, Hugh Herbert

Like many film musicals adapted from stage successes of the time, the plot line and characters of "Sweet Adeline" bear only a faint resemblance to the ones in the original Broadway show.


4:15 PM -- This Man Is Mine (1934)
1h 16m | Drama | TV-G
A woman fights to keep her husband from cheating.
Director: John Cromwell
Cast: Irene Dunne, Constance Cummings, Ralph Bellamy

This film was on a "to-be-boycotted" list, compiled by the Catholic Church in Detroit, Michigan.


5:45 PM -- Thirteen Women (1932)
1h 14m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
A mysterious Eurasian tries to murder the 12 boarding school roommates who treated her like an outsider.
Director: George Archainbaud
Cast: Irene Dunne, Ricardo Cortez, Jill Esmond

Peg Entwistle, who played Hazel Clay Cousins, committed suicide, two days after the film's American date of release, Friday, September 16th, 1932. She jumped off the "H" of the Hollywood sign, then "Hollywoodland", on Sunday, September 18th, 1932.


7:00 PM -- No Other Woman (1933)
56m | Drama | TV-G
A newly rich couple finds wealth drives them apart.
Director: J. Walter Ruben
Cast: Irene Dunne, Charles Bickford, Gwili Andre

At the wedding reception, guest are seen pinning money on Anna's dress before dancing with her. This was a common practice in Polish immigrant communities and was called the "money dance". Sometimes the bride wears an apron or carries a purse in which to place the money. The purpose of the money is for the couple's honeymoon, to set up housekeeping, or for the couple's first-born child.



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



8:00 PM -- Jailhouse Rock (1957)
1h 36m | Musical | TV-G
After saving a woman's life from an attacker, Elvis is sent to prison for a short period.
Director: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Elvis Presley, Judy Tyler, Mickey Shaughnessy

Originally choreographer Alex Romero created a dance for the song "Jailhouse Rock" that was in a style apropos for a more classically trained dancer than Elvis Presley. When Romero realized that his plans for the number were never going to work, he asked Elvis how would he normally move to the song, leading Elvis to become the uncredited choreographer for what many consider his most famous dance number in all of his movies.


10:00 PM -- Follow That Dream (1962)
1h 50m | Musical | TV-PG
A family of squatters takes on a gambling chieftain and a corrupt social worker.
Director: Gordon Douglas
Cast: Elvis Presley, Arthur O'Connell, Anne Helm

The courtroom scene was filmed in the Citrus County Courthouse in nearby Inverness, Florida. When the courthouse was restored and made into the Old Courthouse Heritage Museum during the 1990s, photographs of the courtroom were scarce, since courtroom photography was not allowed there for many years. With permission from MGM, still photographs of the film were used as reference to recreate the look of the courtroom. As of 2009, the only known visual record of the original courtroom interior is that which is in Follow That Dream (1962).


12:00 AM -- Frankie and Johnny (1966)
1h 27m | Musical | TV-G
A riverboat gambler has to choose between his true love and the woman who's his lucky charm.
Director: Frederick De Cordova
Cast: Elvis Presley, Donna Douglas, Nancy Kovack

Several retakes were required because Elvis' form fitting slacks were judged to be too revealing, but the cost of re-filming crowd scenes was considered to be too expensive, and so Elvis and his bulge were occasionally left intact.


2:00 AM -- Change of Habit (1969)
1h 33m | Drama | TV-PG
A nun helps a doctor clean up the ghetto in which he lives.
Director: William Graham
Cast: Elvis Presley, Mary Tyler Moore, Barbara McNair

In a 1995 interview on the Terry Gross radio show, "Fresh Air", Mary Tyler Moore stated she was Elvis' last leading lady. She added that Elvis was quoted as saying there was only one leading lady he did not sleep with. Moore implied to Terry Gross that she was that one leading lady.


4:00 AM -- Elvis On Tour (1972)
1h 32m | Documentary | TV-G
Extensive concert footage highlights this documentary about the King's touring in the early 1970s.
Director: Robert Abel, Pierre Adidge
Cast: Elvis Presley, Bill Baize, Estell Brown

There is one sequence in the film where the producers chose to show a segment of Elvis performing live READY TEDDY at a Ed Sullivan Show in 1956. Elvis's manager tried hard to convince them not to use this segment as he didn't want Elvis to appear as a nostalgia act. He explained them that Elvis was a modern performer and they didn't have to show this 1956 performance. The producers left the segment in the film and it was released like this.