TCM Schedule for Saturday, July 24, 2021 -- Primetime Theme: Family Fantasy Fun

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, it's Family Fantasy Fun night, with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and tom thumb (1958). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Edward, My Son (1949)
1h 52m | Drama | TV-G
A possessive father destroys anyone who threatens his plans for his son.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Deborah Kerr, Ian Hunter

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Deborah Kerr

Much of the film's failure has fallen on the shoulders of Spencer Tracy, whose performance is distinctly out of step with his co-stars. Like most leading men of his day, Tracy refused to attempt dialects. In many cases, this did not negatively impact a film -- i.e. Clark Gable and Leslie Howard's home-grown tones tend to go unnoticed in Gone With the Wind (1939) -- but in the case of Edward, My Son (1949), Tracy's resistance to effecting an English accent resulted in his being a distractingly incongruous American presence in an otherwise all-British cast, with the drama taking place in and around London. Robert Morley, who wrote the play on which the film is based, originated Tracy's role on stage.


8:00 AM -- Innertube Antics (1944)
7m | Animation
Embarrassed by his small rubber donation to the war effort a homeowner tries to excavate a half-buried inner tube.
Director: George Gordon
Cast: Pinto Colvig


8:09 AM -- Headpin Hints (1955)
8m | Short | TV-G
In this short film, professional bowlers Lee Jouglard and Sylvia Wene give some tips and show off their skill.
Director: William Deeke
Cast: Sylvia Wene, Fred Wolf, Lee Jouglard


8:18 AM -- Glimpses of Peru (1937)
8m | Short | TV-G
This short film focuses on the land, people and customs of Peru.
Cast: James A. Fitzpatrick


8:27 AM -- Devil's Island (1940)
1h 2m | Drama | TV-PG
A surgeon unjustly sent to Devil's Island fights to survive harsh treatment.
Director: William Clemens
Cast: Boris Karloff, Nedda Harrington, James Stephenson

Filmed late June-early August 1938 (copyright 1939), Boris Karloff's first screen role since The Invisible Menace (1938) in late 1937. His next two features were Mr. Wong, Detective (1938) (copyright 1938) and Son of Frankenstein (1939) (copyright 1939).


9:30 AM -- Batman: The Sign of the Sphinx (1943)
16m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
The Caped Crusader battles a Japanese scientist turning people into zombies.
Director: Lambert Hillyer.
Cast: Lewis Wilson, Douglas Croft, J. Carroll Naish

In every fight between Batman and Robin and Prince Daka's henchmen, the bad guys' fedoras never come off their heads.


10:00 AM -- All's Fair at the Fair (1947)
7m | Animation | TV-PG
Popeye escorts Olive to the fair, where Bluto is giving an aerial exhibition.
Director: Seymour Kneitel
Cast: Jack Mercer, Jackson Beck, Mae Questel


10:09 AM -- The Falcon in San Francisco (1945)
1h 6m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
A society sleuth enlists a little girl's help in nabbing a mob of silk smugglers.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Cast: Tom Conway, Rita Corday, Edward S. Brophy

Edward Brophy (who plays the Falcon's sidekick "Goldie" Locke) was one of Hollywood's busiest character actors in the 1940s, but may be best remembered as the voice of Timothy Mouse, the best friend and mentor to the big-eared title character in Walt Disney's original animated version of Dumbo.


11:30 AM -- What Price Safety! (1938)
21m | Short | TV-PG
Racketeers move in on construction business and endanger public safety.
Director: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Lionel Royce, George Houston, John Wray


12:00 PM -- The Petrified Forest (1936)
1h 23m | Drama | TV-G
An escaped convict holds the customers at a remote desert cantina hostage.
Director: Archie L. Mayo
Cast: Leslie Howard, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis

Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart had played the same roles in the stage version. Warner Bros. wanted to put Howard in the film but replace Bogart with Edward G. Robinson. Howard insisted on Bogart, sending a telegram to Jack L. Warner which read "Insist Bogart play Mantee; no Bogart, no deal." Bogart would later name his second child with Lauren Bacall Leslie, in honor of Howard, the man who gave him his first big break.


1:30 PM -- Mogambo (1953)
1h 55m | Adventure | TV-PG
In this remake of Red Dust, an African hunter is torn between a lusty showgirl and a married woman.
Director: John Ford
Cast: Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ava Gardner, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Grace Kelly

The primary language being spoken by the locals is Kiswahili (commonly referred to as Swahili), which is the principal language in what was then British East Africa (Kenya, Tanganyika, and Uganda) and in the eastern part of the Congo (what is now the Central African Republic). In actual fact, Swahili is the name of a tribe from the coastal region. Kiswahili means "of the Swahili". The language is derived from Bantu (an African parallel to Latin, as it is the foundation of many other languages) and Arabic (the language of the seaborne traders), plus it incorporates many words adapted from English (such as "baiskeli" which means "bicycle".). It is not a difficult language to learn and, being very flexible and adaptable, it is a thriving language.


3:45 PM -- The Misfits (1961)
2h 4m | Drama | TV-PG
A sensitive divorcee gets mixed up with modern cowboys roping mustangs in the desert.
Director: John Huston
Cast: Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift

After Eli Wallach was initially having trouble with his drunk scene at the unfinished desert house, director John Huston gave him this knowing advice: "A drunk doesn't act drunk - a drunk tries to act sober." The result was a perfect depiction by Wallach.


6:00 PM -- The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
1h 42m | Adventure | TV-G
The bandit king of Sherwood Forest leads his Merry Men in a battle against the corrupt Prince John.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland, Basil Rathbone

The ending that exists now in the film is not the one that was originally written. In the original ending, King Richard and his forces help battle Prince John's and Guy of Gisburne's forces outside the castle--this ending was scrapped because it was too expensive to film. In the back-up ending, Prince John and Guy of Gisbourne's forces chased Robin Hood's and King Richard's forces into Sherwood Forest and the climax took place there. This second ending was really never satisfactory, and was also scrapped. Finally, a third ending was written, in which the climactic battle takes place inside the Castle of Nottingham. Now King Richard's forces could be pared down to a handful of faithful retainers, and the new ending proved to be less expensive to shoot. To prepare the audience for the new ending, the abbot's scenes were given to the Bishop of the Black Canons.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- FAMILY FANTASY FUN



8:00 PM -- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
2h 25m | Musical | TV-G
An eccentric inventor uses his flying car to free a kingdom of children from oppression.
Director: Ken Hughes
Cast: Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, Lionel Jeffries

In his book "Keep Moving", Dick Van Dyke mentioned during the "Toot Sweets" segment, at 40 years old, he never bothered to warm up before a dance number. During filming, he felt something pop in his leg. He thought he had merely pulled a muscle, but soon after he couldn't walk without limping. He went to a doctor, who told him his whole body was full of arthritis, and within five years he wouldn't be able to get around at all without a cane or a wheelchair. Van Dyke responded to this prognosis by jumping up and dancing, which astounded the doctor. Almost 50 years later, in his brief role as Mr. Dawes Jr. in Mary Poppins Returns (2018), 92-year-old Van Dyke danced without any assistance.

If you'd like to read a completely different (and hysterically funny) take on this film, check out the view of bloggers Tom and Lorenzo at https://tomandlorenzo.com/2014/12/musical-monday-chitty-chitty-bang-bang/


10:45 PM -- tom thumb (1958)
1h 38m | Musical | TV-G
A six-inch-tall boy takes on a pair of comical crooks.
Director: George Pal
Cast: Russ Tamblyn, Alan Young, June Thorburn

The exterior of the castle where Terry Thomas and Peter Sellers have an argument while counting their purloined coins later appeared in another Sellers movie - it was also the headquarters for the deranged Herbert Lom character in 1976's The Pink Panther Strikes Again.


12:30 AM -- Cause for Alarm! (1951)
1h 14m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
A woman fights to intercept a letter in which her husband tries to prove her guilty of murder.
Director: Tay Garnett
Cast: Loretta Young, Barry Sullivan, Bruce Cowling

Producer Tom Lewis wanted Judy Garland for the leading role, but his wife Loretta Young also wanted it. She retained a lawyer who told him that he was discriminating against her because she was his wife. She got the part.


2:15 AM -- The Good Die Young (1954)
1h 38m | Crime | TV-PG
Four thieves think back on the problems that led them to a daring heist.
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Cast: Laurence Harvey, Gloria Grahame, Richard Basehart

Several of the main cast lived up to the "dying young" part of the title. Laurence Harvey and Margaret Leighton were married in 1957. She was made a CBE, won two Tony Awards, and died in 1976 at age 53. Harvey died in 1973 at age 45. The couple had divorced in 1961. Of the remaining cast, Stanley Baker died in 1976 at age 48, Susan Shaw in 1978 at age 49, Gloria Grahame in 1981 at 57 and James Kenney in 1987 at 56. As of 2021, only Dame Joan Collins is still alive at age 88, and Robert Morley passed away in 1992 at age 84.


4:15 AM -- Night Watch (1973)
1h 45m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
Ellen Wheeler is an unhappy housewife who settles her fraying nerves with alcohol.
Director: Brian G. Hutton
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, Billie Whitelaw

Dame Elizabeth Taylor's only performance in a horror movie.