TCM Schedule for Thursday, September 16, 2021 -- What's On Tonight: The Greatest Stories Ever Rolled

In the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating the birth of the fabulous Lauren Bacall, born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924, in the Bronx, New York. The only child of William Perske and Natalie Weinstein-Bacal, Lauren's father, William Perske, was born in New Jersey to Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. Lauren's mother, Natalie Weinstein-Bacal, was a Romanian Jewish immigrant. Her father was a medical instrument salesman and her mother was a secretary. When she was six years old, Bacall's parents divorced, after which Lauren rarely saw her father. Her mother modified her own maiden name and adopted the surname Bacal. Lauren added an extra "l" after becoming an actress to avoid the name rhyming with "crackle".

Then in prime time, TCM continues their very strange theme - The Greatest Stories Ever Rolled! If you have never seen it before, you'll love Gene Kelly's dance on roller skates on a busy Manhattan street in It's Always Fair Weather (1956). Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- Bright Leaf (1950)
1h 50m | Drama | TV-PG
Two tobacco growers battle for control of the cigarette market.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Gary Cooper, Lauren Bacall, Patricia Neal

This was the last film in Lauren Bacall's seven-year contract with Warner Brothers.


8:15 AM -- Designing Woman (1957)
1h 58m | Comedy | TV-G
A sportswriter and a fashion designer have a lot of adjusting to do when they marry in haste.
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Gregory Peck, Lauren Bacall, Dolores Gray

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- George Wells

Lauren Bacall later starred in the Broadway musical Woman of the Year, which was considered a musicalization of the Hepburn-Tracy movie of the same name. Few seemed to remember that she had starred in this, an apparent remake of that movie, before playing nearly the same role on Broadway.


10:15 AM -- Sex and the Single Girl (1964)
1h 54m | Comedy | TV-PG
A journalist sets out to expose a female sex expert but falls for her instead.
Director: Richard Quine
Cast: Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Henry Fonda

While dressed in a woman's nightgown, Tony Curtis says he looks just like Jack Lemmon in the movie where he dresses up like a girl. Curtis and Lemmon co-starred in Some Like It Hot (1959), and both of them dressed like girls.


12:15 PM -- Key Largo (1948)
1h 41m | Crime | TV-G
A returning veteran tangles with a ruthless gangster during a hurricane.
Director: John Huston
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Claire Trevor

Fourth and final film pairing of Humphrey Bogart and his wife Lauren Bacall. A fifth film was planned several years later, but Bogart died before it could be made.


2:15 PM -- Dark Passage (1947)
1h 46m | Drama | TV-PG
A man falsely accused of his wife's murder escapes to search for the real killer.
Director: Delmer Daves
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett

The playing on the phonograph of "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan" as Vincent is recuperating at Irene's apartment after his surgery may have been an arcane wink to the audience. It was used in the previous Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall movie The Big Sleep (1946), when Vivian Rutledge (Bacall) paid off Marlowe (Bogart) at the gambling joint-nightclub.


4:15 PM -- The Big Sleep (1946)
1h 54m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
Private eye Philip Marlowe investigates a society girl's involvement in the murder of a pornographer.
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely

Due to Humphrey Bogart's affair with co-star Lauren Bacall, his marital problems escalated during filming, and his drinking often resulted in his being unable to work. Three months after the film was finished, Bacall and Bogart were married.


6:15 PM -- To Have and Have Not (1944)
1h 40m | Romance | TV-G
A skipper-for-hire's romance with a beautiful drifter is complicated by his growing involvement with the French resistance.
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan, Lauren Bacall

Lauren Bacall was terrified on the set of her first film. Fortunately, Humphrey Bogart was able to put her at ease with humor and acting tips. Bacall had nervous shakes in her first scenes and quickly learned that keeping her chin down and her eyes up kept her head from trembling. It developed into a trademark sultry look.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- THE GREATEST STORY EVER ROLLED



8:00 PM -- It's Always Fair Weather (1955)
1h 42m | Musical | TV-G
Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse and Dan Daily are in top form and star in this classic musical comedy.
Director: Gene Kelly
Cast: Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- André Previn

Gene Kelly bought the roller skates for the "I Like Myself" number from "It's Always Fair Weather" down the block from his house at Pioneer Hardware on Beverly Drive. He also mentioned that the skates were not altered in any way - they weren't locked to his shoes, so when he tapped in them, he had no help.


10:00 PM -- I Love Melvin (1953)
1h 16m | Musical | TV-G
A photographer's assistant promises to turn a chorus girl into a cover girl.
Director: Don Weis
Cast: Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Una Merkel

Donald O'Connor's dance number on roller skates preceded by two years the better remembered sequence with Gene Kelly in "It's Always Fair Weather."


11:30 PM -- Funny Girl (1968)
2h 31m | Musical | TV-PG
Comedienne Fanny Brice fights to prove that she can be the greatest star and find romance at the same time.
Director: William Wyler
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Omar Sharif, Kay Medford

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Barbra Streisand (Tied with Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter (1968).)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Kay Medford, Best Cinematography -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Sound -- Columbia Pictures, Best Film Editing -- Robert Swink, Maury Winetrobe and William Sands, Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics) for the song "Funny Girl", Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation) -- Walter Scharf, and Best Picture

The well-known logo, depicting an upside-down girl wearing roller skates, originated in the stage version, the result of a planned roller skating number that was dropped as the show went into rehearsal. The advertisement remained, however, and became so synonymous with the property that it carried over to the film version. For this occasion, choreographer Herbert Ross revisited the notion of a number on wheels, which became "Roller Skate Rag."


2:15 AM -- The Unholy Rollers (1972)
1h 28m | Action | TV-14
When her boorish boss at the factory begins to sexually harrass her, Karen quits and decides to try out for the roller derby.
Director: Vernon Zimmerman
Cast: Claudia Jennings, Louis Quinn, Betty Anne Rees

Martin Scorsese's first job as an editor.


4:00 AM -- Joy of Living (1938)
1h 30m | Comedy | TV-G
A Broadway musical star falls for an eccentric millionaire.
Director: Tay Garnett
Cast: Irene Dunne, Douglas Fairbanks, Alice Brady

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.''s duck voice is done by Clarence Nash. He was the original voice of Donald Duck and did it for 50 years, as well as Daisy Duck, Donald''s nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie and many other characters. He also did many of the bird sounds for The Tiki Room at Disneyland.