TCM Schedule for Saturday, September 18, 2021 -- What's On Tonight - Guest Programmer Dana Delany

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, Dana Delany joins TCM as guest programmer for the night. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Bachelor in Paradise (1961)
1h 49m | Comedy | TV-PG
A writer moves into a housing development to study married couples.
Director: Jack Arnold
Cast: Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Janis Paige

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Henry Mancini (music) and Mack David (lyrics) for the song "Bachelor in Paradise"

Agnes Moorehead, who played a judge, and Reta Shaw, who was the nosy busybody, would both be on Bewitched (1964) a few years after this movie was released. Moorehead played Endora, and Shaw played Aunt Hagatha (4 episodes). They both also appeared in Pollyanna (1960) the previous year as Mrs. Snow and Tillie Lagerlof, respectively.


8:00 AM -- Little Johnny Jet (1953)
7m | Animation
A B-29 plane has problems finding work in the modern times but his son is a jet and helps out his dad.
Director: Tex Avery
Cast: June Foray, Daws Butler

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Cartoons -- Fred Quimby

Though intended strictly as a spoof of circa-1952 domesticity, the cartoon's theme of a B-29 competing against Mach 1-capable jets reflected a building debate within the US Air Force then and later over the utility of piston-engined aircraft in the age of jets. In real life the B-29 that tries to reenlist in the Air Force would not have been rejected; the Air Force assigned B-29s and similar piston-engined aircraft to missions such as tactical and counterinsurgency bombing, photo-reconnaissance, and search-and-rescue.


8:09 AM -- Opening Night (1931)
7m | Comedy | TV-G
This short film satirizes theatrical opening nights.
Director: Roy Mack
Cast: Leo Hoyt, Thomas E Jackson, Helyn Eby-rock


8:17 AM -- Glimpses of Kentucky (1941)
7m | Documentary | TV-G
This takes the viewer to the state of Kentucky.
Cast: James A. Fitzpatrick

IMDB writes that the cast included Man o' War as himself!


8:25 AM -- Danger Patrol (1937)
59m | Adventure | TV-G
Tempers ignite when an explosives carrier falls in love with a colleague's daughter.
Director: Lew Landers
Cast: Sally Eilers, John Beal, Harry Carey

According to Dan's ledger, after his apprenticeship he is making $40 per week - about double what the average blue-collar worker was making at the time. And that $40 would equate to around $695 in 2017.


9:30 AM -- Batman: Eight Steps Down (1943)
14m | Adventure | TV-PG
Episode 13 of the Batman serial.
Director: Lambert Hillyer
Cast: Lewis Wilson, Douglas Croft, J. Carroll Naish

While Gotham City in the comics (and all other films) is an analog of New York, both this movie and Batman and Robin (1949) treat it as an analog of Los Angeles, presumably because the limited budget did not allow a convincing disguise for the California filming location.


10:00 AM -- Wigwam Whoopie (1948)
7m | Animation | TV-PG
Popeye goes back into the abyss of time to arrive in America in the 16th Century.
Director: Izzy Sparber
Cast: Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, Jackson Beck

This short is withdrawn from most North American television broadcast due to Indigenous stereotyping and Olive Oyl portraying an Indian Princess with depicted skin color, along with the use of double entendres including the crudely reference in the short's title and the depicted curvy silhouette during the shower scene. It was given extremely limited airtime on Boomerang in the early 2000s. It hadn't surfaced on any home media until 2019 when released on a 1940s DVD box set. Consequently, it never appears on any digital purchasing.


10:09 AM -- The Case of the Curious Bride (1935)
1h 20m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
Perry Mason helps a young woman whose supposedly dead husband suddenly returns to life.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Warren William, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Woods

In The Case of the Curious Bride (1935), one of Errol Flynn's earliest films, his role consisted of lying on a marble slab as a corpse. There was also a flashback sequence towards the end of the film showing how Flynn was killed. The film in question has appeared at least twice on Turner Classic Movies during Errol Flynn festivals despite his very limited (certainly less than two minutes) screen time.


11:30 AM -- HAPPY TIMES AND JOLLY MOMENTS (1943)
18m | Comedy | TV-G
This offers a nostalgic look at the Mack Sennet comedies of 1914.
Cast: Lou Marcelle, James Bloodworth, Charles David Forrest

Edited from The Pullman Bride (1917) (Short), The Silent Man (1917), Married Life (1920), Love, Honor and Behave! (1920), Home Talent (1921), Call a Cop (1921) (Short), A Game Lady (1921) (Short), Love and Doughnuts (1921) (Short), By Heck (1921) (Short), The Duck Hunter (1922) (Short), On Patrol (1922) (Short), Ma and Pa (1922) (Short), Home Made Movies (1922) (Short), In the Dough (1933) (Short), Keystone Hotel (1935) (Short), and One Foot in Heaven (1941).


12:00 PM -- Brainstorm (1983)
1h 46m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-14
A scientist battles the military for control of a machine that records sensory experiences - including death.
Director: Douglas Trumbull
Cast: Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, Louise Fletcher

When Natalie Wood died near the end of principal photography, studio executives tried to kill the film and claim the insurance, saying that director Douglas Trumbull could not complete the film. However, Trumbull's contract gave that decision to him, and he insisted on completing it, using a stand-in and changing camera angles for the few remaining shots of Wood's character. The resulting hostility between Trumbull and the studio executives meant that this would be Trumbull's last Hollywood film. He has since devoted his efforts to effects work for IMAX films, theme park rides and the like.


2:00 PM -- The Prize (1963)
2h 16m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
An American Nobel Prize-winner gets mixed up with spies when he travels to Stockholm to collect his award.
Director: Mark Robson
Cast: Paul Newman, Edward G. Robinson, Elke Sommer

Bears many plot similarities, similar scenes, and actors in common with North by Northwest (1959) due to both being written by Ernest Lehman .


4:30 PM -- The Wild One (1953)
1h 19m | Crime | TV-14
A vicious biker gang terrorizes a small town while their leader falls for a local girl.
Director: Laslo Benedek
Cast: Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy, Robert Keith

Director Stanley Kramer hired real biker gangs to play themselves. When Kramer asked one of them what they were rebelling against, one cyclist cracked, "Well, what ya got?" That was incorporated into the script and became one of the film's most quoted lines.


6:00 PM -- The Harder They Fall (1956)
1h 49m | Drama | TV-PG
A cynical press agent exposes inhuman conditions in the boxing game.
Director: Mark Robson
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Rod Steiger, Jan Sterling

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Burnett Guffey

Humphrey Bogart's last film.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- GUEST PROGRAMMER DANA DELANY



8:00 PM -- Once a Thief (1965)
1h 47m | Drama | TV-PG
A young ex-con trying to go straight gets caught up in another criminal scheme.
Director: Ralph Nelson
Cast: Alain Delon, Van Heflin, Jack Palance

Production was delayed several days while the crew waited for cloudy daytime weather to add atmosphere to the big finale. This was just fine with star Ann-Margret. She had been introduced for the second time to future-husband Roger Smith, who was performing in a Frisco nightclub, and she wasn't looking forward to leaving him.


10:00 PM -- Man on a Tightrope (1953)
1h 45m | Drama | TV-PG
A Czech circus owner and his entire troupe employ a daring plan to escape from behind the iron curtain.
Director: Elia Kazan
Cast: Fredric March, Terry Moore, Gloria Grahame

According to director Elia Kazan in his autobiography, East German officials harassed his cast and crew and threatened to harm their relatives still living in that communist country. The first director of photography resigned due to these threats.


12:00 AM -- Human Desire (1954)
1h 30m | Drama | TV-PG
An unhappy wife seduces a veteran into helping her get rid of her husband.
Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford

Director Fritz Lang had desperately wanted Peter Lorre to play Jeff Warren, but Lang had treated Lorre so abusively during the making of M (1931) that the actor refused. Marlon Brando also rejected the role of Jeff Warren, saying "I cannot believe that the man who gave us the über dark Mabuse, the pathetic child murderer in M (1931) and the futuristic look at society, Metropolis (1927), would stoop to hustling such crap."


2:00 AM -- Taxi Driver (1976)
1h 52m | Drama | TV-MA
A loner becomes fixated on a teen prostitute.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Albert Brooks

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Robert De Niro, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Jodie Foster, Best Music, Original Score -- Bernard Herrmann (posthumously), and Best Picture

When Paul Schrader was first writing the script, he believed that he was just writing about loneliness, but as the process went on, he realized he was writing about the pathology of loneliness. His theory being that, for some reason, some young men (such as Schrader himself) subconsciously push others away to maintain their isolation, even though the main source of their torment is this very isolation.


4:00 AM -- The Super Cops (1974)
1h 35m | Crime | TV-MA
Two rogue cops enlist a streetwalker to help them stop a deadly drug ring.
Director: Gordon Parks
Cast: Ron Leibman, David Selby, Sheila Frazier

The real-life "Batman and Robin", officers David Greenberg and Robert Hantz, had a 97% conviction rate and became legends in New York City. They received every commendation and citation that the NYPD could award.