TCM Schedule for Friday, October 8, 2021 -- What's On Tonight: A Night With Nancy Sinatra

In the daylight hours, it's a continuation of Star of the Month Lucy, with a bit of Messy Exes in the afternoon. Then in prime time, TCM is giving us an evening with Nancy Sinatra. From her IMDB mini-bio:

Nancy Sandra Sinatra was born the first child of Frank Sinatra and Nancy Barbato Sinatra on June 8, 1940 in Jersey City, New Jersey. Her first television appearance was with her father and Elvis Presley in 1959. She first appeared as a film actress in For Those Who Think Young (1964) and Get Yourself a College Girl (1964). Nancy appeared alongside Elvis in the musical comedy Speedway (1968). She also had a successful career as a singer with two United States chart-toppers ("These Boots Are Made for Walking" and the duet with her father called "Somethin' Stupid" ) as well as numerous other chart entries including the John Barry / Leslie Bricusse penned theme song to the James Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967). Lee Hazlewood wrote many of her songs and sang with her on some of them. By the early 1970s, she was covering new ground by recording songs from other writers such as Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson, Lynsey de Paul and Roy Wood. In recent years, Nancy has made a comeback also not hindered by the recent successful re-recording of "Somethin' Stupid" by Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman.

Enjoy!


5:30 AM -- Chatterbox (1936)
1h 8m | Comedy | TV-G
A country girl tries to talk her way into a stage career.
Director: George Nicholls Jr.
Cast: Anne Shirley, Phillips Holmes, Edward Ellis

Note a young (and blonde) Lucille Ball in just the second year of a seven-year contract at RKO. In less than twenty years from the release of this picture, she would own the studio.


6:45 AM -- Beauty for the Asking (1939)
1h 8m | Romance | TV-G
A jilted woman makes her fortune in cosmetics.
Director: Glenn Tryon
Cast: Lucille Ball, Patric Knowles, Donald Woods

Loosely based on the career of cosmetics giant Helena Rubenstein, founder of a company bearing her name that made her one of the richest women in the world. After her death, the company was sold to Colgate-Palmolive in 1973 for $142.3M and was subsequently acquired by L'Oreal in 1988, which as of 2021 still maintains the brand.


8:00 AM -- Five Came Back (1939)
1h 15m | Adventure | TV-PG
Survivors of a jungle plane crash realize that their repaired airplane can only carry five passengers.
Director: John Farrow
Cast: Chester Morris, Lucille Ball, Wendy Barrie

According to Lucille Ball's biographer, Charles Higham, Ball spent much of her time during production fending off the unwanted advances of co-star Chester Morris. The crude advances of the soon-to-be-divorced Morris, production delays, daily feuds with director John Farrow, and closer-than-desired encounters with wildlife that had stowed away in some of the trees that had been brought on set as props made this an unpleasant shoot for Ball.


9:30 AM -- The Affairs of Annabel (1938)
1h 15m | Comedy | TV-G
A screen queen suffers through harebrained publicity stunts schemed up by her press agent.
Director: Ben Stoloff
Cast: Jack Oakie, Lucille Ball, Ruth Donnelly

This is the second of three films in which character actor Granville Bates appeared on screen alongside Lucille Ball. Each film in which they appeared together was released in 1938 and starred Ball as the female lead. The other films to include the two actors were Go Chase Yourself (1938) and Next Time I Marry (1938).


11:00 AM -- Annabel Takes a Tour (1938)
59m | Comedy | TV-G
A movie star on tour gets thrown into a variety of wacky publicity stunts.
Director: Lew Landers
Cast: Jack Oakie, Lucille Ball, Ruth Donnelly

Also known as Annabel Takes a Trip.


12:15 PM -- Panama Lady (1939)
1h 5m | Drama | TV-G
An oil man forces a cabaret singer to work for him after she tries to rob him.
Director: Jack Hively
Cast: Lucille Ball, Allan Lane, Steffi Duna

Remake of Panama Flo (1932), starring Helen Twelvetrees and Robert Armstrong.


1:30 PM -- The Main Attraction (1962)
1h 30m | Drama | TV-PG
An unscrupulous drifter causes problems for a small European circus.
Director: Daniel Petrie
Cast: Pat Boone, Nancy Kwan, Mai Zetterling

Written by John Patrick, who had received an Oscar nomination for The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946).


3:15 PM -- Gold Dust Gertie (1931)
1h 21m | Comedy | TV-G
Business partners try to hide their gold-digging ex-wife from their current spouses.
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Winnie Lightner, Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson

Chic Johnson and Ole Olsen made up the lunatic comedy team, Olsen and Johnson. The pair made several films, among which the most successful (and most representatively loony) was Hellzapoppin' (1941).


4:30 PM -- Her Cardboard Lover (1942)
1h 33m | Romance | TV-PG
A flirt tries to make her fiance jealous by hiring a gigolo.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Norma Shearer, Robert Taylor, George Sanders

Although Norma Shearer never appeared on-screen again after this fiasco, as the inheritor of Irving Thalberg's thousands of shares of M-G-M stock, she did continue to serve in an advisory capacity, helping such unknowns as Robert Stack and Janet Leigh procure screen tests and long-term contracts with the studio.


6:15 PM -- Mannequin (1938)
1h 35m | Romance | TV-PG
A small-time crook's wife falls for a shipping magnate.
Director: Lew Borzage
Cast: Joan Crawford, Spencer Tracy, Alan Curtis

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Edward Ward (music), Chet Forrest (lyrics) and Bob Wright (lyrics) for the song "Always and Always"

The only film where Joan Crawford and Spencer Tracy, two of MGM's top stars of the era, appear together.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- A NIGHT WITH NANCY SINATRA



8:00 PM -- Movin' With Nancy (1967)
1h | Music
A fast-paced musical tour of California.
Director: Jack Haley Jr.
Cast: Nancy Sinatra, Dean Martin, Lee Hazelwood

On the DVD commentary track, Nancy spots Teri Garr as one of the dancers in the opening number but director Jack Haley, Jr. had forgotten Garr was involved.


9:15 PM -- Marriage on the Rocks (1965)
1h 49m | Comedy | TV-PG
A couple divorces by mistake during a madcap Mexican vacation.
Director: Jack Donohue
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr, Dean Martin

Nancy Sinatra was nervous acting opposite father Frank Sinatra for the very first time. But worse than that, she was in the midst of a devastating divorce from first husband Tommy Sands, later saying that it was a good time for all the fellas on the set, but she herself was extremely troubled.


11:15 PM -- For Those Who Think Young (1964)
1h 36m | Comedy | TV-G
Teens fight to keep a wealthy businessman from shutting down their beachside hangout.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Cast: James Darren, Pamela Tiffin, Woody Woodbury

Claudia Martin, who plays Sue Lewis, is Dean Martin's daughter.


1:00 AM -- The Last of the Secret Agents? (1966)
1h 32m | Comedy
Two Americans are recruited abroad to foil an organization out to steal the Venus de Milo.
Director: Norman Abbott
Cast: Marty Allen, Steve Rossi, John Williams

GGI stood for Good Guys Inc.


2:45 AM -- Scissors (1991)
1h 47m | Thriller | TV-MA
A repressed young woman is assaulted in the elevator of her building, and her neighbors try to help her recover.
Director: Frank Defelitta
Cast: Sharon Stone, Steve Railsback, Ronny Cox

After the success of Sharon Stone's Basic Instinct (1992), this film was retitled in German as "Final Instinct".


4:45 AM -- Schizoid (1980)
1h 28m | Horror | TV-MA
An advice columnist begins to receive threatening notes from a stalker.
Director: David Paulsen
Cast: Klaus Kinski, Marianna Hill, Craig Wasson

Writer and Director David Paulsen was told by Producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus that he had one month to have a screenplay ready that could be shot for under a million dollars, and that could feature Klaus Kinski, who was under contract. Paulsen also had only one month to secure a crew and shooting locations.