TCM Schedule for Friday, October 15, 2021 -- What's On Tonight: Guest Programmer Nick Davis

In the daylight hours, it's a continuation of Star of the Month Lucy, with a visit to the Circus in the afternoon. Then in prime time, TCM is featuring guest programmer Nick Davis. I think he is the Nick Davis from this Wikipedia entry:

Nick Davis (born 1965) is a writer, director, and producer. He is the son of film director Peter Davis and the late Johanna Mankiewicz Davis. His paternal grandparents were the novelist and screenwriter Tess Slesinger and the screenwriter Frank Davis. His maternal grandfather was the screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz. His brother, Tim, is a television writer and his cousins include screenwriter John Mankiewicz, screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz, TCM host Ben Mankiewicz and TV journalist Josh Mankiewicz. Davis lives in New York City with his wife, novelist Jane Mendelsohn, and their two daughters, Lily and Grace.

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Next Time I Marry (1938)
1h 5m | Comedy | TV-G
To secure a huge fortune, an heiress has to find a husband fast.
Director: Garson Kanin
Cast: Lucille Ball, James Ellison, Lee Bowman

A good portion of this film's plot involves Lucille Ball traveling across the country in a mobile trailer. Earlier that year (1938), Ball also spent much of her screen time inside of a mobile trailer in the film Go Chase Yourself (1938). Later, in one of her better-known film roles, she starred in yet another mobile trailer-themed film in The Long, Long Trailer (1954).


7:15 AM -- Go Chase Yourself (1938)
1h 15m | Comedy | TV-G
A bank teller gets mixed up with crooks.
Director: Edward F. Cline
Cast: Joe Penner, Lucille Ball, Richard Lane

First starring role for Lucille Ball.


8:30 AM -- A Girl, a Guy and a Gob (1941)
1h 31m | Comedy | TV-G
A stuffy boss tries to steal his secretary from her sailor boyfriend.
Director: Richard Wallace
Cast: George Murphy, Lucille Ball, Edmond O'brien

First film produced by Harold Lloyd in which he did not star.


10:15 AM -- Twelve Crowded Hours (1939)
1h 4m | Crime | TV-G
A reporter avenges his editor's murder by gangsters.
Director: Lew Landers
Cast: Richard Dix, Lucille Ball, Allan Lane

The Floy Floy Club in this film refers to part of the title of a popular 1938 jazz recording "Flat Foot Floogie (with a Floy Floy)". "Floogie" was originally "Floozie", meaning a woman with loose morals, but the record label objected to that term, so it was changed. Floy Floy was an African-American slang term for venereal disease - something this film's producers did not know at the time. So, the original title of the tune was about a flat-footed prostitute with VD.


11:30 AM -- You Can't Fool Your Wife (1940)
1h 5m | Comedy | TV-PG
A neglected housewife turns herself into a glamour girl to win her husband back.
Director: Ray Mccarey
Cast: Lucille Ball, James Ellison, Robert Coote

Based on the story The Romantic Mr. Hinklin by Richard Carroll and Ray McCarey.


12:45 PM -- The Dark Tower (1943)
1h 33m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
A romantic triangle involving a hypnotist and two trapeze artists threatens to destroy a circus.
Director: John Harlow
Cast: Herbert Lom, Terence Fisher, Anne Crawford

"The Dark Tower" was a play by George S. Kaufman and Alexander Woollcott which ran for 57 performances on Broadway between November 1933 and January 1934. Warner Brothers bought the rights and made it as a vehicle for Edward G. Robinson later that year under the title "The Man with Two Faces". Nine years later Warner Brothers U.K. remade the film under the original title "The Dark Tower". The two films have very little resemblance to each other in their plots and backgrounds except for the heroine falling under the spell of a demonic fiend who controls her mind. The Hollywood version is faithful to the original with a Broadway actor trying to rescue his sister from her Svengali husband; the British version has an aerial artist in the power of a hypnotist against a circus background. Both films are highly enjoyable.


2:30 PM -- Carnival Story (1954)
1h 35m | Drama | TV-PG
A trapeze act is torn apart by jealousy when the partners take in a starving girl.
Director: Kurt Neumann
Cast: Anne Baxter, Steve Cochran, Lyle Bettger

This was filmed simultaneously in a German language version, Circus of Love (1954). The cast of the German version can be seen in uncredited cameo appearances in the English language version, and vice versa.


4:15 PM -- The Big Circus (1959)
1h 49m | Drama | TV-PG
A ringleader tries to keep his circus on the road despite the efforts of a saboteur.
Director: Joseph M. Newman
Cast: Victor Mature, Red Buttons, Rhonda Fleming

Irwin Allen initially intended to have parts for 40 stars, similar to how he made The Story of Mankind in 1957.


6:15 PM -- Carnival of Souls (1962)
1h 20m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
After surviving a car crash, a church organist is haunted by the undead.
Director: Herk Harvey
Cast: Candace Hilligoss, Herk Harvey, Frances Feist

Its original theatrical release in 1962 was a box office failure. Subsequent airings on late-night television helped it gain it a strong cult following. It's now regarded as a landmark in psychological horror.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- GUEST PROGRAMMER NICK DAVIS



8:00 PM -- My Dear Miss Aldrich (1937)
1h 13m | Comedy | TV-G
A glamorous woman takes over a newspaper and clashes with the editor.
Director: George B. Seitz
Cast: Edna May Oliver, Maureen O'Sullivan, Walter Pidgeon

Martha's sixty-five cent cafeteria dinner would equate to $10.75 in 2016.


9:30 PM -- Citizen Kane (1941)
1h 59m | Drama | TV-PG
The investigation of a publishing tycoon's dying words reveals conflicting stories about his life.
Director: Orson Welles
Cast: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles (On Friday, July 19th, 2003, Orson Welles' Oscar statuette went on sale at an auction at Christie's, New York, but was voluntarily withdrawn so the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences could buy it back for just 1 dollar. The statuette, included in a large selection of Welles-related material, was going to be sold by Beatrice Welles, the youngest of the filmmaker's three daughters and the sole heir of his estate and was expected to sell at over 300,000 dollars.)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Orson Welles, Best Director -- Orson Welles, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Gregg Toland, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Perry Ferguson, Van Nest Polglase, A. Roland Fields and Darrell Silvera, Best Sound, Recording -- John Aalberg (RKO Radio SSD), Best Film Editing -- Robert Wise, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Bernard Herrmann, and Best Picture

In the original script, Kane's son survives into adulthood and joins a radical group attempting to overthrow the government. 33 years after the film's release Patricia Hearst - granddaughter of Willam Randolph Hearst - was kidnapped by and brainwashed into joining the radical Symbionese Liberation Army.


11:45 PM -- All About Eve (1950)
2h 18m | Drama | TV-PG
An ambitious young actress tries to take over a star's career and love life.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Sanders, Best Director -- Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head and Charles Le Maire, Best Sound, Recording -- Thomas T. Moulton, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Anne Baxter, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Celeste Holm, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Thelma Ritter, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Milton R. Krasner, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lyle R. Wheeler, George W. Davis, Thomas Little and Walter M. Scott, Best Film Editing -- Barbara McLean, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Alfred Newman

After the film's release, Bette Davis implored Joseph L. Mankiewicz to write a sequel that would focus on the characters of Margo and Bill (played by her lover on-and-off screen, Gary Merrill). Many years later, after she and Merrill had married and divorced, Davis ran into Mankiewicz at a party and said to him, "Joe, you can forget that sequel. I've played it and it doesn't work."


2:15 AM -- River's Edge (1986)
1h 40m | Drama
A group of apathetic high school students learn a friend has killed his girlfriend.
Director: Tim Hunter
Cast: Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye

Although it is a work of fiction, the movie was inspired by the murder of Marcy Conrad, who was killed by her boyfriend Anthony Jacques Broussard in Milpitas, California, in 1981.


4:00 AM -- Over the Edge (1979)
1h 35m | Crime | TV-PG
Neglected suburban teens turn to crime as an outlet.
Director: Jonathan Kaplan
Cast: Michael Eric Kramer, Pamela Ludwig, Matt Dillon

Matt Dillon didn't actually want or expect to be cast in the movie. He went to the audition just so he could skip school.