TCM Schedule for Saturday, October 16, 2021 -- What's On Tonight: Eastwood - Part I

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. In the afternoon, there's a brief salute to the late Jane Powell with a quartet of her musicals, Luxury Liner (1948), Small Town Girl (1953), Royal Wedding (1951), and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). Then in primetime, TCM gives us the first of two nights dedicated to Clint Eastwood. Ignore his politics for a night and enjoy Where Eagles Dare (1968) and Every Which Way But Loose (1978). Part II is next Saturday. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Ghosts--Italian Style (1969)
1h 33m | Comedy | TV-PG
An unemployed opera singer and his wife find jobs as caretakers in a haunted castle.
Director: Renato Castellani
Cast: Sophia Loren, Vittorio Gassman, Mario Adorf

This film was made in two languages, Italian and English. In the English version, onscreen signs and writing are in English instead of Italian, and the main cast speak their lines in English. I don't know if TCM is showing the English or Italian version.


8:00 AM -- The Uninvited Pest (1943)
7m | Animation | TV-G
Barney Bear has a log cabin that keeps being invaded by a hungry squirrel who is looking for nuts.
Director: Rudolf Ising
Cast: Pinto Colvig

Last Barney Bear cartoon directed by Rudolf Ising when he left MGM.


8:09 AM -- Robot Wrecks (1941)
10m | Short | TV-G
In this comedic short, a gang of children build a robot to assist them with their chores.
Director: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: Robert Blake, Billy 'Froggy' Laughlin, Darla Hood

In her one line - a reply of "Yes, John" to her husband - Julia Laughlin, Froggy's mother (played by Margaret Bert, obviously over-dubbed by a male actor), reveals that she has a froggy voice just like her son. That gag is not used in Radio Bugs (1944), where Froggy's mother (a different actress, uncredited) appears again, knitting, and has a pleasant, typically female voice.


8:21 AM -- Ancient Egypt (1938)
8m | Documentary | TV-G
This short film takes a look at ancient Egypt.
Cast: James A. Fitzpatrick


8:30 AM -- Waterfront (1939)
59m | Drama | TV-PG
A hard-living dockworker finds religion until his brother is murdered.
Director: Terry Morse
Cast: Gloria Dickson, Dennis Morgan, Marie Wilson

Remake of the James Cagney film Taxi (1931), both films being based on the play The Blind Spot by Kenyon Nicholson.


9:30 AM -- Batman and Robin: Tunnel of Terror (1949)
17m | Short | TV-PG
Batman and Robin fight to save an airborne cargo of precious gems.
Director: Spencer Bennett.
Cast: Robert Lowery, Johnny Duncan, Jane Adams

If Robert Lowery's Batman costume seems a bit ill-fitting, it's because it was tailored for Kirk Alyn, a bigger man. Alyn starred as Superman in Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman (1950). Lowery had a terrible time trying to see out of the poorly designed Batman mask.


10:00 AM -- Robin Hood-Winked (1948)
7m | Animation | TV-PG
Old Sherwood Forest, the home of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, gets some new inhabitants: Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto.
Director: Seymour Kneitel
Cast: Jack Mercer, Jackson Beck, Mae Questel

Popeye is Robin Hood and Bluto is the tax collector. Surprisingly, Olive Oyl is not Maid Marian; she's the owner and barmaid at a local pub.


10:09 AM -- The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (1937)
1h 10m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
Perry Mason tries to find out if a long-lost heiress is the real thing.
Director: William Clemens
Cast: Donald Woods, Ann Dvorak, Anne Nagel

Author Erle Stanley Garner objected so vehemently to what he felt was the miscasting of Ricardo Cortez as Mason, that Warners replaced him with Donald Woods.


11:30 AM -- A Thrill for Thelma (1935)
18m | Short | TV-G
A young girl wanting a life of luxury takes the easy way and winds up in jail.
Director: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: Robert Livingston, Robert Warwick, Irene Hervey

Fourth of 48 MGM "Crime Does Not Pay" shorts released from 1935 to 1947.


12:00 PM -- Luxury Liner (1948)
1h 37m | Musical | TV-PG
The daughter of a ship's captain becomes a sea-going cupid.
Director: Richard Whorf
Cast: George Brent, Jane Powell, Lauritz Melchior

In the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the Danish tenor Lauritz Melchior was generally considered the world's preeminent performer of Wagner's big heldentenor (heroic tenor) roles, such as Siegmund, Siegfried, Lohengrin, Walther von Stolzing, Tristan, Tannhauser, and Parsifal. Numerous recordings of him singing these roles are available.


2:00 PM -- Small Town Girl (1953)
1h 32m | Musical | TV-G
A sheriff's daughter falls for a playboy arrested for speeding.
Director: Leslie Kardos
Cast: Jane Powell, Farley Granger, Ann Miller

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Nicholas Brodszky (music) and Leo Robin (lyrics) for the song "My Flaming Heart"

The film contains Ann Miller's best remembered musical number from the MGM era, "I've Gotta Hear That Beat." The brainchild of master showman Busby Berkeley, the highly inventive sequence placed Miller amidst a sea of disembodied musical instruments that appear to be playing themselves through cut-outs in the floor. While the number has long been considered a feast for the eyes, few are aware that Berkeley complemented the visual experience in audio terms, too, as every time Miller passes a new section of the orchestra, that particular instrument takes the lead on the soundtrack.


4:00 PM -- Royal Wedding (1951)
1h 33m | Musical | TV-G
A brother-and-sister musical team find romance when they tour to London for Elizabeth II's wedding.
Director: Stanley Donen
Cast: Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Burton Lane (music) and Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics) for the song "Too Late Now"

It's sometimes asked how Fred Astaire was able to take a picture off the dresser and put it back while he's 'on the ceiling'. According to Stanley Donen, magnets were used to hold it in place when the set turned. Close inspection shows that Astaire gives it a tug when he's taking it off.


6:00 PM -- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
1h 43m | Musical | TV-G
When their older brother marries, six lumberjacks decide it's time to go courting for themselves.
Director: Stanley Donen
Cast: Howard Keel, Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Adolph Deutsch and Saul Chaplin

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich and Dorothy Kingsley, Best Cinematography, Color -- George J. Folsey, Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters, and Best Picture

Howard Keel called this film "one of my happiest filmmaking experiences at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The cast was magnificent, and the chemistry irresistible. Jack Cummings had his stamp on the whole picture. Jane Powell, as Milly, was perfect, and I loved working with her. She was cute and persnickety and a multi-talented pro. It truly was one big happy family." In an interview for TNT's "Our Favorite Movies" series, Keel said, "A 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' doesn't come along too often. I remember thinking, 'If this isn't a hit, I give up,' because it was so much fun to make."



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- EASTWOOD - PART I



8:00 PM -- Where Eagles Dare (1968)
2h 38m | War | TV-14
A team of Allied Forces specialists is sent on a mission to Bavaria to rescue a kidnapped general.
Director: Brian G. Hutton
Cast: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure

The castle, Schloss Hohenwerfen, is the same castle that can be seen in the background in a scene from The Sound of Music (1965) when Maria (Dame Julie Andrews) and the kids are singing Do Re Me. It is also the same castle that was used as the Führer's headquarters in the Amazon original series The Man in the High Castle (2015).


11:00 PM -- Every Which Way but Loose (1978)
1h 54m | Comedy | TV-14
Philo Beddoe is a bare-knuckle boxer who travels to his fights with his friend Orville, an orangutan.
Director: James Fargo
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis

According to the book "Clint Eastwood: Hollywood's Loner" (1992) by Michael Munn, Eastwood called Clyde the Orangutan "one of the most natural actors I ever worked with. But you had to get him on the first take because his boredom level was very limited."


1:30 AM -- The Dark Past (1949)
1h 15m | Crime | TV-PG
A psychologist tries to analyze the criminal who's taken him hostage.
Director: Rudolph Maté
Cast: William Holden, Nina Foch, Lee J. Cobb

Lee J. Cobb was borrowed from Twentieth Century-Fox for this film.


3:15 AM -- The Killing Fields (1984)
2h 14m | Epic | TV-MA
A journalist is trapped in Cambodia during tyrant Pol Pot's bloody 'Year Zero' cleansing campaign.
Director: Roland Joffe
Cast: Sam Waterson, John Malkovich, Haing S Ngor

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Haing S. Ngor, Best Cinematography -- Chris Menges, and Best Film Editing -- Jim Clark

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Sam Waterston, Best Director -- Roland Joffé, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Bruce Robinson, and Best Picture

In real life, Haing S. Ngor's wife died under the Khmer Rouge regime, haemorrhaging during childbirth (the baby also died). She knew that she couldn't contact her husband as doctors were all being murdered by the regime so by keeping her silence and dying of internal bleeding, she effectively saved his life.