TCM Schedule for Friday, October 22, 2021 -- What's On Tonight: Academy Museum Part II

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 returns to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. I didn't spot the article about this event last week, so here's the details about tonight's theme.

ACADEMY MUSEUM – NIGHT 2 - 10/22
By Rob Nixon
September 22, 2021
3 Movies / October 22, 8 p.m.

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which opened in Los Angeles on September 30, is the largest institution in the United States devoted to the arts, sciences and artists of moviemaking. The museum’s exhibitions and programs are immersive and dynamic, telling the many stories of the movies – their art, technology, artists, history and social impact. Its far-ranging collections contain iconic props, costumes and significant objects from motion picture history. TCM presents a night of programming devoted to films that will play a significant part in the museum’s programming.

At press time, details were not yet available about how Jason and the Argonauts (1963) would be featured by the Academy, but with museums the world over showcasing the art of the late special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen in recent years, it’s a safe bet at least some of the focus will be on that aspect of this fantasy film. Closely following Greek mythology and the quest for the Golden Fleece, the story provides ample opportunities for Harryhausen to work his magic, including the animated giant statue of Talos, the attack of the harpies, the multi-headed Hydra and the skeleton army that rises from the ground.

Barbara Kopple’s powerful Harlan County U.S.A. (1976), winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, will be screened in the museum’s ongoing Oscar® Sundays series. The film is a record of a year-plus Kentucky coal miners’ strike in 1973 when the company they worked for refused to sign a union contract for improvements in wages, benefits and the physical and health dangers inherent in the industry. Kopple provides ample perspective on the struggle with background on the historical plight of coal miners and a chronicle of the United Mine Workers union.

Scheduled to open in 2022, the groundbreaking exhibition Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971 will illuminate the history of African American film artists. Stormy Weather (1943) was unusual for its time – a major studio (Paramount) release with an all-Black cast. The musical story about an aspiring dancer and a popular singer on conflicting professional and romantic tracks, it features some of the greatest African American performers of the first half of the 20th century, including Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Katherine Dunham, the Nicholas Brothers and Bill Robinson (his final film).

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
1h 30m | Musical | TV-G
A ballet dancer and a burlesque queen compete for a wealthy suitor.
Director: Dorothy Arzner
Cast: Maureen O'Hara, Louis Hayward, Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball and Maureen O'Hara became inseparable friends while shooting this film, and remained lifelong friends until Ball's death in 1989. O'Hara was having lunch with her when Ball first saw her future husband Desi Arnaz.


8:00 AM -- Ziegfeld Follies (1946)
1h 50m | Musical | TV-G
Legendary showman Flo Ziegfeld imagines the kind of Follies he could produce with MGM's musical stars.
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: William Powell, Lucille Ball, Judy Garland

The horse ridden by Lucille Ball is the Lone Ranger's Silver. When Life magazine showed a photo of Silver in his pink feathers and bows with the headline 'Silver is a Sissy,' the horse's trainer threatened to sue MGM for defamation of Silver's character.


10:00 AM -- Meet the People (1944)
1h 40m | Musical | TV-G
A fading stage star tries to revive her career by taking a job in a shipyard.
Director: Charles Riesner
Cast: Lucille Ball, Dick Powell, Virginia O'Brien

Dick Powell's last musical. His next picture, Murder, My Sweet (1944) would forever change his image - going from a "crooner" to a film noir tough guy. It was one of the most drastic breakouts from typecasting in film history.


11:45 AM -- Look Who's Laughing (1941)
1h 18m | Comedy | TV-G
A radio star plans to build an airplane plant in a sleepy small town.
Director: Allan Dwan
Cast: Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Lucille Ball

Referenced and part of the plot in the January 11, 1942 episode of the radio comedy The Great Gildersleeve. The film starred Harold Peary, who was the title character in The Great Gildersleeve.


1:15 PM -- That's Right--You're Wrong (1940)
1h 33m | Comedy | TV-G
A band leader has to overcome a film studio head's hatred to make it on the big screen.
Director: David Butler
Cast: Kay Kyser, Adolphe Menjou, May Robson, Lucille Ball

The success of this picture would lead to Kay Kyser and his orchestra/band to headline several feature films over the next five years.


3:00 PM -- Two Smart People (1946)
1h 33m | Comedy | TV-G
In New Orleans, a lady crook tries to steal a con man's hidden loot.
Director: Jules Dassin
Cast: Lucille Ball, John Hodiak, Lloyd Nolan

Based on a story by Ralph Wheelwright and Allan Kenward.


4:45 PM -- The Bat (1959)
1h 20m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
A female mystery novelist turns detective to unmask a demented killer.
Director: Crane Wilbur
Cast: Vincent Price, Agnes Moorehead, Gavin Gordon

Final film of Darla Hood of the Little Rascals.


6:15 PM -- House on Haunted Hill (1958)
1h 15m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-14
A millionaire offers total strangers a fortune to spend the night in a haunted house.
Director: William Castle
Cast: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long

The large grosses for this film were noticed by Alfred Hitchcock. This led him to create his own low-budget horror film--Psycho (1960).



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- ACADEMY MUSEUM PART II



8:00 PM -- Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
1h 44m | Adventure | TV-PG
The epic adventure of Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece.
Director: Don Chaffey
Cast: Todd Armstrong, Nancy Kovack, Gary Raymond

John Cairney and Nigel Green didn't get along at all during filming. Green accused Cairney of being very effeminate. The last scene they filmed together was the scene in which Hercules and Hylas enter the treasure chamber, hidden in the plinth of the mighty Talos. The lighting used to give the treasure its sparkling effect was very bright, and the following day, the actors began losing their vision. Both became temporarily blind and were hospitalized in the same room for two weeks with their eyes bandaged. hey found they had a lot in common, and soon became fast friends. They remained so until Green died in the early '70s. Their sight returned after their hospital stay.


10:00 PM -- Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976)
1h 43m | Documentary | TV-MA
Kentucky miners risk their lives in a violent strike.
Director: Barbara Kopple.
Cast: John L. Lewis, Carl Horn, Norman Yarborough

Winner of an Oscar for Best Documentary, Features -- Barbara Kopple

When filming began, the film was intended to be about the 1972 campaign by Arnold Miller and Miners For Democracy to unseat UMWA president Tony Boyle, in the aftermath of Joseph Yablonski's murder; but the Harlan County strike began and caused the filmmakers to change their principal subject, with the campaign and murder becoming secondary subjects.


12:00 AM -- Stormy Weather (1943)
1h 17m | Musical | TV-G
A relationship blossoms between an aspiring dancer and a popular songstress.
Director: Andrew Stone
Cast: Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, Cab Calloway

Final film of Bill Robinson, who died of heart failure at age 71 on November 25, 1949 in New York City, and final film of Fats Waller. On December 15, 1943, less than five months after the film's July 21 opening in Manhattan, Waller, age 39, died of pneumonia on a train stopped at Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri. Having fallen ill during an engagement at the Zanzibar Room in Hollywood, he had boarded the Santa Fe Chief in Los Angeles and was headed for New York City.


2:00 AM -- Emma Mae (1976)
1h 40m | Crime | TV-MA
A young black woman turns to crime when she falls in love with a drug dealer.
Director: Jamaa Fanaka
Cast: Jewell Williams, Leopoldo Mandeville, Charles D. Brooks III

The character of Emma Mae was inspired by one of Jamaa Fanaka's cousins.


3:45 AM -- Penitentiary (1980)
1h 39m | Drama | TV-MA
A man wrongly convicted of murder enters the prison boxing tournament.
Director: Jamaa Fanaka
Cast: Leon Isaac Kennedy, Thommy Pollard, Hazel Spears

Writer/director Jamaa Fanaka was still a student at UCLA when he made this film. The prison yard scenes were shot at the UCLA cinema department quadrangle.


5:30 AM -- Shake Hands With Danger (1970)
23m | Short | TV-PG
Short safety film about the dangers associated with earthmoving equipment operations.
Cast: Charles Oldfather, John Clifford, Herk Harvey