TCM Schedule for Thursday, October 28, 2021 -- What's On Tonight: Star of the Month Lucille Ball

In the daylight hours, TCM is featuring Dazzling Duos - Tracy and Hepburn, Hepburn and Grant, Powell and Loy, Flynn and De Haviland, Hudson and Day. Then in prime time, it's the last of the salute to Star of the Month Lucille Ball. Enjoy!

(And my humblest apologies for the delay in getting this out. I got unexpected company this week, and I've been swamped in domesticity!)


6:15 AM -- Woman of the Year (1942)
1h 52m | Comedy | TV-PG
Tess is a star reporter and Sam covers the sports pages at a major newspaper. When they f...
Director: George Stevens
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner Jr.

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn

In the opening montage, the audience sees two side-by-side ads. One says "Hitler can't win" by Tess Harding, and the other says "Yankees can't lose" by Sam Craig. Only Tess was correct; the Yankees made it to the 1942 World Series but lost to the St Louis Cardinals in five games.


8:15 AM -- Bringing Up Baby (1938)
1h 42m | Comedy | TV-G
A straight-laced paleontologist loses a dinosaur bone to a dog belonging to a free-spirited woman.
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles

The scene in which Susan's dress is ripped was inspired by something that happened to Cary Grant. He was at the Roxy Theater one night and his pants zipper was down when it caught on the back of a woman's dress. Grant impulsively followed her. When he told this story to Howard Hawks, Hawks loved it and put it into the film.


10:15 AM -- The Thin Man (1934)
1h 20m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
In New York, a detective, his wife and his dog solve the murder case of an eccentric inventor.
Director: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- William Powell, Best Director -- W.S. Van Dyke, Best Writing, Adaptation -- Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and Best Picture

William Powell spoke of how much he loved working with Myrna Loy because of her naturalness, her professionalism, and her lack of any kind of "diva" temperament. "When we did a scene together, we forgot about technique, camera angles, and microphones. We weren't acting. We were just two people in perfect harmony," he said. "Myrna, unlike some actresses who think only of themselves, has the happy faculty of being able to listen while the other fellow says his lines. She has the give and take of acting that brings out the best."


11:45 AM -- After the Thin Man (1936)
1h 50m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
Married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles try to clear Nora's cousin of a murder charge.
Director: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett

Though William Powell and Myrna Loy were very close friends off-screen, their only romantic moments together occurred on-screen. The public, however, was determined to have them married in private life as well. When the two stars showed up in San Francisco (where most of this film was shot) at the St. Francis, the hotel management proudly showed "Mr. and Mrs. Powell" to their deluxe suite. This was an especially uncomfortable moment as Jean Harlow, who was engaged to Powell, was with them, and the couple had not made a public statement about their relationship. Harlow saved the day by insisting on sharing the suite with Loy: "That mix-up brought me one of my most cherished friendships," Loy said in "Being and Becoming", her autobiography. "You would have thought Jean and I were in boarding school we had so much fun. We'd stay up half the night talking and sipping gin, sometimes laughing, sometimes discussing more serious things." Meanwhile, Powell got the hotel's one remaining room--a far humbler accommodation downstairs.


1:45 PM -- The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
1h 42m | Adventure | TV-G
The bandit king of Sherwood Forest leads his Merry Men in a battle against the corrupt Prince John.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland, Basil Rathbone

Winner of Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Carl Jules Weyl, Best Film Editing -- Ralph Dawson, and Best Music, Original Score -- Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Picture

According to TCM host Robert Osborne, the film was so successful that a sequel was commissioned. However, the US government wanted to restrict the amount of money invested in filmmaking at that point in anticipation of joining World War II, so it was delayed. By 1945, when the war was over, the project was scrapped because Olivia de Havilland and Claude Rains were no longer employed at Warner Bros.


3:45 PM -- Captain Blood (1935)
1h 59m | Adventure | TV-G
A young Irish doctor is exiled as a slave to Barbados where he captures a Spanish galleon.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland, Lionel Atwill

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Michael Curtiz (This was a write-in candidate, who came in second on the final ballots. It was not an official nomination.), Best Writing, Screenplay -- Casey Robinson (This was a write-in candidate, who came in third on the final ballots. It was not an official nomination.), Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (sound director), Best Music, Score -- Leo F. Forbstein (head of department) with score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (This was a write-in candidate, who came in third on the final ballots. It was not an official nomination.), and Best Picture

This was a big gamble for Warner Brothers in 1935, as it was an expensive production, costing $1 million without any marquee names in the cast (both Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland became stars after the film's release).


6:00 PM -- Pillow Talk (1959)
1h 45m | Comedy | TV-G
A man and woman carry their feud over the telephone line they share into their real lives.
Director: Michael Gordon
Cast: Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Russell Rouse (story), Clarence Greene (story), Stanley Shapiro (screenplay) and Maurice Richlin (screenplay)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Doris Day, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Thelma Ritter, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Richard H. Riedel, Russell A. Gausman and Ruby R. Levitt, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Frank De Vol

Among this film's distinguishing elements is its innovative use of the wide-screen format, specifically its sly sexual innuendos created by split screen optics, the most famous of which suggests Doris Day and Rock Hudson are sharing a bathtub and that his toes sliding down the wall tickle her instep.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- STAR OF THE MONTH LUCILLE BALL



8:00 PM -- Yours, Mine, and Ours (1968)
1h 51m | Comedy | TV-PG
A widow with eight children marries a widower with ten, then gets pregnant.
Director: Melville Shavelson
Cast: Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, Van Johnson

Lucille Ball co-produced the film under her company, Desilu Productions. When the film became a surprise smash hit grossing over $17 million on a $2.5 million investment, she became furious about it. She hadn't anticipated the film's huge box-office success and failed to provide a tax shelter for her personal profits, resulting in most of her share going in taxes.


10:15 PM -- The Facts of Life (1960)
1h 43m | Comedy | TV-PG
Suburban marrieds are tempted to dabble in adultery.
Director: Melvin Frank
Cast: Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Ruth Hussey

Winner of an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head and Edward Stevenson

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Norman Panama and Melvin Frank, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- J. McMillan Johnson, Kenneth A. Reid and Ross Dowd, and Best Music, Original Song -- Johnny Mercer for the song "The Facts of Life"

A UPI news item dated July 3, 1960 reports that while preparing to film a scene on a boat, Lucille Ball fell, struck her head and was knocked unconscious. She was taken to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital for a possible concussion and severe face and leg bruises. Her ex-husband Desi Arnaz rushed to the hospital from his ranch at Corona to be with her. Fortunately, preliminary x-rays of the head, neck and spine showed that the beloved star was not seriously hurt. Bob Hope was quoted in a New York Times article, "This film should have been shot at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital".


12:15 AM -- Mame (1974)
2h 12m | Musical | TV-G
A wealthy eccentric takes in her orphaned nephew.
Director: Gene Saks
Cast: Lucille Ball, Bea Arthur, Robert Preston

Angela Lansbury recalled her time when she was playing Mame on Broadway and was visited by Lucille Ball who told her she was amazing in the part, deserved all the honors she was receiving and was a shoo-in for the film version. Lansbury was very touched by this until she noticed Ball in the wings during her performance, taking notes. It was then that she realized that she was never going to play the part in the film.


2:30 AM -- Critic's Choice (1963)
1h 40m | Comedy | TV-G
A Broadway critic must write a negative review about his wife's play.
Director: Don Weis
Cast: Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Maxwell

The film prudently leaves out the joke which had been most severely criticized by reviewers in the original play. In the play, Parker Ballantyne keeps on his desk two small boxes containing file-cards, one box white and the other black; the white box has cards inscribed with pre-written smart remarks of a laudatory nature, whilst the black box's cards are inscribed with insults. The notion that a critic might write part of a review before ever seeing the play was dismissed as an obvious absurdity by real-life critics, although the joke was much appreciated by theater professionals.


4:30 AM -- Valley of the Sun (1942)
1h 24m | Western | TV-G
A government spy goes after a crooked Indian agent in Arizona.
Director: George Marshall
Cast: Lucille Ball, James Craig, Sir Cedric Hardwicke

Based on a story in the Saturday Evening Post, by Clarence Budington Kelland.