TCM Schedule for Thursday, December 30, 2021 -- What's on: Met On Set

During the daylight hours, TCM is having a birthday tribute to Russ Tamblyn, born December 30, 1932, in Los Angeles. From his IMDB mini-bio:

Russ wasn't discovered, he discovered show business at the age of 5 when, with other youngsters at Inglewood, California, he went to Saturday matinees at the Granada Theatre. One afternoon while waiting for the show to start he got on the stage and did an impromptu dance which the kids loved. He repeated it the following week and became so popular that when he didn't appear there was almost a riot. The theater manager spoke to his parents and his mother let him take dancing lessons. Once started on a career he expanded his talents to take in singing and acrobatics performing his first back flip at 10. He later added juggling, a magic act, piano, and drums to his talents which made him a regular performer at local clubs. He made his stage debut with a small theater group directed by Lloyd Bridges which in turn led to his film debut in The Boy With Green Hair followed by a part in Samson and Delilah and the title role in The Kid From Cleveland. He earned an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor for Peyton Place receiving high praise from both director Mark Robson and choreographer Michael Kidd, who was a close friend of Jerome Robbins, and who'd worked with Russ on Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. Summoned for both a dancing and acting screen test with Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins he was cast as Riff the leader of the Jets in the Oscar winning film West Side Story. In his films up to 1952 he was credited as Rusty Tamblyn and Russ Tamblyn after that.

Then in prime time, it's the last week of Met On Set, with the emphasis on Modern Hollywood couples, including Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw, and Peter Bogdanovich and Cybill Shepherd. Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- Autumn Sonata (1978)
1h 32m | Drama | TV-14
A concert pianist faces the daughters she's neglected for years.
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann, Lena Nyman

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ingrid Bergman, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Ingmar Bergman

Final theatrical feature film of actress Ingrid Bergman. The film struck very close to home for Ingrid Bergman to the extent that she was quite shocked when she read the screenplay for the first time. It deals with a self-centered artist who leaves her children in their formative years to go off and pursue her career. During the late 40s, Bergman herself became a cause celebre by abandoning her family to run off with Italian film director, Roberto Rossellini.


8:00 AM -- Hit the Deck (1955)
1h 52m | Musical | TV-G
Sailors on leave in San Francisco get mixed up in love and show business.
Director: Roy Rowland
Cast: Jane Powell, Tony Martin, Debbie Reynolds

Much of the magic of the "Hallelujah!" sequence is derived from the almost under-rehearsed feel effected by choreographer Hermès Pan. While MGM was renowned for its slick and perfectly executed musical numbers, "Hallelujah!" is filled with charming improvisations and missteps, including Tony Martin clipping Russ Tamblyn and Vic Damone on their chins as the latter two enter the scene; Tamblyn breaking formation to impulsively slide down the ship's ladder in one of his characteristic tumbling moves; the uneven spacing between the three men as they herald the entrance of the women; the lack of symmetry between Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds' placement as they flank Kay Armen; several of the sailors being off the beat during the ensemble sequences; and Ann Miller breaking the final pose of her dance solo before the camera has lost sight of her. Decades after the fact, "Hallelujah!" stands as one of the most freewheeling and joyous creations in the MGM canon.


10:00 AM -- Don't Go Near the Water (1957)
1h 42m | Comedy | TV-G
Navy office workers scheme to build a recreation hall on a remote Pacific island.
Director: Charles Walters
Cast: Glenn Ford, Gia Scala, Earl Holliman

Three years earlier Russ Tamblyn and Jeff Richards played two of the Pontipee brothers in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.


11:45 AM -- Father of the Bride (1950)
1h 33m | Comedy | TV-G
Attorney Stanley T. Banks finds himself unprepared when his daughter, Kay, announces her engagement.
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and Best Picture

In this movie, one of the gifts Kay (Dame Elizabeth Taylor) gets as a present is a Venus de Milo statue with a clock in the stomach, which Stanley T. Banks (Spencer Tracy) refers to as a "stinker". This same gift makes its way into the re-make (Father of the Bride (1991)) amongst the presents, and is still not received well.


1:30 PM -- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
1h 43m | Musical | TV-G
The seven Pontipee brothers ease the loneliness of their Oregon farm by courting seven women.
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

For the famous barn raising dance sequence, the cast rehearsed for three weeks in order to get the intricate choreography down. It was during one of these rehearsals that Russ Tamblyn wandered over to the set along with Jeff Richards to see how the scene was coming along. "Michael Kidd called me over and said, 'Rusty, somebody told me that you're a good tumbler, that you can do some flips'," said Tamblyn in a 2004 interview. "So I did a back flip for him. 'Fantastic!' he said. 'We'll put it in a number.' I told him I really wasn't a dancer, except for some tap dancing. But he said, 'Listen, this is just like square dancing. All you have to do is lift your legs high. You can do a lot of acrobatic stuff. It's perfect.' That's how I became a dancer in Seven Brides."


3:15 PM -- West Side Story (1961)
2h 35m | Musical | TV-PG
A young couple from dueling street gangs falls in love.
Director: Robert Wise
Cast: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Chakiris, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Rita Moreno, Best Director -- Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (For the first time a directing award is being shared.), Best Cinematography, Color -- Daniel L. Fapp, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Boris Leven and Victor A. Gangelin, Best Costume Design, Color -- Irene Sharaff, Best Sound -- Fred Hynes (Todd-AO SSD) and Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), Best Film Editing -- Thomas Stanford, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, and Best Picture

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Ernest Lehman

Russ Tamblyn (Riff) said that initially he was very unhappy with his dancing in the film, until Fred Astaire came over to him at the premiere and told him that he admired his dancing in it very much.


6:00 PM -- The Haunting (1963)
1h 52m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
A team of psychic investigators moves into a haunted house that destroys all who live there.
Director: Robert Wise
Cast: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson

The exterior of Hill House in the film was not a set, but an actual house (Ettington Park Hotel in Warwickshire, England), although all the interiors were carefully designed sets on sound stages. While shooting exterior night scenes on location at the real house, Russ Tamblyn has shared a story of having chosen to take a stroll through a cemetery at the rear of the property and having had an experience nearly as terrifying as the film itself. You can hear his story on the commentary track included on the DVD of the film.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- MET ON SET: MODERN HOLLYWOOD COUPLES



8:00 PM -- Swing Shift (1984)
1h 40m | Romance | TV-PG
After her husband leaves for Pearl Harbor in World War II, a woman takes a job in an aircraft factory.
Director: Jonathan Demme
Cast: Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Christine Lahti

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Christine Lahti

Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell fell in love and moved in together after working on this project.


10:00 PM -- The Getaway (1972)
2h 2m | Crime | TV-PG
When a bank robbery goes bad, an ex-con and his wife take it on the lam.
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Steve McQueen, Ali Macgraw, Ben Johnson

Barry Foster suggested Ali MacGraw, then married to Robert Evans, for the film. Evans arranged a meeting with her, Foster, Steve McQueen, and Sam Peckinpah. According to Foster, she was scared of McQueen and Peckinpah because they had reputations as "wild, two-fisted, beer guzzlers." McQueen and MacGraw experienced a strong instant attraction. She said, "He was recently separated and free, and I was scared of my overwhelming attraction to him." McQueen and MacGraw began an affair during production. She would eventually leave her husband Evans and become McQueen's second wife. Foster was worried that their relationship would have a negative impact by causing a potential scandal.


12:15 AM -- The Last Picture Show (1971)
1h 58m | Drama | TV-MA
Changing times take their toll on high schoolers growing up in a small Western town.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Cast: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ben Johnson, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Cloris Leachman

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jeff Bridges, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ellen Burstyn, Best Director -- Peter Bogdanovich, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Larry McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich, Best Cinematography -- Robert Surtees, and Best Picture

Cybill Shepherd and Peter Bogdanovich became lovers during this film. He was married, with children, to the film's production designer Polly Platt, and this broke up the family. He also did four other movies with her, including Texasville (1990) and Daisy Miller (1974) in which she starred. Also when Shepherd had her own TV show Cybill (1995), Bogdanovich guest-starred in a few episodes.


2:30 AM -- Blood Simple (1984)
1h 35m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-MA
A Texas bar owner hires a private eye to kill his cheating wife and her boyfriend.
Director: Joel Coen
Cast: John Getz, Frances Mcdormand, Dan Hedaya

Joel Coen and Frances McDormand first met when she auditioned for the part of Abby. They married after the release of the film.


4:15 AM -- Klute (1971)
1h 54m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-MA
A small-town detective searches for a missing man linked to a high-priced prostitute.
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Cast: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Jane Fonda

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- Andy Lewis and David E. Lewis

Sutherland and Fonda developed a nonexclusive romantic relationship offscreen which lasted until about June 1972. He was her date to the Oscars when she won Best Actress for this movie.