TCM Schedule for Friday, September 2, 2022 -- What's On Tonight: Starring Jack Lemmon

In the daylight hours today, after three Bogie and Bacall films, we're off to school with a selection of School Days films. Then in prime time, TCM is turning the spotlight on Jack Lemmon, with a trio of his best films -- It Should Happen To You (1954), The Fortune Cookie (1966), and The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- To Have and Have Not (1944)
1h 40m | Romance | TV-G
A skipper-for-hire's romance with a beautiful drifter is complicated by his growing involvement with the French Resistance.
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan, Lauren Bacall

Lauren Bacall writes in her autobiography that it was in the third week of shooting that friendly banter between her and Humphrey Bogart turned to something more. At the end of shooting one day, "...he leaned over, put his hand under my chin, and kissed me. It was impulsive - he was a bit shy - no lunging wolf tactics. He took a worn package of matches out of his pocket and asked me to put my phone number on the back. I did." Bogart was 44 years old and in an unhappy third marriage. The relationship with Bacall was obvious on the set, and while it sparked the onscreen chemistry for his movie, Howard Hawks was furious. He warned Bacall away and threatened that the relationship could damage her career - that she could end up at Monogram Pictures. (By some accounts, Hawks was jealous and had designs on Bacall himself.) Hawks warned that Bogart would drop Betty after filming was completed, but nothing could be further from the truth. Bogart was divorced and married Bacall in 1945. They made three more films together and remained married until Bogart's death from cancer in January, 1957.


8:00 AM -- The Big Sleep (1946)
1h 54m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
Private eye Philip Marlowe investigates a society girl's involvement in the murder of a pornographer.
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely

With this film, Humphrey Bogart became the only known actor to play both Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade in film. (He had portrayed Spade in 1941's The Maltese Falcon.) Both hard boiled private detective characters were phenomenally popular in books, radio, and film for decades.


10:00 AM -- Dark Passage (1947)
1h 46m | Drama | TV-PG
A man falsely accused of his wife's murder escapes to search for the real killer.
Director: Delmer Daves
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett

The actual Art Deco apartment building used in the film (located at 1360 Montgomery St in San Francisco) is still standing as of January, 2019. The apartment is marked by a cardboard cut-out of Humphrey Bogart, which can be seen from the street. The site is visited frequently by fans of vintage film noir.


12:00 PM -- The Corn Is Green (1945)
1h 54m | Drama | TV-G
A dedicated teacher sacrifices everything to send a young miner to Oxford.
Director: Irving Rapper
Cast: Bette Davis, Nigel Bruce, John Dall

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- John Dall, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Joan Lorring

The play and the film tell the true story of playwright Emlyn Williams and his schoolmistress Miss Cooke.


2:00 PM -- Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
1h 54m | Drama | TV-PG
A cold-hearted teacher becomes the school favorite when he's thawed by a beautiful young woman.
Director: Sam Wood
Cast: Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Robert Donat

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Director -- Sam Wood, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Eric Maschwitz, R.C. Sherriff and Claudine West, Best Sound, Recording -- A.W. Watkins (Denham SSD), Best Film Editing -- Charles Frend, and Best Picture

The oldest schools in Britain date back to the 6th century. Although this school (and its famous alumnus, Sir Francis Drake) are fictional, the Sherbourne School in Dorset, founded in the 8th century, may have been a model. Dorset is the next county over to Devon, original home of Sir Francis Drake. Actor Jeremy Irons is one of many notable alums.


4:00 PM -- Blackboard Jungle (1955)
1h 41m | Drama | TV-14
An idealistic teacher confronts the realities of juvenile delinquency.
Director: Richard Brooks
Cast: Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Richard Brooks, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Russell Harlan, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell, Edwin B. Willis and Henry Grace, and Best Film Editing -- Ferris Webster

This film launched the rock'n'roll era, especially in American movies, by using "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets as its theme. The song was chosen for the theme song after it was heard among records owned by Peter Ford, son of the film's star, Glenn Ford (a story that the producer's daughter had discovered the song is not true) "Rock Around the Clock" had been largely ignored until it was heard in the movie, after which it soon shot to #1 around the world, and eventually sold an estimated 25 million copies. In an embarrassing miscalculation, MGM could have owned the complete rights to the song, but it ignored writer/director Richard Brooks' advice to buy it outright; instead, the studio went penny-wise and pound-foolish and merely purchased, for only a few dollars, the film-use rights to the mega-hit song.


5:45 PM -- Bright Road (1953)
1h 9m | Drama | TV-PG
A school teacher seeks to win the trust and respect of a rebellious young boy.
Director: Gerald Mayer
Cast: Dorothy Dandridge, Philip Hepburn, Harry Belafonte

"See How They Run" was Mary Elizabeth Vroman's first published short story, written while she was a schoolteacher in rural Alabama. First published in Ladies' Home Journal in 1951, it also appeared in Ebony magazine in 1952. When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased the rights to adapt the story to film, Vroman helped write the screenplay, and as a result, became the first black member of the Screen Writers Guild.


7:00 PM -- Zero de Conduite (1933)
41m | Comedy | TV-14
In a repressive boarding school with rigid rules of behavior, four boys decide to rebel against the direction on a celebration day.
Director: Jean Vigo
Cast: Jean Dasté, Robert le Flon, Louis Lefebvre

77 years after Jean Vigo's death, his daughter and film critic Luce Vigo accepted the 2011 Parajanov-Vartanov Institute Award - named after persecuted Soviet filmmakers Sergei Parajanov and Mikhail Vartanov - posthumously honoring Vigo for the masterpiece "Zéro de conduite: Jeunes diables au collège"; Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight presented the award and Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese sent a letter for the occasion with words on Vigo, Paradjanov and Vartanov, all of whom had struggled against censorship.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- STARRING JACK LEMMON



8:00 PM -- It Should Happen to You (1953)
1h 26m | Comedy | TV-G
A poor model from a small town comes to New York with big ambitions.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Judy Holliday, Peter Lawford, Jack Lemmon

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Jean Louis

Jack Lemmon, in his film debut and who had previously only acted briefly in television, had a tendency to overact for the camera, but George Cukor soon convinced him that "less is more." The actor later remarked, "I've learned my craft from that advice. It's the hardest thing in the world to be simple, and the easiest thing in the world to act your brains out and make an ass of yourself."


9:45 PM -- The Fortune Cookie (1966)
2h 5m | Comedy | TV-PG
A crooked lawyer trumps up an insurance case for a cameraman injured at a pro football game.
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ron Rich

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Walter Matthau

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph LaShelle, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Robert Luthardt and Edward G. Boyle

Jack Lemmon's wheelchair ballet, "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To", lasts 3-1/4 minutes and was completed in one take.


12:15 AM -- The Prisoner Of Second Avenue (1974)
1h 45m | Comedy | TV-PG
A suddenly unemployed executive and his understanding wife must adapt to their new life.
Director: Melvin Frank
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Elizabeth Wilson, Anne Bancroft

According to the Jack Lemmon's biography "Lemmon" by Don Widener, actress Anne Bancroft recounted this episode from the film's shooting: "[Jack was] nice to a point where he's crazy...We had a scene in 'Prisoner [of Second Avenue'] where he had to carry a shovel in - a very close two-shot favoring me. I played the scene with tears in my eyes because Jack had accidentally hit me in the shin with that shovel. The director saw something was wrong so he stopped everything. I had a big bump on my leg, but it was Friday and over the weekend I fixed it up. When we came back on Monday the first scene was a retake of the shovel thing. Well, Jack brought the shovel in and I anticipated getting hit again. He's so full of energy, you're sure he's not noticing; but he never touched me. The take was fine, but Jack limped away. To avoid hurting me, he had cut himself. He was bleeding and we had to bandage his leg; his wound was much worse than mine. He is so kind he hurt himself rather than injure someone else. That's a little crazy! It's the nicest crazy I know, and I know a lot of crazy people."


2:00 AM -- Day of the Dead (1985)
1h 42m | Horror | TV-14
Zombies have been on the rampage for so long that there are very few humans left.
Director: George A. Romero
Cast: Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato

The original script, for which George A. Romero couldn't get budget, involved the scientists living above ground in a fortress protected by electrified fences and the military living safely underground. It also involved a small army of trained zombies, and the conclusion to the trilogy more brutal than the released version. This later became the basis of Land of the Dead (2005).


4:00 AM -- I Was a Teenage Zombie (1987)
1h 32m | Comedy | TV-14
Teenage vigilantes kill a drug pusher only to have him return as a zombie.
Director: John Elias Michalakias
Cast: Michael Rubin, Steve Mccoy, George Seminara

Peter Dendle, writing in the Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, cited the film as being one of the forebears of the modern Rom-Com-Zom film genre.


5:45 AM -- The Golden Years (1960)
14m | Short | TV-G
Bowling is made respectable and appealing to middle-class Americans through modernization and design.
Cast: Jamison Handy

Made by Brunswick Bowling Company to showcase its Bowling Alleys and associated equipment (e.g., ball washers, lockers, benches). The documentary is about The Gold Crown Line, which would be purchased by businesses proprietors.