TCM Schedule for Friday, October 21, 2022 -- What's On Tonight: Cary Grant Triple Feature?

In the daylight hours today, TCM is celebrating football with a selection of Gridiron Greats. Then in prime time, it seems to be a night of Cary Grant. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- The Freshman (1925)
1h 16m | Silent | TV-G
In this silent film, a naive college boy tries to join the football team after making a fool of himself.
Director: Sam Taylor
Cast: Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, Brooks Benedict

This movie was shot in sequence, which was rare for a Harold Lloyd movie. Lloyd usually thought up comic setpieces and based his stories around them. In this instance he felt it was a more character-driven story and he would have to get into the character by shooting it in order.


7:45 AM -- So This Is College (1929)
1h 37m | Comedy | TV-G
A scheming coed comes between college buddies.
Director: Sam Wood
Cast: Elliott Nugent, Robert Montgomery, Cliff Edwards

When one of the freshmen has his pants stolen by Eddie in the bushes outside the prom, he exclaims "What am I, 'September Morn'?". "September Morn" is a 1911 painting by French artist Paul Emil Chabas of a nude woman bathing. It became a cause celebre in America during the 1910s when art dealers in both Chicago and New York were charged with indecency for displaying reproductions of it.


9:30 AM -- College Coach (1933)
1h 15m | Comedy | TV-G
A timid chemistry major becomes a college football star.
Director: William A. Wellman
Cast: Dick Powell, Ann Dvorak, Pat O'brien

John Wayne has a five-second appearance as a fellow student welcoming Dick Powell's character back to school in the beginning of the film. This would be Wayne's last bit part.


11:00 AM -- Hold That Line (1952)
1h 4m | Comedy | TV-G
The Bowery Boys crash college when one of them lands on the football team.
Director: William Beaudine
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, John Bromfield

Gloria Winters plays Penny here and would be known as Penny in her most famous role on Sky King (1951).


12:15 PM -- Too Many Girls (1940)
1h 25m | Musical | TV-G
Four college football stars are hired to chaperon a reckless heiress to a Wild West college.
Director: George Abbott
Cast: Lucille Ball, Richard Carlson, Ann Miller

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz first met on the set of this movie.


2:00 PM -- Good News (1947)
1h 35m | Musical | TV-G
A football hero falls in love with his French tutor.
Director: Charles Walters
Cast: June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Patricia Marshall

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Hugh Martin, Ralph Blane and Roger Edens for the song "Pass That Peace Pipe"

Several football uniforms used in this film later made another appearance in a famous 1952 musical. During one sequence at the studio which takes place before the conversion to sound, the "Singing In The Rain" audience is shown how it was possible to film several silent movies at once right next to each other on the same stages. One of them is set at a football game, and the players are wearing the familiar red and white Tait College jerseys from "Good News".


4:00 PM -- Saturday's Hero (1951)
1h 51m | Drama | TV-G
A college athlete finds his life consumed by football.
Director: David Miller
Cast: John Derek, Donna Reed, Sidney Blackmer

Film debut of Aldo Ray.


6:00 PM -- Knute Rockne--All American (1940)
1h 38m | Drama | TV-G
Biography of the famed Notre Dame coach and his fight to "win one for the Gipper."
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Pat O'brien, Gale Page, Ronald Reagan

James Cagney, eager to break out of gangster roles, lobbied hard for the part of Knute Rockne. But Cagney had signed a petition in support of the anti-Catholic Republican government in the Spanish Civil War. Notre Dame had control over all aspects of the filming and would not okay Cagney for the role.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- CARY GRANT TRIPLE FEATURE



8:00 PM -- The Awful Truth (1937)
1h 31m | Comedy | TV-PG
A divorced couple keeps getting mixed up in each other's love lives.
Director: Leo Mccarey
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy

Winner of an Oscar for Best Director -- Leo McCarey

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ralph Bellamy, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Viña Delmar, Best Film Editing -- Al Clark, and Best Picture

While Cary Grant was initially working with Leo McCarey, he was unaware that McCarey was deliberately creating nervous tension in the actor in order to enhance his performance. By keeping the cast slightly off balance, the director was building scenes from spontaneous moments between his actors. Giving the barest outlines of a scene, he would have his actors try something on their feet. For instance, in one rehearsal, he told Irene Dunne to simply open the door of her apartment and say, "Well, if it isn't my ex." He told Grant to answer with whatever came into his head. Grant replied, "The judge says this is my day to see the dog." McCarey then built the scene around that moment. The line, and the subsequent scene, stayed in the picture.


9:45 PM -- My Favorite Wife (1940)
1h 28m | Comedy | TV-G
A shipwrecked woman is rescued just in time for her husband's remarriage.
Director: Garson Kanin
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- Leo McCarey, Bella Spewack and Sam Spewack, Best Art Direction, Black-and-White -- Van Nest Polglase and Mark-Lee Kirk, and Best Music, Original Score -- Roy Webb

Gail Patrick, who plays Cary Grant's bride Bianca here, later abandoned acting and eventually served as a producer on the long-running Raymond Burr series Perry Mason (1957).


11:30 PM -- The Philadelphia Story (1940)
1h 51m | Comedy | TV-G
Tabloid reporters crash a society marriage.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Donald Ogden Stewart

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ruth Hussey, Best Director -- George Cukor, and Best Picture

The film was shot in eight weeks, and required no retakes. During the scene where James Stewart hiccups when drunk, you can see Cary Grant looking down and grinning. Since the hiccup wasn't scripted, Grant was on the verge of breaking out laughing and had to compose himself quickly. Stewart (apparently spontaneously) thought of hiccuping in the drunk scene, without telling Grant. When he began hiccuping, Grant turned to Stewart, saying, "Excuse me." The scene required only one take.


2:00 AM -- It's Alive (1974)
1h 30m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-14
A couple's use of an experimental fertility drug produces a monstrous infant.
Director: Larry Cohen
Cast: Guy Stockwell, Sharon Farrell, Andrew Duggan

This was first released in 1974, with a lackluster advertising campaign, and the film flopped. But later on, someone in charge must have thought the movie had untapped potential, and it was re-released in 1977. This time, it had the iconic advertising campaign of the darkly lit baby carriage with a claw hanging over the edge for the print ads and TV commercials. The TV commercials also had the ominous narration and the music imitating a heartbeat, that struck terror into many a 70s kid who would encounter the ad during their favorite shows and movies. Naturally, this time it became a hit, and spawned sequels and a remake.


3:45 AM -- It Lives Again (1978)
1h 31m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-14
An epidemic of mutant monster babies sweeps America.
Director: Larry Cohen
Cast: Frederic Forrest, Kathleen Lloyd, John Marley

The opening credits for the film were done using director Larry Cohen's own swimming pool.