TCM Schedule for Friday, December 29, 2017 -- What's On Tonight: In Memorium

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is featuring films with makeup by Perc Westmore. His father George emigrated from England and created the first ever movie make-up department. After George's death, his sons carried on the dynasty; Monte was much associated with MGM until his early death of a heart attack following surgery; Perc became head of Make-up at Warner Bros; Wally himself became Make-up chief at Paramount; Ern worked at 20th Century Fox and low-budget film studio Eagle-Lion, but his career was hampered by an alcohol problem; Bud became head at Universal, and the youngest, Frank, was more freelance and later wrote a book on the family,' The Westmores Of Hollywood' in 1976. Descendents are still very much working in Hollywood to this day; Monte's three sons, Monte Jnr, Marvin, and Michael; Marvin's children Kevin and Kandace; and Wally's granddaughter Pamela. Although he didn't live long enough to witness it, George Westmore's contribution to the development and art of screen make-up was hugely innovative and influential, and his legacy is still felt in contemporary times.

In prime time and well into tomorrow, TCM is remembering some of those we lost in 2017. From the TCM website:

Each year we sadly lose a number of irreplaceable performers and craftspeople from the classic-film community. In this final month of 2017, TCM pays homage to those not previously honored during the year with a night of films devoted to each of these great people and enormous talents.

June Foray (date of death July 26) was one of the most noted and prolific voice performers for animated-cartoon characters, including Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Jokey Smurf and Lucifer in Disney's Cinderella (1950). Foray provides voices for three different characters in the live action/animated movie The Phantom Tollbooth (1970). Among her colleagues she was affectionately known as the "First Lady of Animated Voicing."

Barbara Hale (date of death January 26) is fondly remembered for her Emmy-winning role as Della Street, secretary to Raymond Burr's Perry Mason in the long-running series and many TV movies. The beautiful brunette also appeared in many feature films - perhaps most famously The Window (1949), in which she is very convincing as the anxious mother of a boy (Bobby Driscoll) who witnesses a murder.

Mary Tyler Moore (date of death January 25) burst onto the big screen in the 1920s musical Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) after establishing herself as one of TV comedy's most beloved leading ladies. In Millie, Moore gets to strut her stuff alongside Julie Andrews and Carol Channing and was praised by Vanity Fair for her performance as "the ultimate ingenue."

Roger Moore (date of death May 23) is best remembered as the longest-running James Bond in seven 007 movies of the 1970s and '80s. However, he racked up almost 90 other credits in television and films including a costarring role in the Clint Walker Western Gold of the Seven Saints (1961). Moore's obituary in The Guardian lauded him for "his inimitable humour and panache."

Jeanne Moreau (date of death July 31), stars in Jules and Jim (1962), François Truffaut's romantic drama about a tragic love triangle that also involves Oskar Werner and Henri Serre. This was one of the films that brought Moreau to prominence as an outstanding French New Wave actress of the 1960s, celebrated for her "cerebral sexuality."

Bill Paxton (date of death February 25) plays pilot Fred Haise in Apollo 13 (1995), Ron Howard's docudrama about the aborted lunar mission of 1970. Rolling Stone critic Noel Murray wrote that, in this performance, Paxton becomes "the human face of a mission gone awry...his own kind of hero, at once a handy guy and an ornery cuss."

Don Rickles (date of death April 6) was everybody's favorite "insult comic," winning the facetious title of "Mr. Warmth." In addition to his extensive stage and TV work, Rickles appeared in a number of movies. In the action comedy Kelly's Heroes (1970), set during World War II, Rickles lends amusing support to star Clint Eastwood.

George A. Romero (date of death July 16) won fame as the writer-director of gruesome, funny and undeniably scary horror movies including Night of the Living Dead (1968), a low-budget classic in which he imagined a zombie apocalypse and established the zombie craze in modern culture. Critics of the day were stunned and repulsed by the movie, but it has since been acknowledged and praised by contemporary viewers.

By Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS (1946)
After a famous pianist's murder, his hand returns to wreak vengeance.
Dir: Robert Florey
Cast: Robert Alda, Andrea King, Peter Lorre
BW-88 mins, CC,

The piece of piano music played by Francis Ingram (Victor Francen) and later, his disembodied left hand, is the "Bach Chaconne in D Minor", as arranged to be played by the left hand alone by Johannes Brahms. It was selected by Max Steiner because the story required a piece of music that could be performed by a pianist with only his left hand, and Steiner, who was born in Vienna and whose family were friendly with Brahms, rather than composing his own original piece, immediately recognized its potential in underscoring such a grim tale. Legendary Hungarian-American pianist Ervin Nyiregyhazi performed the music played by the severed hand.


8:00 AM -- THE ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN (1944)
Twain moves from Mississippi riverboats to the Gold Rush to literary immortality.
Dir: Irving Rapper
Cast: Fredric March, Alexis Smith, Donald Crisp
BW-130 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- John Hughes and Fred M. MacLean, Best Effects, Special Effects -- Paul Detlefsen (photographic), John Crouse (photographic) and Nathan Levinson (sound), and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

The scene where Clemens receives an honorary degree from Oxford University in 1907 was the recreation of an event that C. Aubrey Smith, who plays the Oxford Chancellor, actually witnessed.


10:30 AM -- THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938)
The bandit king of Sherwood Forest leads his Merry Men in a battle against the corrupt Prince John.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland, Basil Rathbone
C-102 mins, CC,

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

Nominated 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.


12:15 PM -- THE STRAWBERRY BLONDE (1941)
A man's infatuation with a gold-digging beauty continues after his marriage.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: James Cagney, Olivia De Havilland, Rita Hayworth
BW-99 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Heinz Roemheld

Ann Sheridan was originally cast as Virginia Brush, but became involved in an acrimonious salary dispute with Warner Brothers. The studio borrowed Rita Hayworth from Columbia, even though career was foundering with clinkers like Blondie on a Budget (1940). "The Strawberry Blonde" became a big boost to her career. Jack L. Warner liked her work so much that he immediately used her again in another romantic comedy, Affectionately Yours (1941).


2:00 PM -- THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH AND ESSEX (1939)
Elizabeth I's love for the Earl of Essex threatens to destroy her kingdom.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland
BW-106 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Sol Polito and W. Howard Greene, Best Art Direction -- Anton Grot, Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Effects, Special Effects -- Byron Haskin (photographic) and Nathan Levinson (sound), and Best Music, Scoring -- Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Bette Davis had originally wanted Laurence Olivier for the role of Lord Essex, claiming that Errol Flynn could not speak blank verse well. She remained extremely upset about this through the entire filming, and Flynn and Davis never worked again together in a film. According to Olivia de Havilland, she and Davis screened the film again a short while before Davis suffered four strokes in 1983. At film's end, Davis turned to de Havilland and declared that she had been wrong about Flynn, and that he had given a fine performance as Essex.


4:00 PM -- NORA PRENTISS (1947)
An ambitious singer ruins a doctor's life.
Dir: Vincent Sherman
Cast: Ann Sheridan, Kent Smith, Bruce Bennett
BW-112 mins, CC,

Sheilah Graham reported that Ann Sheridan had an infection in one ear during production, and during the final shots of the film, could only be photographed from one side.


6:00 PM -- MILDRED PIERCE (1945)
A woman turns herself into a business tycoon to win her selfish daughter a place in society.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott
BW-111 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Joan Crawford (Joan Crawford was not present at the awards ceremony and feigned ill that night. Meanwhile she listened to the show on the radio. When she won, she ushered the press into her bedroom, where she finally accepted her Oscar.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Eve Arden, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ann Blyth, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Ranald MacDougall, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ernest Haller, and Best Picture

Shooting the early scenes, director Michael Curtiz accused Joan Crawford of needlessly glamorizing her working mother role. She insisted she was buying her character's clothes off the rack, but didn't mention that her own dressmaker was fitting the waists and padding out the shoulders.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: IN MEMORIAM



8:00 PM -- JULES AND JIM (1962)
A tempestuous beauty comes between college friends.
Dir: François Truffaut
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre
BW-106 mins, Letterbox Format

The production was so small and had so little money that Jeanne Moreau was often called upon to lend her Rolls Royce for ferrying around props. She even did some of the catering, particularly in the scenes where Jim visits Jules and Catherine in Germany.


10:00 PM -- APOLLO 13 (1995)
When an explosion jeopardizes a moon mission, NASA scientists fight to bring the crew home safely.
Dir: Ron Howard
Cast: Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon
C-140 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Sound -- Rick Dior, Steve Pederson, Scott Millan and David MacMillan, and Best Film Editing -- Mike Hill and Daniel P. Hanley

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ed Harris, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Kathleen Quinlan, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published -- William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Michael Corenblith and Merideth Boswell, Best Effects, Visual Effects -- Robert Legato, Michael Kanfer, Leslie Ekker and Matt Sweeney, Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- James Horner, and Best Picture

Bill Paxton's line, "I could eat the ass out of a dead rhinoceros." was not said by Fred Haise. It was made up the day of filming by Gary Busey, who was visiting the set at the time and they thought it would be a good country boy line. Busey had previously said the line in another film he starred in, Point Break (1991).


12:30 AM -- THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE (1967)
A small-town girl hits the big city in search of romance Roaring Twenties style.
Dir: George Roy Hill
Cast: Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Channing
C-152 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Music Score -- Elmer Bernstein

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Carol Channing, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Alexander Golitzen, George C. Webb and Howard Bristol, Best Costume Design -- Jean Louis, Best Sound, Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn for the song "Thoroughly Modern Millie", and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- André Previn and Joseph Gershenson

Mary Tyler Moore said that she always thinks of the tap dancing scene in this film whenever she sees an elevator.


3:15 AM -- NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
A space probe unleashes microbes that turn the dead into flesh-eating zombies.
Dir: George A. Romero
Cast: Judith O'Dea, Russell Streiner, Duane Jones
BW-96 mins, CC,

As Romero explains in "The Directors: The Films of George A. Romero", the day the final editing and voice-over dubbing was complete (4/4/1968), he and John A. Russo literally "threw" the film into the trunk of their car and drove to New York to see if anyone wanted to show it. While driving through New York on the night of April 4th, 1968, Romero and Russo heard news on the radio that Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated.


5:00 AM -- KELLY'S HEROES (1970)
An American platoon tries to recover buried treasure behind enemy lines.
Dir: Brian G. Hutton
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles
C-143 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The film is based on a true incident. The caper was covered in a book called "Nazi Gold: The Sensational Story of the World's Greatest Robbery--and the Greatest Criminal Cover-Up" by Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting. The heist was perpetrated by a combination of renegade Nazi and American officers. It was also listed as the "biggest" robbery ever in the Guinness Book of Records, in the 1960s.