TCM schedule for Wednesday, February 11 --- 31 Days of Oscar University: Zoology Department

[Dem2theMax]

TCM schedule for Wednesday, February 11 --- 31 Days of Oscar University: Zoology Department



6:00 AM The Sea Around Us (1952) Documentary
Documentary based on Rachel Carson's pioneering study of ocean life. Cast: Don Forbes, Theodore von Eltz. Dir: Irwin Allen. C-62 mins, TV-G


7:05 AM Short Film: Romance Of Radium (1937) Short
BW-10 mins


7:15 AM Captains Courageous (1937) Drama
A spoiled rich boy is lost at sea and rescued by a fishing boat, where hard work and responsibility help him become a man. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Freddie Bartholomew, Lionel Barrymore. Dir: Victor Fleming. BW-117 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS


9:13 AM Short Film: That Mothers Might Live (1938) Short
BW-10 mins


9:30 AM 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954) Horror
A renegade sea captain uses a pioneering submarine to force peace on the world. Cast: Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas. Dir: Richard Fleischer. C-127 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format


11:45 AM The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962) Drama
American undercover agents in Rome during World War II try to thwart the Axis. Cast: Charlton Heston, Elsa Martinelli, Brian Donlevy. Dir: Melville Shavelson. BW-101 mins, TV-G, Letterbox Format


1:30 PM Mon Oncle (1958) Comedy
A bumbler who prefers the simple life takes on the new-fangled gadgets in his nephew's home. Cast: Jacques Tati, Jean-Pierre Zola, Adrienne Servantie. Dir: Jacques Tati. C-116 mins, TV-14


3:30 PM The Birds (1963) Horror
In a California coastal area, flocks of birds unaccountably make deadly attacks on humans. Cast: Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Jessica Tandy. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. C-119 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format


5:45 PM What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) Horror
A psychotic ex-child star is forced to take care of her invalid sister. Cast: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono. Dir: Robert Aldrich. BW-134 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format


8:00 PM Never Cry Wolf (1983) Adventure
A government researcher fights to survive when he's marooned in the Canadian wilderness. Cast: Charles Martin Smith, Brian Dennehy, Zachary Ittimangnaq. Dir: Carroll Ballard. C-105 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format


10:00 PM Lassie Come Home (1943) Adventure
A faithful collie undertakes an arduous journey to return to her lost family. Cast: Roddy McDowall, Elizabeth Taylor, Donald Crisp. Dir: Fred M. Wilcox. C-89 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS


11:45 PM National Velvet (1944) Drama
A British farm girl fights to train a difficult horse for the Grand National Steeplechase. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, Donald Crisp. Dir: Clarence Brown. C-124 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS


2:00 AM The Jungle Book (1942) Adventure
A boy raised by wolves adjusts to life among humans. Cast: Sabu, Joseph Calleia, Rosemary De Camp. Dir: Zoltan Korda. C-102 mins, TV-G, CC


3:45 AM The Day of the Dolphin (1973) Horror (The dolphin gif won't work. So I put a shark here to eat it!)
After teaching dolphins to speak, a scientist tries to keep them from being used in an assassination plot. Cast: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Paul Sorvino. Dir: Mike Nichols. C-105 mins, , Letterbox Format


5:30 AM Mighty Joe Young (1949) Adventure
Showmen try to exploit a giant ape raised by an orphan. Cast: Terry Moore, Ben Johnson, Robert Armstrong. Dir: Ernest B. Schoedsack. C-94 mins, TV-G






Movie Highlights

Why this film? I've never heard of it! From the description below, it sounds like it's worth taking a look.
TCM lists the film as a drama. IMDB has it listed as a comedy/war film. You be the judge.


The Pigeon That Took Rome


Charlton Heston takes an unexpectedly comic turn in the 1962 sleeper, The Pigeon That Took Rome. In it, Heston plays Paul MacDougall, an American soldier during World War II who is sent to Nazi-occupied Rome to be a spy for the Allies. While staying in the home of a local Italian family, MacDougall uses carrier pigeons to transport messages back and forth to the Allies. When a terrible mishap takes most of the birds out of commission, however, MacDougall must find a way to replace them or else jeopardize the outcome of the war.

After a string of serious roles in heavy-hitting films like The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959) and El Cid (1961), Charlton Heston was eager to switch gears and find a lighter film in which to star. According to director Melville Shavelson, Herman Citron, Heston’s agent at the time, agreed. “Herman was convinced Heston now needed another comedy,” said Shavelson in his 2007 memoir How to Succeed in Hollywood Without Really Trying (P.S. – You Can’t!), “or he’d be playing Biblical roles for the rest of his career.”

Meanwhile, Shavelson (Houseboat <1958>) was also looking for his next project to direct, and he found it in the form of Donald Downes’ 1960 comic novel The Easter Dinner. “It was not only funny,” said Shavelson, “it was based on reality, and had the sting of truth. And it was truly touching. And equally important, it was set in my favorite city (Rome), where I planned to have Paramount pick up my hotel bill.”

Shavelson was surprised when he heard that Charlton Heston was interested in the role of MacDougall in The Easter Dinner. He originally had Bob Hope in mind for the part, but he was receptive to the idea of Heston. A meeting was arranged at Heston’s house for the two to meet for the first time and talk about the project. Shavelson liked Heston immediately. “Although we are poles apart politically — I think Heston had his own pole--,” said Shavelson, “he turned out to be completely affable, intelligent, and the possessor of a considerable sense of humor.” The feeling from Heston was mutual, and the two agreed to make the film together.

One thing that everyone agreed on right away was that the title The Easter Dinner would have to be changed. “Any film called The Easter Dinner that starred Charlton Heston,” said Shavelson, “would lead an audience to believe the opening scene would be the Last Supper, followed by the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. We didn’t have the budget.” Heston thought the film should be called Americans, Go Home!, but ultimately it was re-titled The Pigeon That Took Rome.

The location shoot in Italy went very well. Shavelson called the experience “pure joy”, and Charlton Heston found Shavelson to be an effective director “with a sure instinct for comedy.” Creatively, Shavelson challenged himself. He made the decision to shoot the film in black and white so that he could easily blend the footage he shot with real newsreel footage to give The Pigeon That Took Rome an authentic feeling of its wartime setting.

One major problem that Shavelson did run into while shooting in Rome was the Vatican’s refusal to allow him to film an important scene among the famous Bernini Columns in front of St. Peter’s Cathedral. “The Pope had been upset because he had given Federico Fellini his consent to shoot a scene for La Dolce Vita <1960> in the Vatican;” explained Shavelson in his memoir, “and Fellini had promptly flown a statue of Jesus Christ by helicopter over the sacred dome of St. Peter’s, an aerial sacrilege.” Shavelson tried to explain to the Italian officials that he would not pull any such stunt, but they refused to budge. He considered re-creating the location on the Paramount lot, but it would be too expensive. His Italian production manager soon came up with a better idea. “He told me his brother worked in the Vatican,” said Shavelson, “and informed him the Bishop in charge of illegal filmmakers never arose before 10:00 a.m. If we could get our shot by that time, and get our equipment out, the Bishop would be checkmated.”

The cast and crew assembled at 6:00 a.m. at the Bernini Columns and shot as much as they could of the scene before the Bishop was due to awaken. “All went well until about 8:30,” said Shavelson, “when the Bishop had to answer the call of nature and happened to stare out of his window. Sacrilege! Disobedience of a Papal order! Vatican police...started to descend on our company...there was a long, convoluted argument in Italian as our production manager and his brother held the police off until we completed the shot. Then the actors and the equipment were tossed into our trucks and the invasion of the Vatican was concluded. If I had been Fellini, I would have had a few helicopters standing by for the evacuation.”

When filming was complete, a strike in Hollywood by the below-the-line unions forced Shavelson to go to New York to complete post-production on The Pigeon That Took Rome. Just as the completed film was ready to be previewed, however, disaster struck. The negative of the entire first reel disappeared and was nowhere to be found. Shavelson did what he could to salvage the first reel by re-assembling the old newsreel footage and using the second generation dailies that he still had. The resulting new first reel had a “fuzzy” look to it that actually got praised for giving the film verisimilitude. The missing original reel turned up many years later in the original New York film lab stuck behind a ventilator. According to Shavelson, it had been placed there by a “Union member in sympathy with his striking brethren in Hollywood” at the time. “If I knew his name,” said Shavelson, “I would thank him.”

The Pigeon That Took Rome opened in the summer of 1962 to mostly positive reviews. “Shavelson has gotten into the 101 minutes of running time some good, imaginative humor,” said Variety. “He has his picture rolling without pause and endowed it with witty dialog and script situations. The performances are savvy, the editing sharp and the music, used to bridge one scene to another, correctly functional.” Time magazine said, “The Pigeon That Took Rome lays a heap of small eggs that scramble surprisingly well.”

The international cast also features Elsa Martinelli as Charlton Heston’s love interest and scene stealing opera star Salvatore Baccaloni in his last feature film role as Martinelli’s father. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Art Direction.

Producer: Melville Shavelson
Director: Melville Shavelson
Screenplay: Melville Shavelson; Donald Downes (novel "The Easter Dinner")
Cinematography: Daniel L. Fapp
Art Direction: Roland Anderson, Hal Pereira
Music: Alessandro Cicognini
Film Editing: Frank Bracht
Cast: Charlton Heston (Captain Paul MacDougall/Benny the Snatch/Narrator), Elsa Martinelli (Antonella Massimo), Harry Guardino (Sgt. Joseph Contini), Salvatore Baccaloni (Ciccio Massimo), Marietto (Livio Massimo), Gabriella Pallotta (Rosalba Massimo), Brian Donlevy (Col. Sherman Harrington), Arthur Shields (Monsignor O'Toole), Rudolph Anders (Col. Wilhelm Krafft), Vadim Wolkowsky (Conte Danesi).
BW-102m. Letterboxed.

by Andrea Passafiume


~for Kendra~

[Matilda]

1. Question for discussion ...

Was Tippi Hedren the worst actress to ever appear on screen?

I think she's a contender.

[lavenderdiva]

3. yes, Matilda

I agree and think that Tippi Hedren may indeed be a contender for the worst actress. I just didn't really enjoy 'The Birds' or 'Marnie', no matter Mr. Hitchcock's infatuation with her. Certainly, she is beautiful. Beyond that, I am at a loss. :shrug:

[Dem2theMax]

4. She has got to be in the top 10.

She is so bland. Cardboard with make-up. Mean to say, but true.
Hitchcock sure knew a beautiful woman when he saw one.
Too bad he wasn't looking for acting talent at the same time. ;)

[lavenderdiva]

2. WooHOO!!! Dem and her smilies are back!!!!

Look at you! You're at full tilt posting with your fabulous smilies! I love your TCM header and the movie row bar at the bottom!! And for heavens sake: the pigeon smilie is waaaaayyyyyyy tooooooooooo wonderful!

this says it all: :hug:

Kendra would be proud.....

[Dem2theMax]

5. Awwww...

When I hit the 'post message' button last night, I looked toward the heavens and said, "OK, Kendra, rotten way to get me back in here, but here I am." Somehow, I know it made her laugh. :)

You don't EVEN want to know how long it took me to do that. I have to relearn where all of my smilies are kept. I must have over 30 albums on Photobucket. Trying to remember what I have, let alone WHERE it is... :crazy:

I'll get faster as time goes by. I hope. LOL!

I found a whole bunch of new smilies last night. This is gonna be bad. Me, collecting smilies again. I even found a "Singing in the Rain" smilie!
When that movie comes up, whomever has that day, come to me. LOL.

I'll write a PM tomorrow. Today I found out that my Dad has pneumonia. Third time in four years. This time, we caught it before he ended up in the hospital. So I have to do a zillion things around here to make sure he rests. He's 89, thinks he's 25, and I have to turn into major nag-mode to make him behave.
By Friday, I will be insane. lol?

:hug: