TCM Schedule for Friday, January 28 -- TCM Prime Time Feature: Films of Ronald Neame

[Staph]

Happy birthday to Ernst Lubitsch -- born on this day in 1892. Tonight's films feature the direction of British filmmaker Ronald Neame. Enjoy!

(And my apologies for being so late -- real life intervened...)



4:30am -- Tom Thumb (1958)
A six-inch-tall boy takes on a pair of comical crooks.
Cast: Russ Tamblyn, Alan Young, June Thorburn, Terry-Thomas
Dir: George Pal
C-92 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Tom Howard

George Pal forgot to cast The Whipping Man and didn't realize his mistake until it was too late. Peter Sellers stepped in at the last minute and played the role, masked.


6:15am -- The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm (1962)
Fanciful biography of the German fairy-tale collectors, with reenactments of three of their stories.
Cast: Laurence Harvey, Karl Boehm, Claire Bloom, Walter Slezak
Dir: Henry Levin
C-136 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Color -- Mary Wills

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- George W. Davis, Edward C. Carfagno, Henry Grace and Richard Pefferle, Best Cinematography, Color -- Paul Vogel, and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Leigh Harline

The major reason that 'Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm' has never been restored is because the original 3-panel Cinerama camera negatives were heavily water damaged in a warehouse fire. The film was never transferred to a 70mm version after it was made so the only surviving prints are edited 35mm composite prints with the three joined panels. The surviving print are not the roadshow version and do not contain all three panels of information. The left area of the A panel and the right area of the C panel are missing from the composite prints. In addition, the color is badly faded. It is doubtful we will ever see a properly restored version of this film.


9:00am -- The Shopworn Angel (1938)
A showgirl gives up life in the fast lane for a young soldier on his way to fight World War I.
Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Walter Pidgeon, Hattie McDaniel
Dir: H. C. Potter
BW-85 mins, TV-G

Margaret Sullavan's singing was dubbed by Mary Martin.


10:30am -- The Shop Around The Corner (1940)
Feuding co-workers don't realize they're secret romantic pen pals.
Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
BW-99 mins, TV-G

While directing this movie, Ernst Lubitsch drew upon his extensive experiences working in his father's Berlin shop as a young lad. At the film's January 25, 1940 premiere at Radio City Music Hall, Lubitsch remarked, "I have known just such a little shop in Budapest...The feeling between the boss and those who work for him is pretty much the same the world over, it seems to me. Everyone is afraid of losing his job and everyone knows how little human worries can affect his job. If the boss has a touch of dyspepsia, better be careful not to step on his toes; when things have gone well with him, the whole staff reflects his good humor.


12:30pm -- To Be or Not to Be (1942)
A troupe of squabbling actors joins the Polish underground to dupe the Nazis.
Cast: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
BW-99 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Werner R. Heymann

According to the book 'The United Artists Story' by Ronald Bergan, " Unfortunately, at its release, Pearl Harbor had been attacked, Germany was sweeping across Europe, and the film's star, Carole Lombard, was killed in a plane crash while on a war-bond selling tour. Therefore, neither critics nor public were in the mood to laugh, finding the picture tasteless and callous. Over the years, however, it recovered its production costs and became a classic."


2:30pm -- Ninotchka (1939)
A coldhearted Soviet agent is warmed up by a trip to Paris and a night of love.
Cast: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire, Bela Lugosi
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
BW-111 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greta Garbo, Best Writing, Original Story -- Melchior Lengyel, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch and Billy Wilder, and Best Picture

Curiously enough, this was the very movie Arnold Schwarzenegger studied when he was trying to find his character for Red Heat (1988). The exercise - emulate Greta Garbo - was recommended to him by his director Walter Hill.


4:30pm -- The Merry Widow (1934)
A prince from a small kingdom courts a wealthy widow to keep her money in the country.
Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Edward Everett Horton, Una Merkel
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
BW-99 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction -- Cedric Gibbons and Fredric Hope

It took four months and 12 seamstresses to make Adrian's two dozen designs for Jeanette MacDonald's gowns.


6:30pm -- Trouble In Paradise (1932)
A love triangle ignites trouble between two jewel theives and their intended victim.
Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall, Charlie Ruggles
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
BW-82 mins, TV-G

The scenes in which Herbert Marshall is running up and down the stairs at Madame Colet's were done with a double who is only seen from the waist down. Mr. Marshall lost a leg in WWI and although it was almost impossible to notice that he used a prosthesis, he could not perform any action that called for physical agility.


8:00pm -- Tunes of Glory (1960)
When a popular colonel loses a promotion, it sets the stage for conflict with his new superior officer.
Cast: Alec Guinness, John Mills, Dennis Price, Kay Walsh
Dir: Ronald Neame
C-107 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- James Kennaway

The name of the Highland regiment portrayed is never mentioned, although the screenwriter served in the Gordon Highlanders. However, the same regimental tartan (designed for this film) and bonnet badges were worn by the Highland regiment in Carry On Up the Khyber (1968), and so the regiment in Tunes of Glory may well be the "3rd Foot & Mouth."


10:00pm -- The Odessa File (1974)
A journalist discovers a strange link between his family and a cabal of fugitive Nazis.
Cast: Jon Voight, Maximilian Schell, Maria Schell, Mary Tamm
Dir: Ronald Neame
C-129 mins, TV-14

Eduard Roschmann was a real-life wanted war criminal living in South America. He became even more wanted after the book and movie, and he turned up dead, rumoured to have been killed by Odessa to stop the search for him that the media had begun.


12:15am -- Hopscotch (1980)
A retired CIA agent threatens to publish an embarrassing book of memoirs about his colleagues.
Cast: Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Ned Beatty, Sam Waterson
Dir: Ronald Neame
C-107 mins, TV-MA

The photograph of Ned Beatty on the desk where Matthau is typing his book is first seen with a smiling face. As the writing continues throughout the film, the expression gradually changes to anger and is finally shot off the desk, the bullet hitting the middle of his forehead.


2:00am -- Grizzly (1976)
A giant grizzly terrorizes visitors to a state park.
Cast: Christopher George, Andrew Prine, Richard Jaeckel, Joan McCall
Dir: William Girdler
C-91 mins, TV-14

A bear who was nicknamed "Teddy" played the role of the killer grizzly bear. "Teddy" stood 11 feet tall and at that time was the largest grizzly bear in captivity and was trained, but untamed by the bear's trainer. The crew was protected from Teddy by an electrical thin green wire that ran throughout the forest locations. In addition, a mechanical bear was used for when the bear had attacked.


3:45am -- Night Of The Lepus (1972)
Husband-and-wife scientists unwittingly unleash a horde of giant man-eating rabbits.
Cast: Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun, DeForest Kelley
Dir: William F. Claxton
C-89 mins, TV-14

DeForest Kelley's last non-"Star Trek" film.


5:15am -- Short Film: When You Grow Up (1973)
Children learn about the world of fun that awaits them when they grow up and go to work.
Dir: Jerry Kurtz.
C-11 mins


5:30am -- Short Film: Distant Drummer: Flowers of Darkness (1972)
Filmmakers trace the history of opium and its role in today's drug trade.
Cast: Paul Newman narrates.
Dir: Charles E. Francis, William Templeton.
C-22 mins, TV-14