TCM Schedule for Friday, June 3 -- What's On Tonight - Wedding Comedies

[Staph]

Happy birthday to Tony Curtis, born on this day in 1925, in Brooklyn, as Bernard Herschel Schwartz. We get a day of his films (including his Oscar-nominated role in The Defiant Ones (1958)) and an evening of wedding comedies. Have a happy June! Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Don't Make Waves (1967)
A swimming-pool salesman gets mixed up with beauty queens and bodybuilders when he falls in love.
Dir: Alexander Mackendrick
Cast: Tony Curtis, Claudia Cardinale, Sharon Tate.
C-97 min, TV-PG, CC

The film's theme song was written and recorded by The Byrds. In a strange bit of irony, the producer of the first two Byrds album was Terry Melcher, who was a previous resident of 10050 Cielo Drive, the house where "Don't Make Waves" star Sharon Tate and her friends were murdered by the Manson family in August 9, 1969.


7:45 AM -- The Great Race (1965)
A bumbling villain plots to win an early 20th-century auto race.
Dir: Blake Edwards
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood.
C-160 min, TV-PG, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Sound Effects -- Treg Brown

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Russell Harlan, Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters, Best Music, Original Song -- Henry Mancini (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "The Sweetheart Tree", and Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD)

Features the largest pie fight ever staged, with a running gag that The Great Leslie remains clean while everyone else is covered in pie. Tony Curtis was required to change clothes several times when he was accidentally splattered with debris from a pie that had hit someone else. The pies used during the pie throwing scene were real, containing fruit, custard, whipped cream and other ingredients. Following this scene the crew devoured more than 300 leftover pies.


10:30 AM -- Sex And The Single Girl (1964)
A journalist sets out to expose a female sex expert but falls for her instead.
Dir: Richard Quine
Cast: Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Henry Fonda.
C-114 min, TV-PG

There are many jokes with references to Jack Lemmon and Some Like It Hot (1959), with Lemmon and Tony Curtis--Curtis dressing as a woman in one scene, for example.


12:30 PM -- The Defiant Ones (1958)
Two convicts, a white racist and an angry black, escape while chained to each other.
Dir: Stanley Kramer
Cast: Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Theodore Bikel.
96 min, TV-PG, CC

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Sam Leavitt, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith (Nedrick Young had been blacklisted at the time and the Oscar went to his pseudonym 'Nathan E. Douglas'. In 1993 AMPAS restored Young's credit upon the request of his widow and recommendation of the Academy's writers branch.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Tony Curtis, Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Sidney Poitier, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Theodore Bikel, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Cara Williams, Best Director -- Stanley Kramer, Best Film Editing -- Frederic Knudtson, and Best Picture

The film's co-writers, Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith, were cast as the prison truck drivers, with the writing credits below their faces, because Young was blacklisted and writing under a pseudonym at the time and producer Stanley Kramer wanted to identify them truthfully.


2:15 PM -- Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)
A crooked press agent stoops to new depths to help an egotistical columnist break up his sister's romance.
Dir: Alexander Mackendrick
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison.
96 min, TV-PG, CC

The character of J.J. Hunsecker is based on famed New York columnist Walter Winchell. Hunsecker's apartment building is actually the show-business office tower at 1619 Broadway, also known as the Brill Bldg., a famous part of Tin Pan Alley.


4:00 PM -- Trapeze (1956)
An aging trapeze star and his protigi fall for the same woman.
Dir: Carol Reed
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Gina Lollobrigida.
C-106 min, TV-PG, CC

Burt Lancaster performed all of the trapeze stunts himself, having worked in a circus before entering films. He insisted on doing the climactic triple flip, but technical adviser Eddie Ward initially was hesitant on Lancaster performing the stunt, so Ward doubled for Lancaster during the first weeks of shooting, but Lancaster told director Carol Reed that he knew how to do the stunt from the get-go so it is Lancaster you see in the final cut of the film.


6:00 PM -- Beachhead (1954)
U.S. soldiers invade a Pacific Island during World War II to catch an informer.
Dir: Stuart Heisler
Cast: Tony Curtis, Frank Lovejoy, Mary Murphy.
C-90 min, TV-PG, CC

Filmed in part on Kaua'i, Hawaii


7:30 PM -- Now Playing June (2011)
Features highlights of the month's programming on TCM, including festivals and stars.
C-20 min, TV-PG, CC


TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: WEDDING COMEDIES



8:00 PM -- Father Of The Bride (1950)
A doting father faces mountains of bills and endless trials when his daughter marries.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor.
93 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and Best Picture

The premiere of this film took place two days after Elizabeth Taylor's real-life marriage to "Nicky" Conrad Hilton Jr.. The publicity surrounding the event is credited with helping to make the film so successful. MGM gave Elizabeth Taylor a wedding gift of a one-off wedding dress designed by Edith Head (a move also designed to promote the film).


10:00 PM -- June Bride (1948)
Two bickering reporters turn a small-town wedding into a battleground.
Dir: Bretaigne Windust
Cast: Bette Davis, Robert Montgomery, Fay Bainter.
97 min, TV-G, CC

Movie debut of Debbie Reynolds.


12:00 AM -- High Society (1956)
In this musical version of The Philadelphia Story, tabloid reporters invade a society wedding.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra.
C-107 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Cole Porter for the song "True Love", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Johnny Green and Saul Chaplin

Grace Kelly, recently engaged to Prince Rainier of Monaco, wore her actual engagement ring for as character's engagement ring.


2:00 AM -- Grizzly (1976)
A giant grizzly terrorizes visitors to a state park.
Dir: William Girdler
Cast: Christopher George, Andrew Prine, Richard Jaeckel.
C-91 min, 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.


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

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


5:30 AM -- Summer of '63 (1963)
Teens on the make spread syphilis among their friends.
C-21 min, TV-PG

Filmed in Salina, Kansas