TCM Schedule for Thursday, November 15 (Guest Programmer Cybil Sheppard)

[Staph]

Today's daytime films are the first eleven films from the East Side Kids series, created by Universal Studios. The East Side Kids, like the Dead End Kids, the Little Tough Guys, and the Bowery Boys, are based on characters from the Broadway play Dead End, about a gang of street kids well on the path to a life of crime.

But tonight's films are among my favorite movies ever. Cybil Sheppard and I must have very similar taste! If you have never seen them before, save room on your DVR for Ninotchka (with Garbo in her first, and probably best, comedy role as a humorless Soviet official falling in love in Paris), Notorious (Hitchcock directed Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman as somewhat amoral pair spying on Nazis in South America after World War II), and His Girl Friday (with Cary Grant again and Roz Russell as a divorced couple who once worked together as reporters -- the dialogue is fast and furious and you'll fall in love with Grant or Russell or maybe even both!).

And then, in the middle of the night, the best of the screwball comedies, Bringing Up Baby. What a wonderful day!



5:30am -- MGM Parade Show #33 (1955)
Walter Pidgeon introduces Part Two of "The Pirate" and a clip from "Gaby."
BW-26 mins, TV-G


6:00am -- East Side Kids (1940)
A street tough searches for evidence to get his brother out of prison.
Cast: Leon Ames, Joyce Moore, Dennis Bryan.
Dir: Robert Hill.
BW-60 mins, TV-G

I love the gang members names -- Mileaway, Dutch, Skinny, Whisper and Knuckles -- they are so evocative of 1940's Hollywood's view of what a New York City gang looks like.


7:15am -- Boys of the City (1940)
Street kids sent to a better environment in the country get caught in a haunted house.
Cast: Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Dave O'Brien.
Dir: Joseph Lewis.
BW-62 mins, TV-PG

Muggs: I think this organ has something to do with the secret. Then Agnes said "not to touch it" and Knuckles said that Ms. Mason was to meet him in this room. She vanished from this room. I'll bet you there's a secret panel.
Danny: You're crazy. You've been seeing too many movies.
Muggs: Movies - hey, that's it! Say what's The Thin Man got that I ain't got?
Danny: Myrna Loy.


8:30am -- That Gang of Mine (1940)
A street tough tries to land a job as a jockey.
Cast: Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Clarence Muse.
Dir: Joseph H. Lewis.
BW-62 mins, TV-G

Co-star Milton Kibbee, plodding faithfully along and often uncredited, set a high standard for loyalty to one's profession as a reliable character actor and, when needed, a bit actor, in films ranging from early Talkies and pre-Golden Age films, up to modern movies and much smallscreen work into the early 1950's.


9:45am -- Pride of the Bowery (1941)
In search of a boxing camp, a street tough mistakenly signs on with a conservation group.
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Donald Haines.
Dir: Joseph Lewis.
BW-57 mins, TV-G

The conservation group that Muggs (Gorcey) signs up for is one of FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps camps.


10:43am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: This Is The Bowery (1941)
Narrator: John Nesbitt
Dir: Gunther von Fritsch
BW-10 mins

This Is The Bowery follows one homeless man as he drifts from handout to handout in New York City's Bowery District until he is finally salvaged by the Bowery Mission operated by Charles St. John, who appears as himself.


11:00am -- Flying Wild (1941)
When he gets a job at an aviation plant, a street tough stumbles onto an enemy spy ring.
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Donald Haines.
Dir: William West.
BW-61 mins, TV-G

At one point in the film, the gang (Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Ernest Morrison and others) are passengers in an old open phaeton (a four-door convertible) that is driving up to an airplane on the parking ramp. The driver is going a bit too fast and cuts the wheel too sharply, and the car flips over on its side. That was really an accident, not a stunt, as the scene is shot in one continuous take, and you can clearly see Gorcey's, Morrison's and Jordan's eyes widen and a terrified look on their faces as the car begins to tip over.


12:15pm -- Bowery Blitzkrieg (1941)
An East Side Kid is saved from a life of crime when he becomes a Golden Gloves champ.
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, David Gorcey.
Dir: Wallace Fox.
BW-62 mins, TV-G

Watch for Keye Luke in a small part -- better known as Master Po, the blind martial arts master from the television series Kung Fu.


1:30pm -- Spooks Run Wild (1941)
A group of delinquents on their way to summer camp get stuck in a haunted house.
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Bela Lugosi, Angelo Rossitto.
Dir: Phil Rosen.
BW-63 mins, TV-PG

The first of two "Bowery Boys meet Bela Lugosi" movies.


2:45pm -- Mr. Wise Guy (1942)
A group of delinquents tries to clear a man framed for a gangster's murder.
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall.
Dir: William Nigh.
BW-70 mins, TV-PG

The East End kids go to reform school. Oh, by the way, it's a comedy. Remember, it's the 1940's and this was not film noir.


4:00pm -- Let's Get Tough! (1942)
Too young to enlist, a gang of street kids try to solve the murder of an Allied agent.
Cast: Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan.
Dir: Wallace Fox.
BW-62 mins, TV-G

The token Japanese spy is played by Philip Ahn, Korean-American actor who usually played Chinese characters, including the wise Master Kan, the main teacher of Kwai Chang Caine in the television series Kung Fu.


5:15pm -- Smart Alecks (1942)
An attempt to raise funds for new baseball uniforms gets a group of boys mixed up in crime.
Cast: Leo Gorcey, David Gorcey, Huntz Hall.
Dir: Wallace Fox.
BW-66 mins, TV-G

Watch for former light heavyweight boxing champion Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom. Can there really be such a thing as a "light" "heavyweight"? Isn't that an oxymoron?


6:30pm -- Kid Dynamite (1943)
A boxer is kidnapped by gamblers to keep him out of a big fight.
Cast: Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan.
Dir: Wallace Fox.
BW-66 mins, TV-G

Ava Gardner was scheduled to play Ivy, but she was replaced by Pamela Blake because of illness.


7:40pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Once Over Lightly (1938)
In this spoof of college life, Clipton Barber College must meet Beardsley in an intercollegiate face-off.
Cast: Billy Gilbert, Dixie Dunbar, Johnny Downs.
Dir: Will Jason.
BW-19 mins.

Joan Crawford's fourth husband, Phillip Terry, has a bit part.


What's On Tonight: TCM GUEST PROGRAMMER: CYBIL SHEPPARD


8:00pm -- 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.
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.

The tagline "Garbo laughs!" came before the screenplay was written; the film was built around that single, now legendary, slogan.


10:00pm -- Notorious (1946)
A U.S. agent recruits a German expatriate to infiltrate a Nazi spy ring in Brazil.
Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock.
BW-101 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Claude Rains, and Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Ben Hecht

Alfred Hitchcock's director cameo comes at about an hour in, as he is drinking champagne at the party in Alexander Sebastian's (Claude Rains) mansion.


12:00am -- His Girl Friday (1940)
An unscrupulous editor plots to keep his star reporter-and ex-wife-from re-marrying.
Cast: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy.
Dir: Howard Hawks.
BW-92 mins, TV-G

The dialogue just crackles in this movie -- these few examples only give you the smallest sense of it. You have to hear it delivered with just the right attitude by Grant and Russell.

Walter Burns: You've got an old fashioned idea divorce is something that lasts forever, 'til death do us part.' Why divorce doesn't mean anything nowadays, Hildy, just a few words mumbled over you by a judge.

Walter Burns: There's been a lamp burning in the window for ya, honey... here.
Hildy Johnson: Oh, I jumped out that window a long time ago.

Hildy Johnson: Now, get this, you double-crossing chimpanzee: There ain't going to be any interview and there ain't going to be any story. And that certified check of yours is leaving with me in twenty minutes. I wouldn't cover the burning of Rome for you if they were just lighting it up. If I ever lay my two eyes on you again, I'm gonna walk right up to you and hammer on that monkeyed skull of yours 'til it rings like a Chinese gong!


1:45am -- Houseboat (1958)
An Italian socialite on the run signs on as housekeeper for a widower with three children.
Cast: Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Martha Hyer.
Dir: Melville Shavelson.
C-110 mins, TV-G

Original screenplay was written by Betsy Drake, Cary Grant's wife. Grant originally wanted it to star her but his extra-marital affair with Sophia Loren complicated the project. Drake's script was drastically re-written by two other writers to accommodate Loren and bears little resemblance to Drake's concept.


3:45am -- Bringing Up Baby (1938)
A madcap heiress upsets the staid existence of a straitlaced scientist.
Cast: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Charlie Ruggles.
Dir: Howard Hawks.
BW-102 mins, TV-G

The scene in which Susan's (Hepburn's) dress is ripped was inspired by something that happened to Cary Grant. He was at the Roxy Theater on night and his pants zipper was down when it caught on the back of a woman's dress. Grant impulsively followed her. When he told this story to Howard Hawks, Hawks loved it and put it into the film.

Susan pretends that she and David (Cary Grant) are gangsters. The underworld nickname she gives police for David is "Jerry the Nipper", a nickname that Jerry (Grant) had in The Awful Truth (1937). David protests to the police, "Officer, she's making it up from motion pictures she's seen!" But David himself makes reference to the notorious characters "Mickey the Mouse" and "Donald the Duck". RKO was Walt Disney's distributor at the time.


5:30am -- Festival of Shorts #53 (2007)
Features Double Exposure (1935) a Warner Comedy short starring Bob Hope.
BW-22 mins

[Staph]

1. Behind the Camera on BRINGING UP BABY

According to Howard Hawks in the book, Hawks on Hawks by Joseph McBride, the director had some difficulty getting Hepburn to stop overacting during the early stages of production. "The great trouble is people trying to be funny," Hawks observed. "If they don't try to be funny, then they are funny. I couldn't do any good with her, so I went over to an actor who was a comic for the Ziegfeld Follies and everything, Walter Catlett, and said, Walter, have you been watching Miss Hepburn? He said, Yeah. Do you know what she's doing? Yeah. And I said, will you tell her? He said, no. Well, I said, supposing she asks you to tell her? Well then, I'll have to tell her. So I went over to Kate, and I said, we're not getting along too well on this thing. I'm not getting through to you, but there's a man here who I think could. Do you want to talk to him? She came back from talking with him and said, Howard, hire that guy and keep him around here for several weeks, because I need him. And from that time on, she knew how to play comedy better, which is just to read lines." Hepburn also asked Hawks to give Catlett a role in the film so she could call on him for further help. Hawks cast him as the town constable.

Hepburn also loved to talk, which caused problems for Hawks when he needed to shoot scenes. When she ignored the assistant director's repeated cries of "Quiet," Hawks just motioned the rest of the crew to stop what they were doing until she realized she was the only one talking. She asked, "What's the matter?" and Hawks said, "You're acting a good part of a parrot, and if you're going to keep on doing it, we'll just sit here and watch you." At that, she took Hawks aside and told him not to talk to her like that because she had a lot of friends working on the film. Hawks called to an electrician on a scaffold overhead and said, "If you had a choice of dropping a lamp on Miss Hepburn or me, who would you drop it on?" The man told Hawks to get out of the way, and Hepburn just said, "I guess I'm wrong" and never misbehaved again.

From that point, the atmosphere on the set was harmonious. Hepburn served high tea every day at four. On some days, Hawks cancelled shooting and took the cast to the races. When he was particularly pleased with one scene, he brought the cast two cases of champagne.

Hepburn and Grant frequently socialized off the set, double-dating with their respective steadies at the time, Howard Hughes and Phyllis Brooks. They loved working on the film so much that they frequently arrived early. Since Hawks was usually late, they spent their time working out new bits of comic business.

Among their inventions was the bit in which Grant accidentally rips off the back of Hepburn's dress, and the two have to walk in lockstep while he covers her exposed derriere with his hat. Something similar had actually happened to Grant when he was seated in a theatre near the manager of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and his wife. When he stood to let the woman pass, he realized his fly was open and accidentally zipped her dress into his fly. They had to walk in the same way to the manager's office in search of a pair of pliers with which to open the stuck sipper.

Hepburn worked beautifully with the leopard, Nissa, and impressed the cat's trainer, Mme. Olga Celeste, as a natural for animal training. Under Mme. Celeste's guidance, she spent time with Nissa before each day's shoot. She wore lots of perfume because it made the cat more playful and put resin on the soles of her shoes to prevent any sudden slips that might scare her. She had only one close call, when she turned too quickly and the beast clawed at her flaring skirt. Only a sharp crack on the head from Mme. Celeste kept Nissa from doing further damage.

Despite Hepburn's knack for working with Nissa, the studio wasn't taking any chances. Some scenes involving the leopard, like the drive to Connecticut, were done as process shots, with Nissa matted into the shot after the actors had done their work. For the scene in which Hepburn drags Baby into the jail house, you can even see the break between the rope Hepburn is holding and the rope attached to the cat.

After a bad start, Hawks grew to respect Hepburn tremendously for her comic timing, ad-libbing skills and physical control. He would tell the press, "She has an amazing body -- like a boxer. It's hard for her to make a wrong turn. She's always in perfect balance. She has that beautiful coordination that allows you to stop and make a turn and never fall off balance. This gives her an amazing sense of timing. I've never seen a girl that had that odd rhythm and control."

Throughout filming, RKO executives complained that the film was destined for commercial failure. They asked Hawks to insert more romance and less slapstick and told him to take away Grant's glasses, but he ignored them.

The film's original budget was $767,000, but Hawks spent so much time indulging his penchant for improvisation that it finally came in at $1,073,000 and 40 days behind schedule. RKO management was so angry they pulled him off his next project, Gunga Din. Ironically, his replacement on that film, George Stevens, was just as painstaking as Hawks. The only difference was that Stevens' film made money at the box office.

Near the end of filming, Hepburn's name appeared in a trade ad placed by the Independent Theatre Owners Association at the top of a list of performers they considered "box-office poison." Also on the list were Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. The publicity about Hepburn's lack of popularity did little to help Bringing Up Baby at the box office.

Despite strong previews and trade reviews, the film performed erratically. It did well in most West Coast and East Coast cities, faltered in the Midwest and, amazingly, flopped big time in New York City, where it was pulled from the Radio City Music Hall after just one week. Hawks would later say the problem was that he had failed to put any normal characters into the film so there was nobody for the audience to identify with.

RKO was still committed to pay Hepburn for two more films at $75,000 apiece. To get rid of her they assigned her to make a B-movie, Mother Carey's Chickens. Rather than make that film, Hepburn bought out her contract for $220,000.

by Frank Miller

[CBHagman]

2. I love that story.

Among their inventions was the bit in which Grant accidentally rips off the back of Hepburn's dress, and the two have to walk in lockstep while he covers her exposed derriere with his hat. Something similar had actually happened to Grant when he was seated in a theatre near the manager of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and his wife. When he stood to let the woman pass, he realized his fly was open and accidentally zipped her dress into his fly. They had to walk in the same way to the manager's office in search of a pair of pliers with which to open the stuck zipper.

:rofl: