TCM Schedule for Thursday, December 20

[Staph]

This morning features three rather curious films by William Wellman, the director of many greats, including the first Best Picture Oscar winner Wings (1927) and his own Best Director Oscar-winning The High and the Mighty (1954). However, we don't get to see those two -- we get to see Edward G. Robinson as a Chinese assassin. I am not making this up!

Tonight, Star of the Month Irene Dunne truly shines in a quintet of comedies, including Oscar-winning and -nominated Theodora Goes Wild, The Awful Truth, and my favorite My Favorite Wife. Enjoy!



4:15am -- Lady Of Burlesque (1943)
A star dancer and comedian team to investigate murders.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Michael O'Shea, J. Edward Bromberg.
Dir: William A. Wellman.
BW-90 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Arthur Lange

Craig Rice, mystery writer from the 1940s and roommate of Gypsy Rose Lee, ghost-wrote "The G-String Murders", the novel on which this movie is based.


6:00am -- The Hatchet Man (1932)
When he's forced to kill his best friend, a Chinese hit man adopts the man's daughter.
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, Dudley Digges.
Dir: William A. Wellman.
BW-74 mins, TV-14

Edward G. Robinson and Loretta "the Swedish Farmer's Daughter" as Chinese? You have got to be kidding!


7:15am -- The Happy Years (1950)
Friends and family try to tame an unruly student at the turn of the century.
Cast: Dean Stockwell, Leo G. Carroll, Darryl Hickman.
Dir: William A. Wellman.
BW-110 mins, TV-G

This slice-of-life movie features a wealth of child stars and future television and movie stars such as Dean Stockwell (everything from Song of the Thin Man (1947) to Al Calavicci in Quantum Leap and Brother Cavil in the newest incarnation of Battlestar Galatica), Darryl Hickman (The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and Men of Boys Town (1941)), Leo G. Carroll (a regular in Hitchcock films and Alexander Waverly, the boss in both The Man from U.N.C.L.E and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. Pop quiz -- anyone remember what U.N.C.L.E stands for?), Elinor Donahue (Girls Town (1942), Princess in Father Knows Best, and Andy's girlfriend Ellie Walker in the Andy Griffith Show), Dwayne Hickman (Darryl's other brother, best known on television as Dobie Gillis), and Robert Wagner in his film debut.


9:15am -- THE NEXT VOICE YOU HEAR... (1950)
The voice of God mystically appears on the radio, changing all who hear it.
Cast: James Whitmore, Nancy Davis, Jeff Corey.
Dir: William A. Wellman.
BW-83 mins, TV-G

Two years after this movie, Nancy Davis got pregnant, got married, and changed her name to Nancy Reagan. And that's the rest ... of the story.


10:45am -- Joe Smith, American (1942)
Nazi spies in search of government secrets kidnap a munitions worker.
Cast: Robert Young, Marsha Hunt, Darryl Hickman.
Dir: Richard Thorpe.
BW-63 mins, TV-PG

A patriotic WWII film, with a surprisingly graphic view of torture. Torture -- bad. What an old fashioned attitude!


12:00pm -- The Last Hunt (1956)
Two frontiersmen clash over the slaughter of a buffalo herd.
Cast: Robert Taylor, Stewart Granger, Lloyd Nolan.
Dir: Richard Brooks.
C-104 mins, TV-PG

US government marksmen actually shot and killed buffalo during production as part of a scheduled herd-thinning.


2:00pm -- Winter Meeting (1948)
A repressed poetess and an embittered war hero help each other cope with their problems.
Cast: Bette Davis, Jim Davis, Janis Paige.
Dir: Bretaigne Windust.
BW-105 mins, TV-G

A lesser known Bette Davis movie -- probably deservedly lesser known, unless you are a serious Bette Davis fan.


4:00pm -- Dark Passage (1947)
A man falsely accused of his wife's murder escapes to search for the real killer.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Agnes Moorehead.
Dir: Delmer Daves.
BW-106 mins, TV-PG

Franz Waxman's main title music for this movie is exactly the same as that used in To Have and Have Not (1944), for which he was uncredited.


6:00pm -- Idiot's Delight (1939)
A hoofer and a fake Russian countess are caught behind enemy lines at the outbreak of World War II.
Cast: Clark Gable, Norma Shearer, Edward Arnold.
Dir: Clarence Brown.
BW-110 mins, TV-G

This was the only film in which Clark Gable performed a dance number. He spent 6 weeks rehearsing the steps with the dance director, George King, and practicing at home with his wife, Carole Lombard. Because of his fear of messing it up during a take, the set was closed during the filming of this sequence.


What's On Tonight: STAR OF THE MONTH: IRENE DUNNE


8:00pm -- Over 21 (1945)
When a newspaper editor enlists during World War II service, his wife has to run interference with his boss.
Cast: Irene Dunne, Alexander Knox, Charles Coburn.
Dir: Charles Vidor.
BW-105 mins, TV-PG

Comedy, based on the play by Ruth Gordon.


10:00pm -- Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
A woman's two lives as small-town innocent and author of torrid romances collide.
Cast: Irene Dunne, Melvyn Douglas, Thomas Mitchell.
Dir: Richard Boleslawski.
BW-94 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, and Best Film Editing -- Otto Meyer

The tagline for the movie -- Meet The Gayest Lady Who Ever Went To Town!


11:45pm -- The Awful Truth (1937)
A divorced couple keeps getting mixed up in each other's love lives.
Cast: Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Ralph Bellamy.
Dir: Leo McCarey.
BW-91 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Director -- Leo McCarey

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ralph Bellamy, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Film Editing -- Al Clark, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Viña Delmar, and Best Picture

Much of the film was improvised by director Leo McCarey and the cast during filming each day. However, Cary Grant was so convinced this film was not working, he begged to released during production. The film turned out to be a big hit.


1:30am -- Joy Of Living (1938)
A Broadway musical star falls for an eccentric millionaire.
Cast: Irene Dunne, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Lucille Ball.
Dir: Tay Garnett.
BW-91 mins, TV-G

Worth watching, if only for the scene-stealing characters like Eric Blore (perennial butler for Fred and Ginger and in many other films as well), Billy Gilbert (probably best remembered today as the voice of Sneezy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)), and Franklyn Pangborn (always the fussy, nervous official, flustered by the hero and/or heroine in scores of comedies in the 1930s and 1940s, especially the films of Frank Capra, Gregory La Cava, and Preston Sturges). Oh, yeah, and a dizzy blonde/redhead named Lucy Something-or-other.


3:15am -- My Favorite Wife (1940)
A shipwrecked woman is rescued just in time for her husband's re-marriage.
Cast: Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott.
Dir: Garson Kanin.
BW-88 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction, Black-and-White -- Van Nest Polglase and Mark-Lee Kirk, Best Music, Original Score -- Roy Webb, and Best Writing, Original Story -- Leo McCarey, Bella Spewack and Sam Spewack

My absolute favorite Irene Dunne film. She and Cary Grant are marvelous together, and this is much better than the remakes Something's Got to Give (1962) and Move Over, Darling (1963).