TCM Schedule for Thursday, November 27 -- Happy Thanksgiving!

[Staph]

A day of wonderful musicals, and an evening of extremely large, blended families -- quite appropriate for Thanksgiving, I think. Have a big old dose of triptophan and enjoy!


4:00am -- Darling Lili (1970)
A World War I flyer falls for a beautiful enemy spy.
Cast: Julie Andrews, Rock Hudson, Jeremy Kemp.
Dir: Blake Edwards.
C-143 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Costume Design -- Donald Brooks and Jack Bear, Best Music, Original Song -- Henry Mancini (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "Whistling Away the Dark", and Best Music, Original Song Score -- Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer

A very troubled production, the film went way over budget and was a box office flop when released. Blake Edwards used the experience of making this film as the inspiration for the script to S.O.B. (1981).


6:30am -- That's Entertainment! (1974)
An all-star cast, including Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra, introduces clips from MGM's greatest musicals.
Cast: Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor.
Dir: Jack Haley, Jr.
C-135 mins, TV-G

This was the last film shot on MGM's famous backlot. It was demolished soon after filming in order to make way for a residential development, and this is why the old sets are in such poor condition; this is particularly noticeable in the train station set where Fred Astaire gives his introductions, and Bing Crosby refers to the area as looking rather "scruffy". On the other hand, the entire purpose of the film is nostalgia, and the use of the 'scruffy' prop scene, clearly aged and abandoned, helps to set the tone as one of a return to the glamour of the past, even though it was all make-believe.


8:45am -- The Belle Of New York (1952)
A turn-of-the-century playboy courts a Salvation Army girl.
Cast: Fred Astaire, Vera-Ellen, Marjorie Main.
Dir: Charles Walters.
C-81 mins, TV-G

Based on the first American stage musical to play London's West End, where it was a big hit in 1897.


10:15am -- Guys And Dolls (1955)
A big-city gambler bets that he can seduce a Salvation Army girl.
Cast: Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
C-149 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Oliver Smith, Joseph C. Wright and Howard Bristol, Best Cinematography, Color -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Costume Design, Color -- Irene Sharaff, and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Jay Blackton and Cyril J. Mockridge

Jerry Orbach, who later played Sky Masterson in a 1965 Off-Broadway revival of the stage production, makes an uncredited appearance in one of the early scenes of the film. Twenty years old at the time, Orbach is seen spinning around as a customer in one of the chairs at the barber shop, and shaking Frank Sinatra's hand as the main part of the song "The Oldest Established" begins. Orbach sings the single line "Why, it's good old reliable Nathan".


12:45pm -- Three for the Show (1955)
A woman begins to enjoy life with two husbands in this remake of Too Many Husbands.
Cast: Bette Grable, Marge Champion, Gower Champion.
Dir: H.C. Potter.
C-89 mins, TV-G

Mercury Records issued a 10-inch LP of the soundtrack, which would be the only contemporary soundtrack album released from a Betty Grable film.


2:19pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Let'S Talk Turkey (1939)
It's turkey 101 in this Pete Smith Specialty showing the do's and don'ts of turkey carving.
Cast: Pete Smith
Dir: Felix Feist
BW-10 mins

The annoying little brother of the bumbling turkey carver is played by Tommy Bond, best known as Butch, tormentor of Alfalfa in the our Gang comedies.


2:30pm -- This Is the Army (1943)
A song-and-dance man's son stages a big show starring World War II soldiers.
Cast: George Murphy, Joan Leslie, Ronald Reagan.
Dir: Michael Curtiz.
C-125 mins

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Ray Heindorf

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- John Hughes, John Koenig and George James Hopkins, and Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD)

This film is the only one to star a U.S. President, a U.S. Senator, a state governor and two Presidents of the Screen Actors Guild. Ronald Reagan was President of the U.S. from 1981-1989, Governor of California from 1967-1975 and President of SAG from 1947-1952 and 1959-1960; George Murphy was Senator from California 1965-1971 and President of SAG 1944-1946. They filmed the movie prior to having been elected to any of the offices mentioned.


4:45pm -- Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
In Russia before the revolution, a Jewish milkman tries to marry off his daughters who have plans of their own.
Cast: Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey.
Dir: Norman Jewison.
C-181 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Oswald Morris, Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score -- John Williams, and Best Sound -- Gordon K. McCallum and David Hildyard

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Topol, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Leonard Frey, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Robert F. Boyle, Michael Stringer and Peter Lamont, Best Director -- Norman Jewison, and Best Picture

The title comes from a painting by Russian artist Marc Chagall called "The Dead Man" which depicts a funeral scene and shows a man playing a violin on a roof top. It is also used by Tevye in the story as a metaphor for trying to survive in a difficult, constantly changing world.

This is one of the favorite films of my family -- I have two sisters, and the oldest one got married one year earlier. When the three of us first saw this movie, we cried throughout the wedding scene.


7:50pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: The Romance Of Digestion (1937)
It's disgestion; it's romantic?
Cast: Robert Benchley.
Dir: Felix E. Feist.
BW-7 mins

Humorist Robert Benchley, editor of the Harvard Lampoon, was father to Nathaniel Benchley (author of The Off-Islanders, which became the movie The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (1966)), and grandfather to Peter Benchley (author of Jaws).


What's On Tonight: TCM AFTERNOON MOVIE: HAPPY THANKSGIVING


8:00pm -- Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)
A pioneering efficiency expert tests his theories on his large family.
Cast: Clifton Webb, Jeanne Crain, Myrna Loy.
Dir: Walter Lang.
C-86 mins

The big house the family moves to in Montclair is the same house set originally built for Judy Garland's family in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). Fox didn't have an appropriate standing outdoor set so they rented time on the "St. Louis Street" on MGM lot #2.

This movie, based on the real life Gilbreth family, is light-years ahead of the execrable Cheaper By the Dozen (2003), starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt. The only thing the two films have in common are the dozen children.


9:30pm -- Yours, Mine And Ours (1968)
A widow with eight children marries a widower with ten, then gets pregnant.
Cast: Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, Van Johnson.
Dir: Melville Shavelson.
C-111 mins, TV-PG

This movie, based on the real life story of the Helen and Frank Beardsley family, is light-years ahead of the execrable Yours, Mine and Ours (2005), starring Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo. The only thing the two films have in common are the two large families.


11:30pm -- With Six You Get Eggroll (1968)
A widow and a widower have to contend with hostile children when they fall in love.
Cast: Doris Day, Brian Keith, Barbara Hershey.
Dir: Howard Morris.
C-95 mins, TV-G

This was Doris Day's final big screen appearance, following a 20 year career in the movies.


1:15am -- Please Don't Eat The Daisies (1960)
A drama critic and his family try to adjust to life in the country.
Cast: Doris Day, David Niven, Janis Paige.
Dir: Charles Walters.
C-111 mins, TV-G

Beginning her feature-film career portraying Katharine Hepburn's mother in Little Women (1933), Spring Byington closed her movie years playing Doris Day's mother in this film.


3:15am -- You Can't Take It With You (1938)
A girl from a family of freethinkers falls for the son of a conservative banker.
Cast: Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart.
Dir: Frank Capra.
BW-126 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Director -- Frank Capra, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Spring Byington, Best Cinematography -- Joseph Walker, Best Film Editing -- Gene Havlick, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Robert Riskin

The first James Stewart and Frank Capra collaboration, to be followed by Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and It's a Wonderful Life (1946).


5:30am -- Festival of Shorts #29 (2000)
TCM promotes three shorts showcasing the youthful talents of Judy Garland:

Bubbles (1930)
A Vitaphone Varieties short featuring costumed children in a cavern-like land of 'make believe' where they sing and tap dance. Judy appears as one of the Three Gumm Sisters.
C-8 mins

Every Sunday (1936)
Judy and Deanna Durbin perform at a concert in the park.
BW-11 mins

If I Forget You (1940)
Judy Garland sings the title song, a tribute to Will Rogers.
BW-8 mins

Judy Garland was considered an icon in the gay community in the 1950s and 1960s. Her death and the loss of that emotional icon in 1969 has been thought to be a contributing factor to the feeling of the passing of an era that helped spark the Stonewall Riots that began the militant gay rights movement.

[Staph]

1. Fiddler On The Roof (1971)

Outside the town of Zagreb, Yugoslavia, the cast and crew of the film version of Fiddler on the Roof (1971) charged ahead with the heady task of outdoing their greatest competition: the long-running Broadway stage version of the same name. At the time of filming, Fiddler was the most popular theatrical musical of the day; it has been estimated that over thirty million people in over thirty countries had viewed the play. So, director Norman Jewison was under serious pressure to produce a hit, and after extensive locale scouting, nine million dollars, and lots of pairs of ladies - nylon stockings - I'll explain later - he did.

Fiddler was nominated for eight Academy Awards in 1971 including Best Picture, Actor, and Director. It took home Oscars® for Best Cinematography, Best Sound, and Best Scoring. Although picked and panned fairly evenly by the critics, Fiddler on the Roof was a popular success with movie audiences and successfully emerged from the shadow of its stage origins.

The story line of Fiddler on the Roof is fairly simple; in the director's own words, "It's the story of a man and his God, and his problems with his five daughters." The man, Tevye, struggles between the traditions of his Jewish faith and the wills of his headstrong daughters, three of whom are of marrying age and eager to do something about it. In a role originated on Broadway by comic Zero Mostel, the film's casting drew controversy when the man playing Tevye in the London version, an Israeli actor named only Topol, was chosen for the part. His understated performance, however, was a success on film, and served as a sharp contrast to Mostel's over the top antics that worked best onstage. Topol, however, quickly faded into obscurity after Fiddler - as did the rest of the cast, actually - with one exception. Michael Glaser, as the character Perchik, one of the daughter's suitors, would enjoy some television success in the kitschy, mid-1970's series Starsky and Hutch as cool cop Dave Starsky.

Norman Jewison was well respected as a director, thanks to In the Heat of the Night (1967) and The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), two very tough and masculine films. Fiddler on the Roof was thus a formidable challenge as it was his first foray into the musical genre. Early on in the project, Jewison determined that the film's success depended on a strong element of realism throughout the production, hence his extensive travels from Canada to much of Eastern Europe. He finally settled on parts of rural Yugoslavia to serve as the film's fictional town of Anatevka. It was a good choice for location authenticity; the crew was able to use many of the area's existing houses and structures as is, without needing to age or distress them to look like early twentieth century Ukraine. Famed English cinematographer Oswald ("Ossie") Morris wanted the look of the film to retain an earthy feel to be able to best communicate the color and sentiment of the land. So he stuck a nylon stocking over the camera lens. Morris voraciously defended this technique, which raised a few eyebrows when the cinematography was nominated for an Oscar, as being the ideal shade to convey his message of genuine simplicity.

The pantyhose worked for Morris; he took home the Oscar® for Cinematography in 1971. As the winner for Best Scoring, John Williams of Boston Pops fame would pick up the first of many Academy Awards in his ongoing career, which includes such composing highlights as Star Wars (1977), Superman (1978), Jaws (1975), and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Ultimately Fiddler on the Roof would gross over thirty-eight million; perhaps not surprisingly Jewison attempted another musical in 1973's Jesus Christ Superstar, but it did not do nearly as well. He then hit a ten-year career slump before successfully reemerging with Agnes of God in 1984 and Moonstruck a year later - certainly a comeback that would cause anyone to shout "MazelTov!"

Director/Producer: Norman Jewison
Screenwriter: Joseph Stein
Cinematographer: Oswald Morris
Music: Jerry Bock
Editor: Antony Gibbs, Robert Lawrence
Production Designer: Robert F. Boyle
Production Designer/Set Design: Michael Stringer
Costume Designer: Joan Bridge, Elizabeth Haffenden
Cast: Topol (Tevye), Norma Crane (Golde), Leonard Frey (Motel), Molly Picon (Yente), Paul Mann (Lazar Wolf), Rosalind Harris (Tzeitel), Stella Courtney (Shandel), Stanley Fleet (Farcel), Jacob Kalich (Yankel)
C-182m. Letterboxed. Closed Captioning.

by Eleanor Quin

[lavenderdiva]

2. Staph, I wanted to let you know how much I always enjoy your posts!

You put so much research and interesting information into your posts-- I love reading them! I always learn something new about the movies I love--

Today really is family day on TCM-

[Staph]

4. Thanks for the kind words!

I'm so happy to have found a community of movie-loving liberals (just like most of my family). It's wonderful to not have to watch my mouth or avoid the snark.

[CBHagman]

3. I never get tired of "Yours, Mine and Ours."

What an entertaining film, from start to finish.