TCM Schedule for Thursday, May 30, 2019 -- What's On Tonight: TCM Spotlight: WWII Homefront

[Staph]

In the morning hours, TCM is celebrating the birth of director Howard Hawks, born Howard Winchester Hawks on May 30, 1896, in Goshen, Indiana. As IMDB puts it:

Hawks' career spanned the freewheeling days of the original independents in the 1910s, through the studio system in Hollywood from the silent era through the talkies, lasting into the early 1970s with the death of the studios and the emergence of the director as auteur, the latter a phenomenon that Hawks himself directly influenced. He was the most versatile of American directors, and before his late career critical revival he earned himself a reputation as a first-rate craftsman and consummate Hollywood professional who just happened, in a medium that is an industrial process, to have made some great movies. Recognition as an influential artist would come later, but it would come to him before his death.

Then in primetime, TCM finishes their salute to the Homefront during World War II. Take it away, Roger!

WWII IN THE MOVIES: THE HOMEFRONT - THURSDAYS IN MAY

This year, TCM honors the 75th anniversary of D-Day with Never Surrender: WWII in the Movies, a two-month salute featuring films from and about the era. This month, to kick off programming and in remembrance of Memorial Day, TCM offers a look at films from various decades that are set during that global conflict and observed from the viewpoint of the American home front. Joining TCM host Ben Mankiewicz to introduce and discuss the movies are five cohosts associated with the National World War II Museum, a military history showcase located in New Orleans, LA.

...

Coming Home is the subject of The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), the multiple-Oscar-winner about the readjustment to civilian life for servicemen played by Best Actor Fredric March, Best Supporting Actor Harold Russell and Dana Andrews. The female leads in this Best Picture winner are Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright and Virginia Mayo. Hail the Conquering Hero (1944) takes a lighter look at the re-entry process, with Eddie Bracken as an ex-Marine innocently drawn into a charade that has him posing as a war hero.

...

by Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!



7:00 AM -- THE BIG SLEEP (1946)
Private eye Philip Marlowe investigates a society girl's involvement in the murder of a pornographer.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely
BW-114 mins, CC,

This was the film that began the long relationship between Howard Hawks and writer Leigh Brackett until Hawks' death in 1977. (Initially Hawks assumed Brackett was a man.) Hawks hired her after reading a story that she wrote entitled "No Good for a Corpse". However, when she was hired, she only finished half of another story that she wrote titled "Lorelei of the Red Mist". Her friend Ray Bradbury finished the last half.


9:00 AM -- RIO BRAVO (1959)
A sheriff enlists a drunk, a kid and an old man to help him fight off a ruthless cattle baron.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson
C-141 mins, CC,

Howard Hawks did not want to cast Ricky Nelson, whom he considered to be both too young and too lightweight, and deliberately gave him the fewest possible number of lines for a third-billed star. However, he later admitted that having Nelson's name on the poster had probably added $2 million to the film's box office performance.


11:30 AM -- MONKEY BUSINESS (1952)
A scientist's search for the fountain of youth makes him and his wife regress to childhood.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn
BW-97 mins, CC,

The off-screen voice during the opening credits is director Howard Hawks.


1:10 PM -- TEDDY THE ROUGH RIDER (1940)
This short film follows the political career of president Theodore Roosevelt. Vitaphone Release 9666-9667.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Pierre Watkin, Arthur Loft, Edward McWade
C-19 mins,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel

Sidney Blackmer played Theodore Roosevelt in six other films.


1:30 PM -- ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (1939)
A team of flyers risks their lives to deliver the mail in a mountainous South American country.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess
BW-121 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Walker, and Best Effects, Special Effects -- Roy Davidson (photographic) and Edwin C. Hahn (sound)

Howard Hawks and Jean Arthur did not get along during filming. Arthur was not used to Hawks' highly improvisational style, and when Hawks wanted Arthur to play Bonnie much in a subtly sexy way (not unlike his other "Hawksian women" ), Arthur flatly said, "I can't do that kind of stuff." Hawks told Arthur at the end of the shoot, "You are one of the few people I've worked with that I don't think I've helped at all. Someday you can go see what I wanted to do because I'm gonna do this character all over again." Years later Hawks returned home to find Arthur waiting for him in his driveway. She had just seen his To Have and Have Not (1944) and confessed, "I wish I'd done what you'd asked me to do. If you ever make another picture with me, I'll promise to do any goddamn thing you want to do. If a kid (Lauren Bacall) can come in and do that kind of stuff, I certainly could do it." Hawks and Arthur never collaborated again.


3:45 PM -- TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944)
A skipper-for-hire's romance with a beautiful drifter is complicated by his growing involvement with the French resistance.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan, Lauren Bacall
BW-100 mins, CC,

The most famous scene in the film is undoubtedly the "you know how to whistle" dialog sequence. It was not written by Ernest Hemingway, Jules Furthman or William Faulkner, but by Howard Hawks. He wrote the scene as a screen test for Bacall, with no real intention that it would necessarily end up in the film. The test was shot with Warner Bros. contract player John Ridgely acting opposite Bacall. The Warners staff, of course, agreed to star Bacall in the film based on the test, and Hawks thought the scene was so strong he asked Faulkner to work it into one of his later drafts of the shooting script.


5:28 PM -- JOAQUIN MURRIETA (1938)
This historical short film follows the life and exploits of killer outlaw Jaoquin Murrieta, in California in the 1850s.
Dir: Fred M. Wilcox
Cast: Phillip Terry, Nigel De Brulier, Horace B. Carpenter
BW-11 mins,

Sixth episode in MGM's Historical Mystery one-reel series.


5:45 PM -- THE OUTLAW (1943)
Billy the Kid and Doc Holliday fight over possession of a stallion and a sultry Mexican girl.
Dir: Howard Hughes, Howard Hawks (uncredited)
Cast: Jack Beutel, Thomas Mitchell, Jane Russell
BW-116 mins, CC,

Howard Hawks wanted Albert R. Broccoli to work as an assistant director on the film, but when Howard Hughes heard it he said: "I can't give a good friend a job, the studio will be very upset with me!" But Hawks replied: "I want Cubby!" (Albert R "Cubby" Broccoli, who later became famous for the James Bond films).


7:45 PM -- SEEING HANDS (1943)
This short film stresses how important individuals with a disability are to the war effort.
Dir: Gunther V. Fritsch
Cast: George McFarland, Barbara Bedford, Robert Frazer
BW-11 mins,

Nominee for Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Pete Smith

Based on the true life of Benjamin Charles Helwig (1919-2011). During WWII he was an aircraft parts inspector at Northrop. After the war he became a master cabinet maker.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: WWII HOMEFRONT



8:00 PM -- THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)
Three returning servicemen fight to adjust to life after World War II.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews
BW-170 mins, CC,

Winner of an Honorary Oscar Award for Harold Russell for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance in The Best Years of Our Lives.

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Fredric March (Fredric March was not present at the awards ceremony. Cathy O'Donnell accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Harold Russell, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Robert E. Sherwood, Best Film Editing -- Daniel Mandell, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Hugo Friedhofer, and Best Picture

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)

William Wyler, who served as a major in the Army Air Force during World War II, incorporated his own wartime experiences into the film. Just as Fred Derry did in the movie, Wyler flew in B-17s in combat over Germany, although rather than being a bombardier, as Derry was, Wyler shot footage for documentary films (his hearing was permanently damaged when an anti-aircraft shell exploded near his plane while on a bombing raid). Additionally, he modeled the reunion of Al and Milly, in which they first see each other at opposite ends of a long hallway, on his own homecoming to his wife, Margaret Tallichet.


11:03 PM -- OF PUPS AND PUZZLES (1941)
This short film showcases how the war department utilizes animals to assist with aptitude testing.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Mark Daniels, Eddie Chandler, William Forrest
BW-11 mins,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel

In the scene with the 3 dogs the sound was dubbed with a human imitating dog sounds.


11:15 PM -- HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO (1944)
A group of veterans help a small-town fraud convince his family he was a war hero.
Dir: Preston Sturges
Cast: Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines, Raymond Walburn
BW-101 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Preston Sturges

As the marines are leaving the Oakridge station, a billboard behind them is advertising The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943), another film by Preston Sturges.


1:15 AM -- TILL THE END OF TIME (1946)
A returning World War II veteran falls for a troubled war widow.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Dorothy McGuire, Guy Madison, Robert Mitchum
BW-105 mins, CC,

Though it earnestly portrays such relevant post-WWII issues as PTSD, disability, cultural disorientation and social disenfranchisement, the film was curiously uninvolving, missing nearly every opportunity for audiences' emotional investment (i.e. Cliff returning home to an empty house), which led to its being utterly eclipsed by Samuel Goldwyn's far superior The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), released just five months later.


3:15 AM -- PRIDE OF THE MARINES (1945)
A blinded Marine tries to adjust to civilian life.
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: John Garfield, Eleanor Parker, Dane Clark
BW-120 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Albert Maltz

On the train to Philadelphia, Al (John Garfield) talks to Lee (Dane Clark) about the difficulty he anticipates in getting a job for a blind man. Lee responds that because he, Lee, is Jewish, he has trouble finding a job as well and then waxes philosophic about a day when people aren't discriminated against for any reason. Both Garfield (born Jacob Julius Garfinkel) and Clark (born Bernard Elliot Zanville) were New York-born sons of Russian Jewish immigrants.


5:18 AM -- MARINES IN THE MAKING (1942)
This war-time promotional short exhibits the U.S. Marine Corps' training.
Dir: Herbert Polesie
Cast: Stephen McNally, Charles Horvath,
BW-9 mins,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Pete Smith

The following statement appears on screen at the beginning: "This picture was photographed at various detachments and bases in the United States and is approved by the U.S. Marine Corps."


5:30 AM -- THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE (1945)
A scarred veteran and a homely woman are transformed by love.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Dorothy McGuire, Robert Young, Herbert Marshall
BW-92 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Roy Webb

In 1973 it was announced that a remake would be made. According to Young the setting would be updated and Dorothy McGuire and he would be playing the parts of the housekeeper and blind pianist originally played by Mildred Natwick and Herbert Marshall. The idea fell through after McGuire watched a screening of the original at Young's invitation at the actor's home. She said that the film belonged to another period and that she did not want to go backward.