TCM Schedule for Thursday, June 6, 2019 -- What's On Tonight: TCM Spotlight: Allied Powers

[Staph]

Throughout the day and evening, TCM begins their salute to the Allied Forces during World War II. Take it away, Roger!

WWII IN THE MOVIES: ALLIED POWERS - THURSDAYS IN JUNE

D-Day (June 6, 1944) marked the date on which more than 156,000 Allied troops of World War II invaded northern France to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, signaling the beginning of the end of Hitler's grip on Europe. TCM continues to pay respect to the armed forces of WWII and the 75th anniversary of D-Day with Never Surrender: WWII in the Movies, this month looking at the Allied Powers and some of the numerous movies made about their struggles and victories.

Our tribute includes many classic titles such as Battleground (1949), Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), To Hell and Back (1955), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Longest Day (1962), The Great Escape (1963) and A Bridge Too Far (1977). We're also screening a number of compelling if lesser-known films--some seldom seen or underrated. A selection of these are highlighted below and grouped by categories.

75th Anniversary of D-Day/War in Europe:

Attack (1956), directed by Robert Aldrich, is set in the later stages of WWII in Belgium, where a U.S. Army lieutenant (Jack Palance) seeks revenge against a captain (Eddie Albert) whose cowardice in combat has cost lives. Described by The New York Times as "a stark, disquieting picture," the movie won the 1956 Italian Film Critics Award.

The British film Overlord (1975), not seen in the U.S. until recent years, mixes documentary footage with staged action in telling its story of a sensitive young man who has forebodings of death as he enters the Army and trains for action on D-Day. Slant magazine calls the film "a masterpiece."

...

by Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!



7:30 AM -- SCREAMING EAGLES (1956)
A group of young soldiers parachute into France in preparation for D-Day.
Dir: Charles Haas
Cast: Tom Tryon, Jan Merlin, Alvy Moore
BW-81 mins, CC,

The uniforms and equipment the U.S. paratroopers wear in the film are fairly realistic for the D-Day period, including the white "card suit" markings the 101st Airborne Division used on the sides of their helmets to identify sub-units in the Division. The paratrooper's helmets in the film carry the heart suit of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment.


9:00 AM -- BREAKTHROUGH (1950)
An American infantry unit moves from basic training to combat in Europe.
Dir: Lewis Seiler
Cast: David Brian, John Agar, Frank Lovejoy
BW-91 mins, CC,

This film's opening prologue states: "With the American Troops in England. The Spring of 1944."


10:36 AM -- DON'T TALK (1942)
This short film focuses on industrial sabotage during wartime.
Dir: Joseph Newman
Cast: Mark Daniels, James Warren, Ivan Miller
BW-22 mins,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel

Dwight Frye plays a saboteur trying to stop the shipment of machine tools from a defense plant. Somewhat ironic as when he died the year after this was made, the death certificate had him listed as being a tool designer since he was working at Lockheed to do his bit in the war effort.


11:00 AM -- FIGHTER SQUADRON (1948)
A dedicated flyer pushes himself and those around him during a perilous World War II campaign.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Edmond O'Brien, Robert Stack, John Rodney
C-95 mins, CC,

Film debut of Rock Hudson. According to his biography, it required 38 takes to get his one and only line performed correctly to director Walsh's satisfaction.


12:38 PM -- MEN OF THE SKY (1942)
This short film, produced in cooperation with the U.S. Army Air Force during WWII, focuses on a group of fledgling pilots receiving their wings. Vitaphone Release 1017-1018A.
Dir: B. Reeves Eason
Cast: Tod Andrews, Eleanor Parker, Don DeFore
C-20 mins,

On November 22, 1942, the B-17 in this film with tail number 12536 (serial 41-2536) was lost along with its crew on a mission attacking Japanese ships 60 miles off Lae, New Guinea, when it caught fire and crashed into the sea. No trace of the plane or crew was found.


1:00 PM -- 36 HOURS (1964)
Nazis kidnap a key American intelligence officer and try to convince him that World War II is over.
Dir: George Seaton
Cast: James Garner, Rod Taylor, Eva Marie Saint
BW-115 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The fake 1950 newspapers given to Major Pike depict "President Wallace." Henry Wallace was Vice President of the United States in 1944, when the film actually takes place. He was not included on the Democratic presidential ticket later that year and was succeeded as Vice President by Harry S. Truman.


3:15 PM -- DUNKIRK (1958)
True story of the Allied evacuation of occupied France at the start of World War II.
Dir: Leslie Norman
Cast: John Mills, Robert Urquhart, Ray Jackson
BW-135 mins, CC,

The last words uttered on-screen by the dying soldier played by Meredith Edwards are in the Welsh language, although they are barely audible. The lines were written in English originally, but Edwards argued that a Welshman who knew he was dying would want his last words to be in his native tongue. The director agreed, and Edwards spoke in Welsh.


5:45 PM -- BATTLE OF BRITAIN (1969)
England defends itself against the Nazi Blitz.
Dir: Guy Hamilton
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Robert Shaw, Christopher Plummer
C-132 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Towards the end of the movie, a British Spitfire shoots down a German bomber, which then falls over central London before crashing into a railway station. This actually happened, (although the fighter used in the real incident was a Hurricane, not a Spitfire, and the bomber was a Dornier Do17 rather than a Heinkel 111). The R.A.F. pilot didn't shoot the bomber down, though. He had run out of ammo when he spotted the bomber apparently trying to attack Buckingham Palace. In desperation, he rammed the bomber, taking off the tailplane. The fuselage then crashed into Victoria Station. Incredibly, he managed to parachute to safety. His own plane rammed into the ground at three hundred fifty miles per hour. It was buried so deeply, that the authorities just left it there. In May 2004, the former R.A.F. pilot was on hand, as the remains of his aircraft were unearthed to make way for a new water main. Remarkably, part of the incident was captured on film, the tailplane fluttering down and the fuselage section (minus the wings outboard of the engines, which were torn off by aerodynamic forces) plummeting towards the ground.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: ALLIED POWERS



8:00 PM -- THE LONGEST DAY (1962)
The Allied forces launch the D-Day invasion of German-occupied France.
Dir: Andrew Marton
Cast: John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda
BW-178 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Jean Bourgoin and Walter Wottitz, and Best Effects, Special Effects -- R.A. MacDonald (visual) and Jacques Maumont (audible)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Ted Haworth, Léon Barsacq, Vincent Korda and Gabriel Béchir, Best Film Editing -- Samuel E. Beetley, and Best Picture

During the filming of the landings at Omaha Beach, the American soldiers appearing as extras didn't want to jump off the landing craft into the water because they thought it would be too cold. Robert Mitchum (General Norm Cota) was so disgusted with them that he jumped in first, at which point, the soldiers had no choice but to follow his example.


11:15 PM -- OVERLORD (1975)
A young soldier undergoes grueling training in preparation for the D-Day invasion.
Dir: Stuart Cooper
Cast: Brian Stirner, Davyd Harries, Nicholas Ball
BW-83 mins, CC,

While Hollywood matches the massive logistics of D-Day by storming the beaches of Normandy with Saving Private Ryan (1998) and The Longest Day (1962), British film goes the opposite route in Overlord (1975). It's a major rediscovery of an extraordinary take on that WWII pivot point --– haunting, austere, intimately scaled, expressive, sometimes dreamlike, often even surprisingly quiet, considering its subject matter. It's the kind of film that could only have been made by having Britain's Imperial War Museum throw its considerable resources behind the project and putting it in the hands of a filmmaker fortuitously equipped to tell the story. In fact, it stemmed from the Imperial War Museum's hiring of American filmmaker Stuart Cooper as a follow-up to a previous World War II documentary project, on the so-called Overlord Embroidery, a sort of Bayeux Tapestry commissioned to commemorate the Allied liberation of Europe.


1:00 AM -- A BRIDGE TOO FAR (1977)
Epic re-staging of the Allies' heroic airdrop behind Nazi lines in Holland.
Dir: Richard Attenborough
Cast: Sean Connery, Robert Redford, Laurence Olivier
C-176 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Daphne Du Maurier, the widow of Lieutenant General Browning, complained that her husband had been "made the fall guy" for the failure of Operation Market Garden by this movie. Browning, and the unseen Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, who are shown as responsible for the failure, had died by the time this movie opened in 1977 (unlike the other commanders involved). Sir Richard Attenborough defended his depiction of Browning, by pointing to the final scene, where he says, "As you know, I've always thought we were going a bridge too far." Browning did actually say something very similar to this (hence the title of Cornelius Ryan's original book, and this movie), but he said it well before the operation started.


4:15 AM -- BATTLEGROUND (1949)
American soldiers in France fight to survive a Nazi siege just before the Battle of the Bulge.
Dir: William Wellman
Cast: Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban
BW-119 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Robert Pirosh, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Paul Vogel

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- James Whitmore, Best Director -- William A. Wellman, Best Film Editing -- John D. Dunning, and Best Picture

Screenwriter Robert Pirosh based this story on his experiences as an infantryman during the Battle of the Bulge. Pirosh did not serve with the 101st Airborne, and wanted to create a script that was faithful to their experiences. He used his first-hand knowledge of the battle to write the script. This was done with the blessing of General Anthony McAuliffe, who was commanding the 101st during the siege of Bastogne. Consequently, many of the incidents in the film, such as Private Kippton's habit of always losing his false teeth, or the Mexican-American soldier from Los Angeles, California, who had never seen snow until he got to Belgium, that have always been derided as "typical Hollywood phony baloney" actually happened.

[ornotna]

1. Just watched Overlord

Interesting take on a war movie. Not the usual gung ho unsung hero type of movie. This is one I would watch again.