TCM Schedule for Saturday, June 29, 2019 -- The Essentials: African American Families

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, The Essentials is back! (or should that be The Essentials are back?), with trailblazing producer, director and screenwriter Ava DuVernay, who will join primetime host Ben Mankiewicz to discuss the films she has chosen. Tonight's theme is films about African American families. Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- UNHOLY PARTNERS (1941)
A gangster helps pay a tabloid editor's debts to gain control of the paper.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Edward Arnold, Laraine Day
BW-94 mins, CC,

The $300,000 Bruce says he needs to start his newspaper would equate to almost $4.2M in 2016.


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: THE MILKY WAY (1940)
The Three Little Kittens tie helium balloons to a basket and travel up to the Milky Way.
Dir: Rudolf Ising
Cast: Bernice Hansen
BW-8 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Cartoons -- Fred Quimby, Rudolf Ising and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Was the first non-Disney cartoon to win an Oscar for Best Short Subject.


8:10 AM -- FINE FEATHERS (1933)
This short film takes a look at various types of birds, from hummingbirds to cranes.
Dir: Jules White
Cast: Pete Smith
C-9 mins,


8:19 AM -- GLIMPSES OF OLD ENGLAND (1949)
This short film focuses on the sights and culture that define "Old England."
Cast: James A. FitzPatrick
C-9 mins,


8:29 AM -- BULLET CODE (1940)
A cowboy's battle with rustlers leads to romance.
Dir: David Howard
Cast: George O'Brien, Virginia Vale, Slim Whitaker
BW-58 mins, CC,


9:30 AM -- LOST CITY OF THE JUNGLE: SPEEDBOAT MISSING (1946)
Episode seven of thirteen.
Dir: Lewis D. Collins, Ray Taylor
Cast: Russell Hayden, Jane Adams, Lionel Atwill
BW-17 mins, CC,


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: THE HOUSE BUILDER-UPPER (1938)
When Olive Oyl's house burns down, firefighters Popeye and Wimpy decide to build a new house with disastrous results.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Seymour Kneitel (uncredited)
Cast: Jack Mercer, Mae Questel
BW-6 mins, CC,


10:07 AM -- THE FALCON'S ALIBI (1946)
A society sleuth sets out on the trail of a society matron's lost jewels.
Dir: Ray McCarey
Cast: Tom Conway, Rita Corday, Vince Barnett
BW-63 mins, CC,

The 12th of 16 movies about the suave detective nicknamed "The Falcon" starring Tom Conway.


11:16 AM -- FARM HANDS (1943)
In this short film, a gang of kids spend some time on a farm.
Dir: Herbert Glazer
Cast: Mickey Laughlin, Robert Blake, Buckwheat Thomas
BW-10 mins,

This was the most expensive MGM-produced "Our Gang" short made, with a total cost of $31,311; it also had the longest filming time of one week, compared to only two or three days for most of the other Metro-produced shorts. Unfortunately, "Farm Hands" posted a net *loss* of $5813 in the end; most of the remaining shorts also failed (especially the final release, "Dancing Romeo," which lost more than *$10,000*), thus leading to the studio's decision to end the series a year later.


11:30 AM -- SERVICE WITH THE COLORS (1940)
This short film focuses on new army recruits prior to the U.S. entry into World War II. Vitaphone Release 9933-9934.
Dir: B. Reeves Eason
Cast: Henry O'Neill, William T. Orr, Robert Armstrong
C-21 mins,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel -- From the National Defense Series


12:00 PM -- TARZAN THE APE MAN (1932)
A British lord raised by apes kidnaps a beautiful noblewoman exploring Africa with her father.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Johnny Weissmuller, Neil Hamilton, C. Aubrey Smith
BW-100 mins, CC,

Tarzan's distinctive call was either created by sound recordist Douglas Shearer from various sounds, or it was indeed Johnny Weissmuller doing the yell himself. Co-star Maureen O'Sullivan insisted throughout her life that it was Weissmuller doing the yell without any technical assistance.


1:47 PM -- SPORT SLANTS #1 (1931)
This short entry in Ted Husing's "Sport Slants" series covers boxing and pocket billiards. Vitaphone Release 1347.
BW-10 mins,


2:00 PM -- GENTLEMAN JIM (1942)
Fanciful biography of 19th-century boxing champion Jim Corbett.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, Jack Carson
BW-104 mins, CC,

Errol Flynn did all of his own boxing stunts in the film, and although production was shut down for a time after Flynn suffered a mild heart attack, he came back and finished the picture without ever using a double. His weak heart kept him from serving in the Armed Forces during World War II.


4:00 PM -- A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957)
A female television executive turns a folk-singing drifter into a powerful media star.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa
BW-126 mins, CC,

When it came to casting, Elia Kazan selected several "people from Nashville; Lonesome Rhodes' friend who twitches his toes, he's from the Grand Ole Opry, a regular comedian there. We went around a lot of clubs, picking up entertainers. I had heard Andy Griffith on record, then I saw him on TV . . . He was the real native American country boy and that comes over in the picture. I had him drunk all through the last big scene because it was the only way he could be violent. In life, he wants to be friends with everybody."


6:15 PM -- POINT BLANK (1967)
A gangster plots an elaborate revenge on the wife and partner who did him dirty.
Dir: John Boorman
Cast: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn
C-92 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

This was the first major picture to film on location at Alcatraz Island after the closure of the federal prison in 1963. MGM rented the site for $2,000 per day, plus expenses for re-establishing heat, water and electricity on the island.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILIES



8:00 PM -- DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST (1991)
Three generations of Gullah women reunite in 1902 before the family emigrates to the North.
Dir: Julie Dash
Cast: Cora Lee Day, Alva Rogers, Barbara O
C-112 mins,

Selected to the Library of Congress National Registry of Film in 2004.


10:15 PM -- THE LEARNING TREE (1969)
A black boy growing up in Kansas dreams of a better life in this film version of director Gordon Parks's autobiography.
Dir: Gordon Parks
Cast: Kyle Johnson, Alex Clarke, Estelle Evans
C-107 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Kyle Johnson, who stars in The Learning Tree, the first movie directed by an African American, is the son of Nichelle Nichols, who as Uhura on Star Trek was part of the TVs first inter-racial kiss.


12:15 AM -- ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1952)
A tough cop sent to help in a mountain manhunt falls for the quarry's blind sister.
Dir: Nicholas Ray
Cast: Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Ward Bond
BW-82 mins, CC,

Ida Lupino directed the film for several days when Nicholas Ray fell ill.


2:00 AM -- IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (1963)
A group of greedy clowns tears up the countryside in search of buried treasure.
Dir: Stanley Kramer
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar
C-159 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner for an Oscar for Best Effects, Sound Effects -- Walter Elliott

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Ernest Laszlo, Best Sound -- Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), Best Film Editing -- Frederic Knudtson, Robert C. Jones and Gene Fowler Jr., Best Music, Original Song -- Ernest Gold (music) and Mack David (lyrics) for the song "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World", and Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Ernest Gold

After adjusting for inflation, the $350,000 treasure would be equivalent to $2.7 million in 2015.


4:45 AM -- COLD TURKEY (1971)
Small-town residents try to quit smoking for a cash reward.
Dir: Norman Lear
Cast: Dick Van Dyke, Pippa Scott, Tom Poston
C-102 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Final film of the amazing Edward Everett Horton; released posthumously.