TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 18, 2019 -- What's On Tonight: Burt Lancaster & John Frankenheimer

[Staph]

In prime time, TCM has four films from director John Frankenheimer and actor Burt Lancaster. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- SABRINA (1954)
Two wealthy brothers fall for the chauffeur's daughter.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden
BW-114 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Audrey Hepburn, Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Billy Wilder, Samuel A. Taylor and Ernest Lehman, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Hal Pereira, Walter H. Tyler, Sam Comer and Ray Moyer

Humphrey Bogart was a last minute replacement for Cary Grant (supposedly, Grant rejected the part because he did not want to carry an umbrella onscreen). Bogart and William Holden couldn't stand each other. Bogart disapproved of Audrey Hepburn (he wanted his wife Lauren Bacall in the role), while Holden fell in love with her. Bogart got $300000, Holden got $150000, and Hepburn only $15000. Asked how he liked working with Hepburn, Bogart replied: "It's OK, if you don't mind to make a dozen takes."


8:00 AM -- LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON (1957)
An aging American tycoon overcomes his inhibitions to court a young Parisian.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier
BW-130 mins, CC,

Gary Cooper was very pleased with his performance and very disappointed that the majority of critics thought him miscast due to his age. Indeed, the film's box-office failure was largely attributed to his being considered too old to play Audrey Hepburn's lover. In April 1958 he had a full facelift, but the procedure was largely unsuccessful.


10:15 AM -- DESIGNING WOMAN (1957)
A sportswriter and a fashion designer have a lot of adjusting to do when they marry in haste.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Gregory Peck, Lauren Bacall, Dolores Gray
C-118 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- George Wells

George Burns later told Gregory Peck that his reaction to getting the plate turned over in his lap was one of the best of its kind Burns had ever seen.


12:30 PM -- SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL (1964)
A journalist sets out to expose a female sex expert but falls for her instead.
Dir: Richard Quine
Cast: Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Henry Fonda
C-114 mins, CC,

While dressed in a woman's nightgown, Tony Curtis says he looks just like Jack Lemmon in the movie where he dresses up like a girl. Curtis co-starred in that movie, Some Like It Hot (1959), with Lemmon, and both of them dressed like girls.


2:30 PM -- WHAT'S UP, DOC? (1972)
The accidental mix up of four identical plaid overnight bags leads to a series of increasingly wild and wacky situations.
Dir: Peter Bogdanovich
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Madeline Kahn
C-94 mins, CC,

When Howard Bannister ends up at the rooftop cocktail lounge, which was under construction, it was not a set, but actually the "Starlight Roof" of the Hilton, which was being remodeled at the time. The view of San Francisco is the actual view from the room. A piano was brought up and placed in the room for the shot. Barbra Streisand sang the song live, not to a recording, because director Peter Bogdanovich wanted her singing to sound natural as she stepped down from the top of the piano.


4:15 PM -- UP THE SANDBOX (1972)
A repressed housewife fantasizes about the life she could be living.
Dir: Irvin Kershner
Cast: Barbra Streisand, David Selby, Ariane Heller
C-98 mins, CC,

Director Irvin Kershner told Streisand biographer James Spada that he wasn't happy with the shooting script but was advised not to express his dissatisfaction to Barbra Streisand, who might walk off the picture. Several days into filming, Streisand went to Kershner and asked him why they were having so much trouble, and he told her they had started shooting with a weak script. Kershner said, "Your people warned me not to tell you." To which Streisand laughed, "That's ridiculous! If a script isn't good enough, let's work to improve it."


6:00 PM -- THE MAIN EVENT (1979)
A bankrupt perfume magnate uses a inept boxer to bring her back to riches.
Dir: Howard Zieff
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Paul Sand
C-109 mins, CC,

Diana Ross was the original intended star. According to a Barbra Streisand biography, Ross left the project after her brief affair with Ryan O'Neal turned sour.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: BURT LANCASTER & JOHN FRANKENHEIMER



8:00 PM -- THE TRAIN (1964)
French resistance fighters try to stop the Nazis from taking a trainload of art treasures to Germany.
Dir: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau
BW-133 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Franklin Coen and Frank Davis

The character of Mlle Villard is based on Rose Valland--a French art historian, member of the French Resistance, captain in the French military and one of the most decorated women in French history. As overseer of the Jeu de Paume Museum in Paris during the German occupation, she began secretly recording as much as possible about more than 20,000 pieces of art that had been brought to the Jeu de Paume. She understood German and for four years kept track of where and to whom in Germany the plundered artworks were shipped. She provided this and also information about railroad shipments of the art to the French resistance so that they would not mistakenly blow up the trains loaded with art treasures. A few weeks before the liberation of Paris, on August 1, 1944, she learned that the Germans were planning to ship out five last boxcars full of art, including many of the modern paintings they had hitherto neglected. She notified her contacts in the Resistance, who prevented the train from leaving Paris. Cate Blanchett's character Claire Simone, in the film The Monuments Men (2014), is based on the same person.


10:30 PM -- BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ (1962)
True story of Robert Stroud, the prison lifer who became an expert on birds.
Dir: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter
BW-149 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Burt Lancaster, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Telly Savalas, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Thelma Ritter, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Burnett Guffey

Robert Stroud really should be known as the "Birdman of Leavenworth," since it was there that he kept his birds and did his research. He was not actually allowed any birds during his time at Alcatraz.


1:15 AM -- THE GYPSY MOTHS (1969)
A trio of barnstorming skydivers finds love and heartache at one small-town stop.
Dir: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Gene Hackman
C-107 mins, CC,

Experienced, but amateur skydivers, most with several thousand jumps to their credit, were brought in from California to double for the actors. During one take, an unexpected gust of wind pulled the chute and caused one of the skydivers to be slammed into the ground, breaking his collarbone and dislocating his shoulder. Even though in great pain, he stayed in character and managed to get up and finish the scene. He was retained by Director John Frankenheimer as a consultant.


3:15 AM -- SEVEN DAYS IN MAY (1964)
An American military officer discovers his superiors are planning a military coup.
Dir: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Fredric March
BW-118 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Edmond O'Brien, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cary Odell and Edward G. Boyle

The story is set in the "not too distant" future. While viewing slides of pictures taken at the last naval inspection, the date 1970 can be seen. Although likely overlooked by modern audiences, the movie has many futuristic items that would have seemed state of the art at the time of release. The wall projecting slide viewer, the television based teleconference equipment, even the digital time/date display at the Pentagon were all touches meant at the time of release to reflect a high tech environment of the near future.


5:17 AM -- THE HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE (1954)
Military tests demonstrate the dangers of poor home maintenance in the event of a nuclear attack in this short film.
C-12 mins,


5:30 AM -- MGM PARADE SHOW #24 (1955)
Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney perform in a clip from "Strike Up the Band"; John Gilbert and Renee Adoree perform in a clip from "The Big Parade." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-29 mins, CC,