TCM Schedule for Friday, September 6, 2019 -- TCM Spotlight: College Football

[Staph]

Today TCM begins a month of college football movies, every Friday night in September. Take it away, Roger!

America's most impassioned pastime, collegiate gridiron competition, gets the cinematic treatment in our collection of College Football Movies. TCM's own Ben Mankiewicz will serve as host of this parade of pigskin pictures, with co-hosting duties shared by various members of the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, GA.

Ben goes solo for Place Your Bets!, a series of college football films from the 1930s - each of which tells of a student whose participation in football threatens his integrity and his relationship with a girlfriend. The movies are: That's My Boy (1932) starring Richard Cromwell, Gridiron Flash (1934) starring Eddie Quillan, The Big Game (1936) starring Phillip Huston, Over the Goal (1937) starring William Hopper and Saturday's Heroes (1937) starring Van Heflin.

Dennis Adamovich, CEO of the College Football Hall of Fame and Chick-fil-A Fan Experience, co-hosts Football Comedies. These include such classics as The Freshman (1925), the Harold Lloyd silent in which he plays a university freshman who tries to become popular by joining the school's football team; and Horse Feathers (1932), a Marx Brothers vehicle in which Groucho is a college president who hires professional players to beef up a terrible football team. Also screening are Too Many Girls (1940), a musical comedy starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz; and Hold That Line (1952), a Bowery Boys romp.

Ed Marinaro, an inductee into the College Football of Fame in 1991, played football at Cornell University, setting over 16 NCAA records. He later played professional football for the Minnesota Vikings, New York Jets and Seattle Seahawks. He became an actor, appearing as a regular in such series as Laverne and Shirley and Hill Street Blues.

Marinaro co-hosts Most Valuable Players, a trio of films including two biopics, Knute Rockne All American (1940), starring Pat O'Brien as Rockne and Ronald Reagan as George Gipp; and Jim Thorpe -- All American (1951), starring Burt Lancaster. Also in this lineup is the TCM premiere of Return to Campus (1975), writer-director Harold Cornsweet's fantasy about a middle-aged man who returns to college to become a football star.

Lou Holtz, a former football player at Kent State University, served as head football coach at a number of universities including North Carolina State, Notre Dame and the University of South Carolina. He later became an author and a college football analyst for CBS Sports and ESPN.

Holtz co-hosts Love & Football, featuring three films combining the subjects. Two are early-talkie comedies: So This Is College (1929), starring Robert Montgomery and Elliott Nugent; and Eleven Men and a Girl (1930), starring Joan Bennett and Joe E. Brown. The third movie is Good News (1947), a breezy college musical with June Allyson and Peter Lawford.

by Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!


6:46 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,


7:00 AM -- THE CARTOONS OF WINSOR MCCAY (2014)
Animated compilation: Gertie the Dinosaur (1914), Little Nemo (1911), How a Mosquito Operates (1912), The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918), Bug Vaudeville (1921), The Pet (1921), The Flying House (1921), The Centaurs (1921), Gertie on Tour (1921) and Flip's Circus (1921).
C-114 mins,


9:00 AM -- FOREVER, DARLING (1956)
A madcap woman's guardian angel tries to save her marriage.
Dir: Alexander Hall
Cast: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, James Mason
C-91 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The script had been around for years at MGM. It was originally going to be a movie for William Powell and Myrna Loy. A couple of years later it was planned for Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. However, both projects fell through and the script was forgotten about. Years later Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz showed interest in making another movie and they picked this script.


10:45 AM -- MICROSCOPIC MYSTERIES (1932)
This short film takes a look at insect life through a microscopic lens.
Dir: Hugo Lund
BW-9 mins,


11:00 AM -- GENOCIDE (1968)
The insects of the Earth rise up against humanity in this horror film.
Dir: Kazui Nihonmatsu
Cast: Keisuke Sonoi, Yusuke Kawazu, Emi Shindo
C-84 mins, Letterbox Format

Original title - Konchû daisensô.


12:30 PM -- THE COSMIC MONSTER (1958)
A scientist's experiments open the doorway to a strange and deadly world.
Dir: Gilbert Gunn
Cast: Forrest Tucker, Gaby Andre, Martin Benson
BW-72 mins, CC,

Composer Robert Sharples uses a theremin in the film's opening and closing music score, creating an air of mystery and anticipation missing from the rest of the score. Composer Bernard Herrmann had previously used the theremin throughout his film score for The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951).


1:45 PM -- THE WASP WOMAN (1960)
A cosmetics executive's search for eternal beauty turn her into a monster.
Dir: Roger Corman
Cast: Susan Cabot, Fred Eisley, Barboura Morris
BW-61 mins, CC,

This was Susan Cabot's final movie.


3:00 PM -- HIGHLY DANGEROUS (1950)
A female entomologist investigates enemy agents using insects to carry disease.
Dir: Roy Ward Baker
Cast: Michael Hordern, Margaret Lockwood,
BW-89 mins,

Film debut of John Horsley.


4:30 PM -- THEM! (1954)
Federal agents fight to destroy a colony of mutated giant ants.
Dir: Gordon Douglas
Cast: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon
BW-92 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Effects, Special Effects

Walt Disney screened the movie because he was interested in casting James Arness as Davy Crockett. However, he was so impressed by Fess Parker as the "Crazy Texan Pilot", that he chose him for the part.


6:15 PM -- THE FLY (1958)
A scientist's experiments with teleportation produce a deadly hybrid.
Dir: Kurt Neumann
Cast: Al Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price
C-94 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Although many people swear they have seen this film in black and white, they never have. This is known as the "Mandela Effect", which is simply a false memory. It's extremely common. The Fly was only ever filmed and shown in colour. However, the sequels The Return of the Fly and Curse of the Fly, are in black and white. This is more than likely where the confusion comes from. Or they might have watched it on a black & white television, which were common through the 1980s.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: COLLEGE FOOTBALL



8:00 PM -- THE FRESHMAN (1925)
In this silent film, a naive college boy tries to join the football team after making a fool out of himself.
Dir: Sam Taylor
Cast: Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, Brooks Benedict
BW-77 mins,

Credited as being the first "sports" movie produced.


9:30 PM -- HORSE FEATHERS (1932)
In an effort to beef up his school's football team, a college president mistakenly recruits two loonies.
Dir: Norman McLeod
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx
BW-67 mins, CC,

Thelma Todd's character "Connie" is referred to in the film as being a "college widow". This was a somewhat derogatory term at the time that referred to a young woman who remains near a college year after year to associate with male students. Such women were considered "easy". In the film, Connie is shown to be involved with each of The Marx Brothers' characters, as well as the principal antagonist Jennings.


11:00 PM -- HOLD THAT LINE (1952)
The Bowery Boys crash college when one of them lands on the football team.
Dir: William Beaudine
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, John Bromfield
BW-64 mins, CC,

Gloria Winter plays Penny here and would be known as Penny in her most famous role on Sky King.


12:13 AM -- COLLEGE HOUNDS (1930)
This Dogville comedy short spoofs American football movies.
Dir: Zion Myers
Cast: Zion Myers, Jules White
BW-16 mins,

First of nine "Dogville Comedies" released by MGM from 1929 to 1931. These shorts generally spoofed popular films of the day and were hugely popular.


12:30 AM -- TOO MANY GIRLS (1940)
Four college football stars are hired to chaperon a reckless heiress to a Wild West college.
Dir: George Abbott
Cast: Lucille Ball, Richard Carlson, Ann Miller
BW-85 mins, CC,

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz first met on the set of this movie.


2:15 AM -- PRIVATE PROPERTY (1960)
Two young criminals set out to seduce an unhappy married woman.
Dir: Leslie Stevens
Cast: Corey Allen, Warren Oates, Kate Manx
BW-80 mins,

Producer Stanley Colbert originally wanted Anne Bancroft to play Ann Carlyle, in place of Kate Manx.


3:45 AM -- THE SHOOTING (1966)
A mysterious woman engages two bounty hunters to help her seek revenge.
Dir: Monte Hellman
Cast: Warren Oates, Will Hutchins, B. J. Merholz
C-81 mins, Letterbox Format

No U.S. distributor expressed any interest in the film. Nicholson sold the foreign rights to a French film producer, but the producer went bankrupt, and the print remained in bond at the Paris airport for almost two years. After "considerable legal maneuvering", Hellman and Nicholson were able to get the rights reverted to them. In 1968, Hellman managed to get the film theatrical showings in Paris, albeit without a distributor. According to Hellman, The Shooting was a sizeable arthouse hit and played for over a year in Paris.


5:15 AM -- THE BOTTLE AND THE THROTTLE (1965)
In this short film, a teenager runs down a mother and child after having one too many alcoholic beverages.
C-10 mins,


5:15 AM -- GANG BOY (1954)
In this short film, a police officer tries to prevent a gang war by bringing the rival groups together over dinner.
Dir: Arthur Swerdloff
Cast: Curly Riviera,
C-27 mins,

Based on a true story of a truce between Anglo and Mexican gangs in Los Angeles, California in the early 1950s. The Anglo and Mexican gangs are played by the actual Anglo and Mexican gangs who reached the truce. The gangs had script supervision, went by their own actual names and nicknames, and chose who would play which role.


5:15 AM -- THE CORVAIR IN ACTION! (1960)
Technicians herald the arrival of a new car that "delivers the goods as no other compact car can" in this short advertisement.
C-6 mins,