TCM Schedule for Thursday, January 9, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: National Film Registry

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Last edited Mon Mar 23, 2020, 06:50 PM - Edit history (1)

In today's daylight hours, TCM is celebrating the birth of Anita Louise, born on January 9, 1915, in New York City. She started acting on Broadway at age 6, and made her first film in 1924 at age 9. She became one of the relatively few child actors who moved gracefully into adult roles. Then in prime time, we have five films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, who deemed it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 2019, The Phenix City Story (1955), I Am Somebody (1970), Gaslight (1944), Girl Friends (1978), and Body and Soul (1925). Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- ANTHONY ADVERSE (1936)
An orphan runs off to a life of adventure, then returns to France in search of the girl he left behind.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Fredric March, Olivia De Havilland, Donald Woods
BW-141 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gale Sondergaard, Best Cinematography -- Tony Gaudio, Best Film Editing -- Ralph Dawson, and Best Music, Score -- Leo F. Forbstein (head of department) with the score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Anton Grot, Best Assistant Director -- William H. Cannon, and Best Picture

Film debut of Gale Sondergaard. Her win for the "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar was the first awarded.


8:30 AM -- THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR (1936)
True story of the French scientist's battle to establish modern medical methods.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: Paul Muni, Josephine Hutchinson, Anita Louise
BW-86 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Muni, Best Writing, Original Story -- Pierre Collings and Sheridan Gibney, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Pierre Collings and Sheridan Gibney

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Picture

An electrician for Warner Bros. studio came up to Paul Muni after an advanced screening of the film and told him that his nine-year-old son asked him to buy him a microscope because of Muni's performance. Even though he went on to win the Oscar for his performance, Muni said that this was the greatest compliment he had ever received and that all other accolades meant nothing compared to that one.


10:15 AM -- FIRST LADY (1937)
A U.S. president's granddaughter fights a femme fatale to groom her husband for the White House.
Dir: Stanley Logan
Cast: Kay Francis, Preston Foster, Anita Louise
BW-83 mins, CC,

Based on the Broadway play by Katharine Dayton and George S. Kaufman.


11:45 AM -- THE PHANTOM OF CRESTWOOD (1933)
Five men have to prove their innocence when a blackmailer is murdered.
Dir: J. Walter Ruben
Cast: Ricardo Cortez, Karen Morley, Anita Louise
BW-76 mins, CC,

The film was originally presented as a radio serial with the final episode left out! If the listener wanted to know the ending, they had to watch the film.


1:15 PM -- MILLIE (1931)
A prostitute turns to murder to protect her teenage daughters honor.
Dir: John Francis Dillon
Cast: Helen Twelvetrees, Lilyan Tashman, Robert Ames
BW-84 mins, CC,

Charles R. Rogers produced this as an independent film, but sold the distribution rights to RKO after he was made chief executive of RKO-Pathé in January 1931.


2:45 PM -- EVERYTHING'S ROSIE (1931)
A carnival con artist tries to mend his ways when his adopted daughter gets engaged.
Dir: Clyde Bruckman
Cast: Robert Woolsey, Anita Louise, John Darrow
BW-67 mins, CC,

Robert Woolsey's only starring feature without Bert Wheeler.


4:00 PM -- THE FIREBIRD (1934)
A young girl's secret romance is exposed when her lover is murdered.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: Verree Teasdale, Ricardo Cortez, Lionel Atwill
BW-74 mins,

In 1936 Igor Stravinsky sued Warner Bros. over the 'misuse' of his themes from the ballet "The Firebird". In 1938 a French court awarded him one franc in damages, instead of the 300,000 francs he was claiming.


5:30 PM -- PERSONAL MAID'S SECRET (1935)
A maid's ability to pick stock market winners keeps her employer in the money.
Dir: Arthur Greville Collins
Cast: Margaret Lindsay, Warren Hull, Anita Louise
BW-58 mins, CC,

Based on a story idea by Lillian Day.


6:45 PM -- BRIDES ARE LIKE THAT (1936)
A young man uses flattery to beat out a romantic rival.
Dir: William McGann
Cast: Ross Alexander, Anita Louise, Joseph Cawthorn
BW-67 mins, CC,

First feature film that Gene and Kathleen Lockhart, playing Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, appear in together. They would make a further sixteen feature films together up to 1953.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY



8:00 PM -- THE PHENIX CITY STORY (1955)
A crusading lawyer takes on the corrupt machine running a Southern town.
Dir: Phil Karlson
Cast: John McIntire, Richard Kiley, Kathryn Grant
BW-100 mins, CC,

In the film, John Patterson (Richard Kiley) is depicted as supportive of African-American Zeke Ward (James Edwards) and his family. In real life, following his term as Alabama attorney general (1954-58), he ran for governor in 1958 in an openly racist campaign and won. One of his opponents, George Wallace, had run as a racial moderate and told his friends after the election, "John Patterson out-niggered me, and I'm never gonna be out-niggered again." Four years later, in 1962, Wallace won the governorship of Alabama as an avowed segregationist.


10:00 PM -- I AM SOMEBODY (1970)
In 1969, 400 poorly paid Black women - hospital workers in Charleston, South Carolina - went on strike to demand union recognition and a wage increase.
Dir: Madeline Anderson
BW-30 mins, CC,

Among those appearing in the film are Ralph Abernathy, Leon Davis, and Coretta Scott King.


10:45 PM -- GASLIGHT (1944)
A newlywed fears she's going mad when strange things start happening at the family mansion.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten
BW-114 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ingrid Bergman, and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, William Ferrari, Edwin B. Willis and Paul Huldschinsky

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Charles Boyer, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Angela Lansbury, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John L. Balderston, Walter Reisch and John Van Druten, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, and Best Picture

The film's screenwriter, John Van Druten, suggested that director George Cukor should offer screen-tests to some of Moyna MacGill's daughters for a role in the film. MacGill was a well-known English actress who had become a refugee during WWII. Angela Lansbury was the first of MacGill's daughters that Cukor auditioned. Lansbury had never acted in any capacity before her screen-test, but she wowed Cukor with her natural talent and professionalism. Cukor recalled that from the very first day on set, Lansbury was perfectly at ease and at home, even though she had no experience acting. He called her a natural-born actress.


2:45 AM -- GIRLFRIENDS (1978)
A young photographer fights to build her career while coping with her best friend's marriage.
Dir: Claudia Weill
Cast: Melanie Mayron, Bob Balaban, Eli Wallach
C-88 mins, CC,

Stanley Kubrick raved about this film in an interview with Vicente Molina Fox, which was conducted during the production of The Shining (1980), and named it his favorite film of 1978.


4:30 AM -- BODY AND SOUL (1925)
In this silent film, a corrupt small town minister leads his congregation astray.
Dir: Oscar Micheaux
Cast: Paul Robeson, Marshall Rodgers, Lawrence Chenault
BW-93 mins,

Film debut of Paul Robeson.