TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 2, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: Horsing Around

[Staph]

In the morning, TCM has a selection of 1960s films based in England. Then in prime time, we get some great horse films. Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- HAVING A WILD WEEKEND (1965)
Advertising executives turn a model's romance with a stunt man into a publicity stunt.
Dir: John Boorman
Cast: Dave Clark, Barbara Ferris, Lenny Davidson
BW-91 mins, CC,

Filming was interrupted on location when leading man Dave Clark complained about the film's costumes to Alexander Jacobs, who was the assistant to the film's producer, David Deutsch. Jacobs was married to the costume designer and reacted to Clark's remarks by punching him in the face. Clark's nose became, for a short time, extremely swollen and he could not be photographed, but he responded well to emergency medical treatment and shooting eventually continued.


8:00 AM -- MRS. BROWN, YOU'VE GOT A LOVELY DAUGHTER (1968)
Herman's Hermits travel to England for a high-stakes greyhound race.
Dir: Saul Swimmer
Cast: Peter Noone, Karl Green, Keith Hopwood
C-95 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Graham Gouldman who is credited for the saccharine "The World is for the Young" and a number of other songs in this film was the composer of several hits for Herman's Hermits including Listen People and No Milk Today. He also wrote hits for the Yardbirds (For Your Love and Heart Full of Soul) and The Hollies (Bus Stop and Look Through Any Window). He eventually helped found the band 10CC, which had a number of chart topping hits including I'm Not In Love.


9:45 AM -- THE ALPHABET MURDERS (1965)
Belgian detective Hercule Poirot investigates a series of murders committed in alphabetical order.
Dir: Frank Tashlin
Cast: Tony Randall, Anita Ekberg, Robert Morley
BW-90 mins, CC,

The only movie in which Hercule Poirot (Tony Randall) and Miss Jane Marple (Dame Margaret Rutherford) appeared.


11:30 AM -- SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING (1960)
A factory worker lives for the chance to have fun on the weekends.
Dir: Karel Reisz
Cast: Albert Finney, Shirley Field, Rachel Roberts
BW-89 mins, CC,

British rock band the Arctic Monkeys were heavily influenced by this film. The title of their debut album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" is a direct quote from the movie, and many of the songs were inspired by Albert Finney's character. Also the art design of the album was influenced by the realist images of British working class neighborhoods and night life in "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning".


1:00 PM -- A TASTE OF HONEY (1961)
Deserted by her mother, a pregnant teen turns to a gay friend for help.
Dir: Tony Richardson
Cast: Dora Bryan, Rita Tushingham, Robert Stephens
BW-101 mins, CC,

According to Morrissey, Shelagh Delaney's play was the inspiration for The Smiths's song, "This Night Has Opened My Eyes". The song incorporates the following dialog from the play (also used in the film): Geoffrey: The dream is gone. Jo: But the baby's real.


2:45 PM -- GIRL WITH GREEN EYES (1964)
A young innocent gets involved with an older, married man.
Dir: Desmond Davis
Cast: Peter Finch, Rita Tushingham, Lynn Redgrave
BW-92 mins, CC,

In the montage of the girls getting ready for their dates near the movie's beginning, the 45 r.p.m. record is "Fell In Love On Monday" by Fats Domino, who is also the topic of the magazine article near the record.


4:30 PM -- A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (1964)
A typical day in the life of the Beatles.
Dir: Richard Lester
Cast: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison
BW-87 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Alun Owen, and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- George Martin

United Artists executives didn't really care about the movie itself, they were mainly interested in exploiting a legal loophole which would allow them to distribute the lucrative soundtrack album. In fact, they fully expected to lose money on the movie. With a final cost of about $500,000 and a box-office take of about $8 million in the first week, this movie is amongst the most profitable (percentage-wise) movies of all time.


6:15 PM -- ALL NEAT IN BLACK STOCKINGS (1969)
A small comedy drama about the adventures of a window cleaner in London.
Dir: Christopher Morahan
Cast: Victor Henry, Susan George, Jack Shepherd
C-98 mins, CC,

The Oxford English Dictionary cites the book (pub 1966) this film was based on, as the first recorded use of the word "plonker".



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: HORSING AROUND



8:00 PM -- THE BLACK STALLION (1979)
A boy and a horse forge a close friendship after being shipwrecked together in Africa.
Dir: Carroll Ballard
Cast: Kelly Reno, Mickey Rooney, Terry Garr
C-117 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar Special Achievement Award for Alan Splet for sound editing

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Mickey Rooney, and Best Film Editing -- Robert Dalva

Once completed, the film was shelved for two years by United Artists. Carroll Ballard recalled the studio "suits" complaining, "What is this, some kind of an art film for kids?" It took the full clout of Francis Ford Coppola to see that the film finally reached theatres.


10:15 PM -- THE BLACK STALLION RETURNS (1983)
A teen-aged boy braves a series of adventures to recover his beloved horse.
Dir: Robert Dalva
Cast: Kelly Reno, Vincent Spano, Terry Garr
C-103 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Some critics felt the film's portrayal of Arabs was racist. Roger Ebert wrote, "The Arabs are portrayed in this movie as the usual greasy, obnoxious buffoons that have been so popular in the movies ever since the oil crisis; I guess the message is that it's OK to be racist, as long as your targets live far away and don't buy many movie tickets. The Arab villain is played by Allen Goorwitz, a good character actor who is so far off-base here it's pathetic."


12:15 AM -- NATIONAL VELVET (1944)
A British farm girl fights to train a difficult horse for the Grand National Steeplechase.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp, Elizabeth Taylor
C-123 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Anne Revere, and Best Film Editing -- Robert Kern

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Clarence Brown, Best Cinematography, Color -- Leonard Smith, and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Urie McCleary, Edwin B. Willis and Mildred Griffiths

Elizabeth Taylor fell in love with King Charles while visiting the Rivera Country Club. He was acquired by MGM for eight hundred dollars to appear in this movie with her. Elizabeth spent time each day riding, caring, and bonding with him in order to prepare for her role in this movie. King Charles was reported to be aggressive to his handlers except for Taylor. She and King had a special bond that became evident throughout the movie. At the end of the movie, Elizabeth found out that she had been gifted with "The Pie" and she and King Charles remained together until his death.


2:30 AM -- INTERNATIONAL VELVET (1979)
In this sequel to National Velvet, a former racing champ helps turn a delinquent girl into an Olympic rider.
Dir: Bryan Forbes
Cast: Tatum O'Neal, Anthony Hopkins, Nanette Newman
C-127 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The producers wanted Dame Elizabeth Taylor to reprise her role as Velvet Brown.


4:45 AM -- GALLANT BESS (1946)
A soldier takes the Army horse that saved his life back to the farm.
Dir: Andrew Marton
Cast: Marshall Thompson, George Tobias, Clem Bevans
C-99 mins, CC,

MGM's only feature film photographed in Cinecolor.

[CBHagman]

1. It bothers me no end that whoever puts the TCM descriptions together...

...can't be bothered to learn how to spell Teri Garr's name.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000414/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

[Staph]

2. I should have caught that.

Sorry! It's been a long day.

[CBHagman]

3. It's not your fault...

...and there are actually people who work for TCM who do know how to spell Ms. Garr's name. But as a test I tried searching both Teri Garr and Terry Garr on the site and found that her bio had the name spelled correctly.

Then I tried again and found that she's actually also known as Terry Garr or Terry Ann Garr. Some early credits list her as Terry.

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/68801%7C145238/Terry-Garr/