TCM Schedule for Saturday, November 7, 2020 -- The Essentials

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, TCM finally returns to the Essentials. Tonight, Ben Mankiewicz and special co-host Brad Bird are showing us a trio of films directed by Richard Lester during the swinging '60s, including A Hard Day's Night (1964). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Hotel Berlin (1945)
1h 38m | Drama | TV-G
During World War II's final days, people with a variety of problems converge on a Berlin hotel.
Director: Peter Godfrey
Cast: Faye Emerson, Helmut Dantine, Raymond Massey

The novel upon which this film is based was published in 1943, and was considered a "sequel" to the same author's earlier novel, which had served as the basis for the 1932 Best Picture Oscar winner, Grand Hotel. Production took place from late 1944 into early 1945, with the screenplay being continually revised to remain up-to-date on the fast-moving events of the final year of World War II into account.


8:08 AM -- We Never Sleep (1956)
8m | Documentary | TV-G
This highlights the work of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, the U.S.A.'s oldest private detective agency.
Director: Larry O'Reilly
Cast: Peter Roberts, Burton Benjamin, Frances Dinsmoor


8:17 AM -- Switzerland the Beautiful (1934)
8m | Documentary | TV-G
This focuses on the land, people and culture of Switzerland.
Director: Rith FitzPatrick
Cast: James A. FitzPatrick


8:00 AM -- Heir Bear (1953)
6m | Comedy | TV-G
Barney Bear inherits a treasure map to a chest full of gold coins; however, a gopher battles Barney in a game of wits for the rights to the chest.
Director: Dick Lundy
Cast: Paul Frees

Barney Bear was modelled on both his creator Rudolf Ising (who also was his first voice actor until 1941) and the mannerisms of Wallace Beery.


8:26 AM -- The Pace That Thrills (1952)
1h 3m | Adventure | TV-G
A reckless motorcycle racer and his designer vie for the same beautiful blonde.
Director: Leon Barsha
Cast: Bill Williams, Carla Balenda, Robert Armstrong

Chris Rhodes' room is the same set as occupied by Joseph Cotten in RKO's Walk Softly, Stranger (1950).


9:30 AM -- Wild West Days: Death Stalks the Plains (1937)
21m | Action | TV-G
Retired lawman Kentucky Wade and his three buddies come to Brimstone and help their friends.
Director: Ford Beebe, Clifford Smith
Cast: John Mack Brown, George Shelley, Lynn Gilbert

Episode six of thirteen.


10:00 AM -- Me Musical Nephews (1933)
6m | Comedy | TV-PG
Popeye seeks rest and contentment in his easy chair but his four little musical nephews have other ideas.
Director: Seymour Kneitel, Thomas Johnson (uncredited)
Cast: Jack Mercer

Jack Mercer, the voice of Popeye, provided the voices of Popeye's nephews by having his voice sped up.


10:08 AM -- Mexican Spitfire (1940)
1h 7m | Comedy | TV-G
A businessman's aunt enlists his ex-wife to break up his marriage to a temperamental Latina.
Director: Leslie Goodwins
Cast: Lupe Velez, Leon Errol, Donald Woods

This was actually the second film in the series, following "The Girl from Mexico" (1939). It became the most famous title in the series and subsequent entries were regarded as the "Mexican Spitfire" series. "The Mexican Spitfire" also became a nickname for Lupe Valez.


11:30 AM -- I'm Much Obliged (1936)
21m | Comedy | TV-PG
In this short film, a newspaper columnist calls people at random and asks them "What would you like to do?"
Director: Roy Mack
Cast: Vera Van, Ian Maclaren, George Dobbs


12:00 PM -- Boom Town (1940)
1h 56m | Drama | TV-PG
Friends become rivals when they strike-it-rich in oil.
Director: Jack Conway
Cast: Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Harold Rosson, and Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic) and Douglas Shearer (sound)

This was the last of three films (after San Francisco (1936) and Test Pilot (1938)) that Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy did together. After this film, Tracy insisted on a clause in his MGM contract that he would receive equal billing with Gable in all future films. While the two remained lifelong friends, they were never again paired together in a movie because MGM wasn't sure how to handle the equal billing.


2:15 PM -- The Horse Soldiers (1959)
1h 59m | Drama | TV-PG
During the Civil War, a Union Colonel is given the task of taking his regiment deep into Confederate territory.
Director: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, William Holden, Constance Towers

John Ford made sure to pay the black extras in Louisiana and Mississippi the same pay as the white extras, raising a few eyebrows in the Southern communities. John Ford also cast Olympic medal-winner Althea Gibson as Lukey partly to attract African-American viewers. Gibson was a racial-barrier-breaking athlete, the female Jackie Robinson of tennis, who--just prior to being featured in this film--had won both the Wimbledon and US Open tennis championships in 1957 and 1958.


4:30 PM -- Point Blank (1967)
1h 32m | Crime | TV-14
A professional thief seeks revenge on his unfaithful wife and a fellow mobster who double-crosses him.
Director: John Boorman
Cast: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn

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.


6:15 PM -- My Favorite Year (1982)
1h 32m | Comedy | TV-14
A flamboyant star throws a TV comedy show into chaos.
Director: Richard Benjamin
Cast: Peter O'toole, Mark Linn-baker, Jessica Harper

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Peter O'Toole

On his DVD audio commentary, director Richard Benjamin says how Peter O'Toole, who insisted to do as many of his own stunts as he could, said that the great thing about swashbuckler actors like Errol Flynn was that they did many or most of their own stunts, so when the audience saw the action sequence, they knew it was really the star in the scene, and not some faked double in a cutaway. This realism gave authenticity and believability to a sequence which would be lost by faked sequences with doubles. One of the action-adventure sword-fighting sequences seen in the movie was virtually a shot-by-shot full re-enactment of a sword-fight sequence in Errol Flynn's classic swashbuckler The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).


8:00 PM -- A Hard Day's Night (1964)
1h 32m | Comedy | TV-PG
A rock and roll mockumentary that follows "a day in the life" of those four lads from Liverpool.
Director: Richard Lester
Cast: John Lennon, Paul Mccartney, George Harrison

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.


9:45 PM -- Ring-a-Ding Rhythm (1961)
1h 13m | Comedy | TV-G
Two British teens and their friends bring traditional jazz to a small English town.
Director: Richard Lester
Cast: Helen Shapiro, Craig Douglas, Felix Felton

This was the first feature film directed by Richard Lester. Lester's fee for this film was a thousand pounds. The film was made in three weeks and Lester has always said that the "script" was a treatment running to just a few pages to which he added as many improvised jokes as he could devise.


11:15 PM -- The Knack ... and how to get it (1965)
1h 24m | Comedy | TV-PG
A rampant womanizer tries to help an innocent friend bed an eccentric girl.
Director: Richard Lester
Cast: Rita Tushingham, Ray Brooks, Michael Crawford

The play is a much straighter affair. When Richard Lester came on board, he added his own unique touches such as straight-to-camera direct addresses, humorous subtitles and a Greek chorus of disapproving members of "the older generation".


1:00 AM -- Nightfall (1957)
1h 18m | Drama | TV-PG
A man on a hunting trip gets mixed up with murderous bank robbers.
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Aldo Ray, Brian Keith, Anne Bancroft

During the fashion show, Anne Bancroft's character is introduced as wearing a ball gown by Jean Louis. Jean Louis was Columbia Pictures' costume designer. He designed the costumes for this film and many classics, including The Lady from Shanghai (1947) and From Here to Eternity (1953). He also was the costume designer for the 1960s TV sitcom Green Acres (1965)!


2:45 AM -- The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)
2h 3m | Romance | TV-MA
Co-stars have an affair while filming the story of a doomed love.
Director: Karel Reisz
Cast: Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Hilton Mcrae

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Meryl Streep, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Harold Pinter, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Assheton Gorton and Ann Mollo, Best Costume Design -- Tom Rand, and Best Film Editing -- John Bloom
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The novel "The French Lieutenant's Woman" (1969) does not feature the subplot of the actors and actresses playing the parts in a modern day movie. The novel did, however, feature three alternate endings, from which readers could choose their favorite. Creating two parallel story lines allowed the filmmakers to include two of those endings, one happy and one tragic.


5:00 AM -- Hollywood Without Make-Up (1966)
50m | Educational | TV-G
In this special, Ken Murray hosts his own behind-the-scenes home movies of some of Hollywood's greatest stars.
Director: Rudy Behlmer, Loring d'Usseau, Ken Murray (uncredited)
Cast: Ken Murray

San Simeon's architect, the noted Julia Morgan is mis-identified as Hearst's secretary. This makes architects the world over cringe.