TCM Schedule for Saturday, March 6, 2021 -- TCM Spotlight: Gandhi

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, TCM may or may not be indulging in the Essentials again. I can't find anything scheduled online after January. That said, tonight's Spotlight is 1982's multi-Oscar winning Gandhi. Enjoy!


6:30 AM -- Big Leaguer (1953)
1h 10m | Comedy | TV-G
An aging ballplayer is relegated to managing a training camp.
Director: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Vera-ellen, Jeff Richards

First film directed by Robert Aldrich.


8:00 AM -- Cleaning House (1938)
7m | Animation, Comedy, Family
The Captain wants to get out of his share of house work so he pretends to be sick.
Director: Robert Allen
Cast: Billy Bletcher, Jeanne Dunne, Martha Wentworth

On Friday, 1 October 1937, MGM signed Robert Allen as director of its new series of cartoons based on Rudolph Dirks's "The Captain and the Kids" newspaper comic-strip feature. The company also signed George Gordon as layout man and animator for the series. Gordon had previously been with TerryToons for seven years.


8:09 AM -- Bring on the Girls (1937)
10m | Short, Comedy | TV-G
Edgar Bergen and his ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy introduce the acts of a vaudeville show.
Cast: Edgar Bergen, Jerry Goff, Jack Kerr

Frank Marshall, the famous woodcarver from Chicago, made the dummy that would become Charlie McCarthy. He also made Paul Winchell's Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff dummies, Jimmy Nelson's Danny O'Day and Farfel the Dog (famous for Nestles commercials), and Terry Bennett's Red Flannels and Rusty Hinges, as well as many other famous dummies. Edgar Bergen used three Charlie McCarthy dummies over the years. One can be seen in the Smithsonian Institution. One is in the Museum Of Broadcasting & Communications in Chicago. The third was purchased by magician David Copperfield who purchased it for $110,000. Bergen retired in 1978 and died three weeks later. Edger was 75. Charlie still lives on.


8:21 AM -- St. Helena and its "Man of Destiny" (1936)
7m | Short, Documentary | TV-G
This explores the history of St. Helena, including Napoleon's final address.
Cast: James A. Fitzpatrick


8:29 AM -- Secret Enemies (1942)
57m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
The FBI tracks Nazi agents to a luxury hotel.
Director: Ben Stoloff
Cast: Craig Stevens, Faye Emerson, John Ridgely

John mentions Jim was killed by a "variation of the Lewisite formula". Lewisite is an organic arsenic compound named after U.S. chemist Winford Lee Lewis (1878-1943) who "rediscovered" the compound in 1917 and envisioned its uses as a chemical warfare agent.


9:30 AM -- The New Adventures of Tarzan: Doom's Brink (1935)
Action, Adventure | TV-G
Tarzan goes to Guatemala to find his lost friend and help discover hidden treasure.
Director: Edward Kull, Wilbur McGaugh
Cast: Frank Baker, Bruce Bennett, Ula Holt

Episode nine of twelve.


10:00 AM -- Shape Ahoy (1945)
6m | Animation, Children, Comedy | TV-PG
Bachelors Popeye and Bluto decide on a life free from women on their tropical isle.
Director: Izzy Sparber (as I. Sparber), James Tyer (uncredited)
Cast: Jackson Beck, Mae Questel

Mae Questel did both voices for Olive Oyl and Popeye. Jack Mercer had just enlisted for military duty in WWII and wasn't available to do Popeye's voice.


10:08 AM -- The Kennel Murder Case (1933)
1h 13m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
Society sleuth Philo Vance investigates a murder tied to a Long Island dog show.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: William Powell, Mary Astor, Eugene Pallette

Dr Doremus' repeated line "I'm a Doctor not a..." was later used as the catchphrase of DeForest Kelley's character Dr Leonard "Bones" McCoy on the sci-series Star Trek: The Original Series (1966).


11:30 AM -- Main Street Follies (1935)
21m | Comedy, Short | TV-PG
A New York producer sends a spy to a nightclub to report back on the musical acts.
Director: Joseph Henabery
Cast: Hal Leroy, Mary Joan Martin, George Anderson


12:00 PM -- The Mask of Dimitrios (1944)
1h 35m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
A meek novelist investigates the mysterious death of a notorious scoundrel.
Director: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott, Peter Lorre

The pivotal character of Colonel Haki, here played by Kurt Katch, was played by Orson Welles two years earlier in Journey Into Fear (1943). Both films were based on novels by Eric Ambler.


1:45 PM -- Murder By Death (1976)
1h 34m | Comedy | TV-14
A criminal madman invites the world's greatest detectives for a night of dinner and murder.
Director: Robert Moore
Cast: Peter Falk, Truman Capote, Alec Guinness

The screaming woman sound used as a doorbell is Fay Wray's screams from King Kong (1933).


3:30 PM -- In Cold Blood (1967)
2h 14m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-14
Two vagrants try to outrun the police after committing a savage crime in this real-life shocker.
Director: Richard Brooks
Cast: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Richard Brooks, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Richard Brooks, Best Cinematography -- Conrad L. Hall, and Best Music, Original Music Score -- Quincy Jones

Richard Brooks was opposed to capital punishment and felt that his film perfectly demonstrated that pointless violence only leads to more equally pointless state-sanctioned violence.


5:45 PM -- A Face in the Crowd (1957)
2h 6m | Drama | TV-PG
A female television executive turns a folk-singing drifter into a powerful media star.
Director: Elia Kazan
Cast: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa

In the "Making of" documentary on the 2005 DVD release of the film, Andy Griffith says that the inspiration for the way that Marcia reveals Rhodes' hypocrisy (by broadcasting his true feelings about his audience after he believes the sound has been cut off) came from the famed "Uncle Don incident", in which "Uncle" Don Carney, a longtime children's radio host, was supposed to have been broadcast saying, "There, that oughta hold the little bastards" into a live microphone after he thought it had already been turned off. Griffith recounted this story as fact, even though it is believed by most broadcasting historians to be nothing more than a widespread and very popular urban legend.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- GANDHI



8:00 PM -- Gandhi (1982)
3h 8m | Drama | TV-PG
The legendary Indian leader uses peaceful means to free his homeland from British rule.
Director: Richard Attenborough
Cast: Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, John Gielgud

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Ben Kingsley, Best Director -- Richard Attenborough, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- John Briley, Best Cinematography -- Billy Williams and Ronnie Taylor, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Stuart Craig, Robert W. Laing and Michael Seirton, Best Costume Design -- John Mollo and Bhanu Athaiya (Bhanu Athaiya became the first Indian-born person to win an Oscar.), Best Film Editing -- John Bloom, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Sound -- Gerry Humphreys, Robin O'Donoghue, Jonathan Bates and Simon Kaye, Best Music, Original Score -- Ravi Shankar and George Fenton, and Best Makeup -- Tom Smith

Steven Spielberg, who lost the Best Picture and Best Director awards to Sir Richard Attenborough, later used several cast members in his own movies. Roshan Seth and Om Puri appeared in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). Director Sir Richard Attenborough appeared in Jurassic Park (1993) and The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). Sir Ben Kingsley appeared in Schindler's List (1993), which finally did win Best Picture and Best Director for Spielberg. Sir Nigel Hawthorne appeared in Amistad (1997). Martin Sheen appeared in Catch Me If You Can (2002). Finally, Daniel Day-Lewis appeared in Lincoln (2012), which which he, like Kingsley, won an Oscar for Best Actor, and in which his character is also felled by an assassin.


12:00 AM -- Killer's Kiss (1955)
1h 7m | Suspense/Mystery
When he rescues a girl from her gangster lover, a prizefighter is marked for death.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Frank Silvera, Jamie Smith, Irene Kane

Scenes from the movie are among those comprising the 30-second "Open All Night" montage on Turner Classic Movies. The montage is frequently shown prior to feature films that air in the middle of the night Eastern Time on the network.


1:45 AM -- The Remains Of The Day (1993)
2h 14m | Drama | TV-PG
A proper British butler sacrifices happiness to remain faithful to his position.
Director: James Ivory
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Christopher Reeve

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Anthony Hopkins, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Emma Thompson, Best Director -- James Ivory, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published -- Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Luciana Arrighi and Ian Whittaker, Best Costume Design -- Jenny Beavan and John Bright, Best Music, Original Score -- Richard Robbins, and Best Picture

"The butler's job is just to serve his Master, and to accommodate these great dinners and banquets and house parties", noted Sir Anthony Hopkins, whose chilling portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) had, just prior to the picture, won him a Best Actor Academy Award. Hopkins added: "Hitler's Ambassador comes to Darlington Hall to meet secretly with Prime Minister Chamberlain, and yet Stevens always remains detached. He even says at one point during the film, when Darlington's godson challenges him to comment on what's going on, 'It's none of my business, sir, to know. My business is to serve'."


4:15 AM -- Downstairs (1932)
1h 15m | Drama | TV-G
An evil chauffeur seduces and blackmails his way through high society.
Director: Monta Bell
Cast: John Gilbert, Paul Lukas, Virginia Bruce

John Gilbert did everything he could get away with in this film to subvert his "great lover" image from silent films. He trims his nose hairs and wipes his hands on his pants. He belches loudly in mid-sentence. He allows the cook to wipe flour off his butt after he has sat on the counter. He's also a liar, a blackmailer, and a thief; he steals a diamond clip and presents it as a gift.