TCM Schedule for Thursday, March 11, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: Classic Films in the Rearview Mirror

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In the daylight hours, TCM is featuring art and artists - artists of literature, painting, music and drama. Then in prime time, we're in the second week of a new theme - Reframed: Classic Films in the Rearview Mirror. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Voltaire (1933)
1h 12m | Drama | TV-G
The famed French writer becomes the conscience of his country during the French Revolution.
Director: John G. Adolfi
Cast: George Arliss, Doris Kenyon, Margaret Lindsay

Although the onscreen source of the movie is a novel, it was never published. But modern sources say George Gibbs and E. Lawrence Dudley wrote a play for George Arliss, and it was the source adapted for the movie. The play also was never published or even produced.


7:15 AM -- Rembrandt (1936)
1h 25m | Drama | TV-G
The respected painter takes to drink and faces down scandal after his wife dies.
Director: Alexander Korda
Cast: Charles Laughton, Gertrude Lawrence, Elsa Lanchester

This was the first speaking role in a film for Marius Goring. He plays Baron Leivens (uncredited) in one scene with Charles Laughton.


8:45 AM -- The Great Garrick (1937)
1h 29m | Comedy | TV-G
French actors set out to deflate the ego of legendary stage star David Garrick.
Director: James Whale
Cast: Brian Aherne, Olivia De Havilland, Edward Everett Horton

David Garrick (1717-1779) was a famous English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer.


10:30 AM -- Look for the Silver Lining (1949)
1h 46m | Musical | TV-G
Musical biography of Marilyn Miller, who overcame heartache to become a Broadway star.
Director: David Butler
Cast: June Haver, Ray Bolger, Gordon Macrae

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Ray Heindorf

Joan Leslie was originally considered for the Marilyn Miller role before June Haver was cast.


12:45 PM -- Oscar Wilde (1960)
1h 36m | Drama | TV-PG
A biographical look at the tumultuous life of the legendary playwright, poet, and wit.
Director: Gregory Ratoff
Cast: Robert Morley, Phyllis Calvert, Ralph Richardson

Robert Morley made his name on the stage playing Oscar Wilde at the London Gate Theatre in 1936. The play was a success despite being banned from major London theatres because of its theme of homosexuality, and was later produced in America with Morley making his Broadway debut in the part on October 10, 1938. The play was a hit in New York City and ran for 247 performances, a substantial run at the time for a straight play.


2:30 PM -- The Great Waltz (1938)
1h 42m | Musical | TV-G
Composer Johann Strauss risks his marriage over his infatuation with a beautiful singer.
Director: Julien Duvivier
Cast: Luise Rainer, Fernand Gravet, Miliza Korjus

Winner of an Oscar for Best Cinematography -- Joseph Ruttenberg

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Miliza Korjus, and Best Film Editing -- Tom Held

Toscha Seidel, the Russian virtuoso violinist, was hired especially to dub the solos on the soundtrack for Johann Strauss (Fernand Gravey) and began a new career working as a concert master at MGM and other studios.


4:30 PM -- My Wild Irish Rose (1947)
1h 41m | Musical | TV-G
Musical biography of Irish songwriter Chauncey Olcott.
Director: David Butler
Cast: Dennis Morgan, Arlene Dahl, Andrea King

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Ray Heindorf and Max Steiner

Alexis Smith was considered for a leading role.


6:45 PM -- Master Will Shakespeare (1936)
10m | Short, Drama | TV-G
This is a brief biography of Shakespeare.
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Carey Wilson, John George, Lionel Belmore

Filmed as a promotion piece to the then-upcoming MGM film Romeo and Juliet (1936).


7:00 PM -- The Romance of Robert Burns (1937)
15m | Short, Drama | TV-G
The story behind Robert Burns' famous song "Auld Lang Syne".
Director: Crane Wilbur
Cast: May Beatty, Lionel Belmore, Marcia Ralston

When asked for the source of his greatest creative inspiration, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan selected Burns's 1794 song "A Red, Red Rose" as the lyric that had the biggest effect on his life.


7:30 PM -- The Song of a Nation (1947)
17m | Short, Drama | TV-G
This dramatizes the events that led to Francis Scott Key writing the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Director: Frank Mcdonald
Cast: Joseph Crehan, Donald Woods, Gordon Hart

The Star Spangled Banner was finally adopted as the American national anthem more than a century after its first publication, first by an Executive Order from President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and then by a Congressional resolution in 1931 signed by President Herbert Hoover.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- REFRAMED: CLASSIC FILMS IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR



8:00 PM -- Woman of the Year (1942)
1h 52m | Comedy | TV-PG
Opposites distract when a sophisticated political columnist falls for a sportswriter.
Director: George Stevens
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner Jr.

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn

The entire final sequence where Tess tried to win Sam back by making him breakfast and thus proving her marriage to Sam worth saving was written and filmed after the original ending tested poorly in preview. Apparently the original final sequence is lost.


10:15 PM -- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
1h 48m | Comedy | TV-PG
An aging couple's liberal principles are tested when their daughter announces her engagement to a black doctor.
Director: Stanley Kramer
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn (Katharine Hepburn was not present at the awards ceremony. George Cukor accepted the award on her behalf.), and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- William Rose

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy (Posthumously.), Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Cecil Kellaway, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Beah Richards, Best Director -- Stanley Kramer, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Robert Clatworthy and Frank Tuttle, Best Film Editing -- Robert C. Jones, Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Frank De Vol, and Best Picture

This film was instrumental in largely ending the marketing consideration of how films featuring African-American characters and themes were assumed to be likely rejected by mainstream audiences in the Southern States of the U.S. In that regard, the film was such a major widespread success throughout the entire U.S., including the South, that the marketing factor would never again be considered a major problem for any major film release.


12:15 AM -- Gunga Din (1939)
1h 57m | Adventure | TV-PG
Three British soldiers seek treasure during an uprising in India.
Director: George Stevens
Cast: Cary Grant, Victor Mclaglen, Douglas Fairbanks

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph H. August

Upon release, a campaign was launched by the Indian magazine "Filmindia" against what it called misrepresentation of Indian characters in the film and the displaying of insensitivity towards Hindu customs. Following riots in India and Malaya, the film was withdrawn by the censors.


2:30 AM -- Sinbad the Sailor (1947)
1h 57m | Adventure | TV-PG
The Arabian Nights hero sets off to find the lost treasure of Alexander the Great.
Director: Richard Wallace
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Maureen O'hara, Walter Slezak

In her autobiography Maureen O'Hara says that she was disappointed to learn that Douglas Fairbanks Jr. wore a padded jockstrap to bolster the bulge in his tights.


4:45 AM -- The Jazz Singer (1927)
1h 36m | Musical | TV-G
A cantor's son breaks with family tradition to go into show business.
Director: Alan Crosland
Cast: Al Jolson, May Mcavoy, Warner Oland

Winner of an Honorary Oscar Award to Warner Bros., for producing The Jazz Singer, the pioneer outstanding talking picture, which has revolutionized the industry.

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Adaptation -- Alfred A. Cohn

Many documentaries and historians state that immediately after the release and success of The Jazz Singer (1927) that all of Hollywood switched to sound. This is not true for several reasons. First, there were two competing and incompatible sound systems. The Vitaphone process was cumbersome, relying on an electro-mechanical interface between the projector and the turntable. Fox's Fotofilm was a superior sound-on-film process that allowed for easier editing but required a costlier projector (the Vitaphone system would be quietly killed off by 1932). Secondly, either sound process nearly doubled the budget of a film. Thirdly, theater chains faced enormous conversion costs (MGM-parent company Loew's Inc. owned over 1,000 outlets, and took a deliberately slow wait-and-see attitude toward sound). The first feature film with all synchronous dialog was Lights of New York (1928). Also, in the midst of the talkie-craze of 1928-30, studio bosses were faced with a limited amount of sound equipment and qualified sound technicians, causing them innumerable headaches over which productions to produce as talkies vs. silents. Also, silents were internationally marketable via cheap title card translations while talkies, prior to the advent of subtitles, usually required completely different foreign language versions to be produced simultaneously. Low budget producers of westerns along poverty row were especially impacted, with silents continuing in that market through the end of 1930. Many studios continued to produce both silent and sound versions of their films, including the classic All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).