TCM Schedule for Thursday, March 18, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: Classic Films in the Rearview Mirror

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, we're feeling the last of the winter chill. Then in prime time, we're in the week three of a new theme - Reframed: Classic Films in the Rearview Mirror. For more on these classic films that have issues in today's world, read A Look At The Past With TCM's Writers at https://www.tcm.com/articles/Article/020950/a-look-at-the-past-with-tcms-writers and enjoy!


6:15 AM -- Nanook of the North (1922)
50m | Silent, Documentary | TV-G
This depicts the harsh life of an Eskimo and his family.
Director: Robert Flaherty
Cast: Nanook, Nyla, Al Lee

The film was sponsored by the French fur company Revillon Freres, which provided $50,000 for director Robert J. Flaherty's 16-month expedition halfway to the North Pole. Despite being rejected by five distributors, the film opened in New York City in 1922, after its success in Paris and Berlin, and grossed well over $40,000 in its first week.


7:45 AM -- Eskimo (1933)
1h 57m | Adventure | TV-G
An Eskimo family fights to survive harsh conditions in the frozen North.
Director: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Mala, Lotus, Joseph Sauers

Winner of an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Conrad A. Nervig

"Eskimo" was the first feature film to be shot in a Native American language (Inupiat) and the first sound feature film shot in Alaska.


9:45 AM -- The Viking (1929)
1h 30m | Adventure | TV-PG
Norse half-brothers vie for a throne and for the same woman.
Director: R. William Neill
Cast: Donald Crisp, Pauline Starke, Leroy Mason

When the film opened at the Embassy Theatre in New York City 28 November 1928 it was still silent and was accompanied by a live orchestral accompaniment. In December 1928 a musical score was recorded, sound-on-disc, and this was the version distributed by MGM in 1929.


11:30 AM -- Man in the Wilderness (1971)
1h 45m | Adventure, Drama | TV-14
A Northwest frontiersman, in 1820, after being badly mauled by a bear is left for dead.
Director: Richard C. Sarafian
Cast: Richard Harris, John Huston, Henry Wilcoxon

Zachary Bass, who is based on real-life mountain man Hugh Glass, is shown to have had a wife and son in this movie. However, there's no record of the noted historical figure ever being married and having any children. Similarly, in The Revenant (2015) Glass was also shown to have a wife and son.


1:30 PM -- Canadian Carnival (1955)
8m | Documentary, Short | TV-G
This presents how the city of Quebec celebrates Winter Carnival during Mardi Gras.
Director: Douglas Sinclair
Cast: Peter Roberts


1:45 PM -- Doctor Zhivago (1965)
3h 17m | Epic | TV-PG
Sweeping epic about a Russian doctor pursuing the woman he loves during Russia's turbulent Revolution.
Director: David Lean
Cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Julie Christie, Tom Courtenay

Winner of Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Bolt, Best Cinematography, Color -- Freddie Young, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- John Box, Terence Marsh and Dario Simoni, Best Costume Design, Color -- Phyllis Dalton, and Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Maurice Jarre

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Tom Courtenay, Best Director -- David Lean, Best Sound -- A.W. Watkins (M-G-M British SSD) and Franklin Milton (M-G-M SSD), Best Film Editing -- Norman Savage, and Best Picture

The book and movie were banned by the Soviet Communist Party until 1994 when Gorbachev allowed excerpts to be published and the movie started circulating in limited release. Because the book and movie showed the violent control and censorship of thought and expression by the emerging Communist Party, the Soviet Union banned all Pasternak's work, not just his Dr. Zhivago.


5:15 PM -- Snow Birds (1932)
10m | Short, Documentary | TV-G
This showcases various winter sports, from tobogganing to ski-jumping.
Director: Jules White
Cast: Pete Smith

The ski jump scenes take place on what was at the time the largest ski jump in the world at Blue Ridge Ski Area near Big Pines, California, four miles west of Wrightwood. It was built in a bid attempt to host the 1932 Winter Olympics, the same year the Summer Games had already been awarded to Los Angeles. The Winter Games eventually went to Lake Placid, New York.


5:30 PM -- Ice Station Zebra (1968)
2h 28m | Adventure | TV-PG
A sub commander on a perilous mission must ferret out a Soviet agent on his ship.
Director: John Sturges
Cast: Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick Mcgoohan

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Daniel L. Fapp, and Best Effects, Special Visual Effects -- Hal Millar and J. McMillan Johnson

In real life, there was no "Ice Station Zebra", but there was an "Ice Station Alpha" which was situated in the Arctic's Ice Island T-3, "Alpha" being derivative of the letter "A" in the phonetic alphabet of the Army and Navy. In the International Geophysical Year (IGY), "Ice Station Alpha" was visited by the USS Skate in August 1958.



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



8:00 PM -- The Searchers (1956)
1h 59m | Western | TV-PG
An Indian-hating Civil War veteran tracks down the tribe that slaughtered his family and kidnapped his niece.
Director: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles

The film was inspired by real events. In 1836 Comanches abducted one Cynthia Ann Parker. She was raised by them, became a member of the tribe and gave birth to a son. One day U.S. soldiers attacked the tribe's encampment and 'rescued' her. However she did not want to leave 'her people' and regretted this and the loss of her son for the rest of her life. Fiction, however, has nothing on truth: her son, Quanah Parker, became a Comanche leader and fought the army for many years. When he and his band finally surrendered, he went to live among whites and became a successful businessman. He actually played himself in a 1908 silent film (The Bank Robbery (1908)). When John Ford cast the part of Quanah Parker in Two Rode Together (1961), he cast Henry Brandon, who played Chief Scar in this film.


10:15 PM -- Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
1h 54m | Comedy
A young writer gets caught up in a party girl's carefree existence.
Director: Blake Edwards, William Mcgarry
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal

Winner of Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Henry Mancini (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "Moon River", and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Henry Mancini

Nominee for Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Audrey Hepburn, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- George Axelrod, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson, Sam Comer and Ray Moyer

The party scene took six days to film on a Paramount soundstage. The extras who played the guests were all friends of the director, Blake Edwards. Real champagne, 120 gallons of soft drinks, 60 cartons of cigarettes, hot dogs, cold cuts, chips, dips, and sandwiches were involved. A smoker used by a beekeeper was brought in to create enough smoke.


12:30 AM -- Swing Time (1936)
1h 45m | Comedy | TV-G
To prove himself worthy of his fiancee, a dancer tries to make it big, only to fall for his partner.
Director: George Stevens
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Victor Moore

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jerome Kern (music) and Dorothy Fields (lyrics) for the song "The Way You Look Tonight"

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Dance Direction -- Hermes Pan for "Bojangles of Harlem"

In "The Way You Look Tonight," Ginger Rogers is seen to be washing her hair. The crew tried various soaps, shampoos, and even egg white, but it always ran down her face too quickly. They achieved success with whipped cream.


2:30 AM -- Stagecoach (1939)
1h 36m | Adventure | TV-G
A group of disparate passengers battle personal demons and each other while racing through Indian country.
Director: John Ford
Cast: Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Andy Devine

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Thomas Mitchell, and Best Music, Scoring -- Richard Hageman, W. Franke Harling, John Leipold and Leo Shuken

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- John Ford, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Bert Glennon, Best Art Direction -- Alexander Toluboff, Best Film Editing -- Otho Lovering and Dorothy Spencer, and Best Picture

With the exception of a few small clouds, the skies as seen over Monument Valley in this film are indistinct. The ability to film subtle cloud formations was a problem for director John Ford and other directors of the day. Some years later, after his experience in filming with the Navy in the Pacific during World War II, Ford solved this problem by using infrared film stock. The dramatic skies first seen in Ford's Fort Apache (1948) are the result.


4:15 AM -- Tarzan, the Ape Man (1959)
1h 22m | Adventure | TV-PG
Tarzan swings to the rescue of his beloved Jane.
Director: Joseph Newman
Cast: Denny Miller, Cesare Danova, Joanna Barnes

This film's budget was so miniscule that, when footage from previous M-G-M Tarzan titles is used, there is almost no effort made to disguise that the earlier footage is black-and-white and this film was made in color.