TCM Schedule for Friday, May 21, 2021 -- Primetime Theme: The Asian American Experience

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, the theme is Fired Up - it looks like it's all about jealousy. Then in prime time, we get a trio of films about life for Asians in the United States. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- A Night at the Ritz (1935)
1h 2m | Comedy | TV-G
A publicist doesn't know that his famous chef client can't cook.
Director: William McGann
Cast: William Gargan, Patricia Ellis, Allen Jenkins

Watch for consumate character actor Erik Rhodes as the chef.


7:15 AM -- Talent Scout (1937)
1h 2m | Musical | TV-G
A Hollywood heartthrob helps a small-town girl achieve stardom.
Director: William Clemens
Cast: Donald Woods, Jeanne Madden, Fred Lawrence

Craig Reynolds, who appears briefly from archive footage in the movie, was originally cast as the star of this movie, but caught the flu and was replaced by Donald Woods.


8:30 AM -- Bachelor Bait (1934)
1h 15m | Comedy | TV-G
A romantic starts a marriage agency so he can play Cupid.
Director: George Stevens
Cast: Stuart Erwin, Rochelle Hudson, Pert Kelton

The father who barges on in his son applying for a marriage license in the beginning of the film was played by the actual father of George Stevens, the director of this RKO film.


10:00 AM -- The Feminine Touch (1941)
1h 37m | Comedy | TV-G
An author writing a book on jealousy discovers his wife is an expert on the subject.
Director: Major W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Don Ameche, Kay Francis

Don Ameche's first film for MGM. He had made a screen test there in 1935 and was rejected, but was signed the following year by 20th Century-Fox.


11:45 AM -- Maybe It's Love (1935)
1h 3m | Drama | TV-G
A young couple suffers through in-law and employment problems.
Director: William McGann
Cast: Gloria Stuart, Ross Alexander, Frank McHugh

The original play, "Saturday's Children", opened 26 January 1927 on Broadway in New York City at the Booth Theatre and ran for 310 performances. Also filmed as Saturday's Children (1929), Saturday's Children (1940), and Golden Showcase: Saturday's Children (1962) (TV Episode).


1:00 PM -- The Public Menace (1935)
1h 13m | Comedy | TV-PG
A cocky reporter's marriage to a manicurist jeopardizes his career.
Director: Erle C. Kenton
Cast: Jean Arthur, George Murphy, Douglass Dumbrille

Final film of Irma Harrison.


2:30 PM -- We Who Are Young (1940)
1h 19m | Romance | TV-PG
A man violates company policy by getting married.
Director: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Lana Turner, John Shelton, Gene Lockhart

This picture marked the American debut of European producer Seymour Nebenzal.


4:00 PM -- Bundle of Joy (1956)
1h 38m | Musical | TV-PG
A recently fired shop girl is mistaken for a single mother when she finds an abandoned baby.
Director: Norman Taurog
Cast: Eddie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Adolphe Menjou

In her autobiography, Carrie Fisher says that her mother, Debbie Reynolds, was pregnant with her whilst making this film. This accounts for several shots where Reynolds is hidden behind a shop display or wearing a cloak-style coat.


5:45 PM -- Beauty for the Asking (1939)
1h 8m | Romance | TV-G
A jilted woman makes her fortune in cosmetics.
Director: Glenn Tryon
Cast: Lucille Ball, Patric Knowles, Donald Woods

Loosely based on the career of cosmetics giant Helena Rubenstein, founder of a company bearing her name that made her one of the richest women in the world. After her death, the company was sold to Colgate-Palmolive in 1973 for $142.3M and was subsequently acquired by L'Oreal in 1988, which as of 2021 still maintains the brand.


7:00 PM -- Everybody's Hobby (1939)
54m | Comedy | TV-G
A hobby-mad family makes their obsessions pay off.
Director: William McCann
Cast: Irene Rich, Henry O'Neill, Jackie Moran

The first (and last) in an intended series about 'The Hobby Fmily", in which every family member was immersed in a hobby-pursuit of some kind.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- THE ASIAN-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE



8:00 PM -- Flower Drum Song (1961)
2h 13m | Musical | TV-G
A refugee travels to Chinatown as a mail-order bride.
Director: Henry Koster
Cast: Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta, Juanita Hall

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Russell Metty, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Alexander Golitzen, Joseph C. Wright and Howard Bristol, Best Costume Design, Color -- Irene Sharaff, Best Sound -- Waldon O. Watson (Revue SSD), and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Alfred Newman and Ken Darby

Of the four lead actors who are all portraying ethnic Chinese, only Nancy Kwan is, and is only part so (she is biracial). James Shigeta, Miyoshi Umeki and Jack Soo are all ethnic Japanese. Juanita Hall, who played the role of Chinese American "Auntie" Liang, was actually African American.


10:30 PM -- The Crimson Kimono (1959)
1h 22m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
Two detectives clash over the hunt for a stripper's killer in Los Angeles' Japanese district.
Director: Samuel Fuller
Cast: Victoria Shaw, Glenn Corbett, James Shigeta

One of the few films of its era that actually used Asians in Asian roles. Even more remarkable, one of the lead actors involved in the interracial love triangle, James Shigeta, was, in fact, Japanese, rather than a Caucasian actor made up to look Asian.


12:00 AM -- Eat a Bowl of Tea (1989)
1h 43m | Drama | TV-14
Chinese immigrants adjust to American life in post-war New York.
Director: Wayne Wang
Cast: Lane Nishikawa, Stephen Horowitz, Z Greenstreet Kam

Based on the novel of the same name by Louis Chu.


2:00 AM -- Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)
1h 40m | Adventure | TV-14
Aliens meet Valley girls.
Director: Julien Temple
Cast: Geena Davis, Jim Carrey, Jeff Goldblum

At the start of the millennium, there were several staged readings for a Broadway musical adaptation. Julie Brown reprised her role of Candy, with a largely-unknown Kristin Chenoweth taking the role of Valerie (Geena Davis in the film), Marc Kudisch as Ted (Charles Rocket), Hunter Foster as Mac (Jeff Goldblum), and Deven May as Wiploc (Jim Carrey). The Zeebo (Damon Wayans) and Woody (Michael McKean) characters were omitted from the stage version.


4:00 AM -- Absolute Beginners (1986)
1h 48m | Musical | TV-14
A young photographer seeks media stardom to keep the love of a beautiful model..
Director: Julien Temple
Cast: Eddie O'Connell, Patsy Kensit, David Bowie

After submitting the film for a 15 certificate producer Stephen Woolley was contacted by the BBFC and told that Patsy Kensit had revealed a nipple in one of the film's scenes. Despite Woolley's assurance that this was not the case because Kensit had been insistent during filming about not revealing her body, UK censor James Ferman painstakingly trawled through the movie using a BBFC "freeze frame" machine until he was finally convinced that the original information was incorrect. Only then did he grant the film an uncut certificate.