TCM Schedule for Friday, April 3, 2015 -- Friday Night Spotlight - A. Arnold Gillespie

During the day, it's happy birthday to Marlon Brando, born April 3, 1924, in Omaha, Nebraska. (Unpopular personal opinion -- I really don't like Marlon Brando. Every time I see him on screen, he seems to be screaming "I'm ACTING!!". Give the subtleties of Spencer Tracy or Cary Grant.) And in prime time, TCM is featuring films by special effects wizard A. Arnold Gillespie. You may not recognize the name, but he's the guru behind the earthquake in San Francisco (1936), the tornado in The Wizard of Oz (1939), and two Ben Hurs (1925 and 1959). Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Julius Caesar (1953)
An all-star adaptation of Shakespeare's classic about Julius Caesar's assassination and its aftermath.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: John Doucette, George Macready, Michael Pate
BW-121 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Edward C. Carfagno, Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Marlon Brando, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa, and Best Picture

The film was shot in just 35 days, using some of the sets from "Quo Vadis", which were dismantled, flown from Rome to Hollywood and then re-assembled for this film. Producer John Houseman confirmed that it was never intended that the film be shot in color, as he and director Joseph Mankiewicz wanted it to have the urgency of a newsreel, not to look like a costume epic.


8:03 AM -- Capriccio Italien (1953)
In this short film, The MGM Symphony Orchestra performs Tchaikovsky's "Capriccio Italien."
BW-10 mins,


8:15 AM -- The Fugitive Kind (1960)
A drifter ignites passions among the women of a Mississippi town.
Dir: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward
BW-121 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Anna Magnani was hot to sleep with co-star Marlon Brando, but he did not find her attactive. The tension that was created between the two co-stars did not help the film but subtracted from it, as her failure at conquest made Magnani unhappy. Tennessee Williams was angry with Brando, convinced that he was deliberately slurring his dialogue to punish Magnani, who did not speak English. Magnani was playing the role phonetically and had trouble picking up her cues from Brando.


10:30 AM -- The Young Lions (1958)
A Jewish soldier faces anti-Semitism when he enlists to fight World War II.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Dean Martin
BW-167 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph MacDonald, Best Sound -- Carlton W. Faulkner (20th Century-Fox SSD), and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Hugo Friedhofer

Both one of this film's stars, Montgomery Clift, and source novelist Irwin Shaw complained about the many changes made to the book for the film. Clift stated that the film bore no resemblance to Shaw's novel. Shaw later said that Monty was "bitter as I was at the deformation of the book." Apparently, Clift once promised that if Brando tries to die at the end of the picture with his arms outstretched in a Christ like motif, he would walk off the set.


1:18 PM -- Operation Teahouse (1956)
This short promotional film provides a behind-the-scenes look at "The Teahouse of the August Moon" (1956).
C-5 mins,


1:30 PM -- Guys and Dolls (1955)
A big-city gambler bets that he can seduce a Salvation Army girl.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra
C-149 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Oliver Smith, Joseph C. Wright and Howard Bristol, Best Costume Design, Color -- Irene Sharaff, and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Jay Blackton and Cyril J. Mockridge

Frank Sinatra loathed the non-singing Marlon Brando for getting the starring role, while Sinatra got a lesser part. His nickname for the sometimes barely coherent Brando was "Mumbles."


4:06 PM -- Old New Orleans (1940)
This short film gives the viewer a tour of New Orleans, Louisiana.
C-9 mins,


4:15 PM -- A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
A fading southern belle tries to build a new life with her sister in New Orleans.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter
BW-125 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Vivien Leigh (Vivien Leigh was not present at the awards ceremony. Greer Garson accepted on her behalf.), Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Karl Malden, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Kim Hunter (Kim Hunter was not present at the awards ceremony. Bette Davis accepted on her behalf.), and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Richard Day and George James Hopkins

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Marlon Brando, Best Director -- Elia Kazan, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Tennessee Williams, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Lucinda Ballard, Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros.), Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Alex North, and Best Picture

Nine members of the original Broadway cast (Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, Rudy Bond, Nick Dennis, Peg Hillias, Richard Garrick, Ann Dere and Edna Thomas) repeated their roles in the film, a highly unusual decision at the time and even today, when original casts of plays are often completely replaced for the film versions. However, Vivien Leigh, who had played Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939), was selected to play Blanche du Bois over Jessica Tandy to add "star power" to the picture (Marlon Brando had not yet achieved full stardom in films; he would be billed under Leigh in the film's credits).


6:30 PM -- The Wild One (1953)
Motorcycle-riding delinquents take over a small town.
Dir: Laslo Benedek
Cast: Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy, Robert Keith
BW-79 mins, CC,

Based on a 1951 short story in Harper's Magazine entitled The Cyclists' Raid, which in turn was based upon a real-life incident in Hollister, California in 1947. The actual incident, however, bore little resemblance to the events depicted in the movie. Although spirited, the cyclists did not run amok or become violent. In fact, the bikers were invited back to Hollister over the July 4, 1997 weekend for a fiftieth anniversary celebration of the original incident.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: A. ARNOLD GILLESPIE



8:00 PM -- The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
A Kansas farm girl dreams herself into a magical land where she must fight a wicked witch to escape.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger
C-102 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Harold Arlen (music) and E.Y. Harburg (lyrics) for the song "Over the Rainbow", and Best Music, Original Score -- Herbert Stothart

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Harold Rosson, Best Art Direction -- Cedric Gibbons and William A. Horning, Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic) and Douglas Shearer (sound), and Best Picture

In 1898, Dorothy Louise Gage was born to the brother and sister-in-law of Maud Gage Baum, wife of author L. Frank Baum. When little Dorothy died exactly five months later, Maud was heartbroken. Baum was just finishing "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and, to comfort his wife, named his heroine after Dorothy, changing her last name to Gale in his second book. Dorothy Gage was buried in Evergreen Memorial Cemetery in Bloomington, Illinois, where her grave was forgotten until 1996 when it was rediscovered. When Mickey Carroll, one of the last existing Munchkins from the movie, learned of the discovery, he was eager to replace her deteriorated grave marker with a new one created by his own monument company. The new stone was dedicated in 1997 and the children's section of the cemetery renamed the Dorothy L. Gage Memorial Garden, in the hope that bereaved families would be comforted in thinking of their lost children as being with Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz".


10:00 PM -- San Francisco (1936)
A beautiful singer and a battling priest try to reform a Barbary Coast saloon owner in the days before the big earthquake.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy
BW-115 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy, Best Director -- W.S. Van Dyke, Best Writing, Original Story -- Robert E. Hopkins, Best Assistant Director -- Joseph M. Newman, and Best Picture

Jeanette MacDonald personally chose Spencer Tracy for the second male lead. Previously, Tracy had mainly been cast as heavies; this role completely changed his career around.


12:02 AM -- Cavalcade Of San Francisco (1940)
This short film celebrates the past and present of San Francisco.
C-9 mins,


12:15 AM -- Tarzan And His Mate (1934)
The jungle king fights to protect his wife from a greedy ivory hunter.
Dir: Cedric Gibbons
Cast: Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, Neil Hamilton
BW-104 mins, CC,

The infamous nude swimming scene was originally filmed in three different versions: with Jane wearing her traditional costume, with Jane topless and with Jane fully nude. US states were empowered at that time to enact individual censorship laws, and three different versions of the scene were filmed in order to allow individual states to select the version of the scene which best conformed to its laws. All three versions were eventually removed from the film due to protests from conservative religious groups, particularly the powerful Catholic Legion of Decency. The nude version of the scene was discovered in the vaults of Turner Entertainment during the late 1990s following its purchase of the MGM film library, and was restored to most subsequent versions of the film on the direct orders of Turner Entertainment chairman Ted Turner. In the restored version of the scene, Tarzan is depicted wearing his traditional loincloth while Jane appears fully nude, her costume having been torn off when Tarzan playfully tosses her from a tree to the water below. The scene as it exists today is approximately four minutes in duration.


2:15 AM -- Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Classic adventure about the sadistic Captain Bligh, who drove his men to revolt during a South Seas expedition.
Dir: Frank Lloyd
Cast: Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone
BW-133 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Clark Gable, Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Charles Laughton, Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Franchot Tone, Best Director -- Frank Lloyd, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Jules Furthman, Talbot Jennings and Carey Wilson, Best Film Editing -- Margaret Booth, and Best Music, Score -- Nat W. Finston (head of departmment) with score by Herbert Stothart.

Irving Thalberg cast Clark Gable and Charles Laughton together in the hope that they would hate each other, making their on screen sparring more lifelike. He knew that Gable, a notorious homophobe, would not care for Laughton's overt homosexuality and would feel inferior to the RADA-trained Shakespearean actor. Relations between the two stars broke down completely after Laughton brought his muscular boyfriend to the island as his personal masseur. They were an obviously devoted couple and would go everywhere together, while Gable would turn away in disgust. In addition, Laughton felt that he should have won the Best Actor Oscar for The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934). In the event, he was not even nominated and the award went to Gable for It Happened One Night (1934).


4:29 AM -- Pitcairn Island Today (1935)
This short film takes the viewer to Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific Ocean to examine how life has changed since the "Mutiny on the Bounty."
BW-10 mins,


4:45 AM -- The Decks Ran Red (1958)
Dishonest seamen plan a murderous mutiny.
Dir: Andrew L. Stone
Cast: James Mason, Dorothy Dandridge, Broderick Crawford
BW-84 mins, CC,

Working title -- Infamy at Sea.