TCM Schedule for Saturday, January 13, 2018 -- The Essentials: Witness Protection

Tonight's Essentials features films about folks in witness protection. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- IT'S A DATE (1940)
Mother-and-daughter singers vie for the same man and the same stage part.
Dir: William A. Seiter
Cast: Deanna Durbin, Kay Francis, Walter Pidgeon
BW-103 mins, CC,

S.Z. 'Cuddles' Sakall's American film debut.


8:00 AM -- ONE FOR THE BOOK (1948)
A lovelorn actress shares her apartment with a lonely soldier.
Dir: Irving Rapper
Cast: Ronald Reagan, Eleanor Parker, Eve Arden
BW-103 mins, CC,

Bill is staying at the Hotel Pennsylvania. Olive finds this out form Sally over the phone in the morning. Olive hangs up and then asks the operator for the Hotel Pennsylvania. She's aggravated that the operator doesn't know the hotel's number. Audiences at the time would have found that very humorous because Glenn Miller's big band made it famous with their 1940 hit tune "PEnnsylvania 6-5000".


9:52 AM -- THIRD DIMENSIONAL MURDER (1941)
This short film, made in 3-D, features a character facing various monsters in a creepy old house.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Ed Payson,
C-7 mins,


10:00 AM -- THE HUMAN COMEDY (1943)
A small-town telegraph boy deals with the strains of growing up during World War II.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Frank Morgan, James Craig
BW-117 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- William Saroyan

Nominated for Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Mickey Rooney, Best Director -- Clarence Brown, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Harry Stradling Sr., and Best Picture

Writer William Saroyan wanted desperately to direct the film despite having no experience in directing. Louis B. Mayer told Saroyan that he would consider the request and assigned the writer to direct a one reel short. The short film was a disappointment and studio stalwart Clarence Brown was promptly assigned. Saroyan was so bitter about the experience he wrote a play about Mayer soon after titled "Get Away Old Man". He also adapted the story he wrote for the film into a novel, which was published within weeks of the movie premiere and became a best seller.


12:00 PM -- THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1952)
An Englishman who resembles the king of a small European nation gets mixed up in palace intrigue when his look-alike is kidnapped.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr, Louis Calhern
C-101 mins, CC,

The film used the same basic script that was written for the 1937 David O. Selznick film version, The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), with Ronald Colman and Madeleine Carroll. Although many scenes and camera set-ups are exactly the same, there are notable differences.


2:05 PM -- CALLING ON CAPE TOWN (1952)
This short film provides a look at Cape Town South Africa, with an emphasis on the history of its settlers.
C-9 mins,


2:15 PM -- SAFARI (1956)
While leading a wealthy couple on safari, a hunter tries to avenge his son's murder.
Dir: Terence Young
Cast: Victor Mature, Janet Leigh, John Justin
C-91 mins, CC,

Roland Culver's voice was replaced throughout.


4:00 PM -- ANNA LUCASTA (1958)
A reformed streetwalker falls in love with the man her family wants her to fleece.
Dir: Arnold Laven
Cast: Eartha Kitt, Frederick O'Neal, Henry Scott
BW-97 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Previously filmed in 1949 and starring Paulette Goddard, and made into a TV movie in 1977 for Greek television.


6:00 PM -- DON'T MAKE WAVES (1967)
A swimming-pool salesman gets mixed up with beauty queens and bodybuilders when he falls in love.
Dir: Alexander Mackendrick
Cast: Tony Curtis, Claudia Cardinale, Sharon Tate
C-97 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Sharon Tate replaced Julie Newmar, who was unavailable. Tate's character of Malibu inspired the Malibu Barbie doll.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: WITNESS PROTECTION



8:00 PM -- BULLITT (1968)
When mobsters kill the witness he was assigned to protect, a dedicated policeman investigates the case on his own.
Dir: Peter Yates
Cast: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset
C-114 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Frank P. Keller

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound

While filming the scene where the giant airliner taxis just above Steve McQueen, observers were shocked that no double was used. Asked if the producers couldn't have found a dummy, McQueen wryly replied, "They did."


10:15 PM -- THE NARROW MARGIN (1952)
A tough cop meets his match when he has to guard a gangster's moll on a tense train ride.
Dir: Richard Fleischer
Cast: Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White
BW-72 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Martin Goldsmith and Jack Leonard

Filmed in 1950, not released until 1952. According to director Richard Fleischer, when the film was finished, RKO Pictures owner Howard Hughes heard good things about it and ordered that a copy of it be delivered to him so he could screen it in his private projection room. The film stayed in the projection room for more than a year, apparently because the eccentric Hughes forgot about it.


12:00 AM -- MURDER, INC. (1960)
The rise and fall of a 1930's Brooklyn crime syndicate, known as Murder Incorporated, led by mobster Lepke Buchalter.
Dir: Burt Balaban
Cast: Stuart Whitman, May Britt, Henry Morgan
BW-103 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Peter Falk

An even more fictionalized version of the same events and time period, and told from the point of view of the prosecuting attorney, the 1951 film, The Enforcer (1951), starred Humphrey Bogart and Zero Mostel, was released in the U.K. under the title Murder, Inc.


2:00 AM -- THE MACK (1973)
A powerful pimp takes on two corrupt cops out to take him down.
Dir: Michael Campus
Cast: Max Julien, Don Gordon, Richard Pryor
C-110 mins, CC,

The infamous Player's Ball scene was largely Richard Pryor's idea. Other parts of the story Pryor took directly from people who he knew living this lifestyle. These included putting a man in the trunk of a car with rats, and forcing a drug pusher to stab himself at gun point.


4:00 AM -- SUPERFLY (1972)
A cocaine dealer tries to pull off one big score so he can get out of crime.
Dir: Gordon Parks Jr.
Cast: Ron O'Neal, Carl Lee, Sheila Frazier
C-91 mins, CC,

The Eldorado Cadillac driven by Priest was owned by KC, the pimp who makes an appearance in the nightclub scene. The deal was that KC would get a part in the movie (in the opening credit it says "and introducing: KC" ) in exchange for the use of his car.