TCM Schedule for Saturday, January 11, 2020 -- The Essentials: Remade in America

Last edited Mon Mar 23, 2020, 07:50 PM - Edit history (1)

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts, along with a pair of original films and their remakes (Five Came Back (1939) and Back From Eternity (1956); The Champ (1931 and 1979). Then in primetime, The Essentials is back! (or should that be The Essentials are back?), with trailblazing producer, director and screenwriter Ava DuVernay, who will join primetime host Ben Mankiewicz to discuss the films she has chosen. Tonight's theme is remakes, and features the Japanese classic Rashomon (1950) and American remake The Outrage (1964). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE (1948)
A New York businessman's dream of a country home is shattered when he buys a tumbledown rural shack.
Dir: H. C. Potter
Cast: Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Melvyn Douglas
BW-94 mins, CC,

Although this film was from the novel of the same name, much of the story is autobiographical. Eric Hodgins and his wife built the actual house in the rural Litchfield County, Connecticut town of New Milford. Located in the bucolic Merryall section of town, the house recently sold for $1.2 million.


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: TALE OF THE VIENNA WOODS (1934)
The delightfully animated adventure of a faun and a satyr who is only animate during daylight.
Dir: Hugh Harman
BW-8 mins, CC,


8:10 AM -- BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE (1938)
This short looks at the life Michel Ney, who fought at Napoleon's side and was made a Marshall of France.
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: John Burton,
BW-11 mins,


8:21 AM -- ZEELAND "THE HIDDEN PARADISE" (1935)
This short film focuses on the customs and culture of the Dutch province, Zeeland.
Dir: Ruth FitzPatrick
Narrator: James A. FitzPatrick
C-7 mins,


8:29 AM -- THE ADVENTURES OF JANE ARDEN (1939)
A reporter poses as a jewel smuggler to unmask a criminal gang.
Dir: Terry Morse
Cast: Rosella Towne, William Gargan, James Stephenson
BW-58 mins,

Jane Arden was an internationally syndicated daily newspaper comic strip which ran from November 26, 1928 to January 20, 1968. The title character was the original "spunky girl reporter," actively seeking to infiltrate and expose criminal activity rather than just report on its consequences and served as a prototype for later characters such as Superman supporting character Lois Lane and fellow comic strip heroine Brenda Starr, Reporter. Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mary McGrory credited Jane Arden with instilling her interest in journalism.


9:30 AM -- THE MYSTERIOUS MR. M: THE DOUBLE TRAP (1946)
An evil scientist known as "Mr. M." uses a drug he has developed called "hypnotreme" to help steal submarine equipment.
Dir: Lewis D. Collins, Vernon Keays
Cast: Dennis Moore, Pamela Blake, Richard Martin
BW-18 mins, CC,

Episode four of thirteen.


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: NURSE MATES (1933)
The boys show up simultaneously to take Olive to the movies.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Orestes Calpini (uncredited)
Cast: Pinto Colvig, Margie Hines, Jack Mercer
BW-7 mins, CC,


10:07 AM -- CLIPPED WINGS (1953)
The Bowery Boys join the air force and almost turn it into a fly-by-night organization.
Dir: Edward Bernds
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey
BW-64 mins, CC,

The 31st of 48 Bowery Boys movies.


11:30 AM -- MAID FOR A DAY (1936)
In this musical short, a fading Broadway entertainer takes a job as a maid. Vitaphone Release 1973-1974.
Dir: Joseph Henabery
Cast: Frank Jaquet, Hope Landin, Grace Hayes
BW-21 mins,

Grace Hayes and Peter Lind Hayes, who play mother and son in this short, were mother and son in real life.


12:00 PM -- GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT (1947)
A reporter pretends to be Jewish in order to cover a story on anti-Semitism.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield
BW-118 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Celeste Holm, Best Director -- Elia Kazan, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gregory Peck, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Dorothy McGuire, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Anne Revere, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Moss Hart, and Best Film Editing -- Harmon Jones

The timeliness of the film is revealed by a telling exchange that took place between screenwriter Moss Hart and a stagehand, as reported in "The Saturday Review", December 6, 1947, pg. 71: "You know," a stagehand is reported to have said to Mr. Hart, "I've loved working on this picture of yours. Usually I play gin-rummy with the boys when scenes are being shot. But not this time. This time I couldn't leave the set. The picture has such a wonderful moral I didn't want to miss it". "Really?" beamed Mr. Hart, pleased not only as a scenarist but as a reformer. "That's fine. What's the moral as you see it?". "Well, I tell you," replied the stagehand. "Henceforth I'm always going to be good to Jewish people because you never can tell when they will turn out to be Gentiles."


2:15 PM -- GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS! (1956)
Nuclear tests awaken a prehistoric monster.
Dir: Ishiro Honda
Cast: Raymond Burr, Takashi Shimura, Momoko Kochi
BW-81 mins,

In the American version, Godzilla's size was increased from 150 feet to nearly 400 feet because of the disparity between Japanese buildings (built short to meet earthquake codes) and American skyscrapers. It was felt that Godzilla's original size would be lost among the tall buildings of New York, the city most often compared to Tokyo.


3:45 PM -- ZORBA THE GREEK (1964)
An amoral Greek peasant teaches a British student the meaning of life.
Dir: Michael Cacoyannis
Cast: Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, Irene Papas
BW-142 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Lila Kedrova, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Walter Lassally, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Vassilis Photopoulos

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Anthony Quinn, Best Director -- Michael Cacoyannis, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Michael Cacoyannis, and Best Picture

Simone Signoret was the original choice for Madame Hortense. After filming began, Director Michael Cacoyannis realized that she wasn't what he wanted for the part, and asked permission from Twentieth Century Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck to replace her. He agreed and he proposed Tallulah Bankhead, Bette Davis, and Barbara Stanwyck. Cacoyannis, though, had Lila Kedrova in mind. Zanuck had no idea who Kedrova was, or how she even looked, but he trusted Cacoyannis very much, so he agreed.


6:15 PM -- RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY (1962)
Two aging gunslingers sign on to transport gold from a remote mining town.
Dir: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, Mariette Hartley
C-94 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Final film of Randolph Scott. He retired from acting once he saw the finished film, saying he wanted to quit while he was ahead and that he would never be able to better his work here.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: REMADE IN AMERICA



8:00 PM -- RASHOMON (1950)
In medieval Japan, four people offer conflicting accounts of a rape and murder.
Dir: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Takashi Shimura
BW-89 mins,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Takashi Matsuyama and H. Motsumoto

Often credited as the reason the Academy created the "Best Foreign Film" category.


10:00 PM -- THE OUTRAGE (1964)
A Mexican bandit's crimes receive wildly different interpretations from four witnesses.
Dir: Martin Ritt
Cast: Paul Newman, Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom
BW-96 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Paul Newman wasn't keen to take the role, but when he heard that his old rival Marlon Brando had turned it down, he accepted the part.


12:00 AM -- THE BIG NIGHT (1951)
An emotional teenager takes on the mob when gangsters beat up his father.
Dir: Joseph Losey
Cast: John Barrymore Jr., Preston Foster, Joan Lorring
BW-75 mins, CC,

This film marks the only screen acting appearance by future director Robert Aldrich. He was Joseph Losey's assistant on the film (not their only collaboration) and Aldrich often said that he felt closest to Losey of all the directors he had worked with during his long apprenticeship as an assistant - others included Charles Chaplin, Jean Renoir and Lewis Milestone. He also said, jokingly, that Losey had only used him as an actor "because he knows how self-conscious I am".


1:45 AM -- FRANKIE AND JOHNNY (1966)
A riverboat gambler has to choose between his true love and the woman who's his lucky charm.
Dir: Frederick De Cordova
Cast: Elvis Presley, Donna Douglas, Nancy Kovack
C-87 mins, CC,

Ann Margaret (Elvis' co-star in 'Viva Las Vegas') was in discussion to play the part of Nellie, as she owed Edward Small a film under a contract with her.


3:30 AM -- ELVIS: THAT'S THE WAY IT IS (1970)
Restored version of the King's classic Vegas concert film.
C-95 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Footage of the after party held in Elvis` suite after his August 10th, 1970, opening show finds him in the company of Sammy Davis, Jr., Cary Grant, Kenny Rogers and Roman Polanski.


5:30 AM -- MGM PARADE SHOW #29 (1955)
Walter Pidgeon introduces Part Three of "Captains Courageous" and a clip from "Tribute to a Badman."
BW-25 mins, CC,