TCM Schedule for Friday, November 8, 2013 -- Friday Night Spotlight: Screwball Comedies

[Staph]

We have a day of films that take place in the boardroom (and occasionally the bedroom!) and another evening of screwball comedies about marriage -- what a great way to lighten the spirits on a gray November evening! Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- MGM Parade Show #24 (1955)
Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney perform in a clip from "Strike Up the Band"; John Gilbert and Renee Adoree perform in a clip from "The Big Parade." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-25 mins, TV-G,


6:30 AM -- The Front Page (1931)
A crusading newspaper editor tricks his retiring star reporter into covering one last case.
Dir: Lewis Milestone
Cast: Adolph Menjou, Pat O'Brien, Mary Brian
BW-100 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Adolphe Menjou, Best Director -- Lewis Milestone, and Best Picture

Based on play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur that opened on Broadway on August 14, 1929, this story has be filmed seven more times, from 1940's His Girl Friday (where reporter Hildy Johnson's gender is changed to female and played by Rosalind Russell) to 1988's Switching Channels (played in a television station, and with the only other female Hildy, renamed Christy Colleran).


8:15 AM -- The Match King (1932)
An ambitious young man corners the market on matches, then faces the destruction of his empire.
Dir: Howard Bretherton
Cast: Warren William, Lily Damita, Glenda Farrell
BW-79 mins, TV-G, CC,

Warren William's most immediately prior film was titled Three on a Match. That film's title refers to the "superstition" that if three people light their cigarettes with the same match, the third person will soon die. The so-called superstition was actually part of a promotional campaign designed by Ivar Kreuger (the real-life counterpart to William's character) to increase the use of matches by cutting down sharing.


9:34 AM -- Manhattan Monkey Business (1935)
After a man accidentally over tips, he must find a way to pay for his dinner and impress a girl in this comedic short.
Dir: Charles Parrott
Cast: Charley Chase, Joyce Compton, Albert Pollet
BW-20 mins, TV-PG,


10:00 AM -- Oil For The Lamps Of China (1935)
An American oil company representative almost sacrifices his marriage for his career.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Pat O'Brien, Josephine Hutchinson, Jean Muir
BW-97 mins, TV-G,

Based on a novel by Alice Tisdale Hobart, and remade in 1941 as Law Of The Tropics.


11:42 AM -- The Song Of A Nation (1947)
This short film dramatizes the events that led to Francis Scott Key writing the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Dir: Frank McDonald
Cast: George Beranger, Lottie Williams, Virginia Brissac
C-17 mins,


12:00 PM -- The Hucksters (1947)
A war veteran fights for honesty in the advertising game.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Clark Gable, Deborah Kerr, Sydney Greenstreet
BW-115 mins, TV-PG, CC,

The novel upon which this film is based was itself inspired by a real-life exposé in "The Saturday Evening Post". The four-part article, entitled "The Star Spangled Octopus," was a look at how the talent and promotional agency MCA had managed to monopolize most areas of popular entertainment by the mid-1940s. In the novel, the character of Dave Lash is based directly on MCA founder and president Jules C. Stein and his right-hand-man is based on Lew Wasserman. The movie version retains these elements of the book's form but is otherwise fairly sanitized. The one exception: the exterior of the fictional agency Talent Ltd. is shown once during the movie - and the building in the shot is unmistakably MCA's Beverly Hills headquarters.


1:56 PM -- The Amazing Mr. Nordill (1947)
This short film focuses on Everett Nordill, a mastermind behind a counterfeiting ring in the mid-nineteenth century.
Dir: Joseph Newman
Cast: Clinton Sundberg, Paul Maxey, Leon Ames
BW-11 mins,


2:15 PM -- Executive Suite (1954)
When a business magnate dies, his board of directors fights over who should run the company.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: William Holden, June Allyson, Barbara Stanwyck
BW-105 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Nina Foch, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- George J. Folsey, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Edward C. Carfagno, Edwin B. Willis and Emile Kuri, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Helen Rose

The entire story takes place during the 24 hour period from Friday afternoon, June 19 1953 to Saturday afternoon, June 20 1953.


4:00 PM -- So Your Wife Wants To Work (1956)
This comedic short involves a wife who wants to work, but her husband isn't too keen on the idea.
Dir: Richard Bare
Cast: Phyllis Coates, Emory Parnell, George O'Hanlon
BW-9 mins,


4:15 PM -- Patterns (1956)
A replacement in a large corporation encounters loyalty and power struggles.
Dir: Fielder Cook
Cast: Van Heflin, Everett Sloane, Ed Begley
BW-84 mins, TV-G,

Based on a teleplay by Rod Serling that ran on "Kraft Television Theatre" (1947) in January 1955. It featured several of the same actors that would appear in the movie, including Everett Sloane and Ed Begley. However the part of Fred Staples, the lead, was originated by Richard Kiley. Begley's character, Bill Briggs, was called Andy Sloane in the original version. Serling's teleplay won him the first of his six Emmy Awards.


5:51 PM -- The Law And The Lab (1956)
This short film focuses on the job of a lab technician and forensic detail.
Dir: Frances Dinsmoor
BW-8 mins,


6:00 PM -- The Power And The Prize (1956)
An ambitious executive jeopardizes his career to marry a European refugee.
Dir: Henry Koster
Cast: Robert Taylor, Elisabeth Mueller, Burl Ives
BW-98 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Helen Rose

Based on the novel "March or Die - The Story of the French Legion" by Howard Swigett.


7:42 PM -- A Dream Of Love (1939)
A historical, musical short about a true incident in the life of composer Franz Liszt.
Dir: James A. FitzPatrick
Cast: Fanny Wright, Sylvia Marriott, Ian Colin
BW-17 mins,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: SCREWBALL COMEDIES



8:00 PM -- The Awful Truth (1937)
A divorced couple keeps getting mixed up in each other's love lives.
Dir: Leo McCarey
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy
BW-91 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Director -- Leo McCarey

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ralph Bellamy, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Viña Delmar, Best Film Editing -- Al Clark, and Best Picture

This first of three movies that paired Cary Grant and Irene Dunne was a remake of the 1929 film that starred Ina Claire and Henry Daniell as the Warriners.


9:45 PM -- My Favorite Wife (1940)
A shipwrecked woman is rescued just in time for her husband's re-marriage.
Dir: Garson Kanin
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott
BW-88 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- Leo McCarey, Bella Spewack and Sam Spewack, Best Art Direction, Black-and-White -- Van Nest Polglase and Mark-Lee Kirk, and Best Music, Original Score -- Roy Webb

Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, "Enoch Arden," about a fisherman presumed lost at sea who returns to find his wife remarried, was the basis of six prior films: Enoch Arden, Die Toten kehren wieder - Enoch Arden, and D.W. Griffith's Enoch Arden: Part I, Enoch Arden: Part II, Enoch Arden, and Too Many Husbands (on later tonight). Those films adhered to Tennyson's poem. But in My Favorite Wife, Something's Got to Give, and Move Over, Darling, only the basic idea of a spouse who returns is kept, with the spouse presumed lost now being the wife. However, in all of these films, the surname of the couple in question remains "Arden."


11:30 PM -- Love Crazy (1941)
A businessman concocts a series of harebrained schemes to keep his wife from divorcing him.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Gail Patrick
BW-99 mins, TV-PG, CC,

William Powell had a mustache for the entire length of his career, but shaved it off for this film so that he could be dressed as a woman.


1:15 AM -- Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)
A quarrelsome couple discovers their marriage isn't legal.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Carole Lombard, Robert Montgomery, Gene Raymond
BW-95 mins, TV-G, CC,

Carole Lombard was a devoted Democrat, while Robert Montgomery was a Republican. During breaks in filming, Lombard made a point of running into the studio parking lot and putting FDR re-election bumper stickers on Montgomery's car.


3:00 AM -- Too Many Husbands (1940)
When her long lost husband returns after her re-marriage, a woman decides to try life with two mates.
Dir: Wesley Ruggles
Cast: Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray, Melvyn Douglas
BW-81 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD)

The script was initially ruled too scandalous to produce by the MPAA, which cited the film's "apparent lack of any respect for the sanctity of marriage; its farcical treatment of the subject of bigamy; and its very frank and detailed discussion of the unsavory subject of divorce by collusion." It is unclear what changes to the script were made to satisfy the censorship board, but the revised version of the script finally received the MPAA's stamp of approval.


4:30 AM -- Vivacious Lady (1938)
After a whirlwind courtship, a nightclub singer has to adjust to her professor husband's conservative family.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Ginger Rogers, James Stewart, James Ellison
BW-90 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Robert De Grasse, and Best Sound, Recording -- James Wilkinson (RKO Radio SSD)

After four days of shooting in April 1937, James Stewart became ill, but then left to star in Of Human Hearts. RKO considered replacing Stewart, but shelved the production until December 1937. Actors Donald Crisp and Fay Bainter (as well as others), who were cast in the original production, were replaced by Charles Coburn and Beulah Bondi.

[CBHagman]

1. I rented "Too Many Husbands" from Netflix recently...

...without having read up on the movie. I can see how that must have given the Hays Office fits, and I think here on DU we could come up with quite a lively debate just what poor (?) Jean Arthur should do.

?partner=allmovie_soap

[Staph]

2. I saw this one on TCM six months or so ago.

And I can't for the life of me remember the ending! I enjoyed the ride that gets you there, though the relationships are definitely post-Hays Office-influenced.