TCM Schedule for Saturday, January 18, 2014 -- The Essentials - Tallulah Bankhead

[Staph]

Tonight TCM is featuring films of the irrepressible Tallulah Bankhead. I'll be out celebrating my birthday! Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- The Cobweb (1955)
Inmates and staff at a posh asylum clash over love and lunacy.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Richard Widmark, Lauren Bacall, Charles Boyer
C-124 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

The movie Stevie and Sue (John Kerr and Susan Strasburg) go to see is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). Music from the movie can be heard as they are exiting the theater.


8:15 AM -- The Twelve Chairs (1970)
A fallen aristocrat, a priest and a con artist search for a treasure of jewels hidden inside one of twelve dining chairs.
Dir: Mel Brooks
Cast: Ron Moody, Frank Langella, Dom DeLuise
C-93 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Mel Brooks had problems with Yugoslavian extras who did not speak English. Some extras playing museum guards were to walk through the museum ringing a bell and shouting, "Closing time! Closing time!" The extras misunderstood and walked through the scene shouting "Cloakie Bye! Cloakie Bye!" Brooks decided "Cloakie Bye" was funnier, so he left it in the movie.


10:06 AM -- Ryan's Daughter (Featurette) (1970)
This short film provides a behind-the-scenes look at the making of "Ryan's Daughter" (1970).
C-6 mins,


10:15 AM -- Carson on TCM: Mel Brooks (2/75) (2013)
TCM presents an interview from The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, with Mel Brooks from 2/13/75.
C-10 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Mel Brooks is one of the few people to win an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony. He won an Oscar for the screenplay of The Producers (1967); 3 Emmys in a row (1997-1999) for his guest appearance as Uncle Phil in Mad About You (1992); 3 Tonys for The Producers- Best Musical, Original Music Score and Book (musical); and 3 Grammys- Best Spoken Comedy Album for "The 2000 Year Old Man In The Year 2000" (1998, with Carl Reiner) and two for The Producers (2001): Best Musical Show Album (as composer/lyricist) and Best Long Form Music Video (as artist).


10:30 AM -- Murder on the Blackboard (1934)
A schoolteacher matches wits with a police detective when they both try to solve a pretty music teacher's murder.
Dir: George Archainbaud
Cast: James Gleason, Edna May Oliver, Bruce Cabot
BW-72 mins, TV-G,

The film was known in Brazil as Sherlock de Saias, which I think translates as Sherlock in Skirts.


11:51 AM -- Old Natchez On The Mississippi (1939)
This short film focuses on Natchez, Mississippi's preservation of the architecture, apparel, and customs of the antebellum South.
C-9 mins,


12:00 PM -- Tom Sawyer (1973)
The classic American bad boy sails the Mississippi with his friend Huck Finn after their supposed deaths.
Dir: Don Taylor
Cast: Celeste Holm, Jodie Foster, Johnnie Whitaker
C-99 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Costume Design -- Donfeld, Best Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation -- Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman and John Williams, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Philip M. Jefferies and Robert De Vestel

One of at least 22 filmed versions of the Mark Twain story.


1:50 PM -- Speed Week (1957)
This short film chronicles the automobile races staged as part of Speed Week, held annually in Nassau, Bahamas.
Dir: Howard Winner
BW-8 mins,


2:00 PM -- A Face In The Crowd (1957)
A female television executive turns a folk-singing drifter into a powerful media star.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa
BW-126 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

The Vitajex tablets that Lonesome Rhodes hawks have 6 grains of dextrose, 5 grains of inert material, 2.5 grains of caffeine, and 3.5 grains of aspirin. That's roughly equivalent to a 16 oz café latte and two baby aspirin tablets.


4:15 PM -- The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Tabloid reporters crash a society marriage.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart
BW-112 mins, TV-G, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Donald Ogden Stewart

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ruth Hussey, Best Director -- George Cukor, and Best Picture

Playwright Philip Barry based the character of Tracy on Helen Hope Montgomery Scott, a Main Line Philadelphia socialite famous for throwing lavish parties at her family's 800 acre farm estate in Radnor. Filmmakers reportedly intended to shoot the film at Ardrossan (the name of the families estate), but decided against it after seeing the size and scale of the main house and the expansiveness of the estate. They reportedly thought that no one would believe that anyone could actually live like that, particularly in America in the 1940s.


6:15 PM -- The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)
A teenage girl's crush on a playboy spells trouble, particularly when he falls for her older sister.
Dir: Irving Reis
Cast: Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Shirley Temple
BW-95 mins, TV-G, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Sidney Sheldon

Myrna Loy was almost 23 years older than her on-screen sister Shirley Temple.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: TALLULAH BANKHEAD



8:00 PM -- Lifeboat (1944)
Survivors of a torpedoed boat take in a German Naval officer from the sub that sank them.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Walter Slezak
BW-97 mins, TV-14, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Alfred Hitchcock, Best Writing, Original Story -- John Steinbeck, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Glen MacWilliams

During filming, several crew members noted that Tallulah Bankhead was not wearing underwear. When advised of this situation, Alfred Hitchcock observed, "I don't know if this is a matter for the costume department, makeup, or hairdressing."


9:48 PM -- That's The Spirit (1933)
In this musical short film, two night watchmen hear songs performed in a haunted pawn shop.
Dir: Roy Mack
Cast: Mantan Moreland, Cora La Redd, F. E. Miller
BW-11 mins,


10:00 PM -- Faithless (1932)
A spoiled rich girl is wiped out by the Depression.
Dir: Harry Beaumont
Cast: Tallulah Bankhead, Robert Montgomery, Hugh Herbert
BW-77 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Based on the novel Tinfoil by Mildred Cram.


11:30 PM -- Die! Die! My Darling! (1965)
A religious fanatic imprisons her late son's sinful fiancee.
Dir: Silvio Narizzano
Cast: Tallulah Bankhead, Stefanie Powers, Peter Vaughan
C-96 mins, TV-14, CC,

The producers considered replacing Tallulah Bankhead during filming when she became ill and was unable to work. However, Bankhead put up her salary for the film as a guarantee she'd finish if she wouldn't be replaced. It became Bankhead's final theatrical film.


1:32 AM -- Lionpower From MGM (1967)
This short film presents highlights from MGM films scheduled to be released during the upcoming 1967-68 movie seasons.
C-27 mins, TV-PG,


2:00 AM -- Skidoo (1968)
A retired gangster has to pull off a hit when his daughter is kidnapped.
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Frankie Avalon
C-98 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Final film of Groucho Marx.


3:45 AM -- The Big Cube (1969)
LSD almost ruins the life of a former actress and her stepdaughter.
Dir: Tito Davison
Cast: Lana Turner, George Chakiris, Richard Egan
C-98 mins, TV-MA, Letterbox Format

Karin Mossberg's dialogue was dubbed by another actress. She only made three films and this was the last.


5:30 AM -- Keep Off The Grass (1969)
In this educational short film produced by Sid Davis, the dangers of marijuana are outlined.
C-21 mins, TV-14,