TCM Schedule for Friday, March 23 -- What's On Tonight -- Billy Wilder

[Staph]

It's a great evening with two of Billy Wilder's best, the funny Seven Year Itch (1955) and the serious Lost Weekend (1945). Billy wrote and directed both of them! Enjoy!



6:45 AM -- They Won't Forget (1937)
Bigotry flares when a teacher is accused of killing a small-town girl in the South.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson, Edward Norris
95 min, TV-G, CC

Based on the murder trial of Leo Frank, the film does not mention that Frank was Jewish, a fact that generated more prejudice than his Northern background. The real life victim, Mary Phagan, was a youthful 13, a far cry from Lana Turner's post-pubescent sweater girl of 16.


8:30 AM -- Random Harvest (1942)
A woman's happiness is threatened when she discovers her husband has been suffering from amnesia.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Ronald Colman, Greer Garson, Philip Dorn
127 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Ronald Colman, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Susan Peters, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell, Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore, Best Director -- Mervyn LeRoy, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Herbert Stothart, Best Writing, Screenplay -- George Froeschel, Claudine West and Arthur Wimperis, and Best Picture

Ronald Colman fought with the British army in World War I at the battle of Ypres in 1914 where he received severe shrapnel wounds to the knee and ankle of one of his legs. He was decorated for bravery and was invalided out of the army several months later.


10:45 AM -- Home From The Hill (1960)
A southern landowner's family is torn apart by the revelation that he has an illegitimate son.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Eleanor Parker, George Peppard
C- 150 min, TV-PG, CC

Filming took place in Oxford, Mississippi, near where the University of Mississippi campus is located. George Hamilton recalled that author William Faulkner, who was writer-in-residence at the university, would climb up a tree and stay there for several hours watching the film being shot.


1:25 PM -- Edward G. Robinson Biography (1962)
4 min,

Incredibly, Robinson was never even nominated for an Academy Award. He was awarded a special "Lifetime Achievement" Oscar two months after his death. His wife, who accepted for him, commented on how thrilled he was to learn he would be given the award.


1:30 PM -- Crossfire (1947)
A crusading district attorney investigates the murder of a Jewish man.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan
86 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Ryan, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gloria Grahame, Best Director -- Edward Dmytryk, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Paxton, and Best Picture

Despite receiving an Academy Award nomination, Robert Ryan rarely talked about his breakthrough role as he wasn't too happy about the negative aspects of his character. This was because he played a murderous anti-Semite, whereas in real life Ryan was a committed liberal who abhorred any forms of bigotry.


3:00 PM -- Thunder Rock (1942)
A disillusioned writer moves into a lighthouse where some ghostly visitors restore his faith.
Dir: Roy Boulting
Cast: Michael Redgrave, Barbara Mullen, James Mason
107 min, TV-G, CC

Based on the play by Robert Ardrey. Remade in 1946 as a TV movie for the BBC, starring Robert Sansom, again for the BBC in 1954, this time starring Stephen Murray, in 1967 in West Germany as Leuchtferer, and in 1985 as an American TV movie starring Charles Dance.


5:00 PM -- They Won't Believe Me (1947)
A faithless husband is charged with a murder he didn't commit.
Dir: Irving Pichel
Cast: Susan Hayward, Robert Young, Jane Greer
80 min, TV-PG, CC

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Verna mispronounces the hero's address as Bendedict's Canyon - in reality, a well-known wealthy Los Angeles community really called Benedict (no possessive) Canyon.


6:30 PM -- Beware, My Lovely (1952)
A widow discovers her handyman is an escaped mental patient.
Dir: Harry Horner
Cast: Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Taylor Holmes
77 min, TV-PG, CC

This story was originally done on the CBS radio show Suspense as "To Find Help" on 18 January 1945 with Frank Sinatra as Howard and Agnes Moorehead as Mrs. Gillis (Mrs. Gordon in the film). This was Sinatra's "dramatic debut" on radio. It was done again on Suspense with Gene Kelly and Ethel Barrymore on 6 January 1949.


7:48 PM -- Where Is Jane Doe? (1956)
In this Screenliner short, New York City police detectives investigate the case of a missing girl, whose clothes are found on a bridge.
Dir: Larry O'Reilly
Cast: Bob Hite
8 min,

Filmed on location in New York.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: BILLY WILDER



8:00 PM -- The Seven Year Itch (1955)
A married man whose wife is on vacation falls for the blonde bombshell upstairs.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Tommy Ewell, Evelyn Keyes
104 min, TV-PG, CC

Not without a distinct ring of irony, the 9-month-old Marilyn Monroe-Joe DiMaggio marriage officially ended during this shoot.


10:00 PM -- The Lost Weekend (1945)
A writer fights to overcome his addiction to liquor.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry
101 min, TV-PG, CC

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Ray Milland, Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- John F. Seitz, Best Film Editing -- Doane Harrison, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa

The outdoor filming was done in New York City and the interiors were done in Hollywood. The latter included an exact duplicate of a Third Avenue bar, P.J. Clarke's, on Stage 5 at Paramount Pictures, complete down to the dusty stuffed cat on the top of the payphone. Ray Milland, who starred in the film, tells that for one week every afternoon at five o'clock the door of the set would open, a man would walk up to the bar (whether filming was going on or not), order a straight bourbon, chat about the weather, plunk down fifty cents, and stroll out. It was the writer Robert Benchley, who was homesick for New York.


11:46 PM -- Film That Was Lost (1942)
Billy Wilder discusses his life and films in interviews filmed by Volker Schlondorff over two weeks in 1988.
Dir: Gisela Grischow, Volker Schlöndorff
Cast: Jean Arthur, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Billy Wilder
10 min,

Not having seen his parents since he went to Berlin to make films, Wilder joined American patrols through war-torn Europe shortly after the war. Through intense research he found out that both his mother and grandmother were killed in concentration camps, a subject that he usually declined to discuss. However, when shooting a film with Wilder, an actor expressed sympathy for his own Nazi character, to which the usually cool-headed Wilder roared, "Those bastards killed my mother!!!"


12:00 AM -- Billy Wilder Speaks (2006)
TCM original documentary on prolific director, writer and producer Billy Wilder.
C- 71 min, TV-MA, CC

Wilder collaborated closely with Steven Spielberg on the script for Schindler's List (1993), and was one of several directors considered to direct it (Roman Polanski and Martin Scorsese both turned down the project). Although Wilder strongly considered directing Schindler's List (1993), he felt he was a little too old (he had already retired) and the subject was almost too personal (both his mother and grandmother were killed in the Holocaust). It was ultimately Wilder who told Spielberg he should direct it.


1:15 AM -- Wedding In Monaco (1956)
Exclusive footage captures the wedding of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier.
Dir: Jean Masson
C- 32 min, TV-G

"Exclusive: By arrangement with Prince Rainier III. The only complete, official film coverage of this historic event. In CinemaScope and Color."


2:00 AM -- Stunt Rock (1980)
A pair of stuntment perform magic tricks and feats of daring for a heavy metal act called Sorcery.
Dir: Brian Trenchard-Smith Cast: Grant Page, Monique Van De Ven, Margaret Gerard
C- 91 min, TV-14

This picture is a unique genre hybrid. It is a rock music concert film, an action movie and both a documentary and rockumentary.


3:32 AM -- Redd Fox Becomes A Movie Star (1976)
A documentary short about the filming of Redd Foxx' first theatrical film, Norman...Is That You?
Dir: Elliot Geisinger
Cast: Pearl Bailey, Tamara Dobson, Allan Drake
C- 8 min,

The original Broadway production of Norman...Is That You? starred Maureen Stapleton and Lou Jacobi. The play ran for only 12 performances.


3:45 AM -- Heavy Metal (1981)
In this five-part animated feature, an evil glowing green orb travels through space and time, spreading violence and discord in its wake
Dir: Gerald Potterton Cast: Susan Roman,
C- 90 min, TV-MA

The film was inspired by a long-running science fiction magazine of the same name, which began in Europe as Metal Hurlant. Most of the story segments are based on stories or characters featured in the magazine.


5:16 AM -- The Passenger: Professional Reporter (1975)
Trailer for "Professione: reporter" (1975).
C- 4 min,

The video rights to this film were given to Nicholson by MGM as compensation for a film project that fell through.


5:30 AM -- There's a Message in Every Bottle (1968)
A teenager recalls an incident where he and three of his friends used fake IDs to buy and consume alcohol in a bar.
Dir: Nick Boris
Narrator: Wayne Byers
27 min, TV-G