TCM Schedule for Tuesday, April 6, 2016 -- What's On Tonight - Starring Arturo De Cordova

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, the big story is reporters, reporting the big story. In prime time, TCM is showing some of the films of Arturo de Córdova. Per IMDB, "Entering the Mexican film industry in the 1930s, it didn't take Arturo de Córdova long to become a major star, specializing in action and adventure films. At the height of his popularity he was beckoned to Hollywood in an attempt to make him a "Latin lover" type in the mold of Ricardo Montalban, Fernando Lamas and Gilbert Roland. However, after a few attempts in lower-budget films, de Córdova returned to Mexico to continue his career there, eventually surpassing his previous fame and also becoming a major star in South America and Spain." Enjoy!



6:50 AM -- M-G-M Jubilee Overture (1954)
This short film celebrates Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 30th anniversary with The MGM Symphony Orchestra performing numbers from the studio's best-known musicals.
Dir: George Sidney
C-10 mins, Letterbox Format


7:00 AM -- MGM Parade Show #20 (1955)
Esther Williams performs in a clip from "Ziegfeld Follies"; Donna Reed introduces a clip from "Ransom." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-26 mins,


7:37 AM -- Free And Easy (1931)
In this short film hobo and his "son" attempt a search for money in an abandoned house. Vitaphone Release 1285.
Dir: Roy Mack
Cast: Christina Graver, Edgar Bergen,
BW-8 mins,


7:45 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, CC,

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

The last line of the play had to be partly obliterated by the sound of a typewriter being accidentally struck because the censors (even of that day) wouldn't allow the phrase "son-of-a-bitch" to be used in a film.


9:30 AM -- Tell No Tales (1939)
In search of a big scoop for his failing paper, an editor tries to solve a kidnapping case that's turned into murder.
Dir: Leslie Fenton
Cast: Melvyn Douglas, Louise Platt, Gene Lockhart
BW-69 mins,

Working title: "One Hundred to One'.


10:45 AM -- My Dear Miss Aldrich (1937)
A glamorous woman takes over a newspaper and clashes with the editor.
Dir: George B. Seitz
Cast: Edna May Oliver, Maureen O'Sullivan, Walter Pidgeon
BW-74 mins, CC,

The story and screenplay were written by Herman J. Mankiewicz, grandfather of TCM's Ben Mankiewicz, and writer of a slew of great screenplays, including Dinner at Eight (1933), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Citizen Kane (1941), and The Pride of the Yankees (1942).


12:00 PM -- Half a Hero (1953)
A married writer moves to the suburbs to research a story.
Dir: Don Weis
Cast: Red Skelton, Jean Hagen, Charles Dingle
BW-71 mins, CC,

Red Skelton, ending his association with MGM, which had begun with Flight Command (1940), starred in two films in a row which did not garner contemporary New York Times reviews: this movie, followed by The Great Diamond Robbery (1954).


1:15 PM -- Bannerline (1951)
An idealistic small-town reporter tries to fight corruption.
Dir: Don Weis
Cast: Keefe Brasselle, Sally Forrest, Lionel Barrymore
BW-87 mins,

Based on the play A Rose Is Not A Rose, by Samson Raphaelson.


2:51 PM -- A Wife's Life (1950)
A comedic short in which a housewife let's her husband know what she has "done with her day."
Dir: Dave O'Brien
Cast: Dorothy Short, Dave O'Brien,
BW-8 mins,


3:00 PM -- Love On The Run (1936)
Rival newsmen get mixed up with a runaway heiress and a ring of spies.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone
BW-80 mins, CC,

Franchot Tone swears by the "seventh son of the seventh son" as he does in "Mutiny On The Bounty".


4:30 PM -- Each Dawn I Die (1939)
A crusading reporter becomes a hardened convict when he's framed.
Dir: William Keighley
Cast: James Cagney, George Raft, Jane Bryan
BW-92 mins, CC,

This was Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's favorite American movie.


6:15 PM -- Keeper Of The Flame (1942)
A reporter digs into the secret life of a recently deceased political hero.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Richard Whorf
BW-101 mins, CC,

Louis B. Mayer was very unhappy about the film's political content, thinking it noncommercial. Katharine Hepburn too felt that the storyline was too dull and needed to be pepped up with some romance. She complained to producer Victor Saville about this but he ignored her comments, so Hepburn went directly to Mayer who was only too happy to make the film into a more conventional Hollywood romance.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STARRING ARTURO DE CORDOVA



8:00 PM -- Frenchman's Creek (1944)
A British noblewoman flees the life of the court to run off with a French pirate.
Dir: Mitchell Leisen
Cast: Joan Fontaine, Arturo de Córdova, Basil Rathbone
C-113 mins,

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Hans Dreier, Ernst Fegté and Sam Comer

The only film featuring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in which they do not play Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.


10:00 PM -- New Orleans (1947)
A gambling-hall owner goes straight when he discovers the market for Chicago jazz.
Dir: Arthur Lubin
Cast: Arturo de Córdova, Dorothy Patrick, Marjorie Lord
BW-90 mins,

The film includes musical numbers performed by Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong and His Band.


11:45 PM -- Incendiary Blonde (1945)
In this true story, Texas Guinan rises from Wild West shows to become New York's ?Queen of the Nightclubs? during Prohibition.
Dir: George Marshall
Cast: Betty Hutton, Arturo de Cordoba, Charles Ruggles
C-113 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Robert Emmett Dolan

This film was such a hit that it actually set an attendance record at the Paramount Theater in New York.


1:45 AM -- For Whom The Bell Tolls (1943)
A U.S. mercenary and an army of peasants fight for Spain.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff
BW-165 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Katina Paxinou

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gary Cooper, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ingrid Bergman, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Akim Tamiroff, Best Cinematography, Color -- Ray Rennahan, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Hans Dreier, Haldane Douglas and Bertram C. Granger, Best Film Editing -- Sherman Todd and John F. Link Sr., Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Victor Young, and Best Picture

When Ernest Hemingway told Ingrid Bergman she would have to cut off her hair for the role of Maria, she shot back, "To get that part, I'd cut my head off!" She would rehearse tirelessly until all hours of the night, begging to repeat a scene long after the director was satisfied.


4:45 AM -- A Farewell To Arms (1932)
An American serving in World War I falls for a spirited nurse.
Dir: Frank Borzage
Cast: Helen Hayes, Gary Cooper, Adolphe Menjou
BW-89 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Charles Lang, and Best Sound, Recording -- Franklin Hansen (sound director)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson, and Best Picture

Censorship problems arose from early versions of the script, which included phases of Catherine's actual childbirth and references to labor pains, gas, her groaning and hemorrhaging. After these were removed, the MPPDA approved the script, and even issued a certificate for re-release in 1938 when the censorship rules were more strictly enforced. Still, the film was rejected in British Columbia and in Australia, where Hemingway's book was also banned.