TCM Schedule for Thursday, October 27 -- What's On Tonight: 70s Musicals

[Staph]

Happy birthdays to Teresa Wright, born Muriel Teresa Wright on October 27, 1918, in Manhatten, New York, and to Jack Carson, born John Elmer Carson on October 27, 1910, in Carman, Manitoba. In primetime, TCM is celebrating a quartet of the big musicals of the 1970s, including Fiddler On The Roof (1971), The Boy Friend (1971), Hair (1979), and Man Of La Mancha (1972). Enjoy!

P.S. Oh, TCM, who writes your schedule headlines? :-( They are calling today's theme "70's Musicals". Grammar Nazis of the world, unite!



6:00 AM -- The Little Foxes (1941)
An ambitious woman takes on her corrupt brothers and honest husband in her drive for wealth.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright.
116 min, TV-PG , CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Patricia Collinge, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Teresa Wright, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Stephen Goosson and Howard Bristol, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Film Editing -- Daniel Mandell, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Meredith Willson, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Lillian Hellman, and Best Picture.

Herbert Marshall had lost a leg in WWI. The scene where Horace crawls up the stairs is done by a stunt man. Marshall takes the role until he walks towards the stairs, but is hidden by a curtain for a moment. That was where the switch was made.


8:00 AM -- Casanova Brown (1944)
A couple on the verge of divorce learns the wife is pregnant.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Frank Morgan.
91 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Perry Ferguson and Julia Heron, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Arthur Lange, and Best Sound, Recording -- Thomas T. Moulton (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)

Based on the play The Little Accident and the novel An Unmarried Father by Floyd Dell. It was also filmed as Little Accident (1930), A Father Without Knowing It (1932), and Little Accident (1939).


9:45 AM -- Enchantment (1948)
When a well-off family takes in a young orphan, her presence ignites romance and jealousy.
Dir: Irving Reis
Cast: David Niven, Teresa Wright, Evelyn Keyes.
101 min, TV-G, CC

Based on the novel Take Three Tenses by Rumer Godden. She also wrote the novel Black Narcissus, made into the film of the same name.


11:30 AM -- California Conquest (1952)
A wealthy landowner leads the fight to leave Mexican rule and make California a state.
Dir: Lew Landers
Cast: Cornel Wilde, Teresa Wright, Alfonso Bedoya.
C-79 min, TV-G

Also known as Californie en Flamme.


1:00 PM -- Count the Hours (1953)
A lawyer defends a migrant worker in a sensational murder trial.
Dir: Don Siegel
Cast: Teresa Wright, MacDonald Carey, Dolores Moran.
75 min, TV-PG, CC

Shot in nine days.


2:30 PM -- Escapade In Japan (1957)
After his plane crashes in Tokyo, an American boy tries to find his way home.
Dir: Arthur Lubin
Cast: Teresa Wright, Cameron Mitchell, Jon Provost.
C-93 min, TV-G

Originally made by RKO Pictures, but was acquired and released by Universal Pictures after RKO closed down.


4:15 PM -- Screen Directors Playhouse: No. 5 Checked Out (1956)
A young deaf women confronts desperate crooks who are using one of her remote resort cabins for a hideout.
Dir: Ida Lupino
Cast: Teresa Wright, Peter Lorre, William Talman
25 min, TV-PG, CC

An episode of the television series Screen Directors Playhouse, this originally aired on January 18, 1956.


4:45 PM -- April Showers (1948)
A family vaudeville act is torn apart by the father's drinking problem.
Dir: James V. Kern
Cast: Jack Carson, Ann Sothern, Robert Alda.
94 min, TV-G, CC

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie onMay 16, 1949 with Jack Carson and Robert Alda reprising their film roles. Dorothy Lamour played Ann Sothern's role.


6:30 PM -- Love And Learn (1947)
An heiress surreptitiously helps two songwriters waiting for their big break.
Dir: Frederick de Cordova
Cast: Jack Carson, Martha Vickers, Robert Hutton.
84 min, TV-G

Remake of Happiness Ahead (1934 - starring Dick Powell) and Here Comes Happiness (1941 - starring Edward Norris).



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 70'S MUSICALS



8:00 PM -- Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
In Russia before the revolution, a Jewish milkman tries to marry off his daughters who have plans of their own.
Dir: Norman Jewison
Cast: Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey.
C-181 min, TV-G, CC

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Oswald Morris, Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score -- John Williams, and Best Sound -- Gordon K. McCallum and David Hildyard

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Topol, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Leonard Frey, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Robert F. Boyle, Michael Stringer and Peter Lamont, Best Director -- Norman Jewison, and Best Picture

To get the look he wanted for the film, director Norman Jewison told Director of Photography Oswald Morris, who was famous for shooting color films in unusual styles, to shoot the film in an earthy tone. Morris saw a woman wearing brown nylon hosiery, thought "That's the tone we want," asked the woman for the stockings on the spot, and shot the entire film with a stocking over the lens. The weave can be detected in some scenes. Morris also shot the musical number "Tevye's Dream" in sepia rather than in full color. He had previously filmed Moulin Rouge with a color style made to resemble Toulouse-Lautrec's paintings and Moby Dick in a color style made to resemble 19th century engravings of life at sea.


11:15 PM -- The Boy Friend (1971)
The understudy goes on for the star and finds love.
Dir: Ken Russell
Cast: Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Max Adrian
C-139 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score -- Peter Maxwell Davies and Peter Greenwell

The cameo role played by Glenda Jackson was originally offered to Julie Andrews, who had debuted in the original West End and Broadway productions of "The Boy Friend" in 1954.


1:45 AM -- Hair (1979)
A young man joins a hippie commune on the eve of reporting for military service.
Dir: Milos Forman
Cast: John Savage, Treat Williams, Beverly D'Angelo.
C-121 min, TV-MA, CC

The words in the closing number, entitled 'The Flesh Failures', contain lines from 'William Shakespeare''s Romeo and Juliet. The words come from Romeo's death scene before drinking the poison. Phrases such as 'Eyes, Look your Last, Arms take your last embrace' and 'The lips, oh you the doors, of breath, sealed with a righteous kiss' are all from Romeo's final monologue.


4:00 AM -- Man of La Mancha (1972)
The aging Don Quixote follows his dream by traveling the countryside as a warrior knight.
Dir: Arthur Hiller
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Sophia Loren, James Coco.
C-129 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation -- Laurence Rosenthal

Peter O'Toole recorded his vocal tracks for the film, but realized that his own singing voice was not good enough for the requirements of the music, so he assisted in the search for a voice double. The man O'Toole picked sounded nothing like him, so a new search was begun, and eventually Simon Gilbert was selected as the singing voice of Don Quixote, because his singing voice sounded the most like O'Toole's speaking voice.