TCM Schedule for Thursday, November 1 (Guest Programmer Whoopi Goldberg)

[Staph]

For November, TCM is featuring a new guest programmer each day, and today's is Whoopi Goldberg. She has chosen an interesting selection of movie -- who knew that Whoopi was a fan of Jean Cocteau! During the day, we get the highlights of two classic movie series, Torchy Blane and Topper. Torchy Blane is new to me, but the first Topper movie is one of the classics!


4:45am -- Isle Of The Dead (1945)
The inhabitants of a Balkans island under quarantine fear that one of their number is a vampire.
Cast: Boris Karloff, Ellen Drew, Helene Thimig.
Dir: Mark Robson.
BW-72 mins, TV-PG

Filming began in July 1944, but was suspended when Boris Karloff required back surgery. It was completed in December 1944. After Karloff had recovered from surgery, but before the cast of Isle of the Dead could be reassembled, Val Lewton and Karloff made The Body Snatcher (1945), which was released first.


6:00am -- Smart Blonde (1936)
An ambitious reporter forces her policeman boyfriend to let her help with a murder case.
Cast: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Wini Shaw.
Dir: Frank McDonald.
BW-59 mins, TV-G

The first of the nine Torchy Blane movies, about a fast-talking "girl reporter". Actress Glenda Farrell was able to speak at 390 words a minute!


7:00am -- The Adventurous Blonde (1937)
Reporter Torchy Blane walks out on her own wedding to solve the case of a murdered actor.
Cast: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Anne Nagel.
Dir: Frank McDonald.
BW-61 mins, TV-PG

Third of the Torchy Blane movies. Glenda Farrell started her theatrical career at age 7 as Little Eva in Uncle Tom's Cabin.


8:00am -- Blondes At Work (1938)
Even a jail term for contempt can't keep reporter Torchy Blane from investigating the case of a murdered department store owner.
Cast: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Carole Landis.
Dir: Frank McDonald.
BW-64 mins, TV-G

Barton MacLane, who plays Torchy's boyfriend Lt. Steve McBride in this series, is probably best remembered as General Peterson in the television series I Dream of Jeannie.


9:15am -- Torchy Blane In Panama (1938)
An ambitious newspaper woman traces bank robbers to an ocean liner.
Cast: Lola Lane, Paul Kelly, Tom Kennedy.
Dir: William Clemens.
BW-59 mins, TV-G

Sole appearance pairing Lola Lane and Paul Kelly in the hard-boiled Torchy Blane comedy newspaper crime series.

Torchy Blane was writer Jerry Siegel's inspiration for the character of Lois Lane in the Superman comic books. Siegel based her name on Torchy actress Lola Lane.


10:15am -- Torchy Gets Her Man (1938)
Female reporter Torchy Blane tries to crack a counterfeiting case.
Cast: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Tom Kennedy.
Dir: William Beaudine.
BW-63 mins, TV-G

Torchy Blane was loosely based upon the Kennedy character in the MacBride and Kennedy stories by Louis Frederick Nebel, although the two characters actually only shared a common profession. They did not share the same gender!


11:30am -- Torchy Blane in Chinatown (1938)
A daring lady reporter sets out to catch a blackmailer.
Cast: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Tom Kennedy.
Dir: William Beaudine.
BW-58 mins, TV-G

The print actually credits the "original story" to Murray Leinster and Will Jenkins. Perhaps the filmmakers didn't realize that "Will Jenkins" is a pseudonym for Leinster, but it was probably just an inside joke.


12:30pm -- Torchy Runs For Mayor (1939)
After digging up the dirt on local politicians, a newswoman decides to run for office.
Cast: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Tom Kennedy.
Dir: Ray McCarey.
BW-60 mins, TV-G

Farrell died at her home in New York City and was interred in the U.S. Military Academy Post Cemetery, West Point, New York. Her second husband, Dr. Henry Ross, was a West Point graduate and chief of the public health section of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's command in Europe in World War II.

Dr. Ross, who was a colonel, was one of the first high-ranking American medical officers to enter the concentration camps. He reported to General Eisenhower on the horrific conditions there and was ordered to organize the French and German medical teams to treat the prisoners.


1:45pm -- Torchy Plays With Dynamite (1939)
A female reporter gets herself arrested so she can interview a gangster's moll.
Cast: Jane Wyman, Allen Jenkins, Eddie Marr.
Dir: Noel Smith.
BW-59 mins, TV-G

The last of the Torchy Blane series, with Jane Wyman and Allen Jenkins replacing Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane.

Torchy works at the Daily Star - same newspaper that Lois Lane worked at in her first comic book appearance. (Later, Lane's paper was called the more-familiar Daily Planet.)


3:00pm -- Topper (1937)
A fun-loving couple returns from the dead to help a henpecked husband.
Cast: Cary Grant, Constance Bennett, Roland Young.
Dir: Norman Z. McLeod.
BW-98 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Roland Young, Best Sound, Recording -- Elmer Raguse (Hal Roach SSD)

Based on the novel by Thorne Smith, it was followed by two more movies, a 1950s television series, and two TV movies, one in 1973 starring Stefanie Powers, Roddy McDowell and John Fink, and another in 1979 starring Kate Jackson, Jack Warden and Andrew Stevens.


4:45pm -- Topper Takes a Trip (1939)
A glamorous ghost helps a henpecked husband save his wife from gold-digging friends.
Cast: Constance Bennett, Roland Young, Billie Burke.
Dir: Norman Z. McLeod.
BW-80 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Roy Seawright (photographic)


6:15pm -- Topper Returns (1941)
A beautiful ghost enlists a henpecked husband to track down her killer.
Cast: Joan Blondell, Roland Young, Billie Burke.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth.
BW-88 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Roy Seawright (photographic) and Elmer Raguse (sound), and for Best Sound, Recording -- Elmer Raguse (Hal Roach SSD)

This time the ghost is Gail Richards, played by Joan Blondell, who gets Cosmo Topper to help find her killer.


What's On Tonight: TCM GUEST PROGRAMMER: WHOOPI GOLDBERG


8:00pm -- Beauty And The Beast (La Belle et la bête) (1946)
A mysterious monster forces a young innocent to share his life in an enchanted castle.
Cast: Jean Marais, Josette Day, Mila Parely.
Dir: Jean Cocteau.
BW-94 mins, TV-G

The costumes were manufactured at the workshop of the famous Paris couture house of Jeanne Lanvin, with the men's costumes under the supervision of Lanvin designer Pierre Cardin.


10:00pm -- Funny Girl (1968)
Comedienne Fanny Brice fights to prove that she can be the greatest star and find romance even though she isn't pretty.
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Omar Sharif, Kay Medford.
Dir: William Wyler.
C-153 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Barbra Streisand (She tied with Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter (1968)).

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Kay Medford, Best Cinematography -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Film Editing -- Robert Swink, Maury Winetrobe and William Sands, Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics) for the song "Funny Girl", Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation) -- Walter Scharf, Best Sound and Best Picture.


12:45am -- The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
A scarred veteran and a homely woman are transformed by love.
Cast: Dorothy McGuire, Robert Young, Herbert Marshall.
Dir: John Cromwell.
BW-92 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Roy Webb

Based on the play by Sir Arthur Wing Pinero (24 May 1855- 23 November 1934), it was filmed before in 1923, with the main character as a shell-shocked WWI veteran. This could be interestingly remade about an Iraq war veteran.


2:30am -- A Face In The Crowd (1957)
A female television executive turns a folk-singing drifter into a powerful media star.
Cast: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Walter Matthau.
Dir: Elia Kazan.
BW-126 mins, TV-PG

The film debut of Andy Griffith, Charles Nelson Reilly, and Lee Remick.


4:45am -- Private Screenings: Patricia Neal (2004)
Patricia Neal discusses her career with TCM host Robert Osborne.
BW-40 mins, TV-PG

On March 4, 2007, Patrica Neal received one of the two Lifetime Achievement Awards presented annually by the SunDeis Film Festival at Brandeis University, following a screening of her classic film "A Face in the Crowd." (Roy Scheider was the other honoree.).