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Classic Films
Related: About this forumTCM Schedule for Friday, June 27, 2014 -- Friday Night Spotlight - Pirate Pictures
In the daylight hours, TCM is featuring films produced, directed and/or written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, great uncle of TCM's Ben Mankiewicz. And in prime time, they are finishing up this month's Friday Night Spotlight, Pirate Pictures. Enjoy!6:00 AM -- 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,
The film was written to cash in on the popularity of "runaway heiress" films, like "It Happened One Night." Produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
7:30 AM -- Double Wedding (1937)
A dress designer tries to break her sister's engagement to a free-living artist, only to discover the man is falling for her instead.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Florence Rice
BW-87 mins, CC,
Production was partially shut down because of the death (7 June 1937) of Jean Harlow, to whom William Powell was engaged. Produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
9:00 AM -- Three Comrades (1938)
Three life-long friends share their love for a dying woman against the turbulent backdrop of Germany between the wars.
Dir: Frank Borzage
Cast: Robert Taylor, Margaret Sullavan, Franchot Tone
BW-99 mins, CC,
Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Margaret Sullavan
This was F. Scott Fitzgerald's only screenwriting credit. Produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
10:45 AM -- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939)
Mark Twain's classic troublemaker helps a runaway slave escape to the North.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Walter Connolly, William Frawley
BW-91 mins, CC,
Rex Ingram, playing Jim, was actually born on a riverboat on the Mississippi River. He was born near Cairo, Illinois, which is Jim's intended destination in the book and film. Produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
12:21 PM -- Historic Maryland (1941)
This short film highlights various destinations in Maryland.
C-8 mins,
12:30 PM -- Cairo (1942)
A war correspondent in Egypt thinks a screen star on tour is a spy.
Dir: Maj. W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Robert Young, Ethel Waters
BW-101 mins, CC,
Jim Davis' first film. You probably remember him best as J.R. Ewing's dad, Jock Ewing, in the television series Dallas (1978-1981). Produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
2:15 PM -- Julius Caesar (1953)
An all-star adaptation of Shakespeare's classic about Julius Caesar's assassination and its aftermath.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: John Doucette, George Macready, Michael Pate
BW-121 mins, CC,
Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Edward C. Carfagno, Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt
Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Marlon Brando, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa, and Best Picture
John Gielgud was cast after director Joseph L. Mankiewicz saw him play Cassius in a stage production at Stratford-on-Avon. Mankiewicz was in Stratford to see Paul Scofield, whom he was considering casting as Marc Antony, until Marlon Brando's screen test turned out so well. Written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
4:17 PM -- Master Will Shakespeare (1936)
This short film provides a brief biography of the Bard.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Anthony Kemble Cooper, Harry Wilson, Charles Coleman
BW-11 mins,
4:30 PM -- Guys And Dolls (1955)
A big-city gambler bets that he can seduce a Salvation Army girl.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra
C-149 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Oliver Smith, Joseph C. Wright and Howard Bristol, Best Costume Design, Color -- Irene Sharaff, and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Jay Blackton and Cyril J. Mockridge
Marlon Brando had been cast in the role of Sky Masterson, a role coveted by Frank Sinatra, while Sinatra was relegated to the supporting role of Nathan Detroit. Relations between the two actors were strained during production. Many years later, Brando said of Sinatra, "Frank's the kind of guy who, when he gets to Heaven, is going to give God a hard time for making him bald." Written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
7:00 PM -- Twenty Classic Moments (2014)
A look at some unforgettable moments in the twenty-year history of Turner Classic Movies.
C-34 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
7:36 PM -- The Gem Of The Ocean (1934)
In this musical short, a French woman finds mystery and romance on a luxury liner. Vitaphone Release 1766-1767.
Dir: Roy Mack
Cast: Ralph Riggs, Sheldon Leonard, Fred Harper
BW-22 mins,
TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: PIRATE PICTURES
8:00 PM -- Treasure Island (1934)
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of a young boy out to foil pirates and find a buried treasure.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Lionel Barrymore
BW-103 mins, CC,
Jackie Cooper did not like his performance, writing in his autobiography that he felt an older English boy should have played Jim Hawkins.
10:00 PM -- The Boy and the Pirates (1960)
Magic transports a boy to the days of cutthroats and buccaneers.
Dir: Bert I. Gordon
Cast: Charles Herbert, Susan Gordon, Murvyn Vye
C-84 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
Timothy Carey was fired from this movie because he threw Charles Herbert across the deck of the pirate ship. Herbert later said, "He, on that movie, probably scared me more than The Colossus of New York (1958)! But he was a nice man, and he always tried to make you feel, "I'm not really crazy," and you would say, "Okay." And then he would walk away and you'd go, "He's CRAZY!" He was a scary man."
11:30 PM -- Captain Kidd (1945)
An infamous pirate tries to double cross the King of England.
Dir: Rowland V. Lee
Cast: Charles Laughton, Randolph Scott, Barbara Britton
BW-81 mins, CC,
Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Werner Janssen
Four years before this movie was made, Charles Laughton co-starred in It Started with Eve (1941), In that film, Laughton's character, Jonathan Reynolds Sr., is said to have been born two centuries too late. The assistant newspaper editor comments that he could have been "Captain Kidd himself".
1:00 AM -- Blackbeard, the Pirate (1952)
A kidnapped beauty gets caught between feuding pirates.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Robert Newton, Linda Darnell, William Bendix
C-99 mins, CC,
Blackbeard has been played at least 60 times on film and television, starting with Sydney Ayres in Blackbeard (1911), through the 2014 television series Crossbones, starring John Malkovich.
2:45 AM -- Raiders Of The Seven Seas (1953)
A legendary pirate captures a Spanish galleon and tries to claim a countess as his bride.
Dir: Sidney Salkow
Cast: John Payne, Donna Reed, Gerald Mohr
C-88 mins, CC,
Also known as Barbarossa (working title).
4:19 AM -- King Solomon's Mines Featurette (1950)
This promotional short for "King Solomon's Mines" (1950) focuses on the challenges of on-location filming in the African wilderness.
C-10 mins,
4:30 AM -- Last of the Buccaneers (1950)
When one of his lieutenant's attacks an American ship, Jean Lafitte has to elude the U.S. Navy.
Dir: Lew Landers
Cast: Paul Henreid, Jack Oakie, Karin Booth
C-79 mins,
One of a dozen portrayals of Jean Lafitte, who has also been played by Frederic March, Yul Brynner, Ricardo Montalban, and Frank Langella.
5:50 AM -- Goin' Fishin' (1940)
In this short film, a gang of children face several comedic problems on their fishing trip.
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: Anne O'Neal, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Robert Blake
BW-10 mins,
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TCM Schedule for Friday, June 27, 2014 -- Friday Night Spotlight - Pirate Pictures (Original Post)
Staph
Jun 2014
OP
longship
(40,416 posts)1. "Arrr! Matie!"
Robert Newton in "Blackbeard" he's the original "Arrr!" Pirate, I think. Didn't it start with him in "Treasure Island?" Or, should I phrase it as Treas-AAAR! Island.
Staph
(6,245 posts)3. You raised my curiosity.
I found The Dialect Blog, and found this entry (http://dialectblog.com/2011/05/24/pirate-accent/):
The classic pirate dialect, in fact, is not Irish, but rather a crude imitation of the slightly similar West Country English (the dialects of Southwest England)*. Why do fictional pirates always speak in this accent? Heres the standard explanation: During the Golden Age of Piracy, in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, many English pirates came from this region. Look up famous seadogs from the era, and youll find birthplaces in Bristol, Devon, and Cornwall. Mystery solved, right?
. . .
But where, and when, did this convention originate? My experience suggests the pirate brogue emerged as a dramatic staple in the 20th-Century. As a child, I was a huge fan of early pirate flicks like Treasure Island (1934) and Errol Flynns Captain Blood, and I dont recall any West Country accents in those films. So perhaps it was a later phenomenon.
With this in mind, I decided to do some research on the matter. I think I may have stumbled upon a possible culprit for the Pirate accent, thanks to the website of Bonaventure, a British maritime re-enactment group:
If Disney had perhaps not cast Newton, is it possible the pirate accent would have never entered the popular consciousness?
. . .
But where, and when, did this convention originate? My experience suggests the pirate brogue emerged as a dramatic staple in the 20th-Century. As a child, I was a huge fan of early pirate flicks like Treasure Island (1934) and Errol Flynns Captain Blood, and I dont recall any West Country accents in those films. So perhaps it was a later phenomenon.
With this in mind, I decided to do some research on the matter. I think I may have stumbled upon a possible culprit for the Pirate accent, thanks to the website of Bonaventure, a British maritime re-enactment group:
Long John Silver lived in Bristol, England, supposedly the birthplace of Edward Teach, Blackbeard. In the early 1950s Disney produced films of Treasure Island (1950) and Blackbeard the Pirate(1952), and the same actor was used to play Silver and Teach Robert Newton. Newton then reprised his role of Long John Silver for Long John Silver (1954) and the TV series The adventures of Long John Silver (1955). Robert Newton was born and raised in Dorset, not far from Bristol, so he knew the West Country accent which Silver and Teach would have spoken in very well, and used it in those films.
If Disney had perhaps not cast Newton, is it possible the pirate accent would have never entered the popular consciousness?
The link to Bonaventure no longer works.
longship
(40,416 posts)4. Damn! I knew it was Newton.
But the back story is very interesting. Indeed!
longship
(40,416 posts)2. The 1950 version of "King Solomon's Mines" is damned good.
An outstanding cast and a beautiful production. Deborah Kerr and Stewart Granger with a fantastic supporting cast.
There's a featurette about it. Look for the whole movie. It's a real gem.
Trailer: