TCM Schedule for Friday, March 6, 2015 -- Friday Night Spotlight - Roadshow Films

[Staph]

Today TCM is celebrating Guy Kibbee, born on March 6, 1882, in El Paso, Texas. Kibbee specialized in playing jovial, but not particularly bright, businessmen and government officials. Tonight's films are recreations of Broadway musicals. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Flying High (1931)
A hare-brained inventor invents a new flying machine but can't figure out how to land it.
Dir: Charles F. Riesner
Cast: Bert Lahr, Charlotte Greenwood, Pat O'Brien
BW-81 mins, CC,

There was considerable pressure from the Hays Office to remove the examination scene from the movie, but MGM held firm, claiming they paid $100,000 for the rights to the play just for that particular scene. Eventually some aspects of that scene was removed when some exhibitors rejected the film. The TCM print contains the scene, but it may be the abbreviated version.


7:30 AM -- Central Park (1932)
Small-town kids out to make it in the big city inadvertently get mixed up with gangsters.
Dir: John G. Adolfi
Cast: Joan Blondell, Wallace Ford, Guy Kibbee
BW-58 mins, CC,

Central Park was completely recreated on the lot at Warner Bros. Studios.


8:30 AM -- Crooner (1932)
A saxophone player rises to fame as a singing star.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: David Manners, Ann Dvorak, Ken Murray
BW-67 mins,

Based on a story by Rian James.


9:45 AM -- Big City Blues (1932)
A country boy finds love and heartache in New York City.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Joan Blondell, Eric Linden, Jobyna Howland
BW-63 mins,

Humphrey Bogart's first film for Warner Bros., where he would sign a long-term contract four years later and eventually become a star.


10:49 AM -- "The Audition" With Hannah Williams (1933)
A booking agent advises bandleader Phil Emerton on ways to prep up his band with various novelty acts in this musical short. Vitaphone Release 1494.
Dir: Roy Mack
BW-9 mins,


11:00 AM -- The Merry Frinks (1934)
A loving wife and mother tries to keep her eccentric family in line.
Dir: Alfred E. Green
Cast: Aline MacMahon, Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert
BW-68 mins,

Warner Brothers liked the combination of Guy Kibbee and Aline MacMahon (who were earlier teamed in "Gold Diggers of 1933&quot that they co-starred them in four more consecutive films -- "Big Hearted Herbert", "Babbitt" (both 1934), "While the Patient Slept" and "Mary Jane's Pa" (both 1935).


12:15 PM -- Mary Jane's Pa (1935)
A female newspaper publisher hires the husband who deserted her years earlier.
Dir: William Keighley
Cast: Aline MacMahon, Guy Kibbee, Tom Brown
BW-71 mins,

Edith Ellis Furness's play opened on Broadway in New York City, New York, USA on 3 December 1908 and closed on 27 February 1909 after 120 performances. In the Broadway of that time, that was a pretty great success.


1:30 PM -- Going Highbrow (1935)
A nouveau riche couple try to break into high society.
Dir: Robert Florey
Cast: Guy Kibbee, ZaSu Pitts, Edward Everett Horton
BW-67 mins,

"Moon Crazy" by Louis Alter and Jack Scholl was written for the movie but not heard on the soundtrack.


2:45 PM -- The Captain's Kid (1936)
A sea captain has to live up to his tall tales when he's attacked by gangsters.
Dir: Nick Grinde
Cast: May Robson, Sybil Jason, Guy Kibbee
BW-72 mins,

Based on a story by Earl Felton. He later wrote the screenplay for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), the Disney film based on the Jules Verne novel.


4:00 PM -- M'liss (1936)
A young innocent searches a rough mining town for her drunken father.
Dir: George Nicholls Jr.
Cast: Anne Shirley, John Beal, Guy Kibbee
BW-66 mins,

Previous made in 1915 (starring Barbara Tennant as M'Liss), in 1918 (starring Mary Pickford), and in 1922 as The Girl Who Ran Wild (starring Gladys Walton). All of these films are based on a Bret Harte story.


5:15 PM -- Three Men On A Horse (1936)
Gangsters kidnap a timid poet with a knack for picking winning horses.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Frank McHugh, Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee
BW-86 mins,

The Milton Bradley Company released a board game in 1936 called 3 Men on a Horse. The graphics on the box declare it "a sparkling game of chance for everybody" and "from Warner Bros.' laff hit!"


6:45 PM -- The Big Shot (1937)
A small-town veterinarian's life goes to the dogs when he inherits a fortune.
Dir: Edward Killy
Cast: Guy Kibbee, Cora Witherspoon, Dorothy Moore
BW-60 mins,

Based on a story by Lawrence Pohle and Thomas Ahearn.


7:46 PM -- Equestrian Acrobats (1937)
This short film focuses on a circus family that perform acrobatic feats while riding horses.
Dir: David Miller
BW-8 mins,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: ROADSHOW



8:00 PM -- 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.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Omar Sharif, Kay Medford
C-157 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Barbra Streisand (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 Sound, 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, and Best Picture

Producer Ray Stark was Fanny Brice's son-in-law and the baby that Fanny gave birth to in reality grew up to become Stark's wife.


10:45 PM -- Sweet Charity (1969)
A taxi dancer's faith in love leads her to one bad match after another.
Dir: Bob Fosse
Cast: Shirley MacLaine, Sammy Davis Jr., Ricardo Montalban
C-148 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Alexander Golitzen, George C. Webb and Jack D. Moore, Best Costume Design -- Edith Head, and Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation) -- Cy Coleman

Shirley MacLaine wrote that Gwen Verdon, who had starred in the Broadway show, suggested to her that she should pursue the lead for the film version. After MacLaine got the role, Verdon generously coached MacLaine on her performance.


1:21 AM -- All Talking... All Singing... All Dancing (1971)
This promotional short film provides a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the musical "The Boy Friend" (1971).
C-9 mins,


1:30 AM -- 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 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

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

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Topol, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Leonard Frey, Best Director -- Norman Jewison, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Robert F. Boyle, Michael Stringer and Peter Lamont, 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 (1952) with a color style made to resemble Toulouse-Lautrec's paintings and Moby Dick (1956) in a color style made to resemble 19th century engravings of life at sea.


4:45 AM -- The Sea Gull (1968)
The film adaptation of Anton Chekhov's story of life in rural Russia during the latter part of the 19th century.
Dir: Sidney Lumet
Cast: James Mason, Vanessa Redgrave, Simone Signoret
C-141 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Last film of Eileen Herlie.