TCM Schedule for Thursday, June 14 -- What's On Tonight: Teen Idols

[Staph]

Today we're celebrating the birth of Dorothy McGuire, born Dorothy Hackett McGuire, on June 14, 1916, in Omaha, Nebraska. And in prime time, we're back to teen idols, including perhaps the quintessential teen idol story, Bye Bye Birdie (1963). Enjoy!


6:30 AM -- Big City Fantasy (1934)
A Vitaphone Melody Master featuring Phil Spitalny's orchestra playing popular music.
10 min, TV-G
Dir: Joseph Henabery

The soundtrack includes Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Franz Liszt, The Sidewalks of New York by Charles Lawlor andJames W. Blake, The Bowery by Percy Gaunt, O sole mio by Eduardo Di Capua, Forty-Second Street by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, and Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin' All the Time) by Harold Arlen.


6:50 AM -- So Your Wife Wants To Work (1956)
Housewife Alice McDoakes wants to return to work, but her husband, Joe McDoakes, would rather she stay at home.
9 min
Dir: Richard L. Bare
Cast: George O'Hanlon, Phyllis Coates, Emory Parnell

Included in Warner Home Video's (WHV) 2006 DVD release of The Spirit of St. Louis. This DVD is included in WHV's 5-disc DVD set "James Stewart - The Signature Collection".


7:00 AM -- Susan Slade (1961)
A pregnant teen allows her mother to pass the baby off as her own.
C-116 min, TV-PG
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: Troy Donahue, Connie Stevens, Dorothy McGuire

Based on the 1961 novel The Sin of Susan Slade by Doris Hume.


9:00 AM -- Friendly Persuasion (1956)
A peaceful Quaker family's sanctity is tested during the Civil War.
138 min, TV-G
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Marjorie Main

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Anthony Perkins, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Music, Original Song -- Dimitri Tiomkin (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics) for the song "Friendly Persuasion (Thee I Love)", Best Sound, Recording -- Gordon R. Glennan (Westrex Sound Services) and Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Adapted -- Michael Wilson (Due to being blacklisted Michael Wilson did not receive a screen credit, which under special Academy by-laws made him ineligible personally although the writing achievement itself could be eligible. In early 1957 AMPAS instructed Price Waterhouse & Co. not to list any nomination declared ineligible under the by-law and thus this nomination was not included on the final voting ballot. The by-law was later declared unworkable in January 1959. In December 2002 the Academy reinstated Mr. Wilson's nomination.)

Gary Cooper originally did not want to play a father of grown up children. This was despite the fact that he was 55 in real life.


11:30 AM -- Trial (1955)
A Mexican boy accused of rape and murder becomes a pawn for Communists and red-baiters.
109 min, TV-PG
Dir: Mark Robson
Cast: Glenn Ford, Dorothy McGuire, Arthur Kennedy

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Arthur Kennedy

Based on a novel by Don Mankiewicz, uncle of TCM's Ben Mankiewicz.


1:30 PM -- The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
A scarred veteran and a homely woman are transformed by love.
92 min, TV-G
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Dorothy McGuire, Robert Young, Herbert Marshall

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

In 1973 it was announced that a remake would be made. According to Robert Young, the setting would be updated and Dorothy McGuire and he would be playing the parts of the housekeeper and blind pianist originally played by Mildred Natwick and Herbert Marshall. The idea fell through after McGuire watched a screening of the original at Young's invitation at the actor's home. She said that the film belonged to another period and that she did not want to go backward.


3:15 PM -- The Spiral Staircase (1945)
A serial killer stalks a mute servant girl in a remote mansion.
84 min, TV-14
Dir: Robert Siodmak
Cast: Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ethel Barrymore

The close-ups of the killer's eyes actually show those of director Robert Siodmak.


4:45 PM -- Till The End of Time (1946)
A returning World War II veteran falls for a troubled war widow.
105 min, TV-G
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Dorothy McGuire, Guy Madison, Robert Mitchum

Film debut of Richard X. Slattery.


6:30 PM -- Invitation (1952)
A millionaire tries to buy his dying daughter a husband.
85 min, TV-G
Dir: Gottfried Reinhardt
Cast: Van Johnson, Dorothy McGuire, Ruth Roman

The haunting theme music by Bronislau Kaper was actually introduced two years earlier in MGM's A Life of Her Own, but became a jazz standard under the title Invitation, especially associated with tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: TEEN IDOLS


8:00 PM -- The Young Don't Cry (1957)
An orphaned teen tries to help a wrongly convicted man who's escaped from prison.
90 min, TV-PG
Dir: Alfred L. Werker
Cast: Sal Mineo, James Whitmore, J. Carrol Naish

In 1975 Sal Mineo returned to the stage in the San Francisco hit production of "P.S. Your Cat Is Dead". Preparing to open the play in Los Angeles in 1976 with Keir Dullea, he returned home from rehearsal the evening of February 12th when he was attacked and stabbed to death by a stranger. A drifter named Lionel Ray Williams was arrested for the crime and, after trial in 1979, convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder.


9:45 PM -- A Summer Place (1959)
An adulterous couple discovers that their children are sexually involved.
C-130 min, TV-PG
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: Richard Egan, Dorothy McGuire, Sandra Dee

Max Steiner's main theme for this film is probably his best-known after his "Tara Theme" for "Gone With the Wind." As with "Tara's Theme," it has remained a favorite ever since, with several charting recordings. Percy Faith's version (American Columbia: 1960) went to Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1960, remaining in that position for 9 weeks, becoming both the Number One Instrumental Hit of the Rock Era and the first instrumental to win the Grammy for Record of the Year. Other charting versions were by Billy Vaughn (Dot: 1960, peaking at #2), the Lettermen (Capitol: 1965, using Mack Discant's lyrics and peaking at #16), and the Ventures (Liberty: 1969, at #83). Faith himself re-recorded it, shortly before his death in 1976, in a disco arrangement entitled "Summer Place '76."


12:00 AM -- I Love My Mother-In-Law, But.. (1948)
Every husband loves their mother-in-law, but when they are like the ones portrayed in this short it can be difficult!
8 min
Dir: David Barclay
Cast: Dave O'Brien, Anne O'Neal, Dorothy Short

David Barclay and Dave O'Brien are both pseudonyms for David Poole Fronabarger -- in other words, the director and star of this picture are the same person!


12:15 AM -- Love in a Goldfish Bowl (1961)
Two troubled college freshmen find themselves united by their mutual family woes in a beachhouse.
C-89 min, TV-PG
Dir: Jack Sher
Cast: Tommy Sands, Fabian, Jan Sterling

When Tommy Sands divorced his first wife, Frank Sinatra's daughter, Nancy Sinatra, Sinatra allegedly saw to it that Tommy's blooming career went permanently on the rocks.


2:00 AM -- Bye Bye Birdie (1963)
A rock star's personal appearance turns a small town into a disaster area.
C-112 min, TV-G
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Janet Leigh, Dick Van Dyke, Ann-Margret

Nominated for Oscars Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Johnny Green, and Best Sound -- Charles Rice (Columbia SSD)

Dick Van Dyke and Paul Lynde, both veterans of the 1960 Broadway hit, were displeased with the film version. Van Dyke especially felt it had become too much of a vehicle for Ann-Margret.


4:00 AM -- Cold Turkey (1971)
Small-town residents try to quit smoking for a cash reward.
C-102 min, TV-PG
Dir: Norman Lear
Cast: Dick Van Dyke, Pippa Scott, Tom Poston

The Christopher Mott Society is a parody of the right-wing John Birch Society. In the scene where the Mott society is meeting, they listen to a record album of a talk by a right wing pundit; many right-wing pundits put out albums of their speeches in the 60's and 70's and widely distributed them for sale in friendly newspapers since they could only afford to get radio time on low-power stations.


5:48 AM -- Vaudeville Reel #3 (1935)
Featuring real vaudeville acts.
11 min
Cast: Al Trahan, Chaz Chase, The Holman Sisters