TCM Schedule for Saturday, October 5, 2019 -- The Essentials: Vietnam Stories

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, The Essentials is back! (or should that be The Essentials are back?), with trailblazing producer, director and screenwriter Ava DuVernay, who will join primetime host Ben Mankiewicz to discuss the films she has chosen. Tonight's theme features films about the American experience in Vietnam. Enjoy, if you can!


6:00 AM -- LASSIE COME HOME (1943)
A faithful collie undertakes an arduous journey to return to her lost family.
Dir: Fred M. Wilcox
Cast: Roddy McDowall, Donald Crisp, Dame May Whitty
C-89 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Leonard Smith

Elizabeth Taylor replaced Maria Flynn in the role of Priscilla. Some sources say Flynn was afraid of the dog on the set. Others say that she grew taller than Roddy McDowall or that the strong Technicolor lighting caused her eyes to water. In any case, production was halted. The producer was walking the 600 block of North Foothill Road in Beverly Hills doing his nightly patrol as an air raid warden when he met Francis Taylor, who patrolled the 700 block. Knowing he and Sara wanted to get their daughter into the movies, he asked him to bring Elizabeth to the studio. There she was introduced to Lassie and the production resumed.


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: TWO LITTLE PUPS (1936)
A hen tries to get something to eat from a garden, but is chased around the yard by the titular pups.
Dir: Rudolf Ising
BW-8 mins,


8:10 AM -- DARK MAGIC (1939)
In this comedic short, a father finds a box of magic tricks and performs for his son.
Dir: Roy Rowland
Cast: Ruth Lee, Robert Benchley, John Scarne
BW-10 mins,


8:21 AM -- JAIPUR "THE PINK CITY" (1938)
This short film takes the viewer to the Indian city of Jaipur.
Cast: James A. FitzPatrick
C-8 mins,


8:30 AM -- BULLETS FOR O'HARA (1941)
A gangster's wife helps the FBI nail her husband.
Dir: William K. Howard
Cast: Joan Perry, Roger Pryor, Anthony Quinn
BW-50 mins, CC,

Bullets for O'Hara is a remake of 1936 Public Enemy's Wife. Dick Purcell has a role in both movies.


9:30 AM -- JUNGLE QUEEN: THE FLAMING MOUNTAIN (1945)
A young girl journeys to Africa to find her father, an explorer who vanished in the jungle.
Dir: Lewis D. Collins, Ray Taylor
Cast: Edward Norris, Eddie Quillan, Douglass Dumbrille
BW-18 mins, CC,

Episode three.


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: COPS IS ALWAYS RIGHT (1938)
Popeye is heading over to see Olive when he hits a traffic island where a cop is directing traffic.
Directors: Dave Fleischer, Seymour Kneitel (uncredited)
Stars: Margie Hines, Jack Mercer
BW-7 mins,

One of a number of Popeye shorts which were sent off to Asia in the 80's to undergo the infamous redraw and colorization process.


10:08 AM -- JUNGLE GENTS (1954)
The Bowery Boys go diamond hunting in Africa.
Dir: Edward Bernds
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey
BW-63 mins, CC,

Film debut of Clint Walker.


11:30 AM -- TORTURE MONEY (1937)
In this short film, the police track down a fraud operation that stages automobile accidents to collect insurance money.
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Charles Hamilton, Murray Alper, Mel Ruick
BW-20 mins,


12:00 PM -- THE PINK PANTHER (1964)
In the first Inspector Clouseau film, the bumbling French police detective tries to stop a notorious jewel thief from nabbing a princess' diamond.
Dir: Blake Edwards
Cast: David Niven, Peter Sellers, Capucine
C-115 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Substantially Original Score -- Henry Mancini

With just two weeks to go before shooting begun, the producers decided that Ava Gardner's erratic lifestyle could affect filming and decided not to offer her the part of Madame Clouseau. Capucine was hired in a hurry, but Peter Ustinov's wife felt this would affect the calibre of the production and told him to withdraw . From this chaos, Peter Sellers became an international superstar.


2:15 PM -- THE 39 STEPS (1935)
A man falsely suspected of killing a spy races across Scotland handcuffed to the beautiful blonde who turned him in.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim
BW-87 mins, CC,

Before filming the scene where Hannay (Robert Donat) and Pamela (Madeleine Carroll) run through the countryside, Alfred Hitchcock handcuffed them together and pretended for several hours to have lost the key in order to put them in the right frame of mind for such a situation.


4:00 PM -- M (1951)
When the police hunt for a child killer cramps their style, the criminal underworld tries to track him down.
Dir: Joseph Losey
Cast: David Wayne, Howard Da Silva, Luther Adler
BW-88 mins,

Before signing Joseph Losey as director, producer Seymour Nebenzal approached fellow German expatriate Douglas Sirk and offered him the job. Sirk said he would do the film only if he could scrap the original story and write a new one about a psychopathic murderer of children. When Nebenzal approached Losey, he too wanted to scrap the original story and do a new one about a child-murderer, and Nebenzal told him that the Production Code Administration (PCA) had agreed to allow him to make the film only if the original story and script were kept. The PCA had approved "M" as a remake of an acknowledged classic, but if the story were changed, their approval would be withdrawn.


6:00 PM -- REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)
An alienated teenager tries to handle life's troubles and an apron-wearing dad.
Dir: Nicholas Ray
Cast: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo
C-111 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sal Mineo, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Natalie Wood, and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Nicholas Ray

All three lead actors--James Dean, Sal Mineo--and Natalie Wood, died prematurely under tragic circumstances; Dean died in an automobile accident in September 1955, Mineo was stabbed to death on February 12, 1976, and Wood drowned in the late autumn of 1981. In addition, Edward Platt committed suicide in 1974 and Dennis Hopper fell ill suddenly in the fall of 2009 and died five months later.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: VIETNAM STORIES



8:00 PM -- ASHES AND EMBERS (1982)
A troubled Vietnam veteran hoping to forget the war and reconnect with American life struggles with disillusionment, self-worth, and cynicism.
Dir: Haile Gerima
Cast: John Anderson I, Barry Wiggins,
BW-130 mins, CC,

The title of the film is given at the beginning of the closing credits as "The Second Coming". The opening credits consist of the title only as "Ashes and Embers".


10:30 PM -- SUMMERTREE (1971)
An All-American is drafted into the Army, but chooses to flee to Canada.
Dir: Anthony Newley
Cast: Michael Douglas, Jack Warden, Brenda Vaccaro
BW-89 mins, CC,

Kirk Douglas bought the film rights to the play as a gift to his son after Michael Douglas was fired from the stage production.


12:15 AM -- TRAPPED (1949)
U.S. Treasury Department agents go after a ring of counterfeiters.
Dir: Richard Fleischer
Cast: Lloyd Bridges, Barbara Payton, John Hoyt
BW-80 mins, CC,

Made with the co-operation of the Treasury Department.


2:00 AM -- ANIMAL CRACKERS (1930)
Three zanies try to recover a stolen painting during a madcap house party.
Dir: Victor Heerman
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx
BW-97 mins, CC,

Zeppo Marx, the youngest of the five brothers, was very skilled at impersonating his older siblings and occasionally performed in their place when one of them was ill or unavailable. The blackout that occurs when Ravelli and Professor are attempting to steal the painting was contrived so that Zeppo could play Captain Spaulding on a day that Groucho Marx was not on the set. (Zeppo played Spaulding several times during the show's live run; Groucho stated, "he was so good as Captain Spaulding that I would have let him play the part indefinitely, if they had allowed me to smoke in the audience." )


4:00 AM -- MONKEY BUSINESS (1931)
Four stowaways get mixed up with gangsters while running riot on an ocean liner.
Dir: Norman McLeod
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx
BW-78 mins, CC,

Early in the movie, The Marx Brothers - playing stowaways concealed in barrels - harmonize unseen while performing the popular song 'Sweet Adeline,' which is traditionally performed with four singers. It is debated whether Harpo Marx' singing voice was used in the soundtrack. There is also an unconfirmed rumor that he provided the puppet master's voice in the Punch and Judy show.