TCM Schedule for Friday, April 1 -- Happy Birthday, Debbie Reynolds and Jane Powell!

[Staph]

Happy birthdays to Jane Powell (born as Suzanne Lorraine Burch in 1929 in Portland, Oregon) and Debbie Reynolds (born as Mary Frances Reynolds in 1932 in El Paso, Texas). We're celebrating both today with movies featuring both birthday girls, including one that stars both of them, Two Weeks With Love (1950). Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Small Town Girl (1953)
A sheriff's daughter falls for a playboy arrested for speeding.
Cast: Jane Powell, Farley Granger, Bobby Van.
Dir: Leslie Kardos.
C-94 min, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Nicholas Brodszky (music) and Leo Robin (lyrics) for the song "My Flaming Heart"

Hank Williams was to have made his acting debut in this film as a small-town sheriff, but died shortly before filming got underway.


8:00 AM -- Three Daring Daughters (1948)
Three young girls try to help their widowed mother find the right husband.
Cast: Jane Powell, Jeanette MacDonald, Jose Iturbi.
Dir: Fred M. Wilcox.
C-115 min, TV-G

This musical was declared "morally objectionable" by the Catholic Church's National Legion of Decency for portraying divorce as respectable.


10:00 AM -- Nancy Goes to Rio (1950)
Mother-and-daughter singers compete for the same role and the same man.
Cast: Ann Sothern, Jane Powell, Barry Sullivan.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard.
C-100 min, TV-G

This is a remake of the Deanna Durbin film It's a Date (1940). Both films were produced by Joe Pasternak, and in both the young star sings "Musetta's Waltz Song" from Puccini's opera "La Boheme".


12:00 PM -- Two Weeks With Love (1950)
Two sisters find romance during a turn-of-the-century family vacation.
Cast: Jane Powell, Ricardo Montalban, Debbie Reynolds.
Dir: Roy Rowland.
C-92 min, TV-PG

The main hotel set had been used some months previously in Annie Get Your Gun (1950). Clinton Sundberg appeared as the hotel manager in both films. In the same "waste not, want not" tradition, some of the "Annie" costumes were also reused.


2:00 PM -- Rich, Young and Pretty (1951)
A rancher's daughter visits Paris to meet her mother and find love.
Cast: Danielle Darrieux, Wendell Corey, Jane Powell.
Dir: Norman Taurog.
C-95 min, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Nicholas Brodszky (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "Wonder Why"

Film debuts of Vic Damone and Fernando Lamas.


4:00 PM -- Hit the Deck (1955)
Sailors on leave in San Francisco get mixed up in love and show business.
Cast: Tony Martin, Jane Powell, Ann Miller.
Dir: Roy Rowland.
C-112 min, TV-G

The "Funhouse" segment starring Debbie Reynolds and Russ Tamblyn, which lasts four and one half minutes on screen, took three days to film.


6:00 PM -- Three Sailors and a Girl (1953)
Three sailors on leave back a Broadway hit.
Cast: Jane Powell, Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth.
C-95 min, TV-G

Also made as The Butter and Egg Man (1928), The Tenderfoot (1932), Hello, Sweetheart (1935), Born To Dance (1936), Dance Charlie Dance (1937), and An Angel from Texas (1940).



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEBBIE REYNOLDS



8:00 PM -- Tammy And The Bachelor (1957)
A country girl saves a pilot after a plane crash.
Cast: Debbie Reynolds, Leslie Nielsen, Walter Brennan.
Dir: Joseph Pevney.
C-89 min, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Ray Evans and Jay Livingston for the song "Tammy"

Remade four times, as Tammy Tell Me True (1961) and Tammy and the Doctor (1963) -- starring Sandra Dee, "Tammy" (TV-1965) and Tammy and the Millionaire (1967) -- starring Debbie Watson.


10:00 PM -- Mary, Mary (1963)
A man on the verge of divorce is shocked by wife's glamorous makeover.
Cast: Debbie Reynolds, Barry Nelson, Michael Rennie.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy.
126 min, TV-PG

The original Broadway production of "Mary, Mary" by Jean Kerr opened at the Helen Hayes Theater in New York on March 8, 1961 and ran for 1572 performances. Barbara Bel Geddes and Barry Nelson played the starring roles.


12:15 AM -- The Mating Game (1959)
A tax agent falls for a farm girl whose father he's investigating.
Cast: Debbie Reynolds, Tony Randall, Paul Douglas.
Dir: George Marshall.
C-97 min, TV-G

Remade as The Darling Buds of May (1991), starring Catherine Zeta-Jones in the Debbie Reynolds role.


2:00 AM -- Secret Ceremony (1968)
A tormented rich girl hires a prostitute to act as her mother.
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Mia Farrow, Robert Mitchum.
Dir: Joseph Losey.
C-109 min, TV-14

Filmed in UK and Netherlands.


4:00 AM -- Daughters Of Satan (1972)
After a man buys a painting of a witch that resembles his wife, his wife is possessed by the spirit of the witch and plans his murder.
Cast: Tom Selleck, Barra Grant, Tani Phelps Guthrie.
Dir: Hollingsworth Morse.
C-90 min, TV-MA

Just after Robertson is chased from the antique shop, a poster for the Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967) can be glimpsed for the briefest of moments on an exterior wall.


5:45 AM -- Holiday From Rules (1959)
In this educational film, a group of young children understand why rules are important.
11 min, TV-G

Filmed in Walled Lake, Michigan