TCM Schedule for Friday, March 6, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: Beach Party

[Staph]

Last edited Mon Mar 23, 2020, 06:37 PM - Edit history (1)

In the daylight hours, TCM is having a mini-marathon of Classic Eyewear, films with leading characters either known for their glasses or who have added glasses for the characterization. Then in prime time, we're off to the beach. Enjoy!


7:15 AM -- DUCK SOUP (1933)
When he's named dictator of Freedonia, a con artist declares war on the neighboring kingdom.
Dir: Leo McCarey
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx
BW-69 mins, CC,

Groucho Marx offered the following explanation for the movie's title: "Take two turkeys, one goose, four cabbages, but no duck, and mix them together. After one taste, you'll duck soup the rest of your life."


8:30 AM -- BRINGING UP BABY (1938)
A madcap heiress upsets the staid existence of a straitlaced scientist.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles
BW-102 mins, CC,

Howard Hawks modeled Cary Grant's character, David, on silent film comedian Harold Lloyd, even having Grant wear glasses like the comedian.


10:15 AM -- NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
An advertising man is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason
C-136 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Ernest Lehman, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- William A. Horning, Robert F. Boyle, Merrill Pye, Henry Grace and Frank R. McKelvy, and Best Film Editing -- George Tomasini

This movie has been referred to as "the first James Bond film" due to its similarities with splashily colourful settings, secret agents, and an elegant, daring, wisecracking leading man opposite a sinister yet strangely charming villain. The crop duster scene inspired the helicopter chase in From Russia with Love (1963).


12:45 PM -- BORN YESTERDAY (1950)
A newspaper reporter takes on the task of educating a crooked businessman's girlfriend.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, William Holden
BW-102 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Judy Holliday (Judy Holliday was not present at the awards ceremony but watched it with several nominees in New York including fellow-best actress candidate Gloria Swanson. In Hollywood, Ethel Barrymore accepted on her behalf.)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- George Cukor, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Albert Mannheimer, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Jean Louis, and Best Picture

To help build up Judy Holliday's image, particularly in the eyes of Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn, Katharine Hepburn deliberately leaked stories to the gossip columns suggesting that her performance in Adam's Rib (1949) was so good that it had stolen the spotlight from Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. This got Cohn's attention and Holliday won the part in Born Yesterday (1950).


2:45 PM -- LOLITA (1962)
Vladimir Nabokov's racy classic focuses on an aging intellectual in love with a teenager.
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: James Mason, Sue Lyon, Shelley Winters
BW-153 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Vladimir Nabokov

The iconic heart-shaped sunglasses which Lolita wears appear only in publicity photos, as well as the soundtrack album's cover, taken by Bert Stern; Lolita wears cat's eye sunglasses in the film.


5:30 PM -- 8 1/2 (1963)
A world-famous film director juggles his romantic relationships while trying to come up with an idea for his next picture.
Dir: Federico Fellini
Cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimée
BW-139 mins, Letterbox Format

Winner of Oscars for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Piero Gherardi, and Best Foreign Language Film -- Italy

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Federico Fellini, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Piero Gherardi

Federico Fellini was well-known for working without a stable, finished screenplay. At one point during pre-production, he had completely forgot what his next work would have been about, his original idea had completely gone. While he was set to communicate to the movie producer Angelo Rizzoli his intention of abandoning the project, Fellini was invited to the birthday party of a head camera-operator of Cinecittà. All of a sudden, during the celebration, he got a new idea: his film would have told about a film-director who was going to direct a film, but he forgot what it was about.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: BEACH PARTY



8:00 PM -- BEACH PARTY (1963)
An anthropologist studies the dating habits of the teens hanging out on a nearby beach.
Dir: William Asher
Cast: Bob Cummings, Dorothy Malone, Frankie Avalon
C-98 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Although "old fogey" Professor Sutwell knew nothing about beach life, actor Robert Cummings was a competent surfer himself, as documented in personal home movies shot in Hawaii by Hollywood's television host and author Ken Murray.


10:00 PM -- MUSCLE BEACH PARTY (1963)
The beach gang goes head-to-head with the bodybuilders of a new gym that's interfering with their strip on the sand.
Dir: William Asher
Cast: Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Luciana Paluzzi
C-95 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

This is the only film in the Beach Party series not to feature Eric Von Zipper and his motorcycle gang, the Rats.


12:00 AM -- BEACH BLANKET BINGO (1965)
The surfing gang rescues a beautiful singer from evil bikers.
Dir: William Asher
Cast: Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley
C-97 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

This was the final full appearance in a "Beach Party" movie for Frankie Avalon. He only appears in six minutes of the follow-up, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965).


2:00 AM -- WHITE LIGHTNING (1973)
A convicted moonshiner helps police track down the bayou bad guys who killed his brother.
Dir: Joseph Sargent
Cast: Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Louise Latham
C-101 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Cameo of Laura Dern: This was her uncredited film debut. She was just six years old in this brief non-speaking walk-on. She plays the daughter of her real-life mother Diane Ladd who appears in this movie as Maggie.


3:45 AM -- GATOR (1976)
An ex-con joins forces with a federal agent to bring down a vice lord.
Dir: Burt Reynolds
Cast: Burt Reynolds, Jerry Reed, Lauren Hutton
C-116 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Reynolds' directorial debut and the first sequel Burt Reynolds ever appeared in. It is a sequel to White Lightning (1973).


5:45 AM -- WILD AT THE WHEEL (1970)
This short film looks at the importance of traffic rules to avoid serious automobile accidents.
Dir: Bob Ellis
C-10 mins,

[TeamPooka]

1. I love the Frankie & Annette movies. So fun. and Donna Loren too!

[Staph]

2. Welcome to the Classic Films Group!

We are always glad to have another movie fan hanging out here!