TCM Schedule for Thursday, May 26, 2022 -- What's On Tonight: Star of the Month Anna May Wong

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating Charles Winninger, born on May 26, 1884, in Athens, Wisconsin. He's one of those character actors that we classic films fans know by face and voice, but not necessarily by name. From his IMDB mini-bio:

Short, chubby-framed, twinkle-eyed, ever-huggable Charles Winninger was a veteran vaudevillian by the time he arrived in talking films. Born in a trunk to show biz folk in Athens, Wisconsin, on May 26, 1884, he was initially christened Karl Winninger. He left school while quite young (age 8) to join and tour with his parent's vaudeville family act which was called Winninger Family Concert Co. Upon his parents' retirement, he and his five brothers went off to play in various stock and repertory companies. On film Charlie found an "in" with silent comedy shorts between 1915-1916 but never truly settled into the movie business until the advent of sound.

In the meantime Broadway made great use of his musical comedy talents, marking his debut with "The Yankee Girl" in 1910 which also featured actress (and later stage star) Blanche Ring. He married Blanche in 1912 and the couple went on to star together quite frequently in vaudeville and on Broadway, including the musical "When Claudia Smiles" (1914) in which Blanche played the title role. Throughout the 1920s there were plenty of roles for Charlie on the Great White Way including a stint with the Ziegfeld Follies (1920), several Winter Garden productions, and in such musical comedy showcases as "The Broadway Whirl" (1921) (with Blanche), "The Good Old Days" (1923), "No, No, Nanette" (1925) and "Yes, Yes, Yvette" (1927). His most significant contribution was originating the role of beloved Cap'n Andy in "Showboat" (1927). Playing the Kern/Hammerstein musical for two years straight, he eagerly returned to the role on Broadway in 1932.

With the success of "Show Boat," Hollywood started taking more of an interest in the grey-haired song-and-dance man for character roles. Such early talking movies included the slapstick comedy Soup to Nuts (1930) with Ted Healy and The Three Stooges. Though Charlie was known for adding his immeasurable touch to the comedy genre (Flying High (1931) and Woman Chases Man (1937)), he was also a warm-hearted presence in heavier pictures as well, including the melodramas Bad Sister (1931) with Bette Davis and The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) with Helen Hayes, and rugged adventures Gun Smoke (1931) and White Fang (1936). Although he did not play his famous stage role in the 1929 version, Charlie was thankfully able to preserve his beloved Cap'n Andy to film in the superb Irene Dunne/Allan Jones remake of Show Boat (1936). He became so associated with the riverboat captain that he was asked to create several variations of the character on radio.

Charlie was relied upon for his benign, errant dads, old-theater entertainers, lovable drunks and other rather wanderlust types in film, characters that usually represented old-fashioned common sense or mores. He was quite entertaining in such classics as Nothing Sacred (1937), Three Smart Girls (1936) and Destry Rides Again (1939). In the 1940s he brightened up a number of MGM comedies and musicals including Babes in Arms (1939), Little Nellie Kelly (1940), Ziegfeld Girl (1941), When Ladies Meet (1941), Broadway Rhythm (1944)_ and Living in a Big Way (1947). One of his last important roles was playing Will Rogers' Judge Priest role in director John Ford's film The Sun Shines Bright (1953), his only leading film role. He and wife Blanche never appeared together in a film although Blanche did play herself in the film If I Had My Way (1940), a film that featured Charlie. His Broadway swan song was in "Music in the Air" in 1951 and his final film occurred about a decade later with Raymie (1960). He also played Santa Claus in the hour-long entertainment The Miracle of the White Reindeer (1960) that same year.

TV roles dominated much of his work in the 50s. On the one-season The Charles Farrell Show (1956) he played the star's dear old dad. Divorced from wife Blanche in 1951, Charlie subsequently married stage actress-turned-novelist and screenwriter Gertrude Walker whom he originally met on Broadway when he returned to "Show Boat" in 1932 (Gertrude played the role of Lottie). Retired for many years, Charlie died in 1969 following an extended illness at the age of 84.

Then in prime time, it's the last week of Star of the Month Anna May Wong. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- God's Gift to Women (1931)
1h 12m | Comedy | TV-G
A modern-day Don Juan tries to go straight for love of an American woman.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Frank Fay, Laura La Plante, Joan Blondell

It is interesting to note that in one scene the characters played by Billy House and Tyrell Davis are discussing Toto's mental state while using a "pissoir", or public urinal, on a street in Paris. At the time of this film the city had over 1,200 such structures.


7:30 AM -- Show Boat (1936)
1h 50m | Musical | TV-G
Riverboat entertainers find love, laughs and hardships as they sail along "Old Man River."
Director: James Whale
Cast: Irene Dunne, Charles Winninger, Paul Robeson

Special permission had to be granted from the Hays Office in order to retain the famous miscegenation (interracial marriage) sequence in the movie. Miscegenation was banned as a film subject and the scene had been excluded from the 1929 film version.


9:30 AM -- The Go Getter (1937)
1h 32m | Drama | TV-G
A Navy veteran with one leg fights to make himself a success.
Director: Busby Berkeley
Cast: George Brent, Anita Louise, Charles Winninger

The U.S.S. Macon (ZRS-5) shown in the film was one of two Akron-class rigid airships built by Goodyear. It was commissioned in June 1933. The airship was caught in a storm off Point Sur, California on February 12, 1935. Its rigid internal structure suffered a cascading string of failures that also caused massive helium loss and she settled on the water in Monterey Bay and sank with the loss of only 2 of the 66 crew members.


11:15 AM -- Nothing Sacred (1937)
1h 15m | Comedy | TV-PG
When a small-town girl is diagnosed with a rare, deadly disease, an ambitious newspaperman turns her into a national heroine.
Director: William A. Wellman
Cast: Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Charles Winninger

Apparently because her usually pale blonde tresses did not photograph well in Technicolor, Carole Lombard's hair is a reddish blonde. Her "normal" look can be seen in the newspaper clipping that Fredric March shows to several residents of Warsaw, VT, when he first tries to track her down.


12:30 PM -- Hard to Get (1938)
1h 20m | Comedy | TV-G
An unemployed architect falls in love with an heiress.
Director: Ray Enright
Cast: Dick Powell, Olivia De Havilland, Charles Winninger

Dick Powell's Bill Davis has plans for a series of motor lodges from coast to coast. This would have been a logical investment possibility in 1938. The U.S. was inching into recovery from the Depression, employment was rising and some people were beginning to travel again. Car manufacturing was picking up and better roads were being built. Most motels were mom and pop operations, but business ventures around the country were just starting to look into motor lodges - motels.


2:00 PM -- Beyond Tomorrow (1940)
1h 24m | Romance | TV-G
A ghost tries to smooth the way for two young lovers he knew during his lifetime.
Director: A. Edward Sutherland
Cast: Harry Carey, C. Aubrey Smith, Charles Winninger

Throughout the first 20-30 minutes they consume a cocktail from a punch bowl. The drink is a Tom and Jerry, traditionally served at Christmastime in the United States. It has been attributed to British writer Pierce Egan in the 1820s and is a variant of eggnog with brandy and rum added and served hot, usually in a mug or a bowl.


3:30 PM -- Little Nellie Kelly (1940)
1h 40m | Musical | TV-G
The daughter of Irish immigrants patches up differences between her father and grandfather.
Director: Norman Taurog
Cast: Judy Garland, George Murphy, Charles Winninger

Charles Winninger's character was softened just prior to principal photography. He was initially scripted to be caught in a speakeasy raid while his daughter lay dying in childbirth.


5:15 PM -- Living in a Big Way (1947)
1h 43m | Comedy | TV-G
A returning GI and his war bride finally get to know each other and don't really like what they see.
Director: Gregory La Cava
Cast: Gene Kelly, Marie McDonald, Charles Winninger

This box-office failure was the last directorial credit (he did some uncredited work on One Touch of Venus (1948)) for director, screenwriter and occasional producer Gregory La Cava, who had begun working in the film industry as an animator in 1916.


7:15 PM -- MGM Parade Show #26 (1955)
25m | Documentary | TV-G
Eleanor Powell performs in a clip from "Broadway Melody".



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH -- ANNA MAY WONG



8:00 PM -- Lady from Chungking (1942)
1h 6m | Drama
After the Japanese invade China in WWII, a young woman leads a band of partisans against the occupying troops.
Director: William Nigh
Cast: Anna May Wong, Harold Huber, Mae Clarke

During World War II (when this film was made) Anna May Wong went out of her way to clarify that she was of Chinese heritage and not Japanese. This included regularly supporting and doing volunteer work for organizations raising funds for Chinese resistance to the Japanese invasion and domination of China.


9:15 PM -- Impact (1949)
1h 51m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
After surviving a murder attempt, an auto magnate goes into hiding so his wife can pay for the crime.
Director: Arthur Lubin
Cast: Brian Donlevy, Ella Raines, Charles Coburn

First film for Anna May Wong in seven years since Lady from Chungking (1942). She would not appear in another film until her final one, Portrait in Black (1960).


11:15 PM -- Portrait in Black (1960)
1h 52m | Drama | TV-PG
A woman and her lover kill her husband and are targeted by someone who knows of their crime.
Director: Michael Gordon
Cast: Lana Turner, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart

Final film of Anna May Wong.


1:15 AM -- Manhattan (1979)
1h 36m | Romance | TV-MA
A TV comedy writer falls for his best friend's girl.
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Mariel Hemingway, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman

According to Jeff Stafford at the TCMDb, "When 'Manhattan' was first released, there was some criticism leveled at the film for its depiction of a romance between a teenager and a 42-year-old man but several biographical sources have suggested that the relationship had a real-life parallel in Woody Allen's two-year romance with actress Stacey Nelkin. Reportedly, Allen met Nelkin on the set of Annie Hall (1977) when she was a mere 17-year-old extra (her small part ended up on the cutting room floor). Certain aspects of the Isaac-Tracy relationship may also have been inspired by Allen's real-life correspondence with 13-year-old pen pal Nancy Jo Sales".


3:00 AM -- Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
1h 33m | Crime | TV-G
Boyhood friends grow up on opposite sides of the law.
Director: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Arthur Caesar

This was the movie that bank robber John Dillinger had just seen before he was gunned down in front of Chicago's Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934. He had been set up by Anna Sage, the madam of a brothel, who knew Dillinger's girlfriend, Polly Hamilton. Sage was facing deportation and thought the tip might get her off. She told FBI agent Melvin Purvis that she would be wearing orange which appeared red, leading her to be dubbed "The Woman in Red". Dillinger was shot three times when he tried to escape, and Sage wound up being sent back to Romania.


4:45 AM -- James Stewart, Robert Mitchum: The Two Faces of America (2017)
Biography | TV-PG
Examining legacies left by James Stewart and Robert Mitchum.
Director: Gregory Monro
Cast: Trina Mitchum, Kelly Stewart, Judy Stewart

Features clips from Made for Each Other (1939), Pot o' Gold (1941), 'Gung Ho!': The Story of Carlson's Makin Island Raiders (1943), Story of G.I. Joe (1945), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Pursued (1947), Desire Me (1947), Rope (1948), Longines Chronoscope (1951) (TV Series), The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952) (TV Series), Rear Window (1954), The Big Combo (1955), The Night of the Hunter (1955), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Vertigo (1958), Thunder Road (1958), Two for the Seesaw (1962), The Dick Cavett Show (1968) (TV Series), and The Big Sleep (1978).