TCM Schedule for Friday, May 27, 2022 -- What's On Tonight: Primetime Theme: Memorial Day Marathon

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is giving a light menu of Screwball Comedies, before we get into the full three-day-weekend of the Memorial Day Marathon. And as usual, it's nearly all World War II. Enjoy, and thank a veteran!


6:00 AM -- The Richest Girl in the World (1934)
1h 16m | Romance | TV-G
To put off fortune-hunters, an heiress trades places with her secretary.
Director: William A. Seiter
Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea, Fay Wray

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Norman Krasna

When Tony arrives at the cabin in the Adirondacks during a wild rainstorm, he walks in saying "Ain't a fit night out for man or beast." This is a line popularized the year before by W.C. Fields in The Fatal Glass of Beer (1933).


7:30 AM -- The Girl from Missouri (1934)
1h 15m | Comedy | TV-PG
A gold-digging chorus girl tries to keep her virtue while searching for a rich husband.
Director: Jack Conway
Cast: Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Franchot Tone

Jean Harlow, the star of the movie, was indeed "The Girl from Missouri", having been born in Kansas City, Missouri on March 3, 1911.


8:45 AM -- The Bride Walks Out (1936)
1h 15m | Comedy | TV-G
A model weds a struggling engineer then has her own struggles with domesticity.
Director: Leigh Jason
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Gene Raymond, Robert Young

The $49.50 Carolyn spends on the dress in the window would equate to $877 in 2017.


10:15 AM -- Breakfast for Two (1937)
1h 5m | Comedy | TV-G
A Texas heiress competes with a gold digger for the love of a playboy.
Director: Alfred Santell
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Herbert Marshall, Glenda Farrell

This features one of the earliest uses of both air quotes and the term "pub-crawling"--both of which have to be explained to the other characters.


11:30 AM -- It's Love I'm After (1937)
1h 30m | Comedy | TV-PG
A squabbling stage couple gets mixed up with an amorous fan and her jealous suitor.
Director: Archie L. Mayo
Cast: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Olivia De Havilland

This is the third, and last, pairing of Leslie Howard and Bette Davis (after Of Human Bondage (1934), and The Petrified Forest (1936) ), and their only comedy together.


1:15 PM -- Joy of Living (1938)
1h 30m | Comedy | TV-G
A Broadway musical star falls for an eccentric millionaire.
Director: Tay Garnett
Cast: Irene Dunne, Douglas Fairbanks, Alice Brady

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.'s duck voice is done by Clarence Nash. He was the original voice of Donald Duck and did it for 50 years, as well as Daisy Duck, Donald''s nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie and many other characters. He also did many of the bird sounds for The Tiki Room at Disneyland.


3:00 PM -- Having Wonderful Time (1938)
1h 11m | Comedy | TV-G
A New York girl finds love at a summer resort.
Director: Alfred Santell
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Douglas Fairbanks, Peggy Conklin

In the original Broadway play, all the principal characters were Jewish. (In the early and mid 20th century, Catskill Mountain resorts like the one depicted in the story were vacation hot spots for East Coast Jews.) Because of anti-Semitism in America at the time, all references to Jewish-American culture (including the last names of many of the characters) were either removed or altered. For instance, in the adaptation process, the play's lead characters, Teddy Stern and Chick Kessler, were among a half dozen or so characters who were given names that were more Christian-sounding - Teddy Shaw and Chick Kirkland. As Leonard Maltin puts it in his yearly movie guide: "[T]he original's satiric depiction of Jewish New Yorkers is completely homogenized."


4:30 PM -- It's a Wonderful World (1939)
1h 26m | Comedy | TV-G
A runaway poetess helps a fugitive prove himself innocent of murder charges.
Director: W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: Claudette Colbert, James Stewart, Guy Kibbee

Claudette Colbert's first picture for MGM.


6:15 PM -- No Time for Comedy (1940)
1h 33m | Comedy | TV-G
A wealthy culture vulture tries to steal a playwright from his actress wife.
Director: William Keighley
Cast: James Stewart, Rosalind Russell, Charles Ruggles

James Stewart was on loan to Warner Brothers from MGM.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- MEMORIAL DAY MARATHON



8:00 PM -- Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
2h 12m | War | TV-PG
The head of a World War II bomber squadron cracks under the pressure.
Director: Henry King
Cast: Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Dean Jagger, and Best Sound, Recording -- Thomas T. Moulton

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gregory Peck, and Best Picture

This film is used by the US Navy as an example of leadership styles in its Leadership and Management Training School. The Air Force's College for Enlisted Professional Military Education also uses it as an education aid in its NCO academies. It is also used as a teaching tool for leadership at the Army Command and General Staff College and for leadership training in civilian seminars. It is used at the Harvard Business School as a case study in how to effect change in organizations.


10:30 PM -- The Young and the Brave (1963)
1h 24m | War | TV-PG
Three American POWs fight to escape from North Korea.
Director: Francis D. Lyon
Cast: Rory Calhoun, William Bendix, Richard Jaeckel

Also released later in 1963 on a double bill as the second feature with Dr. No (1962).


12:15 AM -- Battleground (1949)
1h 58m | War | TV-PG
American soldiers in France fight to survive a Nazi siege just before the Battle of the Bulge.
Director: William Wellman
Cast: Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban

Winner of Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Robert Pirosh, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Paul Vogel

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- James Whitmore, Best Director -- William A. Wellman, Best Film Editing -- John D. Dunning, and Best Picture

While filming on-location in the snowy mountains of northern California, George Murphy suggested the scene where the soldier gathers up leaflets dropped by Nazi planes, and walks off into the woods, with the obvious intention of using them as toilet paper. After hearing the suggestion, Director William A. Wellman threw up his hands and shouted, "I finally got a good idea from an actor."


2:30 AM -- Go for Broke! (1951)
1h 32m | War | TV-PG
The true story of World War II's all Japanese-American unit.
Director: Robert Pirosh
Cast: Van Johnson, Lane Nakano, George Miki

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Robert Pirosh

Even though the 442nd Regimental Combat Team is the most decorated unit in US Army history, there is only one brief--VERY brief--scene of President Harry S. Truman pinning a medal on a soldier's chest, with no ceremony or dialogue. There is also an earlier reference, almost a throwaway line, by Lt. Grayson (Van Johnson) about awarding a soldier a medal.


4:15 AM -- Torpedo Run (1958)
1h 38m | War | TV-PG
A submarine commander is forced to blow up a Japanese prison ship carrying his family.
Director: Joseph Pevney
Cast: Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine, Diane Brewster

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie and Harold Humbrock

At various points in the movie characters make comments as to how fast they surfaced or dived the submarine. During the war crews practiced the dive process so that from the order to dive they could arrive at periscope depth (60 feet) in about 45 or 50 seconds. In actual practice there was no "crash dive" as is often seen in movies. Every dive was carried out as quickly as possible to insure readiness in actual combat conditions.