TCM Schedule for Friday, July 1, 2022 -- What's On Tonight: Billy Wilder Comedies

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, we get a morning of films starring birthday boy Farley Granger, born Farley Earle Granger II on July 1, 1925, in San Jose, California. Granger was one of the last of Samuel Goldwyn's contract players. In the afternoon, it's a Time To Dance Triple Feature, with 42nd Street (1933), Footlight Parade (1933), and The Boy Friend (1971).

Then in prime time, TCM gives us a trio of Billy Wilder's best comedies . . . heck, this is a trio of the best comedies, full stop! We get to watch Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960), and Irma la Douce (1963). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Behave Yourself! (1951)
1h 21m | Comedy | TV-PG
A young couple's dog gets them mixed up in a string of murders.
Director: George Beck
Cast: Farley Granger, Shelley Winters, William Demarest

Farley Granger was borrowed from Samuel Goldwyn's company for this film.


7:30 AM -- Small Town Girl (1953)
1h 33m | Musical | TV-G
A sheriff's daughter falls for a playboy arrested for speeding.
Director: Leslie Kardos
Cast: Jane Powell, Farley Granger, Ann Miller

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

The film contains Ann Miller's best remembered musical number from the MGM era, "I've Gotta Hear That Beat". The brainchild of master showman Busby Berkeley, the highly inventive sequence placed Miller amidst a sea of disembodied musical instruments that appear to be playing themselves through cut-outs in the floor. While the number has long been considered a feast for the eyes, few are aware that Berkeley complemented the visual experience in audio terms too, as every time Miller passes a new section of the orchestra, that particular instrument takes the lead on the soundtrack.


9:15 AM -- Side Street (1950)
1h 23m | Crime | TV-PG
A New York City mailman is chased by both cops and crooks when he steals a shipment of dirty money.
Director: Anthony Mann
Cast: Farley Granger, Cathy O'Donnell, James Craig

According to Eddie Muller on TCM's Noir Alley (2017-10-15 and 2022-2-12), Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell first appeared together in They Live by Night (1948), filmed at RKO studios in 1947 but put on the shelf by new studio boss Howard Hughes. Former RKO Production Chief Dore Schary feared the picture would never be released, so he paired the actors again in this film at his new studio, MGM. Hughes learned of this and, wanting to beat Schary to the punch, finally released They Live by Night in the USA in November 1949, just a few months before this film opened nationwide. That film also bombed at the box office, resulting in a loss to RKO of $445,000 according to studio records.


10:45 AM -- They Live by Night (1948)
1h 35m | Crime | TV-PG
After an unjust prison sentence, a young innocent gets mixed-up with hardened criminals.
Director: Nicholas Ray
Cast: Cathy O'Donnell, Farley Granger, Howard Da Silva

In 2007, Farley Granger recorded an audio commentary track along with film noir expert Eddie Muller for this film for the Warner Brothers DVD release.


12:30 PM -- Strangers on a Train (1951)
1h 36m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
A man's joking suggestion that he and a chance acquaintance trade murders turns deadly.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Robert Burks

In an interview, Farley Granger revealed that this movie and "They Live by Night (1948)" were his favorite movies. Granger also revealed that he loved working with Robert Walker and was very upset when he heard about Walker's sudden death, which happened eight months after filming.


2:15 PM -- 42nd Street (1933)
1h 25m | Musical | TV-G
The definitive backstage musical, complete with the dazzling newcomer who goes on for the injured star.
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent

Nominee for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (sound director), and Best Picture

This film, released on March 9, 1933, single-handedly rescued the movie musical, which had been considered a money-losing proposition since mid-1930. Early "all talking, all dancing" musicals typically suffered from severe camera restrictions coupled with poor musical staging, and soured the public on the genre in general (Universal's huge losses from the lively King of Jazz (1930) had put an unofficial moratorium on the musical) and no other studio wanted to risk producing one. Warners, at the time of the film's release, had Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) nearing completion and pre-production plans were well underway for Footlight Parade (1933), all utilizing the talents of Busby Berkeley. The success of this film would convince Radio Pictures to produce Flying Down to Rio (1933) (released that December). Other major studios would continue to shy away from musicals throughout 1933, although Paramount would proceed with plans to produce the lavish Murder at the Vanities (1934) toward the end of the year.


3:45 PM -- Footlight Parade (1933)
1h 42m | Musical | TV-G
A producer fights labor problems, financiers and his greedy ex-wife to put on a show.
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler

When Samuel Goldwyn brought Broadway choreographer Busby Berkeley to do numbers for Eddie Cantor, three years ago few could have imagined how much he would change the concept of the Goldwyn and Warner Bro. musicals with his inventive and spectacular dance routines.


5:30 PM -- The Boy Friend (1971)
1h 48m | Musical | TV-G
The understudy goes on for the star and finds love.
Director: Ken Russell
Cast: Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Max Adrian

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score -- Peter Maxwell Davies and Peter Greenwell

Glenda Jackson's role of Rita Monroe, overtly borrowed from Bebe Daniels in which 42nd Street (1933) plays the equivalent role of Dorothy Brock, also echoes a true event in the West End run of ''The Boy Friend'' where Anne Rogers became an instant star as Polly Browne, subbing for an incapacitated Diana Maddox (although in this instance the scheduled leading lady was not an established star).



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- BILLY WILDER COMEDIES



8:00 PM -- Some Like It Hot (1959)
2h | Comedy | TV-PG
When a pair of bumbling, out-of-work musicians, accidentally witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, they dress as women to get out of town.
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon

Winner of an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Orry-Kelly

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Jack Lemmon, Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Ted Haworth and Edward G. Boyle

Jack Lemmon wrote that the first sneak preview had a bad reaction with many audience walkouts. Many studio personnel and agents offered advice to Billy Wilder on what scenes to reshoot, add and cut. Lemmon asked Wilder what he was going to do. Wilder responded: "Why, nothing. This is a very funny movie and I believe in it just as it is. Maybe this is the wrong neighborhood in which to have shown it. At any rate, I don't panic over one preview. It's a hell of a movie." Wilder held the next preview in the Westwood section of Los Angeles, and the audience stood up and cheered.


10:15 PM -- The Apartment (1960)
2h 5m | Comedy | TV-PG
An aspiring executive lets his bosses use his apartment for assignations, only to fall for the big chief's mistress.
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray

Winner of Oscars for Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Alexandre Trauner and Edward G. Boyle, Best Film Editing -- Daniel Mandell, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Jack Lemmon, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Shirley MacLaine, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Kruschen, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph LaShelle, and Best Sound -- Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)

Jack Lemmon said he learned much about filmmaking from Billy Wilder, particularly the director's use of "hooks," bits of business the audience remembers long after they've forgotten other aspects of the movie. One such hook was the passing of the key to Baxter's apartment. Lemmon said for years after the picture's release, people would come up to him and say, "Hey, Jack, can I have the key?"


12:30 AM -- Irma La Douce (1963)
2h 22m | Comedy | TV-14
A Parisian policeman gives up everything for the love of a free-living prostitute.
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Lou Jacobi

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- André Previn

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Shirley MacLaine, and Best Cinematography, Color -- Joseph LaShelle

Had Billy Wilder succeeded in getting the cast he wanted, Charles Laughton would have played barkeeper Moustache and Marilyn Monroe would have played streetwalker Irma (instead of Lou Jacobi and Shirley MacLaine, respectively). Unfortunately, the two had passed away before filming began.


3:00 AM -- Repo Man (1984)
1h 32m | Comedy | TV-MA
A young punk gives up stealing cars for a job repossessing them.
Director: Alex Cox
Cast: Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez, Tracey Walter

All of the products used in the movie are generic, notable for their blue stripe on white packaging and black text. The filmmakers were satirizing a real-life growing trend in American grocery stores at the time where because of the sluggish 1980s economy actual generic, white packaged foods were popular. The blue stripe seen in the movie is taken from a real-life blue stripe generic beer can that was sold by Southern California's Ralphs supermarkets. The filmmakers choose to mock this as showing how banal American life had become in the early 80s, including making up their own generic products like 'Food - Meat Flavored', 'Dry Gin', and 'Drink'. Because these products had no advertising and quietly left supermarket shelves by the 1990s many modern viewers of this film think that Alex Cox made up the generic food idea himself.


4:45 AM -- Sid And Nancy (1986)
1h 54m | Biography
The sad, sordid story of Sid Vicious, a member of the seminal British punk group The Sex Pistols, and his doomed relationship with his American girlfriend.
Director: Alex Cox
Cast: John Jackson, Julie Marie Capone, Gary Oldman

Gary Oldman lived on a diet of steamed fish and melon to lose enough weight to play the emaciated, heroin-addicted Sid, and was hospitalized when he went too far and became malnourished.