TCM schedule Saturday 3/30/24 - Jack Nicholson, Debbie Reynolds, How the West Was Won, The Singing Nun, Fort Apache.

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Last edited Tue Mar 26, 2024, 12:27 PM - Edit history (2)

3/30/24 At a Glance

STAR OF THE MONTH: DEBBIE REYNOLDS
Divorce, American Style (1967)
Second Time Around, The (1961)
How the West Was Won (1962
- TCM DAYTIME
STAR OF THE MONTH (cont.)
Singing Nun, The (1966) (7:30 am ET)
WEEKEND FEATURES
Directors Playhouse: A Midsummer Daydream (1955)
Popeye: I-Ski, Love-Ski, You-Ski (1933)
Chaser, The (1938)
Mild West, The (1933) (short)
Gay Divorcee, The (1934) (Musical Matinee)
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
Fort Apache (1948)
Get Carter (1971)
- TCM PRIMETIME
JACK NICHOLSON
(P) Passenger, The (1975)
Prizzi's Honor (1985)
- NOIR ALLEY
Pushover (1954)
- TCM LATE NIGHT: JEFF BRIDGES
Last Picture Show, The (1971)
Hearts of the West (1975)

Full day schedule

10:30 PM Divorce American Style (1967)

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A bored couple drifts toward divorce, only to discover how hard the single life is.
Dir: Bud Yorkin Cast: Dick Van Dyke, Debbie Reynolds, Jason Robards Jr.
Runtime: 109 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: TV-PG CC: N

Oscar nominations:
WRITING (Story and Screenplay--written directly for the screen) -- Story by Robert Kaufman; Screenplay by Norman Lear

Trivia: The judge presiding over divorce proceedings in the film is played by John J. Anthony, a real-life marriage guidance counselor. This was his only acting role in a film.


12:30 AM What's the Matter with Helen? (1971)

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After their sons are convicted of murder, two women relocate to Hollywood to start a talent school.
Dir: Curtis Harrington Cast: Debbie Reynolds, Shelley Winters, Dennis Weaver
Runtime: 101 mins Genre: Horror/Science-Fiction Rating: TV-14 CC: Y

Oscar nominations: COSTUME DESIGN -- Morton Haack

Trivia: According to Debbie Reynolds, Shelley Winters' psychiatrist advised her not to portray a woman having a nervous breakdown because, at the time, she was actually having a nervous breakdown. "She's the kind of actress who becomes the part she's playing..." said Reynolds, "so all through the film she drove all of us insane!"


2:30 AM The Second Time Around (1961)

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A widow with several children leaves New York City to become a ranch hand in territorial Arizona.
Dir: Vincent Sherman Cast: Debbie Reynolds, Steve Forrest, Andy Griffith
Runtime: 99 mins Genre: Western Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

Trivia: Eleanor Audley, the elegant older woman who leads the townfolk in pleading with Reynolds to run for sheriff, was one of Hollywood's busiest and best known character actresses. She was also known for doing voices for animated Disney movies. You may remember her as both the wicked stepmother in Cinderella and the evil sorceress Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty.

Trivia: Debbie Reynolds and Thelma Ritter also co-starred, a year later, in "How The West Was Won" (1962). Ritter's character is named Aggie/Agatha in both movies.

4:30 AM How the West Was Won (1962)

How the West Was Won is a 1962 American epic Western film directed by Henry Hathaway (who directs three out of the five chapters involving the same family), John Ford and George Marshall, produced by Bernard Smith, written by James R. Webb, and narrated by Spencer Tracy. Originally filmed in true three-lens Cinerama with the according three-panel panorama projected onto an enormous curved screen, the film features an ensemble cast formed by many cinema icons and newcomers, including (in alphabetical order) Carroll Baker, Lee J. Cobb, Henry Fonda, Carolyn Jones, Karl Malden, Gregory Peck, George Peppard, Robert Preston, Debbie Reynolds, James Stewart, Eli Wallach, John Wayne and Richard Widmark. The supporting cast features Brigid Bazlen, Walter Brennan, David Brian, Ken Curtis, Andy Devine, Jack Lambert, Raymond Massey as Abraham Lincoln, Agnes Moorehead, Harry Morgan as Ulysses S. Grant, Thelma Ritter, Mickey Shaughnessy, Harry Dean Stanton, Russ Tamblyn and Lee Van Cleef.

How the West Was Won is widely considered one of Hollywood's greatest epics. The film received widespread critical acclaim and was a box office success, grossing $50 million on a budget of $15 million. At the 36th Academy Awards it earned eight nominations, including Best Picture, and won three, for Best Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, Best Sound and Best Film Editing. In 1997 it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".(from Wikipedia)

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Panoramic Western that follows the story of the daughter of a pioneering family from her youth in 1830 to old age.
Dir: John Ford Cast: Spencer Tracy, Carroll Baker, Lee J. Cobb
Runtime: 155 mins Genre: Epic Rating: TV-G CC: Y

Oscar nominations:
ART DIRECTION (Color) -- Art Direction: George W. Davis, William Ferrari, Addison Hehr; Set Decoration: Henry Grace, Don Greenwood, Jr., Jack Mills
CINEMATOGRAPHY (Color) -- William H. Daniels, Milton Krasner, Charles Lang, Jr., Joseph LaShelle
COSTUME DESIGN (Color) -- Walter Plunkett
(*WINNER*) FILM EDITING -- Harold F. Kress
MUSIC (Music Score--substantially original) -- Alfred Newman, Ken Darby
BEST PICTURE -- Bernard Smith, Producer
(*WINNER*) SOUND -- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Sound Department, Franklin E. Milton, Sound Director
(*WINNER*) WRITING (Story and Screenplay--written directly for the screen) -- James R. Webb

Trivia: Cinerama was so expansive that it couldn't really be configured for close-ups. The nearest it could manage was to place a key actor in the central frame and try to get in as close as possible. This proved to be very intimidating for a lot of actors as the camera (an enormous piece of apparatus under a black hood with three lenses) would be literally in their face -- 18 inches away, to be precise.

Trivia: Features more than 12,000 extras, including several Indian tribes.

7:30 AM The Singing Nun (1966)

The Singing Nun is a 1966 American semi-biographical musical drama film about the life of Jeannine Deckers, the nun who recorded the chart-topping song "Dominique". Directed by Henry Koster, in his final film, it starred Debbie Reynolds in the title role, and features Ricardo Montalbán, Greer Garson, Katharine Ross, Chad Everett, and Ed Sullivan as himself.

Harry Sukman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment. The film featured nine songs by Deckers (credited as Soeur Sourire), of which five had English verses as translated by Randy Sparks, who also wrote two original songs and a third "inspired" by a Soeur Sourire song. (Wikipedia)

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Fanciful biography of the Belgian nun who briefly made the hit parade.
Dir: Henry Koster Cast: Debbie Reynolds, Ricardo Montalban, Greer Garson
Runtime: 98 mins Genre: Musical Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

Oscar nominations:
MUSIC (Scoring of Music--adaptation or treatment) -- Harry Sukman

Trivia: This movie is loosely based on the true story of Soeur Sourire, who had a #1 pop hit in America with "Dominique" in 1963. Unfortunately, the nun was a one-hit wonder whose life did not continue happily after her chart success. After leaving the church for a full-time music career, she ran into heavy financial problems and eventually took her own life in Belgium in 1985.

Trivia: Debbie Reynolds' last film under her MGM contract.

9:30 AM Short: A Midsummer Daydream (1955)
After finding the girl of his dreams, a man has to fight for her love, in this episode of the Screen Directors Playhouse television series.
Dir: John Brahm Cast: Kim Hunter, Don Hammer, Keenan Wynn
Runtime: 25 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: TV-PG CC: N


10:00 AM Cartoon: I-Ski, Love-Ski, You-Ski (1933)

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Popeye and Olive Oyl, trying to climb a high snow-covered mountain, are thwarted at every turn by the villainous Bluto.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Willard Bowsky. Cast: Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, Gus Wickie
Runtime: 6 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: TV-PG CC: Y


10:08 AM The Chaser (1938)

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Love trips up an ambulance-chasing lawyer.
Dir: Edwin L. Marin Cast: Dennis O'Keefe, Ann Morriss, Lewis Stone
Runtime: 75 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-PG CC: N


11:30 AM Short: The Mild West (1933)
This musical focuses on the trials and tribulations of a saloon singer.
Dir: Joseph Henabery Cast: Olive Borden, Janet Reade, Paul Keast
Runtime: 20 mins Genre: Western Rating: TV-PG CC: N


12:00 PM The Gay Divorcee (1934)

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The Gay Divorcee is a 1934 American musical film directed by Mark Sandrich and starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It also features Alice Brady, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore and Erik Rhodes. The screenplay was written by George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost and Edward Kaufman. It is based on the Broadway musical, Gay Divorce, written by Dwight Taylor, with Kenneth S. Webb and Samuel Hoffenstein, adapting an unproduced play by J. Hartley Manners.

The stage version included many songs by Cole Porter that were left out of the film, except for "Night and Day". Although most of the songs were replaced, the screenplay kept the original plot of the stage version. Three members of the play's original cast repeated their stage roles: Astaire, Rhodes and Blore.

The Gay Divorcee was the second (after Flying Down to Rio) of ten pairings of Astaire and Rogers on film. (Wikipedia)

A woman thinks a flirting man is the co-respondent her lawyer has hired to expedite her divorce.
Dir: Mark Sandrich Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Alice Brady
Runtime: 107 mins Genre: Musical Rating: TV-G CC: Y

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Oscar nominations:
ART DIRECTION -- Van Nest Polglase, Carroll Clark [came in 2nd]
MUSIC (Scoring) -- RKO Radio Studio Music Department, Max Steiner, head of department (Score by Kenneth Webb and Samuel Hoffenstein) [came in 2nd]
(*WINNER*) MUSIC (Song) -- "The Continental," Music by Con Conrad; Lyrics by Herb Magidson
OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION -- RKO Radio
SOUND RECORDING -- RKO Radio Studio Sound Department, Carl Dreher, Sound Director [came in 3rd]

Trivia: The musical number "The Continental" lasts 17 1/2 minutes, the longest number ever in a musical until Gene Kelly's 18 1/2-minute ballet at the end of An American in Paris (1951) 17 years later. It is also the longest musical number in all of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' films together.

2:00 PM Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)

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A New York businessman's dream of a country home is shattered when he buys a tumbledown rural shack.
Dir: H. C. Potter Cast: Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Melvyn Douglas
Runtime: 94 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: TV-G CC: Y

Trivia: The house "Blandings' Way" really exists on Indian Hill Road in New Milford, Connecticut. It's a beautiful huge white art deco/colonial house that has many of the actual rooms discussed in the movie - such as a room to cut flowers. Also less than a mile away on Long Mountain Road is executive producer of the movie and MGM head Dore Schary's old country home.


3:45 PM Fort Apache (1948)

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Fort Apache is a 1948 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda. The film was the first of the director's "Cavalry Trilogy" and was followed by She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950), both also starring Wayne. The screenplay was inspired by James Warner Bellah's short story "Massacre" (1947). The historical sources for "Massacre" have been attributed both to George Armstrong Custer and the Battle of Little Bighorn and to the Fetterman Fight.

The film was one of the first to present an authentic and sympathetic view of Native Americans. In his review of the DVD release of Fort Apache in 2012, The New York Times movie critic Dave Kehr called it "one of the great achievements of classical American cinema, a film of immense complexity that never fails to reveal new shadings with each viewing" and "among the first 'pro-Indian' Westerns" in its portrayal of indigenous Americans with "sympathy and respect".

The film was awarded the Best Director and Best Cinematography awards by the Locarno International Film Festival of Locarno, Switzerland. Screenwriter Frank S. Nugent was nominated for best screenplay by the Writers Guild of America. (Wikipedia)

An experienced cavalry officer tries to keep his new, by-the-books commander from triggering an Indian war.
Dir: John Ford Cast: John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Shirley Temple
Runtime: 127 mins Genre: Western Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

Trivia: The cast member who had the hardest time with John Ford was John Agar, making his film debut. Whether it was because Agar was newly married to Ford's beloved Shirley Temple or because he wanted to test him, the director rode him mercilessly, calling him "Mr. Temple" in front of everyone, criticizing the way he delivered lines, chastising him for his lack of expert horsemanship. One day Agar stormed off, vowing to quit the picture, but John Wayne took him aside and helped him with some of the more difficult aspects of his job.

Trivia: Shirley Temple, in one of her first adult roles, was pregnant during shooting and worried that riding horses or wearing her corset too tight would induce miscarriage.

6:00 PM Get Carter (1971)

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A small-time gangster searches for the truth behind his brother's death.
Dir: Mike Hodges Cast: Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, Britt Ekland
Runtime: 112 mins Genre: Crime Rating: TV-14 CC: Y

Trivia: Writer and director Mike Hodges was surprised that a star of Michael Caine's stature would want to play Carter. Caine said "One of the reasons I wanted to make that picture was my background. In English movies, gangsters were either stupid or funny. I wanted to show that they're neither. Gangsters are not stupid, and they're certainly not very funny." He identified with Carter as a memory of his working class upbringing, having friends and family members who were involved in crime and felt Carter represented a path his life might have taken under different circumstances: "Carter is the dead-end product of my own environment, my childhood. I know him well. He is the ghost of Michael Caine."

8:00 PM The Passenger (1975)

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A portrait of a drained journalist whose deliverance is an identity exchange with a dead man. He embarks on a treacherous journey through Africa, Spain, Germany, England, Spain.
Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni Cast: Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre
Runtime: 126 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-PG CC:

Trivia: Jack Nicholson has said publicly that "The Passenger " is among his most favorite of his own films. Wanting to protect a piece of art that he loved, Jack Nicholson bought the rights to the film shortly after its release, and kept it out of circulation for many years. In 2003, he entered into negotiations with Sony to re-release the film.

10:15 PM Prizzi's Honor (1985)

Mob assassins fall in love, neither realizing what the other does for a living.
Dir: John Huston Cast: Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Anjelica Huston
Runtime: 129 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: TV-MA CC:

Oscar nominees:
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE -- Jack Nicholson {"Charley Partanna"}
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE -- William Hickey {"Don Corrado Prizzi"}
(*WINNER*) ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE -- Anjelica Huston {"Maerose Prizzi"}
COSTUME DESIGN -- Donfeld
DIRECTING -- John Huston
FILM EDITING -- Rudi Fehr, Kaja Fehr
BEST PICTURE -- John Foreman, Producer
WRITING (Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium) -- Richard Condon, Janet Roach

Trivia: John Huston is the only director to direct two members of his own family to win Academy Awards. The first was his father Walter Huston in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), who won Best Actor in a Supporting Role, then his daughter Anjelica Huston won Best Actress in Supporting Role for this movie.

12:30 AM Pushover (1954)

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A police detective falls for the bank robber's girlfriend he is supposed to be tailing.
Dir: Richard Quine Cast: Fred MacMurray, Philip Carey, Kim Novak
Runtime: 88 mins Genre: Crime Rating: TV-PG CC:

Trivia: Kim Novak's first major film role. She was only 21 years old. She received an 'and introducing" credit. Her character, Lola, spoke as if she had a lot more life experience. Novak had two uncredited films at RKO before working on this film - The French Line (1953) and Son of Sinbad (1955)


2:15 AM The Last Picture Show (1971)

The Last Picture Show is a 1971 American coming-of-age drama film directed and co-written by Peter Bogdanovich, adapted from the semi-autobiographical 1966 novel The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry. The film's ensemble cast includes Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, and Cybill Shepherd. Set in a small town in northern Texas from November 1951 to October 1952, it is a story of two high-school seniors and long-time friends, Sonny Crawford (Bottoms) and Duane Jackson (Bridges).

The Last Picture Show was theatrically released on October 22, 1971, by Columbia Pictures. It was a critical and commercial success, grossing $29 million on a $1.3 million budget, and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Johnson and Bridges, and Best Supporting Actress for Burstyn and Leachman, with Johnson and Leachman winning.

Bogdanovich directed a 1990 sequel, Texasville, based on McMurtry's 1987 novel of the same name and featuring much of the original film's cast reprising their roles; Texasville failed to match the critical or commercial success of its predecessor. In 1998, the Library of Congress selected The Last Picture Show for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.&quot Wikipedia)

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In a bleak and sleepy 50s Texas town, two high-school seniors, stars on a losing football team, ponder their futures, carry on love affairs with the town sweetheart and an older, married woman respectively, and look for fatherly advice from the ex-cowboy owner of the town's pool hall/cafe and moviehouse. But when the moviehouse ...
Dir: Peter Bogdanovich Cast: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd
Runtime: 118 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-MA CC: Y

Oscar nominations:
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE -- Jeff Bridges {"Duane Jackson"}
(*WINNER*) ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE -- Ben Johnson {"Sam the Lion"}
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE -- Ellen Burstyn {"Lois Farrow"}
(*WINNER*) ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE -- Cloris Leachman {"Ruth Popper"}
CINEMATOGRAPHY -- Robert Surtees
DIRECTING -- Peter Bogdanovich
BEST PICTURE -- Stephen J. Friedman, Producer
WRITING (Screenplay--based on material from another medium) -- Larry McMurtry, Peter Bogdanovich

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Trivia: At 9 minutes and 54 seconds, Ben Johnson's performance in this movie is the shortest ever to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Trivia: Cybill Shepherd was cast with the option of backing out of her nude scenes if she so desired. She only agreed to do them after asking the opinions of three female costars - Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, and Eileen Brennan, who all thought she should do them.

Trivia: Cloris Leachman's last scene in the movie was printed on the first take without any previous rehearsals. She wanted to rehearse the scene, but director Peter Bogdanovich thought it would ruin the scene if it was rehearsed. After she completed the take, she said to him, "I can do better." He replied, "No, you can't; you just won the Oscar." Ultimately his sense of direction paid off, as Leachman won the Academy Award for her performance.

4:30 AM Hearts of the West (1975)

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An aspiring western novelist in thirties Hollywood becomes a low-budget cowboy star.
Dir: Howard Zieff Cast: Jeff Bridges, Andy Griffith, Donald Pleasence
Runtime: 103 mins Genre: Western Rating: TV-14 CC: Y

Trivia: A.J. Nietz (Donald Pleasence) is named after prolific western and "B" picture director Alan James (real name Alvin J. Neitz), who started out in silent films, and lasted through the talkie era, and who directed westerns with such stars as Ken Maynard, Jack Hoxie, and Tim McCoy.

Trivia: Hearts of the West was one of the last features to be filmed on MGM's Lot 2. Soon after this movie, that property was sold and homes were built where all those sets used to be.