TCM Schedule for Saturday, June 20, 2015 -- The Essentials: Evelyn Keyes

This afternoon, TCM has a heck of a movie marathon -- Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939), All The King's Men (1949), The Wild Ones (1953), and Ride The High Country (1962). Tonight's Essentials features a quartet of films starring Evelyn Keyes. Today, she's best remembered as Scarlett O'Hara's younger sister Suellen, but she had a long and successful career in movies, and an impressive string of husbands -- businessman Barton Bainbridge, director Charles Vidor, actor/director/producer John Huston, and musician Artie Shaw. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Rosalie (1937)
A West Point cadet falls for a European princess.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: Nelson Eddy, Eleanor Powell, Frank Morgan
BW-124 mins, CC,

Originally to be filmed with Marion Davies in 1928. The production was abruptly halted when MGM converted its studio to sound. The 1936 film incorporated footage from the unfinished 1928 production, mostly exterior shots.


8:30 AM -- Search For Beauty (1934)
Three con artists dupe two Olympians into serving as editors of a new magazine which is a front for salacious stories and pictures.
Dir: Erle C. Kenton
Cast: Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Ida Lupino, Robert Armstrong
BW-78 mins,

Buster Crabbe plays an Olympic swimmer in the film. Before entering acting, Crabbe was a two-time Olympian, a bronze medalist in 1928 and a gold medal winner in 1932.


10:00 AM -- Batman: The Doom of the Rising Sun (1943)
Episode 15 of the Batman serial.
BW-20 mins,


10:30 AM -- Bomba and the Jungle Girl (1952)
The jungle hero tries to find out who killed his parents.
Dir: Ford Beebe
Cast: Johnny Sheffield, Karen Sharpe, Walter Sande
BW-70 mins,

The last picture released by Monogram Pictures. There were several later pictures produced by Monogram, but they were distributed by other companies.


12:00 PM -- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
An idealistic Senate replacement takes on political corruption.
Dir: Frank Capra
Cast: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Claude Rains
BW-130 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Lewis R. Foster

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Harry Carey, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Claude Rains, Best Director -- Frank Capra, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sidney Buchman, Best Art Direction -- Lionel Banks, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), Best Film Editing -- Gene Havlick and Al Clark, Best Music, Scoring -- Dimitri Tiomkin, and Best Picture

The screenplay was originally purchased by Columbia as a vehicle for Ralph Bellamy, with Harold Wilson slated to produce. Once Frank Capra became the director, the project, planned as a sequel to Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), was entitled "Mr. Deeds Goes to Washington", and was to star Gary Cooper, reprising his role as Longfellow Deeds. Cooper was unavailable for the role, however, and James Stewart was borrowed from MGM. "I knew he would make a hell of a Mr. Smith," Capra said. "He looked like the country kid, the idealist. It was very close to him."


2:30 PM -- All the King's Men (1949)
A backwoods politician rises to the top only to become corrupted.
Dir: Robert Rossen
Cast: Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Joanne Dru
BW-110 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Broderick Crawford, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Mercedes McCambridge, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- John Ireland, Best Director -- Robert Rossen, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Robert Rossen, and Best Film Editing -- Robert Parrish and Al Clark

Producer-director Robert Rossen offered the role of Willie Stark to John Wayne. Rossen sent a copy of the script to Wayne's agent, Charles K. Feldman, who forwarded it to Wayne. After reading the script, Wayne sent it back with an angry letter attached. In it, he told Feldman that before he sent the script to any of his other clients, he should ask them if they wanted to star in a film that "smears the machinery of government for no purpose of humor or enlightenment," that "degrades all relationships," and that is populated by "drunken mothers; conniving fathers; double-crossing sweethearts; bad, bad, rich people; and bad, bad poor people if they want to get ahead." He accused Rossen of wanting to make a movie that threw acid on "the American way of life." If Feldman had such clients, Wayne wrote that the agent should "rush this script... to them." Wayne, however, said to the agent that "You can take this script and shove it up Robert Rossen's derrière . . . " Wayne later remarked that "To make Huey Long a wonderful, rough pirate was great . . . but, according to this picture, everybody was shit--except for this weakling intern doctor who was trying to find a place in the world." Broderick Crawford, who had played a supporting role in Wayne's Seven Sinners (1940), eventually received the part of Stark. In a bit of irony, Crawford was Oscar-nominated for the part of Stark and found himself competing against Wayne, who was nominated the same year for Sands of Iwo Jima (1949). Crawford won the Best Actor Oscar, giving Rossen the last laugh.


4:30 PM -- The Wild One (1953)
Motorcycle-riding delinquents take over a small town.
Dir: Laslo Benedek
Cast: Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy, Robert Keith
BW-79 mins, CC,

Based on a 1951 short story in Harper's Magazine entitled The Cyclists' Raid, which in turn was based upon a real-life incident in Hollister, California in 1947. The actual incident, however, bore little resemblance to the events depicted in the movie. Although spirited, the cyclists did not run amok or become violent. In fact, the bikers were invited back to Hollister over the July 4, 1997 weekend for a fiftieth anniversary celebration of the original incident.


6:00 PM -- Ride The High Country (1962)
Two aging gunslingers sign on to transport gold from a remote mining town.
Dir: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, Mariette Hartley
C-94 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Final film of Randolph Scott. He retired from acting once he saw the finished film, saying he wanted to quit while he was ahead and that he would never be able to better his work here.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: EVELYN KEYES



8:00 PM -- Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
A prizefighter who died before his time is reincarnated as a tycoon with a murderous wife.
Dir: Alexander Hall
Cast: Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, Claude Rains
BW-94 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- Harry Segall, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Robert Montgomery, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- James Gleason, Best Director -- Alexander Hall, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Walker, and Best Picture

"Here Comes Mr. Jordan" is reportedly based on the play "Heaven Can Wait". However, there are two films with that title. The first film Heaven Can Wait (1943), staring Don Ameche and Gene Tierney, is based on the stage play "Birthday", written by Leslie Bush-Fekete. In the play and film, the central character is an older man who has lived a full life and is confronted by the Devil, who has to decide if he qualifies to enter "Hades". It is a different storyline than the one for "Mr. Jordan". The second film titled Heaven Can Wait (1978), staring Warren Beatty, based on a play with the same title, written by Harry Segall, is practically a word for word rewrite of Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941). The one exception being that a Football player replaces a Boxer as the central character.


9:45 PM -- The Mating of Millie (1948)
A businesswoman who wants to adopt a child must find a husband.
Dir: Henry Levin
Cast: Glenn Ford, Evelyn Keyes, Ron Randell
BW-87 mins, CC,

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on January 3, 1949 with Glenn Ford reprising his film role.


11:30 PM -- 99 River Street (1953)
A taxi driver gets mixed up with jewel thieves.
Dir: Phil Karlson
Cast: John Payne, Evelyn Keyes, Brad Dexter
BW-83 mins, CC,

Continuity error -- When Ernie (John Payne) is waiting at the bar for Pauline (Peggie Castle), the bartender takes his beer bottle but in the next scene from the view of the bartender, the bottle is still on the bar in front of Ernie.


1:00 AM -- The Face Behind the Mask (1941)
When a fire leaves him hideously scarred, an immigrant turns to crime.
Dir: Robert Florey
Cast: Peter Lorre, Evelyn Keyes, Don Beddoe
BW-68 mins, CC,

Fast filming -- shooting lasted from Nov. 6-26, 1940, released January 16, 1941.


2:15 AM -- Vigilante (1983)
When street thugs kill his son, a factory worker takes the law into his own hands.
Dir: William B Lustig
Cast: Robert Forster, Fred Williamson, Richard Bright
C-89 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

In the scene where Fred Williamson is chasing Frank Pesce, Richard Bright hits him with what appears to be a real baseball bat. In fact, it's a plastic bat in which Bright actually hit Pesce on the ear and his face. His facial expressions were real. Pesce joking states on the DVD "He's swinging like an idiot...that fucking stung. He hit me thinking it was a real baseball bat. Lee Strasberg stuff".


3:45 AM -- Mean Streets (1973)
A small-time hood must choose from among love, friendship and the chance to rise within the mob.
Dir: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, David Proval
C-112 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The innovative use of the hand-held camera was largely down to the fact that the film's meager budget didn't stretch to laying down lots of tracks for all the tracking shots.


5:45 AM -- The Trouble Maker (1959)
In this educational short film about coping with "unruly individuals," a student attempts to cause problems for others around him.
Dir: Herk Harvey Cast: Bret Waller,
BW-12 mins,