TCM Schedule for Saturday, October 24, 2015 -- The Essentials - Oscar Homolka

Tonight's Essentials are films starring Oskar Homolka (also billed as Oscar), born on August 12, 1898, in Vienna, Austria. He made his reputation playing villains and scoundrels, he earned an Oscar nomination for playing gruff but lovable Uncle Chris in I Remember Mama (1948). Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Gallant Bess (1946)
A soldier takes the Army horse that saved his life back to the farm.
Dir: Andrew Marton
Cast: Marshall Thompson, George Tobias, Clem Bevans
C-100 mins, CC,

In addition to the horse playing a dual role, the horse was also a gelding - a male, not a female. Quite an acting challenge for any actor.


8:00 AM -- The Count of Monte Cristo (1934)
After escaping prison, an innocent man seeks revenge on the men who framed him.
Dir: Rowland V. Lee
Cast: Robert Donat, Elissa Landi, Louis Calhern
BW-113 mins,

Robert Donat made his only trip to Hollywood during the production of this film. Due mainly to his poor health, he was unable to travel to Hollywood again to film any of his other roles.


10:00 AM -- Batman and Robin: Robin Rides the Wind (1949)
Batman and Robin search for a machine stolen by a mysterious, cloaked-and-hooded figure known only as The Wizard.
BW-17 mins,


10:30 AM -- Bulldog Drummond's Bride (1939)
Bulldog Drummond postpones his wedding to track down a band of bank robbers.
Dir: James Hogan
Cast: John Howard, Heather Angel, H.B. Warner
BW-56 mins,

This is one of 8 Bulldog Drummond adventures produced by Paramount in the late 1930s, and sold to Congress Films in mid-1954 for re-release; Congress redesigned the opening and closing credits, in order to eliminate all evidence of Paramount's ownership, going so far as to even alter the copyright claimant statements on the title cards; Congress, in turn, sold the films to Governor Films for television syndication. Along the way, Paramount, having disowned the films, never bothered to renew the copyrights, and they fell into public domain, with the result that inferior VHS and DVD copies have been in distribution for many years, from a variety of sub-distributors who specialize in public domain material.


11:35 AM -- Salt Lake Diversions (1943)
This short film takes the viewer to several vacation spots and various other sights around Utah's Salt Lake City.
C-8 mins,


11:45 AM -- Ride Lonesome (1959)
A bounty hunter tries to bring a murderer to justice through perilous territory.
Dir: Budd Boetticher
Cast: Randolph Scott, Karen Steele, Pernell Roberts
C-73 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Film debut of James Coburn.


1:07 PM -- Ben-Hur: Behind The Scenes With Glenn H. Randall & Yakima Canutt (1959)
This promotional short offers a behind-the-scenes look of the making of "Ben-Hur" (1959), focusing on how Glen Randall and Yakima Canutt worked together to film the legendary chariot race.
BW-7 mins,


1:15 PM -- 3:10 to Yuma (1957)
A sheriff must run the gauntlet to get his prisoner out of town.
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr
BW-92 mins, CC,

This film, along with the equally allegorical High Noon (1952), was a deciding factor in making Howard Hawks create Rio Bravo (1959), a return to more optimistic, less revisionist Westerns.


3:00 PM -- The Big Sky (1952)
Trappers lead an expedition against river pirates and Indians along the Missouri River.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, Elizabeth Threatt
BW-138 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Arthur Hunnicutt, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Russell Harlan

While shooting Red River (1948), there was a scene that director Howard Hawks unsuccessfully urged John Wayne to do. It involved his getting a finger mangled between a saddle horn and a rope, resulting in Walter Brennan's amputating it. Hawks reportedly told Wayne, "If you're not good enough, we won't do it", but Wayne wouldn't do it. According to Hawks biographer Todd McCarthy, Hawks did get Kirk Douglas to do that scene in this film, and it came off so funny that Wayne later declared to Hawks, "If you tell me a funeral is funny, I'll do a funeral."


5:30 PM -- The Cowboys (1971)
When his crew quits veteran cattleman trains schoolboys for the big drive.
Dir: Mark Rydell
Cast: John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, Bruce Dern
C-134 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Roscoe Lee Browne was urged by his friends not to work with the right-wing John Wayne. He ignored them and the two actors refrained from discussing politics during filming. Wayne and Browne shared a love of poetry, and sometimes quoted their favorite verses between takes.


7:50 PM -- Glass Bottom Boat At Nasa (1966)
This promotional short film for "The Glass Bottom Boat" (1966) presents scenes filmed exclusively at the NASA facility.
C-5 mins,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: OSKAR HOMOLKA



8:00 PM -- I Remember Mama (1948)
Norwegian immigrants face the trials of family life in turn-of-the-century San Francisco.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes, Oskar Homolka
BW-134 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Oskar Homolka, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Barbara Bel Geddes, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ellen Corby, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Nicholas Musuraca

The previous play was produced on Broadway by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The film's producers purchased the rights for $2500 for each week of the play's run, up to $150,000, on the condition that the film would not be made until the play closed. The stage version ended up running for nearly two years. The original Broadway production opened on October 19, 1944 at the Music Box Theater and ran for 713 performances with a cast that included Marlon Brando in his Broadway debut. Oskar Homolka was the only member of the Broadway cast to reprise his role.


10:30 PM -- Comrade X (1940)
An American warms up an icy Russian streetcar conductor.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: Clark Gable, Hedy Lamarr, Oskar Homolka
BW-90 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Walter Reisch

At the time this film was released, in 1940, World War II had already begun in Europe, but the Soviet Union still had a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany. In the film, Mac is able to fool a character by pretending to hear news that Germany has broken the pact and launched an invasion of the USSR. Of course, that's exactly what happened the very next year when Germany launched Operation Barbarossa in summer 1941.


12:15 AM -- The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969)
An eccentric Parisian woman's optimistic perception of life begins to sound more rational than the rather traditional beliefs of others.
Dir: Bryan Forbes
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Paul Henreid, Oskar Homolka
C-132 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The Place de Chaillot set, still standing at Studio la Victorine, was reused by François Truffaut as the set on which "Meet Pamela", the film-within-a-film in Day for Night (1973), was being shot.


2:45 AM -- The Decline of Western Civilization, Part III (1998)
Documentary cameras capture the rebellious lives of L.A.'s gutter punks.
Dir: Penelope Spheeris
Cast: Stephen Chambers, Flea, Gary Fredo
C-86 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The film was originally to be titled 'The Decline In Eastern Civilization' and was to cover the Japanese heavy metal music scene.


4:20 AM -- The Making Of Cannery Row (1982)
This promotional short offers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of "Cannery Row" (1982).
Dir: Robert Ward
C-9 mins,


4:30 AM -- Over the Edge (1979)
Neglected suburban teens turn to crime as an outlet.
Dir: Jonathan Kaplan
Cast: Matt Dillon, Michael Eric Kramer, Pamela Ludwig
C-95 mins, CC,

This movie was filmed in the suburbs of greater Denver, Colorado, near a community that was co-developed alongside the infamous Columbine community. The social similarities of the troubled youth in the movie, and those of the youth of that period in the Columbine community are uncanny and not by chance. Personnel associated with the movie production spent time with a group of truant youths that they had met outside of a Columbine Strip Mall across from a local junior high located down the street from where the Columbine tragedy was to occur years later. The social implications of the story underscore the serious problems of troubled youth being discarded by the community at large.