TCM Schedule for Thursday, December 31, 2015 -- What's On Tonight: Thin Man Marathon

It's a day of the Marx Brothers -- what a wonderful way to finish off a so-so sort of year (and cleanse the taste of Donald Trump out of our mouths -- can you imagine the fun that Groucho would have with the Trumpster!). In prime time, TCM is offering all six of the Thin Man films. Enjoy, and have a safe and happy New Year!


6:15 AM -- 4 For Texas (1963)
Double-crossing outlaws go straight and become rival saloon owners.
Dir: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Anita Ekberg
C-115 mins, CC,

Anita Ekberg and Ursula Andress both did nude screen tests, Hollywood's first. However the censors removed all nudity from the finished film.


8:15 AM -- The Cocoanuts (1929)
While running a hotel in Florida, three clowns get caught up in the search for stolen jewels.
Dir: Joseph Santley
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx
BW-93 mins,

Filmed on a stage in New York City. Sound films were still so new that soundproofing was not installed, so the film had to be shot in the early hours of the morning to reduce outside traffic noise.


10:00 AM -- A Day At The Races (1937)
A group of zanies tries to save a pretty girl's sanitarium.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx
BW-109 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Dance Direction -- Dave Gould for "All God's Children Got Rhythm"

Groucho Marx's character was initially to have been named Dr. Quackenbush, which he and everyone else thought was too silly a name to offend anyone. However, MGM's legal department discovered at least a dozen legitimate U.S. doctors named Quackenbush, so for legal reasons the name was changed to Hackenbush. Although initially dismayed by the name change, Groucho later came to like it. He cited "Dr. Hackenbush" as his favorite character from his films, and even occasionally signed letters to friends using that name.


12:00 PM -- A Night at the Opera (1935)
Three zanies turn an operatic performance into chaos in their efforts to promote their protege's romance with the leading lady.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx
BW-91 mins, CC,

Producer Irving Thalberg would often call people in for meetings, and then keep them waiting in his office for hours while he attended other meetings on the MGM lot. One day, during pre-production for this picture, Thalberg kept The Marx Brothers waiting for several hours in his secretary's office while he was in his own office making phone calls. When Thalberg's secretary went home for the day, the brothers decided they'd had enough. They pushed the office file cabinets against Thalberg's door, trapping the producer in his office. Afterwards, Thalberg kept his appointments with the Marx Brothers, but would often interrupt his meetings with them and step out to attend other meetings--again keeping the brothers waiting for hours. One day Thalberg came back from another meeting to find Groucho Marx, Chico Marx and Harpo Marx sitting in his office completely naked, and roasting potatoes on sticks in his office fireplace. Thalberg sat down with them, had a potato and never missed or interrupted another meeting with the Marx Brothers.


1:44 PM -- Kiddie Revue (1930)
Child entertainers perform several song and dance numbers in this musical short.
Dir: Gus Edwards
Cast: Douglas Scott,
C-14 mins,


2:00 PM -- Animal Crackers (1930)
Three zanies try to recover a stolen painting during a madcap house party.
Dir: Victor Heerman
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx
BW-97 mins, CC,

Zeppo Marx, the youngest of the five brothers, was very skilled at impersonating his older siblings and occasionally performed in their place when one of them was ill or unavailable. The blackout that occurs when Chico and Harpo are attempting to steal the painting was contrived so that Zeppo could play Captain Spaulding on a day that Groucho was not on the set. (Zeppo played Spaulding several times during the show's live run; Groucho stated, "he was so good as Captain Spaulding that I would have let him play the part indefinitely, if they had allowed me to smoke in the audience.&quot


3:41 PM -- Hot Sands (1931)
In this short film newlywed couple drive into Death Valley and wind up gambling for their life. Vitaphone Release 1175.
Dir: Alfred J. Goulding
Cast: Thelma White, Billy Wayne,
BW-10 mins,


4:00 PM -- Monkey Business (1931)
Four stowaways get mixed up with gangsters while running riot on an ocean liner.
Dir: Norman McLeod
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx
BW-78 mins, CC,

Early in the movie, the Marx Brothers - playing stowaways concealed in barrels - harmonize unseen while performing the popular song 'Sweet Adeline.' It is debated whether Harpo was actually singing or not.


5:30 PM -- Horse Feathers (1932)
In an effort to beef up his school's football team college president mistakenly recruits two loonies.
Dir: Norman McLeod
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx
BW-67 mins, CC,

Professor Wagstaff's exclamation, "Jumpin' anaconda!" is actually a reference to a company, Anaconda Copper, whom Groucho Marx had invested in heavily. When the stock market crash of 1929 occurred, Marx lost several hundred thousand dollars, hence the curse word in the movie.


6:45 PM -- Duck Soup (1933)
When he's named dictator of Freedonia con artist declares war on the neighboring kingdom.
Dir: Leo McCarey
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx
BW-69 mins, CC,

Groucho Marx offered the following explanation for the movie's title: "Take two turkeys, one goose, four cabbages, but no duck, and mix them together. After one taste, you'll duck soup the rest of your life."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: NEW YEAR'S EVE THIN MAN MARATHON



8:00 PM -- The Thin Man (1934)
A husband-and-wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan
BW-91 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- William Powell, Best Director -- W.S. Van Dyke, Best Writing, Adaptation -- Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and Best Picture

For William Powell's first scene (at the bar), W.S. Van Dyke told him to take the cocktail shaker, go behind the bar and just walk through the scene while the crew checked lights and sound. Powell did it, throwing in some lines and business of his own. Suddenly he heard Van Dyke say, "That's it! Print it!" The director had decided to shoot the scene without Powell knowing it so that he'd be as relaxed and natural as possible.


9:45 PM -- After the Thin Man (1936)
Married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles try to clear Nora's cousin of a murder charge.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart
BW-112 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett

Though William Powell and Myrna Loy were very close friends off-screen, their only romantic moments together occurred on-screen. The public, however, was determined to have them married in private life as well. When the two stars showed up in San Francisco (where most of this film was shot) at the St. Francis, the hotel management proudly showed "Mr. and Mrs. Powell" to their deluxe suite. This was an especially uncomfortable moment as Jean Harlow, who was engaged to Powell, was with them, and the couple had not made a public statement about their relationship. Harlow saved the day by insisting on sharing the suite with Loy: "That mix-up brought me one of my most cherished friendships," Loy said in "Being and Becoming", her autobiography. "You would have thought Jean and I were in boarding school we had so much fun. We'd stay up half the night talking and sipping gin, sometimes laughing, sometimes discussing more serious things." Meanwhile, Powell got the hotel's one remaining room - a far humbler accommodation downstairs.


11:45 PM -- Another Thin Man (1939)
Not even the joys of parenthood can stop married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles from investigating a murder on a Long Island estate.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Virginia Grey
BW-103 mins, CC,

Two tragedies befell William Powell before the making of this film: the unexpected death of his fiancé Jean Harlow, and a difficult battle with colon cancer that required colon bypass surgery and new radiation treatments. Production of this "Thin Man" movie was delayed as a result, but Powell and Loy were given a standing ovation when he finally returned to join her on the set for filming.


1:45 AM -- Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
High society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles run into a variety of shady characters while investigating a race-track murder.
Dir: Major W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Barry Nelson
BW-97 mins, CC,

In 1941, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge had six lanes (approx. 10 feet wide each) of traffic in both directions on the upper deck. The lower deck had three lanes for east-west truck traffic with the middle lane switching direction during the rush hours. Lower deck south side (now incorporated as two traffic lanes for a total of five lanes) was used until 1958 for commuter rail. In the 1960s upper deck became five 12-foot-wide lanes west and lower deck became five 12-foot-wide lanes easterly. The footage of Nick and Nora traveling east on the upper deck is not an error as some may have reported, but as the bridge looked and as was configured at the time photographed.


3:30 AM -- The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
On a trip to visit his parents, detective Nick Charles gets mixed up in a murder investigation.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Lucile Watson
BW-101 mins, CC,

Liberal drinking of alcohol, a mainstay of the first four "Thin Man" movies, was curtailed for this movie due to wartime liquor rationing.


5:15 AM -- Song of the Thin Man (1947)
Society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles investigate a murder in a jazz club.
Dir: Edward Buzzell
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Keenan Wynn
BW-87 mins, CC,

Nick is about to tell Nicky, Jr. the "story of Dangerous Dan McGoup" as a good night tale - an allusion to the character "Dangerous Dan McGREW" from Robert Service's famous poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew". Nick, however, never gets to tell the story of the shooting - instead, inspired by Nicky's old fashioned toy pistol, he rushes off chasing another clue.