TCM Schedule for Friday, April 22, 2016 -- What's On Tonight: Star of the Month - Judy Garland

In the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating blondes. In prime time, April's Star of the Month is Judy Garland. Tonight's films are from the mid to late 1940s, including some of her most memorable roles, in big, grand musicals. Unfortunately, this is also the period when her problems with pills began to visibly affect her work. Enjoy!



7:00 AM -- Smart Blonde (1936)
An ambitious reporter forces her policeman boyfriend to let her help with a murder case.
Dir: Frank McDonald
Cast: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Winifred Shaw
BW-59 mins, CC,

The first of the Torchy Blane film series. Tom Kennedy, who plays the dumb cop Gahagan in this film, repeated the role in all the subsequent Torchy Blane series films. He was the only actor to appear in all nine Torchy Blane movies.


8:15 AM -- The Adventurous Blonde (1937)
Reporter Torchy Blane walks out on her own wedding to solve the case of a murdered actor.
Dir: Frank MacDonald
Cast: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Anne Nagel
BW-61 mins,

Third of the nine Torchy Blane films.


9:30 AM -- The Bamboo Blonde (1946)
A nightclub singer inspires a World War II flyer who names his bomber after her.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Frances Langford, Ralph Edwards, Russell Wade
BW-68 mins, CC,

Based on the story Chicago Lulu, by Wayne Whittaker.


10:45 AM -- Blonde From Brooklyn (1945)
An aspiring singer masquerades as a Southern belle to get a radio job.
Dir: Del Lord
Cast: Robert Stanton, Lynn Merrick, Thurston Hall
BW-65 mins, CC,

IMDB calls this a musical, but it's apparently so insignificant that there is no soundtrack listing. The music was by Paul Sawtell, but he was not given on-screen credit. IMDB does give him credit for more than 800 films and television episodes. Busy man!


12:00 PM -- Blonde Inspiration (1941)
A pulp-fiction writer hires a curvaceous blonde to be his muse.
Dir: Busby Berkeley
Cast: John Shelton, Virginia Grey, Albert Dekker
BW-72 mins,

Although the screen credits a play by John Cecil Holm as the basis for the screenplay, no record of any production of the play has been found. He was also the author of a play called Three Men on a Horse, that was produced on Broadway four times (from 1935 to 1987), and made into four films.


1:15 PM -- Blonde Fever (1944)
A woman fights to save her husband from a sluttish waitress.
Dir: Richard Whorf
Cast: Philip Dorn, Mary Astor, Felix Bressart
BW-69 mins,

Gloria Grahame's first film.


2:30 PM -- Don't Bet On Blondes (1935)
An actress's manager tries to keep her from leaving the stage for marriage.
Dir: Robert Florey
Cast: Warren William, Claire Dodd, Guy Kibbee
BW-59 mins,

In preparation for their book, "The Films of Errol Flynn," authors Clifford McCarthy, Rudy Behlmer, and Tony Thomas arranged for a screening of "Don't Bet on Blondes" at Warners. However, the studio's nitrate print was in such bad shape that Warner decided to destroy the print because of its deteriorating, highly flammable state.


3:30 PM -- Blond Cheat (1938)
A millionaire backs his daughter's stage career to keep her from marrying the wrong man.
Dir: Joseph Santley
Cast: Joan Fontaine, Derrick DeMarney, Cecil Cunningham
BW-62 mins, CC,

Based on an original story by Aladar Laszlo.


4:45 PM -- Blonde Crazy (1931)
A con-man bellhop and his chambermaid girlfriend set out to fleece hotel guests.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth
Cast: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Louis Calhern
BW-79 mins, CC,

This is the film that everyone misquotes, as James Cagney's character saying "You dirty rat"! He actually said " Mmm, that dirty, double-crossin' rat!"


6:15 PM -- Bombshell (1933)
A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank Morgan
BW-96 mins, CC,

Although based on the life of Clara Bow, many elements of the story also matched Jean Harlow's own life. Harlow grew up in a Georgian home with white interiors, had nine large dogs, and some members of her family exploited her celebrity.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: JUDY GARLAND



8:00 PM -- The Harvey Girls (1946)
Straitlaced waitresses battle saloon girls to win the West for domesticity.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Ray Bolger
C-101 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Harry Warren (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe"

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Lennie Hayton

In the big production number "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe", from Judy Garland's entrance until the tempo change is one take. Rumor has it they only shot it twice and she was dead-on both times.


10:00 PM -- Easter Parade (1948)
When his partner leaves him, a vaudeville star trains an untried performer to take her place, finding love in the process.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Peter Lawford
C-103 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Johnny Green and Roger Edens

The shedding feathered gown worn by Judy Garland when she dances with Fred Astaire in one number is an inside joke reference to Ginger Rogers' problematic gown dancing with Fred Astaire in Top Hat (1935). An ostrich feather broke loose from Ginger Rogers' elaborate gown and stubbornly floated in mid air around Astaire's face.


12:00 AM -- The Pirate (1948)
An actor poses as a notorious pirate to court a romantic Caribbean girl.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Walter Slezak
C-102 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Lennie Hayton

According to Judy Garland's biographer, Gerold Frank, The Pirate (1948) was the first film ever in which the studio hired a psychiatrist, paid for out of the film's production budget, to treat the star during shooting and make sure she was mentally healthy enough to perform.


2:00 AM -- Summer Stock (1950)
A farmer gets sucked into show business when a theatrical troupe invades her farm.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Eddie Bracken
C-109 mins, CC,

Judy Garland is said to have been at the height of her drug addiction throughout filming, resulting in her weight changes, mood-swings, and unexplained illnesses. It was due to this behavior that MGM fired her after filming completed. She did not appear in another film until 1954's A Star Is Born (for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress).


4:00 AM -- In the Good Old Summertime (1949)
In this musical remake of The Shop Around the Corner, feuding co-workers in a small music shop do not realize they are secret romantic pen pals.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Judy Garland, Van Johnson, S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakall
C-103 mins, CC,

Buster Keaton was working as a gag writer at MGM when this movie was made. The filmmakers approached him to devise a way for a violin to get broken that would be both comic and plausible. Keaton came up with an appropriate fall, and the filmmakers then realized he was the only one who would be able to execute it properly, so they cast him in the film. Keaton also devised the sequence in which Van Johnson inadvertently wrecks Judy Garland's hat, and coached Johnson intensively in how to perform the scene. This was the first MGM film Keaton appeared in since being fired from the studio in 1933.


5:45 AM -- Words And Music (1948)
Songwriters Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart search for love while rising to the top.
Dir: Norman Taurog
Cast: Perry Como, Mickey Rooney, Ann Sothern
C-121 mins, CC,

Judy Garland's two songs "I Wish I Were in Love Again" and "Johnny One Note" are sung at the same party, but they were filmed four months apart from each other. You can tell based on the longer length of her hair in the second number and the thicker, belt-less waistline (from a slight weight gain) in the dress she is wearing.