TCM Schedule for Saturday, April 23, 2016 -- What's On Tonight: Ziegfeld Follies

It appears that the Essentials with Robert Osborne and co-host Sally Field is still being delayed. In the meantime, Ben Mankiewicz will be stepping in with tonight's Essentials, featuring a pair of films about theatrical empresario Flo Ziegfeld and his revue shows "Glorifying the American Girl". And there's another film about Ziegfeld (starring Judy Garland) at 8:00 this morning. Enjoy!

And happy birthday to William Shakespeare, born (probably!) 452 years ago today, on April 23, 1564, and who died 400 years ago today, on April 23, 1616. Good on ya, Bill!



8:00 AM -- Ziegfeld Follies (1946)
Legendary showman Flo Ziegfeld imagines the kind of Follies he could produce with MGM's musical stars.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer
C-110 mins, CC,

At the beginning of the "Bring On The Beautiful Girls" number, several older women are shown. These were women who had actually appeared in the original Ziegfeld Follies on stage.


10:00 AM -- Till The Clouds Roll By (1946)
True story of composer Jerome Kern's rise to the top on Broadway and in Hollywood.
Dir: Richard Whorf
Cast: June Allyson, Lucille Bremer, Judy Garland
C-135 mins, CC,

Judy Garland, who played real-life singer-dancer Marilyn Miller, was pregnant with her first daughter, Liza Minnelli. She was placed behind stacks of dishes while singing "Look For the Silver Lining", but it was not to "hide her belly" as some have thought, because moments before her number, she is shown walking over to the set and even during her song as she is standing behind the dishes, her abdomen is not disguised.


12:30 PM -- For Whom The Bell Tolls (1943)
A U.S. mercenary and an army of peasants fight for Spain.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff
BW-165 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Katina Paxinou

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gary Cooper, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ingrid Bergman, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Akim Tamiroff, Best Cinematography, Color -- Ray Rennahan, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Hans Dreier, Haldane Douglas and Bertram C. Granger, Best Film Editing -- Sherman Todd and John F. Link Sr., Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Victor Young, and Best Picture

This film saved the famous love song "As Time Goes By" from being removed from Casablanca (1942). Ingrid Bergman began filming this movie immediately after completing "Casablanca". For this role, her hair was cut short. Meanwhile, for "Casablanca", Warner Brothers wanted to substitute another song for "As Time Goes By" and re-shoot some scenes with Bergman. However, since her hair had been cut, there would be a problem with continuity (even if Bergman wore a wig), so the idea was dropped.


3:15 PM -- Cahill, United States Marshal (1973)
A tough lawman has to bring in his own sons for a train robbery.
Dir: Andrew V. McLaglen
Cast: John Wayne, Gary Grimes, George Kennedy
C-102 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

John Wayne told an interviewer he gave up caring about the movie halfway through filming when he learned that John Ford was dying of cancer.


5:15 PM -- Ice Station Zebra (1968)
A sub commander on a perilous mission must ferret out a Soviet agent on his ship.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan
C-152 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Daniel L. Fapp, and Best Effects, Special Visual Effects -- Hal Millar and J. McMillan Johnson

Unusual for the genre, there was not a single credited female role in this movie. While this is historically accurate for the time period and situation, it is very unusual for Hollywood.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: ZIEGFELD FOLLIES



8:00 PM -- Funny Girl (1968)
Comedienne Fanny Brice fights to prove that she can be the greatest star and find romance even though she isn't pretty.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Omar Sharif, Kay Medford
C-155 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Barbra Streisand (Tied with Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter (1968).)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Kay Medford, Best Cinematography -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Sound, Best Film Editing -- Robert Swink, Maury Winetrobe and William Sands, Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics) for the song "Funny Girl", Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation) -- Walter Scharf, and Best Picture

Columbia wanted to cast Shirley MacLaine as Fanny Brice. However, producer Ray Stark, who also produced the Broadway show and was Brice's son-in-law, insisted on Barbra Streisand repeating her Broadway role.


10:45 PM -- The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
Lavish biography of Flo Ziegfeld producer who became Broadway's biggest starmaker.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer
C-176 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Luise Rainer, Best Dance Direction -- Seymour Felix for "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody", and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Robert Z. Leonard, Best Writing, Original Story -- William Anthony McGuire, Best Art Direction -- Cedric Gibbons, Eddie Imazu and Edwin B. Willis, and Best Film Editing -- William S. Gray

The sequence "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" was filmed in two lengthy takes after several weeks of rehearsals and filming (a definite cut is made when moving to a close-up on the singer dressed as Pagliacci, presumably to effect a change of camera position, necessary to start the inexorable move up the huge staircase). It features 180 performers and cost $220,000; 4,300 yards of rayon silk were used for the curtains in the scene. This was substantially more than it cost the real Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. to produce a whole show, according to former Ziegfeld girl Doris Eaton.


2:00 AM -- Possession (1981)
In search of his missing wife, a man uncovers a deadly motive for her behavior.
Dir: Andrzej Zulawski
Cast: Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Margit Carstensen
C-124 mins, CC,

This picture was very much a multi-cultural production and particularly a European one. It was a French-West German co-production filmed in English with a Polish director (Andrzej Zulawski), a Kiwi male lead actor from New Zealand (Sam Neill), mostly German actors in the supporting roles, and had a French female lead actress (Isabelle Adjani).


4:15 AM -- From the Life of the Marionettes (1980)
The continuing story of Katarina and Peter feuding, professional couple who appear in one episode of "Scenes From A Marriage."
Dir: Ingmar Bergman
Cast: Robert Atzorn, Christine Buchegger, Martin Benrath
C-100 mins,

Inspired by the film project "Love without lovers" Bergman tried to realize for many years. With the story of Peter and Katarina in the center, it instead became a piece of television drama.