TCM Schedule for Saturday, April 30, 2016 -- What's On Tonight: Ruth Hussey

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 trio of films starring Ruth Hussey, including her Oscar-nominated role as Elizabeth Imbrie in The Philadelphia Story (1940). Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Pepe (1960)
When is beloved horse is stolen and sold to a movie star young man travels to Hollywood.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Cantinflas, Dan Dailey, Shirley Jones
C-158 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Joseph MacDonald, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Ted Haworth and William Kiernan, Best Costume Design, Color -- Edith Head, Best Sound -- Charles Rice (Columbia SSD), Best Film Editing -- Viola Lawrence and Al Clark, Best Music, Original Song -- André Previn (music) and Dory Previn (lyrics) (as Dory Langdon) for the song "Faraway Part of Town", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Johnny Green

Final film appearance of both Billie Burke and Charles Coburn who appear together in the same sequence.


9:00 AM -- The Dentist (1932)
A dentist deals with a variety of eccentric and difficult patients in this comedic short.
Dir: A. Leslie Pearce
Cast: Arnold Gray, Elise Cavanna, Bud Jamison
BW-22 mins,

On the Criterion DVD edition, a musical background has been added to the soundtrack for the lost golf ball sequence.


9:30 AM -- Passport to Suez (1943)
A reformed thief goes undercover to stop Nazi agents from hijacking planes.
Dir: Andre DeToth
Cast: Warren William, Ann Savage, Eric Blore
BW-72 mins, CC,

The sixteenth of twenty-one Lone Wolf films.


10:45 AM -- Blues Busters (1950)
The Bowery Boys open a night club when a tonsillectomy turns one of them into a singing star.
Dir: William Beaudine
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Adele Jergens
BW-68 mins, CC,

Gabriel Dell's final film with The Bowery Boys.


12:00 PM -- The Fly (1958)
A scientist's experiments with teleportation produce a deadly hybrid.
Dir: Kurt Neumann
Cast: Al Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price
C-94 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

In the scene where the fly with Andre Delambre's head and arm is caught in the spider's web, a small animatronic figure with a moving head and arm was used in the spider web as a reference for actors Vincent Price and Herbert Marshall. Price later remembered that filming the scene required multiple takes, because each time he and Marshall looked at the animatronic figure, with its human head and insect body, they would burst out laughing.


2:00 PM -- Soylent Green (1973)
A future cop uncovers the deadly secret behind a mysterious synthetic food.
Dir: Richard O. Fleischer
Cast: Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, Edward G. Robinson
C-97 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

How ironic is it that one of the first films to address greenhouse gasses stars three stalwart members of the Republican party. Charlton Heston, Chuck Connors, and Joseph Cotten were lifelong active supporters of the G.O.P. All three called President Ronald Reagan their friend.


4:00 PM -- Five Million Years To Earth (1968)
Subway excavations unearth a deadly force from beyond space and time.
Dir: Roy Ward Baker
Cast: James Donald, Andrew Keir, Barbara Shelley
C-98 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

If you look closely at the London Underground station walls, you can see quite a few posters from other Hammer projects such as The Reptile (1966), Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) and The Witches (1966), as well as My Fair Lady (1964) and Hotel (1967). An old, partially-ripped poster for Sex and the Single Girl (1964) can be seen on the wall opposite the entrance to Hobbs End station.


6:00 PM -- Countdown (1968)
An astronaut takes a one-way voyage to the moon.
Dir: Robert Altman
Cast: James Caan, Joanna Moore, Robert Duvall
C-101 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

This film centers on a flight to the moon in a Gemini spacecraft modified for a lunar landing. In fact, there were several proposals in the mid-'60s to use modified Gemini craft for lunar orbital and even lunar landings, in lieu of or complementing the Apollo flights. They were rejected for various technical, budgetary and political reasons.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: RUTH HUSSEY



8:00 PM -- The Uninvited (1944)
A brother and sister buy a house with a ghostly secret.
Dir: Lewis Allen
Cast: Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp
BW-99 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang

The beautiful song "Stella By Starlight", by Victor Young, was written specifically for this movie and is featured several times. In the movie Roderick Fitzgerald "writes" it for Stella Meredith.


10:00 PM -- H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941)
A stuffy businessman livens things up by having a fling.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: Hedy Lamarr, Robert Young, Ruth Hussey
BW-120 mins, CC,

Favorite film of Hedy Lamarr.


12:15 AM -- The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Tabloid reporters crash a society marriage.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart
BW-112 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Donald Ogden Stewart

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ruth Hussey, Best Director -- George Cukor, and Best Picture

On Broadway, Katharine Hepburn played opposite Joseph Cotten (in the role played by Cary Grant in the film), Van Heflin (the James Stewart role) and Shirley Booth (the Ruth Hussey role). Anne Baxter played the younger sister. The play ran for 415 performances, making nearly $1 million at the box office. It then went on tour for another 250 performances and an additional $750,000 in box-office receipts.


2:15 AM -- God Told Me To (1976)
A cop investigates a series of gruesome murders seemingly inspired by God.
Dir: Larry Cohen
Cast: Tony LoBianco, Sandy Dennis, Deborah Raffin
C-90 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Composer Bernard Herrmann, Larry Cohen's first choice to score the film, died that night after seeing the film without music. The film is dedicated to Hermann in his honor.


3:45 AM -- It Lives Again (1978)
An epidemic of mutant monster babies sweeps America.
Dir: Larry Cohen
Cast: Frederic Forrest, Kathleen Lloyd, John Marley
C-91 mins, CC,

There was such a strong response to the film during its sneak preview that executives were convinced that the audience had been filled with "ringers".


5:30 AM -- Living Stereo (1958)
In this promotional short RCA Victor company explains one of their innovations stereophonic phonograph record.
BW-8 mins,


5:30 AM -- Movie Trailer (1950)
This is a short compilation reel of local movie theater trailers for upcoming events, such as a "Bug-o-Rama" festival and a "Marathon of Fright."
BW-16 mins,