TCM Schedule for Thursday, May 17 -- What's On Tonight: True Crime

After a trio of Joel McCrea films, we've got a day full of the talented Sig Ruman. It's not his birthday, but he was an immensely talented character actor, capable of great comic turns, as he showed in his appearances in many of the Marx Brothers films, and serious dramatic roles in The Song of Bernadette (1943) and Stalag 17 (1953). In primetime, TCM continues the theme of True Crime. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- They Shall Have Music (1939)
A runaway tries to help the students at a school for musical prodigies.
102 min, TV-G
Dir: Archie Mayo
Cast: Jascha Heifetz, Andrea Leeds, Joel McCrea

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring -- Alfred Newman

In the movie, the newspaper account lists Jascha Heifetz's stolen Violin as a Stradivarius. Heifetz actually used a Guarnarius in the picture and favored that violin in real life, but the producers felt that the name of Stradivarius would be more recognizable.


7:45 AM -- Barbary Coast (1935)
A vice king's girlfriend falls for a young miner.
90 min, TV-G
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Edward G. Robinson, Joel McCrea

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography -- Ray June

Reissued as Port of Wickedness.


9:30 AM -- The Common Law (1932)
A kept woman gives up luxury to move in with a struggling artist.
74 min, TV-PG
Dir: Paul L. Stein
Cast: Constance Bennett, Joel McCrea, Lew Cody

Based on a novel by Robert W. Chambers.


10:45 AM -- Paradise For Three (1938)
A businessman mingles with German laborers to learn more about their lives.
78 min, TV-G
Dir: Edward Buzzell
Cast: Frank Morgan, Robert Young, Mary Astor

Based on the novel "Drei Männer im Schnee", and remade in Austria as Three Men in the Snow (1955), and in Germany as Three Men in the Snow (1974).


12:15 PM -- The Wagons Roll At Night (1941)
A circus manager turns a young farm boy into a star lion tamer.
84 min, TV-G
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Sylvia Sidney, Eddie Albert

This is the first film in which Humphrey Bogart receives top billing. He would never be billed any lower for the rest of his career.


1:45 PM -- We Were Dancing (1942)
A Polish princess gives up society for the love of a gigolo.
95 min, TV-G
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Norma Shearer, Melvyn Douglas, Gail Patrick

The original play consisted of three parts, each shown on a different evening. It opened in London on 9 January 1936; the Broadway openings for each part took place on 24 November 1936, 27 November 1936 and 30 November 1936 and starred Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence, running for a total of 118 performances for all three shows. There were 2 Broadway revivals.


3:30 PM -- Government Girl (1943)
An aviation engineer and a government secretary are thrown together by the war effort.
93 min, TV-G
Dir: Dudley Nichols
Cast: Olivia de Havilland, Sonny Tufts, Anne Shirley

Leading lady Olivia de Havilland absolutely hated the role. She had not wanted to do the picture in the first place, but was forced into it by an arrangement whereby Warner Bros. loaned her services to David O. Selznick, who turned her over to RKO. Her distaste for the arrangement is evident in the wide variety of grimaces, smirks and other expressions she used to avoid creating a character of any depth or credibility.


5:15 PM -- A Night In Casablanca (1946)
A hotel manager in postwar Casablanca tackles renegade Nazis.
85 min, TV-G
Dir: Archie L. Mayo
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx

A Hollywood legend claims that Warner Brothers, makers of Casablanca, threatened to sue the Marx Brothers for using the word "Casablanca" in the title. Groucho Marx wrote a letter to Warner Brothers in which he threatened to sue them for using the word "Brothers": "Professionally, we were brothers before they ever were." However, film critic Richard Roeper claims (correctly) that the story is fake. In fact, Warner Brothers never threatened to sue, but merely inquired about the story of the Marx Brothers' film, to make sure there was no copyright infringement. Groucho used the inquiry as an excuse for a publicity stunt. He wrote a series of comic letters to Warner Brothers (in which he told the studio, "Professionally, we were brothers before you ever were.&quot The letters were published in "The Saturday Evening Post" to publicize the movie.


6:45 PM -- Spy Chasers (1955)
The Bowery Boys get mixed up with an exiled king and a murderous band of spies.
61 min, TV-G
Dir: Edward Bernds
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey

The thirty-eighth of forty-eight Bowery Boys movies.


7:51 PM -- Night Life In Chicago (1948)
In this "Traveltalk," we learn about the high-lights of Chicago's night life.
9 min
Narrator: James A. FitzPatrick

Featured are the Walnut Room of the Bismarck Hotel, the Ambassador Hotel's Pump Room, and the boardwalk at the Edgewater Beach Hotel.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: TRUE CRIME


8:00 PM -- Boomerang (1947)
A prosecutor fights to prove the defendant in a scandalous murder case is innocent.
88 min, TV-PG
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Dana Andrews, Jane Wyatt, Lee J. Cobb

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Richard Murphy

Based on a case of Homer Stille Cummings, as a Connecticut state attorney, who later became the 55th U.S. Attorney General.


9:39 PM -- Winning Your Wings (1942)
Inspirational short film designed to encourage recruits for the American Army Air Forces.
18 min
Dir: John Huston
Cast: Lieutenant James Stewart

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary -- (U.S. Army Air Force).

Look for a nearly unrecognizable Peter Graves in the Flying Fortress.


10:00 PM -- Call Northside 777 (1948)
A Chicago reporter re-opens a ten year old murder case.
111 min, TV-PG
Dir: Henry Hathaway
Cast: James Stewart, Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb

The man administering the polygraph test to convict Richard Conte was the actual inventor of the polygraph or lie detector machine, Leonarde Keeler. He plays himself in the movie.


12:00 AM -- The Wrong Man (1956)
A musician is mistaken for a vicious thief, with devastating results.
105 min, TV-PG
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle

When Manny (Henry Fonda) is taken to prison was filmed in a real prison...as he is led to his cell , you can hear one of the inmates shout, "What'd they get ya for, Henry?" and several of the other prisoners laughing.


2:00 AM -- Anatomy Of A Murder (1959)
A small-town lawyer gets the case of a lifetime when a military man avenges an attack on his wife.
161 min, TV-PG
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Arthur O'Connell, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George C. Scott, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Sam Leavitt, Best Film Editing -- Louis R. Loeffler, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Wendell Mayes, and Best Picture

The part of the judge was offered to both Spencer Tracy and Burl Ives, but instead went to Joseph N. Welch who was a lawyer in real life who had represented the U.S. Army in the televised Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954.


4:45 AM -- Dr. Crippen (1963)
The real-life story of a doctor who was hanged in London in 1910 for poisoning his wife.
98 min, TV-PG
Dir: Robert Lynn
Cast: Donald Pleasence, Coral Browne, Samantha Eggar

Last full length feature film of Olga Lindo.