TCM Schedule for Thursday, December 14, 2017 -- What's On Tonight: The Great American Songbook

In the daylight hours, TCM is going for the big Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated spectacles -- Ben-Hur (1959), Doctor Zhivago (1965), Marie Antoinette (1938), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1956). Prepare to be dazzled. Then in prime time, TCM continues their month of Thursday nights of great films that feature great songs. Enjoy!

(And mea culpa, mea culpa! Medical issues have kept me busy this week and I just got behind in everything. My apologies!)


6:00 AM -- BEN-HUR (1959)
While seeking revenge, a rebellious Israelite prince crosses paths with Jesus Christ.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet
C-222 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Charlton Heston, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Hugh Griffith (Hugh Griffith was not present at the awards ceremony. Director William Wyler accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert Surtees, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- William A. Horning, Edward C. Carfagno and Hugh Hunt (In case of Horning the Oscar win was posthumously.), Best Costume Design, Color -- Elizabeth Haffenden, Best Sound -- Franklin Milton (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer SSD), Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters and John D. Dunning, Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (visual), R.A. MacDonald (visual) and Milo B. Lory (audible), Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa, and Best Picture

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Karl Tunberg

The desert sequences were all set to be filmed in Libya until authorities in the country--a Muslim nation--realized that the film was promoting Christianity. The government ordered MGM out of the country, forcing the studio to shift filming to Spain, which has the only desert in Europe.


9:51 AM -- PASTERNAK (1965)
A short biography of Boris Pasternak, Nobel prize winner and author of "Dr. Zhivago," the inspiration and basis of the 1965 movie.
C-9 mins,


10:00 AM -- DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965)
Illicit lovers fight to stay together during the turbulent years of the Russian Revolution.
Dir: David Lean
Cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Julie Christie, Tom Courtenay
C-200 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Bolt, Best Cinematography, Color -- Freddie Young, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- John Box, Terence Marsh and Dario Simoni, Best Costume Design, Color -- Phyllis Dalton, and Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Maurice Jarre

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Tom Courtenay, Best Director -- David Lean, Best Sound -- A.W. Watkins (M-G-M British SSD) and Franklin Milton (M-G-M SSD), Best Film Editing -- Norman Savage, and Best Picture

The film was shot in Spain during the regime of Gen. Francisco Franco. While the scene with the crowd chanting the Marxist theme was being filmed (at 3:00 in the morning), police showed up at the set thinking that a real revolution was taking place and insisted on staying until the scene was finished. Apparently, people who lived near where filming was taking place had awoken to the sound of revolutionary singing and had mistakenly believed that Franco had been overthrown. As the extras sang the revolutionary Internationale for a protest scene, the secret police surveyed the crowd, making many of the extras pretend that they didn't know the words.


1:30 PM -- COMPLIMENTS OF THE SEASON (1930)
In this short film, a criminal attempting to go straight stops a young lady on Christmas eve from committing suicide. Vitaphone Release 1094-1095.
Dir: Arthur Hurley
Cast: Eric Dressler, Lenita Lane, Pat O'Brien
BW-14 mins,


2:00 PM -- MARIE ANTOINETTE (1938)
Lavish biography of the French queen who "let them eat cake."
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: Norma Shearer, Tyrone Power, John Barrymore
BW-157 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Norma Shearer, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Morley, Best Art Direction -- Cedric Gibbons, and Best Music, Original Score -- Herbert Stothart

From its initial inception up until right before the cameras started to roll, the film was designed to be shot in Technicolor. All of the sets and costumes were designed with color in mind. MGM went as far as to send the fox cape that Norma Shearer wears (to see Henry Stephenson on the night she becomes Queen) to New York to be specially dyed to match the blue of her eyes. Fearing that the addition of Technicolor would swell the already mammoth (for the time) $1.8-million budget, the production went before black-and-white cameras instead.


4:45 PM -- AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956)
A Victorian gentleman bets that he can beat the world's record for circling the globe.
Dir: Michael Anderson
Cast: Cantinflas, Finlay Currie, Robert Morley
C-182 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Adapted -- James Poe, John Farrow and S.J. Perelman, Best Cinematography, Color -- Lionel Lindon, Best Film Editing -- Gene Ruggiero and Paul Weatherwax, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Victor Young (Posthumously.), and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Michael Anderson, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- James W. Sullivan, Ken Adam and Ross Dowd, and Best Costume Design, Color -- Miles White

The film used 140 sets built at six Hollywood studios, as well as sets in England, Hong Kong and Japan. It also set several records. The cast and crew flew over 4,000,000 miles. Casting included 68,894 extras in 13 countries, and 74,685 costumes were designed, made or rented for the film. The 1,243 extras listed on the IMDb page (and in the original program book) were only the extras who worked on the film in Hollywood. Ninety animal handlers managed 8,552 animals (3,800 sheep, 2,448 buffalo, 950 donkeys, 800 horses, 512 monkeys, 17 bulls, 15 elephants, six skunks and four ostriches).



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK



8:00 PM -- GIRL CRAZY (1943)
A womanizing playboy finds true love when he's sent to a desert college.
Dir: Norman Taurog
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Gil Stratton
BW-99 mins, CC,

Location shooting was in Palm Springs with large cut outs of saguaro cactuses dotted around the set to create the illusion of the dessert. With temperatures topping 120 degrees fahrenheit and dust from low flying planes from a WWII military airfield near by - production was plagued with shooting delays.


10:00 PM -- ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND (1938)
A forward thinking bandleader fights to make ragtime respectable.
Dir: Henry King
Cast: Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche
BW-106 mins, CC,

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

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- Irving Berlin, Best Art Direction -- Bernard Herzbrun and Boris Leven, Best Film Editing -- Barbara McLean, Best Music, Original Song -- Irving Berlin for the song "Now It Can Be Told", and Best Picture

This was the first time that composer Irving Berlin had worked with Ethel Merman. He told her that he was so impressed with her talent that he would work with her again. He kept that promise and wrote two Broadway shows especially for her: "Annie Get Your Gun" in 1946 and "Call Me Madam" in 1950, the latter of which also starred Merman in the film adaptation: Call Me Madam (1953). Merman also later starred in a film that, like this one, was a cavalcade of Irving Berlin songs, There's No Business Like Show Business (1954).


12:00 AM -- HIGH SOCIETY (1956)
In this musical version of The Philadelphia Story, tabloid reporters invade a society wedding.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra
C-112 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Cole Porter for the song "True Love", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Johnny Green and Saul Chaplin

The song True Love, written by Cole Porter especially for the movie, was a million seller and both Grace Kelly and Bing Crosby were awarded platinum records for the song. This is the only platinum record ever given to sitting royalty as Grace Kelly had become Princess Grace by the time it was awarded.


2:00 AM -- THREE LITTLE WORDS (1950)
Musical biography of songwriters Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, who surreptitiously helped each other out of jams.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Fred Astaire, Red Skelton, Vera-Ellen
C-102 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- André Previn

The real Harry Ruby appears in a bit part as one of the baseball players. He is the one who catches the ball thrown by Red Skelton (as Harry Ruby) and tells "Ruby" to take it easy.


4:00 AM -- ARTIE SHAW AND HIS ORCHESTRA IN "SYMPHONY OF SWING" (1939)
In this musical short film, Artie Shaw and his orchestra play various popular songs, such as "Jeepers Creepers" and "Lady Be Good." Vitaphone Release B235.
Dir: Joseph Henabery
BW-10 mins,


4:15 AM -- SECOND CHORUS (1940)
Two composers vie for their lady manager's heart as they head for Broadway.
Dir: H. C. Potter
Cast: Fred Astaire, Paulette Goddard, Artie Shaw
BW-84 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Artie Shaw (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "Love of My Life", and Best Music, Score -- Artie Shaw

The song and dance number "I Ain't Hep to That Step But I'll Dig It" was shot in one take after rigorous rehearsals. Fred Astaire was apprehensive about doing the number as he didn't rate Paulette Goddard as a dancer but she acquitted herself sufficiently for him to be happy with the take. This proved to be the last routine for Astaire that was shot in one take, such was the nature of his professionalism. Goddard later said that she could never go through all that again, such was the intensity of the rehearsals.