TCM Schedule for Friday, December 21, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: TCM Spotlight: Songs on Screen

In the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating the first day of winter with a bunch of cold, cold films. Then in prime time, TCM continues their month-long celebration of songs that began in films and became a part of American pop musical culture. Enjoy!



7:30 AM -- TEN LITTLE INDIANS (1966)
Party guests at a remote mansion have been brought together to pay for past crimes.
Dir: George Pollock
Cast: Hugh O'Brian, Shirley Eaton, Fabian
C-90 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

To date there have been 14 versions of this story, from a Hollywood version in 1945 to a Japanese mini-series in 2017. All versions of "Ten Little Indians" are based on the stage play by Dame Agatha Christie and not the novel. While the identity of the murderer is the same in each version, who survives the murderer's plot is different.


9:01 AM -- WHITE PERIL (1956)
This short film shows members of a "snow patrol" at work in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state.
Dir: Don Horter
BW-8 mins,

Number four in the Screenliners series.


9:15 AM -- ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1952)
A tough cop sent to help in a mountain manhunt falls for the quarry's blind sister.
Dir: Nicholas Ray
Cast: Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Ward Bond
BW-82 mins, CC,

Ida Lupino directed the film for several days when Nicholas Ray fell ill.


10:45 AM -- WINTER MEETING (1948)
A repressed poetess and an embittered war hero help each other cope with their problems.
Dir: Bretaigne Windust
Cast: Bette Davis, Janis Paige, James Davis
BW-104 mins, CC,

First film for Davis after her pregnancy and birth of her daughter Barbara Merrill (aka B.D. Hyman).


12:30 PM -- CANOEMAN'S HOLIDAY (1956)
This short film takes a look at the Loon Bay Lodge in St. Stephen, Canada.
Dir: Douglas Sinclair
Cast: Harry Wismer, George Wheelock, Jean Wheelock
BW-8 mins,

Also filmed on the St. Croix River, in both Maine and New Brunswick.


12:45 PM -- SNOW BIRDS (1932)
This short film showcases various winter sports, from tobogganing to ski-jumping.
Dir: Jules White
Cast: Pete White
BW-10 mins,

The ski jump scenes take place on what was at the time the largest ski jump in the world at Big Pines, California four miles west of Wrightwood. It was built in a bid attempt to host the 1932 Winter Olympics, the same year the Summer Games had already been awarded to Los Angeles. The Winter Games eventually went to Lake Placid, New York.


1:00 PM -- SNOWED UNDER (1936)
A playwright in search of solitude is besieged by three women.
Dir: Raymond Enright
Cast: George Brent, Genevieve Tobin, Glenda Farrell
BW-64 mins, CC,

Based on a story by Lawrence Saunders.


2:15 PM -- THE ICE FOLLIES OF 1939 (1939)
An ice-skating team breaks up when both partners fall for the same girl.
Dir: Reinhold Schunzel
Cast: Joan Crawford, James Stewart, Lew Ayres
BW-82 mins, CC,

This film was an attempt by M-G-M to replicate Fox's surprising success with "extravaganzas on ice" starring Olympic Gold Medal winning Norwegian skater Sonja Henie. In one sequence, Joan Crawford is even seen with blonde hair, emulating the appearance of Henie. Unlike Fox's Henie films, which catapulted their star into the Top Ten Box Office Players list, this film bombed so badly that Crawford's future movie career was impacted by its failure.


3:45 PM -- CANADIAN CARNIVAL (1955)
This short film presents how the city of Quebec celebrates Winter Carnival during Mardi Gras.
Dir: Douglas Sinclair
BW-8 mins,


4:00 PM -- ANNA KARENINA (1948)
Adaptation of Tolstoy's classic tale of a woman who deserts her family for an illicit love.
Dir: Julien Duvivier
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Ralph Richardson, Kieron Moore
BW-113 mins, CC,

Closing credits: "And the light by which she had been reading the book of life, blazed up suddenly, illuminating those pages that had been dark, then flickered, grew dim, and went out forever".


6:00 PM -- THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS (1966)
A bumbling professor tracks vampires in the wilds of Eastern Europe.
Dir: Roman Polanski
Cast: Jack MacGowran, Roman Polanski, Alfie Bass
C-107 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Roman Polanski was most displeased with the American version of this film. In addition to changing the title from "Dance Of The Vampires", the film was cut by over twenty minutes, and, because the plot had been made incomprehensible by these cuts (so Polanski claimed), an animated sequence was added to make the plot a little clearer. In addition, the two leading actors - Jack McGowran and Polanski himself - were dubbed by others. However, Polanski's version of the film, under its correct title, was shown in Europe. The film was shown on British television under its proper title for some years, but has been known as "The Fearless Vampire Killers" in the UK, both on TV and on DVD, since the mid-1990s, although it is otherwise as Polanski intended it to be. No-one seems to know why the title has been changed, and a generation has grown up believing "The Fearless Vampire Killers" to be the film's actual title. I have no idea which version TCM will be showing!



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: SONGS ON SCREEN



8:00 PM -- BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (1961)
A young writer gets caught up in a party girl's carefree existence.
Dir: Blake Edwards
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal
BW-115 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Henry Mancini (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "Moon River", and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Henry Mancini

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Audrey Hepburn, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- George Axelrod, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson, Sam Comer and Ray Moyer

At a post-production meeting following a screening of the film, a studio executive, in reference to "Moon River," said, "Well, I think the first thing we can do is get rid of that stupid song." Audrey Hepburn stood up at the table and said, "Over my dead body!" The song stayed in the picture.


10:15 PM -- THE WAY WE WERE (1973)
A fiery liberal fights to make her marriage to a successful writer work.
Dir: Sydney Pollack
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Bradford Dillman
C-118 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Marvin Hamlisch (music), Alan Bergman (lyrics) and Marilyn Bergman (lyrics) for the song "The Way We Were", and Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- Marvin Hamlisch

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Barbra Streisand, Best Cinematography -- Harry Stradling Jr., Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Stephen B. Grimes and William Kiernan, and Best Costume Design -- Dorothy Jeakins and Moss Mabry

When Barbra Streisand heard the titular song for the first time, she loved it. However, she made two important suggestions that ended up transforming the song into something even better. She suggested a slight shift in the melody to send it soaring at a crucial point in the song, and she also suggested changing the first line of the song from "Daydreams light the corners of my mind" to "Memories light the corners of my mind."


12:30 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,

Nominee 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.


2:30 AM -- TOP HAT (1935)
A woman thinks the man who loves her is her best friend's husband.
Dir: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton
BW-100 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Carroll Clark and Van Nest Polglase, Best Dance Direction -- Hermes Pan for "Piccolino" and "Top Hat", Best Music, Original Song -- Irving Berlin for the song "Cheek to Cheek", and Best Picture

For the "Cheek to Cheek" number, Ginger Rogers wanted to wear an elaborate blue dress heavily decked out with ostrich feathers. When director Mark Sandrich and Fred Astaire saw the dress, they knew it would be impractical for the dance. Sandrich suggested that Rogers wear the white gown she had worn performing "Night and Day" in The Gay Divorcee (1934). Rogers walked off the set, finally returning when Sandrich agreed to let her wear the offending blue dress. As there was no time for rehearsals, Ginger Rogers wore the blue feathered dress for the first time during filming, and as Astaire and Sandrich had feared, feathers started coming off the dress. Astaire later claimed it was like "a chicken being attacked by a coyote". In the final film, some stray feathers can be seen drifting off it. To patch up the rift between them, Astaire presented Rogers with a locket of a gold feather. This was the origin of Rogers' nickname "Feathers". The shedding feathers episode was recreated to hilarious results in a scene from Easter Parade (1948) in which Fred Astaire danced with a clumsy, comical dancer played by Judy Garland.


4:15 AM -- SANTA CLAUS (1959)
Santa Claus enlists Merlin to help him save Christmas from the devil.
Dir: Rene Cardona
Cast: José Elías Moreno, Cesáreo Quezadas 'Pulgarcito', José Luis Aguirre 'Trotsky'
C-95 mins,

The movie was chosen to be part of famous german "SchleFaZ" TV series. It was aired December 2016 on german TV station Tele5. "SchleFaZ" is a german abbreviation, means "the worst films ever".