TCM Schedule for Thursday, December 26, 2019 -- What's On Tonight: TCM Spotlight: Joan Blondell

Today's daytime theme is biography, specifically famous folk in their pre-fame days. In prime time, we have five films for the last of Star of the Month Joan Blondell. Enjoy!



6:30 AM -- IT'S SHOWTIME (1976)
Film clips trace the careers of the screen's most popular animal actors.
Dir: Paul M. Heller (uncredited), Alan Myerson (uncredited), Fred Weintraub (uncredited)
Cast: Daisy--The Dog, Lassie, Tony
C-86 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The longest continuous clip is from National Velvet (1944).


8:00 AM -- YOUNG MR. LINCOLN (1939)
The future president considers a political career while practicing law.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, Alice Brady, Marjorie Weaver
BW-100 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Lamar Trotti

Henry Fonda's makeup was based on photographs taken when Lincoln was about 45 years old and had lost weight due to the stresses of his job as a lawyer and his grief over the loss of Anne Rutledge; they were the earliest photos of Abraham Lincoln available at the time. It was not until years after this film was released that a photograph of Abraham Lincoln aged about 25 surfaced in a photograph collection. Ir was entitled "Photograph of a young man" and had been taken in 1844. The photograph shows that at the time it was taken, Lincoln was a sturdily built young man with a lean bony face and high cheekbones that made him very good looking if not handsome.


9:45 AM -- YOUNG BESS (1953)
The future Elizabeth I fights court intrigue in the turbulent years before her ascension to the throne.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Jean Simmons, Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr
C-112 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Urie McCleary, Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore, and Best Costume Design, Color -- Walter Plunkett

Cast as on-screen lovers Young Bess (Queen Elizabeth I) and Sir Thomas Seymour, in real life Jean Simmons and Stewart Granger were married to each other when this movie was filmed. They also appeared together in Footsteps in the Fog (1955) and Adam and Evalyn (1949); additionally Simmons had an uncredited bit part in Granger's Caesar and Cleopatra (1945).


11:45 AM -- YOUNG CASSIDY (1965)
True story of playwright Sean O'Casey's involvement with the Irish rebellion of 1910.
Dir: Jack Cardiff
Cast: Rod Taylor, Flora Robson, Jack MacGowran
C-110 mins, CC,

The character of "John Cassidy" is allegedly based on Playwright Sean O'Casey (his name is an Anglicization of O'Casey's), but Rod Taylor, playing the part, bears no resemblance to the famous writer. The real O'Casey was a diminutive man with poor eyesight who always wore thick glasses and kept out of violent encounters. He was a working-class man of strong intellectual gifts and fierce political views, and in reality was, at the time of the events depicted, about fifteen or twenty years older than "Cassidy" is supposed to be.


1:45 PM -- YOUNG WINSTON (1972)
The young Winston Churchill overcomes a bad family life and early military mistakes to launch his political career.
Dir: Richard Attenborough
Cast: Simon Ward, Peter Cellier, Ronald Hines
C-148 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- Carl Foreman, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Donald M. Ashton, Geoffrey Drake, John Graysmark, William Hutchinson and Peter James, and Best Costume Design -- Anthony Mendleson

Simon Ward was second choice for Sir Winston Churchill after Malcolm McDowell repeatedly declined the role.


4:30 PM -- YOUNG CATHERINE (1991)
The wife of the Russian tsar fights to protect herself from palace intrigue and revolution.
Dir: Michael Anderson
Cast: Julia Ormond, Christopher Plummer, Vanessa Redgrave
C-187 mins, CC,

After Ambassador Sir Charles Hanbury-Williams reported to the British government that he had befriended the Grand Duchess Catherine, he was urged to seduce her. Sir Charles refused, saying "A man my age would make a poor lover. Alas, my sceptre governs no more."


7:53 PM -- THE CINCINNATI KID PLAYS ACCORDING TO HOYLE (1965)
This promotional short for "The Cincinnati Kid" (1965) showcases the card handling skills of gambler and magician Jay Ose.
BW-6 mins,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: JOAN BLONDELL



8:00 PM -- THE CINCINNATI KID (1965)
Card sharps try to deal with personal problems during a big game in New Orleans.
Dir: Norman Jewison
Cast: Steve McQueen, Edward G. Robinson, Ann-Margret
C-103 mins, CC,

Mitzi Gaynor campaigned for the role of "Lady Fingers", but it ended up going to Joan Blondell. Rumors abound as to why Blondell got the role, with the most common being that Gaynor and Ann-Margret did not quite get along.


10:00 PM -- THE OPPOSITE SEX (1956)
In this musical remake of The Women, a happily married singer lets her catty friends convince her to file for divorce.
Dir: David Miller
Cast: June Allyson, Joan Collins, Dolores Gray
C-116 mins, CC,

Although the second Mrs. Dick Powell (Joan Blondell) was no fan of the third Mrs. Powell (June Allyson), she asked her daughter (and Allyson's stepdaughter) Ellen Powell to speak to Allyson about a role in this movie. It was Blondell's return to movies after a five-year absence, and despite the rather difficult history involving the two Mrs. Powells, all went reasonably smoothly.


12:15 AM -- THIS COULD BE THE NIGHT (1957)
A schoolteacher gets a secretarial job at a gangster-run nightclub.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Jean Simmons, Paul Douglas, Anthony Franciosa
BW-104 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Several songs from The Opposite Sex (1956) are played throughout the movie instrumentally including its theme.


2:15 AM -- ANGEL BABY (1961)
Married promoters try to turn a faith healer into a gold mine.
Dir: Paul Wendkos
Cast: Salome Jens, George Hamilton, Mercedes McCambridge
BW-98 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Mercedes McCambridge recalls in her autobiography The Quality of Mercy that while shooting the film in the Miami area, they hired a local boy to play the secondary part of Hoke Adams, a Southern-styled bully and skirt-chaser. She recalled: "He was kinda cute, but he was always disappearing into the bushes with a scantily clad Florida dollie. I didn't catch his name, the crew called him "hot pants," but his paycheck, meager though it was, was paid to the order of Burt Reynolds ... cute but girl-crazy! Probably never amount to much."


3:54 AM -- GLIMPSES OF FLORIDA (1941)
This short film takes the viewer to several cities in the state of Florida.
Dir: James A. FitzPatrick
C-9 mins,


4:15 AM -- ADVANCE TO THE REAR (1964)
Civil War rejects are sent to the West, supposedly out of harm's way.
Dir: George Marshall
Cast: Glenn Ford, Stella Stevens, Melvyn Douglas
BW-97 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

According to Gilligan's Island (1964) creator Sherwood Schwartz, he was having trouble casting the right actor for the part of the Skipper. Several had auditioned (including Carroll O'Connor) but Schwartz couldn't find the right guy. While he was having dinner in a Hollywood restaurant, he noticed Alan Hale Jr. dressed in a Civil War uniform, having dinner. Schwartz liked what he saw in Hale and began planning on casting him for the Skipper.