TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 9 -- TCM Spotlight - 1939

Today we have a bunch of teen movies of the 1960s, featuring the Men From UNCLE, Herman's Hermits, and a trio of beach movies, but tonight is the real treat -- the westerns of the golden year of Hollywood, 1939. This 1939 theme continues through the night and into Friday morning with Each Dawn I Die and The Roaring Twenties. Enjoy!


4:30am -- Lassie Come Home (1943)
A faithful collie undertakes an arduous journey to return to her lost family.
Cast: Roddy McDowall, Donald Crisp, Dame May Whitty, Edmund Gwenn
Dir: Fred M. Wilcox
C-89 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Leonard Smith

Elizabeth Taylor replaced the actress Maria Flynn, who was not seen to be afraid of the dog on the set. But when the "rushes" came back from the Metrocolor processing lab, three days later, her fear of the male collie showed. And the production was halted. The producer was walking the 600 block of North Foothill Road in Beverly Hills doing his nightly patrol as an air raid warden when he met Francis Taylor, who patrolled the 700 block. Knowing he and Sara wanted to get their daughter into the movies, he asked him to bring Elizabeth to the studio. There she was introduced to Lassie and the production resumed.


6:00am -- To Trap a Spy (1964)
Secret agents try to stop the assassination of an African leader touring the U.S.
Cast: Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Luciana Paluzzi, Patricia Crowley
Dir: Don Medford
C-93 mins, TV-PG

This film is a re-edited version of the pilot episode for "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." (1964), plus footage from at least one other episode, with a number of changes. The famous character of Mr. Waverly is not in this film, for example.


7:45am -- The Spy With My Face (1966)
Enemy agents turn one of their own into a dead ringer for Man from U.N.C.L.E. Napoleon Solo.
Cast: Robert Vaughn, Senta Berger, David McCallum, Leo G. Carroll
Dir: John Newland
C-86 mins, TV-PG

The movie first aired on NBC@8:30 p.m. (EST), Tuesday, November 17, 1964 as the eighth episode of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." (1964), "The Double Affair."


9:15am -- Hold On! (1966)
Rocket scientists consider naming a space ship after Herman's Hermits.
Cast: Peter Noone, Karl Green, Keith Hopwood, Derek Leckenby
Dir: Arthur Lubin
C-86 mins, TV-PG

A pre-MTV extended music video of Herman's Hermits, with a sort of a story,


10:45am -- Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter (1968)
Herman's Hermits travel to England for a high-stakes greyhound race.
Cast: Peter Noone, Karl Green, Keith Hopwood, Derek Leckenby
Dir: Saul Swimmer
C-95 mins, TV-G

Peter Noone had a part on the long-running British television series Coronation Street, years before forming Herman's Hermits.


12:21pm -- Short Film: From The Vaults: The Sky Divers (1969)
A behind the scenes, promotional short about the making of the feature film The Gypsy Moths (1969).
Narrator: Wink Marindale
Dir: Dale Mackay.
C-15 mins

The Gypsy Moths is one of John Frankenheimer's favorites of the films he has directed.


12:45pm -- For Those Who Think Young (1964)
Teens fight to keep a wealthy businessman from shutting down their beachside hangout.
Cast: James Darren, Pamela Tiffin, Woody Woodbury, Paul Lynde
Dir: Leslie H. Martinson
C-97 mins, TV-G

So far as I can tell, this movie is the only non-Gilligan's Island pairing of Tina Louise and Bob Denver.


2:30pm -- Get Yourself A College Girl (1964)
A music publisher courts a student songwriter at a ski resort.
Cast: Mary Ann Mobley, Chad Everett, Joan O'Brien, Nancy Sinatra
Dir: Sidney Miller
C-87 mins, TV-PG

B-movie with some classic musical performances, including Astrid Gilberto singing The Girl From Ipanema and the Standells performing The Swim.


4:00pm -- It's A Bikini World (1967)
When a female scientist turns down a playboy's pass, he poses as his own brother to win her heart.
Cast: Deborah Walley, Tommy Kirk, Robert Pickett, Suzie Kaye
Dir: Stephanie Rothman
C-85 mins, TV-PG

Although this movie takes place in the summer, as is made clear by some conversation between Woody and Mike early in the film. When Woody, Herbert and Delilah drive downtown, some shots reveal a good amount of Christmas decor (neon Santa Clauses all down the street can be seen in one of the scene's first shots).


5:30pm -- Beach Party (1963)
An anthropologist studies the dating habits of the teens hanging out on a nearby beach.
Cast: Bob Cummings, Dorothy Malone, Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello
Dir: William Asher
C-98 mins, TV-PG

The first of the American-International Beach Party movies. Although his character, "old fogey" Professor Sutwell, knew nothing about beach life, actor Robert Cummings was a competent surfer himself, as documented in personal home movies shot in Hawaii by Hollywood's television host and author Ken Murray


7:15pm -- MGM Parade Show #19 (1955)
Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly perform in a clip from "Ziegfeld Follies"; George Murphy introduces a clip from "Ransom." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-25 mins, TV-G

Ziegfeld Follies is one of only two films in which Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire danced together. The other was That's Entertainment, Part II (1976).


What's On Tonight: TCM SPOTLIGHT: 1939


8:00pm -- Union Pacific (1939)
A crooked politician tries to stop construction of the first intercontinental railroad.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Akim Tamiroff, Robert Preston
Dir: Cecil B. De Mille
BW-135 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Farciot Edouart (photographic), Gordon Jennings (photographic) and Loren L. Ryder (sound)

In order to operate the number of trains required by the production, Paramount had to get a regulation railroad operating license from the Interstate Commerce Commission.


10:30pm -- Dodge City (1939)
A soldier of fortune takes on the corrupt boss of a Western town.
Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Sheridan, Bruce Cabot
Dir: Michael Curtiz
C-104 mins, TV-PG

Country rock band Pure Prairie League, who had a mid '70s hit called "Amie" and later employed future country star Vince Gill as lead singer for hits like "Let Me Love You Tonight" and "I'm Almost Ready," took their name from a temperance union portrayed in this film.


12:30am -- Stagecoach (1939)
A group of disparate passengers battle personal demons and each other while racing through Indian country.
Cast: Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Andy Devine, John Carradine
Dir: John Ford
BW-96 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Thomas Mitchell, and Best Music, Scoring -- Richard Hageman, W. Franke Harling, John Leipold and Leo Shuken

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Alexander Toluboff, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Bert Glennon. Best Director -- John Ford, Best Film Editing -- Otho Lovering and Dorothy Spencer, and Best Picture

The interior sets all have ceilings, an unusual practice at the time for studio filming. This was to create a claustrophobic effect in complete counterpoint to the wide open expanse of Monument Valley.


2:15am -- The Oklahoma Kid (1939)
A cowboy sets out to avenge his father's lynching.
Cast: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Rosemary Lane, Donald Crisp
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
BW-81 mins, TV-PG

According to a contemporary magazine article, actors Hugh Sothern and Al J. Jennings had been participants in the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1895.


3:45am -- Blind Alley (1939)
When a gangster takes him hostage, a psychiatrist psychoanalyzes the criminal.
Cast: Chester Morris, Ralph Bellamy, Ann Dvorak, Joan Perry
Dir: Charles Vidor
BW-69 mins, TV-PG

This film was re-made as The Dark Past (1948). It starred Lee J. Cobb as the psychiatrist (Ralph Bellamy in Blind Alley) and William Holden as the killer (Chester Morris' role).

SYNOPSIS

Geronimo and his band of Apaches have severed the telegraph wires, leaving the town of Tonto, New Mexico, cut off from the rest of the world. In the meantime, a stagecoach is heading out of town for Lordsburg, carrying individuals from all walks of society: Dallas, a "fallen lady" who is chased out of town by gossip-mongering society ladies; Dr. Josiah Boone, a doctor whose alcoholism has ruined his practice; Samuel Peacock, a timid whisky drummer; Lucy Mallory, a refined but tough-minded woman who will stop at nothing to be reunited with her cavalry officer husband; Henry Gatewood, a banker who uses his aura of respectability to hide embezzled money; and Hatfield, a Southern gambler with a sketchy past who skips town under the pretext of gallantry protecting Mrs. Mallory. Escorted by the stagecoach driver and Sheriff Curly Wilcox, they embark for Lordsburg. Along the way, they meet up with the notorious Ringo Kid, whom the Sheriff arrests. Before they finally reach Lordsburg, various crises, from childbirth to the climactic Apache raid, reveal the underlying character of each stagecoach rider.

Director: John Ford
Producer: Walter Wanger
Screenplay: Dudley Nichols, based on Stage to Lordsburg by Ernest Haycox
Cinematography: Bert Glennon
Editing: Dorothy Spencer and Walter Reynolds
Music: Louis Gruenberg, Richard Hageman, W. Franke Harling, John Leipold, Leo Shuken
Art Direction: Alexander Toluboff
Principal cast: John Wayne (The Ringo Kid), Claire Trevor (Dallas), John Carradine (Hatfield), Thomas Mitchell (Dr. Josiah Boone), Andy Devine (Buck Rickabaugh), Donald Meek (Mr. Samuel Peacock), Louise Platt (Lucy Mallory), George Bancroft (Sheriff Curly Wilcox), Berton Churchill (Henry Gatewood), Tim Holt (Lt. Blanchard).
BW-97m.


Why STAGECOACH is Essential

Stagecoach (1939) was director John Ford's first Western since Three Bad Men (1926). Although Ford had earned a reputation as a significant director with films such as The Iron Horse (1924), his early sound films were less successful. By the mid-30s, he had recovered lost ground, winning an Oscar for his direction of The Informer(1935) and becoming one of the most respected and highly paid directors in Hollywood. Ford bought the rights to the story for Stagecoach for $7500 and his longtime collaborator Dudley Nichols wrote the adaptation. Unable to find support for the project at studios like Fox, MGM and Warner Brothers, Ford finally attracted interest from Selznick International Pictures. The head of production there, Merian C. Cooper, was Ford's old friend and drinking buddy. Although David O. Selznick expressed initial interest in the project, he wavered back and forth and attached various conditions to it, including a demand for big name stars such as Gary Cooper or Marlene Dietrich. Finally, independent producer Walter Wanger took up the project, giving it a relatively low budget of approximately $500,000. Ford agreed to work for $50,000, less than his usual director's fee. Dudley Nichols and the film's cast also agreed to accept reduced salaries.

From the moment we are introduced to John Wayne as the Ringo Kid, with the camera tracking in to an imposing close-up, we know we are in the presence of a major star. Although he had shown some early promise as an actor, Wayne's potential was being squandered in a series of forgettable B-Westerns for Republic Studios. Ford invited Wayne, who was already a good friend, on a weekend boat trip to read the screenplay. "I'm having a hell of a time deciding whom to cast as the Ringo Kid," he said. "You know a lot of young actors, Duke. See what you think." Wayne suggested Lloyd Nolan. "Nolan?" Ford asked incredulously. "Jesus Christ, I just wish to hell I could find some young actor in this town who can ride a horse and act." The next day, as the boat pulled into the harbor, Ford declared, "I have made up my mind. I want you to play the Ringo Kid." It was likely that Ford had Wayne in mind for the role from the beginning. However, he had to work hard to convince Wanger to cast the star of mediocre B-Westerns in the part; and Republic Studios, to which Wayne was still under contract, proved to be a difficult negotiator.

Legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt also deserves to be noted for his contributions to the picture. One scene, which required the stagecoach full of passengers to be floated across a river, was deemed impossible by technicians to pull off and John Ford considered removing it from the script altogether. Canutt, however, suggested using hollow logs tied to the coach; the air would give them increased buoyancy, offsetting the weight of the fully loaded coach. In addition, an underwater cable was used to help pull the stagecoach. Canutt's plan worked, and the scene was retained for the film. But it is for Canutt's magnificent (and dangerous) stunts on this film that he is remembered today. In the most striking of these, he plays an Indian who rides alongside the coach at full speed - approximately forty miles per hour - and transfers from the horse he is riding to a horse on the team. After he is shot by Wayne, he falls between the two lead horses and hangs from the rig before letting go and allowing the horses and the stagecoach to pass over him.

Although it was not the first film to use Monument Valley as a location, Stagecoach did much to popularize it. Part of the vast Navajo reservation near the Utah/Arizona border, the desolate landscape with its striking sandstone buttes and mesas, lends a mythic quality to the film, dwarfing the vulnerable stagecoach party in the presence of eternal and impersonal Nature. It came to embody the very idea of the West for John Ford, who used Monument Valley in many of his later films. At the time the film was made, the region was still sparsely populated and not readily accessible, making work difficult for the film crew. Yet as prominent as it appears in the film, the location was in fact used surprisingly little. The Apache raid was shot on the Muroc dry lake bed near Victorville, California, and the river crossing took place on the Kern River near Kernville, California, to name only a couple of other locations that were used. The interior scenes of the coach were all shot in a studio, and the town sequences were shot on Hollywood backlots. Moreover, to focus solely on the admittedly stunning outdoor landscapes is to lose sight of the film's stylistic richness as a whole: the beautifully lit nighttime scene in Lordsburg, with graceful tracking shots following Dallas and the Ringo Kid on their stroll through the town; and the taut editing of the conversations inside the stagecoach, with their perfectly timed reaction shots.

Stagecoach received seven Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Score, Best Art Direction and Best Supporting Actor (Thomas Mitchell). Even in the face of the Gone With the Wind juggernaut at that year's Academy Awards ceremony, it won two awards - for Thomas Mitchell's performance as Dr. Josiah Boone and for the score, a deft combination of folk tunes, including the hymn "Shall We Gather at the River," which seems to have been used in every subsequent Ford Western and is darkly parodied in Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969).


Behind the Camera on STAGECOACH

The Breen Office, the censorship watchdog in Hollywood, rejected Dudley Nichols' treatment because of the story's sympathetic portrayal of the prostitute Dallas, Doc Boone's constant drunkenness, the Ringo Kid's thirst for revenge and the marshal's involvement in some deaths. Nichols' first draft script took the Breen Office suggestions to heart and the production went ahead without further objections from the censors.

In devising the Ringo Kid character, John Ford referred back to a silent era Western hero he created with Harry Carey, Sr. called Cheyenne Harry.

Stagecoach marked the beginning of a long friendship between John Ford and the Navajo Indians of Monument Valley. He employed scores of local Indians to play Apache warriors in Stagecoach and the various Indian tribes of many of his other Westerns. More than 200 were hired to film the climactic attack on the stagecoach alone. For his commitment to providing them with much needed work (paying them on a union scale no less), the Navajos called Ford "Natani Nez," which means "tall leader."

John Ford was so pleased with the way Yakima Canutt solved the problem of safely shooting the stagecoach's river crossing that he gave Yakima carte blanche in creating all the stunts for Stagecoach.

Yakima Canutt's spectacular stunt of being dragged underneath a team of horses and a stagecoach is rightfully famous. According to the veteran stuntman, here's how it was accomplished. "You have to run the horses fast, so they'll run straight. If they run slow, they move around a lot. When you turn loose to go under the coach, you've got to bring your arms over your chest and stomach. You've got to hold your elbows close to your body, or that front axle will knock them off." After the stunt was completed, Canutt ran to Ford to make sure they got the stunt on film. Ford replied than even if they hadn't, "I'll never shoot that again."

Ford liked to bully actors on the set, and Stagecoach was no exception. At one point he said to Andy Devine, the husky-voiced character actor who plays the coach driver: "You big tub of lard. I don't know why the hell I'm using you in this picture." Undaunted, Devine replied, "Because Ward Bond can't drive six horses." Likewise he attacked Thomas Mitchell, who eventually retorted, "Just remember: I saw Mary of Scotland," effectively humbling the director. Worst of all was Ford's treatment of the Duke. He called him a "big oaf" and a "dumb bastard" and continually criticized his line delivery and manner of walking, even how he washed his face on camera. However, at least part of this was to provoke the actor into giving a stronger performance; Claire Trevor recalls how Ford grabbed Duke by the chin and shook him. "Why are you moving your mouth so much?" he said. "Don't you know you don't act with your mouth in pictures? You act with your eyes." Wayne tolerated the rough treatment and rose to the challenge, reaching a new plateau as an actor. Ford helped cement the impression that Wayne makes in the film by giving him plenty of expressive reaction shots throughout the picture.

Claire Trevor was the highest paid cast member at $15,000. John Wayne got a grand total of $3,700, less than supporting player Tim Holt, who got $5,000.

Stagecoach grossed nearly a million dollars by the end of 1939, earning the largest profits of any Walter Wanger film production to that date.


STAGECOACH Trivia

Dudley Nichols' first screenplay Men Without Women (1930) was written for John Ford, with whom he would collaborate on fourteen more motion pictures.

The trails that the stagecoach follows through Monument Valley are the actual passageways used by stagecoaches during the 19th century expansion across the Western frontier.

Yakima Canutt, the stuntman who performed the famous stunt sequences in Stagecoach, utters the first words in the film, as the scout warning the cavalry about Geronimo.

1939 was an outstanding year for character actor Thomas Mitchell, who plays Doc Boone in Stagecoach. He also co-starred in Gone With the Wind, Only Angels Have Wings, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, all of which were Academy Award contenders.

Ironically, none of John Ford's four Oscar nominations for Best Director were earned for Westerns.

John Ford's brother Francis appears as Billy Pickett, Doc Boone's old friend and drinking buddy.

After a test screening, John Ford eliminated a needless musical sequence of the stagecoach occupants singing "Ten Thousand Cattle Gone Astray."

Claire Trevor considered John Ford among the three greatest directors she ever worked with, including William Wyler and John Huston.

Writer Maurice Zolotow asked John Wayne what had set him apart from other cowboy heroes like Bob Steele, Gene Autry, Tex Ritter, or Roy Rogers. Wayne considered the question, and simply said, "John Ford."

by Scott McGee and James Steffen