TCM Schedule for Thursday, April 1 -- Guest Programmer Raquel Welch

More of star of the month of March Ginger Rogers during the day, and an interesting selection of films chosen by Raquel Welch in the evening. Enjoy!


5:00am -- Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942)
A radio correspondent tries to rescue a burlesque queen from her marriage to a Nazi official.
Cast: Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Walter Slezak, Albert Dekker
Dir: Leo McCarey
BW-115 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Stephen Dunn (RKO Radio SSD)

The question of top billing was resolved by having half of the prints with Cary Grant listed first, and the other half with Ginger Rogers listed first. The TCM print lists Grant first, but the programs distributed for the world premiere at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City listed Rogers first.


7:00am -- Tender Comrade (1943)
Lady welders pool their resources to share a house during World War II.
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Robert Ryan, Ruth Hussey, Patricia Collinge
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
BW-102 mins, TV-PG

Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and director Edward Dmytryk were known for their left-wing political beliefs - they were among the infamous "Hollywood Ten" blacklisted during the McCarthy-era anti-Communist hysteria after the war - and Ginger Rogers, a staunch Republican, began noticing what she interpreted to be "anti-American" speeches in her dialog. Upon complaining, the speeches were given to other actresses.


8:45am -- Weekend at the Waldorf (1945)
In this remake of Grand Hotel, guests at a New York hotel fight to survive personal tragedy.
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
BW-130 mins, TV-G

The hotel sets for "Weekend at the Waldorf" were also used for Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945), another 1945 MGM movie.


11:00am -- The First Traveling Saleslady (1956)
A corset designer takes a job selling barbed wire in the wild West.
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Barry Nelson, Carol Channing, David Brian
Dir: Arthur Lubin
C-92 mins, TV-G

Ginger Rogers would quip that this picture shut down RKO (it was the last film produced by that studio). This very slight Western comedy went unremarked upon by contemporary film critics at The New York Times.


12:45pm -- It Had to Be You (1947)
A runaway bride meets her match in a handsome fireman.
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Cornel Wilde, Percy Waram, Spring Byington
Dir: Rudolph Maté
BW-98 mins, TV-G

Producer Don Hartman attempted to rent the Hope Diamond for Ginger Rogers to wear but was unsuccessful.


2:30pm -- Tight Spot (1955)
A district attorney tries to get a hardboiled woman to testify against the mob.
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Edward G. Robinson, Brian Keith, Lucy Marlow
Dir: Phil Karlson
BW-96 mins, TV-14

In supporting roles, you should be able to spot two future television stars, Lorne Greene (Bonanza (1959-1973) and the original Battlestar Galactica (1978-1980)), and Brian Keith (Family Affair (1966-1971) and Hardcastle and McCormick (1983-1986)).


4:15pm -- Three Wise Fools (1946)
An orphan girl melts the hearts of three crusty old men.
Cast: Margaret O'Brien, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, Edward Arnold
Dir: Edward Buzzell
BW-90 mins, TV-G

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on September 1, 1947 with Margaret O'Brien and Lionel Barrymore reprising their film roles.


6:00pm -- I Thank A Fool (1962)
A woman once convicted of euthanasia gets a job caring for her prosecutor's wife.
Cast: Susan Hayward, Peter Finch, Diane Cilento, Cyril Cusack
Dir: Robert Stevens
C-100 mins, TV-PG

I love the tagline -- "Trapped...Between a New Love And an Old Crime!"


What's On Tonight: TCM GUEST PROGRAMMER: RAQUEL WELCH


8:00pm -- Adam's Rib (1949)
Husband-and-wife lawyers argue opposite sides in a sensational women's rights case.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell
Dir: George Cukor
BW-101 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin

Katharine Hepburn reportedly urged director George Cukor to focus the camera on Judy Holliday during a number of their shared scenes, not only because she was a fan of the new-to-movies Holliday but because it was hoped the studios would see how terrific Holliday was and cast her as the lead in Born Yesterday (1950), the role she'd created on Broadway. It worked.


10:00pm -- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
An idealistic Senate replacement takes on political corruption.
Cast: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold
Dir: Frank Capra
BW-130 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Lewis R. Foster

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Harry Carey, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Claude Rains, Best Art Direction -- Lionel Banks, Best Director -- Frank Capra, Best Film Editing -- Gene Havlick and Al Clark, Best Music, Scoring -- Dimitri Tiomkin, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sidney Buchman, and Best Picture

In 1942, when a ban on American films was imposed in German-occupied France, the title theaters chose Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) for their last movie before the ban went into effect. One Paris theater reportedly screened the film nonstop for thirty days prior to the ban.


12:15am -- Breakfast At Tiffany's (1961)
A young writer gets caught up in a party girl's carefree existence.
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen
Dir: Blake Edwards
BW-115 mins, TV-G

Won 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

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

Author Truman Capote envisioned Marilyn Monroe in the part of Holly. Monroe was originally cast as Holly Golightly but her drama coach, Lee Strasberg, told her that playing a call-girl was not good for her image.


2:15am -- To Have And Have Not (1944)
A skipper-for-hire's romance with a beautiful drifter is complicated by his growing involvement with the French resistance.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan, Lauren Bacall, Dolores Moran
Dir: Howard Hawks
BW-100 mins, TV-G

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall fell in love during production. Director Howard Hawks afterward said that it was actually Bacall's character Marie that Bogart had fallen for, "so she had to keep playing it the rest of her life." However, it has also been said that Hawks - who was something of a womanizer, and who had a fling with Dolores Moran during the shooting of the film - was jealous and frustrated that Bacall had fallen for Bogart and not for Hawks himself.


4:15am -- The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks (1973)
Film clips and an exclusive interview capture the career of Hollywood's most efficient director of Westerns and screwball comedies.
Cast: Cary Grant, John Wayne, Howard Hawks
Dir: Richard Schickel
BW-55 mins, TV-PG

Howard Hawks received an Honorary Oscar as "a master American filmmaker whose creative efforts hold a distinguished place in world cinema".


5:15am -- MGM Parade Show #23 (1955)
Gene Kelly and Jerry the Mouse perform in a clip from "Anchors Aweigh"; George Murphy, Dore Schary and Richard Brooks show a short film about the making of "The Last Hunt." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-26 mins, TV-G

In Anchors Aweigh, Jerry Mouse was voiced by Sara Berner, who was the voice of nearly 100 cartoon characters in 25 years, including Andy Panda, Red Riding Hood, and Chilly Willy.

Why Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is Essential

Though it's now universally revered as an ode to democratic ideals, Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) was originally denounced by many Washington power-brokers. That may come as a bit of a shock if you haven't seen this classic picture for several years. Jimmy Stewart's lead performance made him a star, and is justly remembered as the key component of a beautifully constructed narrative. But Capra, for all his flag-waving and sometimes naive moralizing, saved a great deal of bite for the hallowed halls of American government.

If not subversive, the movie is at least driven by a strong distaste for the misuse of power by our elected officials. This was an exceptionally gutsy message at a time when Americans were concerned with the rise of Nazism overseas, and Capra surely knew he would ruffle a few feathers. But he put his foot down and said exactly what he wanted to say, much like the film's patriotic lead character. This is the kind of movie that makes you want to light up a sparkler.

Capra nearly cast Gary Cooper, but finally settled on Stewart. "I knew he would make a hell of a Mr. Smith," he said. "He looked like the country kid, the idealist. It was very close to him." Stewart knew this was the role of a lifetime, one that could place him near the top of the Hollywood heap. Jean Arthur later remembered his mood at the time: "He was so serious when he was working on that picture, he used to get up at five o'clock in the morning and drive himself to the studio. He was so terrified something was going to happen to him, he wouldn't go faster."

Even in the classics-heavy year of 1939, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was a major achievement, arguably the finest picture of Capra's storied career. It may wrap itself up a bit too easily, but you'd have to have a heart of stone to not be moved by the journey. Or, in lieu of that, you could be a U.S. Senator or Washington newspaper reporter circa 1939.

On October 17, 1939, the picture was previewed at Washington's Constitution Hall. The preview was a major production featuring searchlights and a National Guard band playing patriotic tunes; The Washington Times-Herald even put out a special edition covering the event. Four thousand guests attended, 45 Senators among them. About two-thirds of the way through the film, the grumbling began, with people walking out. Some politicians were so enraged by how "they" were being portrayed in the movie, they actually shouted at the screen. At a party afterward, a drunken newspaper editor took a wild swing at Capra for including a drunken reporter as one of the characters!

Several politicians angrily spoke out against the film in newspaper editorials, which, in the long run, may have helped its box office. Sen. Alben W. Barkley viewed the picture as "a grotesque distortion" of the Senate, "as grotesque as anything ever seen! Imagine the Vice President of the United States winking at a pretty girl in the gallery in order to encourage a filibuster!" Barkley, who was lucky he didn't get quoted on the film's posters, also said, "...it showed the Senate as the biggest aggregation of nincompoops on record!"

Senator James F. Byrnes of South Carolina suggested that official action be taken against the film's release...lest we play into the hands of Fascist regimes. And Pete Harrison, the respected editor of Harrison Reports, urged Congress to pass a bill allowing theater owners to refuse to show films - like Mr. Smith - that "were not in the best interest of our country." And you thought the Dixie Chicks got a raw deal.

Not everyone, especially American moviegoers, saw Capra's vision as an affront to democracy. Frank S. Nugent, a critic for The New York Times wrote, "(Capra) is operating, of course, under the protection of that unwritten clause in the Bill of Rights entitling every voting citizen to at least one free swing at the Senate. Mr. Capra's swing is from the floor and in the best of humor; if it fails to rock the august body to its heels - from laughter as much as from injured dignity - it won't be his fault but the Senate's, and we should really begin to worry about the upper house."

by Paul Tatara


The Big Idea Behind Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

In early 1939, Frank Capra was without question the most prominent film director in America. He had just won the Best Director Oscar® for his most recent movie, You Can't Take It with You (1938). That film, which also won for Best Picture, was just the latest in a string of hits Capra had made for Columbia Pictures and the studio's mogul, Harry Cohn. With his longtime collaborator and screenwriter Robert Riskin, Capra had helmed such classics for Cohn's studio as Lost Horizon (1937), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), and It Happened One Night (1934), for which Capra had won his first Best Director Oscar®. Capra was at something of a loss for a follow-up to You Can't Take It with You, particularly because Riskin had taken an offer from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and left Columbia. One of Capra's initial ideas, a costume biography of Chopin, was shot down immediately by Cohn, especially when Capra expressed an interest in shooting it – at great cost – in Technicolor. When he saw a two-page synopsis of an unpublished novel called The Gentleman from Montana (by Lewis R. Foster), Capra jumped on it – it featured an Everyman who becomes embroiled in the darkest aspects of Washington politics. Some consideration was given to making it a sequel to the earlier Gary Cooper film and calling it Mr. Deeds Goes to Washington, but Capra realized he needed a younger, more self-assured character than Longfellow Deeds would have been. With Riskin unavailable, writer Sidney Buchman was hired to work on the screenplay. Capra, Buchman, and Capra's long-time assistant director Art Black traveled to Washington, D.C. As Capra later wrote in his autobiography, The Name Above the Title, "The first thing we did in our Capital City was to go rubbernecking in a sightseeing bus. We wanted to see Washington just as our dewy-eyed freshman Senator from Montana would see it..." Knowing that filming the many scenes in the Capitol Building would be out of the question, Capra and his crew would face the formidable task of building a replica of the Senate chamber back at Columbia. "With us were cameraman Joe Walker to shoot backgrounds, and a still-photo crew to photograph the thousand and one details of the Senate – walls, doorknobs, chandeliers, etc. – with a yardstick in each shot as a dimension parameter for the studio set builders."

Columbia and Capra also engaged an advisor for the film, Jim Preston, who for forty years had served as the superintendent of the Senate press gallery. Capra told Preston, "I want you to arrange for our crew to come in here and photograph all the details – inkwells, pencils, stationery, everything down to the hole the Union soldier kicked in Jeff Davis' desk the day Jeff walked out to join the Confederacy. Later on you will come to Hollywood and help me select ninety-six actors to fill those desks – that look like real Senators..." Preston replied that the composite U.S. Senator was fifty-two years old, five feet-eleven inches tall, and weighed 124 pounds.

While in Washington, Capra was a guest of the press corps and attended a White House press conference with President Roosevelt. Hearing FDR address the weighty issues of Chamberlain appeasing Hitler and Japan attacking China gave Capra reason to doubt his film: "...here was I, in the process of making a satire about government officials; a comedy about a callow, hayseed Senator who comes to Washington carrying a crate of homing pigeons – to send messages back to Ma – and disrupts important Senate deliberations with a filibuster. The cancerous tumor of war was growing in the body politic, but our reform-happy hero wanted to call the world's attention to the pimple of graft on its nose." A visit to the Lincoln Memorial turned Capra's thinking around; he witnessed a scene there that he was determined to depict in his movie: "We must make the film if only to hear a boy read Lincoln to his grandpa."

Capra and company returned to Hollywood in November, 1938 to finish writing and preproduction, including an all-important task for Capra: casting. The film had an amazing 186 speaking parts. As Capra later wrote, "I seldom, if ever, made any screen tests. I thought they were idiotic and certainly unfair to the players. I selected my cast solely by instinct." For his two leads, Capra didn't look any further than the stars of his most recent film, and cast James Stewart and Jean Arthur. Edward Arnold, who had also appeared in You Can't Take It with You, was cast as primary villain James Taylor. Thomas Mitchell, who would eventually appear in a total of four Capra features, was cast as the cynical reporter Diz Moore, and H. B. Warner, a veteran of five Capra films, appeared as the Majority Leader. The director went outside of his usual casting choices for two important roles: as the flawed senior Senator Paine, he cast British actor Claude Rains. For the key role of the Vice-President, who presides over the Senate, Capra wanted "a strong American face." He found it in Harry Carey, who had been acting in cowboy films since 1908.

by John Miller