TCM Schedule for Friday, April 2 -- Fun in the Sun

Happy birthday to Jed Clampett! Buddy Ebsen was born on April 2, 1908, in Belleville, Illinois, and we're celebrating his birthday with a nice selection of his early films, including his very first role in Broadway Melody of 1936. And this evening, we'll enjoy some Fun in the Sun. Enjoy!


6:00am -- Broadway Melody Of 1936 (1935)
A Broadway columnist tries to use an innocent dancer to frame a producer.
Cast: Jack Benny, Eleanor Powell, Robert Taylor, Una Merkel
Dir: Roy Del Ruth
BW-101 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Dance Direction -- Dave Gould for "I've Got a Feeling You're Fooling"

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- Moss Hart, and Best Picture

Buddy Ebsen's first movie.


7:45am -- Born To Dance (1936)
A sailor on leave helps a young dancer make it to the top on Broadway.
Cast: Eleanor Powell, James Stewart, Virginia Bruce, Una Merkel
Dir: Roy Del Ruth
BW-106 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Dance Direction -- Dave Gould for "Swingin' the Jinx", and Best Music, Original Song -- Cole Porter for the song "I've Got You Under My Skin"

Cole Porter picked James Stewart for the male lead and later said he sang "Easy to Love" as well as any professional singer. A dubbing track was prepared with baritone Jack Owens, but it was decided that Stewart's tenor voice was perfect for the song. In That's Entertainment! (1974), Stewart said, "The song had become a huge hit, even my singing wouldn't hurt it."


9:45am -- The Girl Of The Golden West (1938)
A frontierswoman shelters a notorious outlaw.
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Walter Pidgeon, Leo Carrillo
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
BW-121 mins, TV-G

David Belasco's play was also filmed in 1915, 1923, 1930, and 1991, as well as serving as the basis for the Puccini opera. Belasco also wrote the play that was the basis for Puccini's Madama Butterfly.


12:00pm -- Four Girls In White (1939)
Student nurses cope with life's problems.
Cast: Florence Rice, Una Merkel, Ann Rutherford, Mary Howard
Dir: S. Sylvan Simon
BW-74 mins, TV-G

Florence Rice was the daughter of sportwriter/radio commentator Grantland Rice.


1:15pm -- The Kid From Texas (1939)
A playboy turns cowboy and sets up a polo match with an Indian tribe.
Cast: Dennis O'Keefe, Florence Rice, Anthony Allan, Jessie Ralph
Dir: S. Sylvan Simon
BW-71 mins, TV-G

In the 1930s, Disney animators filmed Ebsen dancing in front of a grid to "choreograph" Mickey Mouse's dance steps for the Silly Symphony cartoons.


2:30pm -- Sing Your Worries Away (1942)
A daffy songwriter inherits a fortune but has to fight off gangsters to get it.
Cast: Bert Lahr, June Havoc, Buddy Ebsen, Patsy Kelly
Dir: A. Edward Sutherland
BW-70 mins, TV-G

A. Edward Sutherland' replaced scheduled director Jack Hively who had to direct 10 days of additional scenes for Four Jacks and a Jill (1942) in October 1941.


3:45pm -- Frontier Rangers (1959)
Major Robert Rogers leads his rangers in search of a water route through America's Northwest territory.
Cast: Keith Larsen, Buddy Ebsen, Don Burnett, Larry Chance
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
C-83 mins, TV-PG

Made from three episodes of the television series Northwest Passage.


5:15pm -- Fury River (1961)
Major Robert Rogers searches for the northwest passage through the U.S. during the French and Indian War.
Cast: Keith Larsen, Buddy Ebsen, Don Burnett
Dir: Otto Lang
C-74 mins, TV-PG

Another film created from episodes of Northwest Passage.


6:30pm -- Mail Order Bride (1964)
An aging cowhand tries to help a young rancher settle down by buying him a wife.
Cast: Buddy Ebsen, Keir Dullea, Lois Nettleton, Warren Oates
Dir: Burt Kennedy
C-83 mins, TV-PG

The mail order bride's young son was played by Jimmy Mathers, younger brother of Jerry Mathers ("and Jerry Mathers, as the Beaver!").


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: FUN IN THE SUN


8:00pm -- Fun on a Weekend (1947)
Penniless strangers team up to fleece the rich.
Cast: Eddie Bracken, Priscilla Lane, Tom Conway, Allen Jenkins
Dir: Andrew Stone
BW-93 mins, TV-G

Of Priscilla Lane's 22 feature films released between 1937 and 1948, her last two screen appearances - this one and then Bodyguard (1948) - were in modest productions going without contemporary New York Times reviews.


9:45pm -- Gidget (1959)
A young girl dreams of winning acceptance from a gang of surfers.
Cast: Sandra Dee, James Darren, Cliff Robertson, Arthur O'Connell
Dir: Paul Wendkos
C-95 mins, TV-G

James Darren was originally not selected to play Moondoggie because the role required two songs to sing and Darren was not well established as a singer. On his own, he cut a single with the studio's recording subsidiary Colpix Records which charted. Columbia changed their minds and gave him the role despite the fact that he couldn't surf and was a weak swimmer. He became a huge teen idol and subsequently repeated the Moondoggie role in Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) and Gidget Goes to Rome (1963)with two other Gidgets: Deborah Walley and Cindy Carol.


11:30pm -- Palm Springs Weekend (1963)
College students on spring break turn Palm Springs into a disaster area.
Cast: Troy Donahue, Connie Stevens, Ty Hardin, Stefanie Powers
Dir: Norman Taurog
C-100 mins, TV-PG

During the scene where the motel swimming pool fills up with soap bubbles, a lot of the set crew people and actors became physically sick from the fumes caused by the bubbles popping, forcing the set to be temporarily closed down.


1:30am -- Short Film: Now Playing April (2010)
Features highlights of the month's programming on TCM, including festivals and stars.
BW-21 mins, TV-PG


2:00am -- Burnt Offerings (1976)
A family moves into a haunted house that seems to be stealing their lives.
Cast: Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Burgess Meredith, Eileen Heckart
Dir: Dan Curtis
C-116 mins, TV-MA

The shot where the vines seize Oliver Reed's legs during the escape attempt were actually done in reverse. The vines were originally unwrapped from the legs and dragged off, but in reverse the vines appear to grab his legs.


4:00am -- The House Where Evil Dwells (1982)
An American family moves into a haunted house in Japan.
Cast: Susan George, Edward Albert Jr., Doug McClure, Amy Barrett
Dir: Kevin Connor
C-88 mins

Based on a novel by James Hardiman, who at one time worked as the director of radio and television promotions for Walt Disney Productions, as well as working in the press departments at CBS, Columbia Pictures Television and Screen Gems.


5:30am -- Short Film: Delicious Dishes (1950)
Experts demonstrate such innovative kitchen gadgets as the cheese slicer and the melon baller.

I'm having a little problem imagining that the cheese slicer and melon baller were that new and innovative in 1950!

The coming-of-age teen movie has been a part of American pop culture for decades, bridging generation gaps through the shared experience of growing up. The locations and time period might be different, but the theme was always the same: awkward youth on the threshold of adulthood. Gidget (1959), directed by Paul Wendkos, remains a classic of the sun and surf genre that preceded the Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello Beach Party films of the 1960s. In it, Hollywood's wholesome teen icon, Sandra Dee, plays the gawky 16-year-old tomboy Frances Lawrence. Nicknamed "Gidget" by the local surfers to indicate a cross between a girl and a midget due to her slight stature, she's more interested in learning to surf with the guys than in dating them. That is, until she meets Moondoggie (James Darren), one of the surfers who's trying to decide between a life of being a beach bum like his older pal Kahuna (Cliff Robertson) or going on to college in the fall.

1959 was a big year for Sandra Dee, the perky ingenue born Alexandra Zuck. In addition to Gidget, she also appeared in two other big films that year - as Lana Turner's daughter in the Douglas Sirk melodrama Imitation of Life, and as Molly, the female lead opposite Troy Donahue in the sexually charged A Summer Place. The success of these movies solidified Dee's status as one of the screen's most promising young actresses.

James Darren (Moondoggie) had been a student of respected acting coach Stella Adler. Like Dee, he too was considered a rising young talent at the time of Gidget's release. Also a singer, Darren lent his vocal talents to Gidget, crooning the theme song and "The Next Best Thing to Love." He went on to record such top-40 hits as "Goodbye Cruel World" and "Her Royal Majesty" later in his career.

Gidget was based on the popular novel of the same name by Frederick Kohner, who based the title character on the adventures of his own daughter, Kathy. The book was adapted for the screen by Gabrielle Upton. But no one could have guessed what a phenomenon Gidget would become. It spawned two film sequels (Gidget Goes to Rome (1963) and Gidget Goes Hawaiian, 1961), two television series (Gidget (1965-66) and The New Gidget, 1986), and several TV movies along the way. Sandra Dee did not reprise her role in any of the sequels, though co-star James Darren portrayed Moondoggie twice more in Gidget Goes to Rome and Gidget Goes Hawaiian. Unknown teenage actress Sally Field made a name for herself as the bubbly surfer girl in the original 1960s TV show. Field, of course, went on to a major acting career that included two Academy Awards for her work in Norma Rae (1979) and Places in the Heart (1984).

Sandra Dee, the original movie Gidget, married pop idol Bobby Darin at the peak of her career in 1960. Though she continued to make movies including two of the Tammy films made popular by Debbie Reynolds and three movies with her husband, her career soon fizzled. When she divorced Darin in 1967, she found that there were few roles at the time for a divorced 26-year-old mother who was used to playing the wholesome role of America's teenaged sweetheart. James Darren went on to co-star in the hit 1980s television show T.J. Hooker, while Cliff Robertson won an Academy Award as Best Actor for the 1968 film Charly.

Producer: Lewis J. Rachmil
Director: Paul Wendkos
Screenplay: Frederick Kohner (book Gidget), Gabrielle Upton
Art Direction: Ross Bellah
Cinematography: Burnett Guffey
Film Editing: William A. Lyon
Original Music: Fred Karger, Stanley Styne
Cast: Sandra Dee (Gidget), Cliff Robertson (The Big Kahuna), James Darren (Moondoggie), Arthur O'Connell (Russell Lawrence), Mary LaRoche (Dorothy Lawrence), Joby Baker (Stinky), Tom Laughlin (Lover Boy), Jo Morrow (Mary Lou).
C-96m. Letterboxed.

by Andrea Foshee