TCM Schedule for Friday, May 28 -- TCM Prime Time Feature -- Memorial Day Weekend

It's the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend, and we're celebrating with three days of war movies. Nearly all are World War II, with a sprinkling of World War I films. I'd certainly like to see a little variety -- perhaps a few Civil War or Spanish-American War films, maybe even something from the Vietnam era or the Revolutionary War. Enjoy!


6:00am -- The Lost Patrol (1934)
A British army troop fights off Arab snipers while holed up in an oasis.
Cast: Victor McLaglen, Boris Karloff, Wallace Ford, Reginald Denny
Dir: John Ford
BW-72 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Score -- Max Steiner (head of department), Score by Max Steiner

Victor McLaglen actually served with the Irish Fusiliers in Mesopatamia (Modern Iraq) during World War I at the same time this story takes place. He eventually rose to be Provost Martial of Baghdad.


7:15am -- Dive Bomber (1941)
A crusading scientist fights to prevent bomber pilots from blacking out.
Cast: Errol Flynn, Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Alexis Smith
Dir: Michael Curtiz
C-132 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Bert Glennon

One of the pilots who flew the planes in the film footage was Navy Lt. Edward "Butch" O'Hare. O'Hare served as a fighter pilot in the Pacific and shot down five Japanese planes in his first battle, earning ace status and the Medal of Honor. O'Hare would go on to down 12 planes total and become one of the top heroes of the war before he was killed in action off the Gilbert Islands in November, 1943. O'Hare International Airport in Chicago was later named for him.


9:30am -- Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
General Jimmy Doolittle trains American troops for the first airborne attacks on Japan.
Cast: Van Johnson, Robert Walker, Tim Murdock, Don DeFore
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
BW-138 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic), Donald Jahraus (photographic), Warren Newcombe (photographic) and Douglas Shearer (sound)

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Robert Surtees and Harold Rosson

Scenes of Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle briefing the B-25 crews on the USS Hornet show a hornet's nest on a branch in the background on the overhead behind Doolittle's left. The presence of the hornet's nest, while possibly a tribute, is an accurate detail. The book upon which the movie is based mentions a dried up hornet's nest hanging nearby as Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle was speaking. The actual Hornet was sunk in 1942 soon after the raid.


12:00pm -- Command Decision (1948)
A senior officer faces the horror of sending his men on suicide missions over Germany during the last days of World War II.
Cast: Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson, Brian Donlevy
Dir: Sam Wood
BW-112 mins, TV-PG

Clark Gable joined the Army Air Forces after his wife actress Carole Lombard died in a plane crash on a war bonds selling trip assisting the war effort. Gable had an officer's commission of Lieutenant which became the rank Major after his promotion in the Army Air Corps during WWII. During the Second World War, Gable was awarded both the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal for five aerial bombing missions over Germany from England.


2:00pm -- God Is My Co-Pilot (1945)
A flyer dismissed as too old fights to prove himself against the Japanese.
Cast: Dennis Morgan, Dane Clark, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale
Dir: Robert Florey
BW-88 mins, TV-PG

Based on the memoir by Robert L. Scott Jr.


3:30pm -- Battleground (1949)
American soldiers in France fight to survive a Nazi siege just before the Battle of the Bulge.
Cast: Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy
Dir: William Wellman
BW-119 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Paul Vogel, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Robert Pirosh

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- James Whitmore, Best Director -- William A. Wellman, Best Film Editing -- John D. Dunning, and Best Picture

Screenwriter Robert Pirosh based this story on his experiences as an infantryman during the Battle of the Bulge. Pirosh did not serve with the 101st Airborne and wanted to create a script that was faithful to their experiences. He used his first-hand knowledge of the battle to write the script. This was done with the blessing of General McAuliffe, who was commanding the 101st during Bastogne. Consequently many of the incidents in the film - such as Pvt. Kippton's habit of always losing his false teeth, or the Mexican soldier from Los Angeles who had never seen snow until he got to Belgium - that have always been derided as "typical Hollywood phony baloney" actually happened.


5:30pm -- Sergeant York (1941)
True story of the farm boy who made the transition from religious pacifist to World War I hero.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie, George Tobias
Dir: Howard Hawks
BW-134 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gary Cooper, and Best Film Editing -- William Holmes

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Walter Brennan, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Margaret Wycherly, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- John Hughes and Fred M. MacLean, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Sol Polito, Best Director -- Howard Hawks, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Max Steiner, Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Harry Chandlee, Abem Finkel, John Huston and Howard Koch, and Best Picture

The actual firearm used by York to dispose of a line of seven Germans was not a Luger as depicted in the film, but rather a 1911 .45 ACP automatic. The Luger was preferred for the filmmaking, however, purely on the basis that they couldn't get the .45 to fire blanks.


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND


8:00pm -- Stalag 17 (1953)
A cynical serviceman in a World War II POW camp has to prove he's not an informer.
Cast: William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, Robert Strauss
Dir: Billy Wilder
BW-120 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- William Holden

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Strauss, and Best Director -- Billy Wilder

The movie was shot in sequence (i.e., the scenes were filmed in the same order they're shown). Many of the actors were surprised by the final plot twist.


10:15pm -- The Great Escape (1963)
Thrown together by the Germans, a group of captive Allied troublemakers plot a daring escape.
Cast: Robert Graf, Nigel Stock, Angus Lennie, John Leyton
Dir: John Sturges
C-172 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Ferris Webster

Several cast members were actual P.O.W.s during World War II. Donald Pleasence was held in a German camp, Hannes Messemer in a Russian camp and Til Kiwe and Hans Reiser were prisoners of the Americans.


1:15am -- The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
The Japanese Army forces World War II POWs to build a strategic bridge in Burma.
Cast: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa
Dir: David Lean
C-162 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Alec Guinness (Alec Guinness was not present at the awards ceremony. Jean Simmons accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Cinematography -- Jack Hildyard, Best Director -- David Lean, Best Film Editing -- Peter Taylor, Best Music, Scoring -- Malcolm Arnold, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Pierre Boulle, Carl Foreman, and Michael Wilson (Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson were blacklisted at the time and received no screen credit. They were posthumously awarded Oscars in 1984. Pierre Boulle was not present at the awards ceremony. Kim Novak accepted the award on his behalf.), and Best Picture

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sessue Hayakawa

The actual Major Saito, unlike the character portrayed in the film by Sessue Hayakawa, was said by some to be one of the most reasonable and humane of all of the Japanese officers, usually willing to negotiate with the POWs in return for their labor. Such was the respect between Saito and the real-life Lieutenant-Colonel Toosey that Toosey spoke up on Saito's behalf at the war-crimes tribunal after the war, saving him from the gallows. Ten years after Toosey's 1975 death, Saito made a pilgrimage to England to visit his grave.

In the opening moments of Stalag 17, the narrator, "Cookie," says he's sick of seeing all those war movies but never one about prisoners of war. What follows is a World War II movie audiences of its day hadn't seen before: no real action, a relatively confined location, a cynical main character, slapstick spiked with black humor, and a decidedly bitter edge to the camaraderie expected of American soldiers confined to a prison camp. The incarcerated soldiers, in fact, were not portrayed as noble patriots but as bored, deprived men subject to pettiness, sexual frustration and quick tempers. The offbeat depiction obviously struck the right note with audiences and the film became a smash hit, earning excellent critical notices and awards.

The loner as hero has long been a tradition in many American films because audiences like to root for underdogs, especially protagonists who appear at first to be cynical and self-interested but who perform heroic acts, revealing a deeper need for solidarity and redemption. Rick (Humphrey Bogart) in Casablanca (1942) is one who immediately comes to mind. As with Rick's tortured love affair with Ilsa, such characters garner more interest and sympathy if they are seen to suffer for their outsider status. Such is the case with Sefton, the part William Holden plays in Stalag 17. Writer-director-producer Billy Wilder plays up Sefton's anti-heroic qualities - his exploitive, easy-going relationship with his German captors and his almost relentless zeal for self-preservation. Then he isolates Sefton within a confined, claustrophobic environment where he is beaten down, creating tension out of the audience's desire to see him vindicated.

Wilder's method is heightened by the Oscar®-winning performance of William Holden. For his first decade or so in Hollywood, Holden played leads that traded largely on his good looks and all-American "regular-guy" appeal. Wilder first exploited the dark underpinnings of this image by casting Holden in Sunset Boulevard (1950). In Sefton he gave Holden an even more cynical role, despite the actor's reluctance to appear so unsympathetic at first. It gave the picture the edge it needed and provided Holden's career with the boost to become a major box office star and one of Hollywood's most sought-after actors for the rest of the decade.

Wilder's other achievement was to bring a relatively uninteresting and visually sparse setting to vivid life through imaginative camera placement and the dynamic choreographing of actors within scenes. This is especially evident in two sequences; the discovery of the true spy's identity and the disclosure of it to the rest of the prisoners in the barracks. Wilder creates suspense and expectation through subtle camera movement that picks up clues and reinforces Holden's ostracism from the others while connecting him to their actions and to his ultimate task of unmasking the traitor. As in the case of his later film Witness for the Prosecution (1957), another stage play adapted for the screen, Wilder took what might have been a monotonous, stagy story and transformed it into one of his most dramatically compelling films.

In addition to Holden's matchless performance, Stalag 17 is distinguished by its stellar supporting cast, in particular Robert Strauss (from the original stage play) as Animal (he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar®) and Otto Preminger as the sardonic prison commandant. Though more famous as a director, Preminger is as menacing in this rare acting role as he was said to be in person on his own movie sets. Notorious within the film industry for his often cruel treatment of actors, it seems only fitting that Preminger would willingly agree to play a sadistic authority figure. He attacks his role with a contained but obvious glee. Preminger, however, wasn't the only director Wilder would cast for a film and in the case of Erich von Stroheim, Wilder hired him twice as an actor - for the major role of Field Marshal Rommel in Five Graves to Cairo (1943) and as a former-director-turned-valet for a silent screen star in Sunset Boulevard.

Director: Billy Wilder
Producer: Billy Wilder
Screenplay: Billy Wilder & Edwin Blum, based on the play by Donald Bevan & Edmund Trzcinski
Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
Editing: George Tomasini
Art Direction: Franz Bachelin, Hal Pereira
Original Music: Franz Waxman
Cast: William Holden (Sefton), Don Taylor (Dunbar), Otto Preminger (Col. Von Scherbach), Robert Strauss (Animal), Harvey Lembeck (Shapiro), Peter Graves (Price), Sig Ruman (Schulz).
bw-121m.

by Rob Nixon