TCM Schedule for Friday, July 16 -- TCM Primetime Feature -- A Look Under the Big Top

Happy birthday, Barbara Stanwyck, born today in 1907, in Brooklyn, New York. We have a day of her films from the late 1940s and early 1950s. And this evening, we're going to the circus. Enjoy!


6:00am -- Hollywood Canteen (1944)
A serviceman and a starlet find love at the star-staffed serviceman's center.
Cast: Andrews Sisters, Jack Benny, Joe E. Brown, Eddie Cantor
Dir: Delmer Daves
BW-124 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- M.K. Jerome (music) and Ted Koehler (lyrics) for the song "Sweet Dreams Sweetheart", Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Ray Heindorf, and Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD)

Originally conceived by Warner Bros. as a multi-studio (like the actual Hollywood Canteen) WWII effort with rival studios (Fox, Paramount, MGM, etc.) contributing cameo appearances by its stars. But when other studios balked at having performers appear (even though profits were reportedly earmarked for war effort), Warner turned it into a single-studio affair.


8:15am -- The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers (1946)
Years after a murder drove them apart, an heiress tries to win back her lost love.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas
Dir: Lewis Milestone
BW-116 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- John Patrick

Kirk Douglas's debut.


10:15am -- Cry Wolf (1947)
A woman uncovers deadly secrets when she visits her late husband's family.
Cast: Errol Flynn, Barbara Stanwyck, Geraldine Brooks, Richard Basehart
Dir: Peter Godfrey
BW-84 mins, TV-PG

Stanwyck's stormy marriage to Frank Fay finally ended after a drunken brawl, during which he tossed their adopted son, Dion, into the swimming pool. Despite rumours of affairs with Marlene Dietrich and Joan Crawford, Stanwyck wed Robert Taylor, who had gay rumours of his own to dispel. Their marriage started off on a sour note when his possessive mother demanded he spend his wedding night with her rather than with Barbara.


11:45am -- The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)
A woman slowly discovers that her artist husband is a deranged killer.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Alexis Smith, Nigel Bruce
Dir: Peter Godfrey
BW-94 mins, TV-G

Stanwyck was born Ruby Catherine Stevens, with siblings named Maude, Mable, Mildred ("Millie"), and Malcolm Byron ("Bert") Stevens.


1:30pm -- B.F.'s Daughter (1948)
A professor doesn't know his wife is an heiress.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Charles Coburn, Richard Hart
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
BW-108 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Irene

In the scene where Barbara Stanwyck, playing the new bride, was supposed to be carried across the threshold by her husband, she and director Robert Z. Leonard cooked up a practical joke and draped her body with heavy chains under the mink coat she wore, making it impossible for Van Heflin to pick her up.


3:30pm -- To Please A Lady (1950)
A ruthless race-car driver falls for a crusading journalist out to clean up the sport.
Cast: Clark Gable, Barbara Stanwyck, Adolphe Menjou, Will Geer
Dir: Clarence Brown
BW-92 mins, TV-G

At 20:26 in the film, a close-up shows the Sports Final section of the Bainsville daily paper. Under Barbara Stanwyck's photograph (as Regina Forbes) three pictures of "sports stars" are shown: Kathryn Grayson, Walter Pidgeon and Gene Kelly. This must have been an inside-joke as the film and the stars shown were all under contract with MGM.


5:15pm -- The Man With A Cloak (1951)
A mystery man tries to help a young innocent escape a murderous housekeeper.
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Barbara Stanwyck, Louis Calhern, Leslie Caron
Dir: Fletcher Markle
BW-81 mins, TV-PG

Mrs. Inness, landlady: You know, it's the first of the month.
Dupin: I can understand your excitement, it only comes once every thirty days.


6:45pm -- Jeopardy (1953)
A woman desperately seeks help to prevent her trapped husband from drowning.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Ralph Meeker, Lee Aaker
Dir: John Sturges
BW-69 mins, TV-G

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on March 15, 1954 with Barbara Stanwyck and Barry Sullivan reprising their film roles.


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: A LOOK UNDER THE BIG TOP


8:00pm -- Freaks (1932)
A lady trapeze artist violates the code of the side show when she plots to murder her midget husband.
Cast: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, Rosco Ates
Dir: Tod Browning
BW-62 mins, TV-PG

According to the screenplay, the scene in which Madame Tetrallini introduces the wandering land-owner to the performers frolicking in the woods ran quite a bit longer. It included additional dialog that endeavored to humanize the so-called freaks. She tells him they are "always in hot, stuffy tents - strange eyes always staring at them - never allowed to forget what they are." Duval responds sympathetically (clearly the stand-in for the viewing audience), "When I go to the circus again, Madame, I'll remember," to which she adds, "I know, M'sieu - you will remember seeing them playing - playing like children... Among all the thousands who come to stare - to laugh - to shudder - you will be one who understands."


9:15pm -- Circus of Horrors (1960)
A deranged plastic surgeon travels with a circus troupe.
Cast: Anton Diffring, Erika Remberg, Yvonne Monlaur.
Dir: Sidney Hayers
C-92 mins, TV-14

The circus used in this movie was that of Billy Smart's Circus, one of the three big tenting circuses in the United Kingdom at the time of filming. The external scenes were filmed on Clapham Common.


11:00pm -- Berserk (1967)
A lady ringmaster milks the publicity from a string of murders.
Cast: Joan Crawford, Ty Hardin, Diana Dors, Michael Gough
Dir: Jim O'Connolly
C-96 mins, TV-PG

Sharp eyes will notice that as Superintendent Brooks is talking to Commissioner Dalby after one of the mysterious deaths, they pass an ad that says "Come Alive! With Pepsi". Joan Crawford was the widow of Alfred Steele, who had been CEO of the Pepsi-Cola Company, and at the time of filming, Crawford was still on the Board of Directors. Product placement of Pepsi can be seen in at least one other Crawford film of this era, Strait-Jacket (1964).


1:00am -- The Circus Queen Murder (1933)
A vacationing DA gets mixed up in a tangled case involving a touring circus.
Cast: Adolphe Menjou, Greta Nissen, Ruthelma Stevens, Dwight Frye
Dir: Roy William Neill
BW-65 mins, TV-PG

Greta Nissen, who plays Josie La Tour, was the female lead in the never-released silent version of 'Howard Hughes'' Hell's Angels (1930). Since her German accent would have been unbelievable as the voice of an Englishwoman, she was replaced by Jean Harlow in the sound version.


2:30am -- Girls on the Loose (1958)
A nightclub owner runs an all-woman robbery gang.
Cast: Mara Corday, Lita Milan, Barbara Bostock, Mark Richman
Dir: Paul Henreid
C-78 mins, TV-14

Yes, the director is that Paul Henreid, Victor Laszlo in Casablanca (1942).


4:00am -- So Young, So Bad (1950)
A crusading psychiatrist tries to help troubled reform school girls.
Cast: Paul Henreid, Catherine McLeod, Cecil Clovelly, Grace Coppin
Dir: Bernard Vorhaus
BW-91 mins, TV-PG

Film debut of Anne Jackson and Rita Moreno.


5:45am -- Short Film: The Trouble Maker (1959)
In this educational film, a student attempts to cause problems for others around him
Cast: Bret Waller.
Dir: Herk Harvey
BW-12 mins, TV-G

Written by Margaret Travis, who seemed to specialize in educational shorts.