TCM Schedule for Thursday, December 20, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: Star of the Month Dick Powell

[Staph]

During most of the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating Irene Dunne, born Irene Marie Dunn on December 20, 1898, in Louisville, Kentucky. She aspired to be a star in the Metropolitan Opera in New York, but in the process of gaining experience toward that goal, she ended up in musical theater. After traveling in a road show version of Show Boat, she came to the attention of Hollywood, and never looked back. Interestingly, each of her films today are also remakes of earlier films or that were remade later. I'll list the remakes in the notes below. Then in the late afternoon and in prime time, TCM continuing the films of Star of the Month Dick Powell. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- STINGAREE (1934)
An Australian bandit kidnaps an opera singer and falls in love with her.
Dir: William Wellman
Cast: Irene Dunne, Richard Dix, Mary Boland
BW-76 mins, CC,

Irene Dunne, a professionally trained operatic mezzo-soprano, did her own singing for the film.

Remake of Stingaree (1915) starring True Boardman and Marin Sais.


7:30 AM -- SHOW BOAT (1936)
Riverboat entertainers find love, laughs and hardships as they sail along "Old Man River."
Dir: James Whale
Cast: Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger
BW-114 mins, CC,

In the scene in which Paul Robeson sings "Ah Still Suits Me", Queenie (Hattie McDaniel) has a box of Aunt Jemima pancake mix on her work table. It's a subtle nod to Tess Gardella (stage name "Aunt Jemima" ), who created the role of Queenie in the 1927 Broadway production.

Also made as Show Boat (1929), starring Laura La Plante and Joseph Schildkraut, Show Boat (1951), starring Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel, and Great Performances: Show Boat (1989), starring Rebecca White and Richard White.


9:30 AM -- NO OTHER WOMAN (1933)
A newly rich couple finds wealth drives them apart.
Dir: J. Walter Ruben
Cast: Irene Dunne, Charles Bickford, Gwili Andre
BW-58 mins, CC,

At the wedding reception, guest are seen pinning money on Anna's dress before dancing with her. This was a common practice in Polish immigrant communities and was called the "money dance". Sometimes the bride wears and apron or carries a purse in which to place the money. The purpose of the money is for the couple's honeymoon, to set up housekeeping, or for the couple's first-born child.

Also made as Just a Woman (1918) starring Charlotte Walker and Lee Baker, and Just a Woman (1925) starring Claire Windsor and Conway Tearle.


10:30 AM -- MY FAVORITE WIFE (1940)
A shipwrecked woman is rescued just in time for her husband's re-marriage.
Dir: Garson Kanin
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott
BW-88 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- Leo McCarey, Bella Spewack and Sam Spewack, Best Art Direction, Black-and-White -- Van Nest Polglase and Mark-Lee Kirk, and Best Music, Original Score -- Roy Webb

Leo McCarey was supposed to direct the film, but shortly before the filming began he was injured in an automobile accident, and had to hand over the direction to Garson Kanin. Actress Gail Patrick has stated that the severity of McCarey's injuries had an effect on the film's cast, and they found it very difficult to enter into the spirit of the comedy with the serious hospital bulletins they were hearing.

Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, "Enoch Arden," about a fisherman presumed lost at sea who returns to find his wife remarried, was the basis of five prior films: Enoch Arden (1914), Die Toten kehren wieder - Enoch Arden (1919), and D.W. Griffith's Enoch Arden: Part I (1911), Enoch Arden: Part II (1911), and Enoch Arden (1915). Those films adhered to Tennyson's poem. But in My Favorite Wife, Something's Got to Give (1962), and Move Over, Darling (1963), only the basic idea of a spouse who returns is kept, with the spouse presumed lost now being the wife. However, in all of these films, the surname of the couple in question remains "Arden."


12:00 PM -- A GUY NAMED JOE (1943)
A downed World War II pilot becomes the guardian angel for his successor in love and war.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, Van Johnson
BW-120 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- David Boehm and Chandler Sprague

Along with Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne insisted the film's production be halted until Van Johnson was well after his auto accident, in which he was seriously injured. During this period, MGM snatched Dunne up to make The White Cliffs of Dover (1944), released the following year as the MGM 20th Anniversary film. As a thank you for her gratitude, Johnson appears in a small role in 'Dover.'

Remade as Always (1989) starring Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, and Brad Johnson.


2:15 PM -- ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM (1946)
A young Englishwoman becomes royal tutor in Siam and befriends the King.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Irene Dunne, Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell
BW-128 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Arthur C. Miller, and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lyle R. Wheeler, William S. Darling, Thomas Little and Frank E. Hughes

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gale Sondergaard, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sally Benson and Talbot Jennings, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Bernard Herrmann

Rex Harrison thoroughly enjoyed co-starring with Irene Dunne. He thought her "an excellent actress" and was pleased that she had the confidence to follow her own instincts. He recalled, "She too went her own way and tactfully used the director, as I later learned to do myself, to her own advantage; she listened to what he had to give, and discarded it or used it, as she wished."

Also made as The King and I (1956) starring Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr, The Beautician and the Beast (1997) starring Timothy Dalton and Fran Drescher, the animated The King and I (1999) starring Miranda Richardson and Martin Vidnovic, and Anna and the King (1999) starring Jodie Foster and Yun-Fat Chow.


4:30 PM -- HARD TO GET (1938)
An unemployed architect falls in love with an heiress.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Dick Powell, Olivia De Havilland, Charles Winninger
BW-82 mins, CC,

The car Margaret borrows and drives out of gas is a 1937 Ford DeLuxe Cabriolet (model 78). Less than 19,000 were made.


6:00 PM -- HOLLYWOOD HOTEL (1937)
A small-town boy wins a Hollywood talent contest.
Dir: Busby Berkeley
Cast: Dick Powell, Rosemary Lane, Lola Lane
BW-110 mins, CC,

The drive-in restaurant where Dick Powell's character works is called "Callahans" in the film. The actual coffee shop in Hollywood was called "Carpenter's" and was located at the southeast corner of Sunset and Vine Streets. It was one of the earliest "drive-in" restaurants in the U.S. The uniform worn is based on the actual uniforms the mostly male waiters wore. They were based on the uniforms that service station attendants wore. The reason for this new type of restaurant was to cater to the new younger movie star who wanted to be seen in their expensive automobiles. The restaurant was open all night.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: DICK POWELL



8:00 PM -- CHRISTMAS IN JULY (1940)
An unemployed dreamer thinks he's won a big radio contest.
Dir: Preston Sturges
Cast: Dick Powell, Ellen Drew, Raymond Walburn
BW-67 mins, CC,

This film was based on a play called "A Cup of Coffee" which Preston Sturges wrote in the summer of 1931. The play also features a character named Jimmy MacDonald who works for a coffee company and enters a contest for a rival company with the slogan "If you can't sleep at night it isn't the coffee, it's the bunk." Much of the play's plot and supporting characters were changed for the film, but the dialogue between Jimmy and his girlfriend about his slogan is repeated almost verbatim. "A Cup of Coffee" was never produced in Sturges' lifetime, but it was eventually staged by the New York theater company Soho Rep in a production that opened in March of 1988, fifty-seven years after the play was written and twenty-nine years after Sturges' death.


9:30 PM -- YOU NEVER CAN TELL (1951)
Poisoned after inheriting its master's estate, a dog comes back to Earth to find its killer.
Dir: Lou Breslow
Cast: Dick Powell, Peggy Dow, Joyce Holden
BW-78 mins,

Based on a story by Lou Breslow.


11:15 PM -- THE SINGING MARINE (1937)
A young Marine develops an inflated ego after winning a talent contest.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Dick Powell, Doris Weston, Lee Dixon
BW-105 mins, CC,

Goof -- the microphone at the New York talent show was labeled as KFWB, Warner Brothers' Los Angeles station.


1:15 AM -- COWBOY FROM BROOKLYN (1938)
A singing cowboy turns out to be a tenderfoot.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Dick Powell, Pat O'Brien, Priscilla Lane
BW-76 mins,

The radio amateur hour was a spoof of radio program "Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour", which was very popular at the time. It is chiefly noted for the discovery of Frank Sinatra.


2:45 AM -- VARSITY SHOW (1937)
A Broadway producer puts on a show at his alma mater.
Dir: William Keighley
Cast: Dick Powell, Fred Waring, Ted Healy
BW-80 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Dance Direction -- Busby Berkeley for "The Finale"

When Fred Waring was approached to play a starring role in this film, he brought his famous glee club, The Pennsylvanians, to the shoot and planned on using the college glee club from Pomona College for additional singers. When he arrived at the campus he found the Glee Club conductor was ill but his replacement was a young, energetic man named Robert Shaw. After the movie was finished, Shaw followed Waring to New York, where he founded the Collegiate Chorale and the Robert Shaw Chorale. Robert Shaw went on to be one of the most important personalities in American choral music in the 20th century.


4:15 AM -- GOING PLACES (1938)
A sporting-goods salesman poses as a jockey to stimulate sales.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Dick Powell, Anita Louise, Allen Jenkins
BW-84 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Harry Warren (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "Jeepers Creepers"

Dorothy Dandridge, 15 years old during filming and one of The Dandridge Sisters, performed in the "Mutiny in the Nursery" production number (music by Johnny Mercer and Harry Warren, lyrics by Johnny Mercer). Other members of The Dandridge Sisters were Dorothy's 17-year-old sister Vivian Dandridge and their friend Etta Jones.


5:45 AM -- NAUGHTY BUT NICE (1939)
A college professor turns songwriter and falls for his lyricist.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Ann Sheridan, Dick Powell, Gale Page
BW-89 mins,

In The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956), Tom Rath descibes the word "oomph" as "a meaningless piece of crud out of a movie ad 15 years ago." Naughty But Nice's tagline was, "The 'Oomph' Girl's Greatest Tri'Oomph'".