TCM Schedule for Friday, September 4, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: The TCM End Of Summer Tour

[Staph]

It's Labor Day Weekend, and TCM is celebrating each evening of this extended weekend with concert movies and specials. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- MADAME CURIE (1943)
The famed female scientist fights to keep her marriage together while conducting early experiments with radioactivity.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Henry Travers
BW-124 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Walter Pidgeon, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt, Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD), Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Herbert Stothart, and Best Picture

Originally planned for Greta Garbo and Spencer Tracy to star in. However, Ève Curie, who wrote the memoir of her mother on which the film was based, thought Garbo was "too glamorous." Her contract gave her star approval, and she used it to insist that Greer Garson be cast.


8:15 AM -- HOLLYWOOD: THE DREAM FACTORY (1972)
Dick Cavett narrates this documentary about the MGM auction and the studio's glorious history.
Dir: Mark Woods
Cast: Jane Wyman, Bill Tuttle, Joan Leslie
C-51 mins, CC,


9:30 AM -- SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
Two musicians on the run from gangsters masquerade as members of an all-girl band.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon
BW-122 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Orry-Kelly

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Jack Lemmon, Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Ted Haworth and Edward G. Boyle

Jack Lemmon wrote that the first sneak preview had a bad reaction with many audience walkouts. Many studio personnel and agents offered advice to Billy Wilder on what scenes to reshoot, add and cut. Lemmon asked Wilder what he was going to do. Wilder responded: "Why, nothing. This is a very funny movie and I believe in it just as it is. Maybe this is the wrong neighborhood in which to have shown it. At any rate, I don't panic over one preview. It's a hell of a movie." Wilder held the next preview in the Westwood section of Los Angeles, and the audience stood up and cheered.


11:45 AM -- THE APARTMENT (1960)
An aspiring executive lets his bosses use his apartment for assignations, only to fall for the big chief's mistress.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray
BW-125 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of Oscars for Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Alexandre Trauner and Edward G. Boyle, Best Film Editing -- Daniel Mandell, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Jack Lemmon, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Shirley MacLaine, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Kruschen, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph LaShelle, and Best Sound -- Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)

To create the effect of a vast sea of faces labouring grimly and impersonally at their desks in the huge insurance company office, designers Alexandre Trauner and Edward G. Boyle devised an interesting technique. Full-sized actors sat at the desks in the front and children dressed in suits were used at tiny desks toward the rear, followed by even smaller desks with cut-out figures operated by wires. It gave the effect of a much larger space than could have been achieved in the limited studio space.


2:00 PM -- THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE (1974)
A suddenly unemployed executive and his understanding wife must adapt to their new life.
Dir: Melvin Frank
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Elizabeth Wilson, Anne Bancroft
BW-98 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The "Prisoner of Second Avenue" play was inspired by real life events relating to one of writer Neil Simon's relatives, his then wife's uncle. The man was a businessman who wanted to set-up his own little newspaper in a small town. The venture failed, the uncle went bankrupt and had a nervous breakdown.


4:00 PM -- THE SUNSHINE BOYS (1975)
A feuding comedy team reunites for a television comeback.
Dir: Herbert Ross
Cast: Walter Matthau, George Burns, Richard Benjamin
C-111 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Burns

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Walter Matthau, Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted From Other Material -- Neil Simon, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Albert Brenner and Marvin March

Based on the lives and careers of vaudeville comics Joe Smith and Charles Dale (né Sultzer and Marks). Unlike the characters in the Broadway play and later film, Smith and Dale were almost inseparable friends. In fact, when Dale died in 1971, Smith commissioned a single tombstone to be prepared for them both, ordering that the inscription read "Smith and Dale". The pair's strained relationship is based on another old-time vaudeville duo, Gallagher and Shean, the latter of whom was Groucho Marx's uncle.


6:00 PM -- THE GOODBYE GIRL (1977)
A dancer discovers her runaway boyfriend has sublet her apartment to an aspiring actor.
Dir: Herbert Ross
Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, Quinn Cummings
C-111 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Richard Dreyfuss

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Marsha Mason, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Quinn Cummings, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Neil Simon, and Best Picture

Originally entitled "Bogart Slept Here" with Robert De Niro as the leading man and Mike Nichols as director. The story was supposedly based on Dustin Hoffman's life as a struggling actor, reportedly, it was the story of what happened to Hoffman after he became a star. Hoffman wanted the lead role in the film but was turned down. Artistic differences ultimately forced De Niro and Nichols out, two weeks into the shoot, after several table readings. Other actors who were also candidates for the role were Jack Nicholson, James Caan and Tony Lo Bianco. Dreyfuss was brought in to test opposite Marsha Mason. At the end of the read-through, writer Neil Simon ruled, "It doesn't work, but they do." From this, the two leads for the picture were finalized.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE TCM END OF SUMMER TOUR



8:00 PM -- THE T.A.M.I. SHOW (1964)
Surf pop duo, Jan and Dean host this showcase of performances by well-known Rock, R&B, and pop stars of the era.
Dir: Steve Binder
Cast: The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, Marvin Gaye
BW-113 mins, CC,

"T.A.M.I" stands for "Teenage Awards Music International". The idea of the film was to combine top American and British Invasion groups in one show.


10:15 PM -- LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL (1973)
Fifties rock stars reunite 20 years later for a concert.
Dir: Robert Abel
Cast: The Bobby Comstock Rock & Roll Band, The Five Satins, The Shirelles
C-99 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

This film was largely credited with re-energizing Bo Diddley's career which was in the doldrums at the time.


12:00 AM -- ELVIS: THAT'S THE WAY IT IS (1970)
Restored version of the King's classic Vegas concert film.
C-95 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Footage of the after party held in Elvis` suite after his August 10th, 1970, opening show finds him in the company of Sammy Davis, Jr., Cary Grant, Kenny Rogers and Roman Polanski.


1:45 AM -- DIVINE MADNESS (1980)
Bette Midler performs her songs and raucous comedy at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
Dir: Michael Ritchie
Cast: Bette Midler, Jocelyn Brown, Ula Hedwig
C-94 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The 94 minute theatrical cut of this film was edited from around ninety hours worth of footage or one million feet of film.


3:30 AM -- ABBA: THE MOVIE (1977)
A disc jockey tries to land an in-depth interview with the Swedish rock group during their hit Australian tour.
Dir: Lasse Hallstrom
Cast: Robert Hughes, Tom Oliver, Bruce Barry
C-97 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Most of the concert footage of ABBA's 1977 Australian tour that was used for this film came from their five Perth concerts in Western Australia. This was because the concert venue there, the Perth Entertainment Centre, was the only indoors stadium on the tour, and the conditions there were best suited for acoustic recording and would not be affected by any bad weather elements.


5:08 AM -- STOCKHOLM "PRIDE OF SWEDEN" (1937)
This short film focuses on the people, culture, and history of Stockholm.
C-9 mins,


5:30 AM -- MGM PARADE SHOW #4 (1955)
George Murphy tours Lake Metro, where "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Show Boat" were shot, and introduces a clip from "Good News." These clips feature June Allyson and Peter Lawford.
BW-26 mins,

[CBHagman]

1. "At any rate, I don't panic over one preview."

"At any rate, I don't panic over one preview."

Words to live by!

And I was bowled over by the backstory to The Goodbye Girl. I saw it when it came out, I loved it, and I couldn't have imagined how it almost became a very different picture.

Richard Dreyfuss of course is fairly bouncing off the walls in this one, and he's a lot of fun, but Marsha Mason balances things out. I'd like to see more of her other work.