TCM Schedule for Friday, December 4, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: TCM Spotlight: Diamonds In The Roug

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is giving us awkward romances. I don't know if I want to watch them -- I've lived too many! Then in prime time, we get diamonds, loads and loads of diamonds! Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Because You're Mine (1952)
1h 43m | Comedy | TV-PG
After being drafted, an opera star falls for his sergeant's sister.
Director: Alexander Hall
Cast: Mario Lanza, Doretta Morrow, James Whitmore

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Nicholas Brodszky (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "Because You're Mine"

The older woman who asks for Renaldo's autograph is played by Mario Lanza's real-life mother; the unspeaking man with her is Mario's father.


7:45 AM -- Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)
2h 4m | Comedy | TV-G
Singing sisters create a World War II canteen and become rivals for the same man.
Director: Richard Thorpe
Cast: June Allyson, Gloria Dehaven, Van Johnson

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Richard Connell and Gladys Lehman

While the film made Van Johnson and June Allyson a bona fide box office team, co-star Gloria DeHaven was unable to rise above the rank of supporting player. Largely based on this film's success, DeHaven had difficulty reconciling with the fact that she had not reached the pinnacle of Allyson and Johnson's stardom, which led her to turn down role after role at MGM, most notably amoral gold digger Pat McClellan, the part Patricia Marshall inherited in Good News (1947) -- not coincidentally an Allyson star vehicle. DeHaven spent much of her tenure at the studio on suspension, determined to play leading roles, even if nominal, in films such as Summer Holiday (1948) and The Yellow Cab Man (1950).


10:00 AM -- Two Girls on Broadway (1940)
1h 11m | Comedy | TV-G
A sister act splits up over love.
Director: S. Sylvan Simon
Cast: Lana Turner, Joan Blondell, George Murphy

George Murphy is better remembered by California residents for his brief career in politics than for his extensive career as a dancer and supporting actor in Hollywood musicals. After retiring from the screen, Murphy was elected in 1964 to a single term as a Republican U.S. Senator, during which he once remarked that Mexicans were more suited to manual labor because they were "built lower to the ground" and thus found it "easier to stoop."


11:15 AM -- George White's Scandals (1945)
1h 35m | Comedy | TV-G
Two sets of lovers come together while working on a big musical.
Director: Felix E. Feist
Cast: Joan Davis, Jack Haley, Phillip Terry

Jack Haley's and Margaret Hamilton's only screen appearance together other than The Wizard of Oz (1939).


1:00 PM -- They Wanted to Marry (1937)
1h | Comedy | TV-G
A photojournalist and his pet pigeon crash a society party and find love.
Director: Lew Landers
Cast: Betty Furness, Gordon Jones, E. E. Clive

Based on a story by Lawrence P. Bachmann and Darwin L. Teilhet.


2:15 PM -- Marry the Girl (1937)
1h 8m | Comedy | TV-G
Brother-and-sister news tycoons try to save their niece from marrying the wrong man.
Director: William McGann
Cast: Mary Boland, Frank McHugh, Hugh Herbert

Based on a novel by Edward Hope.


3:30 PM -- There Goes the Groom (1937)
1h 4m | Comedy | TV-G
A young man strikes it rich in the Alaskan gold mines, then faces romantic complications when he returns home.
Director: Joseph Santley
Cast: Ann Sothern, Burgess Meredith, Mary Boland

Based on a story by David Garth.


4:45 PM -- Wise Girls (1929)
1h 37m | Comedy | TV-G
A sheepish plumber gets conned into a marriage scheme.
Director: E. Mason Hopper
Cast: Elliott Nugent, Norma Lee, Roland Young

This was the first MGM talking picture for which no silent version was prepared.


6:30 PM -- Wallflower (1948)
1h 17m | Comedy | TV-PG
Two sisters compete for the same man.
Director: Frederick De Cordova
Cast: Robert Hutton, Joyce Reynolds, Janis Paige

Based on a play by Reginald Denham and Mary Orr.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT -- DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH



8:00 PM -- Moonfleet (1955)
1h 29m | Drama | TV-PG
A British buccaneer is torn between three seductive women.
Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Stewart Granger, George Sanders, Joan Greenwood

Remade as a mini-series (Smuggler's Bay) in 1964, and two mini-series called Moonfleet in 1984 and 2013.


9:45 PM -- Africa Screams (1949)
1h 19m | Comedy | TV-G
Abbott and Costello search for an African diamond mine.
Director: Charles Barton
Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Clyde Beatty

The original script had a lovestruck female gorilla pursuing Lou Costello. However, the Breen Office censors that enforced the Production Code objected to any hint of the possibility of a sexual encounter--even an unwilling one--between a man and a female gorilla. The writers changed it from a female gorilla to a male one, and the Breen Office approved it, apparently they saw that man/gorilla straight relationship would involve marriage and sex, but man/gorilla same sex relationship wouldn't rise above mere friendship.


11:15 PM -- King Solomon's Mines (1950)
1h 42m | Romance | TV-PG
A spirited widow hires a daredevil jungle scout to find a lost treasure in diamonds.
Director: Compton Bennett
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Stewart Granger, Richard Carlson

Winner of Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert Surtees, and Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters and Conrad A. Nervig

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Picture

While filming on location in Carlsbad National Park's New Cave, Deborah Kerr took her lipstick and wrote the initials "DK" on a cave formation near the Klansman formation that was used as a background. An electrician also took a burned out lamp and tossed it in a hole under that formation. Since the cave is still 'active', meaning the formations are still slowly being encased in more minerals, the initials and the lamp are now solidly encased in a layer limestone that is thin enough to see through but thick enough to prevent removal. The Carlsbad Park Rangers refer to the "DK" as the Deborah Kerr formation. Both are still visible to this day.


1:15 AM -- Smugglers' Cove (1948)
1h 6m | Comedy | TV-G
The Bowery Boys take on a gang of German smugglers.
Director: William Beaudine
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell

The 11th of 48 Bowery Boys movies released from 1946 to 1958.


2:30 AM -- The Undertaker and His Pals (1967)
1h 3m | Horror
Two motorcyclists use their psychopathic tendencies to supply a mortician with a steady stream of bodies.
Director: T. L. P. Swicegood
Cast: Ray Dannis, Warrene Ott, Rad Fulton

The original cut of the film included clips from training films for surgeons for shock value. After initial showings these were trimmed down, hence the short running time.


3:45 AM -- Motel Hell (1980)
1h 41m | Comedy | TV-MA
A hotel owner harvests his guests to create the tastiest sausages in town.
Director: Kevin Connor
Cast: Rory Calhoun, Paul Linke

United Artists marketed Motel Hell as a straightforward horror movie rather than a horror comedy, fearing that any quirkiness in the trailers or posters would put-off audiences. However, the tagliner "You might just die laughing!" still appeared on several Motel Hell posters.


5:30 AM -- Narcotics Pit of Despair (Part 1) (1967)
28m | Drama | TV-14
A drug dealer seduces a high school student into drug addiction.
Director: Mel Marshall
Cast: Kevin Tighe, Gerald Leroy, Julie Conners

Film debut of Kevin Tighe.