TCM Schedule for Thursday, March 28, 2019 -- TCM Spotlight - Journalism in the Movies

In the daylight today, TCM is all about the 1%. Then this evening TCM wraps up their month-long look at the news in the movies with Reporters at War.

JOURNALISM IN THE MOVIES - THURSDAYS IN MARCH

Stop the presses! This month's Spotlight on TCM examines the role played by journalism in the world of cinema, with perspectives ranging from screwball comedies of the 1930s to hard-hitting dramas of the 1970s and '80s. The power of journalism and freedom of the press have been important topics over the decades and is gaining new urgency in recent times.

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Reporters at War include Burgess Meredith as WWII correspondent Ernie Pyle in William Wellman's The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). The film is set in Tunisia and Italy, where Pyle accompanies infantrymen into combat. Remarkably, it marked Robert Mitchum's only Oscar nomination in the Supporting Actor category for his breakout performance as a strict yet compassionate Army lieutenant/captain. The Year of Living Dangerously (1981), starring Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hunt in an Oscar-winning performance, follows an Australian journalist's (Gibson) love affair with a British Embassy officer (Weaver) during the turbulent attempted coup of Indonesia's president in 1965.

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by Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!



6:15 AM -- MILLIONAIRES IN PRISON (1940)
Four convicts volunteer as medical guinea pigs to win early paroles.
Dir: Ray McCarey
Cast: Lee Tracy, Linda Hayes, Raymond Walburn
BW-64 mins, CC,

Based on a story by Martin Mooney, who came into the film business in 1935 as a screenwriter after years of working in New York City as a playwright, newspaper reporter, columnist and press agent. In 1943 he joined PRC Pictures, where, in addition to screenwriting, he was in charge of advertising and publicity. Mooney's background in the rough-and-tumble New York City newspaper world was the impetus for PRC's specializing in the gritty urban crime dramas it was known for. The film for which Mooney will probably be best remembered is Edgar G. Ulmer's "film noir" masterpiece, Detour (1945).


7:30 AM -- MILLIONAIRE PLAYBOY (1940)
A young millionaire gets hiccups whenever he kisses a pretty woman.
Dir: Leslie Goodwins
Cast: Joe Penner, Linda Hayes, Russ Brown
BW-64 mins,

Penultimate film of Joe Penner, a comedian-actor of the 1930s who's catchphrase was "Wanna buy a duck?".


8:45 AM -- YOU FOR ME (1952)
A good-hearted nurse gets mixed up with a millionaire who could help her hospital.
Dir: Don Weis
Cast: Peter Lawford, Jane Greer, Gig Young
BW-71 mins,

Screenplay by William Roberts, who also wrote the screenplay for 1960's The Magnificent Seven.


10:00 AM -- THAT WAY WITH WOMEN (1947)
An elderly millionaire makes a hobby of playing cupid.
Dir: Frederick de Cordova
Cast: Dane Clark, Martha Vickers, Sydney Greenstreet
BW-84 mins,

Remakes of The Ruling Passion (1922) and The Millionaire (1931)


11:30 AM -- THE WORKING MAN (1933)
A wealthy manufacturer takes a vacation incognito and ends up working for his chief rival.
Dir: John G. Adolfi
Cast: George Arliss, Bette Davis, Theodore Newton
BW-77 mins, CC,

Remake of Twenty Dollars a Week (1924), and Remade as Everybody's Old Man (1936)


1:00 PM -- JUST THIS ONCE (1952)
A playboy hands control of his dwindling fortune to a pretty girl.
Dir: Don Weis
Cast: Janet Leigh, Peter Lawford, Lewis Stone
BW-90 mins, CC,

Interesting that two of today's films feature Peter Lawford as the playboy millionaire, years before he married into the Kennedy clan.


2:36 PM -- CANADIAN CARNIVAL (1955)
This short film presents how the city of Quebec celebrates Winter Carnival during Mardi Gras.
Dir: Douglas Sinclair
BW-8 mins,


2:45 PM -- TEXAS CARNIVAL (1951)
A penniless carnival worker runs up a mountain of debts when he's mistaken for a millionaire.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Howard Keel
C-77 mins, CC,

At the time "Texas Carnival" was filmed, Red Norvo's trio included an African-American musician, bassist Charles Mingus, and when they recorded their number for this film (backing Ann Miller on "It's Dynamite&quot Mingus played on the soundtrack. But when the number was filmed MGM executives insisted that a white bassist substitute for Mingus on screen.


4:04 PM -- HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED? (1947)
This short film tries to find the answers to some questions that have plagued mankind!
Dir: Dave O'Brien
Cast: George McDonald, Dave O'Brien,
BW-10 mins, CC,

Among the questions asked are Are women drivers worse than men?; How much money does the average gumball machine collect in a month?; Are certain food combinations harmful (e.g., milk and pickles)?


4:15 PM -- MAID'S NIGHT OUT (1938)
A wealthy boy masquerading as a milkman falls for an heiress he thinks is a maid.
Dir: Ben Holmes
Cast: Joan Fontaine, Allan Lane, Billy Gilbert
BW-64 mins,

Allan Lane went on to be the voice of Mr Ed.


5:30 PM -- AUNTIE MAME (1958)
An eccentric heiress raises her nephew to be a free spirit.
Dir: Morton DaCosta
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Forrest Tucker, Coral Browne
C-143 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Rosalind Russell, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Peggy Cass, Best Cinematography, Color -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color -- Malcolm C. Bert and George James Hopkins, Best Film Editing -- William H. Ziegler, and Best Picture

The line, "Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death," does not appear in the book. It is derived from the stage play, where it was originally, "Life is a banquet and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death." Though "damn" and "hell" are both heard in the film, "sons-of-bitches" was apparently thought too rough.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: JOURNALISM IN THE MOVIES



8:00 PM -- THE STORY OF G.I. JOE (1945)
War correspondent Ernie Pyle joins an Army platoon during World War II to learn what battle is really about.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: Burgess Meredith, Robert Mitchum, Freddie Steele
BW-109 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Mitchum, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Leopold Atlas, Guy Endore and Philip Stevenson, Best Music, Original Song -- Ann Ronell for the song "Linda", and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Louis Applebaum and Ann Ronell

The extras in the film were real American GIs, in the process of being transferred from the war in Europe to the Pacific. Many of them were killed in the fighting on Okinawa--the same battle in which Ernie Pyle was killed by a Japanese machine gunner--never having seen the movie in which they appeared.


10:00 PM -- THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (1982)
Two American journalists get more than they'd bargained for during an Indonesian revolution.
Dir: Peter Weir
Cast: Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt
C-115 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Linda Hunt

Director Peter Weir cast Linda Hunt in the role of Billy Kwan, after failing to find an actor who could play the part in the way he wanted. Hunt is the first actress to have won an Academy Award for portraying a member of the opposite sex. Hunt is also the only actress ever to win an Academy Award for playing a man, with no cross dressing or gender confusion involved. Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry (1999)) received one for playing a biological female, who identifies as a man, while Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love (1998)) received one for playing a woman, pretending to be a man, pretending to be a woman.


12:15 AM -- THE QUIET AMERICAN (1958)
An American economist gets caught between Communists and colonialists in Indochina.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Audie Murphy, Michael Redgrave, Claude Dauphin
C-122 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

In Europe, director-writer Joseph L. Mankiewicz was savagely attacked for his film's infidelity to the source novel by Graham Greene, not least by Greene himself. The screenplay essentially turns the novel inside-out, so that the blundering "quiet American", whose extreme naiveté causes tragedy and his own death despite his having only the best of intentions, is transformed into a shrewd and heroic figure, far wiser and more honorable than his British rival. Mankiewicz later referred to the film as "very bad" (although he also liked to point out that Jean-Luc Godard had called it the best film of its year) and claimed that he had not been able to concentrate on the film because of the mental collapse of his wife, Rose Stradner, who committed suicide soon after he had finished it.


2:30 AM -- PARK ROW (1952)
A crusading newspaperman fights to save his paper from a hostile takeover.
Dir: Samuel Fuller
Cast: Bela Kovacs, Herbert Heyes, Tina Rome
BW-83 mins, CC,

Self-financed by its maverick director. At the time, Samuel Fuller had only $201,000 in his bank account. He kept $1,000 for his own personal use, which he spent on cigars and vodka. The rest went on the movie.


4:00 AM -- -30- (1959)
An active day in the life of a metropolitan newspaper,
Dir: Jack Webb
Cast: Jack Webb, William Conrad, David Nelson
BW-96 mins, CC,

"-30-" is used to signify "the end" or "over and out"; it originates from several code tables for telegraph operators. It is traditional in the journalism field and is still used to indicate the end of transmitted news stories and press releases and can frequently be found in formal corporate documents posted on websites and delivered electronically or via print.


5:45 AM -- GREAT DIAMOND ROBBERY (1953)
A diamond cutter unwittingly helps a jewel thief.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Red Skelton, Cara Williams, James Whitmore
BW-70 mins, CC,

This was Skelton's last film for MGM. He had been under contract with the studio since 1940.