TCM Schedule for Saturday, March 23, 2019 -- What's On Tonight: Written by Herman Raucher

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then tonight, TCM's non-essential Essentials features films written by Herman Raucher, including the retelling of his youthful love on summer vacation, Summer of '42 (1971). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH AND ESSEX (1939)
Elizabeth I's love for the Earl of Essex threatens to destroy her kingdom.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland
BW-106 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Sol Polito and W. Howard Greene, Best Art Direction -- Anton Grot, Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Effects, Special Effects -- Byron Haskin (photographic) and Nathan Levinson (sound), and Best Music, Scoring -- Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Charles Laughton, whom Bette Davis greatly admired, visited her on the set. Seeing him she greeted him with, "Hi, Pop!" referencing his Oscar-winning portrayal Elizabeth's father Henry VIII in The Private Life of Henry VIII. (1933). While talking together in a corner of the set, the thirty-one year old actress confessed to him that she felt she had bitten off more than she could chew in playing an older Elizabeth. According to the Davis biography 'Fasten Your Seat Belts', he replied, "Never stop daring to hang yourself, Bette!"


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: OFFICER POOCH (1941)
Officer Pooch is called out to rescue a kitten that is repeatedly chased up telephone poles and trees by an aggressive little dog.
Dir: Joseph Barbera
BW-8 mins, CC,


8:10 AM -- HOME RUN ON THE KEYS (1936)
In this short film, Babe Ruth proposes to put a song about baseball on the radio. Vitaphone Release 2073.
Dir: Roy Mack
Cast: Byron Gay, Babe Ruth,
BW-9 mins,

George Herman "Babe" Ruth had 10 acting credits (six shorts and four full-length films). In all of them, he is credited under his own name.


8:20 AM -- FURTHER PROPHECIES OF NOSTRADAMUS (1942)
The prophecies of Nostradamus are applied to the events of World War II in this short film.
Dir: David Miller
Cast: John Burton, Harold Miller,
BW-11 mins,


8:31 AM -- THE DEVIL'S SADDLE LEGION (1937)
A crooked sheriff tries to pin a rancher's death on the victim's son.
Dir: Bobby Connolly
Cast: Dick Foran, Anne Nagel, Smoke the Wonder Horse
BW-52 mins, CC,

Film debut of Willard Parker.


9:30 AM -- FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE: THE PALACE OF HORROR (1940)
Episode five of the Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe serial.
Cast: Buster Crabbe, Carol Hughes, Charles Middleton
Dir: Ford Beebe, Ray Taylor
BW-20 mins, CC,

Buster Crabbe (Flash Gordon), Charles Middleton (Ming the Merciless) and Frank Shannon (Dr. Alexis Zarkov) are the only actors to appear in all three "Flash Gordon" serials.


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: THE PANELESS WINDOW WASHER (1933)
On the outside of an office building, Popeye and Bluto duke it out as rival window washers.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Willard Bowsky (uncredited)
Cast: Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, Gus Wickie
BW-6 mins, CC,


10:07 AM -- THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS (1936)
Perry Mason's honeymoon with Della Street is interrupted by the murder of a scandal-sheet publisher.
Dir: William Clemens
Cast: Warren William, Claire Dodd, Winifred Shaw
BW-63 mins, CC,

This is Claire Dodd's second try at the character of Della Street. She also played Della in the series' second entry, "The Case of the Curious Bride."


11:30 AM -- MARCH ON AMERICA! (1942)
This short film was aimed at boosting American morale during WWII by providing an overview of American history. Vitaphone Release 950-951A.
Dir: Richard Whorf
Cast: Carleton Young, Sidney Blackmer, Douglas Kennedy
C-21 mins,


12:00 PM -- THE SEA HAWK (1940)
A British buccaneer holds the Spanish fleet at bay with the covert approval of Elizabeth I.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Claude Rains
BW-128 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction, Black-and-White -- Anton Grot, Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Effects, Special Effects -- Byron Haskin (photographic) and Nathan Levinson (sound), and Best Music, Score -- Erich Wolfgang Korngold

The scenes of Doña Maria's carriage traveling through the countryside were taken from David Copperfield (1935). The film had to be darkened to disguise the fact that the carriage depicted was clearly too modern for this film's Elizabethan setting.


2:15 PM -- KIM (1951)
Rudyard Kipling's classic tale of an orphaned boy who helps the British Army against Indian rebels.
Dir: Victor Saville
Cast: Errol Flynn, Dean Stockwell, Paul Lukas
C-113 mins, CC,

In the master shot of the scene in which Flynn enters the tent with a bowl of food for Dean Stockwell for the lama, practical joker Flynn had piled it high with steaming fresh camel dung. Stockwell played the scene as written but it cost Flynn $500 because he had bet with the crew that he could make the young actor crack up laughing.


4:15 PM -- VALLEY OF THE KINGS (1954)
Archaeologists clash with graverobbers during the search for a priceless Egyptian treasure.
Dir: Robert Pirosh
Cast: Robert Taylor, Eleanor Parker, Carlos Thompson
C-86 mins, CC,

Filming in Egypt included views of the exterior and interior of Abu Simbel. The view also includes the Nile river in the background of one shot. The filming location is no longer accessible having been buried under Lake Nasser with the building of the Aswan dam. The massive complex was cut into large blocks and moved uphill between 1964-1968 to save it from being flooded.


6:00 PM -- THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1952)
An Englishman who resembles the king of a small European nation gets mixed up in palace intrigue when his look-alike is kidnapped.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr, Louis Calhern
C-101 mins, CC,

Lewis Stone (The Cardinal) previously played Rudolf Rassendyll and King Rudolf V of Ruritania in The Prisoner of Zenda (1922).



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: WRITTEN BY HERMAN RAUCHER



8:00 PM -- SUMMER OF '42 (1971)
A high school student falls in love, for the first time, with a World War II bride.
Dir: Robert Mulligan
Cast: Jennifer O'Neill, Gary Grimes, Jerry Houser
C-104 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- Michel Legrand

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- Herman Raucher, Best Cinematography -- Robert Surtees, and Best Film Editing -- Folmar Blangsted

Though author Herman Raucher admits to moving the order of certain events around and interchanging some dialogue, the movie is (according to those involved) an accurate depiction of events in Raucher's life in the summer of 1942 on Nantucket Island; he didn't even change anyone's name. He began writing the screenplay as a tribute to his friend Oscy, who'd been killed in the Korean War, but midway through writing it Raucher realized that he wanted to make it a story about Dorothy, who he had in fact neither seen nor heard from since their last night together as depicted in the movie. Raucher admits that in all the time he knew her, he never bothered to ask her what her last name was.


10:00 PM -- SWEET NOVEMBER (1968)
A woman refuses to let her romances last longer than one month.
Dir: Robert Ellis Miller
Cast: Anthony Newley, Sandy Dennis, Theodore Bikel
C-113 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Originally announced as a starring vehicle for Audrey Hepburn.


12:00 AM -- LADY IN THE LAKE (1947)
Philip Marlowe searches for a missing woman in this mystery shot entirely from the detective's viewpoint.
Dir: Robert Montgomery
Cast: Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan
BW-103 mins, CC,

The entire movie plot unfolds from lead Robert Montgomery's point of view, thus creating a rarity in film: the principal character is only seen on-screen as a reflection in mirrors and windows, and as the narrator speaking directly to the audience. So here's the face that you will miss -- the patron saint of the DU Classic Films Group:




2:00 AM -- BACK FROM ETERNITY (1956)
When an airliner crashes in the jungle, the repaired plane can only hold five of the survivors.
Dir: John Farrow
Cast: Robert Ryan, Anita Ekberg, Rod Steiger
BW-97 mins, CC,

Remake of the 1939 RKO film "Five Came Back" which starred Chester Morris and Lucille Ball. It had absolutely nothing to do with that other film, From Here To Eternity (1953).


4:00 AM -- THE ALPHABET MURDERS (1965)
Belgian detective Hercule Poirot investigates a series of murders committed in alphabetical order.
Dir: Frank Tashlin
Cast: Tony Randall, Anita Ekberg, Robert Morley
BW-90 mins, CC,

The first draft of the screenplay, written several years before the film was made, was a collaboration between actor Zero Mostel and director Seth Holt - although Holt later claimed that "collaboration" really meant Mostel doing a series of dazzling comic improvisations around the basis of Agatha Christie's original plot whilst he, Holt, desperately tried to write it all down as quickly as possible whilst convulsed with laughter.

[Dem2theMax]

1. It was so nice to see a picture of our patron saint!

That sure brings back a lot of good memories. This forum needs to be a little busier than it is. Come on people, we can tell you are reading because you are clicking. Post some comments. Come on in and sit down and chat a while.

You sure picked a wonderful picture of Mr. Montgomery. What a good looking man!

[Staph]

2. I had a different picture of him a few years ago.

But I can't find it now. He's seated, in a three-piece suit, and turned to the side ever-so-slightly. Maybe I'll find it again someday (in a version that I can include in a post!).

[Staph]

3. I've found the picture on IMDB....

Those eyes!

[Dem2theMax]

4. I remember that picture!

He was a doll! And quite the charmer too.