Tuesday, November 14 8:00 p.m. (ET)/5:00 p.m. (PT) SHALL WE DANCE? (1937) * Requested by Amanda Bannister of South Carolina Shall We Dance (1937) was the seventh outing within four years for RKO superstars Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Having kept the RKO studio financially afloat during the darker days of the Great Depression, Astaire and Rogers kept movie audiences entertained too, with sublime dance numbers, romantic fantasies of Boy-Meets-Girl, and songs that stayed with the audience long after the house lights came up. But by the time Shall We Dance was released in May 1937, the luster on the Astaire & Rogers films was beginning to fade. Shall We Dance was not a critical or even a box office success, but it was not the first indication that the team was losing steam. It was while this film was being shot that RKO studio bosses met to commiserate on the disappointing returns from Swing Time, released in 1936. That film made a profit of $413,000, well below the team's usual performance. In the case of Shall We Dance, audiences may have been disappointed by the decreased number of dance routines, while critics noted that the musical was less original and the plot a virtual rehash of their previous outings. But seen today, Shall We Dance succeeds as a stylish and superior musical entertainment from the Art Deco era. There are many things to praise here, including some truly memorable dance sequences. An outing in a park sets the stage for the most imaginative dance number in the film, a roller skate sequence set to the song "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off." Despite rumors at the time of a tense working relationship, the dance team projects a real sense of having fun as they twirl, swirl and tap on wheels. It's a fantastic number and definitely a Rogers-Astaire novelty, building on the roller skate number in Gold Diggers of 1933 and raising the bar for Gene Kelly in It's Always Fair Weather(1955). Shall We Dance also features another famous team that became legends in their own right. Brothers George and Ira Gershwin were commissioned to write a number of songs for Fred and Ginger to croon lovingly to each other. It was their second picture (their first being Delicious for Fox in 1931), and their only one for an Astaire & Rogers flick. The Gershwin tunes were not an immediate hit with the public, but in time they became popular standards. "Slap That Bass," "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," and "They Can't Take that Away From Me" were a few that the Brothers Gershwin contributed to cultural history. Sadly, George Gershwin died on July 11th, only a few months after the premiere of Shall We Dance. By the way, Shall We Dance was originally slated as the last of the Fred-and-Ginger romps, but within a year they were together again in Carefree. They followed that with The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle in 1939, and finally teamed up for the last time in 1949 for The Barkleys of Broadway. Director: Mark Sandrich Producer: Pandro S. Berman Screenplay: Harold Buchman & Lee Loeb (story Watch Your Step), Ernest Pagano, Allan Scott, P.J. Wolfson (adaptation) Cinematography: David Abel Editor: William Hamilton Art Direction: Van Nest Polglase Music: George Gershwin, Ira Gerswhin Cast: Fred Astaire (Petrov), Ginger Rogers (Linda Keene), Edward Everett Horton (Jeffrey Baird), Eric Blore (Cecil Flintridge), Jerome Cowan (Arthur Miller). BW-109m. Close captioning. By Scott McGee 10:00 p.m. (ET)/7:00 p.m. (PT) IDIOT'S DELIGHT (1939) * Requested by Jason Cass of Maine An MGM offering with the delightful talents of Clark Gable and Norma Shearer under the direction of Clarence Brown, Idiot's Delight was a unique film for 1939. Made under the specter of fascism in Europe, the film is essentially a plea for pacifism. Still, Robert Sherwood altered the screenplay from his own stage play quite a bit by adding an extensive prologue, toning down the anti-war dialogue, eliminating any mention of Germany, stressing the romance, and adding a happy ending. Producer Hunt Stromberg figured that audiences wouldn't be too happy with the play's ending which left it unclear whether or not the two lead characters survive a climactic bombing sequence. MGM filmed two endings for the film, one for American audiences and another that was more spiritual and optimistic for international audiences who might be disturbed by the war clouds forming over European skies. One casualty of the pre-war setting is the munitions manufacturer, played by veteran character actor Edward Arnold. The villain of the story is a business mogul without ethics, determined to make as much money as possible. Of course, the Arnold character wasn't meant to represent all munitions manufacturers, many of whom were close personal friends of MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer. But the timing of the film's release is particularly interesting, because audiences saw Idiot's Delight on the eve of America's entry into World War II. When it came time for war machine manufacturers to prepare the Allied warriors for battle, it would have been unusual, not to mention unpatriotic, to cast a munitions manufacturer as a villain. But in this pre-war film, it is the greedy businessmen who are blamed for the war, not fascist nations. Granted, the story takes place during World War I, but audiences understood that the real-life impending war was roughly analogous to that Great War. Even though he was initially reluctant, Clark Gable agreed to dance and sing in the "Puttin' on the Ritz" musical sequence. He rehearsed the number for six weeks with choreographer George King and studied the early movies of Broadway musical legend George M. Cohan. Still, Gable worried about appearing clumsy, dancing around in his size 11-C shoes. So, at Gable's insistence, MGM studio cops stood guard outside the gate of the soundstage to prevent unwanted visitors from witnessing any potentially embarrassing moments. This was the first and last time he would dance in front of a movie camera. Gable's fiancee, the beautiful Carole Lombard, practiced with him off the set. Later on in 1939, Clark Gable starred in a little movie with Vivien Leigh that was set during the Civil War. Fortunately for Gable, the role of Rhett Butler did not require much fancy footwork, other than what was needed in winning over Scarlett O'Hara. Director: Clarence Brown Producer: Clarence Brown, Hunt Stromberg Screenplay: Robert E. Sherwood Cinematography: William Daniels Editor: Robert J. Kern Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons Music: Herbert Stothart Cast: Norma Shearer (Irene Fellara), Clark Gable (Harry Van), Edward Arnold (Achille Weber), Charles Coburn (Dr. Hugo Waldersee), Joseph Schildkraut (Capt. Kirvline). BW-107m. By Scott McGee 12:00 a.m. (ET)/9:00 p.m. (PT) JUDGE HARDY AND SON (1939) * Requested by Nancy Paulette of Virginia Judge Hardy and Son (1939) was the eighth release in MGM's highly profitable Andy Hardy series. The first film, A Family Affair (1937), was followed by 15 more Andy Hardy adventures over the next 20 years. The credited director of this segment in the life of the Hardy family is George B. Seitz, who oversaw eleven installments of the series. MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer, who was a sucker for sentimental films about families, was the most important fan of the series. Not only did he run the studio that made Andy Hardy possible, he took a very personal role in the production of each film. This was a rather odd situation, since Judge Hardy and Son and the other episodes were strictly B-movie productions, hardly important enough to attract L.B. Mayer as their patron saint. In one telling episode, screenwriter Carey Wilson was laboring on the script for Judge Hardy and Son, when Mayer burst into his office with the pages of Andy's emotional prayer scene for his mother who is hovering near death. Deeply unhappy with the scene as written, Mayer sharply criticized Wilson by saying, "You see, you're now a Hollywood character. You've forgotten your simple, honest boyhood. You don't remember how a real boy would pray. This is how a boy would do it." With that, Mayer dropped to his knees, lifted his hands and eyes up high, and said fervently, "Dear God, please don't let my mom die, because she's the best mom in the world. Thank you, God." The Mayer performance, complete with streaming tears down the cheek, went into the film verbatim and became the standard invocation to the divine in all subsequent studio films under Mayer. Director: George B. Seitz Producer: Lou L. Ostrow (uncredited) Screenplay: Carey Wilson Cinematography: Lester White Editor: Ben Lewis Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons Music: David Snell Cast: Mickey Rooney ('Andy' Hardy), Lewis Stone (Judge James Hardy), Fay Holden (Mrs. Emily Hardy), Cecilia Parker (Marian Hardy), Ann Rutherford (Polly Benedict). BW-90m. By Scott McGee 2:00 a.m. (ET)/11:00 p.m. (PT) MEET THE PEOPLE (1944) * Requested by Hollie McLain of Arizona Just one of the many musical offerings from MGM in 1944, Meet the People featured a number of people that the public wanted to meet, including talented ingenue Lucille Ball who was rapidly becoming famous for her beauty and charm, long before she won acclaim for her talents as a comedienne on American television. The lead actor was the popular Depression-era song and dance man Dick Powell. Having starred in several streetwise musicals for Warner Brothers, such as 42nd Street (1933) and Footlight Parade(1933), Powell was perfect as the blue collar working man and playwright who insists that the star of his musical show gets to know Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public. The American people got to meet a whole new side to Dick Powell in 1944, one that meshed perfectly with the new filmmaking style known as film noir. Powell's other two 1944 offerings, Murder, My Sweet and Cornered, proved without a doubt that he had indeed transformed from a crooner into a tough guy who wasn't afraid to fight dirty. Audiences loved the new Dick Powell, but they still accepted him in musicals. Director Charles Reisner started in the film business during the First World War as a screenwriter and comedy performer, working for movie studios such as Keystone, Vitagraph, and others. He was the associate director for Charlie Chaplin's A Dog's Life (1918), The Kid (1921), The Pilgrim (1923), and The Gold Rush (1925), playing nasty villains in the first three. He also appeared as an actor in a number of silent features in the 1920's. A director from the mid-1920s on, he specialized in comedy, working with Buster Keaton, W.C. Fields, Marie Dressler, the Marx Brothers, and Abbott & Costello. In 1928, Reisner co-directed Steamboat Bill, Jr. with Keaton. The producer for Meet the People was E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, a former owner of an electrical appliance business before turning to writing songs and librettos for stage and film during Hollywood's talkie boom in 1929. Working in collaboration with such composers as Vernon Duke, Arthur Schwartz, Jerome Kern, and Harold Arlen, Harburg wrote lyrics to "I'm Yours," "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?," "Thrill Me," "It's Only a Paper Moon," "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady," "Old Devil Moon," "If I Only Had a Brain," and "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead." He won an Academy Award for the lyrics to "Over the Rainbow" in 1939 for MGM's The Wizard of Oz. Director: Charles Reisner Producer: E.Y. Harburg Screenplay: Ben Barzman, Sol Barzman (story), S.M. Herzig, Louis Lantz (story), Fred Saidy Cinematography: Robert Surtees Editor: Alex Troffey Music: Lennie Hayton Cast: Lucille Ball (Julie Hampton), Dick Powell (William "Swanee" Swanson), Virginia O'Brien ('Woodpecker' Peg), Bert Lahr (The Commander), Rags Ragland (Smitty), June Allyson (Annie). BW-101m. By Scott McGee