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TCM On Demand for April 11, 2015 The following feature is now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: A Summer Place (1959) -- Richard Egan, Dorothy McGuire, Sandra Dee, Arthur Kennedy, Troy Donahue, Constance Ford, Beulah Bondi, Jack Richardson, Martin Eric. Uncredited: Richard Deacon, Bonnie Franklin, Ann Doran, Arthur Space, Eleanor Audley, Cheryl Holdridge, Roberta Shore. Donahue became a major star -- and teen idol -- because of this tale of summer romances at an inn on the Maine coast. Delbert Daves, who later directed Donahue in the films "Parrish" (1961) and "Rome Adventure" (1962), produced, directed and adapted the film's screenplay from the 1958 novel by Sloan Wilson. The movie's love theme, composed by Max Steiner, was recorded by Percy Faith. It was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for nine consecutive weeks in 1960. "Theme from 'A Summer Place' " also won the 1960-1961 Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Movie crossover reference: This film is attended at a Baltimore theater by the key characters in Barry Levinson's influential 1982 drama "Diner," which takes place during the final week of 1959. In the theater scene, Boogie Sheftell (Mickey Rourke) plays a terrible prank on his date Carol Heathrow (Colette Blonigan). Turner Classic Movies aired seven films starring Donahue (1936-2001) beginning in prime time on Thursday, April 9, 2015 and stretching into the early morning hours of Friday, April 10, 2015. Expires April 17, 2015.

Richard Dysart, who starred as senior partner Leland McKenzie in the four-time Emmy Award-winning television drama "L.A. Law," has died at the age of 86. The veteran actor, who appeared in the series during its entire run on NBC from 1986 to 1994, won a 1992 Emmy himself for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-richard-dysart-20150410-story.html On March 21, 1991, Dysart appeared in an "L.A. Law" scene that became one of television's most shocking moments. The Season 5 episode, titled "Good to the Last Drop," featured the surprising exit of the widely disliked attorney Rosalind Shays (Diana Muldaur).

TCM On Demand for April 10, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. A Distant Trumpet (1964) -- Troy Donahue, Suzanne Pleshette, Diane McBain, James Gregory, William Reynolds, Claude Akins, Kent Smith, Judson Pratt, Bartlett Robinson, Bobby Bare, Larry Ward, Richard X. Slattery, Mary Patton, Russell Johnson, Lane Bradford. Raoul Walsh's final film as a director was this Western drama about Lt. Matt Hazard (Donahue), a West Point grad assigned in 1883 to a U.S. Cavalry outpost near the Arizona-Mexico border. After he rescues Kitty Mainwarring (Pleshette) from a dangerous situation, he becomes interested in her. Unfortunately, she happens to be the wife of the acting commanding officer (Reynolds). Further complicating matters is the arrival of Hazard's fiancée Laura Frelief (McBain), who happens to be the niece of the new commanding officer (Gregory). Donahue and Pleshette, who earlier co-starred in the romantic drama "Rome Adventure" (1962), were married on January 4, 1964, almost five month before the release of this film. The marriage lasted eight months. The film features one of the final music scores by the three-time Academy Award winning composer Max Steiner. His last screen contributions were for the 1965 Walt Disney drama "Those Callaways." This was one of seven films starring Donahue (1936-2001) that Turner Classic Movies aired beginning in prime time on Thursday, April 9, 2015. Expires April 16, 2015. 2. My Blood Runs Cold (1965) -- Troy Donahue, Joey Heatherton, Barry Sullivan, Nicolas Coster, Jeanette Nolan, Russell Thorson, Ben Wright, Shirley Mitchell, Howard McNear, Howard Wendell, John Holland, John McCook. Directed by actor William Conrad ("Two on a Guillotine," "Brainstorm"), this thriller stars Donahue as an apparently deranged man who tries to persuade a beautiful heiress (Heatherton) that they are reincarnated lovers. Donahue's character was a deviation from the clean-cut, good guys he had played since he became a major star in the 1959 hit "A Summer Place." This turned out to be his last film as a studio player at Warner Bros. The movie's screenplay was written by John Mantley, who adapted it from a story by John Meredyth Lucas. Mantley later became the executive producer of the long-running television Western "Gunsmoke." Lucas went on to work on several episodes of "Star Trek," including "The Changeling," "Patterns of Force" and "That Which Survives" (as a writer) and "The Ultimate Computer" and "The Enterprise Incident" (as a director). Expires April 16, 2015.

TCM On Demand for April 9, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) -- Sir Laurence Olivier, Carol Lynley, Keir Dullea, Martita Hunt, Anna Massey, Clive Revill, Finlay Currie, Lucie Mannheim, Sir Noel Coward, Adrienne Corri, Megs Jenkins, Delphi Lawrence, Jill Melford, Suzanne Neve, Kika Markham, Percy Herbert, The Zombies. Uncredited: Oliver Reed. Otto Preminger directed this suspense thriller about an American woman (Lynley) whose daughter disappears without a trace after their move to London. Olivier plays the British police investigator who tries to figure out the mystery. Expires April 15, 2015. 2. La Strada (1954) -- Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina, Richard Basehart, Aldo Silvani, Marcella Rovere, Livia Venturini. This was the first of three projects by Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (the two others were "Nights of Cabiria" and "8 1/2"). Directed by Fellini and co-written with Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Flaiano, the film stars Quinn as Zampano, a performing strongman who travels from town to town. Masina (who was Signora Fellini in real life) plays Gelsomina, a young girl who becomes Zapano's companion after he buys her from her mother. Basehart co-stars as a circus high-wire expert who attracts Gelsomina and infuriates Zampano. By the way, the title is Italian for "The Road." Expires April 15, 2015. 3. Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962) -- Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney, Julie Harris, Stanley Adams, Madame Spivy, Val Avery, Herbie Faye, Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali), Jack Dempsey, Barney Ross, Rory Calhoun, Gus Lesnevich, Willie Pep. Directed by Ralph Nelson ("Lilies of the Field," "Duel at Diablo'), this is a film version of Rod Serling's 1956 teleplay about the final days in the career of "Mountain" Rivera (Quinn), a battered boxer who is beginning to show signs of irreversible physical damage. Gleason plays his cynical manager, who has begun to bet against his own fighter, while Rooney is Rivera's trainer. Harris co-stars as the social worker who tries to persuade Rivera to seek another line of work. The original television version aired on CBS' "Playhouse 90" series with Jack Palance in the role of Rivera and the father-and-son duo of Ed Wynn and Keenan Wynn as his trainer and manager, respectively. The TV version won a Peabody Award for excellence and several Emmys, including Best Single Program of the Year and honors for Palance, Serling and director Nelson. The winner of the movie's first bout Muhammad goes to the "Mountain": The film begins with Rivera taking a beating from Clay, the real-life boxer who would win the heavyweight title in 1964 and change his name to Muhammad Ali. Expires April 15, 2015.

TCM On Demand for April 8, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. Bacall on Bogart (1988) -- Actress Lauren Bacall provides a personal glimpse at her relationship and marriage to film great Humphrey Bogart from 1943 to 1957. The documentary was directed by David Heeley. Expires April 14, 2015. 2. Ernest Hemingway's 'To Have and Have Not' (1944) -- Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan, Laure Bacall, Dolores Moran, Hoagy Carmichael, Sheldon Leonard, Walter Molnar, Marcel Dalio, Walter Sande, Dan Seymour, Aldo Nadi. Bogart and Bacall became a legendary team on and off the screen in this World War II drama based on Hemingway's 1937 novel. The most famous line in a film starring Bogie and Baby was ranked No. 34 in the American Film Institute's 2005 survey of the 100 top movie quotes of all time: Bacall's character, Marie "Slim" Browning, performs the song "How Little We Know" (co-written by Carmichael). The actress always contended that it really was her singing voice on the soundtrack. But she reportedly was dubbed by a teen-aged singer named Andy Williams, who would become a TV perennial and a multiple Grammy Award winner. In his 2009 autobiography "Moon River and Me," Williams -- who died in 2012 at the age of 84 --wrote that Bacall "wasn't quite good enough for a number she had to do in the film." As a result, he declared that he was asked to step in by Dudley Chambers, the musical director at Warner Bros. Wrote Williams: "He had now decided that a sixteen-year-old boy whose voice had only recently changed was the perfect match for Bacall." Years later, Williams wrote, the actress "admitted that I dubbed the song for her but said that they wanted to use her own voice saying part of the lyric … and because my voice didn't match her speaking voice well enough, in the end they decided to use her recording, not mine, as originally planned. "I'm not sure what the truth of it was, but I'm not going to argue about it with the formidable Ms. Bacall!" Expires April 14, 2015. 3. James Stewart: A Wonderful Life (1987) -- Johnny Carson hosts this examination of the life and career of Academy Award winner Stewart (1908-1997), who appeared in almost 100 films over seven decades. Written by John L. Miller and directed by David Heeley, the documentary aired originally as an installment of the PBS series "Great Performances." Expires April 14, 2015.

TCM On Demand for April 7, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. The Outlaw (1943) -- Jack Buetel, Jane Russell, Thomas Mitchell, Walter Huston, Mimi Aguglia, Joe Sawyer, Gene Rizzi. Uncredited: Ben Johnson, Dickie Jones. Russell became a major screen sex symbol in this Western saga, supposedly because of a cantilevered brassiere designed by producer-director Howard Hughes. Russell plays a siren named Rio McDonald in this retelling of the tenuous friendship between the notorious gunslinger Billy the Kid (Buetel) and New Mexico Sheriff Pat Garrett (Mitchell). Huston co-stars as Doc Holliday. Beutel and Russell The film was released for only one week in 1943. Hughes withdrew it after clashing with the Hays Office, the censorship wing of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. Hughes released an uncut version three years later, and it became a box-office hit. Despite a risqué movie poster that highlighted Russell's cleavage, the actress later declared that she never wore the infamous bra created by Hughes. She also said he never noticed. Expires April 13, 2015. 2. The Paleface (1948) -- Bob Hope, Jane Russell, Robert Armstrong, Iris Adrian, Bobby Watson, Jackie Searl, Joseph Vitale, Charles Trowbridge, Clem Bevans, Jeff York, Stanley Andrews, Wade Crosby, Chief Yowlachie, Iron Eyes Cody, John Maxwell. Western comedy starring Hope as cowardly dentist "Painless" Potter who teams up with Calamity Jane (Russell) to smash a gunrunning plot. Directed by Norman Z. McLeod ("Horse Feathers," "Road to Rio"), the film received an Academy Award for Best Original Song ("Buttons and Bows" by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans). Hope and Russell reunited for a 1952 sequel titled "Son of Paleface," which co-starred Roy Rogers. Hope played Junior Potter, son of the characters of the original film. Expires April 13, 2015. 3. Rain (1932) -- Joan Crawford, Walter Huston, William Gargan, Beulah Bondi, Guy Kibbee, Walter Catlett, Mary Shaw, Kendall Lee, Matt Moore, Frederic Howard, Ben Hendricks. The original source material for this film was the short story "Sadie Thompson" by W. Somerset Maugham. Before becoming a vehicle for Crawford, the story was a stage play in 1923 and a 1928 silent film that earned Gloria Swanson an early Oscar nomination. Years later -- in 1953 -- Rita Hayworth starred in a musical version titled "Miss Sadie Thompson." The Crawford film was adapted by Maxwell Anderson and directed by Lewis Milestone ("All Quiet on the Western Front"). She stars as Thompson, a woman with a mysterious past who shows up at the tropical island of Pago Pago. Huston plays the rigid but hypocritical religious man who tries to persuade her to walk a straight and narrow path. Expires April 13, 2015.

TCM On Demand for April 6, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. Easter Parade (1948) -- Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Peter Lawford, Ann Miller, Jules Munshin, Clinton Sundberg, Richard Beavers. Uncredited: Lola Albight, Jimmie Dodd, Joi Lansing. Songs by Irving Berlin highlight this popular musical teaming of Garland and Astaire. Directed by Charles Walters ("Ziegfeld Follies," "Good News"), the film -- set in 1912 -- stars Astaire as a Broadway performer who loses a longtime partner (Miller) but gains a better one (Garland). Among the Berlin tunes performed in the production are the title song, "Steppin' Out with My Baby" and "A Couple of Swells." Expires April 12, 2015. 2. The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) -- Max von Sydow, Dorothy McGuire, Charlton Heston, Claude Rains, Jose Ferrer, Telly Savalas, Martin Landau, David McCallum, Donald Pleasence, Michael Anderson Jr., Roddy McDowall, Joanna Dunham, Joseph Schildkraut, Ed Wynn. George Stevens' star-studded re-creation of the life and times of Jesus Christ is headlined by Von Sydow, the Swedish actor best known for his many screen collaborations with Ingmar Bergman. Von Sydow, who observed his 89th birthday on April 10, 2019, would later play the Devil twice. He was the voice of the Evil One in the 1984 animated film "The Soldier's Tale." He also had the role in the 1993 film version of "Needful Things," directed by Heston's son Fraser and based on Stephen King's 1991 novel. There are plenty of cameos in this Biblical epic (watch carefully for appearances by such luminaries as Sidney Poitier, John Wayne, Carroll Baker, Dame Angela Lansbury and Van Heflin). The film was nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Color Cinematography (William C. Mellor, Loyal Griggs); Best Color Costume Design (Marjorie Best and Vittorio Nino Novarese); Best Color Art Direction-Set Decoration (Richard Day, William J. Creber, David S. Hall, art direction; Ray Moyer, Fred MacLean, Norman Rockett, set decoration); Best Musical Score (Alfred Newman); and Special Visual Effects (J. McMillan Johnson). Hall was nominated posthumously. Memorable scene: Christ's second-greatest miracle is performed after the death of a friend, Lazarus of Bethany (Michael Tolan). Expires April 12, 2015.

To paraphrase Alexander Pope, hope springs eternal in the breast of a Major League Baseball fan. The 2015 regular season begins on Easter Sunday as the St. Louis Cardinals take on the Chicago Cubs at historic Wrigley Field. And on Monday, there will be a busy slate of Opening Day games in both the National League and the American League. Since The National Pastime has long been a staple of motion pictures, here are some of my favorite all-time baseball movie quotes: 10. "Juuuussssst a bit outside." -- Cleveland Indians play-by-play announcer Harry Doyle (Bob Uecker) in "Major League" (1989). 9. "I believe in the Church of Baseball. I've tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones. I've worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary, and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I heard that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn't work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. I prefer metaphysics to theology. You see, there's no guilt in baseball, and it's never boring -- which makes it like sex... "It's a long season and you gotta trust it. I've tried 'em all, I really have. And the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball." -- Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) in the opening monologue from "Bull Durham" (1988). 8. "Well, I believe in the soul, the ****, the *****, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good Scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve. And I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days." -- Durham Bulls catcher Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) in "Bull Durham." 7. "If you build it, he will come." -- The mysterious voice in the Iowa cornfield in "Field of Dreams" (1989). 6. "All right Hobbs, knock the cover off the ball!" -- New York Knights manager Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley) to Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford), who is making his first big-league plate appearance in "The Natural" (1984). Continued in the next section:

Continued from the previous section: 5. "There's no crying in baseball!" -- Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks), manager of the Rockford Peaches, a 1940s all-women's baseball team in "A League of Their Own" (1992). 4. "I coulda been better. I coulda broke every record in the book...And then? And then when I walked down the street people would've looked and they would've said there goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was in this game." -- Pitcher-turned-slugger Hobbs (Redford) in "The Natural." 3. "I want a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back. You got to do this job with base hits, stolen bases, and fielding ground balls, Jackie. Nothing else! Now I'm playing against you in a World Series and I'm hot-headed. I want to win this game. So I go into you spikes first. You jab the ball in my ribs and the umpire says, 'Out.' I flare. All I can see is your black face -- that black face right over me. So I haul off and punch you right in the cheek. What do you do?" -- Branch Rickey (Minor Watson), president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers in "The Jackie Robinson Story" (1950). "Mr. Rickey, I've got two cheeks." -- Baseball great Robinson, playing himself in the film biography that focuses on how he broke professional baseball's color line in the late 1940s. 2. "People all say that I've had a bad break. But today...today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth." -- Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig (portrayed by Gary Cooper), saying farewell to the game because of his incurable illness in "The Pride of the Yankees" (1942). 1. "The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again." -- Author Terence Mann (James Earl Jones) to Ray Kinsella (Costner) in "Field of Dreams."

TCM On Demand for April 5, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. The Hunger (1983) -- Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, Cliff De Young, Beth Ehlers, Dan Hedaya, Rufus Collins, Suzanne Bertish, James Aubrey, Ann Magnuson, John Stephen Hill, Shane Rimmer, Douglas Lambert, Bessie Love. Directed by the late Tony Scott ("Top Gun," "Crimson Tide"), this stylish vampire tale probably is best remembered for its steamy romantic scene between the characters played by Deneuve and Sarandon. The film opens with a performance of the song "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by the British post-punk band Bauhaus. Expires April 11, 2015. 2. Klute (1971) -- Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, Roy Scheider, Dorothy Tristan, Rita Gam, Nathan George, Vivian Nathan, Morris Strassberg, Barry Snider, Betty Murray, Jane White, Shirley Stoler, Robert Milli, Anthony Holland, Fred Burrell, Richard B. Shull, Mary Louise Wilson, Marc Malvin, Rosalind Cash, Jean Stapleton. Uncredited: Sylvester Stallone, Kevin Dobson, Veronica Hamel, Richard Jordan, Candy Darling, Harry Reems. Sutherland plays the title character in this crime drama, about a Pennsylvania detective's search for a missing man he knew personally. But the film belongs to Fonda whose performance is a cinematic tour de force. For her efforts, she earned the first of her two Academy Awards for Best Actress (the second Oscar was for her performance in the 1978 drama "Coming Home"). Fonda stars as a hard-luck, New York City call girl named Bree Daniels, who may have had a connection to the man for whom Klute is searching. Although she continues to pursue acting and modeling jobs, Bree explains to a psychiatriist (Nathan) why she's hooked on being a hooker: In a 2011 interview with Elle magazine, Fonda declared that the film probably could not be done today in the same way. "One of the things that strikes everyone when they see it is that in those days, you could make movies -- if you were working with a great director like Alan Pakula --where you take time," she said. "Where silences are allowed to happen. Where behavior is allowed to evolve -- without constant cutting, editing, and hurrying. It's very striking, this movie, because it's so good. It holds up even though there are these times of silence, which I really treasure. It's a wonderful movie on every level. The lighting, the directing, the soundtrack, the cinematography…everything." To prepare for her role, Fonda spent time interviewing and observing real call girls. At first, she decided that she could never play Bree. "After spending a week with prostitutes, I asked Alan Pakula to let me out of my contract. I said, 'I can't do it. Hire Faye Dunaway. I can't do it.' And then I figured out a way to get into it -- but, I didn't think I could do it." When Fonda won Best Actress honors at the 44th Academy Awards on April 10, 1972, many observers expected her to deliver a politically tinged acceptance speech. The film star was known for her active opposition to America's involvement in the Vietnam conflict. But she simply thanked the Academy and declared, "There's a great deal to say, and I'm not going to say it tonight. I would just like to really thank you very much." In a 2007 Private Screenings interview with Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne, Fonda revealed that she decided to make a simple statement on the advice of her father, veteran actor Henry Fonda. The film also received a nomination for Best Original Screenplay (Andy Lewis and David E. Lewis). Fonda and Sutherland, who became romantically involved before they worked together on the movie, teamed up again for a traveling political vaudeville show called "F.T.A" (slang for "**** the Army," although some referred to the revue as "Free the Army"). The tour was the subject of a 1972 documentary, also titled "F.T.A.," which was directed by Francine Parker. Expires April 11, 2015. 3. Laura (1944) -- Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price, Dame Judith Anderson. Uncredited actors: Lane Chandler, Cara Williams. Otto Preminger directed this haunting mystery based on the 1943 novel by Vera Caspary. Andrews stars as a police detective who becomes enchanted by the portrait and life story of a murdered woman. The film won the Academy Award for Best Black-and-White Cinematography (Joseph LaShelle) and received nominations for Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Webb), Best Adapted Screenplay (Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein and Elizabeth Reinhardt) and Best Black-and-White Art Direction-Interior Decoration (Lyle R. Wheeler, Leland Fuller, Thomas Little). The haunting portrait of Laura In 2005, the American Film Institute selected the Top 25 film scores of all time. David Raksin's score for this movie was ranked No. 7 behind the musical compositions of "Star Wars" (1977), "Gone With the Wind" (1939), "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962), "Psycho" (1960), "The Godfather" (1972) and "Jaws" (1975). In 1968, a made-for-television version was adapted by Truman Capote and starred Lee Radziwill (as Lee Bouvier), the younger sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Also starring in the production were Robert Stack and George Sanders. Expires April 11, 2015.

My favorite Quinn performance is his work in "The Guns of Navarone" (1961), in which he plays Colonel Andrea Stavrou. He's a Greek nationalist who takes part in a commando raid on the Nazi fortress that threatens Allied shipping routes. After the mission is completed and he vows to return to an occupied Greek village, Stavrou delivers one of my favorite movie lines: "Well, I'm not so easy to kill." I regret that Quinn only directed one movie (another favorite of mine, the 1958 version of "The Buccaneer"). I love the action scenes during the 1815 Battle of New Orleans. I still get chills as the motley group of American defenders -- led by General Andrew Jackson (Charlton Heston) -- await an early morning attack by British forces at Chalmette. It's a shame that it took years for Quinn to become a leading man. Imagine the films he could have done if he had become a star much earlier in his career.

Freberg, who appears as a Crockett County, California deputy sheriff in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," also did radio spots for the movie. Here are a couple of them: As a result of Freberg's passing, there are only a few members of the film's enormous cast who are alive. Among them: Jerry Lewis, Carl Reiner, Marvin Kaplan and Barrie Chase.

Stan Freberg, one of America's great satirists and comedic pitchmen, has died at the age of 88. He also was one of the last surviving cast members of Stanley Kramer's 1963 all-star comedy "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-stan-freberg-20150407-story.html#page=1 One of Freberg's best-remembered ad parodies was this late-1960s commercial he created for Jeno's Pizza Rolls (now known as Totino's). It was a spoof of previous TV spots for Lark cigarettes in which everyday people were urged by a roving camera crew to "Show Us Your Lark Pack!" The music used for the Lark commercials? "The William Tell Overture" by Rossini, which was the theme for "The Lone Ranger" series on radio, television and in films. Freberg also came up with this unforgettable 1972 commercial for the Heinz line of soups. It starred the legendary actress-dancer Ann Miller, who persuaded the Academy Award-winning choreographer Hermes Pan to come out of retirement and work with her. The 60-second spot featured a $25,000 set, 20 chorus girls and a 22-piece orchestra. Notice that the veteran character actor Dave Willock ("What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?") was in both commercials.

As it turned out, Sinatra's mob ties were too much for the Kennedys and they stopped communicating with him. In turn, Sinatra eventually stopped speaking to old friend (and Kennedy in-law) Peter Lawford and evolved into a Republican.

May Wynn, who played Robert Francis' love interest in "The Caine Mutiny," is still alive and turned 87 in January. She was married to Jack Kelly of "Maverick" fame from 1956 to 1964. Her real name was Donna Lee Hickey but -- like Anne Shirley, Gig Young and L.Q. Jones -- she adopted her movie character's name professionally. Johnny Duncan, who played a radioman in "The Caine Mutiny," is 91.

Actor James Best, who played Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in "The Dukes of Hazzard" television series (1979-1985), has died at the age of 88. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/entertainment/tv/media-scene-blog/article17597600.html

But 1940s Frankie wasn't as cool as "Ol' Blue Eyes" of the late 1950s or "The Chairman of the Board" of the 1960s and thereafter.

By the way, Eisenstein also influenced another 1987 movie. When actor Peter Weller was working on "Robocop," he studied the bird-like movements of Nikolay Cherkasov as the title character in "Ivan the Terrible, Part I" (1944).

Eisenstein's Odessa Steps sequence is great cinema, whether it really happened or not. Without it, we never would have had this great shootout scene from Brian De Palma's film version of "The Untouchables" (1987):

That probably had a lot to do with Davis' romance with the Swedish actress May Britt. Supposedly, the Kennedy camp didn't want to deal with a celebrity interracial marriage during the campaign. Davis married May Britt on November 13, 1960, almost two weeks after John F. Kennedy was elected president. Sinatra was the best man at their wedding. Kennedy's sister Pat Lawford attended with her husband Peter.

The director of the Sinatra documentary -- the Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney ("Taxi to the Dark Side") -- is on a roll. He also was responsible for HBO's controversial new documentary about Scientology.

TCM On Demand for April 4, 2015 The following feature is now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. The Fugitive Kind (1959) -- Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward, Maureen Stapleton, Victor Jory, R.G. Armstrong, Emory Richardson, Madame Spivy, Sally Gracie, Lucille Benson, John Baragrey, Ben Yaffee, Joe Brown, Jr., Virgilia Chew, Frank Borgman. Sidney Lumet directed this adaptation of Tennessee Williams' 1957 play "Orpheus Descending." That production was a rewrite of Williams' 1939 drama "Battle of Angels," which was never staged. Brando stars as Val Xavier, a guitar-playing drifter from New Orleans who begins to have an interesting impact on the residents of a small Mississippi town. One of them is Lady Torrance (Magnani) a married, sexually unfulfilled woman who runs her husband's dry goods store. The movie's screenplay was credited to Williams and Meade Roberts. In his 2014 biography "Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh," author John Lahr -- son of actor-comedian Bert Lahr -- writes about the problems associated with the making of Lumet's film. For one thing, Brando had to fend off the amorous advances of Magnani. The Italian actress, who won an Oscar for her performance in the 1955 screen adaptation of Williams' play "The Rose Tattoo," also proved to be demanding and insisted on being shot from the right side. "It completely ruined my staging,” Lumet told Lahr before the director's death in 2011. “It meant that everyone had to be in a certain position in relation to her. You never saw Marlon’s right side, because he was always opposite her. I cannot tell you how destructive this kind of thing is to a movie.” Expires April 10, 2015. 2. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) -- Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, Rudy Bond, Nick Dennis, Peg Hillias, Wright King, Richard Garrick, Ann Dere, Edna Thomas, Mickey Kuhn. No film in history has ever won Academy Awards in all four acting categories, but this adaptation of Tennessee Williams' stage play came awfully close. It won Oscars for Best Actress (Leigh), Best Supporting Actor (Malden) and Best Supporting Actress (Hunter). The only omission was Brando's bid for the Best Actor award, which was won by Humphrey Bogart for his performance in "The African Queen." Directed by Elia Kazan ("Gentleman's Agreement," "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"), this film was nominated for 12 overall Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. The production also won for Best Black-and-White Art Direction-Set Decoration (Richard Day, George James Hopkins). In addition, the film received nominations for Best Writing Screenplay (Williams), Best Black-and-White Cinematography (Harry Stradling, Sr.), Best Black-and-White Costume Design (Lucinda Ballard), Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Alex North) and Best Sound, Recording (Nathan Levinson, Warner Bros.). Leigh, the British actress born in India, won her second Best Actress Oscar for playing a great Southern belle character of literature. Her first was for her role as Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind" (1939). This time, she won for her take on Blanche DuBois, a fading Mississippi beauty who disrupts the New Orleans home of her sister Stella Kowalski (Hunter) and brother-in-law Stanley (Brando). For his performance as Kowalski, Brando earned the first of a record four consecutive Academy Award nominations as Best Actor. He later was nominated for his work in "Viva Zapata!" (1952) and "Julius Caesar" (1953) before he finally won on his fourth try for "On the Waterfront" (1954). In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked this film No. 45 on its list of the 100 greatest movies of all time. When AFI updated the list in 2007, the film dropped two notches to No. 47. In 2005, North's score placed 19th on AFI's ranking of the top 25 film scores of all time. The composer (1910-1991) never won a competitive Academy Award despite 15 nominations (including one for "Unchained Melody," which was up for the Best Original Song Oscar for 1955). On March 24, 1986, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented him with an honorary statuette "in recognition of his brilliant artistry in the creation of memorable music for a host of distinguished motion pictures." Also in 2005, AFI ranked Kowalski's loud cries for his wife's attention at No. 45 on its list of the 100 greatest quotes in movie history. Brando had two other unforgettable quotes on the list. At No. 2 was a line from "The Godfather" ("I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse"). No. 3 was from a scene in "On the Waterfront" ("You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am"). Every spring in Jackson Square, the five-day Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literacy Festival traditionally closes with a "Stanley and Stella Shouting Contest," in which contestants deliver their versions of Kowalski's famous scene. Many female contestants yell for Stanley. Expires April 10, 2015.

I once rented "The Ten Commandments" from Blockbuster and intended to begin watching it at the same time ABC began its annual pre-Easter presentation of the movie. I was curious about where the network telecast would be by the time I finished the DVD without commercial interruptions. But I forgot that ABC had scheduled the telecast for 7 p.m. Eastern time, and began watching the DVD an hour late. Nevertheless, I caught up with the network version and passed it about the time that the Hebrews began making their exodus from Egypt. By the way, Sunday is the seventh anniversary of Charlton Heston's death at the age of 84. If you're keen for a mini-Heston retrospective, TCM is showing "Ben-Hur" Easter morning.

Not so sure that Julian ever got his due financially. Yoko Ono controls the Lennon empire and represents his interests when it comes to all things Beatles. Julian used to complain about this on Howard Stern's radio show.

At the time, McCartney likely was engaged to the ultra-hot British actress Jane Asher, sister of Peter Asher of Peter and Gordon. That five-year relationship ended in 1968 when Jane reportedly surprised McCartney while he was in bed with another woman (not Yoko).