TCM Schedule for Thursday, September 26, 2013 -- Star of the Month - Kim Novak

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is singing and dancing to the music of George Gershwin, born Jacob Gershowitz on September 26, 1898. In prime time, it's the last of Star of the Month Kim Novak. Enjoy!


6:30 AM -- Girl Crazy (1932)
City slickers try to turn a broken-down ranch into a resort.
Dir: William A. Seiter
Cast: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Dorothy Lee
BW-74 mins, TV-G, CC,

Adapted from a Broadway stage musical, "Girl Crazy" opened on October 14, 1930 at the Alvin Theater in New York (now known as the Neil Simon Theatre) and ran for 272 performances. Ginger Rogers starred, and Ethel Merman, in a supporting role, introduced her first trademark song, "I Got Rhythm."


8:00 AM -- Shall We Dance (1937)
A ballet dancer and a showgirl fake a marriage for publicity purposes, then fall in love.
Dir: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton
BW-109 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- George Gershwin (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) for the song "They Can't Take That Away from Me"

The scene where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance on roller skates took about 150 takes, according to one of the VHS versions of the film.


10:00 AM -- A Damsel In Distress (1937)
An American dancer on vacation in England falls for a sheltered noblewoman.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Fred Astaire, George Burns, Gracie Allen
BW-101 mins, TV-G, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Dance Direction -- Hermes Pan for "Fun House"

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction -- Carroll Clark

When Fred Astaire learned that Gracie Allen was nervous about dancing with him onstage, he reportedly made a point of tripping and falling in front of her the first day on the set to put her at her ease.


12:00 PM -- Girl Crazy (1943)
A womanizing playboy finds true love when he's sent to a desert college.
Dir: Norman Taurog
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Gil Stratton
BW-99 mins, TV-G, CC,

Judy Garland's character's name, Ginger Gray, is a tribute to Ginger Rogers, who played the part on Broadway when the character was named Molly Gray. Ginger Rogers wrote that one night onstage in the play, her costar Allen Kearns accidentally said: "Ginger, I love you" instead of "Molly". The mistake got such a huge laugh from the audience that they decided to continue to do that in subsequent performances, pretending it was a mistake. (Source: "Ginger: My Story". New York: Harper-Collins, 1991)


1:45 PM -- Rhapsody In Blue (1945)
Fictionalized biography of George Gershwin and his fight to bring serious music to Broadway.
Dir: Irving Rapper
Cast: Robert Alda, Joan Leslie, Alexis Smith
BW-141 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Ray Heindorf and Max Steiner, and Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD)

The characters played respectively by Alexis Smith, Joan Leslie, and Albert Bassermann are fictional. There was no love triangle between Gershwin and the two women, and Gershwin's music teacher did not die the night that "Rhapsody in Blue" premiered. The scene in which Gershwin is fired by the music publisher for playing his own music is also fictional. However, most of the other characters in the film did exist, including Max Dreyfus, and Anne Brown, who played Bess in the original "Porgy and Bess".


4:15 PM -- Tea For Two (1950)
An heiress has to say no to every question for 24 hours if she wants to star on Broadway.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson
C-98 mins, TV-PG, CC,

A remake of the Broadway musical No, No, Nannette.


6:00 PM -- An American in Paris (1951)
An American artist finds love in Paris but almost loses it to conflicting loyalties.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant
BW-114 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, E. Preston Ames, Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason, Best Cinematography, Color -- Alfred Gilks and John Alton, Best Costume Design, Color -- Orry-Kelly, Walter Plunkett and Irene Sharaff, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Johnny Green and Saul Chaplin, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Alan Jay Lerner, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Vincente Minnelli, and Best Film Editing -- Adrienne Fazan

Irene Sharaff designed a style for each of the ballet sequence sets, reflecting various French impressionist painters: Raoul Dufy (the Place de la Concorde), Edouard Manet (the flower market), Maurice Utrillo (a Paris street), Henri Rousseau (the fair), Vincent van Gogh (the Place de l'Opera), and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (the Moulin Rouge). The backgrounds took six weeks to build, with 30 painters working nonstop.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: KIM NOVAK



8:00 PM -- Middle of the Night (1959)
A widowed businessman courts a younger woman who works for him.
Dir: Delbert Mann
Cast: Kim Novak, Glenda Farrell, Jan Norris
BW-117 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

The original Broadway production of "Middle of the Night" opened at the ANTA Playhouse in New York on February 8, 1956, ran for 477 performances and received two Tony Award acting nominations. Paddy Chayefsky wrote the stage play and adapted his work for the movie version. Effie Afton, Martin Balsam, Lee Philips and Betty Walker recreated their stage roles for the movie version.


10:15 PM -- Of Human Bondage (1964)
A medical student risks his future when he falls for a low-class waitress.
Dir: Ken Hughes
Cast: Kim Novak, Laurence Harvey, Robert Morley
C-100 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Sue Lyon was mentioned for the female lead before Kim Novak was cast.


12:00 AM -- The Legend Of Lylah Clare (1968)
An obsessed movie director grooms an unknown to play his deceased movie-star wife.
Dir: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Kim Novak, Peter Finch, Ernest Borgnine
C-130 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Although this was her first film in three years, Kim Novak found that she had little enthusiasm for her character. Director Robert Aldrich found it increasingly difficult to elicit a viable performance from her. This was Kim Novak's last starring role in an American-made feature film.


2:15 AM -- The Great Bank Robbery (1969)
Outlaws pose as a religious group to mask their attempt to rob a Western bank.
Dir: Hy Averback
Cast: Zero Mostel, Kim Novak, Clint Walker
C-97 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Bob Steele's character name is Duffy. He also played a character named Duffy two years earlier in F-Troop.


4:00 AM -- Kim Novak: Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival (2013)
The legendary actress talks with TCM host Robert Osborne during the TCM Classic Film Festival.
BW-50 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format


5:00 AM -- The MGM Story (1950)
A collection of MGM previews with an introduction by Lionel Barrymore.
Dir: Herman Hoffman
C-57 mins, TV-G, CC

[rdmtimp]

1. Novak's last film to date was "Liebestraum" (1991)...

and it was filmed in the US (Binghamton, NY), thought with a British director (Mike Figgis).