TCM Schedule for Friday, December 20 -- Friday Night Spotlight: The Hollywood Costume

[Staph]

Today, TCM is celebrating Irene Dunne, born Irene Marie Dunn on December 20, 1898, in Louisville, Kentucky. She could do pretty much everything -- drama and melodrama, highbrow comedy and slapstick, and music of all kinds. Then in prime time, TCM continues this month's Friday Night Spotlight, the Hollywood Costume. Beautiful work! Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- No Other Woman (1933)
A newly rich couple finds wealth drives them apart.
Dir: J. Walter Ruben
Cast: Irene Dunne, Charles Bickford, Gwili Andre
BW-58 mins, TV-G, CC,

The original play Just a Woman, by Eugene Walter, opened in New York City on January 17, 1916, and had 136 performances.


7:00 AM -- Ann Vickers (1933)
A social worker's fight for reform is compromised by her love for a corrupt judge.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Irene Dunne, Walter Huston, Conrad Nagel
BW-76 mins, TV-G, CC,

Some objections were made by the Hays Office concerning the plot of the first draft of the screenplay, where Ann marries Captain Resnick and then has an affair with Barney. The plot was changed to Ann being seduced by the Captain with the offense somehow deemed less if only one of the parties in the adulterous affair is married. No reference is made about any abortion in the trip to Havana, and in the released print the cause of death of Ann's baby girl is never mentioned. RKO applied for an "Approved" certificate in 1935, when the production code was more rigorously enforced, but they were informed that no certificate would be given because of the film's attitude towards adultery.


8:30 AM -- The Age of Innocence (1934)
A young attorney risks his career for love of a glamorous divorcee.
Dir: Philip Moeller
Cast: Irene Dunne, John Boles, Lionel Atwill
BW-81 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Remade in 1993 with Michelle Pfeiffer as Ellen Olenska (played by Irene Dunne in the 1934 version), Daniel Day-Lewis as Newland Archer (John Boles), and Winona Ryder as May Welland (Julie Haydon).


10:00 AM -- Sweet Adeline (1935)
A gay nineties waitress rises from beer gardens to Broadway.
Dir: Mervyn Le Roy
Cast: Irene Dunne, Donald Woods, Hugh Herbert
BW-88 mins, TV-G, CC,

The original musical opened on Broadway, New York City, USA on 3 September 1929 at Hammerstein's Theatre and closed on 22 March 1930 after 234 performances. In the cast were Helen Morgan as Addie and Charles Butterworth as Rupert. Like many film musicals adapted from stage successes of the time, the plot line and characters of "Sweet Adeline" bear only a faint resemblance to the ones in the original Broadway show.


11:30 AM -- Show Boat (1936)
Riverboat entertainers find love, laughs and hardships as they sail along "Old Man River."
Dir: James Whale
Cast: Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger
BW-114 mins, TV-G, CC,

The design of the show boat is true to what a real show boat of that era might have looked like. This is partly because Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II wished it that way in their original stage instructions for the play, partly because of Edna Ferber's concern for historical accuracy, and partly because of director James Whale's sense of period design.


1:30 PM -- The Awful Truth (1937)
A divorced couple keeps getting mixed up in each other's love lives.
Dir: Leo McCarey
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy
BW-91 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Director -- Leo McCarey

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ralph Bellamy, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Viña Delmar, Best Film Editing -- Al Clark, and Best Picture

The dog playing Mr. Smith was named Skippy, but was best known for his role in The Thin Man movies as Asta.


3:15 PM -- Joy of Living (1938)
A Broadway musical star falls for an eccentric millionaire.
Dir: Tay Garnett
Cast: Irene Dunne, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Alice Brady
BW-91 mins, TV-G, CC,

Based on a story by Dorothy Fields and Herbert Fields. This brother and sister combo is best remembered today for writing the libretto for Annie Get Your Gun.


5:00 PM -- Love Affair (1939)
Near-tragic misunderstandings threaten a shipboard romance.
Dir: Leo McCarey
Cast: Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Maria Ouspenskaya
BW-88 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Maria Ouspenskaya, Best Writing, Original Story -- Mildred Cram and Leo McCarey, Best Art Direction -- Van Nest Polglase and Alfred Herman, Best Music, Original Song -- Buddy G. DeSylva for the song "Wishing", and Best Picture

After this movie was released restaurants were suddenly bombarded with requests for pink champagne.


6:30 PM -- My Favorite Wife (1940)
A shipwrecked woman is rescued just in time for her husband's re-marriage.
Dir: Garson Kanin
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott
BW-88 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- Leo McCarey, Bella Spewack and Sam Spewack, Best Art Direction, Black-and-White -- Van Nest Polglase and Mark-Lee Kirk, and Best Music, Original Score -- Roy Webb

Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, "Enoch Arden," about a fisherman presumed lost at sea who returns to find his wife remarried, was the basis of five prior films: Enoch Arden (1914), Die Toten kehren wieder - Enoch Arden (1919), and D.W. Griffith's Enoch Arden: Part I (1911), Enoch Arden: Part II (1911), and Enoch Arden (1915). Those films adhered to Tennyson's poem. But in My Favorite Wife, Something's Got to Give (1962), and Move Over, Darling (1963), only the basic idea of a spouse who returns is kept, with the spouse presumed lost now being the wife. However, in all of these films, the surname of the couple in question remains "Arden."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: THE HOLLYWOOD COSTUME



8:00 PM -- Send Me No Flowers (1964)
When he mistakenly thinks he's dying, a hypochondriac tries to choose his wife's next husband.
Dir: Norman Jewison
Cast: Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall
C-100 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

Although many people think Doris Day and Rock Hudson co-starred as often as Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, this was only their third - and final - appearance as a screen team. Tony Randall also appeared with them in all three films: Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961) and this.

Gowns by Jean-Louis.


9:44 PM -- So Your Wife Wants To Work (1956)
This comedic short involves a wife who wants to work, but her husband isn't too keen on the idea.
Dir: Richard Bare
Cast: Phyllis Coates, Emory Parnell, George O'Hanlon
BW-9 mins,


10:00 PM -- The Big Heat (1953)
A police detective whose wife was killed by the mob teams with a scarred gangster's moll to bring down a powerful gangster.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando
BW-90 mins, TV-14, CC,

When Lee Marvin first sees Glenn Ford face to face, the music in the background is "Put the Blame on Mame," a reference to Ford's performance in Gilda (1946).

Gowns by Jean-Louis.


11:45 PM -- Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
A man robs a bank to pay for his lover's operation.
Dir: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Al Pacino, John Cazale, Carol Kane
C-125 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Frank Pierson (Frank Pierson was not present at the awards ceremony. Presenter Gore Vidal accepted the award on his behalf.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Al Pacino, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Chris Sarandon, Best Director -- Sidney Lumet, Best Film Editing -- Dede Allen, and Best Picture

John Cazale was cast at Al Pacino's insistence, despite being nowhere the age of the real Sal, who was 18 at the time. Sidney Lumet was opposed to the idea because the actor was clearly inappropriate for the part. However, when Cazale came in to read for the part, Lumet was sold on him within 5 minutes.

Costume Design by Anna Hill Johnstone.


2:00 AM -- The Stepford Wives (1975)
A recent arrival in suburbia suspects a sinister reason for the local women's model behavior.
Dir: Bryan Forbes
Cast: Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson
C-115 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Before Katharine Ross was cast on the leading role of Joanna Eberhart, Tuesday Weld had originally been set to play the part, but passed. Diane Keaton very nearly got the role.

Costume Design by Anna Hill Johnstone.


4:15 AM -- Sullivan's Travels (1941)
A filmmaker masquerades as a hobo to get in touch with the little people.
Dir: Preston Sturges
Cast: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick
BW-91 mins, TV-G, CC

Not only was Veronica Lake pregnant during the making of this movie, she was between six and eight months pregnant. Production took place from June 12 to July 22 1941, and her daughter Elaine Detlie was born on August 21, 1941. The only other people involved in the production who knew of her condition were the costume designer, Edith Head, and Louise Sturges, wife of Preston. Miss Head designed costumes to hide the condition. Miss Lake was afraid that she would not be allowed to make the movie if her advanced state of pregnancy was revealed, owing to the physical demands of the role.

Costume Design by Edith Head.

[Matilda]

1. How can they feature costume in film

without Adrian?

He was peerless. He didn't create clothes; he made works of art.

It begins and ends with him.