Classic Films

Staph

(6,251 posts) Mon Apr 14, 2014, 10:29 PM Apr 2014

TCM Schedule for Saturday, April 19, 2014 -- The Essentials - Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews

Tonight's edition of The Essentials shows three of the five films costarring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews. Enjoy!

6:00 AM -- A King in New York (1957)
A European king loses his money while stranded in the U.S.
Dir: Charles Chaplin
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Maxine Audley, Jerry Desmonde
BW-105 mins, CC,

The first film that Charles Chaplin made in the UK after his exile from America, and his last leading role in a movie.

8:00 AM -- The Loved One (1965)
An Englishman in Hollywood moves into the funeral business.
Dir: Tony Richardson
Cast: Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters, Anjanette Comer
BW-121 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

After WWII, Evelyn Waugh came to Hollywood to work on a movie adaptation of his novel "Brideshead Revisited". While in Hollywood he went to a funeral at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Waugh was offended by the pretense of both the American film industry and the American funeral industry, and wove the two together into the novel on which this film was based.

10:15 AM -- Carson on TCM: Jonathan Winters (12/8/88) (2013)
TCM presents an interview from The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, with Jonathan Winters from 12/8/88.
C-10 mins, CC,

10:30 AM -- Mexican Spitfire's Baby (1941)
An advertising executive and his temperamental life adopt a war orphan who turns out to be a beautiful woman.
Dir: Leslie Goodwins
Cast: Lupe Velez, Leon Errol, Charles "Buddy" Rogers
BW-70 mins,

The Fuller Brush Company was noted for door-to-door sales of brushes of various sorts, with many Fuller Brush salesmen door-knocking houses all over the USA. There were two movies made - The Fuller Brush Man (1948) and The Fuller Brush Girl (1950).

11:45 AM -- MGM: When the Lion Roars, Part III: The Lion in Winter (1992)
Patrick Stewart takes viewers through the history of Hollywoods greatest film studio as it fades from glory during the fifties. Featuring interviews with Gene Kelly and Charlton Heston.
Dir: Frank Martin
Cast: Kirk Kerkorian, R E Turner (Ted), Roger Mayer
C-123 mins,

2:00 PM -- Quo Vadis (1951)
A Roman commander falls for a Christian slave girl as Nero intensifies persecution of the new religion.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Leo Genn
C-175 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Leo Genn, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Peter Ustinov, Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert Surtees and William V. Skall, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- William A. Horning, Cedric Gibbons, Edward C. Carfagno and Hugh Hunt, Best Costume Design, Color -- Herschel McCoy, Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa, and Best Picture

In An Audience with Peter Ustinov (1988), Ustinov recalled that he had been attached to the role of Nero for over a year before filming began. During this time he received a memo from the producers, informing him that they still wanted him for the part, but were concerned that he was too young. Ustinov replied that Nero died when he was 31; if they waited much longer, he would be too old for the part. He then received a reply, which he said he had kept and treasured. The reply stated: "Historical research has proved you correct."

5:00 PM -- Where Eagles Dare (1969)
An Allied team sets out to free an American officer held by the Nazis in a mountaintop castle.
Dir: Brian G. Hutton
Cast: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure
C-155 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

According to a special feature about this film, Ingrid Pitt, who plays Heidi, made a daring escape in real life, over the Berlin Wall.

TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: GENE TIERNEY AND DANA ANDREWS

8:00 PM -- Laura (1944)
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating.
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb
BW-88 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph LaShelle

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Clifton Webb, Best Director -- Otto Preminger, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein and Elizabeth Reinhardt, and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lyle R. Wheeler, Leland Fuller and Thomas Little

One of the film's most durable legacies was its theme song "Laura," composed over one weekend by David Raksin. Otto Preminger had originally wanted to use Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady." According to Preminger biographer Gerald Pratley, Preminger tried to get the rights to George Gershwin's "Summertime" but was unable to.

9:45 PM -- Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)
A police detective's violent nature keeps him from being a good cop.
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Gary Merrill
BW-95 mins, CC,

Not only was the traditional Twentieth Century Fox fanfare music not utilized at the film's opening, Alfred Newman's ubiquitous "Street Scene Theme" is whistled over the unique opening credits, appropriately written in chalk on a sidewalk.

11:30 PM -- The Iron Curtain (1948)
This film, based on real events, focuses on the defection of Soviet Embassy code specialist Igor Gouzenko.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, June Havoc
BW-87 mins, CC,

The music in the film became the subject of a minor but telling episode in the Cold War. Alfred Newman, the illustrious head of the 20th Century-Fox music department, scored this picture. It's not readily known who decided to incorporate genuine Soviet music into the film, but Newman's score featured compositions by the USSR's finest: Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Aram Khachaturyan and Dominik Miskovský. All four composers signed (or were ordered to sign) a letter of protest that claimed their music was appropriated via a "swindle" in order to accompany this "outrageous picture". No individuals were named, except "the agents of the American Twentieth Century-Fox Corporation". None of the composers would have had the opportunity to have seen the movie, thus it is to be assumed that they were put up to this protestation by the Stalin regime. Interestingly, the four "protesting" Soviet composers were at that same time under severe scrutiny themselves for composing music that was construed as subversive to the Soviet state, and for a time their heads were on the chopping block. So it's also to be assumed that the four filed this protest as a gesture of their loyalty to Joseph Stalin (or, more likely, to save themselves from being executed). In any case, these composers were often obliged to make "statements" that they personally had nothing to do with. Coincidentally, Hollywood at this same time was beginning to be scrutinized by the House Un-American Activities Committee for signs of "subversion" of the American state, resulting its its own blacklist.

2:00 AM -- Hatchet For the Honeymoon (1970)
A bridal design shop owner kills various young brides-to-be.
Dir: Mario Bava
Cast: Stephen Forsyth, Dagmar Lassander, Laura Betti
C-88 mins,

In certain foreign releases of the film Stephen Forsyth's character is re-named "Oliver Barrington." This may be due to distributors feeling that the name "John Harrington" was too generic for the character.

3:45 AM -- The Terror (1963)
A lost soldier discovers a mysterious beauty haunting a half-deserted castle.
Dir: Roger Corman
Cast: Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson, Sandra Knight
C-79 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Having finished The Raven (1963), Roger Corman immediately shot this film using the same sets and the same two lead actors. All of the scenes involving Boris Karloff were filmed by Corman in four days, but the finished film, which was largely improvised, required nine months to complete, the longest production of Corman's career. The second-unit work was filmed by five directors, Francis Ford Coppola, Dennis Jakob, Monte Hellman, Jack Nicholson, and Jack Hill.

5:15 AM -- MGM Parade Show #27 (1955)
Walter Pidgeon introduces Part One of "Captains Courageous" and introduces a clip from "Forbidden Planet."
BW-26 mins,

5:45 AM -- The Silver Chalice (1954)
A silversmith is charged with engraving the Holy Grail.
Dir: Victor Saville
Cast: Virginia Mayo, Pier Angeli, Jack Palance
C-135 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- William V. Skall, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Franz Waxman

When the film ran on television in 1966, Paul Newman took out ads in the Hollywood trade papers, calling it "the worst motion picture produced during the 1950s," apologizing for his performance, and asking people not to watch the film. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect, and many people tuned in to watch it on TV. Newman once screened the movie for friends at his home, giving them whistles, pots, and wooden spoons, and encouraging them to make noisy critiques of the film.