TCM Schedule for Friday, May 22, 2015 -- Friday Night Spotlight - Orson Welles

[Staph]

During the day, TCM is celebrating Laurence Kerr Olivier, born May 22, 1907, in Dorking, Surrey, UK. This month's Friday night theme of the films of Orson Welles continues, followed by a pair of films about great artists - Rembrandt (1936), and The Moon and Sixpence (1942 - loosely based on the life of Paul Gaugin). Enjoy!



6:07 AM -- Believe It Or Not #7 (1932)
In this short film, Robert L. Ripley presents a series of rare sights and oddities, such as a leaning lighthouse and the definition of the word "fathom." Vitaphone Release 1361.
BW-8 mins,


6:15 AM -- Friends and Lovers (1931)
A society woman and her husband blackmail the men who flirt with her.
Dir: Victor Schertzinger
Cast: Adolphe Menjou, Lily Damita, Laurence Olivier
BW-68 mins,

Sackville Street is part of the Savile Row tailoring area in Mayfair in London. Many people are familiar with the idea of the high quality tailoring in Savile Row. "Savile Row", in terms of tailors, is traditionally regarded as including Savile Row itself and a few of the adjoining streets, such as Sackville Street.


7:30 AM -- Pride And Prejudice (1940)
Jane Austen's comic classic about five sisters out to nab husbands in 19th-century England.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier, Mary Boland
BW-118 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse

According to Ann Rutherford, although the filmmakers were committed to begin shooting on a particular date, they discovered that David O. Selznick had used every available reel of Technicolor film in existence to make Gone With The Wind. Therefore, despite the lavish sets and opulent costumes, Pride And Prejudice had to be shot in black and white.


9:30 AM -- Fire Over England (1937)
A British spy infiltrates the Spanish court to thwart their planned invasion of England.
Dir: William K. Howard
Cast: Flora Robson, Raymond Massey, Leslie Banks
BW-89 mins,

It was while screening 'Fire Over England' that agent Myron Selznick saw Vivien Leigh and decided that she was Scarlett O'Hara. Coincidently she was in Hollywood to accompany her lover and future husband, Laurence Olivier who was making Wuthering Heights (1939) and Myron brought her down to the Gone with the Wind (1939) set, the Burning of Atlanta and introduced her to his brother David as his new Scarlett O'Hara.


11:04 AM -- It Looks Like Rain (1945)
This short film takes a look at the tools and methods used to forecast the weather.
Dir: Paul Burnford
BW-10 mins,


11:15 AM -- Hamlet (1948)
The melancholy Dane flirts with insanity while trying to prove his uncle murdered his father.
Dir: Laurence Olivier
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Eileen Herlie, Basil Sydney
BW-154 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Laurence Olivier (Laurence Olivier was not present at the awards ceremony. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Roger K. Furse and Carmen Dillon, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Roger K. Furse, and Best Picture (Laurence Olivier was not present at the awards ceremony. Robert Montgomery accepted the award on his behalf.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Jean Simmons, Best Director -- Laurence Olivier, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- William Walton

One of the William Shakespeare purists who criticized this shorn-down version of the play was Ethel Barrymore, who complained that it wasn't as faithful as the stage version produced on Broadway in 1922, in which her brother John Barrymore played Hamlet. Ethel Barrymore was the presenter of the Best Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards that year and was visibly shaken when she read out Laurence Olivier's name as the winner.


2:00 PM -- The Prince And The Showgirl (1957)
An American showgirl in London creates an international incident when she falls for a European prince.
Dir: Laurence Olivier
Cast: Richard Wattis, David Thorne, Jeremy Spenser
C-117 mins, CC,

Marilyn got one-up on Olivier when she discovered that someone in the crew - she suspected it was Olivier himself - was running a book on how many takes she would need for a fairly tricky scene. She went home and studied hard so that on the day of shooting she was more than prepared. She delivered the line and then left the room, closing the door behind her as directed. However, within seconds the door flew open again and Marilyn stuck her head through the gap. 'Pretty good huh?' she exclaimed, before shutting the door for a final time. This line was not in the script and was an obvious dig at those who doubted her ability to do the scene. However, it fitted in so well that it wasn't re-shot and can now be seen in the final cut.


4:00 PM -- Term Of Trial (1962)
A schoolgirl obsessed with her teacher accuses him of molesting her.
Dir: Peter Glenville
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Simone Signoret, Sarah Miles
BW-113 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Natalie Wood was the first pick for the role of Shirley Taylor (eventually played by Sarah Miles) but she didn't want to be out of the country for the amount of time needed to make the movie.


6:00 PM -- A Little Romance (1979)
Teenagers elope with the help of an aging pickpocket.
Dir: George Roy Hill
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Diane Lane, Broderick Crawford
C-110 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Score -- Georges Delerue

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Allan Burns

Actor Laurence Olivier was 71 years of age when he made this film. Olivier made the picture whilst was recovering from thrombosis and pneumonia. Reportedly, Olivier once said that his teenage co-star in this film Diane Lane was "the next Grace Kelly".



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: ORSON WELLES



8:00 PM -- The Stranger (1946)
A small-town schoolteacher suspects her new husband may be an escaped Nazi war criminal.
Dir: Orson Welles
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, Orson Welles
BW-95 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Victor Trivas

This was the first mainstream American movie to feature footage of Nazi concentration camps following World War II.


9:51 PM -- The Bounty (1962)
This silent promotional short presents footage of the "HMS Bounty" for the remake of "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1962).
C-7 mins,


10:00 PM -- The Trial (1963)
In this adaptation of Kafka's classic, a man in a nameless country stands trial for an unnamed crime.
Dir: Orson Welles
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider
BW-120 mins, CC,

Orson Welles called this his best film.


12:15 AM -- The Immortal Story (1968)
A sailor bets he can seduce a wealthy man's wife, not knowing the man has hired a woman to play the role.
Dir: Orson Welles
Cast: Orson Welles, Jeanne Moreau, Roger Coggio
C-62 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Orson Welles originally planned for this film to be made as part of an anthology of adaptations of stories by Karen Blixen. Originally made for French TV, it was later released in theaters. This movie is available on DVD from The Criterion Collection.


1:30 AM -- F for Fake (1973)
Director Orson Welles examines the career of a notorious art forger.
Dir: Orson Welles
Cast: Orson Welles, Oja Kodar, Joseph Cotten
C-88 mins, CC,

Hidden within a montage of footage of Howard Hughes is one brief shot of a man disembarking from a ship who looks similar to Hughes, but is actually the actor Don Ameche.


3:00 AM -- Rembrandt (1936)
The respected painter takes to drink and faces down scandal after his wife dies.
Dir: Alexander Korda
Cast: Charles Laughton, Gertrude Lawrence, Elsa Lanchester
BW-84 mins, CC,

When Rembrandt reveals the newly completed painting, 'The Night Watch', we see not the full, original version that he in fact painted, but the drastically butchered version that was made over 40 years after his death, when the painting was moved from its original exhibition space in the Kloveniersdoelen to a less capacious display space in the Amsterdam Town Hall in 1715.


4:30 AM -- The Moon and Sixpence (1942)
Loosely inspired by the life of Gauguin, a man abandons his middle-classed life to start painting.
Dir: Albert Lewin
Cast: George Sanders, Herbert Marshall, Doris Dudley
C-89 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Dimitri Tiomkin

The rights to this film were originally bought by RKO in 1932 as a vehicle for John Barrymore.