TCM Schedule for Saturday, September 5, 2015 -- The Essentials - Gladys Cooper

[Staph]

Tonight's Essentials features a trio of films starring Gladys Cooper. She earned three Oscar nominations, and tonight you'll see the first of those films, Now, Voyager (1942). The other two are The Song of Bernadette (1943 -- Cooper played the nun who does not believe Bernadette) and My Fair Lady (1964 -- Cooper played Henry Higgins' mother). Enjoy!



6:30 AM -- Broadway Melody Of 1936 (1936)
A Broadway columnist tries to use an innocent dancer to frame a producer.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth
Cast: Jack Benny, Eleanor Powell, Robert Taylor
BW-101 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Dance Direction -- Dave Gould for "I've Got a Feeling You're Fooling".

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- Moss Hart, and Best Picture

Reportedly, Eleanor Powell did not want to be in this film but was too polite to directly tell MGM executives. She asked for the leading role and an exorbitant salary, and MGM accepted her demands. Powell was spotted in a Fox screen test by Louis Maayer, who initially thought she was African-American but changed his mind when he found she was white. She was initially offered the part played by Una Merkel but eventually played the lead.


8:15 AM -- The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner (1962)
A boy from the Irish slums reviews his troubled past while training for a school race.
Dir: Tony Richardson
Cast: Tom Courtenay, Michael Redgrave, Avis Bunnage
BW-104 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

There is a running scene in which the camera catches both the rising sun and the setting moon. Walter Lassally recalled a critic writing of this scene: "'What consultation of ephemerides there must have been to capture that precious moment'...which only goes to show that critics don't know a great deal about how movies are made, because you can't possibly plan a thing like that. It would take forever, and fall well outside your schedule." The shot was actually one of those happy accidents that sometimes happen in filmmaking. Two cameras were set up, one with a wide angle lens and one with a long focus. It was pure luck that the two celestial bodies were caught.


10:00 AM -- Batman and Robin: Robin Rescues Batman (1949)
Batman risks his life to rescue a young woman captured by a criminal mastermind.
BW-18 mins,


10:30 AM -- Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937)
Captain Drummond becomes a prisoner when he intents to protect a beautiful heiress of an espionage organization.
Dir: James Hogan
Cast: Ray Milland, Sir Guy Standing, Heather Angel
BW-67 mins,

Last film of Sir Guy Standing -- he died from a rattlesnake bite during a hike in the Hollywood Hills.


12:00 PM -- Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
A woman's two lives as small-town innocent and author of torrid romances collide.
Dir: Richard Boleslawski
Cast: Irene Dunne, Melvyn Douglas, Thomas Mitchell
BW-94 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, and Best Film Editing -- Otto Meyer

The dialogue from this film is re-used in the film Bedtime Story (1941), in which Fredric March portrays a playwright and Loretta Young his actress wife. All the dialogue in March's new "play" is actually from the screenplay of this film. It's virtually word for word, with only the heroine's name changed. The "gardener" referred to in the dialogue is of course Melvyn Douglas. Columbia Pictures, the distributor of "Bedtime Story," made this film, too, but none of the writers overlap between the films. Interestingly, in "Bedtime Story," the actors playing the onstage scene are not meant to be in a comedy. What is borrowed is the confrontation over the gardener between Theodora, her aunt, and the local club ladies. Also, in an early scene, March has an inspiration for the last line of his play - something about nobody in the town ever calling the heroine "baby" before - an idea that figures in "Theodora Goes Wild" as well.


1:45 PM -- I Walked With A Zombie (1943)
A nurse in the Caribbean resorts to voodoo to cure her patient, even though she's in love with the woman's husband.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway
BW-69 mins, CC,

Val Lewton did not like the article "I Walked With A Zombie" by Inez Wallace that had been optioned so he adapted the story to fit the novel "Jane Eyre" because he felt the article's plot was too clichéd.


3:15 PM -- Royal Wedding (1951)
A brother-and-sister musical team find romance when they tour to London for Elizabeth II's wedding.
Dir: Stanley Donen
Cast: Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford
C-93 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Burton Lane (music) and Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics) for the song "Too Late Now"

The famous dancing on the ceiling number appears to be one long continuous take. However, if you watch closely, there are at least three and possibly four very subtle cuts in this scene.


5:00 PM -- McLintock! (1963)
A cattle baron fights to tame the West and his estranged wife.
Dir: Andrew V. McLaglen
Cast: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Patrick Wayne
C-122 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The "mudhole" in which the famous brawl took place wasn't actually made of mud. It was made of a material called bentonite, which is used in the drilling of oil wells and has the consistency of chocolate syrup. According to actor Leo Gordon (the first one to be knocked down it), that scene took a week to shoot.


7:30 PM -- MGM Parade Show #13 (1955)
George Murphy introduces clips featuring Susan Hayward and Fernand Gravet from "The Great Waltz" and "I'll Cry Tomorrow."
BW-25 mins,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: GLADYS COOPER



8:00 PM -- Now, Voyager (1942)
A repressed spinster is transformed by psychiatry and her love for a married man.
Dir: Irving Rapper
Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
BW-118 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gladys Cooper

For the first scene after Charlotte's metamorphosis, Hal B. Wallis asked Orry-Kelly to put her in a wide-brimmed hat so the audience wouldn't get a full look at her new face until later. He also wanted to maintain a sense of her shyness. Jack L. Warner objected to the choice, but Wallis ignored him.


10:00 PM -- Mrs. Parkington (1944)
A lady's maid marries a man whose prospects push her into high society.
Dir: Tay Garnett
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Edward Arnold
BW-124 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Agnes Moorehead

Fourth of eight movies that paired Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon.


12:15 AM -- The Pirate (1948)
An actor poses as a notorious pirate to court a romantic Caribbean girl.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Walter Slezak
C-102 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Lennie Hayton

The 1948 film's musical production final sequence, "Be a Clown", composed by Cole Porter, featured the acrobatic and dancing talents of the Nicholas Brothers, Fayard and Harold, with Gene Kelly. Gene Kelly choreographed the dance number. Judy Garland (Manuela) joins Gene Kelley's (Serafin) act and the film ends with the two of them singing a reprise of "Be a Clown." The dance sequence was the first time The Nicholas Brothers had danced onscreen with a Caucasian, while it was Kelly's insistence that they perform with him. The Nicholas Brothers were the ones punished. When released to the feature movie theater circuit distribution, this Nicholas Brothers sequence was deleted by MGM when screened in the Southern States, such as Memphis, because it featured black performers, the result of racial bigotry in the South. Only in the Northern States' movie theaters, were audiences allowed to view the entire end production presentation. Essentially blackballed, Fayard and Harold moved to Europe and did not return until the mid-sixties making a comeback appearance on the ABC TV variety show "The Hollywood Palace" hosted by Roy Rogers and Trigger, (#2.22, air date 27 Feb 1965).


2:00 AM -- The Born Losers (1967)
A Vietnam vet stands alone against a motorcycle gang terrorizing a small town.
Dir: Paul Lewis
Cast: Tom Laughlin, Elizabeth James, Jane Russell
C-113 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The first of five Billy Jack films.


4:00 AM -- The Glory Stompers (1967)
A tough motorcycle gang leader abducts a rival and his girlfriend.
Dir: Anthony M. Lanza
Cast: Dennis Hopper, Jody McCrea, Chris Noel
C-84 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Selected by Quentin Tarantino for the First Quentin Tarantino Film Fest in Austin, Texas, 1996.


5:45 AM -- The House in the Middle (1954)
Military tests demonstrate the dangers of poor home maintenance in the event of a nuclear attack in this short film.
C-12 mins,