TCM Schedule for Friday, November 18, 2016 -- What's On Tonight - Star of the Month Natalie Wood

[Staph]

This evening, TCM continues their look at Star of the Month Natalie Wood, with her strong turns in films from the early 1960s, including Cash McCall (1960), Splendor In The Grass (1961), West Side Story (1961), Gypsy (1962), and Love With The Proper Stranger (1963), and tomorrow morning, Sex And The Single Girl (1964) and The Great Race (1965). Enjoy!


7:00 AM -- GAMBLING LADY (1934)
Two gamblers fall in love but one is already married to a possible murderer.
Dir: Archie Mayo
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Pat O'Brien
BW-66 mins, CC,

Based on an original story by Doris Malloy.


8:15 AM -- CHANCE AT HEAVEN (1934)
A society girl steals a simple gas station attendant from his working-class girlfriend.
Dir: William Seiter
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Joel McCrea, Marion Nixon
BW-71 mins, CC,

Ginger Rogers was a last minute replacement for Dorothy Jordan.


9:45 AM -- HIGHER AND HIGHER (1943)
Servants pass off one of their own as an heiress in hopes of winning her a wealthy husband.
Dir: Tim Whelan
Cast: Michèle Morgan, Jack Haley, Frank Sinatra
BW-90 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy McHugh (music) and Harold Adamson (lyrics) for the song "I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- C. Bakaleinikoff

Mel Tormé's film debut.


11:30 AM -- POP ALWAYS PAYS (1940)
A man will only allow his daughter to marry if her fiance can raise $1,000.
Dir: Leslie Goodwins
Cast: Leon Errol, Dennis O'Keefe, Adele Pearce
BW-67 mins,

Bald-pated, Hollywood comedy star Leon Errol is best remembered for his two-reelers for two decades from 1933, and for his appearances opposite Lupe Velez in the 'Mexican Spitfire' features of the early 40's.


12:45 PM -- THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE (1958)
British parents try to prepare their Americanized daughter for her social debut.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Rex Harrison, Kay Kendall, John Saxon
C-96 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

For years John Saxon said he had been bothered by something about Sandra Dee during filming that he just couldn't put his finger on. Decades later he figured out what it was -Sandra's mother had lied about her age to get her more adult roles, therefore Sandra was only 14 years old at the time of filming.


2:30 PM -- THE GIRL FROM MISSOURI (1934)
A gold-digging chorus girl tries to keep her virtue while searching for a rich husband.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Franchot Tone
BW-72 mins, CC,

Sam Wood shot additional scenes, uncredited. He seems to have been MGM's go-to director to help out in emergency situations. He did the same thing for Gone With The Wind (1939), after George Cukor was fired and Victor Fleming was swamped with the project.


3:45 PM -- SHE'S GOT EVERYTHING (1938)
A penniless heiress goes to work as secretary to a stuffed shirt.
Dir: Joseph Santley
Cast: Gene Raymond, Ann Sothern, Victor Moore
BW-73 mins, CC,

The year before this film was made, Gene Raymond married superstar Jeanette MacDonald. They stayed married until her death in 1965.


5:00 PM -- INVITATION (1952)
A millionaire tries to buy his dying daughter a husband.
Dir: Gottfried Reinhardt
Cast: Van Johnson, Dorothy McGuire, Ruth Roman
BW-85 mins, CC,

The haunting theme music by Bronislau Kaper was actually introduced two years earlier in MGM's A Life of Her Own (1950), but became a jazz standard under the title Invitation, especially associated with tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson.


6:30 PM -- ALWAYS TOGETHER (1947)
A dying millionaire gives his fortune to a working girl, then recovers and tries to get it back.
Dir: Frederick de Cordova
Cast: Joyce Reynolds, Robert Hutton, Cecil Kellaway
BW-79 mins, CC,

Director Frederick de Cordova is probably best remembered (by those of a certain age) as the producer of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. During tapings of the Tonight Show, de Cordova would sit in a chair just beyond the guests' couch so that he could cue Carson directly and speak with him during commercial breaks. By the 1980s Carson would occasionally speak to de Cordova during the show, although usually the moment would pass so quickly that there would be no time to give de Cordova a microphone or catch him on camera. These awkward exchanges became an object of parody. An episode of SCTV aired in 1981 featured a sketch of "The Freddie de Cordova Show".[11] The segment was almost an exact copy of the Tonight Show, except the host's desk was empty; de Cordova conducted all of his interviews from his usual perch off-camera. On the real program in 1988, as a takeoff on the installation of lights in Wrigley Field, Carson ceremonially installed a light on the edge of the set so that de Cordova could finally be seen.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: NATALIE WOOD



8:00 PM -- SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (1961)
Sexual repression drives a small-town Kansas girl mad during the roaring twenties.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat Hingle
C-124 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- William Inge

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Natalie Wood

For the scene in which Deanie tries to drown herself in the lake, Natalie Wood asked Elia Kazan if she could do it in a controlled studio tank because she had a great fear of water - particularly dark water. "I assured her it was a very shallow lake and that her feet would always be close to the bottom," said Kazan. "She said that even if her feet were on the bottom, she'd be in a panic of fear about it. So I asked my assistant, Charlie Maguire, to get into the water with her, just out of camera range, while she played the scene of struggling to save herself. This didn't entirely reassure her, but she did the scene and did it well - then clutched Charlie. 'Cut!' I cried. On dry land she continued to shake with fear, then laughed hysterically, with relief."


10:15 PM -- WEST SIDE STORY (1961)
A young couple from dueling street gangs falls in love.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn
C-154 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Chakiris, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Rita Moreno, Best Director -- Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (For the first time a directing award is being shared.), Best Cinematography, Color --
Daniel L. Fapp, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Boris Leven and Victor A. Gangelin, Best Costume Design, Color -- Irene Sharaff, Best Sound -- Fred Hynes (Todd-AO SSD) and Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), Best Film Editing -- Thomas Stanford, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, and Best Picture

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Ernest Lehman

The stage version was originally planned as a story about a Catholic boy falling in love with a Jewish girl. The working title was "East Side Story". After a boom of Puerto Rican immigration to New York in the late 1940s and 1950s, the story was changed, and the show opened on Broadway in 1957 as "West Side Story". The working title of 'East Side Story' was later used as the title to Mexican-American rapper Kid Frost's second album released in 1992 - with the placement of the 'East Side Story' title reminiscent of the West Side Story movie posters.


1:00 AM -- LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER (1963)
When a one-night stand results in pregnancy, a musician and a young girl try to resolve the issue together.
Dir: Robert Mulligan
Cast: Natalie Wood, Steve McQueen, Edie Adams
BW-100 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Natalie Wood, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Arnold Schulman, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Milton R. Krasner, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson, Sam Comer and Grace Gregory, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head

It's unclear whether this a bizarre coincidence or inside joke, but when character played by Natalie Wood is taking taxi home from the abortionist, cab passes a large billboard advertising a movie starring Wood's former (and future) husband Robert Wagner.


3:00 AM -- GYPSY (1962)
A domineering mother pushes her two daughters to burlesque stardom.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden
C-143 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Costume Design, Color -- Orry-Kelly, and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Frank Perkins

Natalie Wood was very pleased her singing voice would not be dubbed -- a privilege she didn't receive when she made West Side Story (1961).


5:30 AM -- CASH MCCALL (1960)
A corporate spoiler makes a play for a failing company and the owner's daughter.
Dir: Joseph Pevney
Cast: James Garner, Natalie Wood, Nina Foch
C-102 mins, CC,

James Garner's last film under his Warner Bros. contract. After a writer's strike halted all WB productions, even though Garner had a "play or pay" contract, WB refused to pay him. Garner sued the studio for breach of contract and won.