TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 6, 2017 -- What's On Tonight: Star of the Month - Ronald Colman

[Staph]

In the morning, there's more of this month's Spotlight on 50 Years of Hitchcock. Then in prime time, it's the beginning of the tribute to Star of the Month, the dashing Ronald Colman. According to IMDB, "When he made his mark in Hollywood as a handsome young silent actor, there were some who doubted he would translate well to "talkies." His subsequent success in radio (he made a multi-volume recording of the William Shakespeare sonnets, as well) proved them wrong with a vengeance." Enjoy!


6:45 AM -- MURDER! (1930)
A juror who had voted to convict a murder suspect tries to prove someone else did it before the execution date.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Herbert Marshall, Nora Baring, Miles Mander
BW-100 mins, CC,

This is the first movie where a person's thoughts are presented on the soundtrack of the film.


8:30 AM -- THE SKIN GAME (1931)
A self-made man shocks the inhabitants of a small English town by buying a forest owned by the local nobility.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Edmund Gwenn, Helen Haye, John Longden
BW-82 mins, CC,

Edmund Gwenn and Helen Haye reprised their roles as Mr. Hornblower and Ivy Hillcrist from the silent version The Skin Game (1921).


10:00 AM -- RICH AND STRANGE (1932)
An unexpected inheritance proves less than a boon to a young married couple.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Henry Kendall, Joan Barry, Percy Marmont
BW-83 mins,

The title comes from Ariel's song in "The Tempest":
"Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made,
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange."


11:30 AM -- MGM PARADE SHOW #31 (1956)
Walter Pidgeon discusses Greta Garbo's later career with director George Cukor.
BW-26 mins,


12:00 PM -- PSYCHO (1960)
A woman on the run gets mixed up with a repressed young man and his violent mother.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin
BW-109 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Janet Leigh, Best Director -- Alfred Hitchcock, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- John L. Russell, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Joseph Hurley, Robert Clatworthy and George Milo

Director Alfred Hitchcock was so pleased with the score written by Bernard Herrmann that he doubled the composer's salary to $34,501. Hitchcock later said, "33% of the effect of Psycho was due to the music."


2:00 PM -- THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)
A Korean War hero doesn't realize he's been programmed to kill by the enemy.
Dir: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh
BW-127 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Angela Lansbury, and Best Film Editing -- Ferris Webster

Famous for his use of innovative camera angles, director John Frankenheimer was widely acclaimed for a shot that is slightly out of focus: Frank Sinatra showing the all-queens deck of cards to Laurence Harvey. Frankenheimer said that rather than the shot being evidence of inspiration, it was an accident and merely the best take for Sinatra. Audiences interpreted it as Shaw's blurred perspective.


4:15 PM -- ACT OF VIOLENCE (1948)
An embittered veteran tracks down a POW camp informer.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh
BW-82 mins, CC,

All the credits except for the title are at the end of the movie, highly unusual for that time.


5:45 PM -- LITTLE WOMEN (1949)
The four daughters of a New England family fight for happiness during and after the Civil War.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Margaret O'Brien
C-122 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert H. Planck and Charles Edgar Schoenbaum

Mr. Davis, the school teacher who could not bring himself to punish Amy, was portrayed both the 1933 and 1949 Little Women by the same actor, Olin Howland, apparently in the same outfit. In both movies he holds up Amy's slate with the same exact writing and cartoon drawing of the teacher, with a huge nose, with cartoon balloon stating, "YOUNG LADIES MY EYES ARE UPON YOU".



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: RONALD COLMAN



8:00 PM -- THE WHITE SISTER (1923)
Thinking her lover was killed in the war, a young woman becomes a nun.
Dir: Henry King
Cast: Lillian Gish, Ronald Colman, Gail Kane
BW-135 mins,

Based on a novel by Francis Marion Crawford, who was the nephew of Julia Ward Howe.


10:20 PM -- EFREM ZIMBALIST & HAROLD BAUER PLAYING THEME AND VARIATIONS FROM "THE KREUTZER SONATA" BY BEETHOVEN (1926)
Eminent musicians Efrem Zimbalist and Harold Bauer perform the "Kreutzer Sonata" in this short film, part of the first program of shorts that accompanied "Don Juan" (1926). Vitaphone Release 279.
BW-9 mins,

One of several short films shown on 6 August 1926 in New York City, prior to the premiere of Don Juan (1926), to demonstrate the then-new Vitaphone sound system.


10:30 PM -- THE WINNING OF BARBARA WORTH (1926)
A plan to irrigate the Western desert is complicated by a romantic triangle.
Dir: Henry King
Cast: Ronald Colman, Vilma Banky, Charles Lane
BW-89 mins,

At its premiere revival presentation at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles on 11 May 1971, Vilma Bánky was a no show, but the only two other surviving members of the cast, Clyde Cook and Glen Walters were present in the audience, along with other film notables. The organ accompaniment on the DVD is that of Gaylord Carter actually recorded that evening during the presentation.


12:15 AM -- BULLDOG DRUMMOND (1929)
A British adventurer helps a blonde beauty rescue her uncle from an unscrupulous psychiatrist.
Dir: F. Richard Jones
Cast: Ronald Colman, Joan Bennett, Lilyan Tashman
BW-89 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Ronald Colman, and Best Art Direction -- William Cameron Menzies

The third of the 25 films about the adventure hero Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, and the first to be filmed with sound. Colman returned to the role in 1934's Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back.


2:00 AM -- RAFFLES (1930)
A distinguished British gentleman hides his true identity as a notorious jewel thief.
Dir: Harry d'Abbadie D'Arrast
Cast: Ronald Colman, Kay Francis, Bramwell Fletcher
BW-71 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Oscar Lagerstrom (sound director)

The last Goldwyn movie to be shot simultaneously in silent and talkie versions.


3:12 AM -- RONALD COLMAN (1962)
This short film, part of the Hollywood Hist-o-Rama series, offers a brief biography of Ronald Colman.
Dir: Joseph R Juliano
BW-4 mins,

In his early film career Colman was panned by many critics for his overtheatrics (used in the stage work he was doing at the time) and his pronounced limp (from a bad war injury). He credited working with greats such as George Arliss for overcoming those obstacles.


3:30 AM -- THE DEVIL TO PAY (1930)
A spendthrift's return shakes up his family.
Dir: George Fitzmaurice
Cast: Ronald Colman, Frederic Kerr, Loretta Young
BW-72 mins, CC,

The film's original director was Irving Cummings with Dorothy being played by Constance Cummings (no relation to the director). After some scenes were shot, George Fitzmaurice replaced Cummings as director, and Loretta Young took over the role of Dorothy, with all previous scenes re-shot.


4:47 AM -- NINE O'CLOCK FOLKS (1931)
In this musical short, a rural yokel holds every job in his small town. Vitaphone Release 1220.
Dir: Roy Mack
Cast: Roy Fant,
BW-10 mins,


5:00 AM -- CYNARA (1932)
Infidelity threatens a lawyer's marriage when his fling decides to steal him from his wife.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: Ronald Colman, Kay Francis, Phyllis Barry
BW-78 mins, CC,

The title comes from the 1894 poem "Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae" (a quotation from Book IV of Horace's Odes) by Ernest Dowson (1867-1900) in which the narrator tells his former lover, Cynara, of his attempts to forget her. The poem's refrain "I have been faithful to thee Cynara! in my fashion." is shown as frontispiece to the film. The same poem is the origin of the title of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel -- from the line "I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind."