TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 27, 2017 -- What's On Tonight: Star of the Month - Ronald Colman

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating the birth of Donald Crisp, born on July 27, 1882, in London, England. Interesting factoid: during the Boer War (1899-1902), Crisp crossed paths with a young Winston Churchill in the early days of his of political career. With the First World War (1914-1918), Crisp returned to England to serve in the army intelligence section. By the Second World War (1939-1945), Crisp served with the United States Army Reserves, rising to the rank of Colonel. Then in prime time, it's the last of Star of the Month Ronald Colman. Enjoy!


6:30 AM -- WHAT EVERY WOMAN KNOWS (1934)
An ambitious wife backs her husband's political career.
Dir: Gregory La Cava
Cast: Helen Hayes, Brian Aherne, Madge Evans
BW-90 mins, CC,

After a disappointing preview in Los Angeles, director Gregory La Cava put the film back in production for retakes, but complained so bitterly that Helen Hayes decided to abandon movies and concentrate on stage productions because of his attitude.


8:15 AM -- THE SISTERS (1938)
Three western girls make unhappy marriages at the turn of the century.
Dir: Anatole Litvak
Cast: Errol Flynn, Bette Davis, Anita Louise
BW-99 mins, CC,

Originally the film credits were to read "Errol Flynn in The Sisters", but Bette Davis demanded equal billing alongside Errol Flynn. She also pointed out that the original credits had an unwelcome sexual connotation.


10:00 AM -- THE OKLAHOMA KID (1939)
A cowboy sets out to avenge his father's lynching.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Rosemary Lane
BW-80 mins, CC,

This was James Cagney's first western. He would appear in only two more westerns--Run for Cover (1955) and Tribute to a Bad Man (1956)--both of them much later in his career.


11:30 AM -- BROTHER ORCHID (1940)
After a failed hit, a mob chief recuperates in a monastery.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Ann Sothern, Humphrey Bogart
BW-88 mins, CC,

Of the five films that Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart made together, this is the only one in which neither is killed.


1:15 PM -- CITY FOR CONQUEST (1940)
A truck driver risks his eyesight when he boxes to pay for his brother's education.
Dir: Anatole Litvak
Cast: James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Frank Craven
BW-104 mins, CC,

Cagney's boxing stand-in was Quentin "Baby" Breese, a professional boxer who was ranked as one of the first ten lightweights in the world, and who lost only 15 of 100 fights in his career.


3:15 PM -- SHINING VICTORY (1941)
A psychiatrist sacrifices everything for his research.
Dir: Irving Rapper
Cast: James Stephenson, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Donald Crisp
BW-80 mins, CC,

After the success of The Letter (1940). actor James Stephenson was promoted to star for his next picture, "Shining Victory". Actor Irving Rapper was promoted to director on the project. According to Bette Davis in her biography 'Mother Goddam', "I disguised myself as a nurse and appeared on the set as an extra. Rapper didn't recognize me for the first few takes. I had a ball. Imagine daring to do this today!"


4:45 PM -- DRANGO (1957)
A Union officer faces hostility when he's sent to rebuild a ruined southern town.
Dir: Hall Bartlett
Cast: Jeff Chandler, Joanne Dru, Julie London
BW-93 mins, CC,

Filmed in part at Fort Pike in New Orleans and in St. Francisville, Louisiana.


6:30 PM -- SADDLE THE WIND (1958)
A rancher with a questionable past tries to stop his outlaw brother.
Dir: Robert Parrish
Cast: Robert Taylor, Julie London, John Cassavetes
C-84 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

A first score was written and recorded by Jeff Alexander but had to be replaced with an Elmer Bernstein score due to extensive re-cutting.



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



8:00 PM -- A DOUBLE LIFE (1947)
An actor starring as Othello opposite his wife finds the character's jealous rage taking over his mind off-stage.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Ronald Colman, Signe Hasso, Edmond O'Brien
BW-105 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Ronald Colman, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- George Cukor, and Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin

In the film, Ronald Colman plays a fictional actor who stars in the longest-running "Othello" in history. In real life, actor Paul Robeson, who had just become the first black actor to star in an otherwise white production of "Othello" on Broadway, had just completed the longest run of the play.


10:00 PM -- RANDOM HARVEST (1942)
A woman's happiness is threatened when she discovers her husband has been suffering from amnesia.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Ronald Colman, Greer Garson, Philip Dorn
BW-126 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Ronald Colman, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Susan Peters, Best Director -- Mervyn LeRoy, Best Writing, Screenplay -- George Froeschel, Claudine West and Arthur Wimperis, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell, Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Herbert Stothart, and Best Picture

Ronald Colman fought with the British army in World War I at the battle of Ypres in 1914 where he received severe shrapnel wounds to the knee and ankle of one of his legs. He was decorated for bravery and was invalided out of the army several months later.


12:10 AM -- GREER GARSON (1962)
This short film, part of the Hollywood Hist-o-Rama series, offers a brief biography of Greer Garson.
BW-4 mins,


12:15 AM -- THE TALK OF THE TOWN (1942)
An escaped political prisoner and a stuffy law professor vie for the hand of a spirited schoolteacher.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Colman
BW-117 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- Sidney Harmon, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sidney Buchman and Irwin Shaw, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ted Tetzlaff, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lionel Banks, Rudolph Sternad and Fay Babcock, Best Film Editing -- Otto Meyer, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Friedrich Hollaender and Morris Stoloff, and Best Picture

Ronald Colman's character, Professor Michael Lightcap, receives a fair amount of ribbing and criticism from the townspeople of Lochester for his facial hair. His beard even becomes a symbol of his own cold detachment for his secretary and love interest, Nora Shelley. Lightcap's decision to shave his beard serves as an important piece of character development in the film. Coincidentally, Colman was also well known for his own facial hair, and insisted on keeping his trademark mustache for most of his films. Much like this character in this film, Colman was forced to begrudgingly shave his beloved facial hair for some of his most famous roles, including that of Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities (1935).


2:30 AM -- THE LATE GEORGE APLEY (1947)
Young love rocks a staid Boston family.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Ronald Colman, Vanessa Brown, Richard Haydn
BW-97 mins,

Based on the novel by John P. Marquand, and the subsequent play by Marquand and George S. Kaufman.


4:15 AM -- THE STORY OF MANKIND (1957)
Satan and the spirit of mankind contend for the future of humanity.
Dir: Irwin Allen
Cast: Ronald Colman, Hedy Lamarr, Groucho Marx
C-100 mins, CC,

The final film of Ronald Colman.

[CBHagman]

1. As always, great notes!

And I'd recommend that everyone watch The Talk of the Town, especially with the way things are politically.

[Staph]

2. I've never seen Talk of the Town.

I'll have to check that out.

Ronald Colman is so dreamy! </end-teenaged-girl-mode>