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TCM Schedule for Thursday, November 8, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: Pioneers - First Women Filmmakers
This evening, TCM continues their look at the women who were pioneers in the the film industry. From the TCM website:WOMEN FILM PIONEERS - NOV. 1 & 8
In the early days of cinema, women directors were fairly common and even helped shape the language of film. However, as time progressed and the power structure of Hollywood shifted, women became greatly overlooked in positions of leadership and power. TCM honors the women who served as pioneers in directing silent movies, influencing generations of filmmakers in the face of the limitations imposed upon them.
TCM also salutes their successors, the women directors of later decades who managed to break through the "celluloid ceiling" when opportunities for females were even rarer. We look at Women Film Pioneers during primetime on the first two Thursdays in November, then at Female Directors as a daytime theme on Wednesday, November 7.
Our first night of female silent-film directors features three films by French-born Alice Guy-Blaché: Falling Leaves (1912), A House Divided (1913) and The Ocean Waif (1916). It has been said that, during the period 1896-1906, Guy-Blaché was "probably the only woman film director in the world."
Dorothy Davenport Reid, whose feature Linda (1929) is also in our lineup, came from the prominent theatrical family the Davenports. She was an actress as well as writer, producer and director. She was married to actor Wallace Reid, and it was a sign of the time that, on Linda and some of the other films she directed, she was billed as "Mrs. Wallace Reid."
Three short films in this tribute are TCM premieres, including Lois Weber's Suspense (1913), a 10-minute thriller about a mother and her baby threatened in their home by a burglar. Weber, who has been called "America's First Female Filmmaker," co-directed the movie, wrote the scenario and stars as the threatened mother.
Mabel's Blunder (1914) is a 13-minute comedy produced by Mack Sennett and written and directed by its star, Mabel Norman, the most successful comedienne of the early silent screen. Her Defiance (1916) is a 20-minute feminist melodrama co-directed by Cleo Madison, who stars as a woman abandoned by her lover.
Other Women Film Pioneers include Julia Crawford Ivers, Marian E. Wong, Ruth Ann Baldwin, Ida May Park, Elsie Jane Wilson, Nell Shipman, Grace Cunard, Lita Lawrence and Alla Nazimova, the flamboyant Russian star who wrote, produced and/or co-directed several of her film vehicles.
Female Directors from later decades include Dorothy Arzner, the only woman directing films for Hollywood studios during the 1930s. She was the first female to direct a sound film and the first to join the Directors Guild of America. She was noted for her technical innovations, such as inventing a boom mic, and also for directing such female superstars as Katharine Hepburn (Christopher Strong, 1933) and Joan Crawford (The Bride Wore Red, 1937).
Jacqueline Audry was the first Frenchwoman to become a successful film director in her country in the years following World War II. She directed the first film adaptation of the famous Colette story Gigi (1949), before American screenwriter Anita Loos adapted it for the stage. In the U.S., starring actress Ida Lupino staked her claim as the only woman director working within the Hollywood studio system in the 1950s, on such films asHard, Fast and Beautiful (1951). She also co-wrote some of her socially-conscious melodramas including Outrage and produced others. Along with her acting career, she continued directing for television into the 1960s.
Claudia Weill, who has also directed for theatre and television, is best remembered for her feature film Girlfriends (1978), which she also produced. The movie examines the troubled yet supportive relationship of two New Yorkers (played by Melanie Mayron and Anita Skinner). The film brought Weill a David di Donatello award from the Venice Film Festival for best "first work as a director."
by Roger Fristoe
In the early days of cinema, women directors were fairly common and even helped shape the language of film. However, as time progressed and the power structure of Hollywood shifted, women became greatly overlooked in positions of leadership and power. TCM honors the women who served as pioneers in directing silent movies, influencing generations of filmmakers in the face of the limitations imposed upon them.
TCM also salutes their successors, the women directors of later decades who managed to break through the "celluloid ceiling" when opportunities for females were even rarer. We look at Women Film Pioneers during primetime on the first two Thursdays in November, then at Female Directors as a daytime theme on Wednesday, November 7.
Our first night of female silent-film directors features three films by French-born Alice Guy-Blaché: Falling Leaves (1912), A House Divided (1913) and The Ocean Waif (1916). It has been said that, during the period 1896-1906, Guy-Blaché was "probably the only woman film director in the world."
Dorothy Davenport Reid, whose feature Linda (1929) is also in our lineup, came from the prominent theatrical family the Davenports. She was an actress as well as writer, producer and director. She was married to actor Wallace Reid, and it was a sign of the time that, on Linda and some of the other films she directed, she was billed as "Mrs. Wallace Reid."
Three short films in this tribute are TCM premieres, including Lois Weber's Suspense (1913), a 10-minute thriller about a mother and her baby threatened in their home by a burglar. Weber, who has been called "America's First Female Filmmaker," co-directed the movie, wrote the scenario and stars as the threatened mother.
Mabel's Blunder (1914) is a 13-minute comedy produced by Mack Sennett and written and directed by its star, Mabel Norman, the most successful comedienne of the early silent screen. Her Defiance (1916) is a 20-minute feminist melodrama co-directed by Cleo Madison, who stars as a woman abandoned by her lover.
Other Women Film Pioneers include Julia Crawford Ivers, Marian E. Wong, Ruth Ann Baldwin, Ida May Park, Elsie Jane Wilson, Nell Shipman, Grace Cunard, Lita Lawrence and Alla Nazimova, the flamboyant Russian star who wrote, produced and/or co-directed several of her film vehicles.
Female Directors from later decades include Dorothy Arzner, the only woman directing films for Hollywood studios during the 1930s. She was the first female to direct a sound film and the first to join the Directors Guild of America. She was noted for her technical innovations, such as inventing a boom mic, and also for directing such female superstars as Katharine Hepburn (Christopher Strong, 1933) and Joan Crawford (The Bride Wore Red, 1937).
Jacqueline Audry was the first Frenchwoman to become a successful film director in her country in the years following World War II. She directed the first film adaptation of the famous Colette story Gigi (1949), before American screenwriter Anita Loos adapted it for the stage. In the U.S., starring actress Ida Lupino staked her claim as the only woman director working within the Hollywood studio system in the 1950s, on such films asHard, Fast and Beautiful (1951). She also co-wrote some of her socially-conscious melodramas including Outrage and produced others. Along with her acting career, she continued directing for television into the 1960s.
Claudia Weill, who has also directed for theatre and television, is best remembered for her feature film Girlfriends (1978), which she also produced. The movie examines the troubled yet supportive relationship of two New Yorkers (played by Melanie Mayron and Anita Skinner). The film brought Weill a David di Donatello award from the Venice Film Festival for best "first work as a director."
by Roger Fristoe
Enjoy!
6:45 AM -- LEAP YEAR (1921)
In this silent film, a young man causes a raft of trouble by giving romantic advice to his female friends.
Dir: James Cruze
Cast: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle,
BW-56 mins,
Until February 21, 2008, this film had never been shown theatrically anywhere in America because of Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle's murder trial, except for special screenings such as the ones in Washington, D.C. at the American Film Institute theater at the Kennedy Center on 18 March 1981, in Los Angeles CA at the Fairfax Theatre 10 April 1981 and at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley CA on 22 August 1993.
7:45 AM -- THE RED MILL (1926)
In this silent film, a barmaid sets out to win the heart of a handsome hero.
Dir: William Goodrich
Cast: Marion Davies, Owen Moore, Louise Fazenda
BW-74 mins,
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle got the assignment to direct this film because William Randolph Hearst felt guilty about how his newspapers had savaged Arbuckle during his three murder/rape trials in 1922 and ruined his career, despite his eventual acquittal. Barred from working under his own name by Hollywood censor Will Hays after his 1922 scandal, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle deliberately selected a pseudonym, Will B. Goodrich, that spelled out "Will Be Good."
9:00 AM -- MILLION DOLLAR LEGS (1932)
A small country decides to enter the Olympic Games to raise money for their soon to be bankrupt home.
Dir: Edward Cline
Cast: Jack Oakie, W. C. Fields, Andy Clyde
BW-62 mins,
Costar Susan Fleming - who plays Angela - later married comic Harpo Marx and retired from acting. The Marx's marriage was a famously happy and successful one, and lasted until Harpo's death in 1964.
10:15 AM -- IT'S A GIFT (1934)
A disgruntled druggist sells his store to buy an orange grove in California.
Dir: Norman McLeod
Cast: W. C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, Jean Rouverol
BW-68 mins, CC,
Harold Bissonette's grocery store sells actual brand-name products of the period, including Kellogg's Corn Flakes and 3-in-1 Oil. This was highly unusual in 1934; most movies avoided showing real products because the studios didn't want to give their manufacturers free advertising.
11:30 AM -- THE BANK DICK (1940)
When he foils two robberies in one day, the town drunkard is hired to guard the local bank.
Dir: Edward Cline
Cast: W. C. Fields, Cora Witherspoon, Una Merkel
BW-72 mins, CC,
"Mahatma Kane Jeeves" (the pseudonym used by W.C. Fields as screenwriter) is a play on words from stage plays of the era. "My hat, my cane, Jeeves!" And in fact, at the end of the film his butler does hand him his hat and his cane.
12:45 PM -- MUSIC FOR MADAME (1937)
An opera star trying to make it big in Hollywood gets mixed up with jewel thieves.
Dir: John Blystone
Cast: Nino Martini, Joan Fontaine, Alan Mowbray
BW-81 mins,
Alan Mowbray's character and performance was a take-off on famed conductor Leopold Stokowski.
2:15 PM -- CROSS COUNTRY ROMANCE (1940)
A runaway heiress hides in a doctor's trailer for a rollicking trip to San Francisco.
Dir: Frank Woodruff
Cast: Gene Raymond, Wendy Barrie, Hedda Hopper
BW-68 mins, CC,
Lucille Ball and James Ellison were initially announced for the roles eventually played by Wendy Barrie and Gene Raymond.
3:30 PM -- ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET CAPTAIN KIDD (1952)
Two waiters stumble on a treasure map and land in hot water with pirates.
Dir: Charles Lamont
Cast: [Bud] Abbott, [Lou] Costello, Charles Laughton
BW-71 mins, CC,
Charles Laughton had wanted to do a knockabout physical comedy for some time, but could never find anything appropriate. He had long been an admirer of Lou Costello's abilities as a slapstick comedian, and--as he remarked some time later--he decided "If you want to learn something, learn it from the best" so he let Costello and Bud Abbott know that he was interested in doing something with them. This picture is the result.
4:45 PM -- RIO RITA (1942)
A pair of nitwits try to stop Nazis from infiltrating a Western ranch.
Dir: S. Sylvan Simon
Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Kathryn Grayson
BW-91 mins, CC,
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were under contract to Universal Pictures, and their films were so successful that MGM signed a three-film contract with them to take advantage of a clause in their Universal contract that allowed them to do one film a year for another company. This was the first one; Lost in a Harem (1944) and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood (1945) were the others. However, each of the films was less successful than the previous one, and MGM canceled its agreement with Universal after the third film.
6:30 PM -- BUD ABBOTT AND LOU COSTELLO IN HOLLYWOOD (1945)
A pair of wacky lackeys try to take Tinseltown by storm.
Dir: S. Sylvan Simon
Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Frances Rafferty
BW-83 mins, CC,
The film, made by MGM under the studio's loanout deal with Universal for the team's services, is set on the MGM lot, but the studio's major stars - Clark Gable, Lana Turner and Judy Garland - are only mentioned by name and not seen. The actual cameos were confined to second-tier stars Rags Ragland, Preston Foster, Jackie 'Butch' Jenkins and Lucille Ball.
TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PIONEERS: FIRST WOMEN FILMMAKERS
8:00 PM -- BROADWAY LOVE (1918)
An aspiring Broadway star falls into a fast paced lifestyle after befriending the chorus girl community's top party girl.
Dir: Ida May Park
Cast: Dorothy Phillips, Juanita Hansen, William Stowell
BW-61 mins,
Based on a story by W. Carey Wonderly.
9:15 PM -- THE DREAM LADY (1918)
A woman establishes a fortune telling business with the inheritance from her late uncle.
Dir: Elsie Jane Wilson
Cast: Carmel Myers, Thomas Holding, Kathleen Emerson
BW-54 mins,
Based on the novel Why Not? by Margaret Widdemer.
10:15 PM -- SOMETHING NEW (1920)
In this silent film, a frontierswoman races across the desert to escape bandits and find her man.
Dir: Nell Shipman
Cast: Nell Shipman, Bert Van Tuyle, L. M. Wells
BW-57 mins,
A restored version made from a tinted nitrate print at the UCLA Film and Television Archive was released for video by Milestone Films. It has an uncredited piano score and runs 57 minutes. The restoration was supervised by senior archivist D.J. Turner and done at the National Archives of Canada.
11:30 PM -- A DAUGHTER OF THE LAW (1921)
A woman tries to steer her brother away from organized crime.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Carmel Myers, Jack O'Brien, Fred Kohler
BW-22 mins,
Based on the story The Black Cap by Wadsworth Camp.
12:00 AM -- SALOME (1923)
A king in love with his stepdaughter agrees to behead the prophet that rejected her.
Dir: Charles Bryant
Cast: Nazimova, Rose Dione, Mitchell Lewis
BW-72 mins,
Oscar Wilde wrote the original play in French in 1891. An English translation was made and was in rehearsal in 1894, but was banned by officials on the basis that it was illegal to depict Biblical characters on the stage. Its first live performance was in Paris, France in 1896 (Wilde was jailed from 1895 to 1897). It was not performed in England until 1931. The film is said to have been filmed with an all-gay cast, in honor of the playwright, Oscar Wilde.
1:30 AM -- MOTHERHOOD; LIFE'S GREATEST MIRACLE (1928)
The discovery and journey of two very very different women experiencing motherhood for the first time.
Dir: Lita Lawrence
Cast: George E. Patton, Adelaide M. Chase,
BW-59 mins,
This was writer/director Lita Lawrence's only film.
2:45 AM -- LINDA (1929)
A young woman is forced by her abusive father to marry a much older man, despite being in love with a doctor.
Dir: Mrs. Wallace Reid
Cast: Warner Baxter, Helen Foster, Noah Beery
BW-73 mins,
Based on the novel Linda by Margaret Prescott Montague.
4:15 AM -- THE BUGLE SOUNDS (1942)
An old-time cavalry sergeant's resistance to change could cost him his post.
Dir: S. Sylvan Simon
Cast: Wallace Beery, Marjorie Main, Lewis Stone
BW-102 mins, CC,
The song Wallace Beery sings as he marches on horseback with his group is not the more famous song "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" appearing in the movie of the same name (She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)). It dates back to the Civil War, and there are many variations of it. The first known copyright of a version (listed in the soundtrack section) was in 1917, by George A. Norton.