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TCM Schedule for Friday, August 2, 2019 -- Summer Under the Stars: Ruth Hussey
Today's Star is Ruth Hussey. Her TCM bio:This MGM contract player of the late 1930s and early 40s played some leads, but mostly supporting parts, usually as a sophisticated, knowing women or vixen. Ruth Hussey got her best shot as the cynical photographer in "The Philadelphia Story" (1940), for which she was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress. She also starred opposite Ralph Bellamy on Broadway in "State of the Union" (1945).
Hussey attended Pembroke College of Brown University and the University of Michigan where studied acting. She moved to New York where she worked first as a fashion commentator on radio and then as a Powers model before MGM brought her to Hollywood in the mid 30s with a five-year contract. Her first film was "The Big City" (1937), a Spencer Tracy vehicle in which Hussey had a bit part. But that same year, she was assigned the role of the adult abandoned daughter in the remake of "Madame X." Hussey was put into "Judge Hardy's Children" (1938), in a small role, but no rival to Andy's lady-love Polly Benedict. 1939 brought small roles in such classics as "Honolulu" and "The Women," but Hussey still had not connected as a front player. That happened in 1940, when she played opposite Spencer Tracy in "Northwest Passage" and especially when she was cast as Elizabeth Imbrie, the photographer attached only professionally to a scandal mongering reporter (James Stewart), in "The Philadelphia Story."
Leading roles soon followed. She starred opposite Melvyn Douglas in the marital strife drama "Our Wife" (1941). As Hussey's MGM days waned, she began to work for other studios. She played wife to Van Heflin's "Tennessee Johnson" (1943), a biopic of the 17th US President, and was the female doctor to John Carroll in "Bedside Manner" (1945), before leaving Hollywood for Broadway. Hussey returned to films in 1948 with "I, Jane Doe," in which she was an attorney defending the woman accused of murdering her husband. She played Jordan Baker, Daisy Buchanan's friend, in the 1949 remake of "The Great Gatsby," and was wife to Clifton Webb's John Philip Sousa in "Stars and Stripes Forever" (1952). She again played a wife, this time to Bob Hope, in her last feature "Facts of Life" (1960).
Hussey did many guest appearances on TV anthology shows in the 50s, beginning with "The Magnificent Ambersons" (a 1950 episode of ABC's Pulitzer Prize Playhouse). She played wife to Jack Benny in a 1955 "Shower of Stars" entitled "Time Out for Ginger," but, by the early 60s, had all but stopped working in front of the cameras. Robert Young, her old MGM crony, lured her back to TV as a guest star on a 1972 episode of his ABC series "Marcus Welby, M.D." and also as his love interest in the TV-movie "My Darling Daughters' Anniversary" (ABC, 1973), which marked her last screen appearance. The actress, who was married for 60 years to talent agent George Longenecker, died in 2005.
Hussey attended Pembroke College of Brown University and the University of Michigan where studied acting. She moved to New York where she worked first as a fashion commentator on radio and then as a Powers model before MGM brought her to Hollywood in the mid 30s with a five-year contract. Her first film was "The Big City" (1937), a Spencer Tracy vehicle in which Hussey had a bit part. But that same year, she was assigned the role of the adult abandoned daughter in the remake of "Madame X." Hussey was put into "Judge Hardy's Children" (1938), in a small role, but no rival to Andy's lady-love Polly Benedict. 1939 brought small roles in such classics as "Honolulu" and "The Women," but Hussey still had not connected as a front player. That happened in 1940, when she played opposite Spencer Tracy in "Northwest Passage" and especially when she was cast as Elizabeth Imbrie, the photographer attached only professionally to a scandal mongering reporter (James Stewart), in "The Philadelphia Story."
Leading roles soon followed. She starred opposite Melvyn Douglas in the marital strife drama "Our Wife" (1941). As Hussey's MGM days waned, she began to work for other studios. She played wife to Van Heflin's "Tennessee Johnson" (1943), a biopic of the 17th US President, and was the female doctor to John Carroll in "Bedside Manner" (1945), before leaving Hollywood for Broadway. Hussey returned to films in 1948 with "I, Jane Doe," in which she was an attorney defending the woman accused of murdering her husband. She played Jordan Baker, Daisy Buchanan's friend, in the 1949 remake of "The Great Gatsby," and was wife to Clifton Webb's John Philip Sousa in "Stars and Stripes Forever" (1952). She again played a wife, this time to Bob Hope, in her last feature "Facts of Life" (1960).
Hussey did many guest appearances on TV anthology shows in the 50s, beginning with "The Magnificent Ambersons" (a 1950 episode of ABC's Pulitzer Prize Playhouse). She played wife to Jack Benny in a 1955 "Shower of Stars" entitled "Time Out for Ginger," but, by the early 60s, had all but stopped working in front of the cameras. Robert Young, her old MGM crony, lured her back to TV as a guest star on a 1972 episode of his ABC series "Marcus Welby, M.D." and also as his love interest in the TV-movie "My Darling Daughters' Anniversary" (ABC, 1973), which marked her last screen appearance. The actress, who was married for 60 years to talent agent George Longenecker, died in 2005.
Enjoy!
6:00 AM -- Rich Man, Poor Girl (1938)
A millionaire courts a working-class woman.
Dir: Reinhold Schunzel
Cast: Robert Young, Lew Ayres, Ruth Hussey
BW-72 mins
This was an adaptation of a Broadway play titled "White Collars" by Edith Ellis. The original stage production opened at the Cort Theatre in New York on Feb. 23, 1925 and ran for 104 performances. There was an earlier film adaptation called The Idle Rich (1929) starring Conrad Nagel, Bessie Love, Leila Hyams and Robert Ober.
7:15 AM -- Spring Madness (1938)
A Harvard man romances a coed from a nearby college.
Dir: S. Sylvan Simon
Cast: Maureen O'Sullivan, Lew Ayres, Ruth Hussey
BW-67 mins, CC
Philip Barry's play, "Spring Dance", opened on Broadway in New York City, New York, USA on 25 August 1936 and had 24 performances. The opening night cast included José Ferrer (The Lippencott), Tom Neal (Doc Boyd), Philip Ober (Walter Beckett) and Mary Wickes (Mildred).
8:30 AM -- Within the Law (1939)
A wrongly convicted woman studies law and seeks her revenge.
Dir: Gustav Machaty
Cast: Ruth Hussey, Tom Neal, Paul Kelly
BW-65 mins
There are several dialogue references to novels The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone with the Wind (1939), each of which were in production, and eagerly anticipated by the public, at MGM on the March 1939 release of Within the Law, and both were released through MGM in late 1939. The script references were clear attempts by MGM to obliquely promote their later 1939 blockbusters.
9:45 AM -- Fast and Furious (1939)
Married book-dealers Joel and Garda Sloane get mixed up with murder during a beauty pageant.
Dir: Busby Berkeley
Cast: Franchot Tone, Ann Sothern, Ruth Hussey
BW-73 mins, CC
Third and last in the Fast trilogy. It began in 1938 with a screenplay by Harry Kurnitz of his Fast Company novel. Fast Company starred Melvyn Douglas and Florence Knight as the sleuthing bookseller couple. Fast and Loose was in 1939 with Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell. Kurnitz stayed in Hollywood as a screenwriter as well as novelist. This time the starring couple are played by Franchot Tone and Ann Southern.
11:15 AM -- H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941)
A stuffy businessman livens things up by having a fling.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: Hedy Lamarr, Robert Young, Ruth Hussey
BW-120 mins, CC
Favorite film of Hedy Lamarr.
1:15 PM -- Pierre of the Plains (1942)
A French-Canadian trapper's adventures jeopardize his romance with an innkeeper.
Dir: George B. Seitz
Cast: John Carroll, Ruth Hussey, Bruce Cabot
BW-66 mins, CC
Based on a novel "Pierre and His People: Tales Of The Far North", by Gilbert Parker.
2:30 PM -- Susan And God (1940)
A flighty socialite neglects her family to promote a new religious group.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Joan Crawford, Fredric March, Ruth Hussey
BW-117 mins, CC
The play was originally bought as a starring vehicle for Norma Shearer, who balked at playing a mother again so soon after The Women (1939) and instead set her cap on the role of Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (1940), an assignment studio chief Louis B. Mayer ultimately bestowed upon Greer Garson.
4:30 PM -- Tender Comrade (1943)
Lady welders pool their resources to share a house during World War II.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Robert Ryan, Ruth Hussey
BW-101 mins, CC
According to TCM, due in part to the inability of people in the 1950's to review or have access to films cited as examples of Communist Propaganda, Black-listers were able to create hysteria by spewing misinformation, pouncing on this movie in part because of the title "Tender Comrade". Comrade known to be a term used by Communists, when in fact, as depicted by a Title Card at the beginning of the movie which reads... TO MY WIFE Teacher, Tender Comrade Wife, A fellow-farer true through life, Heart-whole and soul-free The August Father Gave to me. ROBERT LOUIS-STEVENSON
6:15 PM -- The Facts of Life (1960)
Suburban marrieds are tempted to dabble in adultery.
Dir: Melvin Frank
Cast: Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Ruth Hussey
BW-104 mins, CC
Winner of an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head and Edward Stevenson
Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Norman Panama and Melvin Frank, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- J. McMillan Johnson, Kenneth A. Reid and Ross Dowd, and Best Music, Original Song -- Johnny Mercer for the song "The Facts of Life"
A UPI news item dated July 3, 1960 reports that while preparing to film a scene on a boat, Lucille Ball fell, struck her head and was knocked unconscious. She was taken to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital for a possible concussion and severe face and leg bruises. Her ex-husband Desi Arnaz rushed to the hospital from his ranch at Corona to be with her. Fortunately, preliminary x-rays of the head, neck and spine showed that the beloved star was not seriously hurt.
TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: RUTH HUSSEY
8:00 PM -- The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Tabloid reporters crash a society marriage.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart
BW-112 mins, CC
Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Donald Ogden Stewart
Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ruth Hussey, Best Director -- George Cukor, and Best Picture
On Broadway, Katharine Hepburn played opposite Joseph Cotten (in the role played by Cary Grant in the film), Van Heflin (the James Stewart role) and Shirley Booth (the Ruth Hussey role). Anne Baxter played the younger sister. The play ran for 415 performances, making nearly $1 million at the box office. It then went on tour for another 250 performances and an additional $750,000 in box-office receipts.
10:00 PM -- The Uninvited (1944)
A brother and sister buy a house with a ghostly secret.
Dir: Lewis Allen
Cast: Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp
BW-99 mins, CC
Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang
The exterior village scenes were actually shot on the M.G.M. lot. Ruth Hussey had been under contract to M.G.M. for all of her career up to the point she made this movie. Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey and Gail Russell were filming at M.G.M. for the village scenes and Ruth Hussey who had moved over to Paramount Studios from M.G.M. had to feel nostalgic being back at her old home studio of M.G.M. where she was a big star.
12:00 AM -- Our Wife (1941)
A musician's ex-wife wants him back after he finds love and success.
Dir: John M. Stahl
Cast: Melvyn Douglas, Ruth Hussey, Ellen Drew
BW-94 mins, CC
In March 1941, Ruth Hussey replaced Rita Hayworth in the role of Susan Drake when Hayworth was re-assigned to appear in You'll Never Get Rich (1941).
2:00 AM -- Married Bachelor (1941)
A married gambler has to pose as a bachelor to pay off his debts.
Dir: Edward Buzzell
Cast: Robert Young, Ruth Hussey, Felix Bressart
BW-81 mins
The film was pared down to 81 minutes from the preview running times of 87 and 85 minutes.
3:30 AM -- Blackmail (1939)
A man in prison on false charges escapes to save his family from a blackmailer.
Dir: H. C. Potter
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Hussey, Gene Lockhart
BW-81 mins
Based on a story by Endre Bohem and Dorothy Yost.
5:00 AM -- Free and Easy (1941)
A father and son compete in the search for rich wives.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Robert Cummings, Ruth Hussey, Judith Anderson
BW-56 mins, CC
Remake of -But the Flesh Is Weak (1932). C. Aubrey Smith and Forrester Harvey also appeared in the earlier film, but in different roles.
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