TCM Schedule for Saturday, February 13, 2021 -- TCM Spotlight: Romantic Weekend Getaway

[Staph]

Throughout the day and night, TCM is continuing their Romantic Weekend Getaway. Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- Love Affair (1939)
1h 27m | Romance | TV-G
Near-tragic misunderstandings threaten a shipboard romance.
Director: Leo Mccarey
Cast: Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Maria Ouspenskaya

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Maria Ouspenskaya, Best Writing, Original Story -- Mildred Cram and Leo McCarey, Best Art Direction -- Van Nest Polglase and Alfred Herman, Best Music, Original Song -- Buddy G. DeSylva for the song "Wishing", and Best Picture

In 1957, director Leo McCarey remade the movie as An Affair to Remember (1957), starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. (Cary Grant and Irene Dunne had previously co-starred in The Awful Truth (1937), which was also directed by McCarey.) The movie was remade a second time as Love Affair (1994), starring Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, and Katharine Hepburn, directed by Glenn Gordon Caron.

8:00 AM -- The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
1h 37m | Romance | TV-G
Feuding co-workers do not realize they are secret romantic pen pals.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan

The original source material for this plot, the 1937 play Illatszertár (in English, titled Parfumerie) by the Hungarian writer Miklós László, has been adapted into numerous other movies and plays. The first film adaptation was The Shop Around the Corner (1940) starring Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart. The first musical adaptation was In the Good Old Summertime (1949), which starred Judy Garland and Van Johnson. In 1963, a second musical adaptation, She Loves Me, premiered on Broadway; its first production, which starred Daniel Massey as Georg Nowack and Barbara Cook, was a critical success but a box-office disappointment. A 1993 Broadway revival (starring Boyd Gaines and Judy Kuhn) met the same fate, as did a third Broadway mounting in 2016 (with Laura Benanti, Zachary Levi, and Jane Krakowski). While MGM planned a film version of She Loves Me designed to reunite Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke following Mary Poppins (1964), it was ultimately scrapped. A third film version of the story came about in You've Got Mail (1998), which updated the plot to embrace the techno age and starred Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks.


10:00 AM -- From Here to Eternity (1953)
1h 58m | Drama, War | TV-PG
Enlisted men in Hawaii fight for love and honor on the eve of World War II.
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Frank Sinatra, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Donna Reed, Best Director -- Fred Zinnemann, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Daniel Taradash, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Burnett Guffey, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), Best Film Editing -- William A. Lyon, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Montgomery Clift, Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Burt Lancaster, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Deborah Kerr, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Jean Louis, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Morris Stoloff and George Duning

The James Jones novel was deemed unfilmable for a long time because of its negative portrayal of the US Army (which would prevent the army from supporting the film with people and hardware/logistics) and the profanity. To get army support and pass the censorship of the time, crucial details had to be changed. The brothel became a nightclub, the whores hostesses. The profanity was removed, the brutal treatment in the stockade toned down and Capt. Holmes discharged from the army instead of promoted at the end.


12:15 PM -- Gigi (1958)
1h 56m | Musical | TV-G
A Parisian girl is raised to be a kept woman but dreams of love and marriage.
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Louis Jourdan

Winner of Oscars for Best Director -- Vincente Minnelli, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Alan Jay Lerner, Best Cinematography, Color -- Joseph Ruttenberg, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color -- William A. Horning, E. Preston Ames, Henry Grace and F. Keogh Gleason (William A. Horning's nomination and win was posthumously, as he died after completing his work on Gigi (1958) and in the midst of the production on Ben-Hur (1959) and North by Northwest (1959); the last two films would earn him Oscar nominations and a win (for Ben-Hur alone) the next year.), Best Costume Design, Black-and-White or Color -- Cecil Beaton, Best Film Editing -- Adrienne Fazan. Best Music, Original Song -- Frederick Loewe (music) and Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics) for the song "Gigi", Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- André Previn, and Best Picture

Gigi was based on the life story of Yola Letellier, who was raised from her teen years to be an intellectual and sexual companion for older men. The man she married was 49 years her senior. On the side she conducted intimate relationships with a number of other men, including an affair with Britain's famed Louis Mountbatten, who would serve as the last Viceroy of India.


2:30 PM -- Doctor Zhivago (1965)
3h 17m | Epic | TV-PG
Sweeping epic about a Russian doctor pursuing the woman he loves during Russia's turbulent revolution.
Director: David Lean
Cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Julie Christie, Tom Courtenay

Winner of Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium --
Robert Bolt, Best Cinematography, Color -- Freddie Young, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- John Box, Terence Marsh and Dario Simoni, Best Costume Design, Color -- Phyllis Dalton, and Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Maurice Jarre

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Tom Courtenay, Best Director -- David Lean, Best Sound -- A.W. Watkins (M-G-M British SSD) and Franklin Milton (M-G-M SSD), Best Film Editing -- Norman Savage, and Best Picture

The final scene, in which a rainbow appears over a dam as the final credits roll, was criticized as "pro-Soviet" by some critics, who felt it implied that the Soviet Union had a bright future. Robert Bolt, who adapted the novel, was a one-time member of the British Communist Party (he left in 1947) and a well-known leftist prominent in the nuclear disarmament campaign, itself seen as a surrogate of the Cold War struggle between the West and the Soviet Bloc. David Lean was apolitical, so the shot likely was created due to the beauty of its image, not as political symbolism.


6:00 PM -- Magnificent Obsession (1954)
1h 48m | Drama, Romance
A playboy becomes a doctor to right the wrong he's done to a sightless widow.
Director: Douglas Sirk, William Holland
Cast: Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Jane Wyman

Magnificent Obsession was an early starring role for Hudson, and, according to Wyman, he was very nervous. Some of his scenes had to be re-shot thirty or forty times, but Wyman never said a word. Reportedly, years later at a party, Hudson ran into Wyman and said, "You were nice to me when you didn't have to be, and I want you to know that I thank you and love you for it."



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- ROMANTIC WEEKEND GETAWAY




8:00 PM -- Roman Holiday (1953)
1h 58m | Romance
A runaway princess in Rome finds love with a reporter who knows her true identity.
Director: William Wyler, Herbert Coleman
Cast: Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Audrey Hepburn, Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Dalton Trumbo (The screen credit and award were originally credited to Ian McLellan Hunter who fronted for Dalton Trumbo. In December 1992 the Academy decided to change the records and to credit Mr. Trumbo with the achievement. Ian McLellan Hunter was removed from the Motion Picture Story category and the Oscar was posthumously presented to Trumbo's widow on May 10th, 1993.), and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Eddie Albert, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Ian McLellan Hunter and John Dighton, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Franz Planer and Henri Alekan, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Hal Pereira and Walter H. Tyler, Best Film Editing -- Robert Swink, and Best Picture

In the famous "Mouth of Truth" scene, Audrey Hepburn's reaction to Gregory Peck's "bitten-off hand" was genuine. Just before the cameras rolled, Peck quietly told director William Wyler that he was going to borrow a gag from comedian Red Skelton, and have his hand hidden up his sleeve when he pulled it out of the sculpture's mouth. Wyler agreed, but Hepburn was not told. When she saw Peck's "missing hand," she let out what she later described as "a good and proper scream." The scene was filmed in only one take.


10:15 PM -- Pillow Talk (1959)
1h 45m | Comedy | TV-G
A man and woman carry their feud over the telephone line they share into their real lives..
Director: Michael Gordon
Cast: Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Russell Rouse (story), Clarence Greene (story), Stanley Shapiro (screenplay) and Maurice Richlin (screenplay)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Doris Day, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Thelma Ritter, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Richard H. Riedel, Russell A. Gausman and Ruby R. Levitt, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Frank De Vol

Ross Hunter wrote that after he made this film, no theatre managers wanted to book it. Popular movie themes at the time were war films, westerns, or spectacles. Hunter was told by the big movie chains that sophisticated comedies like "Pillow Talk" went out with William Powell. They also believed that Doris Day and Rock Hudson were things of the past and had been overtaken by newer stars. Hunter persuaded Sol Schwartz, who owned the Palace Theatre in New York, to book the film for a two-week run, and it was a smash hit. The public had been starved for romantic comedy, and theatre owners who had previously turned down Ross Hunter now had to deal with him on HIS terms.


12:15 AM -- The Goodbye Girl (1977)
1h 50m | Comedy | TV-14
A dancer discovers her runaway boyfriend has sublet her apartment to an aspiring actor.
Director: Herbert Ross
Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, Quinn Cummings

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Richard Dreyfuss

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Marsha Mason, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Quinn Cummings, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Neil Simon, and Best Picture

Was nominated for Best Picture against Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), making the line "your window will face Warner Brothers. You can watch them blow up the world from your bed" somewhat serendipitous. Additionally, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) also features the female lead uttering a line of dialogue similar to Paula's question, "Aren't you a little short to play Stanley?"


2:15 AM -- The Philadelphia Story (1940)
1h 51m | Comedy | TV-G
Tabloid reporters crash a society marriage.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart

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

The necklace that Dinah says "stinks" -- and later wears to entertain the reporters -- is a copy of the necklace from Marie Antoinette's "The Affair of the Necklace". You can see it in Norma Shearer's Marie Antoinette (1938), as well.


4:15 AM -- Woman of the Year (1942)
1h 52m | Comedy | TV-PG
Opposites distract when a sophisticated political columnist falls for a sportswriter.
Director: George Stevens
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner Jr.

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn

The first scene shot was the characters' first date in a bar. Katharine Hepburn was so nervous she spilled her drink, but Spencer Tracy just handed her a handkerchief and kept going. Hepburn proceeded to clean up the spill as they played the scene. When the drink dripped through to the floor, she tried to throw Tracy off by going under the table, but he stayed in character with the cameras rolling the entire time.