TCM Schedule for Thursday, September 30 -- TCM Spotlight -- Acts of Revenge

[Staph]

It's the final night of acts of revenge, including both Spurned Lover's Revenge (Wuthering Heights (1939) and The Heiress (1949)), and Con Artist's Revenge (The Lady Eve (1941), The Sting (1973), and Buck And The Preacher (1972)). And we're celebrating the birthday of Deborah Kerr, who was born on this day in 1921, in Helensburgh, Scotland. Enjoy!


6:00am -- MGM Parade Show #27 (1955)
Walter Pidgeon introduces Part One of "Captains Courageous" and introduces a clip from "Forbidden Planet."
BW-26 mins, TV-G

Walter Pidgeon had a notoriously poor memory for names, referring to anyone whose name he could not remember as "Joe." This became such a habit that, for his birthday one year, the cast and crew of the picture he was working on bought him a present: A director's chair enscribed "Joe Pidgeon."


6:30am -- Please Believe Me (1950)
Three men pursue a shipboard romance with a woman they think is an heiress.
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Robert Walker, Mark Stevens, Peter Lawford
Dir: Norman Taurog
BW-87 mins, TV-PG

Van Johnson was originally set to star as Matthew Kingston. He was replaced by Mark Stevens.


8:00am -- The Avengers (1942)
A war correspondent fights to stop the German invasion of Norway.
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Hugh Williams, Griffith Jones, Ralph Richardson.
Dir: Harold French
BW-99 mins, TV-PG

Film debut of Harry Locke and Valentine Dyall.


10:00am -- Dream Wife (1953)
For state reasons, a diplomat fakes an engagement to a Middle Eastern princess.
Cast: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Walter Pidgeon, Betta St. John
Dir: Sidney Sheldon
BW-99 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Helen Rose and Herschel McCoy

First of three movies that paired Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant. The other two are An Affair To Remember (1957) and The Grass Is Greener (1960).


12:00pm -- King Solomon's Mines (1950)
A spirited widow hires a daredevil jungle scout to find a lost treasure in diamonds.
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Stewart Granger, Richard Carlson, Hugo Haas
Dir: Compton Bennett
C-103 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert Surtees, and Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters and Conrad A. Nervig

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

The scene in which Deborah Kerr cuts her own hair and then cuts to her sunning with a perfectly quaffed hairstyle got such a big laugh at the initial screenings of the film that producers debated removing the scene. However, they couldn't figure out another way to explain Kerr's change of hairstyle, so they kept the improbable scenes intact.


2:00pm -- From Here To Eternity (1953)
Enlisted men in Hawaii fight for love and honor on the eve of World War II.
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
BW-118 mins, TV-PG

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

Nominated 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 scene in which Maggio meets Prew and Lorene in the bar after he walks off guard duty, was actually Frank Sinatra's screen test for the part of Maggio. To impress director Fred Zinnemann, he did an ad-lib using olives as dice and pretending to shoot craps. The entire sequence was kept as is and used in the picture.


4:00pm -- Tea And Sympathy (1956)
A faculty wife risks her marriage to help a troubled teen tormented by his fellow students.
Cast: Deborah Kerr, John Kerr, Leif Erickson, Edward Andrews
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
C-122 mins, TV-PG

This film was adapted from a Broadway play that originally starred Deborah Kerr, John Kerr and Leif Erickson, who recreate their stage roles in this film. Also in the Broadway cast in supporting roles were Alan Sues (who later appeared on TV's "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" (1967)) and Dick York (the first actor who played Darrin on TV's "Bewitched" (1964) starring Elizabeth Montgomery).


6:15pm -- If Winter Comes (1947)
Scandal results when a well-meaning man takes in a pregnant girl.
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Deborah Kerr, Angela Lansbury, Binnie Barnes
Dir: Victor Saville
BW-97 mins, TV-G

Angela Lansbury then twenty-two wanted the sympathetic role of the waif-like village girl Effie but was forced to play Mabel the thirty-five year old shrewish wife of fifty year old Walter Pidgeon. This brought home to Lansbury that she would never be a star player at MGM. The role of Effie went to Janet Leigh who would be Lansbury's co-star in The Manchurian Candidate where Lansbury would again play an older unsympathetic woman although this role - Mrs. Iselin - would be cited by Lansbury as her favorite film role.


What's On Tonight: TCM SPOTLIGHT: ACTS OF REVENGE


8:00pm -- Wuthering Heights (1939)
A married noblewoman fights her lifelong attraction to a charismatic gypsy.
Cast: Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven, Flora Robson
Dir: William Wyler
BW-104 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Gregg Toland

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Laurence Olivier, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Geraldine Fitzgerald, Best Art Direction -- James Basevi, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Music, Original Score -- Alfred Newman, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, and Best Picture

Laurence Olivier found himself becoming increasingly annoyed with William Wyler's exhausting style of film-making. After yet another take, he is said to have exclaimed, "For God's sake, I did it sitting down. I did it with a smile. I did it with a smirk. I did it scratching my ear. I did it with my back to the camera. How do you want me to do it?" Wyler's retort was, "I want it better."


10:00pm -- The Heiress (1949)
A plain young woman's money makes her prey to fortune hunters.
Cast: Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson, Miriam Hopkins
Dir: William Wyler
BW-115 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Olivia de Havilland, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- John Meehan, Harry Horner and Emile Kuri, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head and Gile Steele, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Aaron Copland

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ralph Richardson, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Leo Tover, Best Director -- William Wyler, and Best Picture

Olivia de Havilland wisely chose William Wyler as her director, considering that such a meticulous director would be able to coax a strong performance from her. As it turned out, Wyler became a staunch supporter of his leading actress, particularly in regard to the sneering attitude that Montgomery Clift displayed toward her (he didn't value her talents as an actress) and Ralph Richardson taking every opportunity to steal scenes from under her nose with his improvisations.


12:00am -- The Lady Eve (1941)
A lady cardsharp tries to con an eccentric scientist only to fall for him.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette
Dir: Preston Sturges
BW-94 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Monckton Hoffe

At the beginning Henry Fonda makes references to the help of a "Professor Marsdit". Raymond L. Ditmars of the AMNH at the time was the best-known reptile expert in the country, the kind of popularizer that Carl Sagan later became.


2:00am -- The Sting (1973)
Two con men hit the big time to take on a gangster in '30s Chicago.
Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Shaw, Eileen Brennan, Robert Redford
Dir: George Roy Hill
C-129 mins, TV-MA

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Henry Bumstead and James W. Payne, Best Costume Design -- Edith Head, Best Director -- George Roy Hill, Best Film Editing -- William Reynolds, Best Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation -- Marvin Hamlisch, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- David S. Ward, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Robert Redford, Best Cinematography -- Robert Surtees, and Best Sound -- Ronald Pierce and Robert R. Bertrand

Just prior to Elizabeth Taylor's presentation of the Best Picture Oscar for this film, the streaker Robert Opel darted across the stage as David Niven was introducing her. It was this incident (among others) that inspired singer Ray Stevens to write the song "The Streak" that went to the top of the US charts the month after the awards. Incidentally, Opel was found murdered in his San Francisco gallery in 1979.


4:15am -- Buck and the Preacher (1972)
A con man helps a group of former slaves survive the perils of the wild West in their search for the promised land.
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, Cameron Mitchell
Dir: Sidney Poitier
C-103 mins, TV-14

First time director Sydney Poitier took over the job from Joseph Sargent when he became dissatisfied with the film's point of view.

[Staph]

1. The Lady Eve (1941)

The crown jewel in Preston Sturges' career as writer-director, The Lady Eve (1941) is one of those rare comedies that manages to be genuinely sexy, funny, and romantic, all at the same time. It's inconceivable that Hollywood could make a film this witty now but the high quality of the writing, the flawless direction and the impeccable performances of the ensemble cast should serve as inspiration for any filmmaker who wants to make a great romantic comedy. Sturges' film opens on a cruise ship where we are introduced to 'Colonel' Harry Harrington (Charles Coburn) and his daughter Jean (Barbara Stanwyck), two cardsharps who make their living fleecing the rich. Once Jean learns that Charles Pike (Henry Fonda), the son of a wealthy brewer, is on board, she attempts to lure him into her 'trap.' The path to riches, however, is full of unexpected detours.

The Lady Eve was loosely based on a nineteen page story Paramount owned entitled "Two Bad Hats." Sturges completely reworked it into a script of his own and insisted on casting Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, and Charles Coburn in the lead roles. The studio wanted Brian Aherne for the Charles Pike role and Madeleine Carroll or Paulette Goddard for the part of Jean but Sturges, a hot property after the unexpected success of The Great McGinty (1940), held firm and got his way. In many ways, The Lady Eve was a complete departure from Sturges' first two films (The Great McGinty & Christmas in July, both 1940) which dealt with middle class characters and concerns. For one thing, it took place in an upper-class world of luxury liner staterooms, sprawling estates, and nouveau riche millionaires. Paramount also gave Sturges his biggest budget yet, allowing him to hire Edith Head to design twenty-five gowns for Stanwyck and fourteen changes of costume for Fonda.

According to the biography, Madcap: The Life of Preston Sturges by Donald Spoto, "Sturges, who had directed Christmas in July wearing a straw boater and carrying a bamboo cane, invariably paraded on this set with a colorful beret or a felt cap with a feather protruding, a white cashmere scarf blowing gaily round his neck and a print shirt in loud hues...the reason for the peculiar outfits, he told visitors, was that they facilitated crew members' finding him amid the crowds of actors, technicians, and the public." Despite Sturges' extroverted behavior and outward confidence, the director had some insecurities about his direction of The Lady Eve. In his autobiography, he wrote, "I happen to love pratfalls, but as almost everything I like, other people dislike, and vice versa, my dearest friends and severest critics urged me to cut the pratfalls down from five to three. But it was actually the enormous risks I took with my pictures, skating right up to the edge of nonacceptance, that paid off so handsomely. There are certain things that will convulse an audience, when it has been softened up by what has occurred previously, that seem very unfunny in cold print. Directing and acting have a lot to do with it, too. I had my fingers crossed when Henry Fonda went over the sofa. I held my left ear when he tore down the curtains and I held everything when the roast beef hit him. But it paid off. Audiences, including the critics, surrendered to the fun, and the picture made a lot of money for the studio. Barbara Stanwyck had an instinct so sure that she needed almost no direction; she was a devastating Lady Eve."

For Stanwyck, The Lady Eve marked a real turning point in her career. Audiences that had grown used to seeing her play tough, take-charge working girls, self-sacrificing mothers or hard-bitten prostitutes were dazzled by her stylish, sophisticated appearance in Sturges' film. Here she radiated sex appeal in her scenes with Fonda, whether she was throwing out a sleek leg to trip him or nibble provocatively on his ear. Stanwyck, in an interview about Sturges for the New York Times said, "He'd ask us how we liked the lines. If we didn't, we'd say so, and he'd say the scriptwriter was fifty kinds of an imbecile - and change them. But, you see, he wrote the thing himself." In the biography, Stanwyck, author Axel Madsen wrote that the actress compared Sturges' set to "a 'carnival.' In Fonda, she met her match. He, too, always knew his lines and was affectionately called 'One-Take Fonda.' After The Lady Eve, he called Barbara his favorite leading lady...The set was so ebullient that instead of going to their trailers between setups, the players relaxed in canvas chairs with their sparkling director, listening to his fascinating stories or going over their lines with him. To get into mood for Barbara's bedroom scene, Sturges wore a bathrobe."

Considering the risque nature of some of the scenes in The Lady Eve, it's surprising that the censors didn't give Sturges any trouble over the film, particularly in regards to the love scenes. There were at least eight of them and one intimate sequence, shot in tight close-up, lasted almost five minutes with Stanwyck caressing Fonda's ear lobes, cheeks, neck, and shoulder while he tried to contain his obvious excitement. But audiences and critics alike delighted in it and the film went on to win an Oscar nomination for Best Writing (Unfortunately, it lost to Here Comes Mr. Jordan). Stanwyck and Fonda proved to be such a dynamic screen couple that they were cast together again in You Belong to Me (1941), a minor romantic comedy by Wesley Ruggles that could have used Sturges' magic touch. As for Paramount Studios, they tried to repeat the success of The Lady Eve with a remake of it in 1956 entitled The Birds and the Bees starring George Gobel, Mitzi Gaynor, and David Niven. It was a box office disappointment but considering the brilliance of the original, what did they expect?

Producer: Paul Jones
Director: Preston Sturges
Screenplay: Monckton Hoffe (story), Preston Sturges
Art Direction: Hans Dreier, Ernst Fegte
Cinematography: Victor Milner
Costume Design: Edith Head
Film Editing: Stuart Gilmore
Original Music: Sigmund Krumgold
Principal Cast: Barbara Stanwyck (Jean Harrington/Lady Eve Sidwich), Henry Fonda (Charles Pike), Charles Coburn ("Colonel" Harrington), Eugene Pallette (Mr. Pike), William Demarest (Muggsy Ambrose Murgatroyd), Eric Blore (Sir Alfred McGlennan Keith).
BW-94m. Closed captioning.

by Jeff Stafford