TCM Schedule for Thursday, August 15, 2013 -- Summer Under The Stars -- Gregory Peck

[Staph]

Today's star is one of my favorite actor/human beings -- Gregory Peck. After his death in 2003, Brock Peters, who played the black man defended by Peck's character Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), delivered the eulogy. The film spawned a close friendship between the two stars that lasted more than 40 years. "In art there is compassion," said Peters, "in compassion there is humanity, with humanity there is generosity and love. Gregory Peck gave us these attributes in full measure." The crowd visibly warmed to a videotape performance of Peck featuring a lecture he gave several years before. He said he hoped to be remembered first as a good husband, father and grandfather. Then, with quiet strength and unforgettable presence, he added: "I'd like to be thought of as a good storyteller".

And one more Peck quote from 1987, "Robert Bork wants to be a Supreme Court justice. But the record shows he has a strange idea of what justice is. He defended poll taxes and literacy tests, which kept many Americans from voting. He opposed the civil rights law that ended "whites only" signs at lunch counters. He doesn't believe the Constitution protects your privacy. Please urge your senators to vote against the Bork nomination. Because, if Robert Bork wins a seat on the Supreme Court, it will be for life. His life . . . and yours." What a man! Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Days Of Glory (1944)
Russian freedom fighters battle the Nazi occupying forces.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Gregory Peck, Lowell Gilmore, Maria Palmer
BW-86 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Vernon L. Walker (photographic), James G. Stewart (sound), and Roy Granville (sound)

Film debut of Gregory Peck and Alan Reed (the voice of Fred Flintstone).


7:30 AM -- Pork Chop Hill (1959)
Americans take a vital hill in Korea but have trouble holding it.
Dir: Lewis Milestone
Cast: Gregory Peck, Harry Guardino, Rip Torn
BW-98 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Gregory Peck personally chose Lewis Milestone to direct because Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front had made a deep impression on him.


9:15 AM -- The Valley Of Decision (1945)
An Irish housemaid's romance with the boss's son is complicated by labor disputes in the Pittsburgh mills.
Dir: Tay Garnett
Cast: Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, Donald Crisp
BW-119 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Herbert Stothart

Despite her youthful appearance, Greer Garson was twelve years older than her leading man, Gregory Peck.


11:15 AM -- Spellbound (1945)
A psychiatrist tries to help the man she loves solve a murder buried in his subconscious.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov
BW-111 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Michael Chekhov, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- George Barnes, Best Director -- Alfred Hitchcock, Best Effects, Special Effects -- Jack Cosgrove (photographic), and Best Picture

The dream sequence was designed by Salvador Dalí, and was originally supposed to run slightly longer. It included a scene in a ballroom with hanging pianos and still figures pretending to dance, folled with J.B. dancing with Dr. Peterson who turns into a statue. It was cut from the final film due to lack of time to appropriately build the set to scale (little people were used in the background to give the illusion of perception, which did not satisfy Alfred Hitchcock or Dali). Only part of it was filmed, and even less of it ended up in the release version.


1:15 PM -- Designing Woman (1957)
A sportswriter and a fashion designer have a lot of adjusting to do when they marry in haste.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Gregory Peck, Lauren Bacall, Dolores Gray
C-118 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- George Wells

James Stewart and Grace Kelly were intended to be the co-stars of this movie, but when Kelly became betrothed to Prince Rainier of Monaco, Stewart decided not to do it (a decision he later said he regretted), and the leading roles went to Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall.


3:15 PM -- The Guns of Navarone (1961)
A team of Allied saboteurs fight their way behind enemy lines to destroy a pair of Nazi guns.
Dir: J. Lee Thompson
Cast: Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn
C-157 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Bill Warrington (visual) and Chris Greenham (audible)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- J. Lee Thompson, Best Film Editing -- Alan Osbiston, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Dimitri Tiomkin, Best Sound -- John Cox (Shepperton SSD), Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Carl Foreman, and Best Picture

The plot went through so many twists that Gregory Peck finally submitted his own version to Carl Foreman: "David Niven really loves Anthony Quayle and Gregory Peck loves Anthony Quinn. Tony Quayle breaks a leg and is sent off to hospital. Tony Quinn falls in love with Irene Papas, and Niven and Peck catch each other on the rebound and live happily ever after."


6:00 PM -- Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)
The famed 19th century hero defeats enemy fleets and courts an admiral's widow.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty
C-117 mins, TV-G, CC,

The rights to the novel were originally acquired by Warners with Errol Flynn in mind, but after the financial failure of Adventures of Don Juan and growing difficulties with the actor, he was not cast. Warners was already building up Burt Lancaster as its new swashbuckler, but the role of a British sea captain seemed out of his range, so Gregory Peck was ultimately cast.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: GREGORY PECK



8:00 PM -- The Macomber Affair (1947)
A wealthy playboy and his wife hire a great white hunter to guide them to the African hunting grounds.
Dir: Zoltan Korda
Cast: Gregory Peck, Joan Bennett, Robert Preston
BW-89 mins, TV-PG, CC,

For the African scenes, Reginald Denny invented the first radio-controlled model airplane and, with Osmond Borradaile, put a camera on board in 1946.


9:45 PM -- The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956)
A public relations man must cope with revelations about a wartime romance.
Dir: Nunnally Johnson
Cast: Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones, Fredric March
C-153 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Fredric March's character Ralph Hopkins is introduced with the exact same visual and plot premise as his character Jordan Lyman would be eight years later in Seven Days in May: pulling down his sleeve after his doctor takes his blood pressure and advises him to take things easy for a while for the sake of his health.


12:30 AM -- Duel In The Sun (1947)
A fiery half-breed comes between a rancher's good and evil sons.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck
C-144 mins, TV-14, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Jennifer Jones, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Lillian Gish

David O. Selznick had originally intended this property as his artistic follow-up to Gone with the Wind. He envisioned a lavish production with no expense spared, and ultimately he got his wish. Constant production delays, many caused by Selznick's meddling and the hiring and firing of as many as seven directors (including Selznick himself), as well as an extended editing period to cut the film from its original 26-hour running time, caused the budget to balloon to a then-horrifying sum of $6 million, plus an additional $2 million in marketing costs. Though the film eventually did turn a profit, it effectively marked the end of Selznick's career. However, he went on to produce prestige films such as The Paradine Case, Portrait of Jennie, The Third Man and A Farewell to Arms.


3:00 AM -- How the West Was Won (1962)
Three generations of pioneers take part in the forging of the American West.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Carroll Baker, Lee J. Cobb
C-165 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Film Editing -- Harold F. Kress, Best Sound -- Franklin Milton (M-G-M SSD), and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- James R. Webb

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- George W. Davis, William Ferrari, Addison Hehr, Henry Grace, Don Greenwood Jr. and Jack Mills, Best Cinematography, Color -- William H. Daniels, Milton R. Krasner, Charles Lang and Joseph LaShelle, Best Costume Design, Color -- Walter Plunkett, Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Alfred Newman and Ken Darby, and Best Picture

Since the three lenses of the Cinerama camera sat at angles to each other on the camera itself, it was very problematic for actors to film a scene as they would in front of a single-lensed camera. When their images were projected onto the three panels of the Cinerama screen, it would appear as though the actors were looking either slightly up-screen or slightly down-screen, and not directly at their fellow actors. This is very evident in a few scenes in the previous Cinerama film, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. However, by the time this film went into production, this problem was solved somewhat. In order to compensate for the lens angles, actors would have to look one-third of the way in and toward the camera, and pretend that they were looking at their fellow actors. Hence, when their images were projected onto the Cinerama screen, it would appear as though they were looking at each other. It was a very difficult process for actors, which is one of the reasons that three-panel Cinerama was abandoned for narrative films after this film was released.


5:47 AM -- Natural Wonders Of The West (1938)
This travel short takes the viewer to some of the natural wonders of the western United States.
Dir: James H. Smith
Cast: Gutzon Borglum, James A. FitzPatrick
C-9 mins

Filmed at Badlands National Park, Black Hills, and Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming, and Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.