TCM Schedule for Thursday, August 22, 2013 -- Summer Under The Stars -- Maggie Smith

[Staph]

One of the world's most famous and distinguished actresses, today's Star Dame Maggie Smith was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Essex. Her father was a teacher at Oxford University and her mother worked as a secretary. Smith has been married twice: to actor Robert Stephens and to playwright Beverley Cross. Her marriage to Stephens ended in divorce in 1974. She was married to Cross until his death in 1999. She had two sons with Stephens, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens who are also actors.

She was nominated for six Oscars, and won two. Today we get to see both of the winning films (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978)), and two of the films for which she was nominated (Othello (1965) and Travels With My Aunt (1972)). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- The V.I.P.S (1963)
Wealthy passengers fogged in at London's Heathrow Airport fight to survive a variety of personal trials.
Dir: Anthony Asquith
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Louis Jourdan
C-119 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Margaret Rutherford (Margaret Rutherford was not present at the awards ceremony. Peter Ustinov accepted the award on her behalf.)

Based on a true story, the movie was a thinly disguised account of screenwriter Terence Rattigan's life friend Vivien Leigh and her attempt to leave her husband Laurence Olivier for Australian actor Peter Finch . Leigh and Finch made it to the London airport, but their plane was delayed by incoming fog giving Olivier time to confront the two and bring Leigh home. Leigh abandoned the plan after hours of fog delay.


8:00 AM -- Filmmaking On The Riviera (1964)
This promotional film for Joy House shows the cast and crew filming at locations on the French Riviera.
Cast: Lola Albright, Jacques Bar, René Clément
BW-10 mins,

The film Joy House was based on the novel of the same name by Day Keene.


8:15 AM -- The Pumpkin Eater (1964)
A woman drifts through multiple marriages in search of stability.
Dir: Jack Clayton
Cast: Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, James Mason
BW-110 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Anne Bancroft

The film never explains its title, which refers to a traditional child's rhyme: "Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater/Had a wife, but couldn't keep her;/So he put her in a shell/And there he kept her very well." This serves as the epigraph of Penelope Mortimer's original novel.


10:06 AM -- On The Trail Of The Iguana (1964)
A behind the scenes look at the filming of The Night of the Iguana directed by John Huston.
Dir: Ross Lowell
Cast: Bob Marcato, John Huston, Deborah Kerr
C-14 mins,

In order to defuse the tension prior to shooting The Night Of The Iguana (due mainly to the isolated location the stars would be working in together), John Huston made each lead actor a gold-encrusted pistol with bullets--one with each actor's name on it. This way, when the actors wanted to kill one another, they would use the designated bullet. This proved to be successful. No problems among the cast arose.


10:30 AM -- Young Cassidy (1965)
True story of playwright Sean O'Casey's involvement with the Irish rebellion of 1910.
Dir: Jack Cardiff
Cast: Rod Taylor, Flora Robson, Jack MacGowran
C-110 mins, TV-14, CC,

Director John Ford fell ill during production and was replaced by Jack Cardiff. In an interview Jack Cardiff said that only four minutes and five seconds of the footage shot by John Ford ended up in the finished film. The riot scene was cited by critics as the obvious work of Ford, yet it was completely done by Cardiff who admitted that he found inspiration from Battleship Potemkin.


12:30 PM -- Othello (1965)
A famed general convinces himself that his wife is unfaithful.
Dir: Stuart Burge
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Frank Finlay, Maggie Smith
C-166 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Laurence Olivier, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Frank Finlay, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Joyce Redman, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Maggie Smith

Because this was a nearly exact filming of a stage production which featured little music, the roadshow release of this film does not make use of an overture, intermission music, or exit music - standard features of the widescreen roadshow releases which were common from the mid-1950's to the early 1970's.


3:30 PM -- The Honey Pot (1967)
A millionaire fakes a terminal illness to fleece his former girlfriends.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Rex Harrison, Susan Hayward, Cliff Robertson
C-132 mins, TV-G, Letterbox Format

The film opened first in London, some two months before its American opening. At its premiere, it ran to 150 minutes, and almost all British reviews commented on its being overlong. By the time it went on general release in Britain, it had been cut by 18 minutes, and this version is the one shown on television and released on DVD. Herschel Bernardi, prominently billed in the original advertising, had had his role deleted entirely, whilst Massimo Serato appears only for a second or two in Capucine's first scene. (There is a brief and now-inexplicable reference to the Bernardi character late in the film.) Both actors are, however, featured in the cast-list at the end of the film, although Serato's surname is mis-spelled as "Serrato".


5:54 PM -- Alfred The Great (1969)
This promotional short for the feature film Alfred the Great briefly tells of the virtues of the warrior-king, and comments on the three major players in the film.
Dir: Clive Donner
Cast: David Hemmings, Michael York, Prunella Ransome
C-5 mins,

Alfred The Great was the film debut of Ian McKellen.


6:00 PM -- Travels With My Aunt (1972)
A stodgy young man gets caught up in his free-living aunt's shady schemes.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Maggie Smith, Alec McCowen, Lou Gossett
C-109 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Costume Design -- Anthony Powell

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Maggie Smith, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- John Box, Gil Parrondo and Robert W. Laing, and Best Cinematography -- Douglas Slocombe

Joy Bang auditioned for the role of Tooley by reading for Katharine Hepburn but lost the part when Hepburn left the project. Cybill Shepherd also read for the role but was told by director George Cukor that 'she couldn't play comedy' after the audition. The role eventually went to Cindy Williams, of Laverne and Shirley fame.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: MAGGIE SMITH



8:00 PM -- Nowhere To Go (1958)
A burglar on the run holes up with an innocent English girl.
Dir: Seth Holt
Cast: George Nader, Maggie Smith, Bernard Lee
BW-87 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Maggie Smith's first theatrical film.


9:37 PM -- The Background Beat (1965)
A short doc by director Ralph Nelson exploring how he uses music and scoring in his pictures. Includes examples from "Once A Thief" (1965).
Cast: Ralph Nelson, Lalo Schifrin
BW-7 mins,


9:45 PM -- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
A headstrong young teacher in a private school ignores the curriculum and influences her impressionable charges with her world view.
Dir: Ronald Neame
Cast: Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin
C-116 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Maggie Smith (Maggie Smith was not present at the awards ceremony. Alice Ghostley accepted the award on her behalf.)

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Rod McKuen for the song "Jean"

The original play was offered to Maggie Smith first. Because of film commitments she declined and Vanessa Redgrave played Miss Brodie on stage. However, when the movie was being made, the role of Miss Brodie was offered to Redgrave first. This time, she had prior commitments and declined and Maggie Smith took the role, offered her originally, and won an Oscar for playing it.


11:50 PM -- The Movie Makers - Lolly Madonna Featurette (1973)
A behind the scenes featurette of the filming of Lolly Madonna (1973).
Dir: Ronald Saland
C-9 mins,


12:00 AM -- Love and Pain and the Whole Damned Thing (1973)
An awkward young man and a shy older woman find comfort in each other on a Spanish tour.
Dir: Alan J. Pakula
Cast: Maggie Smith, Timothy Bottoms, Emiliano Redondo
C-110 mins, TV-14, CC,

The verses Lila twice repeats aloud to herself, beginning "How beautifully blue the sky", are from the lyrics of the comic opera The Pirates of Penzance, by Gilbert and Sullivan.


2:00 AM -- Clash Of The Titans (1981)
A Greek hero fights a series of monsters, including the dreaded gorgon, to win the woman he loves.
Dir: Desmond Davis
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Harry Hamlin, Claire Bloom
C-118 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Actress Maggie Smith, playing Thetis, was married to the film's scriptwriter Beverley Cross who had previously written another mythology movie Jason and the Argonauts for the same producer Charles H. Schneer. It was due of her friendship with Laurence Olivier that she was able to convince him to join the cast as well.


4:00 AM -- California Suite (1978)
Four sets of guests at a posh hotel face personal crises.
Dir: Herbert Ross
Cast: Alan Alda, Michael Caine, Bill Cosby
C-103 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Maggie Smith

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Albert Brenner and Marvin March, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Neil Simon

Diana Barrie (Maggie Smith) says that she wishes David Niven could accept her award for her because he would be witty and charming. In the play on which the movie is based, she says Michael Caine, but it was changed when Caine was cast as her husband.


5:45 AM -- Glimpses Of California (1946)
This travel short takes the viewer to sunny California.
Narrator: James A. FitzPatrick
C-9 mins

[CBHagman]

1. Go, Maggie, go!

[Graybeard]

2. The V.I.P.s back-story.

The V.I.P.s (6am) has always been a guilty pleasure. Of course any film with Richard Burton leaves me entranced. But as much as I enjoyed this glossy soap-opera I never knew it was based on a true incident as you described.

I watched it again this morning with a new appreciation.

Thanks Staph!