TCM Schedule for Friday, November 20, 2015 -- TCM Memorial Tribute: Maureen O'Hara

[Staph]

TCM is devoting the entire day to the late and greatly lamented Maureen O'Hara. Remember and enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Jamaica Inn (1939)
A young woman on the British coast stumbles onto a ring of bloodthirsty scavengers.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Charles Laughton, Horace Hodges, Hay Petrie
BW-100 mins, CC,

When Charles Laughton was cast in the role of Squire Pengallan, he insisted that Maureen O'Hara be cast in the role of Mary. Maureen O'Hara was "Introduced" in the opening titles.


7:45 AM -- The Deadly Companions (1961)
To make amends for killing a man, a Civil War veteran accompanies his corpse through dangerous territory.
Dir: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith, Steve Cochran
C-93 mins, Letterbox Format

Star Maureen O' Hara, her brother producer Charles Fitzsimons and writer A. S. Fleischman formed Carousel Productions in order to get the film made. Director Sam Peckinpah was hired for $15,000, star Brian Keith was paid $30,000...the entire picture was done for $300,000.


9:30 AM -- Spencer's Mountain (1963)
A Wyoming farmer fights to build a better life for his oldest son.
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: Henry Fonda, Maureen O'Hara, James MacArthur
C-118 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Maureen O'Hara's real-life daughter, Bronwyn FitzSimons, plays the part of the college dean's secretary.


11:30 AM -- McLintock! (1963)
A cattle baron fights to tame the West and his estranged wife.
Dir: Andrew V. McLaglen
Cast: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Patrick Wayne
C-122 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Maureen O'Hara stated in an interview that she wanted to do the stunt where she is supposed to jump through a plate-glass window. The studio not only would not allow her to do it, but it wouldn't allow even a stunt woman to do it--they insisted it was too dangerous even for a trained stunt woman and said it had to be done by a male stuntman. So the stunt was performed by veteran stunt man Dean Smith wearing a wig and O'Hara's clothes.


1:45 PM -- The Battle Of The Villa Fiorita (1965)
The children of an upper-class married woman and an Italian musician attempt to break off the affair.
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: Maureen O'Hara, Rossano Brazzi, Richard Todd
C-111 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

According to Maureen O'Hara in her memoirs Tis Herself, she was very disappointed by the way the camera man filmed her. According to her, it was because, before the shooting, there was a soccer match between Italian and English cast and crew members and she supported the Italians instead the English.


3:45 PM -- Big Jake (1971)
A rancher leads the posse out to recover his kidnapped grandson.
Dir: George Sherman
Cast: John Wayne, Richard Boone, Patrick Wayne
C-110 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Final (for twenty years) feature film for Maureen O'Hara, before she was lured out of retirement for one last feature film, Only the Lonely (1991), to play the mother of John Candy.


5:45 PM -- The Wings of Eagles (1957)
Biography of Frank "Spig" Wead pioneer aviator who turned to writing after being grounded by an accident.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Dan Dailey, Maureen O'Hara
C-110 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The real Frank Wead grew noticeably balder as he got older (WWII era). In order to be accurate about that, this is the only film in which John Wayne appears without his toupee.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM MEMORIAL TRIBUTE: MAUREEN O'HARA



8:00 PM -- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
A deformed bell ringer rescues a gypsy girl falsely accused of witchcraft and murder.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: Charles Laughton, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Thomas Mitchell
BW-117 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- John Aalberg (RKO Radio SSD), and Best Music, Scoring -- Alfred Newman

Having worked with her in London, Charles Laughton insisted that Maureen O'Hara would be the perfect Esmeralda for the film.


10:15 PM -- The Quiet Man (1952)
An Irish ex-boxer retires to Ireland and searches for the proper wife.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald
C-129 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Director -- John Ford, and Best Cinematography, Color -- Winton C. Hoch and Archie Stout

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Victor McLaglen, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Frank S. Nugent, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Frank Hotaling, John McCarthy Jr. and Charles S. Thompson, Best Sound, Recording -- Daniel J. Bloomberg (Republic Sound Department), and Best Picture

At the film's conclusion, after the credits, we see Kate and Sean standing in their garden waving good-bye. Maureen O'Hara turns to John Wayne and whispers something in his ear, evoking a priceless reaction from Wayne. What was said was known only to O'Hara, Wayne and director John Ford. In exchange for saying this unscripted bit of text, O'Hara insisted that the exact line never be disclosed by any involved parties. In her memoirs she says that she refused to say the line at first as she "couldn't possibly say that to Duke", but Ford insisted, claiming he needed a genuine shock reaction from Wayne. The line remains a mystery to this day, and with the recent death of O'Hara, we'll never know what was said.


12:30 AM -- At Sword's Point (1951)
The children of the Three Musketeers swing into action against a traitor.
Dir: Lewis Allen
Cast: Cornel Wilde, Maureen O'Hara, Robert Douglas
C-81 mins, CC,

Alan Hale Jr. plays the son of Porthos here. His father, Alan Hale, appeared in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) as an aging Porthos. When that film was remade as The Fifth Musketeer (1979), that role was taken by Alan Hale Jr.. In that same movie the role of an aging D'Artagnan was played by Cornel Wilde, this picture's son of D'Artagnan. Also here, the elderly Porthos is played by Moroni Olsen, who played that character in his younger days in the film of the original Dumas novel, The Three Musketeers (1935).


2:00 AM -- Sinbad the Sailor (1947)
The Arabian Nights hero sets off to find the lost treasure of Alexander the Great.
Dir: Richard Wallace
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak
C-117 mins, CC,

RKO had to scuttle its plan to present this film as a 1946 Christmas-season attraction when a strike at the Technicolor processing plant delayed the making of prints. The wide-release date would be moved up to January 13, 1947, with the Manhattan opening at the Palace Theatre following on January 22, 1947. Needing a black-and-white movie for its 1946 yuletide schedule, RKO chose a film destined to become a holiday perennial: Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946).


4:00 AM -- The Spanish Main (1945)
Dutch rebels in the Caribbean turn pirate and kidnap the corrupt Spanish governor's bride-to-be.
Dir: Frank Borzage
Cast: Maureen O'Hara, Paul Henreid, Walter Slezak
C-101 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- George Barnes

This was the first RKO Radio produced film to be shot in Technicolor.