TCM Schedule for Saturday, August 6, 2016 -- Summer Under The Stars - Montgomery Clift

[Staph]

Today's Star is the handsome, talented but tortured Montgomery Clift. He has only 18 acting credits listed in IMDB, but those performances are riveting, and include four Oscar nominations. If you are not familiar with Clift's work, prepare to be astonished. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- THE DEFECTOR (1966)
A shady CIA agent recruits an American physicist to help a Russian scientist defect.
Dir: Raoul Lévy
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Hardy Kruger, Macha Méril
C-100 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Montgomery Clift passed away less than three months after this film was completed.


8:00 AM -- THE BIG LIFT (1950)
Two Air Force sergeants find love while flying the Berlin Airlift.
Dir: George Seaton
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Paul Douglas, Cornell Borchers
BW-118 mins,

The film was made in occupied Germany. All scenes were photographed in the real locations associated with the story, including episodes in the American, French, British and Russian sectors of Berlin. With the exception of Montgomery Clift and Paul Douglas, all military personnel in the film were actual members of the US military on duty in Germany at the time.


10:00 AM -- LONELYHEARTS (1958)
A sensitive young reporter assigned to write an advice column gets caught up in his readers' lives.
Dir: Vincent J. Donehue
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Robert Ryan, Myrna Loy
BW-103 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Maureen Stapleton

Version of Advice to the Lovelorn (1933), I'll Tell the World (1945), and American Playhouse: Miss Lonelyhearts (1983) (TV Episode).


11:45 AM -- SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER (1960)
A dowager tries to buy a lobotomy to silence the woman who witnessed her son's murder.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift
BW-114 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Taylor, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Oliver Messel, William Kellner and Scott Slimon

Because of years of alcoholism and prescription drug abuse, Montgomery Clift was considered uninsurable due to chronic ill health. Ordinarily that would have meant he would have been fired and replaced, but his good friend Elizabeth Taylor saved his job by insisting she would not do the film without him.


1:45 PM -- THE MISFITS (1961)
A sensitive divorcee gets mixed up with modern cowboys roping mustangs in the desert.
Dir: John Huston
Cast: Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift
BW-125 mins, CC,

On the last day of filming, Clark Gable said regarding Marilyn Monroe, "Christ, I'm glad this picture's finished. She damn near gave me a heart attack." On the next day, Gable suffered a severe coronary thrombosis. He died in hospital from a heart attack just ten days later.


4:00 PM -- THE SEARCH (1948)
An American soldier in post-war Europe becomes attached to a homeless child.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Aline MacMahon, Wendell Corey
BW-104 mins, CC,

Won a Juvenile Oscar Award for Ivan Jandl for the outstanding juvenile performance of 1948 in The Search.

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Richard Schweizer and David Wechsler

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Montgomery Clift, Best Director -- Fred Zinnemann. and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Richard Schweizer and David Wechsler

Film debut of Montgomery Clift.


6:00 PM -- WILD RIVER (1960)
A government employee faces hostility as he prepares Tennessee farmers for a new dam's construction.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, Jo Van Fleet
C-110 mins, Letterbox Format

While she was filming "Wild River" Lee Remick's husband was severely hurt in an auto accident, and she left the location shoot immediately. When she returned, she was given great support by co-star Montgomery Clift, who had been through a horrible car accident a few years earlier himself.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: MONTGOMERY CLIFT



8:00 PM -- RED RIVER (1948)
A young cowhand rebels against his rancher stepfather during a perilous cattle drive.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru
BW-133 mins, CC,

Montgomery Clift was nervous about standing up to John Wayne but gained confidence when Howard Hawks told him to play his scenes like David against Goliath. He also urged the young actor to underplay in his scenes with Wayne, particularly the scene in which his character challenges Dunson for the first time. Wayne was also not sure Clift could be convincing as a rugged cowboy, but after that first confrontation scene he told Hawks his doubts were gone and "he's going to be okay."


10:30 PM -- A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951)
An ambitious young man wins an heiress' heart but has to cope with his former girlfriend's pregnancy.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters
BW-122 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Director -- George Stevens, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Michael Wilson and Harry Brown, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- William C. Mellor, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head, Best Film Editing -- William Hornbeck, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Franz Waxman

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Montgomery Clift, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Shelley Winters, and Best Picture

The novel contains a scene in which Alice goes to a country doctor and tentatively asks about an abortion. Shelley Winters relates in her autobiography that George Stevens initially planned to drop the scene because "it's rather censorable, but I think if we handle it delicately, it will illuminate the factory girl's terrible plight." Winters was given the new script pages one morning and asked to memorize the lines; Stevens planned to rehearse once, then immediately film the scene for spontaneity. "When he called, ?Action!' I was already crying," Winters wrote. "I twisted my white handkerchief into a shredded ball. The scene was nine minutes long. A full camera load. Boy, did I ever act!" Stevens had Winters do the scene again after letting her realize that tears would only frighten the doctor, and that Alice must try and refrain from crying. "Of course, when we saw the two takes the next day, the one in which I followed his exact direction was remarkable, even if I say so myself. ...Every time I've seen that scene in a theater, every man in the audience groans and every woman weeps. George had taught me another lifelong acting lesson: don't indulge yourself - make the audience weep."


12:45 AM -- FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953)
Enlisted men in Hawaii fight for love and honor on the eve of World War II.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr
BW-118 mins, CC,

Won 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

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

Montgomery Clift threw himself into the character of Prewitt, learning to play the bugle (even though he knew he'd be dubbed) and taking boxing lessons. Fred Zinnemann said, "Clift forced the other actors to be much better than they really were. That's the only way I can put it. He got performances from the other actors, he got reactions from the other actors that were totally genuine."


3:00 AM -- RAINTREE COUNTY (1957)
In this sumptuous Civil War story, a willful southern belle goes mad out of fear that she may be part black.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint
C-173 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Taylor, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- William A. Horning, Urie McCleary, Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt, Best Costume Design -- Walter Plunkett, and Best Music, Scoring -- Johnny Green

On May 12, 1956, during the shooting of this film, Montgomery Clift was involved in a serious car accident on his way back home from a party at the house of Elizabeth Taylor. His friend Kevin McCarthy witnessed the accident from his car, drove back and informed Taylor and her then husband Michael Wilding, who immediately drove to the location together with Rock Hudson. Taylor entered the car through the back door, crawled to the front seat and removed the two front teeth from Clift's throat that threatened to choke him. Hudson finally managed to pull him out of the wreck and together they protected him from being photographed until the ambulance arrived. This was necessary because soon after the emergency call had come in to the local police station, reporters were already on their way and arrived at the scene when Clift was still in the car. The accident was well publicized. After nine weeks of recovery and with plastic surgery, Clift returned to the movie set and finished the film, but with considerable difficulties. His dashing looks, though, were gone forever. If you notice in some scenes, his nose and chin look different, and the left side of his face is more or less immobile.