TCM Schedule for Friday, November 10, 2017 -- What's On Tonight: I Loved Her In The Movies

[Staph]

In prime time, TCM has a selection of films discussed in Robert Wagner's new book, I Loved Her In The Movies. From the TCM website:

Best-selling author and well-known actor Robert Wagner has enjoyed a career that has spanned more than 60 years and encompassed the Golden Age of movies and television. His new book, I Loved Her in the Movies: Memories of Hollywood's Legendary Actresses, sees him reflect on the many women from that era who beguiled him on the screen - and often in his private life as well.

In the book, Wagner analyzes the charisma and appeal of female icons including Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe, Gloria Swanson, Raquel Welch, Glenn Close and many more. He also writes about the two actresses he married, Natalie Wood and Jill St. John.

Wagner sits down with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz to discuss his book and four movies he admires. His choices begin with the Italian film Cinema Paradiso (1988), Giuseppe Tornatore's Oscar®-winning valentine to the movies starring Philippe Noiret and Jacques Perrin. David Miller's Western drama Lonely Are the Brave (1962) stars Kirk Douglas as a ranch hand in a desperate flight from the law.

Sydney Pollack's This Property Is Condemned (1966), inspired by a Tennessee Williams' play, casts Natalie Wood as a Mississippi party girl who is unrealistically idolized by her younger sister (Mary Badham). Zoltan Korda's The Four Feathers (1939) is based on the A.E.W. Mason's 1902 novel about intrigue among British soldiers deployed against Egyptian rebels in the time of Queen Victoria.

Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- PAGAN LOVE SONG (1950)
An American tourist romances a Tahitian beauty.
Dir: Robert Alton
Cast: Esther Williams, Howard Keel, Minna Gombell
C-77 mins, CC,

Scenically, the water ballet from this picture was one of the most elaborate of Esther Williams' career, providing a 180-degree vista through two sets - the floral lagoon that marks her entrance, and the lavish high cliff from which Howard Keel's character dives into the water. The underwater section of the ballet uses seven separate 'rooms' linked photographically to create the illusion that Williams remains below sea level without rising for air. Decades after the fact, this number provided a lavish centerpiece for the Esther Williams tribute sequence in That's Entertainment! (1974).


7:45 AM -- IT STARTED WITH A KISS (1959)
After a whirlwind courtship, an Army officer and his wacky wife try to make their marriage work.
Dir: George Marshall
Cast: Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds, Eva Gabor
C-104 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The car that Glenn Ford wins is a 1955 Lincoln Futura, the one-off concept car that ultimately became the Batmobile on Batman (1966).


9:30 AM -- WILD ORCHIDS (1929)
A married woman falls for another man during a trip to Indonesia.
Dir: Sidney Franklin
Cast: Greta Garbo, Lewis Stone, Nils Asther
BW-100 mins,

The film is based on a story by John Colton called "Heat". That was the original name of the film. But, the name was changed when studio heads realized that it would not be the best campaign to have posters and advertisements inviting movie-goers to come see: "Greta Garbo in 'Heat'".


11:15 AM -- VACATION FROM MARRIAGE (1945)
After World War II service changes them, a married couple dread their postwar reunion.
Dir: Alexander Korda
Cast: Robert Donat, Deborah Kerr, Glynis Johns
BW-93 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Clemence Dane

Film debut (uncredited) of Sir Roger Moore.


1:00 PM -- NOT WITH MY WIFE, YOU DON'T! (1966)
Two fliers during the Korean War compete for a beautiful Italian nurse.
Dir: Norman Panama
Cast: Tony Curtis, Virna Lisi, George C Scott
C-119 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

While they both played service men in the Air Force for this film, Tony Curtis and George C. Scott once served in the Armed Forces during WWII and before entering show business. But unlike their characters, Curtis was in the Navy while Scott was in the Marines.


3:15 PM -- JULES AND JIM (1962)
A tempestuous beauty comes between college friends.
Dir: François Truffaut
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre
BW-106 mins, Letterbox Format

Henri-Pierre Roché's original novel was based on his own experiences as a young man. The original Catherine was still alive when the film was released and even attended the premiere incognito.


5:15 PM -- LOLITA (1961)
Vladimir Nabokov's racy classic focuses on an aging intellectual in love with a teenager.
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: James Mason, Sue Lyon, Shelley Winters
BW-153 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Vladimir Nabokov

Stanley Kubrick spotted Sue Lyon on The Loretta Young Show (1953). One thing that convinced him to hire her was the size of her breasts, which were surprisingly mature for her age at the time (13). He reasoned her physical maturity would make Lolita seem older. She was 15 when the film was shot and 16 when it was released.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: I LOVED HER IN THE MOVIES



8:00 PM -- CINEMA PARADISO (1989)
A boy coming of age in WWII Italy develops a lifelong love affair with movies.
Dir: Giuseppe Tornatore
Cast: Philippe Noiret, Jacques Perrin, Antonella Attili
C-124 mins, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film -- Italy

Giuseppe Tornatore's intention was that this movie should serve as an obituary for traditional movie theatres (like the one on the film) and the movie industry in general. After the movie's success he never mentioned this again.


10:30 PM -- LONELY ARE THE BRAVE (1962)
A modern-day cowboy defies the law in order to live a free man.
Dir: David Miller
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands, Walter Matthau
BW-107 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The one-armed man tells Jack Burns in the bar that he lost his arm at Okinawa during World War II. Bill Raisch, the actor who played the one-armed man, actually did lose his right arm in a fire on board a ship during the war. Raisch was Burt Lancaster's stand-in and later landed a recurring role--as the real killer of Dr. Richard Kimble's wife--in the TV series The Fugitive (1963).


12:30 AM -- THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED (1966)
A small-town girl fights her mother's opposition when she falls for a big-city businessman.
Dir: Sydney Pollack
Cast: Natalie Wood, Robert Redford, Charles Bronson
C-110 mins, CC,

This was supposed to be a prestige picture for Natalie Wood after a string of flops that would mark her comeback as a serious actress. However, the film was met with public and critical indifference. Wood retreated from Hollywood and wouldn't make another film for another three years.


2:45 AM -- THE FOUR FEATHERS (1939)
A disgraced officer risks his life to help his childhood friends in battle.
Dir: Zoltan Korda
Cast: John Clements, Ralph Richardson, C. Aubrey Smith
C-115 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Georges Périnal and Osmond Borradaile

The Korda brothers had a working relationship and method that sometimes agitated their English cast and crew, who were not used to sudden, loud arguments conducted in Hungarian and halting English peppered with expletives. John Clements recalled sitting in Alexander's office discussing a point of production when suddenly the three brothers broke into a violent screaming match. "Zolly (Zoltan) started picking things up off the table and throwing them on the floor, and I really thought they were going to kill each other," Clements said. Just as suddenly as it began, however, the fight stopped "and everybody embraced, including me, and we all had a nice cup of tea, and that was that."


5:00 AM -- FREE AND EASY (1941)
A father and son compete in the search for rich wives.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Robert Cummings, Ruth Hussey, Judith Anderson
BW-56 mins, CC,

The original play, by Ivor Novello, opened in London on 5 October 1928. The play opened on Broadway on 27 December 1930, and filmed in 1932 as But The Flesh Is Weak.