TCM Schedule for Saturday, August 12 - Summer Under the Stars: Deborah Kerr

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Last edited Fri Aug 11, 2023, 05:47 PM - Edit history (3)

- TCM PRIMETIME
Blue Dahlia, The (1946)
Glass Key, The (1942)
Deep Six, The (1958)
- TCM DAYTIME
SUMMER UNDER THE STARS - DEBORAH KERR
(Trivia: Kerr was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar six times and never won. She was, however, given an honorary Oscar in 1993.)
Please Believe Me (1950)
Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The (1943)
Quo Vadis (1951)
Young Bess (1953)
King Solomon's Mines (1950)
Sundowners, The (1960)
- TCM PRIMETIME
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957)
Black Narcissus (1947)
An Affair to Remember (1957)
Vacation from Marriage (1945)
Dream Wife (1953)

12:00 AM The Blue Dahlia (1946)

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A veteran fights to prove he didn't kill his cheating wife.
Dir: George Marshall Cast: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, William Bendix
Runtime: 98 mins Genre: Suspense/Mystery Rating: TV-PG CC: N

Oscar nominations:
WRITING (Original Screenplay) -- Raymond Chandler

Trivia: Just after the fight scene between Alan Ladd and the two thugs who kidnapped him, one of the thugs is seen soaking his broken leg in a round tub. That wasn't in the original script; the actor had really broken his leg filming the fight and, without consulting screenwriter Raymond Chandler, director George Marshall re-wrote the script to have the character break his leg as well.

2:00 AM The Glass Key (1942)

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A hired gun and his gangster boss fall out over a woman.
Dir: Stuart Heisler Cast: Brian Donlevy, Veronica Lake, Alan Ladd
Runtime: 85 mins Genre: Suspense/Mystery Rating: TV-PG CC: N


4:00 AM The Deep Six (1958)

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A pacifist finds his values challenged by the outbreak of World War II.
Dir: Rudolph Maté Cast: Alan Ladd, Dianne Foster, William Bendix
Runtime: 110 mins Genre: War Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

Trivia: The USS 'Poe' ship in this film was portrayed by the real-life Fletcher Class destroyer DD-538 USS 'Stephen Potter' for this movie. This vessel was named after World War I naval aviator Ensign Stephen Potter (1896-1918). The ship was chosen because of it was used during the Second World War. It was commissioned in October 1943. During the war it was mostly used to screen the fast carrier task groups. It was mothballed in September 1945. It was recommissioned in 1951 and served until 1958 until it was mothballed again. It was scrapped in 1973.

6:00 AM Please Believe Me (1950)

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Three men pursue a shipboard romance with a woman they think is an heiress.
Dir: Norman Taurog Cast: Deborah Kerr, Robert Walker, Mark Stevens
Runtime: 87 mins Genre: Romance Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

Trivia: M-G-M was so pleased with this film's script, it offered Val Lewton a larger budget to be able to replace Deborah Kerr with June Allyson, who was a bigger star at the time. Lewton insisted on keeping Kerr.

7:30 AM The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

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In this fascinating epic, Colonel Blimp relished a good fight, but as the atrocities of combat took their toll, he was forced to rethink the sense of it all. Deborah Kerr co-stars playing three different women who touched the colonel's heart over the course of his 40-year career.
Dir: Michael Powell Cast: Deborah Kerr, Roger Livesey, Anton Walbrook
Runtime: 163 mins Genre: War Rating: TV-G CC: Y


10:30 AM Quo Vadis (1951)

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A Roman commander falls for a Christian slave girl as Nero intensifies persecution of the new religion.
Dir: Mervyn Leroy Cast: Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Leo Genn
Runtime: 171 mins Genre: Epic Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

Oscar nominations: ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE -- Leo Genn {"Petronius"}
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE -- Peter Ustinov {"Nero"}
ART DIRECTION (Color) -- Art Direction: William A. Horning, Cedric Gibbons, Edward Carfagno; Set Decoration: Hugh Hunt
CINEMATOGRAPHY (Color) -- Robert Surtees, William V. Skall
COSTUME DESIGN (Color) -- Herschel McCoy
FILM EDITING -- Ralph E. Winters
MUSIC (Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture) -- Miklos Rozsa
BEST MOTION PICTURE -- Sam Zimbalist, Producer

Trivia: In his memoirs, "Dear Me" (1981), Sir Peter Ustinov recalled that MGM had sought him for the role of Emperor Nero, but dithered for months, refusing to commit. During this time, he received numerous telegrams from the studio, one of which stated that they were concerned that he might be too young to play the notorious Roman Emperor. Ustinov replied that Emperor Nero died when he was thirty, and that if they waited much longer, he'd be too old. The studio cabled back: "Historical research has proved you correct. You have the part." Coincidentally (or not), Ustinov was 30 years old when this movie was released.

1:30 PM Young Bess (1953)

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The future Elizabeth I fights court intrigue in the turbulent years before her ascension to the throne.
Dir: George Sidney Cast: Jean Simmons, Deborah Kerr, Charles Laughton
Runtime: 112 mins Genre: Romance Rating: TV-G CC: Y

Oscar nominations:
ART DIRECTION (Color) -- Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Urie McCleary; Set Decoration: Edwin B. Willis, Jack D. Moore
COSTUME DESIGN (Color) -- Walter Plunkett

Trivia: Cast as on-screen lovers Young Bess (Queen Elizabeth I) and Sir Thomas Seymour, in real life Jean Simmons and Stewart Granger were married to each other when this movie was filmed. Granger (né James Stewart) and Simmons met in 1946 while working on the picture Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). They would meet again over a year later, with Simmons now a grown up 18. The relationship soon turned to romance, and the couple appeared in a film together in 1949 that reflected their own situation. In Adam and Evalyn (1949), Granger plays a man in love with a younger woman. A few years later, after divorcing his first wife, Granger and Jean married on December 20, 1950. He was 27. The bride was 21. They also appeared together in Footsteps in the Fog (1955).

3:30 PM King Solomon's Mines (1950)

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A spirited widow hires a daredevil jungle scout to find a lost treasure in diamonds.
Dir: Compton Bennett Cast: Deborah Kerr, Stewart Granger, Richard Carlson
Runtime: 102 mins Genre: Adventure Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

Oscar wins: CINEMATOGRAPHY (Color) -- Robert Surtees
FILM EDITING -- Ralph E. Winters, Conrad A. Nervig
Oscar nominations:
BEST MOTION PICTURE -- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Trivia: While filming on location in Carlsbad National Park's New Cave, Deborah Kerr took her lipstick and wrote the initials "DK" on a cave formation near the Klansman formation that was used as a background. An electrician also took a burned out lamp and tossed it in a hole under that formation. Since the cave is still 'active', meaning the formations are still slowly being encased in more minerals, the initials and the lamp are now solidly encased in a layer limestone that is thin enough to see through but thick enough to prevent removal. The Carlsbad Park Rangers refer to the "DK" as the Deborah Kerr formation. Both are still visible to this day.

5:30 PM The Sundowners (1960)

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A nomadic family travels across 1930s Australia to pursue their dream of settling into a big farm, along the way they try to win some money.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann Cast: Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, Peter Ustinov
Runtime: 133 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

Oscar nominations:
ACTRESS -- Deborah Kerr {"Ida Carmody"}
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE -- Glynis Johns {"Mrs. Firth"}
DIRECTING -- Fred Zinnemann
BEST MOTION PICTURE -- Fred Zinnemann, Producer
WRITING (Screenplay--based on material from another medium) -- Isobel Lennart

Trivia: Although studio head Jack L. Warner wanted to shoot the movie in Arizona, Director Fred Zinnemann insisted on shooting the exteriors on-location in Australia. The shoot did not go well. Zinnemann spent twelve weeks filming scenery and shepherding scenes in the outback before the cast arrived. Once the cast got there, the weather began alternating daily between hot sun and cold rain, which resulted in several extra weeks of filming. Robert Mitchum was so harassed by fans, that he had to move onto a boat to get away from them.

8:00 PM Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957)

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A marine and a nun are shipwrecked on a Pacific Island.
Dir: John Huston Cast: Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, Akira Ohno
Runtime: 107 mins Genre: Adventure Rating: TV-G CC: N

Oscar nominations:
ACTRESS -- Deborah Kerr {"Sister Angela"}
WRITING (Screenplay--based on material from another medium) -- John Lee Mahin, John Huston

Trivia: First of four movies that paired Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum.

Trivia: When filming began, Robert Mitchum worried that Deborah Kerr would be like the prim characters she frequently played. However, after she swore at director John Huston during one take, Mitchum, who was in the water, almost drowned laughing. The two stars went on to have an enduring friendship which lasted until Mitchum's death in 1997.

Trivia: After spending so much time in Trinidad/Tobago, Robert Mitchum became enamored with Calypso music, so much so that he recorded an album of it called "Calypso - Is Like So" for Capitol Records.

Personal note: I first saw this movie at an early age (late '50s, I think) either at Catholic school or at a Catholic summer camp. Haven't forgotten it.)

10:00 PM Black Narcissus (1947)

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Nuns founding a convent in the Himalayas are tormented by the area's exotic beauty.
Dir: Michael Powell Cast: Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar
Runtime: 99 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-14 CC: Y

Oscar wins: ART DIRECTION (Color) -- Art Direction: Alfred Junge; Set Decoration: Alfred Junge
CINEMATOGRAPHY (Color) -- Jack Cardiff

Trivia: The backdrops were blown-up black-and-white photographs. The Art Department then gave them their breathtaking colors by using pastel chalks on top of them.

12:00 AM An Affair to Remember (1957)

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A romantic shipboard romance inspires a couple to promise to meet six months later.
Dir: Leo McCarey Cast: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning
Runtime: 115 mins Genre: Romance Rating: TV-G CC: N

Oscar nominations: CINEMATOGRAPHY -- Milton Krasner
COSTUME DESIGN -- Charles LeMaire
MUSIC (Scoring) -- Hugo Friedhofer
MUSIC (Song) -- "An Affair To Remember," Music by Harry Warren; Lyrics by Harold Adamson and Leo McCarey

Trivia: Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant improvised many of their scenes throughout filming, and a number of those lines made it to the final cut of the film.

2:15 AM Vacation from Marriage (1945)

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After World War II service changes them, a married couple dread their postwar reunion.
Dir: Alexander Korda Cast: Robert Donat, Deborah Kerr, Glynis Johns
Runtime: 92 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

Oscar wins:
WRITING (Original Motion Picture Story) -- Clemence Dane

4:15 AM Dream Wife (1953)

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For state reasons, a diplomat fakes an engagement to a Middle Eastern princess.
Dir: Sidney Sheldon Cast: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Walter Pidgeon
Runtime: 101 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: TV-G CC: Y

Oscar wins;
COSTUME DESIGN (Black-and-White) -- Helen Rose, Herschel McCoy