TCM Schedule for Thursday, November 5 -- Star of the Month -- Grace Kelly

[Staph]

Today we celebrate two birthdays. Vivian Leigh, born in 1913, made only 20 films but won two Oscars for Best Actress, for Gone With The Wind (1939) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Joel McCrea, born in 1905, made more than 90 films. He stood 6' 3". A big sight gag in Sullivan's Travels (1941) was the juxtaposition of the big McCrea with his leading lady, Veronica Lake, who was 16 inches shorter. For some shots of the film, however, Lake had to stand on a box so their heads could be seen in the same shot. Tonight, we begin the celebration of this month's Star of the Month, Grace Kelly, with her first film, Fourteen Hours (1951), her star-making performance in High Noon (1951), and her first Oscar-nominated role in Mogambo (1953). Enjoy!


5:30am -- MGM Parade Show #22 (1955)
Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald perform in a clip from "Maytime"; Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz introduce a clip from "Forever Darling."
Host: George Murphy.
BW-26 mins, TV-G

Maytime (1938) was nominated for two Oscars, for Best Music, Score -- Nat W. Finston (head of department) and Score by Herbert Stothart, and Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD)


6:00am -- Fire Over England (1936)
A British spy infiltrates the Spanish court to thwart their planned invasion of England.
Cast: Flora Robson, Raymond Massey, Leslie Banks, Laurence Olivier
Dir: William K. Howard
BW-89 mins, TV-G

When Alexander Korda re-released this film circa 1944, he commissioned a new trailer which implied that James Mason (by then a huge box office star for rival studio Gainsborough) was a major star of the film. In fact, Mason plays a tiny role in “Fire Over England” and his name does not even appear in the credits!


7:45am -- A Yank At Oxford (1938)
A cocky American student runs into trouble when he transfers to the famed British college.
Cast: Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Vivien Leigh
Dir: Jack Conway
BW-102 mins, TV-G

In a scene shortly after arriving at Oxford, Sheridan meets with his assigned tutor, who asks him, "What are you reading?" by which he means what is your field of study. Sheridan, confused, replies, "Well, I am reading 'Gone With The Wind', but I am only halfway through it." Vivien Leigh, also in this movie, would of course portray Scarlett in Gone with the Wind (1939) which was released the year after this movie. Reportedly, it was known as early as 1937 from a Selznick memo that Leigh had secured the role.]


9:30am -- Waterloo Bridge (1940)
A ballerina turns to prostitution when her fiance is reported killed in World War I.
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Lucile Watson, Virginia Field
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
BW-109 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, and Best Music, Original Score -- Herbert Stothart

Of all the classic Hollywood films ever made, this somewhat obscure title happens to be one of the most popular in China, especially among college students. There are even audio guides for students to practice their English by reciting dialogue from this film. The reason for why this particular film has become so endeared among the Chinese is anyone's guess. One possibility is that the popularity of Gone with the Wind (1939) in China led many to seek other movies starring Vivien Leigh.


11:30am -- That Hamilton Woman (1941)
Naval hero Lord Nelson defies convention to court a married woman of common birth.
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Alan Mowbray, Sara Allgood
Dir: Alexander Korda
BW-125 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Jack Whitney (General Service SSD)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Vincent Korda and Julia Heron, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Rudolph Maté, and Best Effects, Special Effects -- Lawrence W. Butler (photographic) and William A. Wilmarth (sound)

One of Winston Churchill's hobbies was writing for movies as ghost writer. He wrote two of Nelson's speeches, as propaganda pieces against Germany, which was invading Europe at the time the movie was filmed and released.


1:45pm -- Woman Wanted (1935)
An innocent woman is chased by both gangsters and the police.
Cast: Maureen O'Sullivan, Joel McCrea, Lewis Stone, Louis Calhern
Dir: George B. Seitz
BW-67 mins, TV-G

Katharine Hepburn was a friend of McCrea's and McCrea's wife Frances Dee. Hepburn also felt that McCrea was one of the best actors she had ever worked with and was always disappointed that his career wasn't more successful (she thought he should have been ranking alongside Spencer Tracy or Humphrey Bogart).


3:00pm -- Primrose Path (1940)
The youngest child in a family of prostitutes tries to go straight with a working man.
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Joel McCrea, Marjorie Rambeau, Henry Travers
Dir: Gregory La Cava
BW-93 mins, TV-PG

Ginger Rogers dyed her hair brunette for the film, but kept it secret until the film was released. She also wore no makeup in the role.


4:45pm -- Stars In My Crown (1950)
A parson uses six-guns and the Bible to bring peace to a Tennessee town.
Cast: Joel McCrea, Ellen Drew, Dean Stockwell, Alan Hale
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
BW-89 mins, TV-G

The final film of Alan Hale, Sr. (Not to be confused with his son Alan Hale, Jr. a.k.a The Skipper from Gilligan's Island.)


6:15pm -- The Outriders (1950)
Rebel soldiers try to hijack a Union gold shipment.
Cast: Joel McCrea, Arlene Dahl, Barry Sullivan, Claude Jarman Jr.
Dir: Roy Rowland
C-93 mins, TV-P

McCrea was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1969.


What's On Tonight: STAR OF THE MONTH: GRACE KELLY


8:00pm -- Fourteen Hours (1951)
A policeman tries to talk a desperate young man off the ledge of a New York skyscraper.
Cast: Paul Douglas, Richard Basehart, Barbara Bel Geddes, Debra Paget
Dir: Henry Hathaway
BW-92 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lyle R. Wheeler, Leland Fuller, Thomas Little and Fred J. Rode

As was typical of other big studio films of the time, the exterior action photographed on location on the streets of New York City, but the dialogue scenes were shot on a copy of the building and on studio sets at the Fox Studios in Hollywood. The film is notable in that a number of actors just beginning their careers who were soon to go on to major roles in theater and film were cast in bit parts or as extras, among them: Joyce Van Patten, Janice Rule, John Randolph, Harvey Lembeck, Brian Keith, Richard Beymer, David Burns, Ossie Davis, John Cassavetes and Grace Kelly, in her first screen appearance.


10:00pm -- High Noon (1952)
A retired Marshal must defend his town from a revengeful villain.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
BW-85 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gary Cooper (Gary Cooper was not present at the awards ceremony. John Wayne accepted on his behalf.), Best Film Editing -- Elmo Williams and Harry W. Gerstad, Best Music, Original Song -- Dimitri Tiomkin (music) and Ned Washington (lyrics) for the song "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin')", and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Dimitri Tiomkin

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Fred Zinnemann, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Carl Foreman, and Best Picture

The 1980s were a tumultuous time in Poland. Workers' strikes in Gdansk lead to the formation of the Solidarity movement. In 1980, Lech Walesa was elected chairman of this reform movement. The red and white Solidarity logo became an international icon that literally wrapped itself around the city, creating a visual momentum that lead to a political revolution. Once again, posters played a pivotal role in defining the future. In 1989, the day before the country was to vote on the political future of Poland, a poster featuring an image of Gary Cooper from the film "High Noon" was plastered on kiosks and walls around the country. This landmark image of the famous actor strolling towards the viewer depicted him carrying not a gun, but a voting ballot, and wearing a solidarity logo above his sheriff's badge that read: "It's high noon, June 4, 1989." As Frank Fox, former professor of Eastern European History stated: "Indeed, an American Western was an apt symbol for a political duel that marked the beginning of the end of Communism in Eastern Europe. Gary Cooper would have approved."


11:30pm -- Mogambo (1953)
In this remake of Red Dust, an African hunter is torn between a lusty showgirl and a married woman.
Cast: Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, Donald Sinden
Dir: John Ford
C-116 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ava Gardner, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Grace Kelly

Clark Gable did not get along with director John Ford during filming, and at one point walked off the set in protest at Ford's treatment of Ava Gardner. Ford also made several remarks about Gable's age and weathered appearance.


1:30am -- Princess O'Rourke (1943)
A flying ace's romance with a princess creates diplomatic problems.
Cast: Olivia de Havilland, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn, Jack Carson
Dir: Norman Krasna
BW-94 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Norman Krasna

The film was released more than a year after it was completed.


3:15am -- Penny Princess (1952)
A young American woman with no political or financial experience finds herself the heiress to a tiny European country.
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Yolande Donlan
Dir: Val Guest
C-90 mins, TV-G

Opening Title Card: The producers wish to thank the citizens of Lampidorra for not speaking Lampidorran - thus saving the expense of English subtitles.

[Staph]

1. High Noon

Marshall Will Kane (Gary Cooper) is looking forward to his honeymoon with his new bride Amy (Grace Kelly). But as he and his wife prepare to leave town, Kane is informed that Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), his former nemesis, is out of jail and on the way to Hadleyville for a showdown with him. Not one to back down from a confrontation, Kane decides to postpone his honeymoon and face the murderous outlaw and his gang. However, as the lone sheriff attempts to enlist some of the townspeople to help him, he quickly discovers that no one is willing to risk their life beside him. As the minutes tick away toward the final showdown, Kane prepares to meet his fate alone.

In his biography, A Life in the Movies, director Fred Zinnemann noted that High Noon "seems to mean different things to different people. (Some speculate that it is an allegory on the Korean War!) Kramer, who had worked closely with Foreman on the script, said it was about 'a town that died because no one there had the guts to defend it.' Somehow this seemed to be an incomplete explanation. Foreman saw it as an allegory on his own experience of political pesecution in the McCarthy era. With due respect I felt this to be a narrow point of view. First of all I saw it simply as a great movie yarn, full of enormously interesting people. I vaguely sensed deeper meanings in it; but only later did it dawn on me that this was not a regular Western myth....To me it was the story of a man who must make a decision according to his conscience. His town - symbol of a democracy gone soft - faces a horrendous threat to its people's way of life....It is a story that still happens everywhere, every day....The entire action was designed by Foreman and Kramer to take place in the exact screening time of the film - less than ninety minutes."

High Noon proved to be a huge critical and popular success when released and garnered seven Oscar nominations including Best Picture prior to the 1953 Academy Awards ceremony that year (It won statues for Gary Cooper (Best Actor), Best Film Editing, Best Music Score and Best Song ("Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'"), which was performed in the film by Tex Ritter (It also became a hit for Western balladeer Frankie Laine). Kramer noted in his biography, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: A Life in Hollywood, "that High Noon's defeat in the Oscar race by Cecil B. DeMille's circus picture, The Greatest Show on Earth, had to be largely political, and I'm not referring to the unspoken old-boy politics of Hollywood's inner circle. I still believe High Noon was the best picture of 1952, but the political climate of the nation and the right-wing campaigns after High Noon had enough effect to relegate it to an also-ran status. Popular as it was, it could not overcome the climate in which it was released. Carl Foreman, who wrote it, had by then taken off for England under a cloud of accusations as a result of his political beliefs. Between the time he turned in the script and the time the Academy voted, we all learned that he had been a member of the Communist Party, but anyone who has seen the picture knows that he put no Communist propaganda into the story. If he had tried to do so, I would have taken it out."

Producer: Stanley Kramer, Carl Foreman
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Screenplay: Carl Foreman, based on the story "The Tin Star" by John W. Cunningham
Cinematography: Floyd Crosby
Editing: Elmo Williams
Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
Art Direction: Ben Hayne
Cast: Gary Cooper (Marshal Will Kane), Grace Kelly (Amy Kane), Thomas Mitchell (Jonas Henderson), Lloyd Bridges (Harvey Pell), Katy Jurado (Helen Ramirez), Otto Kruger (Judge Percy Mettrick), Lon Chaney, Jr. (Martin Howe), Harry Morgan (Sam Fuller), Ian MacDonald (Frank Miller), Lee Van Cleef (Jack Colby), Sheb Wooley (Ben Miller).
BW-85m. Closed captioning.

by Scott McGee