TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 30 -- TCM Spotlight - 1939

[Staph]

Today is the last day of the TCM spotlight on the golden year of 1939, with some of the best of the year, including Gone With The Wind, Wuthering Heights, and Intermezzo. In the morning, the spotlight concludes with three more, Love Affair, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, and Midnight. Enjoy!


4:30am -- Let's Fall in Love (1934)
An ambitious film director transforms a Brooklyn-born actress into a Swedish temptress.
Cast: Edmund Lowe, Ann Sothern, Miriam Jordan, Gregory Ratoff
Dir: David Burton
BW-68 mins, TV-G

Ann Southern's first credited role.


5:39am -- Short Film: Let's Dance (1936)
Choreographer 'Dave Gould' and his students demonstrate various tap dancing steps.
Narrator: Pete Smith
Dir: David Miller
BW-8 mins

Dave Gould was a director and choreographer, who won two Oscars for the since-discontinued catagory of Best Dance Direction, for Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) and Folies Bergère de Paris (1935).


6:00am -- The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
A big game hunter decides to stalk human prey.
Cast: Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Leslie Banks
Dir: Ernest B. Schoedsack
BW-63 mins, TV-PG

The actor playing "Ivan the Cossack" was Noble Johnson, a multi-talented African American who was a childhood friend of Lon Chaney. This is the earliest known instance of a black actor working in "whiteface" to play a Caucasian character.


7:15am -- Twentieth Century (1934)
A tempestuous theatrical director tries to win back the star he created and then drove away.
Cast: John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns
Dir: Howard Hawks
BW-91 mins, TV-PG

When asked by John Barrymore why he should play the role of Oscar, Howard Hawks replied, "It's the story of the biggest ham on earth and you're the biggest ham I know." Barrymore accepted at once.


9:00am -- A Walk in the Sun (1946)
A platoon of American soldiers captures an Italian farmhouse.
Cast: Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, George Tyne, John Ireland
Dir: Lewis Milestone
BW-116 mins, TV-14

The soldiers are wearing a coverall type fatigue uniform which the army had determined to be impractical for field use by 1942. The invasion troops at Salerno did not wear this type of uniform.


11:00am -- Gun Glory (1957)
A reformed gunslinger is rejected by everyone until he's needed to fight off outlaws.
Cast: Stewart Granger, Rhonda Fleming, Chill Wills, Steve Rowland
Dir: Roy Rowland
C-89 mins, TV-PG

Based on the novel Man of the West, by Philip Yordan. Although also a prolific writer himself, he served as a front for friends and other writers who had been blacklisted during the McCarthy era. Living in Paris during the blacklist days, his basement was often filled with blacklisted writers working in cubicles, churning out screenplays.


12:45pm -- Out of the Past (1947)
A private eye becomes the dupe of a homicidal moll.
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
BW-97 mins, TV-PG

Humphrey Bogart read the script and, seeing the similarities between this and The Maltese Falcon (1941), wanted to play Jeff (the Robert Mitchum role). However, Warner Bros. didn't buy the material and RKO produced this movie.


2:30pm -- Cry Danger (1951)
An innocent ex-con sets out to find the real criminals.
Cast: Dick Powell, Rhonda Fleming, Richard Erdman, William Conrad
Dir: Robert Parrish
BW-79 mins, TV-PG

In an interview with Tom Weaver, actress Jean Porter said the film was "directed by Dick Powell, and he wasn't given director credit. Dick gave Robert Parrish the director's credit, but Dick did all the directing."


4:00pm -- While The City Sleeps (1956)
Reporters compete to catch a serial killer.
Cast: Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders, Howard Duff
Dir: Fritz Lang
BW-100 mins, TV-PG

Although Howard Duff and Ida Lupino were married in real life, they have no scenes together.


6:00pm -- Spellbound (1945)
A psychiatrist tries to help the man she loves solve a murder buried in his subconscious.
Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, Leo G. Carroll
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
BW-111 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Michael Chekhov, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- George Barnes, Best Director -- Alfred Hitchcock, Best Effects, Special Effects -- Jack Cosgrove (photographic), and Best Picture

The dream sequence was designed by Salvador Dalí, and was originally supposed to run slightly longer. It included a scene in a ballroom with hanging pianos and still figures pretending to dance, folled with J.B. (Gregory Peck) dancing with Dr. Peterson (Ingrid Bergman) who turns into a statue. It was cut from the final film due to lack of time to appropriately build the set to scale (little people were used in the background to give the illusion of perception, which did not satisfy Alfred Hitchcock or Dali). Only part of it was filmed, and even less of it ended up in the release version.


What's On Tonight: TCM SPOTLIGHT: 1939


8:00pm -- Gone With the Wind (1939)
Classic tale of Scarlett O'Hara's battle to save her beloved Tara and find love during the Civil War.
Cast: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland.
Dir: Victor Fleming.
C-233 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Vivien Leigh, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Hattie McDaniel (became the first African American to be nominated for and win an Oscar), Best Art Direction -- Lyle R. Wheeler, Best Cinematography, Color -- Ernest Haller and Ray Rennahan, Best Director -- Victor Fleming, Best Film Editing -- Hal C. Kern and James E. Newcom, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sidney Howard, Technical Achievement Award -- R.D. Musgrave (for pioneering in the use of coordinated equipment in the production Gone with the Wind), and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Clark Gable, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Olivia de Havilland, Best Effects, Special Effects -- Jack Cosgrove (photographic), Fred Albin (sound) and Arthur Johns (sound), Best Music, Original Score -- Max Steiner, and Best Sound, Recording -- Thomas T. Moulton (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)

Also received an Honorary Award for William Cameron Menzies for outstanding achievement in the use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood in the production of Gone with the Wind (plaque).

The film had its first preview on 9 September 1939 at the Fox Theatre in Riverside, California. In attendance were David O. Selznick, his wife Irene Mayer Selznick, investor John Hay Whitney and editor Hal C. Kern. Kern called for the manager and explained that his theater had been chosen for the first public screening of Gone with the Wind (1939) though the identity of the film was to remain undisclosed to the audience until the very moment it began. People were permitted to leave only if they didn't want to hang around for a film that they didn't know the name of, but after they'd gone, the theater was to be sealed with no re-admissions and no phone calls. The manager was reluctant but eventually agreed. His one request was to call his wife to come to the theater immediately, although he was forbidden to tell her what film she was about to see. Indeed, Kern stood by him while he made his phone call to ensure he maintained the secret. When the film began, the audience started yelling with excitement. They had been reading about this film for nearly 2 years, so were naturally thrilled to see it for themselves.


12:00am -- The Rains Came (1939)
A Hindu doctor's affair with a British noblewoman is disrupted by a violent flood.
Cast: Myrna Loy, Tyrone Power, George Brent, Brenda Joyce
Dir: Clarence Brown
BW-104 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Fred Sersen (photographic) and Edmund H. Hansen (sound)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- William S. Darling and George Dudley, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Arthur C. Miller, Best Film Editing -- Barbara McLean, Best Music, Original Score -- Alfred Newman, and Best Sound, Recording -- Edmund H. Hansen (20th Century-Fox SSD)

This movie was a monumental undertaking for Twentieth Century-Fox. Of the 100 shooting days, almost half were spent filming the man-made rain and floods, for which 33 million gallons of water were used.


2:00am -- Wuthering Heights (1939)
A married noblewoman fights her lifelong attraction to a charismatic gypsy.
Cast: Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven, Flora Robson
Dir: William Wyler
BW-104 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Gregg Toland

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Laurence Olivier, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Geraldine Fitzgerald, Best Art Direction -- James Basevi, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Music, Original Score -- Alfred Newman, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, and Best Picture

Laurence Olivier found himself becoming increasingly annoyed with William Wyler's exhausting style of film-making. After yet another take, he is said to have exclaimed, "For God's sake, I did it sitting down. I did it with a smile. I did it with a smirk. I did it scratching my ear. I did it with my back to the camera. How do you want me to do it?" Wyler's retort was, "I want it better."


4:00am -- Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939)
A married violinist deserts his family when he falls for his accompanist.
Cast: Leslie Howard, Ingrid Bergman, Edna Best, John Halliday
Dir: Gregory Ratoff
BW-70 mins, TV-14

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Gregg Toland, and Best Music, Scoring -- Louis Forbes

When Selznick fired the cinematographer Harry Stradling Sr. and hired the great Gregg Toland to take over the photography of Selznick's remake of the 1936 Swedish version of "Intermezzo", he asked Toland how it was possible that Bergman looked so beautiful in the original European production and so ghastly in his Hollywood version. Toland replied, "In Sweden they don't make her wear all that makeup." Selznick immediately ordered retakes with the "natural look" which so dazzled the world a year later when he loaned her out to Warner Bros. for their production "Casablanca".

[Staph]

1. Gone With The Wind (1939)

"Selznick's Folly" had become the nickname applied by cynics to Gone With the Wind (1939) while David O. Selznick's film version of Margaret Mitchell's sprawling epic of the Old South was still in production. But when the $4 million movie had its premiere on December 15, 1939, cynicism was swept aside by such reactions as The Hollywood Reporter's headline description: "Magnificent and Supreme Triumph of Film History." When Oscar nominees for one of the greatest years ever in American film were announced, Gone With the Wind dominated the likes of Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Wuthering Heights, Ninotchka and Goodbye, Mr. Chips with an unprecedented 13 nominations.

When Oscar night came, Gone With the Wind continued to make history with eight wins, plus special awards to Selznick and production designer William Cameron Menzies. "What a wonderful thing, this benefit for David O. Selznick," Bob Hope cracked as he began his first year as master of ceremonies. The first two major awards for Gone With the Wind were not claimed by their winners. Selznick accepted for director Victor Fleming, explaining that he was ill. Screenwriter Sidney Howard, who had been killed in a tractor accident on his Massachusetts farm, became the first posthumous Oscar winner. When Y. Frank Freeman presented Selznick with the Best Picture award, the Southern-born Paramount executive cracked, "David, I never saw so many soldiers as were used in Gone With the Wind. Believe me, if the Confederate Army had had that many, we would have licked you damn Yankees."

Fay Bainter, announcing the winner for Best Supporting Actress, described the award as "a tribute to a country where people are free to honor noteworthy achievements regardless of creed, race or color." A big "Hallelujah!" rang from the lips of Hattie McDaniel, honored for her Mammy in Gone With the Wind. A disappointed Olivia de Havilland, also nominated in McDaniel's category, slipped into the Coconut Grove kitchen for some private tears before composing herself and returning to congratulate her co-star. In his final appearance at an Oscar ceremony, Spencer Tracy appeared to present Vivien Leigh with her Best Actress award for so memorably playing Scarlett in Gone With the Wind. Leigh ended her acceptance speech with special thanks to Tracy for coming straight from the hospital after two days of treatment for strep throat.

Gone With the Wind also won in the categories of Color Cinematography, Interior Decoration and Film Editing. But the movie's winning streak stopped with the Best Actor award. Clark Gable, nominated for the performance of his life as Rhett Butler, lost to Robert Donat for Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

Perfectionists are never happy, as publicist Russell Birdwell learned on his drive with Selznick to a celebration party. According to Selznick biographer Bob Thomas, the producer snapped to Birdwell, who had campaigned tirelessly for the Gone With the Wind awards, "I don't know why we didn't get the Best Actor award for Gable. Somewhere you failed. You didn't put on the proper campaign; otherwise, Clark Gable would have been sure to get it." After the devastated Birdwell failed to report to work for two days, Selznick called and admitted, "I was a pig. I worked so hard and waited so long, I got piggish and wanted everything." Source: Mason Wiley & Damien Bona, Inside Oscar, 1986.

Producer: David O. Selznick
Director: Victor Fleming, George Cukor (uncredited), Sam Wood (uncredited)
Screenplay: Sidney Howard, Ben Hecht (uncredited), David O. Selznick (uncredited), Jo Swerling (uncredited), John Van Druten (uncredited), from Margaret Mitchell novel
Production Design: William Cameron Menzies
Art Direction: Lyle R. Wheeler
Cinematography: Ernest Haller, Ray Rennahan, Lee Garmes (uncredited)
Costume Design: Walter Plunkett
Editing: Hal C. Kern (supervising)
Original Music: Max Steiner, Adolph Deutsch (uncredited), Hugo Friedhofer (uncredited), Heinz Roemheld (uncredited)
Principal Cast: Clark Gable (Rhett Butler), Vivien Leigh (Scarlett O'Hara), Leslie Howard (Ashley Wilkes), Olivia de Havilland (Melanie Hamilton Wilkes), Hattie McDaniel (Mammy), Thomas Mitchell (Gerald O'Hara), Barbara O'Neil (Ellen O'Hara), Evelyn Keyes (Suellen O'Hara), Ann Rutherford (Careen O'Hara), George Reeves (Stuart Tarleton), Fred Crane (Brent Tarleton), Oscar Polk (Pork), Butterfly McQueen (Prissy), Victor Jory (Jonas Wilkerson), Ona Munson (Belle Watling), Cammie King (Bonnie Blue Butler).
C-222m. Closed captioning. Descriptive Video.

by Roger Fristoe