TCM Schedule for Friday, May 7 -- TCM Primetime Feature -- David Lean Double Feature

[Staph]

It's a day full of birthday boy Gary Cooper, who was born 109 years ago today. And this evening we have a double feature of films directed by David Lean. Enjoy!


5:30am -- Stay Away Joe (1968)
A young Indian tries to save his failing reservation by selling grazing rights to a corrupt tycoon.
Cast: Elvis Presley, Burgess Meredith, Joan Blondell, Katy Jurado
Dir: Peter Tewksbury
BW-101 mins, TV-PG

During the fight scene at the party, Elvis Presley goes outside to tell the band to play something slow. He and his friend Charlie Hodge, who has a bit role in the film as a guitar player in the band, start cracking up during Elvis' line. Charlie later said the reason for the laughter was that it was cold outside and Elvis' nose was running.


7:15am -- It's A Big Country (1951)
Seven stories celebrate the glorious diversity of American life.
Cast: Ethel Barrymore, Keefe Brasselle, Gary Cooper, Nancy Davis
Dir: Richard Thorpe, Don Weis, John Sturges, Don Hartman, William A. Wellman, Clarence Brown, Charles Vidor
BW-89 mins, TV-PG

Episode titles are: 1) Interruptions, Interruptions; 2) Census Taker; 3) Negro Story; 4) Rosika, the Rose; 5) Letter from Korea; 6) Lone Star; and 7) Minister in Washington.


8:50am -- One Reel Wonders: Let's Sing A Song Of The West (1947)
This musical short features four songs associated with the western United States.
Narrator: Art Gilmore
Dir: Jack Scholl
BW-9 mins

The songs in this sing-along include Home on the Range, Oh! Susanna, My Little Buckaroo, and Deep in the Heart of Texas.


9:00am -- Man Of The West (1958)
A reformed outlaw is among the hostages when his former colleagues rob a train.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Julie London, Lee J. Cobb, Arthur O'Connell
Dir: Anthony Mann
C-99 mins, TV-PG

Gary Cooper was, at 56, a decade older than Lee J. Cobb who played his "Uncle" Dock Tobin. Cooper and John Dehner, 14 years Cooper's junior. talk about being kids together.


10:45am -- Meet John Doe (1941)
A reporter's fraudulent story turns a tramp into a national hero and makes him a pawn of big business.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan
Dir: Frank Capra
BW-122 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Richard Connell and Robert Presnell Sr.

Frank Capra didn't want anyone to play John Doe except Gary Cooper, who agreed to the part (without reading a script) for two reasons: he had enjoyed working with Capra on Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and he wanted to work with Barbara Stanwyck.


1:00pm -- Sergeant York (1941)
True story of the farm boy who made the transition from religious pacifist to World War I hero.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie, George Tobias
Dir: Howard Hawks
BW-134 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gary Cooper, and Best Film Editing -- William Holmes

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Walter Brennan, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Margaret Wycherly, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- John Hughes and Fred M. MacLean, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Sol Polito, Best Director -- Howard Hawks, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Max Steiner, Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Harry Chandlee, Abem Finkel, John Huston and Howard Koch, and Best Picture

Alvin C. York had been approached by producer Jesse Lasky several times, beginning in 1919, to allow a movie to be made of his life, but had refused, believing that "This uniform ain't for sale." Lasky convinced York that, with war threatening in Europe, it was his patriotic duty to allow the film to proceed. York finally agreed - but only on three conditions. First, York's share of the profits would be contributed to a Bible School York wanted constructed. Second, no cigarette smoking actress could be chosen to play his wife. Third, that only Gary Cooper, could recreate his life on screen. Cooper at first turned down the role, but when York himself contacted the star with a personal plea, Cooper agreed to do the picture.


3:16pm -- One Reel Wonders: My Old Town (1948)
John Nesbitt visits his home town, reminiscing about how much simpler life was during childhood.
Cast: John Nesbitt
BW-9 mins

The stone-carved sign shown at the start and end of the film shows the following town names and distances: "Shirley 3" and "Shirley Village 4". Otherwise, Nesbitt doesn't identify his old town by name.


3:30pm -- Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
When he inherits a fortune, a small-town poet has to deal with the corruption of city life.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft, Lionel Stander
Dir: Frank Capra
BW-116 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Director -- Frank Capra

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gary Cooper, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), Best Writing, Screenplay -- Robert Riskin, and Best Picture

This movie marks the entry of the verb doodle (in the sense of absent-minded scribbling) into the English language. The word was coined for the movie by screenwriter Robert Riskin.


5:30pm -- The Fountainhead (1949)
An idealistic architect battles corrupt business interests and his love for a married woman.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, Raymond Massey, Kent Smith
Dir: King Vidor
BW-113 mins, TV-PG

Ayn Rand was furious when she heard that Howard Roark's speech at the trial was being trimmed, chiefly because it was considered long, rambling and confusing, especially to Gary Cooper who didn't understand it. She got the studio to make sure that the speech was untouched and in its entirety in the finished product.


7:30pm -- MGM Parade Show #24 (1955)
Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney perform in a clip from "Strike Up the Band"; John Gilbert and Renee Adoree perform in a clip from "The Big Parade." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-25 mins, TV-G

The Big Parade (1925) was the highest grossing silent film of all time, making $22 million during its worldwide release


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: DAVID LEAN DOUBLE FEATURE


8:00pm -- The Sound Barrier (1952)
A veteran pilot marries into a family in the aviation business.
Cast: Ralph Richardson, Ann Todd, Nigel Patrick, John Justin
Dir: David Lean
BW-116 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Terence Rattigan

Despite this fictionalized story of breaking the sound barrier, the feat was accomplished by Air Force General (and West Virginian!) Chuck Yeager on October 14, 1947 at Edwards Air Force Base. Furthermore, Yeager explained that if a pilot were to break the sound barrier in the manner depicted in the film, the pilot would've been killed. The film was also heavily based on the endeavors of the De Havilland company in the UK. Geoffrey De Havilland Jr, son of company owner Geoffrey De Havilland, was killed in September 1946 whilst conducting high speed tests approaching the speed of sound over the Thames estuary.


10:00pm -- Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Illicit lovers fight to stay together during the turbulent years of the Russian Revolution.
Cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Julie Christie, Tom Courtenay, Alec Guinness
Dir: David Lean
C-200 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- John Box, Terence Marsh and Dario Simoni, Best Cinematography, Color -- Freddie Young, Best Costume Design, Color -- Phyllis Dalton, Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Maurice Jarre, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Bolt

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Tom Courtenay, Best Director -- David Lean, Best Film Editing -- Norman Savage, Best Sound -- A.W. Watkins (M-G-M British SSD) and Franklin Milton (M-G-M SSD), and Best Picture

The film was shot in Spain during the regime of Gen. Francisco Franco. While the scene with the crowd chanting the Marxist theme was being filmed (at 3:00 in the morning), police showed up at the set thinking that a real revolution was taking place and insisted on staying until the scene was finished. Apparently, people who lived near where filming was taking place had awoken to the sound of revolutionary singing and had mistakenly believed that Franco had been overthrown. As the extras sang the revolutionary Internationale for a protest scene, the secret police surveyed the crowd, making many of the extras pretend that they didn't know the words.


1:40am -- One Reel Wonders: The Lion Roars Again (1975)
An MGM promotional featurette advertising its resurgence into the movie industry in the mid-1970s. Showcased movies include "Logan's Run" (1976), "The Sunshine Boys" (1975), and "The Wind and the Lion" (1975).
C-17 mins

This advertising short features clips from Singin' in the Rain (1952), Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), Gigi (1958), Come Blow Your Horn (1963), "M*A*S*H" (1972), The Sting (1973), That's Entertainment! (1974), The Fortune (1975), Hearts of the West (1975), The Sunshine Boys (1975), Sweet Revenge (1976), That's Entertainment, Part II (1976), Logan's Run (1976), and The Wind and the Lion (1975).


2:00am -- Zaat (1972)
A mad scientist transforms himself into an aquatic killer.
Cast: Marshall Grauer, Wade Popwell, Paul Galloway.
Dir: Arnold Stevens
C-99 mins, TV-14

Director Don Barton ran an ad in a local paper to find someone for the role of the monster. The ad read: "Wanted: 6'5'' or taller male to play the role of monster in horror movie. Must be experienced swimmer, scuba diver. Acting Ability not required!" Barton said a total of ten people responded to it.


3:45am -- Tentacles (1977)
A giant octopus attacks a seaside resort.
Cast: John Huston, Shelley Winters, Bo Hopkins, Henry Fonda
Dir: Ovidio G. Assonitis
C-102 mins, TV-14

The film's distributor offered theatres a promotional poster that listed several points about octopuses - including the fact that they can reach sizes of over 38 feet from arm to arm.


5:30am -- Short Film: Duck and Cover (1951)
A monkey's prank on a turtle demonstrates how to survive a nuclear attack.
Cast: Leo M. Langlois, Ray J. Mauer, Robert Middleton.
Dir: Anthony Rizzo.
BW-9 mins, TV-PG

The classroom used in this film is racially integrated, though the film was released in January of 1952, three full years before the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. The credits thank the public schools of Astoria and New York, New York, where (theoretically at least) segregation was forbidden by law.

[Staph]

1. The Fountainhead (1949)

Considering the time it was made, it's hard to imagine a more unlikely candidate for a screen adaptation than Ayn Rand's best-selling novel, The Fountainhead, which espoused her philosophy of Objectivism, a belief in the integrity of the individual and a general contempt for the mediocre standards accepted by the masses. The hero of the novel is Howard Roark, an architect who designs buildings for his own aesthetic reasons. When his most ambitious project - a housing project design - is altered from his original plans, he refuses to accept this perversion of his work and proceeds to dynamite the building. The film version, based on Ayn Rand's screenplay of her novel, preserves her didactic dialogue while placing the main characters, essentially symbolic stand-ins for opposing ideologies, amid large, artificial sets designed by Edward Carrere who was heavily influenced by German Expressionism. Needless to say, audiences were puzzled, angered, or unintentionally amused by this one-of-a-kind oddity.

No one who saw the film, however, could deny the sexual chemistry between Gary Cooper as Roark and Patricia Neal, in her second film role, as Dominique Francon, the strong-willed daughter of a renowned architect. Off screen, Cooper and Neal embarked on a long, passionate affair during the making of this film, despite the fact that Cooper was 47 and married and Neal was only 22 years old. In the biography, Coop by Stuart M. Kaminsky (St. Martin's Press), director King Vidor said, "I remember the day we drove up to Fresno to do our location shooting for The Fountainhead. We met Patricia Neal there that night. It was the first time they had met. They went for each other right away. After dinner we never saw the two of them again except when we were shooting."

While there are various accounts of who originally initiated the film version of The Fountainhead, it's clear that neither Cooper nor Neal were the original choices for the lead roles. When the book first appeared in print, Barbara Stanwyck connected strongly with the central characters and strongly urged Warner Bros. mogul Jack Warner to purchase the rights. She even approached the author about appearing in the film version but Rand told Stanwyck that she had written the Dominique character for Greta Garbo. Nevertheless, Warner purchased the book, Mervyn LeRoy agreed to direct, and Humphrey Bogart was cast as Roark and Stanwyck as Dominique. Unfortunately for Stanwyck, the project, which was being prepared during the final days of World War II, was delayed due to a wartime restriction. The climactic scene where Roark dynamites his creation was forbidden on the grounds that demolishing scarce housing stock amounted to despoiling strategic materials. After the war was over and the restrictions lifted, Warner rethought the casting and direction, replacing his original choices with Cooper and Neal and King Vidor (as director). Learning she had lost the role to a younger actress, Stanwyck fired off an angry telegram to Warner expressing her bitter disappointment and terminated her contract with the studio.

Stanwyck wasn't the only one unhappy with the casting. Vidor recalled, "I didn't think that Cooper was well cast but he was cast before I was. I thought it should have been someone like Bogart, a more arrogant type of man. But after I forgot all that and saw it several years later I accepted Cooper doing it." Even Coop himself was uneasy about his performance in the film and would often say in interviews about The Fountainhead, "Boy, did I louse that one up."

Casting aside, there were other compromises made on the way to production. Vidor contacted Frank Lloyd Wright about executing Roark's designs for the film and the famous architect agreed for his standard 10 percent commission based on the entire budget of the film. Jack Warner balked when he heard this news and forbid Vidor from further negotiations with Wright, fearing a potential lawsuit if they used Wright's designs. Another potential problem involved the Breen Office, which objected to the frantic coupling of Cooper and Neal on-screen and had the writers change the erotic one-night-stand between Roark and Dominique to a rape scene.

The Fountainhead, despite its shortcomings as a film adaptation of the book, remains a fascinating curiosity in the history of American film. Its righteous view of capitalism and morality place it firmly in the pantheon of right-wing conservative cinema while the on and off-screen relationship between Cooper and Neal reminds one that life imitates art so often in the film industry.

Director: King Vidor
Producer: Henry Blanke
Screenplay: Ayn Rand
Cinematography: Robert Burks
Editor: David Weisbart
Art Direction: Edward Carrere
Music: Max Steiner
Cast: Gary Cooper (Howard Roark), Patricia Neal (Dominique), Raymond Massey (Gail Wynand), Kent Smith (Peter Keating), Robert Douglas (Ellsworth Toohey).
BW-113m. Closed Captioning. Descriptive Video.

by Jeff Stafford

[Matilda]

2. Bogart and Stanwyck?

I can see it; I think it would have worked brilliantly.

I'm always in two minds about the film - on the one hand, I think it was realised
very well on screen, and it's a powerful film to watch. On the other hand, there's
Ayn Rand's philosophy - she was nothing if not relentless, and that feeling came
over on screen just as it did in the book.