TCM Schedule for Thursday, June 17 -- TCM Prime Time Feature -- Ralph Bellamy

[Staph]

Happy birthday, Ralph Bellamy, born today in 1904. We have six of his films tonight and early tomorrow, including his Oscar-nominated role in The Awful Truth (1937). Enjoy!


6:00am -- Camille (1936)
In this classic 19th-century romance, a kept woman runs off with a young admirer in search of love and happiness.
Cast: Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allen
Dir: George Cukor
BW-109 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo wore bedroom slippers under all her fancy dresses so she could be comfortable, as well as more naturalistic in her acting.


8:00am -- Shall We Dance (1937)
A ballet dancer and a showgirl fake a marriage for publicity purposes, then fall in love.
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore
Dir: Mark Sandrich
BW-109 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- George Gershwin (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) for the song "They Can't Take That Away from Me"

The scene where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance on roller skates took about 150 takes, according to one of the VHS versions of the film.


10:00am -- Somewhere I'll Find You (1942)
Brothers feud over a girl they both fall for while covering World War II.
Cast: Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Robert Sterling, Patricia Dane
Dir: Wesley Ruggles
BW-108 mins, TV-G

Filming was halted on January 16, 1942 due to the death of Clark Gable's wife, Carole Lombard, and resumed on February 23.


12:00pm -- The Valley Of Decision (1945)
An Irish housemaid's romance with the boss's son is complicated by labor disputes in the Pittsburgh mills.
Cast: Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, Donald Crisp, Lionel Barrymore
Dir: Tay Garnett
BW-119 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Herbert Stothart

Feature film debut of Dean Stockwell.


2:00pm -- Without Reservations (1946)
A woman writer falls for a war hero who's a perfect match for the hero of her latest novel.
Cast: Claudette Colbert, John Wayne, Don DeFore, Anne Triola
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
BW-101 mins, TV-PG

The opening shot shows "Arrowhead" Pictures motion picture studio. This is the actual RKO Pictures Studio Building at 780 Gower Street in Hollywood, retouched with "Arrowhead" replacing the RKO signs on the building. It remains a historic structure on the corner to this day.


4:00pm -- The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954)
A writer recalls his turbulent marriage to an expatriate heiress.
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Van Johnson, Walter Pidgeon, Donna Reed
Dir: Richard Brooks
C-116 mins, TV-PG

The film is loosely based upon F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Babylon Revisited".


6:00pm -- Rhapsody (1954)
A wealthy socialite is torn between the classical violinist who excites her and the pianist who needs her.
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Vittorio Gassman, John Ericson, Louis Calhern
Dir: Charles Vidor
C-116 mins, TV-PG

Filmed, at least in part, in Switzerland.


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: RALPH BELLAMY


8:00pm -- The Awful Truth (1937)
A divorced couple keeps getting mixed up in each other's love lives.
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy, Alexander D'Arcy
Dir: Leo McCarey
BW-91 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Director -- Leo McCarey

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ralph Bellamy, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Film Editing -- Al Clark, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Viña Delmar, and Best Picture

It was in this film that Irene Dunne first utters the name 'Jerry The Nipper' implying that Grant's character was often fond of a stiff drink or two. The following year in Bringing Up Baby (1938), in the scene when they're all in the 'lock up' 'Katherine Hepburn' says "Haven't you heard of Jerry The Nipper?" To which Grant replies that "She's making it up out of Motion Pictures she's seen".


10:00pm -- Carefree (1938)
A psychiatrist falls in love with the woman he's supposed to be nudging into marriage with someone else.
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy, Luella Gear
Dir: Mark Sandrich
BW-83 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Van Nest Polglase, Best Music, Original Song -- Irving Berlin for the song "Change Partners and Dance with Me", and Best Music, Scoring -- Victor Baravalle

Fred Astaire refused to sing the Irving Berlin song "The Yam" because he thought it was silly, so Ginger Rogers got a rare chance to sing it alone. Later Fred joined in the dance after Ginger was finished singing.


11:30pm -- Picture Snatcher (1933)
An ex-con brings his crooked ways to a job as a news photographer.
Cast: James Cagney, Ralph Bellamy, Patricia Ellis, Alice White
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
BW-77 mins, TV-PG

The scene of Danny photographing an execution is based an actual incident in which Chicago-based crime photographer Tom Howard (who was the grandfather of 'George Wendt') surreptitiously snapped the famous photo of convicted murderess Ruth Snyder's January 12, 1928 execution in the electric chair at Sing Sing for the New York Daily News.


1:00am -- Sunrise At Campobello (1960)
After a bout with polio, future president Franklin Roosevelt fights to save his political career.
Cast: Ralph Bellamy, Greer Garson, Hume Cronyn, Jean Hagen
Dir: Vincent J. Donehue
C-144 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Edward Carrere and George James Hopkins, Best Costume Design, Color -- Marjorie Best, and Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD)

Ralph Bellamy (FDR) and Alan Bunce (Gov. Al Smith) are the only two actors from the original Broadway stage production to repeat their roles in the film.


3:30am -- Before Midnight (1934)
A police inspector investigates the murder of a man who prophesied his own death.
Cast: Ralph Bellamy, June Collyer, Claude Gillingwater, Bradley Page
Dir: Lambert Hillyer
BW-62 mins, TV-PG

Known as a champion of actors' rights, Bellamy was one of the founders of the Screen Actors Guild, and also served four terms as President of Actors' Equity from 1952 to 1964. He took office during some of the darkest days of McCarthyism, but positioned Actors' Equity and thus, the Broadway theater to the left of Hollywood by resisting blacklisting. Many of those blacklisted in Hollywood found homes in the theater, as under Bellamy, Actors Equity established standards to protect members against charges of Communist Party membership or exhibiting left-wing sympathies.

[Staph]

1. Ralph Bellamy Profile

Famous during the early part of his career for playing the second lead -- the man who didn't get the girl, Ralph Bellamy developed into an outstanding character actor, reaching the pinnacle of his film career in Sunrise at Campobello (1960) by recreating his Tony-winning performance from the Broadway stage as Franklin D. Roosevelt. His skill at playing the "other man" was so sharp that Bellamy won an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for The Awful Truth (1937), in which Irene Dunne uses him to arouse the jealousy of ex-husband Cary Grant. As popular and well-liked off the screen as on, Bellamy enjoyed a 62-year career and won a special Oscar® in 1987 for "his unique artistry and his distinguished service to the profession of acting."

Bellamy (1904-1991) was born in Chicago and began his stage career while fresh from high school by acting in stock companies and repertory theaters. While still in his twenties he owned his own theatrical troupe and had made his debut on Broadway (Town Boy, 1929) and in movies (The Secret Six, 1931). He turned in excellent supporting performances in such films as Picture Snatcher (1933), in which he plays the boozy editor of tabloid photographer James Cagney. Also in the early '30s Bellamy starred as "Inspector Trent" in a series of low-budget mysteries beginning with Before Midnight (1933).

While perfecting his character as the slightly dull boyfriend who couldn't compete with the dashing leading man -- Fred Astaire in Carefree (1938), Cary Grant again in His Girl Friday (1940) and Dennis Morgan in Affectionately Yours (1941) -- Bellamy played detective Ellery Queen in a series of 1940s films. By the mid-'40s he had grown tired of "Ralph Bellamy roles" and returned to Broadway in such plays as State of the Union (1945) and Detective Story (1949). He also worked extensively in television, appearing in numerous anthologies as well as his own long-running series, Man Against Crime (1949-54).

Highlights from his post-Campobello career included the roles of an oil baron whose wife is kidnapped in the Western The Professionals (1966) and the evil doctor who menaces Mia Farrow in the thriller Rosemary's Baby (1968). Returning to television, he won Emmy nominations for playing Adlai Stevenson in The Missiles of October (1974) and for reprising his role as FDR in the mini-series The Winds of War (1983).

Bellamy made a big splash alongside Don Ameche in Trading Places (1983), in which the two veterans play wealthy, conniving brothers in a prince-and-pauper story involving Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy. Bellamy continued to be active in television and had his final movie role in Pretty Woman (1990).

Married four times and the father of two children, Bellamy was a founder of the Screen Actors Guild and served as President of Actors' Equity from 1952-1964.

by Roger Fristoe


Films in bold play on Thursday, June 17

[Matilda]

2. Ralph Bellamy would have been President of Actors Equity

during the later years of the HUAC witch hunts.

Unlike SAG (under the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Robert Montgomery), Actors Equity didn't cave in to pressure to mount a blacklist of those cited by HUAC.

In 1951, Actors Equity, at the request of its members, took what was then a brave step and passed a resolution condemning the blacklist. The following year, an anti-blacklist clause was added to all Equity contracts.

I'm glad that Ralph Bellamy was one of the good guys – I was terribly disappointed when I found out about Robert Montgomery.