TCM Schedule for Friday, August 6 -- Summer Under The Stars -- Ingrid Bergman

[Staph]

Today's star is the lovely Ingrid Bergman, and we've got the chance to see both her first Hollywood film and last one, as well as the first of her Oscar-winning performances in Gaslight (1945). An evening of Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939) with Leslie Howard, Casablance (1942) with Humphrey Bogart, and Notorious (1946) with Cary Grant -- I think I'll be home with the popcorn Friday night! Enjoy!


6:00am -- Saratoga Trunk (1945)
A woman with a past returns to 19th-century New Orleans for revenge.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Flora Robson, Jerry Austin
Dir: Sam Wood
BW-135 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Flora Robson

Due to wartime rationing shortages, most of the vegetables in the New Orleans market scene were fake.


8:15am -- Stromboli (1950)
A refugee marries a Sicilian fisherman but can't cope with the harshness of her new life.
Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Mario Vitale, Renzo Cesana, Mario Sponzo
Dir: Roberto Rossellini
BW-107 mins, TV-14

During production of this film, Ingrid Bergman entered into an extra-marital affair with Roberto Rossellini and became pregnant. The resulting scandal in America effectively blacklisted her from the North American movie market and she was even condemned by politicians and religious figures. She was finally forgiven and welcomed back to America upon the success of Anastasia (1956), but her Hollywood career was temporarily ended by this movie.


10:00am -- The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964)
A classic car changes the lives of three sets of owners.
Cast: Rex Harrison, Jeanne Moreau, Edmund Purdom, Michael Hordern
Dir: Anthony Asquith
C-123 mins, TV-PG

The Rolls-Royce used in the film was a pale blue 1930 Phantom II Sedanca de Ville, which M-G-M technicians covered with 20 coats of yellow paint; a few coats of black were added to the top of the hood, the roof, and the wings.


12:15pm -- A Walk in the Spring Rain (1970)
When her husband moves them to a small farming town, a woman falls in love with a married neighbor.
Cast: Anthony Quinn, Ingrid Bergman, Fritz Weaver, Katherine Crawford
Dir: Guy Green
C-98 mins, TV-PG

Bruce Lee was fight choreographer for this film.


2:00pm -- Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1941)
A scientist's investigations into the nature of good and evil turn him into a murderous monster.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner, Donald Crisp
Dir: Victor Fleming
BW-113 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, Best Film Editing -- Harold F. Kress, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Franz Waxman

The concept of the two female loves of Jekyll/Hyde's life, aristocratic Beatrix Emery and barmaid Ivy Petersen, actually originated in the original stage version of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", as adapted by T.R. Sullivan for the great 19th century stage actor Richard Mansfield. The Stevenson novella mentions no female love interest of any sort for either Jekyll or Hyde. The studio had originally cast Ingrid Bergman in the Beatrix Emery role and Lana Turner in the Ivy Peterson role. Bergman felt the role of Ivy was more challenging and persuaded the producers to switch roles with Turner.


4:00pm -- 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

David O. Selznick wanted much of the film to be based on his experiences in psychotherapy. He even brought his psychotherapist in on the set to be a technical advisor. Once when she disputed a point of fact with Alfred Hitchcock on how therapy works, Hitchcock said, "My dear, it's only a movie."


6:00pm -- Europa '51 (1952)
When a well-off woman loses her son, her recovery confronts her with the problems of the less fortunate.
Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Alexander Knox, Ettore Giannini, Giulietta Masina
Dir: Roberto Rossellini
BW-110 mins, TV-14

Also known as The Greatest Love.


What's On Tonight: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: INGRID BERGMAN


8:00pm -- 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".


9:30pm -- Casablanca (1942)
An American saloon owner in North Africa is drawn into World War II when his lost love turns up.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Dir: Michael Curtiz
BW-103 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Director -- Michael Curtiz, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Humphrey Bogart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Claude Rains, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Arthur Edeson, Best Film Editing -- Owen Marks, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

In the 1980s, this film's script was sent to readers at a number of major studios and production companies under its original title, "Everybody Comes to Rick's". Some readers recognized the script but most did not. Many complained that the script was "not good enough" to make a decent movie. Others gave such complaints as "too dated", "too much dialog" and "not enough sex".


11:30pm -- Notorious (1946)
A U.S. agent recruits a German expatriate to infiltrate a Nazi spy ring in Brazil.
Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
BW-101 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Claude Rains, and Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Ben Hecht

After filming had ended, Cary Grant kept the famous UNICA key. A few years later he gave the key to his great friend and co-star Ingrid Bergman, saying that the key had given him luck and hoped it would do the same for her. Decades later at a tribute to their director Alfred Hitchcock, Bergman went off-script and presented the key to him, to his surprise and delight.


1:30am -- Autumn Sonata (1978)
A concert pianist faces the daughters she's neglected for years.
Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann, Lena Nyman, Halvar Bjork
Dir: Ingmar Bergman
C-93 mins, TV-14

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ingrid Bergman, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Ingmar Bergman

In both her first American film ( Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939)) and her last feature film, ( Autumn Sonata (1978)), Ingrid Bergman played a concert pianist.


3:30am -- Gaslight (1944)
A newlywed fears she's going mad when strange things start happening at the family mansion.
Cast: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Dame May Whitty
Dir: George Cukor
BW-114 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ingrid Bergman, and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, William Ferrari, Edwin B. Willis and Paul Huldschinsky

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Charles Boyer, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Angela Lansbury, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John L. Balderston, Walter Reisch and John Van Druten, and Best Picture

The aria that Ingrid Bergman is singing when we see her in the first scene of her in the present day is from the Gaetano Donizetti opera "Lucia Di Lammermoor". The opera is famous for its so-called "mad scene", in which the eponymous Lucia goes insane.

[Staph]

1. Ingrid Bergman Profile

Stardates: Born August 29, 1915, in Stockolm, Sweden; died August 29, 1982, in London, England, UK.
Star Sign: Leo
Star Qualities: Scandinavian radiance, soulful sincerity, shy yet sensual smile.
Star Definition: “When she walks on screen and says ‘Hello,’ people ask, ‘Who wrote that wonderful line of dialogue?’ ” – Leo McCarey
Galaxy of Characters: Ilsa Lund in Casablanca (1945), Dr. Constance Petersen in Spellbound (1945), Sister Mary Benedict in The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945), Alicia Huberman in Notorious (1946).

The extraordinary Ingrid Bergman, once said that she had no complaints about her life because "I have the two things one needs to be happy - good health and a poor memory." Her glowing health is something which first attracted moviegoers to her in 1939 when, 24 years old and fresh from Sweden, she was a welcome breath of fresh air in her first American-made movie Intermezzo: A Love Story. In an era when most movie queens were Max Factored to the max, she wore virtually no makeup and looked amazing. As for the bad memory, she had reason to appreciate that when ten years later she became the central figure in one of the juiciest Hollywood scandals of the decade. She had fallen in love with celebrated Italian director Roberto Rossellini, had his child while she was still married to another man, and immediately became persona non grata in the movie world. Joan of Arc had gone astray and the hostility against her went so far as having a senator from Colorado named Edwin C. Johnson condemn her on the floor of Congress as "a powerful influence for evil."

All of that faded away six years later when she made a triumphant comeback, and rates nothing more now than a footnote in Hollywood folklore. No longer do people try to paint a Scarlet A on so-called sinners. The only thing that really matters is the amazing legacy of films Ingrid Bergman left us. They include some of the film world's best, 12 of which we'll be showing this month including everybody's favorite movie about a man, a woman and a watering hole in Africa, called Casablanca, and Hitchcock's dazzler about a government man and female spy amid some uranium hidden in a wine cellar, Notorious. We'll also be screening one of the films she made for Rossellini, 1950's Stromboli (where the seeds of le scandal were sewed).

I first had the pleasure of meeting Ingrid Bergman in Beverly Hills in 1974, thanks to an early book I'd written about the Academy Awards®. She'd liked what I'd written about her and called to thank me, at which time she also said, "Please have lunch with me sometime. There are so many things I don't understand about the Academy Awards®. I'm too busy to ask you about them now but I promise I'll call you the next time I'm here, if you don't mind."

It finally happened when she came from her home in London to attend an AFI salute to Alfred Hitchcock. She called, a date was made and I showed up, as prearranged, to meet her at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. I found her in an extremely agitated mood. The AFI had just notified her she was to be, not just a guest at the Hitchcock event, but the emcee of the entire festivities, something also being taped for later exposure on television. It was a job she felt ill-prepared to assume, especially without some extensive rehearsal. "They tricked me!" she fumed. "They're dishonest. Why didn't they tell me until after I got here?" She said, "I should get right back on the plane and leave but, of course, I can't. Hitch is old and sick. I can't do that to Hitch." The more she talked, the angrier she became - it was obviously no time for a friendly chat about gold statuettes. At this point, I was clearly in the way, another unneeded obstacle, so I made a swift exit.

It turned out that was the wisest thing I could have done. Why? It seemed to put me in such good graces with the lady that not only did she later call to apologize, but ever after whenever she was in Hollywood for any reason, she always took time to invite me to a lunch, a dinner or a backstage visit. I can't say we became close friends but we did have many memorable (for me, anyway) times together and the warmth and the kindness she showed in the eight years I knew her - coupled with her hearty laugh which was always forthcoming - are forever emblazoned in my memory bank. It was a particularly stimulating era when the Bergmans, the Grants and the Garlands not only reigned in Hollywood but, bless 'em, made themselves accessible even to minor journalists and fans.

Ingrid's been gone now for nearly 28 years (she died on her 67th birthday, August. 29, 1982) but she definitely lives on - especially here on TCM where we heartily invite you to share the pleasure of her company on Friday, August 6th.

by Robert Osborne

* Films in Bold Type air on 8/6