TCM Schedule for Thursday, August 19 -- Summer Under The Stars -- Walter Pidgeon

[Staph]

Today's star is Walter Pidgeon, and we get to see both of his Oscar-nominated roles, in Mrs. Miniver (1942) and Madame Curie (1943). Enjoy!


6:00am -- Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930)
An 18th-century English flirt wins the heart of a notorious highwayman.
Cast: Claudia Dell, Ernest Torrence, Walter Pidgeon, Perry Askam
Dir: Alfred E. Green
C-63 mins, TV-G

A nitrate print of this film survives in the UCLA Film and Television Archives, but it is not listed for Preservation.


7:15am -- The Hot Heiress (1931)
When a society woman falls for a riveter, she tries to pass him off as an architect.
Cast: Ben Lyon, Ona Munson, Walter Pidgeon, Tom Dugan
Dir: Clarence Badger
BW-79 mins, TV-G

This movie was such a box-office flop that Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart declined to work on two additional films for First National Studio (although their songs were about the only thing the critics liked about this movie).


8:45am -- The Shopworn Angel (1938)
A showgirl gives up life in the fast lane for a young soldier on his way to fight World War I.
Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Walter Pidgeon, Hattie McDaniel
Dir: H. C. Potter
BW-85 mins, TV-G

Margaret Sullavan's singing was dubbed by Mary Martin (Broadway and movie star best remembered as Peter Pan and as Nellie Forbush in South Pacific).


10:15am -- Flight Command (1940)
A cocky cadet tries to prove himself during flight training.
Cast: Robert Taylor, Ruth Hussey, Walter Pidgeon, Paul Kelly
Dir: Frank Borzage
BW-116 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic) and Douglas Shearer (sound)

The squadron is based at Naval Air Station North Island, which still exists today in San Diego, CA.


12:15pm -- Design For Scandal (1941)
A reporter is assigned to dig up dirt on a lady judge.
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Walter Pidgeon, Edward Arnold, Lee Bowman
Dir: Norman Taurog
BW-85 mins, TV-PG

Based on a story by Lionel Houser, who also wrote Christmas in Connecticut, filmed in 1943, 1956, and 1992.


1:45pm -- Julia Misbehaves (1948)
A showgirl returns to her stuffy estranged husband when their daughter gets engaged.
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lawford, Elizabeth Taylor
Dir: Jack Conway
BW-99 mins, TV-PG

Peter Lawford gave Elizabeth Taylor her first on-screen kiss in this movie.


3:30pm -- Mrs. Parkington (1944)
A lady's maid marries a man whose prospects push her into high society.
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Edward Arnold, Agnes Moorehead
Dir: Tay Garnett
BW-124 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Agnes Moorehead

Fourth of eight movies that paired Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. The others were Blossoms in the Dust (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Madame Curie (1943), Julia Misbehaves (1948), That Forsyte Woman (1949), The Miniver Story (1950), and Scandal at Scourie (1953).


6:00pm -- Executive Suite (1954)
When a business magnate dies, his board of directors fights over who should run the company.
Cast: William Holden, June Allyson, Barbara Stanwyck, Fredric March
Dir: Robert Wise
BW-105 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Nina Foch, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Edward C. Carfagno, Edwin B. Willis and Emile Kuri, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- George J. Folsey, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Helen Rose

This was one of the few Hollywood films of the era not to have a musical score. The opening credits are shown to the accompaniment of traffic noises and the tolling of a bell.


What's On Tonight: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: WALTER PIDGEON


8:00pm -- Man Hunt (1941)
An Englishman goes behind enemy lines to assassinate Hitler.
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett, George Sanders, John Carradine
Dir: Fritz Lang
BW-102 mins, TV-PG

When Thorndike (Pidgeon) is captured, the George Sanders character inspects his belongings including his rifle, which bears the maker's name of "Hammond and Hammond, Bond Street". There was no such gunsmith in the UK and it seems likely they name is borrowed from a very famous gunsmith called Holland and Holland of Bruton Street, which is situated nearby.


10:00pm -- Madame Curie (1943)
The famed female scientist fights to keep her marriage together while conducting early experiments with radioactivity.
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Henry Travers, Albert Basserman
Dir: Albert Lewin
BW-124 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Walter Pidgeon, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Herbert Stothart, Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD), and Best Picture

In her final years at MGM, Joan Crawford was handed weak scripts in the hopes that she'd break her contract. Two films she hungered to appear in were Random Harvest (1942) and Madame Curie (1943). Both films went to bright new star Greer Garson instead, and Crawford left the studio soon after.


12:15am -- Mrs. Miniver (1942)
A British family struggles to survive the first days of World War II.
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, Dame May Whitty
Dir: William Wyler
BW-134 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Teresa Wright, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Writing, Screenplay -- George Froeschel, James Hilton, Claudine West and Arthur Wimperis, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Walter Pidgeon, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Henry Travers, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Dame May Whitty, Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic), Warren Newcombe (photographic) and Douglas Shearer (sound), Best Film Editing -- Harold F. Kress, and Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD)

The vicar's speech near the end was reportedly re-written by William Wyler and Henry Wilcoxon the night before it was shot. It was translated into various languages and air-dropped in leaflets over German-occupied territory, was broadcast over the Voice of America, and reprinted in Time and Look magazines at Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's request. This speech has come to be known as The Wilcoxon Speech, in tribute to actor Henry Wilcoxon's stirring delivery of it.


2:45am -- Forbidden Planet (1956)
A group of space troopers investigates the destruction of a colony on a remote planet.
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens
Dir: Fred McLeod Wilcox
C-99 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie, Irving G. Ries and Wesley C. Miller

This movie was filmed on the same sound-stage on which the movie The Wizard of Oz (1939) had been filmed seventeen years earlier; the set of Altaira's garden is a reuse of the Munchkin Village set from The Wizard of Oz.


4:30am -- Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951)
The British sleuth comes out of retirement to help catch a band of thieves armed with military weapons.
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Margaret Leighton, Robert Beatty, David Tomlinson
Dir: Victor Saville
BW-80 mins, TV-PG

One of the 25 movies featuring the detective Bulldog Drummond. Others who played Drummond include Carlyle Blackwell, Jack Buchanan, Ronald Colman, Kenneth MacKenna, Ralph Richardson, Atholl Fleming, Ray Milland, John Lodge, John Howard, Ron Randell, Tom Conway, Robert Beatty, and Richard Johnson.

[Staph]

1. Walter Pidgeon Profile

Handsome, dignified performer, most typically in intelligent, gentlemanly roles, in lead and supporting film parts from the late 1920s. Possessing an attractive singing voice which was almost never heard once he achieved stardom, Pidgeon performed quite creditably in a number of operettas of the early sound years, including such worthy entries in the cycle like Sweet Kitty Bellairs, "Viennese Nights" (both 1930) and "Kiss Me Again" (1931). He later played smart city slickers, typically second leads who palled around with the hero or lost the woman to a bigger male star; entries here included "Big Brown Eyes" (1936), "Saratoga" (1937) and "Too Hot to Handle" (1938).

Pidgeon continued playing ever larger roles in films of increasing importance as the 30s progressed and finally made it to full-fledged star status in middle age at the beginning of the 40s. He is best known for his roles as the dashing would-be assassin of Hitler in Fritz Lang's spy adventure, Man Hunt (1941); Maureen O'Hara's suitor in John Ford's "How Green Was My Valley" (1941); and for his eight co-starring efforts opposite the genteel and dignified but spirited Greer Garson. The pair were a leading box-office attraction at MGM through the 40s, best known for the English WWII melodrama Mrs. Miniver (1942) and the biographical Madame Curie (1943).

Pidgeon continued to play leading roles through the 50s and kept busy in his later years in prominent supporting parts, often with star billing. He was especially memorable as the Prospero figure in Forbidden Planet (1956), the engaging sci-fi feature revamp of Shakespeare's "The Tempest", and was a standout among the remarkable cast peopling Otto Preminger's political drama, "Advise and Consent" (1962). Pidgeon also appeared as Florenz Ziegfeld in "Funny Girl" (1968) and continued in films with decreasing frequency through the 70s.

Pidgeon's TV credits date back to the mid-50s when he hosted the "M-G-M Parade" (ABC, 1955-56), a variety series that offered a behind-the-scenes look at the film studio. He was featured in several high-profile TV specials from the late 50s through the mid-60s, notably playing the King in the 1965 "Cinderella" starring Lesley Ann Warren. Pidgeon began appearing in TV-movies in the late 60s, generally in character roles, and continued to do so fairly regularly through the mid-70s.

Biographical data provided by TCMdb

* Films in Bold Type air on 8/19