TCM Schedule for Friday, August 12 -- Summer Under The Stars -- Claudette Colbert

[Staph]

Today's star is the beautiful and beautifully talented Claudette Colbert, born in France in 1903 and raised in the United States from age three. If you've never seen them, don't miss It Happened One Night and Since You Went Away. You'll laugh; you'll cry; you'll love Claudette Colbert! Enjoy!


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6:00 AM -- Boom Town (1940)
Friends become rivals when they strike-it-rich in oil.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert.
119 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Harold Rosson, and Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic) and Douglas Shearer (sound)

This was the last of three films (after San Francisco and Test Pilot) that Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy did together. After this film, Tracy insisted on a clause in his MGM contract that he would receive equal billing with Gable in all future films. While the two remained lifelong friends, they were never again paired together in a movie because MGM wasn't sure how to handle the equal billing.


8:00 AM -- The Secret Heart (1946)
A recent widow tries to help her emotionally disturbed stepdaughter.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Walter Pidgeon, June Allyson.
97 min, TV-PG, CC

After filming The Secret Heart together, Claudette Colbert and co-star June Allyson became such great friends in real life Colbert became godmother to Allyson's daughter Pamela.


9:49 AM -- Fancy Answers (1941)
In this Pete Smith Speciality, the audience is asked a series of multiple-choice questions on various subjects.
Dir: Basil Wrangell
Cast: Byron Foulger, Ava Gardner, George Magrill
10 min

Ava Gardner's first film.


10:00 AM -- The Secret Fury (1950)
A mysterious figure tries to stop a woman's marriage by driving her mad.
Dir: Mel Ferrer
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Robert Ryan, Jane Cowl.
86 min, TV-PG, CC

Vivian Vance's film debut.


11:30 AM -- Three Came Home (1950)
A woman fights to survive as a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Patric Knowles, Florence Desmond.
105 min, TV-14, CC

This film was considered by this film's lead actress Claudette Colbert's as one of her best films by her. After filming was complete, Colbert said to this film's director Jean Negulesco: "You know I'm not given to exaggeration, so I hope you believe me when I say that working with you has been the most stimulating and happiest experience of my entire career."


1:30 PM -- Parrish (1961)
When his mother marries into the tobacco business, a young man struggles to find himself.
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: Troy Donahue, Claudette Colbert, Karl Malden.
C-138 min, TV-PG

Joshua Logan originally wanted Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh to play the parents, and he tested Warren Beatty and Jane Fonda, among others, for the younger characters.


3:55 PM -- The Public Pays (1936)
A protection racket preying on milk distribution is broken up.
Dir: Errol Taggart
Cast: Richard Alexander, Barbara Bedford, Harry C. Bradley
18 min

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel

The set for the crooks' office is the same one Clark Gable's character uses in Wife vs. Secretary.


4:15 PM -- Without Reservations (1946)
A woman writer falls for a war hero who's a perfect match for the hero of her latest novel.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Claudette Colbert, John Wayne, Don DeFore.
101 min, TV-PG , CC

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.


6:04 PM -- Boss Didn't Say Good Morning (1937)
An office worker thinks that he is fired because the boss didn't say good morning.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Narrator: Carey wilson
10 min

One of the MGM Miniatures series.


6:15 PM -- She Married Her Boss (1935)
A secretary who handles the boss' business perfectly marries him and tackles his home life.
Dir: Gregory La Cava
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Melvyn Douglas, Michael Bartlett.
88 min, TV-G

Prints now carry the modernized Columbia logo and 1938 re-release opening and closing credits.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: CLAUDETTE COLBERT



8:00 PM -- Midnight (1939)
An unemployed showgirl poses as Hungarian royalty to infiltrate Parisian society.
Dir: Mitchell Leisen
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore.
94 min, TV-G, CC

When Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett turned in their script, the studio liked it, but felt it needed some work. The writers they hired to rewrite the script were: Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett. The studio sent them their own script to rewrite without knowing it. Wilder and Brackett simply retyped their original script and the studio loved the "rewrites" so much, they produced it with no further "changes".


9:47 PM -- Forgotten Victory (1939)
A USDA scientist brings a drought-resistant wheat back to the US from Soviet Russia.
Dir: Fred Zinneman
Narrator: John Nesbitt
7 min

One of more that 70 Passing Parade shorts produced by MGM.


10:00 PM -- It's A Wonderful World (1939)
A runaway poetess helps a fugitive prove himself innocent of murder charges.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: Claudette Colbert, James Stewart, Guy Kibbee.
86 min, TV-G, CC

Revealing mistakes: All of the newspapers shown in the film share many of the same articles, with the same headlines and typefaces, despite being in different newspapers and spread across several weeks.


11:30 PM -- It Happened One Night (1934)
A newspaperman tracks a runaway heiress on a madcap cross-country tour.
Dir: Frank Capra
Cast: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly.
105 min, TV-PG, CC

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Clark Gable (In 1996, Steven Spielberg anonymously purchased Clark Gable's Oscar to protect it from further commercial exploitation, gave it back to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, commenting that he could think of "no better sanctuary for Gable's only Oscar than the Motion Picture Academy".), Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Claudette Colbert (Claudette Colbert was so convinced that she would lose the Oscar to write-in nominee Bette Davis that she didn't attended the ceremony orignally. She was summoned from a train station to pick up her Academy Award.), Best Director -- Frank Capra, Best Writing, Adaptation -- Robert Riskin, and Best Picture

Friz Freleng's unpublished memoirs mention that this was one of his favorite films, and that it contains at least three things upon which the character "Bugs Bunny" was based: - The character Oscar Shapely's (Roscoe Karns) personality - The manner in which Peter Warne (Clark Gable) was eating carrots and talking quickly at the same time - An imaginary character mentioned once to frighten Oscar Shapely named "Bugs Dooley." Other mentions of "Looney Tunes" characters from the film include Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly) and King Westley (Jameson Thomas) being the inspirations for Yosemite Sam and Pepé LePew, respectively.


1:30 AM -- Since You Went Away (1944)
A mother and wife struggle to cope while her husband is off serving in World War II.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten.
177 min, TV-G, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Monty Woolley, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Claudette Colbert, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Jennifer Jones, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Mark-Lee Kirk and Victor A. Gangelin, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Stanley Cortez and Lee Garmes, Best Effects, Special Effects -- Jack Cosgrove (photographic) and Arthur Johns (sound), Best Film Editing -- Hal C. Kern and James E. Newcom, and Best Picture

The opening sequence was re-shot. Originally it featured a male dog (whose genitalia photographed far too prominently). The shot was redone using a female dog. David O. Selznick's personal print, however, contains the original "naughty" version.


4:30 AM -- Outpost in Malaya (1952)
A plantation owner's marriage is tested by a bandit attack.
Dir: Ken Annakin
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Jack Hawkins, Anthony Steel.
90 min, TV-PG

Originally titled The Planter's Wife. Filmed in Malaya.

[CBHagman]

1. Before you watch "Since You Went Away," be sure to have...

...a supply of tissues on hand.