TCM Schedule for Thursday, September 15 -- TCM Spotlight -- 50 Years of Merchant Ivory

[Staph]

It's a day to celebrate the birth of Robert Benchley, born on this day in 1889, in Worcester, Mass. From the mini-biography by David S. Smith on IMDB:

"Although by his own account Benchley was not quite a writer and not quite an actor, he managed to become one of the best-known humorists and comedians of his time. As a Harvard undergraduate, Benchley gave his first comic performance, impersonating a befuddled after-dinner speaker. The act made him a campus celebrity -- and remained in Benchley's repertoire for the rest of his life. (Landing the position of editor of the Harvard Lampoon was the other highlight of his college career.) As a post-graduate journalist, between frequent firings and other disruptions, Benchley made his mark as a theater critic and as writer of whimsical musings on the vagaries of modern life. He served briefly as managing editor of the magazine Vanity Fair, where his lieutenants were Dorothy Parker and Robert E. Sherwood, but he quit to protest Parker's firing. (Benchley, Parker and Sherwood were among the regulars at the so-called Algonquin Round Table, a social circle of New York wits that also included Harpo Marx and George S. Kaufman). Benchley was among the first contributors to The New Yorker, where his work influenced other writers -- such as E.B. White and James Thurber."

And in primetime, we get to the films that epitomize the title Merchant-Ivory film -- The Remains of the Day (1993), Howards End (1992), A Room With a View (1985), and Maurice (1987). Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Piccadilly Jim (1936)
A cartoonist pokes fun at his widowed father's future in-laws.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Robert Montgomery, Frank Morgan, Madge Evans.
95 min, TV-PG

Madge Evans's name appears on a theater marquee in a montage sequence within the movie. She was starring with Cyril Ritchard in a West End play whose name was partially obscured in the film.


7:45 AM -- Three Girls About Town (1941)
Sisters working at a hotel try to hide a dead body before the next convention arrives.
Dir: Leigh Jason
Cast: Joan Blondell, Robert Benchley, John Howard.
73 min, TV-G

At one point, Joan Blondell tries to get rid of a pair of singing drunks by telling them Dick Powell is in a room down the hall. Blondell and Powell were then married in real life and had made a dozen pictures together.


9:15 AM -- You'll Never Get Rich (1941)
A Broadway dancing team splits up when the male dancer is drafted.
Dir: Sidney Lanfield
Cast: Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth, Robert Benchley.
89 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Cole Porter for the song "Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Morris Stoloff

In reference to the Cole Porter song "Night and Day" sung by Fred Astaire in The Gay Divorcee, Porter ended "The Wedding Cake Walk" with the phrase "night and day." He asked permission from RKO to quote the line.


10:45 AM -- The Sky's The Limit (1943)
A pilot on leave falls for a pretty news photographer.
Dir: Edward H. Griffith
Cast: Fred Astaire, Joan Leslie, Robert Benchley.
89 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Harold Arlen (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "My Shining Hour", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Leigh Harline

In one scene Joan Manion (played by Joan Leslie) is asked by Fred Atwell - a.k.a. Fred Burton (played by Fred Astaire) if her boss, Mr. Harriman (played by Robert Benchley), has ever proposed marriage to her: She replies that he has attempted to numerous times, but keeps getting side-tracked by discussions of such things as the "sex life of polyps". It turns out that in 1928 in one of Robert Benchley's earliest films he played a "Doctor Benchley" in the film "The Sex Life of Polyps" where he lectures Women's Clubs on this interesting creature that can change its sex.


12:30 PM -- Janie (1944)
A small-town girl defies her father by falling for a soldier.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Robert Hutton, Edward Arnold, Ann Harding.
102 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Owen Marks

Followed by Janie Gets Married (1946), airing on TCM this afternoon at 5:30 PM.


2:15 PM -- Pan-Americana (1945)
A New York magazine sends its editors to South America to find beautiful girls.
Dir: John H. Auer
Cast: Phillip Terry, Audrey Long, Robert Benchley.
84 min, TV-G

Soundtrack includes "Rumba Matumba", "Guadalajara", "Babalu", "Negra Leono", "La morena de mi copla", "Stars in Your Eyes", and "No taboleiro de bahiana".


3:45 PM -- Road to Utopia (1946)
Two song-and-dance men on the run masquerade as killers during the Alaskan gold rush.
Dir: Hal Walker
Cast: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour.
90 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Norman Panama and Melvin Frank

Writers Panama and Frank were having trouble getting the script approved by the three main stars, all of whom were prestigious in their own right and wanted the most screen presence. When these group script negotiations broke down, Panama and Frank held individual conferences with each of the stars, explaining how the script would highlight that star (the one being met with at the time) more than the others. This approach worked, and the script was finally approved for filming.


5:30 PM -- Janie Gets Married (1946)
A war bride helps her husband adjust to civilian life.
Dir: Vincent Sherman
Cast: Joan Leslie, Robert Hutton, Edward Arnold.
89 min, TV-G

Robert Benchley's last film.


7:15 PM -- Now Playing October (2011)
15 min, TV-PG, CC


7:50 PM -- One Reel Wonder: Touring Northern England (1950)
In this "Traveltalk," we learn about the history, culture, and people of Northern England.
C-9 min

Filming locations include Hawkshead, Lake Windermere, Morecambe Bay, and York.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: 50 YEARS OF MERCHANT IVORY



8:00 PM -- The Remains of the Day (1993)
A proper British butler sacrifices happiness to remain faithful to his position.
Dir: James Ivory
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant.
C-134 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Anthony Hopkins, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Emma Thompson, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Luciana Arrighi and Ian Whittaker, Best Costume Design -- Jenny Beavan and John Bright, Best Director -- James Ivory, Best Music, Original Score -- Richard Robbins, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published -- Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and Best Picture

Anthony Hopkins, as a guest on the TV show Inside the Actors Studio, said that he got tips on how to play a butler from a real-life butler, Cyril Dickman who served for 50 years at Buckingham Palace. The butler said there was nothing to being a butler, really - when you're in the room it should be even more empty.


10:30 PM -- Howards End (1992)
A noblewoman's surprising bequest puts three families from different social levels on a collision course.
Dir: James Ivory
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter.
C-142 min

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Emma Thompson, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Luciana Arrighi and Ian Whittaker, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published -- Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was not present at the awards ceremony. Co-presenters Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman accepted the award on her behalf.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Vanessa Redgrave, Best Cinematography -- Tony Pierce-Roberts, Best Costume Design -- Jenny Beavan and John Bright, Best Director -- James Ivory, Best Music, Original Score -- Richard Robbins, and Best Picture

After playing Emma Thompson sister in this film, Helena Bonham Carter went on to play the love interest of Thompson's husband, Kenneth Branagh, in Frankenstein. It is rumored that Carter was one of the main reasons for the subsequent Branagh/Thompson divorce. The next woman to play Thompson's sister on film (Kate Winslet in Sense and Sensibility) also followed that role by playing Branagh's love interest (in Hamlet).


1:00 AM -- A Room With a View (1985)
An Englishwoman visiting Florence is torn between her straitlaced fiance and a young Bohemian.
Dir: James Ivory
Cast: Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter, Denholm Elliott.
C-117 min, TV-MA, CC

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Gianni Quaranta, Brian Ackland-Snow, Brian Savegar and Elio Altramura, Best Costume Design -- Jenny Beavan and John Bright, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Denholm Elliott, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Maggie Smith, Best Cinematography -- Tony Pierce-Roberts, Best Director -- James Ivory, and Best Picture

My Beautiful Laundrette and A Room with a View both opened in New York on the same day, March 7, 1986. Both movies featured Daniel Day-Lewis in prominent and very different roles: in A Room with a View, he played a repressed, snobbish Edwardian upperclassman, while in Laundrette, he played a lower-class gay ex-skinhead in love with an ambitious Pakistani businessman in Thatcher's London. When American critics saw Day-Lewis, who was then virtually unknown in the US, in two such different roles on the same day, many (including Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times and Vincent Canby of The New York Times) raved about the talent it must have taken him to play such vastly different characters.


3:00 AM -- Maurice (1987)
A young Englishman struggles to build a life as a gay man.
Dir: James Ivory
Cast: James Wilby, Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves.
C-140 min, TV-MA

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design -- Jenny Beavan and John Bright

In the DVD extras, Hugh Grant says that because he and James Wilby already knew each other from appearing in Privileged together, they were able to practice their scenes together at Grant's house the night before Wilby's audition. Grant says that he remembers it "being a surprise to my banker brother when he came home and found me kissing James Wilby in the front room."


5:30 AM -- Now Playing October (2011)
15 min, TV-PG, CC

[CBHagman]

1. Too much!

The Remains of the Day, Howards End, A Room with a View, and Maurice on one night?! Set your recording devices. Definitely an embarrassment of riches tonight.