TCM Schedule for Monday, October 29 -- BIOPICS

[Longhorn]

3:30am Kwaidan (1964)
Four stories mix love and the supernatural in exotic settings.
Cast: Rentaro Mikuni, Michiyo Aratama, Misako Watanabe. Dir: Masaki Kobayashi. C-161 mins, TV-14
3:48am Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Master - Will Shakespeare (1936)
BW-11 mins

6:30am As You Like It (1936)
Film version of Shakespeare's comedy of a young woman who disguises herself as a man to win the attention of the one she loves.
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Elisabeth Bergner, Henry Ainley. Dir: Paul Czinner. BW-96 mins, TV-G

8:15am 49th Parallel (1941)
The crew of a stranded German U-boat tries to evade capture in Canada during World War II.
Cast: Leslie Howard, Raymond Massey, Laurence Olivier. Dir: Michael Powell. BW-122 mins, TV-14
10:18am Short Film: From The Vaults: Leslie Howard (2000)
BW-3 mins

10:30am Madeleine (1950)
A beautiful young woman stands trial for poisoning her lover.
Cast: Ann Todd, Norman Wooland, Leslie Banks. Dir: David Lean. BW-115 mins, TV-PG

12:30pm Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
A British military officer enlists the Arabs for desert warfare in World War I.
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness. Dir: David Lean. C-227 mins, TV-14

4:15pm Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Illicit lovers fight to stay together during the turbulent years of the Russian Revolution.
Cast: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Rod Steiger. Dir: David Lean. C-200 mins, TV-PG

7:36pm Short Film: From The Vaults: Moscow In Madrid (1965)
C-4 mins

What's On Tonight: TCM SPOTLIGHT: BIOPICS

8:00pm Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Spirited musical biography of the song-and-dance man who kept America humming through two world wars.
Cast: James Cagney, Walter Huston, Joan Leslie. Dir: Michael Curtiz. BW-126 mins, TV-G

10:15pm Bound For Glory (1976)
True story of folk singer Woody Guthrie, who rose to the top while fighting for the rights of migrant farm workers.
Cast: David Carradine, Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon. Dir: Hal Ashby. C-148 mins, TV-14

12:48am Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Academy Award Portfolio (1928 - 1961) (1965)
BW-1 mins

12:51am Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Visiting St. Louis (1944)
This "Traveltalk" explores about the history, people, and culture of St. Louis, MO.
Cast: James A. Fitzpatrick C-9 mins

1:00am St. Louis Blues (1958)
Musical biopic about the life of legendary bluesman W.C. Handy.
Cast: Nat King Cole, Pearl Bailey, Cab Calloway. Dir: Allen Reisner. BW-94 mins, TV-PG

2:45am Your Cheatin' Heart (1964)
Legendary country-western singer Hank Williams uses alcohol to deal with the pressures of fame.
Cast: George Hamilton, Susan Oliver, Red Buttons. Dir: Gene Nelson. BW-99 mins, TV-14

[Longhorn]

1. Bound For Glory (1976)

The idea for a film about Woody Guthrie, America's great folk singer, poet, and author, had been kicking around Hollywood for years. In fact, cinematographer Haskell Wexler had been a first choice to direct the film version of Guthrie's 1943 autobiography, Bound For Glory. He had known Guthrie personally from their merchant seamen days together. While researching the project, he even met with Woody's widow, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, and others who had known the singer well. But eventually Wexler bowed out of the project because of an unsatisfactory script. It wasn't until Hal Ashby agreed to direct it that the project began to take shape. Wexler, who knew Ashby when the latter was an editor on In the Heat of the Night (1967), was hired back on the production of Bound For Glory (1976) as cinematographer. The next biggest challenge was the casting.

Woody Guthrie was a short, wiry man and the script focused on a period of his life (1936-1940) when he was in his early twenties. You would think those specific details would eliminate some of the contenders for the lead role but the list of possible actors approached or considered for the part was a mixture of the inspired and the improbable. Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, and Robert DeNiro were all seriously considered. So were a lot of singers like Arlo Guthrie, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Art Garfunkel, Glen Campbell, James Taylor, and Tim Buckley who was rumored to have an inside track on the role but died of a drug overdose two months prior to production. Bob Dylan, one of Woody's proteges, was sent a script but refused the part, offering to direct the film instead. Yet, no one could have foreseen that David Carradine, best known for the TV series, Kung Fu (1972-75), would eventually win the role after a second audition. Ashby later said of Carradine, "He had the right rural look and the musicianship. And he had a 'to...hell...with...you...attitude'. I wanted that attitude, but it did cause me some problems."

Due to the noncommercial nature of the film, Bound For Glory was a costly and risky venture for United Artists. Not only was it a directorial challenge (some scenes required the careful manipulation of 900 extras and 125 crew members), but the script also presented a portrait of Guthrie that wasn't romanticized. He was an unpredictable personality, often callously abandoning his wife and family for the road where he would champion the rights of the downtrodden masses. He also had a Messianic streak and could be seduced by the trappings of fame. It is this approach to Guthrie's character that makes Bound For Glory an untraditional biography in the Hollywood sense. It is also one of the most beautifully photographed films of the seventies and deservedly won the Oscar for Best Cinematography in 1976. It also received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Score, and Best Costume Design.

Director: Hal Ashby
Producer: Robert F. Blumofe, Harold Leventhal, Jeffrey M. Sneller
Screenplay: Robert Getchell, based on the book by Woody Guthrie
Cinematography: Haskell Wexler
Editor: Pembroke J. Herring, Robert C. Jones
Music: Leonard Rosenman
Cast: David Carradine (Woody Guthrie), Ronny Cox (Ozark Bule), Melinda Dillon (Mary/Memphis Sue), Gail Strickland (Pauline), John Lehne (Locke), Randy Quaid (Luther Johnson).
C-148m. Letterboxed.

by Jeff Stafford