TCM Schedule for Thursday, March 13: Star of the Month -- Acting Dynasties

[Staph]

The Acting Dynasties for this evening include the Redgraves (Sir Michael and his daughters Lynn and Vanessa, but not son Corin, granddaughters Natasha and Joely Richardson and Jemma Redgrave or grandson Carlo Nero) and the Douglases (Kirk and son Michael, but not actor son Eric or producer sons Joel and Peter, grandson Cameron or daughter-in-law Catherine Zeta Jones or even first wife Diana Dill Douglas). Enjoy!



4:15am -- Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)
A crooked press agent stoops to new depths to help an egotistical columnist break up his sister's romance.
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Martin Milner.
Dir: Alexander Mackendrick.
BW-96 mins, TV-PG

The movie's line "I'd hate to take a bite outta you. You're a cookie full of arsenic" was voted as the #99 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.


6:00am -- Flight (1929)
A Marine flyer and his flight school mentor fall for the same beautiful nurse.
Cast: Jack Holt, Lila Lee, Ralph Graves.
Dir: Frank Capra.
BW-112 mins, TV-PG

Director Frank Capra was upset with Jack Holt's refusal to stand up in the plane that was flying, until he learned that Holt had been playing with the ripcord. The parachute had opened, and had Holt stood up he would have been dragged out of the plane. A red ribbon was tied to Holt's ripcord for the remainder of filming.


7:54am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Men Of The Sky (1942)
Cast: Tod Andrews, Eleanor Parker, Don DeFore.
Dir: B. Reeves Eason.
C-20 mins

Writer/narrator Col. Owen Crump was married to Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford's niece Lucile Fairbanks.


8:15am -- Flight From Glory (1937)
Tensions flare among flyers carrying supplies through the Andes.
Cast: Chester Morris, Whitney Bourne, Van Heflin.
Dir: Lew Landers.
BW-67 mins, TV-PG

Van Heflin: "Louis B. Mayer once looked at me and said, 'You will never get the girl at the end'. So I worked on my acting."


9:30am -- The Real Glory (1939)
A U.S. military doctor stationed in the Philippines helps the natives fight off invaders.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Andrea Leeds, David Niven.
Dir: Henry Hathaway.
BW-97 mins, TV-G

The film was re-issued in 1942 with the title "A Yank in the Philippines," but the Office of War Information (OWI) requested that it be withdrawn; the Philippine Moros had become allies of the United States in World War II.


11:15am -- Legend of the Lost (1957)
Three adventurers search for a treasure in a forbidden desert temple.
Cast: John Wayne, Sophia Loren, Rossano Brazzi.
Dir: Henry Hathaway.
C-108 mins, TV-G

Sophia Loren gets attacked by tarantulas!


1:15pm -- How the West Was Won (1962)
Three generations of pioneers take part in the forging of the American West.
Cast: James Stewart, Henry Fonda, John Wayne.
Dir: John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall.
C-165 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Film Editing -- Harold F. Kress, Best Sound -- Franklin Milton (M-G-M SSD), and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- James R. Webb

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- George W. Davis, William Ferrari, Addison Hehr, Henry Grace, Don Greenwood Jr. and Jack Mills, Best Cinematography, Color -- William H. Daniels, Milton R. Krasner, Charles Lang and Joseph LaShelle, Best Costume Design, Color -- Walter Plunkett, Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Alfred Newman and Ken Darby, and Best Picture

When I was a kid on summer vacation, we drove on some of the back roads in Custer State Park, near the Black Hills of South Dakota. After driving extremely slowly through a buffalo herd (it was 1967 -- the car didn't even have seatbelts in the back seat!), we came upon a frontier fort on a hillside. A false front fort -- logs on the facade and two-by-fours on the back side. At the beginning of the fourth section of How the West Was won, The Railroad, a Pony Express rider gallops up to this same fort, changes horses and continues. And somewhere in my parents' vacation slides are pictures of our family at the same fort.


4:00pm -- Of Human Bondage (1964)
A medical student risks his future when he falls for a low-class waitress.
Cast: Kim Novak, Laurence Harvey, Siobhan McKenna.
Dir: Ken Hughes.
C-100 mins, TV-PG

Made in 1934 with Bette Davis (Oscar nominated) and Leslie Howard, and in 1946 with Eleanor Parker and Paul Henreid.


5:45pm -- True Grit (1969)
A young girl recruits an aging U.S. marshal to help avenge her father's death.
Cast: John Wayne, Kim Darby, Glen Campbell.
Dir: Henry Hathaway.
C-128 mins, TV-14

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- John Wayne

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Elmer Bernstein (music) and Don Black (lyrics) for the song "True Grit"

Contrary to popular belief, John Wayne did not jump over the fence himself at the end of the movie. In fact, according to biographer Garry Wills in his book "John Wayne's America", Wayne was not healthy enough to do such stunts. It should be remembered that Wayne had an entire lung removed four years prior to making the film and actually had trouble walking more than thirty feet without breathing heavily.


What's On Tonight: STAR OF THE MONTH: ACTING DYNASTIES


8:00pm -- The Lady Vanishes (1938)
A young woman on vacation triggers an international incident when she tries to track an elderly friend who has disappeared.
Cast: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Dame May Whitty.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock.
BW-96 mins, TV-G

The fictitious country where most of the story takes place is named in the movie: in her first scene, Miss Froy says, "Bandrika is one of Europe's few undiscovered corners." The first two stations in the movie are identified by briefly visible signs, and the third in dialog: they are Zolnay, Dravka, and Morsken.


9:40pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Victoria And Vancouver (1936)
This "Traveltalk" teaches us the history, customs, and landscapes of Victoria and Vancouver.
Narrator: James Fitzpatrick.
C-9 mins

James A. Fitzpatrick was a movie producer, director, writer, and narrator, best remembered for making documentaries. MGM distributed the series under the umbrella titles "Fitzpatrick Traveltalks" and "The Voice of the Globe". As for Paramount, it was "Vistavision Visits". Many of the movies were in technicolor.


10:00pm -- Girl With Green Eyes (1964)
A young innocent gets involved with an older, married man.
Cast: Peter Finch, Rita Tushingham, Lynn Redgrave.
Dir: Desmond Davis.
BW-92 mins, TV-PG

Lynn Redgrave's second film. She had a small role in Tom Jones (1963) as Susan, the maid at the Upton Inn.


11:47pm -- Short Film: From The Vaults: King Of The Duplicators (1968)
This short shows how William Tuttle, chief of MGM's makeup department for over 30 years, makes life masks of performers, to allow makeup artists to test various types of makeup and appliances (e.g., beards, false noses) on an actor's face without the person actually being there.
Cast: William Tuttle, Wayne Thomas, Charlie Schram.
C-12 mins

Tuttle was awarded an honorary Oscar for his outstanding make-up achievement for Seven Faces of Dr. Lao (1964).


12:00am -- Blow-Up (1966)
A photographer discovers a murder in the background of a candid photo.
Cast: David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles.
Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni.
C-111 mins, TV-14

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Michelangelo Antonioni, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Michelangelo Antonioni (screenplay/story), Tonino Guerra (screenplay) and Edward Bond (screenplay)

Antonioni's first English language film and reportedly the first British feature film to show full frontal female nudity.


2:00am -- Posse (1975)
A U.S. marshal tries to use the hunt for a criminal to launch his political career.
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Bruce Dern, Bo Hopkins.
Dir: Kirk Douglas.
C-93 mins, TV-MA

This movie was the first role for James Stacy following his 1973 motorcycle accident involving a drunk driver, which resulted in the loss of Stacy's left arm and left leg. Kirk Douglas created the role especially for Stacy.


3:45am -- Coma (1978)
A lady doctor investigates a series of strange deaths and disappearing bodies at her hospital.
Cast: Genevieve Bujold, Michael Douglas, Elizabeth Ashley.
Dir: Michael Crichton.
C-113 mins, TV-MA

The building used for the exteriors of the evil medical facility is actually the former Xerox Lexington, Massachusetts sales office, located about 10 minutes from downtown Boston at the intersection of routes 2 and 128.

[Staph]

1. The Lady Vanishes (1938)

With The Lady Vanishes (1938), Alfred Hitchcock scored his biggest triumph in Great Britain shortly before leaving to pursue a career in the U.S, where he would eventually become the world's most recognizable film director. In fact, the success of The Lady Vanishes helped him negotiate the best possible deal in Hollywood. It also gave film scholars a healthy helping of those traits that would distinguish his films: deceptive appearances, sly humor, a tangled international plot and what he called "The McGuffin," a nonsensical device used to motivate the action and suspense.

Ironically, although it was one of his biggest hits, The Lady Vanishes was the only major Hitchcock film that he didn't initiate himself. Two soon-to-be-successful British writers, Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, had pitched a novel by Ethel Lina White (who also wrote the book on which The Spiral Staircase, 1946 would be based) to producer Edward Black in 1937. The story, about a young girl on vacation in Europe who befriends an elderly woman then has to prove the lady's existence after she disappears, seemed a natural for the screen. Black gave them the go-ahead, assigned the film to American director Roy William Neill, then sent a crew to Yugoslavia for background shots. One of the crewmembers had a minor accident there, and during the investigation the local police came across the script. One look at the opening pages, which juxtaposed shots of the Yugoslavian army with waddling geese, and the authorities deported the entire crew, which led Black to cancel the production.

A year later, Hitchcock was trying to find a film to end his contract with Black so he could sign a deal with Charles Laughton's production company and pursue offers from America following the success of The 39 Steps (1935). For once, he couldn't come up with a property. Knowing Hitchcock was desperate to get on with his career, Black dusted off the script to The Lady Vanishes and the director immediately agreed to the production. He suggested some changes to Launder and Gilliat that tightened the film's opening and made the finale more exciting, but basically shot the film as written, although he insisted on a screenplay credit for his wife, Alma Reville.

Hitchcock was particularly lucky in his casting, awarding the leads to two actors who would soon become major stars in England. After considering Lili Palmer for the female lead, he settled on a young actress, Margaret Lockwood, who had long dreamed of playing one of White's heroines. The male lead went to Michael Redgrave, a popular young stage actor who had played a bit part in Hitch's earlier thriller, Secret Agent (1936). The stage star was reluctant to commit, however. He had just completed three plays in repertory with John Gielgud and wanted to continue concentrating on his stage work. It was Gielgud who convinced him that he'd learn a lot about filmmaking from Hitchcock but the main lesson he learned was how to handle himself on the set. Hitchcock put most of his work into preparing shots and sequences, editing the film in the camera by shooting just what would end up on the screen. All he wanted from the actors was cooperation. Sensing that Redgrave had a swelled head about his stage work, on the first day of shooting Hitchcock told him, "You know, don't you, that Robert Donat; the star of The 39 Steps; wanted to play this role in the worst way." When he realized that Redgrave didn't care, Hitch took a liking to him, using his casual attitude as a part of the character. As a result, the film made Redgrave, in his first leading film role, an international star.

For the title role, Hitchcock cast Dame May Whitty, a stage veteran who had recently scored a hit in Hollywood as the old lady murdered by Robert Montgomery in Night Must Fall (1937). Although a wonderful actress in certain roles, Whitty was somewhat set in her ways after almost three decades of stardom. To unsettle her, Hitch interrupted her first scene, shouting, "Stop! That's terrible. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" From then on, she did exactly as he wanted and turned in a surprisingly hard-edged performance as the title character who turns out to be a spy.

As with Whitty, Hitchcock made several of the other actors play against type. Hollywood leading man Paul Lukas was cast as the villain, a seemingly compassionate doctor who turns out to be a cold-blooded espionage agent. Glamorous character actress Catherine Lacy played a nun with a twist -- after a surprising shot of her wearing high heels under her habit, she turns out to be one of the enemy spies. But his biggest success, at least with English audiences, was casting dramatic actors Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne as two comical cricket fans -- typical English tourists more interested in catching the latest scores than helping the leading lady find her missing friend. The two were such a hit in their roles that they would repeat them in other films, including the classic horror tale Dead of Night (1945).

The Lady Vanishes was one of those rare films that hit pay dirt on its initial release and has never lost its luster as a classic. When it opened in England in October 1938 it quickly became the most successful British film to that time. Two months later, it was the hottest ticket in New York, where it was named Best Picture of 1938 by The New York Times and brought Hitchcock the New York Film Critics Award for Best Director. It also helped him win a lucrative contract with independent producer David O. Selznick, for whom he would work through most of the '40s.

Producer: Edward Black
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay: Alma Reville, Sidney Gilliat & Frank Launder
Based on the novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White
Cinematography: Jack Cox
Art Direction: Alex Vetchinsky, Maurice Carter, Albert Jullion
Music: Louis Levy
Principal Cast: Margaret Lockwood (Iris Henderson), Michael Redgrave (Gilbert Redman), Paul Lukas (Dr. Hartz), Dame May Whitty (Miss Froy), Cecil Parker (Eric Todhunter), Naunton Wayne (Caldicott), Basil Radford (Charters), Catherine Lacy (The Nun), Googie Withers (Blanche).
BW-96m.

by Frank Miller

[Longhorn]

2. I thought I'd seen every Hitchcock

but, again, I was wrong! Thanks for the information! I'm recording this and looking forward to watching it! :hi: