TCM Schedule for Thursday, April 24: Star of the Month -- Hedy Lamarr

[Staph]

Happy Birthday, Shirley MacLaine! (And Barbra Streisand, too!) And tonight is the last night for Star of the Month Hedy Lamarr. Enjoy!



4:00am -- Brass Target (1978)
Gold thieves plot to assassinate General Patton in the days following World War II.
Cast: John Cassavetes, George Kennedy, Sophia Loren, Robert Vaughn
Dir: John Hough
C-111 mins, TV-MA

In real life, George Kennedy, who plays General George S. Patton, served under him during World War II.


6:00am -- The Trouble With Harry (1955)
A corpse creates a world of trouble for several passersby who each believe they may have caused the death.
Cast: Edmund Gwenn, Shirley MacLaine, Mildred Natwick, John Forsythe
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
C-99 mins, TV-PG

Director Cameo: Alfred Hitchcock shows up about 20 minutes in, walking past the limousine of a man looking at the paintings.


7:45am -- The Sheepman (1958)
A tough sheep farmer battles the local cattle baron for land and a beautiful woman.
Cast: Glenn Ford, Shirley MacLaine, Leslie Nielsen, Mickey Shaughnessy
Dir: George Marshall
C-86 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- William Bowers (screenplay) and James Edward Grant (screenplay/story)


9:15am -- The Matchmaker (1958)
A matchmaker falls for the man she is supposed to help find a wife.
Cast: Shirley MacLaine, Anthony Perkins
Dir: Joseph Anthony
BW-101 mins, TV-G

Based on the Thornton Wilder play that was later turned into the Broadway and theatrical musical Hello, Dolly. It's a shame that they didn't follow this showing with the movie Hello, Dolly, in celebration of Barbra's birthday!


11:00am -- Some Came Running (1958)
A veteran returns home to deal with family secrets and small-town scandals.
Cast: Martha Hyer, Shirley MacLaine, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
C-136 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Arthur Kennedy, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Shirley MacLaine (her first nomination), Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Martha Hyer, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White or Color -- Walter Plunkett, Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "To Love and Be Loved".

It was during the making of this film that Shirley MacLaine found herself welcomed into what would later be called the "Rat Pack" fraternity that included Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, her co-stars in this film. Shirley MacLaine says the group known as the "Rat Pack" was actually called "The Clan" by the members while "Rat Pack" was a term given in the 1950s to Humphrey Bogart and his pals.


1:30pm -- Two Loves (1961)
A conservative teacher struggles with her values while teaching natives in New Zealand.
Cast: Laurence Harvey, Jack Hawkins, Shirley MacLaine
Dir: Charles Walters
C-96 mins, TV-PG

Notice that no one in the film speaks with a New Zealand accent, and all of the Maori are Latino or Japanese.


3:15pm -- Irma La Douce (1963)
A Parisian policeman gives up everything for the love of a free-living prostitute.
Cast: Herschel Bernardi, Lou Jacobi, Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine
Dir: Billy Wilder
BW-143 mins, TV-14

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- André Previn

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Shirley MacLaine, and Best Cinematography, Color -- Joseph LaShelle

The pimps' union is called the "Mec's' (tough guy's) Paris Protective Association" (MPPA), which also stands for "Motion Picture Producers Association", an organization which had given director Billy Wilder some trouble.


5:45pm -- The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964)
A classic car changes the lives of three sets of owners.
Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Rex Harrison, Shirley MacLaine, Jeanne Moreau
Dir: Anthony Asquith
C-123 mins, TV-PG

The Rolls-Royce used in the film was a pale blue 1930 Phantom II Sedanca de Ville, which M-G-M technicians covered with 20 coats of yellow paint; a few coats of black were added to the top of the hood, the roof, and the wings.


What's On Tonight: STAR OF THE MONTH: HEDY LAMARR


8:00pm -- Samson and Delilah (1949)
Epic re-telling of the story of the Biblical strongman laid low by love.
Cast: Hedy Lamarr, Angela Lansbury, Victor Mature, George Sanders
Dir: Cecil B. DeMille
C-128 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Hans Dreier, Walter H. Tyler, Sam Comer and Ray Moyer, and for Best Costume Design, Color -- Edith Head, Dorothy Jeakins, Eloise Jensson, Gile Steele and Gwen Wakeling

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- George Barnes, Best Effects, Special Effects, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Victor Young

At the premiere, Cecil B. DeMille asked Groucho Marx what he thought of the film. Groucho replied, "Well, there's just one problem, C.B. No picture can hold my interest where the leading man's tits are bigger than the leading lady's." DeMille was not amused, but Mature supposedly was.


10:15pm -- My Favorite Spy (1951)
A comedian poses as an international spy to recover mysterious microfilm.
Cast: Bob Hope, Hedy Lamarr, Francis L. Sullivan
Dir: Norman Z. McLeod
BW-93 mins, TV-G

Watch for Frank Faylen (who played the father of Dobie Gillis) in a small role.


12:00am -- A Lady Without Passport (1950)
A secret service agent falls in love with an illegal immigrant.
Cast: James Craig, John Hodiak, Hedy Lamarr, George Macready
Dir: Joseph Lewis
BW-74 mins, TV-PG

Playing the role of Jack is Steven Hill, better known as D.A. Adam Schiff of Law and Order: Original Recipe.


1:30am -- Her Highness And The Bellboy (1945)
A hotel bellboy is the unlikely choice to escort a visiting princess, over the protests of his invalid girlfriend.
Cast: June Allyson, Hedy Lamarr, Robert Walker
Dir: Richard Thorpe
BW-111 mins, TV-G

One of the early films of the wonderful Agnes Moorehead.


3:30am -- The Strange Woman (1946)
An unscrupulous 19th-century woman will stop at nothing to control the men in her life.
Cast: Louis Hayward, Hedy Lamarr, George Sanders
Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer
BW-99 mins, TV-PG

Based on a novel by Ben Ames Williams, who also wrote the novel that inspired Oscar-winning film Leave Her to Heaven (1945).


5:30am -- MGM Parade Show #4 (1955)
George Murphy tours Lake Metro, where "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Show Boat" were shot, and introduces a clip from "Good News." These clips feature June Allyson and Peter Lawford.
BW-26 mins, TV-G

Good News (1947) was a college comedy that ended up with an Oscar nomination for Best Music, Original Song -- Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin and Roger Edens for the song "Pass That Peace Pipe".

[Staph]

1. The Trouble of Harry (1955)

There's no arguing that Alfred Hitchcock was responsible for several of the greatest motion pictures of all time. But when asked to name his personal favorite, he often mentioned The Trouble with Harry (1955), one of his rare critical and box office bombs. The story of a group of small-town Vermonters who have no qualms whatsoever about repeatedly digging up and hiding a corpse, Harry was fairly outrageous when it was released back in 1955. Nowadays, though, its subtle, absurdist humor goes down smoothly, and it features a charming debut performance by a young pixie named Shirley MacLaine. This is hardly Hitchcock's most impressive film, but it's good, quirky fun, and MacLaine is adorable throughout.

"With Harry," Hitchcock said, "I took melodrama out of the pitch-black night and brought it out into the sunshine. It's as if I had set up a murder alongside a rustling brook and spilled a drop of blood into the clear water. These contrasts establish a counterpart; they elevate the commonplace in life to a higher level."

The film opens with a very young boy (Jerry Mathers, before he gained fame as Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver on the TV series, Leave It to Beaver) stumbling upon a dead body while playing in the golden New England countryside. Wholly unperturbed by the discovery, he alerts his mother, Jennifer Rogers (MacLaine), who recognizes the body as being her ex-husband, Harry Worp. Jennifer recently struck Harry across the head with a bottle, and she's afraid she may have killed him.

Ah, but Jennifer isn't the only possible killer. There's also a retired sea captain (Edmund Gwenn) who thinks he may have shot Harry while hunting rabbits, and a doddering old woman (Mildred Natwick) who believes she may have done him in. This incites a round-robin of people burying Harry, then digging him up again, as they attempt to dispose of the body. A local painter (John Forsythe) is enlisted to help the "killers," and, as you might expect, he finds himself falling in love with MacLaine. Gwenn and Natwick also develop a romance, but, frankly, who cares when there's a body in the bathtub?

MacLaine was as surprised as anybody that she was suddenly starring in an Alfred Hitchcock movie...or any movie at all, for that matter. Originally, Hitchcock wanted Grace Kelly for the role, but she was unavailable. Then he briefly considered Brigitte Auber. But he decided he'd rather not wrestle her French accent in such an American picture. The cast and crew was headed to New England without a lead actress when producer Hal Wallis mentioned MacLaine, a 21 year-old chorus girl who had triumphantly stepped into the lead role for one night in Broadway's The Pajama Game. Having nothing to lose, Hitchcock agreed to interview MacLaine, and was thoroughly charmed by her. He was also intrigued by the prospect of directing a performer who had no film or television experience. None. MacLaine was floored when he told her, "All this simply means is that I shall have fewer bad knots to untie. You're hired." Almost 50 years later, MacLaine is still in the game.

Hitchcock intended to film all of The Trouble with Harry on location, in the towns of Stowe, Morrisville, Craftsbury, and Sugarbush. Unfortunately, the weather didn't always cooperate, and the shoot became a headache. Many scenes where staged on sets that were built at a local gymnasium. Even that was tough, however, as rainfall regularly echoed off the building's tin roof, ruining takes. Later, the woods had to be partially reconstructed on a Hollywood lot, so that Hitchcock could get a few more shots of Harry lying in the leaves. To make it even more difficult, the actor who played the corpse was in New York City, so a double was cast and his head was hidden by a bush to maintain continuity. As a finishing touch, one character's reference to Daniel Boone was changed to Davy Crockett in post-production, to take full advantage of the Crockett-mania that was then sweeping the nation. All in the name of art.

This was Hitchcock's first film with Bernard Herrmann, who would go on to write legendary scores for such pictures as North by Northwest (1959), Vertigo (1958), and Psycho (1960). Herrmann's work on The Trouble with Harry is no less impressive than the above. But, this time around, he served Hitchcock particularly well by inserting Funeral March of the Marionette as temporary music over Harry's opening credit sequence. It later became Hitch's trademark when it was used as the theme song to TV's Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

By the way, if you're looking for Hitchcock's cameo, this one is a little hard to catch. He can be seen through the window of the general store, walking past a Rolls Royce.

Produced and Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay: John Michael Hayes
Editing: Alma Macrorie
Cinematography: Robert Burks
Art Direction: John B. Goodman and Hal Pereira
Music: Bernard Herrmann
Costume Design: Edith Head
Set Design: Sam Comer, Emile Kuri
Makeup: Wally Westmore
Principal Cast: Edmund Gwenn (Capt. Albert Wiles), John Forsythe (Sam Marlowe), Shirley MacLaine (Jennifer Rogers), Mildred Natwick (Miss Ivy Gravely), Jerry Mathers (Arnie Rogers), Royal Dano (Calvin Wiggs), Parker Fennelly (Millionaire), Barry Macollum (Tramp), Dwight Marfield (Dr. Greenbow).
C-100m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.

by Paul Tatara