TCM Schedule for Thursday, September 3 -- TCM Birthday Tribute to Alan Ladd

[Staph]

Today we are celebrating the birthday of Alan Ladd during the afternoon. Early this morning we have a quartet of films starring the Lane Sisters. Lola, Rosemary and Priscilla started on Broadway, and were sucessful film actresses in the 1930s and 1940. Their sister Leota made only one film and Martha never entered show business. (By the way, Superman's girlfriend Lois Lane was named after Lola Lane and her "newspaper girl" character Torchy Blaine.) Then in the evening we've got the Magnificent Seven series of films. Enjoy!


4:30am -- Four Daughters (1938)
A small-town family's peaceful life is shattered when one daughter falls for a rebellious musician.
Cast: Claude Rains, Jeffrey Lynn, John Garfield, Frank McHugh
Dir: Michael Curtiz
BW-90 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- John Garfield, Best Director -- Michael Curtiz, Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Writing, Screenplay -- Lenore J. Coffee and Julius J. Epstein, and Best Picture

Remade as a musical, Young at Heart (1954) with Frank Sinatra and Doris Day.


6:15am -- Daughters Courageous (1939)
A father returns to the family he left years earlier and tries to solve their problems.
Cast: John Garfield, Claude Rains, Jeffrey Lynn, Fay Bainter
Dir: Michael Curtiz
BW-107 mins, TV-G

Because John Garfield was playing a Mexican general in Juarez (1939) when the Epstein brothers were writing the screenplay to this movie, they made his character Hispanic as a joke.


8:15am -- Four Wives (1939)
Three married women play matchmaker for their widowed sister.
Cast: Priscilla Lane, Rosemary Lane, Lola Lane, Gale Page
Dir: Michael Curtiz
BW-99 mins, TV-G

Max Steiner's "Symphonie Moderne", written for the movie, was later expanded and published in 1941.

This film is a sequel to Four Daughters (1938).


10:15am -- Four Mothers (1941)
Four married sisters face financial problems as motherhood approaches.
Cast: Claude Rains, Jeffrey Lynn, Eddie Albert, May Robson
Dir: William Keighley
BW-85 mins, TV-G

Sequel to Four Daughters (1938) and Four Wives (1939).


11:41am -- Short Film: I Love My Mother-In-Law, But ... (1948)
Every husband loves their mother-in-law, but when they are like the ones portrayed in this short it can be difficult!
Cast: Anne O'Neal, Dorothy Short, Dave O'Brien, Pete Smith
Dir: David Barclay
BW-8 mins

Dave O'Brien also starred in I Love My Husband, But! (1946), I Love My Wife, But! (1947), and I Love My Children, But! (1952).


12:00pm -- The Man In The Net (1959)
An artist falsely accused of ransacking his own house is proved innocent by the children of the neighborhood.
Cast: Alan Ladd, Carolyn Jones, Diane Brewster, John Lupton
Dir: Michael Curtiz
BW-97 mins, TV-PG

In a 1961 interview Alan Ladd was asked, "What would you change about yourself if you could?" He replied tersely: "Everything."


1:48pm -- Short Film: So You Want To Be A Detective (1948)
Joe McDoakes imagines himself as a private detective on a murder case
Cast: George O'Hanlon, Art Gilmore (narrator)
Dir: Richard L. Bare
BW-11 mins

Cute spoof of detective films, with characters with names like Phillip Snarlow and Veronica Vacuum.


2:00pm -- The Blue Dahlia (1946)
A veteran fights to prove he didn't kill his cheating wife.
Cast: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, William Bendix, Howard Da Silva
Dir: George Marshall
BW-99 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Raymond Chandler

When Alan Ladd was called up for military service, production on the movie (then still in the screenplay stage) had to be rapidly stepped up. According to a near-legendary story, screenwriter Raymond Chandler offered to finish the screenplay by working drunk: in exchange for sacrificing his health to produce the requisite pages on time, Chandler was permitted to work at home (a privilege rarely granted to screenwriters) and was provided two chauffeured cars, one to convey the completed pages to the studio and the other for his wife. Chandler turned the script in on time. Many now believe the "drunkenness" was simply a ruse by Chandler to wrangle extraordinary privileges from the desperate studio.


3:42pm -- Short Film: Wagon Wheels West (1943)
A boy who witnesses his father's murder vows to return as an adult and bring the murderers to justice.
Cast: Robert Shayne, Nina Foch, Charles Middleton
Dir: B. Reeves Eason
BW-17 mins

Remake, in short form, of Song of the Saddle (1936).


4:00pm -- Shane (1953)
A mysterious drifter helps farmers fight off a vicious gunman.
Cast: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon de Wilde
Dir: George Stevens
C-118 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Loyal Griggs

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Brandon De Wilde, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Palance, Best Director -- George Stevens, Best Writing, Screenplay -- A.B. Guthrie Jr., and Best Picture

In the funeral scene, the dog consistently refused to look into the grave. Finally, director George Stevens had the dog's trainer lie down in the bottom of the grave, and the dog played his part ably. The coffin (loaded with rocks for appropriate effect) was then lowered into the grave, but when the harmonica player began to play "Taps" spontaneously, the crew was so moved by the scene that they began shoveling dirt into the grave before remembering the dog's trainer was still there.


6:00pm -- Hell Below Zero (1954)
A whaler signs on to locate a young woman's missing father.
Cast: Alan Ladd, Joan Tetzel, Basil Sydney, Stanley Baker
Dir: Mark Robson
BW-91 mins, TV-PG

When the film premiered in Hollywood in 1954, Alan Ladd gave a few mounted actual whale teeth to special guests on opening night. He was actually on the ship during some of the filming. The tooth "trophies" are highly collectible today. Each has a plaque identifying them as coming from the movie.


7:48pm -- Short Film: On Location With Westworld (1973)
This promotional short shows what went on behind the scenes during the shooting of the science fiction classic Westworld (1973).
Cast: Richard Benjamin, Yul Brynner, Michael Crichton.
C-9 mins

Westworld (1973) was Michael Crichton's theatrical directorial debut.


What's On Tonight: TCM BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE: ALAN LADD


8:00pm -- The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Seven American gunmen hire themselves out to protect a Mexican village from bandits.
Cast: Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson
Dir: John Sturges
C-128 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Elmer Bernstein

According to Eli Wallach's autobiography, Yul Brynner had a major problem with what he perceived as Steve McQueen's trying to upstage him. According to Wallach, McQueen would do things when on screen with Brynner to draw attention to his character. Examples were his shaking of the shotgun shells and taking off his hat to check the sun during the hearse scene and leaning off his horse to dip his hat in the river when the Seven cross into Mexico. Brynner was supposedly so worried about McQueen stealing his limelight in scenes that he hired an assistant to count the number of times McQueen touched his own hat when he was speaking.


10:15pm -- Return Of The Seven (1966)
A notorious gunman organizes a team of specialists to save Mexican villagers from an insane rancher.
Cast: Yul Brynner, Robert Fuller, Julián Mateos, Warren Oates
Dir: Burt Kennedy
C-96 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Elmer Bernstein

Yul Brynner insisted he would only make this film if Steve McQueen was not involved. McQueen felt the plot was too absurd and for this, and other reasons, was not interested anyway.


12:00am -- Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969)
The last of the original seven assembles a new crew of experts to rescue a captive rebel leader.
Cast: George Kennedy, James Whitmore, Monte Markham, Bernie Casey
Dir: Paul Wendkos
C-106 mins, TV-PG

Despite bearing no resemblance to Yul Brynner, including a full head of hair, George Kennedy takes over the role of Chris Adams, played by Brynner in the first two films. Even Adams' trademark dark clothing is gone. What remains is the steel resolve and affinity for cigars.


2:00am -- The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)
A retired gunman fights to save a group of kidnapped women from the man who raped and murdered his wife.
Cast: Lee Van Cleef, Stefanie Powers, Michael Callan, Mariette Hartley
Dir: George McCowan
C-100 mins, TV-PG

This time Lee Van Cleef takes the role of Chris Adams, previously played by Yul Brynner and George Kennedy. What a strange trio to play the same character!


3:52am -- Short Film: The Man Who Makes The Difference (1968)
A behind the cameras featurette showcasing the action film "Ice Station Zebra" (1968) and the talents of John M. Stephens, renowned second unit/stunt photographer, who filmed the racing sequences in "Grand Prix" (1966).
Narrator: David Ford
C-7 mins

Stephens was the recipient of the Technical Achievement Award Development of first remote camera head (MGM's, Grand Prix) (1966) Presented by the Society of Operating Cameramen (1995)


4:00am -- Sabata (1970)
A gunman enlists a team of specialists to protect him from a wealthy villain.
Cast: Lee Van Cleef, William Berger, Franco Ressel, Linda Veras
Dir: Frank Kramer.
C-106 mins, TV-PG

Also known as Ehi amico... c'è Sabata, hai chiuso!

[Staph]

1. Alan Ladd Profile

He was the unlikeliest of tough guys: blonde, boyishly good-looking, short in stature and self-described as an "undernourished featherweight." Yet there was always something about Alan Ladd – a barely concealed pain, a tense wariness of the world, a vulnerability and masochistic air of tragedy – that served him equally when playing a psychotic killer or a loner hero. The persona was more than an actor's trick; Ladd's own life was more troubled than any character he played on screen, and his personal demons were finally his undoing at a relatively early age.

He was born in Hot Springs, Ark., in 1913, and grew up fatherless, undersized and nicknamed Tiny. His mother moved them to California when he was a child, and as he grew older, he excelled in sports, particularly track and swimming, more suitable for his small frame, and began training with an eye on the Olympics until an injury put an end to that dream. Over the years he worked a variety of odd jobs to help make ends meet, including gas station attendant, lifeguard, and hot dog vendor, eventually making it into the fringes of Hollywood as an extra and crew member. He made his acting debut at the age of 18 in a tiny part in Tom Brown of Culver (1932), but producers didn't see much in the pint-sized hopeful, so he was relegated to uncredited bits over the next seven years. Money was so tight he couldn't even afford to live with his first wife, and he witnessed his destitute mother's agonizing suicide from ant poison in 1937. It was not an auspicious start to either a screen career or a life.

What Ladd did have going for him, however, was a distinctive, resonant voice, and that got him some freelance work on the radio. It was there, in 1939, that he was discovered by agent and former actress Sue Carol. She took him on as a client, getting him steady work including small parts in an RKO comedy starring Gene Raymond and Wendy Barrie, Cross-Country Romance (1940), and a Victor Mature swashbuckler, Captain Caution (1940), a harbinger of roles to come for Ladd. Some of the roles were in "A" pictures – The Howards of Virginia (1940), a Revolutionary war drama starring Cary Grant; They Met in Bombay (1941), with Clark Gable and Rosalind Russell as jewel thieves – but most of them were forgettable. One production that did stand out, however, was Orson Welles's audacious directorial debut, Citizen Kane (1941). It's a bit part for Ladd, and you don't even get to see him in the deep chiaroscuro of cinematographer Gregg Toland's lighting scheme. But if you pay close attention, there's no mistaking that one of the reporters with pipe in mouth at the film's conclusion, the one who says "Or Rosebud," is Alan Ladd.

That famous film did nothing for Ladd's career, however, and he plugged along in a number of mostly uncredited roles (ten in 1941 alone). He and Carol married in 1942, and she got him a good role (as an RAF pilot called Baby) in a big budget picture, Joan of Paris (1942), an acclaimed anti-Nazi drama from RKO. But it was his next film that made him an overnight star. In This Gun for Hire (1942), Ladd played a laconic contract killer with fascinating complexities: his love for cats, a background of childhood abuse, and a single-minded thirst for revenge. It was a rich and compelling characterization, and although he was only fourth billed, today we think of it as an Alan Ladd-Veronica Lake movie, the one that launched this screen team on a seven-picture streak for home studio Paramount. Perfectly matched - she was just as diminutive, with a similarly cool but vulnerable appeal - they became two of the company's biggest stars, their images so identifiable they could parody themselves in all-star revues and guest spots.

Ladd's popularity continued unabated over the next few years, as Paramount's answer to Bogart: taciturn, coolly cynical, deadly when necessary. The trace of both violence and suffering that seemed to lurk beneath his placid surface served him equally well in the film noir crime dramas he made with Lake (The Glass Key, 1942; The Blue Dahlia, 1946), adventure stories in exotic settings (China, 1943; Calcutta, 1947; Saigon, 1948), and his first starring swashbuckler, Two Years Before the Mast (1946), in which his capacity for suffering was fully exploited in the brutality and torture his character endures. In the late 40s, he starred for the first time in a Western, Whispering Smith (1948), as a tough-as-nails railroad detective. The move to a new genre would prove to be a fruitful one, giving him some of his best roles in later years.

While Ladd's films were popular entertainments, they were rarely considered prestige productions. At the decade's end, he tried his hand at a high profile literary adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel of the 1920s The Great Gatsby (1949). With his ability to suggest dark secrets and a quiet pained longing, Ladd seemed an ideal choice for the role of the mysterious Jay Gatsby, the poor boy who makes a fortune through shady means, all of it for the love of his beautiful but spoiled Daisy. But the picture failed to click with either the public or critics and unfortunately remains out of distribution today, unseen in decades, leaving no chance to re-evaluate Ladd's performance.

The 1950s stuck more closely to the two-fisted Ladd formula, starting with a good role in a tale of postwar intrigue and romance, Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950), which spawned the hit Oscar®-winning song "Mona Lisa." With some diminishment of his star status, he nevertheless kept active throughout the decade with seafaring adventures (Hell Below Zero, 1954, in which he was a whaling ship crewman), thrillers (The Man in the Net, 1959, a sharp suspense story under Michael Curtiz's direction), aviation/war dramas (The McConnell Story, 1955, where he was paired with June Allyson and had an affair with her during production) and one Arthurian adventure (as The Black Knight, 1954). He also continued to do well with Westerns, particularly when they played to his film noir strengths, as in The Badlanders (1958), an Old West retelling of W.R. Burnett's novel The Asphalt Jungle, which had been filmed in its original contemporary setting by John Huston in 1950. But the Western that stands out, in fact the most iconic and legendary Alan Ladd role of all, was Shane (1953).

This was the American Western hero in his most classical mode: the man of few words who comes out of nowhere and takes arms to preserve a way of life that, in the end, has no place for someone of his violent, individualistic nature. So he moves on, further into the wilderness, away from civilization, doomed to be a loner but remembered as legend. There were greater Western stars – John Wayne, Randolph Scott – but no one except Ladd better fit the myth as visualized in Shane. If he had made no other film in his life, he would still have gone down in Hollywood history as the solitary figure receding into the distance while a young boy calls after him, "Come back!"

Ladd never again attained the heights reached in Shane. As the years went on, and his alcoholism and personal instability increased, his looks ran to puffiness, his popularity waned, and the opportunities dried up. More frequently, derisive stories circulated about his height (5' 6"), although he was certainly not the first actor to have to stand on a box to look equal in height to his co-stars. Depression and self-doubt plagued him more and more frequently (reportedly due to the end of his affair with the married Allyson). "I have the face of an ageing choirboy and the build of an undernourished featherweight. If you can figure out my success on the screen you're a better man than I," he said, and his wife and manager confirmed his low self-esteem: "Alan is a big star to everyone in the world except Alan. He thinks he's in the business on a raincheck."

In June 1962 he released 13 West Street, a kind of proto-Death Wish (1974) in which he played a man mugged by a gang on the streets of Los Angeles who seeks revenge despite cop Rod Steiger's efforts to curb his vigilantism. It was an interesting study but not a huge hit, and several months later, Ladd was found lying unconscious in a pool of blood at his home from an "accidentally" inflicted gunshot wound. He had one last good role, as the washed-up cowboy star Nevada Smith (a character later played by Steve McQueen in a 1966 film of the same name) in The Carpetbaggers (1964), the film version of Harold Robbins's thinly disguised pulp novel about Howard Hughes and Hollywood. The big-budget soaper was generally trashed by critics but a box office blockbuster. It wasn't enough, however, to save Alan Ladd. Less than three months before the release of The Carpetbaggers, he was dead at 50 from an overdose, quite possibly intentional, of sedatives mixed with alcohol.

by Rob Nixon