TCM Schedule for Thursday, June 3 -- TCM Prime Time Feature -- Based on Sinclair Lewis

[Staph]

Happy birthday to both Paulette Goddard, born 100 years ago today, and Tony Curtis, born 85 years ago today. We have a day full of movies starring both of them, and an evening of films based on the books of Sinclair Lewis, the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Enjoy!


5:00am -- Sinful Davey (1968)
Love complicates a 19th-century Scot's efforts to follow in his father's criminal footsteps.
Cast: John Hurt, Pamela Franklin, Nigel Davenport, Ronald Fraser
Dir: John Huston
C-95 mins, TV-PG

In a 2006 interview, Anjelica Huston said she hated the conditions in which she appeared in this film so much that she had massive disagreements with her father, director John Huston, to the point that the pair fell out until their next film together, Prizzi's Honor (1985), fifteen years later.


5:49am -- One Reel Wonders: One Against The World (1939)
This Passing Parade short dramatizes the events surrounding the first invasive surgical operation performed in the United States, performed by Dr. Ephraim McDowell on December 13, 1809, to remove an ovarian tumor.
Cast: Jonathan Hale, Claire McDowell, Charles Middleton
Dir: Fred Zinneman
BW-11 mins

The patient, Mrs. Crawford, made an uncomplicated recovery, despite the lack of antisepsis and anesthetic. She returned to her home in Green County, Kentucky, 25 days after the operation and lived another 32 years.


7:00am -- Second Chorus (1940)
Two composers vie for their lady manager's heart as they head for Broadway.
Cast: Fred Astaire, Paulette Goddard, Artie Shaw, Charles Butterworth
Dir: H. C. Potter
BW-84 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Artie Shaw (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "Love of My Life", and Best Music, Score -- Artie Shaw

Cut from the movie was "Me and the Ghost Upstairs" (music by Bernard Hanighen, lyrics by Johnny Mercer), sung by Fred Astaire and danced by him with the film's dance director, Hermes Pan, who was covered by a sheet. The prerecording and rehearsal footage still exist.


8:30am -- Pot O' Gold (1941)
A young man is caught between his music-hating uncle and a pretty girl from a family of musicians.
Cast: James Stewart, Paulette Goddard, Horace Heidt, Charles Winninger
Dir: George Marshall
BW-86 mins, TV-G

Jerry Adler, younger brother of Larry Adler, taught James Stewart how to hold the harmonica and mime the playing for the movie, and was the person who did the actual playing of the harmonica music supposedly done by Stewart, who continued playing the instrument after the movie.


10:00am -- Charge of the Lancers (1953)
A soldier masquerades as a gypsy to rescue his best friend from the enemy.
Cast: Paulette Goddard, Jean Pierre Aumont, Richard Stapley, Karin Booth
Dir: William Castle
C-74 mins, TV-G

Director William Castle emulated Alfred Hitchcock. This included the practice of appearing in the trailers, and even making cameo appearances in his films. He went so far as to create a trademark silhouette that showed him in a director's chair and in profile with a cigar. Hitchcock noticed the big grosses for Castle's low-budget House on Haunted Hill (1959), which led him to return the "favor" by taking a page from Castle and creating his own low-budget thriller -- Psycho (1960).


11:21am -- One Reel Wonders: Paris On Parade (1938)
This Traveltalks short showcases the Paris International Exposition of 1937.
Director/narrator: James A. FitzPatrick
C-9 mins

The Spanish Pavilion attracted attention as the exposition took place during the Spanish Civil War. The pavilion, set up by the Republican government, included Pablo Picasso's famous painting "Guernica", a depiction of the horrors of war.

Two of the other notable pavilions were those of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The organization of the world exhibition had placed the German and the Soviet pavilions directly across each other. Hitler had desired to withdraw from participation, but his architect Albert Speer convinced him to participate after all, showing Hitler his plans for the German pavilion. Speer later revealed in his autobiographies that he had had a clandestine look at the plans for the Soviet pavilion, and had designed the German pavilion to represent a bulwark against Communism.


11:30am -- Paris Model (1953)
A dress plays a key role in the lives of each of the women who wear it.
Cast: Marilyn Maxwell, Paulette Goddard, Eva Gabor, Barbara Lawrence
Dir: Alfred E. Green
BW-80 mins, TV-G

One of the minor parts is played by Hershel Geguzin, who claimed to have been born Prince Michael Dimitri Alexandrovich Obolensky-Romanoff, nephew of Tsar Nicholas II. Everyone in Hollywood knew he wasn't, but, in a town full of pretenders, it hardly mattered, and "Prince Michael" enjoyed great success as a restaurateur.


1:00pm -- Vice Squad (1953)
The head of an escort ring joins forces with a vice cop to solve a murder.
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Paulette Goddard, K. T. Stevens, Porter Hall
Dir: Arnold Laven
BW-88 mins, TV-PG

Watch for an appearance by Lee Van Cleef in one of his first films, playing -- what else! -- a killer.


2:30pm -- Now Playing June (2010)


3:07pm -- One Reel Wonders: Beach Of Nazaré (1957)
This Screenliner short looks at the dress and customs of Nazaré, a fishing village on Portugal's Atlantic coast.
Narrator: Peter Roberts.
Dir: Van Campen Heilner
BW-8 mins

Nazaré has become a popular tourist attraction, advertising itself as a picturesque seaside village. Located on the of the Atlantic coast, it has long sandy beaches (considered by some to be among the best beaches of Portugal), crowded with tourists in the summer. The town used to be known for its traditional costumes worn by the fishermen. Their wives worn the traditional headscarf and embroidered aprons over seven flannel skirts in different colours. These dresses can still occasionally be seen.


3:15pm -- Beachhead (1954)
U.S. soldiers invade a Pacific Island during World War II to catch an informer.
Cast: Tony Curtis, Frank Lovejoy, Mary Murphy, Eduard Franz
Dir: Stuart Heisler
C-90 mins, TV-PG

Filmed in Kaua'i, Hawaii, and Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden


4:45pm -- Operation Petticoat (1959)
During World War II, the crew of a decrepit submarine takes on a team of Navy nurses.
Cast: Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, Joan O'Brien, Dina Merrill
Dir: Blake Edwards
C-121 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Paul King (story), Joseph Stone (story), Stanley Shapiro (screenplay) and Maurice Richlin (screenplay)

Some of the plot points of the movie were based on real-life incidents. Most notable were scenes set at the opening of WW II, based on the actual sinking of the submarine USS Sealion (SS-195), sunk at the pier at Cavite Navy Yard, the Philippines; Cmdr. Sherman's letter to the supply department on the inexplicable lack of toilet paper, based on an actual letter to the supply department of Mare Island Naval Shipyard by Lt. Cmdr. James Wiggin Coe of the submarine Skipjack (SS-184); and the need to paint a submarine pink, due to the lack of enough red lead or white lead undercoat paint.


7:00pm -- Private Screenings: Tony Curtis (1999)
TCM host Robert Osborne interviews Tony Curtis on his life and career. Curtis appears in interviews and film clips.
Cast: Robert Osborne, Tony Curtis
Dir: Tony Barbon
BW-54 mins, TV-PG

Tony Curtis served with "F-Troop" (1963) (TV) actor Larry Storch in the US Navy from 1942 to 1945 aboard a submarine tender, where he witnessed the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay from a vantage point 300 yards away. He and Storch have had a lifelong friendship. They appeared together in The Great Race (1965) .


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: BASED ON SINCLAIR LEWIS


8:00pm -- Babbitt (1934)
A small-town businessman bumbles into blackmail and a real-estate swindle.
Cast: Aline MacMahon, Guy Kibbee, Claire Dodd, Maxine Doyle
Dir: William Keighley
BW-74 mins, TV-G

Made as a silent film in 1924, starring Mary Alden and Willard Louis in the MacMahon and Kibbee roles.


9:30pm -- Ann Vickers (1933)
A social worker's fight for reform is compromised by her love for a corrupt judge.
Cast: Irene Dunne, Walter Huston, Conrad Nagel, Bruce Cabot
Dir: John Cromwell
BW-76 mins, TV-G

Director John Cromwell often played uncredited cameos in his films. In this one, he's the sad-faced doughboy at the settlement party; there are three good shots of him looking piningly at Irene Dunne.


11:00pm -- Dodsworth (1936)
A husband whose wife left him looks for new love in Europe.
Cast: Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas, Mary Astor
Dir: William Wyler
BW-101 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction -- Richard Day

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Walter Huston, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Maria Ouspenskaya, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Sound, Recording -- Oscar Lagerstrom (United Artists SSD), Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sidney Howard, and Best Picture

William Wyler spent a whole afternoon shooting the sequence where Fran (Ruth Chatterton) burns a letter from her husband; he wanted the letter to specifically blow gently along the terrace, stop for a moment, and then continue to flutter as the scene faded to black as a metaphor for Fran and Sam's failing marriage.


12:45am -- Arrowsmith (1931)
A crusading doctor fights his way through tragedy to find his true calling.
Cast: Ronald Colman, Helen Hayes, Richard Bennett, A. E. Anson
Dir: John Ford
BW-99 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Richard Day, Best Cinematography -- Ray June, Best Writing, Adaptation -- Sidney Howard, and Best Picture

The first American sound film to feature a black character ("Dr. Oliver Marchand" played by Clarence Brooks) with a university degree who speaks perfect English, does not shuffle, and does not act in the usual stereotypical manner in which blacks were depicted in Hollywood films at the time.


2:30am -- Cass Timberlane (1947)
An aging judge creates a scandal when he marries a younger woman from the wrong side of the tracks.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Lana Turner, Zachary Scott, Tom Drake
Dir: George Sidney
BW-119 mins, TV-PG

The poem that Cass Timberlane recites at the picnic with Virginia is "First Fig" by Edna St. Vincent Millay:
"My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends
It gives a lovely light!"


4:30am -- I Married A Doctor (1936)
An idealistic city girl moves to the country with her doctor husband.
Cast: Pat O'Brien, Josephine Hutchinson, Ross Alexander, Guy Kibbee
Dir: Archie Mayo
BW-83 mins, TV-G

Adapted from Sinclair Lewis' Main Street.

[Staph]

1. Paulette Goddard Profile

If Paulette Goddard had been able to produce a copy of her marriage license to Charlie Chaplin she most likely would have played the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). Out of all the actresses in Hollywood, Paulette was the front-runner for the most coveted role in movie history. But the lack of that important piece of paper and the arrival of another green-eyed brunette named Vivien Leigh cost her the part of a lifetime. Despite that disappointment, however, she still appeared in several films now considered to be classics.

It’s hard to say exactly when Paulette Goddard was born. The date was June 3rd, but the year has been listed anywhere from 1905 to 1911. When she died in 1990, city officials in Ronco, Switzerland, where she had been living, listed it as 1905. Goddard would hardly have been the first actress to be creative with her birthdates. What is certain is that she was born Marion Pauline Levy on Long Island to Joseph Levy and his wife Alta Mae Goddard and that her parents divorced when she was very young.

As a teenager she changed her name to Paulette Goddard (her father had long since disappeared from her life) and became a fashion model and Ziegfeld chorus girl. During this time she became friends with Susan Fleming (later the wife of Harpo Marx). Goddard later recalled that she and Fleming were favorites of Ziegfeld's and that he once sent the two on a trip to Palm Beach: “He guessed we’d each catch ourselves a millionaire.” Fleming caught her millionaire in the 1930s when she married Marx, but Goddard found hers much earlier in an older businessman named Edgar James who she married in either 1926 or 1927. The marriage only lasted a few years and she ended up with an enormous settlement. Being a practical woman she took her money and went to Hollywood with the intention of breaking into the movies.

She hadn’t been there long before she began appearing in films. The Internet Movie Database has her listed in the credits of Chaplin’s film City Lights (1931) as an extra. This may be true because she and Chaplin were seeing each other romantically by 1932. At the time Goddard was a platinum blonde, which was then all the rage thanks to Jean Harlow. Chaplin, who was never partial to blondes, convinced her to dye her hair back to its natural dark shade which she kept for the rest of her life. Between 1932 and 1936 when she appeared as a co-star with Chaplin in his final silent film Modern Times, her appearances on the screen were as one of the Goldwyn Girls, chorus girls who appeared frequently in Samuel Goldwyn’s pictures. (One of her fellow ‘girls’ was a young Lucille Ball, also a platinum blonde in the early 1930s). Goddard's performance in Modern Times made her a star and Chaplin, it is believed, made her his wife.

The details are unclear but sometime in 1936 Chaplin and Goddard went on a trip to the Far East where they claimed to have been married on a boat. No marriage license was ever produced and a vague excuse about a ship-board fire seemed to settle the matter. Unfortunately, the marriage license again became an issue when she auditioned for the role of Scarlett O’Hara and became a victim of the morality clause that all movie stars had added to their contracts to ensure their good behavior. No license, no role. Instead of co-starring with Clark Gable she was once again working with her ‘husband’ in his first talking film, The Great Dictator (1940). By the time filming began they had separated and would divorce in 1942. During the years she and Chaplin were supposed to be married, Goddard had an on-again, off-again affair with composer George Gershwin, who was desperately in love with her. It is a tribute to Goddard that she is the only one of his ex-wives that Chaplin spoke kindly of in his autobiography years later. He never denied being married to Goddard in public, but in private claimed it was never legal.

Goddard had proven that she didn’t need Chaplin to have a career. By the early 1940s she had held her own against the female stars of MGM in The Women (1939), co-starred with Bob Hope in The Ghost Breakers (1940), James Stewart in Pot O’Gold (1941), and Fred Astaire in Second Chorus (1940). The latter may have been one of Astaire’s rare flops but it was a happy experience for Goddard. She worked with Burgess Meredith on that film and in 1944 she married him. The marriage would last until 1950.

During the 1940s she appeared in many films like Reap the Wild Wind (1942), directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946), directed by Jean Renoir and once again co-starring Burgess Meredith. By the 1950s, her time in Hollywood was almost over. She was not sorry to leave, once saying, "I lived in Hollywood long enough to learn to play tennis and become a star, but I never felt it was my home."

After her divorce from Meredith, Goddard married novelist Erich Maria Remarque, most famous for his novel All Quiet on the Western Front, and they moved to Switzerland where they lived together until Remarques’ death in 1970. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Goddard did not dwell upon past triumphs but remained firmly rooted in the present, saying, "You live in the present and you eliminate things that don't matter. You don't carry the burden of the past. I'm not impressed by the past very much. The past bores me, to tell you the truth; it really bores me. I don't remember many movies and certainly not my own."

Her later years were spent in Europe although she occasionally worked – her last appearance was in a television film with Helen Hayes called The Snoop Sisters in 1972 - but she certainly did not need the money. When she died from the breast cancer she had battled for decades on April 23, 1990, she left New York University more than $20 million dollars in her will.

by Lorraine LoBianco

SOURCES:

www.Wikipedia.org
Obituary: Susan Marx, by Glenn Mitchell, The Independent (London) January 4, 2003
The Internet Movie Database

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