TCM Schedule for Wednesday, July 20th: Literary Romance

[CBHagman]

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Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

12:15 AM Kismet (1944)
In the classic Arabian Nights tale, the king of the beggars enters high society to help his daughter marry a handsome prince.
Dir: William Dieterle Cast: Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, James Craig.
C-100 mins, TV-G, CC,

2:10 AM Magician's Daughter, The (1938)
A magician's daughter falls in love with a reporter, but heartbreak ensues when the reporter's magazine runs a story exposing the magician's secret methods.
Dir: Felix E. Feist Cast: Maurice Cass, Frank Albertson, Eleanor Lynn.
BW-18 mins,

2:30 AM Chandu the Magician (1932)
A hypnotist fights to stop a madman from destroying the world.
Dir: Marcel Varnel Cast: Edmund Lowe, Irene Ware, Bela Lugosi.
BW-71 mins, TV-PG, CC,



3:45 AM Desert Song, The (1953)
A French professor secretly leads a band of desert freedom fighters. Dir: Bruce Humberstone Cast: Kathryn Grayson, Gordon MacRae, Steve Cochran.
C-111 mins, TV-G,

5:38 AM Let's Sing A Song From The Movies (1948)
BW-11 mins,

6:00 AM 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,

6:45 AM Tomorrow Is Forever (1946)
A scarred veteran presumed dead returns home to find his wife remarried.
Dir: Irving Pichel Cast: Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles, George Brent.
BW-104 mins, TV-PG,

8:30 AM Miracle On 34th Street (1947)
A department store Santa claims to be the real thing.
Dir: George Seaton Cast: Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn.
BW-96 mins, TV-G, CC,



10:15 AM Green Promise, The (1949)
A farmer's daughter is torn between love and her obligation to work the family's land.
Dir: William D. Russell Cast: Marguerite Chapman, Walter Brennan, Robert Paige.
BW-81 mins, TV-G,

11:45 AM Our Very Own (1950)
The discovery that she's adopted shakes a young girl's sense of security.
Dir: Dave Miller Cast: Ann Blyth, Farley Granger, Joan Evans.
BW-93 mins, TV-G,

1:30 PM No Sad Songs For Me (1950)
A terminally ill woman struggles to leave her husband and child taken care of before she dies.
Dir: Rudolph Maté Cast: Margaret Sullavan, Wendell Corey, Viveca Lindfors.
BW-88 mins, TV-PG,

3:00 PM Silver Chalice, The (1954)
A silversmith is charged with engraving the Holy Grail.
Dir: Victor Saville Cast: Virginia Mayo, Pier Angeli, Jack Palance.
C-135 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

5:30 PM Splendor In The Grass (1961)
Sexual repression drives a small-town Kansas girl mad during the roaring twenties.
Dir: Elia Kazan Cast: Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat Hingle.
C-124 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: LITERARY ROMANCE

8:00 PM Pride And Prejudice (1940) Jane Austen's comic classic about five sisters out to nab husbands in 19th-century England.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard Cast: Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier, Mary Boland.
BW-118 mins, TV-PG, CC,

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10:15 PM Madame Bovary (1949)
A romantic country girl sacrifices her marriage when she thinks she's found true love.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli Cast: Jennifer Jones, Van Heflin, Louis Jourdan.
BW-114 mins, TV-PG, CC,

12:15 AM Anna Karenina (1935)
Adaptation of Tolstoy's classic tale of a woman who deserts her family for an illicit love.
Dir: Clarence Brown Cast: Greta Garbo, Fredric March, Freddie Bartholomew.
BW-94 mins, TV-14, CC,



2:00 AM Little Women (1949)
The four daughters of a New England family fight for happiness during and after the Civil War.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy Cast: June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Margaret O'Brien.
C-122 mins, TV-G, CC,

4:15 AM Far From The Madding Crowd (1967)
A romantic English lass can't choose among three very different suitors.
Dir: John Schlesinger Cast: Julie Christie, Terence Stamp, Peter Finch.
C-171 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

[Matilda]

1. As soon as I saw the heading, I knew this thread would be full of films I'd love.

And so it is.

In spite of the (almost) diabolical liberties it took with the story, I can never pass up "Pride and Prejudice". Even though I love Colin Firth, there's really only one Darcy for me, and he looks and sounds like Laurence Olivier.

"Far From the Madding Crowd" bring back memories - I was an usherette in the London cinema where it played for months. Knew the dialogue backwards. And we had fun picking all the continuity mistakes - the film is full of them! But it's good viewing, particularly for Alan Bates and Peter Finch, and all the delightful English character actors who play cameos - the sort of thing the Brits do so well. (And I can't resist mentioning that Princess Margaret came to the premiere - I never cared for her, but oh - you should have seen her embroidered satin coat - we couldn't resist running our fingers over it and sighing - how the other half lives!)

[CBHagman]

2. The 1940 "Pride and Prejudice" is a favorite of mine.

I own both the DVD and the video, and during times of exhaustion and grief I've relied on watching it to carry me away.

Yes, the story is a screen adaptation of a stage version of the story, and abbreviates and even reimagines elements of the story. Characters are omitted and characterizations and concepts tweaked. The women's gowns are Victorian, not Regency (recycling, apparently, at the studio due to budget considerations, or so I recall). Greer Garson is a good deal older than the 20-year-old Elizabeth Bennet of the novel. Karen Morley, playing Lizzie's supposedly plain best friend, Charlotte Lucas, is Garson's equal in beauty.

I don't care. 1940 P&P has great character actors (Edna May Oliver! Mary Boland! Edmund Gwenn! Melville Cooper!), a brisk pace, and lively score, and hums along nicely.

And of course Olivier smolders.

See it. Just see it.

The TV adaptations with David Rintoul and Elizabeth Garvie, and then Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, are far more faithful to the plot and dialogue, though I do have real problems with the 1995 version's insistence on beating the audience over the head with one character's badness (Austen herself just lets his acts stand, without embellishment). But I'll always love the 1940 version.