TCM Schedule for Thursday, January 10 -- Romance Films

[Staph]

Rrrrrrrrrrrrr! There be pirates this morning! Then we fight World War II again this afternoon, both themes starring the dashing Paul Henreid.

TCM continues the theme of the month, Romance Films, in prime time. Tonight's romance films feature Chance Romance (Brief Encounter and The Clock (both 1945)), Star-Crossed Romance (Wuthering Heights (1939) and Romeo and Juliet (1936)), and Royal Romance (Mayerling (1968) and tomorrow morning's Queen Christina (1933)). Enjoy!


4:15am -- He Was Her Man (1934)
A safe cracker goes straight to get back at some fellow crooks.
Cast: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Victor Jory.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon.
BW-70 mins, TV-G

Jimmy Cagney in a mustache! Filmed in and around Monterey, California.


5:26am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Seasoned Greetings (1933)
An innovative greeting card shop owner tries to beat out neighboring competition by inventing talking greeting cards.
Cast: Lita Grey Chaplin, Sammy Davis Jr.
Dir: Roy Mack
BW-20 mins

First film for both Sammy Davis, Jr., then seven years old, and Robert Cummings, probably best known for The Bob Cummings Show and My Living Doll on television in the 1950s and 1960s. Cummings was the godson of Orville Wright, who taught him to fly.


6:00am -- Thief of Damascus (1952)
A young man assembles a band of adventurers to take on an evil sultan.
Cast: Paul Henreid, John Sutton, Jeff Donnell.
Dir: Will Jason.
C-79 mins, TV-G

Jeff Donnell, born Jean Marie Donnell, gave herself the nickname "Jeff" when she was growing up at an all-male reformatory. Her father was the warden. Aladdin is played by Robert Clary, best known as Corporal LeBeau from Hogan's Heroes.


7:30am -- Last of the Buccaneers (1950)
When one of his lieutenant's attacks an American ship, Jean Lafitte has to elude the U.S. Navy.
Cast: Paul Henreid, Jack Oakie, Karin Booth.
Dir: Lew Landers.
C-79 mins, TV-G

In 1952, Henreid started a second career as a director, primarily in television, including 28 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.


9:00am -- Pirates of Tripoli (1955)
A pirate tries to help a deposed Arabian princess reclaim her throne.
Cast: Paul Henreid, Patricia Medina, Paul Newlan.
Dir: Felix Feist.
C-71 mins, TV-G

Patricia Medina's second husband was Joseph Cotten.


10:12am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Salar The Leaper (1957)
Narrator: Andre Baruch.
Dir: Earle Luby.
BW-8 mins

What can I say? This is probably the quintessential film about salmon fly fishing on the Miramichi River in New Brunswick. It is also, quite likely, the only film about salmon fly fishing on the Miramichi River in New Brunswick.


10:30am -- Siren of Bagdad (1953)
An Arabian magician takes on a corrupt sultan to help a beautiful princess.
Cast: Paul Henreid, Patricia Medina, Hans Conried.
Dir: Richard Quine.
C-72 mins, TV-G

Somehow, siren of Bagdad has a completely different meaning in 2008 than it had in 1953.


12:00pm -- The Conspirators (1944)
A guerrilla leader falls in love with a mysterious woman in World War II Lisbon.
Cast: Hedy Lamarr, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet.
Dir: Jean Negulesco.
BW-101 mins, TV-PG

There are at least 14 actors who appeared in this movie and in Casablanca (1942), including Henreid (Victor Lazlo in Casablanca), Sidney Greenstreet (Signor Ferrari), and Peter Lorre (Ugarte).


2:00pm -- Joan Of Paris (1942)
A waitress risks her life to help downed pilots escape occupied France.
Cast: Paul Henreid, Michele Morgan, Alan Ladd.
Dir: Robert Stevenson.
BW-92 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Roy Webb


3:33pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Carnival In Paris (1937)
The janitor of a Paris museum's Egyptology department agrees to help a girl hide from the police.
Cast: Henry Brandon, Ann Rutherford.
Dir: Wilhelm Thiele.
BW-22 mins

Henry Brandon often played Indian, Arab, Persian, Native American and East Asian characters, though his ancestry was German. He was the long-time companion of actor Mark Herron, who was Judy Garland's fourth husband.


4:00pm -- In Our Time (1944)
A Polish count and his English wife battle Nazi invaders.
Cast: Ida Lupino, Paul Henreid, Alla Nazimova.
Dir: Vincent Sherman.
BW-111 mins, TV-PG

As rigid and tough-minded as Bette Davis, Ida Lupino would often refuse to play a Davis hand-me-down role and was often suspended by Warner Bros. for doing so. It was during those breaks that she would go on movie sets, chum around with the male directors and learned the craft of directing. Blazing new trails, she became the only notable and respected female filmmaker of her era in Hollywood.


6:00pm -- Of Human Bondage (1946)
A medical student risks his future when he falls for a low-class waitress.
Cast: Eleanor Parker, Paul Henreid, Alexis Smith.
Dir: Edmund Goulding.
BW-106 mins, TV-PG

Based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham. The 1934 version starred Bette Davis and Leslie Howard; the 1964 version starred Kim Novak and Laurence Harvey.


What's On Tonight: TCM SPOTLIGHT: ROMANCE FILMS


8:00pm -- Brief Encounter (1945)
Two married strangers meet in a train station and fall in love.
Cast: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway.
Dir: David Lean.
BW-86 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Celia Johnson, Best Director -- David Lean, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean and Ronald Neame

The Carnforth train station was chosen partly because it was so far from the South East of England that it would receive sufficient warning of an air-raid attack that there would be time to turn out the filming lights to comply with wartime blackout restrictions.


9:30pm -- The Clock (1945)
A G.I. en route to Europe falls in love during a whirlwind two-day leave in New York City.
Cast: Judy Garland, Robert Walker, James Gleason.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli.
BW-90 mins, TV-PG

This film, Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), and A Child Is Waiting (1963) are Judy Garland's only non-singing movies.


11:15pm -- Wuthering Heights (1939)
A married noblewoman fights her lifelong attraction to a charismatic gypsy.
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon, Geraldine Fitzgerald.
Dir: William Wyler.
BW-104 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar (in the hyper-competitive 1939 season!) for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Gregg Toland

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Laurence Olivier, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Geraldine Fitzgerald, Best Art Direction -- James Basevi, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Music, Original Score -- Alfred Newman, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, and Best Picture.

The film only depicts sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters and is set in 19th century instead of 1771-1801.


1:04am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Master - Will Shakespeare (1936)
Cast: Anthony Kemble-Cooper, Lionel Belmore, Carey Wilson (narrator).
Dir: Jacques Tourneur.
BW-11 mins

Filmed as a promotion piece to the then-upcoming MGM film Romeo and Juliet (1936).


1:15am -- Romeo And Juliet (1936)
Shakespeare's classic tale of young lovers from feuding families.
Cast: Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, John Barrymore.
Dir: George Cukor.
BW-125 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Basil Rathbone, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Norma Shearer, Best Art Direction -- Cedric Gibbons, Fredric Hope and Edwin B. Willis, and Best Picture

The film's literary consultant was Professor William Strunk Jr., co-author of the famous treatise on the English language, Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style".

Norma Shearer was 34 and Leslie Howard was 43 when they played the tragic teenaged lovers.


3:30am -- Mayerling (1968)
True story of Austria's Crown Prince Rudolph and his tragic love for a commoner.
Cast: Omar Sharif, Catherine Deneuve, James Mason.
Dir: Terence Young.
C-127 mins, TV-14

Originally planned as a starring vehicle for the husband-and-wife team of Mel Ferrer and Audrey Hepburn, who had performed Mayerling for TV in 1957, as an episode of Producer's Showcase.

[CBHagman]

1. Brief Encounter.

Some time ago I saw a program that dealt with the enduring fame of the Carnforth Railway Station, setting of key scenes in Brief Encounter, and how tourists seek it out to this day. Try Googling "Brief Encounter" and "Carnforth" and you'll get hundreds of hits. Check out the following links:

Station site:

http://www.carnforthstation.co.uk/

Also of interest:

http://home.clara.net/gw0hqd/brief/index.htm

Kenneth Branagh's film In the Bleak Midwinter (known in the U.S. as A Midwinter's Tale) pays tribute to Brief Encounter. One character, Vernon, cites the music of Rachmaninoff in the film -- and, for that matter, the film itself -- as something that makes life worth living. Another character, Carnforth Greville, bears the name of the famous Brief Encounter train station!