TCM Schedule for Saturday, January 19

[lavenderdiva]

19 Saturday



6:00 AM The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
Elizabeth I's love for the Earl of Essex threatens to destroy her kingdom. Cast: Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland. Dir: Michael Curtiz. BW-106 mins, TV-G, CC

8:00 AM The Court Jester (1956)
A traveling actor is mistaken for a medieval rebel. Cast: Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone. Dir: Norman Panama, Melvin Frank. C-101 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

9:52 AM Short Film: Quiet Please (1945)
C-8 mins,

10:00 AM The Secret of the Whistler (1946)
An artist plots murder when his rich wife when she catches him in an affair with one of his models. Cast: Richard Dix, Leslie Brooks, Michael Duane. Dir: George Sherman. BW-64 mins,

11:15 AM The Return of the Whistler (1948)
When a woman goes missing on the eve of her wedding, her fiancee hires a detective to track her down. Cast: Michael Duane, Lenore Aubert, Richard Lane. Dir: D. Ross Lederman. BW-63 mins,

12:30 PM The World's Greatest Athlete (1973)
A washed-up coach saves his career when he discovers a jungle boy who's a natural athlete. Cast: Tim Conway, Jan-Michael Vincent, John Amos. Dir: Robert Scheerer. C-92 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

2:06 PM Short Film: On Location With "Fame" (1980)
C-12 mins,

2:30 PM High Noon (1952)
A retired Marshal must defend his town from a revengeful villain. Cast: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell. Dir: Fred Zinnemann. BW-85 mins, TV-PG, CC

4:00 PM The Tin Star (1957)
An experienced bounty hunter helps a young sheriff learn the meaning of his badge. Cast: Henry Fonda, Anthony Perkins, Betsy Palmer. Dir: Anthony Mann. BW-93 mins, TV-PG

5:45 PM Short Film: Things We Can Do Without (1953)
A look at the inconvenience of modern convenience's specifically modern furniture. Cast: Dave O'Brien, Pete Smith Dir: Dave O'Brien BW-9 mins,

5:55 PM Short Film: John Wayne Bio (1962)
BW-4 mins,
6:00 PM Rio Grande (1950)
A cavalry unit located on the Mexican border must control Indian uprisings. Cast: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Ben Johnson. Dir: John Ford. BW-105 mins, TV-PG, CC

What's On Tonight: THE ESSENTIALS: GREER GARSON

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

10:07 PM Short Film: Tyrone Power Biography (1962)
BW-4 mins,

10:15 PM Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939)
A cold-hearted teacher becomes the school favorite when he's thawed by a beautiful young woman. Cast: Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Paul Henreid. Dir: Sam Wood. BW-114 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS

12:15 AM The Valley Of Decision (1945)
An Irish housemaid's romance with the boss's son is complicated by labor disputes in the Pittsburgh mills. Cast: Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, Lionel Barrymore. Dir: Tay Garnett. BW-119 mins, TV-PG, CC

2:18 AM Short Film: Infantile Paralysis (Greer Garson) (1944)
BW-4 mins,

2:30 AM Random Harvest (1942)
A woman's happiness is threatened when she discovers her husband has been suffering from amnesia. Cast: Greer Garson, Ronald Colman, Susan Peters. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. BW-127 mins, TV-G, CC

4:45 AM Blossoms In The Dust (1941)
True-life story of Edna Gladney, who fought for orphans' rights in Texas. Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Marsha Hunt. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. C-100 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS

[lavenderdiva]

1. Why 'Pride & Prejudice' is considered a TCM ESSENTIAL:

Why PRIDE AND PREJUDICE is Essential

Hollywood has often shown a lack of respect and reverence for the classic literary materials it plunders from time to time for source material. Characters are altered, sometimes beyond recognition, important storylines truncated or eliminated altogether, complex themes abandoned in favor of surface glamour and mass appeal. And no company of the Studio Era epitomized surface gloss more than MGM. When it announced it would film Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice, devotees of the author's work must have cringed in anticipation of the final product.

Certainly there are things to carp about in the film adaptation of Austen's novel. A movie, any> movie, of a novel must take certain liberties to distill a sprawling story of several hundred pages into two hours or less of screen time, while maintaining a balance between the structural realities of cinematic narrative and the expectations of those familiar with the source material. In this case, liberties were definitely taken. Austen's sharp social satire was softened somewhat in favor of romantic comedy, memorable scenes (such as the key episode at Pemberly) disappeared completely, the period of the story's setting - the late 18th/early 19th century - was pushed forward a few decades to accommodate certain design considerations. Its central character, Elizabeth Bennet, was integrated more smoothly into her period and family life, rather than being depicted, as she was in the book, as a forceful and determined young woman at odds with her society and background. To top it all off, MGM cast in the role an actress whose age, 36, made her more suitable to play Elizabeth's mother than the late adolescent of Austen's imaginings. It shouldn't have worked, but somehow it did.

Reviews at the time of Pride and Prejudice's release seemed almost surprised to note how much of Austen actually made it to the screen, and in a form that was sure to delight even the most casual acquaintance of Austen's work. The fact alone that the script was entrusted to noted screenwriter-playwright Jane Murfin and renowned British writer Aldous Huxley was evidence the studio had higher intentions, and the writers obliged by keeping much of Austen's biting, witty dialogue and convoluted plot intact. Yet the project was lavished with enough of MGM's trademark style to please moviegoers with little or no interest in the original novel. The film's rich, elegant look was created by the studio's roster of A-list designers and technicians under the direction of Robert Z. Leonard. The latter was a MGM contractee who could always be counted on to deliver box office successes with efficiency but without a strong personal style that might obscure the studio's trademark glamour and gloss.

The result may not have been high art, but the success of Pride and Prejudice was enough to cement the American stardom and heartthrob appeal of British actor Laurence Olivier and establish Greer Garson as one of the studio's top leading ladies. The favorable critical reception added to the notion that classics could be adapted with taste without losing their basic appeal and that Jane Austen's work still spoke to modern audiences. Thanks in no small part to MGM's production of Pride and Prejudice - the first feature film version of her book - her writings would become not only more widely read but an important staple of big-budget period films. And more than forty ears later, numerous adaptations of her stories would constitute something of an Austen renaissance.

by Rob Nixon

The Big Idea Behind PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Jane Austen's second sharply drawn comedy of manners, Pride and Prejudice (originally titled First Impressions), was published anonymously (a standard practice for female authors in that period) in 1813; some scholars actually place the date of its authorship nearly 20 years earlier. Although sometimes mistaken for a Romantic writer, Austen, in fact, was a keen observer of the social structures of her time, particularly the predicament of unmarried genteel English women in the face of inheritance laws and customs that dictated the bulk of a family's fortune must go to male heirs. Her work was well received in its day and enjoyed praise from such notable writers as Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Macaulay, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Austen was also a favorite of the Prince Regent and her ranking by critics and scholars as one of England's greatest writers has kept her work constantly in the public and academic eye.

Playwright Helen Jerome specialized in stage adaptations of literary classics. Her version of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre toured in 1936 and 37, with Katharine Hepburn in the lead. A year earlier, her adaptation of Pride and Prejudice ran on Broadway for 219 performances. The theatrical version stayed fairly faithful to Austen's novel, which in its style and structure lent itself readily to dramatization.

MGM production chief Irving Thalberg originally bought the rights to Jerome's play in January 1936 for $50,000. The book was by then in the public domain and could have been filmed for free. Thalberg, however, felt that the general public was no longer familiar with the book, and hoped to cash in on the publicity generated by the play and its purchase as a possible vehicle for his wife, Norma Shearer. After Katharine Cornell had a great stage success with a revival of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Thalberg shifted his attention to that play as Shearer's next project and the Austen project was temporarily put on a back burner.

According to Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan, Harpo Marx was the one who suggested to Thalberg that he buy the rights after seeing the play on Broadway.

While Shearer's name was still attached to the project, MGM announced it would be produced with Clark Gable as Mr. Darcy. With Shearer on a six-month vacation in Europe, the studio handed Jerome's play over to Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason, the husband and wife team that had recently written successful adaptations of Golden Boy (1939) and Stella Dallas (1937). But Thalberg died before the movie went into production, and Shearer was no longer in the running.

At various times Robert Donat, Robert Taylor and Melvyn Douglas were considered for the role of Darcy. By the time the project was approved for filming, Laurence Olivier was the only one considered for the part. The young British actor had recently established himself in Hollywood with impressive work in Wuthering Heights (1939) and Rebecca (1940).

Olivier wanted his soon-to-be wife Vivien Leigh as his co-star, a choice supported by director Robert Z. Leonard. Although Leigh had just made a big splash as Scarlett O'Hara, Mayer decided to cast his discovery Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennett. Mayer first saw Garson on stage in London and put her under contract. Her first MGM role was as the title character's wife in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), and she made a favorable enough impression on audiences to lead MGM into giving her a big star build-up.

As many as nine other writers were brought in to work on the script of Pride and Prejudice before MGM hired veteran writer Jane Murfin and famed British novelist Aldous Huxley, who had recently moved to California.

Huxley was less than hopeful about the outcome, writing to one friend that the task was “an odd, crossword puzzle job. One tries to do one’s best for Jane Austen, but actually the very fact of transforming the book into a picture must necessarily alter its whole quality in a profound way.”

Scholars analyzing the process of adapting literature to film have noted that Austen's novel, with its absence of metaphorical language in favor of direct clarity of story, its omniscient point of view, and dependency on dialogue to reveal character were all ideally suited to the task of transferring the story to the screen.

by Rob Nixon

[Staph]

2. This version of P&P is a good one.

But the best version is still the 1995 mini-series made for A&E Television. Colin Firth is Mr. Darcy.

[CBHagman]

3. Love that Harpo Marx link.

In fact, anyone who can write an essay that manages to incorporate Jane Austen and the Marx Brothers is obviously after my own heart.