TCM Schedule for Thursday, March 6: Star of the Month -- Acting Dynasties

[Staph]

The daytime films feature Guy Kibbee, a member of the Warner Brothers Stock Company, a cadre of seasoned character actors and actresses who enlivened many a Warners musical or gangster film. Kibbee specialized in playing jovial, but not particularly bright, businessmen and government officials. He was memorable as the wealthy but dim "stage-door Johnny" in Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933).

This evening begins an unusual version of the Star of the Month -- Acting Dynasties. This month will feature families of talented film makers. Tonight we get the Hustons (Walter, John and Anjelica), and the Bridges (Lloyd, Beau and Jeff). Later in the month, we'll see the Redgraves, the Douglases, the Fairbanks, the Fondas, the Barrymores, and the Mills. Enjoy!



4:30am -- The Long Dark Hall (1951)
A naive family man is framed for the murder of his showgirl girlfriend.
Cast: Rex Harrison, Lilli Palmer, Tania Heald.
Dir: Reginald Beck, Anthony Bushell.
BW-88 mins, TV-PG

Rex Harrison was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of England at the age of 81. This was unusual since historically knighthood was not bestowed on anyone who had lived abroad or married more than once, both of which Harrison had done. He had actually been married six times (the same number as Henry VIII, though Sexy Rexy divorced his extra wives).


6:00am -- The Big Shot (1937)
A small-town veterinarian's life goes to the dogs when he inherits a fortune.
Cast: Guy Kibbee, Cora Witherspoon, Dorothy Moore.
Dir: Edward Killy.
BW-60 mins, TV-G

Cora Witherspoon began her five-decade career in New York playing an elderly lady in the 1910 production of "The Concert". She was 20 years old at the time.


7:15am -- Big Hearted Herbert (1934)
A plumber's business success makes him neglect his family.
Cast: Guy Kibbee, Aline MacMahon, Patricia Ellis.
Dir: William Keighley.
BW-59 mins, TV-G

Based on a play by Sophie Kerr. The Sophie Kerr Award is given to the senior who shows the most promise as a writer at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. More than $750,000 has been awarded since the award's inception in 1968.


8:30am -- Mary Jane's Pa (1935)
A female newspaper publisher hires the husband who deserted her years earlier.
Cast: Guy Kibbee, Aline MacMahon, Tom Brown.
Dir: William Keighley.
BW-71 mins, TV-G

One of ten movies co-starring Guy Kibbee and Aline MacMahon -- four of them are featured today.


9:45am -- Havana Widows (1933)
Chorus girls travel to Cuba in search of rich husbands.
Cast: Joan Blondell, Glenda Farrell, Guy Kibbee.
Dir: Ray Enright.
BW-62 mins, TV-G

The opening shot -- a burlesque marquee featuring "Iwanna Shakitoff, direct from Russia". Typical of the racy stuff produced before the strict enforcement of the Hays Code in 1934.


11:00am -- M'liss (1936)
A young innocent searches a rough mining town for her drunken father.
Cast: Anne Shirley, John Beal, Guy Kibbee.
Dir: George Nicholls, Jr.
BW-66 mins, TV-G

Based on the novel by Bret Harte. Anne Shirley, born Dawn Paris and acted under the name Dawn O'Day in her early films, changed her name to that of her character after her starring role in Anne of Green Gables (1934).


12:15pm -- Babbitt (1934)
A small-town businessman bumbles into blackmail and a real-estate swindle.
Cast: Guy Kibbee, Aline MacMahon, Claire Dodd.
Dir: William Keighley.
BW-74 mins, TV-G

The first talkie version of the Sinclair Lewis novel.


1:30pm -- Mama Steps Out (1937)
A dizzy society matron runs wild on the Riviera.
Cast: Alice Brady, Guy Kibbee, Betty Furness.
Dir: George B. Seitz.
BW-65 mins, TV-G

John Alexander Kirkpatrick's original play, "Ada Beats the Drum," opened in New York on 8 May 1930, with Mary Boland and George Barbier in the roles of Ada and Leonard Cuppy.


2:45pm -- The Merry Frinks (1934)
A loving wife and mother tries to keep her eccentric family in line.
Cast: Aline MacMahon, Guy Kibbee, Allen Jenkins.
Dir: Alfred E. Green.
BW-68 mins, TV-G

Director Alfred E. Green provides a great camera move as Papa Frink arrives home to be pursued by his nagging relatives while walking through the entire house twice in a continuous tracking shot that must have been difficult to stage. Remember -- no CGI!


4:00pm -- This Time For Keeps (1942)
A newlywed goes to work for his disapproving father-in-law.
Cast: Ann Rutherford, Robert Sterling, Guy Kibbee.
Dir: Charles Riesner.
BW-73 mins, TV-G

Herman J. Mankiewicz is given onscreen credits for "characters", which undoubtedly referred to the movie Keeping Company (1940), but characters in that movie had different surnames. However, Ann Rutherford, Virginia Weidler and Irene Rich also played family roles in that movie, but Guy Kibbee replaced Frank Morgan as the family patriarch. Although a series based on the family was planned, no other film was ever made.


5:15pm -- High Pressure (1932)
A scheming promoter tries to get rich selling artificial rubber.
Cast: William Powell, Evelyn Brent, Guy Kibbee.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy.
BW-73 mins, TV-G

In 1932 Warners re-shot this same comedy with French-speaking actors (replacing the original performers), delivering all their dialog in French, at the same Hollywood studio, in the same sets, and using the same script (translated into French), under the French title "Le bluffeur" (The Bluffer). Subtitles weren't yet in vogue, so Warners gave French-speaking audiences a parallel version they could understand, played mostly by French actors. When subtitles and dubbing were soon "perfected", the US studios ceased making parallel versions like "Le bluffeur".


6:30pm -- Sunday Punch (1942)
A young girl copes with a boarding house full of boxers.
Cast: Jean Rogers, William Lundigan, Guy Kibbee.
Dir: David Miller.
BW-76 mins, TV-G

The screenplay was written by Fay Kanin, sister-in-law of Garson Kanin, and herself President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1979-1983.


What's On Tonight: STAR OF THE MONTH: ACTING DYNASTIES


8:00pm -- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Three prospectors fight off bandits and each other after striking-it-rich in the Mexican mountains.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt.
Dir: John Huston.
BW-126 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Walter Huston, Best Director -- John Huston, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Huston

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

The movie's line "Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!" was voted as the #36 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).


10:15pm -- The Wind And The Lion (1975)
An Arab chief triggers an international incident when he kidnaps an American widow and her children.
Cast: Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, Brian Keith, John Huston.
Dir: John Milius.
C-119 mins, TV-MA

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Score -- Jerry Goldsmith, and Best Sound -- Harry W. Tetrick, Aaron Rochin, William L. McCaughey and Roy Charman

The story was based on a historical incident involving the kidnapping of Ion Perdicaris, an American expatriate living in Tangier (changed to a woman for the movie). However, the two children, the American attack on the Bashaw's palace in Tangier, and the climactic battle between the American and German forces, were all inventions of writer-director John Milius.


12:30am -- Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
In parallel stories, a wealthy doctor deals with a blackmailing mistress while a filmmaker shoots a documentary about a corrupt TV producer.
Cast: Woody Allen, Alan Alda, Martin Landau, Anjelica Huston.
Dir: Woody Allen.
C-104 mins, TV-14

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Martin Landau, Best Director -- Woody Allen, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Woody Allen

The character of Lester, played by Alan Alda, is based on Larry Gelbart, whom both Woody Allen and Alan Alda worked with and reportedly disliked because of his despotic way. Lester's various comments such as "Comedy is tragedy plus time" and "If it bends, it's funny; if it breaks, it's not funny" were actual Gelbart quotes.


2:30am -- The Rainmaker (1956)
A fake rainmaker melts the heart of a Kansas spinster while trying to save the town's crops.
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Burt Lancaster, Wendell Corey, Lloyd Bridges.
Dir: Joseph Anthony.
C-121 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Alex North

Loosely based on the real-life story of rainmaker Charles M. Hatfield.

[Staph]

1. Acting Dynasties Introduction

There’s no denying that acting talent not only runs in some families but absolutely gallops in others, something we’re going to look into every Thursday in primetime this month on TCM. We’ll be having a look, for instance, at the Fondas (Henry, Jane and Peter) and the Barrymores which includes John, Lionel, Ethel and John’s son who initially was billed as John Barrymore Jr. then as John Drew Barrymore; he also happens to be the father of today’s Drew Barrymore. But that’s only the start of it.

According to the dictionary, a dynasty is “a family or group that maintains power for several generations” and we’re taking that literally. The actors in the family units we’re spotlighting have indeed served time as Hollywood powerhouses, and remained so though more than one generation. That includes Fairbanks pere and fils, the athletic and swashbucking Douglas Sr. and his son, the equally dashing and agile Doug Jr. Also the Douglas duo (Kirk and Michael), the Bridges boys (father Lloyd and sons Beau and Jeff) and two British clans which have also made indelible marks on movie audiences with their acting chops. the Redgraves (Sir Michael, Vanessa and Lynn) and the Mills (Sir John, Juliet and Hayley).

Of them all, however, one particular family of actors could rightly be the poster children for all acting dynasties in the motion picture field. Hail the Hustons! It all started with Walter Huston (1884-1950), one of the great actors of both stage and screen in the 1930s and 1940s. He begat son John Huston (1906-1987), who not only gained fame as a screenwriter and director but was also a dynamic actor in his own right, with an Oscar® nomination for his performance in 1963’s The Cardinal should anyone doubt it. Meanwhile, John begat daughter Anjelica Huston, born in 1952, and she became an Academy Award champ in her own right, thanks to her work in Prizzi’s Honor, a 1985 film directed by her father. It was four decades earlier that John Huston had done equally well for his dad when Walter H. was voted the Oscar® as the best supporting actor of 1948 for a film directed by John H., The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It was that same masterful movie which also netted the son two Oscars® for himself, one for writing the year’s best screenplay, another as the year’s best director.

Well, on March 6 you can see all three of those Hustons showing what fine acting is all about -- Walter teamed with Humphrey Bogart in that much-Oscared The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, then John acting alongside Sean Connery and Candice Bergen in The Wind and the Lion, and also Anjelica joining Woody Allen, Mia Farrow and Martin Landau in Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Unfortunately, there aren’t enough Thursdays in the month to spotlight all the talented families who’ve produced more than one generation of noteable actors - such as the Bennetts (father Richard and daughters Constance & Joan) and those potent mother-daughter combinations which include Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli, Blythe Danner and Gwyneth Paltrow, Ingrid Bergman and Isabella Rossellini. Who knows? There may be a sequel in store. Meanwhile, though, we offer proof of that adage that “The apple never falls far from the tree.” In the case of the acting dynasties we’re visiting this month on TCM. The family trees have indeed produced fruit that’s not only golden but continues to have an incredible shelf life.

by Robert Osborne
(Yeah, that Robert Osborne!)