TCM Schedule for Thursday, April 20, 2017 -- Star of the Month - Character Actors

[Staph]

During the daylight hours, TCM is featuring some of the films by screenwriter Frances Marion. Today's films include the fim of one of her two Oscar-winning scripts, The Big House (1930). Then in prime time, TCM continues this month's theme of Character Actors. Tonight's actors include Florence Bates in On the Town (1949), Mary Wickes in By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953), Marjorie Main in The Long, Long Trailer (1954), and Thelma Ritter in Rear Window (1954). Enjoy!


6:45 AM -- BLONDIE OF THE FOLLIES (1932)
Two showgirls on the road from rags to riches compete for the same man.
Dir: Edmund Goulding
Cast: Marion Davies, Robert Montgomery, Billie Dove
BW-91 mins, CC,

Final film of Billie Dove. She retired after this film both to raise a family and in anger at the "behind-the-scenes" interference from William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies' lover and the producer of the film. Dove appeared in a small part 30 years later in Diamond Head (1962), but her scene was eventually cut from the film before its release.


8:45 AM -- WITHOUT LYING DOWN - FRANCES MARION AND THE POWERFUL WOMEN IN HOLLYWOOD (2000)
A look at the women who helped build Hollywood by taking on such traditionally male jobs as directing, producing and writing.
Dir: Bridget Terry
Cast: Mary Lea Bandy, Cari Beauchamp, Kevin Brownlow
C-55 mins, CC,

Features clips from Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917), The Little Princess (1917), Stella Maris (1918), Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley (1918), M'Liss (1918), Johanna Enlists (1918), Pollyanna (1920), The Love Light (1921), Galloping Gallagher (1924) (Short), Thundering Hoofs (1924), Zander the Great (1925), The Scarlet Letter (1926), The Wind (1928), The Big House (1930), Min and Bill (1930), Anna Christie (1930), The Champ (1931), Blondie of the Follies (1932), Dinner at Eight (1933), and The Candid Camera Story (Very Candid) of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures 1937 Convention (1937) (Short).


10:00 AM -- KNIGHT WITHOUT ARMOUR (1937)
A British spy tries to get a countess out of the new Soviet Union.
Dir: Jacques Feyder
Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Robert Donat, Irene Van Brugh
BW-108 mins, CC,

During the shooting, Robert Donat had a severe attack of asthma and the film was delayed for almost a month. The producers wanted to replace him, but Marlene Dietrich refused. According to Robert Osborne, host of Turner Classic Movies, Marlene Dietrich waived her salary during Robert Donat's illness and nursed him until he was well enough to return to filming.


12:00 PM -- ANNA CHRISTIE (1930)
Eugene O'Neill's classic about a romantic prostitute trying to run away from her past.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Greta Garbo, Charles Bickford, George F. Marion
BW-90 mins, CC,

A German-language version was filmed directly after Anna Christie (1930), using the same sets.


1:45 PM -- CAMILLE (1937)
In this classic 19th-century romance, a kept woman runs off with a young admirer in search of love and happiness.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore
BW-109 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greta Garbo

Many people found Greta Garbo's process as an actress inscrutable, though no one questioned it because the results spoke for themselves. Her habit was to work out a performance ahead of time in private as much as possible. Too many eyes on her in front of the camera made her uneasy. As George Cukor once explained, "[Garbo] said that when she was acting she had some sort of an ideal picture in her mind - something she was creating - and she never saw the rushes because she was always disappointed in what she saw. But she said while she was acting she could imagine certain things and if she saw people just off the set staring at her, she felt like an ass, like somebody with a lot of paint on her face making faces. It stopped her imagination."


4:00 PM -- THE BIG HOUSE (1930)
An attempted prison break leads to a riot.
Dir: George Hill
Cast: Chester Morris, Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone
BW-87 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Writing, Achievement -- Frances Marion, and Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (sound director)

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Wallace Beery, and Best Picture

Frances Marion's Academy Award for Best Screenplay made her the first woman to win an Oscar in a non-acting capacity.


5:45 PM -- DINNER AT EIGHT (1933)
A high-society dinner party masks a hotbed of scandal and intrigue.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery
BW-111 mins, CC,

Marie Dressler was impressed with Jean Harlow. She realled in her autobiography, "It was whispered behind more than one hand that Jean Harlow, Metro's much-advertised platinum menace, was picked for parts that called for more allure than art. And in Dinner at Eight, she had to throw a bomb in the works by proving that she is a first-rate actress! Her performance as the wife of the hard-boiled, self-made politician played by Wallace Beery belongs in that limited category of things which may with reason be called rare. The plain truth is, she all but ran off with the show!"



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: CHARACTER ACTORS



8:00 PM -- ON THE TOWN (1949)
Three sailors wreak havoc as they search for love during a whirlwind 24-hour leave in New York City.
Dir: Gene Kelly
Cast: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett
C-98 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Roger Edens and Lennie Hayton

Ann Miller commented in a TCM interview that at least one take of her big tap number to "Prehistoric Man" was ruined because of her own costume. She had been dancing very close to the large dinosaur , and during a series of her trademark tap spins, the flared skirt she was wearing brushed against some of the bones and brought the entire exhibit crashing to the ground. Filming was halted for a considerable time while it was put back together.


10:00 PM -- BY THE LIGHT OF THE SILVERY MOON (1953)
A small-town girl's love life goes ballistic when her sweetheart returns from World War I.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Leon Ames
C-102 mins, CC,

This movie departs from its predecessor, On Moonlight Bay (1951), in three main ways. Firstly, the film opens with Stella (Mary Wickes) breaking the fourth wall, addressing the audience directly as she introduces the Winfield family. Secondly, the musical numbers are played like a traditional musical, while the original movie incorporated the songs more organically within the story. Finally, the bespectacled music teacher, although the same basic character with the same mannerisms, has a different name and is played by a different actor, the only member of the cast who did not carry over from the original film.


12:00 AM -- THE LONG, LONG TRAILER (1954)
Life on the road isn't what it's cracked up to be when a honeymooning couple invests in an oversized motor home.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Marjorie Main
C-96 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The New Moon trailers, produced by The Redman Trailer Co. (as per original sales brochures & in viewing the actual 1953 models), didn't come with a "sunken living room" as was highlighted in the film. This was done to add a reason for Desi Arnaz's character to take his pratfall when first entering the trailer. You can see that the floor of the kitchen is flat with the living room floor if you look closely when he opens the door for the first time at the trailer show, as this was simply a regular production coach in the shot. The interior shots had a "dropped" section in the living room area and you can see that the vent windows are much further from the ceiling than they would be as seen from the exterior. New Moon trailers also had a furnace in the corner between the front door and the kitchen cabinet. It is assumed this was removed from the interior mock up for aesthetic reasons.


2:00 AM -- REAR WINDOW (1954)
A photographer with a broken leg uncovers a murder while spying on the neighbors in a nearby apartment building.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey
C-112 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Alfred Hitchcock, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Michael Hayes, Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert Burks, and Best Sound, Recording -- Loren L. Ryder (Paramount)

According to Georgine Darcy, the scene in which the man and woman on the fire escape struggle in their attempt to get in out of the rain can be attributed to a prank by Alfred Hitchcock. Each actor in the apartment complex facing Jeff's rear window wore an earpiece through which they could receive Hitchcock's directions. Hitchcock told the man to pull the mattress in one direction and told the woman to pull in the opposite direction. Unaware that they had received conflicting directions, the couple began to fight and struggle to get the mattress inside once the crew began filming the scene. The resulting mayhem in which one of the couple is tossed inside the window with the mattress provided humor and a sense of authenticity to the scene which Hitchcock liked. He was so pleased with the result that he did not order another take.


4:15 AM -- THE WINDOW (1949)
A boy who always lies witnesses a murder but can't get anyone but the killer to believe him.
Dir: Ted Tetzlaff
Cast: Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart
BW-73 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Frederic Knudtson

The plot of the Cornell Woolrich story, "The Boy Cried Murder" upon which this film is based, was reworked in 1954 and became Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954). Woolrich also received a writing credit in that film.

[Warpy]

1. Him and his damned musicals. UGH

At least Marie Dressler is on earlier. She wasn't much to look at by the time talkies came in, but she still lit up the screen.

[CBHagman]

4. "Wasn't much to look at"?

But a century and a half on, she's still drawing compliments.

[Kahuna7]

5. Marie was unique. She didn't have to rely on beauty to be a star.

Last edited Tue Apr 18, 2017, 08:21 AM - Edit history (1)

She was utterly charming and entertaining.

[longship]

2. One essential today. "Rear Window" even if you've seen it recently.

Thelma Ritter makes an incredible impact on this claustrophobic film. Her asides are priceless. She was robbed, should have received a best supporting actress Oscar.

Note, concerning the little narrative below the entry above: Georgine Darcy plays "Miss Torso" the tall blonde dancer who lives opposite James Sewart in the film.

[longship]

6. BTW, the man sleeping on the fire escape in Rear Window...

Mentioned in the note below the entry in the OP was played by Frank Cady, noted from Pettycoat Junction and Green Acres.

Yet another great character actor.