TCM Schedule for Friday, November 17, 2017 -- What's On Tonight: Wonderstruck

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is featuring the films of Irene Dunne -- not her birthday but her day nonetheless. Fun fact: In 1957 she was appointed as a special US delegate to the United Nations during the 12th General Assembly by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, such was her widespread appeal. The remainder of her life was spent on civic causes. She even donated $10,000 to the restoration of the town fountain in her girlhood home of Madison, Indiana, in 1976, even though she had not been there since 1938 when she came home for a visit.

In prime time, TCM has a selection of films chosen by writer Brian Selznick. From the TCM website:

American writer/illustrator Brian Selznick, who recently adapted his 2011 novel Wonderstruck into a film of the same title, will appear on-camera on TCM to introduce three movies that have been influential in his life and work.

Born in New Jersey in 1966, Selznick is the grandson of a cousin of the legendary movie producer David O. Selznick. Brian worked in children's literature for years before breaking into the mainstream with The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007), which won the 2008 Caldecott Medal for picture-book illustration. The book was adapted into a film directed by Martin Scorsese, Hugo (2011), which won five Academy Awards and six additional nominations.

The film version of Wonderstruck (2017) was directed by Todd Haynes, widely celebrated for such films as Far From Heaven (2002) and Carol (2015). Wonderstruck switches between two stories set 50 years apart, each concerning the quest of a child. The earlier story is shot in black-and-white and is silent, while the contemporary one is influenced by atmospheric color films of the 1970s. The movie stars Millicent Simmonds and Oaks Fegley as the two children, and Julianne Moore in a dual role.

Selznick's first pick is The Wind (1928), the legendary silent film about a young woman severely unsettled by life in West Texas. The film was directed by Victor Sjöström and stars Lillian Gish, with cinematography by John Arnold. In notes for a screening of the film at the Museum of the Moving Image, Selznick wrote about this film's influence on Wonderstruck: "Gish [is] at the height of her powers, fighting the wind and insanity nonstop for the entire movie... The character of Lillian Mayhew, played by Julianne Moore, is directly inspired by Gish, and the fictional movie-within-a-movie, Daughter of the Wind, is exactly that, an offspring of this very movie."

Next Selznick chooses Being There (1979), Hal Ashby's enigmatic comedy about a gardener (Peter Sellers) whose simple-minded wisdom makes him a celebrity. Selznick described the film as an "enigmatic masterpiece, a comedy, a tragedy, a political satire, and a one-sided love story." He noted that it "directly inspired a scene in Wonderstruck. When Peter Sellers's character, Chauncey Gardiner, first leaves the house where he's lived his life, he's accompanied by the familiar sound of the music from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but in a disco version by Deodato (the real title of the music is Also Sprach Zarathustra), and this walk, and music, are used in a key moment in Wonderstruck."

Selznick's final choice is Mean Streets (1973), Martin Scorsese's study of small-time hoods in the Little Italy neighborhood of New York City. Selznick said in an interview that he envisioned the 1970s scenes of Wonderstruck "as if it was a movie from that decade, awash in period-cored color, sound and techniques... In a way, I was kind of imagining I was making Mean Streets for kids." The highly influential cinematography of Scorsese's film, with its shadowy colors and hand-held camera techniques, is by Kent L. Wakeford.

By Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!


6:21 AM -- ROPING WILD BEARS (1934)
In this short film, wild bears that bother livestock are captured with ropes and shipped to zoos.
Dir: W. Earle Frank
BW-8 mins,


6:30 AM -- BACHELOR APARTMENT (1931)
An honest working girl falls for a skirt-chasing playboy.
Dir: Lowell Sherman
Cast: Lowell Sherman, Irene Dunne, Mae Murray
BW-77 mins, CC,

Screenwriter John Howard Lawson is not the most famous member of the Hollywood 10, those filmmakers who defied the House Committee on Un-American Activities' inquiry into alleged "Communist subversion" in the Hollywood movie industry in 1947, but he was the central figure of the group--the mind if not the heart and soul of the Communist community in Hollywood. One of the founders and the first president of the Screenwriters Guild (now called the Writers' Guild of America), the first and most aggressive of the Hollywood guilds, he was the Communist Party's de facto cultural commissar in Hollywood, particularly as it affected writers.


8:00 AM -- THE GREAT LOVER (1931)
A womanizing opera star falls in love with his innocent young protegee.
Dir: Harry Beaumont
Cast: Adolphe Menjou, Irene Dunne, Ernest Torrence
BW-71 mins,

The play opened on Broadway in New York City, New York, USA on 10 November 1915 and closed in June 1916 after 245 performances. The opening night cast included playwright Leo Ditrichstein, Cora Witherspoon and William Ricciardi, who was also in the 1932 Broadway revival.


9:15 AM -- SYMPHONY OF SIX MILLION (1932)
A doctor fights his way from the slums to Park Avenue.
Dir: Gregory La Cava
Cast: Ricardo Cortez, Irene Dunne, Anna Appel
BW-95 mins,

Based on a story by Fannie Hurst.


11:00 AM -- THIRTEEN WOMEN (1932)
A mysterious Eurasian tries to murder the 12 boarding school roommates who treated her like an outsider.
Dir: George Archainbaud
Cast: Irene Dunne, Ricardo Cortez, Jill Esmond
C-60 mins, CC,

Peg Entwistle, who played Hazel Clay Cousins, committed suicide, two days after the film's American date of release, Friday, September 16th, 1932. She jumped off the "H" of the Hollywood sign, then "Hollywoodland.", on Sunday, September 18th, 1932.


12:15 PM -- ANN VICKERS (1933)
A social worker's fight for reform is compromised by her love for a corrupt judge.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Irene Dunne, Walter Huston, Conrad Nagel
BW-76 mins, CC,

Some objections were made by the Hays Office concerning the plot of the first draft of the screenplay, where Ann marries Captain Resnick and then has an affair with Barney. The plot was changed to Ann being seduced by the Captain with the offense somehow deemed less if only one of the parties in the adulterous affair is married. No reference is made about any abortion in the trip to Havana, and in the released print the cause of death of Ann's baby girl is never mentioned. RKO applied for an "Approved" certificate in 1935, when the production code was more rigorously enforced, but they were informed that no certificate would be given because of the film's attitude towards adultery.


1:45 PM -- NO OTHER WOMAN (1933)
A newly rich couple finds wealth drives them apart.
Dir: J. Walter Ruben
Cast: Irene Dunne, Charles Bickford, Gwili Andre
BW-58 mins, CC,

The original play, "Just a Woman," opened in New York City, New York, USA on 17 January 1916 and had 136 performances. The play was also filmed as Just A Woman in both 1918 and 1925.


3:00 PM -- THE SECRET OF MADAME BLANCHE (1933)
A murder brings together a woman and the son she was forced to give up years earlier.
Dir: Charles Brabin
Cast: Irene Dunne, Lionel Atwill, Phillips Holmes
BW-84 mins, CC,

Also filmed in 1925 as The Lady.


4:30 PM -- THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1934)
A young attorney risks his career for love of a glamorous divorcee.
Dir: Philip Moeller
Cast: Irene Dunne, John Boles, Lionel Atwill
BW-81 mins, CC,

Also filmed in 1924 (with Beverly Bayne as Countess Olenska - Irene Dunne's role) and in 1993 (with Michelle Pfieffer as the Countess).


6:00 PM -- ROBERTA (1935)
A football player inherits a chic Paris fashion house.
Dir: William A. Seiter
Cast: Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers
BW-106 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jerome Kern (music), Dorothy Fields (lyrics) and Jimmy McHugh (lyrics) for the song "Lovely to Look at"

The floor in the "I'll Be Hard to Handle" dance was the only wooden floor in all of the Fred Astaire / Ginger Rogers musicals. They both loved working on it, as they could tap and actually make the sounds of the taps. In the other musicals their taps were dubbed over, as they were too quiet. Their enjoyment is clearly seen, as their giggles at each other are unscripted.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: WONDERSTRUCK



8:00 PM -- THE WIND (1928)
In this silent film, a sheltered southern girl fights to adapt to the rough-and-tumble life of the wild West.
Dir: Victor Seastrom
Cast: Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Montagu Love
BW-82 mins,

During filming, high temperatures made life miserable for both cast and crew. The intense heat caused the film stock to warp, and it had to be packed in ice to remain intact. Lillian Gish claimed that she touched an outside door handle, and was so severely burned that a small part of her palm's flesh was scalded off.


9:45 PM -- BEING THERE (1979)
Political pundits mistake an illiterate gardener for a media genius and turn him into a national hero.
Dir: Hal Ashby
Cast: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas
C-130 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Melvyn Douglas (Melvyn Douglas was not present at the awards ceremony. Co-presenter Liza Minnelli accepted the award on his behalf.)

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Peter Sellers

It took Peter Sellers nearly nine years to get this movie made by a studio, mainly because by the 1970s Sellers' career had hit rock bottom and no studio in Hollywood would work with him. After the revival (and success) of the Pink Panther movies, Lorimar Pictures finally greenlit the project.


12:15 AM -- MEAN STREETS (1973)
A small-time hood must choose from among love, friendship and the chance to rise within the mob.
Dir: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, David Proval
C-112 mins, CC,

While many consider this to be the quintessential New York City film, very little of it was actually shot there. Many scenes, including the famous pool hall sequence, were shot in Los Angeles, California.


2:30 AM -- MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER (1971)
A gambler and a prostitute become business partners in a remote Old West mining town.
Dir: Robert Altman
Cast: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois
C-121 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Julie Christie

During post-production on this film, Robert Altman was having a difficult time finding a proper musical score, until he attended a party where the album "Songs of Leonard Cohen" was playing and noticed that several songs from the album seemed to fit in with the overall mood and themes of the movie. Cohen, who had been a fan of Altman's previous film, Brewster McCloud (1970), allowed him to use three songs from the album - "The Stranger Song", "Sisters of Mercy" and "Winter Lady" - although Altman was dismayed when Cohen later admitted that he didn't like the movie. A year later, Altman received a phone call from Cohen, who told him that he changed his mind after re-watching the movie with an audience and now loved it.


4:45 AM -- THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928)
In this silent film, Joan of Arc braves the threat of torture to stand fast for her beliefs.
Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Cast: Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, Antonin Artaud
BW-81 mins,

After completing the original cut of the film, director Carl Theodor Dreyer learned that the entire master print had been accidentally destroyed. With no ability to re-shoot, Dreyer re-edited the entire film from footage he had originally rejected.