TCM Schedule for Thursday, August 18 -- Summer Under The Stars -- Jean Gabin

[Staph]

Today's star is French actor Jean Gabin. Considered one of the great stars of French cinema, he was made a member of the Légion d'honneur. The Musée Jean Gabin in his native town, Mériel, contains his story and features, his war and film memorabilia. Enjoy!




6:00 AM -- Gueule d'amour (1937)
A retired cavalry officer discovers the woman who won his heart was in love with the uniform.
Dir: Jean Gremillon
Cast: Jean Gabin
88 min, TV-PG

Also known as Lady Killer, and as Lover Boy.


7:40 AM -- One Reel Wonder: One For The Book (1940)
On a desktop with many books, familiar characters in literature come out of their books after dark.
Dir: Roy Mack
Cast: Betty Hutton, Hal Sherman, Miriam Grahame
C-19 min

Betty Hutton performs Old Man Mose Ain't Dead and Mr. End Man.


8:00 AM -- Remorques (1941)
A married tugboat captain falls for a woman he rescues from a sinking ship.
Dir: Jean Gremillon
Cast: Jean Gabin, Alain Cuny,
83 min, TV-PG

The film was started in 1939 but was soon interrupted because of the war. The shooting only resumed in the summer of 1940. Grémillon only completed it in 1941 as the storm scenes had to be redone from scratch.


9:30 AM -- Le Jour Se Leve (1939)
A young factory worker loses the woman he loves to a vicious schemer.
Dir: Marcel Carne
Cast: Jean Gabin, Jacqueline Laurent, Arletty.
90 min, TV-PG

With RKO's 1947 remake, The Long Night, the Studio tried to have all original prints of Le jour se lève destroyed.


11:00 AM -- l' air De Paris (1954)
An over-the-hill boxer stakes his fortune on training a young railroad-worker.
Dir: Marcel Carne
Cast: Arletty, Jean Gabin, Roland Lesaffre.
104 min

Also known as Air of Paris.


1:00 PM -- Leur derniere nuit (1953)
A schoolteacher falls for a librarian who's secretly the head of a criminal ring.
Dir: Georges Lacombe
Cast: Jean Gabin
91 min, TV-PG

Also known as Their Last Night.


2:45 PM -- Le Desordre et la nuit (1958)
A homicide detective tries to protect a pretty drug addict implicated in a murder.
Dir: Gilles Grangier
Cast: Jean Gabin, Danielle Darrieux, Nadja Tiller.
91 min, TV-PG

Nadja Tiller was Miss Austria in 1949 and 1951.


4:30 PM -- Maria Chapdelaine (1934)
A Canadian frontierswoman must choose from among three suitors.
Dir: Julien Duvivier
Cast: Jean Gabin
72 min, TV-G

There are two cast lists in the title credits. The first one only lists the 6 main players as follows: Madeleine Renaud (as Madeleine Renaud Sociétaire de la Comédie Française), Jean Gabin, Jean-Pierre Aumont, André Bacqué (as André Bacqué Sociétaire de la Comédie Française), Alexandre Rignault and Suzanne Desprès. Then a full cast list details all female players along with their respective character names, followed by the male cast (also with the names of their characters).


6:00 PM -- La Bandera (1934)
A murderer escapes France to join the Spanish Foreign Legion, where he finds love while pursued by the law.
Dir: Julien Duvivier
Cast: Jean Gabin
97 min, TV-PG

The movie was initially dedicated to Colonel Franco and his troops. The dedication was removed after the Spanish civil war.


7:49 PM -- One Reel Wonder: Return From Nowhere (1944)
A man recovers his lost memories when he is forced to relive events in his dreams.
Dir: Paul Burnford
Cast: Morris Ankrum, Donald Curtis, Peter Cushing
10 min

One of MGM's Passing Parade series.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: JEAN GABIN



8:00 PM -- Pepe le Moko (1941)
Love for a beautiful woman draws a gangster out of hiding.
Dir: Julien Duvivier
Cast: Jean Gabin, Mireille Balin, Gabriel Gabrio.
94 min, TV-PG

When Walter Wanger produced Algiers, the American remake, he tired to have all copies of "Pépé le Moko" destroyed. Fortunately, he was not able to do so.


9:49 PM -- One Reel Wonder: Marine Circus (1939)
This Pete Smith Specialty offers a look at Marineland of Florida, featuring the various marine life on display there.
Dir: James A. FitzPatrick
Narrator: Pete Smith
C-9 min

Filmed shortly after the June 1938 opening of Marineland of Florida.


10:00 PM -- Grand Illusion (1937)
French POWs fight to escape their German captors during World War I.
Dir: Jean Renoir
Cast: Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Marcel Dalio.
113 min, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Goebbels made sure that the film's print was one of the first things seized by the Germans when they occupied France. He referred to Jean Renoir as "Cinematic Public Enemy Number 1". For many years it was assumed that the film had been destroyed in an Allied air raid in 1942. However, a German film archivist named Frank Hansel, then a Nazi officer in Paris, had actually smuggled it back to Berlin. Then when the Russians entered Berlin in 1945, the film found its way to an archive in Moscow. When Jean Renoir came to restore his film in the 1960s, he knew nothing of Hansel's acquisition and was working from an old muddy print. Purely by coincidence at the same time, the Russian archive swapped some material with an archive in Toulouse. Included in that exchange was the original negative print. However, because so many prints of the film existed at the time, it would be another 30 years before anyone realised that the version in Toulouse was actually the original negative.


12:00 AM -- La Bête Humaine (1938)
A railroad engineer enters an affair with his friend's amoral wife.
97 min

Severine gives Roubaud a Nogent knife, which he is impressed with. The region of Nogent-Bassigny is a centre of French cutlery manufacture. It also the name of a company that makes knives and similar items.


2:00 AM -- Touchez Pas Au Grisbi (1954)
An aging gangster comes out of retirement when his best friend is kidnapped.
96 min

According to actor Daniel Cauchy (Fifi), his character was originally supposed to remain in the car until the classic showdown between Lino Ventura and Jean Gabin. He was commuting by air between another film commitment being shot in Paris and this one, but director Becker thought it would be more expedient to have Gabin's character throw him out of the car before that.


3:40 AM -- One Reel Wonder: Challenge Of The Wilderness (1951)
This MGM short is a promo for their upcoming feature Westward the Women.
Dir: Jack Atlas
Cast: Pete Dailey, Robert Taylor, Denise Darcel
C-11 min

Denise Darcel's French-language dialog in Westward The Women includes a few words which prove that no one in the 1950's version of the Hays Office understood French. Some of the terms she used while angry at "Buck Wyatt" would never have gotten past the censors in English.


4:00 AM -- Des gens sans importance (1955)
An unhappy waitress starts an affair with a married truck driver.
Dir: Henri Verneuil
Cast: Jean Gabin
99 min, TV-PG

Remade in Japan in 1986 as Michi.

[CBHagman]

1. Great idea for a Summer Under the Stars schedule.

Lots of rare items there.