TCM Schedule for Thursday, May 16, 2013 -- What's On Tonight -- The Lives of Saints

[Staph]

In the daylight hours today, TCM appears to be celebrating the work of Jean Louis, costume designer extraordinaire. He is best known for his creation of the strapless black gown worn by Rita Hayworth in Gilda (1946), as well as for designing gowns made of nude color net covered in crystal beads. He did this first for Marlene Dietrich, then for Marilyn Monroe, who sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" in it. Three of today's films earned Jean Louis Oscar nominations for Best Costume Design, and he won an Oscar for The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956). Then in prime time, we go from the sensual to the saintly. Enjoy!


7:30 AM -- A Star Is Born (1954)
A falling star marries the newcomer he's helping reach the top.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson
C-176 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Mason, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Judy Garland (Judy Garland couldn't attend the ceremony because she was giving birth to her third child and only son, Joey Luft. Even though she did not win the Academy Award, as everyone really expected her to win, she remarked that Joey was the greatest award she ever received that night.), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Malcolm C. Bert, Gene Allen, Irene Sharaff and George James Hopkins, Best Costume Design, Color -- Jean Louis, Mary Ann Nyberg and Irene Sharaff, Best Music, Original Song -- Harold Arlen (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) for the song "The Man that Got Away", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Ray Heindorf

Groucho Marx called Judy Garland not winning an Oscar for A Star Is Born, "the biggest robbery since Brink's." Hedda Hopper later reported that her loss to Grace Kelly for The Country Girl was the result of the closest Oscar vote up till that time that didn't end in a tie, with just six votes separating the two. In any event, it was a heartbreak from which she never really recovered and which has remained a matter of some controversy ever since.


10:30 AM -- My Sister Eileen (1955)
Two sisters from Ohio, one pretty, one witty, plot to take New York City by storm.
Dir: Richard Quine
Cast: Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon, Betty Garrett
C-107 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

Director Richard Quine played Frank Lippincott in the earlier film version My Sister Eileen, and in the original Broadway production of the play.


12:30 PM -- Queen Bee (1955)
A manipulative Southern socialite sets out to destroy the lives of all those around her.
Dir: Ranald MacDougall
Cast: Joan Crawford, Barry Sullivan, Betsy Palmer
BW-95 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Jean Louis

Christina Crawford, Joan Crawford's adopted daughter, recounted in her autobiography "Mommy Dearest" that she had to leave the theater midway through a showing of this film because it was too true-to-life in her mother's portrayal of the main character.


2:15 PM -- The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956)
A small time investor takes on the management of a major corporation.
Dir: Richard Quine
Cast: Judy Holliday, Paul Douglas, Fred Clark
C-100 mins, TV-G,

Won an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Jean Louis

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Ross Bellah, William Kiernan and Louis Diage

The final sequence was filmed in color, to better show off the supposedly "solid gold Cadillac" driven by Laura (Judy Holiday) and McKeever (Paul Douglas). The sequence was shot on location in Rockefeller Center in New York City. When prints of the film were subsequently struck for television broadcast, the color was not reproduced so as to save on expenses, and for decades this sequence was seen on TV only in black and white. The original color print was finally restored for home video in the 1990s and is now also shown on cable television. I assume that is the version that TCM will be showing.


4:00 PM -- Bell, Book and Candle (1959)
A beautiful witch puts a love spell on an unknowing publisher.
Dir: Richard Quine
Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon
C-102 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color -- Cary Odell and Louis Diage, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White or Color -- Jean Louis

This was James Stewart's final appearance as a romantic lead. This was because many of the leading ladies that were playing his romantic interest were becoming younger and a few were half his age. The critics in 1958 felt that Stewart was miscast as a suave New York businessman, and he apparently agreed. After this film he would concentrate more on roles that portrayed him as an everyman or as a father figure.


6:00 PM -- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
An aging couple's liberal principles are tested when their daughter announces her engagement to a black doctor.
Dir: Stanley Kramer
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn
C-108 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn (Katharine Hepburn was not present at the awards ceremony. George Cukor accepted the award on her behalf.), and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- William Rose

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy (Posthumously.), Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Cecil Kellaway, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Beah Richards, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Robert Clatworthy and Frank Tuttle, Best Director -- Stanley Kramer, Best Film Editing -- Robert C. Jones, Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Frank De Vol, and Best Picture

In the scene near the end where Spencer Tracy gives his memorable soliloquy, Katharine Hepburn can be seen crying in the background. This was not acting: she knew how gravely ill her longtime lover was and was moved by his remarks about how true love endures through the years. Tracy died 17 days after filming completed.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE LIVES OF SAINTS



8:00 PM -- The Big Fisherman (1959)
Drama that focuses on the later life of Peter, one of the closest disciples of Jesus.
Dir: Frank Borzage
Cast: Howard Keel, Susan Kohner, John Saxon
C-165 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- John DeCuir and Julia Heron, Best Cinematography, Color -- Lee Garmes, and Best Costume Design, Color -- Renié

Walt Disney originally rejected the filming of the novel, due to his distaste for religious film. His brother Roy backed the production, releasing it using the studio's Buena Vista arm.


11:15 PM -- Francis of Assisi (1961)
The story of a lusty, fighting young adventurer who exchanged his sword for a cross.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Bradford Dillman, Dolores Hart, Stuart Whitman
C-106 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

While Hart was filming in Assisi in Rome, she met Pope John XXIII, who was instrumental in her vocation. She told him "I am Dolores Hart, the actress playing Clare." The Pontiff replied, "Tu sei Chiara!" ("No, you are Clare!" in Italian). She is now Rev. Mother Dolores Hart, Prioress of the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut.


1:15 AM -- Joan Of Arc (1948)
A farm girl's faith unites France against British invaders.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Selena Royle, Robert Barrat
C-146 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Won an Honorary Award for Walter Wanger -- For distinguished service to the industry in adding to its moral stature in the world community by his production of the picture Joan of Arc.

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Joseph A. Valentine, William V. Skall and Winton C. Hoch, and Best Costume Design, Color -- Dorothy Jeakins and Barbara Karinska

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- José Ferrer, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ingrid Bergman, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Richard Day, Casey Roberts and Joseph Kish, Best Film Editing -- Frank Sullivan, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Hugo Friedhofer

The film was not really a commercial success upon release, but only partly due to RKO's poor publicity campaign (which producer Walter Wanger blamed on then-RKO president Howard Hughes). Audiences stayed away from the film when Ingrid Bergman's affair with director Roberto Rossellini was revealed while the movie was in release, because they considered it blasphemous for an adulterous woman to be playing a saint.


3:45 AM -- A Man for All Seasons (1966)
A devout scholar gets caught in the middle of Henry VIII's plans to break with the Catholic Church.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Leo McKern
C-121 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Scofield (Paul Scofield was not present at the awards ceremony. His co-star Wendy Hiller accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Cinematography, Color -- Ted Moore, Best Costume Design, Color -- Elizabeth Haffenden and Joan Bridge, Best Director -- Fred Zinnemann, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Bolt, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Shaw, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Wendy Hiller

In the first (London) run of the play, Leo McKern played not Cromwell but the Common Man, a narrator-figure who addresses the audience and plays several characters in the story - More's servant Matthew, the man who rows him home, his jailer, etc. These characters also appear in the film, but are played by several actors. The original stage device of having them all played by the same actor was kept in the 1988 version. In the play, the lines stating what happened to the historical figures after More's death are spoken by the 'Common Man'; in the film, they are spoken in voice-over at the end by Colin Blakely, who plays Matthew.

[CBHagman]

1. Interesting line-up and notes...

...though I have to confess I was expecting The Song of Bernadette, which my father saw when he was deployed in Army in WWII. Can you just imagine the reaction if someone nowadays suggested screening that to a bunch of young servicemen? "Well, it's about a simple peasant girl who sees visions...."

A couple of the titles were totally unfamiliar to me, though I have seen both versions of A Man for All Seasons -- Scofield's and Heston's.