TCM Schedule for Friday, March 14, 2014 -- Friday Night Spotlight - Food In The Movies

[Staph]

Though it's not her birthday, today TCM is showing the films of Gina Lollobrigida, La Lollo or the Mona Lisa of the Twentieth Century. In prime time, it's another high calorie night, when TCM celebrates food in the movies. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Solomon And Sheba (1959)
Epic tale of the Biblical king's seduction by a pagan queen.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: Yul Brynner, Gina Lollobrigida, George Sanders
C-141 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Co-producer/star Tyrone Power had completed shooting more than half of the film when he collapsed during a duelling scene with George Sanders and died a few minutes later. Power was replaced in the role of Solomon by Yul Brynner, who refilmed all of Power's scenes. Power, however, is still visible in the film in long shots.


8:30 AM -- Never So Few (1959)
A U.S. military troop takes command of a band of Burmese guerillas during World War II.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Lawford
C-125 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Steve McQueen's role was originally going to be played by Sammy Davis Jr.. A feud had broken out between Davis and Frank Sinatra after Davis had claimed in a radio interview that he was a greater singer than Sinatra. Sinatra demanded he be dropped from the cast, and McQueen got the part.


10:45 AM -- Beat The Devil (1953)
A group of con artists stake their claim on a bogus uranium mine.
Dir: John Huston
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida
BW-90 mins, CC,

Humphrey Bogart was involved in a serious automobile accident during production of this film, which knocked out several of his teeth and hindered his ability to speak. John Huston hired a young British actor noted for his mimicry skills to rerecord some of Bogart's spoken lines during post-production looping. Although it is undetectable when viewing the film today, it is Peter Sellers who provides Bogart's voice during some of the scenes in this movie.


12:15 PM -- Hotel Paradiso (1966)
Chaos results when a mild mannered man tries to have an affair with his neighbor's wife.
Dir: Peter Glenville
Cast: Gina Lollobrigida, Alec Guinness, Robert Morley
C-95 mins, Letterbox Format

Based on the play "Hotel du Libre Echange" by Maurice Desvallières and Georges Feydeau. Also filmed as L'hôtel du libre échange (1934 - France), Spökhotellet (1960 - Sweden) (TV Movie), Hotel Paradiso (1972 - Denmark) (TV Movie), and L'hôtel du libre-échange (1979 - France again) (TV Movie).


2:00 PM -- Go Naked In The World (1961)
A powerful businessman opposes his son's involvement with a woman with a past.
Dir: Ranald MacDougall
Cast: Gina Lollobrigida, Anthony Franciosa, Ernest Borgnine
C-103 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Based on a book by Tom T. Chamales.


3:45 PM -- The Law (1960)
A cook turns to theft so she and her lover can marry.
Dir: Jules Dassin
Cast: Gina Lollobrigida, Pierre Brasseur, Marcello Mastroianni
C-121 mins,

Both Carol Baker and Scilla Gabel had been contacted to play Lollobrigida's part as Marietta.


6:00 PM -- Come September (1961)
A womanizing tycoon ends up chaperoning a group of American girls who have rented his Italian villa.
Dir: Robert Mulligan
Cast: Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Sandra Dee
C-113 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee met and fell in love while filming this movie and shortly afterward got married.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: FOOD IN THE MOVIES



8:00 PM -- Christmas In Connecticut (1945)
A homemaking specialist who can't boil water is forced to provide a family holiday for a war hero.
Dir: Peter Godfrey
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet
BW-102 mins, CC,

The character of Elizabeth Lane was loosely based on the then popular Family Circle Magazine columnist Gladys Taber, who lived on Stillmeadow Farm in Connecticut.


10:00 PM -- A Christmas Story (1983)
An Indiana schoolboy dreams of getting a Red Ryder air rifle for Christmas.
Dir: Bob Clark
Cast: Melinda Dillon, Peter Billingsley, Darren McGavin
C-93 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Jean Shepherd's book "In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash", which the film is partly based on, is a collection of short stories that Shepherd wrote for "Playboy" magazine during the 1960s, including the ones about the tongue sticking to the flagpole and eating Christmas dinner at a Chinese restaurant. The subplot of the mangy dogs constantly harassing The Old Man was taken from another of Shepherd's short story collections, "Wanda Hickey's Night Of Golden Memories and Other Disasters." In that book, the character of Ralph is about 17 years old.


12:00 AM -- My Dinner With Andre (1981)
A conversation between a globe-trotting theater director and a playwright playfully explores ideas about art, theater, and daily life.
Dir: Louis Malle
Cast: Wallace Shawn, Andre Gregory, Jean Lenauer
C-111 mins, CC,

The low-budget flick was shot in an abandoned hotel in Virginia (the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond) - in the winter. "Since we didn't have the money to heat the hotel, (producer Beverly Karp) brought me a bit of cognac from time to time," recalls a co-producer. The crew kept warm by wearing ski clothes; the actors just had to act warm, aided by the lights and long underwear.


2:00 AM -- Diner (1982)
A group of friends who hang out in a Baltimore diner face the problems of growing up.
Dir: Barry Levinson
Cast: Steve Guttenberg, Mickey Rourke, Daniel Stern
C-110 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Barry Levinson

Barry Levinson had the main actors arrive in Baltimore a week before filming began to get to know each other and build rapport. Predictably, the young male actors went out on the town to clubs and tried to pick up women. Sometimes they would use bogus stories about what they were doing in Baltimore. Tim Daly says he came up with the most popular one, that they were engineers working on a rotating rooftop restaurant.


4:00 AM -- The Public Enemy (1931)
An Irish-American street punk tries to make it big in the world of organized crime.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods
BW-84 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- John Bright and Kubec Glasmon

Several versions exist of the origin of the notorious grapefruit scene, but the most plausible is the one on which both James Cagney and Mae Clarke agree: The scene, they explained, was actually staged as a practical joke at the expense of the film crew, just to see their stunned reactions. There was never any intention of ever using the shot in the completed film. Director William A. Wellman, however, eventually decided to keep the shot, and use it in the film's final release print.


5:30 AM -- MGM Parade Show #26 (1955)
Eleanor Powell performs in a clip from "Broadway Melody"; Spencer Tracy performs in a clip from "Captains Courageous." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-25 mins

[CBHagman]

1. "My Dinner with Andre" and the Jefferson Hotel.

Here's a bit about the history and what it's like today.

[url]http://www.jeffersonhotel.com/experience/history#reconstruct[/url]

To my regret, I didn't go inside the Jefferson when I was in Richmond. Maybe next trip?