TCM Schedule for Friday, July 11, 2014 -- Friday Night Spotlight - 100th Anniversary of WWI

[Staph]

It's a full day of films that take place during World War I, including the original 1931 version of Waterloo Bridge, starring Mae Clark. I've only seen the 1940 version, starring Vivien Leigh. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)
In this silent film, a young Argentine fights for France, his father's country, in World War I.
Dir: Rex Ingram
Cast: Rudolph Valentino, Alice Terry, Pomeroy Cannon
BW-133 mins,

Adjusted for inflation, this film is the highest-grossing silent movie ever; it earned $9,183,673 - close to $300 million in 2005 dollars. It was also Rudolph Valentino's first starring role in a film. He had been an extra and done bit parts since his debut in 1914.


8:15 AM -- The Spy In Black (1939)
A German sub tries to sink the British fleet during World War I.
Dir: Michael Powell
Cast: Conrad Veidt, Sebastian Shaw, Valerie Hobson
BW-77 mins,

The password that Hardt is to use for his contact is the opening line of Heine's poem Die Lorelei, in which a beautiful woman who lures sailors on the rocks is used as a symbol of homesickness. When his crew joke about him spouting love poetry to a woman in the dark, they miss half of the point.


9:45 AM -- Hell Below (1933)
A submarine captain clashes with one of his crew during World War I.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Robert Montgomery, Walter Huston, Madge Evans
BW-101 mins, CC,

The print shown on TCM is the 1937 re-release, with some bits of 1933 dialogue obviously eliminated in order to meet the stricter standards of the now enforced 1934 production code.


11:30 AM -- Flight Commander (1930)
A hotshot World War I flyer almost cracks under the pressure of sending his men on perilous missions.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Richard Barthelmess, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Neil Hamilton
BW-108 mins,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- John Monk Saunders

Director Howard Hawks, who was a pilot in the US Army during World War I, flew in the battle scenes as a German pilot.


1:30 PM -- Ace of Aces (1933)
After he's branded a coward, a sculptor travels to France to help fight World War I.
Dir: J. Walter Ruben
Cast: Richard Dix, Elizabeth Allen, Ralph Bellamy
BW-77 mins,

Based on John Monk Saunders' story The Bird of Prey.


3:00 PM -- Lafayette Escadrille (1958)
A hotshot young flyer falls for a French prostitute during World War I.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: Tab Hunter, Etchika Choureau, Marcel Dalio
BW-93 mins, CC,

This was director William A. Wellman's last film. Wellman, who had previously directed numerous aviation dramas -- including Wings (1927), the 1927 winner of the first Academy Award for Best Picture -- saw Lafayette Escadrille (1958) as a tribute to his fellow World War I combat pilots. But the studio, Warner Bros., gave Wellman a very low budget, and Wellman felt he could not make the film he wanted to make. Originally, the film had a tragic ending for Thad Walker and his Parisian bride, but studio head Jack Warner demanded a happy ending. When Wellman refused, the studio took the film away and shot a new ending with Tab Hunterand Etchika Choureau. Afterwards, Wellman decided to retire from directing. His son, William Wellman Jr. later said that his father "just got tired of fighting with the studios."


4:45 PM -- Waterloo Bridge (1931)
A ballerina sinks into prostitution when her husband is reported killed in World War I.
Dir: James Whale
Cast: Mae Clarke, Kent Douglass, Doris Lloyd
BW-81 mins,

The original Broadway production of "Waterloo Bridge" by Robert E. Sherwood opened at the Fulton Theatre on January 6, 1930 and ran for 64 performances. It's been remade as Waterloo Bridge (1940), Gaby (1956), A Ponte de Waterloo (1959) (TV Series), The Leaves of Autumn (1962) and A Ponte de Waterloo (1967) (TV Series).


6:15 PM -- Suzy (1936)
A French air ace discovers that his showgirl wife's first husband is still alive.
Dir: Geo. Fitzmaurice
Cast: Jean Harlow, Franchot Tone, Cary Grant
BW-93 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Walter Donaldson (music) and Harold Adamson (lyrics) for the song "Did I Remember"

The flying scenes for this movie were not shot by MGM. They were outtakes from Hell's Angels (1930) filmed by Howard Hughes. The outtakes from "Hell's Angels" cost the life of three of the WWI ace pilots as well as injury to Howard Hughes himself when he crashed flying in one of the scenes. Since only one out of every 249 feet of film shot was used in "Hell's Angels" there was more than enough left over to lease to other films like this one. It also helped offset the tremendous cost to Hughes of filming his movie.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF WORLD WAR I



8:00 PM -- Paths Of Glory (1957)
A military lawyer comes to question the status quo when he defends three men accused of cowardice.
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Fred Bell, John Stein, Harold Benedict
BW-88 mins, CC,

In 1969, Kirk Douglas recalled about the film "There's a picture that will always be good, years from now. I don't have to wait 50 years to know that; I know it now".


9:45 PM -- All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)
Young German soldiers try to adjust to the horrors of World War I.
Dir: Lewis Milestone
Cast: Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray
BW-134 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Director -- Lewis Milestone, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Achievement -- George Abbott, Maxwell Anderson and Del Andrews, and Best Cinematography -- Arthur Edeson

In part because of his experience in playing the part of Paul Baumer, Lew Ayres became a conscientious objector during the Second World War. His films were banned in over 100 Chicago theaters.


12:15 AM -- The Big Parade (1925)
In this silent film, a young innocent enlists for World War I service but soon learns the horrors of war.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Hobart Bosworth
BW-151 mins,

After director King Vidor complained to MGM production chief Irving Thalberg that he was tired of shooting pictures that played in theaters for just one week, he told Thalberg about a new kind of realistic war movie he had envisioned. Thalberg was enthusiastic about Vidor's vision, and tried to buy the rights to the hit Broadway play "What Price Glory?" co-written by Maxwell Anderson and World War I Marine veteran Laurence Stallings. Since the rights to the popular anti-war play had already been acquired, Thalberg hired Stallings to come to Hollywood and write a screenplay for the new, realistic war picture that Vidor had dreamed about making. Stallings came up with "The Big Parade", an anti-war story that dispensed with traditional concepts of heroism, focusing instead on a love story between a Yank soldier and a French girl. After Vidor completed principal photography (at a cost of $200,000, approximately $2.1 million in 2003 dollars), Thalberg took the rough cut and previewed it before live audiences in Colorado. The audiences responded favorably, and Thalberg decided to expand the scope of the picture, as Vidor had created a war picture without many scenes of war. He had Vidor restage the famous marching army column sequence with 3000 extras, 200 trucks and 100 airplanes. After Vidor moved on to another project, Thalberg had other battle scenes shot by director George W. Hill. The result was a major hit that proved to be MGM's most profitable silent picture.


3:00 AM -- Westfront 1918 (1930)
German soldiers face terror and despair on the front lines during World War I.
Cast: Gustav Diessl, Claus Clausen, Else Heller
BW-93 mins,

Based on the novel "Vier von der Infanterie" by Ernst Johannsen.


4:45 AM -- Kameradschaft (1931)
German miners defy international prejudice to rescue French miners trapped beneath their countries' borders.
Cast: Ernst Busch, Andree Ducret, Alexander Granach
BW-86 mins,

First film of Pierre-Louis.