TCM Schedule for Thursday, June 8, 2017 -- TCM Spotlight - Gay Hollywood

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating birthday girl Alexis Smith, born Gladys Smith on June 8, 1921, in Penticton, BC, Canada. And in prime time, TCM continues its month-long celebration of Gay Hollywood. Tonight's films and stars include composer COLE PORTER in NIGHT AND DAY (1946), lyricist LORENZ HART in WORDS AND MUSIC (1948), actor FARLEY GRANGER in ROPE (1948), actor CLIFTON WEBB in THE RAZOR'S EDGE (1946), actor RAYMOND BURR in A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951), director CHARLES WALTERS in SUMMER STOCK (1950), and producer HARRIET PARSONS in THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE (1945). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- ONE LAST FLING (1949)
A jealous wife decides working for her husband is the best way to keep tabs on him.
Dir: Peter Godfrey
Cast: Alexis Smith, Zachary Scott, Douglas Kennedy
BW-64 mins,

Based on a story by Herbert Clyde Lewis.


7:15 AM -- THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT (1945)
An angel is sent to destroy the earth with a trumpet blast.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Jack Benny, Alexis Smith, Dolores Moran
BW-78 mins, CC,

For the rest of his career Jack Benny used the failure of this movie as one of his best jokes.


8:45 AM -- SPLIT SECOND (1953)
Escaped convicts hold hostages in a ghost town that's the target of a nuclear bomb test.
Dir: Dick Powell
Cast: Stephen McNally, Alexis Smith, Jan Sterling
BW-86 mins, CC,

Filmed in part in Mojave, California.


10:15 AM -- STEEL AGAINST THE SKY (1941)
Steel-worker brothers compete for the same woman.
Dir: A. Edward Sutherland
Cast: Alexis Smith, Lloyd Nolan, Craig Stevens
BW-68 mins,

The Professor calls his secret formula "Samsonite," but there is no connection with the famous luggage brand. The Shwayder Trunk Manufacturing Company named one of its cases "Samson", after the Biblical strongman, and only began using the trademark "Samsonite" the same year this film was made.


11:30 AM -- STALLION ROAD (1947)
A veterinarian and a novelist compete for the heart of a lady rancher.
Dir: James V. Kern
Cast: Ronald Reagan, Alexis Smith, Zachary Scott
BW-97 mins, CC,

The role of Rory Teller was intended for Lauren Bacall who turned it down and briefly incurred a studio suspension.


1:15 PM -- MONTANA (1950)
An Australian gets caught in the battle between ranchers and sheep men.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakall
C-76 mins, CC,

In this film Errol Flynn played an Australian. In real life he was from Tasmania, an island that forms part of Australia.


2:45 PM -- SAN ANTONIO (1945)
A reformed rustler tracks down a band of cattle thieves and tries to reform a crooked dance-hall girl.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakall
C-109 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Ted Smith and Jack McConaghy, and Best Music, Original Song -- Ray Heindorf (music), M.K. Jerome (music) and Ted Koehler (lyrics) for the song "Some Sunday Morning"

Bozic (played by S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakall) in the film twice refers to riderless horses as "empty horses". This is likely to be a reference to director Michael Curtiz, with whom Errol Flynn had worked on The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) (and whom Flynn detested). When wanting to see stray horses wandering through the battle, Curtiz directed the wranglers to "bring on the empty horses." When David Niven and Flynn cracked up laughing, Curtiz responded with, 'You people, you think I know fuck nothing; I tell you: I know fuck all". Niven later made this "Curtizism" immortal by titling his autobiography:"Bring On the Empty Horses".


4:45 PM -- THE SMILING GHOST (1941)
A newswoman investigates a haunted house.
Dir: Lewis Seiler
Cast: Wayne Morris, Brenda Marshall, Alexis Smith
BW-71 mins, CC,

From an original story by Stuart Palmer.


6:00 PM -- THE WOMAN IN WHITE (1948)
Classic mystery about the adventures of a young tutor sent to a ghostly country estate.
Dir: Peter Godfrey
Cast: Alexis Smith, Eleanor Parker, Sydney Greenstreet
BW-109 mins, CC,

Wilkie Collins' 'The Woman in White' published in 1860, is considered to be the first modern mystery employing a crime-detecting hero.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: GAY HOLLYWOOD



8:00 PM -- NIGHT AND DAY (1946)
Fanciful biography of songwriter Cole Porter, who rose from high society to find success on Tin Pan Alley.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Cary Grant, Alexis Smith, Monty Woolley
C-128 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Ray Heindorf and Max Steiner

Because of strict censorship imposed by the era's Studio Production Code, no mention at all is made of Cole Porter's real-life open homosexuality, or the fact that his marriage to Linda Lee Thomas, though caring and convivial, was not a romantic or sexual one.


10:30 PM -- WORDS AND MUSIC (1948)
Songwriters Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart search for love while rising to the top.
Dir: Norman Taurog
Cast: Perry Como, Mickey Rooney, Ann Sothern
C-121 mins, CC,

In the movie Lorenz Hart (Mickey Rooney) is upset over being short. In real life he battled homosexuality which was very much looked down on at the time. Since they could not show this in the film they substituted his shortness as the source of his misery.


1:00 AM -- ROPE (1948)
Two wealthy young men try to commit the perfect crime by murdering a friend.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Dick Hogan, John Dall, Farley Granger
C-81 mins, CC,

In his book "Original Story By: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood," playwright and screenwriter Arthur Laurents detailed his live-in relationship with Granger during the 1940s and '50s. Laurents and Granger were already romantically involved when Laurents wrote the screenplay for Rope (1948), in which Granger co-starred.


2:45 AM -- THE RAZOR'S EDGE (1946)
A young man's quest for spiritual peace threatens his position in society.
Dir: Edmund Goulding
Cast: Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, John Payne
BW-145 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Anne Baxter

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Clifton Webb, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Richard Day, Nathan Juran, Thomas Little and Paul S. Fox, and Best Picture

Edmund Goulding was a director actors either loved or hated. He had a habit of asking to "be" the actor to get what he wanted. In her autobiography, Gene Tierney relates exactly how Goulding did it: "When he wanted to describe to you how a particular scene should be played, he would step in front of the camera and say, 'May I be you?' Then he would promptly act out the entire scene." Tierney found it delightful and even wrote, "I don't recall a set where there was more cheerfulness." Others, like Clifton Webb, adamantly disagreed, remarking, "He had everybody entranced but me, and I'm afraid I remained cold to this type of thing to the very end."


5:30 AM -- A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951)
An ambitious young man wins an heiress' heart but has to cope with his former girlfriend's pregnancy.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters
BW-122 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Director -- George Stevens, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Michael Wilson and Harry Brown, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- William C. Mellor, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head, Best Film Editing -- William Hornbeck, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Franz Waxman

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Montgomery Clift, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Shelley Winters, and Best Picture

Elizabeth Taylor was also initially intimidated by the intense scenes she had to play with Montgomery Clift,"...because Monty was the New York stage actor and I felt very much the inadequate teenage Hollywood sort of puppet that had just worn pretty clothes and hadn't really acted except with horses and dogs." Clift put her at ease, and the two began a life-long friendship on the set.

[SharonAnn]

1. Thank you. Lots of good info about these and I'll make it a point to watch those I can.