TCM Schedule for Thursday, January 11, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: Star of the Month Charles Boyer

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is showing films about kids and their pets - dogs, zebras, lions, dolphins and cheetahs. Then in prime time, it's more of Star of the Month Charles Boyer, including the incomparable Gaslight (1944). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- BANJO (1947)
A southern orphan has to leave her beloved dog behind when she moves North.
Dir: Richard O. Fleischer
Cast: Sharyn Moffett, Jacqueline White, Walter Reed
BW-68 mins, CC,

The cat's name is "Snoopy" pre-dating Charles M. Schulz "Peanuts" Beagle's character's name by three years.


7:15 AM -- GOIN' FISHIN' (1940)
In this short film, a gang of children face several comedic problems on their fishing trip.
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: Leonard Landy, Robert Homans, Arthur Hoyt
BW-10 mins,


7:30 AM -- ZEBRA IN THE KITCHEN (1965)
A young boy tries to liberate animals from the city zoo.
Dir: Ivan Tors
Cast: Jay North, Martin Milner, Andy Devine
C-92 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Uncredited actor Eddie Quillan is seen watching a clip from Hollywood Party (1934), in which he himself had a featured role 21 years earlier.


9:15 AM -- CLARENCE, THE CROSS-EYED LION (1965)
Animal doctors fight to protect the wildlife of Africa.
Dir: Andrew Marton
Cast: Marshall Thompson, Betsy Drake, Richard Haydn
C-92 mins, CC,

Ivan Tors first discovered Clarence at "Africa, U.S.A.", an affection training compound located in Soledad Canyon near Los Angeles. Born cross-eyed, Clarence's strange physical condition inspired Ivan Tors to create the MGM feature film "Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion" and the spin-off series Daktari (1966). When the audience saw what Clarence saw, it was in double vision. Reportedly, Clarence was very good with children. Another not so friendly lion named Leo doubled for Clarence in some scenes. He was used only for the snarling scenes and general scenes which didn't involve close proximity with humans. Leo had come to "Africa, U.S.A." from a family in Utah. His ferocity was due in part to the mistreatment he received from former owners who reportedly beat him with a stick.


11:00 AM -- FLIPPER (1963)
A fisherman in the Florida Keys opposes his son's friendship with a dolphin.
Dir: James B. Clark
Cast: Chuck Connors, Luke Halpin, Kathleen Maguire
C-90 mins, CC,

In a 2012 interview Associate Producer and writer of "Flipper" Ricou Browning told how he helped teach Luke Halpin to ride the dolphin Mitzie like a horse providing compelling footage for the movie. At the movie premier in 1963 in New York the LIFE magazine photographer sent to cover the event didn't believe the dolphin riding actually happened and actually questioned Browning, Producer Ivan Tors and Luke Halpin separately about the technique before he would believe them.


12:45 PM -- FLIPPER'S NEW ADVENTURE (1964)
The heroic dolphin helps capture a group of escaped convicts.
Dir: Leon Benson
Cast: Luke Halpin, Pamela Franklin, Helen Cherry
C-98 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

In Producer Ivan Tors' book "My Life in the Wild" he tells how they got the dolphin star of the movie (Suzy) to attack the pirate underwater when dolphins are naturally non violent. Even though one of the directors Ricou Browning was close to Suzy, them having worked together for many months, when Ricou put on the pirate's stripped shirt and brandished a rubber knife in her direction, she realized what was expected and began to swim aggressively at Ricou swimming back and forth in close passes just as is captured in that scene in the movie.


2:30 PM -- LASSIE COME HOME (1943)
A faithful collie undertakes an arduous journey to return to her lost family.
Dir: Fred M. Wilcox
Cast: Roddy McDowall, Donald Crisp, Dame May Whitty
C-89 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Leonard Smith

Elizabeth Taylor replaced Maria Flynn in the role of Priscilla. Some sources say Flynn was afraid of the dog on the set. Others say that she grew taller than Roddy McDowall or that the strong Technicolor lighting caused her eyes to water. In any case, production was halted. The producer was walking the 600 block of North Foothill Road in Beverly Hills doing his nightly patrol as an air raid warden when he met Francis Taylor, who patrolled the 700 block. Knowing he and Sara wanted to get their daughter into the movies, he asked him to bring Elizabeth to the studio. There she was introduced to Lassie and the production resumed.


4:15 PM -- SON OF LASSIE (1945)
The beloved collie goes to war to help the resistance in occupied Norway.
Dir: S. Sylvan Simon
Cast: Peter Lawford, Donald Crisp, June Lockhart
C-100 mins, CC,

This was the only Lassie movie in which June Lockhart appeared. However, 13 years later, she would appear in her first of 207 episodes of the Lassie (1954) television series.


6:00 PM -- BRINGING UP BABY (1938)
A madcap heiress upsets the staid existence of a straitlaced scientist.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charlie Ruggles
BW-102 mins, CC,

Katharine Hepburn was having a difficult time with comedic timing -- Hawks said that she was "trying too hard to be funny" and kept laughing out loud. Luckily, Walter Catlett, who played Constable Slocum, was a veteran comic who had headlined for Ziegfeld. Hawks wanted him to give Hepburn some tips, but he refused, considering it a serious breach of etiquette. Hawks asked whether Catlett would help Hepburn if she asked him to. He would. Hawks mentioned this to Hepburn, who immediately marched over to ask Catlett for advice. Hepburn was so grateful that she asked Hawks to make Catlett's part larger so that he could be around if she needed more help.


7:49 PM -- THE FILM THAT WAS LOST (1942)
This short film provides a look at the problems of film preservation efforts in the 1930s and 1940s.
Dir: Sammy Lee
Cast: Emmett Vogan,
BW-10 mins,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: CHARLES BOYER



8:00 PM -- GASLIGHT (1944)
A newlywed fears she's going mad when strange things start happening at the family mansion.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten
BW-114 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ingrid Bergman, and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, William Ferrari, Edwin B. Willis and Paul Huldschinsky

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Charles Boyer, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Angela Lansbury, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John L. Balderston, Walter Reisch and John Van Druten, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, and Best Picture

Charles Boyer's wife, Pat Paterson was pregnant with what would be the couple's first and only child. Boyer and Paterson had been trying to have a baby for many years, and Boyer was exceptionally nervous while making this film. He would rush between takes to call and check on his wife's health as the expected birth date grew nearer. The baby was expected to come after Boyer had finished working on the film, but he arrived weeks early while Boyer was on set. The actor broke down in tears when he was notified, and he informed the rest of the cast and crew of his son's birth. Production was halted for the day and the cast and crew opened up bottles of champagne to celebrate the birth.


10:15 PM -- HOLD BACK THE DAWN (1941)
A gigolo flees Nazi occupation and sets his sights on a shy schoolteacher who happens to be a US citizen.
Dir: Mitchell Leisen
Cast: Charles Boyer, Olivia De Havilland, Paulette Goddard
BW-116 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Olivia de Havilland, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Leo Tover, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Hans Dreier, Robert Usher and Sam Comer, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Victor Young, and Best Picture

In the final third of the film, there is a narrative shift where more focus is placed on the character of Emmy Brown (Olivia de Havilland), with the film's main character Georges Iscovescu (Charles Boyer) staying mostly silent. According to Wilder, that shift was "revenge" for star Charles Boyer's insisting on cutting the scene Wilder and Charles Brackett had written that had a depressed Georges talk to a cockroach in his hotel room. Boyer told Wilder and Brackett that the scene did not make sense because why should he (Georges) have to talk to a cockroach. With a third of the screenplay left to be written, Wilder told Brackett "if that son of a bitch won't talk to a cockroach, he won't talk to anybody" so they gave Boyer the minimum amount of dialogue for the last act of the movie and gave a majority of the dialogue to De Havilland. Several years later, Wilder would write a similar version of the cockroach scene in The Spirit of St. Louis (1957) where Charles Lindbergh (James Stewart) talks to a fly moving around in his plane as he is flying to Paris.


12:30 AM -- BACK STREET (1941)
A woman accepts life in the shadows as the price for her affair with a married man.
Dir: Robert Stevenson
Cast: Charles Boyer, Margaret Sullavan, Richard Carlson
BW-89 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Frank Skinner

Two of Barney Oldfield's racing cars was in the Vanderbilt Cup sequence: a 1909 six-cylinder Stearns, and a 1912 four-cylinder, sixteen-valve Prince Henry Benz.


2:15 AM -- TALES OF MANHATTAN (1942)
A formal tailcoat that gets passed from one owner to another affects each life in a significant way.
Dir: Julien Duvivier
Cast: Charles Boyer, Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers
BW-119 mins, CC,

Amused by Charles Boyer's thick French accent, Rita Hayworth giggled her way through the filming of their love scenes together.


4:30 AM -- THE CONSTANT NYMPH (1943)
A composer finds inspiration in his wife's romantic cousin.
Dir: Edmund Goulding
Cast: Charles Boyer, Joan Fontaine, Alexis Smith
BW-112 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Joan Fontaine

Joan Fontaine got the lead role of Tessa by a lucky chance. One day, she was having lunch at Romanoff's in Hollywood, with her husband, actor Brian Aherne. The two had just flown in by airplane from their grape ranch in Indio, California, and Fontaine was in a leather flight suit with her hair done in pigtails. Director Edmund Goulding walked into the restaurant, and stopped by their table to say hello to his good friend Aherne. Goulding complained that he was having trouble casting a lead actress for his next movie, "The Constant Nymph." Although he had considered Joan Leslie, she was wrong for the part. And, Goulding explained, "Jack Warner wants a star in the lead, but she has to be consumptive, flat-chested, anemic, and fourteen!" "How about me?" said Fontaine. "Who are you?" asked Goulding, not recognizing the freckled girl in pigtails sitting next to him. "Joan Fontaine," said the actress. Goulding looked startled. "You're perfect!" Fontaine was signed for the part the next day, and later called it "the happiest motion-picture assignment of my career."