TCM Schedule for Thursday, March 22, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: Great Movie Endings

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, everything is beautiful at the ballet! And in prime time, it's the fourth day of Great Movie Endings. Today's theme is Famous Last Words. From the TCM website (with some mild spoilers for those who have never seen these four films!):

In Famous Last Words, lines of dialogue provide an eloquent--if sometimes ambiguous--ending to their respective films. Who can forget Gloria Swanson's, "All right, Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my closeup," in Sunset Boulevard (1950); Vivien Leigh's "After all, tomorrow is another day" in Gone With the Wind (1939); or Humphrey Bogart's "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" in Casablanca (1942)? Then there's the workman in Citizen Kane (1941), who is clearing Kane's home and says of precious memorabilia, including Kane's symbolic childhood sled, "Throw that junk in, too."

by Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!



6:30 AM -- THE GLASS SLIPPER (1955)
Musical adaptation of the story of Cinderella and her magical trip to the prince's ball.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Leslie Caron, Michael Wilding, Keenan Wynn
C-94 mins, CC,

Tommy Rall, Jacques d'Amboise and James Mitchell were all considered for the role of Prince Charles. Michael Wilding, despite having no professional dance training, was cast due to the rash of publicity surrounding his marriage to fellow MGM contract player Elizabeth Taylor.


8:15 AM -- ON YOUR TOES (1939)
A hoofer gets mixed up with a ballet dancer, triggering backstage jealousy.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Zorina, Eddie Albert, Alan Hale
BW-94 mins,

"On Your Toes" was adapted from a Broadway musical that opened at the Imperial Theater in New York on April 11, 1936 and ran for 315 performances. Ray Bolger starred in the original stage production. The musical was revived on Broadway in 1954 and 1983.


10:00 AM -- THE MAD GENIUS (1931)
A deranged ballet teacher will stop at nothing to keep control of his protegee.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, Charles Butterworth
BW-81 mins,

At the beginning when Vladimir (John Barrymore) talks about creating a dancer from the runaway boy, he mentions the Frankenstein creation. The boy's father is played by Boris Karloff who went on to star in the Frankenstein film.


11:30 AM -- THE GAY PARISIAN (1941)
The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo perform to the music of Jacques Offenbach in this short film. Vitaphone Release 632-633A.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: George Zoritch, Milada Mladova, James Starbuck
C-20 mins,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel

Completing the film short, the ballet group returned to New York City to ponder their fate. The Ballet Russe impresario Rene Blum returned to Paris. Blum was arrested December 12, 1941 in his Parisian home. Among the first Jews to be arrested in Paris by the French police after France was defeated and occupied by the German Regime, he was held in the Beaune-La-Ronde camp, then in the Drancy deportation camp. On September 23, 1942, he was shipped to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he was later killed by the Nazis.


12:00 PM -- WATERLOO BRIDGE (1940)
A ballerina turns to prostitution when her fiance is reported killed in World War I.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Lucile Watson
BW-109 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, and Best Music, Original Score -- Herbert Stothart

Of all the classic Hollywood films ever made, this somewhat obscure title happens to be one of the most popular in China, especially among college students. There are even audio guides for students to practice their English by reciting dialogue from this film. The reason for why this particular film has become so endeared among the Chinese is anyone's guess. One possibility is that the popularity of Gone with the Wind (1939) in China led many to seek other movies starring Vivien Leigh.


2:00 PM -- AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951)
An American artist finds love in Paris but almost loses it to conflicting loyalties.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant
BW-113 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Alan Jay Lerner, Best Cinematography, Color -- Alfred Gilks and John Alton, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, E. Preston Ames, Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason, Best Costume Design, Color -- Orry-Kelly, Walter Plunkett and Irene Sharaff, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Johnny Green and Saul Chaplin, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Vincente Minnelli, and Best Film Editing -- Adrienne Fazan

While in recent years, many have balked at the Best Screenplay Oscar awarded to Alan Jay Lerner, his script is actually quite ingenious in its ability to dodge the censorship of the era in telling a story the Production Code would likely have damned in another writer's hands. At its core, An American in Paris (1951) is the story of two 'kept' people who are unable to commit to one another for fear of losing what little security they have. As Lerner manages to convey the dark corners of this disagreeable scenario without explicitly stating any of it - and without sacrificing the audience's compassion for his characters - one could argue that the Oscar was not only appropriate, but actually well deserved.


4:00 PM -- SHALL WE DANCE (1937)
A ballet dancer and a showgirl fake a marriage for publicity purposes, then fall in love.
Dir: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton
BW-109 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- George Gershwin (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) for the song "They Can't Take That Away from Me"

At the end of the roller skate dance number in the park the stars flop onto the "lawn". In the film both Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appear uncomfortable as they get up. This is because both were bruised from more than fifteen earlier takes and were actually in pain.


6:00 PM -- ZIEGFELD FOLLIES (1946)
Legendary showman Flo Ziegfeld imagines the kind of Follies he could produce with MGM's musical stars.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer
C-110 mins, CC,

The machine producing the bubbles for the finale was responsible for one of the greatest filming fiascoes in movie history. On the first day of filming the finale, the gas produced by the bubbles caused Vincente Minnelli's cameraman to faint, on top of a forty foot lift. While Minnelli struggled to stop his cameraman from falling, the bubbles continued to pour from the machine to such an extent that the fire brigade was called to turn it off. Even with the machine under control, the gas from the bubbles was a constant hazard. James Melton filmed with a wet handkerchief in his mouth to protect himself!



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: GREAT MOVIE ENDINGS



8:00 PM -- SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)
A failed screenwriter falls into a mercenary romance with a faded silent-film star.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim
BW-110 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and D.M. Marshman Jr., Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Hans Dreier, John Meehan, Sam Comer and Ray Moyer, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Franz Waxman

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- William Holden, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Gloria Swanson, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Erich von Stroheim, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Nancy Olson, Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- John F. Seitz, Best Film Editing -- Arthur P. Schmidt and Doane Harrison, and Best Picture

Unlike the character she played, Gloria Swanson had accepted the fact that the movies didn't want her anymore so had moved to New York where she worked on radio, and later, on television. Although she had long before ruled out the possibility of a movie comeback, she was nevertheless highly intrigued when she got the offer to play the lead. Swanson almost considered rejecting the role after Wilder requested she do a screen test for the role. Her friend George Cukor, who initially recommended her for the part, told her, "If they want you to do ten screen tests, do ten screen tests. If you don't, I will personally shoot you." Swanson agreed to the audition, and won the role.


10:00 PM -- GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
Classic tale of Scarlett O'Hara's battle to save her beloved Tara and find love during the Civil War.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil, Vivien Leigh
C-233 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar Honorary Award for William Cameron Menzies for outstanding achievement in the use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood in the production of Gone with the Wind (plaque).

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Vivien Leigh, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Hattie McDaniel (Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to be nominated for and win an Oscar.), Best Director -- Victor Fleming, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sidney Howard (Posthumously. Sidney Howard became the first posthumous Oscar nominee and winner.), Best Cinematography, Color -- Ernest Haller and Ray Rennahan, Best Art Direction -- Lyle R. Wheeler, Best Film Editing -- Hal C. Kern and James E. Newcom, and Best Picture

Winner of an Oscar Technical Achievement Award for R.D. Musgrave for pioneering in the use of coordinated equipment in the production Gone with the Wind.

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Clark Gable, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Olivia de Havilland, Best Sound, Recording -- Thomas T. Moulton (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), Best Effects, Special Effects -- Jack Cosgrove (photographic), Fred Albin (sound) and Arthur Johns (sound), and Best Music, Original Score -- Max Steiner

Very few of the principal cast members liked the characters they were portraying. Clark Gable was induced into accepting his role through arrangements to divorce his current wife and marry Carole Lombard. Rand Brooks, who played Scarlett's first husband Charles Hamilton, was actually a rough outdoorsman who objected to playing a wimpy character. Butterfly McQueen disliked the negative stereotype of her character. Leslie Howard felt he was too old for the role of Ashley Wilkes and complained that his costumes made him look like "a fairy doorman" at a hotel.


2:00 AM -- CASABLANCA (1942)
An American saloon owner in North Africa is drawn into World War II when his lost love turns up.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid
BW-103 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Director -- Michael Curtiz, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Humphrey Bogart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Claude Rains, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Arthur Edeson, Best Film Editing -- Owen Marks, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

Back in the early-to-mid 2000s, Madonna wanted to remake Casablanca, with her playing IIsa Lund and Ashton Kutcher in the role of Rick Blaine. Madonna pitched the idea to every studio but was unanimously rejected by every studio with one studio executive telling her "That film is deemed untouchable". The project has since been scrapped by Madonna. That is one of the most appalling ideas fora remake in the entire history of remakes!


4:00 AM -- CITIZEN KANE (1941)
The investigation of a publishing tycoon's dying words reveals conflicting stories about his scandalous life.
Dir: Orson Welles
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead
BW-119 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles (On Friday, July 19th, 2003, Orson Welles' Oscar statuette went on sale at an auction at Christie's, New York, but was voluntarily withdrawn so the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences could buy it back for just 1 dollar. The statuette, included in a large selection of Welles-related material, was going to be sold by Beatrice Welles, the youngest of the filmmaker's three daughters and the sole heir of his estate and was expected to sell at over 300,000 dollars.)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Orson Welles, Best Director -- Orson Welles, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Gregg Toland, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Perry Ferguson, Van Nest Polglase, A. Roland Fields and Darrell Silvera, Best Sound, Recording -- John Aalberg (RKO Radio SSD), Best Film Editing -- Robert Wise, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Bernard Herrmann, and Best Picture

On the night the movie opened in San Francisco, Orson Welles found himself alone with William Randolph Hearst in an elevator at the city's Fairmont Hotel. Aware that his father and Hearst were friends, Welles extended an invitation to the magnate to attend the film's premiere. Hearst turned down the offer and, as he was about to exit the elevator at his floor, Welles remarked, "Charles Foster Kane would have accepted."

[longship]

1. What a night of cinema!!

Four iconic, great films.

Sunset Boulevard!
Gone with the Wind!
Casablanca!
Citizen Kane!