TCM Schedule for Friday, September 19 -- Jose Ferrer

[Staph]

It's been nearly two months since Bjornsdotter has been online on DU, and I miss her and her writing! So I decided to create her Friday schedule for this week -- perhaps we can take turns?

In the meantime, we've got Star of the Month Kay Francis playing widows and divorcees in the morning, old-time country and western music in the afternoon, and Jose Ferrer in the evening. Enjoy!


5:45am -- My Bill (1938)
An impoverished widow fights scandal for the sake of her four children.
Cast: Kay Francis, Bonita Granville, Anita Louise.
Dir: John Farrow.
BW-65 mins, TV-G

The play, Courage, by Tom Barry, opened in New York City, New York on 8 October 1928 and ran for 280
performances. It was also filmed as Courage in 1930, starring Belle Bennett and Marian Nixon.


7:00am -- In Name Only (1939)
A wealthy man falls for a widow but can't get his wife to divorce him.
Cast: Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, Kay Francis.
Dir: John Cromwell.
BW-95 mins, TV-G

This movie was intended to be a reunion for Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, but following the failure of Bringing Up Baby (1938) at the box office from the previous year, Hepburn left RKO being after deemed "Box Office Poison". Carole Lombard was subsequently brought in as her replacement.


8:45am -- The Keyhole (1933)
A private eye specializing in divorce cases falls for the woman he's been hired to frame.
Cast: Kay Francis, George Brent, Glenda Farrell.
Dir: Michael Curtiz.
BW-69 mins, TV-G

The film was shot in 25 days.


10:00am -- I Found Stella Parish (1935)
An actress stops at nothing to protect her daughter from her shady past.
Cast: Kay Francis, Paul Lukas, Ian Hunter.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy.
BW-85 mins, TV-G

Stock footage from I Found Stella Parish was later included in Comet Over Broadway (1938), also starring Kay Francis.


11:30am -- MGM Parade Show #10 (1955)
George Murphy introduces clips from "A Guy Named Joe" and "Guys and Dolls."
BW-26 mins, TV-G

George Murphy, actor, dancer, Republican US senator from California (1965-1971), was the subject of a song by satirist Tom Lehrer celebrating his appointment in which Lehrer declared in mock vaudeville style: "Oh, gee it's great, at last we've got a senator who can really sing and dance." Lehrer also alluded sarcastically to an infamous remark Murphy once made during a debate about the bracero program that granted temporary work visas to Mexican migrant farmhands:

Should Americans pick crops?
George says no;
'Cuz no one but a Mexican would stoop so low.
And after all, even in Egypt, the Pharaohs
Had to import—Hebrew braceros.


12:00pm -- The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967)
When the Civil War ends, Confederate spies have to return the fortune they just stole.
Cast: Roy Orbison, Sammy Jackson, Maggie Pierce.
Dir: Michael Moore.
C-87 mins, TV-PG

Elvis Presley was the first choice for the role of Johnny Banner (eventually played by Roy Orbison), but he turned down the offer.


1:30pm -- Hootenanny Hoot! (1963)
Television producers discover country/western music at a small-town college.
Cast: Peter Breck, Ruta Lee, Johnny Cash.
Dir: Gene Nelson.
BW-92 mins, TV-G

This black-and-white musical, a very minor addition to the MGM catalog, failed to rate a contemporary New York Times review.


3:15pm -- Your Cheatin' Heart (1964)
Legendary country-western singer Hank Williams uses alcohol to deal with the pressures of fame.
Cast: George Hamilton, Susan Oliver, Red Buttons.
Dir: Gene Nelson.
BW-99 mins, TV-14

Elvis Presley was considered for the role of Hank Williams, but Wiliams' widow Audrey Williams vetoed the idea, as she felt that Elvis would become the focus of the movie. Hank Williams Jr. provides the singing voice of his father.


5:00pm -- A Face In The Crowd (1957)
A female television executive turns a folk-singing drifter into a powerful media star.
Cast: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Walter Matthau.
Dir: Elia Kazan.
BW-126 mins, TV-PG

In the "Making of" documentary on the 2005 DVD release of A Face in the Crowd (1957), Andy Griffith says that the inspiration for way that Marcia reveals Rhodes' hypocrisy (by broadcasting his true feelings about his audience after he believes the sound has been cut off) came from the famed "Uncle Don incident," in which "Uncle" Don Carney, a longtime children's radio host, was supposed to have been broadcast saying "there, that oughta hold the little bastards" into a live microphone after he thought it had already been turned off. Griffith recounted this story as fact, even though it is believed by most broadcasting historians to be nothing more than a widespread and very popular urban legend.


7:15pm -- Private Screenings: Patricia Neal (2004)
Patricia Neal discusses her career with TCM host Robert Osborne.
Host: Robert Osborne.
Dir: Sean Cameron.
BW-40 mins, TV-PG

Patricia Neal won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Hud (1963), and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Subject Was Roses (1968).


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: JOSE FERRER


8:00pm -- Cyrano De Bergerac (1950)
A swordsman and poet helps another man woo the woman he loves.
Cast: Jose Ferrer, Mala Powers, William Prince.
Dir: Michael Gordon.
BW-113 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- José Ferrer

The false nose that José Ferrer wore as Cyrano was reported to have cost United Artists $1,500. Quite a tidy sum in 1950 dollars!


10:00pm -- Moulin Rouge (1952)
French painter Toulouse-Lautrec fights to find love despite his physical limitations.
Cast: Jose Ferrer, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Colette Marchand.
Dir: John Huston.
C-119 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Paul Sheriff and Marcel Vertès, Best Costume Design, Color -- Marcel Vertès,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- José Ferrer. Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Colette Marchand, Best Director -- John Huston, Best Film Editing -- Ralph Kemplen, and Best Picture

Tall actor José Ferrer was transformed into the short artist Toulouse-Lautrec by the use of camera angles, makeup, costume, concealed pits and platforms and short body doubles. Ferrer also used a set of special knee pads of his own design which allowed him to walk on his knees with his lower legs strapped to his upper body. He suffered extreme pain and could only use them for short periods of time. The cane he used in most of his scenes was of absolute necessity. This fact was covered in a LIFE magazine story in 1952.


12:03am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Paris On Parade (1938)
This Traveltalks short showcases the Paris International Exposition of 1937.
Narrator: James A. FitzPatrick.
C-9 mins

This is one of a large series of travelogues turned out by MGM, beginning in the 1930's. They featured Technicolor views of beautiful & unusual sights around the globe, as well as vivid, concise commentary.


12:15am -- Enter Laughing (1967)
An aspiring actor gets a job with a broken-down theatre company.
Cast: Reni Santoni, Jose Ferrer, Elaine May.
Dir: Carl Reiner.
C-111 mins, TV-PG

The role of David Kolowitz (played in this film by Reni Santoni) was originated on Broadway by Alan Arkin, who won a 1963 Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Play. Arkin also won a 1963 Theatre World Award.


2:15am -- 13 Ghosts (1960)
A family inherits a house haunted by 13 ghosts and a living killer.
Cast: Charles Herbert, Rosemary DeCamp, Martin Milner.
Dir: William Castle.
BW-82 mins, TV-PG

The movie was filmed in "Illusion-O" and a pair of special glasses where needed to see the ghosts. This resulted in a number of sources incorrectly stating that the film was originally shown in 3D. The "ghost viewers" contained a red filter and a blue filter but unlike 3D viewers, both eyes would look through the same color filter. One color would cause the ghostly images to intensify while the other color caused the images to fade.


3:45am -- The Tingler (1959)
A scientist discovers an organism that lives on fear.
Cast: Vincent Price, Judith Evelyn, Darryl Hickman.
Dir: William Castle.
BW-82 mins, TV-PG

This film is listed among The 100 Most Amusingly Bad Movies Ever Made in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book THE OFFICIAL RAZZIE® MOVIE GUIDE.


5:15am -- Festival of Shorts #26 (2000)
TCM promotes two comedy shorts with ventriloquist Edgar Bergan,

"The Eyes Have It" (1931)
Cast: Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, Christina Graver.
Dir: Alfred J. Goulding.
BW-10 mins

and "Africa Speaks...English" (1933)
Cast: Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy.
Dir: Roy Mack.
BW-12 mins

Northwestern University awarded Charlie McCarthy an honorary degree of "Master of Innuendo and Snappy Comeback". Edgar Bergen was an alumnus of the University.

[Staph]

1. Moulin Rouge (1952)

There have been a number of films with the title Moulin Rouge, including a 1944 French release with Josephine Baker, a 1934 Hollywood comedy with Constance Bennett and Franchot Tone, and of course Baz LuhrmannÕs 2001 over-the-top re-imagining of the musical genre, appropriately fitted with an exclamation point at the end of the title. But although the latter film had John Leguizamo in a supporting role as a cartoonish Toulouse-Lautrec, John Huston's 1952 release is the only one to delve into the life of the famous French painter and chronicler of the Parisian belle époque. Not that the facts of this bio-pic are to be taken as the gospel truth. Moulin Rouge is based on Pierre LaMure's fictionalized account of the life of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, descendent of a prominent old aristocratic family who in the mid-1880s moved to Montmartre, the center of Parisian bohemian life.

In the few years left in his short life (he died at 36 in 1901), the artist painted the world of the cabarets, dance halls, and brothels; pioneered the art of poster design; and became a fixture of local night life, particularly at the nightclub of the title, which opened in 1889 and immediately became one of the city's most popular and scandalous entertainment spots.

Director-screenwriter Huston was interested in making a film of Toulouse-Lautrec's life, and contacted Jose Ferrer about playing the lead. He was surprised to find Ferrer had already optioned the rights to La Mure's novel to develop it into a play. The two worked together to create a fuller, more complex portrait than the character in La Mure's book, but some of the more flamboyant, outrageous aspects of the artist's life are absent in Huston's screen version.

What is more outstanding than any question of biographical verisimilitude is the way Huston and his crew evoked the period and Toulouse-Lautrec's art through costumes and cinematography. Huston claimed to have spent a year in Paris as a starving young artist (an assertion open to dispute) and he certainly had a deep interest in painting. In fact, it may have been his enthusiasm to recreate the look and feel of Toulouse-Lautrec's paintings on screen that attracted him to this project more than the details of his subject's life. With the help of Life magazine photographer Eliot Elisofon as special color consultant, director of photography Oswald Morris worked at capturing the quality of the artist's work through the use of color filters and blue-green backgrounds splashed with orange, yellow, and pink. Huston found Technicolor too sharp in its contrasts, so he had Morris use an array of spotlights in a wide range of colors to tint each shadow and highlight. Morris' critically praised work was overlooked in the film's seven Oscar nominations, but Marcel Vertes' costume design and Paul Sheriff's art direction (along with Vertes' set decoration) brought home awards. Other nominations included Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Ferrer), Best Supporting Actress (French ballerina Colette Marchand in the role of a prostitute who almost drives Toulouse-Lautrec to suicide), and Best Editing (Ralph Kemplen).

The production was very grueling for Ferrer, who went to great pains to achieve a physical likeness to the character. Toulouse-Lautrec suffered from a congenital bone disease that stunted his growth to under five feet -- the top of his body developed into adulthood but his legs never did. To create the illusion that the nearly six-foot actor was tiny, Ferrer bent his knees and relaxed his legs for medium and close shots. In several sequences requiring full body shots, the actor had his legs painfully strapped behind him as he walked on his knees. At such times, frequent breaks would have to be taken in filming while Ferrer had his legs massaged extensively to restore circulation.

Huston, who had a reputation for being a heavy drinker, a womanizer, and often difficult to get along with, drove his actors hard, pushing them to their limits on this production. A physically daring, driven man, he was quite different than the more cerebral Ferrer, and the two were rumored to be at odds through much of the shoot. Typical of the way he was accused of abusing people to the breaking point to test their worthiness, Huston forced Marchand to play a scene over and over again in a too-tight corset, driving her to near hysterics over her inability to breathe properly. When he was satisfied he had the scene he wanted, he hugged the young woman and presented her with flowers and champagne. But there was very little even Huston could do with Zsa Zsa Gabor, who was cast in the part of singer Jane Avril, one of Toulouse-Lautrec's most famous subjects. Huston wanted to replace her, but it was decided to keep her since her singing voice was dubbed anyway. Not much could be done about her acting, however, and the director resorted to getting Marchand to show her how to walk because "she
moved like a tank," according to cinematographer Morris. At one point, Huston threatened her by saying, "If you go dead again on the end of a line, I'll shoot you." Oddly enough, the two eventually became friendly because of their mutual love of horses.

Look for future British horror movie stars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in small roles. Lee has an
uncredited bit as famed pointillist painter Georges Seurat.

Director: John Huston
Producer: John Huston
Screenplay: John Huston, Anthony Veiller, based on the novel by Pierre La Mure
Cinematography: Oswald Morris
Editing: Ralph Kemplen
Art Direction: Paul Sheriff
Original Music: Georges Auric
Cast: Jose Ferrer (Toulouse-Lautrec), Zsa Zsa Gabor (Jane Avril), Suzanne Flon (Myriamme Hirman), Colette Marchand (Marie Charlet), Theodore Bikel (Milo IV, King of Serbia), Peter Cushing (Marcel de la Voisier), Jill Bennett (Sarah), Claude Nollier (Countess de Toulouse-Lautrec), Katherine Kath (La Goulue).
C-120m.

By Rob Nixon