TCM Schedule for Thursday, April 11, 2013 -- What's On Tonight -- Debra Paget

[Staph]

During the daylight hours today, TCM is featuring films by director Jean Negulesco. And in prime time, we've got the films of Debra Paget. Enjoy!


7:15 AM -- Count Your Blessings (1959)
After a wartime separation, an Englishwoman discovers her French husband is a womanizer.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Rossano Brazzi, Maurice Chevalier
C-102 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Based on the novel The Blessing by Nancy Mitford.


9:00 AM -- Jessica (1962)
When a sexy midwife comes to town, the local women abstain from sex rather than risk having her deliver their babies.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Angie Dickinson, Maurice Chevalier, Noël-Noël
BW-105 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format

Based on the novel The Midwife of Pont Clery by Flora Sandstrom.


11:00 AM -- Deep Valley (1947)
A farmer's daughter helps an escaped convict.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Ida Lupino, Dane Clark, Wayne Morris
BW-106 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Based on the novel by Dan Totheroh.


1:00 PM -- Nobody Lives Forever (1946)
A con artist falls for the rich widow he's trying to fleece.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: John Garfield, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Walter Brennan
BW-100 mins, TV-G, CC,

Humphrey Bogart refused the role of Nick Blake, eventually played by John Garfield.


2:45 PM -- Johnny Belinda (1948)
A small-town doctor helps a deaf-mute farm girl learn to communicate.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford
BW-102 mins, TV-G, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Jane Wyman

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Lew Ayres, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Charles Bickford, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Agnes Moorehead, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Robert M. Haas and William Wallace, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ted D. McCord, Best Director -- Jean Negulesco, Best Film Editing -- David Weisbart, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner, Best Sound, Recording -- (Warner Bros. Sound Dept.), Best Writing, Screenplay -- Irma von Cube and Allen Vincent, and Best Picture

Jane Wyman's Oscar acceptance speech is reportedly the shortest on record for Best Actress: "I won this award by keeping my mouth shut and I think I'll do it again." Sir John Mills bowed and said nothing after winning Best Supporting Actor for playing a mute in Ryan's Daughter.


4:30 PM -- Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)
Three American rommates working in Italy wish for the man of their dreams after throwing coins into a fountain.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Clifton Webb, Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters
C-102 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Milton R. Krasner, and Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "Three Coins in the Fountain"

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

The first motion picture filmed in CinemaScope outside of the United States. Prior to beginning principal shooting, 20th Century-Fox studio execs warned producer Sol C. Siegel and director Jean Negulesco that they would have a difficult time with the new film format away from the controlled settings of the studio. Siegel and Negulesco solved this dilemma by simply taking the studio's entire technical crew along to Rome.


6:15 PM -- Titanic (1953)
An unhappily married couple realize their problems seem minor when the ship hits an iceberg.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Wagner
BW-98 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch and Richard L. Breen

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lyle R. Wheeler, Maurice Ransford and Stuart A. Reiss

The character of Maude Young, portrayed in this motion picture by Thelma Ritter, was obviously based upon Mrs. J.J. "Unsinkable Molly" Brown of Denver, Colorado. Even though the actual names of some of the other passengers were used in the film, Mrs. Brown's was not. It has been suggested that there was some dispute between 20th Century Fox and the Brown estate over the use of Molly Brown's character. Therefore, Molly Brown of the Denver, Colorado gold silver mining fortune became, for this motion picture, Maude Young of Montana lead mining.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: DEBRA PAGET



8:00 PM -- Love Me Tender (1956)
Three brothers unwittingly become outlaws after robbing a train the day after peacetime.
Dir: Robert D. Webb
Cast: Richard Egan, Debra Paget, Elvis Presley
BW-90 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Of all the movies starring Elvis Presley, this is the only one in which he didn't get top billing. He was billed third, after Richard Egan and Debra Paget.


9:45 PM -- Les Miserables (1952)
An obsessive policeman relentlessly hunts a man who escaped prison after stealing bread.
BW-106 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Elsa Lanchester, who plays Madame Magloire was married to Charles Laughton, the Etienne Javert of the 1935 version of Les Misérables.


11:45 PM -- Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954)
A Greek slave who keeps Christ's robe after the crucifixion is sentenced to be one Caligula's gladiators.
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: Victor Mature, Susan Hayward, Michael Rennie
C-101 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

The set of the Christian neighborhood in Rome has previously been used in The Robe (of which this film is the sequel) as the village of Cana. We can easily recognize the well with old broken columns.


1:30 AM -- From The Earth To The Moon (1958)
Lifelong rivals collaborate on a 19th-century moon rocket.
Dir: Byron Haskin
Cast: Joseph Cotten, George Sanders, Debra Paget
C-100 mins, TV-G, CC,

This was one of the last films produced for RKO. By the time it was completed, RKO had ceased production and distribution. It was released through Warner Brothers.


3:30 AM -- Seven Angry Men (1955)
A fanatical abolitionist leads a personal war against slave owners in Kansas.
Dir: Charles Marquis Warren
Cast: Raymond Massey, Debra Paget, Jeffrey Hunter
C-92 mins, TV-14, CC,

When one of Brown's sons is shot standing next to campfire, the shooter quickly draws his pistol and fires one shot, supposedly through Brown's son. The bullet flash can actually be seen passing just to the left of Brown's son in the film. It is amazing that such a shot would be allowed so close to the actor.


5:15 AM -- Most Dangerous Man Alive (1961)
A mob chief is bombarded by radiation while fleeing from the police, making him the most dangerous man alive!
Dir: Allan Dwan
Cast: Ron Randell, Debra Paget, Elaine Stewart
BW-81 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format

Final film of veteran director Allan Dwan.