TCM Schedule for Thursday, April 17, 2014 -- What's On Tonight - MGM 90th Anniversary

[Staph]

TCM has a special couple of days planned for us to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. From Wikepedia's entry on MGM:

In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem. He had bought Metro Pictures Corporation (founded in 1916) and Goldwyn Pictures (founded in 1917) to provide a steady supply of films for his large Loew's Theatres chain. However, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters. Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17, 1924. Because of his decade-long success as a producer, Mayer was made a vice-president of Loew's and head of studio operations in California, with Harry Rapf and Irving Thalberg as heads of production. For decades MGM was listed on movie title cards as "Controlled by Loew's, Inc."

Originally, the new studio's films were presented in the following manner: "Louis B. Mayer presents a Metro-Goldwyn picture", but Mayer soon added his name to the studio with Loew's blessing. Though Loew's Metro was the dominant partner, the new studio inherited Goldwyn's studios in Culver City, California, the former Goldwyn mascot Leo the Lion (which replaced Metro's parrot symbol), and the Goldwyn corporate motto Ars Gratia Artis ("Art for art's sake&quot . Mayer wanted to replace the Latin motto with "Art is Beholding to the Artist" in English, but was overruled by Schenck.

Also inherited from Goldwyn was a runaway production, Ben–Hur (the silent version), which had been filming in Rome for months at great cost. Mayer scrapped most of what had been shot and relocated production to Culver City. Though Ben–Hur was the costliest film made up to its time, it became MGM's first great public-relations triumph, establishing an image for the company that persisted for years. Also in 1925, with successes from both The Big Parade and Ben–Hur, MGM surpassed Universal Studios as the largest studio in Hollywood, a distinction it would maintain for over 30 years.

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ (1925)
In this silent film, a rebellious Israelite prince out for vengeance crosses paths with the Messiah.
Dir: Fred Niblo
Cast: Ramon Novarro, Francis X. Bushman, May McAvoy
BW-143 mins,

MGM inherited the production when the company was founded in 1924; with the film over budget and getting out of control, the studio halted production and relocated the shoot from Italy to California, under the supervision of Irving Thalberg. William Wyler, one of sixty assistant directors for the chariot race, went on to direct the remake Ben-Hur (1959).

This film had an "extra" cast like no other. Many Hollywood stars showed up on set to watch the shooting and were pressed into service as extras, especially in the chariot race. In addition, many who would later become Hollywood's top stars, but who were at the time just struggling actors, were also in the crowd scenes as extras. Among well-known and soon-to-be-well-known names "working" in the film were John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper, Marion Davies, Myrna Loy, John Gilbert, Douglas Fairbanks, Clark Gable, Harold Lloyd, Carole Lombard, Janet Gaynor, Fay Wray, Mary Pickford, Colleen Moore, Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Samuel Goldwyn and Rupert Julian.


8:30 AM -- Dinner At Eight (1933)
A high-society dinner party masks a hotbed of scandal and intrigue.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery
BW-111 mins, CC,

The dowager character played by Marie Dressler is reportedly based on actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell, for whom George Bernard Shaw wrote the role of Eliza Doolittle in the play "Pygmalion", the basis for the musical My Fair Lady (1964). Mrs. Campbell was legendary for her inappropriate remarks, and she failed dismally in an attempt at a Hollywood film career.


10:30 AM -- The Thin Man (1934)
A husband-and-wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan
BW-91 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- William Powell, Best Director -- W.S. Van Dyke, Best Writing, Adaptation -- Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and Best Picture

Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM, originally was against the idea of Myrna Loy being cast in this picture but director W.S. Van Dyke wanted to use the stars of the movie Manhattan Melodrama (1934), William Powell and Myrna Loy. Mayer said that Powell was OK for the part since he had already played detectives in other films. Loy eventually got the part and made new image for herself.


12:15 PM -- The Good Earth (1937)
Epic adaptation of the Pearl Buck classic about Chinese farmers battling the elements.
Dir: Sidney Franklin
Cast: Paul Muni, Luise Rainer, Walter Connolly
BW-138 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Luise Rainer (Luise Rainer became the first actress and first performer to win consecutive awards for lead roles.), and Best Cinematography -- Karl Freund

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Sidney Franklin, Best Film Editing -- Basil Wrangell, and Best Picture

Chinese-born Anna May Wong desperately wanted the role of O-Lan. Being a close friend of author Pearl S. Buck helped. She tested for the role, but producer Irving Thalberg was unsatisfied. Also, since Paul Muni, a Caucasian actor, had already been cast in the lead, Thalberg knew he couldn't cast Wong as Muni's wife. The Hays Code prohibited actors of different races from playing husband/wife couples on film. (This was to avoid offending white audiences in the segregated American South, where there were laws against mixed-race marriages.) Thalberg offered her the "vamp" role of Lotus, but a distraught Anna May turned it down.


2:45 PM -- Boys Town (1938)
True story of Father Flanagan's fight to build a home for orphaned boys.
Dir: Norman Taurog
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull
BW-93 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy (Spencer Tracy was not present at the awards ceremony. His wife Louise Treadwell accepted the award on his behalf.), and Best Writing, Original Story -- Eleanore Griffin and Dore Schary

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Norman Taurog, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Meehan and Dore Schary, and Best Picture

The day after Spencer Tracy won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in this film, an MGM publicist released a statement - without consulting Tracy first - that the actor would donate his Oscar to the real Boys Town in Nebraska. Tracy agreed to make the donation if the Academy would send him a replacement Oscar. When the replacement arrived, the engraving on the award read: "Best Actor - Dick Tracy."


4:30 PM -- Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
A cold-hearted teacher becomes the school favorite when he's thawed by a beautiful young woman.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn
BW-114 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Robert Donat

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Director -- Sam Wood, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Eric Maschwitz, R.C. Sherriff and Claudine West, Best Sound, Recording -- A.W. Watkins (Denham SSD), Best Film Editing -- Charles Frend, and Best Picture

Mr. Chips was modeled on W.H. Balgarnie, James Hilton's old classics master who taught for over 50 years at The Leys public school in Cambridge.


6:30 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 for 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.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: MGM 90TH ANNIVERSARY



8:00 PM -- Flesh And The Devil (1926)
In this silent film, a femme fatale comes between childhood friends.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: John Gilbert, Greta Garbo, Lars Hanson
BW-113 mins,

The first scene between John Gilbert and Greta Garbo, in the train station, was also the first time Gilbert ever saw Garbo. He falls in love on camera, so completely in love that he never went back home to his wife. Director Clarence Brown was so overawed by the developing romance between Gilbert and Garbo that at the end of one particularly passionate scene he did not even call "cut," instead motioning the lighting and camera crews to stop filming. They withdrew from the set and, after a few hours, had dinner sent in.


10:00 PM -- Grand Hotel (1932)
Guests at a posh Berlin hotel struggle through scandal and heartache.
Dir: Edmund Goulding
Cast: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford
BW-113 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Picture

In addition to her reservations about appearing youthful enough to portray a prima ballerina, Greta Garbo (who was 27 at the time!) was also reluctant to act in a film which included a cast with so many additional stars. Irving Thalberg was able to convince her to take the part by offering to bill her by her last name only in the credits, an honor which was reserved for only the most esteemed actors at the time.


12:00 AM -- Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Classic adventure about the sadistic Captain Bligh, who drove his men to revolt during a South Seas expedition.
Dir: Frank Lloyd
Cast: Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone
BW-133 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Clark Gable, Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Charles Laughton, Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Franchot Tone, Best Director -- Frank Lloyd, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Jules Furthman, Talbot Jennings and Carey Wilson, Best Film Editing -- Margaret Booth, and Best Music, Score -- Nat W. Finston (head of departmment) with score by Herbert Stothart.

Irving Thalberg cast Clark Gable and Charles Laughton together in the hope that they would hate each other, making their on screen sparring more lifelike. He knew that Gable, a notorious homophobe, would not care for Laughton's overt homosexuality and would feel inferior to the RADA-trained Shakespearean actor. Relations between the two stars broke down completely after Laughton brought his muscular boyfriend to the island as his personal masseur. They were an obviously devoted couple and would go everywhere together, while Gable would turn away in disgust. In addition, Laughton felt that he should have won the Best Actor Oscar for The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934). In the event, he was not even nominated and the award went to Gable for It Happened One Night (1934).


2:15 AM -- Ninotchka (1939)
A coldhearted Soviet agent is warmed up by a trip to Paris and a night of love.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire
BW-110 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greta Garbo, Best Writing, Original Story -- Melchior Lengyel, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch and Billy Wilder, and Best Picture

The tagline "Garbo laughs!" came before the screenplay was written; the film was built around that single, now legendary, slogan.


4:15 AM -- Marie Antoinette (1938)
Lavish biography of the French queen who "let them eat cake."
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: Norma Shearer, Tyrone Power, John Barrymore
BW-157 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Norma Shearer, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Morley, Best Art Direction -- Cedric Gibbons, and Best Music, Original Score -- Herbert Stothart

This was Irving Thalberg's last project while head of production at MGM. At the time of his death in 1936, the film was in the planning stages, but his widow, Norma Shearer, took special interest in the film and stuck with it to its completion in 1938.