TCM Schedule for Thursday, April 5 -- Star of the Month -- Doris Day

[Staph]

Today we are celebrating the 96th anniversary of the birth of one of my favorite actors, Gregory Peck, born Eldred Gregory Peck, on April 5, 1916, in La Jolla, California. And in primetime TCM is continuing with Star of the Month Doris Day, with a quintet of her comedies, generally playing a 1950s/60s version of independent mother with a mind of her own. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Days Of Glory (1944)
Russian freedom fighters battle the Nazi occupying forces.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Gregory Peck, Lowell Gilmore, Maria Palmer
86 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Vernon L. Walker (photographic), James G. Stewart (sound) and Roy Granville (sound)

Film debut of Gregory Peck and Alan Reed (later the voice of Fred Flintstone!).


7:30 AM -- The Valley Of Decision (1945)
An Irish housemaid's romance with the boss's son is complicated by labor disputes in the Pittsburgh mills.
Dir: Tay Garnett
Cast: Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, Donald Crisp
119 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Herbert Stothart

Despite her youthful appearance, Greer Garson was twelve years older than her leading man, Gregory Peck.


9:45 AM -- The Yearling (1946)
A Florida boy's pet deer threatens the family farm.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman, Claude Jarman Jr.
C- 128 min, TV-G, CC

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse and Edwin B. Willis, and Best Cinematography, Color -- Charles Rosher, Leonard Smith and Arthur E. Arling

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gregory Peck, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Jane Wyman, Best Director -- Clarence Brown, Best Film Editing -- Harold F. Kress, and Best Picture

Jane Wyman's daughter refused to speak to her for two weeks after she saw the film. Once you have seen the film, you will understand why!


12:00 PM -- The Great Sinner (1949)
A young man succumbs to gambling fever.
Dir: Robert Siodmak
Cast: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Melvyn Douglas
110 min, TV-PG, CC

Though not credited, the film is obviously based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "The Gambler".


2:00 PM -- Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)
The famed 19th century hero defeats enemy fleets and courts an admiral's widow.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty
C- 117 min, TV-G, CC

The rights to the novel were originally acquired by Warners with Errol Flynn in mind, but after the financial failure of Adventures of Don Juan and growing difficulties with the actor, he was not cast. Warners was already building up Burt Lancaster as its new swashbuckler, but the role of a British sea captain seemed out of his range, so Gregory Peck was ultimately cast.


4:15 PM -- Man With A Million (1954)
On a bet, a man tries to see how much he can get without breaking a million-pound bank note.
Dir: Ronald Neame
Cast: Gregory Peck, Ronald Squire, Joyce Grenfell
C- 89 min, TV-G

The prop £1,000,000 note was larger in both size (about 7 x 9 inches) and value than any real note produced by the Bank of England up to that time, even notes for internal use. However, the bank still imposed strict regulations, which were violated when posters advertising the movie showed a reproduction of the note. This had to be covered over before the posters were allowed to be used.


5:45 PM -- The Purple Plain (1954)
A blinded Canadian flier has to find his way through World War II Burma.
Dir: Robert Parrish
Cast: Gregory Peck, Win Min Than, Brenda De Banzie
C- 102 min, TV-PG

Blore's quote, "Theirs not to reason why...", is from "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Lord Tennyson.


7:30 PM -- MGM Parade Show #9 (1955)
Ann Sothern performs in a clip from "Lady Be Good"; Marlon Brando introduces a clip from "Guys and Dolls." Hosted by George Murphy.
26 min, TV-G



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: DORIS DAY



8:00 PM -- Please Don't Eat The Daisies (1960)
A drama critic and his family try to adjust to life in the country.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Doris Day, David Niven, Janis Paige
C- 111 min, TV-G, CC

Beginning her feature-film career portraying Katharine Hepburn's mother in Little Women, Spring Byington closed her movie years playing Doris Day's mother in this film.


10:00 PM -- The Thrill Of It All (1963)
A doctor tries to cope with his wife's newfound stardom as an advertising pitch woman.
Dir: Norman Jewison
Cast: Doris Day, James Garner, Arlene Francis
C- 108 min, TV-G, CC

The ad agency's viewing room has both color and black-and-white TVs side by side. This was common at ad agencies in the 1960s to confirm that color commercials would also be acceptable on black-and-white sets.


12:00 AM -- The Glass Bottom Boat (1966)
A woman writing a scientist's biography is mistaken for a spy.
Dir: Frank Tashlin
Cast: Doris Day, Rod Taylor, Arthur Godfrey
C- 110 min, TV-G, CC

The set that appears in this film as NASA scientist Rod Taylor's home was later recycled as the bad guys' headquarters in the "Concrete Overcoat Affair," a two-part episode of TV's The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Robert "Napoleon Solo" Vaughn has a cameo at the party, and there is a snatch of the "Man from U.N.C.L.E." theme heard on the soundtrack when Paul Lynde goes undercover in drag.


2:00 AM -- It Happened To Jane (1959)
A small-town businesswoman takes on a railroad magnate in court.
Dir: Richard Quine
Cast: Doris Day, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs
C- 98 min, TV-G

Doris Day wrote that her manager/husband Martin Melcher was terribly concerned over the box-office failure of this film and The Tunnel of Love. Their failures caused Day to drop out of the Top Ten Box Office Stars. Day and Melcher had words about him hustling her into almost any film for the money instead of waiting to find good scripts that would have produced better results.


4:00 AM -- April in Paris (1952)
A bureaucrat's mistake sends a chorus girl to Paris representing American theatre in place of a star actress.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Doris Day, Ray Bolger, Claude Dauphin
C- 100 min, TV-G, CC

Doris Day writes in her autobiography that she only encountered trouble or tension on two of her Warner Bros. films, "Young at Heart" and "April in Paris". On "Paris", she writes that leading man Ray Bolger and director David Butler clashed early on, with Butler accusing Bolger of trying to steal scenes away from Day. Doris says that, being a relative newcomer to films, she was unaware of Bolger's tricks and managed to stay out of the line of fire.

[Bolo Boffin]

1. Goodness, how many movies did Doris Day make?

I thought TCM just did star of the month on Wednesday nights. Are they afraid they're going to run out?

[Staph]

2. Apparently, she's really Star of the Week

From April 2 to 6, TCM is showing 28(!) of her films. If I were a cynic, I'd call it a sweetness overload, but she is really a versatile actress. Anyone who can go from perky musicals to sex comedies to Alfred Hitchcock thrillers has some serious acting chops.

But 28 films in five days is still too much! I wish that they had spread her films out in a more traditional Star of the Month mode.

[Bolo Boffin]

3. I love her in The Man Who Knew Too Much (spoilers!)

Especially when she's singing Que Sera Sera near the end. It's one of Hitchcock's most wicked plot devices to have the embassy workers all excited to hear the famous singer sing, but she's screaming out the song so that her son will hear. Everybody is all polite, but inside you can tell they're like, "I thought she was supposed to be a good singer!"