TCM Schedule for Thursday, October 27, 2016 -- TCM Spotlight - Trailblazing Women

[Staph]

In prime time, it's the last night of Trailblazing Women, titled Activitism. As the TCM website states, "The festival comes to a close with an evening of films featuring actresses who became passionate advocates for a variety of causes, including Jane Fonda (The China Syndrome, 1979), Cicely Tyson (Sounder, 1972) and Myrna Loy (The Thin Man, 1934)."

I'm sure that you know about the activism of Jane Fonda, Barbra Streisand, and Susan Sarandon. Myrna Loy was outspoken against Adolf Hitler in WWII and appeared on his blacklist. In 1960 she campaigned for John F. Kennedy. Later she did battle with Californian Governor Ronald Reagan over open-housing legislation and for years afterward was a vigorous member of the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- THREE COMRADES (1938)
Three life-long friends share their love for a dying woman against the turbulent backdrop of Germany between the wars.
Dir: Frank Borzage
Cast: Robert Taylor, Margaret Sullavan, Franchot Tone
BW-99 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Margaret Sullavan

This was F. Scott Fitzgerald's only screenwriting credit.


7:45 AM -- 3 GODFATHERS (1949)
Three outlaws on the run risk their freedom and their lives to return a newborn to civilization.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz, Harry Carey Jr.
C-106 mins, CC,

This is a remake of the silent film The Three Godfathers (1916), which starred Ford's long-time friend Harry Carey. When Carey died in 1947, Ford decided to remake the story in Technicolor and dedicate the film to his memory. Carey's son, Harry Carey Jr., plays one of the three, "The Abilene Kid".


9:45 AM -- THREE ON A MATCH (1932)
A woman's childhood friends try to rescue her from gangsters.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Virginia Davis, Joan Blondell, Dawn O'Day
BW-63 mins, CC,

The title refers to the superstition that if three people light their cigarettes with the same match, the third person will soon die. While some attribute the superstition to World War I, where it was sometimes thought that lighting a match long enough to light three cigarettes would attract enemy gunfire, it is now known that a match company "created" the superstition to cut down on sharing of matches and thus increase sales.


11:00 AM -- DESIGN FOR LIVING (1933)
An independent woman can't chose between the two men she loves.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Fredric March, Gary Cooper, Miriam Hopkins
BW-91 mins, CC,

Considerable censorship difficulties arose because of sexual discussions and innuendos, although the Hays Office eventually approved the film for release. However, it was banned by the Legion of Decency and was refused a certificate by the PCA for re-release in 1934, when the production code was more rigorously enforced.


12:45 PM -- SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
Two musicians on the run from gangsters masquerade as members of an all-girl band.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon
BW-122 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Orry-Kelly

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Jack Lemmon, Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Ted Haworth and Edward G. Boyle

Jack Lemmon wrote that the first sneak preview had a bad reaction with many audience walkouts. Many studio personnel and agents offered advice to Billy Wilder on what scenes to reshoot, add and cut. Lemmon asked Wilder what he was going to do. Wilder responded: "Why, nothing. This is a very funny movie and I believe in it just as it is. Maybe this is the wrong neighborhood in which to have shown it. At any rate, I don't panic over one preview. It's a hell of a movie." Wilder held the next preview in the Westwood section of Los Angeles, and the audience stood up and cheered.


3:00 PM -- SABRINA (1954)
Two wealthy brothers fall for the chauffeur's daughter.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden
BW-114 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Audrey Hepburn, Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Billy Wilder, Samuel A. Taylor and Ernest Lehman, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Hal Pereira, Walter H. Tyler, Sam Comer and Ray Moyer

Like Sunset Boulevard (1950), this film started production without a finished script. Ernest Lehman worked himself to exhaustion working on the script with Billy Wilder during production. One day, when Lehman did not have an extra copy of a scene rewrite to give to Humphrey Bogart, Bogart exploded. Wilder told his crew they would not film another foot of film until Bogart apologized to Lehman. Bogart invited Lehman to his dressing room and shooting eventually continued.


5:11 PM -- 1955 MOTION PICTURE THEATRE CELEBRATION (INTERNATIONAL) (1955)
This short features theatrical trailers of original musicals released by MGM in 1955 and visits the sets of films still in production.
C-18 mins,


5:30 PM -- GEORGY GIRL (1966)
A misfit fights for happiness in the world of swinging London.
Dir: Silvio Narizzano
Cast: James Mason, Alan Bates, Lynn Redgrave
BW-99 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Lynn Redgrave, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- James Mason, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Kenneth Higgins, and Best Music, Original Song -- Tom Springfield (music) and Jim Dale (lyrics) for the song "Georgy Girl"

The hit theme song &quot Hey There) Georgy Girl" was co-written by Jim Dale, who would later gain fame through several "Carry On" films, 1970's Disney Studio comedies, and Tony winning and nominated Broadway roles. He's also noted as the reader of the U.S. versions of the Harry Potter audio books, as well as the narrator of Pushing Daisies (2007). (I saw him on Broadway decades ago, in the title role of Barnum.)


7:15 PM -- MGM IS ON THE MOVE! (1964)
This promotional short showcases MGM's upcoming movies of 1964.
C-36 mins, Letterbox Format



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: TRAILBLAZING WOMEN



8:00 PM -- THE CHINA SYNDROME (1979)
A television newswoman stumbles onto deadly secrets at a nuclear power plant.
Dir: James Bridges
Cast: Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas
C-122 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Jack Lemmon, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Jane Fonda, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Mike Gray, T.S. Cook and James Bridges, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- George Jenkins and Arthur Jeph Parker

When the film was first released on 16 March 1979, nuclear power executives soon lambasted the picture as being "sheer fiction" and a "character assassination of an entire industry". Then twelve days after its launch, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident occurred in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. It was commented how the events had left nuclear executives embarrassed with egg on their faces.


10:15 PM -- THE WAY WE WERE (1973)
A fiery liberal fights to make her marriage to a successful writer work.
Dir: Sydney Pollack
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Bradford Dillman
C-118 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Marvin Hamlisch (music), Alan Bergman (lyrics) and Marilyn Bergman (lyrics) for the song "The Way We Were", and Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- Marvin Hamlisch

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Barbra Streisand, Best Cinematography -- Harry Stradling Jr., Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Stephen B. Grimes and William Kiernan, and Best Costume Design -- Dorothy Jeakins and Moss Mabry

When Barbra Streisand heard the titular song for the first time, she loved it. However, she made two important suggestions that ended up transforming the song into something even better. She suggested a slight shift in the melody to send it soaring at a crucial point in the song, and she also suggested changing the first line of the song from "Daydreams light the corners of my mind" to "Memories light the corners of my mind."


12:30 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.


2:15 AM -- JOE (1970)
Hardhats and hippies clash in 1960s New York City in this gritty drama exploring the rocky edge of that era's generation gap.
Dir: John G. Avildsen
Cast: Dennis Patrick, Peter Boyle, Susan Sarandon
BW-107 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- Norman Wexler

Reaction to this film disturbed actor Peter Boyle for years. He refused the lead role in The French Connection (1971) and other roles that glamorized violence after people cheered his role in this project.


4:04 AM -- RYAN'S DAUGHTER (FEATURETTE) (1970)
This short film provides a behind-the-scenes look at the making of "Ryan's Daughter" (1970).
C-6 mins,


4:15 AM -- SOUNDER (1972)
Black sharecroppers during the Depression fight to get their children a decent education.
Dir: Martin Ritt
Cast: Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks
C-105 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Winfield, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Cicely Tyson, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Lonne Elder III, and Best Picture

Cicely Tyson commented in a TCM interview that director Martin Ritt's cinematographer (principal cameraman), while shooting the famous "homecoming sequence" with Tyson and co-star Paul Winfield, was so moved by their performances that he was certain he missed framing the action properly in the shots and respectfully asked them to do the difficult scene again. They obliged, but a later examination of daily rushes revealed that they got shot and acting perfect the first time, and take 1 was a print.