TCM Schedule for Thursday, June 22, 2017 -- TCM Spotlight - Gay Hollywood

[Staph]

In prime time, TCM continues its month-long celebration of Gay Hollywood. Tonight's films and stars include writer ARTHUR LAURENTS in GYPSY (1962), director JOHN SCHLESINGER in BILLY LIAR (1963), actor MONTGOMERY CLIFT in SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER (1960), actor ANTHONY PERKINS in PSYCHO (1960), director/choreographer/playwright JEROME ROBBINS in WEST SIDE STORY (1961), actor DIRK BOGARDE in I COULD GO ON SINGING (1963), and actor TAB HUNTER in RIDE THE WILD SURF (1964). Enjoy!


6:30 AM -- HOLLYWOOD MY HOMETOWN (1965)
In this special, Ken Murray hosts his own behind-the-scenes home movies of some of Hollywood's greatest stars.
Dir: William Martin
Cast: Ken Murray, Ben Alexander, Richard Arlen
BW- 53 mins, CC,


7:30 AM -- ONE CROWDED NIGHT (1940)
Travelers at a California motel face a variety of personal crises.
Dir: Irving Reis
Cast: Billie Seward, William Haade, Anne Revere
BW- 68 mins,

Film debut of Charles Lang.


8:45 AM -- IF WINTER COMES (1948)
Scandal results when a well-meaning man takes in a pregnant girl.
Dir: Victor Saville
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Deborah Kerr, Angela Lansbury
BW- 97 mins, CC,

Angela Lansbury then twenty-two wanted the sympathetic role of the waif-like village girl Effie but was forced to play Mabel the thirty-five year old shrewish wife of fifty year old Walter Pidgeon. This brought home to Lansbury that she would never be a star player at MGM. The role of Effie went to Janet Leigh who would be Lansbury's co-star in The Manchurian Candidate where Lansbury would again play an older unsympathetic woman although this role - Mrs. Iselin - would be cited by Lansbury as her favorite film role.


10:30 AM -- SO WELL REMEMBERED (1947)
A mill-owner's ambitious daughter almost ruins her husband's political career.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: John Mills, Martha Scott, Patricia Roc
BW- 115 mins, CC,

English actress Hayley Mills made her (uncredited) screen debut as an infant in this film, featuring her father John and sister Juliet.


12:30 PM -- ALL FALL DOWN (1962)
A young drifter's romance with an older woman is threatened by his possessive mother.
Dir: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Eva Marie Saint, Warren Beatty, Karl Malden
BW- 110 mins, CC,

Eva Marie Saint's character (Echo O'Brien) is the "old maid daughter" of the best friend of Angela Lansbury's character (Annabell Willart), when in fact Eva Marie Saint was a year older than Angela Lansbury.


2:30 PM -- REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE (1967)
A military officer becomes obsessed with an enlisted man.
Dir: John Huston
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Brian Keith
C- 109 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Originally released in a version in which all scenes were suffused with the color gold, with one object in each scene (such as a rose) normally-colored. This was in reference to the houseboy's drawing of a golden peacock in whose eye the world is a mere reflection. However, that version puzzled audiences, so it was withdrawn and a normally-colored version released.


4:30 PM -- THEY WON'T FORGET (1937)
Bigotry flares when a teacher is accused of killing a small-town girl in the South.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson, Edward Norris
BW- 95 mins, CC,

Based on the notorious rigged murder trial and subsequent lynching of Leo Frank, the film does not mention that Frank was Jewish, a fact that contributed more to his being tried for a murder he didn't commit, found guilty and lynched than his Northern background (although that was also a factor). The real-life victim, Mary Phagan, was only 13 years old, a far cry from Lana Turner's post-pubescent sweater girl of 16.


6:15 PM -- FLAMINGO ROAD (1949)
A stranded carnival dancer takes on a corrupt political boss when she marries into small-town society.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Joan Crawford, Zachary Scott, Sydney Greenstreet
BW- 94 mins, CC,

Originally intended as a vehicle for Ann Sheridan, who turned down role played by Joan Crawford.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: GAY HOLLYWOOD



8:00 PM -- GYPSY (1962)
A domineering mother pushes her two daughters to burlesque stardom.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden
C- 143 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Costume Design, Color -- Orry-Kelly, and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Frank Perkins

The real Gypsy Rose Lee visited the set and gave Natalie Wood some tips on her stripping routines.


10:42 PM -- THIS IS... JULIE CHRISTIE (1965)
This promotional short for "Doctor Zhivago" (1965) provides behind-the-scenes footage of the film shoot and introduces Julie Christie.
BW- 1 mins,


10:45 PM -- BILLY LIAR (1963)
An emotionally stunted clerk retreats into his fantasies.
Dir: John Schlesinger
Cast: Tom Courtenay, Julie Christie, Wilfred Pickles
BW- 99 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The audience's first introduction to the character of Liz was shot on the street, verite style. More often than not, the turned heads of the passers-by are genuine as John Schlesinger filmed their reactions to Julie Christie.


12:30 AM -- H.M.S. BOUNTY SAILS AGAIN! (1962)
A promotional short following the world tour of the "HMS Bounty", built specially by MGM for their 1962 remake "Mutiny on the Bounty."
BW- 8 mins,


12:45 AM -- SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER (1960)
A dowager tries to buy a lobotomy to silence the woman who witnessed her son's murder.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift
BW- 114 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Taylor, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Oliver Messel, William Kellner and Scott Slimon

According to author Garson Kanin in his memoir "Tracy and Hepburn", Katharine Hepburn was reportedly so furious at the way Montgomery Clift was treated by Sam Spiegel and Joseph L. Mankiewicz during the filming that, after making sure that she would not be needed for retakes, she told both men off and actually spat at them (although it remains unclear just which one of the two she spat at, or if she spat at both.)


2:51 AM -- THE RELEASE OF PSYCHO (1960)
BW- 8 mins,


3:00 AM -- PSYCHO (1960)
A woman on the run gets mixed up with a repressed young man and his violent mother.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin
BW- 109 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Janet Leigh, Best Director -- Alfred Hitchcock, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- John L. Russell, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Joseph Hurley, Robert Clatworthy and George Milo

Anthony Perkins was paid $40,000 dollars for his role, which is exactly the same amount of money that Marion Crane embezzles.


5:00 AM -- WEST SIDE STORY (1961)
A young couple from dueling street gangs falls in love.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn
C- 154 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Chakiris, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Rita Moreno, Best Director -- Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (For the first time a directing award is being shared.), Best Cinematography, Color -- Daniel L. Fapp, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Boris Leven and Victor A. Gangelin, Best Costume Design, Color -- Irene Sharaff, Best Sound -- Fred Hynes (Todd-AO SSD) and Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), Best Film Editing -- homas Stanford, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, and Best Picture

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Ernest Lehman

Jerome Robbins initially refused to work on the film unless he could direct it. Producer Walter Mirisch was nervous about handing the reins entirely over to Robbins, who had never made a film before, so he enlisted Robert Wise to direct the drama while Robbins would handle the singing and dancing sequences. Robbins developed a habit of shooting numerous takes of each scene, to the point where the film went over budget and behind schedule. This led to his firing.