TCM Schedule for Thursday, November 16, 2017 -- What's On Tonight: Marsha Mason

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, it's high society and big parties. And in prime time, TCM is showing a selection of films starring Marsha Mason. It's not her birthday, but like anyone who has been in a string of Neil Simon films (it helps that they were married for ten years!), she's got a great resume. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- NOT SO DUMB (1930)
A scatterbrained miss throws a big party to advance her boyfriend's career.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: Marion Davies, Elliott Nugent, Raymond Hackett
BW-76 mins, CC,

The original Broadway production of and source for the screen play "Dulcy" by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly opened at the Frazee Theatre on August 13, 1921 and ran for 241 performances. Remade in 1940 as Dulcy (see the next entry!).


7:30 AM -- DULCY (1940)
A scatterbrained beauty tries to help her fiance's career by throwing a big party.
Dir: S. Sylvan Simon
Cast: Ann Sothern, Ian Hunter, Roland Young
BW-73 mins, CC,

The book Schuyler Van Dyke is reading, "Nuts! An Intimate Glimpse Into the Life of the American Peanut," in the original play was "Pschopathia-Sexualis," but was changed at the request of the Hays office.


9:00 AM -- OUR BETTERS (1933)
An American heiress marries into the British nobility.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Constance Bennett, Violet Kemble-Cooper, Phoebe Foster
BW-83 mins, CC,

Elsa Maxwell was brought in as technical advisor for this film because of her vast experience in hosting events for royalty and high society. She also assisted Hattie Carnegie in the designs for the evening gowns worn by the principle actresses.


10:30 AM -- NO MORE LADIES (1935)
A society girl tries to reform her playboy husband by making him jealous.
Dir: Edward H. Griffith
Cast: Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, Charlie Ruggles
BW-81 mins, CC,

Joan Crawford loaned her make-up man, hairdresser and an Adrian gown to Gail Patrick for her screen test. When Patrick got the role and tried to thank Crawford, she wouldn't hear of it, saying only, "People helped me when I started out."


12:00 PM -- YOU CAN'T FOOL YOUR WIFE (1940)
A neglected housewife turns herself into a glamour girl to win her husband back.
Dir: Ray McCarey
Cast: Lucille Ball, James Ellison, Robert Coote
BW-68 mins, CC,

Based on the story The Romantic Mr. Hinklin by Richard Carroll and Ray McCarey.


1:15 PM -- WE WERE DANCING (1942)
A Polish princess gives up society for the love of a gigolo.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Norma Shearer, Melvyn Douglas, Gail Patrick
BW-95 mins, CC,

It was during the making of this film that the head of MGM, Louis B. Mayer personally offered Norma Shearer the title role in Mrs. Miniver (1942) but she turned it down.


3:00 PM -- HOLLYWOOD PARTY (1934)
A movie star's gala celebration creates chaos.
Dir: Allan Dwan
Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Jimmy Durante
C-69 mins, CC,

Director Allan Dwan had just returned to Hollywood after three years living and working in England when he was invited to the MGM lot to watch the rough cut of "Hollywood Party." After watching what he later described as "thousands of feet of film, all disconnected stuff," Dwan was asked by E.J. Mannix, Louis B. Mayer's assistant, what he thought of it. Dwan said, "It's a nightmare" - and immediately Mayer seized on Dwan's comment and decided to make the main part of the film Jimmy Durante's dream. Dwan shot the beginning and ending framing sequences showing Durante falling asleep while waiting for his wife to get dressed for the party, and cast Durante's real-life wife as his wife in the film. Dwan worked "two or three days" on the project and got "a nice fat check." Though he wasn't credited, working on "Hollywood Party" helped him re-establish his reputation in Hollywood, where he'd been forgotten during the three years he'd spent in England.


4:15 PM -- 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,

John Barrymore relished the challenge of a strong character part. He got involved in his part, making suggestions along the way to play up his character such as having him misquote famous writers and botch his own suicide. George Cukor was pleased that an actor of such prominence was confident and committed enough that he would be willing to sacrifice vanity for the greater success of the film. He later said, "Although (Barrymore) was playing a second-rate actor, he had no vanity as such. He even put things in to make himself hammier, more ignorant."


6:15 PM -- PALM SPRINGS WEEKEND (1963)
College students on spring break turn Palm Springs into a disaster area.
Dir: Norman Taurog
Cast: Troy Donahue, Connie Stevens, Ty Hardin
C-100 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Film debuts of Dawn Wells (Mary Ann of Gilligan fame!) and Linda Gray (the original Sue Ellen Ewing of the original Dallas television series).



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: MARSHA MASON



8:00 PM -- CINDERELLA LIBERTY (1973)
A lonely sailor falls in love with a single mother during an extended liberty.
Dir: Mark Rydell
Cast: James Caan, Marsha Mason, Kirk Calloway
C-117 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Marsha Mason, Best Music, Original Song -- John Williams (music) and Paul Williams (lyrics) for the song "Nice to Be Around", and Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- John Williams

While walking the streets of Seattle in the movie, James Caan is approached by a panhandler who asks him for change. The man was an actual panhandler who didn't see the cameras on the street, and mistook Caan for a real sailor.


10:15 PM -- THE GOODBYE GIRL (1977)
A dancer discovers her runaway boyfriend has sublet her apartment to an aspiring actor.
Dir: Herbert Ross
Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, Quinn Cummings
C-111 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Richard Dreyfuss

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Marsha Mason, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Quinn Cummings, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Neil Simon, and Best Picture

Marsha Mason recalled a scene between her and Quinn Cummings in which Cummings was supposed to say her line and move to a chair and sit down. "I noticed that she did it exactly the same way every time. Acting that way shows good discipline, but the freshness can go away pretty quickly." Mason decided she wanted to try something different just to see how it might change the scene. "Quinn and I started the scene again and when it came time for her to move to the chair," said Mason, "I sat in it instead. Naturally, she was thrown by this and looked to Herb. He carefully and quietly explained to Quinn that in life we never know what another person is going to do and we don't always know how we are going to respond to someone or something. She listened intently, nodded her head, and said, 'I got it.' She was extraordinary in her ability to go with it. At nine!"


12:15 AM -- PROMISES IN THE DARK (1979)
A struggling doctor finds challenge and reward with her young patient.
Dir: Jerome Hellman
Cast: Marsha Mason, Ned Beatty, Susan Clark
C-118 mins, CC,

Filmed on location in Connecticut.


2:15 AM -- AUDREY ROSE (1977)
A married couple fear their daughter is the reincarnation of a girl killed in a terrible accident.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Marsha Mason, Anthony Hopkins, John Beck
C-113 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

According to the book, "The Case for Reincarnation" by Joe Fisher, the screenplay for this movie was inspired by an actual incident in source novelist Frank De Felitta's life. Hearing expert ragtime piano coming from his family's music room, he was astonished to discover it was being produced by his six-year-old son, who had never had a music lesson. "My fingers are doing it by themselves, Daddy!" the boy said. "Isn't it wonderful?" The experience set him to contemplating the possibility of reincarnation. Website Wikipedia states that the film's source "...book ("Audrey Rose" (1975) by Frank De Felitta) was inspired by an incident in which De Felitta's young son began displaying unusual talents and interests, leading an occultist to suggest to De Felitta that the child might be remembering a previous life."


4:15 AM -- BLUME IN LOVE (1973)
A divorced lawyer can't accept the fact that his wife's left him.
Dir: Paul Mazursky
Cast: George Segal, Susan Anspach, Kris Kristofferson
C-113 mins, Letterbox Format

The role which ultimately went to Marsha Mason was originally given to another actress that was going to shoot another film. She called to ask the director, who declined, to push production of the film back for a couple of months. Mazursky hung up the phone and contacted his casting director, asking about Mason who just so happened to be at the casting office. When the actress walked in, the director hired her on the spot.