TCM Schedule for Friday, August 24 -- Summer Under The Stars: Irene Dunne

[Staph]

Today's star is Irene Dunne, born on December 20, 1898, in Louisville, Kentucky. Her father was a steamship inspector, and she spent summers as a child traveling the Mississippi on riverboats with her father. Ironic -- as she was discovered by Hollywood while playing the lead role of Magnolia in the musical play Showboat. Seven years later, she played the same role in the definitive film version. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Symphony of Six Million (1932)
A doctor fights his way from the slums to Park Avenue.
Dir: Gregory La Cava
Cast: Ricardo Cortez, Irene Dunne, Anna Appel
BW-95 mins, TV-PG,

Based on a story by Fannie Hurst, who also wrote the novel Imitation of Life.


8:00 AM -- Bachelor Apartment (1931)
An honest working girl falls for a skirt-chasing playboy.
Dir: Lowell Sherman
Cast: Lowell Sherman, Irene Dunne, Mae Murray
BW-77 mins, TV-PG,

Director/actor Lowell Sherman was one of those attending the 1921 party where starlet Virginia Rappe died. Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was accused and tried three times for manslaughter and never convicted, but his career was ruined all the same.


9:30 AM -- The Secret Of Madame Blanche (1933)
A murder brings together a woman and the son she was forced to give up years earlier.
Dir: Charles Brabin
Cast: Irene Dunne, Lionel Atwill, Phillips Holmes
BW-84 mins, TV-G, CC,

The play, The Lady by Martin Brown, originally opened in New York City on 4 December 1923 and ran for 85 performances.


11:00 AM -- The White Cliffs Of Dover (1944)
An American woman with a British husband fights to keep her family together through two world wars.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Irene Dunne, Alan Marshal, Roddy McDowall
BW-126 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- George J. Folsey

Irene Dunne filmed this movie while filming was held up for A Guy Named Joe due to Van Johnson's automobile accident. She even helped Johnson land a small role in this film.


1:15 PM -- Consolation Marriage (1931)
A couple who married after each was jilted faces the return of their former loved ones.
Dir: Paul Sloane
Cast: Irene Dunne, Pat O'Brien, John Halliday
BW-81 mins, TV-G,

In August of 1931 entertainment columns reported that Robert Williams had been injured in fall, requiring the recasting of his role in the film; Matt Moore took his place.


2:45 PM -- Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
A woman's two lives as small-town innocent and author of torrid romances collide.
Dir: Richard Boleslawski
Cast: Irene Dunne, Melvyn Douglas, Thomas Mitchell
BW-94 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, and Best Film Editing -- Otto Meyer

The dialogue from this film is re-used in the film Bedtime Story, in which Fredric March portrays a playwright and Loretta Young his actress wife. All the dialogue in March's new "play" is actually from the screenplay of this film. It's virtually word for word, with only the heroine's name changed. The "gardener" referred to in the dialogue is of course Melvyn Douglas. Columbia Pictures, the distributor of "Bedtime Story," made this film, too, but none of the writers overlap between the films. Interestingly, in "Bedtime Story," the actors playing the onstage scene are not meant to be in a comedy. What is borrowed is the confrontation over the gardener between Theodora, her aunt, and the local club ladies. Also, in an early scene, March has an inspiration for the last line of his play - something about nobody in the town ever calling the heroine "baby" before - an idea that figures in "Theodora Goes Wild" as well.


4:30 PM -- Together Again (1944)
The female mayor of a small-town ignites local gossip when she falls for a sculptor.
Dir: Charles Vidor
Cast: Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Charles Coburn
BW-100 mins, TV-G, CC,

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on December 9, 1946 with Irene Dunne reprising her film role.


6:15 PM -- My Favorite Wife (1940)
A shipwrecked woman is rescued just in time for her husband's re-marriage.
Dir: Garson Kanin
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott
BW-88 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction, Black-and-White -- Van Nest Polglase and Mark-Lee Kirk, Best Music, Original Score -- Roy Webb, and Best Writing, Original Story -- Leo McCarey, Bella Spewack and Sam Spewack

Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, "Enoch Arden," about a fisherman presumed lost at sea who returns to find his wife remarried, was the basis of five prior films: Enoch Arden, Die Toten kehren wieder - Enoch Arden, and D.W. Griffith's Enoch Arden: Part I, Enoch Arden: Part II, and Enoch Arden. Those films adhered to Tennyson's poem. But in My Favorite Wife, Something's Got to Give, and Move Over, Darling, only the basic idea of a spouse who returns is kept, with the spouse presumed lost now being the wife. However, in all of these films, the surname of the couple in question remains "Arden."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: IRENE DUNNE



8:00 PM -- The Awful Truth (1937)
A divorced couple keeps getting mixed up in each other's love lives.
Dir: Leo McCarey
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy
BW-91 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Director -- Leo McCarey

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ralph Bellamy, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Film Editing -- Al Clark, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Viña Delmar, and Best Picture

Much of the film was improvised by director Leo McCarey and the cast during filming each day.


9:45 PM -- A Guy Named Joe (1943)
A downed World War II pilot becomes the guardian angel for his successor in love and war.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, Van Johnson
BW-120 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- David Boehm and Chandler Sprague

Along with Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne insisted the film's production be halted until Van Johnson was well after his auto accident, in which he was seriously injured. During this period, MGM snatched Dunne up to make The White Cliffs of Dover, released the following year as the MGM 20th Anniversary film. As a thank you for her gratitude, Johnson appears in a small role in 'Dover.'


12:00 AM -- Life With Father (1947)
A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really rules the roost.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: William Powell, Irene Dunne, Elizabeth Taylor
C-118 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- William Powell, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Robert M. Haas and George James Hopkins, Best Cinematography, Color -- J. Peverell Marley and William V. Skall, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

The play's writers, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, and Clarence Day's widow were on the set and were given veto power on all aspects of the film. According to author David Chierichetti, Mrs. Day approved Irene Dunne's characterization and even lent some jewelry that belonged to the real Vinnie.


2:15 AM -- Show Boat (1936)
Riverboat entertainers find love, laughs and hardships as they sail along "Old Man River."
Dir: James Whale
Cast: Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger
BW-114 mins, TV-G, CC,

Special permission had to be granted from the Hays Office in order to retain the famous "miscegenation" sequence in the film. Miscegenation was banned as a film subject and the scene had been excluded from the 1929 film version.


4:15 AM -- Never a Dull Moment (1950)
A female music critic marries a rancher and has to adjust to life out West.
Dir: George Marshall
Cast: Irene Dunne, Fred MacMurray, William Demarest
BW-89 mins, TV-G, CC,

Irene Dunne replaced Myrna Loy.

[CBHagman]

1. I love getting all the fun facts.

For instance, I'd never heard those details about Life with Father. I tend to forget it's based on a real family.