TCM Schedule for Saturday, September 29 -- The Essentials: Ralph Richardson

[Bolo Boffin]

6:00 AM
TCM PRESENTS ELVIS MITCHELL UNDER THE INFLUENCE: LAURENCE FISHBURNE (2008)

Celebrities reveal the classic movies that influenced their lives in interviews with acclaimed film critic/interviewer Elvis Mitchell.
C-27 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox Format


6:30 AM
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1940)

Jane Austen's comic classic about five sisters out to nab husbands in 19th-century England.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier, Mary Boland.
BW-118 mins, TV-PG, CC


8:30 AM
RANDOM HARVEST (1942)

A woman's happiness is threatened when she discovers her husband has been suffering from amnesia.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Ronald Colman, Greer Garson, Philip Dorn.
BW-127 mins, TV-G, CC


10:45 AM
THE SECRET OF THE WHISTLER (1946)

An artist plots murder when his rich wife when she catches him in an affair with one of his models.
Dir: George Sherman
Cast: Richard Dix, Leslie Brooks, Michael Duane.
BW-64 mins, TV-PG


12:00 PM
PYGMY ISLAND (1950)

Jungle Jim searches for a female Army captain who's gone missing.
Dir: William Berke
Cast: Johnny Weissmuller, Ann Savage, David Bruce.
BW-69 mins, TV-PG


1:12 PM
MACKINAC ISLAND (1944)

C-9 mins


1:30 PM
IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (1963)

A group of greedy clowns tears up the countryside in search of buried treasure.
Dir: Stanley Kramer
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar.
C-159 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format


4:14 PM
AROUND THE WORLD IN CALIFORNIA (1947)

C-9 mins


4:35 PM
LAND OF THE INCAS (1937)

In this "Traveltalk," we learn about the land and history of the Incas.
C-9 mins


4:45 PM
THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT (1975)

A World War I U-boat takes a wrong turn and discovers a lost world of dinosaurs and cavemen.
Dir: Kevin Connor
Cast: Doug McClure, John McEnery, Susan Penhaligon.
C-91 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format


6:30 PM
VALLEY OF THE KINGS (1954)

Archaeologists clash with graverobbers during the search for a priceless Egyptian treasure.
Dir: Robert Pirosh
Cast: Robert Taylor, Eleanor Parker, Carlos Thompson.
C-86 mins, TV-PG, CC


8:00 PM
THE FALLEN IDOL (1948)

A neglected child thinks the servant he idolizes has committed murder.
Dir: Carol Reed
Cast: Ralph Richardson, Michele Morgan, Bobby Henrey.
BW-95 mins, TV-G, CC


10:00 PM
ANNA KARENINA (1948)

Adaptation of Tolstoy's classic tale of a woman who deserts her family for an illicit love.
Dir: Julien Duvivier
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Ralph Richardson, Kieron Moore.
BW-113 mins, TV-14, CC


12:00 AM
THE FOUR FEATHERS (1939)

A disgraced officer risks his life to help his childhood friends in battle.
Dir: Zoltan Korda
Cast: John Clements, Ralph Richardson, C. Aubrey Smith.
C-115 mins, TV-PG, CC


2:00 AM
THE WRONG BOX (1966)

Two elderly brothers plot to kill each other for a fortune.
Dir: Bryan Forbes
Cast: John Mills, Ralph Richardson, Michael Caine.
C-106 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format


4:00 AM
THE LOOKING GLASS WAR (1969)

British Intelligence calls in a retired agent to investigate Soviet missiles near the German border.
Dir: Frank R. Pierson
Cast: Christopher Jones, Pia Degermark, Ralph Richardson.
C-107 mins, TV-14, Letterbox Format

[Graybeard]

1. One of my very favorite actors.

I'm glad "The Four Feathers" is included in this tribute to Ralph Richardson. Wonderful performance. He never understood "method" actors and the contortions they put themselves through. He explained his approach to playing a role as:
"You get the script. You learn your part of it. And then you put on the whiskers and do it."

[CBHagman]

2. So very British.

There's the famous anecdote about Laurence Olivier's commentary on Dustin Hoffman's efforts for Marathon Man: Wouldn't it have been easier just to act?

And some years ago I heard Derek Jacobi contrast the American versus the British approach to acting. The Americans needed time to prepare, to transition in and out of a scene, whereas their British colleagues just switched it on and switched it off.

[Matilda]

3. When Joanne Woodward was interviewed for I.T.A.S.,

she was discussing the filming of "Picnic", when she was in love with Paul Newman and he was trying to get a divorce from his first wife, who was making things difficult. Because of her Method training, she was having to draw on her emotions at a time when she really needed to control them, and it was causing her much suffering.

She said she wished then that she'd been British-trained, so she would just be able to draw on her technique and get on with it.