TCM Schedule for Thursday, May 14 -- Race and Hollywood

[Staph]

A lot of Oscar-winning and -nominated films during the day, including Greta Garbo's first sound film, Anna Christie ("Gif me a visky, ginger ale on the side, and don' be stingy, baby.). I love the tagline -- "Garbo Speaks!" In prime time, we've got a return to the occassional series Race And Hollywood, featuring Latinos in Hollywood. Enjoy!


5:00am -- Dinner At Eight (1933)
A high-society dinner party masks a hotbed of scandal and intrigue.
Cast: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow
Dir: George Cukor
BW-111 mins, TV-PG

The dowager character played by Marie Dressler is reportedly based on actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell, for whom George Bernard Shaw wrote the role of Eliza Doolittle in the play "Pygmalion", the basis for the musical My Fair Lady (1964). Mrs. Campbell was legendary for her inappropriate remarks, and she failed dismally in an attempt at a Hollywood film career.


7:00am -- Remember the Night (1940)
An assistant D.A. takes a shoplifter home with him for Christmas.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson
Dir: Mitchell Leisen
BW-94 mins, TV-G

American Film Institute Catalog of Feature Films 1931-1940 claims that, except for Double Indemnity (1944), this was Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray's only joint screen appearance. Fact is, they also co-starred in The Moonlighter (1953 and There's Always Tomorrow (1956).


8:45am -- The Letter (1940)
A woman claims to have killed in self-defense, until a blackmailer turns up with incriminating evidence.
Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Frieda Inescort
Dir: William Wyler
BW-95 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- James Stephenson, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis. Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Tony Gaudio, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Film Editing -- Warren Low, Best Music, Original Score -- Max Steiner, and Best Picture

Jack L. Warner originally asked William Wyler to test James Stephenson for the role of the lawyer. Wyler was surprised at how suited Stephenson was for the part and then was astonished when Warner balked at casting him, worrying about the stock player's lack of name recognition. Wyler insisted on keeping him, putting him in the odd position of having to fight to cast an actor that Warner had originally suggested.


10:30am -- I Want To Live! (1958)
True story of the small-time lady crook who fought to escape the gas chamber.
Cast: Susan Hayward, Simon Oakland, Virginia Vincent, Theodore Bikel
Dir: Robert Wise
BW-121 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Susan Hayward

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Lionel Lindon, Best Director -- Robert Wise, Best Film Editing -- William Hornbeck, Best Sound -- Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Nelson Gidding and Don Mankiewicz

Inveterate researcher that he is, Robert Wise was determined to capture every grisly element of an execution for the climax of his movie. He visited San Quentin prison and asked for permission to see the gas chamber and witness an actual execution. After he'd seen it and had his art director photograph it and take measurements for set replication purposes, he was still uncertain about how he would structure the last act. He went back to the prison and made one final request for a detailed account of the entire execution procedure. This is what is painstakingly documented in the movie's climax.


12:35pm -- Short Film: From The Vaults: The Divine Woman (Lost Garbo Footage) (1928)
Lucien, a French soldier, deserts his regiment, steals, and serves a term in prison for Marianne, the girl he loves.
Cast: Greta Garbo, Lars Hanson, Lowell Sherman, Polly Moran
Dir: Victor Sjöström
BW-9 mins

Only a nine-minute fragment remains of this silent film.


12:45pm -- Anna Christie (1930)
Eugene O'Neill's classic about a romantic prostitute trying to run away from her past.
Cast: Greta Garbo, Charles Bickford, George F. Marion, Marie Dressler
Dir: Clarence Brown
BW-90 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greta Garbo, Best Cinematography -- William H. Daniels, and Best Director -- Clarence Brown

Greta Garbo's first sound film.


2:15pm -- Smilin' Through (1932)
A young woman falls in love with the son of an old family enemy.
Cast: Norma Shearer, Fredric March, Leslie Howard, O. P. Heggie
Dir: Sidney Franklin
BW-98 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Cinematographer Lee Garmes left during production and Charles G. Clarke took over, but did not receive screen credit.


4:00pm -- Lady For A Day (1933)
A gangster helps an old apple-vendor pose as a society woman to fool her visiting daughter.
Cast: Warren William, May Robson, Guy Kibbee, Glenda Farrell
Dir: Frank Capra
BW-96 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- May Robson, Best Director -- Frank Capra, Best Writing, Adaptation -- Robert Riskin, and Best Picture

When Frank Capra was nominated for his first Best Director Oscar in 1933 (for Lady for a Day (1933)), presenter Will Rogers merely opened the envelope and said "Come and get it, Frank!" Already halfway to the stage, Capra realized that Rogers wasn't referring to him, but to Frank Lloyd, who was getting the Oscar for Cavalcade (1933).


5:45pm -- The Women (1939)
A happily married woman lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband strays.
Cast: Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Mary Boland
Dir: George Cukor
BW-133 mins, TV-PG

In addition to its all-female cast, every animal that was used in the film (the many dogs and horses) was female as well. In addition, none of the works of art seen in the backgrounds were representative of the male form.


What's On Tonight: TCM SPOTLIGHT: RACE AND HOLLYWOOD


8:00pm -- Mexican Spitfire (1940)
A businessman's aunt enlists his ex-wife to break up his marriage to a temperamental Latina.
Cast: Lupe Velez, Leon Errol, Donald Woods, Linda Hayes
Dir: Leslie Goodwins
BW-68 mins, TV-G

The second of eight films about the Mexican Spitfire, Carmelita Fuentes, all starring Lupe Velez.


9:30pm -- My Man And I (1952)
A Mexican-American laborer fights for his dignity.
Cast: Shelley Winters, Ricardo Montalban, Wendell Corey, Claire Trevor
Dir: William A. Wellman
BW-99 mins, TV-PG

Starring Star Trek: TOS's best villain ever!


11:30pm -- Giant (1956)
A Texas ranching family fights to survive changing times.
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Carroll Baker
Dir: George Stevens
C-201 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Director -- George Stevens

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Dean (This was James Dean's second consecutive posthumous nomination.), Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Rock Hudson, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Mercedes McCambridge, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Boris Leven and Ralph S. Hurst, Best Costume Design, Color -- Moss Mabry and Marjorie Best, Best Film Editing -- William Hornbeck, Philip W. Anderson and Fred Bohanan, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Dimitri Tiomkin, Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Adapted -- Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffat, and Best Picture

Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor went for get-to-know-you drinks one night at the very start of the production. They both got exceedingly drunk, finishing the evening at 3am. Their call-time was 5:30am. Fortunately the scene being shot that morning was a wedding scene with no dialog, so, instead of talking, all they had to do was look lovingly at each other. The two actors were concentrating so hard on not being sick that they were quite surprised when some of the people on-set started to cry, so convinced were they of their supposed looks of adoration at each other.


3:00am -- The Texican (1966)
An outlaw risks arrest to track down his brother's killers.
Cast: Audie Murphy, Broderick Crawford, Diana Lorys, Aldo Sambrell
Dir: Lesley Selander
C-88 mins, TV-PG

Filmed in and around Barcelona, Spain.


4:30am -- The Nevadan (1950)
A U.S. Marshall tries to recover stolen gold.
Cast: Randolph Scott, Dorothy Malone, Forrest Tucker, Frank Faylen
Dir: Gordon Douglas
C-81 mins, TV-G

Dorothy Malone later became embroiled in heavy litigation and a messy divorce action with husband Jacques Bergerac, whom she accused of marrying famous women only to promote his career. Bergerac was previously married to Ginger Rogers.

[Staph]

1. Giant

The film version of Giant (1956), Edna Ferber's epic, Texas-based tale about the Benedict family and their numerous internal conflicts over a twenty five year period, is famous for many things; It was Rock Hudson's first important dramatic role (He received a Best Actor Oscar nomination), it marked a significant turning point in the film careers of two young actors, Dennis Hopper and Caroll Baker, and the movie earned ten Academy Award nominations and won the Academy Award for director George Stevens. However, Giant is best remembered as James Dean's final film. Like Hudson, it earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor but he never learned of the honor. Two weeks after his last scene for Giant was filmed, Dean was killed in an automobile accident while speeding in his Porsche 550 Spyder toward a road race in Salinas, California.

It was said that Edna Ferber's book was inspired by Texas oilman Glenn McCarthy who was a millionaire by age 26. Ferber had received numerous Hollywood offers to film her tenth novel but rejected them all in favor of George Steven's proposal: he promised to remain completely faithful to her book. For locations, Stevens chose Marfa, Texas (The Benedict mansion was built at the Warner Bros. lot and shipped on five railroad flat cars to the set) and Virginia (the scenes on the Lynnton estate). The only other exterior scenes were filmed at the Statler Hotel in Los Angeles and the Lockheed Airport in Burbank.

Casting for the film generated much excitement within the film industry and for a while, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, and William Holden were all mentioned as possibilities for the role of the rugged Texas rancher, Bick Benedict. Stevens decided it made some sense to cast a younger man in the role because it was easier to make a younger man look older instead of the reverse so he hired Rock Hudson (then 29). For the scenes where Hudson had to play Bick as an older man, he had to wear a 50 pound belt to give him a heavy, middle-aged appearance.

Grace Kelly was George Steven's first choice for the female lead, Leslie Benedict, but Elizabeth Taylor was in second place. The director felt that Taylor was too young (she was 23 at the time) to handle the emotional range required for the role but finally asked Rock Hudson to make the choice and he picked Taylor. The two stars would enjoy a great working relationship on the set and their closeness prompted gossip columnists to spread a rumor that they were having an affair. The reports eventually reached Taylor's husband, actor Michael Wilding, who flew from London to the set to check in on his wife. But the relationship between Hudson and Taylor was completely innocent; they liked to party together and one of their favorite concoctions - a chocolate martini - almost made a cameo appearance in the film. The famous wedding scene where Taylor is attending her sister's ceremony and is surprised by Hudson's unexpected arrival was filmed after an all night drinking session between Taylor and Hudson. "In between takes," Hudson was fond of saying, "Elizabeth and I were running out and throwing up. We were both so hung over we couldn't speak. That's what made the scene."

For the role of Jett Rink, the poor dirt farmer who strikes it rich, Alan Ladd was the frontrunner but turned it down. Montgomery Clift was also considered, but Stevens felt his personal problems might interfere with the shooting schedule. Finally Stevens agreed to hire James Dean who was so desperate for the role he offered to work for a minimal salary. But almost from the beginning there was friction between the actor and the director. Stevens tried to break Dean of some of his Actors Studio mannerisms and demanded that the actor report to the set on time. In defiance, Dean would often hold up production for hours, causing the film to go over schedule. At one point, he was said to have ruined an outdoor scene by yelling "Cut!" and then unzipping his pants and urinating in full view of
the crew and visitors on the set.

Hudson, who roomed briefly with Dean and co-star Chill Wills during filming, shared Stevens' dislike for his co-star. He felt that Dean's method of acting was completely self-absorbed to the point where he alienated his co-stars, offering no give and take in his performance. Of course, Dean had his defenders as well. In James Dean, author Val Holley wrote that when Edna Ferber visited the set, "Dean liked and charmed Ferber, trying to teach her some of the rope tricks he had mastered. She called him a "genius" and shrugged off his troubles with Stevens as "success poisoning," a syndrome she said she knew very well from the days when she had simultaneous hit shows on Broadway." Elizabeth Taylor also grew to love him and later said, "We would sometimes sit up until three in the morning, and he would tell me about his past, his mother, minister, his loves, and the next day he would just look straight through me as if he'd given away or revealed too much of himself. It would take....maybe a couple of days before we'd be back on friendship terms. He was very afraid to give of himself." The day after hearing about Dean's accident, the actress collapsed on the set and had to spend the next two weeks recovering in a hospital. (She was suffering from various health problems, including a leg infection and was also distraught over martial problems with Michael Wilding.)

In the end, Giant proved to be a huge success. It was the number three box-office attraction of 1956, ended up on countless "Top Ten" best lists by film critics, and of course, scored Stevens his second Best Director Oscar (He won his first for A Place in the Sun, 1951).

Producer: George Stevens, Henry Ginsberg
Director: George Stevens
Screenplay: Fred Guiol
Production Design: Boris Leven
Cinematography: William Mellor
Costume Design: Marjorie Best
Film Editing: William W. Hornbeck
Original Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
Principal Cast: Elizabeth Taylor (Leslie Lynnton), Rock Hudson (Bick Benedict), James Dean (Jett Rink), Carrol Baker (Luz Benedict II), Mercedes McCambridge (Luz Benedict), Jane Withers (Vashti Synthe).
C-201m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.

by Jeff Stafford