TCM Schedule for Thursday, June 4 -- Great Directors -- Sam Wood/Ingmar Bergman

[Staph]

The theme for the month of June is Great Directors. Today we have the under-rated American Sam Wood, and tonight we have Sweden's finest, Ingmar Bergman. Enjoy.


4:45am -- Our Daily Bread (1934)
When he inherits a small farm, a Depression-weary man turns it into a collective operation.
Cast: Karen Morley, Tom Keene, Barbara Pepper, Addison Richards
Dir: King Vidor
BW-74 mins, TV-G

After the film's premiere at the "Century of Progress" exhibition in Chicago, Illinois, the film was cut by more than 10 minutes for its national release. Many of the cast from the original showing are missing in the prints available today.


6:00am -- The Stratton Story (1949)
True story of Monty Stratton, the baseball star who fought to continue his career after losing a leg.
Cast: James Stewart, June Allyson, Frank Morgan, Agnes Moorehead
Dir: Sam Wood
BW-107 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Douglas Morrow

Although Agnes Moorehead plays James Stewart's mother, in real-life she was only 8 years older than him.


8:00am -- Kings Row (1942)
Small town scandals inspire an idealistic young man to take up psychiatry.
Cast: Ann Sheridan, Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan, Betty Field
Dir: Sam Wood
BW-127 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- James Wong Howe, Best Director -- Sam Wood, and Best Picture

Erich Wolfgang Korngold had written the scores for a number of important movies for Warners, including The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). Korngold was told he was to write a score for a new picture, 'Kings Row'. According to Brendan Carroll in his biography of Korngold, the composer, thinking this was another royal story, set about writing the celebrated fanfare theme of the picture. Despite the wrong assumption, Korngold decided to keep and develop the theme into what has become a classic score.


10:15am -- Casanova Brown (1944)
A couple on the verge of divorce learns the wife is pregnant.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Frank Morgan, Anita Louise
Dir: Sam Wood
BW-91 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Perry Ferguson and Julia Heron, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Arthur Lange, and Best Sound, Recording -- Thomas T. Moulton (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)

Based on the novel An Unmarried Father by Floyd Dell, later made into the play The Little Accident, and the two movies of the same name, starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in 1930 and starring Richard Carlson in 1939.


12:00pm -- Kitty Foyle (1940)
A girl from the wrong side of the tracks endures scandal and heartbreak when she falls for a high-society boy.
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, James Craig, Eduardo Ciannelli
Dir: Sam Wood
BW-108 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ginger Rogers

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Sam Wood, Best Sound, Recording -- John Aalberg (RKO Radio SSD), Best Writing, Screenplay -- Dalton Trumbo, and Best Picture

Ginger Rogers was initially reluctant to take on the lead role, as the novel the film was based on contained explicit sexuality and Kitty has an abortion in it. Rogers' mother advised her to wait until she sees a screenplay before making up her mind, pointing out that the production code wouldn't allow most of the material Rogers found objectionable to be seen in films anyway. Sure enough, the adapted screenplay was "clean" enough for Rogers.


2:00pm -- Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939)
A cold-hearted teacher becomes the school favorite when he's thawed by a beautiful young woman.
Cast: Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills
Dir: Sam Wood
BW-114 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Robert Donat

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Director -- Sam Wood, Best Film Editing -- Charles Frend, Best Sound, Recording -- A.W. Watkins (Denham SSD), Best Writing, Screenplay -- Eric Maschwitz, R.C. Sherriff and Claudine West, and Best Picture

34-year-old Robert Donat ages 63 years (1870-1933) over the course of the film. He remarked: "As soon as I put the mustache on, I felt the part, even if I did look like a great Airedale come out of a puddle."


4:00pm -- The Devil and Miss Jones (1941)
A department store owner goes undercover as an employee to thwart union activists.
Cast: Jean Arthur, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn, Edmund Gwenn
Dir: Sam Wood
BW-92 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Charles Coburn, and Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Norman Krasna

Jean Arthur planned to remake the picture with her as the devil and the title "The Devil and Mr. Jones," but that project never materialized.


6:00pm -- A Day At The Races (1937)
A group of zanies tries to save a pretty girl's sanitarium.
Cast: Groucho , Chico , Harpo , Allan Jones
Dir: Sam Wood
BW-109 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Dance Direction -- Dave Gould for "All God's Children Got Rhythm".

Groucho Marx's character was initially to have been named Dr. Quackenbush, which he and everyone else thought was too silly a name to offend anyone. However, MGM's legal department discovered at least a dozen legitimate U.S. doctors named Quackenbush, so for legal reasons and to Groucho's dismay, the name was changed to Hackenbush.


What's On Tonight: GREAT DIRECTORS: INGMAR BERGMAN


8:00pm -- The Dick Cavett Show: Ingmar Bergman (1971)
Director Ingmar Bergman appears on The Dick Cavett Show in an interview that originally aired August 2, 1971.
C-54 mins, TV-G

Born to Erik Bergman, a Lutheran minister who later became the chaplain to the King of Sweden, and his wife Karen Åkerblom.


9:00pm -- The Seventh Seal (1957)
A medieval knight challenges Death to a chess game to save himself and his friends.
Cast: Max von Sydow, Bengt Ekerot, Gunnar Björnstrand, Inga Landgré
Dir: Ingmar Bergman
BW-96 mins, TV-PG

The title is a Biblical quotation from The Revelation of St. John the Divine, chapter 8.


10:45pm -- Wild Strawberries (1957)
On his way to an awards ceremony, a distinguished professor thinks back on his loveless life.
Cast: Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand, Victor Seastrom
Dir: Ingmar Bergman
BW-91 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Ingmar Bergman

Ingmar Bergman wrote the script while he was in hospital.


12:30am -- Persona (1966)
An actress recovering from a breakdown exercises a strange hold over her nurse.
Cast: Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Gunnar Björnstrand, Jörgen Lindström
Dir: Ingmar Bergman
BW-83 mins, TV-MA

According to himself, Ingmar Bergman fell in love with Liv Ullmann during the making of the movie.


2:00am -- Hour of the Wolf (1968)
An artist shares his most painful memories with his wife during a long night on an isolated island.
Cast: Liv Ullmann, Max von Sydow, Erland Josephson, Gertrud Fridh
Dir: Ingmar Bergman
BW-87 mins, TV-MA

Tagline: "The Hour of the Wolf" is the hour between night and dawn. It is the hour when most people die. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their deepest fear, when ghosts and demons are most powerful.

This was Bergman's only horror film.


3:45am -- The Passion of Anna (1969)
Mounting delusions keep a woman from recovering from the deaths of her husband and child.
Cast: Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, Max von Sydow, Erland Josephson
Dir: Ingmar Bergman
BW-101 mins, TV-MA

Filmed in the aftermath of Ingmar Bergman's break-up with Liv Ullmann on the island where they had lived together, the dinner scene between the four characters is mostly improvised.

[Staph]

1. Profiles of Sam Wood and Ingmar Bergman

Sam Wood Profile

Sam Wood began his career as an actor, moved behind the camera as assistant to Cecil B. DeMille in 1915 and made his directorial debut in 1920 with "Double Speed". Wood displayed a certain flair for complementing the talents of whatever stars he was handed, turning out a number of Gloria Swanson vehicles at Paramount in the early 1920s (Bluebeard's Eight Wife 1923 etc.), and hitting his modest stride at MGM in the 30s. His output includes two Marx Brothers films, the durable soap opera Madame X (1937), the unjustly overlooked Lord Jeff (1938) and Ivy (1947), the poignant dramas Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939) and Kitty Foyle (1940), and the literary adaptations Our Town (1940) and Kings Row (1942). A number of Wood's films stand largely on the strength of their casts and production crews, and he did occasionally have the out-and-out stinker (e.g., For Whom the Bell Tolls 1943).

A conservative in politics as well as in film practice, Wood testified before HUAC in 1947. Father of actress K.T. (Katherine) Stevens (nee Gloria Wood), who played a supporting role in Kitty Foyle and enjoyed short-lived leading lady status in the 1940s.

Family
DAUGHTER: K T Stevens. Actor. Born on July 19, 1919 appeared in her father's Kitty Foyle (1940); married and divorced actor Hugh Marlowe; died of lung cancer on June 13, 1994.

WIFE: Clara Wood.

Milestones
1908: Film acting debut
1915: Assistant director to Cecil B. DeMille
1920: Directing debut at Paramount, Double Speed
1939: Directed some scenes of Gone With the Wind when George Cukor was removed from the film and replacement Victor Fleming was taken ill
President of Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals
1947: Testified as a "friendly witness" before the House Un-American Activities Committee
1949: Directed last films, Ambush and The Stratton Story

Notes
Legend has it that one way to test Ernest Hemingway's reportedly awesome gift for profanity was to mention director Sam Wood; the author was known to have intensely disliked the bowdlerized 1943 film adaptation of his novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls as directed by Wood.

Received Oscar nominations for Best Director for Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), Kitty Foyle (1940), and Kings Row (1942).


Ingmar Bergman Profile

The extraordinary and unparalleled career of Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman can be divided into four periods: his apprenticeship (1946-55), his first flowering (1955-64), his maturity, during which he produced several masterpieces (1965-83) and post-retirement (1983- ). Throughout the years, the prolific director and writer also managed to stage numerous theatrical and television productions. Acknowledged as one of the masters of cinema, Bergman concentrated on themes of spiritual and psychological conflicts complemented by a distinctly intense and intimate visual style. As he matured as an artist, he shifted from an allegorical to a more personal cinema, often revisiting and elaborating on recurring images, subjects and techniques.

The middle child born to a Lutheran minister and his wife, Bergman became enamored of the theater at a young age. After seeing his first stage production, he built a puppet playhouse complete with revolving stage and elaborate lighting system where he and his sister would produce entertainments. Trips to the cinema with his older brother instilled a love for film. By the time he broke with his parents over their restrictions, Bergman had decided to pursue a career in theater and film.

As an undergraduate, Bergman began directing stage plays and in 1944 began his professional career at the Helsingborg City Theatre. Over the course of his long and distinguished theatrical career, he held similar posts at the Goteberg City Theatre and Malmo City Theatre, culminating in a three year (1963-66) stint as chief director at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. For the next thirty odd years, Bergman continued to stage acclaimed and innovative productions, several of which were presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

In 1943, Bergman began his film career when he was hired in the script department of Svensk Filmindustri. The following year, his first effort, "Torment" was filmed by director Alf Sjoberg. He was given his first chance to direct with "Kris/Crisis" (1946), adapted from a play by Dane Leck Fischer. In this film, the nascent stylings can be evidenced: There is a trace of latent sadism that runs through much of his work. Although it was not a box-office success, the film did launch his directing career. In the 16 films he directed in this apprenticeship period, one see Bergman struggling to master the medium, honing his craft, developing his trademark stylings and introducing themes that he would explore in detail in later masterpieces (e.g., "Summer Interlude" 1951 and "Monika" 1953, both studies of adolescent love and its disappointments). "Sawdust and Tinsel/The Naked Night" (1953) introduced the recurring theme of humiliation and the utter loneliness of the human condition.

With "Smiles of a Summer Night" (1955), Bergman entered into a period of international recognition which saw him experimenting and solidifying his technical prowess. "Smiles of a Summer Night" is an ironic comedy that examines sexual frustration, lost loves and debasement. Two year later, he won further acclaim with The Seventh Seal, a medieval allegory in which a knight plays chess with Death. The silhouetted long shot of Death leading a group of peasants across the horizon has become one of the most famous images in modern cinema. That same year, Bergman wrote and directed the journey narrative Wild Strawberries, considered one of his masterworks. Following the events of a day in the life of an aging professor (played by veteran director Victor Sjostrom), the film is a model of fluidity, with flashbacks and dream sequences creating a penetrating investigation of life and death, emphasizing the relationships between desire, loss and guilt contrasted with compassion, restitution and celebration. It is not accidental that these two films were made back-to-back; Bergman has stated he was exploring how an individual may find "peace and clarity of soul" and concluding a) that God is silent and b) the individual must examine the truth of his/her existence by careful consideration of both the past and the present. Bergman further explored religion symbolically in "The Magician" (1958) and overtly in "The Virgin Spring" (1960), which earned a Best Foreign Film Oscar. The former starred Max Von Sydow as a Christ-like occultist who appears to die and is resurrected while the latter. set in the Middle Ages, depicts the rape and murder of a virginal maiden and the avenging of the crime by her father father. God "speaks" to the farmer through a miraculous spring of water that spouts when the dead girl's body is moved.

Bergman gradually moved to a more intimate chamber style of filmmaking as the 60s progressed, beginning with his trilogy that intensely examined psychological and spiritual themes: "Through a Glass Darkly" (1961), in which love proves to be a virtue and is an example of God's presence. "Winter Light" (1962), in which love is depicted as cold and sterile but where there is possibility,
and "The Silence" (1963), which depicted a world without love and therefore without God.

Over the next decade, Bergman moved to a deeper probing of the human psyche and a closer examination of male-female relationships. "Persona" (1966) was the first of his great films that examined how individuals play roles in their lives. By using actors or artists at the core of the story, he demonstrated his beliefs that there is a harrowing separateness between people, even in the most private relationships. Persona is about an actress who undergoes a psychological breakdown and refuses to speak. Gradually, she assumes the persona of the loquacious nurse caring for her, much in the same way she assumed the identities of the characters she portrayed onstage. Hour of the Wolf (1968) shows a painter gradually descending into madness despite or because of those around him. "Shame" (also 1968) depicts the breakdown of a marriage between a musician and his wife as war rages around them. He further explored the same themes on a grander scale in "The Ritual/The Rite" (1969).

The 70s saw Bergman at the height of his powers culminating in "Cries and Whispers" (1973), a Gothic period piece revolving around three sisters, one of whom, Agnes, is dying, and their maid. Each of the sisters is symbolic of a particular theological concept and the film uses overt religious symbolism. Agnes reclines in a cruciform position and seems to be resurrected. There is an exquisite shot of her held by the maid that invokes the Pieta that is a highlight of this masterwork. Bergman returned to exploring the relations between the sexes in the superb six-part TV drama "Scenes From a Marriage" (1973) which was edited for theatrical release. The well-acted film depicts in a straightforward manner the disintegration of a seemingly perfect marriage. An anomaly for the period was his excellent rendering of Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute" (1975). "Face to Face" (1976) was another TV drama reshaped for theatrical release that followed the psychological disintegration of a therapist who is driven to attempt suicide. After helming his first English-language film, the flawed melodrama "The Serpent's Egg" (1977), Bergman returned to surer ground with "The Autumn Sonata" (1978). A chamber piece about a woman (Liv Ullmann) and her neglectful pianist mother (Ingrid Bergman), it was a gem-like character study of an artist who could not love. In 1982, Bergman announced his intention to retire and his last feature (actually made for Swedish TV) was the autobiographical "Fanny and Alexander". Perhaps the director's most personal film, it was infused with memories of childhood.

While he has not directed a feature film, Bergman has remained busy directing for the stage (although in 1995 he announced plans to curtail that activity). Several of his TV projects ("After the Rehearsal" 1983; "In the Presence of a Clown" 1998) have received theatrical release. He has also scripted semi-autobiographical projects helmed by others, including the Bille August-directed "The Best Intentions" and "Sunday's Children" (both 1992), directed by his son Daniel. In 1998, he announced that Liv Ullmann would be directing his script "Faithless" (set to lens in 1999 for release in 2000), to star Lena Endre and Erland Josephson as Bergman.

Information provided by TCMdb



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[rdmtimp]

2. Wood was a real RW piece of work....

The story goes that when he died, his will specified that his heirs had to sign a loyalty oath in order to claim their inheritance.

What a tool - good director, but a tool nonetheless.