TCM Schedule for Thursday, September 1 -- TCM Spotlight -- 50 Years of Merchant Ivory

[Staph]

It's not his birthday, but TCM is once again featuring a day full of Burt Lancaster, including many of the films that were featured on August 25. Strange programming decision! Tonight's theme is the beginning of a month of the films of director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant.

From Wikipedia: "Merchant Ivory Productions is a film company founded in 1961 by producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory . Their films were for the most part produced by the former, directed by the latter, and scripted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (a noted exception of a few films). The films were often based upon novels or short stories, particularly the work of Henry James, E. M. Forster, and two novels by Jhabvala herself.

"The initial goal of the company was "to make English-language films in India aimed at the international market," but the company ended up making many films set in England and America.

"Some Hollywood actors and producers associated with the tightly-knitted Merchant Ivory film family include Uma Thurman, Madhur Jaffrey, Aparna Sen, Shashi Kapoor, Jennifer Kendal, Hugh Grant, James Wilby, Rupert Graves, Simon Callow, Anthony Hopkins, Glenn Close, Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, and Helena Bonham Carter.

"Of this collaboration, Merchant once commented: "It is a strange marriage we have at Merchant Ivory... I am an Indian Muslim, Ruth is a German Jew, and Jim is a Protestant American. Someone once described us as a three-headed god. Maybe they should have called us a three-headed monster!"

"The expression "Merchant-Ivory film" has made its way into common parlance, to denote a particular genre of film rather than the actual production company. The heyday of this genre was the 1980s and 1990s with such films as A Room with a View and Howards End. A typical "Merchant-Ivory film" would be a period piece set in the early 20th century, usually in Edwardian England, featuring lavish sets and top British actors portraying genteel characters who suffer from disillusionment and tragic entanglements."

Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Jim Thorpe--All American (1951)
The famous Native American athlete fights prejudice in his pursuit of sports stardom.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Charles Bickford, Steve Cochran.
105 min, TV-PG, CC

At the Carlisle Indian School, when we first see Jim at the blackboard, he is erasing a formula: I = E/R. This is Ohm's law (1827), in which, in an electrical circuit, you can determine I (current, in amps), E (voltage, in volts), or R (resistance, in ohms) by knowing two of the three values.


8:00 AM -- Ten Tall Men (1951)
A Foreign Legion sergeant leads ten volunteers against a mighty Arab army.
Dir: Willis Goldbeck
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Jody Lawrence, Gilbert Roland.
C-97 min, TV-G

Film debut of Robert Clary, Corporal Louis LeBeau of Hogan's Heroes (1965-1971). Presumedly, he does not portray one of the ten tall men, as he stands only 5'1".


9:45 AM -- South Sea Woman (1953)
A Marine sergeant battles Nazi agents to help a showgirl escape war torn China.
Dir: Arthur Lubin
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Virginia Mayo, Chuck Connors.
98 min, TV-G

In Italy, this was titled Il sergente Bum!


11:30 AM -- His Majesty O'Keefe (1954)
A Yankee sea captain tries to make his fortune in the South Seas.
Dir: Byron Haskin
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Joan Rice, Andre Morell.
C-90 min, TV-PG, CC

William Henry "Bully" Hayes (1829 - 1877) was a South Sea pirate born in Cleveland, Ohio. He ran trading missions throughout the South Pacific (including the Marshall Islands, Cook Islands, New Zealand , Australia), specialising in rum and rifles, but he was not averse to "blackbirding" (slaving). He was killed after a violent disagreement and his body was thrown into the ocean. His murderer was never brought to justice.


1:15 PM -- The Flame and the Arrow (1950)
Roman rebels fight against invading barbarians.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Virginia Mayo, Robert Douglas.
C-88 min

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Ernest Haller, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

Nick Cravat, who plays Piccolo, was an acrobat who was teamed with Burt Lancaster before Lancaster became a star. He appears in many of Lancaster's movies. In this one, and in The Crimson Pirate, he plays a mute. The reason was that his thick Brooklyn accent, which he could not lose, would have been wildly out of place in such period pieces.
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2:45 PM -- The Crimson Pirate (1952)
A pirate gets mixed up in a Caribbean revolution.
Dir: Robert Siodmak
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Nick Cravat, Eva Bartok.
C-104 min, CC

In his autobiography, Christopher Lee claimed that Robert Siodmak changed the original screenplay: "The script started life as serious, nay solemn, but Robert Siodmak, the director, with all the sure touch of real tension behind him in The Killers and The Spiral Staircase, took stock of the material in forty-eight hours and turned it into a comedy."


4:30 PM -- Trapeze (1956)
An aging trapeze star and his protigi fall for the same woman.
Dir: Carol Reed
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Gina Lollobrigida.
C-106 min, TV-PG, CC

Sally Marlowe was cast as Gina Lollobrigida's stunt double until Marlowe broke her nose on set. Willy Krause, a close personal friend of Burt Lancaster, was asked to fill in as Ms. Lollobrigida's stunt double. He accepted the role.


6:30 PM -- The Devil's Disciple (1959)
A preacher and a rebel leader change places during the Revolution.
Dir: Guy Hamilton
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier.
83 min, TV-PG

Based on the play by George Bernard Shaw. The play was first performed as a 'Copyright Performance' on 17 April 1897 in London, with Shaw reading the part of Rev. Anderson. He was unhappy with the play and wouldn't permit a public performance at that time. It was first shown in the United States on Broadway's Fifth Avenue Theater in New York City on 4 October 1897, and in London the following year. There were 4 Broadway revivals in the United States, the last in 1988.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: 50 YEARS OF MERCHANT IVORY



8:00 PM -- The Householder (1963)
A newlywed needs help dealing with his independent, outspoken wife.
Dir: James Ivory
Cast: Shashi Kapoor, Leela Naidu, Durga Khote.
C-101 min, TV-PG, CC

The first film from Merchant Ivory Productions.


9:45 PM -- The Creation of Woman (1960)
After asking God for a wife, Adam wonders if he made a mistake.
Dir: Charles F. Schwep
Cast: Bhaskar Roy Chowdhury, Dinu, Anjali Devi
C-14 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Live Action Subjects -- Charles F. Schwep and Ismail Merchant


10:00 PM -- Shakespeare-Wallah (1966)
Traveling British actors in India are torn when their daughter becomes involved with a local playboy.
Dir: James Ivory
Cast: Shashi Kapoor, Felicity Kendal, Madhur Jaffrey.
122 min, TV-PG, CC

Felicity Kendal receives an "introducing" credit. Born in England, she was raised in India where her parents Geoffrey Kendal and Laura Liddell toured the nation for decades with a traveling classical theatre troupe called Shakespeareana. Family friends James Ivory and Ismail Merchant fashioned their fictional film Shakespeare-Wallah (1965) around the Kendal troupe and gave Felicity the leading role.


12:15 AM -- Bombay Talkie (1970)
A British writer becomes obsessed with a young Bollywood star.
Dir: James Ivory
Cast: Shashi Kapoor, Jennifer Kendal, Zia Mohyeddin.
C-111 min, TV-PG, CC

Known in West Germany as Hollywood in Bombay.


2:15 AM -- Helen, Queen of the Nautch Girls (1972)
Cameras trace the career of Bollywood's most popular dancing star.
Dir: Anthony Korner
Cast: Helen and Anthony Korner
C-32 min, TV-PG

Written by James Ivory.


3:00 AM -- The Delhi Way (1964)
Cameras capture the past and present contradictions of India's capital.
Dir: James Ivory
Narrator: Leo Genn
C-45 min, TV-PG

n 1987, Merchant and Ivory's accomplishments were honored at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. premiere of Maurice (1987), attended by scores of their devotees, including Christopher Reeve, Sam Waterston, Greta Scacchi and even U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.


4:00 AM -- The River (1951)
Members of an English settlement cope with the exotic lure of life in India.
Dir: Jean Renoir
Cast: Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight, Arthur Shields.
C-99 min, TV-G

When Kenneth McEldowney, a successful florist and real estate agent in Los Angeles, complained to his wife, an MGM publicist, about one of her studio's films, she dared him to do better. So he sold their home and floral shops, and from 1947 to 1951 worked to produce this film. It opened in New York to a record 34-week run at reserved-seat prices and was on several ten-best movie lists in 1951. McEldowney then returned to real estate and never made another movie.

[CBHagman]

1. Merchant Ivory

What a good idea for a theme this month, and I look forward to seeing what else is on the list (No, I haven't peeked yet). Of the M-I films I've seen, I've liked The Europeans, Maurice, Remains of the Day, Howards End, and A Room with a View. Room is easily my favorite of that list, but I'd say Maurice was a real gem, and of course Howards End is a modern classic.