TCM Schedule for Sunday, January 6 -- TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: JOHN WAYNE / GAIL RUSSELL

[Longhorn]

4:00am Pennies From Heaven (1981)
A traveling salesman's music-inspired dreams lead to tragedy.
Cast: Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Jessica Harper. Dir: Herbert Ross. C-108 mins, TV-MA

6:00am Humoresque (1946)
A classical musician from the slums is sidetracked by his love for a wealthy neurotic.
Cast: Joan Crawford, John Garfield, Oscar Levant. Dir: Jean Negulesco. BW-125 mins, TV-PG

8:15am Spiral Staircase, The (1945)
A serial killer stalks a mute servant girl in a remote mansion.
Cast: Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore. Dir: Robert Siodmak. BW-84 mins, TV-14

10:00am Union Station (1950)
A secretary gets caught up in the hunt for kidnappers.
Cast: William Holden, Nancy Olson, Barry Fitzgerald. Dir: Rudolph Mate. BW-81 mins, TV-PG

11:30am Duel In The Sun (1946)
A fiery half-breed comes between a rancher's good and evil sons.
Cast: Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotten. Dir: King Vidor. C-144 mins, TV-14

2:00pm Paradine Case, The (1947)
A married lawyer falls for the woman he's defending on murder charges.
Cast: Gregory Peck, Alida Valli, Charles Laughton. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. BW-114 mins, TV-PG

4:00pm Caine Mutiny, The (1954)
Naval officers begin to suspect their captain of insanity.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Jose Ferrer, Van Johnson. Dir: Edward Dmytryk. C-125 mins, TV-PG

6:15pm Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)
A crooked press agent stoops to new depths to help an egotistical columnist break up his sister's romance.
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Martin Milner. Dir: Alexander Mackendrick. BW-96 mins, TV-PG

What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: JOHN WAYNE / GAIL RUSSELL

8:00pm Wake Of The Red Witch (1949)
A captain fights a Dutch shipping magnate for a treasure and the heart of a beautiful woman.
Cast: John Wayne, Gail Russell, Gig Young. Dir: Edward Ludwig. BW-107 mins, TV-PG

10:00pm Angel And The Badman (1947)
When a Quaker girl nurses a notorious gunman back to health, he tries to adopt her peaceful ways.
Cast: John Wayne, Gail Russell, Harry Carey. Dir: James Edward Grant. BW-100 mins, TV-G

12:00am Curses (1925)
In this silent short, a young man tries to help the victim's beautiful daughter after villains steal some valuable papers.
Cast: Al St. John, Bartine Burkett. Dir: Grover Jones, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle. BW-18 mins, TV-G

12:30am Movies, The (1925)
In this silent short, a country boy moves to the big city and lands a job as a movie stand-in.
Cast: Lloyd Hamilton, Marcella Daly, Arthur Thalasso. Dir: Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle. BW-19 mins, TV-G

1:00am My Stars (1926)
In this silent short, a young man tries to compete with his girlfriend's favorite movie stars.
Cast: Johnny Arthur, Florence Lee, Virginia Vance. Dir: Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle. BW-12 mins, TV-G

1:15am Fool's Luck (1926)
In this silent short, an eviction notice sends a young man on a series of perilous adventures.
Cast: Lupino Lane, George Davis, Virginia Vance. Dir: Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle. BW-15 mins

1:33am Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Flag, The (1927)
In this silent film, George Washington appeals to Betsy Ross to help create a flag for the new United States.
Cast: Francis X. Bushman, Doris Kenyon, Enid Bennett. Dir: Arthur Maude. C-20 mins, TV-G

2:00am Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinematheque (2005)
Documentary that chronicles the life of film archivist and Cinematheque Frangaise founder Henri Langlois.
Dir: Jacques Richard. BW-129 mins, TV-14

4:15am Jetee, La (1962)
A man's return to the past to stop a war could cost him his existence.
Cast: Jean Negroni, Helen Chatelain, Davos Hanich. Dir: Chris Marker. BW-28 mins, TV-PG

4:34am Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Stop, Look And Listen (1967)
An Academy nominated stop-motion live-action short about driving safety and dealing with road rage.
Cast: Len Janson, Chuck Menville Dir: Len Janson, Chuck Menville C-10 mins

[Longhorn]

1. Paradine Case, The (1947)

Gregory Peck's power as a box-office draw was at its early crest when he signed on as the lead for the British-set courtroom drama The Paradine Case (1947), which would be the final product of the storied collaboration between producer David O. Selznick and director Alfred Hitchcock. While the production had much lavished upon it in terms of the budget and the level of contributing talent, its subsequent legend is due as much to the intrigues that underlay its filming as to those playing out onscreen.

The narrative opens in post-war London at the opulent residence of Major Richard Paradine, a war hero of WWI, since blinded and very recently deceased. Inspectors from Scotland Yard arrive to arrest his beautiful young widow Maddalena (Alida Valli), charging her with murder by poisoning. Family solicitor Sir Simon Flaquer (Charles Coburn) promises her the finest defense available, and sets out to engage prominent barrister Anthony Keane (Peck). With the encouragement of his elegant blonde wife Gay (Ann Todd), Keane agrees to accept the case. Making matters more of a challenge is the trial's assignment to the pompous Lord Horfield (Charles Laughton), who has seldom concealed his disdain for Keane or his courtroom bravado.

The story's true impetus stems from the time of Keane's first tete-a-tete with his new client, where he finds himself completely if unknowingly taken with Mrs. Paradine's beauty and bearing. As the trial preparation progresses, Maddalena acknowledges to her counsel that her past has been less than immaculate; still, Keane's certainty of her innocence remains unshaken. It quickly becomes apparent to everyone close to the attorney, particularly his wife, that Keane has lost his professional distance.

In trying to build a defense, Keane seeks out the major's faithful valet Andre Latour (Louis Jourdan), discovering that he had been the last to see the victim alive. Maddalena angrily bristles at the notion of implicating Latour in the defense strategy; the wounded Keane is now more resolved than ever to establish her innocence at the manservant's expense. The remainder of The Paradine Case plays out within the confines of the Old Bailey, as Keane, in pursuit of his gambit, places his reputation and the life of his client on the line.

Selznick had been fascinated with Robert Hichens' 1933 novel since his days at MGM, when that studio had originally optioned the property. He had been unsuccessful in his 1935 courtship of Greta Garbo to accept the role of Mrs. Paradine; years later, after he acquired the rights, his efforts to lure the Solitary Swede out of retirement for the project were similarly rebuffed. Selznick then turned to Ingrid Bergman, but his onetime discovery had become weary of their professional relationship. The producer resolved to cast an unknown, and turned to Valli, regarded as one of the promising actresses in Italian cinema. With cosmetic corrections to her weight (a crash diet) and teeth, English lessons, and billing her simply under her last name, Selznick had his femme fatale.

Hitchcock, on the threshold of having his own production company and desirous of winding up his contractual obligations to Selznick, signed on to the project. While Hitchcock's relationship with Peck during the making of Spellbound (1945) had been cordial but cold, the director was convinced by Spellbound's box-office receipts to lobby for his casting here. The beautiful British actress Todd, recently impressive in The Seventh Veil (1946) was loaned out by Rank for the role of the wronged wife. Meanwhile, Selznick was consumed by the pre-production phase of Duel in the Sun (1946), and Paradine's production costs mounted as Hitchcock indulged his pursuit for detail, including an elaborate set that provided a meticulous--and ceilinged--reproduction of the Old Bailey.

As the film's daily production progressed, Selznick became dissatisfied with the screenplay rendered by Hitchcock and Scottish playwright James Bridie and started providing daily rewrites after viewing the prior day's rushes. The end result is a rather verbose narrative that never quite builds dramatically from start to finish, with but instances that reveal the director's visual flair such as the trial's-end crane shot of the beaten and broken Keane. Overall, the cast delivered earnest and engaging performances, particularly Laughton (openly defiant of Hitch's requests to underplay), and Ethel Barrymore, who obtained an Oscar nomination for her efforts as Horfield's fragile, beaten-down spouse.

Selznick had desperately needed a hit at that point in his career, and The Paradine Case did not provide one; his total investments in the project topped $4.2 million, and its global receipts came to roughly half of that. Valli and Todd had each hoped the picture would give them the repute in Hollywood that they knew in their homelands, but that didn't come to pass. In later years, Peck himself seldom had a kind word for the experience, but he was well suited for this role; think of it as a dry run for his portrayal of another lawyer - Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).

Producer: David O. Selznick
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay: James Bridie, Ben Hecht, Alma Reville, David O. Selznick, Robert Hichens (novel)
Cinematography: Lee Garmes
Film Editing: John Faure
Art Direction: Thomas N. Morahan
Music: Franz Waxman, Paul Dessau
Cast: Gregory Peck (Anthony Keane), Ann Todd (Gay Keane), Charles Laughton (Judge Lord Thomas Horfield), Charles Coburn (Sir Simon Flaquer), Ethel Barrymore (Lady Sophie Horfield), Louis Jourdan (Andre Latour).
BW-115m. Closed captioning.

by Jay S. Steinberg

[lavenderdiva]

2. What a wonderful film 'The Paradine Case' is....

I loved reading the background on this film- Gregory Peck is fantastic!