TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 14 -- The 60s

[Staph]

The happiest of Valentine's Days to all of you! Today's official theme is the Sixties, but the real theme is love, and in primetime, musical love. Among my favorites of the day are the original Love Affair (1939), Kiss Me Kate (1953), and My Fair Lady (1964). Enjoy!



5:30am -- Written On The Wind (1956)
A young woman marries into a corrupt oil family then falls for her husband's best friend.
Cast: Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack.
Dir: Douglas Sirk.
C-99 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Dorothy Malone

Nominated for Oscsar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Stack, and Best Music, Original Song -- Victor Young (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "Written on the Wind". (Victor Young's nomination was posthumous.)

The movie was rumored to be based on the death of tobacco heir Zachary "Smith" Reynolds. The youngest son of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds, the 20-year old playboy had a complete disinterest in the family business, an inexhaustible allowance and a volatile temper. Smith owned a plane and literally stalked Broadway musical comedy star Libby Holman until the 27-year old singer married him in 1931. Their marriage was a clash of wills and during an alcohol-fueled July 4th holiday party in 1932 at the family's estate, Libby announced she was pregnant. Stories differ, but there was reportedly a tense confrontation, a gunshot and the young Smith was dead. Libby and Ab Walker, a close friend of Smith's who was whispered to be her lover, were indicted for murder. Fearing scandal over their son's activities, the intensely private Reynolds family pressed authorities to drop the charges. The death was officially ruled a suicide.


6:51am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Peace On Earth (1939)
Cast: voice of Mel Blanc.
Dir: Hugh Harman.
C-9 mins

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Cartoons

The first MGM cartoon to be nominated for an Academy Award.


7:30am -- Love Affair (1939)
Near-tragic misunderstandings threaten a shipboard romance.
Cast: Charles Boyer, Irene Dunne, Maria Ouspenskaya.
Dir: Leo McCarey.
BW-86 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Maria Ouspenskaya, Best Art Direction -- Van Nest Polglase and Alfred Herman, Best Music, Original Song -- Buddy G. DeSylva for the song "Wishing", Best Writing, Original Story -- Mildred Cram and Leo McCarey, and Best Picture

Remade as An Affair to Remember (1957) with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr (wonderful!) and Love Affair (1994) with Warren Beatty and Annette Benning (terrible!).


9:00am -- One Night of Love (1934)
An aspiring opera singer and her mentor fight so much they barely realize they're in love.
Cast: Grace Moore, Tullio Carminati, Lyle Talbot.
Dir: Victor Schertzinger.
BW-84 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Music, Score -- Louis Silvers (head of department) (Thematic music by Victor Schertzinger and Gus Kahn), and Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (sound director)

Won a Technical Achievement Award for "their application of the vertical cut disc method ("hill and dale recording") to actual studio production, with their recording of the sound on the picture One Night of Love".

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Grace Moore, Best Director -- Victor Schertzinger, Best Film Editing -- Gene Milford, and Best Picture


10:30am -- Love With The Proper Stranger (1964)
When a one-night stand results in pregnancy, a musician and a young girl try to resolve the issue together.
Cast: Steve McQueen, Natalie Wood, Tom Bosley.
Dir: Robert Mulligan.
BW-100 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Natalie Wood, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson, Sam Comer and Grace Gregory, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Milton R. Krasner, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Arnold Schulman

It's unclear whether this a bizarre coincidence or inside joke, but when the character played by Natalie Wood is taking a taxi home from the abortionist, the cab passes a large billboard advertising a movie starring Wood's former (and future) husband Robert Wagner.


12:19pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Good Will To Men (1955)
Dir: Joseph Barbera and William Hanna.
C-8 mins

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Cartoons -- Fred Quimby, William Hanna, and Joseph Barbera

The first cartoon by the team of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera starring characters other than Tom and Jerry, this was a remake of Peace on Earth (1939), seen earlier this morning.


12:30pm -- For Love of Ivy (1968)
A wealthy family finds a beau to romance their maid.
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Abbey Lincoln, Beau Bridges.
Dir: Daniel Mann.
C-101 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Quincy Jones (music) and Bob Russell (lyrics) for the song "For Love of Ivy".


2:15pm -- Lover Come Back (1961)
An ad exec in disguise courts his pretty female competitor.
Cast: Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Tony Randall.
Dir: Delbert Mann.
C-107 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Stanley Shapiro and Paul Henning

Jack Oakie's final movie appearance.


4:15pm -- Too Young To Kiss (1951)
A grown woman poses as a child prodigy to advance her career as a concert pianist.
Cast: June Allyson, Van Johnson, Gig Young.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard.
BW-89 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore

A variation on the same theme as The Major and The Minor (1942) with Ginger Rogers as the fake child, You're Never Too Young (1955) with Jerry Lewis, and Never Been Kissed (1999) with Drew Barrymore.


6:00pm -- Kiss Me Kate (1953)
Feuding co-stars reunite for a musical version of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew."
Cast: Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ann Miller.
Dir: George Sidney.
C-110 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- André Previn and Saul Chaplin

Originally filmed in 3D which is why the actors often throw things (including themselves) at the audience. Several of the Broadway lyrics were considered too "spicy" for a film. For instance, "according to the Kinsey Report" was changed to "according to the weather report" in the song, "Too Darn Hot", and a verse containing bawdy puns was omitted from "Brush Up Your Shakespeare".


What's On Tonight: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: 60'S


8:00pm -- Hello, Dolly! (1969)
A widowed matchmaker sets her sights on a wealthy man looking for a rich, young wife.
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Walter Matthau, Michael Crawford.
Dir: Gene Kelly.
C-148 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- John DeCuir, Jack Martin Smith, Herman A. Blumenthal, Walter M. Scott, George James Hopkins and Raphael Bretton, Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation) -- Lennie Hayton and Lionel Newman, and Best Sound -- Jack Solomon and Murray Spivack

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Costume Design -- Irene Sharaff, Best Film Editing -- William Reynolds, and Best Picture

Barbra Streisand's gold-beaded gown shown in the Harmonia Gardens set weighed 40 pounds and cost $8000. Twice during rehearsal she tripped over its 2.5-foot train. Other dancers also tripped over it during rehearsal, so the train was taken off the dress. The train is shown intact when Streisand starts down the stairs, but later it disappears.


10:30pm -- Funny Girl (1968)
Comedienne Fanny Brice fights to prove that she can be the greatest star and find romance even though she isn't pretty.
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Omar Sharif, Kay Medford.
Dir: William Wyler.
C-153 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Barbra Streisand (she tied with Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter (1968)).

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Kay Medford, Best Cinematography -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Film Editing -- Robert Swink, Maury Winetrobe and William Sands, Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics) for the song "Funny Girl", Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation) -- Walter Scharf, Best Sound, and Best Picture

Barbra Streisand's feature film debut. She was, at the time of the film's release, a voting member of AMPAS. When she found she was nominated, she, like any member nominated, voted for herself. If she hadn't, she wouldn't have tied with Katharine Hepburn for the year's Best Actress Oscar.


1:15am -- My Fair Lady (1964)
A phonetics instructor bets that he can pass a street urchin off as a lady.
Cast: Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn, Stanley Holloway.
Dir: George Cukor.
C-172 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Rex Harrison, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Gene Allen, Cecil Beaton and George James Hopkins, Best Cinematography, Color -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Costume Design, Color -- Cecil Beaton, Best Director -- George Cukor, Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- André Previn, Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD), and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Stanley Holloway, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gladys Cooper, Best Film Editing -- William H. Ziegler, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Alan Jay Lerner

Because of the way Rex Harrison sang/talked his musical numbers, they were unable to prerecord them and have him lip-sync, so a wireless microphone (one of the first ever developed) was rigged up and hidden under his tie. However, this meant that his mouth and words were completely in sync and everyone else's looked off, since they were lip-syncing (when everyone is lip-syncing, it's not that noticeable). The studio thought that this was too obvious so they altered Harrison's soundtrack, lengthening and shortening notes in various places so that his synchronicity is slightly off like all the other actors.


4:15am -- The Entertainer (1960)
A third-rate vaudevillian uses liquor and young women to escape the pressures of changing times.
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Brenda de Banzie, Joan Plowright.
Dir: Tony Richardson.
BW-104 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Laurence Olivier

Albert Finney's movie debut.

[Staph]

1. Kiss Me Kate (1953)

A musical extravaganza featuring the witty tunes of Cole Porter, Kiss Me Kate (1953) is a remake of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Set behind the scenes of a spectacular Broadway production of Kiss Me Kate, this fetching musical concerns the tensions that erupt between former husband and wife Fred Graham (Howard Keel) and Lilli Vanessi (Kathryn Grayson) while performing together as Petruchio and Katherine. The combative relationship between Lilli and Fred often carries over onto the stage where they bicker and feud as enthusiastically as their fictional counterparts, Petruchio, the hunk intent on wooing, and Katherine, the maiden adamantly opposed to being wooed. Things become even more complicated when a pair of mildly bumbling, stagestruck crooks Lippy (Keenan Wynn) and Slug (James Whitmore) arrive backstage to collect on a gambling debt -- and vow not to leave Lilli or Fred's side until Fred pays up.

Keel and Grayson had appeared together in a George Sidney-directed picture once before - Show Boat in 1951. Kiss Me Kate was an adaptation of a hit Broadway show by Lemuel Ayers and Arnold St. Subber which ran for more than 1,000 performances. Director Sidney reimagined the play for Hollywood with the 1950s novelty of 3-D. Unfortunately, though Kiss Me Kate was shot in both flat and 3-D versions, the rapid decline of the fad meant the film was never released in its 3-D version. So viewers were never able to experience the peculiar thrill of Lois Lane (Fred's new love interest, played by Ann Miller) kicking her gams out at the audience or Lilli Vanessi in a shrewish temper pitching bouquets and vases at the audience, or the final close-up embrace with Katherine and Petruchio popping out at their audience, all gimmicks used to show off the 3-D techniques.

But one of the better gimmicks in Kiss Me Kate is surely Cole Porter's songs, like a smoky rendition of "Too Darn Hot" performed by a madly tap-dancing Lois (Ann Miller) in the compact Manhattan living room of her boyfriend (Fred Graham), or the uproarious, cleverly phrased number "Brush Up Your Shakespeare," performed by gangsters Lippy and Slug.

Saul Chaplin, who was nominated along with Andre Previn for Best Scoring for a Musical, called Porter's score for the film "one of his best." Ironically, the hit song that emerged from the film, "From This Moment On," was a tune recycled from a Porter musical flop, "Out of This World." Andre Previn had previously arranged "From This Moment On" for Woody Herman and his band, though he kept that information to himself when, during the production of Kiss Me Kate, Porter told him how much he despised "Herman's" interpretation.

"From This Moment On" was inserted in Kiss Me Kate to accommodate three dancing couples in a final number, which featured Carol Haney and Bob Fosse as one of the couples. That brief -- but unforgettably sultry -- two-minute dance number turned out to be responsible for launching three showbiz careers. Bob Fosse choreographed the brief Kiss Me Kate dance between Haney and himself, showing off the sharp, quirky dance style that would be seen by film audiences decades later in the semi-autobiographical film version of his life, All That Jazz (1979). Fosse's distinctive dance styles in Kiss Me Kate caught the attention of fellow choreographer Jerry Robbins, who recommended Fosse to Pajama Game producers Robert Griffith and Harold Prince. Fosse quickly sent for Carol Haney to appear in the show. Haney was a hit and Fosse went on to win a Tony award for his work on that Broadway smash. And when Haney sprained her ankle one evening during "Pajama Game" and her understudy took her place, that small fluke determined one performer's future in Hollywood. In the Pajama Game audience that night was Warner Brothers producer Hal Wallis, who was so impressed with understudy Shirley MacLaine's performance in Haney's role he arranged to put her under contract at the studio.

Producer: Jack Cummings
Director: George Sidney
Screenplay: Dorothy Kingsley, based on the play by Cole Porter, Sam Spewack, Bella Spewack, from the play The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
Cinematography: Charles Rosher
Production Design: Cedric Gibbons, Urie McCleary
Music: Andre Previn, Saul Chaplin
Principal Cast: Kathryn Grayson (Lilli Vanessi/Katherine), Howard Keel (Fred Graham/Petruchio), Ann Miller (Lois Lane/Bianca), Tommy Rall (Bill Calhoun/Lucentio), Bobby Van (Gremio), Keenan Wynn (Lippy), James Whitmore (Slug), Kurt Kasznar (Baptista), Bob Fosse (Hortensio), Ron Randell (Cole Porter).
C-110m. Closed captioning. Descriptive Video.

* Even though this movie was originally shown in theatres in 3-D with special glasses provided, we are airing the "flat" version.

by Felicia Feaster