TCM Schedule for Thursday, August 21 -- Summer Under The Stars: Ava Gardner

[Staph]

Today's star is the luminous Ava Gardner, daughter of a tobacco farmer from North Carolina. Unfortunately, we won't get to see her Oscar-nominated role in Mogambo (1953) with Clark Gable. Nonetheless, enjoy!


4:30am -- Brother Orchid (1940)
After a failed hit, a mob chief recuperates in a monastery.
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Ann Sothern, Humphrey Bogart.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon.
BW-88 mins, TV-PG

Of the five films that Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart made together, this is the only one in which neither is killed.


6:00am -- Three Men In White (1944)
Young doctors compete for a prestigious position as Dr. Gillespie's assistant.
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Van Johnson, Marilyn Maxwell.
Dir: Willis Goldbeck.
BW-85 mins, TV-G

Lionel Barrymore plays Dr. Gillespie, mentor to young Dr. Kildare. However, the character of Kildare had been dropped from the film series by this point, as Lew Ayres was a conscientious objector during WWII (though he did serve as a medic in the Pacific). This was Ava Gardner's second Dr. Gillespie film.


7:30am -- Maisie Goes To Reno (1944)
On a trip to Reno, a Brooklyn showgirl tries to stop a soldier and his wife from divorcing.
Cast: Ann Sothern, John Hodiak, Ava Gardner.
Dir: Harry Beaumont.
BW-90 mins, TV-G

Eighth in the ten-film Maisie series.


9:00am -- The Bribe (1949)
A sultry singer tries to tempt a federal agent from the straight-and-narrow.
Cast: Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard.
BW-98 mins, TV-PG

In Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), while Steve Martin's character is at the bar in Carlotta, a clip is used of Charles Laughton from The Bribe (1949) asking, "You know who I could be?" and Martin replies, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame?" Laughton played that role in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939).


10:45am -- East Side, West Side (1949)
A chic New York couple is torn apart by a seductive model.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, James Mason, Ava Gardner.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy.
BW-108 mins, TV-G

Watch for Nancy Davis Reagan in a small part as Barbara Stanwyck's best friend.


12:45pm -- The Hucksters (1947)
A war veteran fights for honesty in the advertising game.
Cast: Clark Gable, Deborah Kerr, Ava Gardner.
Dir: Jack Conway.
BW-116 mins, TV-PG

The novel upon which this film is based was itself inspired by a real-life exposé in "The Saturday Evening Post". The four-part article, entitled "The Star Spangled Octopus," was a look at how the talent and promotional agency MCA had managed to monopolize most areas of popular entertainment by the mid-1940s. In the novel, the character of Dave Lash is based directly on MCA founder and president Jules C. Stein and his right-hand-man is based on Lew Wasserman. The movie version retains these elements of the book's form but is otherwise fairly sanitized. The one exception: the exterior of the fictional agency Talent Ltd. is shown once during the movie -- and the building in the shot is unmistakably MCA's Beverly Hills headquarters.


2:45pm -- Lone Star (1952)
A frontiersman helps out with Texas's fight for independence from Mexico.
Cast: Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Lionel Barrymore.
Dir: Vincent Sherman.
BW-95 mins, TV-PG

Lionel Barrymore's last movie and George Hamilton's first movie.


4:30pm -- Ride, Vaquero! (1953)
Ranchers in New Mexico have to face Indians and bandits.
Cast: Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Howard Keel.
Dir: John Farrow.
C-90 mins, TV-PG

During her final years living in London, Gardner once met J.R.R. Tolkien. Neither knew why the other was famous.


6:06pm -- Short Film: From The Vaults: The Passenger: Professional Reporter (1975)
Trailer for "Professione: reporter" (1975).
C-4 mins

The film Professione: reporter (1975) (for which this short is a trailer) was directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starred Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider and Jenny Runacre.


6:15pm -- The Angel Wore Red (1960)
A priest and a prostitute fall in love during the Spanish Civil War.
Cast: Ava Gardner, Dirk Bogarde, Joseph Cotten.
Dir: Nunnally Johnson.
BW-99 mins, TV-PG

Prolific writer (nominated for Oscars for Holy Matrimony (1943) and The Grapes of Wrath (1940)) Nunnally Johnson's last stint as director.


What's On Tonight: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: AVA GARDNER


8:00pm -- Bhowani Junction (1956)
An Anglo-Indian beauty falls for a British officer as her country fights for independence.
Cast: Ava Gardner, Stewart Granger, Bill Travers.
Dir: George Cukor.
C-110 mins, TV-PG

The filming took place in Pakistan rather than India, for political reasons due to the scenes of Hindu terrorism including against Ghandi himself.


10:00pm -- On the Beach (1959)
After a nuclear war, U.S. sailors stationed in Australia deal with the end of civilization.
Cast: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire.
Dir: Stanley Kramer.
BW-134 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Film Editing -- Frederic Knudtson, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Ernest Gold

Ava Gardner's first film as a freelance actress after completing her 20 year studio contract where she worked for a weekly salary and didn't benefit financially from being loaned to other studios. She was now free to choose her roles and negotiate her salary.

Fred Astaire also launched his non-musical, dramatic acting career with this film.


12:30am -- The Night Of The Iguana (1964)
A defrocked priest surrenders to the sins of the flesh in a Mexican hotel.
Cast: Richard Burton, Deborah Kerr, Ava Gardner.
Dir: John Huston.
BW-118 mins, TV-14

Won an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Dorothy Jeakins

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Grayson Hall, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Stephen B. Grimes, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Gabriel Figueroa

In order to diffuse the tension prior to shooting (due mainly to the isolated location the stars would be working in together), John Huston made each lead actor a gold encrusted pistol with bullets - one with each actor's name on it. This way, when the actors wanted to kill one another, they would use the designated bullet. This proved to be successful. No problems between the cast arose.


2:30am -- The Cassandra Crossing (1976)
When a train's passengers are exposed to a deadly virus, it triggers an international incident.
Cast: Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, Martin Sheen.
Dir: George P. Cosmatos.
C-129 mins, TV-14

The bridge used in the film is actually Viaduct of Garabit in France. It was built in 1881-1884, manufactured by Gustave Alexandre Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame. It is 122 meters tall by 564.69 meters long. It is still used today as a railway bridge.


4:45am -- My Forbidden Past (1951)
A beauty with a skeleton in her closet seeks revenge on the suitor who jilted her.
Cast: Ava Gardner, Melvyn Douglas, Robert Mitchum.
Dir: Robert Stevenson.
BW-70 mins, TV-PG

Also known as Carriage Entrance in the U.S.

[Staph]

1. Ava Gardner Profile

Stardates: Born December 24, 1922, in Grabtown, N.C.; died 1990.

Star Sign: Capricorn

Star Qualities: Feline beauty, earthiness, suggestion of wildness beneath the glamour.

Galaxy Of Characters: Jean Olgivie in The Hucksters (1947), Victoria Jones in Bhowani Junction (1956), Moira Davidson in On the Beach (1959), Maxine Faulk in The Night of the Iguana (1964).

An earthy brunette from Grabtown, N.C., Ava Gardner (1922-1990) was one of the screen's great beauties -- and anyone who has seen her color close-ups in Show Boat (1951) or Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) might argue she was the most gorgeous of them all. When challenged by interesting material and an imaginative director, she could also register strongly as an actress.

The daughter of an itinerant farmer, Gardner was preparing to become a secretary when a photograph of her inspired MGM's casting department to arrange a screen test. She made her film debut in a bit part in the Hedy Lamarr vehicle H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), and served an apprenticeship in some 20 MGM films before landing leads in Whistle Stop (1946) and, on loan-out to Universal in an attention-getting role, The Killers (1946).

The Hucksters (1947) found Gardner as the second female lead, billed below Deborah Kerr. However, her scenes as a nightclub singer in love with advertising man Clark Gable offered early glimpses of the sexual sparks that the pair would later generate in such co-starring vehicles as the Western Lone Star (1952) and the African adventure Mogambo (1953). The latter film earned Gardner her only Oscar® nomination for her performance as a wisecracking adventuress who challenges Grace Kelly for Gable's love.

The other MGM leading man with whom Gardner shared a special chemistry was Robert Taylor, her co-star in the Western Ride, Vaquero! (1953) and the costume drama Knights of the Round Table (1953), in which she was a ravishing Guinevere to Taylor's Lancelot. One of her most striking performances of the 1950s was in The Barefoot Contessa (1954), in a rags-to-riches story that held parallels to her own life. But her best performance of the period came in George Cukor's Bhowani Junction (1956), in which she is a beautiful half-caste caught up in India's battle for independence from Britain.

After a time Gardner's taste for high living began to take a toll on her stunning features, although she still remained alluring in such film as The Naked Maja (1959) and The Angel Wore Red (1960). Her fading beauty was used to especially vivid effect in Stanley Kramer's On the Beach (1959), as a party girl facing the end of the world; and John Huston's The Night of the Iguana (1964), as a worldly wise survivor of tough times.

Gardner, who turned to television late in her career, made her final feature-film appearance in the
German/Italian production Regina Roma (1982). She had three marriages that ended in divorce -- to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra.

by Roger Fristoe

Films in bold type are featured on TCM on August 21

[Ava]

2. I was named after Ava Gardner

:hi: my mom gave all her girls names of classic movie stars. i was the first girl, so i got Ava!