TCM Schedule for Friday, June 22, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: Napoleonic War

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is looking at revolution and rebellion around the world. This could not be more timely!

In prime time, TCM is showing films that take place during the wars of Napoleon Bonaparte. Tell me more, Roger!

The Napoleonic Wars, spanning 1803-1815, were a series of conflicts between the French Empire of Napoleon I and various European powers led by the United Kingdom. The wars, attributed to disputes associated with the French Revolution, eventually led to Napoleon's defeat. TCM presents three films portraying the tensions, anxieties and adventure of this turbulent period.

That Hamilton Woman (1941) stars Vivien Leigh in a striking performance as Emma Hart, a British dance-hall girl and courtesan of the Napoleonic era who marries the much older Sir William Hamilton (Alan Mowbray). The new Lady Hamilton courts scandal through an ill-fated affair with the also-married Admiral Horatio Nelson (Laurence Olivier). The movie was shot in the U.S. by British producer-director Alexander Korda. It was said to be the favorite of Winston Churchill, in part because it portrays Britain's struggle against Napoleon in terms of resistance to a dictator--a concept Churchill must have found meaningful in the face of Hitler's rise to power. The film, also known as Lady Hamilton and The Enchantress, earned four Oscar® nominations and won for Best Sound.

Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951), with Gregory Peck in the title role, was directed by Raoul Walsh and adapted by C.S. Forester from three of his novels about the naval hero. Set in 1807, the film follows Hornblower's ship on a perilous mission along the Pacific coast of Central America, as Spain's shifting loyalties from Napoleon's France to Hornblower's England force a sudden change of plans. A critic for Variety wrote that "The exploits of one of Britain's greatest fictional naval adventurers have been filmed with spectacular success...effervescent entertainment with action all the way."

Damn the Defiant! (1962) is a British film about a mutiny aboard the fictional H.M.S. Defiant during the French Revolutionary Wars that ushered in the Napoleonic era. A furious battle of wills develops between the ship's fair-minded captain (Alec Guinness) and the second-in-command lieutenant (Dirk Bogarde) whose inhumane attitude pushes the crew to mutiny. The story is loosely based on the real-life Spithead Mutiny by sailors in the Royal Navy in 1797, the same year the film is set. In England the movie, directed by Lewis Gilbert, was called H.M.S. Defiant.

by Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!



6:30 AM -- THE BLACK BOOK (1949)
Opponents plot to bring down Robespierre during the French Revolution.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Robert Cummings, Richard Basehart, Richard Hart
BW-89 mins, CC,

Originally released as Reign of Terror.


8:15 AM -- BALALAIKA (1939)
Refugees from the Russian Revolution build a new life in Paris.
Dir: Reinhold Schunzel
Cast: Nelson Eddy, Ilona Massey, Charles Ruggles
BW-102 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD)

Based on the play by Eric Maschwitz.


10:00 AM -- THE GOOD EARTH (1937)
Epic adaptation of the Pearl Buck classic about Chinese farmers battling the elements.
Dir: Sidney Franklin
Cast: Paul Muni, Luise Rainer, Walter Connolly
BW-138 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Luise Rainer (Luise Rainer became the first actress and first performer to win consecutive awards for lead roles.), and Best Cinematography -- Karl Freund

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Sidney Franklin, Best Film Editing -- Basil Wrangell, and Best Picture

American-born Chinese actress Anna May Wong desperately wanted the role of O-Lan. Being a close friend of author Pearl S. Buck helped. She tested for the role, but producer Irving Thalberg was unsatisfied. Also, since Paul Muni, a Caucasian actor, had already been cast in the lead, Thalberg knew he couldn't cast Wong as Muni's wife. The Hays Code prohibited actors of different races from playing husband/wife couples on film (this was to avoid offending white audiences in the strictly segregated American South, where there were stringent laws against mixed-race marriages). Thalberg offered her the "vamp" role of Lotus, but a distraught Anna May turned it down.


12:30 PM -- SANTIAGO (1956)
A hardened gun runner attempts to take a shipment to Cuba to assist with the rebellion against Spain.
Dir: Gordon Douglas
Cast: Alan Ladd, Rossana Podestà, Lloyd Nolan
C-93 mins,

Based on the novel by Martin Rackin.


2:15 PM -- SANDOKAN THE GREAT (1963)
Malasyan pirate Sandokan rescues a princess.
Dir: Umberto Lenzi
Cast: Steve Reeves, Geneviève Grad, Andrea Bosic
BW-110 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

This was Steve Reeves' first movie after leaving the sword and sandal genre. He would make a sequel to this and, after a 4 year hiatus, would try his hand at the next big Italian film craze, the "spaghetti western," before retiring from the screen.


4:15 PM -- THE FUGITIVE (1947)
A revolutionary priest flees a Central American dictatorship.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, Pedro Armendariz, J. Carrol Naish
BW-100 mins, CC,

Mel Ferrer's first film.


6:00 PM -- THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (1982)
Two American journalists get more than they'd bargained for during an Indonesian revolution.
Dir: Peter Weir
Cast: Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt
C-115 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Linda Hunt

Linda Hunt is the first actress to have won an Academy Award for portraying a member of the opposite sex. Hunt is also the only actress ever to win an Academy Award for playing a man, with no cross dressing or gender confusion involved. Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry (1999)) received one for playing a biological female, who identifies as a man, while Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love (1998)) received one for playing a woman, pretending to be a man, pretending to be a woman.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: NAPOLEONIC WAR



8:00 PM -- CAPTAIN HORATIO HORNBLOWER (1951)
The famed 19th century hero defeats enemy fleets and courts an admiral's widow.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty
C-117 mins, CC,

The movie is based on three "Hornblower" novels: ""Beat To Quarters", "Ship Of The Line" and "Flying Colours." These were all written in 1938 and were the first books of the series.


10:15 PM -- THAT HAMILTON WOMAN (1941)
Naval hero Lord Nelson defies convention to court a married woman of common birth.
Dir: Alexander Korda
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Alan Mowbray
BW-126 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Jack Whitney (General Service SSD)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Rudolph Maté, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Vincent Korda and Julia Heron, and Best Effects, Special Effects -- Lawrence W. Butler (photographic) and William A. Wilmarth (sound)

One of Winston Churchill's hobbies was writing for movies as ghost writer. He wrote two of Nelson's speeches, as propaganda pieces against Germany, which was invading Europe at the time the movie was filmed and released.


12:30 AM -- DAMN THE DEFIANT! (1962)
The crew of a British sailing ship threatens mutiny during the Napoleonic wars.
Dir: Lewis Gilbert
Cast: Alec Guinness, Dirk Bogarde, Maurice Denham
C-101 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Alec Guinness made this movie during the two month break in the shooting of Lawrence of Arabia (1962), when the production moved from Jordan to Spain. Upon finishing this film, Guinness resumed his role of Prince Faisal.


2:30 AM -- HE KNOWS YOU'RE ALONE (1980)
A killer stalks a brides-to-be.
Dir: Armand Mastroianni
Cast: Don Scardino, Elizabeth Kemp, Caitlin O'Heaney
C-94 mins, CC,

First movie appearance of Tom Hanks and Dana Barron.


4:15 AM -- ALICE, SWEET ALICE (1977)
When people in an Italian-American neighborhood are murdered, suspicion falls on a lonely 12-year-old.
Dir: Alfred Sole
Cast: Linda Miller, Mildred Clinton, Paula Sheppard
C-105 mins, CC,

Film debut of Brooke Shields.