TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 7, 2022 -- What's On Tonight: RKO Star Vehicles

[Staph]

I'm going out of town for the week, with extremely limited phone and internet service. So here's my schedule posts, a wee bit early!

In the daylight hours, TCM celebrates director George Cukor, born July 7, 1899, on the lower East Side of Manhattan. From his TCM biography:

One of the most respected directors of Hollywood's Golden Age, Oscar-winning filmmaker George Cukor was frequently described as a "women's director," thanks to his stellar collaborations with Katherine Hepburn on ten films, including "The Philadelphia Story" (1940), as well as Joan Crawford on "The Women" (1939), Ingrid Bergman on "Gaslight" (1944), Judy Holliday on "Born Yesterday" (1950), Judy Garland on "A Star is Born" (1957) and Audrey Hepburn on "My Fair Lady" (1964). The appellation, while appropriate, did not sufficiently explain the scope of Cukor's five-decade career; rather, it was his scrupulous attention to every detail of his films - from pace and design to casting, scripting and editing - that created a fluid, flawless aesthetic that remained almost invisible to viewers until after the final credits rolled. Though he worked in all genres - from comedies and dramas to musicals - his true focus was the complicated entanglement of relationships between friends and lovers in the face of political, social and interpersonal conflicts. In doing so, Cukor crafted a body of work that represented some of the finest pictures ever released by Hollywood studios; pictures that stood the test of time and changing audiences, who returned to Cukor's cinematic offerings in order to see a master craftsman at work.

Then in prime time, it's RKO Star Vehicles. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Dinner at Eight (1933)
1h 53m | Comedy | TV-PG
A high-society dinner party masks a hotbed of scandal and intrigue.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery

John Barrymore relished the challenge of a strong character part. He got involved in his part, making suggestions along the way to play up his character such as having him misquote famous writers and botch his own suicide. George Cukor was pleased that an actor of such prominence was confident and committed enough that he would be willing to sacrifice vanity for the greater success of the film. He later said, "Although (Barrymore) was playing a second-rate actor, he had no vanity as such. He even put things in to make himself hammier, more ignorant."


8:00 AM -- Sylvia Scarlett (1935)
1h 37m | Romance | TV-PG
A female con artist masquerades as a boy to escape the police.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Brian Aherne

After a disastrous preview, director George Cukor introduced the Marseilles scene as an introduction to the original film, thus showing the feminine Sylvia Scarlett, with tresses and in a skirt, before showing the tom-boyish side of the character.


9:45 AM -- The Women (1939)
2h 12m | Comedy | TV-PG
A happily married woman lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband strays.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell

George Cukor told Rosalind Russell to play the part of Sylvia very broad. "Because in this picture Sylvia's breaking up a family, and there's a child involved, and if you're a heavy," Cukor told her, "audiences will hate you. Don't play it like a heavy, just be ridiculous." Of this advice Russell said, "He was a hundred-percent right. I was frightened to death, but from then on, I did what he said, and everything that came to me from 'The Women'--namely, my reputation as a comedienne--I owe to George . . . He was marvelous to work for, he could think of a hundred bits of business for every moment."


12:15 PM -- The Philadelphia Story (1940)
1h 51m | Comedy | TV-G
When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Donald Ogden Stewart

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ruth Hussey, Best Director -- George Cukor, and Best Picture

In one scene, James Stewart carries Katharine Hepburn while singing "Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz (1939). The director of this film, George Cukor, was briefly employed as the director of The Wizard of Oz, setting the look for many of the characters and continuing to advise on the film even after he was reassigned.


2:15 PM -- Gaslight (1944)
1h 54m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
A newlywed fears she's going mad when strange things start happening at the family mansion.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ingrid Bergman, and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, William Ferrari, Edwin B. Willis and Paul Huldschinsky

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Charles Boyer, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Angela Lansbury, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John L. Balderston, Walter Reisch and John Van Druten, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, and Best Picture

Director George Cukor employed a storytelling method in order to get Ingrid Bergman in the right mindset as filming progressed. Each day, Cukor would recount the entire plot of the movie to Bergman up to the point of the scenes they were set to film that day. Cukor felt the method was necessary, because the movie was not shot sequentially, and Bergman's character was supposed to change over time. Bergman quickly grew frustrated with the technique, and told Cukor "I'm not a dumb Swede, you've told me that before." Cukor ceased the storytelling for a few days until a producer notified Cukor of a sharp decline in acting quality in the daily rushes. The producer told Cukor that the actors and actresses appeared to be "acting as though they're under water." So, Cukor resumed his storytelling method, a practice Bergman soon grew to appreciate.


4:15 PM -- Born Yesterday (1950)
1h 43m | Comedy | TV-PG
A newspaper reporter takes on the task of educating a crooked businessman's girlfriend.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, William Holden

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Judy Holliday (Judy Holliday was not present at the awards ceremony but watched it with several nominees in New York including fellow-best actress candidate Gloria Swanson. In Hollywood, Ethel Barrymore accepted on her behalf.)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- George Cukor, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Albert Mannheimer, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Jean Louis, and Best Picture

To help facilitate shooting, George Cukor decided to rehearse Born Yesterday (1950) as if it were still a stage play. For two weeks, the cast worked on their lines while a construction crew built a 300-seat mini-theater within one of the studio's sound-stages. It was there that Judy Holliday, William Holden and Broderick Crawford gave six performances in front of a live audience so that Cukor could precision-time the pacing of the film's jokes.


6:15 PM -- It Should Happen to You (1953)
1h 26m | Comedy | TV-G
A poor model from a small town comes to New York with big ambitions.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Judy Holliday, Peter Lawford, Jack Lemmon

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Jean Louis

In a 1972 interview, George Cukor told Gavin Lambert about the little natural moments that come out in performances; as an example, he described the shooting of the seduction scene in Peter Lawford's apartment. "It so happened we had a property man on the picture who'd worked with The Three Stooges. He said, 'I have an idea, may I help on this?' I said, 'Please do,' and he suggested, 'Let her take the earring off herself, so he can nuzzle her ear.' So we did, and it made a terribly funny moment. Later in the scene she had to pour champagne down Peter Lawford's neck. We only have four shirts for Peter Lawford, so we could only shoot four takes, and it was tricky for the camera. On the last take I said, 'Judy if you laugh, I'll just kill you, I'll kill you dead.' Well, she didn't laugh, but she giggled, and it was absolutely great. I asked if she'd done it deliberately, in spite of what I'd said, and she didn't really know. Sometimes you get these very human things on the set."



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- RKO STAR VEHICLES



8:00 PM -- The Half Naked Truth (1933)
1h 7m | Comedy | TV-G
A carnival pitch man turns a sideshow dancer into an overnight sensation.
Director: Gregory La Cava
Cast: Lupe Velez, Lee Tracy, Eugene Pallette

Because of Lee Tracy's absences and late arrivals on the set, RKO withheld $3500 from his salary and sued him for $10,000 which they alleged his actions cost them. It was settled out of court with RKO paying half his salary and, if he behaved himself, the other half would be paid as a bonus after he completed his next RKO picture, which turned out to be Wanted! Jane Turner (1936). Tracy requested and was paid the bonus after that film was completed.


9:30 PM -- A Woman Rebels (1936)
1h 28m | Drama | TV-G
A Victorian feminist has an illegitimate baby.
Director: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Herbert Marshall, Elizabeth Allen

The film lost $222,000 at the box office and was Katharine Hepburn's 3rd flop in a row, contributing to exhibitors declaring her "box office poison".


11:15 PM -- The Great Man Votes (1939)
1h 10m | Comedy | TV-G
A drunk fighting to hold on to his family discovers he has the deciding vote in a local election.
Director: Garson Kanin
Cast: John Barrymore, Peter Holden, Virginia Weidler

This film was released in 1939, but it depicts the year 1923. When the children at school recite the Pledge of Allegiance, they first hold their right hands over their hearts, then extend their arms straight out toward the flag in salute. This is a modified Bellamy salute, which originally did not include the hand over heart gesture. Due to its similarity to the salute used by Italian fascists and German Nazis, the Bellamy salute became increasingly controversial. Also, campaigns against anti-interventionists like Charles Lindbergh pointed out the similarity of the salutes. Gradually, it fell out of favor. The students in the film definitely make the gestures appropriate to 1939. In 1923, they may not have placed hands over hearts. The words recited in the film are the version of the pledge used from 1892-1923. In 1923, the phrase "of the United States " was added. In 1924, "of America" was added. And in 1954, the word "nation" was capitalized and "under God" was added.


12:45 AM -- Ladies of the Jury (1932)
1h 3m | Drama | TV-G
A jury hold-out tries to prove the defendant's innocence.
Director: Lowell Sherman
Cast: Edna May Oliver, Jill Esmond, Rosco Ates

Just like 12 Angry Men made more than 30 years later, this film also discloses the prejudices of one of the members of the jury. Edna May Oliver's role is more or less like Henry Fonda's, only in a funny way.


2:00 AM -- Doctor Zhivago (1965)
3h 17m | Epic | TV-PG
Sweeping epic about a Russian doctor pursuing the woman he loves during Russia's revolutionary years.
Director: David Lean
Cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Julie Christie, Tom Courtenay

Winner of Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Bolt, Best Cinematography, Color -- Freddie Young, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- John Box, Terence Marsh and Dario Simoni, Best Costume Design, Color -- Phyllis Dalton, and Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Maurice Jarre

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Tom Courtenay, Best Director -- David Lean, Best Sound -- A.W. Watkins (M-G-M British SSD) and Franklin Milton (M-G-M SSD), Best Film Editing -- Norman Savage, and Best Picture

Rather absurdly, MGM suggested to David Lean that Paul Newman be cast in the title role, for which he was clearly unsuited on a number of counts. Their reason was that Boris Pasternak, the book's author, had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (which the Soviet authorities forced him to decline) and Newman had recently played a Nobel Prize-winner in an MGM film, the comedy thriller The Prize (1963).