TCM Schedule for Friday, December 5 -- Musical Christmas

[Staph]

This morning features films that "live" and this afternoon has a couple of excellent courtroom dramas. In the evening we'll get a first taste of Christmas in a trio of musical offerings, including the must-see Meet Me In St. Louis (1944); the musical version of The Shop Around the Corner and You've Got Mail -- In The Good Old Summertime (1949 -- trust me, it really is a Christmas movie!); and Albert Finney as a singing Scrooge (1970). If they had only included Holiday Inn (1943 -- Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire), my life would be complete.... Enjoy!


4:15am -- King Solomon's Mines (1950)
A spirited widow hires a daredevil jungle scout to find a lost treasure in diamonds.
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Stewart Granger, Richard Carlson.
Dir: Compton Bennett, Andrew Marton.
C-103 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert Surtees, and Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters and Conrad A. Nervig

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Errol Flynn was originally cast as Quartermain, but turned it down, as he did not desire to sleep in a tent on location in Africa. Instead he did Kim (1950), which was filmed in India, but the accommodations for the actors were at a local resort.


6:00am -- Imitation Of Life (1959)
Two mothers, one white, one black, face problems with their rebellious daughters.
Cast: Lana Turner, Sandra Dee, Susan Kohner.
Dir: Douglas Sirk.
C-125 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Susan Kohner, and Best Actress in a
Supporting Role -- Juanita Moore

Lana Turner took no salary and worked for 50% of the film's profits, which earned her over $2 million
(setting a record for an actress at the time).


8:15am -- Tomorrow We Live (1942)
A master criminal uses mind control to force an ex-con to commit crimes.
Cast: William Marshall, Emmett Lynn, Ray Miller.
Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer.
BW-63 mins, TV-PG

The soundtrack includes "Juke Box Gal" written by Leo Erdody, and Senorita Chula" written by Ann Levitt and Leo Erdody.


9:30am -- I Want To Live! (1958)
True story of the small-time lady crook who fought to escape the gas chamber.
Cast: Susan Hayward, Simon Oakland, Theodore Bikel.
Dir: Robert Wise.
BW-121 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Susan Hayward

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Lionel Lindon, Best Director -- Robert Wise, Best Film Editing -- William Hornbeck, Best Sound -- Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Nelson Gidding and Don Mankiewicz

Inveterate researcher that he is, Robert Wise was determined to capture every grisly element of an execution for the climax of his movie. He visited San Quentin prison and asked for permission to see the gas chamber and witness an actual execution. After he'd seen it and had his art director photograph it and take measurements for set replication purposes, he was still uncertain about how he would structure the last act. He went back to the prison and made one final request for a detailed account of the entire execution procedure. This is what is painstakingly documented in the movie's climax.


11:45am -- The Paradine Case (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

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ethel Barrymore

According to Book "Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light", Hitchcock's favorite effect, he told Charles Higham, had been planned since the inception of The Paradine Case. Keane and Sir Simon Flaquer walk toward the camera as they enter Lincoln's Inn, part of venerable fourteenth-century London law complex. The two are seen entering the building, closing the door, walking up the stairs, turning the corner, heading along a landing into an office, and then continuing into the office, all without a single cut. It was one of Hitchcock's signature composites, using background projection and a treadmill, elaborately planned and prepared in advance by his second unit in London. Opposed to the long take, and oblivious of the significance of Lincoln's Inn, producer David O. Selznick deleted the shot.


1:45pm -- Anatomy Of A Murder (1959)
A small-town lawyer gets the case of a lifetime when a military man avenges an attack on his wife.
Cast: James Stewart, Ben Gazzara, Lee Remick.
Dir: Otto Preminger.
BW-161 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Arthur O'Connell, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George C. Scott. Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Sam Leavitt, Best Film Editing -- Louis R. Loeffler, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Wendell Mayes, and Best Picture

When James Stewart's character goes to the hotel to visit Kathryn Grant, the clerk at the desk is reading Leon Uris's "Exodus". One year later, director Preminger would go on to direct its film version, Exodus (1960).


4:30pm -- Exodus (1960)
A young Israeli activist fights to set up a homeland for his people.
Cast: Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Sal Mineo.
Dir: Otto Preminger.
C-208 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Ernest Gold

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sal Mineo, and Best Cinematography, Color -- Sam Leavitt

David Opatoshu's character Akiva Ben Canaan, commander of the Irgun, is based on the real-life Menachem Begin who later became prime minister of Israel. Opatoshu portrayed Begin in Raid on Entebbe (1977) (TV).


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: MUSICAL CHRISTMAS


8:00pm -- Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)
Young love and childish fears highlight a year in the life of a turn-of-the-century family.
Cast: Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli.
C-113 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- George J. Folsey, Best Music, Original Song -- Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin for the song "The Trolley Song", Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- George E. Stoll, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe

Director Vincente Minnelli worked hard to make the movie as accurate to the times as possible. Not only did its novelist, Sally Benson, give explicit directions as to the decor of her home down to the last detail, but the movie's costume designer took inspiration for many of the movies costumes right out of the Sears & Roebuck catalog from the time period.


10:00pm -- In The Good Old Summertime (1949)
In this musical remake of The Shop Around the Corner, feuding co-workers in a small music shop do not realize they are secret romantic pen pals.
Cast: Judy Garland, Van Johnson, S.Z. "Cuddles" Sakall.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard.
C-103 mins, TV-PG

Buster Keaton was working as a gag writer at MGM when this movie was made. The filmmakers approached him to devise a way for a violin to get broken that would be both comic and plausible. Keaton came up with an appropriate fall, and the filmmakers then realized he was the only one who would be able to execute it properly, so they cast him in the film. Keaton also devised the sequence in which Van Johnson inadvertently wrecks Judy Garland's hat, and coached Johnson intensively in how to perform the scene. This was the first MGM film Keaton appeared in since being fired from the studio in 1933.


12:00am -- Scrooge (1970)
A miser faces the ghosts of his past on Christmas Eve.
Cast: Albert Finney, Edith Evans, Kenneth More.
Dir: Ronald Neame.
C-113 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Terence Marsh, Robert Cartwright and Pamela Cornell, Best Costume Design -- Margaret Furse, Best Music, Original Song -- Leslie Bricusse for the song "Thank You Very Much", and Best Music, Original Song Score -- Leslie Bricusse, Ian Fraser and Herbert W. Spencer

Scrooge (played by then 34-year old Albert Finney) is actually younger than his nephew Fred (played by then 46-year old Michael Medwin).


2:00am -- All Night Long (1961)
A jazz band's leader thinks his wife is unfaithful.
Cast: Patrick McGoohan, Paul Harris, Betsy Blair.
Dir: Basil Dearden.
BW-95 mins, TV-14

This film, based on Othello, works as a vehicle to showcase some of the best Jazz musicians of the period - including Dave Brubeck and Charlie Mingus.


3:45am -- The Knack...And How To Get It (1965)
A rampant womanizer tries to help an innocent friend bed an eccentric girl.
Cast: Michael Crawford, Ray Brooks, Rita Tushingham.
Dir: Richard Lester.
BW-85 mins, TV-PG

Film debuts of Jacqueline Bisset and Charlotte Rampling.


5:15am -- MGM Parade Show #15 (1955)
George Murphy hosts a special Christmas show featuring Judy Garland performing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" in a clip from "Meet Me in St. Louis."
BW-26 mins, TV-G

In "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", Judy Garland refused to sing the grim original line, "Have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last" to little Margaret O'Brien. The version she sang is the one everyone knows today.

[Staph]

1. The Paradine Case

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