TCM Schedule for Thursday, March 5 -- The Korda Brothers

[Staph]

This morning we've got some of Ronnie Reagan's early stinkers. (I'm not kidding -- That Hagan Girl was named in "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (and how they got that way)" by Harry Medved and Randy Lowell.) This afternoon it's Nancy Drew -- the four films starring Bonita Granville. And this evening we begin this month's celebration of the Brothers Korda, with four films directed by Alexander Korda. Enjoy!


4:30am -- Accidents Will Happen (1938)
An insurance man tangles with a fraud ring.
Cast: Ronald Reagan, Gloria Blondell, Dick Purcell, Sheila Bromley
Dir: William Clemens
BW-62 mins, TV-G

Gloria Blondell (sister of the much better known Joan Blondell) was the first wife of future 007 producer Albert Broccoli.


5:33am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Heroes At Leisure (1939)
A group of lifeguards from a Southern California beach heads south during the off season.
Narrator: Pete Smith
Dir: Charles T. Trego
BW-10 mins

Surf's up in 1939! Who knew?


6:00am -- Juke Girl (1942)
A migrant laborer becomes a champion of farm workers' rights.
Cast: Ann Sheridan, Ronald Reagan, Richard Whorf, George Tobias
Dir: Curtis Bernhardt
BW-90 mins, TV-G

Due to her being known as "The Oomph Girl", Ann Sheridan later became the inspiration for the brand of woman's house-slippers called "Oomphies".


7:45am -- Hell's Kitchen (1939)
An ex-con tries to help a group of hardened juvenile delinquents.
Cast: Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall
Dir: E. A. Dupont, Lewis Seiler
BW-81 mins, TV-PG

As a result of a PTA complaint, this was the last gangster angle picture made by The Dead End Kids.


9:15am -- That Hagen Girl (1947)
A small-town teenager thinks a lawyer is her illegitimate dad.
Cast: Ronald Reagan, Shirley Temple, Rory Calhoun, Lois Maxwell
Dir: Peter Godfrey
BW-83 mins, TV-G

In his autobiography "Where's the Rest of Me?", Ronald Reagan wrote that he attempted to persuade director Peter Godfrey to have the ending rewritten, arguing that audiences wouldn't approve of a romantic pairing between Reagan and the 17-years-younger Shirley Temple. According to Reagan, Godfrey pointed out that his own wife, Renee Godfrey, was 20 years younger than himself, and Reagan decided it would be unwise to press the matter.


10:45am -- Night Unto Night (1949)
A terminally ill scientist seeks comfort from a mentally disturbed widow.
Cast: Ronald Reagan, Viveca Lindfors, Broderick Crawford, Rosemary DeCamp
Dir: Don Siegel
BW-85 mins, TV-PG

Viveca Lindfors’ first Hollywood film. She had appeared in 15 films in her native Sweden before moving to Hollywood.


12:15pm -- Nancy Drew--Detective (1938)
A teen-aged sleuth investigates a wealthy woman's disappearance.
Cast: Bonita Granville, John Litel, James Stephenson, Frankie Thomas
Dir: William Clemens
BW-66 mins, TV-G

The first of the movie series, based on the Nancy Drew book series, written under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene by Mildred Wirt Benson.


1:30pm -- Nancy Drew--Reporter (1939)
A teen-aged sleuth sets out to prove a young girl innocent of murder charges.
Cast: Bonita Granville, John Litel, Frank Thomas Jr., Mary Lee
Dir: William Clemens
BW-68 mins, TV-G

Film debut of Florence Halop, known to us television junkies as Bailiff Florence Kleiner on Night Court. Florence came after Selma Hacker (played by Selma Diamond) and before Roz Russell (played by Marsha Warfield).


2:45pm -- Nancy Drew, Trouble Shooter (1939)
A teen-aged sleuth tries to clear one of her father's friends of a murder charge.
Cast: Bonita Granville, Frankie Thomas, John Litel, Aldrich Bowker
Dir: William Clemens
BW-68 mins, TV-G

Nancy Drew has been played by Bonita Granville, Louise Currie, Shirley Patterson, and Emma Roberts in movies, and by Pamela Sue Martin, Janet Julian, Tracy Ryan, and Maggie Lawson on television.


4:00pm -- Nancy Drew And The Hidden Staircase (1939)
A teen-aged sleuth helps two old ladies deal with the "haunting" of their mansion.
Cast: Bonita Granville, Frankie Thomas, John Litel, Frank Orth
Dir: William Clemens
BW-60 mins, TV-G

John Litel not only played Nancy's father Carson Drew -- he also played the father of "Henry, Henry Aldrich -- Coming, Mother!"


5:15pm -- Man in the Vault (1956)
Bank robbers force a locksmith to help them with a big heist.
Cast: William Campbell, Karen Sharpe, Anita Ekberg, Berry Kroeger
Dir: Andrew V. McLaglen
BW-73 mins, TV-G

William Campbell's first wife Judith Campbell Exner professed to be a mistress of President John F. Kennedy. She was also involved with Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana during the period she claimed to be Kennedy's mistress.


6:30pm -- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
A British family gets mixed up with spies and an assassination plot while vacationing in Switzerland.
Cast: Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Nova Pilbeam, Peter Lorre
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
BW-75 mins, TV-PG

When Peter Lorre arrived in Great Britain, his first meeting with a British director was with Alfred Hitchcock. By smiling and laughing as Hitchcock talked, the director was unaware that Lorre had a limited command of the English language. Hitchcock cast him in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934). Lorre learned much of his part phonetically.


What's On Tonight: TCM SPOTLIGHT: THE KORDA BROTHERS


8:00pm -- Marius (1931)
A young man must choose between his childhood sweetheart and his love of the sea.
Cast: Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Charpin, Alida Rouffe
Dir: Alexander Korda, Marcel Pagnol.
BW-120 mins, TV-PG

The play was remade into the Broadway musical Fanny in 1954, which was in turn made into the nearly non-musical movie Fanny (1961), starring Leslie Caron as Fanny and Horst Buchholz as Marius.


10:30pm -- Service For Ladies (1932)
A waiter poses as a prince to win a beautiful aristocrat.
Cast: Leslie Howard, George Grossmith, Benita Hume, Elizabeth Allan, Morton Selten
Dir: Alexander Korda
BW-71 mins, TV-G

Director Alexander Korda and writer Lajos Biró were born in Austria-Hungary and migrated to England. Actor Leslie Howard was born in London to Hungarian immigrants.


12:00am -- Wedding Rehearsal (1932)
To avoid marriage, a nobleman schemes to marry off the eligible women on his family's list.
Cast: Roland Young, George Grossmith, John Loder, Wendy Barrie, Maurice Evans
Dir: Alexander Korda
BW-79 mins

Lots of then little known actors who went on to bigger things -- Roland Young (later Mr Topper of the Topper film series), Wendy Barrie (of The Saint, Falcon and Sherlock Holmes films), Joan Gardner (later Mrs Zoltan Korda), Maurice Evans (later Dr. Zaius in Planet of the Apes and Samantha's father Maurice in the television series Bewitched) and the lovely Merle Oberon in her first credited role (she later married and divorced Alexander Korda).


1:30am -- The Private Life Of Henry VIII (1933)
The famed English monarch suffers through five of his six disastrous marriages.
Cast: Charles Laughton, Merle Oberon, Wendy Barrie, Elsa Lanchester
Dir: Alexander Korda
BW-94 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Charles Laughton (Charles Laughton was not present at the awards ceremony. Fellow nominee Leslie Howard accepted the award on his behalf.)

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

First non-US film to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination


3:15am -- Richard III (1955)
A hunchbacked madman plots to make himself king of England.
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Paul Huson, Andy Shine
Dir: Laurence Olivier
C-158 mins, TV-PG

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

Olivier based his characterization of Richard on a much-despised theatrical director named Jed Harris. Years later he learned that the animators at Disney used Harris for the basis of the Big Bad Wolf.

[Staph]

1. The Korda Brothers Profile

Internationally recognized as superior filmmakers, the Korda brothers – Alexander, Zoltán and Vincent – made an indelible mark on the film industries in their native Hungary, as well as in Austria, Germany, the U.S., France and, especially, Great Britain.

Alexander (1893-1956), the oldest and best-known of the siblings, set a new standard for excellence in English films by producing and directing such classics as the lavish biographical dramas The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and Rembrandt (1936), both starring Charles Laughton. He was knighted in 1942 for his distinguished service to British cinema.

Zoltán (1895-1961), a screenwriter/producer/director, reached the peak of his accomplishments with his direction of The Four Feathers (1939), produced by Alexander and considered by many the ultimate British-made Empire adventure. Vincent (1897-1979) served as art director on many of his brothers’ films (as well as those of other filmmakers), winning an Oscar® for the sets of The Thief of Bagdad (1940), which was produced by Alexander.

The brothers were born on the outskirts of Turkeve on the Great Hungarian Plain. Alexander entered Hungary’s film industry in 1912 and within a few years had become one of his country’s most important filmmakers. After fleeing to Vienna for political reasons in 1919, he moved on to Berlin, Hollywood, Paris and London. Three of his films from the early 1930s are being shown in their TCM premieres: Marius (France, 1931), Wedding Rehearsal and Reserved for Ladies (both UK, 1932). Vincent handled art direction on the former two.

Alexander’s other hits, complete with production designs by Vincent, included That Hamilton Woman (1941), Vacation from Marriage (1945) and, as producer, The Third Man (1949). Through the 1950s, Zoltán continued to direct such films as Cry, the Beloved Country (1951) and Storm Over the Nile (1955), both enjoying their TCM premieres.

by Roger Fristoe

[Matilda]

2. Alexander Korda & Laurence Olivier

Alexander Korda produced five of Olivier's films - in addition to the wartime propaganda film, "Q Planes", he was
responsible for "The Divorce of Lady X", "Fire Over England", "That Hamilton Woman", and "Richard III".

So when Olivier planned to direct and star in his fourth Shakespearean film, that well-known Scottish play, he turned
to Korda for assistance in raising the finance, as, amazing as it sounds, none of the major studios wanted to know
about another Shakespearean film, Olivier or no Olivier. Korda was interested, and was putting out feelers, but he
died before the money was raised, and nobody else was interested.

Olivier planned to shoot it in black, white and red - one can only imagine how it might have turned out, and weep for
the turn that fate took.