TCM Schedule for Thursday, August 4 -- Summer Under The Stars -- Ronald Colman

[Staph]

It's Summer Under the Stars, and today's star is the extremely yummy Ronald Colman. Enjoy!




6:00 AM -- Lucky Partners (1940)
Two strangers who share a sweepstakes ticket take it on the lam.
Dir: Lewis Milestone
Cast: Ronald Colman, Ginger Rogers, Jack Carson.
99 min, TV-G, CC

Ginger Rogers turned down the role of Hildy Johnson (eventually played by Rosalind Russell) in the Howard Hawks comedy His Girl Friday so she could co-star with Ronald Colman in this movie.


7:45 AM -- My Life With Caroline (1941)
A man thinks his high-spirited wife is cheating on him.
Dir: Lewis Milestone
Cast: Ronald Colman, Anna Lee, Charles Winninger.
81 min, TV-PG

The French play by Louis Verneuil and Georges Berrwas written in 1935.


9:15 AM -- The White Sister (1923)
Thinking her lover was killed in the war, a young woman becomes a nun.
Dir: Henry King
Cast: Lillian Gish, Ronald Colman, Gail Kane.
135 min, TV-G

Also filmed in 1915 (starring Viola Allen and Richard Travers), and in 1933 (starring Helen Hayes and Clark Gable).


11:30 AM -- Kiki (1926)
A Parisian dancer vies with a glamorous actress for a producer's heart.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Norma Talmadge, Ronald Colman, Gertrude Astor.
97 min, TV-G

Remade in 1931, starring Mary Pickford and Reginald Denny.


1:30 PM -- Raffles (1930)
A distinguished British gentleman hides his true identity as a notorious jewel thief.
Dir: Harry d'Abbadie D'Arrast
Cast: Ronald Colman, Kay Francis, Bramwell Fletcher.
71 min, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Oscar Lagerstrom (sound director)

Other A. J. Raffles include J. Barney Sherry (1905), John Barrymore (1917), House Peters (1925), David Niven (1939), and Anthony Valentine (1975-TV).


2:45 PM -- The Unholy Garden (1931)
A gentleman thief falls for the daughter of the man he's trying to rob.
Dir: Geo. Fitzmaurice
Cast: Fay Wray, Estelle Taylor, Warren Hymer.
75 min

Based on the novel by Ben Hecht.


4:15 PM -- Arrowsmith (1931)
A crusading doctor fights his way through tragedy to find his true calling.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Ronald Colman, Helen Hayes, Richard Bennett.
99 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Richard Day, Best Cinematography -- Ray June, Best Writing, Adaptation -- Sidney Howard, and Best Picture

The first American sound film to feature a black character ("Dr. Oliver Marchand" played by Clarence Brooks) with a university degree who speaks perfect English, does not shuffle, and does not act in the usual stereotypical manner in which blacks were depicted in Hollywood films at the time.


6:15 PM -- The Prisoner Of Zenda (1937)
An Englishman who resembles the king of a small European nation gets mixed up in palace intrigue when his look-alike is kidnapped.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll, C. Aubrey Smith.
101 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Lyle R. Wheeler, and Best Music, Score -- Alfred Newman (musical director)

In 'Salad Days', his first autobiography, Douglas Fairbanks Jr said that when Raymond Massey told Sir C. Aubrey Smith, who played Col. Zapt, that he didn't understand his own part of Black Michael, Smith said 'Ray, in my time I've played every part in Zenda except Princess Flavia, and I've never understood Black Michael either'.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: RONALD COLMAN



8:00 PM -- A Tale Of Two Cities (1935)
Charles Dickens' classic story of two men in love with the same woman during the French Revolution.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Ronald Colman, Elizabeth Allen, Edna May Oliver.
126 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Film Editing -- Conrad A. Nervig, and Best Picture

Actor Ronald Colman agreed to play the role of Sydney Carton with the sole condition that he not also be required to play the role of Charles Darnay, as was usually expected in adaptations of the Dickens novel. The plot of 'A Tale of Two Cities' turns on the physical resemblance between the two characters. Colman had long wanted to play Sidney Carton, and was even willing to shave off his beloved mustache to play the part.


10:15 PM -- Random Harvest (1942)
A woman's happiness is threatened when she discovers her husband has been suffering from amnesia.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Ronald Colman, Greer Garson, Philip Dorn.
127 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Ronald Colman, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Susan Peters, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell, Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore, Best Director -- Mervyn LeRoy, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Herbert Stothart, Best Writing, Screenplay -- George Froeschel, Claudine West and Arthur Wimperis, and Best Picture

Ronald Colman fought with the British army in World War I at the battle of Ypres in 1914 where he received severe shrapnel wounds to the knee and ankle of one of his legs. He was decorated for bravery and was invalided out of the army several months later.


12:30 AM -- Her Night of Romance (1924)
An impoverished lord goes after an invalid's money only to fall in love.
Dir: Sidney A. Franklin
Cast: Constance Talmadge, Ronald Colman, Jean Hersholt.
85 min, TV-G

"I loathe war. I'm inclined to be bitter about the politics of munitions and real estate, which are the reasons of war. It certainly taught me to value the quiet life and strengthened my conviction that to keep as far out of range of vision as possible is to to be as safe as possible." --Ronald Colman


2:00 AM -- Lost Horizon (1937)
Four fugitives from a Chinese revolution discover a lost world of peace and harmony.
Dir: Frank Capra
Cast: Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, Edward Everett Horton.
133 min, TV-G, CC

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Stephen Goosson, and Best Film Editing -- Gene Havlick and Gene Milford

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- H.B. Warner, Best Assistant Director -- Charles C. Coleman, Best Music, Score -- Morris Stoloff (head of department) and Score by Dimitri Tiomkin, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), and Best Picture

The California State Censor Board insisted on having two signed affidavits from Columbia that the model doubling for Jane Wyatt in her nude bathing scene had her breasts covered. The affidavits were duly supplied though the model in question apparently was indeed bare-breasted, though as the scene is in long shot it's virtually impossible to tell.


4:15 AM -- The Story Of Mankind (1957)
Satan and the spirit of mankind contend for the future of humanity.
Dir: Irwin Allen
Cast: Ronald Colman, Hedy Lamarr, Groucho Marx.
C-100 min, TV-PG

The final film of Ronald Colman and of the Marx Brothers (they never again appeared on film as a group).

[CBHagman]

1. What a wonderful schedule.

And as usual, the movie notes are a lot of fun.