TCM Schedule for Monday, October 22 -- Biopics

[Longhorn]

5:16am Short Film: From The Vaults: Sean O'Casey: The Spirit Of Ireland (1965)
C-8 mins

5:30am MGM Parade Show #32 (1955)
Walter Pidgeon introduces clips from "The Swan" and Part One of "The Pirate" featuring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly.
BW-26 mins, TV-G

6:00am No More Ladies (1935)
A society girl tries to reform her playboy husband by making him jealous.
Cast: Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, Charlie Ruggles. Dir: Edward H. Griffith. BW-80 mins, TV-G

7:30am Man Who Found Himself, The (1937)
A determined nurse puts a cocky surgeon back on track.
Cast: John Beal, Joan Fontaine, Philip Huston. Dir: Lew Landers. BW-67 mins, TV-PG

8:45am You Can't Beat Love (1937)
An eccentric playboy tries politics only to get mixed up with the mayor's daughter.
Cast: Preston Foster, Joan Fontaine, Herbert Mundin. Dir: Christy Cabanne. BW-62 mins, TV-G

10:00am Blond Cheat (1938)
A millionaire backs his daughter's stage career to keep her from marrying the wrong man.
Cast: Cecil Kellaway, Joan Fontaine, Lilian Bond. Dir: Joseph Santley. BW-62 mins, TV-G

11:15am Maid's Night Out (1938)
A wealthy boy masquerading as a milkman falls for an heiress he thinks is a maid.
Cast: Joan Fontaine, Allan Lane, Hedda Hopper. Dir: Ben Holmes. BW-64 mins, TV-PG

12:30pm Gunga Din (1939)
Three British soldiers seek treasure during an uprising in India.
Cast: Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Victor McLaglen. Dir: George Stevens. BW-117 mins, TV-PG

2:30pm Women, The (1939)
A happily married woman lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband strays.
Cast: Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell. Dir: George Cukor. BW-133 mins, TV-PG

4:45pm Born To Be Bad (1950)
An ambitious girl steals a rich husband but keeps her lover on the side.
Cast: Joan Fontaine, Robert Ryan, Mel Ferrer. Dir: Nicholas Ray. BW-90 mins, TV-PG

6:15pm Until They Sail (1957)
Four sisters in New Zealand fall for Allied sailors en route to World War II.
Cast: Jean Simmons, Joan Fontaine, Paul Newman. Dir: Robert Wise. BW-95 mins, TV-PG

What's On Tonight: TCM SPOTLIGHT: BIOPICS

8:00pm Madame Curie (1943)
The famed female scientist fights to keep her marriage together while conducting early experiments with radioactivity.
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. BW-124 mins, TV-PG

10:15pm Story Of Louis Pasteur, The (1935)
True story of the French scientist's battle to establish modern medical methods.
Cast: Paul Muni, Josephine Hutchinson, Anita Louise. Dir: William Dieterle. BW-86 mins, TV-G

12:00am Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940)
True story of the German scientist who devoted his life to curing syphilis.
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Gordon, Otto Kruger. Dir: William Dieterle. BW-103 mins, TV-G

1:50am Short Film: From The Vaults: Servant Of Mankind - Thomas Edison (1940)
BW-9 mins

2:00am Edison, The Man (1940)
Thomas Edison fights to turn his dreams into reality.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Rita Johnson, Charles Coburn. Dir: Clarence Brown. BW-107 mins, TV-G

4:00am Sister Kenny (1946)
True story of the Australian nurse who fought to gain acceptance for her polio-treatment methods.
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Dean Jagger, Alexander Knox. Dir: Dudley Nichols. BW-116 mins, TV-G

[Longhorn]

1. Madame Curie (1943)

Marie Curie was a Polish physicist working in France when she, along with her husband and partner Pierre, discovered the scientific element radium. The discovery opened up the science of radioactivity. Radium proved key in the development of many scientific technologies from wartime bombs to medical breakthroughs such as using radiation to treat cancer. Marie Curie was the first woman in France to receive a Ph.D., the first woman ever to receive a Nobel Prize, and the first person ever to receive two Nobel Prizes.

Curie's daughter Eve published a well-received book on her extraordinary mother's life in 1937 called Madame Curie: A Biography. Hollywood's interest was peaked, and Universal Studios quickly bought the rights with Irene Dunne in mind to play Marie. Dunne traveled to Europe and met with Eve Curie to discuss the project, but nothing ever came of the meeting. A few years later Universal sold the property to MGM, who wanted it for their star Greta Garbo. Writers such as Aldous Huxley and F. Scott Fitzgerald took a stab at adapting the screenplay for Garbo, but the project again was shelved when Garbo left MGM in 1941 and the country was thrown into World War II.

Meanwhile at MGM actors Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon had been making names for themselves as a popular onscreen duo. Audiences loved them together in such hits as Blossoms in the Dust (1941) and Mrs. Miniver (1942). MGM resuscitated the Madame Curie project for them with Garson as Marie and Pidgeon as her husband Pierre. This was the fourth onscreen pairing of the duo. Mervyn LeRoy, who had directed them in their first movie together Blossoms in the Dust, was named director with Sidney Franklin, who had produced Mrs. Miniver, producing. Franklin very much wanted to keep the events in the film as historically and scientifically accurate as possible. To do this he brought in Dr. Rudolph Langer, a physicist from Cal Tech, as an official technical advisor. In addition to providing input on the script, Dr. Langer also contributed by re-creating some of the Curies' experiments for the screenwriters to observe.

The biggest challenge for making a movie of Madame Curie was in making the unlikely subject of the discovery of radium interesting and entertaining for audiences. The film managed to adhere to the facts more than most biopics of the 1930s and 40s, and it also took time to develop the sweet romance between Marie and Pierre, two shy scientists fiercely dedicated to their work. This balance between showing the Curies' personal lives and scientific work was key to its success. Director Mervyn LeRoy, who considered Madame Curie to be among his personal favorites, was careful to keep the complicated scientific material easy to follow. "I didn't let a scene go by unless I understood it myself," Mervyn LeRoy said in his 1974 autobiography Mervyn LeRoy: Take One.

The science meets Hollywood strategy worked, and audiences and critics alike loved Madame Curie. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times said, "It has made their (the Curies') absorption as comprehensible as the urge to read good books. Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon are ideal in the leading roles." Eve Curie even wrote a letter of approval to Mervyn LeRoy saying how much she had liked his film adaptation of her book. Madame Curie was honored with seven Academy Award® nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress. Ultimately, however, it took home none, losing out to Casablanca (1942) for Best Picture.

In some ways, Madame Curie was a mixed blessing for Garson who, prior to playing the role, was quoted as saying, "Here am I, possibly the only natural redhead in Hollywood, mildewing away the years in shawls, shrouds, and chignons in unrelieved black and white. I hope that Madame Curie will be my last heavy dramatic role I shall play for some time." (from Michael Troyan's biography, A Rose For Mrs. Miniver: The Life of Greer Garson). Garson was equally concerned about audiences "believing" her transition from youth to old age in the course of the film. "When I'm 62, they'll probably cast me as an ingenue. At 70, I'll be in pigtails. Anyway I can dream can't I?"

After Madame Curie, Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon went on to make five more features together; they were teamed on the screen a total of nine times. Also included in the cast of Madame Curie are Robert Walker as a young lab assistant, Van Johnson as a cub reporter, and Margaret O'Brien as the Curies' daughter Irene.

Producer: Sidney A. Franklin
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Screenplay: Paul Osborn, Paul H. Rameau
Cinematography: Joseph Ruttenberg
Film Editing: Harold F. Kress
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons
Music: Herbert Stothart
Cast: Greer Garson (Mme. Marie Curie), Walter Pidgeon (Pierre Curie), Robert Walker (David LeGros), Van Johnson (Reporter), Albert Bassermann (Prof. Jean Perot), Henry Travers (Eugene Curie), C. Aubrey Smith (Lord Kelvin).
BW-124m. Closed captioning. Descriptive Video.

by Andrea Passafiume