TCM Schedule for Thursday, June 19, 2014 -- Star of the Month - Rock Hudson

In the daylight hours, we are celebrating the birthday of Dame May Whitty, born Mary Louisa Whitty on June 19, 1865, in Liverpool, England. After a 25-year career on the stage, she made her first film in 1914 and worked steadily until her death in 1948. In prime time, we have a selection of films featuring Star of the Month, Rock Hudson, including all three of his films with Doris Day. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Goodbye Mr. Chips (Promo Short) (1969)
This promotional short film features excerpts from the film "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" (1969).
C-34 mins,


6:45 AM -- The Thirteenth Chair (1937)
A phony psychic tries to solve a murder that took place during her seance.
Dir: George B. Seitz
Cast: Dame May Whitty, Madge Evans, Lewis Stone
BW-67 mins,

The play opened on Broadway in New York City, New York, USA on 20 November 1916 and had 328 performances. Margaret Wycherly played the role of Rosalie La Grange (Whitty's role in this film), as she also did in the 1929 film version.


8:00 AM -- Night Must Fall (1937)
A charming young man worms his way into a wealthy woman's household, then reveals a deadly secret.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Merle Tottenham, Kathleen Harrison, Dame May Whitty
BW-116 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Robert Montgomery, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Dame May Whitty

"Night Must Fall" was first presented in London at the Duchess Theatre on 31 May 1935, and featured Emlyn Williams as Dan; Dame May Whitty as Mrs. Bramson; Angela Baddeley as Olivia Grayne; Kathleen Harrison as Mrs. Terence; Basil Radford as Hubert Laurie; and Matthew Boulton as Inspector Belsize. The play was produced by Miles Malleson, and directed by Williams. Angela Baddeley, Matthew Boulton, May Whitty, and Emlyn Williams would reprise their roles in the 1936 Broadway production.


10:00 AM -- Suspicion (1941)
A wealthy wallflower suspects her penniless playboy husband of murder.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Sir Cedric Hardwicke
BW-100 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Joan Fontaine

Nominated for Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Franz Waxman, and Best Picture

Joan Fontaine's performance in this movie is the only Oscar-winning performance that Alfred Hitchcock directed.


12:00 PM -- Mrs. Miniver (1942)
A British family struggles to survive the first days of World War II.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright
BW-134 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Teresa Wright, Best Director -- William Wyler (William Wyler was not present at the awards ceremony because he was overseas shooting for the Army Air Force. His wife Margaret Tallichet on his behalf.), Best Writing, Screenplay -- George Froeschel, James Hilton, Claudine West and Arthur Wimperis, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Walter Pidgeon, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Henry Travers, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Dame May Whitty, Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD), Best Film Editing -- Harold F. Kress, Best Effects, and Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic), Warren Newcombe (photographic), and Douglas Shearer (sound)

William Wyler openly admitted that he made the film for propaganda reasons. Wyler - who was born in Germany - strongly believed that the US should join the war against Nazism, and was concerned that America's policy of isolationism would prove damaging, so he made a film that showed ordinary Americans what their British equivalents were undergoing at the time. The film's subsequent success had a profound effect on American sympathy towards the plight of the British.


2:15 PM -- Slightly Dangerous (1943)
A small-town girl changes her identity to make it in New York, leaving her boyfriend a suspect in her "disappearance."
Dir: Wesley Ruggles
Cast: Lana Turner, Robert Young, Walter Brennan
BW-94 mins, CC,

Lana Turner was in the early stages of pregnancy during filming.


4:00 PM -- Devotion (1946)
The Bronte sisters and their brother fight personal demons to realize their artistic ambitions.
Dir: Curtis Bernhardt
Cast: Ida Lupino, Paul Henreid, Olivia de Havilland
BW-107 mins, CC,

Warners initially tried to borrow Joan Fontaine for Emily Bronte so she could play opposite her real life sister, Olivia de Havilland, but when an agreement couldn't be reached, the part was played by Warner contractee Ida Lupino.


6:00 PM -- If Winter Comes (1948)
Scandal results when a well-meaning man takes in a pregnant girl.
Dir: Victor Saville
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Deborah Kerr, Angela Lansbury
BW-97 mins, CC,

Angela Lansbury then twenty-two wanted the sympathetic role of the waif-like village girl Effie but was forced to play Mabel the thirty-five year old shrewish wife of fifty year old Walter Pidgeon. This brought home to Lansbury that she would never be a star player at MGM. The role of Effie went to Janet Leigh who would be Lansbury's co-star in The Manchurian Candidate where Lansbury would again play an older unsympathetic woman although this role - Mrs. Iselin - would be cited by Lansbury as her favorite film role.


7:48 PM -- Let's Sing A Song From The Movies (1948)
In this short film, a compilation of musicals are shown and the audience is invited to sing along. Vitaphone Release 1607A.
Dir: Jack Scholl
BW-11 mins,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: ROCK HUDSON



8:00 PM -- Pillow Talk (1959)
A man and woman carry their feud over the telephone line they share into their real lives.
Dir: Michael Gordon
Cast: Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall
C-102 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Russell Rouse (story), Clarence Greene (story), Stanley Shapiro (screenplay) and Maurice Richlin (screenplay)

Nominated for Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Doris Day, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Thelma Ritter, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Richard H. Riedel, Russell A. Gausman and Ruby R. Levitt, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Frank De Vol

Ross Hunter wrote that after he made this film, no theatre managers wanted to book it. Popular movie themes at the time were war films, westerns, or spectacles. Hunter was told by the big movie chains that sophisticated comedies like "Pillow Talk" went out with William Powell. They also believed Doris Day and Rock Hudson were things of the past and had been overtaken by newer stars. Hunter persuaded Sol Schwartz, who owned the Palace Theatre in New York, to book the film for a two-week run, and it was a smash hit. The public had been starved for romantic comedy, and theatre owners who had previously turned down Ross Hunter now had to deal with him on HIS terms.


9:46 PM -- Every Girl's Dream (1966)
Nancy Bernard, the 1966 Maid of Cotton, is given a studio tour for MGM in this short film.
C-9 mins,


10:00 PM -- Lover Come Back (1961)
An ad exec in disguise courts his pretty female competitor.
Dir: Delbert Mann
Cast: Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall
C-107 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Stanley Shapiro and Paul Henning

The original ending had Carol and Jerry getting drunk on VIP and checking into a hotel. Doris Day insisted the concluding events be rewritten, having Carol and Jerry get married in their drunken state before going to bed.


12:00 AM -- Send Me No Flowers (1964)
When he mistakenly thinks he's dying, a hypochondriac tries to choose his wife's next husband.
Dir: Norman Jewison
Cast: Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall
C-100 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Rock Hudson later said he had disliked the film and thought it was distasteful to make a comedy about death.


1:45 AM -- Come September (1961)
A womanizing tycoon ends up chaperoning a group of American girls who have rented his Italian villa.
Dir: Robert Mulligan
Cast: Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Sandra Dee
C-113 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee met and fell in love while filming this movie and shortly afterward got married.


3:45 AM -- Man's Favorite Sport? (1964)
A sporting goods salesman who knows nothing about fishing must enter an angling contest.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Rock Hudson, Paula Prentiss, Maria Perschy
C-120 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

This film was meant to be an homage/remake to Hawks' Bringing Up Baby (1938), and Hawks even wanted Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant to star in the movie.


5:51 AM -- Colorful Islands Madagascar And Seychelles (1936)
This short film focuses on the customs and culture of Madagascar and Seychelles.
C-8 mins,