TCM Schedule for Saturday, August 2, 2014 -- Summer Under The Stars -- David Niven

Today's Star is David Niven, born James David Graham Niven on March 1, 1910, in London. After Great Britain declared war in 1939, he was one of the first actors to go back and join the army. Although Niven had a reputation for telling good old stories over and over again, he was totally silent about his war experience. He said once: "I will, however, tell you just one thing about the war, my first story and my last. I was asked by some American friends to search out the grave of their son near Bastogne. I found it where they told me I would, but it was among 27,000 others, and I told myself that here, Niven, were 27,000 reasons why you should keep your mouth shut after the war." Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Dodsworth (1936)
A husband whose wife left him looks for new love in Europe.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas
BW-101 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction -- Richard Day

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Walter Huston, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Maria Ouspenskaya, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sidney Howard, Best Sound, Recording -- Oscar Lagerstrom (United Artists SSD), and Best Picture

Mary Astor wrote in her memoirs that Edith Cortright was her favorite role, also reflecting that she channeled her struggle of her public divorce into her role: "When I went into court and faced the bedlam...that would have broken me up completely, I kept the little pot boiling that was Edith Cortright."


7:48 AM -- The Story Of "The Jonker Diamond" (1936)
This short film presents a re-enactment of how the Jonker diamond was discovered in South Africa in 1905.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Nat Carr, Hugh Marlowe, Louis Mason
BW-10 mins,


8:00 AM -- The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
Two brothers love the same woman at a perilous Indian outpost.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Patric Knowles
BW-115 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Assistant Director -- Jack Sullivan

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD), and Best Music, Score -- Leo F. Forbstein (head of department) with score by Max Steiner

During filming, director Michael Curtiz exclaimed "Bring on the empty horses!", meaning "riderless horses". David Niven would later use this phrase as the title of his autobiography.


10:00 AM -- The Way Ahead (1944)
A hopeless battalion becomes a top fighting unit in WWII Africa.
Dir: Carol Reed
Cast: Trevor Howard, David Niven,
BW-88 mins, CC,

At the time the movie was made, David Niven, who plays a lieutenant, was actually a British Army major serving on operations in WWII. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill asked Niven about the possibility of making a film which would pay homage to the British Army the way In Which We Serve (1942) had paid homage to the British Navy. Niven then contacted director Carol Reed with the proposal of expanding their earlier training film, The New Lot (1943).


11:40 AM -- Projection Room (1939)
In this short film, a publicity agent must reunite a quarreling husband and wife musical team in order to save his job.
Dir: Roy Mack
Cast: Jack Arthur, Evelyn Case, Claire Carleton
BW-19 mins,


12:00 PM -- Bachelor Mother (1939)
A fun-loving shop girl is mistaken for the mother of a foundling.
Dir: Garson Kanin
Cast: Ginger Rogers, David Niven, Charles Coburn
BW-82 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Felix Jackson

Remake of Little Mother (1935), starring Franciska Gaal, and remade as Bundle of Joy (1956), starring Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.


1:30 PM -- The Toast of New Orleans (1950)
A New Orleans fisherman fights snobbery to become an opera star.
Dir: Norman Taurog
Cast: Kathryn Grayson, Mario Lanza, David Niven
C-97 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Nicholas Brodszky (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "Be My Love"

Although they had previously appeared together in That Midnight Kiss (1949), Kathryn Grayson and Mario Lanza did not get along while making this film. While shooting the love duet scene from "Madame Butterfly," Grayson recalled that Lanza kept trying to French kiss her, which was made even more unpleasant by the fact that he kept eating garlic before shooting. To counter this, Grayson had costume designer Helen Rose sew pieces of brass inside her glove. Each time Lanza attempted to French kiss her, Grayson would smack him in the face with her brass-loaded glove. One of these smacks was included in the movie.


3:15 PM -- 55 Days at Peking (1963)
An American major leads the defense against Chinese revolutionaries in 1900 Peking.
Dir: Nicholas Ray
Cast: Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, David Niven
C-154 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Dimitri Tiomkin (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics) for the song "So Little Time", and Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Dimitri Tiomkin

In China at the time working as a professional mining engineer, future President of the United States, Herbert Hoover and his wife were civilians under siege at the foreign legations' compound. The future first Lady, Louise "Lou" Henry Hoover, collected shrapnel from Boxer artillery that is on display at the Presidential Library in West Branch, IA. The Hoovers picked up Mandarin Chinese while in China and used it at the White House when they didn't want to be overheard.


6:00 PM -- Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960)
A drama critic and his family try to adjust to life in the country.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Doris Day, David Niven, Janis Paige
C-111 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

During an argument with her husband, Kate, played by Doris Day, facetiously claims that she had a "rendezvous with Rock Hudson." Day's previous film had been the very successful Pillow Talk (1959)which starred Hudson as her romantic interest. Day and Hudson would eventually become a famous, on-screen, romantic pairing and would appear in a total of three romantic comedies together.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: DAVID NIVEN



8:00 PM -- The Pink Panther (1964)
In the first Inspector Clouseau film, the bumbling French police detective tries to stop a notorious jewel thief from nabbing a princess' diamond.
Dir: Blake Edwards
Cast: David Niven, Peter Sellers, Capucine
C-115 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Substantially Original Score -- Henry Mancini

David Niven was hoping the Pink Panther would help launch a series of films for him akin to the Thin Man Series. Due to the focus of future films being placed on Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau, this never came to fruition. Niven would go onto play a parody of Thin Man Nick Charles, named Dick Charleston, in Neil Simon's Murder by Death (1976).


10:00 PM -- Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
A Victorian gentleman bets that he can beat the world's record for circling the globe.
Dir: Michael Anderson
Cast: Cantinflas, Finlay Currie, Robert Morley
C-182 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Adapted -- James Poe, John Farrow and S.J. Perelman, Best Cinematography, Color -- Lionel Lindon, Best Film Editing -- Gene Ruggiero and Paul Weatherwax, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Victor Young (Posthumously), and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Michael Anderson, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- James W. Sullivan, Ken Adam and Ross Dowd, and Best Costume Design, Color -- Miles White

The term "cameo", meaning in this case a small part by a famous person, was popularized by the many "cameo appearances" in this film, including A.E. Matthews, Alan Mowbray, Andy Devine, Basil Sydney, Beatrice Lillie, Buster Keaton, Cesar Romero, Charles Boyer, Charles Coburn, Tim McCoy, Edmund Lowe, Edward R. Murrow, Evelyn Keyes, Fernandel, Finlay Currie, Frank Sinatra, George Raft, 'Gilbert Roland', Glynis Johns, Harcourt Williams, Hermione Gingold, Jack Oakie, Joe E. Brown, John Carradine, John Mills, José Greco, Luis Miguel Dominguín, Martine Carol, Marlene Dietrich, Melville Cooper, Mike Mazurki, Noel Coward, Peter Lorre, Red Skelton, Reginald Denny, Richard Wattis, Robert Morley, Ronald Colman, Ronald Squire, Cedric Hardwicke, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard and Victor McLaglen.


1:15 AM -- The Guns of Navarone (1961)
A team of Allied saboteurs fight their way behind enemy lines to destroy a pair of Nazi guns.
Dir: J. Lee Thompson
Cast: Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn
C-157 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Bill Warrington (visual) and Chris Greenham (audible)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- J. Lee Thompson, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Carl Foreman, Best Sound -- John Cox (Shepperton SSD), Best Film Editing -- Alan Osbiston, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Dimitri Tiomkin, and Best Picture

Actor Michael Trubshawe (Weaver) was David Niven's oldest friend. The two men served in the military together as young men, and Niven was later responsible for persuading Trubshawe to pursue an acting career. Niven also made it an inside joke to try to mention Trubshawe's name in as many of his own films as he could, usually as a reference to some unseen character.


4:00 AM -- Curse of the Pink Panther (1983)
The world's worst detective investigates the disappearance of Inspector Clouseau.
Dir: Blake Edwards
Cast: Ted Wass, Robert Wagner, Herbert Lom
C-110 mins, Letterbox Format

David Niven was partially dubbed by Rich Little. Niven was frail during filming and often could not speak. This was his final film.