TCM Schedule for Saturday, August 9, 2014 -- Summer Under The Stars - William Powell

Today's Star is William Powell, born William Horatio Powell on July 29, 1892, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1938, Powell was diagnosed with cancer of the rectum. Rather than undergo a colostomy, he agreed to an experimental treatment where platinum needles containing radium pellets were inserted into Powell's body, where they remained for six months, by which time his cancer had gone into remission. It was many years before he publicly revealed he had had cancer. At the time of his illness and recovery, his agent explained his absence to the press first by saying he was recuperating from an eye injury, and later that he had undergone a routine abdominal operation. He died of cardiac arrest 46 years later, in 1984. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- The Road to Singapore (1931)
A woman's life falls to pieces when she's caught cheating on her husband.
Dir: Alfred E. Green
Cast: William Powell, Doris Kenyon, Marian Marsh
BW-69 mins,

The play, Heat Wave, on which the novel and this movie was based opened in Cardiff, UK, on 7 October 1929. The author, Roland Pertwee was the father of actor Jon Pertwee (the third Doctor Who) and writer Michael Pertwee (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)), and grandfather of actress Dariel Pertwee and actor Sean Pertwee.


7:30 AM -- Jewel Robbery (1932)
A jewel thief falls for a tycoon's wife in Vienna.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: William Powell, Kay Francis, Helen Vinson
BW-68 mins, CC,

Based on a story by as Ladislaus Fodor.


8:45 AM -- Lawyer Man (1933)
Success corrupts a smooth-talking lawyer.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: William Powell, Joan Blondell, David Landau
BW-68 mins,

At approximately 38 minutes into the film, a young boy is crying and led out of the courtroom by his mother. The young, uncredited actor is Bobs Watson (PeeWee of Boys Town fame).


10:00 AM -- Double Harness (1933)
After tricking a playboy into marriage, a woman sets out to win his love honestly.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Ann Harding, William Powell, Lucile Browne
BW-69 mins, CC,

This film hadn't been shown for decades and was found in a Merian C. Cooper collection that had been used for television. A 2-1/2-minute sequence that had been cut from the print was located in a French negative discovered in the National Center for Cinematography in France and restored to the print. The brief segment had been cut for television because it indicated that the characters of "Joan Colby" and "John Fletcher" were having pre-marital sex.


11:15 AM -- Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
Boyhood friends grow up on opposite sides of the law.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy
BW-90 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Arthur Caesar

This was the movie that bank robber John Dillinger had just seen before he was gunned down in front of Chicago's Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934. He had been set up by Anna Sage, the madam of a brothel, who knew Dillinger's girlfriend, Polly Hamilton. Sage was facing deportation and thought the tip might get her off. She told FBI agent Melvin Purvis that she would be wearing orange which appeared red, leading her to be dubbed "The Woman in Red". Dillinger was shot three times when he tried to escape, and Sage wound up being sent back to Romania.


1:00 PM -- Libeled Lady (1936)
When an heiress sues a newspaper, the editor hires a reporter to compromise her.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy
BW-98 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Jean Harlow and William Powell were a couple at the time the film was made. She desperately wanted the part of Connie Allenbury (Myrna Loy's role) so that she and Powell's character would end up together. The director and MGM execs would not heed her demand, however. They always intended on the film being another Powell/Loy vehicle and knew that audiences wanted Powell and Loy to end up together in their films. Harlow was very disappointed but had already signed on to the film and had no choice but to play the role of Gladys Benton. In the end, she liked the film and agreed that she was more suited to the role of Gladys.


2:45 PM -- Double Wedding (1937)
A dress designer tries to break her sister's engagement to a free-living artist, only to discover the man is falling for her instead.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Florence Rice
BW-87 mins, CC,

Production was partially shut down because of the death (7 June 1937) of Jean Harlow, to whom William Powell was engaged.


4:30 PM -- I Love You Again (1940)
A solid married man discovers he's forgotten a past existence as a con artist.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Frank McHugh
BW-99 mins, CC,

The ninth of fourteen films pairing William Powell and Myrna Loy.


6:15 PM -- Love Crazy (1941)
A businessman concocts a series of harebrained schemes to keep his wife from divorcing him.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Gail Patrick
BW-99 mins, CC,

William Powell had a mustache for the entire length of his career, but shaved it off when dressed as a woman.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: WILLIAM POWELL



8:00 PM -- The Thin Man (1934)
A husband-and-wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan
BW-91 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- William Powell, Best Director -- W.S. Van Dyke, Best Writing, Adaptation -- Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and Best Picture

Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM, originally was against the idea of Myrna Loy being cast in this picture but director W.S. Van Dyke wanted to use the stars of the movie Manhattan Melodrama (1934), William Powell and Myrna Loy. Mayer said that Powell was OK for the part since he had already played detectives in other films. Loy eventually got the part and made new image for herself.


9:45 PM -- After the Thin Man (1936)
Married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles try to clear Nora's cousin of a murder charge.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart
BW-112 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett

Though William Powell and Myrna Loy were very close friends off-screen, their only romantic moments together occurred on-screen. The public, however, was determined to have them married in private life as well. When the two stars showed up in San Francisco (where most of this film was shot) at the St. Francis, the hotel management proudly showed "Mr. and Mrs. Powell" to their deluxe suite. This was an especially uncomfortable moment as Jean Harlow, who was engaged to Powell, was with them, and the couple had not made a public statement about their relationship. Harlow saved the day by insisting on sharing the suite with Loy: "That mix-up brought me one of my most cherished friendships," Loy said in "Being and Becoming", her autobiography. "You would have thought Jean and I were in boarding school we had so much fun. We'd stay up half the night talking and sipping gin, sometimes laughing, sometimes discussing more serious things." Meanwhile, Powell got the hotel's one remaining room - a far humbler accommodation downstairs.


11:45 PM -- Crossroads (1942)
A French diplomat who's recovered from amnesia is blackmailed over crimes he can't remember.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: William Powell, Hedy Lamarr, Claire Trevor
BW-83 mins, CC,

Since John H. Kafka was in Hollywood in the 1940s and even wrote some MGM films, it is not known if his onscreen credit for original story is based on his direct contribution to this film, or was due solely to his work on the original 1938 French version.


1:15 AM -- Mister Roberts (1955)
A naval officer longing for active duty clashes with his vainglorious captain.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell
C-121 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Lemmon

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- William A. Mueller (Warner Bros.), and Best Picture

Final film of William Powell. Powell had marked difficulties retaining his lines, something that had not happened to him in earlier films, and this was one of the reasons why this was his final film appearance.


3:30 AM -- The Girl Who Had Everything (1953)
A criminal lawyer's daughter falls for one of his clients.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Fernando Lamas, William Powell
BW-70 mins, CC,

Not a lavish MGM production despite the star power of Elizabeth Taylor and William Powell (in his last Metro appearance, and just two pictures - How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and Mister Roberts (1955) - away from retirement), this movie went unnoticed by the contemporary film critics at The New York Times.


4:45 AM -- High Pressure (1932)
A scheming promoter tries to get rich selling artificial rubber.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: William Powell, Evelyn Brent, George Sidney
BW-73 mins, CC,

In 1932 Warners re-shot this same comedy with French-speaking actors (replacing the original performers), delivering all their dialog in French, at the same Hollywood studio, in the same sets, and using the same script (translated into French), under the French title "Le bluffeur" (The Bluffer). Subtitles weren't yet in vogue, so Warners gave French-speaking audiences a parallel version they could understand, played mostly by French actors. Powell's star part was played by Andre Luguet, Evelyn Brent's by Lucienne Radisse, George Sidney's by Torben Meyer, Guy Kibbee's by Andre Cheron, Frank McHugh's by Jacques Jou-Jerville, Charles Middleton's by Georges Renavent, and Harry Beresford's by Christian Rub. Meyer, Renavent, and Rub were already permanently ensconced in Hollywood, while most of the other French-speaking actors were imported from Paris just for these parallel French-language versions in the early 1930s. When subtitles and dubbing were soon "perfected", the US studios ceased making parallel versions like "Le bluffeur".