TCM Schedule for Thursday, April 8 -- TCM Birthday Tribute -- Virginia O'Brien

A happy early birthday to Virginia O'Brien, who was born on April 18, 1919, and a happy on-time birthday to Mary Pickford, who was born on April 8, 1892. And tonight we're got a series of "dangerous" films! Enjoy!


5:15am -- The Golden Hawk (1952)
Male and female pirates join forces against a corrupt Caribbean governor.
Cast: Rhonda Fleming, Sterling Hayden, Helena Carter, John Sutton
Dir: Sidney Salkow
C-82 mins, TV-PG

Based on a novel by Frank Yerby, who also wrote The Foxes of Harrow. From IMDB's mini-biography:

"In 1946 his first novel, "The Foxes of Harrow", was an immediate success. So much so that Frank Yerby became the first African American novelist to reach the Best Seller Lists in the United States. Ironically, the following year, after 20th Century Fox bought the screen rights, Mr. Yerby became the first African American novelist to have a movie adapted by a major Hollywood studio.

"His novels are mostly action-packed period pieces, usually featuring a strong white hero in conflict with his times. His stories usually played out in colorful language and include characters of all ethnic backgrounds, with an emphasis on black, or "Negro" characters. He chose this course after every publisher rejected his first novel, an action adventure with a strong "Negro" lead. After that, he told his stories amid the pure white environment publishers demanded.

"Frank Yerby rose to fame as a writer of popular fiction awash with a distinctive "old south" flavor. During his career, he wrote thirty-three novels and sold more than seventy million hardback and paperback books worldwide.

"As a Black author, though, Mr. Yerby was criticized for not paying more attention to the plight of "his race." Though he said that writers should entertain and not preach to their readers, it is generally accepted that his novels stripped back the hideous double standards of the "old south", including lacerating portraits of Klansmen, white slave owners and their like.. The depth of racial discrimination in the United States caused Yerby to leave his native land and live a self-imposed exile in Madrid, Spain from 1955 until his death November 29th 1991 in Madrid, Spain."


6:45am -- Coquette (1929)
A Southern belle's flirtation with a working man leads to tragedy.
Cast: Mary Pickford, John Mack Brown, Matt Moore, John Sainpolis
Dir: Sam Taylor
BW-76 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Mary Pickford

This was Mary Pickford's first Talkie.


8:15am -- Secrets (1933)
A New England society girl braves the West to help her husband build his fortune.
Cast: Mary Pickford, Leslie Howard, C. Aubrey Smith, Blanche Friderici
Dir: Frank Borzage
BW-84 mins

The last movie of silent film great Mary Pickford.


9:45am -- Hullabaloo (1940)
A radio star creates a national panic when he announces a Martian invasion.
Cast: Frank Morgan, Virginia Grey, Dan Dailey Jr., Billie Burke
Dir: Edwin L. Marin
BW-78 mins, TV-G

Frank Morgan supposedly does voice imitations of Al Jolson, Ted Lewis, Wallace Beery, Robert Taylor, Mickey Rooney and Hedy Lamarr. However, Rooney's and Lamarr's voices were dubbed by other actors, and Taylor's voice was so perfect it was probably from the soundtrack of one of his films or the actor himself. Morgan also impersonates Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert and Spencer Tracy in a scene from Boom Town (1940) which opened 3 months earlier. Again, the voices were so perfect they undoubtedly came from the soundtrack of that movie.


11:15am -- Lady Be Good (1941)
Married songwriters almost split up while putting on a big show.
Cast: Eleanor Powell, Ann Sothern, Robert Young, Lionel Barrymore
Dir: Norman Z. McLeod
BW-112 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jerome Kern (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics) for the song "The Last Time I Saw Paris".

For Eleanor Powell's dance-version of the song "Lady, Be Good", MGM auditioned several dogs, but none of them was able to do the required tricks. Finally, Powell bought a dog off a propman and trained it herself for several weeks so that the dance could be done as she wanted.


1:15pm -- The Big Store (1941)
A detective and his zany pals take over a failing department store.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Tony Martin
Dir: Charles Riesner
BW-83 mins, TV-G

"The Big Store" is American con artists' jargon for a facility used by con artists in a 'Big Con', that is, one that requires multiple days to pull off, with a realistic setting, characters, etc, essentially a full-on drama put on for the benefit of the mark. The Big Store itself exists to be dressed up as, e.g., a brokerage or gambling house, depending on the con. A well-managed Big Store can go from an empty set of rooms to a bustling office with activity in all directions--and back again--in a matter of a few hours. Not seen very much these days, the Big Store had its golden age en the 30s and 40s, around about the time this movie was made. A well-known film example of a "Big Store" con is the one played on Robert Shaw by Robert Redford and Paul Newman in The Sting (1973).


2:45pm -- Ringside Maisie (1941)
A Brooklyn showgirl sets pulses racing at a boxers' training camp.
Cast: Ann Sothern, George Murphy, Robert Sterling, Virginia O'Brien
Dir: Edwin L. Marin
BW-95 mins, TV-G

Fifth in the series of ten Maisie movies.


4:30pm -- Meet The People (1944)
A fading stage star tries to revive her career by taking a job in a shipyard.
Cast: Lucille Ball, Dick Powell, Virginia O'Brien, Bert Lahr
Dir: Charles Riesner
BW-100 mins, TV-G

Daws Butler, the voice actor for Hanna Barbera cartoon characters, patterned the voice of the lion Snagglepuss after Bert Lahr, who played the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. Butler took Snagglepuss's catchphrase "Heavens to Mergatroid" from Bert Lahr's having said it in the movie Meet the People.


6:15pm -- Merton Of The Movies (1947)
A star-struck hick goes to Hollywood to become a star.
Cast: Red Skelton, Virginia O'Brien, Gloria Grahame, Leon Ames
Dir: Robert Alton
BW-82 mins, TV-G

This was Virginia O'Brien's final starring role and the last film she made for MGM. After this she had small roles in two later films but otherwise retired from the screen. She did all of her own stunt work in this film.


7:38pm -- One Reel Wonders: Crashing The Movies (1940)
This Pete Smith Specialty shows newsreel clips of people performing strange stunts.
Cast: Pete Smith (narrator), Cannonball Richards
BW-8 mins

This short features all kinds of crashes, including newsreel camera men capturing for posterity a fat ladies diving competition which looks painful when they hit the water; a woman trapeze artist who hangs by her teeth over Manhattan streets on a high wire act; a surfer trying to get a lift from a glider but plunging into the water after each try; motorcycles crashing through glass barriers; and finally, several human projectiles being shot from cannon-like devices or improvising with devices of their own, all crashing spectacularly into water or safety nets.


What's On Tonight: TCM BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE: VIRGINIA O'BRIEN


8:00pm -- Libeled Lady (1936)
When an heiress sues a newspaper, the editor hires a reporter to compromise her.
Cast: Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy
Dir: Jack Conway
BW-98 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Reportedly, while shooting the movie, the four stars had become close friends, and William Powell even gave up his old habit of hiding out in his dressing room between scenes so he could join in the fun with the rest of the cast. One of the biggest jokes was a running gag Spencer Tracy played on Myrna Loy, claiming that she had broken his heart with her recent marriage to producer Arthur Hornblow Jr. He even set up an "I Hate Hornblow" table in the studio commissary, reserved for men who claimed to have been jilted by Loy.


10:00pm -- Dangerous (1935)
A young fan tries to rehabilitate an alcoholic actress he's fallen in love with.
Cast: Bette Davis, Franchot Tone, Margaret Lindsay, Alison Skipworth
Dir: Alfred E. Green
BW-79 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis (On 14 December 2002 Steven Spielberg anonymously bought Davis' Oscar at a Sotheby's auction in New York to return it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The statuette was among the memorabilia sold by the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain, which has emerged from bankruptcy protection.)

Though Bette Davis was very proud of the Oscar she won for this film, she didn't think she deserved it that year - in her opinion, Katharine Hepburn should have won for Alice Adams (1935). Davis always thought she won as compensation for not even being nominated for her star-making performance in Of Human Bondage (1934) the previous year.


11:30pm -- Slightly Dangerous (1943)
A small-town girl changes her identity to make it in New York, leaving her boyfriend a suspect in her "disappearance."
Cast: Lana Turner, Robert Young, Walter Brennan, Dame May Whitty
Dir: Wesley Ruggles
BW-94 mins, TV-G

Lana Turner reprised her role the same year on a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast alongside Victor Mature on October 25, 1943.


1:15am -- A Slight Case Of Murder (1938)
A gangster finds the straight life ain't so simple.
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Bryan, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
BW-85 mins, TV-G

The play opened on Broadway in New York City, New York, USA on 11 September 1935 and closed in October 1935 after 69 performances. The opening night cast included John Harrington as Remy Marco (Edward G. Robinson's role) and Georgia Caine as Nora Marco (played in the film by Jane Bryan). Future screen star José Ferrer played a policeman.


2:45am -- Dangerously They Live (1942)
A doctor tries to rescue a young innocent from Nazi agents.
Cast: John Garfield, Nancy Coleman, Raymond Massey, Lee Patrick
Dir: Robert Florey
BW-77 mins, TV-G

Though this film was completed before Pearl Harbor, it's obvious that the film makers assume that the U.S. would soon be fighting. The female lead, Nancy Coleman, plays an American spy running from the Germans.


4:00am -- Slightly French (1949)
An out-of-work movie director turns a carnival girl into a French heiress to make her a star.
Cast: Dorothy Lamour, Don Ameche, Janis Carter, Willard Parker
Dir: Douglas Sirk
BW-81 mins

In 1980, the organisers of the Cannes Film Festival wanted Sirk to be President of the Jury. The telegram sent to their Hollywood office was to read "request Douglas Sirk for jury". However, a typo and an extra comma meant it read "request Douglas, Kirk for jury". Kirk Douglas became the President of the 1980 jury.


5:30am -- MGM Parade Show #23 (1955)
Gene Kelly and Jerry the Mouse perform in a clip from "Anchors Aweigh"; George Murphy, Dore Schary and Richard Brooks show a short film about the making of "The Last Hunt."
Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-26 mins, TV-G

In The Last Hunt (1956), a film about the last great buffalo hunts in the northwest, US government marksmen actually shot and killed buffalo during production as part of a scheduled herd-thinning.

Merton of the Movies (1947) was the third screen version of Harry Leon Wilson's 1919 novel, which became a successful play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly. The 1924 silent film adaptation was directed by James Cruze and starred Glenn Hunter as the movie-mad small town yokel with Hollywood dreams and Viola Dana as the warmhearted Hollywood stunt woman who befriends him. The 1932 remake, Make Me a Star, starring Stuart Erwin and Joan Blondell was produced by Paramount, and was notable for the cameos by Paramount stars such as Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper, and Fredric March.

In the 1947 MGM version, set in 1915, Red Skelton plays Merton, Virginia O'Brien plays Phyllis, the romantic interest and Hollywood veteran who shows Merton the ropes, and Gloria Grahame is a comic standout as the silent screen vamp, Beulah Baxter. Merton wins a phony contest to go to Hollywood, and is convinced he can become a great dramatic and romantic leading man. But his acting is so bad it's comical... and being funny makes him a star in spite of himself. Merton of the Movies is an affectionate and amusing look at silent movie making, with several silent movie actors, including Chester Conklin, Vernon Dent, Franklyn Farnum, and May McAvoy playing bit parts in the film.

Skelton, a vaudeville and radio performer, had been signed to an MGM contract in 1940, after MGM star Mickey Rooney saw his act and offered to put in a good word for him at the studio. At first, Skelton was used mostly as comic relief in "B" movies and two Doctor Kildare films. Then in 1941, he had his first starring role in a "B" picture, Whistling in the Dark, playing a radio detective who becomes involved in a real-life mystery. The film was so successful that it led to two sequels, Whistling in Dixie (1942) and Whistling in Brooklyn (1943). When Skelton returned to work after service in World War II, the studio took his career in a different direction, casting him in leads in adaptations of two stage hits, The Show-Off (1946) and Merton of the Movies. Neither film fully showcased his comedic strengths, and it was not until he began working with silent film legend Buster Keaton, who coached him in his routines, that he gave some of his most hilarious performances in films such as A Southern Yankee (1948).

Virginia O'Brien, known for her deadpan way with a song, had played opposite Skelton several times, most recently in The Show-Off. Her performance in Merton of the Movies was a rare non-singing role for O'Brien, and she showed a deft touch with witty dialogue. But her appealing performance was overshadowed by Gloria Grahame's flashier role, and MGM did not renew O'Brien's contract. Merton of the Movies was her final MGM film.

According to Grahame biographer Vincent Curcio, Merton of the Movies was "one of the few times she was able to fully display her comic gifts onscreen." A Los Angeles native, Grahame began her career onstage right out of high school. She began getting attention when she appeared in several unsuccessful Broadway shows, and a Hollywood talent scout spotted her. Signed to an MGM contract in 1944, she had spent two frustrating years at the studio with only bit parts to her credit with the exception of Blonde Fever (1944), a showcase role. Then director Frank Capra, casting his independent production It's a Wonderful Life (1946) saw her screen test, and immediately chose her for the juicy role of the town flirt who could have become the town tramp without the intercession of hero George Bailey (James Stewart). MGM finally paid attention to Grahame, and immediately cast her in two 1947 films, It Happened in Brooklyn opposite singing sensation Frank Sinatra, and Merton of the Movies. In the latter, according to Curcio, "Her manner is delicious, her timing perfect, and her look a perfect combination of vamp and valentine, down to the last pincurl and satin ribbon. To play off the genius of Skelton, you can be sexy, but you can't be too wise, and Gloria managed to be the ideal foil."

Skelton left MGM in 1952, and went on to become a huge television star. MGM sold Grahame's contract to RKO the same year Merton of the Movies was released, and her first film there, Crossfire (1947) made her a star. It also earned her an Oscar® nomination, and she eventually won a supporting actress Academy Award for her performance as an unfaithful wife in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), ironically made on loanout back at MGM.

Merton of the Movies also seemed to have staying power. The play was still being revived on Broadway in the 1970s, and in Los Angeles as recently as 1999, proving that the dream of Hollywood stardom never loses its appeal.

Director: Robert Alton
Producer: Albert Lewis
Screenplay: George Wells, Lou Breslow, based on the play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly and the novel by Harry Leon Wilson
Cinematography: Paul C. Vogel
Editor: Frank E. Hull
Costume Design: Irene, Helen Rose, Valles
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Howard Campbell
Music: David Snell
Principal Cast: Red Skelton (Merton Gill), Virginia O'Brien (Phyllis Montague), Gloria Grahame (Beulah Baxter), Leon Ames (Lawrence Rupert), Alan Mowbray (Frank Mulvaney), Charles D. Brown (Jeff Baird), Hugo Haas (Von Strutt), Harry Hayden (Mr. Gashwiler).
BW-83m. Closed Captioning.

by Margarita Landazuri