TCM Schedule for Friday, November 5 -- TCM Prime Time Feature -- David Lean

Happy birthday to Joel McCrea, who was born on this date in 1905. This evening we have a pair of David Lean's best, including his Oscar-winning direction of The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957). Enjoy!


6:00am -- This Time For Keeps (1942)
A newlywed goes to work for his disapproving father-in-law.
Cast: Ann Rutherford, Robert Sterling, Guy Kibbee, Irene Rich
Dir: Charles Riesner
BW-73 mins, TV-G

Herman J. Mankiewicz is given onscreen credits for "characters", which undoubtedly referred to the movie Keeping Company (1940), but characters in that movie had different surnames. However, Ann Rutherford, Virginia Weidler and Irene Rich also played family roles in that movie, but Guy Kibbee replaced Frank Morgan as the family patriarch. Although a series based on the family was planned, no other film was ever made.


7:15am -- Sunday Punch (1942)
A young girl copes with a boarding house full of boxers.
Cast: William Lundigan, Jean Rogers, Dan Dailey Jr., Guy Kibbee
Dir: David Miller
BW-76 mins, TV-G

The first screenplay by Fay Kanin, who later went on to become a producer of excellent television movies, including Friendly Fire (1979) and Heartsounds (1984).


8:45am -- Reunion in France (1942)
A Frenchwoman tries to help a downed U.S. flyer escape the Nazis.
Cast: Joan Crawford, John Wayne, Philip Dorn, Reginald Owen
Dir: Jules Dassin
BW-104 mins, TV-PG

Originally scheduled as a February 1943 release under the name "Reunion", the movie was moved up to a Christmas 1942 release with the final title because of the increased interest in the war in France. Most trade papers reviewed the film with the title "Reunion" due to early press previews, and the copyright registry bears that title also.


10:30am -- Kid Glove Killer (1942)
A police scientist investigates the mayor's murder.
Cast: Van Heflin, Marsha Hunt, Lee Bowman, Samuel S. Hinds
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
BW-74 mins, TV-PG

First feature directed by Fred Zinneman, who later won Best Director Oscars for From Here to Eternity (1953) and A Man For All Seasons (1966).


11:45am -- Joe Smith, American (1942)
Nazi spies in search of government secrets kidnap a munitions worker.
Cast: Robert Young, Marsha Hunt, Harvey Stephens, Darryl Hickman
Dir: Richard Thorpe
BW-63 mins, TV-PG

Ava Gardner is listed in some modern sources as an actress in this movie, but she is not identifiable.


1:00pm -- Calling Dr. Gillespie (1942)
A wheelchair-bound doctor fights off a homicidal maniac.
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Philip Dorn, Donna Reed, Phil Brown
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
BW-84 mins, TV-G

The movie initially was called "Born to Be Bad" with Lew Ayres again starring as Dr.Kildare. After principal shooting had been completed, Ayres announced he was a conscientious objector to world war II in which America was then involved. Fearing adverse publicity, MGM scrapped his footage, replaced him with Philip Dorn, and changed the title.


2:30pm -- The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
A big game hunter decides to stalk human prey.
Cast: Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Leslie Banks
Dir: Irving Pichel
BW-63 mins, TV-PG

Most of the standing sets from King Kong (1933) were used in the making of this film, including the King Kong gate (which was eventually burned down in the "Burning of Atlanta" sequence of Gone with the Wind (1939)). This film and King Kong were shot at the same time, though Kong was released later (probably due to the special effects required for Kong).


3:45pm -- Foreign Correspondent (1940)
An American reporter covering the war in Europe gets mixed up in the assassination of a Dutch diplomat.
Cast: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
BW-120 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Albert Bassermann, Best Art Direction, Black-and-White -- Alexander Golitzen, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Rudolph Maté, Best Effects, Special Effects -- Paul Eagler (photographic) and Thomas T. Moulton (sound), Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Charles Bennett and Joan Harrison, and Best Picture

Shooting was completed on May 29, 1940, after which Alfred Hitchcock made a visit to England. He returned on July 3 with the word that the Germans were expected to start bombing at any time. Ben Hecht was hurriedly called in and wrote the tacked-on final scene set at a London radio station. It was filmed on July 5, and the real-life bombing started on July 10, 1940.


5:50pm -- One Reel Wonders: Glimpses Of Florida (1941)
This TravelTalk short features the tourist sites of southern Florida.
Narrator: James A. FitzPatrick
C-9 mins

Filmed in Miami, Hialeah, Silver Springs, Cypress Gardens and the Everglades.


6:00pm -- The Palm Beach Story (1942)
To finance her husband's career, a married woman courts an eccentric millionaire.
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee
Dir: Preston Sturges
BW-88 mins, TV-G

Hackensacker's yacht is The Erl King. The Erlking is a character depicted in a number of older German poems/ ballads as a malevolent creature who haunts forests and carries off travelers to their deaths.


7:30pm -- Now Playing November (2010)


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: DAVID LEAN


8:00pm -- The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
The Japanese Army forces World War II POWs to build a strategic bridge in Burma.
Cast: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa
Dir: David Lean
C-162 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Alec Guinness (Alec Guinness was not present at the awards ceremony. Jean Simmons accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Cinematography -- Jack Hildyard, Best Director -- David Lean, Best Film Editing -- Peter Taylor, Best Music, Scoring -- Malcolm Arnold, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Pierre Boulle, Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson (Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson were blacklisted at the time and received no screen credit. They were posthumously awarded Oscars in 1984. Pierre Boulle was not present at the awards ceremony. Kim Novak accepted the award on his behalf.), and Best Picture

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sessue Hayakawa

There are many rumors about the casting of the film, but most sources claim that Charles Laughton was the original choice of to play the role of Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). Laughton turned down the part as he did not know how to play it convincingly as he did not understand the motivations of the character. He said he only understood the character after seeing the completed film and Alec Guinness' performance as Colonel Nicholson.


10:46pm -- One Reel Wonders: David Lean's "Dr Zhivago" (1965)
A promotional featurette of the making of "Dr. Zhivago," briefly exploring the novel's author Boris Pasternak, as well as the casting and on-location filming.
Cast: Robert Bolt, Geraldine Chaplin, David Lean
C-7 mins

Filmed in Finland, in Madrid, Spain, and in Stockholm, Sweden.


11:00pm -- The Making of the Bridge on the River Kwai (2010)
A documentary on the making of the WWII classic.
Cast: Donald M. Ashton, Keith Best, Teddy Darvas
Dir: Laurent Bouzereau

This documentary is featured on the Limited Edition 2-disc DVD for The Bridge on the River Kwai, released in 2000.


11:30pm -- This Happy Breed (1944)
A middle-class family faces personal triumphs and tragedies when they move to a new home in the suburbs.
Cast: Robert Newton, Celia Johnson, John Mills, Kay Walsh
Dir: David Lean
BW-111 mins, TV-G

The comment, early in the film about the cat and buttering its paws, comes from a technique used when a cat moves house. According to this, if the cat has butter on its paws it will stop and lick it of. As cats are very clean creatures, the butter on its paws and the bits of dirt/ dust/ debris that will inevitably stick to it will annoy the cat. The cat will sit down to clean itself and, in doing so, will take in its new surroundings creating a mental map of where its new home is and helping it to make the adjustment to its new surroundings. (Who says that you can't learn anything new from television and the internet!)


1:30am -- Now Playing November (2010)


2:00am -- Secret Ceremony (1968)
A tormented rich girl hires a prostitute to act as her mother.
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Mia Farrow, Robert Mitchum, Peggy Ashcroft
Dir: Joseph Losey
C-109 mins

The network TV version is eight minutes shorter than the theatrical release, removing some scenes and featuring alternative footage for others. I'm not sure if TCM will show the original or altered version.


4:00am -- Die! Die! My Darling! (1965)
A religious fanatic imprisons her late son's sinful fiancee.
Cast: Tallulah Bankhead, Stefanie Powers, Peter Vaughan, Maurice Kaufmann
Dir: Silvio Narizzano
C-96 mins, TV-14

The producers considered replacing Tallulah Bankhead during filming when she became ill and was unable to work. However, Bankhead put up her salary for the film as a guarantee she'd finish the film if she wouldn't be replaced. This became Tallulah Bankhead's final movie.

AKA: Sir David Lean
Born: 1908-03-25
Birth place: Croydon, England, GB
Death: 1991-04-16
Death cause: double pneumonia compounded by throat cancer
Nationality: United Kingdom
Profession: editor, camera assistant, clapper boy, teaboy, screenwriter, accountant, director, producer, messenger

Biography

The best films of consummate craftsman David Lean are the product of a creative tension between romantic style and realistic content.

Working his way up from clapper-boy to editor's apprentice in the 1930s, Lean edited newsreels and then features. His first outing as a director, with Noel Coward, "In Which We Serve" (1942), was a moving study of wartime England that contrasted the duty to fight with the human sacrifice required to win. Lean's next three films came from Coward's pen: "This Happy Breed" (1944), the story of a London family from 1919 to 1939; the rousingly entertaining "Blithe Spirit" (1945); and the quietly effective "Brief Encounter" (1945), about a bored housewife (Celia Johnson) who almost has an affair with a doctor (Trevor Howard). These were followed by faithful adaptations of "Great Expectations" (1946) and "Oliver Twist" (1948), justly regarded as exemplary translations of Dickens to the screen.

Of his next three films, the semi-documentary "The Sound Barrier" (1952), where he returned to the duty/sacrifice thematics of "In Which We Serve", is most noteworthy. Lean's rollicking version of the stage comedy "Hobson's Choice" (1954), the story of a woman's emancipation from her overbearing father, featured the first in a series of strong, independent women characters that would include Lara in "Dr. Zhivago" (1965), Rosy Ryan in "Ryan's Daughter" (1970) and Miss Quested and Mrs. Moore in "A Passage to India" (1984). "Summertime" (1955), about the Venice affair of a lonely American spinster (Katharine Hepburn), also reprised one of Lean's central themes, the journey as a quest for self-knowledge.

Accordingly, the WWII adventure "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) revolves around the self-delusion of Col. Jock Nicholson (Alec Guinness), leader of the British contingent in a Burmese prisoner-of-war camp. Commercially and critically successful, winning seven Academy Awards including best picture and best director, "Bridge" initiated the cycle of big-budget spectacles that would characterize Lean's later work. Increasingly jaundiced about British assumptions about power in the world, in "Bridge" Lean viewed militarism as an insane but inevitable extension of the strutting male ego, and in "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) he investigated the psychology of heroism. Starting with a dashing, if eccentric and enigmatic hero (stunningly played by Peter O'Toole), the film gradually peels away his bravado to reveal the confusion beneath.

Lean's next two films, also scripted by Robert Bolt, were love stories. The international success of the lush "Dr. Zhivago", based on the Boris Pasternak novel, may have encouraged him to accentuate his romantic tendency, which he did with disastrous results in "Ryan's Daughter". Partly due to the poor reception of this film, it would be 14 years before Lean would complete his next picture, a splendid adaptation of E.M. Forster's "A Passage to India". Returning to the motif of the journey of self-discovery, reiterating the clumsy damage done by British incursion into the third world, and sharpening the ambiguities of the source novel, Lean succeeded in restoring the romantic/realist tension which had informed his best work.

At its best, Lean's is an elegant style that questions elegance. He is the English benchmark of cinematic technique that mirrors the contradictions of character and society: "The Bridge on the River Kwai" is a wide-screen anti-war statement; "A Passage to India" is a sumptuously photographed critique of colonialism; and "Lawrence of Arabia" is a perfectly made chronicle of human imperfection.