TCM Schedule for Friday, November 12 -- TCM Prime Time Feature -- Gordon MacRae

Happy birthday to Grace Kelly, her Highness Princess Grace, who was born on this date in 1929. We have two of her later films, Green Fire (1954) and The Swan (1956). Tonight's special feature is the films of Gordon MacRae, a fine singer and actor who peaked towards the end of the era of the big studio musical. We get a trio of his films, including one of his best, Oklahoma! (1955). Enjoy!


5:30am -- Swing Fever (1943)
A bandleader with hypnotic powers tries to train a boxer.
Cast: Kay Kyser, Marilyn Maxwell, William Gargan, Nat Pendleton
Dir: Tim Whelan
BW-81 mins, TV-G

Kay Kyser and his band (possibly the Kollege of Musical Knowledge) perform five songs, sung by Marilyn Maxwell and Walter Donaldson. Lena Horne also performs, singing "You're So Indifferent".


7:00am -- Pilot #5 (1943)
While their buddy flies a suicide mission, World War II airmen recall the events that led him to this noble sacrifice.
Cast: Franchot Tone, Marsha Hunt, Gene Kelly, Van Johnson
Dir: George Sidney
BW-71 mins, TV-PG

After MGM executives saw a close-up of Peter Lawford in this movie, they decided to sign him to a contract.


8:15am -- Lost Angel (1943)
A girl raised to be a genius gets lost and discovers the simple pleasure of life.
Cast: Margaret O'Brien, James Craig, Marsha Hunt, Philip Merivale
Dir: Roy Rowland
BW-91 mins, TV-G

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on June 19, 1944 with Margaret O'Brien, James Craig and Keenan Wynn reprising their film roles.


10:00am -- Hitler's Madman (1943)
The Nazis take revenge on a Czech village after one of their most sadistic commanders is assassinated there.
Cast: Patricia Morison, John Carradine, Alan Curtis, Howard Freeman
Dir: Douglas Sirk
BW-84 mins, TV-14

Although this film was originally filmed by poverty-row studio Producers Releasing Corp. (PRC), the word got out in Hollywood that the picture was far and away the best thing PRC had ever done; eventually MGM executives got a look at it, were suitably impressed, bought it from PRC and it was released as an MGM picture. It was Douglas Sirk's Hollywood directorial debut, after a nearly a decade directing films in Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark.


11:30am -- Du Barry Was A Lady (1943)
A night club employee dreams he's Louis XV, and the star he idolizes is his lady love.
Cast: Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Gene Kelly, Virginia O'Brien
Dir: Roy Del Ruth
C-101 mins, TV-G

MGM hairstylist Sydney Guilaroff dyed Lucille Ball's hair flame red for this film, the color that she kept for the rest of her life and became her trademark.


1:15pm -- Blonde Fever (1944)
A woman fights to save her husband from a sluttish waitress.
Cast: Philip Dorn, Mary Astor, Felix Bressart, Gloria Grahame
Dir: Richard Whorf
BW-69 mins, TV-G

Gloria Grahame's first film. We'll see her again tonight in Oklahoma!


2:30pm -- Raffles (1930)
A distinguished British gentleman hides his true identity as a notorious jewel thief.
Cast: Ronald Colman, Kay Francis, Bramwell Fletcher, Frances Dade
Dir: Harry d'Abbadie D'Arrast
BW-71 mins

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Oscar Lagerstrom (sound director)

One of seven versions of Eugene Wiley Presbrey's play, with Raffles played by J. Barney Sherry (1905), John Barrymore (1917), House Peters (1925), David Niven (1939), Pepe Alameda (1958 - in Spanish), and Anthony Valentine (1975 TV movie).


3:49pm -- One Reel Wonders: Adventures In South America (1945)
Narrated travelogue covering the Andes Mountains portion of Bolivia, and three very different areas of Peru.
Narrator: Knox Manning
Dir: Lewis N. Cotlow
C-10 mins

Part of Warner Bros. Technicolor Adventure series, filmed in 1945.


4:00pm -- Green Fire (1954)
An emerald prospector clashes with a beautiful plantation owner in South America.
Cast: Stewart Granger, Grace Kelly, Paul Douglas, John Ericson
Dir: Andrew Marton
C-100 mins, TV-PG

The so-called "wealthy" family Grace was born into was actually an immigrant family of bricklayers who had barely a generation of new-found business success. Grace's father and brother were both Olympic gold-medal scullers. Grace's cousin, former US Secy of Navy John Lehman, Jr. now chairs the Princess Grace Foundation, which supports young performing talent.


5:49pm -- One Reel Wonders: Overture to The Merry Wives Of Windsor (1953)
The MGM Symphony Orchestra performs the Overture to the Merry Wives of Windsor.
C-9 mins

Johnny Green conducting.


6:00pm -- The Swan (1956)
On the eve of her marriage to a prince, a noblewoman falls for her brother's tutor.
Cast: Grace Kelly, Alec Guinness, Louis Jourdan, Agnes Moorehead
Dir: Charles Vidor
C-108 mins, TV-G

While filming The Swan (1956) in Hollywood, Alec Guinness met James Dean, just days before the young actor's death. Sir Alec later recalled predicting that Dean would die in a car crash: when Dean showed Guinness his newly-bought Porsche, Guinness advised him to "Get rid of that car, or you'll be dead in a week!" Guinness unfortunately proved right.


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: GORDON MACRAE


8:00pm -- Tea For Two (1950)
An heiress has to say no to every question for 24 hours if she wants to star on Broadway.
Cast: Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson, Eve Arden
Dir: David Butler
C-98 mins, TV-PG

In this version of the Broadway musical "No, No, Nanette", Eve Arden plays Pauline, but in the original 1940 version she played Kitty.


9:45pm -- The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1950)
Against her widowed father's wishes, a vaudeville star's daughter takes to the stage.
Cast: June Haver, Gordon MacRae, James Barton, Cuddles Sakall
Dir: David Butler
C-105 mins

Speaking debut of Debbie Reynolds; she had been in June Bride (1948) previously, but without dialogue.


11:45pm -- Oklahoma! (1955)
Pride and a lecherous ranch hand stand between an amorous cowboy and his farm girl sweetheart.
Cast: Gordon MacRae, Gloria Grahame, Gene Nelson, Charlotte Greenwood
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
C-140 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Robert Russell Bennett, Jay Blackton and Adolph Deutsch, and Best Sound, Recording -- Fred Hynes (Todd-AO Sound Dept.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert Surtees, and Best Film Editing -- Gene Ruggiero and George Boemler

Shot on location in and around Nogales, Arizona, because the real Oklahoma in 1955 was so heavily farmed and developed that few suitable areas could be found that resembled the highly-rural and undeveloped Oklahoma of the turn of the century when the musical is set. Finding "corn as high as an elephant's eye" proved to be quite a challenge. Since filming was to take place out of season, no tall cornfields were to be found anywhere. The job was given to the people of the University of Arizona Agricultural Department, who planted each stalk in individual containers and held their breath. With rain and good luck, the corn grew to a height of 16 feet, causing Oscar Hammerstein to quip: "The corn is now as high as the eye of an elephant on top of another elephant."


2:15am -- Galaxy of Terror (1981)
Members of a space mission are attacked by their deepest fears.
Cast: Edward Albert Jr., Erin Moran, Ray Walston, Bernard Bahrens
Dir: Brian D Clark
C-82 mins

Unit director James Cameron got maggots to wriggle on a severed arm by passing an electric current through it, impressing a couple of producers and earning him his next job. And so a career was born.


3:45am -- They Came From Beyond Space (1967)
Scientists investigating a meteor shower uncover an alien invasion.
Cast: Robert Hutton, Jennifer Jayne, Zia Mohyeddin, Bernard Kay
Dir: Freddie Francis
C-85 mins, TV-PG

Filmed in Twickenham Studios in Twickenham, UK.


5:15am -- Short Film: The Corvair In Action (1960)
Technicians herald the arrival of a new car that "delivers the goods as no other compact car can."
C-6 mins, TV-G

Ralph Nadar's book Unsafe At Any Speed was published in 1965. The book cited this promotional film, created by Ford Motor Company, in which a Ford test driver purposely turned the Corvair in a way to make it appear unstable, as evidence against the Corvair.



5:30am -- Short Film: Tear Gas And Law Enforcement (1962)
Vintage training film used by police to show tear gas techniques.
C-26 mins, TV-PG

"Tear gas, formally known as a lachrymatory agent or lachrymator (from lacrima meaning "a tear" in Latin), is a non-lethal chemical compound that stimulates the corneal nerves in the eyes to cause tearing, pain, and even blindness." - Wikipedia

Based on Lynn Riggs' play, Green Grow the Lilacs (1931), Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! (1943) was a landmark of the American musical theater. It was the first Broadway show to integrate the music, songs and dances as an essential part of the story and character development. Oklahoma! was also notable as the first of nine Broadway shows created by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, the most successful team in musical theater history.

The play's storyline, set in Oklahoma territory in the early 20th century, is simple: who will take Laurey to the box social -- cowboy Curly, whom she loves, or Jud, the menacing hired hand? Both simple and revolutionary, Oklahoma! was a huge hit which ran for more than 2200 performances, and Rodgers and Hammerstein were flooded with offers for the film rights. But they chose to wait until the stage show had finished its run before considering a film version. By the early 1950s, they were ready to make a deal. What sold them on making a film of Oklahoma! (1955) was the new 65-mm. wide-screen process called Todd-AO, which would allow them to show the wide-open landscapes that the stage could only suggest. Rodgers and Hammerstein would keep control by serving as executive producers. Fred Zinnemann was chosen to direct, and Agnes DeMille would re-create her innovative dances.

In casting the leads, Zinnemann agreed with Rodgers and Hammerstein that excellent singing voices were a must. So he reluctantly eliminated some attractive young performers like Paul Newman, who would have been physically right for Curly. But he did audition a young unknown whom his wife had spotted on a television program -- James Dean. Dean arrived late for the audition at Zinnemann's hotel, wearing rumpled old cowboy clothes. He'd been thrown out of the hotel lobby because of his appearance, but had managed to sneak up a service elevator. According to the director, "Dean made a sensational test with Rod Steiger in the 'Poor Jud Is Dead' number." But his singing voice wasn't strong enough. Gordon MacRae, who was already a film and stage star and had a superb baritone voice, got the part.

Rodgers and Hammerstein handpicked their Laurey, a young discovery named Shirley Jones, the only performer they ever put under exclusive contract. In 1953, the 19-year-old Jones went to an open audition for South Pacific, and so impressed the casting director that he brought in Oscar Hammerstein to hear her sing. After gaining some onstage experience in touring companies of Rodgers and Hammerstein shows, she was signed to play Laurey. Jones and MacRae would also co-star in the film version of another Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Carousel (1956).

For the villain Jud Fry, a good actor was more important than a good singer, and a young Welsh actor named Richard Burton was considered. He was not available, and Zinnemann cast Rod Steiger, who brought a complexity to the character that went far beyond the stock musical villain. The actor played Jud as a disturbed, emotionally isolated person, more to be pitied than despised. Steiger also did his own singing as well.

Gloria Grahame was no singer, but she was an Oscar-winning actress, and brought a bad-girl edge to the character of Ado Annie, who "cain't say no." Fellow actors and crew members claimed that Grahame really was a bad girl, upstaging co-stars and mistreating dancers and crew members alike. After Oklahoma!, Grahame's reputation as a difficult actress spread, and her career suffered as a result.

Much of Oklahoma! was shot on location in Arizona, near Nogales on the Mexican border. The real Oklahoma, it turns out, had too many oil wells to pass for the turn-of-the-century version of the state. Planting 2,100 stalks of corn that would grow "as high as an elephant's eye" for Curly to ride through singing "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" began almost a year before location shooting commenced. By the time the company began shooting in late July of 1954, the corn was 16 feet tall...as high, Oscar Hammerstein noted, "as the eye of an elephant who is standing on another elephant." Some of the corn was transplanted into moveable boxes so the camera could pass through.

Oklahoma! had one of the biggest location shoots to date, including some 70 trucks and trailers and a crew of 325 people. Daily thunderstorms and flash floods had the crew singing "the mud is as high as a Cadillac's eye" as nervous executives waited for the sky to clear. One crew member was actually struck by lightning, but was not seriously injured. The peach orchard planted near the house did not bear enough fruit, and every day the crew hung two thousand wax peaches on the trees. Because not many theaters were equipped to show the Todd-AO system, the film was actually shot twice, in Cinemascope as well as Todd-AO. Oklahoma! cost a total of seven million dollars, the most expensive film ever made to that time.

In spite of all the expense and anticipation, Oklahoma! had only a modest success at the box office. By the mid-'50s, musicals had lost some of their popularity, and television had cut into movie audiences. And even with all its production values, some critics felt that Oklahoma! (as well as subsequent film versions of other Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals) suffered from a stagebound look, which may be due to the fact that Rodgers and Hammerstein maintained such strict control over their properties.

Nevertheless, Oklahoma! won Academy Awards for Best Scoring of a musical, and for Best Sound Recording, and was nominated for Best Color Cinematography and Best Editing. Today, it remains an outstanding record of a milestone of musical theater, and a fine example of how film can enhance and expand the storyline of a stage musical.

Producer: Arthur Hornblow, Jr.
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Screenplay: Sonya Levien and William Ludwig, based on the play by Oscar Hammerstein II and the play Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs
Editor: George Boemler, Gene Ruggiero
Cinematography: Floyd Crosby, Robert Surtees
Costume Design: Motley, Orry-Kelly
Art Direction: Oliver Smith
Music: Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Adolph Deutsch
Choreography: Agnes DeMille
Principal Cast: Gordon MacRae (Curly McLain), Gloria Grahame (Ado Annie Carnes), Gene Nelson (Will Parker), Charlotte Greenwood (Aunt Eller), Shirley Jones (Laurey Williams), Eddie Albert (Ali Hakim), James Whitmore (Carnes), Rod Steiger (Jud Fry), Jay C. Flippen (Ike Skidmore), Barbara Lawrence (Gertie Cummings).
C-149m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.

by Margarita Landazuri