TCM Schedule for Friday, September 18, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: The Open Road

[Staph]

After a couple of additional medical heroes films left over from yesterday, TCM is celebrating the birthday of the elusive Greta Garbo, born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson on September 18, 1905, in Stockholm, Sweden.

From IMDB:

Director Jacques Feyder recalled working with her: "At 9 o'clock a.m. the work may begin. 'Tell Mrs. Garbo we're ready,' says the director. 'I'm here,' a low voice answers, and she appears, perfectly dressed and combed as the scene needs. Nobody could say by what door she came but she's there. And at 6 o'clock PM, even if the shot could be finished in five minutes, she points at the watch and goes away, giving you a sorry smile. She's very strict with herself and hardly pleased with her work. She never looks at rushes nor goes to the premieres but some days later, early in the afternoon, enters all alone an outskirts movie house, takes place in a cheap seat and gets out only when the projection finishes, masked with her sunglasses".

Then in prime time, there are a trio of films about the joys and trials of life on the road. Enjoy!


6:45 AM -- THE DOCTOR AND THE GIRL (1949)
A doctor leaves his wealthy family to work in the slums.
Dir: Curtis Bernhardt
Cast: Glenn Ford, Charles Coburn, Gloria De Haven
BW-98 mins, CC,

This was Glenn Ford's first movie for MGM.


8:30 AM -- DARK VICTORY (1939)
A flighty heiress discovers inner strength when she develops a brain tumor.
Dir: Edmund Goulding
Cast: Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart
BW-104 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, Best Music, Original Score -- Max Steiner, and Best Picture

During the filming of the emotionally-charged scene when Bette Davis's character needs to find her way upstairs to her room after the brain tumor has caused her blindness, the cast and crew and several visitors were watching as Davis grasped the banister and began to feel her way up the steps, one by one. Halfway to the top of the staircase Davis paused, stopped the scene, briskly walked back downstairs and addressed director Edmund Goulding. "Ed," Davis said, "is Max Steiner going to be composing the music score to this picture?" Goulding, surprised by the question, replied that he didn't know, and asked Davis why the matter was important enough to stop the filming of the scene. "Well, either I'm going to climb those stairs or Max Steiner is going to climb those stairs," Davis responded, "but I'll be God-DAMNED if Max Steiner and I are going to climb those stairs together!"


10:30 AM -- THE PAINTED VEIL (1934)
A wife strays, then fights to redeem herself to her husband.
Dir: Richard Boleslawski
Cast: Greta Garbo, Herbert Marshall, George Brent
BW-84 mins, CC,

Queen Christina (1933) and The Painted Veil (1934), which were both huge hits in Europe (making twice their budget in the UK alone), were underwhelming US successes.


12:00 PM -- CONQUEST (1937)
A Polish countess sacrifices her virtue to Napoleon to save her homeland.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Greta Garbo, Charles Boyer, Reginald Owen
BW-112 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Charles Boyer, and Best Art Direction -- Cedric Gibbons and William A. Horning

The lavish ballroom set where Napoleon dances with Marie Walewska is actually identical to that used in Maytime (1937) - the Jeanette McDonald /Nelson Eddy operetta. It has simply been redressed and given a different floor covering and shot from a different angle.


2:00 PM -- CAMILLE (1937)
In this classic 19th-century romance, a kept woman runs off with a young admirer in search of love and happiness.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore
BW-109 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greta Garbo

Many people found Greta Garbo's process as an actress inscrutable, though no one questioned it because the results spoke for themselves. Her habit was to work out a performance ahead of time in private as much as possible. Too many eyes on her in front of the camera made her uneasy. As George Cukor once explained, "[Garbo] said that when she was acting she had some sort of an ideal picture in her mind - something she was creating - and she never saw the rushes because she was always disappointed in what she saw. But she said while she was acting she could imagine certain things and if she saw people just off the set staring at her, she felt like an ass, like somebody with a lot of paint on her face making faces. It stopped her imagination."


4:00 PM -- NINOTCHKA (1939)
A coldhearted Soviet agent is warmed up by a trip to Paris and a night of love.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire
BW-110 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greta Garbo, Best Writing, Original Story -- Melchior Lengyel, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch and Billy Wilder, and Best Picture

The tagline "Garbo laughs!" came before the screenplay was written; the film was built around that single, now legendary, slogan. This slogan was itself a reference to another legendary advertising slogan about Greta Garbo. Garbo, a famous leading lady of the silent film era, made her first talking picture, Anna Christie (1930). That film was advertised, to great success, with the slogan "Garbo Talks!". When she made this comedy the "Garbo Laughs!" tagline resonated with her fans.


6:00 PM -- GRAND HOTEL (1932)
Guests at a posh Berlin hotel struggle through scandal and heartache.
Dir: Edmund Goulding
Cast: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford
BW-113 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Picture

MGM studio brass wondered how their top female star Greta Garbo would get along with John Barrymore in their many scenes together. They were both big personalities, and she had her well-known peculiar quirks. As luck would have it, there was no need to worry as the two hit it off from the beginning. On the very first day of filming together, Garbo reportedly greeted Barrymore warmly by saying, "This is a great day for me. How I have looked forward to working with John Barrymore!" Barrymore supposedly was won over immediately. "My wife and I think you are the loveliest woman in the world," he replied.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE OPEN ROAD



8:00 PM -- THE RAIN PEOPLE (1969)
A housewife who feels trapped leaves home and takes up with a hitchhiker.
Dir: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: James Caan, Shirley Knight, Robert Duvall
C-101 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Some of this film was shot in and around Clarksburg and Weston, West Virginia. They spent several days in the areas. (Hey, I grew up in this area of northern West Virginia. It's important trivia for me!)


10:00 PM -- HARRY AND TONTO (1974)
When his apartment house is condemned, a retired man goes searching for his place in the world.
Dir: Paul Mazursky
Cast: Josh Mostel, Ellen Burstyn, Barbara Rhoades
C-115 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Art Carney

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Paul Mazursky and Josh Greenfeld

Co-writer and director Paul Mazursky was taking a cab to meet the casting director, and his cab driver talked so much, he thought she might be good in the movie. He had her park at the casting director's office and leave the meter running while she came inside and read for the part. She, Muriel Beerman, got the part as the taxi driver.


12:00 AM -- LOST IN AMERICA (1985)
A discontented yuppie couple quit their jobs to rediscover America on the road.
Dir: Albert Brooks
Cast: Albert Brooks, Julie Hagerty, Radu Gavor
C-91 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Albert Brooks drove the Winnebago for many of the shots, but he was not comfortable doing it anywhere but on a straight road with no turn-arounds or back-ups. He did actually swing the vehicle up to the curb on the busy Manhattan street for a shot at the end of the movie.


2:00 AM -- WILD AT HEART (1990)
Young lovers Sailor and Lula run from the variety of weirdos that Lula's mom has hired to kill Sailor.
Dir: David Lynch
Cast: Lisa Ann Cabasa, Morgan Sheppard, Koko Taylor
BW-125 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Diane Ladd

The snakeskin jacket Sailor wears in the film was actually Nicolas Cage's own. Cage asked director David Lynch if he could wear the jacket in the film, as a tribute to Marlon Brando's role in The Fugitive Kind (1960). After filming was completed, Cage gave his jacket to Laura Dern. (On a side note, "The Fugitive Kind" was based on the play, "Orpheus Descending," by Diane Ladd's cousin, Tennessee Williams. Laura Dern's parents, Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern, met while appearing in a 1961 stage production of "Orpheus Descending.&quot


4:15 AM -- TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME (1992)
Laura Palmer's harrowing final days are chronicled one year after the murder of Teresa Banks, a resident of Twin Peaks' neighboring town.
Dir: David Lynch
Cast: Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, Kyle Maclachlan
BW-135 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The numerous prominent actors in the film, including Kiefer Sutherland, David Bowie, Harry Dean Stanton and Jürgen Prochnow, played small parts for almost no money because they had all been fans of Twin Peaks (1990) and/or David Lynch's other work. The same went for Chris Isaak but he had previously collaborated with Lynch when Lynch directed the music video for Isaak's song "Wicked Game" and popularized the song in his film Wild at Heart (1990).