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TCM Schedule for Friday, August 26, 2022 -- Summer Under The Stars: Vivien Leigh
Today's star is actress/writer Vivien Leigh. From her TCMDb biography:A lovely, petite, fragile stage-trained player whose delicate beauty first graced the screen in 1935, Leigh was born to a British military family stationed in India. Despite her heritage, she remains best-known for her two most successful screen roles as American Southern belles.
After a childhood traveling Europe, an apprenticeship at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and a brief marriage, Leigh began her career in 1935 with several small stage and screen roles. After making a hit onstage in "The Masque of Virtue" (1935), she was signed by Alexander Korda and appeared as a pretty ingenue in such films as "Fire Over England" (1937), opposite Laurence Olivier, and "Storm in a Teacup" (also 1937), with Rex Harrison. Korda loaned her to MGM for "A Yank at Oxford" (1938), which did more for Robert Taylor than Leigh. That same year, she displayed her screen charisma and charm as a Cockney petty thief who is befriended by street performer Charles Laughton and romanced by songwriter Rex Harrison in the frothy "Sidewalks of London/Saint Martin's Lane." While making her mark in features, Leigh continued to polish her talents onstage, notably as Ophelia to Olivier's "Hamlet" in 1937.
By this time, Leigh and Olivier were romantically involved. When he went to the US in late 1938 to make "Wuthering Heights," Leigh followed and won the much-coveted role of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind" (1939). Her Scarlett was a headstrong, willful and colorful portrayal. Despite much flack about a relatively unknown Brit taking the role of the quintessential Southern belle, Leigh was triumphant, won an Oscar and became a bigger star than Olivier (whom she married in 1940).
Leigh failed to immediately follow up on her tremendous promise. She starred onstage with Olivier in "Romeo and Juliet" (1940) and made two films. In the fine remake of "Waterloo Bridge" (1940), Leigh's beauty heightened her portrayal of a ballerina in love with an upper-class soldier (Robert Taylor). Through a series of plot machinations, she is reduced to prostitution and has a bittersweet reunion with Taylor, whom she thought was killed during the war. The role was the first of many in which her character suffered mental collapse--ironically mirroring her own bouts with mental illness. She again was a woman of questionable virtue in the biopic of an historical tart in "That Hamilton Woman" (1941, opposite Olivier). Her subsequent career was slowed to fits and starts by the tuberculosis which eventually killed her, and by her own emotional instability.
For the rest of her career, Leigh alternated between the stage and screen, giving electrifying, emotional performances in both mediums. She appeared in six films after her initial bout with Hollywood, first in the British productions "Caesar and Cleopatra" (1946), opposite Claude Rains, and as "Anna Karenina" (1948). Her next huge hit was recreating her stage role as the fragile, emotionally unstable Blanche Du Bois in Elia Kazan's film of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951). Her performance as the outsider is enhanced by playing off her Method-trained co-stars, notably Marlon Brando's stunning Stanley, Kim Hunter's torn Stella and Karl Malden's gentle Mitch. Leigh earned a second Best Actress Oscar playing this damaged woman trailing the tattered threads of her sanity behind her, a role some felt was eerily close to Leigh's own personality at times. Her last films consisted of stellar performances as emotionally unstable women in less than stellar films: "The Deep Blue Sea" (1955), as a frustrated, suicidal wife; "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" (1961), based on a Tennessee Williams' story, as an elegant, middle-aged actress who is ample bait for Warren Beatty's gigolo; and Stanley Kramer's all-star "Ship of Fools" (1966), as an embittered, flirtatious divorcee.
Leigh was, perhaps, happier onstage. She and Olivier toured with the Old Vic company in the late 1940s and early 50s, in such plays as "The School for Scandal," "Anthony and Cleopatra," "Caesar and Cleopatra," "Richard III" and "Antigone." She was directed by Olivier in "The Skin of Our Teeth" (1945) and "The Sleeping Prince" (1954) and scored successes with "Duel of Angels" (1958) and "Look After Lulu" (1959), directed by Noel Coward. In 1963, she made her American musical stage debut in "Tovarich," winning a Tony Award. But health problems began to interfere with her ability to sustain a long run and she frequently missed performances. Her last stage appearance was in "Ivanov" in 1966.
Leigh's private life was as stormy as any of her roles. After twenty tempestuous years, she and Olivier divorced in 1960, and her mental illness often transformed her intelligent and sweet nature, making professional and personal relationships problematic at times. By the time she died, a ravaged 53 years old, Vivien Leigh had become one of the broken butterflies she had so often played on stage and screen.
After a childhood traveling Europe, an apprenticeship at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and a brief marriage, Leigh began her career in 1935 with several small stage and screen roles. After making a hit onstage in "The Masque of Virtue" (1935), she was signed by Alexander Korda and appeared as a pretty ingenue in such films as "Fire Over England" (1937), opposite Laurence Olivier, and "Storm in a Teacup" (also 1937), with Rex Harrison. Korda loaned her to MGM for "A Yank at Oxford" (1938), which did more for Robert Taylor than Leigh. That same year, she displayed her screen charisma and charm as a Cockney petty thief who is befriended by street performer Charles Laughton and romanced by songwriter Rex Harrison in the frothy "Sidewalks of London/Saint Martin's Lane." While making her mark in features, Leigh continued to polish her talents onstage, notably as Ophelia to Olivier's "Hamlet" in 1937.
By this time, Leigh and Olivier were romantically involved. When he went to the US in late 1938 to make "Wuthering Heights," Leigh followed and won the much-coveted role of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind" (1939). Her Scarlett was a headstrong, willful and colorful portrayal. Despite much flack about a relatively unknown Brit taking the role of the quintessential Southern belle, Leigh was triumphant, won an Oscar and became a bigger star than Olivier (whom she married in 1940).
Leigh failed to immediately follow up on her tremendous promise. She starred onstage with Olivier in "Romeo and Juliet" (1940) and made two films. In the fine remake of "Waterloo Bridge" (1940), Leigh's beauty heightened her portrayal of a ballerina in love with an upper-class soldier (Robert Taylor). Through a series of plot machinations, she is reduced to prostitution and has a bittersweet reunion with Taylor, whom she thought was killed during the war. The role was the first of many in which her character suffered mental collapse--ironically mirroring her own bouts with mental illness. She again was a woman of questionable virtue in the biopic of an historical tart in "That Hamilton Woman" (1941, opposite Olivier). Her subsequent career was slowed to fits and starts by the tuberculosis which eventually killed her, and by her own emotional instability.
For the rest of her career, Leigh alternated between the stage and screen, giving electrifying, emotional performances in both mediums. She appeared in six films after her initial bout with Hollywood, first in the British productions "Caesar and Cleopatra" (1946), opposite Claude Rains, and as "Anna Karenina" (1948). Her next huge hit was recreating her stage role as the fragile, emotionally unstable Blanche Du Bois in Elia Kazan's film of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951). Her performance as the outsider is enhanced by playing off her Method-trained co-stars, notably Marlon Brando's stunning Stanley, Kim Hunter's torn Stella and Karl Malden's gentle Mitch. Leigh earned a second Best Actress Oscar playing this damaged woman trailing the tattered threads of her sanity behind her, a role some felt was eerily close to Leigh's own personality at times. Her last films consisted of stellar performances as emotionally unstable women in less than stellar films: "The Deep Blue Sea" (1955), as a frustrated, suicidal wife; "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" (1961), based on a Tennessee Williams' story, as an elegant, middle-aged actress who is ample bait for Warren Beatty's gigolo; and Stanley Kramer's all-star "Ship of Fools" (1966), as an embittered, flirtatious divorcee.
Leigh was, perhaps, happier onstage. She and Olivier toured with the Old Vic company in the late 1940s and early 50s, in such plays as "The School for Scandal," "Anthony and Cleopatra," "Caesar and Cleopatra," "Richard III" and "Antigone." She was directed by Olivier in "The Skin of Our Teeth" (1945) and "The Sleeping Prince" (1954) and scored successes with "Duel of Angels" (1958) and "Look After Lulu" (1959), directed by Noel Coward. In 1963, she made her American musical stage debut in "Tovarich," winning a Tony Award. But health problems began to interfere with her ability to sustain a long run and she frequently missed performances. Her last stage appearance was in "Ivanov" in 1966.
Leigh's private life was as stormy as any of her roles. After twenty tempestuous years, she and Olivier divorced in 1960, and her mental illness often transformed her intelligent and sweet nature, making professional and personal relationships problematic at times. By the time she died, a ravaged 53 years old, Vivien Leigh had become one of the broken butterflies she had so often played on stage and screen.
Enjoy!
6:00 AM -- Vivien Leigh: Scarlett And Beyond (1990)
1h | Documentary | TV-G
Interviews and rare film clips trace the troubled career of one of the screen's most beautiful actresses.
Director: Gene Feldman
Cast: Jessica Lange, Claire Bloom, Kim Hunter
Garson Kanin states that Vivien Leigh was the 244th and last actress to be tested for Scarlett O'Hara.
7:00 AM -- 21 Days Together (1940)
1h 15m | Romance | TV-PG
After accidentally killing his mistress' husband, a man must decide whether to let another man hang for the crime.
Director: Basil Dean
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Leslie Banks, Laurence Olivier
Produced in the UK in 1937 before the international popularity of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Producer Alexander Korda intended this to be a star-building vehicle for Leigh. Columbia bought the film in 1939, but did not release it until after the success of Gone with the Wind (1939).
8:30 AM -- Caesar And Cleopatra (1945)
2h 18m | Drama | TV-G
Julius Caesar gives the famed Egyptian queen lessons in government.
Director: Gabriel Pascal
Cast: Claude Rains, Vivien Leigh, Flora Robson
Nominee for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- John Bryan
Vivien Leigh found that she was pregnant with Sir Laurence Olivier's child during filming. There was a very energetic scene in which Leigh had to slide across the floor and run up the stairs. Upon doing this, she slipped and suffered a miscarriage. This triggered a mental breakdown in Leigh.
11:00 AM -- Anna Karenina (1948)
2h 19m | Romance | TV-14
Adaptation of Tolstoy's classic tale of a woman who deserts her family for an illicit love.
Director: Julien Duvivier
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Ralph Richardson, Kieron Moore
Vivien Leigh's costumes were made in Paris by Barbara Karinska to Cecil Beaton's designs. She was in such pain wearing them that she even went to her doctor fearing she had broken her ribs. It was subsequently discovered that the dresser had been putting the corsets on upside down.
1:00 PM -- The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961)
1h 44m | Drama | TV-G
A fading stage star gets caught up in the decadent life of modern Rome when she hires a male companion.
Director: José Quintero
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Warren Beatty, Lotte Lenya
Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Lotte Lenya
Vivien Leigh portrays the titular character, Mrs. Stone, while the mysterious young man is played by Jeremy Spenser. These two actors had previously starred together in Anna Karenina (1948) with Vivien again playing the titular character, Anna Karenina, whilst the then eleven year old Jeremy Spenser played Guiseppe.
3:00 PM -- Ship of Fools (1965)
2h 29m | Drama | TV-14
Passengers on a steam ship in the '30s struggle with their tangled relations and the rise of Nazism.
Director: Stanley Kramer
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Simone Signoret, Jose Ferrer
Winner of Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ernest Laszlo, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Robert Clatworthy and Joseph Kish
Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Oskar Werner, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Simone Signoret, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Michael Dunn, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Abby Mann, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Bill Thomas and Jean Louis, and Best Picture
Director Stanley Kramer carefully photographed Vivien Leigh in a gentle soft focus throughout the film, leading up to her climactic Charleston sequence, which he then shot in a cold, unforgiving sharp focus.
5:45 PM -- The Making Of A Legend: Gone With The Wind (1988)
2h | Documentary | TV-G
Christopher Plummer hosts this documentary tracing producer David O. Selznick's battle to make the most popular movie of all time.
Director: David Hinton
Cast: Arthur E. Arling, Butterfly Mcqueen, Sunny Lash
Olivia de Havilland did not take part in this documentary due to her reportedly not wishing to be involved in any of the 50th anniversary celebrations of Gone with the Wind (1939). Although she did appear at The 15th Annual People's Choice Awards (1989) in August of 1989, to accept the award for 'All Time Favorite Motion Picture' on behalf of the film.
WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS -- VIVIEN LEIGH
8:00 PM -- Gone With the Wind (1939)
3h 39m | Epic | TV-PG
Classic tale of Scarlett O'Hara's battle to save her beloved Tara and find love during the Civil War.
Director: Victor Fleming.
Cast: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell
Winner of an Oscar Honorary Award for William Cameron Menzies for outstanding achievement in the use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood in the production of Gone with the Wind (plaque)
Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Vivien Leigh, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Hattie McDaniel (Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to be nominated for and win an Oscar.), Best Director -- Victor Fleming, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sidney Howard (Posthumously. Sidney Howard became the first posthumous Oscar nominee and winner.), Best Cinematography, Color -- Ernest Haller and Ray Rennahan, Best Art Direction -- Lyle R. Wheeler, Best Film Editing -- Hal C. Kern and James E. Newcom, and Best Picture
Winner of an Oscar Technical Achievement Award for R.D. Musgrave for pioneering in the use of coordinated equipment in the production Gone with the Wind
Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Clark Gable, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Olivia de Havilland, Best Sound, Recording -- Thomas T. Moulton (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), Best Effects, Special Effects -- Jack Cosgrove (photographic), Fred Albin (sound) and Arthur Johns (sound), and Best Music, Original Score -- Max Steiner
Vivien Leigh wasn't happy with Victor Fleming's brusque style after the careful nurturing she had enjoyed with George Cukor. When she asked him for direction in one scene, he told her "Ham it up". On another occasion when she asked for his constructive advice, he told her to "take the script and stick it up her royal British ass". After Cukor's departure, Leigh had to fight hard to keep the movie's Scarlett true to her view. Fleming's interpretation of her was that she was an out-and-out bitch as in the novel and that he had no desire to create any sympathy or insight for her.
12:00 AM -- Waterloo Bridge (1940)
1h 43m | Drama | TV-PG
A ballerina turns to prostitution when her fiance is reportedly killed during World War I.
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Lucile Watson
Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, and Best Music, Original Score -- Herbert Stothart
The scene in which Myra (Vivien Leigh) and Roy (Robert Taylor) dance to "Auld Lang Syne" was supposed to have dialogue, but nobody could come up with the right words. At about 3:00 in the morning before shooting the scene was to take place, Mervyn LeRoy, a veteran of silent films, realized that there shouldn't be any lines and that the images should speak for themselves. The result is the most celebrated scene of the film.
2:00 AM -- That Hamilton Woman (1941)
2h 8m | Romance | TV-G
Naval hero Lord Nelson defies convention to court a married woman of common birth.
Director: Alexander Korda
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Alan Mowbray
Winner of an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Jack Whitney (General Service SSD)
Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Rudolph Maté, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Vincent Korda and Julia Heron, and Best Effects, Special Effects -- Lawrence W. Butler (photographic) and William A. Wilmarth (sound)
After Fire Over England (1937) and 21 Days Together (1940), this was the third and final film that paired Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. It was the only one made during their marriage and the only one which did not also feature Leslie Banks.
4:15 AM -- A Yank at Oxford (1938)
1h 40m | Drama | TV-G
A cocky American student runs into trouble when he transfers to the famed British college.
Director: Jack Conway
Cast: Robert Taylor, Vivien Leigh, Lionel Barrymore
In a scene shortly after arriving at Oxford, Sheridan meets with his assigned tutor, who asks him, "What are you reading?" by which he means what is your field of study. Sheridan, confused, replies, "Well, I am reading 'Gone With The Wind', but I am only halfway through it." Vivien Leigh, also in this movie, would of course portray Scarlett in Gone with the Wind (1939) which was released the year after this movie.