TCM Schedule for Thursday, December 1, 2022 -- What's On Tonight: Star of the Month Ava Gardener

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, it's 70s Westerns. Then in prime time, it's the first of Star of the Month, Ava Gardner, beginning with her Late 40s Breakout Roles, followed by Early 40s Supporting Roles. From her IMDB mini-bio:

Ava Lavina Gardner was born on December 24, 1922 in Grabtown, North Carolina, to Mary Elizabeth (née Baker) and Jonas Bailey Gardner. Born on a tobacco farm, where she got her lifelong love of earthy language and going barefoot, Ava grew up in the rural South. At age 18, her picture in the window of her brother-in- law's New York photo studio brought her to the attention of MGM, leading quickly to Hollywood and a film contract based strictly on her beauty. With zero acting experience, her first 17 film roles, 1942-1945, were one-line bits or little better. After her first starring role in B-grade Whistle Stop (1946), MGM loaned her to Universal for her first outstanding film The Killers (1946). Few of her best films were made at MGM which, keeping her under contract for 17 years, used her popularity to sell many mediocre films. Perhaps as a result, she never believed in her own acting ability, but her latent talent shone brightly when brought out by a superior director, as with John Ford in Mogambo (1953) and George Cukor in Bhowani Junction (1956).

After three failed marriages, dissatisfaction with Hollywood life prompted Ava to move to Spain in 1955; most of her subsequent films were made abroad. By this time, stardom had made the country girl a cosmopolitan, but she never overcame a deep insecurity about acting and life in the spotlight. Her last quality starring film role was in The Night of the Iguana (1964), her later work being (as she said) strictly "for the loot". In 1968, tax trouble in Spain prompted a move to London, where she spent her last 22 years in reasonable comfort. Her film career did not bring her great fulfillment, but her looks may have made it inevitable; many fans still consider her the most beautiful actress in Hollywood history. Ava Gardner died at age 67 of bronchial pneumonia on January 25, 1990 in Westminister, London, England.

Enjoy!

(And let offer my apologies for disappearing for the last several weeks. The world has gotten complicated for me, in my volunteer work and my health. But I'm back!)


6:15 AM -- Princess O'Rourke (1943)
1h 34m | Comedy | TV-G
A flying ace's romance with a princess creates diplomatic problems.
Director: Norman Krasna
Cast: Olivia De Havilland, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Norman Krasna

In the scene where the various marriage agreements are being explained to Eddie in the White House, there are several personal references to Franklin Roosevelt. The room is replete with pictures of ships, a reference to FDR's time as an Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Another naval symbol is the desk clock, which is a miniature ship's wheel. FDR was an avid sailor and proud of being "a Navy man." Also, there is a small stuffed toy donkey on the desk, representing the symbol of the Democratic Party.


8:00 AM -- Catlow (1971)
1h 41m | Western | TV-PG
An outlaw tries to avoid both his friend, the marshal, and a sadistic bounty hunter.O'
Director: Sam Wanamaker
Cast: Yul Brynner, Richard Crenna, Leonard Nimoy

Leonard Nimoy mentioned this film in both of his autobiographies because it gave him a chance to break away from his role as Spock on Star Trek (1966). He mentioned that the time he made the film was one of the happiest of his life, even though his part was rather brief.


9:45 AM -- Dirty Dingus Magee (1970)
1h 31m | Western | TV-14
A two-bit outlaw's attempts to strike it rich put him in conflict with a bungling sheriff.
Director: Burt Kennedy
Cast: Frank Sinatra, George Kennedy, Anne Jackson

Dingus Billy Magee was written as a nineteen-year-old, and had to be re-written to accommodate Frank Sinatra's casting.


11:30 AM -- The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)
2h 1m | Western | TV-14
A prospector creates a thriving stagecoach stop at the site of a spring.
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Jason Robards Jr., Stella Stevens, David Warner

The chaotic filming wrapped 19 days over schedule and $3 million over budget, terminating Sam Peckinpahs tenure with Warner Bros./Seven Arts, and caused permanent damage to his career. The critical and box office hits Deliverance (1972) and Jeremiah Johnson (1972) were in development at the time, and Peckinpah was considered the first choice to direct them. His departure from Warner Brothers left him with a limited number of directing jobs. Peckinpah was forced to do a 180-degree turn from this film, and travelled to England to direct Straw Dogs (1971), one of his darkest and most psychologically disturbing films.


1:45 PM -- The Cheyenne Social Club (1970)
1h 42m | Comedy | TV-14
An aging cowboy finds that the successful business he has inherited is actually a house of prostitution.
Director: Gene Kelly
Cast: James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Shirley Jones

The political subtext was a reference to the real-life political differences of James Stewart and Henry Fonda.


3:30 PM -- There Was a Crooked Man ... (1970)
2h 6m | Western | TV-PG
A Western crook tries to break out of prison.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Henry Fonda, Hume Cronyn

A realistic 1880s territorial prison replica was constructed on four acres in the high-desert country of the Joshua Tree National Monument. Designed by Edward Carrere, Oscar-winning designer of such movies as "The Wild Bunch (1969)," it was one of the most massive location sets ever built. The prison's 20-foot-high, four-feet-thick walls enclosed 14 buildings, including a guards' barracks, warden's quarters, mess hall, kitchen, hospital, blacksmith shop, a mule shed, corral, seven guard towers, a solitary confinement cell and a gallows. Unlike a typical movie set, the buildings had to be roofed because aerial footage of the location would be filmed. Some 80 loads of rocks were trucked in (and later removed) to create the enormous hard-labor rock pile in the movie. Since no indigenous plants could be harmed, thousands of desert plants also had to be trucked to the location.


5:45 PM -- The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)
2h | Western | TV-14
A self-appointed judge cleans up a corrupt western town twice.
Director: John Huston
Cast: Paul Newman, Roy Jenson, Ava Gardner

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Maurice Jarre (music), Alan Bergman (lyrics) and Marilyn Bergman for the song "Marmalade, Molasses & Honey"

When driving through Dublin in the early 1990s, Paul Newman asked his driver to stop. He had passed a restaurant called "Judge Roy Beans" and told his driver that he had to go in and see what it was like. At six o clock in the evening, patrons were more than pleased and surprised to see this veteran Hollywood star coming into the bar. He pointed at the quad poster framed on the wall and told everyone that he had played Judge Roy Bean. When the barman told him that next time he was in town, he should call into the nightclub above called Lillie's Bordello, Newman immediately pointed to the image of Ava Gardner on the poster and shouted, "And she played Lillie!".



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH -- AVA GARDNER



8:00 PM -- The Killers (1946)
1h 42m | Crime | TV-14
An insurance investigator uncovers a string of crimes when he tries to find a murdered boxer's beneficiary.
Director: Robert Siodmak
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Robert Siodmak, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Anthony Veiller, Best Film Editing -- Arthur Hilton, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa

While Mark Hellinger considered many actors for the role of Anderson, Ava Gardner was his only choice to play Kitty Collins.


10:00 PM -- The Hucksters (1947)
1h 55m | Drama | TV-PG
A war veteran fights for honesty in the advertising game.
Director: Jack Conway
Cast: Clark Gable, Deborah Kerr, Sydney Greenstreet

As the start of production neared, Ava Gardner got cold feet about co-starring with Clark Gable, whom she had idolized since childhood. Arthur Hornblow asked Gable to call her, and he told her: "I'm supposed to talk you into doing this thing. But I'm not going to. I hated it when they did that to me. But I hope you change your mind, kid, I think it would be fun to work together." The two remained friends for life.


12:15 AM -- The Bribe (1949)
1h 38m | Crime | TV-PG
A sultry singer tries to tempt a federal agent from the straight-and-narrow.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton

The first of three films co-starring Robert Taylor and Ava Gardner, followed by Ride Vaquero! and Knights of the Round Table (both 1953).


2:00 AM -- East Side, West Side (1949)
1h 48m | Drama | TV-G
A chic New York couple is torn apart by a seductive model.
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, James Mason, Van Heflin

Barbara Stanwyck and Ava Gardner, who share only one scene together in this film, died only five days apart in 1990; Stanwyck on January 20 and Gardner on January 25.


4:00 AM -- We Were Dancing (1942)
1h 34m | Romance | TV-G
A Polish princess gives up society for the love of a gigolo.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Norma Shearer, Melvyn Douglas, Gail Patrick

It was during the making of this film that the head of MGM, Louis B. Mayer personally offered Norma Shearer the title role in Mrs. Miniver (1942) but she turned it down, balking at the notion of playing a mother with a grown son. Shearer opted instead to do a poorly-received remake of Her Cardboard Lover (1942), which would be her final film before retiring.


5:45 AM -- Ghosts on the Loose (1943)
1h 7m | Comedy | TV-G
A gang of street toughs take on Nazi spies.
Director: William Beaudine
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan

First credited film role for Ava Gardner.

[CBHagman]

1. Welcome back!