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Staph

(6,245 posts)
Fri May 1, 2015, 12:23 AM May 2015

TCM Schedule for Friday, May 1, 2015 -- Friday Night Spotlight - Orson Welles

During the day, we're got a selection of films about secretaries -- I thought Administrative Assistant's Day was back in April! This month's Friday night theme is the films of Orson Welles. TCM is starting with his biggest (and earliest!) films, including Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), and Jane Eyre (1944). Enjoy!



6:27 AM -- Don't Play Bridge With Your Wife (1933)
In this short film, three games of bridge are presented over the ages.
Dir: A. Leslie Pearce
Cast: Grady Sutton, Bud Jamison, Richard Cramer
BW-18 min


6:45 AM -- The Office Wife (1930)
A gold-digging secretary sets out to lure her boss from his straying wife.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Dorothy Mackaill, Lewis Stone, Hobart Bosworth
BW-59 min

Based on a Cosmopolitan Magazine serial by Faith Baldwin.


7:45 AM -- Man Wanted (1932)
A female executive falls in love with her male secretary.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: Kay Francis, David Manners, Una Merkel
BW-61 min

Guy Kibbee (Devins) and Virginia Sale (Miss Winkler) are listed in studio records for acting in this movie, but were not seen.


9:00 AM -- Goodbye Again (1933)
An author's reunion with an old flame angers the secretary who loves him.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Warren William, Joan Blondell, Genevieve Tobin
BW-66 min

The original play "Goodbye Again" by Allan Scott and George Haight opened in New York at the Theatre Masque on 28 December 1932 and ran until July 1933 for 216 performances.


10:15 AM -- She Had To Say Yes (1933)
A secretary pads her salary by dating prospective buyers for her company.
Dir: Busby Berkeley
Cast: Loretta Young, Winnie Lightner, Lyle Talbot
BW-66 min

The first film directed by Busby Berkeley.


11:30 AM -- The Richest Girl in the World (1934)
To put off fortune-hunters, an heiress trades places with her secretary.
Dir: William A. Seiter
Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea, Fay Wray
BW-76 min

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Norman Krasna. Krasna later won an Oscar in 1944 for Princess O'Rourke.


12:50 PM -- Hollywood Newsreel (1934)
A variety of stories from "behind the scenes" in Hollywood are the focus in this short film that may have been a publicity vehicle for "Harold Teen" (1934). Vitaphone Release 6170.
Dir: George R. Bilson
BW-9 min



1:00 PM -- The Church Mouse (1935)
When a meek secretary goes to work for a powerful banker, she turns into a sophisticated, worldly woman.
Dir: Monty Banks
Cast: Laura La Plante, Ian Hunter, Edward Chapman
BW-75 min

The play originally opened in Budapest, Hungary, on 2 December 1927. The original play was written only by Ladislas Fodor. It is not known why Paul Frank received onscreen credit. An English adaptation by Benn W. Levy, entitled "A Church Mouse", opened in London in early May 1931. Another English adaptation by Frederic Hatton and Fanny Hatton, also entitled "A Church Mouse", opened in New York on 12 October 1931 and starred 'Ruth Gordon'.


2:30 PM -- Ever Since Eve (1937)
A plain-jane secretary masquerades as a beauty to win her boss's heart.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Marion Davies, Robert Montgomery, Frank McHugh
BW-80 min

Marion Davies's last movie.


4:00 PM -- Her Husband's Secretary (1937)
A businessman buys trouble when he hires his wife's best friend as his secretary.
Dir: Frank McDonald
Cast: Jean Muir, Beverly Roberts, Warren Hull
BW-61 min

Based on a story by writer/actor/director Crane Wilbur.


5:15 PM -- She's Got Everything (1938)
A penniless heiress goes to work as secretary to a stuffed shirt.
Dir: Joseph Santley
Cast: Gene Raymond, Ann Sothern, Victor Moore
BW-73 min

Based on a story by Joseph Hoffman and Maxwell Shane.


6:30 PM -- Obliging Young Lady (1941)
A lawyer's secretary tries to protect a controversial client from prying eyes at an over-crowded hotel.
Dir: Richard Wallace
Cast: Joan Carroll, Edmond O'Brien, Ruth Warrick
BW-80 min

In the opening scene, Red Reddy (Edmund O'Brien) repeats "Heinie Manush" to the rhythm of the motion of the train he's riding and gradually the other passengers begin to repeat it as well. Henry "Heinie" Manush was a major league ballplayer who played for 17 seasons and had retired from baseball at the time this film was made.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: ORSON WELLES



8:00 PM -- Citizen Kane (1941)
The investigation of a publishing tycoon's dying words reveals conflicting stories about his scandalous life.
Dir: Orson Welles
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead
BW-119 min

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles (On Friday, July 19th, 2003, Orson Welles' Oscar statuette went on sale at an auction at Christie's, New York, but was voluntarily withdrawn so the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences could buy it back for just 1 dollar. The statuette, included in a large selection of Welles-related material, was going to be sold by Beatrice Welles, the youngest of the filmmaker's three daughters and the sole heir of his estate and was expected to sell at over 300,000 dollars.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Orson Welles, Best Director -- Orson Welles, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Gregg Toland, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Perry Ferguson, Van Nest Polglase, A. Roland Fields and Darrell Silvera, Best Sound, Recording -- John Aalberg (RKO Radio SSD), Best Film Editing -- Robert Wise, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Bernard Herrmann, and Best Picture

During the scenes where Kane first buys his newspaper and delivers the line about going bankrupt in 60 years, Orson Welles appears to be dressed as himself at his actual age. Welles has indicated in interviews that he was even more made up playing a young man than he was playing Kane as an old one; "temporary" facelifts and hair styling as well as camera tricks make him look much more beautiful than he actually was. Welles said that he spent years living down how far he'd come down from his "youthful looks," when in fact he never really looked that good.



10:15 PM -- The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
A possessive son's efforts to keep his mother from remarrying threaten to destroy his family.
Dir: Orson Welles
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter
BW-88 min

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Agnes Moorehead, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Stanley Cortez, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Albert S. D'Agostino, A. Roland Fields and Darrell Silvera, and Best Picture

Joseph Cotten remembered Anne Baxter from their experience together in the stage version of "The Philadelphia Story." Star Katharine Hepburn was unhappy with the young actress' performance as her younger sister, however, and had her dropped from the production. Cotton thought so highly of her, though, that he recommended that she be borrowed for the part of his daughter in this film.



12:00 AM -- Jane Eyre (1944)
A governess at a remote estate falls in love with her brooding employer.
Dir: Robert Stevenson
Cast: Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine, Margaret O'Brien
BW-96 min

Orson Welles did enough work behind the scenes that the production company offered him a producer credit, which he turned down. Welles' official reason for this is a belief that a person who is not directing the film shouldn't be "just" a producer.


1:45 AM -- Too Much Johnson (1938)
Disaster follows a man's discovery that he has a romantic rival.
Dir: Orson Welles
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Virginia Nicholson, Arlene Francis
BW-67 min

Orson Welles shot this film as part of an experiment in using film as part of a stage production of William Gillette's farce. Unfortunately, the film was never shown publicly because, though Welles had legally arranged for the right to stage Gillette's copyrighted play, the movie rights were held by Paramount, which took out an injunction to prevent Welles from showing the film. The film features the debuts of Judy Holliday and Joseph Cotton.


3:00 AM -- Lydia (1941)
An unmarried woman stages a reunion with former suitors to recapture the romance of her past.
Dir: Julien Duvivier
Cast: Merle Oberon, Edna May Oliver, Alan Marshal
BW-99 min

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Miklós Rózsa

The poem Lydia and Bob quote at the ball is "The Night has a Thousand Eyes" by Francis William Bourdillon, a late Victorian English poet (1852-1921). The text is
"The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.
The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one:
Yet the light of a whole life dies.
When love is done."



4:45 AM -- Over the Moon (1940)
A surprise inheritance breaks up a once-impoverished noblewoman and a doctor.
Dir: Thornton Freeland
Cast: Merle Oberon, Rex Harrison, Ursula Jeans
BW-79 min

Production began in 1937; by the time the final retakes were completed in 1939, the appearance of Merle Oberon, both in terms of make-up and hairstyle, had changed considerably, and are quite apparent in the finished film.


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