TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 20, 2017 -- What's On Tonight: Star of the Month - Ronald Colman

In the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating the birth of Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko, best remembered as Natalie Wood, born on July 20, 1938, in San Francisco. Then in prime time, it's more of the tribute to Star of the Month, the dashing Ronald Colman, including two of my all time favorite films, A Tale of Two Cities (1935) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). Have plenty of hankies handy, and enjoy!

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6:00 AM -- THE SEARCHERS (1956)
An Indian-hating Civil War veteran tracks down the tribe that slaughtered his family and kidnapped his niece.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles
C-119 mins, CC,

Natalie Wood was still a student in high school when this film was being made, and on several occasions both John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter had to pick her up at school on days when she was required on the set. This caused a good deal of excitement among Wood's female classmates.


8:15 AM -- SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (1961)
Sexual repression drives a small-town Kansas girl mad during the roaring twenties.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat Hingle
C-124 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- William Inge

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Natalie Wood

There were two scenes that worried Natalie Wood due to the intensity of each: the scene where she has a confrontation with her mother while she is in the bathtub; and the scene in which she tries to drown herself in a lake after Bud rejects her sexual advances. Each time, Elia Kazan found a way to bring out her best, even if his methods left her angry. "The bathtub scene, in which I was to be hysterical," said Wood in a later interview, "always frightened me. And I told Kazan I was very worried about it. His response absolutely threw me for a loop, because he said, 'What you do, I'll let you see the film, and we'll go back and do it again. Or we can play it on Audrey's (Christie, who played Wood's mother) reactions.' And I was so enraged and offended that I became hysterical. That was his way of dealing with me, and it was obviously the correct way, because we only shot it once."


10:30 AM -- SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL (1964)
A journalist sets out to expose a female sex expert but falls for her instead.
Dir: Richard Quine
Cast: Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Henry Fonda
C-114 mins, CC,

While dressed in a woman's nightgown Tony Curtis says he looks just like Jack Lemmon in the movie where he dresses up like a girl. Tony Curtis co-starred in that movie, Some Like it Hot, with Jack Lemmon where he also dressed up like a girl.


12:30 PM -- THE GREAT RACE (1965)
A bumbling villain plots to win an early 20th-century auto race.
Dir: Blake Edwards
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood
C-160 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Sound Effects -- Treg Brown

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Russell Harlan, Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters, and Best Music, Original Song -- Henry Mancini (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "The Sweetheart Tree"

In the film's press kit, Natalie Wood divulges that she took fencing lessons, sidesaddle lessons and practiced smoking cigars, but her biggest challenge was driving the Stanley Steamer. The steering was difficult ("like turning a tractor, I suspect", she says) and going into reverse was nearly impossible.


3:19 PM -- THE SUN... THE SAND... THE HILL. (1965)
This promotional short presents a behind-the-scenes look at the making of "The Hill" (1965).
Dir: Roland Saland
BW-7 mins,


3:30 PM -- INSIDE DAISY CLOVER (1966)
A girl on the road to stardom fights the dehumanizing effects of Hollywood life.
Dir: Robert Mulligan
Cast: Natalie Wood, Christopher Plummer, Robert Redford
C-128 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ruth Gordon, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Robert Clatworthy and George James Hopkins, and Best Costume Design, Color -- Edith Head and Bill Thomas

As Wood and Redford were shooting in a small boat off Santa Monica Pier, a sudden change in the wind direction cast them adrift in the Malibu current. As the boat moved further out to sea Wood begin to panic. Redford laughed her through it. He later realized how precarious the situation was but it sealed the friendship between the two as his heroism impressed Natalie and he earned her trust.


5:39 PM -- STOPOVER IN HOLLYWOOD (1963)
This short film takes the viewer to various landmarks and attractions in Hollywood, CA.
Dir: Will Williams
Cast: Tony Winhall, Lori Lyons,
C-16 mins,


6:00 PM -- BRAINSTORM (1983)
A scientist battles the military for control of a machine that records sensory experiences-including death.
Dir: Douglas Trumbull
Cast: Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, Louise Fletcher
C-106 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

When actress Natalie Wood died near the end of principal photography, studio executives tried to kill the film and claim the insurance, saying that director Douglas Trumbull could not complete the film. However, Trumbull's contract gave that decision to him, and he insisted on completing the film, using a stand-in and changing camera angles for the few remaining shots of Wood's character. The resulting hostility between Trumbull and the studio executives meant that this would be Trumbull's last Hollywood film. He has since devoted his efforts to effects work for IMAX films, theme park rides and the like.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: RONALD COLMAN



8:00 PM -- A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1935)
Charles Dickens' classic story of two men in love with the same woman during the French Revolution.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Ronald Colman, Elizabeth Allen, Edna May Oliver
BW-126 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Film Editing -- Conrad A. Nervig, and Best Picture

Actor Ronald Colman agreed to play the role of Sydney Carton with the sole condition that he not also be required to play the role of Charles Darnay, as was usually expected in adaptations of the Dickens novel. The plot of 'A Tale of Two Cities' turns on the physical resemblance between the two characters. Colman had long wanted to play Sidney Carton, and was even willing to shave off his beloved mustache to play the part.


10:19 PM -- NEPTUNE MYSTERIES (1935)
This fascinating short film explores the world below sea level.
BW-9 mins,


10:30 PM -- THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1937)
An Englishman who resembles the king of a small European nation gets mixed up in palace intrigue when his look-alike is kidnapped.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll, C. Aubrey Smith
BW-101 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Lyle R. Wheeler, and Best Music, Score -- Alfred Newman

In his first autobiography "Salad Days", Douglas Fairbanks Jr. said that when Raymond Massey told Sir C. Aubrey Smith, who played Colonel Zapt, that he didn't understand his own part of Black Michael, Smith said, "Ray, in my time, I've played every part in Zenda except Princess Flavia, and I've never understood Black Michael either."


12:30 AM -- KISMET (1944)
In the classic Arabian Nights tale, the king of the beggars enters high society to help his daughter marry a handsome prince.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, James Craig
C-100 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Charles Rosher, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Daniel B. Cathcart, Edwin B. Willis and Richard Pefferle, Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD), and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Herbert Stothart

Broadway choreographer Jack Cole worked out all the harem dance routines, and Marlene Dietriech's exotic movements for her specialty dance routine. Jack Cole was uncredited for his film participation. In the 1955 MGM musical film adaptation of the 1953 Broadway musical "Kismet", Producer Arthur Freed brought Jack Cole back to the MGM Lot to replicate and re-stage his Broadway choreography for the film musical.


2:21 AM -- SCENIC GRANDEUR (1941)
This short film highlights the natural beauty of the Northwestern United States.
C-8 mins,


2:30 AM -- LUCKY PARTNERS (1940)
Two strangers who share a sweepstakes ticket take it on the lam.
Dir: Lewis Milestone
Cast: Ronald Colman, Ginger Rogers, Jack Carson
BW-99 mins, CC,

Ginger Rogers turned down the role of Hildy Johnson (eventually played by Rosalind Russell) in the Howard Hawks comedy His Girl Friday (1940) so she could co-star with Ronald Colman in this movie.


4:20 AM -- CAVALCADE OF SAN FRANCISCO (1940)
This short film celebrates the past and present of San Francisco.
C-9 mins,


4:30 AM -- MY LIFE WITH CAROLINE (1941)
A man thinks his high-spirited wife is cheating on him.
Dir: Lewis Milestone
Cast: Ronald Colman, Anna Lee, Charles Winninger
BW-81 mins,

The production company, United Producers Corp., was founded by executive producer William B. Hawks and actor Ronald Colman.