TCM Schedule for Thursday, September 7, 2017 -- What's On Tonight: Werner Herzog

In the daylight hours, TCM is showing a selection of films directed by Elia Kazan. From IMDB: "Known for his creative stage direction, Elia Kazan was born Elias Kazantzoglou on September 7, 1909 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey). Noted for drawing out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He directed a string of successful films, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954), and East of Eden (1955). During his career, he won two Oscars as Best Director and received an Honorary Oscar, won three Tony Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards."

Then in prime time, it's a tribute to director Werner Herzog. From the TCM website:

Described by French filmmaker Francois Truffaut as "the most important film director alive," German-born Werner Herzog has also distinguished himself as a screenwriter, author, actor and director of operas. Born in 1942 in Munich, Herzog became a leader of the West German cinema movement and has won numerous international awards for his films. He moved to the U.S. in 1996 and currently lives in Los Angeles.

All four movies in our Herzog tribute are TCM premieres, and each concerns a man on a seemingly impossible quest. Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972) concerns a Spanish soldier (Klaus Kinski) who seeks a legendary city of gold in South America. Stroszek (1977) follows the misadventures of a Berlin street performer (Bruno S.) in search of the American Dream in Wisconsin. Fitzcarraldo (1982) is about an Irishman (Klaus Kinski) determined to capture a shipping route on the Amazon so he can bring grand opera to Peru. And Cobra Verde (1988) tells of a Brazilian bandit (Klaus Kinski yet again) who is sent to West Africa to try and resume the slave trade with Brazil.

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- BABY DOLL (1956)
A child bride holds her husband at bay while flirting with a sexy Italian farmer.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach
BW-115 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Carroll Baker, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Mildred Dunnock, Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Adapted -- Tennessee Williams, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Boris Kaufman

Feature film debut of Rip Torn and Eli Wallach.


8:00 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

The film's title comes from the poem, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" by William Wordsworth:
"Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendour in the grass,
of glory in the flower,
we will grieve not,
rather find strength in what remains behind."


10:15 AM -- THE SEA OF GRASS (1947)
Husband-and-wife ranchers take opposite sides in a range war.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Walker
BW-124 mins, CC,

In his autobiography, Elia Kazan said of this film: "It's the only picture I've ever made that I'm ashamed of. Don't see it."


12:30 PM -- AMERICA AMERICA (1963)
A young Greek stops at nothing to secure a passage to America.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Stathis Giallelis, Frank Wolff, Harry Davis
BW-168 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Gene Callahan

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Elia Kazan, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Elia Kazan, and Best Picture

Of all the films he had directed, this one was Elia Kazan's favorite film, as it was very personal to him.


3:30 PM -- A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957)
A female television executive turns a folk-singing drifter into a powerful media star.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa
BW-126 mins, CC,

The Lonesome Rhodes character was based on several real-life personalities, including Arthur Godfrey, Huey Long, Will Rogers, and even Billy Graham.


5:45 PM -- A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)
A fading southern belle tries to build a new life with her sister in New Orleans.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter
BW-125 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Vivien Leigh (Vivien Leigh was not present at the awards ceremony. Greer Garson accepted on her behalf.), Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Karl Malden, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Kim Hunter (Kim Hunter was not present at the awards ceremony. Bette Davis accepted on her behalf.), and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Richard Day and George James Hopkins

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Marlon Brando, Best Director -- Elia Kazan, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Tennessee Williams, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Lucinda Ballard, Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros.), Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Alex North, and Best Picture

Mickey Kuhn, who plays the young sailor who helps Vivien Leigh onto the streetcar at the beginning of the film, had previously appeared with Leigh in Gone with the Wind (1939) as Beau Wilkes (the child of Olivia de Havilland's character Melanie), toward the end of that film when the character was age 5. When Mickey Kuhn mentioned this to someone else on the set of "A Streetcar Named Desire," word got back to Leigh and she called him into her dressing room for a half-hour chat. In an interview in his seventies, Kuhn stated that Leigh was extremely kind to him and was "one of the loveliest ladies he had ever met."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: WERNER HERZOG



8:00 PM -- FITZCARRALDO (1982)
The story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an extremely determined man who intends to build an opera house in the middle of a jungle.
Dir: Werner Herzog
Cast: Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale, Jose Lewgoy
C-157 mins, Letterbox Format

Klaus Kinski was a major source of tension on set, as he fought virulently with the crew and raged over trivial matters. The natives where very upset about his behaviour. Werner Herzog has claimed that it went so far that one of the chieftains offered, in all seriousness, to murder Kinski for Herzog.


10:45 PM -- STROSZEK (1977)
In Berlin, an alcoholic, joins his elderly friend and a prostitute in a determined dream to leave Germany and seek a better life in Wisconsin.
Dir: Werner Herzog
Cast: Bruno Stroszek, Eva Mattes, Clemens Scheitz
C-108 mins,

The entire crew disliked the last sequence so much that director Werner Herzog had to shoot it by himself. Incidentally, he considers this scene the best he has filmed.


12:48 AM -- 100 YEARS AT THE MOVIES (1994)
This short documentary celebrates the centennial of American filmmaking through a montage of clips of influential motion pictures.
Dir: Chuck Workman
C-9 mins,


1:00 AM -- AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD (1972)
In the 16th century, Don Lope de Aguirre leads a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado.
Dir: Werner Herzog
Cast: Klaus Kinski, Helena Rojo, Ruy Guerra
C-94 mins,

Werner Herzog talks about in his commentary how he had to manipulate star Klaus Kinski into getting the performance he wanted in the films they worked on together. For example, Kinski wanted to express Aguirre's madness at the end of the film through very loud shouting and be very obvious. Herzog had him do this for an hour and a half until Kinski grew tired and couldn't perform that way. So he was very quiet and much more contained, which is the performance that exists in the film's ending.


2:45 AM -- COBRA VERDE (1988)
The feared bandit Cobra Verde is hired by a plantation owner to supervise his slaves but soon exacts revenge.
Dir: Werner Herzog
Cast: Klaus Kinski, King Ampaw, Jose Lewgoy
C-110 mins, Letterbox Format

Werner Herzog's notoriously combative relationship with Klaus Kinski reached something of a pitch in their final collaboration. A famous picture taken onset shows Kinski attempting to throttle Herzog in front of a crowd of African extras. Herzog discusses the picture with photographer Beat Presser in the documentary My Best Fiend (1999): Herzog thinks that Kinski, aware of the camera, wanted to create a dramatic moment (Presser thinks Kinski was genuinely trying to kill him).


4:45 AM -- BURDEN OF DREAMS (1982)
Director Werner Herzog combats bad weather, morale problems and a South American war to make his epic Fitzcarraldo.
Dir: Les Blank
Cast: Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale
BW-95 mins, CC,