TCM Schedule for Friday, January 7, 2022 -- What's on: Starring Joanne Dru

[Staph]

During the day, it's a salute to Ray Milland, whose birthday was earlier in the week - January 3, 1907. He was born Reginald Alfred John Truscott-Jones, in Neath, Wales. Then in prime time, TCM has a selection of films starring Joanne Dru, who was born in Logan, West Virginia, and raised in Huntington, my current hometown. You are probably much more familiar with her younger brother Peter Marshall, the longtime host of Hollywood Squares. Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- The Bachelor Father (1931)
1h 30m | Comedy | TV-G
An aging Don Juan decides to get better acquainted with his grown children.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Marion Davies, Ralph Forbes, C. Aubrey Smith

Because of the subject of illegitimate children, the movie was banned in Ireland and underwent dialogue deletions in many areas, including Milwaukee, Massachusetts and Virginia.


8:00 AM -- Payment Deferred (1932)
1h 15m | Drama | TV-G
A milquetoast kills for money and finds it a hard habit to break.
Director: Lothar Mendes
Cast: Charles Laughton, Maureen O'sullivan, Ray Milland

The play opened on Broadway in New York City, New York on 30 September 1931 and ran for 70 performances. Charles Laughton originated the role of William Marble. Also in the cast were Elsa Lanchester and Lionel Pape. Five dialogue cuts to remove suggestive remarks were made for the 1939 re-release. Some censors eliminated references to cyanide before allowing the showing of the movie.


9:30 AM -- Wise Girl (1937)
1h 10m | Comedy | TV-G
A rich girl plays poor to win over a Greenwich Village artist.
Director: Leigh Jason
Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Ray Milland, Walter Abel

This movie must hold a record for the most lines by the most characters on a telephone call. Five of them are on extensions in the Fletcher mansion. This humorous exchange has 48 total lines, with 17 by Susan Fletcher (Miriam Hopkins), 16 by John O'Halloran (Ray Miland), 11 by David Larrimore (Russell Hicks), two by Simon Fletcher (Henry Stephenson), and one each by Mike (Guinn Williams) and Joan (Betty Philson). With each change of speaker, the scene changes to show that character.


11:00 AM -- Irene (1940)
1h 41m | Musical | TV-G
An Irish shop girl falls in love with a high-society boy.
Director: Herbert Wilcox
Cast: Anna Neagle, Ray Milland, Roland Young

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Score -- Anthony Collins

About twenty-five minutes of this film are in color, from the moment that Irene (Anna Neagle) enters the ballroom dressed in her blue gown, up through the moment when she returns home and sings the song "Alice Blue Gown". The Alice Blue is a specific shade of icy blue-white named after Alice Roosevelt Longworth, the daughter of President Teddy Roosevelt. "Alice blue" became a fashion sensation and the chic color of the era.


1:00 PM -- A Life of Her Own (1950)
1h 48m | Drama | TV-PG
An innocent small-town girl climbs to the top of the modeling business man by man.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Lana Turner, Ray Milland, Tom Ewell

The ending in the original script had washed-up model Lily James, played by Lana Turner, at forty-five years of age working as a hotel maid. The original ending as filmed had Lily James committing suicide, following in the footsteps of Mary Ashton, the older model Lily meets earlier in the film who jumps to her death from a window. After filming finished in late March 1950 the film was shown to test audiences who gave such a negative reaction to this ending that retakes were done in mid-April 1950, to provide the film with the happier ending that's used in the finished film, much to the dismay of director George Cukor.


3:00 PM -- Close to My Heart (1951)
1h 30m | Drama | TV-PG
A journalist's wife insists on adopting an abandoned child.
Director: William Keighley
Cast: Ray Milland, Gene Tierney, Fay Bainter

Based on the novel A Baby for Midge by James R. Webb.


4:45 PM -- Night into Morning (1951)
1h 26m | Drama | TV-G
After a fire kills his family, a college professor sinks into alcoholism.
Director: Fletcher Markle
Cast: Ray Milland, John Hodiak, Nancy Reagan

One of two films starring Ray Milland that deals with alcoholism and co-stars a wife of Ronald Reagan. This one features his second wife, Nancy Reagan (aka Nancy Davis), and the other--The Lost Weekend (1945)--features his first wife, Jane Wyman.


6:15 PM -- The Safecracker (1958)
1h 36m | War | TV-PG
A reformed burglar calls on his criminal skills to aid the war effort.
Director: Ray Milland
Cast: Ray Milland, Barry Jones, Jeannette Sterke

In 1958, MGM released this film on a double bill with Underwater Warrior (1958) and the tag line "UNDERSEA PERILS and UNDERCOVER THRILLS!"



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- STARRING JOANNE DRU



8:00 PM -- Red River (1948)
2h 5m | Western | TV-PG
A young cowhand rebels against his rancher stepfather during a perilous cattle drive.
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Borden Chase, and Best Film Editing -- Christian Nyby

Howard Hawks was distressed by what he considered John Ireland's unprofessional and lecherous behavior during filming, which were partially due to the actor's alcoholism. This contributed to Ireland's part, "Cherry Valance", being drastically reduced in the finished film. However, others on the film--notably writer Borden Chase--have said that Hawks' main problem with Ireland was that that they were both competing for the affections of Joanne Dru and Hawks found himself on the losing end (Ireland and Dru were married a year later) and took out his resentment at his loss on Ireland. Hawks later called Chase "an idiot," a heavy drinker and philanderer who didn't know what he was talking about, adding that the real reason he cut Ireland's scenes was because the actor was always getting drunk, stoned on marijuana, and losing his hat and gun.


10:30 PM -- 711 Ocean Drive (1950)
1h 42m | Crime | TV-PG
A telephone repairman gets mixed up with illegal gambling.
Director: Joseph M. Newman
Cast: Edmond O'brien, Joanne Dru, Otto Kruger

Boulder Dam is actually Hoover Dam. Congress authorized the Boulder Canyon Dam Project in 1931 and, it being traditional to name big federal dam projects after the sitting President, named it Hoover Dam. Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Herbert Hoover in 1932 but could not officially change the name set by Congress. Harold Ickes (FDR's Interior Secretary), however, issued a memo directing that his employees " . . . will refer to the dam as 'Boulder Dam' in this pamphlet as well as in correspondence and other references . . . . " In 1947, after Roosevelt and Ickes had died, Congress passed a resolution to restore the name of Hoover Dam. Until that time, however, all official, tourist and other promotional materials called it Boulder Dam. The public's recognition with the old name was still apparent in the movie (released in 1950) through the script and the highway signage seen en route.


12:30 AM -- Thunder Bay (1953)
1h 42m | Adventure | TV-PG
Oil men battle fishermen for the rights to drill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Director: Anthony Mann
Cast: James Stewart, Joanne Dru, Gilbert Roland

Although filmed in the standard 1.37-1 aspect ratio, this film was chosen by Universal-International as its first widescreen feature, accomplishing this by cropping the top and bottom and projecting it at 1.85-1 at Loew's State Theatre in New York City, as well as other sites. Its initial presentation also marked U-I's first use of directional stereophonic sound.


2:30 AM -- Rock 'N' Roll High School (1979)
1h 33m | Musical | TV-14
A high-school hellcat will stop at nothing to meet her favorite band-The Ramones.
Director: Allan Arkush
Cast: P.j. Soles, Vince Van Patten, Clint Howard

Originally, Todd Rundgren was to star as the musical act, but both sides could not come to an agreement. Next, Cheap Trick was contacted, but a similar situation happened. After that, talks were conducted with Warner Bros. Records, where Allan Arkush had a connection, to decide on which band they should use in the film. The first suggestion was Devo, but Arkush decided that they had too much of their own concept. Another band considered for the movie was Van Halen, but Warner execs warned Arkush that they were raucous and would be difficult to handle. Finally, an exec name-dropped the Ramones, who recorded for Sire Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records. Arkush, being a huge fan of the band, agreed. To this day, Rundgren regrets passing up the role he was offered.


4:15 AM -- Eating Raoul (1982)
1h 23m | Comedy | TV-MA
A Los Angeles couple discover a bizarre way to fund their new restaurant.
Director: Paul Bartel
Cast: Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel, Robert Beltran

Robert Beltran originally turned down the lead role of Raoul, stating, "No way--I don't do those kinds of movies!". However, after Paul Bartel told Beltran that Paul Bartel had been the director of Death Race 2000 (1975), Beltran came on board as he had liked the film, which he had just seen a few days earlier at the drive-in.