TCM Schedule for Saturday, August 14, 2021 -- Summer Under the Stars: Gregory Peck

Today's star is the incomparable Gregory Peck. I've been a huge fan for years, but I never realized that Peck was an unabashed liberal. For example,

• In 1947, at the beginning of the anti-communist investigations in Hollywood, Peck signed a letter deploring the witch hunts despite being warned his signature could hurt his career.
  
• Campaigned for Harry S. Truman in the 1948 presidential election.
  
• He was a lifelong opponent of nuclear weapons, and made On the Beach (1959) for this reason.
  
• Marched with Martin Luther King.
  
• Seriously considered challenging then California Governor Ronald Reagan's re-election campaign in 1970 but decided against it at the last minute despite state and national pressure from the Democrat Party of California and The Democratic National Committee.
  
• He was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War, while remaining supportive of his son who was serving there.
  
• Appeared on President Richard Nixon's infamous "enemies list" in 1972.
  
• In 1987, he joined Burt Lancaster, Martin Sheen and Lloyd Bridges in narrating a TV commercial for People for the American Way, opposing the confirmation of President Ronald Reagan's nominee to the Supreme Court, ultra-conservative judge Robert Bork. Bork, who came under intense criticism in part because of his past vociferous opposition to civil rights laws, ultimately failed to be confirmed by the Senate.
  
• He was close friend with Jane Fonda, and frequently attended political rallies with her.
  
• As a board member of Handgun Control Inc. (along with Martin Sheen and Susan Sarandon), Peck was sometimes criticized for his friendship with Charlton Heston, a longtime advocate of gun ownership who served as President of the National Rifle Assocation (NRA) from 1998 to 2003. When anti-gun activist James Brady, who'd been grievously wounded during the assassination attempt on his boss, Ronald Reagan, asked him why, Peck replied, "We're colleagues rather than friends. We're civil to each other when we meet. I, of course, disagree vehemently with him on gun control.".
  
• In 1997, as a presenter at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) awards ceremony, he said, "It just seems silly to me that something so right and simple has to be fought for at all.".

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- How the West Was Won (1962)
2h 35m | Epic | TV-G
Three generations of pioneers take part in the forging of the American West.
Director: John Ford
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Carroll Baker, Lee J. Cobb

Winner of Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- James R. Webb, Best Sound -- Franklin Milton (M-G-M SSD), and Best Film Editing -- Harold F. Kress

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- William H. Daniels, Milton R. Krasner, Charles Lang and Joseph LaShelle, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- George W. Davis, William Ferrari, Addison Hehr, Henry Grace, Don Greenwood Jr. and Jack Mills, Best Costume Design, Color --
Walter Plunkett, Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Alfred Newman and Ken Darby, and Best Picture

Frank Sinatra was originally intended for the Gregory Peck role.


9:00 AM -- The Valley of Decision (1945)
1h 51m | Romance | TV-PG
An Irish housemaid's romance with the boss's son is complicated by labor disputes in the Pittsburgh mills.
Director: Tay Garnett
Cast: Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, Donald Crisp

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Herbert Stothart

Despite her youthful appearance, Greer Garson was twelve years older than her leading man, Gregory Peck.


11:00 AM -- The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)
1h 54m | Drama | TV-PG
As he fights a deadly jungle fever, a hunter remembers his lost loves.
Director: Henry King
Cast: Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward, Ava Gardner

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Leon Shamroy, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Lyle R. Wheeler, John DeCuir, Thomas Little and Paul S. Fox

In the scene where Gregory Peck lifts up Ava Gardner, he threw out his knee and production had to close down while he recovered. Unfortunately, all the scenes of his lying down in his sickbed had been shot already.


1:00 PM -- Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)
1h 57m | Adventure | TV-G
The famed 19th century hero defeats enemy fleets and courts an admiral's widow.
Director: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty

The rights to the novel were originally acquired by Warner Brothers with Errol Flynn in mind, but after the financial failure of Adventures of Don Juan (1948), and growing difficulties with the actor, he was not cast. Warner Brothers was already building up Burt Lancaster as its new swashbuckler, but the role of a British sea Captain seemed out of his range, so Gregory Peck was ultimately cast.


3:15 PM -- Moby Dick (1956)
1h 56m | Epic | TV-PG
Epic adaptation of Herman Melville's classic about a vengeful sea captain out to catch the great white whale.
Director: John Huston
Cast: Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, Leo Genn

Gregory Peck initially blamed the poor reviews of his performance on the script, which he felt contained "too much prose from the novel". However, he later acknowledged that he had been too young for the part at 38, since Captain Ahab was supposed to be an old man at the end of his career (Ahab's age, as implied in the book's chapter "The Symphony", is 58). He added, "The film required more. At the time, I didn't have more in me."


5:30 PM -- Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
2h 12m | War | TV-PG
The head of a World War II bomber squadron cracks under the pressure.
Director: Henry King
Cast: Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Dean Jagger, and Best Sound, Recording -- Thomas T. Moulton

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gregory Peck, and Best Picture

Gregory Peck initially turned down the script, feeling that it was too similar to the then-popular play/ film Command Decision (1948). One of the reasons why he changed his tune was because he was impressed with 20th Century-Fox house director, Henry King. Although they had never worked together before, Peck found King's empathy with the material and his cast and crew to be highly appealing. The two would go on to make five more films together: The Gunfighter (1950), David and Bathsheba (1951), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), The Bravados (1958) and Beloved Infidel (1959).



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS -- GREGORY PECK



8:00 PM -- The Big Country (1958)
2h 46m | Western | TV-PG
Feuding families vie for water rights in the old West.
Director: William Wyler
Cast: Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Burl Ives

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Jerome Moross

Only film to feature Gregory Peck and his sons Jonathan Peck, Carey Paul Peck and Stephen Peck.


11:00 PM -- The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956)
2h 33m | Drama | TV-PG
A man returns home after World War II and finds it tough to support his wife and child.
Director: Nunnally Johnson
Cast: Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones, Fredric March

One of Gregory Peck's movie children was played by Portland Mason, who was the daughter of actor James Mason, and an Italian delivery boy was played by Johnny Crawford a few years before he would achieve fame on the popular TV Western, "The Rifleman".


1:45 AM -- The Omen (1976)
1h 51m | Horror | TV-14
The young son of an American diplomat and his wife, living in London, turns out to be marked with the sign of Satan, 666.
Director: Richard Donner
Cast: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Original Score -- Jerry Goldsmith

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jerry Goldsmith for the song "Ave Satani"

According to at least one biography of Gregory Peck, he took this role at a huge cut in salary (a mere $250,000) but was also guaranteed 10% of the film's box office gross. When it went on to gross more than $60 million in the U.S. alone, it became the highest-paid performance of Peck's career.


3:45 AM -- The Sea Wolves (1980)
2h | Adventure | TV-PG
During WWII, the British send older retired soldiers to attack a German ship in a neutral port.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen
Cast: Gregory Peck, Roger Moore, Trevor Howard

Many of the lead cast were quite old to be appearing in an action movie. Gregory Peck was 63, Trevor Howard was 66, and David Niven was 69. Their ages were reflective, though, of the movie's unique story.