TCM Schedule for Thursday, September 30, 2021 -- 100th Birthday Tribute: Deborah Kerr

All day and night, TCM is celebrating the beautiful and talented Deborah Kerr, born 100 years ago today, in Glasgow, Scotland. From her mini-bio on IMDB:

Born Deborah Jane Trimmer in Glasgow, Scotland in 1921, she was the daughter of a soldier who had been gassed in World War I. A shy, insecure child, she found an outlet for expressing her feelings in acting. Her aunt, a radio star, got her some stage work when she was a teenager, and she came to the attention of British film producer Gabriel Pascal, who cast her in his film version of George Bernard Shaw's "Major Barbara" (Major Barbara (1941)) and Love on the Dole (1941). She quickly became a star of the British cinema, playing such diverse roles as the three women in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and the nun in Black Narcissus (1947).

In 1947, she "crossed the pond" to Hollywood and came to MGM, where she found success in films like The Hucksters (1947), Edward, My Son (1949) and Quo Vadis (1951). After a while, however, she tired of playing prim-and-proper English ladies, so she made the most of the role of the adulteress who romps on the beach with Burt Lancaster in From Here to Eternity (1953). The film was a success, and Kerr received her second Oscar nomination. She also achieved success on the Broadway stage in "Tea and Sympathy", reprising her role in the 1956 film version of the same name. (Tea and Sympathy (1956)). That same year she played one of her best-remembered screen roles, "Mrs. Anna" in The King and I (1956). More success followed in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), An Affair to Remember (1957), Separate Tables (1958), The Sundowners (1960), The Innocents (1961) and The Night of the Iguana (1964).

In 1968, she quit movies, appalled by the explicit sex and violence of the day. After some stage and TV work in the 1970s and 1980s and swan song performances in The Assam Garden (1985) and Hold the Dream (1986), she retired from acting altogether. Kerr holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations for Best Actress without a win (six), but that was made up for in 1994, when she was given an Honorary Oscar for her screen achievements.

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- The Hucksters (1947)
1h 55m | Drama | TV-PG
A war veteran fights for honesty in the advertising game.
Director: Jack Conway
Cast: Clark Gable, Deborah Kerr, Sydney Greenstreet

Clark Gable sought to make a nervous Deborah Kerr feel relaxed when shooting commenced. He sent her six dozen roses on the first day, and "the two hit it off beautifully from the beginning, on and off the set."


8:00 AM -- I See A Dark Stranger (1946)
1h 52m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
An Irish woman who hates the English turns Nazi spy.
Director: Frank Launder
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Trevor Howard, Raymond Huntley

The film was to have featured Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne as their characters Charters and Caldicott. However the actors demanded more screen-time than the producers were prepared to give them. The roles played by Garry Marsh (Goodhusband) and Tom Macaulay (Spanswick) are thinly disguised versions of Charters and Caldicott.


10:00 AM -- Marriage on the Rocks (1965)
1h 49m | Comedy | TV-PG
A couple divorces by mistake during a madcap Mexican vacation.
Director: Jack Donohue
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr, Dean Martin

Someone in Mexico took exception to the idea of their country being a place for quickie divorces or marriages, and convinced the government to block Frank Sinatra (for a time) from entering Mexico, even though he owned property there.


12:00 PM -- Dream Wife (1953)
1h 41m | Comedy | TV-G
For state reasons, a diplomat fakes an engagement to a Middle Eastern princess.
Director: Sidney Sheldon
Cast: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Walter Pidgeon

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Helen Rose and Herschel McCoy

First of three movies that paired Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant.


1:45 PM -- The Innocents (1961)
1h 39m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
A governess convinces herself the children in her charge are haunted.
Director: Jack Clayton
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Peter Wyngarde, Megs Jenkins

Deborah Kerr always regarded this as her finest performance.


3:45 PM -- Tea and Sympathy (1956)
2h 2m | Drama | TV-PG
A faculty wife risks her marriage to help a troubled teen tormented by his fellow students.
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Deborah Kerr, John Kerr, Leif Erickson

The original stage production of Tea and Sympathy ends with the line, "When you speak of this in future years...and you will...be kind." Fearing censorship, MGM insisted upon an epilogue indicating that Deborah Kerr's character deeply regretted her "wrong" behavior of offering herself to young Tom.


6:00 PM -- Black Narcissus (1947)
1h 39m | Drama | TV-14
Nuns founding a convent in the Himalayas are tormented by the area's exotic beauty.
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar

Winner of Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Jack Cardiff, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Alfred Junge

Writer, Producer, and Director Michael Powell was reluctant to cast Deborah Kerr, fearing she was too young at twenty-five to play a sister superior. Writer, Producer, and Director Emeric Pressburger pushed for her to be given the role, which ended up becoming her breakout and getting her the attention of Hollywood.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: DAYTIME & PRIMETIME THEME -- 100th BIRTHDAY: DEBORAH KERR



8:00 PM -- An Affair to Remember (1957)
1h 55m | Romance | TV-PG
A romantic shipboard romance inspires a couple to promise to meet six months later on the top of the Empire State Building.
Director: Leo McCarey
Cast: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Milton R. Krasner, Best Costume Design -- Charles Le Maire, Best Music, Original Song -- Harry Warren (music), Harold Adamson (lyrics) and Leo McCarey (lyrics) for the song "An Affair to Remember", and Best Music, Scoring -- Hugo Friedhofer

Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant improvised many of their scenes throughout filming, and a number of lines that made it to the final cut of the film came from the actors' improvisation.


10:15 PM -- The Grass Is Greener (1961)
1h 45m | Comedy | TV-PG
Impoverished aristocrats consider splitting up to pursue wealthy spouses.
Director: Stanley Donen
Cast: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum

Third of four movies starring Kerr and Mitchum, and the last of the three films with Kerr and Grant.


12:15 AM -- From Here to Eternity (1953)
1h 58m | Drama | TV-PG
Enlisted men in Hawaii fight for love and honor on the eve of World War II.
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Frank Sinatra, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Donna Reed, Best Director -- Fred Zinnemann, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Daniel Taradash, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Burnett Guffey, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), Best Film Editing -- William A. Lyon, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Montgomery Clift, Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Burt Lancaster, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Deborah Kerr, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Jean Louis, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Morris Stoloff and George Duning

Joan Crawford was originally meant to play Karen Holmes, but when she insisted on shooting the film with her own cameraman, the studio balked. They decided to take a chance and cast Deborah Kerr, who then was struggling with her ladylike stereotype, to play the adulterous military wife who has an affair with Burt Lancaster. The casting worked and Ms. Kerr's career, thereafter, enjoyed a new, sexier versatility.


2:30 AM -- Quo Vadis (1951)
2h 51m | Epic | TV-PG
A Roman commander falls for a Christian slave girl as Nero intensifies persecution of the new religion.
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Cast: Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Leo Genn

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Leo Genn, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Peter Ustinov, Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert Surtees and William V. Skall, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- William A. Horning, Cedric Gibbons, Edward C. Carfagno and Hugh Hunt, Best Costume Design, Color -- Herschel McCoy, Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa, and Best Picture

In his memoirs, "Dear Me" (1981), Sir Peter Ustinov recalled that MGM had sought him for the role of Emperor Nero, but dithered for months, refusing to commit. During this time, he received numerous telegrams from the studio, one of which stated that they were concerned that he might be too young to play the notorious Roman Emperor. Ustinov replied that Emperor Nero died when he was thirty, and that if they waited much longer, he'd be too old. The studio cabled back: "Historical research has proved you correct. You have the part." Coincidentally (or not), Ustinov was 30 years old when this movie was released.


5:30 AM -- MGM Parade Show #19 (1955)
25m | Documentary | TV-G
Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly perform in a clip from Ziegfeld Follies.