TCM Schedule for Thursday, August 25, 2022 -- Summer Under The Stars: Gilbert Roland

The Star on this summer day is Gilbert Roland. From his TCMDb biography:

As a boy in Mexico Gilbert Roland dreamed of being a bullfighter. But when his family moved to the United States his dreams turned to Hollywood and his name changed from Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso to Gilbert Roland, an homage to his favorite performers: John Gilbert and Ruth Roland. As a handsome young man, Roland established his niche early on as a Latin lover, playing opposite silent screen star Clara Bow in the college-set comedy "The Plastic Age." Many romantic roles followed, as did leading roles in Spanish adaptations of American films. In the 1940s, Roland went from matinee idol to respected actor as he developed the recurring character The Cisco Kid, a heroic but brutal Mexican caballero. The Kid first stepped out in the 1946 action-packed film "The Gay Cavalier." Roland went on to appear in six films as the daring cowboy, his fame rising with each new adventure. In 1953, Roland earned the acclaim he sought when his supporting role in the Vincente Minnelli Hollywood-set romance "The Bad and the Beautiful" garnered him a Golden Globe nod. He'd receive a second nomination in 1964 for his portrayal of Second Lieutenant Scott in the bleak John Ford Western "Cheyenne Autumn." The bold-browed actor worked in film until the early 1980s, appearing in more than 100 movies before his death from cancer at age 88. For his contributions to American cinema, Roland was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Men of the North (1930)
1h 1m | Drama | TV-G
Mounties track gold mine robbers.
Director: Hal Roach
Cast: Gilbert Roland, Barbara Leonard, Arnold Korff

In the early days of sound films, before dubbing was perfected, foreign-language versions were made of many talkies. Roach also directed versions of this in French, Spanish, German and Italian. The Spanish version also had Gilbert Roland in the role of "Louis LeBey," while the character was played by (future director) John Reinhardt for the German version, André Luguet in the French one and Franco Corsaro in the Italian one. Additionally, Barbara Leonard, who spoke five languages, also appeared in the French, German and Italian versions.


7:15 AM -- Our Betters (1933)
1h 23m | Drama | TV-PG
An American heiress marries into the British nobility.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Constance Bennett, Violet Kemble-cooper, Phoebe Foster

Gilbert Roland, who plays Pepi, was one of Constance Bennett's 5 husbands. They wed in 1941, 8 years after this movie.


8:45 AM -- Gambling on the High Seas (1940)
56m | Drama | TV-G
A reporter tries to nail a gambling-ship owner for murder.
Director: George Amy
Cast: Wayne Morris, Jane Wyman, Gilbert Roland

This film might have the most headlines and articles used per minute in a Hollywood feature. Newspaper pages are flashed on screen 22 times in 55 minutes for an average of once every two and a half minutes.


10:00 AM -- The French Line (1954)
1h 42m | Musical | TV-G
A Texas heiress masquerades as a model in hopes of finding true love.
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Jane Russell, Gilbert Roland, Arthur Hunnicutt

Jane Russell's dance to "Looking For Trouble" was shot in two versions. For the American release, she did her pelvic "bumps" behind a flower planter. For the European release, the "bumps" were done without anything hiding them.


12:00 PM -- Underwater! (1955)
1h 39m | Adventure | TV-PG
Divers race the clock to find a Caribbean treasure before modern-day pirates can catch up to them.
Director: John Sturges
Cast: Jane Russell, Gilbert Roland, Richard Egan

Gilbert Roland was afraid of water, especially during the cloudy water sequences.


2:00 PM -- Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953)
1h 42m | Adventure | TV-G
Love brings together two families of rival sponge fishers.
Director: Robert D. Webb
Cast: Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, Gilbert Roland

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Edward Cronjager

Filmed in Tarpon Springs, FL. As of 2019 is it still the home of the natural sponge industry in the US, and has the highest percentage of Greek-Americans of any city in the country.


4:00 PM -- The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952)
1h 42m | Drama | TV-G
Three children from a small village claim to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary.
Director: John Brahm
Cast: Gilbert Roland, Angela Clark, Frank Silvera

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

The principal character in the movie aside from the children, Hugo da Silva, their agnostic, fortune-hunting but lovable friend played by Gilbert Roland, was actually a fictitious person, introduced to soften the impact of a sectarian movie on the wider public. He does not appear in "La Señora de Fátima", the 1951 black-and-white Spanish film version of the story made just prior to this one.


6:00 PM -- The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
1h 58m | Drama | TV-PG
An unscrupulous movie producer uses everyone around him in his climb to the top.
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gloria Grahame, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Charles Schnee, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Robert Surtees, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Edward C. Carfagno, Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Helen Rose

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Kirk Douglas

The character of Shields is regarded as a mixture of producer David O. Selznick, Orson Welles and producer Val Lewton. Georgia, the alcoholic daughter of an iconic actor, is very clearly based on Diana Barrymore. Bartlow, the college professor turned best-selling author turned screenwriter, is thought to be based on Paul Green, a UNC professor who followed a similar career track. Gilbert Roland's appearance as Gaucho is seen as a self-parody; the Mexican-born actor, once a star in silent dramas, had just appeared as The Cisco Kid in a string of B westerns.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS -- GILBERT ROLAND



8:00 PM -- Beauty and the Bandit (1946)
1h 17m | Western
Love complicates the Cisco Kid's plans to return stolen money to the poor.
Director: William Nigh
Cast: Gilbert Roland, Martin Garralaga, Frank Yaconelli

Although Glenn Strange has a fine singing voice, and sang in a number of B westerns, his voice is dubbed when his character, Sailor Bill, sings Blow the Man Down.


9:30 PM -- Robin Hood of Monterey (1947)
55m | Western
The Cisco Kid tries to help a man framed for killing his father.
Director: Christy Cabanne
Cast: Gilbert Roland, Chris Pin Martin, Evelyn Brent

The Cisco Kid is a fictional character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way", published in Everybody's Magazine, v17, July 1907, well as in the collection Heart of the West. Originally a murderous criminal in O. Henry's story, the Kid was depicted as a heroic Mexican caballero later in films, radio and television adaptations.


10:45 PM -- Apache War Smoke (1952)
1h 7m | Western | TV-G
A killer joins stagecoach passengers under attack by Indians.
Director: Harold Kress
Cast: Gilbert Roland, Glenda Farrell, Robert Horton

This is a remake of MGM's Apache Trail and contains stock footage from that film.


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

Fictionalized depiction of the first offshore oil well, defined as being out of sight of land. Drilling began on 9 September 1947 on a rig owned by the Kerr-McGee Corporation in 15 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico, 10.5 miles off the coast of Louisiana.


2:30 AM -- Guns of the Timberland (1960)
1h 31m | Western | TV-PG
Logging partners with a government contract lock horns with a rancher and her neighbors.
Director: Robert D. Webb
Cast: Alan Ladd, Jeanne Crain, Gilbert Roland

The film was shot on location in and around Blairsden, California, Graeagle, California, and other locations throughout Plumas County. The scenes involving the steam engine and railroad cars were shot on the Western Pacific Railroad right-of-way. The scene where the steam engine goes over the tall bridge was shot using the Clio Trestle.


4:15 AM -- Glory Alley (1952)
1h 19m | Drama | TV-G
A boxer's drinking problem threatens his career and his love life.
Director: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Ralph Meeker, Leslie Caron, Kurt Kaszner

Ironically, the non-musical Glory Alley (1952) marked the heaviest on-screen singing role for Leslie Caron. Her club act vocals, rendered largely in French, illustrate that she was indeed able to sing professionally in her native tongue, as French music historically requires less vibrato and pitch than does English. In her musicals, Caron was rarely called upon to sing. She made history in "An American in Paris" (1951) as the first and last leading lady in a major Hollywood musical to not sing a note. She sang only song (plus a single line of "Something's Gotta Give&quot in "Daddy Long Legs" (1955) and was dubbed entirely in "Gigi" (1958), though at least part of her vocal for "The Parisians" surely could have been salvaged. The irony is that Caron, of all people, emerged with a hit single in the immortal "Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo" from "Lili" (1953).