TCM Schedule for Thursday, December 15, 2022 -- What's On Tonight: Star of the Month Ava Gardner

In the daylight hours, it's all about Mary Astor - not her birthday but it's always a good day to celebrate her talent and beauty. A point of personal privilege - my dad once had a job at the Cut Bank, Montana, airport. He used to tell us that part of his responsibility was to act as the customs agent for flights coming in from nearby Canada, which meant that he once looked through Mary Astor's luggage, and rummaged through her undies, looking for contraband.

Then in prime time, it's the third week of Star of the Month, Ava Gardner, covering her work as a 60s Siren, as well as Ava and the Armed Forces. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Other Men's Women (1931)
1h 10m | Drama | TV-PG
A railroad engineer falls for a co-worker's wife.
Director: William A. Wellman
Cast: Grant Withers, Mary Astor, Regis Toomey

This film was first released as "The Steel Highway" and even reviewed under that title. However, it opened in New York City, New York as "Other Men's Women" in April 1931.


7:15 AM -- Behind Office Doors (1931)
1h 26m | Drama | TV-G
An under-appreciated secretary finds a new job and takes her former boss's success with her.
Director: Melville Brown
Cast: Mary Astor, Robert Ames, Ricardo Cortez

Duneen hires Daisy at $50/week - prompting a concerned look from Mary (Mary Astor). She had a good reason as the average salary for all workers in 1931 was $35/week, and secretaries on average made only $20/week.


9:00 AM -- The Sin Ship (1931)
1h 5m | Romance | TV-G
A ship's captain fights to protect a female passenger from his crew.
Director: Louis Wolheim
Cast: Louis Wolheim, Mary Astor, Ian Keith

At one point in the movie, Mary Astor, as Frisco Kitty, tells her partner Ian Keith, as Smiley Marsden, that Captain McVey "just pulled the Hairy Ape routine on me". "The Hairy Ape" was a 1922 play by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. Its star was none other than Louis Wolheim who plays Captain McVey in this film. Wolheim was the first actor to play the role of Yank. His performance propelled Wolheim into Broadway stardom and made him famous.


10:15 AM -- Smart Woman (1931)
1h 8m | Comedy | TV-G
A woman plots to make her cheating husband jealous.
Director: Gregory La Cava
Cast: Mary Astor, Robert Ames, John Halliday

During filming, Mary Astor was 25 years old, and Robert Ames (who played her husband) was 42.


11:30 AM -- Men of Chance (1932)
1h 3m | Drama | TV-G
Gamblers go after a man with a knack for picking winning horses.
Director: George Archainbaud
Cast: Ricardo Cortez, Mary Astor, John Halliday

Richard Cortez starred in the original 1931 version of "The Maltese Falcon." Ten years later, Mary Astor starred in the more famous remake.


12:45 PM -- The Lost Squadron (1932)
1h 12m | Drama | TV-G
Veteran flyers from World War I find work as movie stuntmen.
Director: George Archainbaud
Cast: Richard Dix, Mary Astor, Robert Armstrong

When Erich von Stroheim was first offered the part of the mad director, the character was called "Erich von Stroheim." Understandably upset at being asked to play himself as a homicidal maniac, Stroheim agreed to do the film only if the character's name were changed.


2:15 PM -- A Successful Calamity (1932)
1h 12m | Comedy | TV-G
A family pulls together to help a member in financial trouble.
Director: John G. Adolfi
Cast: George Arliss, Mary Astor, Evalyn Knapp

The play by Clare Kummer originally opened on Broadway at the Booth Theatre on 5 February 1917, and ran for 144 performances before closing for the summer (there was no air conditioning in those days). It then reopened on 10 October 1917 at the Plymouth Theatre. The opening night cast included Katharine Alexander, William Gillette, Estelle Winwood and Roland Young.


3:45 PM -- The Kennel Murder Case (1933)
1h 13m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
Society sleuth Philo Vance investigates a murder tied to a Long Island dog show.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: William Powell, Mary Astor, Eugene Pallette

Dr. Doremus' repeated line "I'm a doctor not a . . . " was later used as the catchphrase of DeForest Kelley's character Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy on Star Trek (1966).


5:15 PM -- Easy to Love (1934)
1h 1m | Comedy | TV-G
When she thinks her husband has been unfaithful, a woman claims to be having an affair of her own.
Director: William Keighley
Cast: Genevieve Tobin, Adolphe Menjou, Mary Astor

This is one of many films in which Mary Astor is "the other woman" but the timing of this film is interesting in that Astor's personal life was about to erupt into scandal. At the time, she was married to Dr. Franklyn Thorpe, who had denied her request for a divorce in 1932. In 1933, Astor began a torrid affair with playwright George S. Kaufman, who was also married at the time. Astor kept a diary, which apparently included explicit details of the affair and Kaufman's sexual prowess. Thorpe was able to confiscate the diary and used it as leverage to gain custody of their daughter in a divorce he filed in 1935. The existence of the diary became public in 1936 when Astor filed suit for a better custody arrangement. Although the diary's contents were never disclosed in court, Thorpe's legal team leaked portions of it to the press. In the end, Astor did get a better custody arrangement, and the diary was eventually ordered turned over to the court and destroyed.


6:30 PM -- The Case of the Howling Dog (1934)
1h 14m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
Perry Mason gets caught between feuding neighbors who claim to be married to the same woman.
Director: Alan Crosland
Cast: Warren William, Mary Astor, Allen Jenkins

First time the character Perry Mason ever appeared on film.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH -- AVA GARDNER



8:00 PM -- The Angel Wore Red (1960)
1h 39m | Romance | TV-PG
A priest and a prostitute fall in love during the Spanish Civil War.
Director: Nunnally Johnson
Cast: Ava Gardner, Dirk Bogarde, Joseph Cotten

Dirk Bogarde nicknamed Ava Gardner "Snowdrop" because he said anything less suitable was difficult to imagine. (I don't know what that means either!)


10:00 PM -- The Night of the Iguana (1964)
2h 5m | Drama | TV-14
A defrocked priest surrenders to the sins of the flesh in a Mexican hotel.
Director: John Huston
Cast: Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr

Winner of an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Dorothy Jeakins

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Grayson Hall, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Gabriel Figueroa, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Stephen B. Grimes

According to one of the biographies of Tennessee Williams, "The Kindness of Strangers," by Donald Spoto, the character of Maxine, who is portrayed in this film by Ava Gardner, was purportedly based upon Williams' landlady of the apartment he rented in Santa Monica while he was working at MGM Studios in the 1940s. Her mannerisms, attitudes and even her distinctive one-syllable laugh were detailed by Williams and are expertly performed by Gardner.


12:15 AM -- Seven Days in May (1964)
1h 58m | Drama | TV-14
An American military officer discovers his superiors are planning a military coup.
Director: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Fredric March

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Edmond O'Brien, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cary Odell and Edward G. Boyle

The story is set in the "not too distant" future. While viewing slides of pictures taken at the last naval inspection, the date 1970 can be seen. Although likely overlooked by modern audiences, the movie has many futuristic items that would have seemed state of the art at the time of release. The wall projecting slide viewer, the television based teleconference equipment, even the digital time/date display at the Pentagon were all touches meant at the time of release to reflect a high tech environment of the near future.


2:30 AM -- 55 Days at Peking (1963)
2h 30m | Epic | TV-PG
An American major leads the defense against Chinese revolutionaries in 1900 Peking.
Director: Nicholas Ray
Cast: Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, David Niven

Nominee for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Dimitri Tiomkin (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics) for the song "So Little Time", and Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Dimitri Tiomkin

Ava Gardner had a long-running nervous breakdown, showing up drunk on-set, cursing out director Nicholas Ray, constantly demanding re-writes, and ruining a day's shoot because an extra took her photograph.


5:15 AM -- Antoine and Colette (1962)
30m | Short | TV-PG
A short sequel to "The 400 Blows" (1959), this continues the adventures of Antoine Doinel as he finds early love.
Director: François Truffaut
Cast: Jean-Pierre Leaud, Marie-France Pisier, Patrick Auffrey

Antoine and Colette is a largely autobiographical work, based on 17-year-old Truffaut's infatuation with an unconventional beauty named Liliane Litvin. Truffaut met Litvin at the Cinémathèque Française and quit his job as a welder and moved to Paris to be near her. Like Antoine, he took an apartment across the street from hers so that he could monitor her activities. However, she ultimately was not interested in him nor in any of his friends (she had attracted attention from Jean Gruault and Jean-Luc Godard).