TCM Schedule for Friday, August 21, 2020 -- Summer Under The Stars: Diana Dors

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Last edited Mon Aug 24, 2020, 09:47 PM - Edit history (1)

Day twenty-one of Summer Under the Stars features Diana Dors. Tell us more, Denny!

Diana Dors was born Diana Mary Fluck on October 23, 1931 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. She and her mother both nearly died from the traumatic birth. Because of the trauma, her mother lavished on Diana anything and everything she wanted--clothes, toys and dance lessons were the order of the day. Diana's love of films began when her mother took her to the local movies theaters. The actresses on the screen caught Diana's attention and she said, herself, that from the age of three she wanted to be an actress. She was educated in the finest private schools, much to the chagrin of her father (apparently he thought private education was a waste of money). Physically, Diana grew up fast. At age 12, she looked and acted much older than what she was. Much of this was due to the actresses she studied on the silver screen and Diana trying to emulate them. She wanted nothing more than to go to the United States and Hollywood to have a chance to make her place in film history. After placing well in a local beauty contest, Diana was offered a role in a thespian group (she was 13).

The following year, Diana enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) to hone her acting skills. She was the youngest in her class. Her first fling at the camera was in Code of Scotland Yard (1947). She did not care that it was a small, uncredited role; she was on film and at age 16, that's all that mattered. That was quickly followed by Dancing with Crime (1947), which consisted of nothing more than a walk-on role. Up until this time, Diana had pretended to be 17 years old (if producers had known her true age, they probably would not have let her test for the role). However, since she looked and acted older, this was no problem. Diana's future dawned bright in 1948, and she appeared in no less than six films. Some were uncredited, but some had some meat to the roles. The best of the lot was the role of Charlotte in the classic Oliver Twist (1948). Throughout the 1950s, she appeared in more films and became more popular in Britain. Diana was a pleasant version of Marilyn Monroe, who had taken the United States by storm. Britain now had its own version.

Diana continued to play sexy sirens and kept seats in British theaters filled. She really came into her own as an actress. She was more than a woman who exuded her sexy side, she was a very fine actress as her films showed. As the 1960s turned into the 1970s, she began to play more mature roles with an effectiveness that was hard to match. Films such as Craze (1974), Swedish Wildcats (1972), The Amorous Milkman (1975) and Three for All (1975) helped fill out her resume. After filming Steaming (1985), Diana was diagnosed with cancer, which was too much for her to overcome. The British were saddened when word came of her death at age 52 on May 4, 1984 in Windsor, Berkshire, England.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Denny Jackson (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- GOOD TIME GIRL (1948)
After a drunk driving accident, a young girl and two GIs take off on a crime spree.
Dir: David MacDonald
Cast: Michael Hordern, Diana Dors, Jean Kent
BW-91 mins,

This movie starts with Lyla Lawrence (Diana Dors) being told the story of a girl gone bad in an attempt to sway her from a similar fate. Diana portrayed such a girl in Blonde Sinner (1956).


7:45 AM -- OLIVER TWIST (1948)
The famed orphan gets caught up in Fagin's criminal band while searching for familial love.
Dir: David Lean
Cast: John Howard Davies, Robert Newton, Alec Guinness
BW-116 mins, CC,

During production, Anthony Newley and Diana Dors had a brief fling.


9:45 AM -- HERE COME THE HUGGETTS (1948)
A working class family looks forward to getting a telephone installed.
Dir: Ken Annakin
Cast: Diana Dors, Petula Clark, Jack Warner
BW-93 mins,

Follows Holiday Camp (1947), and is followed by Vote for Huggett (1949) and The Huggetts Abroad (1949).


11:30 AM -- MAN BAIT (1952)
The married owner of a bookstore enters a world of trouble after making advances at his clerk.
Dir: Terence Fisher
Cast: George Brent, Marguerite Chapman, Raymond Huntley
BW-78 mins, CC,

Diana Dors receives an "introducing" credit, yet she has appeared in over a dozen other features.


1:00 PM -- AN ALLIGATOR NAMED DAISY (1957)
Confusion over an alligator suitcase results in an aspiring songwriter's getting stuck with somebody's pet alligator.
Dir: J. Lee Thompson
Cast: Diana Dors, Stanley Holloway, Donald Sinden
C-88 mins, CC,

Dame Margaret Rutherford received an "Our guest star artiste" credit.


2:30 PM -- I MARRIED A WOMAN (1958)
A neglected wife sets out to make her adman exec husband jealous.
Dir: Hal Kanter
Cast: George Gobel, Diana Dors, Adolphe Menjou
C-84 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The fictitious film which George Gobel and Diana Dors are watching in the cinema is a Technicolor film "Forever and Forever and Forever" starring John Wayne and Angie Dickinson.


4:15 PM -- KING OF THE ROARING 20S: THE STORY OF ARNOLD ROTHSTEIN (1961)
A gangster rises to the top of the gambling racket.
Dir: Joseph M. Newman
Cast: David Janssen, Dianne Foster, Mickey Rooney
BW-106 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

At the poker game, the talk of the World Series and Chicago alludes to the "Black Sox" scandal of 1919, in which several Chicago White Sox players were accused (but legally acquitted) of having been paid to throw the Series; the operation was bankrolled in part by Arnold Rothstein.


6:15 PM -- DANGER ROUTE (1967)
During the Cold War, a British secret agent is ordered to kill a Soviet-bloc defector held by the CIA in England.
Dir: Seth Holt
Cast: Richard Johnson, Carol Lynley, Barbara Bouchet
BW-89 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Richard Johnson leads the cast in this 1960s spy film. Johnson was director Terence Young's first choice to play James Bond when casting Dr. No (1962). Johnson also appeared in the 60s spy flicks Deadlier Than the Male (1967) and its sequel Some Girls Do (1969).



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: DIANA DORS



8:00 PM -- THE LONG HAUL (1957)
A veteran is lured into crime by his boss's sultry mistress.
Dir: Ken Hughes
Cast: Victor Mature, Diana Dors, Patrick Allen
BW-88 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Just prior to embarking on the final run, Easy hands Harry a map with the route marked. The map is an Esso road map of Great Britain which were issued complimentary to haulage firms at the time, although motorists could also purchase them.


10:00 PM -- THE WEAK AND THE WICKED (1954)
Frank "women in prison" story that sympathetically tracks several inmates through their imprisonment and subsequent return to society.
Dir: J. Lee-Thompson
Cast: Glynis Johns, John Gregson, Diana Dors
BW-88 mins, Letterbox Format

Two years later, J. Lee Thompson again directed Diana Dors in Blonde Sinner (1956), also based on a novel by Joan Henry.


12:00 AM -- THE UNHOLY WIFE (1957)
An ambitious beauty marries a vintner, then falls for one of his workers.
Dir: John Farrow
Cast: Diana Dors, Rod Steiger, Tom Tryon
C-94 mins, CC,

Two of the leads (Tom Tryon and Diana Dors) died of stomach cancer.


2:00 AM -- FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE (1973)
An anthology of four short horror stories revolving around an antique shop and its mysterious owner.
Dir: Kevin Connor
Cast: Peter Cushing, Diana Dors,
C-98 mins, CC,

The last of the portmanteau horror films from "Amicus Films."


4:00 AM -- AS LONG AS THEY'RE HAPPY (1957)
An American pop sensation invades a London stockbroker's home.
Dir: J. Lee Thompson
Cast: Jack Buchanan, Brenda De Banzie, Janette Scott
C-87 mins, CC,

Jack Buchanan and Nigel Green repeat the roles they had played in the original stage production this is based on.