TCM Schedule for Friday, August 28, 2020 -- Summer Under The Stars: Paul Henreid

[Staph]

Day twenty-eight of Summer Under the Stars features Paul Henreid. Tell us more, anonymous TCM biographer!

Suave, romantic leading man who, in the 1940s and 50s, represented the epitome of continental charm. Henreid is best remembered as Ingrid Bergman's husband, the stoic Resistance leader Victor Laszlo, in "Casablanca" (1943) and for his classic bit of romantic business in "Now Voyager" (1942) in which he lit two cigarettes at the same time and handed one to Bette Davis.

The scion of an aristocratic Austrian family, Henreid first worked as a designer and translator at a Vienna publishing firm until he was discovered in an acting school performance by Otto Preminger, who was then Max Reinhardt's managing director. Henreid became a leading man with Reinhardt's theater company and appeared in two Austrian films in the early 1930s before he moved to England because of his anti-Nazi sentiments. There he starred on the London stage and in films, ironically being cast as a Nazi officer in "Madman of Europe" and as a Gestapo agent in Carol Reed's "Night Train" (both 1940). Moving to the US in 1940, he was again cast as a German in the Broadway production "Flight to the West."

Signing with RKO Radio Pictures in 1941, Henreid played his first heroic role as a Free French R.A.F. pilot in his Hollywood debut, "Joan of Paris" (1941). It was the first of many films in which he would dramatize the wartime plight of sympathetic Europeans.

In the 50s Henreid starred in mediocre swashbucklers such as "Last of the Buccaneers" (1950) and "Thief of Damascus" (1952), and melodramas like "So Young, So Bad" (1950) and "Stolen Face" (1952). With his career as a romantic lead petering out he switched to producing and directing, especially on TV, where he directed numerous episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "The Schlitz Playhouse," "G.E. Theater," "Maverick" and "Bracken's World." In 1964, Henreid reteamed with his "Now, Voyager" and "Deception" (1946) co-star Bette Davis, directing her in the dual roles of homicidal twin sisters in the campy suspense melodrama "Dead Ringers."

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- JOAN OF PARIS (1942)
A waitress risks her life to help downed pilots escape occupied France.
Dir: Robert Stevenson
Cast: Michèle Morgan, Paul Henreid, Thomas Mitchell
BW-91 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Roy Webb

This film marked the U.S. screen debuts of Austrian actor Paul Henreid and French performer Michèle Morgan.


7:32 AM -- CARNIVAL IN PARIS (1937)
In this short, the janitor of a Paris museum's Egyptology department agrees to help a girl hide from the police.
Dir: William J. Thiele
Cast: Henry Brandon, Tom Ricketts, Ferdinand Gottschalk
BW-21 mins,


8:00 AM -- DECEPTION (1946)
A woman tries to protect her refugee husband from her rich and powerful ex-lover.
Dir: Irving Rapper
Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
BW-112 mins, CC,

Paul Henreid could not play the cello. While he was able to fake it in the long shots, to achieve the illusion in close up, he wore a special jacket with no sleeves and holes for two real cellists to insert their arms - one to bow, and one to accurately finger the music - while seated behind him, out of shot.


10:00 AM -- SONG OF LOVE (1947)
True story of Clara Schumann's battle to save husband Robert's health and resist the romantic overtures of Johannes Brahms.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Paul Henreid, Robert Walker
BW-118 mins, CC,

Film debut of George Chakiris.


12:15 PM -- HOLLOW TRIUMPH (1948)
A crook on the lam poses as a psychiatrist.
Dir: Steve Sekely
Cast: Paul Henreid, Joan Bennett, Eduard Franz
BW-82 mins, CC,

According to contemporary newspaper articles, Paul Henreid decided to produce this film himself, so that he could play a bad guy for once.


2:00 PM -- IN OUR TIME (1944)
A Polish count and his English wife battle Nazi invaders.
Dir: Vincent Sherman
Cast: Ida Lupino, Paul Henreid, Nancy Coleman
BW-110 mins, CC,

The large, bronze statue of Chopin that Jennifer and Count Stefan visit, was erected in Warsaw's Lazienki Park in 1926. It was destroyed by explosives on May 31, 1940 by the German occupiers. Fortunately, the statue's original mold survived the war and it was recast and replaced on its original site in 1958.


4:00 PM -- BETWEEN TWO WORLDS (1944)
Passengers on a luxury liner realize they are en route to the afterlife.
Dir: Edward A. Blatt
Cast: John Garfield, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet
BW-112 mins, CC,

The character played by Paul Henreid (Henry Bergner) is desperately trying to get on board the ship, and the clerk makes multiple references to "Casablanca": exit permits (visas), fighting with the Free French, needing to leave quickly, sending his wife away, etc. Perhaps Bergner / Bergman as well? Also, both are Warner Bros films.


6:00 PM -- OF HUMAN BONDAGE (1946)
A medical student risks his future when he falls for a low-class waitress.
Dir: Edmund Goulding
Cast: Paul Henreid, Eleanor Parker, Alexis Smith
BW-106 mins, CC,

Filmed between mid-July and late October 1944, the picture was held back until its Manhattan premiere at the Strand Theatre on July 5, 1946, followed by the wide release on July 20.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: PAUL HENREID



8:00 PM -- NOW, VOYAGER (1942)
A repressed spinster is transformed by psychiatry and her love for a married man.
Dir: Irving Rapper
Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
BW-117 mins, CC,

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

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gladys Cooper

The film is remembered for the scene in which Paul Henreid places two cigarettes in his mouth, lights them and then passes one to Bette Davis. This wasn't an original idea, a similar exchange occurred ten years earlier between Ruth Chatterton and George Brent in The Rich Are Always with Us (1932), which happens to have Bette Davis in it. Director Rapper subsequently called Henreid "a liar" for claiming he thought of it, and the director pointed out it had been done in a D. W. Griffith film in 1917.


10:15 PM -- FOR MEN ONLY (1952)
A college professor begins to suspect that a student's accidental death was tied to his refusal to take part in a traditional "hazing" and was no accident.
Dir: Paul Henreid
Cast: Paul Henreid, Margaret Field, James Dobson
BW-95 mins,

Film debut of Russell Johnson (the Professor on Gilligan's Island) and first major film role for Vera Miles.


12:00 AM -- CASABLANCA (1942)
An American saloon owner in North Africa is drawn into World War II when his lost love turns up.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid
BW-103 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Director -- Michael Curtiz, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Humphrey Bogart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Claude Rains, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Arthur Edeson, Best Film Editing -- Owen Marks, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

Neither Ingrid Bergman nor Paul Henreid wanted to appear in the film. Bergman thought the material little more than fluff, whereas the role in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), one she desperately wanted to do, would do wonders for her career. Once the wrap date for "Casablanca" approached, she realized happily that she would be able to film the Ernest Hemingway story after all. For his part, Henreid had just starred with Bette Davis in Now, Voyager (1942), and the thought of playing second banana to Humphrey Bogart and Bergman, not to mention Claude Rains, just didn't sound like a promising prospect. Fortunately, he reconsidered.


2:00 AM -- THE SPANISH MAIN (1945)
Dutch rebels in the Caribbean turn pirate and kidnap the corrupt Spanish governor's bride-to-be.
Dir: Frank Borzage
Cast: Maureen O'Hara, Paul Henreid, Walter Slezak
C-100 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- George Barnes

The inspiration for the " Pirates of the Caribbean" ride at Disneyland!


3:41 AM -- SEEING SPAIN (1953)
This short film highlights the local culture, history, and architecture of various cities in Spain.
C-8 mins,


4:00 AM -- THE CONSPIRATORS (1944)
A guerilla leader falls in love with a mysterious woman in World War II Lisbon.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Hedy Lamarr, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet
BW-101 mins, CC,

This film has many tangential connections to Casablanca (1942) besides its plot line of anti-Nazi intrigue. It features Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, who all appeared in "Casablanca". Behind the scenes, the film features music by Max Steiner and cinematography by Arthur Edeson, who both worked on "Casablanca". Like "Casablanca", it was produced by Warner Bros. It also features Hedy Lamarr, who was originally considered for the role of "Ilsa", which was eventually played by Ingrid Bergman. Lamar had also previously appeared in Algiers (1938), which also had a plot line similar to "Casablanca".