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TCM Schedule for Saturday, August 29, 2020 -- Summer Under The Stars: Eva Marie Saint
Day twenty-nine of Summer Under the Stars features Eva Marie Saint. Tell us more, anonymous TCM biographer!Though her film appearances were sporadic at best - less than 20 movies between 1955 and 2006 - Academy Award winner Eva Marie Saint enjoyed revered status among her peers due to her emotionally complex performances in several iconic films. She was perhaps best known as the delicate object of affection for dock worker Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront" (1951), which earned her an Oscar. She would play variations on the role in several subsequent features, including "A Hatful of Rain" (1957), though Alfred Hitchcock would tap her inner sexiness as a double agent opposite Cary Grant in "North by Northwest" (1959). Sadly, the majority of Saint's films never rose to her skill level, so she found more substantive work on television, where she contributed greatly to such projects as "Fatal Vision" (1984) and "People Like Us" (1990). Her return to the big screen in "Superman Returns" (2006) reminded moviegoers not only of her timeless, ethereal beauty, but her acting chops, which - though rarely given their proper showcase - had been substantial enough to hold her own against the Brando's and Grant's of the world.
Born July 4, 1924 in Newark, NJ, Saint discovered acting as a student at Ohio's Bowling Green State University, which would later pay tribute by naming a campus theater after her. Her first exposure to a national audience came via radio and television dramas in the 1940s, where she made a name for herself with sensitive portrayals of young women, most notably as Emily Webb opposite Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra in a production of "Our Town" for "Producers' Showcase" (NBC, 1954-57) and "Middle of the Night" for "Philco TV Playhouse" (NBC, 1948-1955), which brought her a Emmy nomination in 1955. Saint also scored a professional triumph on Broadway opposite the legendary Lillian Gish in "The Trip to Bountiful," which earned her a Drama Critics Award in 1953. Saint's solid reputation among critics was becoming reinforced so often that she was referred to as "the Helen Hayes of television."
Saint's film debut was equally laudable. Director Elia Kazan cast her as Edie Doyle, the young sister of a murdered dockworker who captures the heart of rough dockhand Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando). A marvel of carefully modulated emotions, alternately delicate and fiery in her scenes with Brando, and especially in her confrontation with Karl Malden's waterfront priest, Saint's performance catapulted her to fame and earned her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1954. The success of her "Waterfront" performance elevated Saint to the forefront of Hollywood actresses, and for a period of five years, she could be counted upon to bring emotional depth and grace to serious dramas. She received a Golden Globe nomination in 1958 as the pregnant wife of Don Murray's drug-addicted war veteran in "A Hatful of Rain," and excelled as Montgomery Clift's jilted sweetheart in Edward Dmytryk's Civil War drama, "Raintree Country" (1957).
Both roles were squarely in the mold of her "Waterfront" character - lovelorn, seemingly fragile but possessed of a bottomless emotional reserve - but Alfred Hitchcock saw another side to the actress when he cast her in his espionage drama, "North by Northwest" (1959). The Hitchcock thriller - one of the director's best loved - thrust Saint into entirely new territory as a coolly seductive spy who comes to the aid of but falls in love with advertising executive Cary Grant. The actress, who garnered considerable publicity for trimming her signature waist-length hair for the role, even indulged in several action sequences, most notably the famed showdown on Mount Rushmore that served as the film's conclusion. While some pundits may have viewed the marriage of a dramatic actress like Saint with an action-thriller as an awkward match, the results were entirely pleasing, and Saint received some of the best reviews of her career for the performance.
Though "Northwest" and her previous efforts had made Saint a star, by 1960 she was actively moving away from the Hollywood machine to spend more time with her husband, director Jeffrey Hayden, and their two children. As a result, her screen performances declined in number as the decade wore on. There were still several high-profile projects, most notably Otto Preminger's "Exodus" (1960), which cast her as an American nurse who becomes involved in the founding of the state of Israel. Director John Frankenheimer used her in two very different pictures - the Southern drama "All Fall Down" (1962), which cast her as a pregnant girl destroyed by Warren Beatty's wastrel, and the racing picture "Grand Prix" (1966). There were also supporting roles in "The Sandpiper" (1965) and "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" (1966), but none were truly showcases for Saint's talent. By the mid-1960s, she was appearing more frequently on television, which would regularly provide her with work for the next two decades.
Saint made just two features in the 1970s, one of which - Irvin Kershner's marital drama "Loving" (1970), which cast her as the harried wife of rudderless commercial artist George Segal - offered her one of the meatiest parts to come her way in decades. For the most part, she preferred the shorter commitment and more intimate stories of made-for- TV features. She brought immeasurable prestige to numerous productions, including "Taxi" (NBC, 1978), a two-person drama with Martin Sheen that brought her an Emmy nomination. Saint was also stellar in the POW drama "When Hell Was in Session" (NBC, 1979), as the mother of anorexic teen Jennifer Jason Leigh in "The Best Little Girl in the World" (ABC, 1981), and as the mother who fights to see justice for her slain daughter in "Fatal Vision" (NBC, 1984), which was based on the Jeffrey MacDonald murder trial.
Saint's television schedule was remarkably active throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In addition to the aforementioned projects, she also appeared in the miniseries "A Year in the Life" (NBC, 1986), which hinged its dramatic arc on the death of her beloved family matriarch, and made several appearances as Cybill Shepherd's mother on "Moonlighting" (ABC, 1985-89). In the middle of this flurry of work, she returned to moviemaking for the first time in over a decade as Tom Hanks' mother in the Garry Marshall comedy "Nothing in Common" (1986). Critics applauded her return to features, but Saint was soon back on the small screen in numerous projects, including George C. Scott's wife in "The Last Days of Patton" (CBS, 1986) and "People Like Us" (1990), an adaptation of a Dominick Dunne novel that won her an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress.
Saint began making inroads back to features in the late 1990s and early 2000s; most went largely unseen, like the Kim Basinger drama "I Dreamed of Africa" in 2000 and Wim Wenders' "Don't Come Knocking" (2005), which cast her as the mother of star and screenwriter Sam Shepard. However, "Superman Returns" (2006) afforded her one of her biggest film showcases ever as Martha Kent, the adoptive human mother of the Man of Steel. Saint displayed her enormous capacity for warmth in her scenes with newly-minted Superman, Brandon Routh, who experiences a crisis of conscience while attempting to revive his status as savior of Metropolis.
Born July 4, 1924 in Newark, NJ, Saint discovered acting as a student at Ohio's Bowling Green State University, which would later pay tribute by naming a campus theater after her. Her first exposure to a national audience came via radio and television dramas in the 1940s, where she made a name for herself with sensitive portrayals of young women, most notably as Emily Webb opposite Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra in a production of "Our Town" for "Producers' Showcase" (NBC, 1954-57) and "Middle of the Night" for "Philco TV Playhouse" (NBC, 1948-1955), which brought her a Emmy nomination in 1955. Saint also scored a professional triumph on Broadway opposite the legendary Lillian Gish in "The Trip to Bountiful," which earned her a Drama Critics Award in 1953. Saint's solid reputation among critics was becoming reinforced so often that she was referred to as "the Helen Hayes of television."
Saint's film debut was equally laudable. Director Elia Kazan cast her as Edie Doyle, the young sister of a murdered dockworker who captures the heart of rough dockhand Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando). A marvel of carefully modulated emotions, alternately delicate and fiery in her scenes with Brando, and especially in her confrontation with Karl Malden's waterfront priest, Saint's performance catapulted her to fame and earned her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1954. The success of her "Waterfront" performance elevated Saint to the forefront of Hollywood actresses, and for a period of five years, she could be counted upon to bring emotional depth and grace to serious dramas. She received a Golden Globe nomination in 1958 as the pregnant wife of Don Murray's drug-addicted war veteran in "A Hatful of Rain," and excelled as Montgomery Clift's jilted sweetheart in Edward Dmytryk's Civil War drama, "Raintree Country" (1957).
Both roles were squarely in the mold of her "Waterfront" character - lovelorn, seemingly fragile but possessed of a bottomless emotional reserve - but Alfred Hitchcock saw another side to the actress when he cast her in his espionage drama, "North by Northwest" (1959). The Hitchcock thriller - one of the director's best loved - thrust Saint into entirely new territory as a coolly seductive spy who comes to the aid of but falls in love with advertising executive Cary Grant. The actress, who garnered considerable publicity for trimming her signature waist-length hair for the role, even indulged in several action sequences, most notably the famed showdown on Mount Rushmore that served as the film's conclusion. While some pundits may have viewed the marriage of a dramatic actress like Saint with an action-thriller as an awkward match, the results were entirely pleasing, and Saint received some of the best reviews of her career for the performance.
Though "Northwest" and her previous efforts had made Saint a star, by 1960 she was actively moving away from the Hollywood machine to spend more time with her husband, director Jeffrey Hayden, and their two children. As a result, her screen performances declined in number as the decade wore on. There were still several high-profile projects, most notably Otto Preminger's "Exodus" (1960), which cast her as an American nurse who becomes involved in the founding of the state of Israel. Director John Frankenheimer used her in two very different pictures - the Southern drama "All Fall Down" (1962), which cast her as a pregnant girl destroyed by Warren Beatty's wastrel, and the racing picture "Grand Prix" (1966). There were also supporting roles in "The Sandpiper" (1965) and "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" (1966), but none were truly showcases for Saint's talent. By the mid-1960s, she was appearing more frequently on television, which would regularly provide her with work for the next two decades.
Saint made just two features in the 1970s, one of which - Irvin Kershner's marital drama "Loving" (1970), which cast her as the harried wife of rudderless commercial artist George Segal - offered her one of the meatiest parts to come her way in decades. For the most part, she preferred the shorter commitment and more intimate stories of made-for- TV features. She brought immeasurable prestige to numerous productions, including "Taxi" (NBC, 1978), a two-person drama with Martin Sheen that brought her an Emmy nomination. Saint was also stellar in the POW drama "When Hell Was in Session" (NBC, 1979), as the mother of anorexic teen Jennifer Jason Leigh in "The Best Little Girl in the World" (ABC, 1981), and as the mother who fights to see justice for her slain daughter in "Fatal Vision" (NBC, 1984), which was based on the Jeffrey MacDonald murder trial.
Saint's television schedule was remarkably active throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In addition to the aforementioned projects, she also appeared in the miniseries "A Year in the Life" (NBC, 1986), which hinged its dramatic arc on the death of her beloved family matriarch, and made several appearances as Cybill Shepherd's mother on "Moonlighting" (ABC, 1985-89). In the middle of this flurry of work, she returned to moviemaking for the first time in over a decade as Tom Hanks' mother in the Garry Marshall comedy "Nothing in Common" (1986). Critics applauded her return to features, but Saint was soon back on the small screen in numerous projects, including George C. Scott's wife in "The Last Days of Patton" (CBS, 1986) and "People Like Us" (1990), an adaptation of a Dominick Dunne novel that won her an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress.
Saint began making inroads back to features in the late 1990s and early 2000s; most went largely unseen, like the Kim Basinger drama "I Dreamed of Africa" in 2000 and Wim Wenders' "Don't Come Knocking" (2005), which cast her as the mother of star and screenwriter Sam Shepard. However, "Superman Returns" (2006) afforded her one of her biggest film showcases ever as Martha Kent, the adoptive human mother of the Man of Steel. Saint displayed her enormous capacity for warmth in her scenes with newly-minted Superman, Brandon Routh, who experiences a crisis of conscience while attempting to revive his status as savior of Metropolis.
Enjoy!
6:00 AM -- THE SANDPIPER (1965)
An Episcopal priest falls for a free-living artist.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Eva Marie Saint
C-117 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Johnny Mandel (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics) for the song "The Shadow of Your Smile"
Filmed on-location on the Central Coast of California, specifically in Big Sur and Monterey.
8:00 AM -- EVA MARIE SAINT: LIVE FROM THE TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL (2014)
BW-59 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
9:00 AM -- 36 HOURS (1964)
Nazis kidnap a key American intelligence officer and try to convince him that World War II is over.
Dir: George Seaton
Cast: James Garner, Rod Taylor, Eva Marie Saint
BW-115 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
The fake 1950 newspapers given to Major Pike depict "President Wallace." Henry Wallace was Vice President of the United States in 1944, when the film actually takes place. He was not included on the Democratic presidential ticket later that year and was succeeded as Vice President by Harry S. Truman.
11:00 AM -- GRAND PRIX (1966)
Auto racers find danger and romance at the legendary European road race.
Dir: John Frankenheimer
Cast: James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand
C-176 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
Winner of Oscars for Best Sound -- Franklin Milton (MGM SSD), Best Film Editing -- Fredric Steinkamp, Henry Berman, Stu Linder and Frank Santillo, and Best Effects, Sound Effects -- Gordon Daniel
Swedish actress Harriet Andersson was cast as the female lead and filmed some scenes. James Garner wanted to replace her and Eva Marie Saint got the part instead. No explanation was given.
2:00 PM -- ALL FALL DOWN (1962)
A young drifter's romance with an older woman is threatened by his possessive mother.
Dir: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Eva Marie Saint, Warren Beatty, Karl Malden
BW-110 mins, CC,
As Echo (Eva Marie Saint) makes her first entrance driving down the street in her car, it's clear that the Willarts reside on MGM's famous "St. Louis Street", built for Meet Me in St. Louis (1944).
4:00 PM -- THE STALKING MOON (1968)
A retired Army scout protects a woman from her son's vicious Native father.
Dir: Robert Mulligan
Cast: Gregory Peck, Eva Marie Saint, Robert Forster
C-109 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
In The Big Country (1958)--starring and produced by Gregory Peck--the foreman (played by Charlton Heston) Steve Leech rides a very striking and beautiful black and white paint horse. Ten years later in this film--also starring Peck--the same horse is ridden by the Apache chief Salvaje. (played by Nathaniel Narcisco).
6:00 PM -- ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)
A young stevedore takes on the mobster who rules the docks.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb
BW-108 mins, CC,
Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Marlon Brando, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Eva Marie Saint, Best Director -- Elia Kazan, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Budd Schulberg, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Boris Kaufman, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Richard Day, Best Film Editing -- Gene Milford, and Best Picture
Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Lee J. Cobb, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Karl Malden, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Rod Steiger, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Leonard Bernstein
Elia Kazan, in his autobiography "A Life", says that the choice of an actress to play Edie Doyle was narrowed down to Elizabeth Montgomery and Eva Marie Saint. Although Montgomery was fine in her screen test, there was something well-bred about her that Kazan thought would not be becoming for Edie, who was raised on the waterfront in Hoboken, NJ. He gave the part to Saint, and she went on to win cinematic immortality, and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, in the part.
TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: EVA MARIE SAINT
8:00 PM -- NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
An advertising man is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason
C-136 mins, CC,
Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Ernest Lehman, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- William A. Horning, Robert F. Boyle, Merrill Pye, Henry Grace and Frank R. McKelvy, Best Film Editing -- George Tomasini
When Eve Kendall opens her black purse in the Chicago hotel room, one can see a Bergdorf Goodman label inside. Alfred Hitchcock rejected the wardrobe designed by Edith Head and selected all of Eva Marie Saint's clothes at Bergdorf's, while in New York.
10:30 PM -- A HATFUL OF RAIN (1957)
A man tries to deal with his brother's drug addiction and his growing attraction to the man's wife.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Eva Marie Saint, Don Murray, Anthony Franciosa
BW-108 mins, CC,
Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Anthony Franciosa
Anthony Franciosa was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance as Polo in the original Broadway production. He was nominated for an Academy Award for reprising the role in this film.
12:30 AM -- RAINTREE COUNTY (1957)
In this sumptuous Civil War story, a willful southern belle goes mad out of fear that she may be part black.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint
C-166 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Taylor, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- William A. Horning, Urie McCleary, Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt, Best Costume Design -- Walter Plunkett, and Best Music, Scoring -- Johnny Green
On the evening of May 12, 1956, during the shooting of this movie, Montgomery Clift was involved in a serious car accident on his way back home from a party at the house of Dame Elizabeth Taylor. He apparently fell asleep at the wheel of his car while driving and smashed his car into a telephone pole. His friend Kevin McCarthy witnessed the accident from his car, drove back and informed Taylor and her then husband Michael Wilding, who immediately drove to the location together with Rock Hudson. Taylor entered the car through the back door, crawled to the front seat and removed the two front teeth from Clift's throat that threatened to choke him. Hudson finally managed to pull him out of the wreck and together they protected him from being photographed until the ambulance arrived. This was necessary because soon after the emergency call had come in to the local Police station, reporters were already on their way and arrived at the scene when Clift was still in the car. The accident was well publicized. After nine weeks of recovery and with plastic surgery, Clift returned to the movie set and finished this movie, but with considerable difficulties. His dashing looks, though, were gone forever. In some scenes throughout the movie, despite the cinematographer's skill, Clift's nose and chin look different, and the entire left side of his face is nearly immobile.
3:45 AM -- LOVING (1970)
A conflicted artist tries to find a sense of purpose in life.
Dir: Irvin Kershner
Cast: George Segal, Eva Marie Saint, Sterling Hayden
C-89 mins, CC,
Working title was "Brooks Wilson, Ltd."