TCM Schedule for Thursday, August 10, 2023 -- Summer Under the Stars: Rhonda Fleming

Today's Star is a first-timer, Rhonda Fleming. From her TCMdb bio:

A striking, red-headed leading lady of the 1940s and 50s, Rhonda Fleming was dubbed the "Queen of Technicolor" because of her highly photogenic green eyes and flaming auburn hair. She was signed by David O. Selznick directly out of high school and, after appearing in bit parts, was cast in her breakthrough role (her first in color and her first musical) opposite Bing Crosby in "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" (1949). Featured mostly for her decorative good looks, Fleming graced a number of Technicolor B-epics such as "Yankee Pasha" (1954), countless Westerns ("The Eagle and the Hawk" 1950) and in film noir played several femme fatale roles, such as the nervous secretary who frames a private eye for murder in "Out of the Past" (1947) and the adulterous wife in "While the City Sleeps" (1956).

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- The Big Circus (1959)
1h 49m | Drama | TV-PG
A ringleader tries to keep his circus on the road despite the efforts of a saboteur.
Director: Joseph M. Newman
Cast: Victor Mature, Red Buttons, Rhonda Fleming

Originally Columbia was going to have Irwin Allen produce and direct Big Circus. Allied Artists ended up picking up the movie instead.


8:00 AM -- The Crowded Sky (1960)
1h 45m | Adventure | TV-PG
A passenger jet and a private plane head for a collision.
Director: Joseph Pevney
Cast: Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.

Rhonda Fleming, who is second billed, has no scenes with any of the cast members in the main location, the commercial jet. Her sporadic role, as the manipulating wife of Efrem Zimbalist Jr., mostly occurs in Zimbalist's flashback sequences as he's flying the jet fighter. Also: her and Zimbalist's swimwear-clad bodies shown in the poster artwork, embraced and kissing liken to the famous scene in From Here to Eternity (1953), also derives from a flashback sequence.


10:00 AM -- The Revolt of the Slaves (1961)
1h 42m
Roman slaves attempt to overthrow their violent oppressors.
Director: Nunzio Malasomma
Cast: Rhonda Fleming, Lang Jeffries, Gino Cervi

Based on the novel Fabiola, by Nicholas Patrick Wiseman.


12:00 PM -- Alias Jesse James (1959)
1h 32m
An insurance agent lands in hot water when people mistake him for the infamous western outlaw.
Director: Norman Z. Mcleod
Cast: Bob Hope, Rhonda Fleming, Wendell Corey

Cameos in the final gunfight included popular stars of TV and screen Westerns, appearing in order: Hugh O'Brian (as Wyatt Earp), Ward Bond (as Major Seth Adams from "Wagon Train&quot , James Arness (as Matt Dillon), Roy Rogers, Fess Parker (as Davy Crockett), Gail Davis (as Annie Oakley), Gary Cooper, Jay Silverheels (as Tonto from "The Lone Ranger&quot , as well as Bing Crosby in his customary Hope film cameo.


1:45 PM -- Gun Glory (1957)
1h 28m | Western | TV-PG
A reformed gunslinger is rejected by everyone until he's needed to fight off outlaws.
Director: Roy Rowland
Cast: Stewart Granger, Rhonda Fleming, Chill Wills

The film was based on an original story by Cyril Hume according to one account. Another says it was based on the novel Man of the West by Philip Yordan which Ben Maddow says he wrote under Yordan's name. Maddow also claims to have written the script. Yordan said "But if you read the screenplay, you'll see it fits the hero character that I've always written. I've always written the one character. The hero. A man with a cold, hard, bad past-and I never like to go into the past-with his own set of morals and everything else."


3:30 PM -- Home Before Dark (1958)
2h 17m | Drama | TV-PG
A woman struggles to adjust to her unhappy marriage after time in a mental institution.
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Cast: Jean Simmons, Dan O'herlihy, Rhonda Fleming

Since this was a film by Warner Brothers, much of the soundtrack was stock and is the same as used in their 1942 film Now, Voyager (1942).


6:00 PM -- Out of the Past (1947)
1h 37m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
A private eye becomes the dupe of a homicidal moll.
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas

Robert Mitchum told Roger Ebert he smoked so much that when the camera was rolling and Kirk Douglas offered him a pack and asked, "Cigarette?" Mitchum, realizing he'd carried a cigarette into the scene, held up his fingers and replied, "Smoking." His improvisation saved the take and they kept it in the movie.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS -- RHONDA FLEMING



8:00 PM -- While the City Sleeps (1956)
1h 39m | Crime | TV-PG
Reporters compete to catch a serial killer.
Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders

One of two ensemble films where Dana Andrews would be first billed followed by Rhonda Fleming. In both, Fleming has a relatively small role for her second billing: she plays a discontented wife of one of the characters, has a scene where she lays out in a bikini, and shares no scenes with Andrews. The other movie is The Crowded Sky (1960); both are available on Warner Archives DVD.


10:00 PM -- The Killer Is Loose (1956)
1h 13m
A crook tries to avenge his wife's accidental shooting by a cop.
Director: Budd Boetticher
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Rhonda Fleming, Wendell Corey

Character actor Stanley Adams plays the honor farm guard who is murdered. He had a long and varied career over the years, but his distinctive voice was always recognizable. His most famous role is the intergalactic trader Cyrano Jones on the original Star Trek series episode, The Trouble with Tribbles (1967).


11:30 PM -- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949)
1h 47m
A blow to the head sends an auto mechanic back to the days of Camelot.
Director: Tay Garnett
Cast: Bing Crosby, Rhonda Fleming, Sir Cedric Hardwick...

Bing Crosby insisted that first-time Paramount contractee Rhonda Fleming share star billing with him because he was worried about carrying the sole weight for the film's success or failure. Ultimately, they both were billed below the title in the opening credits, sharing a card with William Bendix and Cedric Hardwicke.


1:30 AM -- Serpent of the Nile (1953)
1h 21m
Cleopatra seduces Marc Anthony into helping her conquer the world.
Director: William Castle
Cast: Rhonda Fleming, William Lundigan, Raymond Burr

Producer Sam Katzman promoted the film by saying that it took two years of preparation, but William Castle states in his autobiography that, instead, it was two years of talking and twelve days of shooting.


3:00 AM -- The Golden Hawk (1952)
1h 23m
Male and female pirates join forces against a corrupt Caribbean governor.
Director: Sidney Salkow
Cast: Rhonda Fleming, Sterling Hayden, Helena Carter

Based on the novel by Frank Yerby.


4:30 AM -- Odongo (1956)
1h 25m
A veterinarian falls for a big game hunter whose job she hates.
Director: John Gilling
Cast: Rhonda Fleming, Macdonald Carey, Juma

Columbia studio boss Harry Cohn persuaded Rhonda Fleming an African trip and her choice of leading man from contract players Macdonald Carey and Jack Lemmon as leading man. She opted for the more experienced Carey and added in a 1994 interview, "I think Jack owes me for not making Odongo".