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Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies A World Premiere Original Documentary Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will celebrate Valentine's Day with Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies, a new documentary about the Hollywood legend whose acting career was overshadowed by her much-criticized love affair with newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Narrated by actress Charlize Theron (The Legend of Bagger Vance and Men of Honor), the TCM documentary will have its world television premiere on Feb. 14, at 8 p.m., accompanied by a festival of 13 of Davies's films, including Peg O' My Heart (1933, 9 p.m., Feb. 14), Ever Since Eve (1937, 4 p.m., Feb. 15), Operator 13 (1934, 8 a.m.), Feb. 15) and The Bachelor Father (1931, 12:30 p.m., Feb. 15). The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will host the documentary's premiere for the entertainment industry on Jan. 19 as part of a retrospective focusing on four powerful actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age. Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies will feature the final on-camera interview with Davies's biographer Fred Guiles and includes interviews with film historians Kevin Brownlow, Jeanine Basinger, and Cari Beauchamp; former film critic Charles Champlin; and actress Virginia Madsen, who researched Davies for her portrayal of the star in the made-for-TV movie The Hearst and Davies Affair (1985). First-hand accounts of events in Davies's life will be shared by Carl Roup, a studio newspaper boy who was chosen by Davies to appear as an extra in The Red Mill (1927); Davies's friends, including actress Constance Moore and King Vidor's daughter, Belinda Vidor Holiday; and Life magazine correspondent Stanley Flink, who taped interviews with Davies in 1951, exerpts from which will be heard as part of TCM's documentary. While the press and the film Citizen Kane (1941) served to paint Davies as a hard-drinking golddigger with no talent, Captured on Film will reflect her true nature - a talented, hard-working actress and shrewd businesswoman. The documentary chronicles Davies's career and her relationship with Hearst, from their meeting in New York to his death in 1951, and contains rare clips from some of Davies's earliest films, recently rescued from nitrate decomposition, including The Cardboard Lover (1928), The Patsy (1928), When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922) and Quality Street (1927), as well as rare, never-before-seen home movies from the Hearst castle and from the couple's European travels. Remembrances and observations help to correct the incorrect perceptions of Davies's career and love affair, including Madsen admitting that she felt Davies has never been portrayed correctly on-screen; Flink recounting his observation of Hearst's body being removed from Davies's home to create the illusion that the two were not involved; Roup's stories of Davies's generosity that include her paying for his education; and actual audio recordings of Davies herself, which were thought lost for years. Davies began her career as a chorus girl in New York and made her screen debut in 1917 in Runaway Romany. Around that time she met Hearst, who took an immediate personal interest in her career, even going so far as to form a company, Cosmopolitan Pictures, for the sole purpose of producing her films. Their relationship lasted 35 years, and Davies entertained lavishly at the several homes they shared. They never married, as Hearst's wife, Millicent, would never grant him a divorce. Later in their relationship, Davies raised $1 million dollars, almost in a day, to bail Hearst out of financial disaster. Interviewees in the documentary include: Charles Champlin, former film critic for the Los Angles Times, Cari Beauchamp (film historian), Jeanine Basinger (film historian), Kevin Brownlow (film historian and documentarian), Mary Collins (daughter of Patricia Lake), Suzanne Vidor Parry (King Vidor's daughter), Stanley Flink (former Life magazine correspondent was present on the day Hearst's body was removed from Davies's home. He also interviewed Davies on tape, Bob Board (fan of Marion Davies), Fredrick Lawrence Guiles (Davies biographer. This was his last interview before his death in June 1999), Belinda Vidor Holiday (King Vidor's daughter), Virginia Madsen (portrayed Davies in the 1984 film The Hearst and Davies Affair, Constance Moore (actress, close friend of Davies), George Sidney (director, worked on Operator 13 at the start of his career), and Ruth Warrick (played Mrs. Kane in Citizen Kane). |