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TCM Website
July 3, 2000
Original Documentary Without Lying Down to Headline
Women Film Pioneers Tribute on TCM in August
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The original documentary Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Power of Women in Hollywood will headline a month-long tribute to women film pioneerson Turner Classic Movies (turnerclassicmovies.com) in August. In its most extensive programming initiative of the year, TCM celebrates the women who helped shape American cinema, with the world premiere of Without Lying Down, followed by several of Marion’s movies. Two silent film restorations scored by contemporary female artists will also air on TCM as part of this tribute, which includes 37 films written, directed or produced by women, many of which will make their U.S. television premieres on TCM.
Without Lying Down, narrated by Uma Thurman and featuring Kathy Bates as the voice of Frances Marion, will kick off TCM’s Women Film Pioneers festival on August 3 at 8 p.m. (ET). This original documentary is written and produced by Bridget Terry and Cari Beauchamp, and is based on Beauchamp’s award-winning book. It explores the development of filmmaking through the eyes of Marion, the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood – male or female - for more than two decades, and the first woman writer to win an Oscar®. Directed by Terry, Without Lying Down uses exclusive home movies, photos and footage to illustrate Marion’s influence on the film industry, beginning with her start in Hollywood with prominent director Lois Weber in 1914. Marion went on to write nearly 200 produced screenplays, including silents and talkies, covering every conceivable genre for such stars as Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Rudolph Valentino, Gary Cooper, the Barrymores, Lillian Gish and Marie Dressler.
Respected throughout the industry for her talent, Marion’s close friends appreciated her as a caustic wit who considered her friendships as important as her work. While never publicly complaining about the industry "that fed me caviar," Marion joked with her women friends that, "I spent my life searching for a man I could look up to… without lying down."
Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Power of Women in Hollywood examines the circumstances that made Marion’s and other women’s contributions to the film industry possible at a time in history when women were not even permitted to vote. In the early 1900s, while the movie business was inventing itself, women created powerful roles for themselves as directors, producers and particularly as writers. In 1920, nearly half of all films produced were written by women. Using footage from the films Marion wrote, the documentary highlights her accomplishments, including her two Academy Awards®, her involvement in the creation of the Writers’ Guild and her role in making Mary Pickford a superstar. Without Lying Down explores the importance of the friendships between the women, how they handled success and challenges, the importance of mentoring in that era and reflections from powerful women working in Hollywood today.
Without Lying Down features interviews with leading women in the entertainment field today, including Oscar®-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri, award-winning director Martha Coolidge, producer Polly Platt and screenwriter and former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Fay Kanin. Film historians, friends and colleagues of Marion are also featured, including her biographer, Beauchamp; pre-eminent silent film historian Kevin Brownlow; film critic Leonard Maltin; Museum of Modern Art film department chief curator Mary Lea Bandy; and Oscar®-nominated former child star Jackie Cooper. Without Lying Down is executive-produced by Hugh M. Hefner in association with UCLA Film and Television Archive and Turner Classic Movies.
The documentary will be followed by a night of Marion’s films, including the television premiere of the only restored film directed by Marion, THE LOVE LIGHT (1921, 9 p.m.), starring Mary Pickford and Marion’s husband, Fred Thomson, followed by the two films for which she won Academy Awards® for Best Original Story, THE BIG HOUSE (1930, 12 a.m.) and THE CHAMP (1931, 1:30 a.m). They will be followed immediately by ANNA CHRISTIE (1930, 3 a.m.) and THE SECRET SIX (1931, 4:30 a.m.). In addition, the newly restored and re-scored THE SCARLET LETTER (1926), Marion’s adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel will have it’s world premiere on TCM on Thursday, August 31, at 8 p.m. This version of the film will include 20 minutes of recently discovered footage.
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