8:00 p.m. (ET)/5:00 p.m. (PT) VACATION FROM MARRIAGE (1945) In 1943, with considerable fanfare, it was announced that the MGM British Studios and Alexander Korda's London Films had signed a co-production deal that would include a number of projects, including Perfect Strangers, which would be known in the U.S. as Vacation From Marriage. The other proposed films ranged from a version of War and Peace to be directed by Orson Welles, with Merle Oberon (then Korda's wife) as star, to The Hardy Family in England. As it turned out, Vacation From Marriage was the only film to be made under the deal. Korda biographer Paul Tabori wrote that it was because Korda grew tired of "dancing attendance" on MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer and attending his lavish dinner parties. "To hell with roast goose," remarked Korda, restoring his London Films to its former independence. Vacation From Marriage tells the story of an English couple (Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr) whose listless marriage is energized by the outbreak of World War II and romantic dalliances with others. Korda made the film under trying circumstances, struggling with his writers to create an acceptable script and taking on the role of director when his original choice, Wesley Ruggles, gave it up and returned to his native America. The movie was shot at London's Denham Studios during harrowing wartime conditions, which included a bomb that fell on the studio grounds, blasting the offices and dressing rooms and leaving Korda's script torn to shreds by flying glass. The timely subject helped make Vacation From Marriage a commercial success in both Britain and the U.S., and Clemence Dane won an Oscar¨ for his original story. The film proved to be especially significant for its female players, who also included Ann Todd as a nurse and Glynis Johns as Kerr's service-woman pal. Korda and cinematographer Georges Perinal handled the actresses with special care, making them appear both believable and glamorous. Todd soon moved on to international stardom in The Seventh Veil (1945), and Johns quickly emerged as an outstanding character actress and leading lady. Perhaps most importantly, the movie began Kerr's relationship with MGM, the studio that would bring her to America and Hollywood stardom. Because of her outstanding performance in multiple roles in the British-made The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), Ben Goetz, head of MGM in Britain, had bought half of her contract from European producer-director Gabriel Pascal. It was under this arrangement that Kerr made her MGM debut in Vacation From Marriage. Upon seeing the film, Louis B. Mayer was said to have exclaimed, "That girl's a star!" Soon Kerr was established as a leading MGM light, beginning with The Hucksters (1947) and continuing through such successes as Edward, My Son (1949), King Solomon's Mines (1950), Quo Vadis (1951) and Tea and Sympathy (1956). Ironically, Vacation From Marriage was Donat's last film for MGM, where his achievements had included his Oscar¨-winning performance in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). Producer/Director: Alexander Korda Screenplay: Anthony Pelissier, Clemence Dane, from story by Dane Art Direction: Vincent Korda Cinematography: Georges Perinal Editing: Edward B. Jarvis Original Music: Clifton Parker Principal Cast: Robert Donat (Robert Wilson), Deborah Kerr (Catherine Wilson), Glynis Johns (Dizzy Clayton), Ann Todd (Elena), Roland Culver (Richard), Allan Jeayes (Commander) BW-93m. By Roger Fristoe 10:00 p.m. (ET)/7:00 p.m. (PT) EDWARD, MY SON (1949) Edward, My Son (1949) marked a distinct change of pace for stars Spencer Tracy and Deborah Kerr. For the latter, it was an unusually solid dramatic role during her years under contract to MGM, where she was mostly cast to provide class to the studio's line-up of light comedies and epics. For Tracy, the role marked a rare villainous turn, his first since the 1941 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. During the course of the film, he commits arson, drives his wife to drink and drives another man to suicide, all in his efforts to secure his son's future. And in the process, he turns the son into a monster. The story had started as a play in London, co-written by and starring Robert Morley, who was best known for comic performances. He had chilled audiences in the role, however, providing narration that links events from the child's birth through adulthood. And in a gimmick that guaranteed audience interest, he did it all with out ever showing the title character. Director George Cukor saw the wisdom of that choice and decided to stick as close to the original as possible. The only major change was turning Tracy's character from an Englishman to a Canadian so the star would not have to adopt an accent. And though Tracy worried about tackling the unsympathetic role at first, he soon warmed to the opportunity, later confessing to Cukor that "It's rather disconcerting to me to find out how easily I play a heel." As Tracy's drunken wife, a role that had made Peggy Ashcroft a major stage star in London, Cukor considered Tracy's frequent co-star and off-screen love, Katharine Hepburn, but the two stars were sensitive about working together too often. Then Deborah Kerr, who had come to MGM from London two years earlier, campaigned for the role. Kerr had been a major dramatic actress in England and had recently won the New York Film Critics Award for two of her last British films, Black Narcissus (1947) and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943). After a few colorless roles at MGM, she campaigned to play Tracy's wife. The result was a powerful performance that brought Kerr her first Oscar¨ nomination for Best Actress (Tracy was nominated too, but both lost). Though her devastating drunk scenes brought praise from critics and colleagues, she got a very different reaction from her mother. "I'm sure it's very good acting, dear," she wrote in a letter to Kerr, "but I just don't like to see you like that." Director: George Cukor Producer: Edwin H. Knopf Screenplay: Donald Ogden Stewart, based on the play by Noel Langley and Robert Morley Cinematography: Freddie Young Editor: Raymond Poulton Art Direction: Alfred Junge Music: Miklos Rozsa Cast: Spencer Tracy (Arnold Boult), Deborah Kerr (Evelyn Boult), Ian Hunter (Dr. Larry Woodhope), James Donald (Bronton), Leueen MacGrath (Eileen Perrin) BW-113m. Close captioning. By Frank Miller 12:00 a.m. (ET)/9:00 p.m. (PT) CONSPIRATOR (1949) After World War II, Hollywood's start up plans for the European market were once again stymied, as they were after World War I, by the poor economic conditions overseas. With literally millions of pre-war invested dollars - appropriately christened "frozen funds" - tied up abroad, frustrated American moguls hit upon the decision to co-produce feature films with their British, French and later, Italian and German arms thus thawing out monies, which, they felt by all rights belonged to them anyway. The overseas staffs were delighted that top Yankee talent would be dispatched to shoot movies in their own backyard, thus providing many needed jobs for local key crew members and production personnel. Paramount, Fox and MGM soon set their frozen fund plan in effect, sweetened by the participation of such high profile players as Tyrone Power, Spencer Tracy, Ray Milland, Orson Welles and George Cukor. Not surprisingly, MGM went that extra mile by building a brand new state of the art English studio, with 1949's Edward, My Son being the first production to go on tap. The second title, Conspirator, was literally Taylor-made - a topical spine chiller co-starring Metro's two namesakes, Robert and Elizabeth. Conspirator's most prominent attribute is that it gave 17-year-old Elizabeth Taylor her first grown-up role, playing wife to more than twice her age co-star Robert Taylor, a continued sore point of embarrassment for the latter. Vanity aside, the veteran leading man later admitted that young Liz's beauty and sexuality would drive him crazy on the set, causing the actor to become so aroused that re-takes would be necessary, lest some sharp-eyed censors took note of unsightly bulges in the trouser area. The plot-line of Conspirator today, while historically fascinating, is nevertheless equally embarrassing - one of a series of Red Scare warning movies that pushed the nightmare button throughout the Dream Factory. Similar "better dead than Red" narratives from the same time period include RKO's I Married a Communist (1950), Republic's The Red Menace (1949) and Fox's The Iron Curtain (1948). In Conspirator, Liz plays an innocent, loving wife who discovers that her hubby, while stationed in the USSR, was won over to the dirty Commie doctrine of life. While she is one of the chief virtues of Conspirator, Liz took a very unpretentious approach to acting, stating in one interview: "I never had an acting lesson, and I don't know how to act per se. I just developed as an actress. Acting is instinctive with me. It's mostly concentration....Usually it isn't hard to get a character. Mostly, I just read my lines through three times at night and then I go to sleep like a log and don't think about anything. I don't sit down and figure should I do this gesture or should I do that. I know it sounds funny for me to say, but it just seems easy, that's all." For Robert Taylor, who would shamelessly become a friendly witness during the Blacklist period, the role was felt to be an important and even educational one - and another in an ongoing series of sinister villain parts that his career path seemed to be taking, having already played the evil husband in Undercurrent (1946). He would, in fact, over the next decade portray characters of questionable virtue in The Bribe (1949), Rogue Cop (1954) and Party Girl (1958). His career would take another more positive and profitable turn again in 1951 with Quo Vadis?. Spy movie fans, who should get the most enjoyment out of Conspirator, will be especially pleased to note that the fine supporting cast includes Honor Blackman, who would, some fifteen years later, make an indelible contribution to the genre as James Bond's nemesis/ally, Pussy Galore in the 007 classic, Goldfinger (1964). Director: Victor Saville Producer: Arthur Hornblow Jr. Screenplay: Sally Benson, Gerard Fairlie, based on the novel by Humphrey Slater Cinematography: Skeets Kelly, Freddie Young Editor: Frank Clark Art Direction: Alfred Junge Music: John Wooldridge Cast: Robert Taylor (Maj. Michael Currah), Elizabeth Taylor (Melinda Greyton), Robert Flemyng (Capt.Hugh Ladholme), Harold Warrender (Col. Hammerbrook), Honor Blackman (Joyce) BW-87m. By Mel Neuhaus 1:30 a.m. (ET)/10:30 p.m. (PT) THE MINIVER STORY (1950) Eight years after the triumph of Mrs. Miniver (1942), which had won 12 Academy Award® nominations and five awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress (Greer Garson), MGM chose to produce a sequel, The Miniver Story (1950), taking the characters from Jan Struther's source novel and putting them through new experiences. The decision to film the sequel in England, at MGM's Elstree Studio, was among the efforts put forth by producer Sidney Franklin to make the sequel more authentic than the original. Others included more realistic sets and costumes. Garson took an active role in creating the screenplay, which has the Miniver family being brought together after the end of World War II, the source of much of the drama of the original. She and Franklin agreed that, as Mrs. Miniver had personified British courage during the war, she should exemplify the experience of the postwar English people. Walter Pidgeon, returning as her husband, Clem, has a line in which he says, "You've had quite a war, Mrs. Miniver, and you're having quite a peace. Cooking, washing, scrubbing, standing in queues hunting for rations, finding the meals, reading the headlines" Mrs. Miniver's new crises also involved an amorous American colonel (John Hodiak) and a terminal illness. Returning from the original cast, along with Garson and Pidgeon, were Henry Wilcoxson and Reginald Owen as the local vicar and grocer. Noticeably absent was Richard Ney, who had played Garson's son in the original. In the interim, despite the nine-year difference in their ages, Garson had married and divorced the actor. Garson biographer Michael Troyan relates that, with characteristic humor, the actress proposed a means of explaining Ney's absence in the sequel: "Well, we could have a scene in which Walter and I - he with his newspaper, me with my knitting - would be sitting at home one evening. I turn to him and say, 'Oh, by the way, I had a letter from Vinny today. You remember Vinny, our son who went off to Hollywood and married Greer Garson.' " An early story synopsis revealed the character's true fate: "Five years ago the Minivers lost their eldest, Vin, an RAF pilot, in the Battle of Britain." Producer: Sidney Franklin Director: H.C. Potter Screenplay: George Froeschel, Ronald Millar, Randal Miller, inspired by characters created by Jan Struther Cinematography: Joseph Ruttenberg Costume Design: Gaston Malletti, Walter Plunkett Editing: Frank Clarke, Harold F. Kress Original Music: Miklos Rozsa, Herbert Stothart Principal Cast: Greer Garson (Kay Miniver), Walter Pidgeon (Clem Miniver), John Hodiak (Spike Romway), Leo Genn (Steven Brunswick), Cathy O'Donnell (Judy Miniver), Reginald Owen (Mr. Foley), Peter Finch (Polish officer) BW-105m. By Roger Fristoe 3:30 a.m. (ET)/12:30 a.m. (PT) CALLING BULLDOG DRUMMOND (1951) Herman Cyril McNeile, under the pseudonym, "Sapper," first introduced the legendary ex-military man-turned-detective, Bulldog Drummond, to mystery fans in 1920. In 1929, Samuel Goldwyn wisely chose to adapt the character as a vehicle for his major male attraction, Ronald Colman. Drummond's witticisms perfectly suited both the star and the movie's new "talkie" revolution. As an early sound achievement, this big budget thriller remains a watershed transition effort, and at the time, became a smash hit - an element that 20th Century (soon to merge with Fox) remembered when they hired Colman to reprise the suave, handsome adventurer in 1934 for the appropriately entitled Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back. Two years previous, the British made their first Drummond outing, The Return of Bulldog Drummond, featuring the celebrated young thespian Ralph Richardson. By the time MGM resurrected the character in 1951, as a frozen fund entry for their UK studios, the master sleuth had made 21 screen appearances - becoming the star of an excellent string of "B"s, whose various incarnations were released by Paramount, Columbia and Fox respectively, and, personified by Messrs. John Howard, Ron Randell and John Newland. For the MGM entry, Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951), directed by the extremely busy Victor Saville (who had also helmed Conspirator (1949), the lead acting chores fell upon the always reliable Walter Pidgeon, who did the picture after finishing up his co-starring duties for The Miniver Story (1950), MGM's long-awaited sequel to their 1942 blockbuster. A crisp, fast-moving mystery thriller, the kind the Brits do so well, Calling Bulldog Drummond had the now-retired shamus being coaxed back into service by Scotland Yard. With wonderful support from Margaret Leighton, Robert Beatty and David Tomlinson, this modest unpretentious entry did not disappoint fans, save in being the sole contribution of Pidgeon and MGM to the series. Of special note is the participation of Bernard Lee, best known to James Bond enthusiasts as Her Majesty's Secret Service head M; ironically, in 1966, Drummond would once again be revived as a souped up Bond-inspired crime fighter in the underrated Deadlier Than the Male, starring one of the original 007 contenders, Richard Johnson. Director: Victor Saville Producer: Hayes Goetz Screenplay: Howard Emmett Rogers, Gerard Fairlie, Arthur Wimperis Cinematography: F.A. Young Editor: Frank Clarke, Robert Watts Art Direction: Alfred Junge Music: Rudolph G. Kopp Cast: Walter Pidgeon (Maj. Hugh ÔBulldog' Drummond), Margaret Leighton (Sgt. Helen Smith), Robert Beatty (ÔGuns'), David Tomlinson (Algy Longworth), Peggy Evans (Molly) BW-80m. By Mel Neuhaus 5:00 a.m. (ET)/2:00 a.m. (PT)THE HOUR OF 13 (1951) Based on Philip MacDonald's suspense novel Mystery of the Dead Police, The Hour of 13 (1951) is a remake of the 1934 thriller The Mystery of Mr. X, which starred Robert Montgomery. While both films are based on the same source novel, there were a few differences between the two MGM productions, aside from the cast. First, The Mystery of Mr. X (1934) made the mistake of revealing the killer's identity in the opening credits, an error the producers of The Hour of 13 avoided. Second, The Hour of 13 makes excellent use of several topnotch British actors, including Dawn Addams, Derek Bond, Leslie Dwyer, Michael Hordern, and Colin Gordon by filming at MGM's British studio facilities. Also invaluable was the contribution of John Addison, the prolific scorer of British films who composed and conducted the score for The Hour of 13, along with the participation of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Peter Lawford, who was just a few years away from his escapades with the Sinatra "Rat Pack," makes a stylish, debonair leading man. Though he wasn't particularly fond of The Hour of 13, he did admire the cinematography by Guy Green. "He even managed to make my nose look halfway human, which is a fantastic feat in itself!" Lawford later admitted. In addition to a top-notch supporting cast of British character actors, the film also takes full advantage of its London locations. At times the atmospheric recreation of the city during the 1890s is reminiscent of director Carol Reed's Vienna based film, The Third Man (1949). Director: Harold French Producer: Hayes Goetz Screenplay: Leon Gordon, Howard Emmett Rogers, based on the novel X vs. Rex- Mystery of the Dead Police by Martin Porlock Cinematography: Guy Green Editor: Raymond Poulton, Robert Watts Art Direction: Alfred Junge Music: John Addison Cast: Peter Lawford (Nicholas Revel), Dawn Addams (Jane Frensham), Roland Culver (Connor), Derek Bond (Sir Christopher Lenhurst), Leslie Dwyer (Ernie Perker), Michael Hordern (Sir Frances Frensham) BW-80m. By Scott McGee