Programming Note

[Leslie Howard and Vivien Leigh in Gone With The Wind (1939)]

Gone With The Wind to air on SundanceTV Thursday, November 24, at 10:00 AM PST [Please check your local listings]

Leslie Howard, Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable and Olivia de Havilland star in the top grossing movie of all time, Gone With The Wind. Produced by David O. Selznick, Directed by Victor Fleming and Screenplay by Sidney Howard, this film was delayed for two years while Selznick negotiated with MGM for Clark Gable and conducted an extensive "American Idol" type search for Scarlett O'Hara.

Top Awards:

Best Picture - Selznick International Pictures
Best Director - Victor Fleming
Best Actress - Vivien Leigh
Best Adapted Screenplay - Sidney Howard
Best Supporting Actress - Hattie McDaniel

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Programming Note

[Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland in It's Love I'm After, 1937]

It's Love I'm After to air on TCM this Sunday, August 21, 7:30 AM EST, 4:30 AM PST [Please check your local listings]

If you missed the chance last month to see Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland in this 1937 "rippling farce, brightly written and deftly directed," you have another chance this Sunday. It's Bette Davis Day on TCM.

Says Frank S. Nugent in The New York Times review of 11 November 1937: "Mr. Howard's Basil Underwood is a gem of conceit, self-delusion and calculated posturing, but he shyly confesses in every bit of character shading that there is a very human chap beneath the veneer." "This [farce] spins delightfully." "Mr. Howard and Miss Davis must give us other farces and Archie Mayo must direct them again. It's good to find a comedy with people in it instead of whimsies."

In the vernacular of today—It's funny! It's a delight! Watch it!

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Progamming Note

[Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland and
Bette Davis in It's Love I'm After, 1937]

It's Love I'm After to air on TCM on Sunday, August 21, at 4:30 AM PST [Please check your local listings]

Produced by Warner Brothers and directed by Archie Mayo, It's Love I'm After is a comedy which brings together Leslie Howard and Bette Davis for the third time. They appeared together previously in Of Human Bondage (1934) and The Petrified Forest (1936).

The film is about a pair of egotistical actors (Howard and Davis) who are in love but who have delayed their marriage over and over again throughout the years, mainly due to their heated arguments off stage. But the two finally agree that tonight is the night, until a young heiress (Olivia de Havilland) shows up and becomes totally infatuated with Leslie Howard. (I know that feeling.) Her fiancé (Henry Grant) pleads with Howard to discourage de Havilland and the wedding is delayed once again as Howard barges in at de Havilland's country home to show her just how obnoxious he can be.

The movie received good reviews and classic movie reviewers have come to recognize the film as undervalued and neglected.

It's Love I'm After

It's Love I'm After is a 1937 film directed by Archie Mayo and starring Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland. It will be shown this weekend on TCM. [See your local listings]

Howard chose this film at the time because he thought it would be a break from stress. He had just finished his tour of Hamlet which he produced, directed and starred in. Although Howard decided to close the show on Broadway after only 39 performances, the tour was very successful. But Howard was tired. He thought a comedy would be just the thing to bring in some cash and relax with his family. Howard had already worked with Bette Davis in Of Human Bondage (1934) and The Petrified Forest (1936) and he was comfortable with her. He already has his mind on his next film, Pygmalion (1938), and was excited that he would be able to direct.

Here is the trailer for It's Love I'm After.

It's Love I'm After Trailer

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Programming Note

[Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland and
Bette Davis in It's Love I'm After, 1937]

It's Love I'm After to air on TCM on Saturday, July 9, at 3:15 AM PST [Please check your local listings]

Produced by Warner Brothers and directed by Archie Mayo, It's Love I'm After is a comedy which brings together Leslie Howard and Bette Davis for the third time. They appeared together previously in Of Human Bondage (1934) and The Petrified Forest (1936).

The film is about a pair of egotistical actors (Howard and Davis) who are in love but who have delayed their marriage over and over again throughout the years, mainly due to their heated arguments off stage. But the two finally agree that tonight is the night, until a young heiress (Olivia de Havilland) shows up and becomes totally infatuated with Leslie Howard. (I know that feeling.) Her fiancé (Henry Grant) pleads with Howard to discourage de Havilland and the wedding is delayed once again as Howard barges in at de Havilland's country home to show her just how obnoxious he can be.

The movie received good reviews and classic movie reviewers have come to recognize the film as undervalued and neglected.

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See You Monday

It's the weekend everybody. Have a good one! I'm outta here.

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Leslie Howard Radio Star

[Leslie Howard appearing
on CBS Radio, c. 1930's]

Leslie Howard was not only a theater and film star but a star of radio as well. He appeared five times on NBC's the Rudy Vallee Hour (once with Merle Oberon in A Minuet), with Bing Crosby on Kraft Music Hall, The Magic Key of RCA in Galsworthy's Justice, Your Hit Parade, on the BBC in Hamlet, on CBS in their 1937 summer series, Columbia Presents Shakespeare, in their production of Much Ado About Nothing, CBS's The Silver Theatre in A Study in Triangles, and The Gulf Screen Guild Theater in Never In this World with Kay Francis and Virginia Weidler, and many productions on Lux Radio Theatre including Sir Percy Blakeney in The Scarlett Pimpernel. Olivia de Havilland, whose French accent was very convincing, appeared as Marguerite St. Just. The two had just completed work on Gone With The Wind in 1939. Cecil B. DeMille, who produced the radio program, introduces the show with high praise for Leslie Howard. Howard also appeared on Eddie Cantor's Texaco Town late in 1936 and into 1937. It took the two of them six months and three appearances together before Howard finally delivered the punch line in the skit, "The Three Rubbers." Howard also had his own radio show in 1935 - 1936, Leslie Howard's Matinee.

[Cecil B. DeMille, host of
Lux Radio Theatre (1936 - 1945)]

To listen to one of Leslie Howard's radio appearances, click on this link:

Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland in Lux Radio Theatre's The Scarlet Pimpernel, 1939

[A studio audience gathers prior to a live production at
Hollywood's Lux Radio Playhouse, located one block
south of Hollywood and Vine at 1615 North Vine Street]

[Lux Ratio Theatre with Leslie Howard and
Helen Chandler at the microphone performing
Berkeley Square, December 9, 1934]

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Reticence

Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes and Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, 1939.

Leslie Howard said of his role, "I hate the damn part. I'm not nearly beautiful or young enough for Ashley, and it makes me sick being fixed up to look attractive." Howard did not attend the opening in Atlanta as he had hurried back to London to help in the war effort. By doing this, he forfeited all his royalties from the film. He was disgusted by the price being charged in England to see the film because England was already at war with Germany. His sister said later that the family never saw the movie because of Howard's strong feelings about it. It was his last Hollywood movie.

Gone With The Wind, 1939

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