Programming Note

[Leslie Howard and Kay Francis in British Agent, 1934]

British Agent (1934) to air on TCM Friday, October 28, 10:45 AM EST, 7:45 AM PST [Please check your local listings]

British Agent is a film based on the autobiography of R. H. Bruce Lockhart, a member of the British Secret Service. Lockhart's book, Memoirs of a British Agent, was also said to have inspired one of the

Captured!

[Leslie Howard in Captured! 1933]

In March 1933 Leslie Howard was filming Captured! for Warner Brothers. The film co-starred Howard's friend, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Howard had met Fairbanks during the summer of 1925 when the two happened to be crossing the Atlantic aboard the RMS Majestic at the same time. Fairbanks was just fifteen years old and hadn't yet made his first film.

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.

Serendipity Concluded

After seeing The Petrified Forest on Broadway in 1935 and expecting the same success for the film version, Jack Warner excitedly purchased the film rights. It took six months of negotiation but the deal was finally closed and it was agreed that Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart would reprise their roles for the film, something on which Howard insisted. The only other actors invited to Hollywood were Slim Thompson and John Alexander, the two African American actors who appeared in the play. [Note: IBDB links to the wrong actor.]

Leslie Howard was tired at the play's close on June 29, 1935. He had performed the part of Alan Squier 197 times during its run and needed a

Don't Expect A Happy Ending

The Petrified Forest (1936), which will be shown this Friday on TCM, was a product of Warner Bros. Warner's was frequently on the cutting edge of what movie audiences wanted to see. They produced the first talkies, the first horror films in color, and Warners was the studio to later become known for film noir, a movement in film that reflected society's angst and conflicts and is shot in low light and shadows, with pessimistic stories about shady characters and not so happy endings.

The Petrified Forest is considered by movie historians to be a precursor to film noir. The film itself is named after an area in the Arizona desert known for its fossilized trees, conjuring up a picture of the death and

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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The Petrified Forest - Focus: Humphrey Bogart

Leslie Howard, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Dick Foran and Genevieve Tobin in The Petrified Forest. Produced by Hal B. Wallis and Warner Brothers. Directed by Archie Mayo. Released February 6, 1936.

Howard had starred as Alan Squier, a doomed intellectual, in the 1935 Broadway production of The Petrified Forest and Warner Brothers wanted him to reprise that role in the film.

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier in the stage play]

Jack Warner had intended to cast Edward G. Robinson in the role of Duke Mantee even though the part had been played by Humphrey Bogart on Broadway, thanks to Robert E. Sherwood who wrote the stage play and Arthur Hopkins, producer. When Howard learned of this he informed Warner Brothers that he would not play the part of Alan Squier unless Bogart played Mantee. According to author Eric Lax, Howard also held the trump card -- he controlled the film rights to The Petrified Forest.

Edward G. Robinson was ambivalent about the part anyway as he had already played gangsters in several films and didn't want to be typecast. Bogart was 37 at the time. He felt that he was finished with Broadway and his film career was at an end. He wanted to play the leading man but was only being cast in character parts and supporting roles. Leslie Howard persisted and Bogart was given the role. He was guaranteed three weeks' work and a ticket for the train to Hollywood. But he told friends that if he didn't make it this time he was through.

[Humphrey Bogart as Duke Mantee]

After watching a few of the dailies, Hal Wallis realized that Bogart was terrific in the part.

But Wallis noticed that Archie Mayo had been filming Bogart positioned in front of moose antlers which were hung on the wall behind him making it appear as though Bogie had sprouted horns. Mayo found it amusing; Wallis did not. When Hal Wallis saw this he fired off a memo to Henry Blanke, assistant director, ordering Archie Mayo to knock it off and reshoot those scenes. As evidenced by the below screen still, Mayo ignored the order. The Petrified Forest turned out to be Bogart's breakout film role.

[Leslie Howard, Humphrey Bogart and

Dick Foran in The Petrified Forest]

Humphrey Bogart never forgot Leslie Howard's loyalty, even naming his second child after Howard.

Official Trailer

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British Agent

Leslie Howard and Kay Francis in British Agent, a 1934 espionage film directed by Michael Curtiz. It is based on Memoirs of a British Agent, the 1932 autobiography of R. H. Bruce Lockhart, who had spent a number of years working for the British Secret Service. The film was produced by First National, which was then a division of Warner Bros.

[Leslie Howard and Kay Francis in British Agent, 1934]

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