Something Completely Different: What to Watch on TCM in April 2024

There are lots of great features airing on TCM in April: pre-Codes like Grand Hotel (1932), Three on a Match (1932), and Bombshell (1933); noirs including Double Indemnity (1944) and The Breaking Point (1950), and a surfeit of classics that don’t fit either of these categories, such as Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), Pride and Prejudice (1940), and The Mortal Storm. But I’m not selecting any of these for my TCM pick of the month. Instead, I’m doing something a little different. In honor of MGM’s 100-year anniversary (the studio was founded in April 1924, with the merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures), I am recommending the outstanding 1992 documentary, MGM: When the Lion Roars.

Hosted by Patrick Stewart, the documentary is presented in three parts. Part One: The Lion Roars, focuses on the relationship between studio head Louis B. Mayer and his “Boy Wonder” production head Irving Thalberg, the transition from silent films to talking pictures, and the careers of such luminaries as Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Marie Dressler, Lon Chaney, Marion Davies, and Lillian Gish. Part Two: The Lion Reigns Supreme, covers the studio’s operations after the untimely 1936 death of Thalberg through 1946 and includes a look at set designer Cedric Gibbons and costumer designer Adrian; the release of such classics as The Good Earth (1937), Gone With the Wind (1939), and The Wizard of Oz (1939); and the popularity of screen teams Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, and William Powell and Myrna Loy. The final chapter, The Lion in Winter, focuses on MGM’s spate of unforgettable musicals, the arrival of producer Dore Schary, and the downfall of Louis B. Mayer.

— Louis B. Mayer and some of his many “children.”

Each part is brimming with film clips and both archival and exclusive interviews with a wide variety of notables, including Lew Ayres, Freddie Bartholomew, Eleanor Boardman, editor Margaret Booth, director Clarence Brown, Jackie Cooper, Lillian Gish, Helen Hayes, Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, producer Samuel Marx, Maureen O’Sullivan, Luise Rainer, Mickey Rooney, and director King Vidor. The clips from the various films are fascinating and fun, as are the stories told by the actors, actresses, directors, and other personages affiliated with the studio. For instance, Vidor shares his experience directing Lillian Gish in the 1926 silent film La Boheme, recalling her convincing performance during her death scene. “She died so realistically and her breath didn’t move, that I began to see headlines: “Actress Does The Scene So Well That She Actually Dies.” In another interview, Bartholomew opines that to Louis B. Mayer, the actors and actresses under his employ were his children: “I think he thought of them as naughty children who needed slapping and punishing,” Bartholomew said.  “And I think he always thought, quite sincerely, that his children were being terribly disloyal when they asked for more money, because we were stabbing Daddy in the back.”

I taped this feature off of the cable channel TNT when it first aired, and I have seen it so many times that my VHS tape is all but unwatchable. (I also purchased the hefty companion coffee table book by Peter Hay.) That should give you an idea of just how great this documentary is. If you love old movies (and, of course, you do), or MGM (and, really, how could you not?), you’ve got to see MGM: When the Lion Roars. It’s airing on three nights on TCM: April 1st, April 8th, and April 15th. Do yourself an enormous favor, and don’t miss this one, y’all.

You only owe it to yourself.

~ by shadowsandsatin on March 26, 2024.