TV Guide: Ann Blyth

Listing: All the Brothers Were Valiant

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:30:00 -0500

Thu Dec 4 01:30 PM TCM

Video: Kismet - (Original Trailer)

TCM — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:58:50 -0500

The "king of the beggars" infiltrates high society when his daughter is wooed by a handsome prince in Kismet (1955), starring Howard Keel & Ann Blyth.

Video: Mildred Pierce

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:33:42 -0500

Joan Crawford won an Academy Award for her bravura portrayal of the titular heroine in Mildred Pierce. The original James M. Cain novel concerned a tawdry waitress who slept her way to financial security so as to provide a rosy future for her beloved daughter, only to be rewarded by having her true love stolen away by that same daughter. Ranald McDougall's screenplay tones down the novel's sexual content, enhancing its film noir value by adding a sordid murder. The film opens with oily lounge lizard Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott) being pumped full of bullets. Croaking out the name Mildred, he collapses and dies. Both the police and the audience are led to believe that the murderer is chain-restaurant entrepreneur Mildred Pierce (Crawford), who takes the time to relate her life story. As the flashback begins, we see Mildred unhappily married to philandering Bert Pierce (Bruce Bennett). She divorces him, keeping custody of her two beloved daughters, Veda (Ann Blyth) and Kay (Jo Anne Marlowe). To keep oldest daug

Video: Kismet

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 04:28:21 -0500

This fourth film version of the warhorse Edward Knoblock theatrical piece Kismet was based on the Broadway musical version of the same property. Howard Keel stars as Hadji, the poet of old Baghdad, who goes from beggar to millionaire in a single day. Hadji's daughter Marsinah (Ann Blyth) falls in love with the young Caliph (Vic Damone), while Lalume (Dolores Gray), the sexy wife of the despotic Wazir (Sebastian Cabot), sets her sights on Hadji. Meanwhile, the Wazir plots and plans to topple the Caliph from the throne and to add Marsinah to his own harem. Making periodic appearances is Omar Khayyam, played as a doddering old meddler by Monty Woolley. The Robert Wright-George Forrest musical score, based on themes by Borodin, includes such standards as Baubles, Bangles and Beads, This is My Beloved, Stranger in Paradise and Not Since Ninevah. Though the dancing girls in the film are more modestly dressed than their stage counterparts, they are put through some fairly sensuous paces by choreographer Jack Cole. K

Video: Murder She Wrote: Season Two

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 02:02:49 -0500

Season two of Murder, She Wrote gets off to a rousing start as widowed mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) confronts a genuine murder while vacationing in the Caribbean; she also makes her first acquaintance with secret agent Michael Hagarty, played by Len Cariou (with whom Lansbury previously co-starred in the Broadway musical {+Sweeney Todd}). In the season's second episode, William Windom makes his first appearance as Dr. Seth Hazlett, cantankerous general practitioner of Jessica's home town, Cabot Cove. Among the season's guest stars is Lloyd Nolan, making his last-ever TV appearance as a suspect in Murder in the Afternoon. Also showing up as various victims, suspects, and killers are the likes of Polly Bergen, Patrick Macnee, Ann Blyth, John Astin, Jayne Meadows, Orson Bean, Van Johnson, and Stuart Whitman. In addition, Jerry Orbach makes his earliest appearance in the role of woebegone private eye Harry McGraw, a role he'd later parlay into his own starring series. Arguably the season's