TCM Schedule for Thurs, May 22, 2025: Leslie Caron / Westerns (Brokeback Mountain & more)
Western theme tonight: Cultural Breakthroughs
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Leslie Caron (born 1 July 1931) is a French and American actress and dancer. She is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award, two BAFTA Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards.
Caron began her career as a ballerina. She made her film debut in the musical An American in Paris (1951), airing today, followed by roles in The Man with a Cloak (1951), Glory Alley (1952) and The Story of Three Loves (1953), before her role of an orphan in Lili (1953), also airing today, which earned her the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress and garnered nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
As a leading lady, Caron starred in films such as The Glass Slipper (1955), Daddy Long Legs (1955), Gigi (1958), Fanny (1961), both of which earned her Golden Globe nominations, Guns of Darkness (1962), The L-Shaped Room (1962), Father Goose (1964) and A Very Special Favor (1965). For her role as a single pregnant woman in The L-Shaped Room, Caron, in addition to receiving a second Academy Award nomination, won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and a second BAFTA Award.
Caron's other roles include Is Paris Burning? (1966), The Man Who Loved Women (1977), Valentino (1977), Damage (1992), Funny Bones (1995), Chocolat (2000) and Le Divorce (2003). In 2007, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for portraying heiress and rape victim, Lorraine Delmas, in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Caron and Gene Kelley, An American in Paris (1951).
DAYTIME: (EST)
6:00 AM | Gaby (1956)
A ballerina turns to prostitution when her fiance is reported killed in World War II (remake of Waterloo Bridge).
Dir: Curtis Bernhardt | Cast: Leslie Caron, John Kerr, Sir Cedric Hardwicke
7:45 AM | Guns of Darkness (1962)
An Englishman faces a moral crisis when he agrees to smuggle a deposed president across the border.
Dir: Anthony Asquith | Cast: Leslie Caron, David Niven, David Opatoshu
9:30 AM | The Man with a Cloak (1951)
A mystery man tries to help a young innocent escape a murderous housekeeper.
Dir: Fletcher Markle | Cast: Joseph Cotten, Barbara Stanwyck, Louis Calhern
11:00 AM | An American in Paris (1951)
A American artist, struggling in Paris, falls in love with a French shop girl.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli | Cast: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant
1:00 PM | Leslie Caron: The Reluctant Star (2016)
Leslie Caron reveals secrets of her work and life in this documentary.
Dir: Larry Weinstein | Cast: Leslie Caron
2:00 PM | Lili (1953)
A French orphan gets a job with a carnival puppet show.
Dir: Charles Walters | Cast: Leslie Caron, Mel Ferrer, Jean Pierre Aumont
3:30 PM | The Glass Slipper (1955)
Musical adaptation of the story of Cinderella and her magical trip to the prince's ball.
Dir: Charles Walters | Cast: Leslie Caron, Michael Wilding, Keenan Wynn
5:30 PM | Fanny (1961)
An old waterfront character tries to help his daughter when her lover leaves her pregnant.
Dir: Joshua Logan | Cast: Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Charles Boyer
PRIME TIME, LATE NIGHT & EARLY MORNING
8:00 PM | Broken Arrow (1950)
A former soldier sets out to create peace between white settlers and the Apache.
Dir: Delmer Daves | Cast: James Stewart, Jeff Chandler, Debra Paget
9:45 PM | Westward the Women (1951)
A frontiersman leads a wagon train full of mail-order brides.
Dir: William A. Wellman | Cast: Robert Taylor, Denise Darcel, Hope Emerson
12:00 AM | Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Two shepherds fall for each other, but complications ensue when they wed their respective girlfriends.
Dir: Ang Lee | Cast: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Randy Quaid
2:30 AM | Buck and the Preacher (1972)
A con man helps a group of former slaves survive the Wild West perils in their search for the promised land.
Dir: Sidney Poitier | Cast: Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee
4:15 AM | Devil's Doorway (1950)
A Native American Civil War hero returns home to fight for his people.
Dir: Anthony Mann | Cast: Robert Taylor, Louis Calhern, Paula Raymond
5:45 AM | Bearing Witness: Native American Voices in Hollywood (2024) TCM Premiere
For over 100 years, Hollywood cinema has crafted the ultimate "villain" -- the Indian, as they were labeled in early Westerns.
Confined almost exclusively to this genre, the Western became a vehicle for American racism, obscuring the genocide upon which the United States was built.
For more than four decades, these films glorified "Manifest Destiny" and the conquest of so-called "wild" lands, with little regard for those who stood in the way. It wasn't until the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and the protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s that a shift occurred.
A new wave of films, such as Little Big Man and Soldier Blue, emerged, offering more authentic portrayals of Native Americans and acknowledging the horrific massacres they endured.
In this documentary, only Native Americans are given a voice to share their story, one that has been overshadowed by Hollywood's portrayal.
Their narrative, part of the larger American story, highlights how cinema has long been used as a powerful propaganda tool, distorting history and perpetuating harmful stereotypes. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34564058/plotsummary/
Dir: Clara Kuperberg, Julia Kuperberg | Cast: Irene Bedard, Tantoo Cardinal, Darrell Redleaf-Fielder