Fred MacMurray: Several of his films to be presented as part of TCM’s “Summer Under the Stars” series.
Fred MacMurray films on TCM: ‘Summer Under the Stars’ series to show titles ranging from the well-known classic Double Indemnity to 1 largely forgotten Douglas Sirk gem
Fred MacMurray is Turner Classic Movies’ 2013 “Summer Under the Stars” on Thursday, Aug. 7.
Although perhaps best remembered as an idealized (well, for some) father figure on the long-running television show My Three Sons and in several popular Disney movies from 1959 to 1967 – e.g., The Absent-Minded Professor, Son of Flubber, Boy Voyage! – MacMurray was at his best in unsympathetic roles in titles like Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and The Apartment.
Elsewhere in the 1930s and 1940s, MacMurray was an uninteresting, unhandsome leading man in movies dominated by his female costars: Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams; Carole Lombard in, among others, The Princess Comes Across and True Confession; Claudette Colbert in, among others, Maid of Salem and The Egg and I; Marlene Dietrich in The Lady Is Willing; Joan Crawford in Above Suspicion. The list goes on.
Below is a brief overview of one such title – found in the TCM lineup – in which Fred MacMurray is in a movie that, from a dramatic standpoint, wholly belongs to his leading woman.
There’s Always Tomorrow (1956)
Sharing a number of plot elements with The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity is one of the best-known releases of the 1940s and a must for anyone who hasn’t watched it yet. Having said that, the one movie that this reviewer ardently recommends is Douglas Sirk’s mostly forgotten melodrama There’s Always Tomorrow.
Fred MacMurray stars as Joan Bennett’s husband, and father of William Reynolds, Gigi Perreau, and Judy Nugent; neglected by his wife and children, he finds solace in the arms (and other body parts, one assumes) of former employee Barbara Stanwyck.
Much like in David Lean’s Brief Encounter, Sirk and screenwriter Bernard C. Schoenfeld (from a story by Ursula Parrott), want us to sympathize with the adulterer and his lover. That, of course, can be dramatically – and even ethically – acceptable, depending on the circumstances.
However, that’s where There’s Always Tomorrow falls short: I had absolutely no sympathy for Fred MacMurray’s husband and father. Instead, I felt sorry for Joan Bennett for being married to him and for not getting a role nearly as prominent as his; had she hooked up with Barbara Stanwyck, There’s Always Tomorrow would have become Douglas Sirk’s masterpiece.
But again, shortcomings or no, do not miss it. Stanwyck is simply outstanding while Bennett does wonders with her underwritten wife/mother.
In real-life, Fred MacMurray was married twice; the second time around, in 1954, to former 20th Century Fox contract actress, singer, and dancer June Haver (The Dolly Sisters). The couple remained married until his death at age 83 in November 1991.
Fred MacMurray movies: TCM’s ‘Summer Under the Stars’ schedule (EDT) – Aug. 7
6:00 AM TOO MANY HUSBANDS (1940)
Director: Wesley Ruggles.
Cast: Jean Arthur, Melvyn Douglas, Fred MacMurray, Harry Davenport, Dorothy Peterson, Melville Cooper, Edgar Buchanan, Tom Dugan.
81m7:30 AM THE LADY IS WILLING (1942)
Director: Mitchell Leisen.
Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Fred MacMurray, Aline MacMahon, Stanley Ridges, Arline Judge, Roger Clark, Ruth Ford, Elisabeth Risdon.
91m9:30 AM ABOVE SUSPICION (1943)
Director: Richard Thorpe.
Cast: Joan Crawford, Fred MacMurray, Conrad Veidt, Basil Rathbone, Reginald Owen, Richard Ainley, Cecil Cunningham, Bruce Lester, Peter Lawford.
91m11:30 AM BORDERLINE (1950)
Director: William A. Seiter.
Cast: Fred MacMurray, Claire Trevor, Raymond Burr, José Torvay, Morris Ankrum, Roy Roberts, Don Diamond.
88m1:00 PM NEVER A DULL MOMENT (1950)
Director: George Marshall.
Cast: Irene Dunne, Fred MacMurray, William Demarest, Andy Devine, Gigi Perreau, Natalie Wood, Philip Ober, Jack Kirkwood, Ann Doran.
89m2:45 PM A MILLIONAIRE FOR CHRISTY (1951)
Director: George Marshall.
Cast: Fred MacMurray, Eleanor Parker, Richard Carlson, Una Merkel, Chris-Pin Martin, Douglass Dumbrille.
91m4:30 PM CALLAWAY WENT THATAWAY (1951)
Director: Norman Panama.
Cast: Fred MacMurray, Dorothy McGuire, Howard Keel, Jesse White, Natalie Schafer, Douglas Kennedy, Elisabeth Fraser, Don Haggerty.
Cameos: Clark Gable, Elizabeth Taylor, Esther Williams.
82m6:00 PM KISSES FOR MY PRESIDENT (1964)
Director: Curtis Bernhardt.
Cast: Fred MacMurray, Polly Bergen, Arlene Dahl, Edward Andrews, Eli Wallach, Donald May.
113m8:00 PM MURDER, HE SAYS (1945)
Director: George Marshall.
Cast: Fred Macmurray, Helen Walker, Marjorie Main, Jean Heather, Porter Hall, Peter Whitney, Mabel Paige, Barbara Pepper.
94m10:00 PM DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)
Director: Billy Wilder.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson, Porter Hall, Jean Heather, Tom Powers, Richard Gaines, Mona Freeman.
108m12:00 AM THERE’S ALWAYS TOMORROW (1956)
Director: Douglas Sirk.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Joan Bennett, William Reynolds, Pat Crowley, Gigi Perreau, Jane Darwell, Paul Smith.
84m1:30 AM DIVE BOMBER (1941)
Director: Michael Curtiz.
Cast: Errol Flynn, Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Alexis Smith, Robert Armstrong, Regis Toomey, Allen Jenkins, Craig Stevens, Herbert Anderson.
133m4:00 AM PUSHOVER (1954)
Director: Richard Quine.
Cast: Fred MacMurray, Phil Carey, Kim Novak.
88m
notes
Fred MacMurray movie schedule via the Turner Classic Movies website.