'The Story of Film: An Odyssey' gives a non-Hollywood history

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A Pat Boone kiss-and-tell

By Susan King

Pat Boone would like to set the record straight: He never had a clause in his movie contract at 20th Century Fox that he wouldn’t kiss his leading ladies. To prove it, he ticks off a list of actresses he kissed, including Diane Baker in 1959’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth”, Barbara Eden in 1961’s “All Hands on Deck”, Debbie Reynolds in 1964’s “Goodbye Charlie” and even sex kitten Ann-Margret in the 1962 musical “State Fair.”

Still, he jokes, “I guess my love scenes didn’t set the screen afire.” Continue reading this story.

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(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

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Gloria Stewart

By Susan King

Yes, Gloria Stuart has slowed down and uses a cane these days — she is 100 after all — but the legendary actress is still stunningly beautiful, witty and impishly charming.

During a recent visit to her Santa Monica home, her grandson Benjamin offers a guest a glass of orange juice and Stuart a glass of water. Stuart declines; she wants a glass of white wine.

“Would you like some wine instead?” she asks her visitor.

No, thanks. I don’t drink wine.

“You don’t drink?” she says, smiling. “I do.” Continue reading this story.

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• Hollywood Walk of Fame (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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William Link, pictured, created “Columbo,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “Mannix” with his late partner Richard Levinson. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Richard Chamberlain

By Susan King

During his long, successful career, Richard Chamberlain has played a wide variety of roles. But who knew that he could also do a pitch-perfect impression of Katharine Hepburn?

Chamberlain played opposite the legendary actress in the 1969 film “The Madwoman of Chaillot.” He recalls that Hepburn demanded to meet him before he could get the role of Roderick in the comedy.

“I had to fly to France for her to OK me for the part,” says Chamberlain, still “Shogun” handsome at 76. “She loved to fool around. We did a scene in this park where I had just tried to drown myself. I was lying with my head in her lap on this park bench. They were lighting the scene and she started fooling around with my hair.”

And his ears. Conjuring up the spirit of the late, great Kate, Chamberlain mimics her, saying in her distinctive patrician style, “Oh, little pig ears. Close to your head. Just like mine. It means you are very selfish.’ ” Continue reading this story.

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• Hollywood Walk of Fame: Richard Chamberlain
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(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Kevin Tighe

By Susan King

Is Kevin Tighe embarrassed over his starring role as L.A. fireman-paramedic Roy DeSoto in the 1972-77 series “Emergency!” from producer Jack Webb that also starred Randolph Mantooth as his partner?

“No, I feel a great deal of pride that I was able to be a paramedic,” Tighe says. “Randolph and I have stayed good friends. I was the best man at his wedding. I didn’t want to scurry away from it. But it was something I did in my 20s. It didn’t require a lot of acting. It didn’t require a lot of great dialogue ... I don’t list it in the program because it doesn’t really link with what I am doing now.”

Truth be told, he admits he has always had a serious problem with being a celebrity, especially during the “Emergency” era.

“I didn’t know how to deal with it,” he says, “I couldn’t small talk. I would go to parties and my glasses would fog. I was truly miserable. I am a character actor. I am not a celebrity.”

For the last 23 years, Tighe has been building a resume of terrific character parts on film and television, including John Sayles‘ “Matewan” and “Eight Men Out,” Lasse Hallstrom‘s “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” and as John Locke’s contemptible con man father on “Lost.” Continue reading this story.

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Raquel Welch

By Susan King

Raquel Welch has made her peace with Loana, the scantily clad cave woman she played in the 1966 camp classic “One Million Years B.C.” The poster of Welch wearing pelts in strategic places made her a worldwide sex symbol. The image is so iconic, it was even a pivotal plot point in the 1994 film “ The Shawshank Redemption.”

“She’s really pretty OK,” says Welch of her reel-life character. “I recognize her as one part of my nature. But I just don’t want it to be my complete legacy.” Continue reading this story.

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• Hollywood Walk of Fame: Raquel Welch (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

By Susan King, Los Angeles Times

Sept. 2, 2013 12 AM PT

Hollywood is not the center of the cinema universe in film critic-historian Mark Cousins’ acclaimed 15-hour documentary, “The Story of Film: An Odyssey,” which has its U.S. television premiere Monday evening on Turner Classic Movies.

Cousins, 48, said he didn’t want to make a film about show business or celebrity or box office. “I think I mentioned the Oscars twice in 15 hours,” he said.

In fact, Cousins, who hails from Northern Ireland, looks upon the dream factory as less dream and more factory.

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That’s not to say American movies and filmmakers are given short shrift in the 2011 documentary, which will air weekly through early December on TCM. Several innovative directors, including Buster Keaton, Orson Welles, Martin Scorsese and David Lynch, are explored by Cousins, who also narrates the film.

But international cinema receives the most attention in the documentary, which is based on Cousins’ book “The Story of Film.”

“It’s a very personal vision,” said Charlie Tabesh, senior vice president of programming for TCM. “It is not a TCM documentary. It’s definitely Mark Cousins’ personal vision. When I first saw it, it made me curious and interested in seeing the films. I never went to film school. I felt like I learned a lot.”

TCM host Robert Osborne will introduce each episode of the documentary with Cousins.

“I liked the fact that that he points out that it wasn’t just Hollywood that invented film,” Osborne said. “The French did. The Italians did. It’s an international film community. Mark Cousins is such an interesting fellow. He’s so knowledgeable about film and so passionate about it all. He’s seen everything.”

Cousins shines the spotlight on the pioneers, masters and contemporary international filmmakers, including France’s Lumière brothers, Georges Méliès, Abel Gance, Jean Cocteau, Marcel Carné, Jean Renoir, Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut; Japan’s Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu; Sweden’s Carl Theodor Dryer; German’s Robert Wiene and Fritz Lang; Russia’s Sergei Eisenstein; India’s Satyajit Ray, as well as African, Iranian and South American directors.

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One of the most poignant stories Cousins relates in the documentary is of Ruan Lingyu (“The Goddess”), who was not only China’s Greta Garbo in terms of popularity in the 1930s but also an accomplished actress, whom he describes as having extraordinary “quietude.” She committed suicide in 1935 at age 24 and has almost disappeared from film history books.

“The story of her funeral was front page news in the New York Times,” said Cousins. “But if you look in the film guides — even the ones written by women — mostly she doesn’t happen [to appear]. If you love the history of movies, you have to fight against that forgetting.”

Cousins, who describes himself as having a “proper wanderlust,” spent five years making “The Story of Film,” traveling the world to where the films were produced and to conduct interviews.

“I was working very independent on a very small budget, so there was no one telling me you have to get Brad Pitt for this,” said Cousins. “I wanted people who were either eyewitnesses to movie history and movie magic or who could paint a picture of the world.”

Among the 35 people Cousins interviewed are Norman Lloyd, who worked with and was friends with Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock and Renoir; film historian Cari Beauchamp; directors Stanley Donen, Gus Van Sant and Lars von Trier, and actresses Claudia Cardinale and Kyoko Kagawa.

TCM has also lined up films screening Monday and Tuesday evenings that complement the series. In fact, more than 30 films are making their TCM premieres, including Kenji Mizoguchi’s “Osaka Elegy’” from 1936, Ray’s 1955 “Pather Panchali” and even the once controversial 1967 Swedish import, “I Am Curious Yellow.”

“We have a great deal with Janus [distribution], and we can get access to their entire library, but the challenge was getting stuff that isn’t in their library,” said Tabesh. “We hired someone as a consultant to track down international rights holders. We paid for subtitling and remastering.”

“When I saw the list of films that Charlie had selected, I have to tell you I shed a tear,” said Cousins. “I was extremely moved. ‘The Story of Film’ was a lot of work. You try to share your passion, but you don’t even know if people will be interested in what you are doing. It means the work is not in vain.”

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‘The Story of Film: An Odyssey’

Airing: 7 p.m. Mondays on TCM through Dec. 9

Information: https://www.tcm.com

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susan.king@latimes.com