Elia Kazan Birthday Celebrations
TCM, Beginning at 4 a.m. MOVIES!, Beginning at 9:45 a.m.
Today, Turner Classic Movies and MOVIES! are both featuring movie marathons to celebrate the birth of acclaimed and influential filmmaker Elias Kazantzoglou — better known as Elia Kazan — who was born Sept. 7, 1909, in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) in the no-longer-extant Ottoman Empire (he died in New York City on Sept. 28, 2003, at age 94). TCM’S six-title lineup begins early in the morning and kicks off with the 1941 film noir/musical Blues in the Night, one of the very few films featuring Kazan just as an actor. The lineup then continues with classics from his directorial work: Splendor
in the Grass (pictured) (1961), the romantic drama led by Best Actress Oscar nominee Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty; the Spencer Tracy- and Katharine Hepburn-led Western The Sea of Grass (1947), one of Kazan’s earliest films as a director; one of his last films, The Arrangement, a 1969 drama starring Kirk Douglas and Faye Dunaway that Kazan also wrote, adapting his own novel;
East of Eden (1955), the James Dean-led drama that earned Kazan a Best Director Oscar nomination; and the Best Picture Oscar-nominated adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), which also netted the director an Oscar nomination and stars Best Actress winner Vivien Leigh, Best Actor nominee Marlon Brando, Best Supporting Actor winner Karl Malden and Best Supporting Actress winner Kim Hunter. The four-film Kazan celebration on MOVIES! begins in the early afternoon with A Face in the Crowd (1957), a powerful and still timely drama about a drifter (Andy Griffith) who rises to become an influential media demagogue. That is followed by Wild
River (1960), a drama led by Montgomery Clift and Lee Remick; Panic in the Streets, a 1950 film noir starring Richard Widmark; and Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), the Best Picture-winning drama that won Kazan a Best Director Oscar with his first nomination and earned a Best Supporting Actress win for Celeste Holm, who co-stars with Best Actor nominee Gregory Peck, Best Actress nominee Dorothy Mcguire and Anne Revere, who also received a Supporting Actress nod.