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Star of the Month: Ava Gardner: ‘Late ’40s Breakout Roles’ & ‘Early ’40s Supporting Roles’
TCM, Beginning at 7 p.m.
Legendary actress/bombshell Ava Lavinia Gardner would have turned 100 this Christmas Eve (she was born Dec. 24, 1922, and passed away Jan. 25, 1990, at age 67). To celebrate the centennial of this icon, Turner Classic Movies has made her its December Star of the Month. Each Thursday night (except Dec. 22, which falls during TCM’s weeklong marathon of Christmas movies), the network will feature several of Gardner’s films, ranging from her early appearances and breakout roles in the 1940s to her heyday as a box-office star in the ’50s and more. Tonight’s initial lineup, which continues well into tomorrow morning, fittingly begins with 1946’s The Killers (pictured). This film noir finally gained Gardner notice after years of bit parts. She gives a memorably sultry performance as femme fatale Kitty Collins, who draws an ex-boxer (Burt Lancaster in his film debut) into the criminal underworld. Following that are three other late 1940s films that continued to propel the actress to stardom: The Hucksters (1947), a drama led by Clark Gable and Deborah Kerr in her American film debut; The Bribe (1949), a film noir also starring Robert Taylor, Charles Laughton and Vincent Price; and East Side, West Side (1949), director Mervyn LeRoy’s crime drama that also features Barbara Stanwyck and James Mason. The remaining five films are from the early to mid-’40s, with Gardner in pre-fame bit parts: We
Were Dancing (1942), a Norma Shearer-led romantic comedy that included one of Gardner’s earliest appearances in a feature film, an uncredited walk-on; Ghosts on the Loose
(1943), a comedy/horror entry in the East Side Kids franchise that finally gave Gardner her first screen billing; Maisie Goes to Reno
(1944), the eighth film in the Maisie Ravier series of comedy/dramas with Ann Sothern as the title character; Three Men in White,
a 1944 entry in the Dr. Kildare series; and the comedy (1945).