Tuesdays in October | 53 films
On Tuesday nights throughout October, TCM celebrates the period piece—a historical movie that transports viewers to another era with an often-romanticized view of the past. Whether it’s an adaptation of a beloved literary classic or the story of an important historical figure, the period piece capitalizes on the public’s interest in history, opulence and romance. Think escapism more than a history lesson.
Period pieces are rich with visual details. They take us to grand palaces, bucolic country sides and faraway lands all while celebrating the pomp and circumstance of eras gone by. These cinematic interpretations of the past relish in visuals, whether it’s elaborate sets, intricate costumes or hundreds of extras that fill the screen to convey a sense of grandiosity. All of this window dressing sets the stage for some of the biggest movie stars in film history. A big-budget period piece is an event—a way for a studio to showcase its capabilities in addition to an ideal star vehicle for its talents. If anything, they have been a good way to clinch an Academy Award nomination, especially for Best Costume Design. This month’s lineup includes period pieces made through the early days of the studio system to the golden age of period pieces during the 1980s and 1990s.
In looking at the history of the period piece, there is the era before and after Gone with the Wind (1939). That singular achievement in filmmaking set the bar high for excellence in a historical motion picture, and in the years that followed, the studio system tried to recreate that unique success. While Warner Bros. focused on social issue films, MGM reigned as the purveyor of prestigious historical dramas. The studio boasted having “More stars than there are in heaven,” and what better way to showcase their roster of established stars than by putting them in a period piece with all the bells and whistles and budget to back it up.
Norma Shearer, the Queen of MGM—who was then married to MGM producer Irving Thalberg— starred in two notable period pieces. She played opposite Leslie Howard in Romeo and Juliet (1936), an adaptation of the classic Shakespearean tragedy. The studio pulled out all stops with this production including shooting the film twice in order to ensure quality output. Marie Antoinette (1938) was another lavish production with Shearer playing out the rise and fall of the French queen, a notable performance that resulted in an Academy Award nomination. Much time and effort were put into the production including elaborate sets by Cedric Gibbons and gowns by Adrian.
The MGM period piece was an effective way of showcasing the studios’ leading couples. Greta Garbo and John Gilbert starred in their fourth and final film together, MGM’s Queen Christina (1933). The film seemed to be tailor-made for Garbo. It was a choice, hand-selected role for one of the biggest stars of the era to play Queen Christina of Sweden, an important historical figure from Garbo’s home country.
Not wanting to be left out, rival studio Warner Bros. also invested in some substantial period pieces. Olivia de Havilland and Errol Flynn starred in eight movies together, mostly historical pictures, and by the time they had made The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), they had cemented their status as one of Hollywood’s leading on-screen couples in films like Captain Blood (1935) and The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936). In The Adventures of Robin Hood, the pair are transported to medieval England and a combination of Errol Flynn’s charm, de Havilland’s gentle beauty and a swashbuckling romance presented in rich Technicolor proved to be a winning formula. Flynn and De Havilland also starred in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), a grand Warner Bros. production based on the Maxwell Anderson play about Queen Elizabeth I (Bette Davis) and her romance with the Earl of Essex (Errol Flynn). Davis becomes unrecognizable in an elaborate combination of hair, makeup and costume while commanding the screen as the Virgin Queen.
The rivalry between MGM and Warner Bros. came to a head with a pair of dueling stories about tempestuous Southern belles set around the time of the Civil War. While MGM producer David O. Selznick was working hard to cast someone in the lead role of Scarlett O’Hara in a film adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s best-selling novel, Warner Bros.’ William Wyler was directing and producing Jezebel (1938) with Davis as his leading lady. This story about a young woman’s rebellion against social norms drives away her lover (Henry Fonda) went over schedule and over budget but still managed to be a box-office hit and earned Davis an Oscar.
While Jezebel and Gone with the Wind were released a year apart, Jezebel did prove to be Warner Bros.’ answer to MGM’s big looming project. However, Gone with the Wind had much more to offer in terms of production value, audience appeal and star power. MGM struck gold with Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara, and she was joined by a top caliber cast including Clark Gable, de Havilland, Leslie Howard and Hattie McDaniel. Gone with the Wind tapped into a nostalgia for the glory days of the antebellum South. Problematic as that is, this nostalgia had massive appeal and made the film a sensation. It received 13 Academy Award nominations and won eight including Best Picture, Director, Actress (Leigh) and Supporting Actress (McDaniel). In the years that followed, the studios looked toward potential literary adaptations that could ride the wave of success that Gone with the Wind garnered.
Classic literature proved to be a fruitful source of inspiration for elaborate period piece productions. A loose interpretation of Jane Austen’s most beloved novel, Pride and Prejudice (1940) starred Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier as the famed Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. According to the AFI, several creative liberties were taken with this production including changing the time period from Regency to Victorian Era England in order to have more ornate costumes. Fans of Austen’s novel will also notice a peculiar—and ultimately frustrating—shift in the story’s ending.
Later in the decade, Leigh would star in another major literary adaptation, this time playing novelist Leo Tolstoy’s tragic heroine in Anna Karenina (1948). Some note that the film would have been stronger with Leigh’s then on-screen and off-screen partner Olivier instead of Kieron Moore. It wasn’t enough to have the right sets, costumes and hair and makeup detail. On-screen chemistry in a historical romance has been pivotal to a period piece’s success.
Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, MGM utilized their historical pictures to showcase up-and-coming talent. Louisa May Alcott’s novel “Little Women” has been adapted numerous times over the years including RKO’s 1933 version directed by George Cukor and starring Katharine Hepburn. MGM’s Little Women (1949) reunited stars June Allyson and Peter Lawford after their successful pairing in the hit musical Good News (1947), but it also proved to be a great vehicle to show off the studios’ school of young actresses including Margaret O’Brien, Elizabeth Taylor and Janet Leigh.
The proliferation of television in households across America proved to be a major threat to Hollywood in the 1950s and into the 1960s. The studios adopted a go-big-or-go-home mentality in order to produce pictures that would get potential audiences out of their homes and back into movie theaters. Raintree County (1957) transported audiences back to the Civil War-era South with a story that capitalized on the growing star power of Taylor and Montgomery Clift after their success in A Place in the Sun (1951). Raintree County became best known for the tragic accident that almost killed Clift and slightly disfigured his face.
Taylor became the center of controversy and gossip in what proved to be one of the most over-the-top productions of the 20th century: Cleopatra (1963). Produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz for 20th Century-Fox, this historical epic about Egyptian queen Cleopatra and her quest to conquer the Roman Empire was years in the making. It faced numerous setbacks and grew from a budget of $2 million to well over $30 million. During the production, Taylor and her co-star Richard Burton were embroiled in a torrid affair, and Taylor fell ill on two separate occasions. Cleopatra was a result of a growing interest in early history including the sword-and-sandal epics that took place in ancient times and swashbucklers set in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period—including Ivanhoe (1952), Knights of the Round Table (1953) and The Three Musketeers (1973). In one instance, MGM claimed to be heralding a “glorious new era in the world of entertainment.” The gamble was big and in the case of films like Cleopatra, it threatened to put the studio in the red. Other films, like the wildly successful Doctor Zhivago (1965)—a lush romance starring Julie Christie and Omar Sharif set in the days of the Russian Revolution—helped save MGM from bankruptcy.
Period pieces enjoyed a golden age during the 1980s and 1990s when it seemed like every major Hollywood star was clamoring for a role in one of them. This was the era of the Merchant Ivory Production—the famed collaboration between producer-director partners Ismail Merchant and James Ivory as well as screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala—that produced quality period pieces with widespread appeal. One of their most notable collaborations was A Room with a View (1985), a costume drama set in turn-of-the-century Florence starring Helena Bonham Carter, Julian Sands and Maggie Smith. This film was the first major success for Merchant and Ivory and paved the way for other notable period pieces including Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility (1995), a Jane Austen adaptation widely recognized as one of the best of the period. Debuting on TCM is Merchant Ivory (2024), director Stephen Soucy’s definitive documentary about the famed duo whose names became synonymous with the period piece as a genre.
