TCM Schedule for Saturday, February 14, 2015 -- 31 Days of Oscar - 1954-1956

[Staph]

The daylight theme today is, of course, romantic comedy. What else would you expect for Valentine's Day? The prime time schedule includes the Oscar winning and nominated films of 1954 through 1956. But you won't see 1954's
winner On the Waterfront, and nominees The Country Girl, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and Three Coins in the Fountain, 1955's nominees Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, Mister Roberts (to be shown on Wednesday, February 26), Picnic, and The Rose Tattoo, and 1956's winner Around the World in Eighty Days (already shown on Sunday, February 1), and nominees Friendly Persuasion, Giant (to be shown on Monday, February 16), The King and I, and The Ten Commandments. Enjoy!



6:30 AM -- Vivacious Lady (1938)
After a whirlwind courtship, a nightclub singer has to adjust to her professor husband's conservative family.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Ginger Rogers, James Stewart, James Ellison
BW-90 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Robert De Grasse, and Best Sound, Recording -- James Wilkinson (RKO Radio SSD)

Since Ginger's legs were insured for $500,000 they were strapped with boards and padded for protection during the fight scene. Filming on The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) started soon after this film wrapped, and RKO could not afford to have an injured musical star.


8:15 AM -- Libeled Lady (1936)
When an heiress sues a newspaper, the editor hires a reporter to compromise her.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy
BW-98 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Reportedly, while shooting the movie, the four stars had become close friends, and William Powell even gave up his old habit of hiding out in his dressing room between scenes so he could join in the fun with the rest of the cast. One of the biggest jokes was a running gag Spencer Tracy played on Myrna Loy, claiming that she had broken his heart with her recent marriage to producer Arthur Hornblow Jr. He even set up an "I Hate Hornblow" table in the studio commissary, reserved for men who claimed to have been jilted by Loy.


10:00 AM -- Holiday (1938)
An unhappy heiress falls in love with her stodgy sister's freethinking fiance.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Doris Nolan
BW-96 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction -- Stephen Goosson and Lionel Banks

Eighteen months before Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind (1939), Katharine Hepburn says "damned" in a Production Code-approved Hollywood movie. The occurrence isn't gratuitous: She's recounting her experience in amateur theatrics and, in camp style, performs a fragment of Lady MacBeth's "Out, damned spot" sleepwalking line from William Shakespeare.


11:45 AM -- Skylark (1941)
A neglected housewife falls in love with a handsome attorney.
Dir: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Ray Milland, Brian Aherne
BW-94 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Loren L. Ryder (Paramount SSD)

Based on a play and novel by Samson Raphaelson.


1:30 PM -- Adam's Rib (1949)
Husband-and-wife lawyers argue opposite sides in a sensational women's rights case.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday
BW-101 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin

Katharine Hepburn reportedly urged director George Cukor to focus the camera on Judy Holliday during a number of their shared scenes, not only because she was a fan of the new-to-movies Holliday but because it was hoped the studios would see how terrific Holliday was and cast her as the lead in Born Yesterday (1950), the role she'd created on Broadway. It worked.


3:20 PM -- Movie Pests (1944)
This comedic short looks at annoying movie-going habits that disrupt the viewing experience.
Dir: Will Jason
Cast: Harry Parke, Harry Tyler, Dave O'Brien
BW-11 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Pete Smith

This short film is included as an extra on the 2007 Warner Home Video DVD of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944).


3:30 PM -- The More the Merrier (1943)
The World War II housing shortage brings three people together for an unlikely romance.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Charles Coburn
BW-104 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Charles Coburn

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Jean Arthur, Best Director -- George Stevens, Best Writing, Original Story -- Frank Ross and Robert Russell, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Richard Flournoy, Lewis R. Foster, Frank Ross and Robert Russell, and Best Picture

Joel McCrea didn't originally think he was right for the part of Joe and thought Cary Grant would have been better suited. Ironically, Grant would appear in the remake, Walk Don't Run (1966), albeit in the Charles Coburn role. That turned out to be Grant's last film.


5:30 PM -- Irma La Douce (1963)
A Parisian policeman gives up everything for the love of a free-living prostitute.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Lou Jacobi
BW-143 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- André Previn

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Shirley MacLaine, and Best Cinematography, Color -- Joseph LaShelle

Billy Wilder loved Marilyn Monroe's performance in Some Like It Hot (1959) and wanted her for this role but she died before production started.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: 1954-1956



8:00 PM -- The Red Balloon (1956)
A boy discovers his new balloon has a mind of its own.
Dir: Albert Lamorisse
Cast: Pascal Lamorisse, Sabine Lamorisse,
C-34 mins,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Original -- Albert Lamorisse

With its Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay, the film is (as of 2013) the only short film to win an Academy Award outside of the short film categories.


8:45 PM -- The Harder They Fall (1956)
A cynical press agent exposes inhuman conditions in the boxing game.
Dir: Mark Robson
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Rod Steiger, Jan Sterling
BW-109 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Burnett Guffey

Primo Carnera unsuccessfully sued the film's makers, claiming it damaged his reputation for implying that he was involved in fixed fights. Carnera's career is one of the biggest mysteries in boxing, as many of the sport's historians believe that, without Carnera's knowledge, his managers paid most of his opponents to throw their fights.


10:45 PM -- The Caine Mutiny (1954)
Naval officers begin to suspect their captain of insanity.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Jose Ferrer, Van Johnson
C-125 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Humphrey Bogart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Tom Tully, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Stanley Roberts, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), Best Film Editing -- William A. Lyon and Henry Batista, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner, and Best Picture

The scars on Van Johnson's face in this film are real, not makeup. While filming A Guy Named Joe (1943), Johnson was in an automobile accident and thrown through the car's windshield. The plastic surgery of the day could not totally remove his scars. In all his later films he wore heavy makeup to hide them but felt that, in this film, they added to his character's appearance.


1:00 AM -- Marty (1955)
A lonely butcher finds love despite the opposition of his friends and family.
Dir: Delbert Mann
Cast: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti
BW-94 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Ernest Borgnine, Best Director -- Delbert Mann, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Paddy Chayefsky, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Joe Mantell, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Betsy Blair, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph LaShelle, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Ted Haworth, Walter M. Simonds and Robert Priestley

Betsy Blair, who portrayed Clara, was almost not permitted to do the film by Hecht-Lancaster Productions and United Artists due to the 1950s Hollywood Blacklist. However, Gene Kelly, her husband at the time, basically blackmailed United Artists and Hecht-Lancaster into casting her, at the last minute, by threatening not to direct or star in any of UA's or Hecht Lancaster's productions if she was not cast for the role.


2:45 AM -- Blackboard Jungle (1955)
An idealistic teacher confronts the realities of juvenile delinquency.
Dir: Richard Brooks
Cast: Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern
BW-101 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Richard Brooks, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Russell Harlan, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell, Edwin B. Willis and Henry Grace, and Best Film Editing -- Ferris Webster

The original novel was based on author Evan Hunter's own experiences as a teacher in New York City's tough South Bronx area. Hunter, who found fame as crime writer Ed McBain said, "I thought I was going to give these kids who want to be motor mechanics Shakespeare and they were going to appreciate it and they weren't buying it. I went home in tears night after night".


4:27 AM -- 100 Years At The Movies (1994)
This short documentary celebrates the centennial of American filmmaking through a montage of clips of influential motion pictures.
Dir: Chuck Workman
C-9 mins,

Features Sandow, No. 1 (1894), The Barbershop (1894), Glenroy Brothers (Comic Boxing) (1894), Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895), Seminary Girls (1897) (Short), Butterfly Dance (1897) (Short), Grandma's Reading Glass (1900) (Short), The Great Train Robbery (1903) (Short), Ben Hur (1907) (Short), Rescued from an Eagle's Nest (1908) (Short), In the Barber Shop (1908) (Short), The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) (Short), Suspense (1913) (Short), Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914) (Short), The Perils of Pauline (1914), The Birth of a Nation (1915), Shanghaied (1915) (Short), Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916), One A.M. (1916) (Short), The Rink (1916) (Short), Greed (1917), The Cure (1917) (Short), The Immigrant (1917) (Short), Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl (1919), The Mark of Zorro (1920), The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), Cops (1922) (Short), Nanook of the North (1922), Safety Last! (1923), The Ten Commandments (1923), The Thief of Bagdad (1924), Greed (1924), Little Annie Rooney (1925), The Big Parade (1925), Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), Flesh and the Devil (1926), The General (1926), It (1927), Napoleon (1927), The Jazz Singer (1927), Sadie Thompson (1928), The Crowd (1928), Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), The Wind (1928), Applause (1929), Min and Bill (1930), Little Caesar (1931), Cimarron (1931), Dance, Fools, Dance (1931), The Public Enemy (1931), Frankenstein (1931), Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), Scarface (1932), Grand Hotel (1932), The Music Box (1932) (Short), Red Dust (1932), She Done Him Wrong (1933), King Kong (1933), 42nd Street (1933), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Dinner at Eight (1933), Footlight Parade (1933), Duck Soup (1933), Flying Down to Rio (1933), Queen Christina (1933), It Happened One Night (1934), Twentieth Century (1934), The Thin Man (1934), Dames (1934), David Copperfield (1935), The Little Colonel (1935), Naughty Marietta (1935), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), A Night at the Opera (1935), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), San Francisco (1936), Swing Time (1936), The Good Earth (1937), Captains Courageous (1937), Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938), Boys Town (1938), Gunga Din (1939), Stagecoach (1939), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Gone with the Wind (1939), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Down Argentine Way (1940), The Letter (1940), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Citizen Kane (1941), Sergeant York (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Woman of the Year (1942), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), For Me and My Gal (1942), Now, Voyager (1942), Road to Morocco (1942), Casablanca (1942), Cabin in the Sky (1943), Double Indemnity (1944), To Have and Have Not (1944), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), National Velvet (1944), Anchors Aweigh (1945), Gilda (1946), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Fort Apache (1948), Red River (1948), The Three Musketeers (1948), White Heat (1949), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Samson and Delilah (1949), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Sunset Blvd. (1950), All About Eve (1950), A Place in the Sun (1951), An American in Paris (1951), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), Singin' in the Rain (1952), Scaramouche (1952), The Quiet Man (1952), Pat and Mike (1952), High Noon (1952), Shane (1953), Stalag 17 (1953), From Here to Eternity (1953), Roman Holiday (1953), The Wild One (1953), Dial M for Murder (1954), On the Waterfront 1954), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), A Star Is Born (1954), East of Eden (1955), Mister Roberts (1955), To Catch a Thief (1955), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), The Searchers (1956), The Ten Commandments (1956), Giant (1956), Funny Face (1957), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Jailhouse Rock (1957), The Defiant Ones (1958), Some Like It Hot (1959), North by Northwest (1959), Ben-Hur (1959), Psycho (1960), The Misfits (1961), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), West Side Story (1961), Lolita (1962), Dr. No (1962), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Hud (1963), The Great Escape (1963), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), A Hard Day's Night (1964), The Sound of Music (1965), Doctor Zhivago (1965), Dont Look Back (1967), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Funny Girl (1968), Oliver! (1968), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Easy Rider (1969), Midnight Cowboy (1969), True Grit (1969), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), MASH (1970), Patton (1970), Woodstock (1970), Love Story (1970), Klute (1971), The Last Picture Show (1971), The French Connection (1971), The Godfather (1972), Play It Again, Sam (1972), The Exorcist (1973), American Graffiti (1973), The Way We Were (1973), The Sting (1973), Chinatown (1974), The Godfather: Part II (1974), Nashville (1975), Jaws (1975), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Taxi Driver (1976), All the President's Men (1976), Network (1976), Rocky (1976), Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), The Turning Point (1977), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Saturday Night Fever (1977), Norma Rae (1979), Apocalypse Now (1979), The Black Stallion (1979), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), Airplane! (1980), Raging Bull (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Reds (1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Tootsie (1982), The Right Stuff (1983), Terms of Endearment (1983), Ghostbusters (1984), Amadeus (1984), The Killing Fields (1984), Witness (1985), Top Gun (1986), The Last Emperor (1987), Moonstruck (1987), Batman (1989), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Ghost (1990), Dances with Wolves (1990), Home Alone (1990), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Boyz n the Hood (1991), JFK (1991), Jurassic Park (1993), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), The Fugitive (1993), Schindler's List (1993), and Philadelphia (1993)!


4:45 AM -- The Man With The Golden Arm (1955)
A junkie must face his true self to kick his drug addiction.
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Eleanor Parker, Kim Novak
BW-119 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Frank Sinatra, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Joseph C. Wright and Darrell Silvera, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Elmer Bernstein

The Motion Picture Association of America originally refused to issue a seal for this movie because it shows drug addiction. The next year the production code was changed to allow movies to deal with drugs, kidnapping, abortion and prostitution. The film was eventually assigned certificate no. 17011.

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