TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 11, 2015 -- What's On Tonight: 31 Days of Oscar: Day 11

[Staph]

It's day eleven of 31 Days of Oscar. Enjoy!



The link to the next film -- Adolphe Menjou


7:00 AM -- A Farewell To Arms (1932)
An American serving in World War I falls for a spirited nurse.
Dir: Frank Borzage
Cast: Helen Hayes, Gary Cooper, Adolphe Menjou
BW-89 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Charles Lang, and Best Sound, Recording -- Franklin Hansen (sound director)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson, and Best Picture

Ernest Hemingway hated this interpretation of his novel, as he felt it was overly romantic. That didn't stop him, however, from becoming lifelong friends with Gary Cooper, who he met several years later. In fact, it was Hemingway who would insist that Cooper be cast in the lead of the adaptation of his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) 11 years later. However, the two made a point of never discussing this film.

The link to the next film -- Gilbert Emery


8:30 AM -- The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
The famed writer risks his reputation to defend a Jewish army officer accused of treason.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: Paul Muni, Joseph Schildkraut, Gale Sondergaard
BW-116 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Joseph Schildkraut, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg and Norman Reilly Raine, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Muni, Best Director -- William Dieterle, Best Writing, Original Story -- Heinz Herald and Geza Herczeg, Best Art Direction -- Anton Grot, Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Assistant Director -- Russell Saunders, and Best Music, Score -- Leo F. Forbstein (head of department) with score by Max Steiner

Studio boss Jack L. Warner, who was himself Jewish, personally ordered that the word "Jew" be removed from all dialogue in this movie about the Alfred Dreyfus Affair, apparently in order not to offend the Nazi regime and hurt business for the film in Germany. Source: Ben Urwand in his controversial 2013 study, "The Collaboration: Hollywood's Pact With Adolf Hitler".

The link to the next film -- Gale Sondergaard


10:30 AM -- The Letter (1940)
A woman claims to have killed in self-defense, until a blackmailer turns up with incriminating evidence.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson
BW-95 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- James Stephenson, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Tony Gaudio, Best Film Editing -- Warren Low, Best Music, Original Score -- Max Steiner, and Best Picture

Bette Davis walked off the set once in a fight with William Wyler over the film's climactic scene in which Leslie says to her husband, "With all my heart I still love the man I killed." It was a crucial line, and the way it was delivered was of utmost importance to the drama. Wyler believed that Davis should look her husband's character in the eye as she delivered the devastating blow. Davis, however, disagreed. She recalled in her 1962 memoir The Lonely Life, ""It was such a cruel thing to say to the husband, I felt I could not say it to his face. I couldn't conceive of any woman looking into her husband's eyes and admitting such a thing. I felt it would come out of her unbeknownst to herself, and therefore she would not be looking at him. Willie disagreed with me - most definitely. I walked off the set! Something I had never done in my whole career...I could not see it his way, nor he mine. I came back eventually - end result, I did it his way. It played validly, heaven knows, but to this day I think my way was the right way. I lost, but I lost to an artist."

The link to the next film -- Herbert Marshall


12:15 PM -- The Letter (1929)
A planter's wife shoots a neighbor, but tells conflicting stories of what happened.
Dir: Jean De Limur
Cast: Jeanne Eagels, O. P. Heggie, Reginald Owen
BW-60 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Jeanne Eagels (No official nominees had been announced this year.)

First American film of Herbert Marshall, who plays Leslie Crosbie's murdered lover, Geoffrey Hammond. In the 1940 remake starring Bette Davis, he plays her husband, Robert Crosbie. Also, Herbert Marshall played author W. Somerset Maugham in The Razor's Edge (1946). Additionally, Marshall's daughter, Sarah Marshall, plays Mrs. Joyce in the made-for-television version of The Letter (1982).

The link to the next film -- Reginald Owen


1:19 PM -- Strikes And Spares (1934)
In this short film, professional bowler Andy Varipapa provides bowling advice and shows off some bowling tricks.
Dir: Felix E. Feist
Cast: Buster Brodie, Ray Turner
BW-9 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Novelty -- Pete Smith


1:30 PM -- The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
Lavish biography of Flo Ziegfeld producer who became Broadway's biggest starmaker.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer
C-176 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Luise Rainer, Best Dance Direction -- Seymour Felix for "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody", and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Robert Z. Leonard, Best Writing, Original Story -- William Anthony McGuire, Best Art Direction -- Cedric Gibbons, Eddie Imazu and Edwin B. Willis, and Best Film Editing -- William S. Gray

Eugen Sandow is portrayed as a typically "dumb strongman". In real life, however, Sandow was highly intelligent and a superb businessman. Because he was among the first men to display his muscular body as a "work of art", he was considered to be the "Father of Bodybuilding" and this is what his gravestone reads today. Among his friends were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Alva Edison (who filmed him at the Black Maria Studios) and even King Edward VII. Sandow's career became bigger than ever after his association with Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.. He became very wealthy and famous because of his mail-order businesses, gyms, souvenir photographs, books and personal appearances. There is a mountain in Alaska, a railroad and a small town in Texas (near Austin) named after him. Unfortunately, the town no longer exists per the Texas Historical Society--the Alcoa Aluminum factory near Rockdale is named after the town, as it sits where the town once was.

The link to the next film -- Herman Bing


4:30 PM -- Maytime (1937)
An opera star's manager tries to stop her romance with a penniless singer.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, John Barrymore
BW-132 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD), and Best Music, Score -- Nat W. Finston (head of department) with score by Herbert Stothart

One of MGM mogul Irving Thalberg's personal projects, this originally began filming in Technicolor, with Paul Lukas as Nikolai Nazaroff and Frank Morgan as August Archipenko. When Thalberg died, production was halted. When it was able to resume, black and white was selected as a more economical format. Lukas and Morgan were no longer available, so John Barrymore and Herman Bing took over their roles.

The link to the next film -- Rafaela Ottiano


6:45 PM -- She Done Him Wrong (1933)
A saloon singer fights off smugglers, an escaped con and a Salvation Army officer out to reform her.
Dir: Lowell Sherman
Cast: Mae West, Cary Grant, Owen Moore
BW-65 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

The National Legion of Decency was formed in October of 1933, six months after the release of this film. Legion officials cited Mae West and the film as one of the major reasons for the "necessity" of the organization.

The link to the next film -- Louise Beavers



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: DAY 11



8:00 PM -- Imitation of Life (1934)
A widow and her housekeeper go into business together but almost lose their daughters.
Dir: John M. Stahl
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Rochelle Hudson
BW-111 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Assistant Director -- Scott R. Beal, Best Sound, Recording -- Theodore Soderberg (sound director) and Universal Pictures (studio sound department), and Best Picture

Fredi Washington (Peola, Aged 19) was a light-skinned African-American. After playing this role, she was criticized by some in the black community who labored under the misconception that the actress herself practiced self-hatred and would rather 'pass' herself off as white. Ms. Washington was, in fact, an avid civil rights activist.

The link to the next film -- Warren William


10:00 PM -- Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
Three chorus girls fight to keep their show going and find rich husbands.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon
BW-98 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (sound director)

At 5:55 PM PST on March 10, 1933, the Long Beach earthquake hit southern California, measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale. When the earthquake hit, Busby Berkeley was filming the "Shadow Waltz" dance sequence on a sound stage on the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank. The earthquake caused a blackout on the sound stage and short-circuited some of the neon-tubed violins. Berkeley was almost thrown from a camera boom, and dangled by one hand until he could pull himself back up. Since many of the chorus girls in the dance number were on a 30-foot-high scaffold, Berkeley yelled for them to sit down and wait until the stage hands and technicians could open the sound stage doors and let in some light. (A personal note -- my father was a child in southern California when that earthquake happened. He had some interesting stories!)

The link to the next film -- Ginger Rogers


11:45 PM -- Top Hat (1935)
A woman thinks the man who loves her is her best friend's husband.
Dir: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton
BW-100 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Carroll Clark and Van Nest Polglase, Best Dance Direction -- Hermes Pan for "Piccolino" and "Top Hat", Best Music, Original Song -- Irving Berlin for the song "Cheek to Cheek", and Best Picture

For the "Cheek to Cheek" number, Ginger Rogers wanted to wear an elaborate blue dress heavily decked out with ostrich feathers. When director Mark Sandrich and Fred Astaire saw the dress, they knew it would be impractical for the dance. Sandrich suggested that Rogers wear the white gown she had worn performing "Night and Day" in The Gay Divorcee (1934). Rogers walked off the set, finally returning when Sandrich agreed to let her wear the offending blue dress. As there was no time for rehearsals, Ginger Rogers wore the blue feathered dress for the first time during filming, and as Astaire and Sandrich had feared, feathers started coming off the dress. Astaire later claimed it was like "a chicken being attacked by a coyote". In the final film, some stray feathers can be seen drifting off it. To patch up the rift between them, Astaire presented Rogers with a locket of a gold feather. This was the origin of Rogers' nickname "Feathers". The shedding feathers episode was recreated to hilarious results in a scene from Easter Parade (1948) in which Fred Astaire danced with a clumsy, comical dancer played by Judy Garland.

The link to the next film -- Eric Blore


1:30 AM -- The Moon and Sixpence (1942)
Loosely inspired by the life of Gauguin man abandons his middle-classed life to start painting.
Dir: Albert Lewin
Cast: George Sanders, Herbert Marshall, Doris Dudley
C-89 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Dimitri Tiomkin

Herbert Marshall plays the writer Geoffrey Wolfe, a fictional alter ego of author W. Somerset Maugham. Marshall played Somerset Maugham in The Razor's Edge (1946), and appeared in several adaptations of Maugham's works, including The Painted Veil (1934) and both the 1929 and 1940 versions of The Letter (1940).

The link to the next film -- George Sanders


3:03 AM -- Forty Boys And A Song (1941)
This short film focuses on the Robert Mitchell Choir School of Hollywood, which trains talented young boys in the musical arts in addition to regular academic studies. Vitaphone Release 414A.
Dir: Irving Allen
BW-10 mins,

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


3:15 AM -- The Son Of Monte Cristo (1941)
A freedom fighter leads a double life in his battle against a ruthless dictator.
Dir: Rowland V. Lee
Cast: Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, George Sanders
BW-102 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- John DuCasse Schulze and Edward G. Boyle

Thirteen years after making this film, in which he played the villainous ruler of a fictitious country called "Lichtenburg" (an obvious combination of the real-life small countries Lichtenstein and Luxemburg), George Sanders played a sympathetic role in the musical "Call Me Madam," also set in "Lichtenburg."

The link to the next film -- Joan Bennett


5:00 AM -- The Man in the Iron Mask (1939)
The Three Musketeers rescue the king's unjustly imprisoned twin.
Dir: James Whale
Cast: Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, Warren William
BW-112 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Score -- Lud Gluskin and Lucien Moraweck

Peter Cushing did double duty on this film. In additional to his own role, he would feed Louis Hayward the lines for the split screen shots. Director 'James Whale' initially cast him only to play opposite Hayward in the sequences where both twins appear together, but was impressed enough with the newcomer that he offered Cushing a small part on horseback. This was Peter Cushing's film debut, and he had the unique opportunity to view his own rushes and improve his own performance, especially since none of it would be used in the finished feature. As 'Second Officer,' he can be seen 17 minutes in, with two lines of dialogue ("I've been here before&quot .

The link to the next film -- Joseph Schildkraut