TCM Schedule for Saturday, February 4, 2017 -- 31 Days of Oscar: Oscar A to Z

[Staph]

Day four of 31 Days of Oscar takes us from 1940's Boom Town to 1950s Caged. Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- BOOM TOWN (1940)
Friends become rivals when they strike-it-rich in oil.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert
BW-119 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Harold Rosson, and Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic) and Douglas Shearer (sound)

Clark Gable was anxious to do the film because his father had been an oil rigger, and Gable himself had worked on oil rigs in Oklahoma before becoming an actor.


8:15 AM -- BOOMERANG (1947)
A prosecutor fights to prove the defendant in a scandalous murder case is innocent.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Dana Andrews, Jane Wyatt, Lee J. Cobb
BW-88 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Richard Murphy

The film is based on a true incident, which took place on Feb. 4, 1924. Father Hubert Dahme, a popular Catholic priest, was shot to death at the intersection of High and Main Street in Bridgeport Connecticut. After an intense police search, homeless veteran Harold Israel was arrested. He was identified by witnesses and linked to the crime by other evidence, and eventually confessed to the murder but later recanted. At the arraignment, prosecutor Homer Stille Cummings dropped all charges and discredited the police case against Israel, insisting the evidence was largely circumstantial and that the confession was coerced from the mentally impaired Israel. Cummings told the court that "it is just as important for a state's attorney to use the great powers of his office to protect the innocent as it is to convict the guilty." Cummings was appointed Attorney General by President Franklin Roosevelt. The murder of Father Dahme was never solved.


9:45 AM -- BORN TO DANCE (1936)
A sailor on leave helps a young dancer make it to the top on Broadway.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth
Cast: Eleanor Powell, James Stewart, Virginia Bruce
BW-106 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Dance Direction -- Dave Gould for "Swingin' the Jinx", and Best Music, Original Song -- Cole Porter for the song "I've Got You Under My Skin"

Cole Porter picked James Stewart for the male lead and later said he sang "Easy to Love" as well as any professional singer. A dubbing track was prepared with baritone Jack Owens, but it was decided that Stewart's tenor voice was perfect for the song. In That's Entertainment! (1974), Stewart said, "The song had become a huge hit, even my singing wouldn't hurt it."


11:30 AM -- BOUND FOR GLORY (1976)
True story of folk singer Woody Guthrie, who rose to the top while fighting for the rights of migrant farm workers.
Dir: Hal Ashby
Cast: David Carradine, Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon
C-148 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Haskell Wexler, and Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score -- Leonard Rosenman

Nominated for Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Getchell, Best Costume Design -- William Ware Theiss, Best Film Editing -- Robert C. Jones and Pembroke J. Herring, and Best Picture

The pivotal Steadicam sequence that first captivated industry insiders involved David Carradine's amble through a migrant camp. The Steadicam operator, Garrett Brown, descends into the scene on a Chapman crane and follows Woody Guthrie (Carradine) as he gets off a pickup truck and walks past some 900 extras. The sequence, which looks quite simple on film, posed a challenge to operator and crew in that, just as Brown stepped off the crane platform laden with his weighty armature, grips had to simultaneously counterbalance the crane arm to prevent it from becoming a human catapult.


2:00 PM -- THE BOY FRIEND (1971)
The understudy goes on for the star and finds love.
Dir: Ken Russell
Cast: Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Max Adrian
C-136 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score -- Peter Maxwell Davies and Peter Greenwell

The cameo role played by Glenda Jackson was originally offered to Julie Andrews, who had debuted in the original West End and Broadway productions of "The Boy Friend" in 1954.


4:30 PM -- BOYS TOWN (1938)
True story of Father Flanagan's fight to build a home for orphaned boys.
Dir: Norman Taurog
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull
BW-93 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy (Spencer Tracy was not present at the awards ceremony. His wife Louise Treadwell accepted the award on his behalf.), and Best Writing, Original Story -- Eleanore Griffin and Dore Schary

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Norman Taurog, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Meehan and Dore Schary, and Best Picture

When shooting began on the movie Mickey Rooney repeatedly tried to steal scenes by fumbling with a handkerchief, pulling faces and other bits of business. This so annoyed Spencer Tracy that he threatened to have Rooney thrown off the movie unless he behaved.


6:15 PM -- THE BRAVE ONE (1956)
A Mexican boy saves his pet bull from death in the bull ring by securing a pardon from the president.
Dir: Irving Rapper
Cast: Michel Ray, Rodolfo Hoyos, Elsa Cardenas
C-100 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Dalton Trumbo (Because he was not permitted to work due to the Hollywood blacklist, Trumbo wrote the story - and was nominated - under the pseudonym Robert Rich, who had nothing to do with the film industry and is a nephew of the King Brothers, producers of the film. Although there were rumors at the time that this was the case, the film's producer repeatedly denied the suggestion. It was not acknowledged until several years later that Trumbo had been the writer. He finally received his award on May 2, 1975, presented by then Academy president Walter Mirisch, shortly before his death - although the official screen credit was not changed until many years afterward.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Buddy Myers (RKO Radio), and Best Film Editing -- Merrill G. White

After "The Brave One' won the Oscar for Best Screenplay, independent producer Edward Nassour sued its producers the King Brothers over plagiarism. It seems the script for "The Brave One' bore an uncanny resemblance to that for "Ring Around Saturn," a stop-motion animation feature Nassour had been working on with a script written by Paul Rader. The rights were originally owned by Jesse L. Lasky, who had wanted to produce it as "Valley of the Mist." The King Brothers settled the dispute by paying out to Nassour the sum of $750,000 in an out-of-court settlement.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: OSCARS A TO Z



8:00 PM -- BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (1961)
A young writer gets caught up in a party girl's carefree existence.
Dir: Blake Edwards
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal
BW-115 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Henry Mancini (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "Moon River", and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Henry Mancini

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Audrey Hepburn, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- George Axelrod, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson, Sam Comer and Ray Moyer

At a post-production meeting following a screening of the film, a studio executive, in reference to "Moon River," said, "Well, I think the first thing we can do is get rid of that stupid song." Audrey Hepburn stood up at the table and said, "Over my dead body!" The song stayed in the picture.


10:00 PM -- BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935)
To save his wife, Baron Frankenstein must build a mate for his monster.
Dir: James Whale
Cast: Karloff, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson
BW-75 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Gilbert Kurland (sound director)

Marilyn Harris, who played Maria, the girl The Monster accidentally kills in the original Frankenstein (1931), appears uncredited as another young girl. She is the leader of the group of young schoolgirls who encounter the Monster as he runs away from the blind man's burning house. Director James Whale deliberately gave her a one-word line ("Look!&quot , so she would be paid more by the studio as an actor with a speaking role, instead of as an extra.


11:30 PM -- BULLITT (1968)
When mobsters kill the witness he was assigned to protect, a dedicated policeman investigates the case on his own.
Dir: Peter Yates
Cast: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset
C-114 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Frank P. Keller

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound

Bullitt's reverse burnout during the chase scene actually wasn't in the script--Steve McQueen had mistakenly missed the turn. The footage was still kept, though.


1:30 AM -- CABARET (1972)
A young writer gets mixed up with a pleasure-loving singer in the decadent world of 1930s Berlin.
Dir: Bob Fosse
Cast: Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem
C-124 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Liza Minnelli, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Joel Grey, Best Director -- Bob Fosse, Best Cinematography -- Geoffrey Unsworth, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Rolf Zehetbauer, Hans Jürgen Kiebach and Herbert Strabel, Best Sound -- Robert Knudson and David Hildyard, Best Film Editing -- David Bretherton, and Best Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation -- Ralph Burns

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Jay Presson Allen, and Best Picture

British author Christopher Isherwood, who originated the character of Sally Bowles in his short story "Goodbye to Berlin", enjoyed the attention the movie "Cabaret" brought to his career, but felt Liza Minnelli was too talented for the role. Sally, an amateur talent who lived under the delusion she had star quality, was, according to Isherwood, the antithesis of "Judy Garland's daughter".


3:45 AM -- CABIN IN THE SKY (1943)
God and Satan battle for the soul of a wounded gambler.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Ethel Waters, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Lena Horne
BW-99 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Harold Arlen (music) and E.Y. Harburg (lyrics) for the song "Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe"

During filming, the movie's black stars were told by the studio manager that they were not allowed to eat at the MGM commissary. When studio head Louis B. Mayer heard about this, he invited the black performers to join him instead in his private dining room. All the performers were allowed to eat in the commissary the following day.


5:30 AM -- CAGED (1950)
A young innocent fights to survive the harsh life in a women's prison.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead, Ellen Corby
BW-97 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Eleanor Parker, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Hope Emerson, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Virginia Kellogg and Bernard C. Schoenfeld

In order to do research for her book, former L.A. Times reporter and screenwriter (under contract at Warner's) Virginia Kellogg pulled some strings to incarcerate herself in a woman's prison. She then wrote a book about it, "Women without Men," which was a kind of almanac of everything she witnessed while in prison. Warner Bros. then had her write the screenplay, which was nominated for an Oscar.

[YOHABLO]

1. I've seen every single one of these movies at least twice. They're all great. But

TCM don't you have anything else to show us. I know you do.