TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 23, 2017 -- 31 Days of Oscar: Oscar A to Z Day 23

[Staph]

It's day twenty-three of 31 days of Oscar, alpha and omega style. Today's selections take us from 1945's San Antonio (Errol Flynn once again as a cowboy!) to 1949's She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (the middle film of John Ford's calvary trilogy). Enjoy!


6:45 AM -- SAN ANTONIO (1945)
A reformed rustler tracks down a band of cattle thieves and tries to reform a crooked dance-hall girl.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakall
C-109 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Ted Smith and Jack McConaghy, and Best Music, Original Song -- Ray Heindorf (music), M.K. Jerome (music) and Ted Koehler (lyrics) for the song "Some Sunday Morning"

Bozic (S. Z. 'Cuddles' Sakall) in the film twice refers to riderless horses as "empty horses". This is likely to be a reference to director Michael Curtiz, with whom Errol Flynn had worked on The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) (and whom Flynn detested). When wanting to see stray horses wandering through the battle, Curtiz directed the wranglers to "bring on the empty horses." When David Niven and Flynn cracked up laughing, Curtiz responded with, 'You people, you think I know fuck nothing; I tell you: I know fuck all". Niven later made this "Curtizism" immortal by titling his autobiography:"Bring On the Empty Horses".


8:45 AM -- SAN FRANCISCO (1936)
A beautiful singer and a battling priest try to reform a Barbary Coast saloon owner in the days before the big earthquake.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy
BW-115 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy, Best Director -- W.S. Van Dyke, Best Writing, Original Story -- Robert E. Hopkins, Best Assistant Director -- Joseph M. Newman, and Best Picture

Jeanette MacDonald personally chose Spencer Tracy for the second male lead. Previously Tracy had mainly been cast as heavies; this role completely turned his career around.


10:45 AM -- THE SANDPIPER (1965)
An Episcopal priest falls for a free-living artist.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Eva Marie Saint
C-117 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Johnny Mandel (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics) for the song "The Shadow of Your Smile"

Then unknown Raquel Welch doubled (uncredited) for Elizabeth Taylor in some of Taylor's beach scenes on location at Big Sur, California.


12:45 PM -- SCROOGE (1970)
A miser faces the ghosts of his past on Christmas Eve.
Dir: Ronald Neame
Cast: Albert Finney, Alec Guinness, Edith Evans
C-114 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Terence Marsh, Robert Cartwright and Pamela Cornell, Best Costume Design -- Margaret Furse, Best Music, Original Song -- Leslie Bricusse for the song "Thank You Very Much", and Best Music, Original Song Score -- Leslie Bricusse, Ian Fraser and Herbert W. Spencer

Scrooge, played by then 33-year old Albert Finney, is actually younger than his nephew Fred, played by then 46-year old Michael Medwin. It took more than three hours each day to apply the old-age Scrooge makeup to Albert Finney.


2:45 PM -- THE SEA HAWK (1940)
A British buccaneer holds the Spanish fleet at bay with the covert approval of Elizabeth I.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Claude Rains
BW-128 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction, Black-and-White -- Anton Grot, Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Effects, Special Effects -- Byron Haskin (photographic) and Nathan Levinson (sound), and Best Music, Score -- Erich Wolfgang Korngold

The beautifully crafted costumes were made for an Errol Flynn film from the previous year, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). Reusing them saved Warner Bros. a huge amount of money, since the costumes were heavily researched, meticulously created and very expensive.


5:00 PM -- THE SEA WOLF (1941)
Shipwrecked fugitives try to escape a brutal sea captain who's losing his mind.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Ida Lupino, John Garfield
BW-87 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Byron Haskin (photographic) and Nathan Levinson (sound)

The first movie to have its world premiere on a ship: the luxury liner "America" during a trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles.


6:30 PM -- SECOND CHORUS (1940)
Two composers vie for their lady manager's heart as they head for Broadway.
Dir: H. C. Potter
Cast: Fred Astaire, Paulette Goddard, Artie Shaw
BW-84 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Artie Shaw (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "Love of My Life", and Best Music, Score -- Artie Shaw

Fred Astaire and Burgess Meredith play college students in the movie. This rather stretches credibility as Astaire was 41 and Meredith was 33 at the time of filming. Astaire would later refer to this as the worst film he ever made, while Artie Shaw also confided that Second Chorus (1940) put him off film acting.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: DAY 23



8:00 PM -- SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954)
When their older brother marries, six lumberjacks decide it's time to go courting for themselves.
Dir: Stanley Donen
Cast: Howard Keel, Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn
C-102 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Adolph Deutsch and Saul Chaplin

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich and Dorothy Kingsley, Best Cinematography, Color -- George J. Folsey, Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters, and Best Picture

The censors weren't too happy about the line in the song "Lonesome Polecat" where the brothers lament "A man can't sleep when he sleeps with sheep". By not showing any sheep in the same shot as the brothers, the film-makers were able to get away with it.


10:00 PM -- THE SEVEN-PER-CENT SOLUTION (1976)
Sherlock Holmes seeks psychiatric help from Sigmund Freud and gets caught up in mystery.
Dir: Herbert Ross
Cast: Alan Arkin, Vanessa Redgrave, Robert Duvall
C-113 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Nicholas Meyer, and Best Costume Design -- Alan Barrett

The tennis match sequence was not a studio set but was shot at classic historical tennis courts at the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London.


12:00 AM -- SHAFT (1971)
A slick black detective enlists gangsters and African nationals to fight the mob.
Dir: Gordon Parks
Cast: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi
C-100 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Isaac Hayes for the song "Theme from Shaft"

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- Isaac Hayes

Shaft is seen reading a copy of Essence Magazine in his girlfriend's apartment. Director Gordon Parks is a co-founder of Essence. The magazine is spotted when Shaft is engaging in a conversation with a blind newsstand vendor during the opening sequence.


2:00 AM -- SHALL WE DANCE (1937)
A ballet dancer and a showgirl fake a marriage for publicity purposes, then fall in love.
Dir: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton
BW-109 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- George Gershwin (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) for the song "They Can't Take That Away from Me"

At the end of the roller skate dance number in the park the stars flop onto the "lawn". In the film both Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appear uncomfortable as they get up. This is because both were bruised from more than fifteen earlier takes (some sources say 150 takes!) and were actually in pain.


4:15 AM -- SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON (1949)
An aging Cavalry officer tries to prevent an Indian war in the last days before his retirement.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Joanne Dru, John Agar
C-104 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Winton C. Hoch

John Ford initially was uncertain who to cast in the lead role. However, he knew that he did not want John Wayne for the part-considering, among other factors, that Wayne would be playing a character over twenty years older than he was at the time. Reportedly, Wayne's performance in Red River (1948) changed Ford's mind, causing him to exclaim, "I didn't know the big son of a bitch could act!" Ford realized Wayne had grown considerably as an actor, and was now capable of playing the character he envisaged for this film. When shooting was completed, Ford presented Wayne with a cake with the message, "You're an actor now."