TCM Schedule for Friday, February 16, 2018 -- 31 Days of Oscar: Best Original Story Winners

[Staph]

Today's Oscar category is Best Original Story -- an award given until 1957, when it was folded into the award for Best Original Screenplay. Actually, the name was changed to Best Writing, Motion Picture Story in the 1949 Oscars, and the writing awards were changed in the 1958 Oscars to Best Writing, Screenplay Based On Material From Another Medium and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Written Directly For The Screen. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- MANHATTAN MELODRAMA (1934)
Boyhood friends grow up on opposite sides of the law.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy
BW-90 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Arthur Caesar

This is probably the only major film to offer a fairly accurate re-creation of the General Slocum disaster. The popular excursion steamer caught fire in New York's East River on the morning of June 15, 1904, while transporting passengers to a picnic organized by St. Mark's Evangelical German Lutheran Church (Lower East Side, Manhattan). At an estimated 1,021 fatalities, mostly women and children, this was New York City's single worst tragedy, in terms of lives lost, before 9/11. An incompetent, inexperienced crew was held primarily to blame for the tragedy.


8:00 AM -- ONE WAY PASSAGE (1932)
An ocean voyage leads to romance for a dying heiress and a condemned criminal.
Dir: Tay Garnett
Cast: William Powell, Kay Francis, Aline MacMahon
BW-68 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Robert Lord

Although the character's name would change, Frank McHugh plays the same part in the remake titled 'Til We Meet Again (1940).


9:30 AM -- A GUY NAMED JOE (1943)
A downed World War II pilot becomes the guardian angel for his successor in love and war.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, Van Johnson
BW-120 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- David Boehm and Chandler Sprague

The War Department initially did not approve the script, fearing psychological damage to new and experienced pilots and their parents. It relented after 2 revisions and promised full cooperation.


11:45 AM -- MY FAVORITE WIFE (1940)
A shipwrecked woman is rescued just in time for her husband's re-marriage.
Dir: Garson Kanin
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott
BW-88 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- Leo McCarey, Bella Spewack and Sam Spewack, Best Art Direction, Black-and-White -- Van Nest Polglase and Mark-Lee Kirk, and Best Music, Original Score -- Roy Webb

Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, "Enoch Arden," about a fisherman presumed lost at sea who returns to find his wife remarried, was the basis of five prior films: Enoch Arden (1914), Die Toten kehren wieder - Enoch Arden (1919), and D.W. Griffith's Enoch Arden: Part I (1911), Enoch Arden: Part II (1911), and Enoch Arden (1915). Those films adhered to Tennyson's poem. But in My Favorite Wife, Something's Got to Give (1962), and Move Over, Darling (1963), only the basic idea of a spouse who returns is kept, with the spouse presumed lost now being the wife. However, in all of these films, the surname of the couple in question remains "Arden."


1:30 PM -- MYSTERY STREET (1950)
Criminal pathologists try to crack a case with nothing but the victim's bones to go on.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Bruce Bennett
BW-93 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Leonard Spigelgass

The concept of a forensic procedural is common in the 21st century, but was brand new when this movie was made. To cap it off, the hero was played by a Hispanic actor, Ricardo Montalban, who was a big star in Mexico, but who had been mostly cast in Hollywood flicks as a Latin lover before this picture.


3:30 PM -- WHITE HEAT (1949)
A government agent infiltrates a gang run by a mother-fixated psychotic.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien
BW-113 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Virginia Kellogg

In his autobiography Cagney by Cagney (1985), the actor said he found the script "very formula...the old knock-down-drag-'em-out again, without a touch of imagination or originality." Finding Cody Jarrett to be "just another murderous thug," Cagney said he suggested to the writers to pattern the character of Jarrett and his mother after the legendary outlaws Ma Barker and her boys and to make Cody a psychotic. It has also been said that Cagney improvised some of his dialogue and decided to play Jarrett as a man plagued by blinding migraines (that only his mother could soothe).


5:45 PM -- ACTION IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC (1943)
A Merchant Marine crew fights off enemy attacks at the start of World War II.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale
BW-127 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Guy Gilpatric

Very few early World War II films featured African-Americans in the US military. Star Humphrey Bogart was quoted in 'The Pittsburgh Courier' on 26 September 1942 as saying that he wanted to have a black Merchant Marine captain in this film. He said, "In the world of the theatre or any other phase of American life, the color of a man's skin should have nothing to do with his rights in a land built upon the self-evident fact that all men are created equal."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: BEST ORIGINAL STORY WINNERS



8:00 PM -- MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)
An idealistic Senate replacement takes on political corruption.
Dir: Frank Capra
Cast: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Claude Rains
BW-130 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Lewis R. Foster

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Harry Carey, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Claude Rains, Best Director -- Frank Capra, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sidney Buchman, Best Art Direction -- Lionel Banks, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), Best Film Editing -- Gene Havlick and Al Clark, Best Music, Scoring -- Dimitri Tiomkin, and Best Picture

Information in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library indicates that in January 1938, both Paramount and MGM submitted copies of Lewis R. Foster's story to the PCA for approval. Responding to a Paramount official, PCA Director Joseph Breen cautioned, "We would urge most earnestly that you take serious counsel before embarking on the production of any motion picture based on this story. It looks to us like one that might well be loaded with dynamite, both for the motion picture industry and for the country at large." Breen especially objected to "the generally unflattering portrayal of our system of government, which might well lead to such a picture being considered, both here and more particularly abroad, as a covert attack on the democratic form of government." Breen warned Columbia that the picture needed to emphasize that "the Senate is made up of a group of fine, upstanding citizens, who labor long and tirelessly for the best interests of the nation," as opposed to "Senator Joseph Paine" and his cohorts. After the script had been rewritten, Breen wrote a letter to Will H. Hays in which he stated, "It is a grand yarn that will do a great deal of good for all those who see it and, in my judgment, it is particularly fortunate that this kind of story is to be made at this time. Out of all Senator Jeff's difficulties there has been evolved the importance of a democracy and there is splendidly emphasized the rich and glorious heritage which is ours and which comes when you have a government 'of the people, by the people, and for the people.'"


10:30 PM -- THE CHAMP (1931)
A broken-down prizefighter battles to keep custody of his son.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Irene Rich
BW-86 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Wallace Beery (Tied with Fredric March for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931).), and Best Writing, Original Story -- Frances Marion

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- King Vidor, and Best Picture

Wallace Beery was none too thrilled to be working with Jackie Cooper, sharing most adult actors' distrust of child stars. Cooper would later accuse the star of trying to upstage him and treating him like "an unkempt dog," behaviour he ascribed to jealousy.


12:15 AM -- A STAR IS BORN (1937)
A fading matinee idol marries the young beginner he's shepherded to stardom.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: Janet Gaynor, Fredric March, Adolphe Menjou
C-111 mins, CC,

Won an Honorary Award for W. Howard Greene for the color photography of A Star Is Born. (plaque) This award was recommended by a committee of leading cinematographers after viewing all the color pictures made during the year.

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- William A. Wellman and Robert Carson

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Fredric March, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Janet Gaynor, Best Director -- William A. Wellman, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Alan Campbell, Robert Carson and Dorothy Parker, Best Assistant Director -- Eric Stacey, and Best Picture

Widely considered to be the first Technicolor film that was a bona fide critical and box office success. Until A Star is Born (1937) and Nothing Scared (1937), color films had been garish, oversaturated and, as many critics complained, headache-inducing. Producer David O. Selznick insisted on muted, realistic color, and it was the success of these two films that paved the way for his Technicolor masterpiece, Gone With the Wind (1939).


2:15 AM -- 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

Father Edward Flanagan, who died almost ten years after this movie was released, was the first person ever to live to see somebody win an Oscar for portraying him.


4:00 AM -- VACATION FROM MARRIAGE (1945)
After World War II service changes them, a married couple dread their postwar reunion.
Dir: Alexander Korda
Cast: Robert Donat, Deborah Kerr, Glynis Johns
BW-93 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Clemence Dane

Uniforms worn by the characters are one hundred percent correct. Cathy's W.R.E.N. uniform, when she joins, has the pre-1942 soft cap. Towards the end of the movie, it is updated to the correct later style cap. When working with her boat crew, she wears the correct men's bell bottoms and white top, and the lanyard with knife. Elena, the nurse, wears a correct tropical dress white uniform of Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service, with white tippet (short cape).

[LisaM]

1. "My Favorite Wife", aka, My Favorite Movie.

The write up didn't mention a movie made around the same time with Fred McMurrary, Jean Arthur, and Melvyn Douglas called "Too Many Husbands", which is really worth seeing in tandem with "My Favorite Wife".