TCM Schedule for Saturday, February 24, 2018 -- 31 Days of Oscar: Best Actor Winners

[Staph]

Today's 31 Days of Oscar takes us the last day of our acting categories -- Best Actor, Part Two. And we have another really recent film, with Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood (2007). Enjoy!



6:45 AM -- THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR (1936)
True story of the French scientist's battle to establish modern medical methods.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: Paul Muni, Josephine Hutchinson, Anita Louise
BW-86 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Muni, Best Writing, Original Story -- Pierre Collings and Sheridan Gibney, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Pierre Collings and Sheridan Gibney

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

An electrician for Warner Bros. studio came up to Paul Muni after an advanced screening of the film and told him that his nine-year-old son asked him to buy him a microscope because of Muni's performance. Even though he went on to win the Oscar for his performance, Muni said that this was the greatest compliment he had ever received and that all other accolades meant nothing compared to that one.


8:15 AM -- THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII (1933)
The famed English monarch suffers through five of his six disastrous marriages.
Dir: Alexander Korda
Cast: Charles Laughton, Merle Oberon, Wendy Barrie
BW-94 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Charles Laughton (Charles Laughton was not present at the awards ceremony. Fellow nominee Leslie Howard accepted the award on his behalf.)

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

According to Binnie Barnes, Charles Laughton was a method actor, and when Wendy Barrie giggled during a scene to the actor's aggravation, he bit her on the arm, breaking her skin, exactly as the real Henry often did when angry with his wives.


10:00 AM -- ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS (1940)
An exploration into the domestic and political life of this past president.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Raymond Massey, Gene Lockhart, Ruth Gordon
BW-110 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Raymond Massey, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- James Wong Howe

After his success playing Lincoln in the film and on Broadway, Raymond Massey began to assume the character in real life. He often appeared at social gatherings dressed in Lincoln-esque attire, assuming a Lincoln-like manner and speech. His friend, the playwright George S. Kaufman, observed, "Massey won't be satisfied until someone assassinates him."


12:00 PM -- LUST FOR LIFE (1956)
Passionate biography of painter Vincent van Gogh, whose genius drove him mad.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, James Donald
C-122 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Anthony Quinn

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Kirk Douglas, Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Adapted -- Norman Corwin, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Hans Peters, E. Preston Ames, Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason

Parts of the film were shot in Auvers-sur-Oise, where Vincent van Gogh lived and died. Kirk Douglas had his hair cut specially in the style of the artist and had it dyed to a similar reddish tint. This was enough to make some of the older inhabitants of the town believe that Van Gogh had returned.


2:15 PM -- BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (1955)
A one-armed veteran uncovers small-town secrets when he tries to visit an Asian-American war hero's family.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis
C-81 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy, Best Director -- John Sturges, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Millard Kaufman

According to one biographer of Spencer Tracy, the script did not originally call for the lead character to be a one-armed man. The producers were keen to get Tracy but didn't think he'd be interested, so they gave the character this disability with the idea that no actor can resist playing a character with a physical impairment.


4:00 PM -- THE SEARCH (1948)
An American soldier in post-war Europe becomes attached to a homeless child.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Aline MacMahon, Wendell Corey
BW-104 mins, CC,

Won a Juvenile Oscar Award for Ivan Jandl for the outstanding juvenile performance of 1948 in The Search

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Richard Schweizer and David Wechsler

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Montgomery Clift, Best Director -- Fred Zinnemann, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Richard Schweizer and David Wechsler

This was Montgomery Clift's second film after Red River (1948), but because the Western had such a long post-production period, The Search (1948) was released first.


6:00 PM -- MY FAVORITE YEAR (1982)
A flamboyant star throws a TV comedy show into chaos.
Dir: Richard Benjamin
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Mark Linn-Baker, Jessica Harper
C-92 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Peter O'Toole

On his DVD audio-commentary, director Richard Benjamin says how Peter O'Toole, who insisted to do as many of his own stunts as he could, said that the great thing about swashbuckler actors like Errol Flynn, was that they did many or most of their own stunts, so when the audience saw the action sequence, they knew it was really the star in the scene, and not some faked double in a cutaway. This realism gave authenticity and believability to a sequence which would be lost by faked sequences with doubles.



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



8:00 PM -- CAT BALLOU (1965)
A prim schoolteacher turns outlaw queen when the railroad steals her land.
Dir: Elliot Silverstein
Cast: Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin, Michael Callan
C-96 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Lee Marvin

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Walter Newman and Frank Pierson, Best Film Editing -- Charles Nelson, Best Music, Original Song -- Jerry Livingston (music) and Mack David (lyrics) for the song "The Ballad of Cat Ballou", and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Frank De Vol

At his acceptance of the Oscar, Lee Marvin opened by saying, "Half of this probably belongs to a horse out in the Valley somewhere".


10:00 PM -- HARRY AND TONTO (1974)
When his apartment house is condemned, a retired man goes searching for his place in the world.
Dir: Paul Mazursky
Cast: Josh Mostel, Ellen Burstyn, Art Carney
C-115 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Art Carney

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Paul Mazursky and Josh Greenfeld

James Cagney was originally offered the role of Harry. Other people considered for the role were Sir Laurence Olivier and Cary Grant before Art Carney was finally cast. Paul Mazursky's words to Carney were, "You'll win an Oscar", which turned out to be prophetic.


12:15 AM -- THERE WILL BE BLOOD (2007)
In turn-of-the-century California, a prospector transforms himself into an oil tycoon and drifts into corruption the more successful he becomes.
Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Mary Elizabeth Barrett, Paul Dano
C-158 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role -- Daniel Day-Lewis, and Best Achievement in Cinematography -- Robert Elswit

Nominated for Oscars for Best Achievement in Directing -- Paul Thomas Anderson, Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay -- Paul Thomas Anderson, Best Achievement in Film Editing -- Dylan Tichenor, Best Achievement in Art Direction -- Jack Fisk (art director) and Jim Erickson (set decorator), Best Achievement in Sound Editing -- Matthew Wood and Christopher Scarabosio, and Best Picture

Daniel Day-Lewis based his voice for and characterization of Daniel Plainview in part on old recordings of the director, writer, and actor John Huston. An article by Christopher Goodwin in the Sunday Times (of London) revealed Paul Thomas Anderson sent Day-Lewis documentaries about Huston while Day-Lewis was preparing to play the role.


3:15 AM -- NETWORK (1976)
Television programmers turn a deranged news anchor into 'the mad prophet of the airwaves.'
Dir: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch
BW-121 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Peter Finch (Nomination and award were posthumous. Finch became the first posthumous winner in an acting category. His widow Eletha Finch and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Faye Dunaway, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Beatrice Straight, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Paddy Chayefsky

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- William Holden, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ned Beatty, Best Director -- Sidney Lumet, Best Cinematography -- Owen Roizman, Best Film Editing -- Alan Heim, and Best Picture

Peter Finch was desperate to win the role of Howard Beale once he had read the script. He even offered to pay his own airfare to New York City for the screentest. But Sidney Lumet was concerned about Finch's Australian accent. Finch won the part after sending Lumet a recording of himself reading the New York Times with a perfect American accent.


5:30 AM -- A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (1935)
Shakespeare's classic about two pairs of lovers and an amateur actor who get mixed up with fairies.
Dir: Max Reinhardt
Cast: Ian Hunter, Verree Teasdale, Hobart Cavanaugh
BW-143 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Hal Mohr (First and only write-in nominee to actually win.), and Best Film Editing -- Ralph Dawson

Nominated for Oscars for Best Assistant Director -- Sherry Shourds, and Best Picture

When the forest that Max Reinhardt designed could not be lit properly, cinematographer Hal Mohr thinned the trees slightly, sprayed them with aluminum paint and covered them with cobwebs and tiny metal particles to reflect the light. As a result, he became the first (and only) write-in winner of an Academy Award.

[BigmanPigman]

1. WOW!

What a great day to record...
The Search... Monty Cliff wrote a lot of it and it was one of his first films. I saw this 38 years ago and it was brilliantly acted.
Network...people on DU should record this. I wish I had it on DVD or VHS. I have been and I AM MAD AS HELL since Nov 9, 2016.!

[longship]

2. If you've never seen it, try "My Favorite Year"

It is a riot! Peter O'Toole is delicious! Over the top comedy.

Lots of other good ones today, too. Take your pick; they're all great.