TCM Schedule for Thursday, March 1, 2018 -- 31 Days of Oscar: Best Picture Winners

[Staph]

Today is the fifth of seven days of Best Picture Winners (and nominees). I can't seem to come up with a theme for the day. The movies date from 1928 to 1972 today. In prime time, all the films are musicals, but in the daylight hours we get to watch comedies, dramas, film noir and a biopic. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- The Crowd (1928)
In this silent film, an office worker deals with the simple joys and tragedies of married life.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: Eleanor Boardman, James Murray, Bert Roach
BW-93 mins,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director, Dramatic Picture -- King Vidor, and Best Picture, Unique and Artistic Production

Several years after the film was made, alcoholism had taken its toll on lead actor James Murray, who was reduced to panhandling in the street. Ironically, one of the passers-by he solicited for money turned out to be King Vidor, who offered him a part in the film's semi-sequel, Our Daily Bread (1934). Murray declined the offer, thinking it was only made out of pity. He died in 1936 at the age of 35 in a drowning incident. Vidor was sufficiently compelled to write his life story as an unrealized screenplay, which he called "The Actor".


7:45 AM -- Smilin' Through (1932)
A young woman falls in love with the son of an old family enemy.
Dir: Sidney Franklin
Cast: Norma Shearer, Fredric March, Leslie Howard
BW-98 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Picture

Fredric March commented to his first cousin, Kathryn Davis, about working with Norma Shearer, that, yes, she was a great actress, professional, etc., but could be difficult, because she constantly expected perfection. When Davis asked what that specifically meant, March replied, "She was never satisfied, kept having us do take after take." Pausing, he continued, unabashed, "Especially our love scenes. She always wanted to redo all the love scenes, several times!" Davis wanted to ask why he supposed Shearer always wanted to retake the love scenes in particular, but thought better of it and kept silent.


9:30 AM -- Stage Door (1937)
Women at a theatrical boarding house try to make their big break happen.
Dir: Gregory LaCava
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou
BW-92 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Andrea Leeds, Best Director -- Gregory La Cava, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Morrie Ryskind and Anthony Veiller, and Best Picture

The screenplay was considerably altered from the hit stage play. Director Gregory La Cava was particularly gifted working with actresses. For two weeks prior to filming, he had his cast improvise in the boarding house set as if they were actually rooming together, and had a script girl take down all their interchanges. Most of the dialog you hear in the boarding house is extemporaneous ad-libs by the actresses during rehearsals.


11:15 AM -- Double Indemnity (1944)
An insurance salesman gets seduced into plotting a client's death.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson
BW-108 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Barbara Stanwyck, Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- John F. Seitz, Best Sound, Recording -- Loren L. Ryder (Paramount SSD), Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa, and Best Picture

James M. Cain based his novella on a 1927 murder perpetrated by a married Queens, New York woman and her lover whose trial he attended whilst working as a journalist in New York. In that crime, Ruth Snyder persuaded her boyfriend, Judd Gray, to kill her husband Albert after having him take out a big insurance policy - with a double-indemnity clause. The murderers were quickly identified, arrested and convicted. The front page photo of Snyder's execution in the electric chair at Sing Sing has been called the most famous news photo of the 1920s.


1:15 PM -- Anchors Aweigh (1945)
A pair of sailors on leave try to help a movie extra become a singing star.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Gene Kelly
C-139 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- George Stoll (On 10 September 2001 Kevin Spacey purchased Stoll's Oscar statuette at a Butterfields auction in Los Angeles and returned it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gene Kelly, Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert H. Planck and Charles P. Boyle, Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "I Fall in Love Too Easily", and Best Picture

When the dance sequence with Gene Kelly and Jerry the Mouse was screened for MGM executives, someone noticed that although Kelly's reflection shone on the floor during his dancing, Jerry's did not. This required animators William Hanna, Joseph Barbera and their team to go back in and draw Jerry's reflection on the floor as he was dancing.


3:45 PM -- The Pride Of The Yankees (1942)
Baseball legend Lou Gehrig faces a crippling disease at the height of his success.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Babe Ruth
BW-129 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Daniel Mandell

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gary Cooper, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Teresa Wright, Best Writing, Original Story -- Paul Gallico, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Herman J. Mankiewicz and Jo Swerling, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Rudolph Maté, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Perry Ferguson and Howard Bristol, Best Sound, Recording -- Thomas T. Moulton (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), Best Effects, Special Effects -- Jack Cosgrove (photographic), Ray Binger (photographic) and Thomas T. Moulton (sound), Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Leigh Harline, and Best Picture

Samuel Goldwyn promised Mrs. Lou Gehrig that the movie "would be changed just the way I wanted it if I found anything to criticize in the uncut version. I felt I wanted to know if it was Lou's real life story and not colored and over dramatized." After seeing the movie in a projection room at the Sam Goldwyn Studio, Mrs. Gehrig said, "I saw Goldwyn, who was waiting for me...I told him of my gratitude for the fine treatment and the careful attention to every detail, I didn't ask for one solitary deletion or addition. I accepted the picture exactly as it was made. That's how good I think it is."


6:00 PM -- Sounder (1972)
Black sharecroppers during the Depression fight to get their children a decent education.
Dir: Martin Ritt
Cast: Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks
C-105 mins, Letterbox Format, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Winfield, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Cicely Tyson, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Lonne Elder III, and Best Picture

The first film to feature Oscar nominated performances by two black actors with Paul Winfield nominated for Best Actor and Cicely Tyson for Best Actress.



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



8:00 PM -- An American in Paris (1951)
An American artist finds love in Paris but almost loses it to conflicting loyalties.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant
BW-113 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Alan Jay Lerner, Best Cinematography, Color -- Alfred Gilks and John Alton, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, E. Preston Ames, Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason, Best Costume Design, Color -- Orry-Kelly, Walter Plunkett and Irene Sharaff, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Johnny Green and Saul Chaplin, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Vincente Minnelli, and Best Film Editing -- Adrienne Fazan

Irene Sharaff designed a style for each of the ballet sequence sets, reflecting various French impressionist painters: Raoul Dufy (the Place de la Concorde), Edouard Manet (the flower market), Maurice Utrillo (a Paris street), Henri Rousseau (the fair), Vincent van Gogh (the Place de l'Opera), and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (the Moulin Rouge). The backgrounds took six weeks to build, with 30 painters working nonstop.


10:15 PM -- My Fair Lady (1964)
A phonetics instructor bets that he can pass a street urchin off as a lady.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway
C-173 mins, Letterbox Format, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Rex Harrison (Rex Harrison dedicated his Oscar to "two fair ladies": Julie Andrews and Audrey Hepburn.), Best Director -- George Cukor, Best Cinematography, Color -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Gene Allen, Cecil Beaton and George James Hopkins, Best Costume Design, Color -- Cecil Beaton, Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- André Previn, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Stanley Holloway, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gladys Cooper, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Alan Jay Lerner, and Best Film Editing -- William H. Ziegler

Cary Grant told Jack L. Warner that not only would he not play Henry Higgins, but if Rex Harrison was not cast in the role, he wouldn't even go see the picture.


1:30 AM -- Oliver! (1968)
Musical version of the Dickens classic about an orphan taken in by a band of boy thieves.
Dir: Carol Reed
Cast: Ron Moody, Shani Wallis, Oliver Reed
C-153 mins, Letterbox Format, CC,

Winner of an Honorary Award for Onna White for her outstanding choreography achievement for Oliver!

Winner of Oscars for Best Director -- Carol Reed, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- John Box, Terence Marsh, Vernon Dixon and Ken Muggleston, Best Sound, Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation) -- Johnny Green, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Ron Moody, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Wild, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Vernon Harris, Best Cinematography -- Oswald Morris, Best Costume Design -- Phyllis Dalton, and Best Film Editing -- Ralph Kemplen

While filming the scene where Oliver gets a peek at Fagin's treasure, director Carol Reed was not satisfied with the reaction on Mark Lester's face. Later, while re-shooting the scene, he hid a small white rabbit in his pocket and stood behind the camera. As Ron Moody opened the box of treasures, Reed pulled the rabbit out of his pocket. Lester's reaction to the sight of the rabbit was then used in the final film.


4:15 AM -- The Broadway Melody (1929)
Love and success break up a vaudeville sister act.
Dir: Harry Beaumont
Cast: Anita Page, Bessie Love, Charles King
BW-100 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bessie Love (No official nominees had been announced this year.), and Best Director -- Harry Beaumont (No official nominees had been announced this year.)

The first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The category of Best Picture was introduced in the second annual Academy Awards in 1930, whereas the first in 1929 had two similar categories, "Best Picture, Production" (awarded to Wings (1927)) and "Best Picture, Unique and Artistic Production" (awarded to Sunrise (1927)).