TCM Schedule for Friday, March 2, 2018 -- 31 Days of Oscar: Best Picture Winners

[Staph]

Today is the next to last day of 31 Days of Oscar, and today's films have some unique Oscar status.

• The Great Dictator (1940) -- Charles Chaplin's first Oscar nominations and his only nomination for acting
  
• Annie Hall (1977) features Woody Allen's first Oscar nominations and his only acting nomination
  
• Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) -- Justin Henry, at age 8, is still the youngest person to be nominated for any Oscar
  
• A Man for All Seasons is one of four productions to win both the Best Play Tony (1962) and the Best Picture Oscar (1966). The other three are My Fair Lady (1964) (1957/1964), The Sound of Music (1965) (1960/1965), and Amadeus (1984) (1981/1984).
  
• The Great Ziegfeld (1936) -- Luise Rainer was the first actress in Academy history to win back-to-back Oscars for Best Actress, for this film in 1936 and The Good Earth (1937) in 1937. Katharine Hepburn repeated the trick in 1967/68.
  
• Naughty Marietta - first Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy film and the only one of their eight films to be nominated for Best Picture

Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Five Star Final (1931)
An unscrupulous newspaper editor searches for headlines at any cost.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Marian Marsh, H. B. Warner
BW-89 mins,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Picture

The Evening Gazette is based on the real-life New York Evening Graphic, the most sensational of all the Front Page-era tabloid papers. (Critics called it the Porno-Graphic.) The paper, owned by Bernarr Macfadden, published from 1924 to 1932. At the time this film was made, the Graphic had been losing circulation, because its new editor had been trying to make it a more respectable paper, just like in the film. The paper was best known for its "composographs," composite photographs used to create an otherwise unobtainable illustration. Louis Weitzenkorn, who wrote the original play, had been a reporter and editor on the Evening Graphic.


7:45 AM -- Lost Horizon (1937)
Four fugitives from a Chinese revolution discover a lost world of peace and harmony.
Dir: Frank Capra
Cast: Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, Edward Everett Horton
BW-133 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Stephen Goosson, and Best Film Editing -- Gene Havlick and Gene Milford

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- H.B. Warner, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), Best Assistant Director -- Charles C. Coleman, Best Music, Score -- Morris Stoloff (head of department) with score by Dimitri Tiomkin, and Best Picture

Some previously missing live action footage, totaling 1 minute and found on a badly-worn 16mm print, was discovered in 2014, and incorporated into the reconstructed 132-minute version. This footage replaces the stills used in the scene involving Conway's meeting with the High Lama, leaving yet about 6 minutes of the film represented by still photos only. This newly reconstructed version, scanned in 4K, premiered at the 2014 Cannes film festival. I don't know which version that TCM will be showing tonight.


10:00 AM -- The Nun's Story (1959)
A headstrong girl fights the strictures of the Catholic church in Europe and the Belgian Congo.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch, Dame Edith Evans
C-152 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Audrey Hepburn, Best Director -- Fred Zinnemann, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Anderson, Best Cinematography, Color -- Franz Planer, Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Film Editing -- Walter Thompson, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Franz Waxman, and Best Picture

After acquiring the rights to Kathryn Hulme's bestselling novel, Fred Zinnemann found that no one in Hollywood had any enthusiasm towards turning it into a film, citing it as being devoid of action. All that changed when Audrey Hepburn expressed a desire to take the lead role. Suddenly, a bidding war ensued which was won by Warner Brothers and netted them not only one of the most acclaimed films of the year but also their biggest financial hit for 1959.


12:45 PM -- The Great Dictator (1940)
A Jewish barber takes the place of a war-hungry dictator.
Dir: Charles Chaplin
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie
BW-125 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Charles Chaplin, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Oakie, Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Charles Chaplin, Best Music, Original Score -- Meredith Willson, and Best Picture

Charles Chaplin got the idea when a friend, Alexander Korda, noted that his screen persona and Adolf Hitler looked somewhat similar. Chaplin later learned they were both born within a week of each other (Chaplin 4/16/1889, Hitler 4/20/1889), were roughly the same height and weight and both struggled in poverty until they reached great success in their respective fields. When Chaplin learned of Hitler's policies of racial oppression and nationalist aggression, he used their similarities as an inspiration to attack Hitler on film.


3:00 PM -- Foreign Correspondent (1940)
An American reporter covering the war in Europe gets mixed up in the assassination of a Dutch diplomat.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall
BW-121 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Albert Bassermann, Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Charles Bennett and Joan Harrison, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Rudolph Maté, Best Art Direction, Black-and-White -- Alexander Golitzen, Best Effects, Special Effects -- Paul Eagler (photographic) and Thomas T. Moulton (sound), and Best Picture

Shooting was completed on May 29, 1940, after which Alfred Hitchcock made a visit to England. He returned on July 3 with the word that the Germans were expected to start bombing at any time. Ben Hecht was hurriedly called in and wrote the tacked-on final scene set at a London radio station. It was filmed on July 5, and the real-life bombing started on July 10, 1940.


5:15 PM -- The Guns of Navarone (1961)
A team of Allied saboteurs fight their way behind enemy lines to destroy a pair of Nazi guns.
Dir: J. Lee Thompson
Cast: Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn
C-157 mins, Letterbox Format, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Bill Warrington (visual) and Chris Greenham (audible)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- J. Lee Thompson, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Carl Foreman, Best Sound -- John Cox (Shepperton SSD), Best Film Editing -- Alan Osbiston, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Dimitri Tiomkin, and Best Picture

There was some surprise that Stanley Baker, who along with Dirk Bogarde in 1960 was considered the most popular British movie star, accepted the relatively small supporting role of Private "Butcher" Brown. Baker revealed that he wanted to be in the movie because he was impressed at how anti-war the screenplay by the blacklisted writer Carl Foreman was.



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



8:00 PM -- Annie Hall (1977)
A comedian and an aspiring singer try to overcome their neuroses and find happiness.
Dir: Woody Allen
Cast: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts
C-93 mins, Letterbox Format, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Diane Keaton, Best Director -- Woody Allen (Woody Allen was not present at the awards ceremony. Co-presenter King Vidor accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman (Woody Allen was not present at the awards ceremony.), and Best Picture

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Woody Allen

Woody Allen and Diane Keaton had trouble keeping a straight face when working together. An example of the uncontrollable laughter between the two was the lobster dinner scene. It was the first scene shot for the movie and neither Woody nor Diane had to do much acting for the scene, for their laughter was completely spontaneous.


10:00 PM -- Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
When his wife leaves him, an ad exec gets a crash course in parenting.
Dir: Robert Benton
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Justin Henry
C-105 mins, Letterbox Format, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Dustin Hoffman, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Meryl Streep, Best Director -- Robert Benton, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Benton, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Justin Henry (At age 8 years, 10 months and 20 days, Henry is (to date) the youngest nominee for any competitive honor in Academy Award history.), Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Jane Alexander, Best Cinematography -- Néstor Almendros, and Best Film Editing -- Gerald B. Greenberg

There was initially tension between Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep. Hoffman was hearing lots of advance publicity about newcomer Streep and how she was mastering the role and Hoffman felt he was being upstaged. When Streep wanted to change around the dialogue in the restaurant meeting scene, Hoffman became furious. As Hoffman recalled, "I hated her guts. Yes, I hated her guts. But I respected her." He accepted that Streep wasn't arguing for what was best for her character but what was best for the movie.


12:00 AM -- A Man for All Seasons (1966)
A devout scholar gets caught in the middle of Henry VIII's plans to break with the Catholic Church.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Leo McKern
C-121 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Scofield (Paul Scofield was not present at the awards ceremony. His co-star Wendy Hiller accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Director -- Fred Zinnemann, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Bolt, Best Cinematography, Color -- Ted Moore, Best Costume Design, Color -- Elizabeth Haffenden and Joan Bridge, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Shaw, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Wendy Hiller

Robert Bolt borrowed the title from Robert Whittinton, a contemporary of Thomas More, who in 1520 wrote of him: "More is a man of an angel's wit and singular learning; I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity: a man for all seasons."


2:15 AM -- The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
Lavish biography of Flo Ziegfeld, the producer who became Broadway's biggest starmaker.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer
C-176 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Luise Rainer, Best Dance Direction -- Seymour Felix for "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody", and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Robert Z. Leonard, Best Writing, Original Story -- William Anthony McGuire, Best Art Direction -- Cedric Gibbons, Eddie Imazu and Edwin B. Willis, and Best Film Editing -- William S. Gray

Billie Burke (real life wife of Ziegfeld) never really rated the film much despite taking a personal interest in the writing of the script. She went to great lengths to make sure that writer William Anthony McGuire never besmirched the good name of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., hence the playing down of his infidelities.


5:15 AM -- Naughty Marietta (1935)
A French princess in Colonial America gets involved with an Indian scout.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan
BW-104 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (sound director)

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Picture

Jeanette MacDonald very much wanted Allan Jones to star in this film as her leading man. Jones was unable to work on the film due to his role in The Marx Brothers's A Night at the Opera (1935). Jones's scheduling conflict set the stage for Nelson Eddy to act alongside MacDonald, in what would become the first of eight film pairings featuring the two stars.