TCM Schedule for Friday, February 15, 2019 -- 31 Days of Oscar - Survival At Sea

[Staph]

Last edited Mon Feb 25, 2019, 11:32 PM - Edit history (1)

Today's themes for 31 Days of Oscar -- daylight - Kid Stories (from the sweetness of the 1933 Katharine Hepburn version of Little Women to the seriously evil 1952 The Bad Seed!), prime time - Best Survival at Sea (great comparison - 1953's Titanic (no Jack and Rose but loads of stiff upper lips) vs. Alfred Hitchcock's 1944 Lifeboat (the entire film done within the lifeboat itself), and late night - Favorite Non-speaking Role (Jane Wyman in 1948's Johnny Belinda vs. Patty Duke in 1962's The Miracle Worker). Enjoy!



8:00 AM -- LITTLE FUGITIVE (1953)
Fearing he has killed his older brother, a boy runs off to Coney Island.
Dir: Ray Ashley
Cast: Richard Brewster, Winnifred Cushing, Jay Williams
BW-81 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Ray Ashley, Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin

This film heavily influenced the French "New Wave" style cinema of the late 1950's and 1960's.


9:30 AM -- LITTLE WOMEN (1933)
The four March sisters fight to keep their family together and find love while their father is off fighting the Civil War.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Paul Lukas
BW-115 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Adaptation -- Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- George Cukor, and Best Picture

Uncredited producer David O. Selznick had a difficult time convincing RKO executives to produce this film. There was a belief in Hollywood at the time that films based on historic novels were not popular, particularly one that centered on women during the Civil War. Selznick persisted, and the film was a commercial success. Because of this, later in the decade Selznick produced Gone with the Wind (1939) through his own production company, Selznick International Pictures, from the novel by Margaret Mitchell. (Personal note: I think that Hollywood still doesn't believe that films centered on women will succeed!)


11:30 AM -- JUNGLE BOOK (1942)
A boy raised by wolves adjusts to life among humans.
Dir: Zoltan Korda
Cast: Sabu, Joseph Calleia, John Qualen
C-106 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- W. Howard Greene, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Vincent Korda and Julia Heron, Best Effects, Special Effects -- Lawrence W. Butler (photographic) and William A. Wilmarth (sound), and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa

This was the first film for which original soundtrack recordings were issued. Previously, when record companies released music from a film, they had insisted on re-recording the music in their own studios with their own equipment. The "Jungle Book" records were taken from the same recordings used for the film's soundtrack, and their commercial success paved the way for more original-soundtrack albums.


1:30 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,

Winner of 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

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

Wallace Beery was violently jealous of the child stars he often had to work with. After Jackie Cooper nearly stole "The Champ" from him, Beery had a clause added to his MGM contract stipulating that no juvenile performer would be allowed a close-up in his films.


3:15 PM -- STRIKE UP THE BAND (1940)
A high-school band sets out to win a national radio contest.
Dir: Busby Berkeley
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra
BW-120 mins, CC,

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

Nominee for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Roger Edens and George Stoll for the song "Our Love Affair", and Best Music, Score -- George Stoll and Roger Edens

The puppet orchestra made of fruit that comes to life playing instruments for Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland on a kitchen table, was the work of animator George Pal. He had just arrived in Hollywood from Europe via New York and this was among his first projects. Pal's work was relatively unknown by American audiences, thus he was uncredited. The idea for the sequence was that of another New York-to-Hollywood transfer: Vincente Minnelli.


5:30 PM -- THE BAD SEED (1956)
A woman suspects that her perfect little girl is a ruthless killer.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, Henry Jones
C-129 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Nancy Kelly, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Eileen Heckart, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Patty McCormack, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Harold Rosson

In the film, Rhoda feels cheated at not having received the penmanship award; if she really has the best handwriting, as she claims, then her disappointment is justified, and the audience's sympathy is thrown to her side to a certain extent. In the novel, however, the award is for the most improved penmanship. Rhoda's handwriting had been excellent throughout the school year, leaving little room for improvement, unlike Claude Daigle's. This gives even greater emphasis to Rhoda's irrational thinking: she is furious at the loss of an award that she should not have won in the first place.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: BEST SURVIVAL AT SEA



8:00 PM -- TITANIC (1953)
An unhappily married couple realize their problems seem minor when the ship hits an iceberg.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Wagner
BW-98 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch and Richard L. Breen

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lyle R. Wheeler, Maurice Ransford and Stuart A. Reiss

The filming of the disaster had a powerful effect on Barbara Stanwyck, who recalled: "The night we were making the scene of the dying ship in the outdoor tank at Twentieth, it was bitter cold. I was 47 feet up in the air in a lifeboat swinging on the davits. The water below was agitated into a heavy rolling mass and it was thick with other lifeboats full of women and children. I looked down and thought: If one of these ropes snaps now, it's goodbye for you. Then I looked up at the faces lined along the rail - those left behind to die with the ship. I thought of the men and women who had been through this thing in our time. We were re-creating an actual tragedy and I burst into tears. I shook with great racking sobs and couldn't stop."


10:00 PM -- LIFEBOAT (1944)
Survivors of a torpedoed boat take in a German Naval officer from the sub that sank them.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Walter Slezak
BW-97 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Alfred Hitchcock, Best Writing, Original Story -- John Steinbeck, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Glen MacWilliams

DIRECTOR CAMEO (Sir Alfred Hitchcock): In "before" and "after" pictures in a newspaper advertisement for Reduco Obesity Slayer. The pictures were genuine, as he had just been on a crash diet (although not with the fictional Reduco) from three hundred to two hundred pounds. However, the so-called "Reduco Obesity Slayer" diet pill or potion ad seemed so real, that people who had seen this movie called the studio and wrote letters to Hitchcock asking where could they get this product. (In Rope (1948), a neon sign advertising "Reduco" with Hitchcock's famous silhouette is seen outside the Manhattan apartment where the movie takes place.)


12:00 AM -- JOHNNY BELINDA (1948)
A small-town doctor helps a deaf-mute farm girl learn to communicate.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford
BW-102 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Jane Wyman

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Lew Ayres, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Charles Bickford, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Agnes Moorehead, Best Director -- Jean Negulesco, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Irma von Cube and Allen Vincent, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ted D. McCord, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Robert M. Haas and William Wallace, Best Film Editing -- David Weisbart, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner, Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson, and Best Picture

Jane Wyman's Oscar acceptance speech is reportedly the shortest on record for Best Actress: "I won this award by keeping my mouth shut and I think I'll do it again."


2:00 AM -- THE MIRACLE WORKER (1962)
True story of the determined teacher who helped Helen Keller overcome deafness and blindness to learn to communicate.
Dir: Arthur Penn
Cast: Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke, Victor Jory
BW-107 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Anne Bancroft (Anne Bancroft was not present at the awards ceremony. Joan Crawford accepted the award on her behalf.), and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Patty Duke

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Arthur Penn, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- William Gibson, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Ruth Morley

Although Patty Duke had been playing Helen Keller in the play for more than a year, she almost didn't get the part in the film adaptation. The studio felt that being a teenager, she looked too old to play a seven-year-old. However, they decided to use Duke after deciding to use Anne Bancroft, who played Duke's original Annie Sullivan in the play.


4:00 AM -- THE NAKED SPUR (1953)
A captive outlaw uses psychological tactics to prey on a bounty hunter.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan
C-92 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom

When this film was released in Spain, its title was changed to "Colorado Jim" and the name of James Stewart's character was also changed from "Howard Kemp" to "Colorado Jim", for unknown reasons.