TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 20, 2020 -- 31 Days of Oscar: 360 Degrees of Oscar

[Staph]

Last edited Mon Mar 23, 2020, 07:40 PM - Edit history (1)

More of 31 Days of Oscar, with the actors or actresses that connect the films added after a break at the end, in case you want to guess. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- THE MUSIC MAN (1962)
A con artist hawks musical instruments and band uniforms to small-town America.
Dir: Morton DaCosta
Cast: Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett
C-151 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Ray Heindorf

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Paul Groesse and George James Hopkins, Best Costume Design, Color -- Dorothy Jeakins, Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Film Editing -- William H. Ziegler, and Best Picture

Shirley Jones learned she was pregnant with her son Patrick once filming had begun. She met with director Morton DaCosta over lunch to inform him of the situation. Her concern was that she would begin "showing" during its filming. He assured her that they could work through it with costumes and also by filming her from the waist up, if necessary. He did have one request, that she tell no one about it. Robert Preston did figure it out before filming had concluded, when Shirley's character, Marian, and his character, Professor Hill, kissed for the first time in the romantic footbridge scene. He leaned in for the kiss and jumped back, asking her, "What was that?" to which she replied, "That is Patrick Cassidy! Say 'Hello!' " Years later, her son Patrick had the opportunity to meet Preston. He walked up and introduced himself saying, "Hello. I'm Patrick Cassidy." Preston replied, "Yes, I know. We've already met."


8:45 AM -- TULSA (1949)
A cattle owner's daughter risks everything to drill for oil.
Dir: Stuart Heisler
Cast: Susan Hayward, Robert Preston, Pedro Armendariz
C-88 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects

Aside from a few quick shots of downtown landmarks, none of this movie was actually filmed in Tulsa. Most of the location work took place on the 10,000-acre ranch of Oklahoma Gov. Roy J. Turner in the town of Sulphur, 145 miles from Tulsa.


10:21 AM -- YOU CAN'T WIN (1948)
In this comedic short, a series of mishaps happen to a homeowner while he takes a day off from the office.
Dir: Dave O'Brien
Cast: Dave O'Brien,
BW-8 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects

Producer Walter Wanger originally wanted either Dana Andrews or Robert Mitchum for the role of Brad Brady, but was forced by budget cutbacks to use the less expensive Robert Preston. For the same reason Wanger was compelled to hire Chill Wills to play Pinky Jimpson instead of his first choice, Hoagy Carmichael.


10:30 AM -- SMASH-UP, THE STORY OF A WOMAN (1947)
A singer's wife turns to the bottle when she fears she's lost her husband to success.
Dir: Stuart Heisler
Cast: Susan Hayward, Lee Bowman, Marsha Hunt
BW-103 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Susan Hayward, and Best Writing, Original Story -- Dorothy Parker and Frank Cavett

Reportedly suggested by the life and career of Bing Crosby and songstress wife Dixie Lee; when his popularity as an entertainer eclipsed that of Lee, she drifted into extreme alcoholism, just as Susan Hayward's character does in film.


12:15 PM -- EXPERIMENT PERILOUS (1944)
A small-town doctor tries to help a beautiful woman with a deranged husband.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Hedy Lamarr, George Brent, Paul Lukas
BW-91 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Albert S. D'Agostino, Jack Okey, Darrell Silvera and Claude E. Carpenter

Hedy Lamarr was on loan-out to RKO for this film. She'd make only one more film for MGM before leaving the studio in 1945, ending her 7-year contract.


2:00 PM -- ALGIERS (1938)
A thief on the run from the law risks his life for love.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Sigrid Gurie, Charles Boyer, Hedy Lamarr
BW-95 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Charles Boyer, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Gene Lockhart, Best Cinematography -- James Wong Howe, and Best Art Direction -- Alexander Toluboff

Animator Chuck Jones based the Warner Brothers cartoon character "Pepe le Pew" on the "Pepe le Moko" character played by Charles Boyer in this film.


3:45 PM -- AFTER THE THIN MAN (1936)
Married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles try to clear Nora's cousin of a murder charge.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart
BW-112 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett

Though William Powell and Myrna Loy were very close friends off-screen, their only romantic moments together occurred on-screen. The public, however, was determined to have them married in private life as well. When the two stars showed up in San Francisco (where most of this film was shot) at the St. Francis, the hotel management proudly showed "Mr. and Mrs. Powell" to their deluxe suite. This was an especially uncomfortable moment as Jean Harlow, who was engaged to Powell, was with them, and the couple had not made a public statement about their relationship. Harlow saved the day by insisting on sharing the suite with Loy: "That mix-up brought me one of my most cherished friendships," Loy said in "Being and Becoming", her autobiography. "You would have thought Jean and I were in boarding school we had so much fun. We'd stay up half the night talking and sipping gin, sometimes laughing, sometimes discussing more serious things." Meanwhile, Powell got the hotel's one remaining room - a far humbler accommodation downstairs.


5:45 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,

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

Nominee 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

James Stewart knew this was the role of a lifetime, one that could place him near the top of the Hollywood heap. Jean Arthur later remembered his mood at the time: "He was so serious when he was working on that picture, he used to get up at five o'clock in the morning and drive himself to the studio. He was so terrified something was going to happen to him, he wouldn't go faster."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: 360 DEGREES OF OSCAR



8:00 PM -- THE TALK OF THE TOWN (1942)
An escaped political prisoner and a stuffy law professor vie for the hand of a spirited schoolteacher.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Colman
BW-117 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- Sidney Harmon, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sidney Buchman and Irwin Shaw, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ted Tetzlaff, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lionel Banks, Rudolph Sternad and Fay Babcock, Best Film Editing -- Otto Meyer, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Friedrich Hollaender and Morris Stoloff, and Best Picture

The studio considered filming two different endings, with Jean Arthur pairing off with Cary Grant in one, and with Ronald Colman in the other, and letting the audience decide by voting in sneak previews which one they preferred. However, in the papers of director George Stevens, all the screenplay drafts contained the current ending. In one draft, an additional unrelated scene was added, but dropped during production.


10:15 PM -- 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,

Nominee 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."


12:00 AM -- THE WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER (1944)
An American woman with a British husband fights to keep her family together through two world wars.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Irene Dunne, Alan Marshal, Roddy McDowall
BW-126 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- George J. Folsey

Irene Dunne filmed this movie while filming was held up for A Guy Named Joe (1943) due to Van Johnson's automobile accident. She even helped Johnson land a small role in this film.


2:15 AM -- TOO YOUNG TO KISS (1951)
A grown woman poses as a child prodigy to advance her career as a concert pianist.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: June Allyson, Van Johnson, Gig Young
BW-89 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore

Fifth of six movies that paired June Allyson and Van Johnson, (although "Till the Clouds Roll By" was an ensemble cast).


3:54 AM -- THE GAY PARISIAN (1941)
The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo perform to the music of Jacques Offenbach in this short film. Vitaphone Release 632-633A.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Andre Eglevsky, Milada Mladova, James Starbuck
C-20 mins,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel

Completing the film short, the ballet group returned to New York City to ponder their fate. The Ballet Russe impresario Rene Blum returned to Paris. Blum was arrested December 12, 1941 in his Parisian home. Among the first Jews to be arrested in Paris by the French police after France was defeated and occupied by the German Regime, he was held in the Beaune-La-Ronde camp, then in the Drancy deportation camp. On September 23, 1942, he was shipped to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he was later killed by the Nazis.


4:15 AM -- TORCH SONG (1953)
A tempestuous musical theatre star falls for a blind pianist.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Joan Crawford, Michael Wilding, Gig Young
C-90 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Marjorie Rambeau

Joan Crawford was given complete freedom, without guidance or supervision, to develop her own make-up, hair and costumes for the film.




















Don't scroll any farther if you don't want to know who the connecting actors and actresses are!



















Shirley Jones
Music Man (1962)
Robert Preston
Tulsa (1949)
Susan Hayward
Smash Up: The Story of a Woman (1947)
Carl Esmond
Experiment Perilous (1944)
Hedy Lamarr
Algiers (1938)
Joseph Calleia
After the Thin Man (1936)
James Stewart
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Jean Arthur
The Talk of the Town (1942)
Cary Grant
My Favorite Wife (1940)
Irene Dunne
The White Cliffs of Dover (1944)
Van Johnson
Too Young to Kiss (1951)
Gig Young
Torch Song (1953)
Joan Crawford