TCM Schedule for Friday, February 10 -- 31 Days of Oscar -- Wyoming

[Staph]

It's a day in Texas (mostly!), and an evening in Wyoming. Hard to believe that TCM could come up with enough films to fill a Wyoming theme! Enjoy!



6:30 AM -- The Southerner (1945)
A sharecropper fights the elements to start his own farm.
Dir: Jean Renoir
Cast: Zachary Scott, Betty Field, J. Carrol Naish
91 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Jean Renoir, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Werner Janssen, and Best Sound, Recording -- Jack Whitney (Sound Services Inc.)

Based on the novel "Hold Autumn in your Hand", by George Sessions Perry, which won the first National Book Award in 1941.


8:02 AM -- One Reel Wonder: Star In The Night (1945)
This modern version of the Christmas story adds elements of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."
Dir: Don Siegel
Cast: J. Carrol Naish, Donald Woods, Anthony Caruso
22 min,

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel -- Gordon Hollingshead

Based on a short story by Robert Finch.


8:30 AM -- Blossoms In The Dust (1941)
True-life story of Edna Gladney, who fought for orphans' rights in Texas.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Felix Bressart
C- 100 min, TV-G, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Urie McCleary and Edwin B. Willis

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Cinematography, Color -- Karl Freund and W. Howard Greene, and Best Picture

First of the eight movies that paired Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon.


10:11 AM -- One Reel Wonder: Calgary Stampede (1949)
The pageantry of Calgary's colorful celebration of its past, culminating with its world famous rodeo, is chronicled.
Dir: Saul Elkins
Narrator: Art Gilmore
C- 18 min,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel -- Gordon Hollingshead

The event's roots are traced to 1886 when the Calgary and District Agricultural Society held its first fair. American promoter Guy Weadick launched his first rodeo and festival in 1912 and returned to Calgary in 1919 to organize the Victory Stampede in honour soldiers returning from World War I. It became an annual event in 1923 when Weadick's festival merged with the Calgary Industrial Exhibition to create the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede.


10:30 AM -- Giant (1956)
A Texas ranching family fights to survive changing times.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean
201 min, TV-PG, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Director -- George Stevens

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Dean (This was James Dean's second consecutive posthumous nomination.), Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Rock Hudson, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Mercedes McCambridge, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Boris Leven and Ralph S. Hurst, Best Costume Design, Color -- Moss Mabry and Marjorie Best, Best Film Editing -- William Hornbeck, Philip W. Anderson and Fred Bohanan, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Dimitri Tiomkin, Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Adapted -- Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffat, and Best Picture

In the 40s and 50s the usual policy for films where characters would start young and get older was to cast older actors and de-age them to show them as their younger selves. "Giant" took the then largely radical step of doing the opposite - casting younger actors and using make-up to make them appear older.


2:00 PM -- Meet Me In Las Vegas (1956)
A ballerina becomes a gambler's lucky charm.
Dir: Roy Rowland
Cast: Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Agnes Moorehead
C- 112 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- George Stoll and Johnny Green

"You Got Looks" (music by Nicholas Brodszky, lyrics by Sammy Cahn), sung by Lena Horne, was cut from the film. Horne made it a staple of her nightclub act for the rest of the decade.


4:00 PM -- Mrs. Parkington (1944)
A lady's maid marries a man whose prospects push her into high society.
Dir: Tay Garnett
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Edward Arnold
124 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Agnes Moorehead

Fourth of the eight movies that paired Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon.


6:05 PM -- One Reel Wonder: Main Street Today (1944)
A small town factory needs to increase its output to meet the demands of World War II.
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: Ray Collins, Henry O'Neill, Addison Richards
20 min,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel -- Jerry Bresler

Follows Main Street on the March! (1941).


6:30 PM -- The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
A loner gets caught up in a posse's drive to find and hang three suspected rustlers.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes
75 min, TV-14, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Director William A. Wellman loved the novel "The Ox-Bow Incident" and had long wanted to make it into a film, but the rights-holders insisted that he cast Mae West in any adaptation, which Wellman thought was ridiculous. Finally, Wellman bought the rights himself, and proceeded to make the film "his" way.



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



8:00 PM -- Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)
A blue-collar worker's encounter with a UFO leaves him a changed man.
Dir: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Terry Garr, François Truffaut
C- 135 min, TV-MA, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Cinematography -- Vilmos Zsigmond

Won a Special Achievement Award -- Frank E. Warner for sound effects editing

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Melinda Dillon, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Joe Alves, Daniel A. Lomino and Phil Abramson, Best Director -- Steven Spielberg, Best Effects, Visual Effects -- Roy Arbogast, Douglas Trumbull, Matthew Yuricich, Gregory Jein and Richard Yuricich, Best Film Editing -- Michael Kahn, Best Music, Original Score -- John Williams, and Best Sound -- Robert Knudson, Robert Glass, Don MacDougall and Gene S. Cantamessa

François Truffaut was continually trying to improve his English during production, and he was self-conscious of his heavy French accent. When he delivered the line "They belong here more than we" (after he learns the Army plans to dust the mountain with nerve gas), several crew members thought that he had said "Zey belong here, Mozambique." Several T-shirts were printed with this quote as a joke. When he heard about this, Truffaut supposedly burst out laughing. Steven Spielberg mentioned on a laserdisc documentary for 'E.T.' that Truffaut later used a variation of the line in a congratulatory telegram after 'E.T.' was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. The telegram to Spielberg read, "You belong here more than me."


10:30 PM -- The Big Sky (1952)
Trappers lead an expedition against river pirates and Indians along the Missouri River.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, Elizabeth Threatt
138 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Arthur Hunnicutt, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Russell Harlan

Elizabeth Threatt was an American actress who made an impression in her only film. The daughter of an English father and a Cherokee mother, Threatt grew up in South Carolina. At 19, she went to New York and began a successful modeling career. In 1952, director Howard Hawks saw her photograph and cast her as the Blackfoot princess Teal Eye in The Big Sky. Although she was a notable part of this successful film, Threatt left the picture business and never acted again.


12:52 AM -- One Reel Wonder: Teddy The Rough Rider (1940)
This short follows the political career of Theodore Roosevelt, from his appointment as Police Commissioner of New York City to the White House.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Sidney Blackmer, Pierre Watkin, Arthur Loft
C- 19 min,

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel

Sidney Blackmer played Theodore Roosevelt in six other films.


1:15 AM -- 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 min, TV-PG, CC

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

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

The film's horse trainer told Elliot Silverstein that the scene where a horse leans against a wall with its front legs crossed could not be shot because horses don't cross their legs, then that it might be possible if he had a couple of days. Silverstein invoked his rank as director and gave him an hour. The trainer plied the horse with sugar cubes while repeatedly pushing its leg into position, and they were able to get the shot.

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


3:00 AM -- Portrait of Jennie (1948)
An artist discovers his gift when he falls for a beautiful ghost.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore
C- 86 min, TV-PG, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Paul Eagler (visual), J. McMillan Johnson (visual), Russell Shearman (visual), Clarence Slifer (visual), Charles L. Freeman (audible) and James G. Stewart (audible)

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph H. August

Feature film debut of David Wayne, Nancy Davis (future First Lady) and Nancy Olsen.


4:30 AM -- Broadway Hostess (1935)
A small-town girl rises to night-club stardom.
Dir: Frank McDonald
Cast: Winifred Shaw, Genevieve Tobin, Lyle Talbot
68 min, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Dance Direction -- Bobby Connolly for "Playboy of Paree"

The soundtrack includes "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" - music by Joseph Burke and lyrics by Al Dubin, "Weary" - music by Allie Wrubel and lyrics by Mort Dixon, "He Was Her Man" - music by Allie Wrubel and lyrics by Mort Dixon, "Who But You" - music by Allie Wrubel and lyrics by Mort Dixon, "Let It Be Me" - music by Allie Wrubel and lyrics by Mort Dixon, "Playboy of Paree" - music by Allie Wrubel and lyrics by Mort Dixon, "Sweet and Slow" - music by Harry Warren and lyrics by Al Dubin, "Only the Girl" - music by M.K. Jerome and lyrics by Herman Ruby, and "Help Yourself to My Love" - music by M.K. Jerome and lyrics by Herman Ruby


5:45 AM -- 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
128 min, TV-PG, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Daniel Mandell

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gary Cooper, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Teresa Wright, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Perry Ferguson and Howard Bristol, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Rudolph Maté, 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, Best Sound, Recording -- Thomas T. Moulton (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), Best Writing, Original Story -- Paul Gallico, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Herman J. Mankiewicz and Jo Swerling, and Best Picture

In reality, Gary Cooper was decidedly not a fan of baseball and required extensive coaching in order to look even passable on a baseball diamond. In fact, he had never played the game before, even as a youth, and had never even seen a baseball game in person until he was hired for this film. Cooper was born in 1901, and Lou Gehrig in 1903, so when this movie was released Cooper was three years older than the real Gehrig ever got to be.