TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 6, 2014 -- 31 Days of Oscar: 1966 Best Actress Nominees

[Staph]

Today's prime time features the Best Actress Nominees for 1966 -- sister Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave, Frenchwoman Anouk Aimée, Czech Ida Kaminska, and winner Elizabeth Taylor (for Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?). Enjoy!


8:00 AM -- Romance (1930)
An opera singer leaves her wealthy lover for a young priest.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Greta Garbo, Lewis Stone, Gavin Gordon
BW-76 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greta Garbo, and Best Director -- Clarence Brown

Leading man Gavin Gordon was hit by another vehicle while driving his car to the set the first day of shooting. He was flung onto the pavement and fractured a collarbone, as well as dislocating his shoulder. Gordon was determined to play alongside Greta Garbo and feared his part be recast if he went to the hospital, therefore proceeding to the set in spite of great pain. He managed to get through the first scene, whereupon he fainted. Garbo visited his bedside at the hospital and told him, production would wait for him. Director Clarence Brown therefore had to shoot all the scenes first in which Gordon didn't appear.


9:19 AM -- Cavalcade Of Dance (1943)
In this musical short, ballroom dancers perform various dance fads of the first half of the twentieth century.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
BW-11 mins,

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

From Wikipedia: Frank Veloz and Yolanda Veloz met at a dance around 1921. They began dancing together and entered many dance contests, including The New York City and State Championship, which they won in 1927. According to their son Guy Veloz, Veloz and Yolanda owe much of their early success to the infamously brutal mobster Dutch Schultz, who gave them access to some of the more upscale dance clubs at the time. Dutch allegedly once sent gangsters to beat up Frank Veloz after he and Yolanda danced a secret show in Cuba. Once Dutch was shot and killed in 1935, Veloz and Yolanda were no longer beholden to him. Another character that played a role in the success of Veloz and Yolanda was the influential critic Walter Winchell. Winchell claimed that "Marveloz" and Yolanda were even better than the Castles, a reference to Vernon Castle and his wife, inventors of the castlewalk,and brought attention to their budding career.


9:30 AM -- The Constant Nymph (1943)
A composer finds inspiration in his wife's romantic cousin.
Dir: Edmund Goulding
Cast: Charles Boyer, Joan Fontaine, Alexis Smith
BW-112 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Joan Fontaine

Joan Fontaine got the lead role of Tessa by a lucky chance. One day, she was having lunch at Romanoff's in Hollywood, with her husband, actor Brian Aherne. The two had just flown in by airplane from their grape ranch in Indio, California, and Fontaine was in a leather flight suit with her hair done in pigtails. Director Edmund Goulding walked into the restaurant, and stopped by their table to say hello to his good friend Aherne. Goulding complained that he was having trouble casting a lead actress for his next movie, "The Constant Nymph." Although he had considered Joan Leslie, she was wrong for the part. And, Goulding explained, "Jack Warner wants a star in the lead, but she has to be consumptive, flat-chested, anemic, and fourteen!" "How about me?" said Fontaine. "Who are you?" asked Goulding, not recognizing the freckled girl in pigtails sitting next to him. "Joan Fontaine," said the actress. Goulding looked startled. "You're perfect!" Fontaine was signed for the part the next day, and later called it "the happiest motion-picture assignment of my career."


11:30 AM -- Caged (1950)
A young innocent fights to survive the harsh life in a women's prison.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead, Ellen Corby
BW-97 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Eleanor Parker, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Hope Emerson, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Virginia Kellogg and Bernard C. Schoenfeld

In order to do research for the film, Virginia Kellogg pulled some strings to incarcerate herself in a woman's prison. What she wrote once she was out was not so much a screenplay, but a kind of almanac of everything she witnessed while in prison. Warner Bros. then got their screenwriters to make a screenplay out of it.


1:15 PM -- The Bad Seed (1956)
A woman suspects that her perfect little girl is a ruthless killer.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Gage Clarke, Jesse White, Joan Croyden
C-129 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Nominated 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

The book Rhoda claims to have won in Sunday School, "Elsie Dinsmore," was a story with religious themes about a pious 8-year-old who, in sharp contrast to Rhoda, was obedient to her elders to an alarming point, even enduring verbal abuse from a nasty parent. It was written by Martha Finley in 1867.


3:30 PM -- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
A crazed, aging star torments her sister in a decaying Hollywood mansion.
Dir: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono
BW-134 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Norma Koch

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Victor Buono, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ernest Haller, and Best Sound -- Joseph D. Kelly (Seven Arts-Warner Bros. Glen Glenn Sound Department)

In her book "This N' That", Bette Davis said she had a lot of control over how her makeup should be done for the film. She imagined the older Jane as someone who would never wash her face, just put on another layer of makeup. When her daughter, Barbara Merrill, first saw her in full "Jane" makeup, she said, "Oh, mother, this time you've gone too far".


6:00 PM -- Wait Until Dark (1967)
A blind woman fights against drug smugglers who've invaded her home.
Dir: Terence Young
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna
C-108 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

The role that eventually went to Alan Arkin was difficult to cast because the producers couldn't find actors willing to be cast in such a villainous role - not only terrorizing a blind woman, but terrorizing beloved Audrey Hepburn to boot! Alan Arkin later went on to say how easy it was for him to get the role because of the reluctance of other actors to take it.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: 1966 BEST ACTRESS NOMINEES



8:00 PM -- Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
An academic couple reveal their deepest secret to a pair of newcomers during an all-night booze fest.
Dir: Mike Nichols
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal
BW-131 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Taylor (Elizabeth Taylor was not present at the awards ceremony. Anne Bancroft accepted the award on her behalf.), Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Sandy Dennis (Sandy Dennis was unable to attend the Academy Awards presentations, because she was working on a new film, Sweet November (1968), being shot in New York. Mike Nichols accepted the award on her behalf.), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Haskell Wexler, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Richard Sylbert and George James Hopkins, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Irene Sharaff

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Richard Burton, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Segal, Best Director -- Mike Nichols, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Ernest Lehman, Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Film Editing -- Sam O'Steen, Best Music, Original Music Score -- Alex North and Best Picture

The movie was one of a series of films in the 1960s, beginning with the The Pawnbroker (1964), to successfully challenge the Production Code Office. In addition to the compromise on language, WB studio head, Jack L. Warner, undercut the Code's usefulness by arranging to have the film released with the "For Adults Only" and required theaters to prohibit selling tickets to unaccompanied minors, which in effect unofficially created the Restricted rating years before the Motion Picture Association of America abandoned the Production Code for a classification system (G-GP-M-X) in 1968.


10:19 PM -- London Can Take It! (1940)
Despite the nightly Nazi air raids, London's citizens are shown to be courageous and determined in this short film.
BW-9 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Vitaphone Varieties

Commentator: (loud explosions of bombs and anti-aircraft are heard on the soundtrack) "These are not sound effects. This is the music they play every night in London, the symphony of war."


10:30 PM -- Georgy Girl (1966)
A misfit fights for happiness in the world of swinging London.
Dir: Silvio Narizzano
Cast: James Mason, Alan Bates, Lynn Redgrave
BW-99 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Lynn Redgrave, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- James Mason, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Kenneth Higgins, and Best Music, Original Song -- Tom Springfield (music) and Jim Dale (lyrics) for the song "Georgy Girl"

The hit theme song &quot Hey There) Georgy Girl" was co-written by Jim Dale, who would later gain fame through several "Carry On" films, 1970's Disney Studio comedies, and Tony winning and nominated Broadway roles. He's also noted as the reader of the U.S. versions of the Harry Potter audio books, as well as the narrator of Pushing Daisies (2007). I was privileged to see him on Broadway in the title role of the musical Barnum! He was spectacular.


12:30 AM -- Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966)
An eccentric artist wages an all-out campaign to stop his ex-wife from remarrying.
Dir: Karel Reisz
Cast: Vanessa Redgrave, David Warner, Robert Stephens
BW-97 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Vanessa Redgrave, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Jocelyn Rickards

Vanessa Redgrave's Best Actress Oscar nomination for this movie coincided with sister Lynn Redgrave's similar nomination for Georgy Girl (1966). Such a coincidence had occurred only once before when sisters Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland respectively vied for the Best Actress Oscar for Suspicion (1941) and Hold Back the Dawn (1941). Fontaine was the only winner among these sisterly competitions.


2:15 AM -- A Man and a Woman (1966)
A widow and a widower find a special bond at their childrens' boarding school.
Dir: Claude Lelouch
Cast: Anouk Aimée, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Pierre Barouh
C-103 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Claude Lelouch (screenplay/story) and Pierre Uytterhoeven (screenplay), and Best Foreign Language Film -- France.

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Anouk Aimée, and Best Director -- Claude Lelouch

The race scene about 53 minutes into the film, is the 1964, 24 Hours of Le Mans. The actor Jean-Louis Trintignant's (Jean-Louis Duroc) uncle is in this race, driving a Maserati Tipo 151/1, #2. He is Maurice Trintignant, a Grand Prix and sports cars racer. He won eleven Grand Prix races (some non-points races) and the 1954, 24 Hours of Le Mans.


4:15 AM -- The Shop on Main Street (1965)
A Christian forges an unlikely bond with an elderly Jewish shopkeeper during World War II.
Dir: Ján Kadár
Cast: Jozef Króner, Ida Kaminska, Hana Slivková
BW-126 mins, TV-PG,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ida Kaminska

Czechoslovakia's official submission to 38th Academy Award's Foreign Language Film in 1966.

[CBHagman]

1. I didn't know Jim Dale was co-writer of the theme song to "Georgy Girl."

That particular hit was performed by Australians, of course. The song was ubiquitous back in the day, perfect pop earworm, and many years later it was quite a revelation at last to see the movie and hear the final verse.