TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 12, 2015 -- 31 Days of Oscar - 1949-1951

[Staph]

Today's theme is biographies. In primetime, TCM is featuring films from 1949 through 1951, though we aren't getting to see any of the 1949 films (winner All the King's Men, and nominees Battleground, The Heiress, A Letter to Three Wives, and Twelve O'Clock High). We do get to see two films from 1950 - Born Yesterday and Father of the Bride (winner All About Eve, nominees King Solomon's Mines, and Sunset Blvd.), and the winner from 1951 - An American in Paris (nominees Decision Before Dawn, A Place in the Sun, Quo Vadis, and A Streetcar Named Desire). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Edison, The Man (1940)
Thomas Edison fights to turn his dreams into reality.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Rita Johnson, Lynne Overman
BW-107 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Hugo Butler and Dore Schary

In the film, Edison and his wife communicate with each other by tapping out Morse code. In the movie this is presented as a charming endearment, but in fact Edison was so deaf the only way he and his wife could talk was by tapping Morse code on each other's hands.


8:00 AM -- Lust For Life (1956)
Passionate biography of painter Vincent van Gogh, whose genius drove him mad.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, James Donald
C-122 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Anthony Quinn

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Kirk Douglas, Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Adapted -- Norman Corwin, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Hans Peters, E. Preston Ames, Edwin B. Willis, and F. Keogh Gleason

Parts of the film were shot in Auvers-sur-Oise, where Vincent van Gogh lived and died. Kirk Douglas had his hair cut specially in the style of the artist and had it dyed to a similar reddish tint. This was enough to make some of the older inhabitants of the town believe that Van Gogh had returned.


10:15 AM -- Sergeant York (1941)
True story of the farm boy who made the transition from religious pacifist to World War I hero.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie
BW-134 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gary Cooper, and Best Film Editing -- William Holmes

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Walter Brennan, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Margaret Wycherly, Best Director -- Howard Hawks, Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Harry Chandlee, Abem Finkel, John Huston and Howard Koch, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Sol Polito, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- John Hughes and Fred M. MacLean, Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Max Steiner, and Best Picture

When this film was being made, American public opinion was strongly isolationist and Warner Brothers initially worried that it would be condemned for being seen as too pro-war in attitude. Jesse Lasky went to great lengths to avoid marketing the film as a war picture. By the film's release, however, Adolf Hitler had conquered much of Europe and the public attitude towards war changed greatly, helping the film become one of the studio's biggest moneymakers of all time.


12:30 PM -- Army Champions (1941)
This short film focuses on young men who have signed up to serve in the U.S. army.
Dir: Paul C. Vogel
Narrator: Pete Smith
BW-11 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Pete Smith

The Bouncing Betty referred to in this short was the Allied nickname for the German S-mine (Schrapnellmine, Springmine or Splittermine), that bounced up in the air about three feet when triggered and then exploded with a spray of shrapnel. In this film, Pete Smith calls them Leaping Elizabeths.


12:45 PM -- 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,

Won 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

Nominated 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 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.


2:45 PM -- The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)
Charles Lindbergh risks his life to complete his historic flight from New York to Paris.
Dir: Billy Wilder
Cast: James Stewart, Murray Hamilton, Patricia Smith
C-135 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Louis Lichtenfield

James Stewart was given the role of Charles Lindbergh after John Kerr had turned it down, owing to his disapproval of Lindbergh's pro-Nazi sympathies and his racist and anti-Semitic views. This was despite the fears of the producers that Stewart was too old for the part.


5:15 PM -- Funny Girl (1968)
Comedienne Fanny Brice fights to prove that she can be the greatest star and find romance even though she isn't pretty.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Omar Sharif, Kay Medford
C-157 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Barbra Streisand (Tied with Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter (1968).)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Kay Medford, Best Cinematography -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Sound, Best Film Editing -- Robert Swink, Maury Winetrobe and William Sands, Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics) for the song "Funny Girl", Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation) -- Walter Scharf, and Best Picture

Producer Ray Stark was Fanny Brice's son-in-law and the baby that Fanny gave birth to in reality grew up to become Stark's wife.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: 1949-1951



8:00 PM -- The Gunfighter (1950)
The fastest gun in the West tries to escape his reputation.
Dir: Henry King
Cast: Gregory Peck, Helen Westcott, Millard Mitchell
BW-85 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- William Bowers and André De Toth

The studio hated Gregory Peck's authentic period mustache. In fact, the head of production at Fox, Spyros P. Skouras, was out of town when production began. By the time he got back, so much of the film had been shot that it was too late to order Peck to shave it off and re-shoot. After the film did not do well at the box office, Skouras ran into Peck and he reportedly said, "That mustache cost us millions".


9:30 PM -- The Third Man (1949)
A man's investigation of a friend's death uncovers corruption in post-World War II Vienna.
Dir: Carol Reed
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles
BW-104 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Robert Krasker

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Carol Reed, Best Film Editing -- Oswald Hafenrichter

The Vienna Police Dept. has a special unit that is assigned solely to patrol the city's intricate sewer system, as its network of interlocking tunnels make great hiding places for criminals on the run from the law, stolen property, drugs, etc. The "actors" playing police officers in the film were actually off-duty members of that unit.


11:17 PM -- Wrong Way Butch (1950)
This short film provides a humorous look at what can happen when tools and machinery are misused and safety warnings are ignored.
Dir: David Barclay
Cast: Dave O'Brien, Pete Smith
BW-10 mins,

Nominated
Oscar Best Short Subject, One-reel
Pete Smith

Over the years, Pete Smith won two Oscars, and was nominated for a further 14. In 1954, he was given an Honorary Oscar 'For his witty and pungent observations on the American scene in his series of "Pete Smith Specialties".'


11:30 PM -- An American in Paris (1951)
An American artist finds love in Paris but almost loses it to conflicting loyalties.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant
BW-114 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Alan Jay Lerner, Best Cinematography, Color -- Alfred Gilks and John Alton, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, E. Preston Ames, Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason, Best Costume Design, Color -- Orry-Kelly, Walter Plunkett and Irene Sharaff, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Johnny Green and Saul Chaplin, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Vincente Minnelli, and Best Film Editing -- Adrienne Fazan

Irene Sharaff designed a style for each of the ballet sequence sets, reflecting various French impressionist painters: Raoul Dufy (the Place de la Concorde), Edouard Manet (the flower market), Maurice Utrillo (a Paris street), Henri Rousseau (the fair), Vincent van Gogh (the Place de l'Opera), and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (the Moulin Rouge). The backgrounds took six weeks to build, with 30 painters working nonstop.


1:30 AM -- Born Yesterday (1950)
A newspaper reporter takes on the task of educating a crooked businessman's girlfriend.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, William Holden
BW-102 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Judy Holliday (Judy Holliday was not present at the awards ceremony. Ethel Barrymore accepted on her behalf.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- George Cukor, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Albert Mannheimer, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Jean Louis, and Best Picture

Judy Holliday won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film. In contrast, Melanie Griffith, who plays Billie Dawn in the remake, Born Yesterday (1993), was nominated for the Razzie Award for Worst Actress. She failed to win, however.


3:30 AM -- Father Of The Bride (1950)
A doting father faces mountains of bills and endless trials when his daughter marries.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor
BW-93 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and Best Picture

Spencer Tracy wanted Katharine Hepburn for his screen wife, but it was felt that they were too romantic a team to play a happily domesticated couple with children, so Joan Bennett got the part.


5:04 AM -- Annie Was A Wonder (1948)
This short film has narrator John Nesbitt tell the story of Scandinavian immigrant Annie Swenson, who worked as a cook/housekeeper in the Nesbitt home.
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: Sven Hugo Borg, Charles Bates, Kathleen Freeman
BW-11 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Herbert Moulton

One of more than 70 Passing Parade shorts from MGM.


5:20 AM -- Water Trix (1948)
In this short film, photographer Charles T. Trego films water skiers perform various tricks.
Dir: Charles T. Trego
BW-9 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Pete Smith

The water skier is Preston Petersen, a champion from the 1940s.


5:30 AM -- The Lavender Hill Mob (1952)
An overlooked gold transporter with twenty years service plots to steal a million pounds of gold.
Dir: Charles Crichton
Cast: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sidney James
BW-81 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- T.E.B. Clarke

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Alec Guinness

Audrey Hepburn was considered for a larger role in this film, but stage work made her unavailable. Alec Guinness was impressed with the young actress and arranged for her to appear in a bit part. This is considered to be Hepburn's first appearance in a major film.