TCM Schedule for Saturday, February 21, 2015 -- 31 Days of Oscar - 1970-1973

[Staph]

The daylight theme today is comedy. The prime time schedule includes the Oscar winning and nominated films of 1970 through 1973, excluding 1970s nominees Airport, Five Easy Pieces, Love Story, and MASH; 1971s winner The French Connection, and nominees A Clockwork Orange, Fiddler on the Roof, The Last Picture Show, and Nicholas and Alexandra; 1972s winner The Godfather, and nominees Cabaret, Deliverance, The Emigrants, and Sounder; and 1973s winner The Sting, and nominees American Graffiti, Cries & Whispers, The Exorcist, and A Touch of Class. Enjoy!

(A brief side note, mostly because I'm a nerd who pays way too much attention to minutia -- why is TCM saying that each evening is featuring Best Picture winners and nominees in prime time? Tonight we get the best picture from 1970. Period. The other three films (McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), Papillon (1973), and Klute (1971)), aren't Best Picture nominees. Is it that TCM doesn't have rights to broadcast some of these more recent films? Inquiring minds want to know!)



6:15 AM -- Speedy (1928)
In this silent film, a young man helps his girlfriend save the family trolley business.
Dir: Ted Wilde
Cast: Harold Lloyd, Ann Christy, Bert Woodruff
BW-86 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Director, Comedy Picture -- Ted Wilde

Lou Gehrig can be seen walking by as Babe Ruth gets out of the cab.


7:45 AM -- She Done Him Wrong (1933)
A saloon singer fights off smugglers, an escaped con and a Salvation Army officer out to reform her.
Dir: Lowell Sherman
Cast: Mae West, Cary Grant, Owen Moore
BW-65 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Mae West was signed by Paramount in 1931 to make a film adaptation of her stage success Diamond Lil. They then spent the next two years trying to figure out a way of getting the material past the censors. The battle over Diamond Lil led to the head of the Production Board, James Wingate, quitting and being replaced by the much more hardline Joseph Breen who was prompted to set up a fairly stringent and moral Production Code. In the meantime, Diamond Lil transformed into the slightly watered down "She Done Him Wrong" and was one of the last films to be made before the introduction of the Production Code.


9:00 AM -- The Ladykillers (1955)
An eccentric bandit gang moves into a little old lady's boardinghouse to plot a major heist.
Dir: Alexander Mackendrick
Cast: Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom
C-91 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Original -- William Rose

The producers originally rejected director Alexander Mackendrick's choice of Katie Johnson for the role of Mrs. Wilberforce on the grounds that she might be too frail for the project, and so they cast a younger actress - who died before filming began.


10:45 AM -- A Day At The Races (1937)
A group of zanies tries to save a pretty girl's sanitarium.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx
BW-109 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Dance Direction -- Dave Gould for "All God's Children Got Rhythm"

Groucho Marx's character was initially to have been named Dr. Quackenbush, which he and everyone else thought was too silly a name to offend anyone. However, MGM's legal department discovered at least a dozen legitimate U.S. doctors named Quackenbush, so for legal reasons the name was changed to Hackenbush. Although initially dismayed by the name change, Groucho later came to like it. He cited "Dr. Hackenbush" as his favorite character from his films, and even occasionally signed letters to friends using that name.


12:45 PM -- Way Out West (1937)
A pair of tenderfeet try to get the deed to a gold mine to its rightful owner.
Dir: James W. Horne
Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Sharon Lynne
BW-64 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Score -- Marvin Hatley (head of department) (Score by Marvin Hatley)

Stan Laurel's laughter was infectious; you can see Sharon Lynn (Lola) laughing unscripted as she tickles Stan during the hotel scene.


2:00 PM -- Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)
A Western rancher wins a British valet in a poker game.
Dir: Leo McCarey
Cast: Charles Laughton, Mary Boland, Charlie Ruggles
BW-90 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Edward Dmytryk, the film's editor, said that Charles Laughton became so emotional during the scene in the saloon where he recites the Gettysburg Address that it took director Leo McCarey 1-1/2 days to complete shooting it. According to Dmytryk, the preview audiences found Laughton's close-ups in the scene embarrassing and tittered through the speech. When substitute shots of Laughton from behind were inserted, the audience found the reaction shots of the other people reacting to him very moving, and the second preview was extremely successful.


3:45 PM -- Auntie Mame (1958)
An eccentric heiress raises her nephew to be a free spirit.
Dir: Morton DaCosta
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Forrest Tucker, Coral Browne
C-143 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Rosalind Russell, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Peggy Cass, Best Cinematography, Color -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color -- Malcolm C. Bert and George James Hopkins, Best Film Editing -- William H. Ziegler, and Best Picture

The line, "Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death," does not appear in the book. It is derived from the stage play, where it was originally, "Life is a banquet and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death." Though "damn" and "hell" are both heard in the film, "sons-of-bitches" was apparently thought too rough.


6:15 PM -- The Producers (1967)
A Broadway producer decides to get rich by creating the biggest flop of his career.
Dir: Mel Brooks
Cast: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn
C-90 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Mel Brooks

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Gene Wilder

The movie is actually based on a response Brooks gave in an interview with Larry Siegel in 'Playboy' in 1966:
PLAYBOY: What else are you working on?
BROOKS: Springtime for Hitler.
PLAYBOY: You're putting us on.
BROOKS: No, it's the God's honest truth. It's going to be a play within a play, or a play within a film - I haven't decided yet. It's a romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden. There was a whole nice side of Hitler. He was a good dancer - no one knows that. He loved a parakeet named Bob - no one knows that either. It's all brought out in the play.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: 1970-1973



8:00 PM -- Patton (1970)
The legendary general's rebellious behavior almost costs him his command during World War II.
Dir: Franklin J. Schaffner
Cast: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Michael Bates
C-171 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- George C. Scott (Refused to accept the nomination and the award, because he did not feel himself to be in any competition with other actors. Frank McCarthy, the film's producer, accepted the award on Scott's behalf at the ceremony, but returned it to the Academy the next day in keeping with Scott's wishes.), Best Director -- Franklin J. Schaffner (Franklin Schaffner was not present at the awards ceremony. Karl Malden accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North (Francis Ford Coppola was not present at the awards ceremony.), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Urie McCleary, Gil Parrondo, Antonio Mateos and Pierre-Louis Thévenet, Best Sound -- Douglas O. Williams and Don J. Bassman, Best Film Editing -- Hugh S. Fowler, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Fred J. Koenekamp, Best Effects, Special Visual Effects -- Alex Weldon, and Best Music, Original Score -- Jerry Goldsmith

The scene where General Lucien K. Truscott tells George S. Patton "You're an old athlete yourself General, you know matches are sometimes postponed" refers to the fact that Patton actually had represented the U.S.A. at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm by competing in the Modern Pentathlon. Patton finished a credible fifth in the competition. Remarkably it was the shooting element that let him down. In true Patton style he used his military .38 revolver instead of the lighter .22 favored by most of the athletes. Patton was also an expert fencer. He re-wrote the U.S. Army's manuals on swordsmanship removing the 'parry.' His idea was for all attack. Defence just wasted energy. Such was his mastery of swordsmanship that he designed the last saber ever to be worn into battle as a weapon, the M1913 Cavalry Saber, commonly known as the "Patton Saber".


11:00 PM -- McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)
A gambler and a prostitute become business partners in a remote Old West mining town.
Dir: Robert Altman
Cast: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois
C-121 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Julie Christie

Warren Beatty loved to perform multiple takes of his scenes. Once, when Altman was ready to wrap shooting for the day, Beatty insisted on more takes. Altman left and had his assistant shoot them and Beatty did over thirty takes of the scene. Altman got his revenge by ordering Beatty to do 25 takes of a scene involving Beatty in the snow.


1:15 AM -- Papillon (1973)
Two Devil's Island prisoners devote all of their time to hatching escape plans.
Dir: Franklin J. Schaffner
Cast: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory
C-151 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- Jerry Goldsmith

Actor Steve McQueen insisted on performing the stunt where he jumps off a cliff himself. McQueen once said of this that it was "one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life".


4:00 AM -- Klute (1971)
A small-town detective searches for a missing man linked to a high-priced prostitute.
Dir: Alan J. Pakula
Cast: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi
C-114 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Jane Fonda

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- Andy Lewis and David E. Lewis

Bree's apartment was built on a sound stage at a New York film studio where Jane Fonda could spend the night. The director even had a working toilet installed in the bathroom of the set. Jane contributed to decorating the apartment by deciding Bree would be a romance reader and have a cat. Jane remembered an actress from Lee Strasberg's private class that occasionally serviced John F. Kennedy, so she decided Bree had done this as well. A signed photo of Kennedy appears on the fridge in Bree's apartment.