TCM Schedule for Friday, February 25 -- 31 Days of Oscar -- Five for Four

[Staph]

The morning begins with an Oscar-winning sister act, one film each from sisters Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland. Next is a celebration of rookies, actors who were nominated in their film debuts. In primetime, each movie received five acting nominations -- at least one of those actors was going home disappointed. Enjoy!



Sister act -- starring Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland

7:00am -- Suspicion (1941)
A wealthy wallflower suspects her penniless playboy husband of murder.
Cast: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
BW-100 mins, TV-PG

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

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Franz Waxman, and Best Picture

Joan Fontaine's performance in this movie is the only Oscar-winning performance that Alfred Hitchcock directed.


9:00am -- To Each His Own (1946)
A single mother gives up her son, then fights to remain a part of his life.
Cast: Olivia deHavilland, Mary Anderson, Roland Culver, Phillip Terry
Dir: Mitchell Leisen
BW-122 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Olivia de Havilland

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Charles Brackett

Ginger Rogers wrote that Leland Hayward first offered her the role of Josephine Norris. Rogers read the script and asked herself if she wanted to play the mother of a twenty-year-old man who is preparing to go off to war. She turned down the role and later regretted it when Olivia de Havilland won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Rogers also turned down The Snake Pit (1948), which Olivia also accepted and was nominated for another Oscar. Rogers wrote: "It seemed Olivia knew a good thing when she saw it. Perhaps Olivia should thank me for such poor judgment".


Rookies of the year -- nominated in their film debuts

11:15am -- Marie Antoinette (1938)
Lavish biography of the French queen who "let them eat cake."
Cast: Norma Shearer, Tyrone Power, John Barrymore, Robert Morley
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II
BW-157 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Morley (his first film), Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Norma Shearer, Best Art Direction -- Cedric Gibbons, and Best Music, Original Score -- Herbert Stothart

The gown and wig Norma Shearer wears in the scene where the people throw stones at her carriage is later worn by Lucille Ball in Du Barry Was a Lady (1943) and by Jean Hagen in Singin' in the Rain (1952).


2:00pm -- The Corn Is Green (1945)
A dedicated teacher sacrifices everything to send a young miner to Oxford.
Cast: Bette Davis, Nigel Bruce, Rhys Williams, Rosalind Ivan
Dir: Irving Rapper
BW-114 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- John Dall (his first film), and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Joan Lorring

Richard Waring, who created the role of Morgan on stage in America was signed by Warner Bros. but he was drafted before shooting began and had to be replaced by John Dall. Veteran actor Gareth Hughes was then living in a monastery. An agreement was found with his religious superior so that he could serve as the Welsh dialect coach.


4:00pm -- The Search (1948)
An American soldier in post-war Europe becomes attached to a homeless child.
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Aline MacMahon, Wendell Corey, Jarmila Novotna
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
BW-104 mins, TV-PG

Won a Juvenile Award -- Ivan Jandl (For the outstanding juvenile performance of 1948 in The Search.)

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Richard Schweizer and David Wechsler

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Montgomery Clift (his first film), Best Director -- Fred Zinnemann, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Richard Schweizer and David Wechsler

"Theater Guild on the Air" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on March 9, 1952 with Montgomery Clift reprising his film role.


6:00pm -- Bus Stop (1956)
An innocent cowboy kidnaps a small-time singer with whom he's infatuated.
Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O'Connell, Betty Field
Dir: Joshua Logan
C-94 mins

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Don Murray (his first film)

Don Murray has said that Marilyn Monroe was actually naked under her sheets because she thought that her character would really have been naked.


Five for four -- five acting nominations for a single movie

8:00pm -- On The Waterfront (1954)
A young stevedore takes on the mobster who rules the docks.
Cast: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger
Dir: Elia Kazan
BW-108 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Marlon Brando, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Eva Marie Saint, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Richard Day, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Boris Kaufman, Best Director -- Elia Kazan, Best Film Editing -- Gene Milford, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Budd Schulberg, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Lee J. Cobb, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Karl Malden, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Rod Steiger, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Leonard Bernstein

In his biography of Elia Kazan, Richard Schickel describes how Kazan used a ploy to entice Marlon Brando to do the movie. He had Karl Malden direct a scene from the film with an up-and-coming fellow actor from the Actors Studio playing the Terry Malloy lead role. They figured the competitive Brando would not be eager to see such a major role handed to some new screen heartthrob. The ploy worked, especially since the competition had come in the form of a guy named Paul Newman.


10:00pm -- From Here To Eternity (1953)
Enlisted men in Hawaii fight for love and honor on the eve of World War II.
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
BW-118 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Frank Sinatra, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Donna Reed, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Burnett Guffey, Best Director -- Fred Zinnemann, Best Film Editing -- William A. Lyon, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), Best Writing, Screenplay -- Daniel Taradash, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Montgomery Clift, Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Burt Lancaster, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Deborah Kerr, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Jean Louis, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Morris Stoloff and George Duning

The novel was deemed unfilmable for a long time because of its negative portrayal of the US army (which would prevent the army from supporting the film with people and hardware/logistics) and the profanity. To get army support and pass the censorship of the time crucial details had to be changed. The brothel became a night club, the whores hostesses. The profanity was removed, the brutal treatment in the stockade toned down and Captain Holmes removed from the army instead of promoted.


12:15am -- Tom Jones (1963)
In this adaptation of Henry Fielding's novel, a country boy in 18th-century England becomes a playboy.
Cast: Albert Finney, Susannah York, Hugh Griffith, Edith Evans
Dir: Tony Richardson
C-122 mins, TV-14

Won Oscars for Best Director -- Tony Richardson (Tony Richardson was not present at the awards ceremony. Edith Evans accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- John Addison (John Addison was not present at the awards ceremony. Elmer Bernstein accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- John Osborne, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Albert Finney, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Hugh Griffith, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Diane Cilento, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Edith Evans, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Joyce Redman, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Ralph W. Brinton, Ted Marshall, Jocelyn Herbert and Josie MacAvin

Hugh Griffith was reportedly drunk through much of the production; the scene in which his horse falls on him was not planned, and many believed he was saved by virtue of his inebriated condition. The film incorporated every frame of footage before rescuers entered the frame to save him.


2:30am -- Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
The legendary bank robbers run riot in the South of the 1930s.
Cast: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman
Dir: Arthur Penn
C-111 mins, TV-14

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Estelle Parsons, and Best Cinematography -- Burnett Guffey

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Warren Beatty, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Gene Hackman, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Michael J. Pollard, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Faye Dunaway, Best Costume Design -- Theadora Van Runkle, Best Director -- Arthur Penn, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- David Newman and Robert Benton, and Best Picture

In a TV interview director Arthur Penn pointed out that this film shows for the first time the firing of a gun and the consequences in one single frame. Before that you would see a gun being fired, then cut and the next scene shows the bleeding body. In Bonnie and Clyde you see a gun being fired into the face of a person without inter cut. This was incredible at the time and would have been censored in the past. (Such a shot had, however, had already been used in all three of the films Sergio Leone's "Dollars" trilogy.)