TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 13, 2014 -- 31 Days of Oscar: 1942 Best Actress Nominees

[Staph]

Today's prime time features Best Actress nominees from a variety of years, with the 1942 Best Actress nominees Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell and Teresa Wright, and winner Greer Garson featured in prime time. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Camille (1937)
In this classic 19th-century romance, a kept woman runs off with a young admirer in search of love and happiness.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore
BW-109 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo wore bedroom slippers under all her fancy dresses so she could be comfortable, as well as more naturalistic in her acting.


8:00 AM -- Marie Antoinette (1938)
Lavish biography of the French queen who "let them eat cake."
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: Norma Shearer, Tyrone Power, John Barrymore
BW-157 mins, TV-G, CC,

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

From its initial inception up until right before the cameras started to roll, the film was designed to be shot in Technicolor. All of the sets and costumes were designed with color in mind. MGM went as far as to send the fox cape that Norma Shearer wears (to see Henry Stephenson on the night she becomes Queen) to New York to be specially dyed to match the blue of her eyes. Fearing that the addition of Technicolor would swell the already mammoth (for the time) $1.8-million budget, the production went before black-and-white cameras instead.


10:38 AM -- Sons Of Liberty (1939)
A patriotic short film chronicling the efforts of underground leader and military financier Haym Salomon during the American Revolution.
C-21 mins, TV-PG,

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel


11:00 AM -- Joan Of Arc (1950)
A farm girl's faith unites France against British invaders.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Selena Royle, Robert Barrat
C-146 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Won an Honorary Oscar Award for Walter Wanger, for distinguished service to the industry in adding to its moral stature in the world community by his production of the picture Joan of Arc.

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Joseph A. Valentine, William V. Skall and Winton C. Hoch, and Best Costume Design, Color -- Dorothy Jeakins and Barbara Karinska

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ingrid Bergman, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- José Ferrer, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Richard Day, Casey Roberts and Joseph Kish, Best Film Editing -- Frank Sullivan, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Hugo Friedhofer

The film was not really a commercial success upon release, but only partly due to RKO's poor publicity campaign (which producer Walter Wanger blamed on then-RKO president Howard Hughes). Audiences stayed away from the film when Ingrid Bergman's affair with director Roberto Rossellini was revealed while the movie was in release, because they considered it blasphemous for an adulterous woman to be playing a saint.


1:30 PM -- Autumn Sonata (1978)
A concert pianist faces the daughters she's neglected for years.
Dir: Ingmar Bergman
Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann, Lena Nyman
C-94 mins, TV-14, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ingrid Bergman, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Ingmar Bergman

Final theatrical feature film of actress Ingrid Bergman.


3:06 PM -- The Tanks Are Coming (1941)
This educational short focuses on the status of battle tanks and training in the U.S. Army.
Dir: B. Reeves Eason
Cast: Gig Young, Richard Travis, George Tobias
C-20 mins, TV-PG,

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


3:30 PM -- Travels With My Aunt (1972)
A stodgy young man gets caught up in his free-living aunt's shady schemes.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Maggie Smith, Alec McCowen, Lou Gossett
C-109 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Costume Design -- Anthony Powell (Anthony Powell couldn't attend the awards ceremony, as he was working on Papillon (1973) in London, England. George Cukor, the film's director, accepted the award on his behalf.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Maggie Smith, Best Cinematography -- Douglas Slocombe, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- John Box, Gil Parrondo and Robert W. Laing

Katharine Hepburn was initially approached by her friend George Cukor to star in the movie. She read the book by Graham Greene, but since it was a series of short stories, she didn't think it could be adapted into a film. However, she agreed to star in it after reading the book a few times. Jay Presson Allen wrote the screenplay, but when Hepburn was unhappy with the result, Allen suggested that she re-write it herself. Hepburn worked on the script for three months, but when she submitted it, MGM studio head James T. Aubrey felt that her script was missing the charm of the book. Also, Aubrey felt that Hepburn was too old to play Aunt Augusta in flashback scenes. Aubrey called Hepburn to tell her that the project had been postponed, but the next day, Hepburn's agent called to report that she had been released by MGM for "failing to report to work." Hepburn considered suing MGM for payment for her script work, but decided against it. According to Jay Presson Allen, one speech from Hepburn's script was included in the film, but Hepburn was not given screen credit because she wasn't a member of the Screen Writer's Guild.


5:30 PM -- Victor Victoria (1982)
An unemployed female singer poses as a female impersonator and becomes a star.
Dir: Blake Edwards
Cast: Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston
C-134 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score -- Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse

Nominated for Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Julie Andrews, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Preston, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Lesley Ann Warren, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Blake Edwards, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Rodger Maus, Tim Hutchinson, William Craig Smith and Harry Cordwell, and Best Costume Design -- Patricia Norris

To prepare for her role in this film, actress Julie Andrews watched Viktor and Viktoria (1933) and took boxing lessons for her punch-out scene. Reportedly, Andrews struggled with her role in this film. Andrews has said of this: "There were so many things to be worked out. As someone who likes to be in control, I felt wobbly. There was something else, too: When you get older, you kind of get on to yourself. You know the tricks you play to get by, and you like them less and less if you care about your work. I was trying hard to get away from them and was sometimes falling back."


7:49 PM -- Kings Of The Turf (1941)
This short film focuses on Mortimer, a Standardbred horse undergoing training for harness racing.
Dir: Del Frazier
C-10 mins,

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



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: 1942 BEST ACTRESS NOMINEES



8:00 PM -- My Sister Eileen (1942)
Two sisters - one smart, one pretty - move to New York to build careers.
Dir: Alexander Hall
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Brian Aherne, Janet Blair
BW-97 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Rosalind Russell

The movie is based on the real-life experiences of Ruth McKinney, and her sister Eileen. In 1934, Ruth and Eileen McKinney moved to New York from Columbus, Ohio. They rented a $45-a-month basement apartment at 14 Gay Street in Greenwich Village, above the Christopher Street subway station. Ruth wrote about their eccentric neighbors and the trials of living in a basement apartment in her column titled, "My Sister Eileen," which was published in the "New Yorker" (called "The Manhattaner" in the movie). As seen in the film, "New Yorker" editor Harold Ross was at first reluctant to publish Ruth McKinney's columns, preferring to keep his magazine a "High Society" publication, but he eventually relented. Ruth's columns were gathered in a book, "My Sister Eileen," which was published in 1938. Eileen McKinney moved to Los Angeles, where she married novelist and screenwriter Nathaniel West (author of the perennial Hollywood novel, "The Day of the Locust&quot . Unfortunately, Eileen McKinney and Nathanael West were both killed in a car accident in Los Angeles on December 22, 1940, only four days before they were scheduled to attend the Broadway opening of the play, "My Sister Eileen." Ruth McKinney died in 1972 at age 60.


9:41 PM -- Seeing Hands (1943)
This short film stresses how important individuals with a disability are to the war effort.
Dir: Gunther V. Fritsch
Cast: George McFarland (Spanky), William Bishop, Barbara Bedford
BW-11 mins,

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


10:00 PM -- Mrs. Miniver (1942)
A British family struggles to survive the first days of World War II.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright
BW-134 mins, TV-G, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Teresa Wright, Best Director -- William Wyler (William Wyler was not present at the awards ceremony because he was overseas shooting for the Army Air Force. His wife Margaret Tallichet accepted on his behalf.), Best Writing, Screenplay -- George Froeschel, James Hilton, Claudine West and Arthur Wimperis, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Walter Pidgeon, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Henry Travers, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Dame May Whitty, Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD), Best Film Editing -- Harold F. Kress, and Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic), Warren Newcombe (photographic) and Douglas Shearer (sound)

William Wyler openly admitted that he made the film for propaganda reasons. Wyler - who was born in Germany - strongly believed that the US should join the war against Nazism, and was concerned that America's policy of isolationism would prove damaging, so he made a film that showed ordinary Americans what their British equivalents were undergoing at the time. The film's subsequent success had a profound effect on American sympathy towards the plight of the British. Winston Churchill once said that this film had done more for the war effort than a flotilla of destroyers.


12:30 AM -- Now, Voyager (1942)
A repressed spinster is transformed by psychiatry and her love for a married man.
Dir: Irving Rapper
Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
BW-118 mins, TV-G, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gladys Cooper

The comic scenes in which Giuseppe (Frank Pugli), the cab driver, drives Charlotte (Bette Davis) and Jerry (Paul Henreid) up Sugar Loaf in Rio are effective because Giuseppe does not speak English and neither Charlotte nor Jerry speak Portuguese. Yet, the comedy is even more intensified because Giuseppe does not speak Portuguese either. Rather he jabbers on in a sort of 'lingua franca' mixture of Pugli's native Scilian, Spanish, and Portuguese. All of it spoken with an Italian accent.


2:34 AM -- Of Pups And Puzzles (1941)
This short film showcases how the war department utilizes animals to assist with aptitude testing.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Eddy Chandler, William Forrest, Mark Daniels
BW-11 mins,

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel


2:45 AM -- Woman of the Year (1942)
Opposites distract when a sophisticated political columnist falls for a sportswriter.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter
BW-114 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner Jr.

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn

In the opening montage, the audience sees two side-by-side ads. One says "Hitler can't win" by Tess Harding and the other says "Yankees can't lose" by Sam Craig. Only Tess was correct; the Yankees made it to the 1942 World Series but lost to the St Louis Cardinals in five games.


4:45 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
BW-128 mins, 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 Writing, Original Story -- Paul Gallico, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Herman J. Mankiewicz and Jo Swerling, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Rudolph Maté, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Perry Ferguson and Howard Bristol, Best Sound, Recording -- Thomas T. Moulton (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), 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, and Best Picture

Director Sam Wood shot the famous final speech at the same Yankee Stadium site where Gehrig had made it. Soon after the movie ends with Lou disappearing into darkness behind the dugout. But the studio wanted to "corn up" the ending by adding a final kiss between Gehrig and his wife. Wood said he 'told them what I thought and got the ending back again'.