TCM Schedule for Saturday, February 15, 2014 -- 31 Days of Oscar: 1929/1930 Best Picture Nominees

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is showing films that were nominated for Best Picture. In prime time, we get to see the 1929/1930 Best Picture nominees, The Big House, Disraeli, The Divorcee, The Love Parade, and the winner, All Quiet On The Western Front. Enjoy!



6:30 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, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

The National Legion of Decency was formed in October of 1933, six months after the release of this film. Legion officials cited Mae West and the film as one of the major reasons for the "necessity" of the organization.


7:36 AM -- La Fiesta De Santa Barbara (1935)
This short film provides a musical and sketch comedy revue staged as a fiesta in Santa Barbara.
Cast: Jim Thorpe, Harpo Marx,
C-19 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Color

This was Judy Garland's very first appearance on 3-strip Technicolor. She would not appear in color film again until The Wizard of Oz (1939).


8:00 AM -- The Talk Of The Town (1942)
An escaped political prisoner and a stuffy law professor vie for the hand of a spirited schoolteacher.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Colman
BW-117 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- Sidney Harmon, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sidney Buchman and Irwin Shaw, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ted Tetzlaff, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lionel Banks, Rudolph Sternad and Fay Babcock, Best Film Editing -- Otto Meyer, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Friedrich Hollaender and Morris Stoloff, and Best Picture

This was the first time since the silent era that Ronald Colman was billed below another male lead.


10:00 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, TV-G, CC,

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

The premiere of this film took place six weeks after Elizabeth Taylor's real-life May 6, 1950 marriage to "Nicky" Conrad Hilton Jr.. The publicity surrounding the event is credited with helping to make the film so successful. MGM gave Elizabeth Taylor a wedding gift of a one-off wedding dress designed by Edith Head (a move also designed to promote the film).


11:35 AM -- Heavenly Music (1943)
In this short film, a bandleader must prove his worth to enter the Hall of Music in heaven.
Dir: Josef Berne
Cast: Buckwheat Thomas, Eric Blore, William Yetter
BW-22 mins,

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel -- Jerry Bresler and Sam Coslow

Tchaikovsky scolds Ted for having used one of his melodies and then says to the Official Recorder to let him "know when that Freddie Martin checks in here (Heaven)". Freddie Martin's biggest hit was "Tonight We Love" in 1941, which heavily borrowed from Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto Number 1 in B-flat Minor. It was such a big hit that Martin began to incorporate melodies from the classics in follow-up songs.


12:00 PM -- The Goodbye Girl (1977)
A dancer discovers her runaway boyfriend has sublet her apartment to an aspiring actor.
Dir: Herbert Ross
Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, Quinn Cummings
C-111 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Richard Dreyfuss

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Marsha Mason, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Quinn Cummings, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Neil Simon, and Best Picture

Originally entitled "Bogart Slept Here" with Robert De Niro as the leading man and Mike Nichols as director. The story was supposedly based on Dustin Hoffman's life as a struggling actor, reportedly, it was the story of what happened to Hoffman after he became a star. Hoffman wanted the lead role in the film but was turned down. Artistic differences ultimately forced De Niro and Nichols out, two weeks into the shoot, after several table readings. Other actors who were also candidates for the role were Jack Nicholson, James Caan and Tony Lo Bianco. Dreyfuss was brought in to test opposite Marsha Mason. At the end of the read-through, writer Neil Simon ruled, "It doesn't work, but they do." From this, the two leads for the picture were finalized.


2:00 PM -- And the Oscar Goes To... (2014)
A documentary tracing the history of the Academy Awards.
Dir: Robert Epstein
C-95 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox Format


3:37 PM -- Calgary Stampede (1949)
This short film shows how the city of Calgary celebrates the annual festival of Stampede Week.
Dir: Saul Elkins
C-18 mins,

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


4:00 PM -- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Two free-spirited bank robbers flee railroad detectives and head for Bolivia.
Dir: George Roy Hill
Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross
C-110 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- William Goldman (William Goldman was not present at the awards ceremony. Katharine Ross accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Cinematography -- Conrad L. Hall, Best Music, Original Song -- Burt Bacharach (music) and Hal David (lyrics) for the song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", and Best Music, Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical) -- Burt Bacharach

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- George Roy Hill, Best Sound -- Bill Edmondson and David Dockendorf, and Best Picture

This movie was filmed roughly the same time as Hello, Dolly! (1969), on the sound stage next door. Director George Roy Hill believed that the studio would allow him to film the New York scenes on "Dolly's" sets, since the two films' daily shooting schedules were totally different. After production started, though, the studio informed him that it wanted to keep the sets for "Dolly" a secret and so refused him permission. To work around this, Hill had Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Katharine Ross simply pose on the sets and took photos of them. He then inserted images of the three stars into a series of 300 actual period photos and spliced the two different sets (real and posed) together to form the New York montage.


6:00 PM -- Field of Dreams (1989)
Mysterious voices tell an Iowa farmer to build a baseball diamond in his backyard.
Dir: Phil Alden Robinson
Cast: Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones
C-105 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Phil Alden Robinson, Best Music, Original Score -- James Horner, and Best Picture

After the movie was completed test audiences didn't like the title "Shoeless Joe", because they said it sounded like a movie about a bum or hobo. Universal called director-screenwriter Phil Alden Robinson to tell him that "Shoeless Joe" didn't work, and the studio changed the title of the film to "Field of Dreams". When Robinson heard the news of the change, he called W.P. Kinsella, the author of the book, and told him the "bad" news. However, Kinsella didn't care, saying that "Shoeless Joe" was the title the publishing company gave the book. Kinsella's original title was "Dream Field".



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: 1929/1930 BEST PICTURE NOMINEES



8:00 PM -- All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)
Young German soldiers try to adjust to the horrors of World War I.
Dir: Lewis Milestone
Cast: Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray
BW-134 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Director -- Lewis Milestone, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Achievement -- George Abbott, Maxwell Anderson and Del Andrews, and Best Cinematography -- Arthur Edeson

Nazi rabble rousers stormed screenings of the film in Germany, often releasing rats or stink bombs into the theaters, as the wounds of defeat in the First World War still ran deep. This led to the film ultimately being banned by the Nazi party. It wouldn't receive proper screenings in Germany until 1956, though it did play to packed houses in 1930 in neighboring Switzerland, France and the Netherlands with special trains and buses being laid on to transport Germans to screenings.


10:30 PM -- The Big House (1930)
An attempted prison break leads to a riot.
Dir: George Hill
Cast: Chester Morris, Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone
BW-87 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Writing, Achievement -- Frances Marion, and Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (sound director)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Wallace Beery, and Best Picture

In Frances Marion's original script, the characters played by Leila Hyams and Robert Montgomery were husband and wife. After the film flopped in a preview screening, MGM studio executive Irving Thalberg decided that the problem was that audiences, especially women, didn't want to see the Chester Morris character have an affair with a married woman. So the script was rewritten to make Montgomery and Hyams brother and sister. Scenes were reshot and the film, in its modified form, became a major hit.


12:15 AM -- The Divorcee (1930)
The double standard destroys a liberal couple's marriage.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Norma Shearer, Chester Morris, Conrad Nagel
BW-82 mins, TV-G, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Norma Shearer

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Robert Z. Leonard, Best Writing, Achievement -- John Meehan, and Best Picture

Prior to this film, Norma Shearer had primarily played very "proper," ladylike roles. She was eager to change her image and do parts that were more sensuous, so she launched a campaign to get the part of Jerry. MGM producers were skeptical - none more so than Irving Thalberg, who was also Shearer's husband. To convince him that she could handle a more "sexy" role, Shearer did a photo shoot with her posing provocatively in lingerie, and after seeing the pictures, Thalberg agreed to cast her. The decision paid off, as Shearer won Best Actress at the Academy Awards that year.


1:42 AM -- Menu (1933)
In this comedic short, a magical chef helps a housewife cook her husband's dinner.
Dir: Nick Grinde
Cast: Una Merkel, Luis Alberni, Franklin Pangborn
C-10 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Novelty -- Pete Smith


2:00 AM -- The Love Parade (1929)
A count finds his marriage to a queen less than satisfying.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Lupino Lane
BW-109 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Maurice Chevalier, Best Director -- Ernst Lubitsch, Best Cinematography -- Victor Milner, Best Art Direction -- Hans Dreier, Best Sound, Recording -- Franklin Hansen (sound director), and Best Picture

This was the first movie to have a soundtrack created after production had ended. Lubitch shot it with a silent camera to counter the static positions that marred most of the pioneer sound productions; the dialogue was dubbed in afterwards, in postproduction.


4:00 AM -- Disraeli (1929)
The noted British statesman plays matchmaker for a pair of young lovers.
Dir: Alfred E. Green
Cast: George Arliss, Joan Bennett, Florence Arliss
BW-87 mins, TV-G, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- George Arliss

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Achievement -- Julien Josephson, and Best Picture

The film was re-released in 1933, at which time the title credits were re-done, Arliss given billing as "Mr. George Arliss," and an NRA (National Recovery Act) emblem added; this is the version which presently survives. Unfortunately, the remainder of the film is cropped off the left side, in order to accommodate the sound-on-film system track, which had, by then, replaced the now obsolete Vitaphone sound-on-disc system, and required a slightly narrower picture image as a result.


5:28 AM -- Cavalcade Of The Academy Awards (1940)
This short film presents the awards ceremony for the 1939 Academy Awards.
C-30 mins, TV-PG,

[CBHagman]

1. Norma Shearer alert!