TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 27, 2014 -- 31 Days of Oscar: 1931/1932 Best Actress Nominees

[Staph]

It's a day of Best Actress winners, and in prime time, the nominees for 1931/1932, including Marie Dressler in Emma, Lynn Fontaine in The Guardsman, and winner Helen Hayes in The Sins of Madelon Claudet. Enjoy!


6:32 AM -- The Music Box (1932)
Two men running a moving company have to get a large piano up a daunting flight of stairs in this comedic short film.
Dir: James Parrott
Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Sam Lufkin
BW-29 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Comedy -- Hal Roach

The idea for the film came to a Hal Roach comedy writer in 1927 when he passed a long flight of stairs in the Silverlake area of L.A. and thought it would be a good idea to have Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy trying to move something heavy up them.


7:00 AM -- Morning Glory (1933)
A stage struck girl travels to New York determined to make it on Broadway.
Dir: Lowell Sherman
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Adolphe Menjou
BW-74 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn (Katharine Hepburn was not present at the awards ceremony.)

Katharine Hepburn claimed that she used Ruth Gordon as the inspiration for her performance.


8:30 AM -- Dangerous (1935)
A young fan tries to rehabilitate an alcoholic actress he's fallen in love with.
Dir: Alfred E. Green
Cast: Bette Davis, Franchot Tone, Margaret Lindsay
BW-79 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis (On 14 December 2002 Steven Spielberg anonymously bought Davis' Oscar at a Sotheby's auction in New York to return it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The statuette was among the memorabilia sold by the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain, which has emerged from bankruptcy protection.)

Though Bette Davis was very proud of the Oscar she won for this film, she didn't think she deserved it that year - in her opinion, Katharine Hepburn should have won for Alice Adams (1935). Davis always thought she won as compensation for not even being nominated for her star-making performance in Of Human Bondage (1934) the previous year.


10:00 AM -- Kitty Foyle (1940)
A girl from the wrong side of the tracks endures scandal and heartbreak when she falls for a high-society boy.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, James Craig
BW-108 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ginger Rogers

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Sam Wood, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Dalton Trumbo, Best Sound, Recording -- John Aalberg (RKO Radio SSD), and Best Picture

Among the many letters that Ginger Rogers received for her work in the film, this was the one that she treasured the most: "Hello Cutie - Saw "Kitty" last night and must write this note to say "That's it!" Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! You were superb Ginge - it was such a solid performance - the kind one seldom sees on stage or screen and it should bring you the highest honors anyone can win!! Hope to see you soon, As ever your, Fred."


12:00 PM -- Anastasia (1956)
A group of exiled Russians claim to have found the living daughter of the Tsar, presumed executed in 1918.
Dir: Anatole Litvak
Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, Helen Hayes
C-105 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ingrid Bergman (Ingrid Bergman was not present at the awards ceremony. Cary Grant accepted on her behalf.)

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Alfred Newman

This movie was based on the story of Anna Anderson, a woman who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia. It was later discovered that, in fact, she was not who she claimed to be; the mystery was solved through DNA examination of a small piece of tissue cut from Anna in an operation years before.


2:00 PM -- Butterfield 8 (1960)
A party girl ruins her life when she falls for a married man.
Dir: Daniel Mann
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, Eddie Fisher
C-109 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Taylor

Nominated for an Oscar Best Cinematography, Color -- Joseph Ruttenberg and Charles Harten

John O'Hara's 1935 novel is about the death of a call-girl and could not be filmed due to the Production Code. The novel was based on the death of Starr Faithfull, a 25-year-old woman whose body washed up onto the shore of Long Island in 1931 and became a sensation in the New York press due to her checkered sexual history.


4:00 PM -- Two Women (1961)
A widow tries to get her daughter to safety in World War II Italy.
Dir: Vittorio De Sica
Cast: Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Eleonora Brown
BW-96 mins, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Sophia Loren (Sophia Loren was not present at the awards ceremony. Greer Garson accepted the award on her behalf.)

Sophia Loren's Best Actress Academy Award was the first Oscar ever given for a performance in a "foreign-language" film.


5:38 PM -- The Gay Parisian (1941)
The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo perform to the music of Jacques Offenbach in this short film.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Igor Youskevitch, Cyd Charisse, Frederic Franklin
C-20 mins,

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

Completing the film short, the ballet group returned to New York City to ponder their fate. The Ballet Russe impresario Rene Blum returned to Paris. Blum was arrested December 12, 1941 in his Parisian home. Among the first Jews to be arrested in Paris by the French police after France was defeated and occupied by the German Regime, he was held in the Beaune-La-Ronde camp, then in the Drancy deportation camp. On September 23, 1942, he was shipped to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he was later killed by the Nazis.


6:00 PM -- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
A headstrong young teacher in a private school ignores the curriculum and influences her impressionable charges with her world view.
Dir: Ronald Neame
Cast: Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin
C-116 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Maggie Smith (Maggie Smith was not present at the awards ceremony. Alice Ghostley accepted the award on her behalf.)

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Rod McKuen for the song "Jean"

The original play was offered to Maggie Smith first. Because of film commitments she declined and Vanessa Redgrave played Miss Brodie on stage. However, when the movie was being made, the role of Miss Brodie was offered to Redgrave first. This time, she had prior commitments and declined and Maggie Smith took the role, offered her originally, and won an Oscar for playing it.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: 1931/1932 BEST ACTRESS NOMINEES



8:00 PM -- The Sin Of Madelon Claudet (1931)
A woman takes to the streets to provide for her illegitimate son.
Dir: Edgar Selwyn
Cast: Helen Hayes, Lewis Stone, Neil Hamilton
BW-75 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Helen Hayes

According to 'When the Lion Roars,' Irving Thalberg and his producers were previewing films one night and he asked to see this one. Told it was hopeless, he asked to put it on anyway. After watching it, he remarked that it wasn't bad; the main thing to do was change the last seven minutes. Re-takes were done and Helen Hayes went on to win the Oscar for the part.


9:30 PM -- Emma (1932)
A housekeeper faces unexpected snobbery when she marries her boss.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Marie Dressler, Richard Cromwell, Jean Hersholt
BW-72 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Marie Dressler

After winning her Best Actress Academy Award in 1931 for "Min and Bill," Marie was nominated again the very next year for her role in this film; Emma.


10:48 PM -- 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


11:00 PM -- The Guardsman (1931)
A jealous husband dons a disguise to test his wife's fidelity.
Dir: Sidney Franklin
Cast: Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Roland Young
BW-82 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Alfred Lunt, and Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Lynn Fontanne

On the final day of filming, MGM head of production Irving Thalberg, informed the Lunts that they would be required to re-shoot what Thalberg thought was an unsatisfactory scene. The Lunts protested because they thought they had done their best but were finally coerced into re-shooting the scene. When Thalberg saw the newly shot footage he accused Alfred Lunt of purposely crossing his eye as to sabotage the re-shoot. Lunt replied that he couldn't do that on purpose and the reason why the eye was wandering was because of fatigue. Before Thalberg could ask for another re-shoot, Lunt went to the studio barber to get a haircut, making it impossible to re-shoot anymore.


12:30 AM -- Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1932)
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of a scientist who unleashes the beast within.
Dir: Rouben Mamoulian
Cast: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart
BW-96 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Fredric March (Tied with Wallace Beery for The Champ (1931).)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Adaptation -- Percy Heath amd Samuel Hoffenstein, and Best Cinematography -- Karl Struss

The remarkable Jekyll-to-Hyde transition scenes in this film were accomplished by manipulating a series of variously colored filters in front of the camera lens. Fredric March's Hyde makeup was in various colors, and the way his appearance registered on the film depended on which color filter was being shot through. During the first transformation scene, the accompanying noises on the soundtrack included portions of Bach, a gong being played backwards, and, reportedly, a recording of director Rouben Mamoulian's own heart. Only in the late 1960's did Mamoulian reveal how they were done.


2:15 AM -- The Champ (1931)
A broken-down prizefighter battles to keep custody of his son.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Irene Rich
BW-86 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Wallace Beery (Tied with Fredric March for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)), and Best Writing, Original Story -- Frances Marion

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- King Vidor, and Best Picture

Wallace Beery actually got one less vote than Fredric March in the 1931/1932 Academy Awards voting for best actor, but the rules at the time considered anyone with one or two votes less than the leader as being in a tie. So both got Academy Awards.


3:45 AM -- A Free Soul (1931)
A hard-drinking lawyer's daughter falls for one of his underworld clients.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, Lionel Barrymore
BW-94 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Lionel Barrymore

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Norma Shearer, and Best Director -- Clarence Brown

When the final version of the movie went before Hollywood censors, they demanded that MGM cut the scene where Norma Shearer lays on the bed and suggestively asks Clark Gable to put his arms around her. The studio ignored the demand and released the film uncut.


5:30 AM -- The Private Life Of Henry VIII (1933)
The famed English monarch suffers through five of his six disastrous marriages.
Dir: Alexander Korda
Cast: Charles Laughton, Merle Oberon, Wendy Barrie
BW-94 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Charles Laughton (Charles Laughton was not present at the awards ceremony. Fellow nominee Leslie Howard accepted the award on his behalf.)

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Because of the memorable banquet scene, Charles Laughton for many years thereafter was often given a free roasted chicken, without utensils, by restaurant owners who thought it was a good joke.