TCM Schedule for Saturday, February 11, 2017 -- 31 Days of Oscar: Oscar A to Z Day 11

[Staph]

Day eleven of 31 Days of Oscar takes us from 1930's The Green Goddess (three Brits held captive in a remote kingdom in the Himalayas) to 1950's The Hasty Heart (actually one of Ronald Reagan's better outings). Enjoy!


7:00 AM -- THE GREEN GODDESS (1930)
A fanatical Indian potentate holds British settlers hostage.
Dir: Alfred Green
Cast: George Arliss, H. B. Warner, Alice Joyce
C-73 mins, CC,

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

Originally released with sound on disc, sound on film was added at a later date, resulting in the left side of the image in surviving prints noticeably cropped in order to provide space on which to accommodate the soundtrack.


8:30 AM -- GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER (1967)
An aging couple's liberal principles are tested when their daughter announces her engagement to a black doctor.
Dir: Stanley Kramer
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn
C-108 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn (Katharine Hepburn was not present at the awards ceremony. George Cukor accepted the award on her behalf.), and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- William Rose

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy (Posthumously), Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Cecil Kellaway, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Beah Richards, Best Director -- Stanley Kramer, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Robert Clatworthy and Frank Tuttle, Best Film Editing -- Robert C. Jones, Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Frank De Vol, and Best Picture

In the scene near the end where Spencer Tracy gives his memorable soliloquy, Katharine Hepburn can be seen crying in the background. This was not acting: she knew how gravely ill her longtime lover was and was moved by his remarks about how true love endures through the years. Spencer Tracy died 17 days after filming was completed.


10:30 AM -- GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL (1957)
Dramatization of the legendary battle between Wyatt Earp and the Clanton Gang.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming
C-123 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- George Dutton (Paramount SSD), and Best Film Editing -- Warren Low

Much of this film was shot at the famous "Old Tucson" facility, not far from the real Tombstone. However, its "town street" set was used surprisingly as Fort Griffin, Texas, in the opening reels, while later Tombstone street scenes were shot in southern California, on the same Paramount Studios back-lot set that was later used as Virginia City, Nevada, on TV's Bonanza (1959).


12:45 PM -- A GUY NAMED JOE (1943)
A downed World War II pilot becomes the guardian angel for his successor in love and war.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, Van Johnson
BW-120 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- David Boehm and Chandler Sprague

Along with Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne insisted the film's production be halted until Van Johnson was well after his auto accident, in which he was seriously injured. During this period, MGM snatched Dunne up to make The White Cliffs of Dover (1944), released the following year as the MGM 20th Anniversary film. As a thank you for her gratitude, Johnson appears in a small role in 'Dover.'


3:00 PM -- GYPSY (1962)
A domineering mother pushes her two daughters to burlesque stardom.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden
C-143 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Harry Stradling Sr., Best Costume Design, Color -- Orry-Kelly, and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Frank Perkins

Before the decision was made to dub most of her vocals, Rosalind Russell attempted to do her own singing. The highly unsatisfactory results can be heard as an extra feature on the soundtrack CD. After Ethel Merman's death, a tape of the Russell recordings was found in a box in Merman's closet. Merman, who was infuriated that she had not been cast in the film, evidently had retained this copy of the Russell vocals as a strange and somewhat vengeful consolation prize.


6:00 PM -- HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO (1944)
A group of veterans help a small-town fraud convince his family he was a war hero.
Dir: Preston Sturges
Cast: Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines, Raymond Walburn
BW-101 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Preston Sturges

As the marines are leaving the Oakridge station, a billboard behind them is advertising The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944), another film by Preston Sturges.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: DAY 11



8:00 PM -- HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986)
Three sisters deal with their tangled relationships amidst the wonders of New York City.
Dir: Woody Allen
Cast: Woody Allen, Michael Caine, Moses Farrow
C-107 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Michael Caine (Co-presenter Sigourney Weaver accepted the award on Caine's behalf, as he could not attend the ceremony due to production on Jaws: The Revenge (1987). Caine later said of the poorly-received third sequel to Jaws (1975), "I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.&quot , Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Dianne Wiest, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Woody Allen (Woody Allen was not present at the awards ceremony. Presenter Shirley MacLaine accepted the award on his behalf.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Woody Allen, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Stuart Wurtzel and Carol Joffe, Best Film Editing -- Susan E. Morse, and Best Picture

Many of Hannah's scenes were filmed in Mia Farrow's own apartment. Woody Allen said that Farrow once had the eerie experience of turning on the TV, finding a chance broadcast of the movie, and seeing her own apartment on TV while she was sitting in her apartment.


10:00 PM -- A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (1964)
A typical day in the life of the Beatles.
Dir: Richard Lester
Cast: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison
BW-87 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Alun Owen, and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- George Martin

United Artists executives didn't really care about the film itself, they were mainly interested in exploiting a legal loophole which would allow them to distribute the lucrative soundtrack album. In fact, they fully expected to lose money on the film. With a final cost of about $500,000 and a box office take of about $8,000,000 in the first week, "A Hard Day's Night" is among the most profitable (percentage-wise) films of all time.


11:45 PM -- HARVEY (1950)
A wealthy eccentric prefers the company of an invisible six-foot rabbit to his family.
Dir: Henry Koster
Cast: Wallace Ford, William Lynn, Victoria Horne
BW-104 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Josephine Hull

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart

Author of the Broadway play Harvey, Mary Chase, had the idea that film audiences should actually see Harvey at the end of the film because she "didn't want anybody to go out of the theater thinking Elwood is just a lush. He believes in Harvey...and I think the audience ought to believe in Harvey, too." The studio reportedly considered this and experimented with how to show him to the audience, including his appearance in silhouette, and even by attaching a rabbit tail to the taxi driver at the film's conclusion. In the end, however, the studio won out and wisely decided NOT to ruin the illusion. Only once had a giant rabbit actually appeared on stage in the play of Harvey, and the results were disastrous. Theatrical Producer Brock Pemberton recalled in a 1945 interview that at that performance in Boston, "a chill descended on the gathering, which never quite thawed out afterwards."


2:00 AM -- THE HARVEY GIRLS (1946)
Straitlaced waitresses battle saloon girls to win the West for domesticity.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Ray Bolger
C-101 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Harry Warren (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe"

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Lennie Hayton

In the big production number "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe", from Judy Garland's entrance until the tempo change is one take. Rumor has it they only shot it twice and she was dead-on both times.


4:00 AM -- THE HASTY HEART (1950)
Doctors try to get a flinty Scots soldier to open up to his comrades before telling him he's dying.
Dir: Vincent Sherman
Cast: Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal, Richard Todd
BW-102 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Richard Todd

The movie, which takes place in tropical Burma, had to be shot in London to take advantage of frozen funds that had accumulated during the War. It turned out to be one of the coldest London winters ever.

[oasis]

1. Thanks for the heads up. I'm a big fan of TCM but my present cable

doesn't carry it now that I've moved.