TCM Schedule for Friday, February 17, 2017 -- 31 Days of Oscar: Oscar A to Z Day 17

[Staph]

It's day seventeen of 31 Days of Oscar, Alphabet Style. Today brings us 1934's The Merry Widow (one of at least 25 filmed versions of the play L'attaché d'Ambassade by Henri Meilhac) through 1947's Monsieur Verdoux (Charlie Chaplin directs and stars in a film written by Orson Welles). Enjoy!


7:00 AM -- THE MERRY WIDOW (1934)
A prince from a small kingdom courts a wealthy widow to keep her money in the country.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Edward Everett Horton
BW-99 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction -- Cedric Gibbons and Fredric Hope

Censors from the film industry's Production Code Administration objected to a scene at Maxim's in which Danilo carries Sonia to a couch, drops her there and then sits beside her. They only passed the scene when the stars managed to contort their bodies so she could keep both feet on the floor. That taken care of, PCA head Joseph Breen passed the film.


8:45 AM -- A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (1935)
Shakespeare's classic about two pairs of lovers and an amateur actor who get mixed up with fairies.
Dir: Max Reinhardt
Cast: Ian Hunter, Verree Teasdale, Hobart Cavanaugh
BW-143 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Hal Mohr (First and only write-in nominee to actually win.), and Best Film Editing -- Ralph Dawson

Nominated for Oscars for Best Assistant Director -- Sherry Shourds, and Best Picture

When the forest that Max Reinhardt designed could not be lit properly, cinematographer Hal Mohr thinned the trees slightly, sprayed them with aluminum paint and covered them with cobwebs and tiny metal particles to reflect the light. As a result, he became the first (and only) write-in winner of an Academy Award.


11:15 AM -- MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949)
Showmen try to exploit a giant ape raised by an orphan.
Dir: Ernest B. Schoedsack
Cast: Terry Moore, Ben Johnson, Robert Armstrong
C-94 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects

When Joe smashes through the facade during the nightclub riot, the first scream you hear is that of Fay Wray, stock audio from the original King Kong (1933), which was also produced by RKO.


1:00 PM -- MILDRED PIERCE (1945)
A woman turns herself into a business tycoon to win her selfish daughter a place in society.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott
BW-111 mins, CC,

Won
Oscar Best Actress in a Leading Role
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford was not present at the awards ceremony and feigned ill that night. Meanwhile she listened to the show on the radio. When she won, she ushered the press into her bedroom, where she finally accepted her Oscar.

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Eve Arden, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ann Blyth, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Ranald MacDougall, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ernest Haller, and Best Picture

Shooting the early scenes, director Michael Curtiz accused Joan Crawford of needlessly glamorizing her working mother role. She insisted she was buying her character's clothes off the rack, but didn't mention that her own dressmaker was fitting the waists and padding out the shoulders.


3:00 PM -- MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID (1952)
True story of Annette Kellerman, the world's first great swimming star.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Esther Williams, Victor Mature, Walter Pidgeon
C-110 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- George J. Folsey

Considered by many to be one of the best examples of Technicolor cinematography.


5:00 PM -- MIN AND BILL (1930)
Two crusty waterfront characters try to protect their daughter from a terrible secret.
Dir: George Hill
Cast: Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Dorothy Jordan
BW-65 mins, CC,

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

Suggested from the book Dark Star by Lorna Moon.


6:15 PM -- THE MIRACLE OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA (1952)
Three children from a small village claim to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary.
Dir: John Brahm
Cast: Gilbert Roland, Angela Clark, Frank Silvera
C-102 mins, CC,

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

Soror Lucia (March 28, 1907 – February 13, 2005), the last surviving Fatima real-life visionary, had seen this movie, and said that she didn't like it.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: DAY 17



8:00 PM -- THE MIRACLE WORKER (1962)
True story of the determined teacher who helped Helen Keller overcome deafness and blindness to learn to communicate.
Dir: Arthur Penn
Cast: Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke, Victor Jory
BW-107 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Anne Bancroft (Anne Bancroft was not present at the awards ceremony. Joan Crawford accepted the award on her behalf.), and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Patty Duke

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Arthur Penn, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- William Gibson, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Ruth Morley

Although Patty Duke had been playing Helen Keller in the play for more than a year, she almost didn't get the part in the film adaptation. The studio felt that being a teenager, she looked too old to play a seven-year-old. However, they decided to use Duke after deciding to use Anne Bancroft, who played Duke's original Annie Sullivan in the play.

(And as a personal FYI, I visited the Keller home, Ivy Green, in Tuscumbia, Alabama, a couple of years ago. The house doesn't really look like the one in the film. The second story, where Annie Sullivan is locked in her room and must be rescued out the window and down a ladder, is more of an attic. And the little cottage, where Annie gets Helen alone for some weeks to teach her with parental interference, is 30 feet from the main house! But it is an amazing place to visit.)


10:00 PM -- MISTER ROBERTS (1955)
A naval officer longing for active duty clashes with his vainglorious captain.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell
C-121 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Lemmon

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- William A. Mueller (Warner Bros.), and Best Picture

Jack Lemmon started a long-time friendship with James Cagney which lasted until Cagney's death in 1986. Prior to his appearance in his first film, years before, he started in live television. In one particular performance, Lemmon decided to play his character differently. He decided to play the character left-handed, which is opposite to his own way of movement. With much practice, he pulled off the performance without anyone noticing the change. This change even fooled Lemmon's wife at the time. A few years went by and Jack met Cagney on their way to Midway Island to film this movie. They introduced themselves, and Cagney chimed in, "Are you still fooling people into believing you're left handed?" They had a great laugh and a strong friendship was born.


12:15 AM -- MOGAMBO (1953)
In this remake of Red Dust, an African hunter is torn between a lusty showgirl and a married woman.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly
C-116 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ava Gardner, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Grace Kelly

Although the original trailer for the film explains that "Mogambo" means "the Greatest," in fact, the word "Mogambo" has no meaning at all. Producer Sam Zimbalist came up with the title by altering the name of the Mocambo, a famous Hollywood nightclub.


2:30 AM -- MON ONCLE D'AMERIQUE (1980)
A college professor uses the crises in three lives to illustrate his theories about human behavior.
Dir: Alain Resnais
Cast: Gerard Depardieu, Nicole Garcia, Roger Pierre
C-127 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Jean Gruault

There are several scenes from films featuring Danielle Darrieux, Jean Marais and Jean Gabin used in this film.


5:00 AM -- MONSIEUR VERDOUX (1947)
A man woos and murders rich widows to support his invalid wife.
Dir: Charles Chaplin
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Mady Correll, Allison Roddan
BW-124 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Charles Chaplin

Charles Chaplin hired famed press agent Russell Birdwell to publicize this film. Just prior to the premiere, Birdwell wrote columnist Hedda Hopper a note saying: "I contend that Charlie Chaplin's 'Monsieur Verdoux' is the greatest and most controversial picture that has ever come from the Hollywood mills. If I lose I will publicly eat the negative of the film in front of the Chaplin studios. Sincerely, Bird." After she'd seen the film, Hopper wired back: "DEAR BIRD: START EATING. HOPPER."

[longship]

1. Oh! Mr. Roberts!!!

What a wonderful film!

And the cast is quite wonderful. OMFG! William Powell! Did he ever act badly? Not here, at least.

Just watch it (again).