TCM Schedule for Thursday, March 2, 2017 -- 31 Days of Oscar: Oscar A to Z Day 30

[Staph]

It's day thirty of 31 days of Oscar, alpha and omega style. Today's selections take us from 1944's Voice in the Wind (a story of Nazi torture, filmed while WWII still raged!) to 1949's White Heat (origin of the famous "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!&quot . Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- Voice in the Wind (1944)
After being tortured by the Nazis, a concert pianist fights to recover his memory.
Dir: Arthur Ripley
Cast: Francis Lederer, Sigrid Gurie, J. Edward Bromberg
BW-84 mins,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Mac Dalgleish (RCA Sound), and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Michel Michelet

Although this film was produced by, and was originally intended for release by, low-rent Producers Releasing Corp. (PRC), when word got around Hollywood that the picture was far better than PRC's usually shoddy product, other studios expressed interest in it, and it was eventually bought from PRC and released by United Artists.


7:45 AM -- Wait Until Dark (1967)
A blind woman fights against drug smugglers who've invaded her home.
Dir: Terence Young
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna
C-108 mins,

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

In order to create a sense of unease, the film's composer Henry Mancini had his two pianists, Pearl Kaufman and Jimmy Rowles, playing instruments tuned a quarter tone apart. Initially uncertain as to whether this novel approach would achieve the desired end, Mancini was reassured in short order, when, after just a few takes of the main title, Kaufman turned to him and said, 'Hank, can we please take a break? This is making me ill!' 'She made my day,' the composer recalled fondly. 'The device was working.'


9:45 AM -- The War Against Mrs. Hadley (1942)
A Washington matron tries to ignore the effects of World War II.
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Edward Arnold, Fay Bainter, Richard Ney
BW-86 mins, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- George Oppenheimer

In the film, Mrs. Hadley's birthday is December 7th and she is dismayed that the events at Pearl Harbor ruin her party. Ironically Fay Bainter who played the title character was born on December 7th.


11:15 AM -- Watch On The Rhine (1943)
Nazi agents pursue a German freedom-fighter and his family to Washington.
Dir: Herman Shumlin
Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Lukas, Geraldine Fitzgerald
BW-112 mins, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Lukas

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Lucile Watson, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Dashiell Hammett, and Best Picture

This adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play was written by her longtime companion, Dashiell Hammett. Hellman was unable to write the adaptation herself as she was contracted to work on the screenplay for The North Star (1943). She recommended that Hammett be given the assignment as he was very familiar with the material. (Hammett also needed the money.)


1:15 PM -- Waterloo Bridge (1940)
A ballerina turns to prostitution when her fiance is reported killed in World War I.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Lucile Watson
BW-109 mins, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, and Best Music, Original Score -- Herbert Stothart

The scene in which Myra and Roy dance to "Auld Lang Syne" was supposed to have dialogue, but nobody could come up with the right words. At about 3:00 in the morning before shooting the scene was to take place, Mervyn LeRoy, a veteran of silent films, realized that there shouldn't be any lines and that the images should speak for themselves. The result is the one of the most celebrated scenes of the film.


3:15 PM -- Way Out West (1937)
A pair of tenderfeet try to get the deed to a gold mine to its rightful owner.
Dir: James W. Horne
Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Sharon Lynne
BW-65 mins, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Score -- Marvin Hatley

In a tribute to Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night (1934) Stan Laurel flags down a stagecoach by baring his leg.


4:30 PM -- Weary River (1929)
A jailed criminal's life turns around when he fronts the prison band.
Dir: Frank Lloyd
Cast: Richard Barthelmess, Betty Compson, Louis Natheaux
BW-89 mins, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Director -- Frank Lloyd (No official nominees had been announced this year.)

The film is part silent, with intertitles, and part sound, which was important to feature the main character's talent as a singer, although the title song Weary River was nevertheless dubbed by a professional singer. One scene near the end features an orchestra playing on-screen on set that is a radio studio, while traditional silent movie sound is substituted for real sound. Then the scene technology audibly changes to sound recorded on film, with the same orchestra appearing to play for real (possibly dubbed) as the main character begins to sing (although he is listed as dubbed) in a radio performance that prompts his sweetheart to call the radio studio. The scene is an unusual mix of technologies during a period of transition from silents to sound.


6:00 PM -- The West Point Story (1950)
A Broadway producer tries to put on a show at the legendary military academy.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth
Cast: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Doris Day
BW-107 mins, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Ray Heindorf

From a story by Irving Wallace.




TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: DAY 30



8:00 PM -- West Side Story (1961)
A young couple from dueling street gangs falls in love.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn
C-154 mins, Letterbox, CC

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Chakiris, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Rita Moreno, Best Director -- Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (For the first time a directing award is being shared.), Best Cinematography, Color -- Daniel L. Fapp, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Boris Leven and Victor A. Gangelin, Best Costume Design, Color -- Irene Sharaff, Best Sound -- Fred Hynes (Todd-AO SSD) and Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), Best Film Editing -- Thomas Stanford, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, and Best Picture

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Ernest Lehman

Even though dubbing Natalie Wood was Marni Nixon's chief assignment, Nixon also did one number for Rita Moreno, which required a relatively high vocal register. Having dubbed Wood as well as Moreno, Nixon felt she deserved a cut of the movie-album royalties. Neither the movie or the record producers would bow to her demands. Leonard Bernstein broke the stalemate by volunteering a percentage of his income, a gesture of loyalty-royalty since Nixon had been a performer-colleague of his at New York Philharmonic concerts. He ceded one-quarter of one percent of his royalties to her (a generous amount).


11:00 PM -- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
A crazed, aging star torments her sister in a decaying Hollywood mansion.
Dir: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono
BW-134 mins, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Norma Koch

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Victor Buono, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ernest Haller, and Best Sound -- Joseph D. Kelly (Seven Arts-Warner Bros. Glen Glenn Sound Department)

Early on, Bette Davis made the decision to create her own makeup for Jane. "What I had in mind no professional makeup man would have dared to put on me," said Davis. "One told me he was afraid that if he did what I wanted, he might never work again. Jane looked like many women one sees on Hollywood Boulevard. In fact author Henry Farrell patterned the character of Jane after these women. One would presume by the way they looked that they once were actresses, and were now unemployed. I felt Jane never washed her face, just added another layer of makeup each day." Davis' garish makeup made her look something akin to a grotesque version of an ageing Mary Pickford gone to seed, and she loved it. She took pride when Farrell visited the set one day and exclaimed, "My God, you look just exactly as I pictured Baby Jane." The outrageousness of Davis' appearance caused some concern for Aldrich and the producers who feared it might be too over-the-top. However, as time went on, they came to see that Davis' instincts for the character were right.


1:30 AM -- What Price Hollywood? (1932)
A drunken director whose career is fading helps a waitress become a Hollywood star.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Constance Bennett, Lowell Sherman, Neil Hamilton
BW-88 mins, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Adela Rogers St. Johns and Jane Murfin

Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson's first movie.


3:15 AM -- The White Cliffs Of Dover (1944)
An American woman with a British husband fights to keep her family together through two world wars.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Irene Dunne, Alan Marshal, Roddy McDowall
BW-126 mins, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- George J. Folsey

Irene Dunne filmed this movie while filming was held up for A Guy Named Joe (1943) due to Van Johnson's automobile accident. She even helped Johnson land a small role in this film.


5:45 AM -- White Heat (1949)
A government agent infiltrates a gang run by a mother-fixated psychotic.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien
BW-113 mins, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Virginia Kellogg

If the surprise expressed by James Cagney's fellow inmates during "the telephone game" scene in the prison dining room appears real, it's because it is. Director Raoul Walsh didn't tell the rest of the cast what was about to happen, so Cagney's outburst caught them by surprise. In fact, Walsh himself didn't know what Cagney had planned; the scene as written wasn't working, and Cagney had an idea. He told Walsh to put the two biggest extras playing cons in the mess-hall next to him on the bench (he used their shoulders to boost himself onto the table) and to keep the cameras rolling no matter what.