TCM Schedule for Friday, March 3, 2017 -- 31 Days of Oscar: Oscar A to Z Day 31

[Staph]

It's the last day of 31 Days of Oscar, Alphabet Style. Boo! Today brings us 1928's White Shadows in the Sun (MGM's first sound film, filmed in part in French Polynesia) and goes all the way to 1969's Z (well, what did you expect for the last one in alphabetical order!). Enjoy!


7:45 AM -- White Shadows in the South Seas (1928)
An alcoholic doctor runs off to Tahiti, where he finds love with a native girl.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Monte Blue, Raquel Torres, Robert Anderson
BW-85 mins,

Won an Oscar for Best Cinematography -- Clyde De Vinna

This was MGM's first sound picture, and premiered in Hollywood at Sid Grauman's Chinese Theater on Friday, 3 Aug 1928. It was also the first film in which Leo the MGM Lion roared during the introduction.


9:30 AM -- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
An academic couple reveal their deepest secret to a pair of newcomers during an all-night booze fest.
Dir: Mike Nichols
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal
BW-131 mins, CC

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Taylor (Elizabeth Taylor was not present at the awards ceremony. Anne Bancroft accepted the award on her behalf.), Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Sandy Dennis (Sandy Dennis was unable to attend the Academy Awards presentations, because she was working on a new film, Sweet November (1968), being shot in New York. Mike Nichols accepted the award on her behalf.), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Haskell Wexler, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Richard Sylbert and George James Hopkins, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Irene Sharaff

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Richard Burton, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Segal, Best Director -- Mike Nichols, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Ernest Lehman, Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Film Editing -- Sam O'Steen, Best Music, Original Music Score -- Alex North, and Best Picture

In the scene that takes place outside of the bar, George violently pushes Martha into the side of the car in his rage. Richard Burton actually pushed Elizabeth Taylor too hard, and the sound of her head hitting the bonnet of the car can be heard. Taylor can be seen to gasp and raise her hand instinctively to the back of her head. She carried on with the scene in character, with a noticeable rattle in her voice, as she tried to prevent herself crying in pain. Because of this, Mike Nichols chose to keep this scene instead of re-shooting.


12:00 PM -- Wild Strawberries (1957)
On his way to an awards ceremony, a distinguished professor thinks back on his loveless life.
Dir: Ingmar Bergman
Cast: Victor Seastrom, Ingrid Thulin, Bibi Andersson
BW-92 mins, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Ingmar Bergman

Ingmar Bergman has described in the interview how he came up with the idea while driving from Stockholm to Dalarna, stopping in Uppsala where he had been born and raised, and driving by outside his grandmother's old house, when he suddenly began to think about how it would be if he could open the door and inside it would be just as it had been during his childhood. "So it struck me - what if you could make a film about this; that you just walk up in a realistic way and open a door, and then you walk into your childhood, and then you open another door and come back to reality, and then you make a turn around a street corner and arrive in some other period of your existence, and everything goes on, lives. That was actually the idea behind Wild Strawberries (1957)".


1:45 PM -- The Wind and the Lion (1975)
An Arab chief triggers an international incident when he kidnaps an American widow and her children.
Dir: John Milius
Cast: Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, Brian Keith
C-119 mins, Letterbox

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound -- Harry W. Tetrick, Aaron Rochin, William L. McCaughey and Roy Charman, and Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- Jerry Goldsmith

Milius's primary source for the film was Barbara W. Tuchman's essay "Perdicaris Alive or Raisuli Dead!", published in the August 1959 edition of American Heritage magazine. Much of the film's dialogue is taken verbatim from Tuchman's essay, including Elihu Root's quote about Roosevelt's popularity, "Why drag in Washington", the Bashaw's comment about the Moroccan government's precarious independence, and Philander Knox's above-mentioned "legality" quote.


3:45 PM -- Woman In The Dunes (1964)
A mysterious woman spends her time preventing her home from being swallowed by sand dunes.
Dir: Hiroshi Teshigahara
Cast: Eiji Okada, Kyoko Kishida, Koji Mitsui
BW-147 mins, CC

Nominated for a 1966 Oscar for Best Director -- Hiroshi Teshigahara

Nominated for a 1965 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film -- Japan

Kyôko Kishida and director Hiroshi Teshigahara had a number of artistic differences in the film, ranging from Kishida's character's manner of dress to her symbolic importance. Kishida wanted to portray her character as a universal "every-woman" while Teshigahara insisted that her character was uniquely Japanese. Teshigahara's vision eventually won out.


6:15 PM -- A Woman of Affairs (1928)
Prejudice keeps a free spirit from the man she loves, triggering a series of tragedies.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lewis Stone
BW-91 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Achievement -- Bess Meredyth (No official nominees had been announced this year.)

The film was based on a notorious novel called "The Green Hat", but the Hays Office wouldn't allow the book to be filmed because it featured the use of heroin and a man kills himself on his wedding night because he's suffering from syphilis, neither of which could be touched on at that time. MGM thought it would be a gold mine once past the censors, but by the time the title and character names had been changed and the story line altered, it bore little resemblance to the book. The bridegroom now kills himself because of his embezzling. While drinking on screen was forbidden because of Prohibition, Jeffry is hardly seen without a whiskey glass in his hand, but the fact that drink finally kills him and that the film was set in England is probably what persuaded the censors to let that by.




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



8:00 PM -- Woman of the Year (1942)
Opposites distract when a sophisticated political columnist falls for a sportswriter.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter
BW-114 mins,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner Jr.

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

The first scene shot was the characters' first date, in a bar. Katharine Hepburn was so nervous she spilled her drink, but Spencer Tracy just handed her a handkerchief and kept going. Hepburn proceeded to clean up the spill as they played the scene. When the drink dripped through to the floor, she tried to throw Tracy off by going under the table, but he stayed in character, with the cameras rolling the entire time.


10:00 PM -- Young Frankenstein (1974)
A descendant of Dr. Frankenstein sets out to make a man.
Dir: Mel Brooks
Cast: Terry Garr, Cloris Leachman, Gene Wilder
BW-106 mins, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted From Other Material -- Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks, and Best Sound -- Richard Portman and Gene S. Cantamessa

The Blind Man's parting line "I was gonna make espresso" was not in the script, but was ad-libbed by Gene Hackman during shooting. This is the reason for the immediate fade to black as the crew immediately erupted into fits of laughter. Hackman was uncredited when the movie was originally released in theaters.


12:00 AM -- The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)
Twin sisters who each want to find romance befriend a couple of visiting carnival workers.
Dir: Jacques Demy
Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac, George Chakiris
C-127 mins, Letterbox, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation) -- Michel Legrand and Jacques Demy

The scene where George Chakiris, Grover Dale and company dance on a bridge was shot on the Rochefort-Martrou Transporter Bridge, one of less than 24 transporter bridges ever built. A transporter bridge (also ferry bridge or aerial transfer bridge) is a type of movable bridge that carries a segment of roadway across a river. It is one of only 12 that continue to be used as of 2014.


2:15 AM -- The Young In Heart (1938)
A family of con artists saves the life of a wealthy old woman and plots to fleece her.
Dir: Richard Wallace
Cast: Minnie Dupree, Paulette Goddard, Richard Carlson
BW-91 mins,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Leon Shamroy, Best Music, Scoring -- Franz Waxman, and Best Music, Original Score -- Franz Waxman

At the beginning of the film, a newspaper blurb describes Col. Carleton as a "Pukka Sahib". That is a British slang term - taken from the Hindi language - to refer mainly to British colonial administrators who were supposedly the ideal of the refined, aloof, and gentlemanly upper middle class types who populated such posts.


4:00 AM -- Z (1969)
A political assassination uncovers a hotbed of corruption.
Dir: Costa-Gavras
Cast: Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jacques Perrin
C-127 mins, CC

Won Oscars for Best Film Editingm -- Françoise Bonnot, and Best Foreign Language Film -- Algeria

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Costa-Gavras, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Jorge Semprún and Costa-Gavras, and Best Picture

The movie is based on the events surrounding the assassination of democratic Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis. On May 22, 1963, Lambrakis was attacked and struck on the head (in the same manner depicted in the film) by right-wing extremists after giving an anti-war speech in Thessaloniki. He died of brain injuries from the attack on May 27, 1963. Following Lambrakis's assassination, a military junta of right-wing generals seized control of the Greek government in 1967. During this time, the letter Z (meaning "He is alive&quot became a common piece of protest graffiti in Greek cities, in memory of Lambrakis and his democratic ideals. The military junta banned the use of the letter "Z" as graffiti, in response to these protests. The Greek junta collapsed in 1974, following a disastrous invasion of Cyprus by Turkey (which led to the occupation of almost half Cyprus by the Turkish army), and democracy was restored to Greece. In the film, the Examining Magistrate (played by Jean-Louis Trintignant) is in reality Christos Sartzetakis, who later served as President of the Hellenic Republic (1985-1990).

[longship]

1. Z!!! Very highly recommended!

This is an astounding film.