TCM Schedule for Thursday, March 10, 2022 -- 31 Days of Oscar: 1960s Winners

[Staph]

Today's theme for the 31 Days is, once again, winners from the 1960s, including a wonderful short subject, The Dot and the Line (1965). Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- The Dot and the Line (1965)
10m | Short | TV-G
A straight line tries to woo a dot.
Director: Chuck Jones
Cast: Robert Morley

Winner of an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Cartoons -- Chuck Jones and Les Goldman

To give the squiggle an unkempt appearance, the animation drawings were inked on rice paper. The ink bled, creating a textured line that was then photocopied onto cel.


6:30 AM -- 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)
1h 40m | Horror/Science-Fiction | TV-PG
A Chinese showman uses his magical powers to save a Western town from itself.
Director: George Pal
Cast: Tony Randall, Barbara Eden, Arthur O'connell

Winner of an Honorary Oscar Award for William Tuttle for his outstanding make-up achievement for 7 Faces of Dr. Lao

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects -- Jim Danforth

Tony Randall shaved his head for the role of Dr. Lao. It also made it easier to apply the make-up for the different characters he played. The studio publicity department wanted to photograph Randall getting his head shaved but arrived at the barber too late. They had the make-up artist glue hair back on Randall's head so Randall could pose for photos while getting the hair cut off again.


8:30 AM -- The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962)
2h 9m | Epic | TV-G
Fanciful biography of the German fairy-tale collectors, with reenactments of three of their stories.
Director: Henry Levin
Cast: Laurence Harvey, Karl Boehm, Claire Bloom

Winner of an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Color -- Mary Wills

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Paul Vogel, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- George W. Davis, Edward C. Carfagno, Henry Grace and Richard Pefferle, and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Leigh Harline

One of only two movies (the other being How the West Was Won (1962)) filmed in the true three-screen Cinerama process. Other Cinerama films, such as This Is Cinerama (1952) and Cinerama Holiday (1955) were more documentary-style in nature; this movie and "West" told fictional stories. Other movies such as It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) were touted as Cinerama, but were actually filmed in a one-camera widescreen process, such as Ultra Panavision 70, and projected on a curved Cinerama screen.


11:00 AM -- The Great Race (1965)
2h 37m | Comedy | TV-PG
A bumbling villain plots to win an early 20th-century auto race.
Director: Blake Edwards
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood

Winner of an Oscar for Best Effects, Sound Effects -- Treg Brown

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Russell Harlan, Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters, and Best Music, Original Song -- Henry Mancini (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "The Sweetheart Tree"

The pie fight scene lasts four minutes and was shot in five days. It is the longest pie fight sequence in movie history. At first, the cast had fun filming the pie fight scene, but eventually the process grew wearisome and dangerous. Natalie Wood choked briefly on a pie which hit her open mouth. Jack Lemmon got knocked out a few times: "a pie hitting you in the face feels like a ton of cement". At the end of shooting the fight, when Blake Edwards called "Cut!" he was barraged with several hundred pies that members of the cast had hidden, waiting for that moment.


2:00 PM -- Grand Prix (1966)
2h 59m | Adventure | TV-14
Auto racers find danger and romance at the legendary European road race.
Director: John Frankenheimer
Cast: James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand

Winner of Oscars for Best Sound -- Franklin Milton (MGM SSD), Best Film Editing -- Fredric Steinkamp, Henry Berman, Stu Linder and Frank Santillo, and Best Effects, Sound Effects -- Gordon Daniel

Of the 32 professional racing drivers who participated or were seen in the film, five died in racing accidents within two years and another five in the following ten years.


5:15 PM -- The Dirty Dozen (1967)
2h 29m | War | TV-PG
A renegade officer trains a group of misfits for a crucial mission behind enemy lines.
Director: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson

Winner of an Oscar for Best Effects, Sound Effects -- John Poyner

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- John Cassavetes, Best Sound -- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Sound Department, and Best Film Editing -- Michael Luciano

The scene where one of the dozen pretends to be a General inspecting Robert Ryan's troops was initially written for Samson Posey (Clint Walker). However, Walker was uncomfortable with this scene, so director Robert Aldrich decided to use Donald Sutherland instead. The scene was directly responsible for Sutherland being cast in MASH (1970), which made him an international star.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR -- 1960s WINNERS



8:00 PM -- The Longest Day (1962)
3h | War | TV-G
The Allied forces launch the D-Day invasion of German-occupied France.
Director: Ken Annakin
Cast: John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda

Winner of Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Jean Bourgoin and Walter Wottitz, and Best Effects, Special Effects -- R.A. MacDonald (visual) and Jacques Maumont (audible)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Ted Haworth, Léon Barsacq, Vincent Korda and Gabriel Béchir, Best Film Editing -- Samuel E. Beetley, and Best Picture

Richard Todd, who took part in the action at the bridge at Benouville (later renamed Pegasus Bridge), was offered the chance to play himself, but joked, "I don't think at this stage of my acting career I could accept a part 'that' small." He played the commander of the bridge assault, Maj. John Howard, instead. In a strange twist of fate, in one scene of the battle for the bridge, a soldier runs up to Todd, plying Maj. Howard, and relays information about the battle to him. During the real battle, Todd actually did run up to Howard and relay information to him. So the film showed a soldier playing Todd run up to Todd playing Howard and relaying information that the real Todd gave to the real Howard.


11:15 PM -- A Man for All Seasons (1966)
2h | Drama | TV-PG
A devout scholar gets caught in the middle of Henry VIII's plans to break with the Catholic Church.
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Robert Shaw

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Scofield (Paul Scofield was not present at the awards ceremony. His co-star Wendy Hiller accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Director -- Fred Zinnemann, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Bolt, Best Cinematography, Color -- Ted Moore, Best Costume Design, Color -- Elizabeth Haffenden and Joan Bridge, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Shaw, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Wendy Hiller

Robert Shaw became the second actor to be nominated for an Oscar for playing Henry VIII, after Charles Laughton. Later Richard Burton was nominated for playing the monarch too, making this the one of the few roles to give rise to three separate nominations.


1:30 AM -- Cleopatra (1963)
4h 3m | Epic | TV-PG
The legendary Egyptian queen tries to use her beauty to conquer the Roman Empire.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison

Winner of Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Leon Shamroy, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- John DeCuir, Jack Martin Smith, Hilyard M. Brown, Herman A. Blumenthal, Elven Webb, Maurice Pelling, Boris Juraga, Walter M. Scott, Paul S. Fox and Ray Moyer, Best Costume Design, Color -- Irene Sharaff, Vittorio Nino Novarese and Renié, and Best Effects, Special Visual Effects -- Emil Kosa Jr.

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Rex Harrison, Best Sound -- James Corcoran (20th Century-Fox SSD) and Fred Hynes (Todd-AO SSD), Best Film Editing -- Dorothy Spencer, Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Alex North, and Best Picture

Some actors such as Richard Burton and Roddy McDowall were sent to France for the shooting of The Longest Day (1962) during the long period of time when the movie's production stopped. Many extras also were used by Darryl F. Zanuck for the Longest Day filming.