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Staph

(6,245 posts)
Wed Feb 1, 2012, 12:38 AM Feb 2012

TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 2 -- 31 Days of Oscar -- Mexico

It's the most wonderful time of the year! I love 31 Days of Oscar, and today is a great example. In the daylight hours are a couple of great snapshots of American history, with 1776 (1972) and Sunrise At Campobello (1960), and in the evening the theme of Mexico gives us some classic Westerns, including The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and The Wild Bunch (1969). Enjoy!



6:30 AM -- 1776 (1972)
The founding fathers struggle to draft the Declaration of Independence.
Dir: Peter H. Hunt
Cast: William Daniels, Howard Da Silva, Ken Howard
C- 165 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography -- Harry Stradling Jr.

Although the Cool, Cool Considerate Men number was cut from the original film release as a favor to Richard Nixon by Jack L. Warner, the cut footage was not destroyed like Warner had done before in similar past circumstances since he was no longer a studio head. For that reason only, the excised segment was found and could be restored to the laserdisc and DVD. Nixon asked the writer Sherman Edwards to cut it out after seeing the play at the White House, but the author steadfastly refused.



9:30 AM -- Johnny Belinda (1948)
A small-town doctor helps a deaf-mute farm girl learn to communicate.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford
102 min, TV-G, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Jane Wyman

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Lew Ayres, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Charles Bickford, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Agnes Moorehead, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Robert M. Haas and William Wallace. Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ted D. McCord, Best Director -- Jean Negulesco, Best Film Editing -- David Weisbart, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner, Best Sound, Recording -- (Warner Bros. Sound Dept.), Best Writing, Screenplay -- Irma von Cube and Allen Vincent, and Best Picture

Jane Wyman's Oscar acceptance speech is reportedly the shortest on record for Best Actress: "I won this award by keeping my mouth shut and I think I'll do it again." Sir John Mills bowed and said nothing after winning Best Supporting Actor for playing a mute in Ryan's Daughter.



11:15 AM -- Captains Of The Clouds (1942)
A mail flyer joins the Canadian air force for fun but has to prove his worth when he goes to war.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: James Cagney, Dennis Morgan, Brenda Marshall
C- 113 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Ted Smith and Casey Roberts, and Best Cinematography, Color -- Sol Polito

This was the first Hollywood picture to be filmed entirely on location in Canada, and it was James Cagney's first film in Technicolor.



1:15 PM -- 49th Parallel (1941)
The crew of a stranded German U-boat tries to evade capture in Canada during World War II.
Dir: Michael Powell
Cast: Leslie Howard, Raymond Massey, Eric Portman
122 min, TV-14

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Emeric Pressburger

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Rodney Ackland and Emeric Pressburger, and Best Picture

Elisabeth Bergner was originally cast in the role of Anna. Initially the Hutterites were only too happy to assist with the filming until one day Bergner was spotted by a Hutterine woman smoking and painting her nails, which so incensed the woman that she slapped Bergner full in the face. Filming was halted until Michael Powell pleaded with the community to let them continue. Bergner was eventually replaced by the much younger Glynis Johns (although Bergner can be seen in some long shots). It also transpired that the main reason Bergner had joined the film was to get to America-as a German Jew living in England, she obviously felt that the Nazis were a little too close for comfort.



3:30 PM -- Sunrise At Campobello (1960)
After a bout with polio, future president Franklin Roosevelt fights to save his political career.
Dir: Vincent J. Donehue
Cast: Zina Bethune, Tim Considine, Alan Bunce
C- 144 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Edward Carrere and George James Hopkins, Best Costume Design, Color -- Marjorie Best, and Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD)

Responding to the protests of Franklin and Eleanor's children to the inaccurate and largely fictitious depiction of their grandmother Sara as a controlling and domineering harridan, the writer of the play and screenplay Dore Schary cheerfully responded, "Every play needs a villain!"



6:00 PM -- Lies My Father Told Me (1975)
An elderly man tries to help his neglected grandson come of age.
Dir: Ján Kadár
Cast: Yossi Yadin, Len Birman, Marilyn Lightstone
C- 102 min, TV-14

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Ted Allan

Author Ted Allan plays the character Mr. Baumgarten.




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



8:00 PM -- The Professionals (1966)
A corrupt rancher hires four soldiers of fortune to rescue his wife from kidnappers.
Dir: Richard Brooks
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan
C- 117 min, TV-MA, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Conrad L. Hall, Best Director -- Richard Brooks, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Richard Brooks

The cast and crew stayed in Las Vegas while working on this project. Actor Woody Strode wrote in his memoirs that he and Lee Marvin pulled several pranks, including shooting an arrow at the famous smiling cowboy neon sign damaging it briefly.



10:15 PM -- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Three prospectors fight off bandits and each other after striking-it-rich in the Mexican mountains.
Dir: John Huston
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt
126 min, TV-PG, CC

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Walter Huston, Best Director -- John Huston, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Huston

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

John Huston was fascinated by mysterious author B. Traven, who was a recluse living in Mexico. Traven approved of the director and his screenplay (by letter, obviously), and sent his intimate friend Hal Croves to the location to be a technical advisor and translator for $150 a week. The general consensus is that Croves was in fact Traven, though he always denied this. Huston was happy not to query him on the subject but his then-wife Evelyn Keyes was certain Croves was the mysterious author, believing that he was continually giving himself away, saying "I" when it should have been "he", and using phrases that were exactly the same as those to be found in Traven's letters to Huston. All very ironic, especially considering that Traven was offered $1000 a week to act as technical advisor on the film.



12:30 AM -- The Wild Bunch (1969)
A group of aging cowboys look for one last score in a corrupt border town.
Dir: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan
C- 144 min, TV-MA, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical) -- Jerry Fielding, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- Walon Green (screenplay/story), Roy N. Sickner (story) and Sam Peckinpah (screenplay)

Supposedly, more blank rounds were discharged during the production than live rounds were fired during the Mexican Revolution of 1913 around which the film is loosely based. In total 90,000 rounds were fired, all blanks.



3:00 AM -- Under the Volcano (1984)
A day in life of self-destructive British consul on the eve of World War II.
Dir: John Huston
Cast: Albert Finney, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Andrews
C- 112 min, TV-MA

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Albert Finney, and Best Music, Original Score -- Alex North

John Huston initially wanted to cast Richard Burton as the British consul (the part eventually played by Albert Finney). Huston and Burton had had a great success with a previous movie about an alcoholic set in Mexico, The Night of the Iguana. Much to his regret, Burton had to decline the offer, as he was appearing in a touring production of Noel Coward's "Private Lives" with Elizabeth Taylor.



5:00 AM -- Juarez (1939)
True story of Mexico's Abraham Lincoln and his fight against Napoleon's empire.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Muni, Brian Aherne
121 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Brian Aherne, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Tony Gaudio

Orry-Kelly designed costumes for Bette Davis, as Empress Carlotta von Hapsburg, which changed in tone as the film progressed: from white at the beginning, changing to gray in mid-film, and then to black at the end when she goes insane.



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