TCM Schedule for Friday, February 8, 2013 -- 31 Days Of Oscar -- Twentieth Century-Fox Film

[Staph]

"Twentieth Century-Fox Film was established in 1935 as a result of the merger of Fox Film Corpoation and Twentieth Century Pictures. Under the leadership of production chief Darryl f. Zanuck, the studio extablished a strong roster of talent, including female stars Shirley Temple, Alice Faye, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe. Known for film biographies, musicals, literary adaptions and socially conscious dramas, Twentieth Century-Fox introduced CinemaScope in the 1950s, and has continued to flourish through the decades, claiming the Star Wars franchise among its many hits." (Adapted from the blurb on the TCM 31 Days of Oscar website - adapted because the author was apparently extremely fond of the sentence fragment. I'm sorry, but I'm an old school grammer nazi.) Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Sunrise (1927)
In this silent film, a farmer's affair with a city woman almost destroys his life.
Dir: F. W. Murnau
Cast: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston
BW-94 mins, TV-PG,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Janet Gaynor (Also for 7th Heaven (1927) and Street Angel (1928)), Best Cinematography -- Charles Rosher and Karl Struss, and Best Picture, Unique and Artistic Production -- (Fox).

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction -- Rochus Gliese

Many of the superimpositions throughout the film were created "in the camera". The camera would shoot one image at the side of the frame, blacking out the rest of the shot, then expose the film. They would put the exposed film back into the camera and shoot again, blocking out the area that already had an image on it.


8:00 AM -- Berkeley Square (1933)
A young American man is transported back to London in the time of the American Revolution and meets his ancestors.
Dir: Frank Lloyd
Cast: Leslie Howard, Heather Angel, Valerie Taylor
BW-88 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Leslie Howard

S. T. Joshi points to Berkeley Square, a 1933 fantasy film, as an inspiration for The Shadow Out of Time: "Lovecraft saw this film four times in late 1933; its portrayal of a man of the twentieth century who somehow merges his personality with that of his eighteenth-century ancestor was clearly something that fired Lovecraft's imagination, since he had written a story on this very theme himself--the then unpublished The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927)." Lovecraft called the film "the most weirdly perfect embodiment of my own moods and pseudo-memories that I have ever seen--for all my life I have felt as if I might wake up out of this dream of an idiotic Victorian age and insane jazz age into the sane reality of 1760 or 1770 or 1780." Lovecraft noted some conceptual problems in Berkeley Square's depiction of time travel, and felt that he had "eliminated these flaws in his masterful novella of mind-exchange over time."


9:30 AM -- The Rains Came (1939)
A Hindu doctor's affair with a British noblewoman is disrupted by a violent flood.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Myrna Loy, Tyrone Power, George Brent
BW-104 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Fred Sersen (photographic) and Edmund H. Hansen (sound)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- William S. Darling and George Dudley, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Arthur C. Miller, Best Film Editing -- Barbara McLean, Best Music, Original Score -- Alfred Newman, and Best Sound, Recording -- Edmund H. Hansen (20th Century-Fox SSD)

The Ranchipur of novelist Louis Bromfield was built on 18 acres of the 20th Century-Fox back lot. The maharajah's palace, which was wrecked room by room in the earthquake, cost $75,000. The breaking of the dam was shot in two nights using 14 cameras.


11:30 AM -- The Mark Of Zorro (1940)
A Spanish nobleman becomes a masked outlaw by night to battle a local tyrant.
Dir: Rouben Mamoulian
Cast: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Basil Rathbone
C-94 mins, TV-G, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Score -- Alfred Newman

In DC comic lore, this version of Zorro with Tyrone Power is the movie that a young Bruce Wayne goes to see the night his parents are mugged and shot by Joe Chill. After coming out of the movie and walking through an alley with Bruce is when they are mugged, and what leads to Batman's creation. This fact is mentioned in the 1986 Frank Miller comic The Dark Knight Returns.


1:30 PM -- Blood And Sand (1941)
A married matador's rise to stardom is complicated by an affair with a beautiful aristocrat.
Dir: Rouben Mamoulian
Cast: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Rita Hayworth
C-125 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Ernest Palmer and Ray Rennahan

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Richard Day, Joseph C. Wright and Thomas Little

In order to prepare for the role of Juan Gallardo, Tyrone Power attended a bullfight with his wife, Annabella. Because of Power's great stature as a star, he and his wife were given VIP seats in the center front of the ring. Power became violently ill witnessing the bullfight, and in order to get him out of the arena, Annabella said she was ill.


4:00 PM -- My Gal Sal (1942)
A chronicle of songwriter Paul Dresser as he moves up into New York society.
Dir: Irving Cummings
Cast: Rita Hayworth, Victor Mature, John Sutton
C-104 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Richard Day, Joseph C. Wright and Thomas Little

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Alfred Newman

Studio head Darryl F. Zanuck originally wanted Carole Landis to play Sally Elliot, but she refused to dye her hair red and declared she'd play it as a blonde. The movie mogul promptly moved her to a secondary role and borrowed Rita Hayworth from Columbia, since Alice Faye, expecting her first daughter, could not take the part.


5:45 PM -- Anna And The King Of Siam (1946)
A young Englishwoman becomes royal tutor in Siam and befriends the King.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Irene Dunne, Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell
BW-128 mins, TV-G, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lyle R. Wheeler, William S. Darling, Thomas Little and Frank E. Hughes, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Arthur C. Miller

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gale Sondergaard, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Bernard Herrmann, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Sally Benson and Talbot Jennings

In a scene early in the film, Anna is seen walking through an open-air market. While this scene was being filmed, an airplane passed over the set, creating a low hum on the soundtrack. Composer Bernard Herrmann was instructed to compose an accompanying score that would obscure the airplane motor. He used low gongs.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX FILM


8:00 PM -- Wilson (1944)
A chronicle of the political career of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson.
Dir: Henry King
Cast: Charles Coburn, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Thomas Mitchell
C-154 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Wiard Ihnen and Thomas Little, Best Cinematography, Color -- Leon Shamroy, Best Film Editing -- Barbara McLean, Best Sound, Recording -- Edmund H. Hansen (20th Century-Fox SSD), and Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Lamar Trotti

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Alexander Knox, Best Director -- Henry King, Best Effects, Special Effects -- Fred Sersen (photographic) and Roger Heman Sr. (sound), Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Alfred Newman, and Best Picture

The film, a pet project and labor of love for producer Darryl F. Zanuck, was a notorious box-office flop in its day, despite good reviews and several Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Actor, and despite the fact that when it played the Roxy in New York, it grossed more than any one movie had in a single theatre up to then. Zanuck was so heartbroken over the movie's failure that he forbade anyone who came into his presence to ever mention the film again.


11:00 PM -- The Grapes Of Wrath (1940)
Oklahoma farmers dispossessed during the Depression fight for better lives in California.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine
BW-129 mins, TV-G, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Jane Darwell, and Best Director -- John Ford

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Henry Fonda, Best Film Editing -- Robert L. Simpson, Best Sound, Recording -- Edmund H. Hansen (20th Century-Fox SSD), Best Writing, Screenplay -- Nunnally Johnson, and Best Picture

Prior to filming, producer Darryl F. Zanuck sent undercover investigators out to the migrant camps to see if John Steinbeck had been exaggerating about the squalor and unfair treatment meted out there. He was horrified to discover that, if anything, Steinbeck had actually downplayed what went on in the camps.


1:30 AM -- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
A girl in the slums tries to find her way with the help of her devoted mother and alcoholic father.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, James Dunn
BW-129 mins, TV-G, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- James Dunn

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Frank Davis and Tess Slesinger

According to the Sunset Garden Book, the tree that grew in Brooklyn was an Ailanthus tree, or Tree of Heaven. It has naturalized itself over much of the U.S., to the point of being considered a weed tree, but it is still invaluable as an attractive windbreak and shade tree, adaptable under the harshest conditions.


3:45 AM -- Captain From Castile (1947)
The invasion of Mexico by Cortez, as seen by a young Spanish officer fleeing the Inquisition.
Dir: Henry King
Cast: Tyrone Power, Jean Peters, Cesar Romero
C-141 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Alfred Newman

In several of the scenes in Mexico, a large smoke cloud is seen on the horizon. At the end of the movie smoke is shown rising from a volcano. This is most likely a fortuitous eruption of the Paricutin volcano in 1947, when the movie was filmed, standing in for the eruption of Popocatepetl on Cortez's day.

[graham4anything]

1. I want to catch Wilson.

8:00 PM -- Wilson (1944)
A chronicle of the political career of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson.
Dir: Henry King
Cast: Charles Coburn, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Thomas Mitchell
C-154 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Wiard Ihnen and Thomas Little, Best Cinematography, Color -- Leon Shamroy, Best Film Editing -- Barbara McLean, Best Sound, Recording -- Edmund H. Hansen (20th Century-Fox SSD), and Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Lamar Trotti

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Alexander Knox, Best Director -- Henry King, Best Effects, Special Effects -- Fred Sersen (photographic) and Roger Heman Sr. (sound), Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Alfred Newman, and Best Picture

The film, a pet project and labor of love for producer Darryl F. Zanuck, was a notorious box-office flop in its day, despite good reviews and several Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Actor, and despite the fact that when it played the Roxy in New York, it grossed more than any one movie had in a single theatre up to then. Zanuck was so heartbroken over the movie's failure that he forbade anyone who came into his presence to ever mention the film again.