TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 23 -- 31 Days of Oscar -- Southeast Asia

[Staph]

A day in the south Pacific (Mutiny on the Bounty times two!) and an evening in southeast Asia. Enjoy!



6:05 AM -- One Reel Wonder: Heavenly Music (1943)
Composer Ted Barry arrives at the gates of heaven, only to find that to be admitted the Hall of Music his music must pass the "test of time" according to the Music Committee. The chairman of the committee: the likes of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Wagner and other music legends. Problems arise, however, when the old guard composers can't relate to Barry's modern, "hip" compositions.
Dir: Josef Berne
Cast: Fred Brady, Mary Elliott, Steven Geray
22 min,

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel -- Jerry Bresler and Sam Coslow

Tchaikovsky scolds Ted for having used one of his melodies and then says that "Freddie Martin is next". Freddie Martin's biggest hit was "Tonight We Love" in 1941, which heavily borrowed from Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto Number 1 in B-flat Minor. It was such a big hit that Martin began to incorporate melodies from the classics in follow-up songs.


6:30 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
85 min, TV-PG

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 August, 1928, and the first movie in which Leo the MGM lion, roared during the introduction.


8:04 AM -- One Reel Wonder: They're Always Caught (1938)
Shows the role the crime laboratory plays in the solving of cases, and how even the smallest detail can become a major clue.
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Stanley Ridges, John Eldredge, Louis Jean Heydt
22 min,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel

An entry in MGM's Crime Does Not Pay series, it was later remade as Kid Glove Killer (1942).


8:30 AM -- The Hurricane (1937)
A Polynesian escapes prison to return home during a raging storm.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Dorothy Lamour, Jon Hall, Mary Astor
104 min, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Thomas T. Moulton (United Artists SSD)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Thomas Mitchell, and Best Music, Score -- Alfred Newman (head of department - Samuel Goldwyn Studio Music Department), Score by Alfred Newman.

According to Life Magazine, special effects wizard James Basevi was given a budget of $400,000 to create his effects. He spent $150,000 to build a native village with a lagoon 200 yards long, and then spent $250,000 destroying it.


10:30 AM -- Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Classic adventure about the sadistic Captain Bligh, who drove his men to revolt during a South Seas expedition.
Dir: Frank Lloyd
Cast: Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone
133 min, TV-PG, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Clark Gable, Best Actor in a Leading Role -- harles Laughton, Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Franchot Tone, Best Director -- Frank Lloyd, Best Film Editing -- Margaret Booth, Best Music, Score -- Nat W. Finston (head of departmment) and score by Herbert Stothart, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Jules Furthman, Talbot Jennings and Carey Wilson

Irving Thalberg cast Clark Gable and Charles Laughton together in the hope that they would hate each other, making their on screen sparring more lifelike. He knew that Gable, a notorious homophobe, would not care for Laughton's overt homosexuality and would feel inferior to the RADA-trained Shakespearean actor. Relations between the two stars broke down completely after Laughton brought his muscular boyfriend to the island as his personal masseur. They were an obviously devoted couple and would go everywhere together, while Gable would turn away in disgust. In addition, Laughton felt that he should have won the Best Actor Oscar for The Barretts of Wimpole Street. In the event, he was not even nominated and the award went to Gable for It Happened One Night.


12:45 PM -- Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
Lavish remake of the classic tale of the villainous Captain Bligh who drives his crew to revolt during a South Seas expedition.
Dir: Lewis Milestone
Cast: Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard, Richard Harris
C- 185 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- George W. Davis, J. McMillan Johnson, Henry Grace and Hugh Hunt, Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert Surtees, Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (visual) and Milo B. Lory (audible), Best Film Editing -- John McSweeney Jr., Best Music, Original Song -- Bronislau Kaper (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics) for the song "Love Song from Mutiny on the Bounty (Follow Me)", Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Bronislau Kaper, and Best Picture

Marlon Brando's notorious on-set antics reached a pinnacle on this film. According to Peter Manso's Brando biography, Brando had so much clout by this point that he got MGM to green-light virtually every outrageous idea he had. At one point, he pulled people off the film crew to decorate and design a friend's wedding in Tahiti. Another time he had airplanes filled with cases of champagne, turkeys and hams flown to Tahiti for parties.


4:00 PM -- All The Brothers Were Valiant (1953)
Brothers on a whaling schooner become romantic rivals.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Robert Taylor, Stewart Granger, Ann Blyth
C- 95 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- George J. Folsey

Based on a novel by Ben Ames Williams, and also filmed in 1923 (with Malcolm McGregor and Lon Chaney as the two brothers) and in 1928 (starring Ramon Novarro and Ernest Torrence).


5:45 PM -- Mister Roberts (1955)
A naval officer longing for active duty clashes with his vainglorious captain.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell
C- 121 min, TV-PG, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Lemmon

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- William A. Mueller (Warner Bros.), and Best Picture

Before shooting the scene where Pulver identifies himself and tells the Captain that he's been on the ship for "14 months, sir", James Cagney realized that he would have to rehearse the moment with Jack Lemmon again and again so he wouldn't burst out laughing during the actual filming. Lemmon agreed, and when the scene was filmed Cagney claimed he was just barely able to hang on with a straight face, even after all the rehearsal time.



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



8:00 PM -- The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
The Japanese Army forces World War II POWs to build a strategic bridge in Burma.
Dir: David Lean
Cast: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins
C- 162 min, TV-PG, CC

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Alec Guinness (Alec Guinness was not present at the awards ceremony. Jean Simmons accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Cinematography -- Jack Hildyard, Best Director -- David Lean, Best Film Editing -- Peter Taylor, Best Music, Scoring -- Malcolm Arnold, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Pierre Boulle, Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson (Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson were blacklisted at the time and received no screen credit. They were posthumously awarded Oscars in 1984. Pierre Boulle was not present at the awards ceremony. Kim Novak accepted the award on his behalf.), and Best Picture

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sessue Hayakawa

David Lean initially wanted Nicholson's soldiers to enter the camp while singing "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball", a popular (during World War II) parody version of the "Colonel Bogey March" poking fun at Adolf Hitler and various other Nazi leaders. Sam Spiegel told him it was too vulgar, and the whistling-only version was used instead.


11:00 PM -- The Letter (1940)
A woman claims to have killed in self-defense, until a blackmailer turns up with incriminating evidence.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson
95 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- James Stephenson, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Tony Gaudio, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Film Editing -- Warren Low, Best Music, Original Score -- Max Steiner, and Best Picture

Sixteen years after he directed this film, William Wyler made his TV directing debut with a live production broadcast Oct. 15, 1956 on The Letter. The cast included Siobhan McKenna, John Mills, Michael Rennie, and Anna May Wong in the roles earlier played by Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, and Gale Sondergaard. Some of the censorship that had restricted the 1940 version was eased for this TV version. For example, Hammond's "Eurasian wife" in 1940 was permitted to be, as in the play and 1929 film, his Chinese mistress.


12:39 AM -- One Reel Wonder: Main Street On The March (1941)
A chronicle of the people of "Main Street America", the military forces, and industrial base transforming when the decision was made to gear up for war.
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: John Nesbitt, Raymond Gram Swing, Neville Chamberlain
C- 20 min,

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel

Followed by Main Street Today (1944)


1:00 AM -- The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)
Two American journalists get more than they'd bargained for during an Indonesian revolution.
Dir: Peter Weir
Cast: Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt
C- 115 min, TV-MA, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Linda Hunt

Linda Hunt is the first actor to have won an Academy Award (Oscar) for portraying a member of the opposite sex. Hunt is also the only ever actress ever to win an Academy Award (Oscar) for playing a man with no cross dressing or gender confusion involved. Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry) received the one for playing a biological female who identifies as a man whilst Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love) received one for playing a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman.


3:00 AM -- Objective, Burma! (1945)
An American platoon parachutes into Burma to take out a strategic Japanese outpost.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Errol Flynn, James Brown, William Prince
142 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Film Editing -- George Amy, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Franz Waxman, and Best Writing, Original Story -- Alvah Bessie

The movie was pulled from release in Britain after just one week. It was banned there after heated protest from British veterans groups and the military establishment. As the Burma campaign was a predominantly British and Australian operation, the picture was taken as a national insult due to the movie's Americanization of the Burma operation. The resentment that many felt was seen as yet another example of Americans believing they had won the war singlehandedly. It was not shown in Britain again until 1952/1953 and then with an apology disclaimer. Incidentally, writer Lester Cole, who co-wrote the somewhat overly patriotic flag-waving script, would be branded an "Un-American" Communist, becoming one of the Hollywood Ten just a few years later.


5:30 AM -- The Hasty Heart (1950)
Doctors try to get a flinty Scots soldier to open up to his comrades before telling him he's dying.
Dir: Vincent Sherman
Cast: Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal, Richard Todd
102 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Richard Todd

When Lachie asks Yank what he's going to do after the war, Yank replies that he's going back to "...a little place on the Rock River, Dixon, Illinois." This is actor Ronald Reagan's actual boyhood home.