TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 5, 2015 -- 31 Days of Oscar - 1938

[Staph]

Today's theme is gangster movies. Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico? And tonight's Best Picture winners and nominees are all from 1938 (with the exception of nominees Alexander's Ragtime Band, The Citadel, La Grande Illusion, Jezebel (watch it on Monday, February 23), Pygmalion, and Test Pilot). A good year for film! Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
Boyhood friends grow up on opposite sides of the law.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy
BW-90 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Arthur Caesar

This was the movie that bank robber John Dillinger had just seen before he was gunned down in front of Chicago's Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934. He had been set up by Anna Sage, the madam of a brothel, who knew Dillinger's girlfriend, Polly Hamilton. Sage was facing deportation and thought the tip might get her off. She told FBI agent Melvin Purvis that she would be wearing orange which appeared red, leading her to be dubbed "The Woman in Red". Dillinger was shot three times when he tried to escape, and Sage wound up being sent back to Romania.


7:33 AM -- La Cucaracha (1934)
In this short film, a famous theater owner visits a local café in Mexico in order to audition a famous dancer who performs there.
Dir: Lloyd Corrigan
Cast: Sam Appel, Charles Stevens, Don Alvarado
C-20 mins,

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Comedy -- Kenneth Macgowan

This was the first full color live action film. The Three Gumm Sisters sing, though uncredited. "Baby Gumm" is Judy Garland!


8:00 AM -- Star Witness (1931)
An old man who witnessed a crime is threatened by gangsters.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: Walter Huston, Frances Starr, Grant Mitchell
BW-68 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Lucien Hubbard

Variety reported that the film was rushed into release because of a gang shooting in Harlem in which several children were shot and the police could not get witnesses to talk. The Motion Picture Herald also reported that Warner Bros. gave the proceeds of the first two performances at The Winter Garden to families of five children who were shot by gang warfare in Little Italy.


9:11 AM -- The Public Pays (1936)
In this short film, a protection racket preying on milk distribution is broken up.
Dir: Errol Taggart
Cast: Barbara Bedford, Russ Clark, Bess Flowers
BW-18 mins,

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel

The set for the crooks' office is the same one Clark Gable's character uses in Wife vs. Secretary (1936).


9:30 AM -- Little Caesar (1930)
A small-time hood shoots his way to the top, but how long can he stay there?
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Glenda Farrell
BW-78 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Adaptation -- Francis Edward Faragoh and Robert N. Lee

Although The Doorway to Hell (1930), a gangster film released by Warner Bros. in 1930 was a big hit at the time, most sources consider Little Caesar to be the film which started a brief craze for the genre in the early 1930s. And speculation has it that a federal anti-organized crime law - The Racketeering Influence Corrupt Organization Act, or RICO - got its acronym from Edward G. Robinson's character.


11:00 AM -- Smart Money (1931)
A barber's good luck turns him into a big-time gambling boss.
Dir: Alfred E. Green
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Evalyn Knapp
BW-81 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Lucien Hubbard and Joseph Jackson

Film debut of Charles Lane. At the Oscar ceremony in 2005, in the year of his hundredth birthday, he proudly announced "I'm still available for work!".


12:30 PM -- 'G' Men (1935)
A mob protege joins the FBI when a friend is gunned down.
Dir: William Keighley
Cast: James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay, Ann Dvorak
BW-86 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Darryl F. Zanuck (Write-in candidate, not an official nominee. The official AMPAS records list the pseudonym 'Gregory Rogers' as nominee.)

J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, personally approved the script for this movie. He even assigned FBI agents to monitor its production and ensure that it was accurate in every detail. When it grossed over $1,000,000 (an astronomical sum for a film in 1935), he was extremely pleased. There were two famous federal law enforcement agencies in the early part of the 20th century. They were the "G-Men" of the FBI, who worked for the Justice Department, and the "T-Men" who worked for the Treasury Department. Hoover was intensely interested in his "G-Men" winning the publicity and popularity rivalry. This movie certainly helped!


2:00 PM -- Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
The legendary bank robbers run riot in the South of the 1930s.
Dir: Arthur Penn
Cast: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard
C-111 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Estelle Parsons, and Best Cinematography -- Burnett Guffey

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Warren Beatty, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Faye Dunaway, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Gene Hackman, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Michael J. Pollard, Best Director -- Arthur Penn, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- David Newman and Robert Benton, Best Costume Design -- Theadora Van Runkle, and Best Picture

C.W. Moss mentions, in the first scene with Buck and Blanche, that Myrna Loy is his favorite movie star. Loy was supposedly a favorite actress of John Dillinger. In fact, when he was gunned down outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago, the film he had just seen was Manhattan Melodrama (1934), in which Loy starred (and it's the first film of today's selection of gangster pictures.


4:00 PM -- Pete Kelly's Blues (1955)
The jazz band's leader gets mixed up with gangster in '20s Kansas City.
Dir: Jack Webb
Cast: Jack Webb, Janet Leigh, Edmond O'Brien
C-95 mins, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Peggy Lee

Jack Webb actually knew how to play the cornet. He loved jazz music and, as a boy, was given a cornet by a musician who lived near his home. While he never truly mastered the instrument he knew it well enough that his handling and fingering of the cornet in this movie is accurate.


5:45 PM -- Robin And The 7 Hoods (1964)
A Chicago gangster stumbles into philanthropic work during a gang war.
Dir: Gordon Douglas
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr.
C-123 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "My Kind of Town", and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Nelson Riddle

Making this film should have been fun. Instead, by more than one account, it was a waking nightmare for all involved. John F. Kennedy was assassinated soon after filming started, casting a pall over the entire set. Not long after that, Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped from his dressing room at Lake Tahoe, Nevada. (Upon payment of a large ransom, he was released, unharmed, a few days later). Victor Buono, who played Deputy Sherrif Alvin Potts, later observed that it was a minor miracle that filming was completed at all.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR - 1938



8:00 PM -- The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
The bandit king of Sherwood Forest leads his Merry Men in a battle against the corrupt Prince John.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone
C-102 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Carl Jules Weyl, Best Film Editing -- Ralph Dawson, and Best Music, Original Score -- Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Heavily padded stunt players and actors were paid $150 per arrow for being shot by professional archer Howard Hill, who also played the captain of the archers and Elwyn the Welshman, whom Robin Hood defeats in the tournament by splitting his own arrow. Splitting the arrow was Hill's feat, too, done in one take with no trick photography.


9:46 PM -- Prophet Without Honor (1939)
This short film portrays the life of Matthew Fontaine Maury, who developed the first maps that charted the oceans' winds and currents.
Dir: Felix E. Feist
Cast: Tom Neal,
BW-11 mins,

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

Matthew Fontaine Maury (January 14, 1806 – February 1, 1873), United States Navy, was an American astronomer, historian, oceanographer, meteorologist, cartographer, author, geologist, and educator.

He was nicknamed "Pathfinder of the Seas" and "Father of Modern Oceanography and Naval Meteorology" and later, "Scientist of the Seas," due to the publication of his extensive works in his books, especially The Physical Geography of the Sea (1855), the first extensive and comprehensive book on oceanography to be published. Maury made many important new contributions to charting winds and ocean currents, including ocean lanes for passing ships at sea.


10:00 PM -- And the Oscar Goes To... (2014)
A documentary tracing the history of the Academy Awards.
Dir: Robert Epstein
C-95 mins, CC,

Features clips from The Red Mill (1927), Wings (1927), Sunrise (1927), The Jazz Singer (1927), It Happened One Night (1934), Of Human Bondage (1934), Gone with the Wind (1939), The Battle of Midway (1942), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), Midnight Cowboy (1969), The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), Klute (1971), The Last Picture Show (1971), Cabaret (1972), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Hearts and Minds (1974), Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Raging Bull (1980), On Golden Pond (1981), Gandhi (1982), Silkwood (1983), Ghostbusters (1984), The Color Purple (1985), Moonstruck (1987), Big (1988), The Grifters (1990), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Schindler's List (1993), Philadelphia (1993), L.A. Confidential (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998), American Beauty (1999), Erin Brockovich (2000), Traffic (2000), The Queen (2006), Dreamgirls (2006), Juno (2007), Up in the Air (2009), The Social Network (2010), The Descendants (2011), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), and Lincoln (2012)


11:39 PM -- The Declaration Of Independence (1938)
This short film offers an account of the meeting of the Continental Congress in the summer of 1776. Vitaphone Release 8874-8875.
Dir: Crane Wilbur
Cast: John Litel, John Harron, Ted Osborn
C-17 mins,

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel

The film features the story of Caesar Rodney of Delaware, who rode 70 miles through a thunderstorm in order to arrive in time to cast his vote for independence. His was the deciding vote for the Delaware delegation, and helped to pass the resolution.


12:00 AM -- You Can't Take It With You (1938)
A girl from a family of freethinkers falls for the son of a conservative banker.
Dir: Frank Capra
Cast: Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart
BW-126 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Picture, and Best Director -- Frank Capra

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Spring Byington, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Robert Riskin, Best Cinematography -- Joseph Walker, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), and Best Film Editing -- Gene Havlick

Ann Miller was only 15 years old when this movie was filmed. Her character is called on to perform numerous (amateur) ballet positions, including the toe pointe, which was very painful for her. She hid this from the cast and crew but would cry (out of sight) off stage. James Stewart noticed her crying, though he didn't know why, and would have boxes of candy to make her feel better.


2:15 AM -- Four Daughters (1938)
A small-town family's peaceful life is shattered when one daughter falls for a rebellious musician.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Claude Rains, Jeffrey Lynn, John Garfield
BW-90 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- John Garfield, Best Director -- Michael Curtiz, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Lenore J. Coffee and Julius J. Epstein, Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD), and Best Picture

Michael Curtiz found himself in the unenviable position of competing against himself in the Best Director race for the Academy Award, being nominated for both Four Daughters (1938) and Angels with Dirty Faces (1938). Unfortunately he effectively canceled himself out and the Oscar went to Frank Capra for You Can't Take It With You (1938). Curtiz would go on to win his Oscar for Best Director five years later for Casablanca (1942). This wouldn't happen again until 2000 when Steven Soderbergh was nominated for both Erin Brockovich (2000) and Traffic (2000), winning for the latter.


4:00 AM -- Boys Town (1938)
True story of Father Flanagan's fight to build a home for orphaned boys.
Dir: Norman Taurog
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull
BW-93 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy (Spencer Tracy was not present at the awards ceremony. His wife Louise Treadwell accepted the award on his behalf.), and Best Writing, Original Story -- Eleanore Griffin and Dore Schary

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Norman Taurog, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Meehan and Dore Schary, and Best Picture

Freddie Bartholomew was considered for the part of Mickey Rooney's best friend, but was not cast because the producers felt he was too associated with Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936) and so would not be believable in this film.


5:34 AM -- They're Always Caught (1938)
This short film shows the role a crime laboratory plays in the solving of criminal investigations.
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Louis Jean Heydt, John Butler, Charles A. Hughes
BW-22 mins,

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

Remade as Kid Glove Killer (1942)