TCM Schedule for Saturday, April 3, 2021 -- TCM Spotlight: Oscars From A to Z

[Staph]

In today's edition of Oscars A to Z, TCM starts us off with a bit of Noel Coward froth in Blithe Spirit (1945) and finishes with a silent Little Tramp in The Circus (1928).

And now that the full schedule has been published online by TCM, they have included an article about this year's 31 Days of Oscar.

TCM’s annual 31 Days of Oscar programming returns for its 26th year, kicking off on April 1 with a month-long showcase of films recognized by the Academy with either awards or nominations. This year, in anticipation of the Academy Award ceremony on Sunday, April 25, we will be celebrating the Oscars from A to Z, with the featured films running in alphabetical order over the course of 31 days.

Titles range from Adam’s Rib (1949), an MGM comedy starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn and directed by George Cukor, to Z (1969), a French-Algerian thriller starring Yves Montand and Irene Papas and directed by Costa-Gavras. Adam’s Rib was nominated for Best Story and Screenplay. Z won for Best Foreign Language Film and Film Editing and was nominated for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.

Along with scores of Oscar favorites from our past tributes are eight TCM premieres. They are shown below – in alphabetical order, of course!

Carol (2015, airing April 3) is a romantic drama directed by Todd Haynes and starring

Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara as women who develop an intense relationship in 1950s New York. The film was nominated for six Oscars, including those for Best Actress (Blanchett), Supporting Actress (Mara), Adapted Screenplay (Phyllis Nagy), Cinematography (Edward Lachman), Costume Design (Sandy Powell) and Original Score (Carter Burwell).

The End of the Affair (1999, airing April 4) is a film version of the Graham Greene novel, directed by Neil Jordan and starring Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes as adulterous lovers in post-war London. The film was Oscar-nominated in two categories: Best Actress (Moore) and Cinematography (Roger Pratt).

Leaving Las Vegas (1995, airing April 14) brought a Best Actor Oscar to Nicolas Cage for his performance as a screenwriter who, after an unhappy marriage, is determined to drink himself to death in Las Vegas. Elisabeth Shue was nominated as Best Actress for her role as a prostitute who falls in love with the screenwriter. Scoring a double nomination for this touching drama was Mike Figgis in the categories of Best Director and Adapted Screenplay.

Mona Lisa (1986, airing April 17) won a Best Actor nomination for Bob Hoskins in his role as a London gangster who, after serving a prison term, is reduced to working as a driver for a prostitute (Cathy Tyson). Michael Caine costars in the drama, written and directed by Neil Jordan.

Nebraska (2013, airing April 18) is a combination character study and “road film” in which an estranged father and son (Bruce Dern and Will Forte) reunite for a trip from Montana to Nebraska. The film won six nominations including those for Best Film, Director (Alexander Payne), Actor (Dern), Supporting Actress (June Squibb as Dern’s longsuffering wife), Original Screenplay (Bob Nelson) and Cinematography (Phedon Papamichael, shooting in black and white).

Passion Fish (1992, airing April 20) won a Best Actress nomination for Mary McDonnell as a New York actress who returns to her Louisiana home after an accident leaves her partially paralyzed. Another nomination went to John Sayles (who also directed) for Best Original Screenplay. Others in the cast include Leo Burmester, Angela Bassett and Alfre Woodard.

The Truman Show (1998, airing April 29) offers an acting tour de force by Jim Carrey as a man who is the unwitting star of his own television reality show. Carrey was not nominated for his impressive performance, but the film scored three other nominations – Best Director (Peter Weir), Original Screenplay (Andrew Niccol) and Supporting Actor (Ed Harris as the show’s creator).

Twice in a Lifetime (1995, airing April 29) stars Gene Hackman as a Seattle husband and father who has an affair with a local barmaid (Ann-Margret). Amy Madigan won the film’s only Oscar nomination, as Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Hackman’s daughter. Bud Yorkin directed a cast that also includes Ellen Burstyn and Brian Dennehy.

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Blithe Spirit (1945)
1h 36m | Comedy | TV-G
A man and his second wife are haunted by the ghost of his first wife.
Director: David Lean
Cast: Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, Kay Hammond

Winner of an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Tom Howard (visual)

Writer and director Sir David Lean and cinematographer Ronald Neame decided not to use double exposure to create Elvira's ghostly appearances. Instead, Lean created an enormous set that allowed Kay Hammond to move freely in each shot. Hammond wore fluorescent green clothes, make-up, and a wig, with bright red lipstick and fingernail polish. Each time she moved, a special light would be directed on her, allowing her figure to glow even in dimly-lit scenes and giving her an otherworldly appearance.


7:45 AM -- Block-Heads (1938)
55m | Comedy | TV-G
Chaos erupts when a man tries to help an old war buddy.
Director: John G. Blystone
Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Patricia Ellis

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Score -- Marvin Hatley

The movie ends with big-game hunter Billy Gilbert chasing and shooting at Stan and Ollie. The original ending, nixed by producer Hal Roach, was to show Stan and Ollie's stuffed heads on Gilbert's wall, with a stuffed Ollie telling Stan, "Here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!"


9:00 AM -- Born Yesterday (1950)
1h 43m | Comedy | TV-PG
A newspaper reporter takes on the task of educating a crooked businessman's girlfriend.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, William Holden

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Judy Holliday (Judy Holliday was not present at the awards ceremony but watched it with several nominees in New York including fellow-best actress candidate Gloria Swanson. In Hollywood, Ethel Barrymore accepted on her behalf.)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- George Cukor, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Albert Mannheimer, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Jean Louis, and Best Picture

Used to the honeyed tones of the typical Hollywood leading lady, the sound department tried to clean up the sound of Judy Holliday's voice. When George Cukor watched the first rushes, he complained that her voice sounded different. The sound engineer told him "We just cut out some of the crud in her lower register." Cukor told them to stop because "You've also cut out the comedy and the heart."


11:00 AM -- The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
2h 41m | Drama | TV-PG
The Japanese Army forces World War II POWs to build a strategic bridge in Burma.
Director: David Lean
Cast: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins

Winner of 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 Director -- David Lean, 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.), Best Cinematography -- Jack Hildyard, Best Film Editing -- Peter Taylor (Peter Taylor was not present at the awards ceremony. William A. Lyon accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Music, Scoring -- Malcolm Arnold (Malcolm Arnold was not present at the ceremony. Morris Stoloff accepted the award on his behalf.), and Best Picture

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

The walk Alex Guinness did when he was released from the cramped prison came to him automatically. It wasn't until later that he realised it was how his son Matthew walked, with a limping stagger, when he recovered from polio.


2:00 PM -- Bullitt (1968)
1h 54m | Drama | TV-14
When mobsters kill the witness he was assigned to protect, a dedicated policeman investigates the case on his own.
Director: Peter Yates
Cast: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset

Winner of an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Frank P. Keller

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Sound -- Warner Bros./Seven Arts

One of the two Mustangs was lost for decades only to be found in a 2016 in a junkyard in Baja California Sur, Mexico by a man named Hugo Sanchez. It was almost totally stripped for parts. Essentially nothing was left beyond the frame, body and passenger side door. It was identified by its VIN number and photographed.

It was purchased and stored for many years by co-owners Ralph Garcia, Jr. and Hugo Sanchez, then rebuilt almost entirely from scratch and exhibited; eventually being sold at auction. During the rebuild they discovered a number of modifications made for the film, including strut tower reinforcements and holes drilled into the trunk for auxiliary power cables for a smoke bomb that was used in the "burning rubber" scene.


4:15 PM -- Caged (1950)
1h 36m | Drama | TV-PG
A young innocent fights to survive the harsh life in a women's prison.
Director: John Cromwell
Cast: Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead, Ellen Corby

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Eleanor Parker, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Hope Emerson, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Virginia Kellogg and Bernard C. Schoenfeld

The movie does touch on lesbianism when the lead character of Marie Allen, portrayed beautifully by Eleanor Parker, is crying for her dead husband. A fellow bunk mate inmate, hearing her bellows, asks her why she's crying and when Marie Allen answers her question that her crying was over her husband who was killed, her bunk mate says "Don't worry honey after a while you won't think of men anymore. It just comes natural". It's also implied that the character of Elvira Powell, portrayed perfectly by Lee Patrick, seems to be personally interested in Marie Allen.


6:00 PM -- Calamity Jane (1953)
1h 41m | Musical | TV-G
The Wild West heroine helps bring a star attraction to Deadwood and finds love.
Director: David Butler
Cast: Doris Day, Howard Keel, Allyn Mclerie

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Sammy Fain (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics) for the song "Secret Love"

Nominee for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- William A. Mueller (Warner Bros. Sound Department), and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Ray Heindorf

In a TV interview decades later, Doris Day humorously recounted the experience of watching the "rushes" from the first day of shooting on this film, when she had mastered the gestures and physical manner to play Calamity, but had not yet figured out the character's voice. She said she had to laugh at herself, "galumphing around in buckskin and being all gruff - but with a high, squeaky voice, sounding like Minnie Mouse!" She immediately realized she needed to bring her voice down to a lower register, and her character was then complete.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: DAYTIME & PRIMETIME THEME -- OSCARS FROM A TO Z



8:00 PM -- Carefree (1938)
1h 20m | Comedy | TV-G
A psychiatrist falls in love with the woman he's supposed to be nudging into marriage with someone else.
Director: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction -- Van Nest Polglase, Best Music, Original Song -- Irving Berlin for the song "Change Partners and Dance with Me", and Best Music, Scoring -- Victor Baravalle

Astaire's golfing sequences were filmed April 14th and 15th, the month before principle photography began, at an improvised range at the RKO Ranch. He performed just to a piano - the orchestral score was added in post-production.


9:45 PM -- Carol (2015)
1h 58m | Adaptation
An aspiring photographer develops an intimate relationship with an older woman in 1950s New York.
Director: Todd Haynes
Cast: Pamela Haynes, Linnea Bond, John Magaro

Nominee for Oscars for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role -- Cate Blanchett,
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role -- Rooney Mara, Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay -- Phyllis Nagy, Best Achievement in Cinematography -- Edward Lachman, Best Achievement in Costume Design -- Sandy Powell, and Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score -- Carter Burwell

The film is based on a book originally entitled The Price of Salt. There are at least two explanations, both Bible-related, of this title. One, from screenwriter & friend, Phyllis Nagy, is that it is a reference to Lot's wife turning into a pillar of salt when she looks back at Sodom. A Highsmith biographer says it refers to Matthew 5:13, perhaps more so in the verse's fragment found in The Counterfeiters by Andre Gide, with its sense that adding spice to one's life will have a cost to pay.


12:00 AM -- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
1h 48m | Drama | TV-PG
A dying plantation owner tries to help his alcoholic son solve his problems.
Director: Richard Brooks
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Newman, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Taylor, Best Director -- Richard Brooks, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Richard Brooks and James Poe, Best Cinematography, Color -- William H. Daniels, and Best Picture

Brick Pollitt (Paul Newman), at one point, takes up Maggie's (Dame Elizabeth Taylor's) nightgown and buries his face in it, to demonstrate his heterosexuality, although this movie implies strongly that his friend Skipper is Newman's true love. During rehearsals, as a gag, Newman tore off his pajama jacket and stepped into the nightgown, howling, "Skipper, Skipper!"


2:00 AM -- Charade (1963)
1h 54m | Comedy | TV-PG
A beautiful widow tries to find her husband's lost fortune while eluding the killers who want it for themselves.
Director: Stanley Donen
Cast: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Henry Mancini (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "Charade"

Due to the suspense, the presence of Cary Grant, the structure of the screenplay, and the frequent plot twists, many people believe this was a Sir Alfred Hitchcock film. Hitchcock was not involved in the making of the film at all. This confusion has prompted fans of the film to call it "the best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never made."


4:15 AM -- The Circus (1928)
1h 11m | Comedy | TV-G
In this silent film, the Little Tramp joins a circus to hide from the police.
Director: Charles Chaplin
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Merna Kennedy, Betty Morrissey

Winner of an Honorary Oscar Award for Charles Chaplin for versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus. Though nominated for best actor, the academy decided to remove Chaplin's name from the competitive classes and instead award him a Special Award.