TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 28, 2013 -- 31 Days of Oscar -- Embassy Pictures

Today TCM is presenting the films of Ealing Studios (known for their classic comedies in the post-WWII period), Otto Preminger Films (home of the producer-director, releasing 10 films from 1953-1971), and Embassy Pictures (founded in 1942 to bring foreign films to the US, including the Italian Hercules films, but turned to quality productions in the 1960s and 1970s). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948)
A British queen trapped in a loveless marriage falls for a soldier of fortune.
Dir: Basil Dearden
Cast: Stewart Granger, Joan Greenwood, Flora Robson
C-92 mins, TV-PG,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Jim Morahan, William Kellner and Michael Relph

While shooting tests as a stand-in for Stewart Granger, Christopher Lee actually got a real part in the film but the scene was cut out, presumably because both actors looked too much alike.


7:45 AM -- The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
An overlooked gold transporter with twenty years service plots to steal a million pounds of gold.
Dir: Charles Crichton
Cast: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sidney James
BW-81 mins, TV-G, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- T.E.B. Clarke

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Alec Guinness

Audrey Hepburn was considered for a larger role in this film, but stage work made her unavailable. Alec Guinness was impressed with the young actress and arranged for her to appear in a bit part. This is considered to be Hepburn's first appearance in a major film.


9:15 AM -- The Man in the White Suit (1951)
A young inventor threatens the business world when he creates a cloth that can't tear or wear out.
Dir: Alexander Mackendrick
Cast: Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Cecil Parker
BW-85 mins, TV-G,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Roger MacDougall, John Dighton and Alexander Mackendrick

Alec Guinness performed the stunt of climbing down the side of the mansion. He was convinced by a technician that the piano wire holding him up would not break, since only piano wire with kinks in it would be prone to breaking. As he got to about four feet from the ground, the wire did in fact break.


10:45 AM -- The Ladykillers (1955)
An eccentric bandit gang moves into a little old lady's boardinghouse to plot a major heist.
Dir: Alexander Mackendrick
Cast: Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom
C-91 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Original -- William Rose

The piece of music that the gang pretends to rehearse is the Minuet from Luigi Boccherini's "Quintet in E major, Opus 11, Number 5". Each time one of the gang members is killed, the arrangement of the music changes from quintet to quartet to trio etc, as if it is being played only by the surviving members of the gang.


12:30 PM -- The Moon Is Blue (1953)
Two womanizers fall for a woman determined to keep her virginity.
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: William Holden, David Niven, Maggie McNamara
BW-99 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Maggie McNamara, Best Film Editing -- Otto Ludwig, and Best Music, Original Song -- Herschel Burke Gilbert (music) and Sylvia Fine (lyrics) for the song "The Moon Is Blue"

First post-Hayes mainstream Hollywood film to use the word "virgin," after a battle with the official and unofficial censors. Also the first use of "seduce" and "mistress" (as a sexual partner). The movie was banned from theaters in Boston for using these words. This movie was used as a part of a plot line in the "The Moon is Not Blue" episode of "M*A*S*H." The plot line focuses on Hawkeye Pierce and B.J. Hunnicut trying to obtain a copy of the movie for the 4077th after hearing it has been banned in Boston.


2:30 PM -- The Man With The Golden Arm (1955)
A junkie must face his true self to kick his drug addiction.
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Eleanor Parker, Kim Novak
BW-119 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Frank Sinatra, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Joseph C. Wright and Darrell Silvera, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Elmer Bernstein

The Motion Picture Association of America originally refused to issue a seal for this movie because it shows drug addiction. The next year the production code was changed to allow movies to deal with drugs, kidnapping, abortion and prostitution. The film was eventually assigned certificate no. 17011.


4:45 PM -- The Cardinal (1963)
A Boston priest deals with illicit love, racism and war as he rises in the church.
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: Tom Tryon, Carol Lynley, Dorothy Gish
C-175 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- John Huston, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Lyle R. Wheeler and Gene Callahan, Best Cinematography, Color -- Leon Shamroy, Best Costume Design, Color -- Donald Brooks, Best Director -- Otto Preminger, and Best Film Editing -- Louis R. Loeffler

The Vatican bankrolled some of the film, and the Vatican liaison was a young Joseph Ratzinger, who in 2005 became the 265th Catholic Pope as Benedict XVI.



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



8:00 PM -- The Graduate (1967)
A recent college graduate has an affair with his neighbor's wife, then falls for their daughter.
Dir: Mike Nichols
Cast: Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross
C-106 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Director -- Mike Nichols

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Dustin Hoffman, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Anne Bancroft, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Katharine Ross, Best Cinematography -- Robert Surtees, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Calder Willingham and Buck Henry, and Best Picture

Two interesting camera techniques are used in the film. In the scene where Benjamin is running, he is shown at some distance running straight at the camera, an effect which makes him look as if he getting nowhere as he's running. (This technique is accomplished with a very long telephoto lens, which foreshortens distances in relation to the camera.) In another scene, Benjamin is walking from the right side of the screen to the left, while everyone else in the scene is moving from left to right. In western culture, things that move left to right seem natural (think of the direction you read words on a page), those that move right to left seem to be going the wrong way. These two visual techniques echo the themes of the film, Benjamin is going the wrong way, and getting nowhere in life.


10:00 PM -- The Producers (1968)
A Broadway producer decides to get rich by creating the biggest flop of his career.
Dir: Mel Brooks
Cast: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn
C-90 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Mel Brooks

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Gene Wilder

The movie is actually based on a response Brooks gave in an interview with Larry Siegel in 'Playboy' in 1966:

PLAYBOY: What else are you working on?
BROOKS: Springtime for Hitler.
PLAYBOY: You're putting us on.
BROOKS: No, it's the God's honest truth. It's going to be a play within a play, or a play within a film - I haven't decided yet. It's a romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden. There was a whole nice side of Hitler. He was a good dancer - no one knows that. He loved a parakeet named Bob - no one knows that either. It's all brought out in the play.


11:45 PM -- The Lion In Winter (1968)
England's Henry II and his estranged queen battle over the choice of an heir.
Dir: Anthony Harvey
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Jane Merrow
C-134 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn (Tied with Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl (1968). Hepburn became the third performer to win consecutive awards, and the first to win three awards for lead roles. Anthony Harvey, the film's director, accepted the award on her behalf.), Best Music, Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical) -- John Barry, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- James Goldman

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Peter O'Toole, Best Costume Design -- Margaret Furse, Best Director -- Anthony Harvey, and Best Picture

Although Peter O'Toole plays the father of Anthony Hopkins, John Castle and Nigel Terry, he is only five, seven and thirteen years older than them respectively. Moreover, O'Toole is twenty-five years Katharine Hepburn's junior but plays her husband. It should be noted, however, that there was quite a substantial age gap between Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine - she was approximately eleven years his senior. At the time frame set for this film, Christmas 1183, Eleanor of Aquitaine, born 1122, would have been 61 years old, as played by Katherine Hepburn, who was born May 12, 1907, also 61 years old at the time of production (1968). Henry II, born March 5, 1133 was 50 years old during Christmas 1183, as played by Peter O'Toole, born August 2, 1932, only 35-36 at the time of production, approximately 15 years younger than the character he was playing.


2:15 AM -- Carnal Knowledge (1971)
Onetime college friends cope with the sexual revolution of the '60s.
Dir: Mike Nichols
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Candice Bergen, Arthur Garfunkel
C-98 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ann-Margret

When Jack Nicholson would get ready to play his nude scenes, he'd prepare everyone on set by warning, "Here comes Big Steve!"


4:00 AM -- The Day of the Dolphin (1973)
After teaching dolphins to speak, a scientist tries to keep them from being used in an assassination plot.
Dir: Mike Nichols
Cast: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Paul Sorvino
C-105 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- Georges Delerue, and Best Sound -- Richard Portman and Larry Jost

Roman Polanski was originally supposed to direct the movie. He was in England scouting locations for the movie when his wife Sharon Tate was killed by the Manson Family.