TCM Schedule for Friday, February 5 -- 31 Days of Oscar

Here are the actor connections from film to film for today's schedule:

• Paul Lukas (Little Women -- Address Unknown)
  
• Carl Esmond (Address Unknown -- The Navy Comes Through)
  
• Pat O'Brien (The Navy Comes Through -- Flirtation Walk)
  
• Dick Powell (Flirtation Walk -- Gold Diggers Of 1933)
  
• Billy Barty (Gold Diggers Of 1933 -- Foul Play)
  
• Burgess Meredith (Foul Play -- In Harm's Way)
  
• Kirk Douglas (In Harm's Way -- Gunfight at the O.K. Corral)
  
• Dennis Hopper (Gunfight at the O.K. Corral -- True Grit)
  
• John Wayne (True Grit -- The Shootist)
  
• Scatman Crothers (The Shootist -- Lady Sings the Blues)
  
• Isabel Sanford (Lady Sings the Blues -- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner)
  
• Spencer Tracy (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner -- Bad Day At Black Rock)
  

Enjoy!


4:15am -- Little Women (1933)
The four March sisters fight to keep their family together and find love while their father is off fighting the Civil War.
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Paul Lukas, Edna May Oliver
Dir: George Cukor
BW-116 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Adaptation -- Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- George Cukor, and Best Picture

Uncredited producer David O. Selznick had a difficult time convincing RKO executives to produce this film, as there was a belief in Hollywood at the time that films based on historic novels were not popular, particularly one that centered on women during the Civil War. Selznick persisted and the film was a commercial success. Because of this, later in the decade Selznick produced Gone with the Wind (1939) through his own production company, Selznick International Pictures, from the novel by Margaret Mitchell.


6:15am -- Address Unknown (1944)
A German-born art dealer finds himself falling for Nazi propaganda.
Cast: Paul Lukas, Carl Esmond, Peter Van Eyck, Mady Christians
Dir: William Cameron Menzies
BW-72 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lionel Banks, Walter Holscher and Joseph Kish, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Morris Stoloff and Ernst Toch

Paul Lukas was born in Budapest, and died in Tangier, Marocco, while searching for a place to spend his retirement years.


7:30am -- The Navy Comes Through (1942)
An old freighter single-handedly takes on a Nazi war fleet.
Cast: Pat O'Brien, George Murphy, Jane Wyatt, Jackie Cooper
Dir: A. Edward Sutherland
BW-82 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Vernon L. Walker (photographic) and James G. Stewart (sound)

This movie marked the first use of the new RKO radio signal trademark that spelled "VICTORY". The signal in previous films spelled out "RKO".


9:00am -- Flirtation Walk (1934)
A West Point cadet falls for his commanding officer's daughter.
Cast: Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Pat O'Brien, Ross Alexander
Dir: Frank Borzage
BW-98 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (sound director), and Best Picture

Bobby Connolly shot the Hawaiian number on the biggest set ever constructed at Warner Bros. studio up to that time. He followed with the military wedding number, using 400 professional dancers.


10:45am -- Gold Diggers Of 1933 (1933)
Three chorus girls fight to keep their show going and find rich husbands.
Cast: Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
BW-98 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (sound director)

At 5:55 PM PST on March 10, 1933, the Long Beach earthquake hit southern California, measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale. When the earthquake hit, Busby Berkeley was filming the "Shadow Waltz" dance sequence on a sound stage on the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank. The earthquake caused a blackout on the sound stage and short-circuited some of the neon-tubed violins. Berkeley was almost thrown from a camera boom, and dangled by one hand until he could pull himself back up. Since many of the chorus girls in the dance number were on a 30-foot-high scaffold, Berkeley yelled for them to sit down and wait until the stage hands and technicians could open the sound stage doors and let in some light. (My dad was living in southern California during this earthquake, and had a lot of stories about the quake and the days and weeks afterwards.)


12:30pm -- Foul Play (1978)
An innocent woman stumbles onto a plot to murder the pope.
Cast: Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, Burgess Meredith, Rachel Roberts
Dir: James M Arnett
C-116 mins, TV-MA

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Charles Fox (music) and Norman Gimbel (lyrics) for the song "Ready to Take a Chance Again"

The name of Goldie Hawn's character, Gloria Mundy, is taken from the Latin phrase "Sic transit gloria mundi", which translates as "So passes the glory of the world". The phrase was used until 1963 in the papal coronation ceremony; given that the film features an attempt to assassinate the pope, it is likely that there will soon be another papal coronation.


2:45pm -- In Harm's Way (1965)
An aging Naval officer leads his men against the Japanese after Pearl Harbor.
Cast: John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, Tom Tryon
Dir: Otto Preminger
BW-167 mins, TV-14

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Loyal Griggs

Kirk Douglas wrote that John Wayne wanted him for the role of Commander (later Captain) Eddington. Douglas was surprised as they did not know each other and did not socialize, and their political opinions were very different. Nonetheless, the collaboration was a success and the two later co-starred in The War Wagon (1967) and Wayne had a cameo in Douglas' ode to Israel, Cast a Giant Shadow (1966).


5:45pm -- Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
Dramatization of the legendary battle between Wyatt Earp and the Clanton Gang.
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Jo Van Fleet
Dir: John Sturges
C-123 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Film Editing -- Warren Low, and Best Sound, Recording -- George Dutton (Paramount SSD)

Much of this film was shot at the famous "Old Tucson" facility, not far from the real Tombstone. However, its "town street" set was used surprisingly as Fort Griffin, Texas, in the opening reels, while later Tombstone street scenes were shot in southern California, on the same Paramount Ranch set that was later used as Virginia City, Nevada, on TV's "Bonanza" (1959).


What's On Tonight: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: Prime Time Lineup


8:00pm -- True Grit (1969)
A young girl recruits an aging U.S. marshal to help avenge her father's death.
Cast: John Wayne, Glen Campbell, Kim Darby, Jeremy Slate
Dir: Henry Hathaway
C-128 mins, TV-14

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- John Wayne

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Elmer Bernstein (music) and Don Black (lyrics) for the song "True Grit"

Marguerite Roberts was a formerly blacklisted writer. John Wayne knew this before he read the script. He read it and liked it. He ignored people who said he shouldn't work on anything that a "blacklisted" writer wrote.


10:15pm -- The Shootist (1976)
A dying gunfighter tries to set his affairs in order.
Cast: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart
Dir: Don Siegel
C-99 mins, TV-14

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Robert F. Boyle and Arthur Jeph Parker

Although now widely regarded as one of the finest final movies of any star, along with The Misfits (1961) starring Clark Gable and On Golden Pond (1981) starring Henry Fonda, this was never actually intended as John Wayne's last movie, particularly since it was not until January 1979 - three years after filming had begun - that he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. In July 1978, after recovering from open heart surgery, he announced that he was intending to make a movie called "Beau John" with Ron Howard, but for some reason it never happened.


12:00am -- Lady Sings the Blues (1972)
Billie Holliday fights drug addiction to make a name for herself as a jazz singer.
Cast: Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, James Gallahan
Dir: Sidney J. Furie
C-144 mins, TV-MA

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Diana Ross, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Carl Anderson and Reg Allen, Best Costume Design -- Bob Mackie, Ray Aghayan and Norma Koch, Best Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation -- Gil Askey, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- Terence McCloy, Chris Clark and Suzanne De Passe

According to Diana Ross, Richard Pryor personally instructed her on how to behave during the scenes of drug use.


2:30am -- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
An aging couple's liberal principles are tested when their daughter announces her engagement to a black doctor.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn, Katharine Houghton
Dir: Stanley Kramer
C-108 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn (Katharine Hepburn was not present at the awards ceremony. George Cukor accepted the award on her behalf.) and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- William Rose

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy (Posthumously.), Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Cecil Kellaway, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Beah Richards, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Robert Clatworthy and Frank Tuttle, Best Director -- Stanley Kramer, Best Film Editing -- Robert C. Jones, Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Frank De Vol, and Best Picture

The three-inch bronze sculpture of Spencer Tracy featured in the film was created by Katharine Hepburn herself and was one of the items that were included in her estate auction in 2004. The bust was the most sought-after item and fetched the most money - it sold for $316,000, whereas pre-auction estimates were in the neighborhood of $3,000-$5,000.


4:30am -- Bad Day At Black Rock (1955)
A one-armed veteran uncovers small-town secrets when he tries to visit an Asian-American war hero's family.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger
Dir: John Sturges
C-82 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy, Best Director -- John Sturges, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Millard Kaufman

The sign behind the hotel desk is a quote from English evangelist John Wesley:
"Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can."

A pretty good summary of the creed of the Methodist Church (now the United Methodist Church).

John Sturges’ Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) was hardly the first, and wouldn’t be the last, film to cover the legendary shootout involving Wyatt Earp, “Doc” Holiday, and those ornery Clanton Boys (see John Ford’s My Darling Clementine (1946) for the heavyweight champ of this particular story.) But Gunfight at the O.K. Corral features one of the more thrilling shootouts ever filmed. Although Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas (as Earp and Holliday, respectively) deliver the goods, the thing people remember most about Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is...that gunfight. Everything else is really just a well-crafted prelude to the blazing six-guns.

You probably have a passing familiarity with the basic storyline. It’s 1881. Earp and Holliday are gun-slinging compatriots in the town of Dodge City, where Earp is also the marshal. Earp is ready to hang up his guns and settle down with a beautiful gambler named Laura Denbow (Rhonda Fleming) when he’s contacted by his brother Virgil (John Hudson), the marshal of the aptly named burg of Tombstone, Arizona. Virgil needs help controlling the Clanton-Ringo gang, whose members are mercilessly terrorizing the locals. Earp and Holliday, living, as they do, by a code of honor, take it upon themselves to ride out to Tombstone and try to make peace. Eventually, things come to a head at the O.K. Corral, where everyone starts shootin' and hollerin' and dyin'.

In 1962, Sturges wrote an article in Films and Filming magazine that clearly delineates the ground rules for making this type of picture. In that piece, he maintains that “people’s minds like discipline, so, like the ballet, westerns are always done the same way. If you go hear Beethoven, you don’t complain that it was played exactly like the last time. It’s not supposed to be different. And a western is a controlled, disciplined, formal kind of entertainment.” That discipline certainly extends to the titular gunfight, which ran a mere 30 seconds and contained 34 shots in real life, but is stretched out to a violent five minutes in the picture. Apparently, there’s discipline, and then there’s disciplined excitement. The sequence took a full four days to film.

Lancaster, who basically falls into his silent-and-stoic routine (and looks great in a cowboy hat), is never less than serviceable in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Douglas, on the other hand, progressively coughs himself to death as the consumptive Holliday, which wasn’t as easy as it might seem, given that movies are shot out of sequence. The actor plotted out exactly how hard he would cough, and exactly when he would do it, in order to create the illusion that Holliday is on his way out, regardless of whether or not he takes a bullet from the Clantons.

Douglas and Lancaster had previously worked together in I Walk Alone (1948), and often saw each other at various Hollywood functions. But, as Douglas recounts in his entertaining autobiography, The Ragman’s Son, they didn’t become friends until Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which lead to some pretty loose-and-easy moments on the set. For instance, they couldn’t focus during a scene in which an unarmed Lancaster is surrounded by several men in a saloon, only to be rescued by Douglas, who steals another man’s gun and tosses it to Lancaster. “We go out on the porch,” Douglas wrote, “and Burt says to me, ‘Thanks, Doc.’ I was supposed to say, ‘Forget it.’ When I came to ‘Forget it,’ the ridiculousness of the scene –- our great bravery, our machismo -– made us howl. We did the scene over and over. It just made us laugh harder.” They were finally laughing so much, an angry Sturges had to send them home for the day.”

Regardless of that moment of giggling harmony, Douglas and Lancaster, who both were famously stubborn men, often disagreed with each other. When the American Academy of Dramatic Arts paid tribute to Douglas on April 6, 1987, Lancaster made a speech about his old friend, in which he noted, “Kirk would be the first person to tell you he’s a very difficult man. And I would be the second.”

Director: John Sturges
Producer: Hal B. Wallis
Screenplay: Leon Uris (based on the magazine article, The Killer, by George Scullin)
Cinematography: Charles Lang
Editing: Warren Low
Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
Art Design: Hal Pereira, Walter Tyler
Special Effects: John P. Fulton
Costume Designer: Edith Head
Cast: Burt Lancaster (Wyatt Earp), Kirk Douglas (John H. “Doc” Holliday), Rhonda Fleming (Laura Denbow), Jo Van Fleet (Kate Fisher), John Ireland (Johnny Ringo), Lyle Bettger (Ike Clanton), Frank Faylen (Cotton Wilson), Earl Holliman (Charles Bassett), Ted de Corsia (Abel Head), Dennis Hopper (Billy Clanton), Whit Bissel (John P. Clum), George Mathews (John Shanssey), John Hudson (Virgil Earp), DeForest Kelley (Morgan Earp).
C-122m.

by Paul Tatara


FYI -- notice that DeForest Kelley (best known as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the original Star Trek television show and the first six Star Trek movies) plays Wyatt's younger brother Morgan Earp. In the Star Trek third season episode Spectre of the Gun, the crew of the Enterprise represent the Clanton clan in a recreation of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral on a distant planet. -- Staph