TCM Schedule for Friday, February 12 -- 31 Days of Oscar

Interesting selection of Oscar-winning and -nominated films, including a couple of silents (A Woman of Affairs (1928) and Our Dancing Daughters (1928)). Here are the actor connections from film to film for today's schedule:

• (Little Caesar -- Lady for a Day) -- Glenda Farrell
  
• (Lady for a Day -- A Woman of Affairs) -- Hobart Bosworth
  
• (A Woman of Affairs -- Our Dancing Daughters) -- Johnny Mack Brown
  
• (Our Dancing Daughters -- Mildred Pierce) -- Joan Crawford
  
• (Mildred Pierce -- Comrade X) -- Eve Arden
  
• (Comrade X -- I Remember Mama) -- Oscar Homolka
  
• (I Remember Mama -- The Pumpkin Eater) -- Cedric Hardwicke
  
• (The Pumpkin Eater -- The Graduate) -- Anne Bancroft
  
• (The Graduate -- Reds) -- William Daniels
  
• (Reds -- Chinatown) -- Jack Nicholson
  
• (Chinatown -- The Wind and the Lion) -- John Huston
  
• (The Wind and the Lion -- The Parent Trap) -- Brian Keith
  

Enjoy!


5:30am -- Little Caesar (1930)
A small-time hood shoots his way to the top, but how long can he stay there?
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Glenda Farrell, William Collier Jr.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
BW-79 mins, TV-PG

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

There were two versions of Rico's final words filmed, "Mother of God, is this the end of Rico?" and "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?" Although "Mother of God" was taken directly from W.R. Burnett's novel, it was decided the line was potentially blasphemous coming from a murderous gangster and "mother of mercy" was used instead.


7:00am -- Lady For A Day (1933)
A gangster helps an old apple-vendor pose as a society woman to fool her visiting daughter.
Cast: Warren William, May Robson, Guy Kibbee, Glenda Farrell
Dir: Frank Capra
BW-96 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- May Robson, Best Director -- Frank Capra, Best Writing, Adaptation -- Robert Riskin, and Best Picture

Radio City Music Hall booked the film's premiere without seeing it, because Capra's The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933) had been the theater's first film and they considered the director to be good luck.


8:45am -- A Woman Of Affairs (1928)
Prejudice keeps a free spirit from the man she loves, triggering a series of tragedies.
Cast: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lewis Stone, John Mack Brown
Dir: Clarence Brown
BW-91 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Achievement -- Bess Meredyth (No official nominees had been announced this year.)

Based on the novel The Green Hat by Michael Arlen.


10:30am -- Our Dancing Daughters (1928)
A flapper sets her hat for a man with a hard-drinking wife.
Cast: Joan Crawford, John Mack Brown, Nils Asther, Dorothy Sebastian
Dir: Harry Beaumont
BW-84 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- George Barnes, and Best Writing, Achievement -- Josephine Lovett (No official nominees had been announced this year.)

This is the film that made Joan Crawford a star.


12:00pm -- Mildred Pierce (1945)
A woman turns herself into a business tycoon to win her selfish daughter a place in society.
Cast: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden
Dir: Michael Curtiz
BW-111 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Joan Crawford (Joan Crawford was not present at the awards ceremony and feigned ill that night. Meanwhile she listened to the show on the radio. When she won, she ushered the press into her bedroom, where she finally accepted her Oscar.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Eve Arden, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ann Blyth. Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ernest Haller, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Ranald MacDougall, and Best Picture

Shooting the early scenes, director Michael Curtiz accused Joan Crawford of needlessly glamorizing her working mother role. She insisted she was buying her character's clothes off the rack, but didn't mention that her own dressmaker was fitting the waists and padding out the shoulders.


2:00pm -- Comrade X (1940)
An American warms up an icy Russian streetcar conductor.
Cast: Clark Gable, Hedy Lamarr, Oscar Homolka, Felix Bressart
Dir: King Vidor
BW-90 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Walter Reisch

At the time this film was released, in 1940, World War II had already begun in Europe, but the Soviet Union still had a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany. In the film, Mac is able to fool a character by pretending to hear news that Germany has broken the pact and launched an invasion of the USSR. Of course, that's exactly what happened the very next year when Germany launched Operation Barbarossa in summer 1941.


3:30pm -- I Remember Mama (1948)
Norwegian immigrants face the trials of family life in turn-of-the-century San Francisco.
Cast: Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes, Oscar Homolka, Philip Dorn
Dir: George Stevens
BW-134 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Oskar Homolka, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Barbara Bel Geddes, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ellen Corby, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Nicholas Musuraca

Irene Dunne worked with dialect coach Judith Sater for two months to perfect her Norwegian accent. Dunne became so immersed in getting her character's voice down that she used the accent around her home with her family.


6:00pm -- The Pumpkin Eater (1964)
A woman drifts through multiple marriages in search of stability.
Cast: Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, James Mason, Janine Gray
Dir: Jack Clayton
BW-110 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Anne Bancroft

Patricia Neal was offered the lead, but it was not 100% confirmed she would get the role. She then opted, to her later regret, to make Psyche 59 (1964) instead, since it was an official offer.


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


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

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

In Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft's first encounter in the hotel room, Bancroft did not know that Hoffman was going to grab her breast. Hoffman decided offscreen to do it, because it reminded him of schoolboys trying to nonchalantly grab girls' breasts in the hall by pretending to put their jackets on. When Hoffman did it onscreen, director Mike Nichols began laughing loudly offscreen. Hoffman began to laugh as well, so rather than stop the scene, he turned away from the camera and walked to the wall. Hoffman banged his head on the wall, trying to stop laughing, and Nichols thought it was so funny, he left it in.


10:00pm -- Reds (1981)
American activist John Reed travels to Russia to witness the revolution and its aftermath.
Cast: Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Edward Herrmann, Jerzy Kosinski
Dir: Warren Beatty
C-195 mins, TV-MA

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Maureen Stapleton, Best Cinematography -- Vittorio Storaro, and Best Director -- Warren Beatty

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Warren Beatty, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Nicholson, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Diane Keaton, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Richard Sylbert and Michael Seirton, Best Costume Design -- Shirley Russell, Best Film Editing -- Dede Allen and Craig McKay, Best Sound -- Dick Vorisek, Tom Fleischman and Simon Kaye, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Warren Beatty and Trevor Griffiths, and Best Picture

The role of Eugene O'Neill was always intended for Jack Nicholson. According to Warren Beatty, he believed that Nicholson was the only person who "could take her girl" (Diane Keaton) away from him.


1:30am -- Chinatown (1974)
A Los Angeles private eye unwittingly sets up an innocent man for murder, then joins his seductive widow to unearth the corruption behind the crime.
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, Perry Lopez, John Huston
Dir: Roman Polanski
C-130 mins, TV-MA

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Robert Towne

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Jack Nicholson, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Faye Dunaway, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Richard Sylbert, W. Stewart Campbell and Ruby R. Levitt, Best Cinematography -- John A. Alonzo, Best Costume Design -- Anthea Sylbert, Best Director -- Roman Polanski, Best Film Editing -- Sam O'Steen, Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- Jerry Goldsmith, Best Sound -- Charles Grenzbach and Larry Jost, and Best Picture

This was the first film of a planned trilogy about corruption in the development of Los Angeles. It was set in the 1930s and was about the water department. The second film, The Two Jakes (1990), was set in the 1940s and was about the gas company. The third film of the trilogy was about the building of the massive freeway system and was to be called "Cloverleaf", named after the famous interchange in downtown L.A., but it was never filmed. However, certain elements (like the building of a massive freeway by a corporation called called "Cloverleaf") were eventually incorporated into Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), which took a fantasy/comedic view of this material but also functioned as a detective story.


3:45am -- The Wind And The Lion (1975)
An Arab chief triggers an international incident when he kidnaps an American widow and her children.
Cast: Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, Brian Keith, John Huston
Dir: John Milius
C-119 mins, TV-MA

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Score -- Jerry Goldsmith, and Best Sound -- Harry W. Tetrick, Aaron Rochin, William L. McCaughey, and Roy Charman

According to John Milius when the film was screened for President Gerald Ford, Ford remarked that he recognized the place they filmed in Yellowstone National Park well because he used to be a ranger there. Milius refrained from informing him that the entire movie was filmed in and around Spain.

Joan Crawford's Oscar® winning performance as Mildred Pierce (1945), determined mother of the ever-ungrateful Veda (Ann Blyth), marked Crawford's debut at Warner Brothers after a long career at MGM. Based on the novel by James M. Cain, Mildred Pierce is a dark tale of thwarted desires and the American dream gone wrong. Art Director Anton Grot's sets exploited this theme and presented a visual interpretation of how the up-and-coming American middle class should live.

Ironically, the film was made around the time Jack Warner asked the studio's cinematographers and art directors to "devise new means of cutting corners without losing any of the quality." Apparently there was concern that too much detail was being used in sets, which in turn, took more time to light and thus slowed up production. Despite this proclamation, Mildred Pierce suffered no loss of set detail. Beneath its noir lighting lay strikingly complex settings like the Beragon beach house. So essential to the plot that it opens the film, Beragon's home is a twisting maze of rooms and staircases that perfectly represent Grot's desire to build "menace into the sets."

Ann Blyth, in the role of Veda Pierce, had previously played a few juvenile roles in innocuous fare like Babes on Swing Street (1944) before she got to sink her teeth into the plum role in Mildred Pierce. She is so convincingly evil, mean-spirited, and obnoxious in the role that her peers nominated her for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

There was nothing typical about Crawford's performance in Mildred Pierce. Not only was Oscar kind to her, but it revived her slowed career and led to Humoresque (1946), Possessed (1947), and later, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). In fact, Director Michael Curtiz had not even wanted Crawford for the role of Mildred, making her consent to a screen test. It seems he didn't like her trademark shoulder pads. After the success of Mildred Pierce, Curtiz and Crawford patched up their working relationship, and Joan gave her director a peace offering - a pair of custom made shoulder pads.

Director: Michael Curtiz
Producer: Jerry Wald
Screenplay: Ranald MacDougall (based on the novel by James M. Cain)
Cinematography: Ernest Haller
Art Direction: Anton Grot
Set Decoration: George James Hopkins
Editing: David Weisbart
Music: Max Steiner
Cast: Joan Crawford (Mildred Pierce), Ann Blyth (Veda Pierce), Zachary Scott (Monte Beragon), Eve Arden (Ida Corwin), Jack Carson (Wally Fay), Bruce Bennett (Bert Pierce)
BW-111m. Close captioning, Descriptive video.

by Stephanie Thames

I recall the night of June 5th, 1968 - the premiere of "The Graduate", which I was attending with a friend. I was
all dressed up in a white lace mini-dress - I'll never forget that dress. Just before I was due to leave the
house, the news came through that Bobby Kennedy had died.

I was numb throughout the taxi ride to the cinema, and when I arrived, I walked up to my friend and just said "He's
dead". He knew who I meant, but the news didn't seem to have reached the theatre at that point.

It says a great deal for the brilliance of the film that for a couple of hours, I forgot about Bobby and laughed
through the film and cheered with everyone else at the end.

But whenever I see the film, my mind goes back to the events of that time and to the white lace mini-dress. There
are some days that will always stay in your mind with perfect clarity.