TCM Schedule for Friday, February 26 -- 31 Days of Oscar

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

• (An American Dream -- The Red Danube) -- Janet Leigh
  
• (The Red Danube -- Mrs. Miniver) -- Walter Pidgeon
  
• (Mrs. Miniver -- The Merry Widow) -- John Abbot
  
• (The Merry Widow -- The V.I.P.S) -- Robert Coote
  
• (The V.I.P.S -- The Whisperers) -- Ronald Fraser
  
• (The Whisperers -- Victor/Victoria) -- Michael Robbins
  
• (Victor/Victoria -- Thoroughly Modern Millie) -- Julie Andrews
  
• (Thoroughly Modern Millie -- Ordinary People) -- Mary Tyler Moore
  
• (Ordinary People -- Serpico) -- Judd Hirsch
  
• (Serpico -- Seconds) -- John Randolph
  
• (Seconds -- The Reivers) -- Will Geer
  

Enjoy!


5:45am -- An American Dream (1966)
A man suspected of murdering his wife has to elude the police and a gang of hoodlums.
Cast: Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, Eleanor Parker, Barry Sullivan
Dir: Robert Gist
C-103 mins

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Johnny Mandel (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics) for the song "A Time for Love"

Based on a novel by Norman Mailer.


7:30am -- The Red Danube (1949)
A Russian ballerina in Vienna tries to flee KGB agents and defect.
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Ethel Barrymore, Peter Lawford, Angela Lansbury
Dir: George Sidney
BW-119 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Hans Peters, Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt

In early 1947, Irene Dunne, Spencer Tracy and Robert Taylor were set to star.


9:30am -- Mrs. Miniver (1942)
A British family struggles to survive the first days of World War II.
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, Dame May Whitty
Dir: William Wyler
BW-134 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Teresa Wright, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Writing, Screenplay - -George Froeschel, James Hilton, Claudine West and Arthur Wimperis, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Walter Pidgeon, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Henry Travers, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Dame May Whitty, Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic), Warren Newcombe (photographic) and Douglas Shearer (sound), Best Film Editing -- Harold F. Kress, and Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD)

William Wyler openly admitted that he made the film for propaganda reasons. Wyler - who was born in Germany - strongly believed that the US should join the war against Nazism, and was concerned that America's policy of isolationism would prove damaging, so he made a film that showed ordinary Americans what their British equivalents were undergoing at the time. The film's subsequent success had a profound effect on American sympathy towards the plight of the British.


11:45am -- The Merry Widow (1952)
A prince from a small kingdom courts a wealthy widow to keep her money in the country.
Cast: Lana Turner, Fernando Lamas, Una Merkel, Richard Haydn
Dir: Curtis Bernhardt
C-105 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Arthur Krams, and Best Costume Design, Color -- Helen Rose and Gile Steele

When Lana Turner's millionaire husband Bob Topping left her in 1951, she slashed her wrist and had to wear a bracelet during this shoot to cover the scar.


1:45pm -- The V.I.P.s (1963)
Wealthy passengers fogged in at London's Heathrow Airport fight to survive a variety of personal trials.
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Louis Jourdan, Elsa Martinelli
Dir: Anthony Asquith
C-119 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Margaret Rutherford (Margaret Rutherford was not present at the awards ceremony. Peter Ustinov accepted the award on her behalf.)

Based on a true story, the movie was a thinly disguised account of screenwriter Terence Rattigan's life friend Vivien Leigh and her attempt to leave her husband Laurence Olivier for Australian actor Peter Finch . Leigh and Finch made it to the London airport, but their plane was delayed by incoming fog giving Olivier time to confront the two and bring Leigh home. Leigh abandoned the plan after hours of fog delay.


3:45pm -- The Whisperers (1967)
An elderly woman tries to cope with her predatory son and husband.
Cast: Edith Evans, Eric Portman, Nanette Newman, Gerald Sim
Dir: Bryan Forbes
BW-106 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Edith Evans

Dame Edith Evans lost the Oscar to Katharine Hepburn in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967).


5:45pm -- Victor/Victoria (1982)
An unemployed female singer poses as a female impersonator and becomes a star.
Cast: Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston, Lesley Ann Warren
Dir: Blake Edwards
C-134 mins, TV-MA

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score -- Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Preston, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Julie Andrews, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Lesley Ann Warren, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Rodger Maus, Tim Hutchinson, William Craig Smith and Harry Cordwell, Best Costume Design -- Patricia Norris, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Blake Edwards

Director Blake Edwards admitted in an interview that he "chickened out", and added the scene in which King Marchand (James Garner) discovers that Victoria (Julie Andrews) is indeed a woman. Originally he was to fall in love with Victoria before he was sure about her gender, hence his line "I don't care if you are a man" before he kisses her.


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


8:00pm -- Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)
A small-town girl hits the big city in search of romance Roaring Twenties style.
Cast: Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Channing, James Fox
Dir: George Roy Hill
C-152 mins

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Music Score -- Elmer Bernstein

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Carol Channing, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Alexander Golitzen, George C. Webb and Howard Bristol, Best Costume Design -- Jean Louis, Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn for the song "Thoroughly Modern Millie", Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- André Previn and Joseph Gershenson, and Best Sound

According to Mary Tyler Moore's autobiography "After All", Lew Wasserman had brought her to Universal after her unexpected success as a comic actress on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" (1961) with the hopes of making her "the next Doris Day" in light movie comedies. This was originally intended to be a film of that type until Julie Andrews came onboard, and only then did it become a musical that focused more on her. Also, Moore originally had a solo song that was cut from the final release.


10:30pm -- Ordinary People (1980)
When a young man drowns, his family fights to recover from the trauma.
Cast: Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Timothy Hutton, Judd Hirsch
Dir: Robert Redford
C-124 mins, TV-MA

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Timothy Hutton, Best Director -- Robert Redford, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Alvin Sargent, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Judd Hirsch, and Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Mary Tyler Moore

Gene Hackman was originally cast as Dr. Berger, but had to bow out. Judd Hirsch stepped in to fill the role, on condition that he could complete the filming of his scenes in eight days, so as not to interfere with his schedule on the TV show "Taxi" (1978).


12:45am -- Serpico (1973)
A rookie risks his life going undercover to ferret out police corruption.
Cast: Al Pacino, Tony Roberts, John Randolph, Jack Kehoe
Dir: Sidney Lumet
C-130 mins, TV-MA

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Al Pacino, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler

The film was shot in reverse order. Al Pacino began with long hair and a beard, then for each scene, his hair and beard were trimmed bit by bit until he became clean-cut.


3:00am -- Seconds (1966)
A bored rich man buys a new life from a secret organization.
Cast: Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, John Randolph, Will Geer
Dir: John Frankenheimer
BW-106 mins, TV-14

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- James Wong Howe

Arthur Hamilton's tennis trophy and the mounted fish over Arthur's mantle belonged to John Frankenheimer. Nora's house is one in which John Frankenheimer formerly rented and lived.

Henry Mancini won one of his four Oscars for the tuneful comedy Victor/Victoria (1982), sharing the award with lyricist Leslie Bricusse for Best Original Song Score. The MGM-UA movie, a remake by producer-writer-director Blake Edwards of the German film Viktor und Viktoria (1933), stars Julie Andrews as a poverty-stricken soprano trying to find work in turn-of-the-century Paris. With the guidance of a gay entertainer (Robert Preston), she creates an alter ego named Victor, a "man" who performs as a female impersonator. She/he becomes a hit and falls for a guy (James Garner) who's troubled about his attraction because he thinks Victor is a man.

In a trend set by Cabaret (1972), all musicals numbers are performed in a nightclub, making Victor/Victoria a movie with music rather than a movie musical. The Mancini/Bricusse songs include "You and Me," "Gay Paree," "Le Jazz Hot," "Crazy World," "Chicago, Illinois" and "Elegant." Mancini was a longtime Edwards collaborator, having previously worked with him in TV's Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky series and numerous films including Operation Petticoat (1959), The Great Race (1965), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), Darling Lili (1970) and the Pink Panther movies.

Along with the laughs and Mancini's music, Victor/Victoria offers amusing observations about gender perceptions and the nature of sexual attraction. Writer-director Blake Edwards originally conceived the movie as a vehicle for Andrews (his wife) and Peter Sellers, another frequent Edwards collaborator. After Sellers' untimely death in 1980, Robert Preston stepped into the role of the irrepressible Toddy, giving one of his liveliest screen performances and winning an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor.

Victor/Victoria also was nominated in categories of Best Actress (Andrews), Supporting Actress (Lesley Ann Warren, for her hilarious turn as a screechy-voiced chorus girl), Adapted Screenplay (Edwards), Art Direction and Costume Design. Edwards won a Writers Guild of America award for his screenplay, and Victor/Victoria was named Best Foreign Film in France's Cesar awards.

Victor/Victoria was eventually transformed into a Broadway musical in 1996, again written and directed by Edwards and starring Andrews. By then the star appeared to have made peace with the role that, despite her dazzling success with it, had troubled her at the time the film was made. "There were so many things to be worked out," she said. "As someone who likes to be in control, I felt wobbly. There was something else, too: When you get older, you kind of get on to yourself. You know the tricks you play to get by, and you like them less and less if you care about your work. I was trying hard to get away from them and was sometimes falling back."

Producers: Tony Adams, Blake Edwards
Director: Blake Edwards
Screenplay: Blake Edwards, from Hans Hoemburg/Reinhold Schunzel screenplay
Production Design: Rodger Maus
Cinematography: Dick Bush
Costumes: Patricia Norris
Editing: Ralph E. Winters
Original Music: Henry Mancini, Leslie Bricusse
Choreographer: Paddy Stone
Principal Cast: Julie Andrews (Victor/Victoria), James Garner (King Marchand), Robert Preston (Toddy), Lesley Ann Warren (Norma), Alex Karras (Squash), John Rhys-Davies (Cassell), Graham Stark (Waiter)
C-134m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.

by Roger Fristoe