TCM Schedule for Thursday, March 3 -- 31 Days of Oscar -- One and Done

[Staph]

It's the last of the 31 days of Oscar, and today's catagories are Gone But Not Forgotten -- posthumous nominations, One And Done -- best pictures that had no other nominations, and Nominated For Playing A Nominee. Enjoy!



Gone but not forgotten -- posthumous nominations

4:00am -- Obsession (1976)
A businessman falls in love with a double for his murdered wife.
Cast: Cliff Robertson, Geneviève Bujold, John Lithgow, Sylvia Kuumba Williams
Dir: Brian De Palma
C-98 mins, TV-14

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Score -- Bernard Herrmann

Alfred Hitchcock was reportedly furious when Brian De Palma decided to make Obsession (1976), because he thought it was a virtual remake of Vertigo (1958). Ironically, De Palma stopped making mystery/adventure films after Hitchcock's death in 1980, with the possible exception of Body Double (1984).


6:00am -- The Great Caruso (1951)
The legendary opera singer fights to win his place in society.
Cast: Mario Lanza, Ann Blyth, Dorothy Kirsten, Jarmila Novotna
Dir: Richard Thorpe
C-109 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Costume Design, Color -- Helen Rose and Gile Steele, and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Peter Herman Adler and Johnny Green

Conductor Richard Hageman, who played Carlo Santi in the film, actually knew Enrico Caruso and led several performances with him at the Metropolitan Opera, including the 1918 War Relief Benefit re-created in the film.


8:00am -- 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.


10:00am -- The Way We Were (1973)
A fiery liberal fights to make her marriage to a successful writer work.
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Allyn Ann McLerie, Murray Hamilton
Dir: Sydney Pollack
C-118 mins, TV-14

Won Oscars for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- Marvin Hamlisch, and Best Music, Original Song -- Marvin Hamlisch (music), Alan Bergman (lyrics) and Marilyn Bergman (lyrics) for the song "The Way We Were"

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Barbra Streisand, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Stephen B. Grimes and William Kiernan, Best Cinematography -- Harry Stradling Jr., and Best Costume Design -- Dorothy Jeakins and Moss Mabry

Warren Beatty was originally offered for the role of Hubbell. When Robert Redford procrastinated about taking the role of Hubbell Gardner, producer Ray Stark approached Ryan O'Neal.


12:30pm -- North By Northwest (1959)
An advertising man is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
C-136 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- William A. Horning, Robert F. Boyle, Merrill Pye, Henry Grace and Frank R. McKelvy, Best Film Editing -- George Tomasini, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Ernest Lehman

Ernest Lehman became the film's scriptwriter following a lunchtime meeting with Alfred Hitchcock, arranged by their mutual friend, composer Bernard Herrmann. Hitchcock originally wanted him to work on his new project The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959) (which was eventually made instead by Michael Anderson), but Lehman refused. Hitchcock was so keen to work with him that he suggested they work together on a different film using Mary Deare's budget (without MGM's approval) even though he had only three ideas to set Lehman on his way: mistaken identity, the United Nations building, and a chase scene across the faces of Mt. Rushmore.


3:00pm -- Kind Lady (1951)
A con artist and his criminal cohorts hold an old lady hostage in her own home.
Cast: Ethel Barrymore, Maurice Evans, Angela Lansbury, Keenan Wynn
Dir: John Sturges
BW-78 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Walter Plunkett and Gile Steele

Moyna MacGill (Mrs. Harkley) is Angela Lansbury's mother in real life.


4:30pm -- The Strip (1951)
A jazz drummer fights to clear his name when he's accused of killing a racketeer.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Sally Forrest, William Demarest, James Craig
Dir: Leslie Kardos
BW-86 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby and Oscar Hammerstein II for the song "A Kiss to Build a Dream on"

Of Joe Pasternak's 57 MGM productions released between 1942 and 1966, this film was just one of two which failed to garner a contemporary New York Times review. The second movie was Looking for Love (1964).


6:00pm -- Shall We Dance (1937)
A ballet dancer and a showgirl fake a marriage for publicity purposes, then fall in love.
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore
Dir: Mark Sandrich
BW-109 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- George Gershwin (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) for the song "They Can't Take That Away from Me"

The scene where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance on roller skates took about 150 takes, according to one of the VHS versions of the film.



One and done -- best pictures that had no other nominations

8:00pm -- Grand Hotel (1932)
Guests at a posh Berlin hotel struggle through scandal and heartache.
Cast: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery
Dir: Edmund Goulding
BW-113 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Picture

Originally conceived by MGM production chief as one of the first All-Star vehicles. Conventional wisdom of the time was that you put no more than one or two of your biggest stars in a picture so as to lower production cost and to maximize profits. Grand Hotel (1932) featured 5 of MGM's top tiered stars and was one of the highest grossing pictures in studio history.


10:00pm -- Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Classic adventure about the sadistic Captain Bligh, who drove his men to revolt during a South Seas expedition.
Cast: Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, Herbert Mundin
Dir: Frank Lloyd
BW-133 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Clark Gable, Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Charles Laughton, Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Franchot Tone, Best Director -- Frank Lloyd, Best Film Editing -- Margaret Booth, Best Music, Score -- Nat W. Finston (head of departmment - M-G-M Studio Music Department) and Score by Herbert Stothart, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Jules Furthman, Talbot Jennings, and Carey Wilson

Irving Thalberg cast Clark Gable and Charles Laughton together in the hope that they would hate each other, making their on screen sparring more lifelike. He knew that Gable, a notorious homophobe, would not care for Laughton's overt homosexuality and would feel inferior to the RADA-trained Shakespearean actor. Relations between the two stars broke down completely after Laughton brought his muscular boyfriend to the island as his personal masseur. They were an obviously devoted couple and would go everywhere together, while Gable would turn away in disgust. In addition, Laughton felt that he should have won the Best Actor Oscar for The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934). In the event, he was not even nominated and the award went to Gable for It Happened One Night (1934).


12:30am -- The Broadway Melody (1929)
Love and success break up a vaudeville sister act.
Cast: Anita Page, Bessie Love, Charles King, Jed Prouty
Dir: Harry Beaumont
BW-100 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bessie Love (No official nominees had been announced this year.), and Best Director -- Harry Beaumont (No official nominees had been announced this year.)

This movie was MGM's first all-talking picture, and it was the first sound film to win Oscar Best Picture.



Nominated for playing a nominee

2:15am -- The Star (1952)
A faded film star fights to hold on to her past glamour despite failing finances.
Cast: Bette Davis, Sterling Hayden, Natalie Wood, Warner Anderson
Dir: Stuart Heisler
BW-90 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis

In the scene where a drunken Margaret Elliot takes her Oscar for a ride in her car, Bette Davis used one of her own Oscars.


4:00am -- California Suite (1978)
Four sets of guests at a posh hotel face personal crises.
Cast: Alan Alda, Michael Caine, Bill Cosby, Jane Fonda
Dir: Herbert Ross
C-103 mins, TV-14

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Maggie Smith

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Albert Brenner and Marvin March, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Neil Simon

Diana Barrie says that she wishes David Niven could accept her award for her because he would be witty and charming. In the play on which the movie is based, she says Michael Caine, but it was changed when Caine was cast as her husband.