TCM Schedule for Friday, February 22, 2019 -- 31 Days of Oscar - Best Movie Mutiny

Last edited Mon Feb 25, 2019, 10:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Today's themes for 31 Days of Oscar -- daylight - Animal Stories (get your hankies ready - the last one up is The Yearling (1946)), prime time - Best Movie Mutiny (the 1962 Marlon Brando version of Mutiny On The Bounty vs. 1954's The Caine Mutiny - enjoy making comparisons between Captain Queeg and the Trumpster), and late night - Favorite Liz and Richard Face Off (1966's Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff vs. 1967's The Taming of the Shrew). Enjoy!



7:30 AM -- MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949)
Showmen try to exploit a giant ape raised by an orphan.
Dir: Ernest B. Schoedsack
Cast: Terry Moore, Ben Johnson, Robert Armstrong
C-94 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects

This was the first feature film to which Ray Harryhausen contributed stop-motion animation effects. Though Willis H. O'Brien gets top special-effects billing, Harryhausen actually did 85%-90% of the stop-motion animation for this film, although the animation is based on O'Brien's designs and storyboards.


9:30 AM -- UMBERTO D. (1952)
A retiree copes with the realities of old age.
Dir: Vittorio De Sica
Cast: Carlo Battisti, Maria Pia Casilio, Lina Gennari
BW-88 mins,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Cesare Zavattini

This is the first and only film for non-actor Carlo Battisti, who plays the leading role in the film. His real occupation was that of a Professor of Linguistics at the Università degli Studi di Firenze. Non-actress Maria Pia Casilio, who plays the role of the house maid in the film, got the part when she accompanied a friend to see the real actresses competing for the film's audition. Director Vittorio De Sica spotted her in the balcony and knew she was exactly what he was looking for in the role. Maria went on to work with De Sica in three other films. She continued to work in films until the late 1990s.


11:15 AM -- SOUNDER (1972)
Black sharecroppers during the Depression fight to get their children a decent education.
Dir: Martin Ritt
Cast: Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks
C-105 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Winfield, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Cicely Tyson, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Lonne Elder III, and Best Picture

Cicely Tyson commented in a TCM interview that director Martin Ritt's cinematographer (principal cameraman), while shooting the famous "homecoming sequence" with Tyson and co-star Paul Winfield, was so moved by their performances that he was certain he missed framing the action properly in the shots and respectfully asked them to do the difficult scene again. They obliged, but a later examination of daily rushes revealed that they got shot and acting perfect the first time, and take one was a print.


1:15 PM -- BORN FREE (1965)
A game warden and his wife face a wrenching decision when the lion cub they've raised becomes too big to keep.
Dir: James Hill
Cast: Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers, Geoffrey Keen
C-95 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- John Barry (music) and Don Black (lyrics) for the song "Born Free" (John Barry was not present at the awards ceremony.), and Best Music, Original Music Score -- John Barry (Paul B. Radin accepting the award.)

After the filming of Born Free, George Adamson started a lion reserve, Kora Reserve, in Kenya. He founded it specifically to help rehabilitate the lions used in the film. A documentary, The Lions Are Free (1967), was made about him and the reserve, and tells what happened to the lions Boy, Girl, Ugas, Mara, Henrietta, and Little Elsa, and other lions that appeared in the first film. George Adamson rehabilitated many of these lions after Born Free was completed.


3:15 PM -- NATIONAL VELVET (1944)
A British farm girl fights to train a difficult horse for the Grand National Steeplechase.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp, Elizabeth Taylor
C-123 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Anne Revere, and Best Film Editing -- Robert Kern

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Clarence Brown, Best Cinematography, Color -- Leonard Smith, and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Urie McCleary, Edwin B. Willis and Mildred Griffiths

12-year-old Elizabeth Taylor underwent drastic measures to prove that she was right for the role. Velvet Brown was supposed to be a girl in her late teens, going through the natural changes into womanhood. Taylor was told by the director that she couldn't be Velvet, as she was rather "boyish". This only provoked Elizabeth more; she ate steak everyday, doubled her portion of meals, and rode her horse constantly to train. In three months, Elizabeth grew three inches, and began to gain the natural curves of a woman. For her efforts alone, she won the role.


5:30 PM -- THE YEARLING (1946)
A Florida boy's pet deer threatens the family farm.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman, Claude Jarman Jr.
C-128 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Charles Rosher, Leonard Smith and Arthur E. Arling, and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse and Edwin B. Willis

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gregory Peck, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Jane Wyman, Best Director -- Clarence Brown, Best Film Editing -- Harold F. Kress, and Best Picture

MGM had actually begun filming "The Yearling" in 1941 with Spencer Tracy, Anne Revere, and Atlanta native Gene Eckman (who never appeared in another film) in the starring roles, Roddy McDowall as Fodderwing, and Victor Fleming directing, but the production ran into numerous problems, including Eckman growing too quickly during filming, his thick local accent (which conflicted with Tracy's vocal quality), swarms of mosquitoes, and conflicts between Fleming and producer Sidney Franklin. After King Vidor agreed to take over directing but then dropped out, the project was canceled - at a loss of $500,000 - when the United States entered World War II, in December of 1941.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: BEST MOVIE MUTINY



8:00 PM -- MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1962)
Lavish remake of the classic tale of the villainous Captain Bligh who drives his crew to revolt during a South Seas expedition.
Dir: Lewis Milestone
Cast: Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard, Richard Harris
C-185 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert Surtees, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- George W. Davis, J. McMillan Johnson, Henry Grace and Hugh Hunt, Best Film Editing -- John McSweeney Jr., Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (visual) and Milo B. Lory (audible), Best Music, Original Song -- Bronislau Kaper (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics) for the song "Love Song from Mutiny on the Bounty (Follow Me)", Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Bronislau Kaper, and Best Picture

Lieutenant Bligh (his rank was only that of a Lieutenant, but as he commanded the ship, he was automatically called Captain) was chosen for the mission to Tahiti because he was considered one of the most skilled navigators in the world, having been personally selected by Captain James Cook as Master (his title now would be Navigator) on his third voyage around the world. Additionally, Captain Bligh had with him the second copy (referred to as K2) of the John Harrison "Longitude" watch, the world's first Marine Chronometer (a clock or watch accurate and rugged enough to be used for navigation at sea). It was recovered, still functioning, from Pitcairn Island, and is stored at the National Maritime Museum near London.


11:15 PM -- THE CAINE MUTINY (1954)
Naval officers begin to suspect their captain of insanity.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Jose Ferrer, Van Johnson
C-125 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Humphrey Bogart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Tom Tully, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Stanley Roberts, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), Best Film Editing -- William A. Lyon and Henry Batista, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner, and Best Picture

Humphrey Bogart's tour-de-force performance in the climactic courtroom scene was so powerful, that it completely captivated the onlooking film technicians and crewmen. After the scene's completion, the company gave Bogart a round of thunderous applause.


1:30 AM -- WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966)
An academic couple reveal their deepest secret to a pair of newcomers during an all-night booze fest.
Dir: Mike Nichols
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal
BW-131 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Taylor (Elizabeth Taylor was not present at the awards ceremony. Anne Bancroft accepted the award on her behalf.), Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Sandy Dennis (Sandy Dennis was unable to attend the Academy Awards presentations, because she was working on a new film, Sweet November (1968), being shot in New York. Mike Nichols accepted the award on her behalf.), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Haskell Wexler, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Richard Sylbert and George James Hopkins, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Irene Sharaff

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Richard Burton, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Segal, Best Director -- Mike Nichols, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Ernest Lehman, Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Film Editing -- Sam O'Steen, Best Music, Original Music Score -- Alex North, and Best Picture

Mike Nichols told Richard Burton just "do nothing" sometimes in a scene and simply listen. It was a lesson Burton found quite valuable. "His behavior, his manner, are silky soft," said Burton of Nichols' directing style. "He appears to defer to you, then in the end he gets exactly what he wants. He conspires with you, rather than directs you, to get your best. He'd make me throw away a line where I'd have hit it hard...and he was right every time."


4:00 AM -- THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (1967)
A fortune hunter agrees to wed a temperamental woman so his friend can court her sister.
Dir: Franco Zeffirelli
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Cyril Cusack
C-122 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Lorenzo Mongiardino, John DeCuir, Elven Webb, Giuseppe Mariani, Dario Simoni and Luigi Gervasi, and Best Costume Design -- Irene Sharaff and Danilo Donati

Before playing Katherina, Elizabeth Taylor had never performed Shakespeare (unlike Richard Burton, who was an experienced Shakesperian and already played roles such as Hamlet, Iago, Edgar, Hotspur and Romeo on stage), and she was said to be very nervous prior to the beginning of the shot. As she found her way into the role, and became more confident, she asked director Franco Zeffirelli if she could shoot everything from the first day of shooting again, as she didn't think her performance was up to scratch. Zefferilli assured her it was, but she was persistent, and on the last day of principal photography, the entire first day was shot again.