TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 28, 2019 -- 31 Days of Oscar - Favorite Boxing Biopic

Today's 31 Days of Oscar themes begin with: daylight - You're So Dramatic (from Bette Davis in Jezebel (1938) to Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1958) to The Big Chill (1983)), prime time - Favorite Boxing Biopic (1970's The Great White Hope (James Earl Jones the Voice as Jack Jefferson the Boxer!) vs. 1956's Somebody Up There Likes Me (Paul Newman the Blue Eyes as Rocky Graziano the Brawler)), and night time - Best David Raksin Nominated Score (1947's Forever Amber vs 1958's Separate Tables -- how come I've never heard of David Raksin!. Enjoy!



6:15 AM -- PENNY SERENADE (1941)
A woman on the verge of divorce recalls her heartbreaking attempts to adopt a child.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi
BW-120 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Cary Grant

In a flagrant disregard of the then Production Code, it would appear that Irene Dunne and Cary Grant share a marital bed instead of separate ones. Also, there's an implication that the two have sex on a train, something unheard of in the morally hidebound 1940s.


8:15 AM -- THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (1942)
A possessive son's efforts to keep his mother from remarrying threaten to destroy his family.
Dir: Orson Welles
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter
BW-88 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Agnes Moorehead, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Stanley Cortez, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Albert S. D'Agostino, A. Roland Fields and Darrell Silvera, and Best Picture

After a disastrous preview, it was clear to the execs at RKO that the film was too long, too dense and too somber. Orson Welles, however, had decamped to Brazil, where he was in the midst of working on a film called "It's All True" (which was never completed). Welles had been shipped out there under the auspices of Nelson Rockefeller, one of the chief shareholders in RKO, to make a film boosting US-South American wartime relations. With him out of the way, however, the onus of re-cutting and trimming the film fell on editor Robert Wise.


10:00 AM -- JEZEBEL (1938)
A tempestuous Southern belle's willfulness threatens to destroy all who care for her.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, George Brent
BW-104 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis (On 19 July 2001 Steven Spielberg purchased Davis' Oscar statuette at a Christie's auction and returned it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This was the second time in five years Spielberg did so to protect an Oscar from further commercial exploitation.), and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Fay Bainter

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Ernest Haller, Best Music, Scoring -- Max Steiner, and Best Picture

Bette Davis came to the realization that William Wyler was a very special director when he insisted she come view the dailies with him, something she had never done with any other director before. They watched a scene where her character was coming down a staircase, a scene that had really irritated Davis as she couldn't understand why Wyler wanted to film it over 30 times. Watching the rushes however, she saw one of the takes in which he had captured a fleeting, devil-may-care expression that summed her character up perfectly. After that, she happily accepted however many takes Wyler wanted.


11:45 AM -- KINGS ROW (1942)
Small town scandals inspire an idealistic young man to take up psychiatry.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Ann Sheridan, Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan
BW-127 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Sam Wood, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- James Wong Howe, and Best Picture

Initially screenwriter Casey Robinson thought it was madness to tackle an adaptation of Henry Bellamann's controversial novel as it featured such topics as incest, adultery and suicide, all of which would never get past the Hays Code. Indeed, Joseph I. Breen, who ran the Hays Office, wrote an open letter declaring the novel's unsuitability for movie treatment. Robinson and producer David Lewis met with Breen to discuss his views and agreed to remove as much offending content as possible, pitching the adaptation as a coming of age tale for an idealistic young doctor who is amazed at what he sees in the world around him. It took several drafts but eventually Breen was satisfied with Robinson's take on the material.


2:00 PM -- A PATCH OF BLUE (1965)
A blind white girl falls in love with a black man.
Dir: Guy Green
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters, Elizabeth Hartman
BW-105 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Shelley Winters

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Hartman, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Robert Burks, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- George W. Davis, Urie McCleary, Henry Grace and Charles S. Thompson, and Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Jerry Goldsmith

Shelley Winters hated her role as "Rose-Ann", primarily because, as a supporter of the Civil Rights Movement, she was very uncomfortable playing a racist. Winters was actually overwhelmed and speechless the night she won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.


4:00 PM -- CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1958)
A dying plantation owner tries to help his alcoholic son solve his problems.
Dir: Richard Brooks
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives
C-108 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Newman, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Taylor, Best Director -- Richard Brooks, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Richard Brooks and James Poe, Best Cinematography, Color -- William H. Daniels, and Best Picture

This film was originally to be filmed in black and white, as was the standard practice with "artistic" films in the 1950s. (Virtually all film adaptations of the plays of Tennessee Williams had been in B&W up to that time.) However, once Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor were cast in the leads, director Richard Brooks insisted on shooting in color, in deference to the public's well known enthusiasm for Taylor's violet and Newman's strikingly blue eyes.


6:00 PM -- REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)
An alienated teenager tries to handle life's troubles and an apron-wearing dad.
Dir: Nicholas Ray
Cast: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo
C-111 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sal Mineo, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Natalie Wood, and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Nicholas Ray

Natalie Wood was first considered too young for the role of Judy. Even though she was the same age as the character, she was at least 5 years younger than all the other candidates except Margaret O'Brien. She adopted a mature woman's hairstyle, started wearing heavy eye makeup and eventually attracted the notice of director Nicholas Ray, 43, who began an affair with the 16-year-old and gave her the part.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: FAVORITE BOXING BIOPIC



8:00 PM -- THE GREAT WHITE HOPE (1970)
A black boxer and his white mistress face racial prejudice when he wins the championship.
Dir: Martin Ritt
Cast: James Earl Jones, Jane Alexander, Lou Gilbert
C-103 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Earl Jones, and Best Actress in a Leading Role --Jane Alexander

In addition to Jack Jefferson being based on Jack Johnson, several other characters are based on real life individuals. Frank Brady is a stand-in for Jim Jeffries, the former heavyweight champion who came out of retirement to try to end Johnson's title reign, Cap'n Dan is based on "Gentleman" Jim Corbett, the racist former champion refused to fight black men as champion, and the Kid is a stand-in for Jess Willard, the fighter who eventually beat Johnson for the title in Havana in 1915. Eleanor is a composite of two white women Johnson married, Etta Duryea, and Lucille Cameron, who he fled the country with after being convicted.


10:00 PM -- SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME (1956)
True story of boxer Rocky Graziano's rise from juvenile delinquent to world champ.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Joseph Buloff, Sal Mineo, Everett Sloane
BW-113 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Malcolm Brown, Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Albert Akst

Originally, the movie was to be filmed on-location in New York City in Technicolor with James Dean in the lead role. However, after James Dean's death, it was decided the film should be in black and white, and filmed on studio sets. Director Robert Wise felt the sets looked very fake, and only used them for night scenes, while filming the daytime scenes on-location.


12:15 AM -- FOREVER AMBER (1947)
In seventeenth-century England, Amber St. Clair aims to raise herself from country girl to nobility, and succeeds, but loses her true love in the process.
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: Linda Darnell, Cornel Wilde, Richard Greene
BW-138 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- David Raksin

The Catholic Legion of Decency condemned the film for its "glamorization of immorality and licentiousness", and they demanded the studio (20th Century-Fox) make changes so the film would be removed from their 'condemned' list. The studio defiantly refused, initially, but when the actual boycotts began to occur, the studio caved in. During a period of about 2 months, 20th Century-Fox and representatives of the Legion of Decency discussed how the film could be changed to meet their approval. Amongst the scenes added was a narrated prologue over the credits which said the main character would be punished for sins, a new ending, in which Amber watches Lord Carlton leave for Virginia and ends up accepting a supper invitation from the King's equerry, plus the deletion of scenes suggesting Amber had many lovers, and the addition of new scenes to condemn her immorality. After these changes were made, the Legion of Decency took the film off the "condemned" list and moved it to the "Class B-Objectionable in Part" listing, but the film's bookings had been severely cut due to the earlier condemnation. 20th Century-Fox president Spyros P. Skouras later apologised to the Legion, not for offending them, but for refusing to conform to them.


2:45 AM -- SEPARATE TABLES (1958)
The boarders at an English resort struggle with emotional problems.
Dir: Delbert Mann
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Rita Hayworth, David Niven
BW-100 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- David Niven (Niven was a co-host of this year's Academy Awards ceremony. To date, he is the only actor to win an Oscar in the same year serving as a host.), and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Wendy Hiller (Wendy Hiller was not present at the awards ceremony. Harold Hecht, the film's producer, accepted on her behalf.)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Deborah Kerr, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Terence Rattigan and John Gay, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- David Raksin, and Best Picture

Laurence Olivier, the original director, wanted Spencer Tracy to play the role of John Malcolm. After producer Burt Lancaster decided he wanted to play the role, Olivier told him that either Tracy would get the part or both he and Vivien Leigh were off the picture. Lancaster stood his ground and fired Olivier.


4:45 AM -- FLIGHT COMMANDER (1930)
A hotshot World War I flyer almost cracks under the pressure of sending his men on perilous missions.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Richard Barthelmess, Douglas Fairbanks, Neil Hamilton
BW-108 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- John Monk Saunders

When the WB library was sold to Associated Artists in 1956 for television broadcast, the title was changed to 'Flight Commander' , which is the name of the book from which it was adapted, in order to avoid confusion with the similarly titled 1938 re-make The Dawn Patrol (1938). Perhaps for that same purpose, it still retains its new title in the Turner Classic Films Library, and in most cable and other off screen guides and information sources.