TCM Schedule for Saturday, February 22, 2014 -- 31 Days of Oscar: 1948 Best Picture Nominees

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is showing films that were nominated for Best Picture. In prime time, we've got the Best Picture nominees of 1948, including Johnny Belinda, The Red Shoes, The Snake Pit, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and winner Hamlet. Enjoy!



7:30 AM -- Random Harvest (1942)
A woman's happiness is threatened when she discovers her husband has been suffering from amnesia.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Ronald Colman, Greer Garson, Philip Dorn
BW-127 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Ronald Colman, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Susan Peters, Best Director -- Mervyn LeRoy, Best Writing, Screenplay -- George Froeschel, Claudine West and Arthur Wimperis, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell, Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Herbert Stothart, and Best Picture

For several years, Sydney Pollack planned to remake the film, ultimately deciding against doing so. Anthony Minghella also toyed with the idea but felt that some of the plot contrivances simply wouldn't translate for modern-day audiences.


9:45 AM -- Blossoms In The Dust (1941)
True-life story of Edna Gladney, who fought for orphans' rights in Texas.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Felix Bressart
C-100 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Urie McCleary and Edwin B. Willis

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Greer Garson, Best Cinematography, Color -- Karl Freund and W. Howard Greene, and Best Picture

First of eight movies that paired Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. The first of five consecutive Best Actress Oscar nominations for Greer Garson; she would win the following year for Mrs. Miniver (1942).


11:30 AM -- One Foot In Heaven (1941)
A minister and his wife cope with the problems of church life in the 20th century.
Dir: Irving Rapper
Cast: Fredric March, Martha Scott, Beulah Bondi
BW-108 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

William S. Hart was the guest of honor at the Hollywood premiere of this movie, since his movie The Silent Man (1917) figures promimently in the plot.


1:30 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,

Won 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

Nominated 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

Jane Wyman's daughter refused to speak to her for two weeks after she saw the film. In so far as I can tell, that daughter was Maureen Reagan. As much as I disagree with Maureen's politics, I wouldn't have spoken to her mother either!


3:45 PM -- 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

Nominated 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 1 was a print.


5:30 PM -- The Sundowners (1960)
An Australian sheepherder and his wife clash over their nomadic existence and their son's future.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, Peter Ustinov
C-133 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Deborah Kerr, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Glynis Johns, Best Director -- Fred Zinnemann, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Isobel Lennart, and Best Picture

The man who offers to buy the horse at the end of the film is played by Jon Cleary, the author of the book.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: 1948 BEST PICTURE NOMINEES



8:00 PM -- The Red Shoes (1948)
A young ballerina is torn between her art and her romance with a young composer.
Dir: Michael Powell
Cast: Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer
C-135 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Hein Heckroth and Arthur Lawson, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Brian Easdale

Nominated for Oscars Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Emeric Pressburger, Best Film Editing -- Reginald Mills, and Best Picture

When people complained to Hein Heckroth about the grim ending, he pointed out to them that in Hans Christian Andersen's original fairy tale, the ballerina had her feet hacked off by a woodsman to stop her dancing.


10:30 PM -- Hamlet (1948)
The melancholy Dane flirts with insanity while trying to prove his uncle murdered his father.
Dir: Laurence Olivier
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Eileen Herlie, Basil Sydney
BW-154 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Laurence Olivier (Laurence Olivier was not present at the awards ceremony. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White
Roger K. Furse -- Carmen Dillon, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Roger K. Furse, and Best Picture (Laurence Olivier was not present at the awards ceremony. Robert Montgomery accepted the award on his behalf.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Jean Simmons, Best Director -- Laurence Olivier, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- William Walton

One of the William Shakespeare purists who criticized this shorn-down version of the play was Ethel Barrymore, who complained that it wasn't as faithful as the stage version produced on Broadway in 1922, in which her brother John Barrymore played Hamlet. Ethel Barrymore was the presenter of the Best Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards that year and was visibly shaken when she read out Laurence Olivier's name as the winner.


1:30 AM -- The Snake Pit (1948)
A young woman tries to recover her sanity in a corrupt mental institution.
Dir: Anatole Litvak
Cast: Olivia deHavilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn
BW-108 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Olivia de Havilland, Best Director -- Anatole Litvak, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Frank Partos and Millen Brand, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Alfred Newman, and Best Picture

Mary Jane Ward's book, the basis for this film, was an autobiographical account of the author's experiences in psychiatric hospitals. The book caused considerable controversy upon its publication in 1946, as it was a scathing indictment of the treatment of psychiatric patients, a subject considered taboo in the 1940s. Naturally, the book was a runaway bestseller.


3:30 AM -- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Three prospectors fight off bandits and each other after striking-it-rich in the Mexican mountains.
Dir: John Huston
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt
BW-126 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Walter Huston, Best Director -- John Huston, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Huston

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Director John Huston had read the book "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" by B. Traven in 1936 and had always thought the material would make a great movie. Based on a 19th-century ballad by a German poet, Traven's book reminded Huston of his own adventures in the Mexican cavalry. When Huston became a director at Warner Bros., the smashing success of his initial effort, The Maltese Falcon (1941), gave him the clout to ask to write and direct the project, for which Warner Bros. had previously secured the movie rights.


5:45 AM -- Johnny Belinda (1948)
A small-town doctor helps a deaf-mute farm girl learn to communicate.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford
BW-102 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Jane Wyman

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Lew Ayres, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Charles Bickford, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Agnes Moorehead, Best Director -- Jean Negulesco, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Irma von Cube and Allen Vincent, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ted D. McCord, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Robert M. Haas and William Wallace, Best Sound, Recording, Best Film Editing -- David Weisbart, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner, and Best Picture

Jane Wyman's Oscar acceptance speech is reportedly the shortest on record for Best Actress: "I won this award by keeping my mouth shut and I think I'll do it again." Sir John Mills bowed and said nothing after winning Best Supporting Actor for playing a mute in Ryan's Daughter (1970).