TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 15, 2024: 31 Days of Oscar--Writing, Original Story

[Auggie]

The Academy Award for Best Story was an Academy Award given from the beginning of the Academy Awards until 1956. This award can be a source of confusion for modern audiences, given its co-existence with the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

The Oscar for Best Story most closely resembles the usage of modern film treatments, or prose documents that describe the entire plot and characters, but typically lack most dialogue. A separate screenwriter would convert the story into a full screenplay.

The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the Oscars for 1957, the two categories were combined to honor only the screenplay. Woody Allen has the most nominations in this category with 16.

Screenplays are eligible if they are not based on "previously published material". The Writer's Branch of the academy determines if a screenplay is adapted or original, based on possible sources in question, interviews given about the film and the film's publicity materials, and sometimes places screenplays in a different category than the Writers Guild of America.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Story
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Original_Screenplay



Above: Dalton Trumbo at work


---- DAYTIME (EDT) ----

6:00 AM | The Public Enemy (1931)
An Irish-American street punk tries to make it big in the world of organized crime.
Dir: William A. Wellman | Cast: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods
1931 Nominee Oscar, Best Writing, Original Story—John Bright, Kubec Glasmon

7:30 AM | Bachelor Mother (1939)
A fun-loving shop girl is mistaken for the mother of a foundling.
Dir: Garson Kanin | Cast: Ginger Rogers, David Niven, Charles Coburn
1940 Nominee Oscar, Best Writing, Original Story—Felix Jackson

9:00 AM | My Favorite Wife (1940)
A shipwrecked woman is rescued just in time for her husband's remarriage.
Dir: Garson Kanin | Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott
1941 Nominee Oscar, Best Writing, Original Story—Leo McCarey, Bella Spewack, Sam Spewack

10:30 AM | The Search (1948)
In post-war Berlin, an American private helps a lost Czech boy find his mother.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann | Cast: Montgomery Clift, Aline Macmahon, Wendell Corey
1949 Winner Oscar, Best Writing, Motion Picture Story—Richard Schweizer, David Wechsler

12:30 PM | The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
Years after a murder drove them apart, an heiress tries to win back her lost love.
Dir: Lewis Milestone | Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott
1947 Nominee Oscar, Best Writing, Original Story—John Patrick

2:30 PM | The Narrow Margin (1952)
A tough cop meets his match when he has to guard a gangster's moll on a tense train ride.
Dir: Richard Fleischer | Cast: Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White
1953 Nominee Oscar, Best Writing, Motion Picture Story—Martin Goldsmith, Jack Leonard

4:00 PM | A Guy Named Joe (1943)
A dead World War II bomber pilot, Pete Sandidge becomes the guardian angel of another pilot, Ted Randall.
Dir: Victor Fleming | Cast: Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, Van Johnson
1945 Nominee Oscar, Best Writing, Original Story—David Boehm, Chandler Sprague

6:15 PM | Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
A prizefighter who died before his time is reincarnated as a tycoon with a murderous wife.
Dir: Alexander Hall | Cast: Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, Claude Rains
1942 Winner Oscar, Best Writing, Original Story—Harry Segall

---- PRIME TIME & LATE NIGHT ----

8:00 PM | A Star Is Born (1937)
A young woman comes to Hollywood with dreams of stardom, and achieves them only with the help of an alcoholic leading man whose best days are behind him.
Dir: William A. Wellman | Cast: Janet Gaynor, Fredric March, Adolphe Menjou
1938 Winner Oscar, Best Writing, Original Story—William A. Wellman, Robert Carson

10:00 PM | One Way Passage (1932)
An ocean voyage leads to romance for a dying heiress and a condemned criminal.
Dir: Tay Garnett | Cast: William Powell, Kay Francis, Aline Macmahon
1934 Winner Oscar, Best Writing, Original Story—Robert Lord

11:15 PM | Love Me or Leave Me (1955)
True story of torch singer Ruth Etting's struggle to escape the gangster who made her a star.
Dir: Charles Vidor | Cast: Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell
1956 Winner Oscar, Best Writing, Motion Picture Story—Daniel Fuchs

1:30 AM | The Stratton Story (1949)
True story of Monty Stratton, the baseball star who fought to continue his career after losing a leg.
Dir: Sam Wood | Cast: James Stewart, June Allyson, Frank Morgan
1950 Winner Oscar, Best Writing, Motion Picture Story—Douglas Morrow

3:30 AM | 49th Parallel (1941)
The crew of a stranded German U-boat tries to evade capture in Canada during World War II.
Dir: Michael Powell | Cast: Leslie Howard, Raymond Massey, Laurence Olivier
1943 Winner Oscar, Best Writing, Original Story—Emeric Pressburger

5:45 AM | Test Pilot (1938)
Jim is a test pilot. His wife Ann and best friend Gunner try their best to keep him sober. But the life of a test pilot is anything but safe.
Dir: Victor Fleming | Cast: Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy
1939 Nominee Oscar, Best Writing, Original Story—Frank Wead