TCM Schedule for Friday, February 20 -- 31 Days of Oscar -- Contemporary Moral Issues

[Staph]

Our overall subject area for today is from the Philosophy Department. This morning we cover the Philosophical Foundations of Feminism, including women in journalism, law, and sports. In the afternoon, we will study Morality and War, through rebellion in North Africa, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Quakers and the American Civil War, and humble heroism in World War I. In prime time, we'll look at Contemporary Moral Issues, in the swinging London of the 1960s, in the paranoid world of surveillance in 1970s America, in a classic triangle in 1960s California, and in the question of the death penalty in the 1950s. Enjoy!


4:49am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Of Pups And Puzzles (1941)
A short describing employment testing in 1941.
Narrator: John Nesbitt.
Dir: George Sidney
BW-11 mins

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel

George Sidney was one of the founders of Hanna-Barbera Productions.


5:00am -- Woman Of The Year (1942)
Opposites distract when a sophisticated political columnist falls for a sportswriter.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter, Reginald Owen
Dir: George Stevens
BW-114 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner Jr.

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn

As Katharine Hepburn's close friend and frequent director, George Cukor was a natural choice to direct, but for her first film with Spencer Tracy, Hepburn wanted Tracy to be as comfortable as possible, so as a quasi-producer, she hired George Stevens, who had directed her in Alice Adams (1935). As Hepburn said, "I just thought he (Tracy) should have a big, manly man on his team--someone who could talk about baseball." Cukor (who was openly gay and known for his friendships with actresses) would later become a good friend of Tracy and would direct both actors in Keeper of the Flame (1942), Adam's Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952).


7:00am -- Adam's Rib (1949)
Husband-and-wife lawyers argue opposite sides in a sensational women's rights case.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell
Dir: George Cukor
BW-101 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin

In the memorable Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn massage scene, a radio plays Frank Sinatra singing Cole Porter's "Farewell, Amanda," a gift to Amanda Bonner (played by Hepburn) from her songwriter-neighbor, Kip Lurie (played by David Wayne) who, earlier in the picture, had crooned the ditty, accompanying himself on the Bonners' piano. While Adam Bonner (played by Tracy) is massaging his wife, he abruptly shuts off the radio. Sinatra's prerecording of "Farewell, Amanda" is lost. All that remains of his rendition is the partial audio heard behind the Tracy-Hepburn dialogue.


8:45am -- Pat And Mike (1952)
Romance blooms between a female athlete and her manager.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Aldo Ray, William Ching
Dir: George Cukor
BW-95 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin

Katharine Hepburn was already an avid golfer when this movie was made.


10:30am -- The Battle Of Algiers (1965)
Algiers revolts against the French Foreign Legion.
Cast: Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi, Brahim Haggiag, Tommaso Neri
Dir: Gillo Pontecorvo
BW-121 mins, TV-14

1969 -- Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Gillo Pontecorvo, and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Franco Solinas and Gillo Pontecorvo

1967 -- Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film -- Italy

The only film in Oscar history to be a nominee in two separate non-consecutive years. It was a foreign film nominee for 1966, and then a nominee for screenplay and direction for 1968.

In 2003, the New York Times reported that the Pentagon screened this film for officers and civilian experts who were discussing the challenges faced by the US military forces in Iraq. The flier inviting guests to the screening read: "How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas".


12:45pm -- Above And Beyond (1952)
The pilot who helped drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima struggles with the demands of the dangerous mission.
Cast: Robert Taylor, Eleanor Parker, James Whitmore, Larry Keating
Dir: Melvin Frank
BW-122 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Hugo Friedhofer, and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Beirne Lay Jr.

The real Paul Tibbets died in his Columbus, Ohio, home at the age of ninety-two in 2007. He had suffered small strokes and heart failure in his final years and had been in hospice care. Tibbets laid down in his will that there should be no funeral service after his death and no headstone for fear this might lead to demonstrations at his grave. He wanted to ensure that his resting place could never be a pilgrimage site for opponents of the use of nuclear weapons. Tibbets asked to be cremated, and have his ashes dispersed into the waters of the English Channel.


3:00pm -- Friendly Persuasion (1956)
A peaceful Quaker family's sanctity is tested during the Civil War.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Marjorie Main, Anthony Perkins
Dir: William Wyler
BW-138 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Anthony Perkins, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Music, Original Song -- Dimitri Tiomkin (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics) for the song "Friendly Persuasion (Thee I Love)", Best Sound, Recording -- Gordon R. Glennan (Westrex Sound Services) and Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Adapted -- Michael Wilson (Due to being blacklisted Michael Wilson did not receive a screen credit, which under special Academy by-law made him ineligible personally although the writing achievement itself could be eligible. In early 1957 AMPAS instructed Price Waterhouse & Co. not to list any nomination declared ineligible under the by-law and thus this nomination was not included on the final voting ballot. The by-law was laster declared unworkable in January 1959. In December 2002 the Academy reinstated Mr. Wilson's nomination.), and Best Picture

During filming Gary Cooper arranged for his daughter Maria to "date" co-star Anthony Perkins, apparently not realizing the young actor was gay.


5:30pm -- Sergeant York (1941)
True story of the farm boy who made the transition from religious pacifist to World War I hero.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie, George Tobias
Dir: Howard Hawks
BW-134 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gary Cooper, and Best Film Editing -- William Holmes

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Walter Brennan, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Margaret Wycherly, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- John Hughes and Fred M. MacLean, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Sol Polito, Best Director -- Howard Hawks, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Max Steiner, Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Harry Chandlee, Abem Finkel, John Huston and Howard Koch, and Best Picture

Alvin C. York had been approached by producer Jesse Lasky several times, beginning in 1919, to allow a movie to be made of his life, but had refused, believing that "This uniform ain't for sale." Lasky convinced York that, with war threatening in Europe, it was his patriotic duty to allow the film to proceed. York finally agreed - but only on three conditions. First, York's share of the profits would be contributed to a Bible School York wanted constructed. Second, no cigarette smoking actress could be chosen to play his wife. Third, that only Gary Cooper, could recreate his life on screen. Cooper at first turned down the role, but when York himself contacted the star with a personal plea, Cooper agreed to do the picture.


What's On Tonight: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: CONTEMPORARY MORAL ISSUES


8:00pm -- Alfie (1966)
A British womanizer refuses to grow up until tragedy strikes.
Cast: Michael Caine, Shelley Winters, Millicent Martin, Julia Foster
Dir: Lewis Gilbert
C-114 mins, TV-14

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Michael Caine, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Vivien Merchant, Best Music, Original Song -- Burt Bacharach (music) and Hal David (lyrics) for the song "Alfie", Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Bill Naughton, and Best Picture

On its original release, the film had an all instrumental soundtrack, by Sonny Rollins. The Oscar nominated song, by Bacharach and David, was added for the American release, and to a British re-release. For the UK release, the song was sung by Cilla Black over the end credits, which went to #9 on the British charts. For the US release, the song was originally to be sung by Dionne Warwick over the end credits, but was replaced at the last minute by the version sung by Cher. Ironically, Warwick's version outperformed Cher's on the Billboard charts.


10:00pm -- The Conversation (1974)
A surveillance expert uncovers a murder plot within a corrupt corporation.
Cast: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest
Dir: Francis Ford Coppola
C-114 mins, TV-MA

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound -- Walter Murch and Art Rochester, Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Francis Ford Coppola, and Best Picture

The blue Mercedes limousine that Cindy Williams is sitting in near the end of the film was won by Francis Ford Coppola on a bet with Paramount Pictures. Coppola had complained about the station wagon he shared with five other passengers during the filming of The Godfather (1972) and studio execs told him if Godfather grossed a certain amount they would spring for a new car. After Godfather was a huge hit, Coppola and George Lucas went to a dealer and picked out the Mercedes, telling the salesman to bill Paramount.


12:00am -- The Graduate (1967)
A recent college graduate has an affair with his neighbor's wife, then falls for their daughter.
Cast: Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross, Murray Hamilton
Dir: Mike Nichols
C-106 mins, TV-MA

Won an Oscar for Best Director -- Mike Nichols

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Dustin Hoffman, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Anne Bancroft, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Katharine Ross, Best Cinematography -- Robert Surtees, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Calder Willingham and Buck Henry, and Best Picture

Two interesting camera techniques are used in the film. In the scene where Benjamin is running, he is shown at some distance running straight at the camera, an effect which makes him look as if he getting nowhere as he's running. (This technique is accomplished with a very long telephoto lens, which foreshortens distances in relation to the camera.) In another scene, Benjamin is walking from the right side of the screen to the left, while everyone else in the scene is moving from left to right. In western culture, things that move left to right seem natural (think of the direction you read words on a page), those that move right to left seem to be going the wrong way. These two visual techniques echo the themes of the film, Benjamin is going the wrong way, and getting nowhere in life.


2:00am -- I Want To Live! (1958)
True story of the small-time lady crook who fought to escape the gas chamber.
Cast: Susan Hayward, Simon Oakland, Virginia Vincent, Theodore Bikel
Dir: Robert Wise
BW-121 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Susan Hayward

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Lionel Lindon, Best Director -- Robert Wise, Best Film Editing -- William Hornbeck, Best Sound -- Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD), Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Nelson Gidding and Don Mankiewicz

Inveterate researcher that he is, Robert Wise was determined to capture every grisly element of an execution for the climax of his movie. He visited San Quentin prison and asked for permission to see the gas chamber and witness an actual execution. After he'd seen it and had his art director photograph it and take measurements for set replication purposes, he was still uncertain about how he would structure the last act. He went back to the prison and made one final request for a detailed account of the entire execution procedure. This is what is painstakingly documented in the movie's climax.



Pat and Mike

One of the typically smart, lively pairings of legendary screen couple Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, 1952's Pat and Mike also united the unique writing talents of another romantic team, Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon.

Husband and wife screenwriters Kanin and Gordon wrote Pat and Mike specifically for their actor friends, tailoring the script to the streak of devilish humor lurking beneath Tracy's solid, consummately male persona and taking advantage of Hepburn's natural athletic abilities as a superior golfer and one of the best tennis players in Hollywood. In addition to its two charismatic leads, Pat and Mike also featured cameos by a number of sports stars, from L.A. Angels player Chuck Connors, making his film debut, to lady athletes Helen Dettweiler, Betty Hicks, Babe Didrikson Zaharias and Alice Marble whose presence at times invests the film with an almost documentary-realism.

Hepburn stars as Pat Pemberton, an accomplished athlete and Phys Ed instructor who excels at tennis, golf, archery and just about every other sport, but whose smothering, controlling fiance, college administrator Collier Weld (William Ching), is undermining her ability to win.

When Pat meets a shady, blue collar New York sports promoter, Mike Conovan, who agrees to manage her professional tennis and golf career, Pat's luck appears to change for the better. This odd couple develops a mutual affection as they travel to each of Pat's tournaments, and nurture a winning streak only jeopardized by the reappearance of Collier with his ability to instantly jinx Pat's game.

The combination of Tracy's gruff, working-class demeanor and Hepburn's ladylike, patrician bearing provides Pat and Mike with some of its best comic moments, as when Mike, watching Pat walk across a golf course green, remarks to his partner in a thick Brooklyn accent, "There's not much meat on 'er, but what there is is cherce." Such earthy humor endeared Pat and Mike to both critics and audiences and undoubtedly helped win Kanin and Gordon an Academy Award nomination. Kanin and Gordon's witty script also took great advantage of the cozy, intimate rapport between Hepburn and Tracy who were an off-screen couple as well, and played upon the apparently mismatched but sizzling chemistry between the two lovers.

Pat and Mike was the seventh film out of nine that Hepburn and Tracy made together and the second film scripted by Kanin and Gordon after Adam's Rib (1949),in which bickering husband and wife lawyers are stuck on opposite ends of a legal dispute. As with Adam's Rib, Pat and Mike is an honest, amusing account of the battle between the sexes, but also a celebration of male-female chemistry made all the more exciting when the romantic leads are also equals, a specialty of the Kanin-Gordon writing style.

Pat and Mike's director George Cukor, considered an "actor's director" who often coaxed unforgettable performances from his stars, also richly exploited the comic potential in Kanin and Gordon's script, whose bracing mix of streetwise cool and tender sentiment mimicked Damon Runyon's storytelling style.

Director: George Cukor
Producer: Lawrence Weingarten
Screenplay: Ruth Gordon, Garson Kanin
Cinematography: William H. Daniels
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Uri McCleary
Principle Cast: Spencer Tracy (Mike Conovan), Katharine Hepburn (Pat Pemberton), Aldo Ray (David Hucko), William Ching (Collier Weld), Sammy White (Barney Grau), George Mathews (Spec Cauley).
BW-96m. Closed Captioning. Descriptive Video.

by Felicia Feaster


~for Longhorn~