TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 27, 2020 -- 31 Days of Oscar: 360 Degrees of Oscar

Last edited Mon Mar 23, 2020, 06:39 PM - Edit history (1)

More of 31 Days of Oscar, with the actors or actresses that connect the films added after a break at the end, in case you want to guess. Enjoy!



6:30 AM -- JOHNNY EAGER (1942)
A handsome racketeer seduces the DA's daughter for revenge, then falls in love.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Edward Arnold
BW-107 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Van Heflin

Jeff, played by Van Heflin, sarcastically calls Johnny, played by Robert Taylor, Lancelot after he has shipped his girl off to Florida. Taylor would go on to play Sir Lancelot in Knights of the Round Table (1953).


8:30 AM -- KISMET (1944)
In the classic Arabian Nights tale, the king of the beggars enters high society to help his daughter marry a handsome prince.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, James Craig
C-100 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Charles Rosher, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Daniel B. Cathcart, Edwin B. Willis and Richard Pefferle, Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD), and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Herbert Stothart

The August 23, 1944 New York Times MGM Kismet movie review included the following: "James Craig is a personable Caliph and perfectly acceptable in that role with the minor exception of his rich Southern accent, which, indeed, prompted one spectator to refer to him as Caliph 'of Baghdad on the Swannee'".


10:17 AM -- GOODBYE, MISS TURLOCK (1947)
This Oscar-winning short film has an adult looking back at his childhood where he was taught by a stern teacher in a one-room school.
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: Nana Bryant, Norman Ollestad,
BW-10 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Herbert Moulton


10:30 AM -- THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER (1941)
A farmer sells his soul for seven years of good crops.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: Edward Arnold, Walter Huston, Jane Darwell
BW-106 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Bernard Herrmann

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Walter Huston

The movie was officially nominated for Oscars under the title "All That Money Can Buy". Other titles used for the film included "Mr. Scratch", "Here is a Man" and "Daniel and the Devil". The reason for the different titles was so that the film would play in the American South, which was extremely socially conservative and ultra-religious. Films with the word "devil" in the title did not do well. Mainly, however, the name was changed so as not to be confused with The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) which was also released in 1941 and nominated for Oscars.


12:30 PM -- MUSIC IN MANHATTAN (1944)
An actress's publicist starts a rumor that she's a war hero's secret bride.
Dir: John H. Auer
Cast: Anne Shirley, Dennis Day, Phillip Terry
BW-81 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Stephen Dunn (RKO Radio SSD)

Based on a story by Jack Scholl, Harold Jacob Smith and Maurice Tombragel.


1:53 PM -- MAIN STREET ON THE MARCH! (1941)
This short film focuses on America's changing mood to events leading up to WWII.
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
Cast: Barbara Bedford, Robert Blake, Naomi Childers
BW-19 mins,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel

A very young Robert Blake collects his mother's aluminum pot to be donated as metals fashioned into items for the war effort.


2:15 PM -- BOMBARDIER (1943)
Military officers compete for the same woman while training pilots for war.
Dir: Richard Wallace
Cast: Pat O'Brien, Randolph Scott, Anne Shirley
BW-99 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Vernon L. Walker (photographic), James G. Stewart (sound) and Roy Granville

The "American" bomb sight mentioned throughout the movie was the Norden bomb sight whose secret was almost as closely guarded as the development of the atomic bomb. It used a mechanical computer and linkage to the plane's autopilot to achieve an accuracy of hitting with 75 feet of the target from an altitude of 12000 feet. All members of the bomber's crew were ordered to destroy the sight at all costs if the plane was going to crash. Many ships carried a hand grenade to place under the sight to assure total destruction. It was used as late as 1967 to drop sensors along the Ho Chi Minh trail in Viet Nam.


4:03 PM -- STRAUSS FANTASY (1954)
In this short film, Johnny Green leads the MGM Symphony Orchestra in a medley of waltzes and other familiar pieces by three members of the Strauss family.
Cast: The MGM Symphony Orchestra, Johnny Green, John Dehner
C-10 mins, Letterbox Format

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Johnny Green


4:15 PM -- CAPTAIN KIDD (1945)
An infamous pirate tries to double cross the King of England.
Dir: Rowland V. Lee
Cast: Charles Laughton, Randolph Scott, Barbara Britton
BW-81 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Werner Janssen

The film is loosely based on real-life pirate William Kidd. Born in Scotland in 1645, he began his career as a privateer. By 1690 he became a wealthy shipowner in New York. In 1696, during a trip to East Africa, he turned to piracy. He captured or looted many ships. Trusting that his privateer commission would protect him, he returned to Long Island in 1699. He was ordered to England, where he was arrested, tried and convicted for piracy and murder. He was hanged in 1701. Stories about Kidd's buried treasure were legendary but the only booty ever found was on Gardiners Island, near Long Island, in New York.


5:50 PM -- WATER TRIX (1948)
In this short film, photographer Charles T. Trego films water skiers perform various tricks.
Dir: Charles T. Trego
BW-9 mins,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Pete Smith


6:00 PM -- BENEATH THE 12-MILE REEF (1953)
Love brings together two families of rival sponge fishers.
Dir: Robert D. Webb
Cast: Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, Gilbert Roland
C-101 mins, Letterbox Format

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Edward Cronjager

Third film to be shot in CinemaScope, following The Robe (1953) and How to Marry a Millionaire (1953).


7:49 PM -- A NIGHT AT THE MOVIES (1937)
In this comedic short, a man and wife suffer through a night together at the movies.
Dir: Roy Rowland
Cast: Robert Benchley, King Baggot, Ricardo Lord Cezon
BW-10 mins,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel

Inside Joke: Just after Robert Benchley buys his tickets from the cashier (played by Gwen Lee), he walks past a poster advertising the film My Dear Miss Aldrich (1937), which featured Lee.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: 360 DEGREES OF OSCAR



8:00 PM -- BROKEN LANCE (1954)
The saga of the Devereaux rancher family, set in 1880's Arizona.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Robert Wagner, Jean Peters
BW-96 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Philip Yordan

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Katy Jurado

Though Katy Jurado played Robert Wagner's mother in the film, she was only six years older than him in real-life.


10:00 PM -- THE KISS OF DEATH (1947)
An ex-con trying to go straight must face a crazed criminal out for revenge.
Dir: Henry Hathaway
Cast: Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, Coleen Gray
BW-99 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Richard Widmark, and Best Writing, Original Story -- Eleazar Lipsky

When New York mobster Joe Gallo--a vicious killer known as "Crazy Joe"--was starting out as a small-time hoodlum, he saw this movie and instantly idolized Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark). Afterwards, Gallo began wearing his suits with black shirts and white ties in emulation of Udo. He also began acting in a more crazed manner, thus giving rise to his "Crazy Joe" persona, which lasted until the gangster's death in 1972, when he was murdered by rival gangsters in Umberto's Clam House in Little Italy.


12:00 AM -- ONE MILLION B.C. (1940)
An exiled caveman finds love when he joins another tribe.
Dir: Hal Roach
Cast: Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Lon Chaney Jr.
BW-81 mins,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Roy Seawright (photographic) and Elmer Raguse (sound), and Best Music, Original Score -- Werner R. Heymann

The special effects were so good that footage from this film was used in numerous other pictures produced well into the 1960s.


1:26 AM -- STAR IN THE NIGHT (1945)
In this short film, three cowboys see a bright light in the distance and decide to investigate on Christmas Eve. Vitaphone Release 1401A.
Dir: Don Siegel
Cast: J. Carrol Naish, Lynne Baggett, Anthony Caruso
BW-21 mins,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel -- Gordon Hollingshead

Although not credited by choice, Star in the Night was co-written by Betty Smith who was romantically involved at the time with credited screen writer Robert Finch. The screen adaptation of Smith's best-selling novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), was also released in 1945.


2:00 AM -- TOPPER RETURNS (1941)
A beautiful ghost enlists a henpecked husband to track down her killer.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth
Cast: Joan Blondell, Roland Young, Carole Landis
BW-88 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Elmer Raguse (Hal Roach SSD), and Best Effects, Special Effects -- Roy Seawright (photographic) and Elmer Raguse (sound)

In the film, Eddie (played by Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson) says that he's going back to "Mr. Benny", an in-joke reference to the fact that Anderson played Rochester, the valet, on Jack Benny's radio program and later TV show.


3:31 AM -- DRUNK DRIVING (1939)
In this short film, an up and coming businessman mixes drinking and driving with tragic consequences.
Dir: David Miller
Cast: Harrison Greene, Richard Lane, Dick Purcell
BW-21 mins,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel


4:00 AM -- THE GUARDSMAN (1931)
A jealous husband dons a disguise to test his wife's fidelity.
Dir: Sidney Franklin
Cast: Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Roland Young
BW-82 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Alfred Lunt, and Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Lynn Fontanne

On the final day of filming, MGM head of production Irving Thalberg, informed the Lunts that they would be required to re-shoot what Thalberg thought was an unsatisfactory scene. The Lunts protested because they thought they had done their best but were finally coerced into re-shooting the scene. When Thalberg saw the newly shot footage he accused Alfred Lunt of purposely crossing his eye as to sabotage the re-shoot. Lunt replied that he couldn't do that on purpose and the reason why the eye was wandering was because of fatigue. Before Thalberg could ask for another re-shoot, Lunt went to the studio barber to get a haircut, making it impossible to re-shoot anymore.


5:23 AM -- HEAVENLY MUSIC (1943)
In this short film, a bandleader must prove his worth to enter the Hall of Music in heaven.
Dir: Josef Berne
Cast: Fred Brady, William Yetter, Fritz Feld
BW-22 mins,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel -- Jerry Bresler and Sam Coslow

Tchaikovsky scolds Ted for having used one of his melodies and then says to the Official Recorder to let him "know when that Freddie Martin checks in here (Heaven)". Freddie Martin's biggest hit was "Tonight We Love" in 1941, which heavily borrowed from Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto Number 1 in B-flat Minor. It was such a big hit that Martin began to incorporate melodies from the classics in follow-up songs.





















Don't scroll any farther if you don't want to know who the connecting actors and actresses are!



















Van Heflin
Johnny Eager (1942)
Edward Arnold
Kismet (1944)
James Craig
The Devil and Daniel Webster (1960)
Jane Darwell
Music in Manhattan (1944)
Anne Shirley
Bombardier (1943)
Randolph Scott
Captain Kidd (1945)
Gilbert Roland
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953)
Robert Wagner
Broken Lance (1954)
Richard Widmark
Kiss of Death (1947)
Victor Mature
One Million B.C. (1940)
Carole Landis
Topper Returns (1941)
Roland Young
The Guardsman (1931)
Herman Bing