TCM Schedule for Saturday, February 29, 2020 -- 31 Days of Oscar: 360 Degrees of Oscar

Last edited Mon Mar 23, 2020, 06:38 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! And have a happy Leap Year!


6:15 AM -- BREWSTER'S MILLIONS (1945)
A veteran has to spend $1 million in two months to inherit a fortune.
Dir: Allan Dwan
Cast: Dennis O'Keefe, Helen Walker, June Havoc
BW-79 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Louis Forbes

Upon its original release, the film was banned in Memphis, Tennessee, where officials found Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson's servant character had "too familiar a way about him" and that the movie overall depicted "too much social equality and racial mixture."


7:45 AM -- GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 (1933)
Three chorus girls fight to keep their show going and find rich husbands.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon
BW-98 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (sound director)

At 5:55 PM PST on March 10, 1933, the Long Beach earthquake hit southern California, measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale. When the earthquake hit, Busby Berkeley was filming the "Shadow Waltz" dance sequence on a sound stage on the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank. The earthquake caused a blackout on the sound stage and short-circuited some of the neon-tubed violins. Berkeley was almost thrown from a camera boom, and dangled by one hand until he could pull himself back up. Since many of the chorus girls in the dance number were on a 30-foot-high scaffold, Berkeley yelled for them to sit down and wait until the stage hands and technicians could open the sound stage doors and let in some light.


9:30 AM -- THE CHAMP (1979)
A washed-up prizefighter fights to keep his son.
Dir: Franco Zeffirelli
Cast: Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway, Ricky Schroder
C-123 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Score -- Dave Grusin

After looking at over two thousand child actors, screentesting Ricky Schroder and putting him up in a hotel with his family, the producers finally offered him the role on the condition that his parents sign an exclusive, seven-year contract on his behalf. Schroeder's mother refused, saying she couldn't do that to a little boy, and prepared to return home with her family. The producers relented, and offered the role with no strings attached.


11:45 AM -- THE FOUR MUSKETEERS (1975)
To maintain control of the French monarchy, Cardinal Richelieu kidnaps D¿Artagnan¿s true love.
Dir: Richard Lester
Cast: Michael York, Raquel Welch, Oliver Reed
C-107 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Costume Design -- Yvonne Blake and Ron Talsky

Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton Heston) says to d'Artagnan (Michael York) that he has no personal enemies, only enemies of France. This line is in neither the original novel nor the script. Charlton Heston came across this quote of the Cardinal's when researching the role, and asked director Richard Lester to find a place to include it in this movie.


1:45 PM -- THE SWARM (1978)
Killer bees extend their territory into the U.S., with devastating effect.
Dir: Irwin Allen
Cast: Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark
C-116 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Costume Design -- Paul Zastupnevich

One of Sir Michael Caine's notorious "paycheck movies" alongside Ashanti (1979), Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979), Jaws: The Revenge (1987), The Island (1980), The Hand (1981), and Blame It on Rio (1984).


4:00 PM -- THE MIRACLE WORKER (1962)
True story of the determined teacher who helped Helen Keller overcome deafness and blindness to learn to communicate.
Dir: Arthur Penn
Cast: Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke, Victor Jory
BW-107 mins, CC,

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Anne Bancroft (Anne Bancroft was not present at the awards ceremony. Joan Crawford accepted the award on her behalf.), and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Patty Duke

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Arthur Penn, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- William Gibson, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Ruth Morley

William Gibson took Helen Keller's story to Broadway in 1959, but it was performed for the first time not on Broadway but on live television in a 1957 episode of "Playhouse 90": Playhouse 90: The Miracle Worker (1957). The two leads were Teresa Wright and 11-year-old Patty McCormack. On the Broadway stage and in the film they were Anne Bancroft and 16-year-old Patty Duke. Arthur Penn directed both the TV version and the 1962 film.


6:00 PM -- THE GRADUATE (1967)
A recent college graduate has an affair with his neighbor's wife, then falls for their daughter.
Dir: Mike Nichols
Cast: Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross
C-106 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Director -- Mike Nichols

Nominee 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 Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Calder Willingham and Buck Henry, Best Cinematography -- Robert Surtees, and Best Picture

During rehearsals of Dustin Hoffman's and Anne Bancroft's first encounter in the hotel room, Bancroft did not know that Hoffman was going to grab her breast. Hoffman decided to do it because it reminded him of schoolboys trying to nonchalantly grab girls' breasts in the hall by pretending to put their jackets on. When Hoffman did it, Director Mike Nichols began laughing loudly. Hoffman began to laugh as well, so rather than stop the scene, he turned away and walked to the wall. Hoffman banged his head on the wall, trying to stop laughing, and Nichols thought it was so funny, it stayed in the finished film.



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



8:00 PM -- TOOTSIE (1982)
An unemployed actor masquerades as a woman to win a soap-opera role.
Dir: Sydney Pollack
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Terry Garr
C-116 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Jessica Lange

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Dustin Hoffman, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Teri Garr, Best Director -- Sydney Pollack, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Larry Gelbart (screenplay/story), Murray Schisgal (screenplay) and Don McGuire (story), Best Cinematography -- Owen Roizman, Best Sound -- Arthur Piantadosi, Les Fresholtz, Rick Alexander (as Dick Alexander) and Les Lazarowitz, Best Film Editing -- Fredric Steinkamp and William Steinkamp, Best Music, Original Song -- Dave Grusin (music), Alan Bergman (lyrics) and Marilyn Bergman (lyrics) for the song "It Might Be You", and Best Picture

Dustin Hoffman tried out his role as Dorothy by passing himself off as his daughter's Aunt Dorothy at her parents' evening at school. His performance was so strong he actually convinced the teachers present. They never suspected.


10:15 PM -- OH, GOD! (1977)
A grocer is selected by God to help spread a message.
Dir: Carl Reiner
Cast: George Burns, John Denver, Terry Garr
C-98 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Larry Gelbart

Briefly ended Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)'s fifteen-week reign at the number one spot at the box-office in October of 1977, before Star Wars returned to the top spot the following week.


12:15 AM -- THE SUNSHINE BOYS (1975)
A feuding comedy team reunites for a television comeback.
Dir: Herbert Ross
Cast: Walter Matthau, George Burns, Richard Benjamin
C-111 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- George Burns

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Walter Matthau, Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted From Other Material -- Neil Simon, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Albert Brenner and Marvin March

Based on the lives and careers of vaudeville comics Joe Smith and Charles Dale (né Sultzer and Marks). Unlike the characters in the Broadway play and later film, Smith and Dale were almost inseparable friends. In fact, when Dale died in 1971, Smith commissioned a single tombstone to be prepared for them both, ordering that the inscription read "Smith and Dale". The pair's strained relationship is based on another old-time vaudeville duo, Gallagher and Shean, the latter of whom was Groucho Marx's uncle.


2:15 AM -- CALIFORNIA SUITE (1978)
Four sets of guests at a posh hotel face personal crises.
Dir: Herbert Ross
Cast: Alan Alda, Michael Caine, Judith Brown
C-103 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Maggie Smith

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Neil Simon, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Albert Brenner and Marvin March

Diana Barrie (Dame Maggie Smith) says that she wishes David Niven could accept her award for her because he would be witty and charming. In the play on which the movie is based, the character says "Michael Caine", but it was changed when Caine was cast as her husband.


4:15 AM -- HOT MILLIONS (1968)
A computer whiz and his pregnant girlfriend set out to rob a massive corporation.
Dir: Eric Till
Cast: Peter Ustinov, Maggie Smith, Karl Malden
C-107 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Ira Wallach and Peter Ustinov

In this movie, Patty Terwilliger Smith (Dame Maggie Smith) takes Willard C. Gnatpole (Bob Newhart) shopping, where she is seen trying on clothes and buying an outfit for twenty pounds sterling at the Apple Boutique on Baker Street, London, a boutique owned and operated by The Beatles. The boutique, which was the first venture of their Apple Corps Ltd. company, and featured a large psychedelic mural on the external wall, was only operated for several months in 1968 before being closed down, and the contents given away to the public for free. This movie provides one of the few rare filmed glimpses of the boutique's interior.






















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




















Herbert Rudley
Brewster's Millions (1945)
Dennis O'Keefe
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
Joan Blondell
The Champ (1979)
Faye Dunaway
The Four Musketeers (1975)
Richard Chamberlain
The Swarm (1978)
Patty Duke
The Miracle Worker (1962)
Anne Bancroft
The Graduate (1967)
Dustin Hoffman
Tootsie (1982)
Teri Garr
Oh, God! (1977)
George Burns
The Sunshine Boys (1975)
Walter Matthau
California Suite (1978)
Maggie Smith
Hot Millions (1968)
Cesar Romero