TCM Schedule for Saturday, April 10, 2021 -- TCM Spotlight: Oscars From A to Z

In today's edition of Oscars A to Z, TCM starts us off with Classic Films Group patron saint Robert Montgomery



in Hide-out (1934) and finishes with Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama (1948). Enjoy!


6:45 AM -- Hide-Out (1934)
1h 22m | Romance | TV-G
Farmers take in an injured racketeer and try to reform him.
Director: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Robert Montgomery, Maureen O'Sullivan, Edward Arnold

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Mauri Grashin

With 35 screenplays to his name, this is Grashin's only Oscar nomination.


8:30 AM -- High Society (1956)
1h 47m | Comedy | TV-PG
In this musical version of The Philadelphia Story, tabloid reporters invade a society wedding.
Director: Charles Walters
Cast: Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra

Nominee for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Cole Porter for the song "True Love", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Johnny Green and Saul Chaplin

This film featured Grace Kelly's final role before she became Princess of Monaco; it was released three months after her marriage to Prince Rainier III.


10:30 AM -- Hold Back the Dawn (1941)
1h 55m | Romance | TV-PG
A gigolo flees Nazi occupation and sets his sights on a shy schoolteacher who happens to be a US citizen.
Director: Mitchell Leisen
Cast: Charles Boyer, Olivia De Havilland, Paulette Goddard

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Olivia de Havilland, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Leo Tover, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Hans Dreier, Robert Usher and Sam Comer, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Victor Young, and Best Picture

The last film scripted by Billy Wilder that he didn't direct. Several years later when Billy Wilder teamed up with author Raymond Chandler to collaborate on the screenplay for Double Indemnity (1944), Wilder gave Chandler (who had no experience in writing screenplays) a copy of the script for this movie to help him learn how to craft a screenplay.


12:45 PM -- Honeysuckle Rose (1980)
1h 59m | Drama | TV-14
A country music star leads different lifestyles at home and on the road.
Director: Jerry Schatzberg
Cast: Willie Nelson, Dyan Cannon, Amy Irving

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Willie Nelson for the song "On the Road Again"

This is the second remake of the Swedish movie Intermezzo (1936 and starring Ingrid Bergman, Gösta Ekman and Inga Tidblad) - first remade as Intermezzo (1939 and also starring Ingrid Bergman, with Leslie Howard and Edna Best) - replacing the classical music of the 1930s movies with country-and-western, and being made and released more than 40 years later.


3:00 PM -- Hope and Glory (1987)
1h 53m | Comedy | TV-MA
A young boy grows up in World War II London during the Blitz.
Director: John Boorman
Cast: Sebastian Rice-edwards, Sarah Miles, David Hayman

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- John Boorman, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- John Boorman, Best Cinematography -- Philippe Rousselot, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Anthony Pratt and Joanne Woollard, and Best Picture

The film's title is a shortening of the title of the flag-waving patriotic 1902 nationalist British song, "Land of Hope and Glory", music composed by Edward Elgar and lyrics by Arthur C. Benson.


5:00 PM -- How the West Was Won (1962)
2h 35m | Drama | TV-G
Three generations of pioneers take part in the forging of the American West.
Director: John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall, Richard Thorpe
Cast: James Stewart, John Wayne, Gregory Peck

Winner of Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- James R. Webb, Best Sound -- Franklin Milton (M-G-M SSD), and Best Film Editing -- Harold F. Kress

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- William H. Daniels, Milton R. Krasner, Charles Lang and Joseph LaShelle, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- George W. Davis, William Ferrari, Addison Hehr, Henry Grace, Don Greenwood Jr. and Jack Mills, Best Costume Design, Color -- Walter Plunkett, Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Alfred Newman and Ken Darby, and Best Picture

The film was inspired by a factual series of the same name on the settling of the West that had appeared in "Life" magazine and that had been followed by a identically titled two-album set of western songs sung mostly by Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney. Many of the songs on the album were also used in the film soundtrack, like "Bound for the Promised Land" and "What Was Your Name in the States?"



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: DAYTIME & PRIMETIME THEME -- OSCARS FROM A TO Z



8:00 PM -- Hud (1963)
1h 52m | Drama | TV-14
An amoral modern rancher clashes with his rigid father.
Director: Martin Ritt
Cast: Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Patricia Neal (Patricia Neal was not present at the awards ceremony. Annabella accepted the award on her behalf.), Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Melvyn Douglas (Melvyn Douglas was not present at the awards ceremony. His co-star Brandon De Wilde accepted the award on his behalf.), and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- James Wong Howe

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Newman, Best Director -- Martin Ritt, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr., and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Hal Pereira, Tambi Larsen, Sam Comer and Robert R. Benton

Rehearsals consisted of a week of reading and discussing the script, followed by working within a taped-off ground plan of the set, just as a cast would in the theater. Martin Ritt rehearsed them again for a day or two after they arrived on location in Texas, so that by the time the crew was ready to begin shooting, the actors "were engrossed in what Stanislavsky might have called the 'inner lives' of our characters."


10:00 PM -- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
1h 57m | Drama | TV-PG
A deformed bell ringer rescues a gypsy girl falsely accused of witchcraft and murder.
Director: William Dieterle
Cast: Charles Laughton, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Thomas Mitchell

Nominee for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- John Aalberg (RKO Radio SSD), and Best Music, Scoring -- Alfred Newman

The exterior of Notre Dame facing the plaza was built only as high as the first row of statues above the cathedral doors according to RKO production photographs. A matte painting completed the rest of the Cathedral facade and twin towers.


12:15 AM -- I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
1h 12m | Drama | TV-PG
A World War I veteran faces inhuman conditions when he's sentenced to hard labor.
Director: Mervyn Le Roy
Cast: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Paul Muni, Best Sound, Recording -- Nathan Levinson (sound director), and Best Picture

Although this was before the Film Noir era, this movie fits under the technical aspects of that genre including an ambiguous lead; the wayward, discontented main character suffering from alienation after the war (in this case, WWI as opposed to WWII, which hadn't yet occurred); Wrong Man, since he was falsely accused in the first place; a good and bad woman attached to the main character: one perfect for him while the other's out for blackmail; and a tragic, unresolved conclusion.


2:00 AM -- I Married a Witch (1942)
1h 16m | Comedy | TV-G
A 300-year-old witch wreaks havoc when she falls in love with a young politician.
Director: René Clair, Art Black
Cast: Fredric March, Veronica Lake, Robert Benchley

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Roy Webb

Veronica Lake was best known for her iconic hair style of having her right eye covered. Many women copied the style which caused problems since they were working in war plants and their hair kept getting caught in the machinery. Lake was asked to change her style until after the war. When she did she lost her iconic look and her popularity soon faded along with her career.


3:30 AM -- I Never Sang for My Father (1970)
1h 30m | Drama | TV-14
When his mother dies, a grieving son is torn between his demanding father and his need to live his own life.
Director: Gilbert Cates
Cast: Melvyn Douglas, Gene Hackman, Dorothy Stickney

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Melvyn Douglas, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Gene Hackman, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Anderson

Richard Widmark was playwright Robert Anderson's first choice for the son role in both the theatrical and film versions of the play. One proposal had Fredric March as the father, another had it as a TV special with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn as the parents.


5:15 AM -- I Remember Mama (1948)
2h 14m | Drama | TV-G
Norwegian immigrants face the trials of family life in turn-of-the-century San Francisco.
Director: George Stevens
Cast: Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes, Oscar Homolka

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Oskar Homolka, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Barbara Bel Geddes, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ellen Corby, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Nicholas Musuraca

Irene Dunne worked with dialect coach Judith Sater for two months to perfect her Norwegian accent. Dunne became so immersed in getting her character's voice down that she used the accent around her home with her family. In order to physically submerse herself in the role of Mama, Irene Dunne wore no make up and used body padding to make herself appear heavier.