TCM Schedule for Friday, April 30, 2021 -- TCM Spotlight: Oscars From A to Z

TCM continues their salute to the Oscars, beginning today with a WWII comedy, Two Girls and a Sailor (1944), and finishing up with an Audrey Hepburn thriller, Wait Until Dark (1967). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)
2h 4m | Comedy | TV-G
Singing sisters create a World War II canteen and become rivals for the same man.
Director: Richard Thorpe
Cast: June Allyson, Gloria Dehaven, Van Johnson

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Richard Connell and Gladys Lehman

Given the star-studded cast, many classic cinema fans have wondered why this film was not photographed in Technicolor. Fact is, Two Girls and a Sailor (1944) was in production at the same time as Broadway Rhythm (1944), and studio chief Louis B. Mayer threw his weight -- and Technicolor cameras -- behind the latter project, devised as a star-building vehicle for his protege Ginny Simms. Ironically, the big-budget film tanked at the box office while the modest black-and-white picture was one of the year's top grossers, making stars of June Allyson, Van Johnson and Gloria DeHaven while Simms' option was quickly dropped by MGM. She would make only a handful of films going forward, including her best known, Warner Bros.' Night and Day (1946), in which she memorably cooed the Cole Porter songbook opposite Cary Grant.


8:15 AM -- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
2h 40m | Adaptation | TV-PG
An imposing black structure provides a connection between the past and the future. When Dr...
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester

Winner of an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects -- Stanley Kubrick (Stanley Kubrick was not present at the awards ceremony. Presenters Diahann Carroll and Burt Lancaster accepted the award on his behalf.)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Stanley Kubrick, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Anthony Masters, Harry Lange and Ernest Archer

Incrementing each letter of "HAL" gives you "IBM". Writer Arthur C. Clarke claimed this was unintentional, and if he had noticed ahead of time, he would have changed it. HAL stands for Heuristic Algorithmic Computer. IBM brand placements appear in the movie as well, including the computer panels in the spaceplane that docks with the space station, the forearm control panel on Dave's spacesuit, and the portable viewscreens on which Dave and Frank watch "The World Tonight". These were not paid endorsements but were used to make things appear to be routine tech.


11:00 AM -- 2010 (1984)
1h 54m | Drama | TV-14
A joint American-Soviet space mission sets off to uncover the mystery of the Discovery shi...
Director: Peter Hyams
Cast: Roy Scheider, Helen Mirren, John Lithgow

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Albert Brenner and Rick Simpson, Best Costume Design -- Patricia Norris, Best Sound -- Michael J. Kohut, Aaron Rochin, Carlos Delarios and Gene S. Cantamessa, Best Effects, Visual Effects -- Richard Edlund, Neil Krepela, George Jenson and Mark Stetson, and Best Makeup -- Michael Westmore

Although British born and educated, Dame Helen Mirren does actually speak some basic Russian as her father was of Russian descent. However her accent in this film is an exaggerated one as apparently in reality her spoken Russian language is, unsurprisingly, tinged with an English accent.


1:00 PM -- Two Women (1960)
1h 39m | Drama | TV-14
A widow tries to get her daughter to safety in World War II Italy.
Director: Vittorio De Sica
Cast: Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Eleonora Brown

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Sophia Loren (Sophia Loren is the first actor to win an Academy Award for a foreign language film. Sophia Loren was not present at the awards ceremony. Greer Garson accepted the award on her behalf.)

The novel (and therefore the film as well) is based on true events of mass rapes by the Moroccan Gourmiers in the Ciocara region after the battle of Monte Cassino in World War II. Monte Cassino was captured by the Allies on 18 May 1944, and on the following night, thousands of Goumiers and other colonial troops scoured the the hills surrounding the towns and the villages of Ciociaria. Over 60,000 women, ranging in age from 11 to 86, suffered from violence, when village after village came under control of the Goumiers. Civilian men who tried to protect their wives and daughters were murdered.


3:00 PM -- Umberto D. (1952)
1h 29m | Drama | TV-PG
A retiree copes with the realities of old age.
Director: Vittorio De Sica
Cast: Carlo Battisti, Maria Pia Casilio, Lina Gennari

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Cesare Zavattini

This is the first and only film for non-actor Carlo Battisti, who plays the leading role in the film. His real occupation was that of a Professor of Linguistics at the Università degli Studi di Firenze.


4:30 PM -- The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
1h 35m | Comedy | TV-14
A young French couple is separated by the war in Algiers.
Director: Jacques Demy
Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Anne Vernon

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Jacques Demy, Best Music, Original Song -- Michel Legrand (music) and Jacques Demy (lyrics) for the song "I Will Wait for You", Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Michel Legrand and Jacques Demy, and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Michel Legrand

The children in the final scene have personal connections to the filmmakers: Genevieve's daughter Françoise is played by Jacques Demy's adopted daughter by Agnès Varda, Rosalie Varda; and Guy's son François is played by composer Michel Legrand's son, Hervé Legrand.


6:45 PM -- Under Western Stars (1938)
1h 7m | Western | TV-G
A singing-cowboy congressman goes to Washington to save ranchers from a power dam.
Director: Joe Kane
Cast: Roy Rogers, Smiley Burnette, Carol Hughes

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Johnny Marvin for the song "Dust"

Trigger, formerly Golden Cloud, was the horse that Olivia de Havilland rode in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Rogers eventually bought Trigger for $2,500 dollars.



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



8:00 PM -- The Uninvited (1944)
1h 38m | Horror | TV-PG
A brother and sister buy a house with a ghostly secret.
Director: Lewis Allen
Cast: Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang

The film drew some criticism for its lesbian undertones in the Miss Holloway character, played by Cornelia Otis Skinner. A letter written in 1944 by Father Brendan Larnen of the Catholic Legion of Decency to Will Hays, Hollywood's head censor, said that large audiences of questionable type attended this film at unusual hours drawn by certain erotic and esoteric elements in the film. The letter warned to guard against such subject matter on the screen in the future.


10:00 PM -- Union Pacific (1939)
2h 16m | Thriller | TV-PG
A crooked politician tries to stop construction of the first intercontinental railroad.
Director: Cecil B. De Mille
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Akim Tamiroff

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Farciot Edouart (photographic), Gordon Jennings (photographic) and Loren L. Ryder (sound)

The gold spike used at the ceremony to mark the end of the construction was the same spike actually used in the May 10, 1869 event, on loan from Stanford University.


12:30 AM -- Vertigo (1958)
2h 8m | Romance | TV-PG
A detective falls for the mysterious woman he's been hired to tail.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color -- Hal Pereira, Henry Bumstead, Sam Comer and Frank R. McKelvy, and Best Sound -- George Dutton (Paramount SSD)

The original source material for this movie was the French novel "D'entre Les Morts", and the action was set in Paris. Alfred Hitchcock changed the setting to San Francisco, a city well known for its unique topography and hilly landscape, in order to add further torment to Scottie's life and emphasize the debilitating nature of his vertigo and acrophobia.


2:45 AM -- Victor/Victoria (1982)
2h 14m | Comedy | TV-MA
Julie Andrews stars as a struggling Paris cabaret singer who becomes the toast o...
Director: Blake Edwards
Cast: Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score -- Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Julie Andrews, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Preston, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Lesley Ann Warren, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Blake Edwards, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Rodger Maus, Tim Hutchinson, William Craig Smith and Harry Cordwell, and Best Costume Design -- Patricia Norris

Leslie Ann Warren in an interview said that as written the role of Norma was just acting. She had her hair bleached and created her accent, and when Blake Edward's saw and heard her he asked if she still sang and danced. She replied yes, and he then had the nightclub chorus line song and dance number written and added to the movie to show her off even more as a chorus girl.


5:15 AM -- Wait Until Dark (1967)
1h 48m | Thriller | TV-PG
A blind woman fights against drug smugglers who've invaded her home.
Director: Terence Young
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Audrey Hepburn

During World War II, 16-year-old Audrey Hepburn was a volunteer nurse in a Dutch hospital. During the battle of Arnhem, Hepburn's hospital received many wounded Allied soldiers. One of the injured soldiers young Audrey helped nurse back to health was a young British paratrooper - and future director - named Terence Young who more than 20 years later directed Hepburn in Wait Until Dark (1967).