TCM Schedule for Friday, March 4, 2022 -- 31 Days of Oscar: 1970s Winners

[Staph]

Day three of the 31 Days, and we're getting a day full of the 1970s. Get your bellbottoms on and enjoy!


7:15 AM -- Cromwell (1970)
2h 20m | Epic | TV-PG
A Puritan leader sparks a revolution in 17th century England.
Director: Ken Hughes
Cast: Richard Harris, Alec Guinness, Robert Morley

Winner of an Oscar for Best Costume Design -- Vittorio Nino Novarese

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Score -- Frank Cordell

Richard Harris was perhaps the least likely candidate for the role of the Puritan leader who, according to many historians, carried out near genocide in Ireland. Although a fierce Irish nationalist, Harris saw past the historical circumstances and became intrigued with Cromwell as "a symbol of integrity, anxious to reform society." Harris insisted it wasn't necessary for an actor to strictly believe in the character he was playing. Instead, he drew inspiration from Cromwell's idealistic nature, his goal to take the country out of aristocratic hands, and his "rigorous self-discipline", a trait Harris admired. More modern historians have questioned the view that Cromwell carried out genocide or near-genocide in Ireland, pointing out that the worst atrocities took place under the direction of other generals after he had returned to England.


10:00 AM -- Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1979)
Biography | TV-PG
This documentary covers the life, career, and activism of actor Paul Robeson.
Director: Saul J. Turell
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Sidney Poitier, Margaret Webster

Winner of an Oscar for Best Documentary, Short Subjects -- Saul J. Turell

Paul Robeson, the handsome, eloquent and highly charismatic actor, became one of the foremost interpreters of Eugene O'Neill's plays and one of the most treasured names in song during the first half of the twentieth century. He also courted disdain and public controversy for most of his career as a staunch Cold War-era advocate for human rights, as well as his very vocal support for Joseph Stalin and the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. While the backlash of his civil rights activities and left-wing ideology left him embittered and practically ruined his career, he remains today a durable symbol of racial pride and consciousness.


10:45 AM -- Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976)
1h 43m | Documentary | TV-MA
A heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.
Director: Barbara Kopple
Cast: John L. Lewis, Carl Horn, Norman Yarborough

Winner of an Oscar for Best Documentary, Features -- Barbara Kopple

When filming began, the film was intended to be about the 1972 campaign by Arnold Miller and Miners For Democracy to unseat UMWA president Tony Boyle, in the aftermath of Joseph Yablonski's murder; but the Harlan County strike began and caused the filmmakers to change their principal subject, with the campaign and murder becoming secondary subjects.


12:45 PM -- Bound for Glory (1976)
2h 27m | Drama | TV-14
The early life of Woody Guthrie as a vagabond folk singer.
Director: Hal Ashby
Cast: David Carradine, Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon

Winner of Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Haskell Wexler, and Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score -- Leonard Rosenman

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Getchell, Best Costume Design -- William Ware Theiss, Best Film Editing -- Robert C. Jones and Pembroke J. Herring, and Best Picture

The pivotal Steadicam sequence that first captivated industry insiders involved David Carradine's amble through a migrant camp. The Steadicam operator, Garrett Brown, descends into the scene on a Chapman crane and follows Woody Guthrie (Carradine) as he gets off a pickup truck and walks past some 900 extras. The sequence, which looks quite simple on film, posed a challenge to operator and crew in that, just as Brown stepped off the crane platform laden with his weighty armature, grips had to simultaneously counterbalance the crane arm to prevent it from becoming a human catapult.


3:30 PM -- Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More (1974)
1h 53m | Comedy | TV-MA
A widow dreaming of a singing career ends up waiting tables in Phoenix.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Kris Kristofferson, Diane Ladd

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ellen Burstyn (Ellen Burstyn was not present at the awards ceremony. Martin Scorsese accepted the award on her behalf.)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Diane Ladd, and Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Robert Getchell

Hot off her success with The Exorcist (1973), the studio granted Ellen Burstyn total creative control over this project. She had two goals: to make a movie about woman with real-life problems, and to secure an up-and-coming filmmaker as the director. Upon selecting the script, Brian De Palma brought Francis Ford Coppola to Burstyn's attention, who suggested she consider Martin Scorsese. While impressed with Scorsese's talent after viewing Mean Streets (1973), Burstyn still hesitated to hire the director, fearing he could only direct men. When she asked Scorsese what he knew about women, Scorsese replied, "Nothing, but I'd like to learn." Satisfied with his enthusiasm, Burstyn immediately hired Scorsese.


5:30 PM -- Cabaret (1972)
2h 4m | Musical | TV-14
A female girlie club entertainer in Weimar Republic era Berlin romances two men while the Nazi Party rises to power around them.
Director: Bob Fosse
Cast: Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Liza Minnelli, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Joel Grey, Best Director -- Bob Fosse, Best Cinematography -- Geoffrey Unsworth, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Rolf Zehetbauer, Hans Jürgen Kiebach and Herbert Strabel, Best Sound -- Robert Knudson and David Hildyard, Best Film Editing -- David Bretherton, and Best Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation -- Ralph Burns

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Jay Presson Allen, and Best Picture

Christopher Isherwood's 1937 short story "Sally Bowles" later inspired Truman Capote to write his 1958 novella "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Capote had befriended Isherwood in New York in the late 1940s, and Capote was an admirer of Isherwood's novels. Consequently, in addition to Sally Bowles inspiring the character of Holly Golightly, a number of scenes and dialogue exchanges in Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) have direct equivalencies to Cabaret (1972).



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR -- 1970s WINNERS



8:00 PM -- Network (1976)
2h 1m | Drama | TV-MA
Television programmers turn a deranged news anchor into the mad prophet of the airwaves.
Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch

Winner for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Peter Finch (Nomination and award were posthumous. Finch became the first posthumous winner in an acting category. His widow Eletha Finch and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky accepted the award on his behalf.), Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Faye Dunaway, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Beatrice Straight, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Paddy Chayefsky

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- William Holden, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ned Beatty, Best Director -- Sidney Lumet, Best Cinematography -- Owen Roizman, Best Film Editing -- Alan Heim, and Best Picture

Writer Paddy Chayefsky was eerily prescient in his screenplay in three significant ways. First, the screenplay pertains to the goings-on at UBS, the fictional fourth network existing alongside the non-fictional ABC, CBS, and NBC. In 1987 Fox became the real fourth network. Second, in her speech to her employees about her goals for UBS, Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) says, "I don't want conventional programming on this network. I want counterculture, I want anti-establishment", the type of programming delivered by FOX with its two debut series, Married... with Children (1987) and The Tracey Ullman Show (1987). Third, Diana Christensen's creation of the show about the Ecumenical Liberation Army and its criminal activities is prescient of "reality TV" in that, as a result of the writers' strike of 1988 (which lasted twenty-two weeks), FOX started to run low on new content. To replace it, the network bought the show Cops (1989) (which featured police officers trying to thwart criminal activity). Despite very noteworthy predecessors, such as An American Family (1973), which depicted the experiences of the Loud family, and Scared Straight! (1978), some consider Cops (1989) the true progenitor of the long-running trend of "reality TV".


10:15 PM -- The French Connection (1971)
1h 44m | Crime | TV-MA
A tough-talking New York City detective and his partner uncover an international drug smuggling ring.
Director: William Friedkin
Cast: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gene Hackman, Best Director -- William Friedkin, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Ernest Tidyman, Best Film Editing -- Gerald B. Greenberg, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Roy Scheider, Best Cinematography -- Owen Roizman, and Best Sound -- Theodore Soderberg and Christopher Newman

The early scene where Doyle and Russo chase down a drug dealer while Doyle is dressed in a Santa Claus suit: the scene is based on a real-life tactic used by Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso. While on stakeouts in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Egan and Grosso discovered drug dealers could easily spot undercover cops, and they would often flee the scene before the cops could arrest them. One Christmas, Egan came up with the idea of dressing in a Santa Claus suit, figuring the dealers would never suspect Santa Claus of being a cop. As depicted in the film, Egan walked the neighborhood streets as Santa Claus, singing Christmas carols with local kids. When he saw a drug deal going down, Egan sang "Jingle Bells" as a signal to his partners to move in and make the arrest. The tactic worked beautifully, and Egan and his partners made dozens of Christmas arrests over several years.


12:15 AM -- Midnight Express (1978)
2h 1m | Drama | TV-MA
A young man arrested for drug smuggling fights to survive the horrors of a Turkish prison.
Director: Alan Parker
Cast: Brad Davis, Randy Quaid, John Hurt

Winner of Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Oliver Stone, and Best Music, Original Score -- Giorgio Moroder

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- John Hurt, Best Director -- Alan Parker, Best Film Editing -- Gerry Hambling, and Best Picture

In a scene at the airport, the middle-aged Turkish Customs Officer (Joe Zammit Cordina) supposedly speaks Turkish to Billy. However, in reality, he is speaking Maltese after he forgot his lines in Turkish, and he decided to use his native Maltese on the spur of the moment. The only Turkish words he speaks are "pasaport" (passport) and "canta" (bag).


2:30 AM -- The Omen (1976)
1h 51m | Horror | TV-14
Mysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist?
Director: Richard Donner
Cast: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Original Score -- Jerry Goldsmith

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jerry Goldsmith for the song "Ave Satani"

The film seemed to fall victim to a sinister curse. Star Gregory Peck and screenwriter David Seltzer took separate planes to the UK...yet BOTH planes were struck by lightning. While producer Harvey Bernhard was in Rome, lightning just missed him. Rottweilers hired for the film attacked their trainers. A hotel at which director Richard Donner was staying got bombed by the IRA; he was also struck by a car. After Peck canceled another flight, to Israel, the plane he would have chartered crashed...killing all on board. On day one of the shoot, several principal members of the crew survived a head-on car crash. The jinx appeared to persist well into post-production... when special effects artist John Richardson was injured and his girlfriend beheaded in an accident on the set of A Bridge Too Far (1977).


4:30 AM -- Cries and Whispers (1972)
1h 35m | Drama | TV-MA
A woman's impending death leads to painful memories and confrontations for herself and her two sisters.
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Cast: Ingrid Thulin, Liv Ullmann, Harriet Andersson

Winner of an Oscar for Best Cinematography -- Sven Nykvist

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Ingmar Bergman, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- Ingmar Bergman, Best Costume Design -- Marik Vos-Lundh, and Best Picture

Ingmar Bergman explained the use of the color red in this film: "'Cries and Whispers' is an exploration of the soul, and ever since childhood, I have imagined the soul to be a damp membrane in varying shades of red."

[BigmanPigman]

1. Creepy...all the strange accidents while filming The Omen.

[Auggie]

2. Irks me to this day that Rocky won Best Picture over Network and Taxi Driver

Both advanced film-making immeasurably and are still relevant -- instant classics, among the best films ever.

Rocky? Banal, trite, and nearly forgotten.