TCM Schedule for Thursday, March 17, 2022 -- 31 Days of Oscar: 1960s Winners

[Staph]

Today is day seventeen of the 31 Days, and it's another round of Oscar-winning films from the 1960s. It's a shame that Finian's Rainbow (1968) did not win from either of its Oscar nominations; it's the only Saint Patrick's Day appropriate film that I can think of that was made in the 1960s. Enjoy and Erin go bragh!


6:00 AM -- Closely Watched Trains (1967)
1h 29m | Comedy | TV-14
A bumbling railroad dispatcher joins the resistance in World War II to impress the girls.
Director: Jirí Menzel
Cast: Václav Neckár, Josef Somr, Vlastimil Brodský

Winner of an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film -- Czechoslovakia

As of 2019 the train station still stands, and in 2017 a museum was opened there to commemorate this film.


8:00 AM -- The Shop on Main Street (1965)
2h 8m | Drama | TV-PG
A Slovak carpenter gets a job working for an elderly, deaf Jewish woman in a button shop during WWII.
Director: Ján Kadár, Elmar Klos
Cast: Ida Kaminska, Jozef Kroner, Frantisek Zvarík

Winner of an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film -- Czechoslovakia.

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ida Kaminska

This movie was shot exclusively in the small Slovak city of Sabinov.


10:15 AM -- Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
1h 31m | Drama | TV-PG
A recently released mental patient becomes obsessed with her younger brother.
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Cast: Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Max von Sydow

Winner of an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film -- Sweden

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Ingmar Bergman

The first Ingmar Bergman film to be made on the island of Fårö. Bergman would later buy a home on the island.


12:00 PM -- Z (1969)
2h 5m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-14
A political assassination uncovers a hotbed of corruption.
Director: Costa-gavras
Cast: Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Irene Papas

Winner of Oscars for Best Film Editing -- Françoise Bonnot, and Best Foreign Language Film -- Algeria

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Costa-Gavras, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Jorge Semprún and Costa-Gavras, and Best Picture

The meaning of "Z": At the very end of the movie, a message states: "Also the military regime banned (...) the letter "Z" which means "He is alive" in ancient Greek." (Obviously, it has an entirely different meaning in Russia in the 21st century!)


2:15 PM -- Two Women (1960)
1h 39m | War | 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.)

It has been said that Anna Magnani was originally cast in the role of Cesira, but when she was unable commit to the film due to illness, it was Magnani herself who suggested Sophia Loren for the role, suggesting to director Vittorio De Sica that if Loren (who was 25 years old at the time) would not mind playing a mother with an adolescent daughter, then the role should go to her.


4:00 PM -- The Facts of Life (1960)
1h 43m | Comedy | TV-PG
Suburban marrieds are tempted to dabble in adultery.
Director: Melvin Frank
Cast: Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Ruth Hussey

Winner of an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Edith Head and Edward Stevenson

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Norman Panama and Melvin Frank, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- J. McMillan Johnson, Kenneth A. Reid and Ross Dowd, and Best Music, Original Song -- Johnny Mercer for the song "The Facts of Life"

A UPI news item dated July 3, 1960 reports that while preparing to film a scene on a boat, Lucille Ball fell, struck her head and was knocked unconscious. She was taken to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital for a possible concussion and severe face and leg bruises. Her ex-husband Desi Arnaz rushed to the hospital from his ranch at Corona to be with her. Fortunately, preliminary x-rays of the head, neck and spine showed that the beloved star was not seriously hurt. Bob Hope was quoted in a New York Times article, "This film should have been shot at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital".


6:00 PM -- Cactus Flower (1969)
1h 44m | Comedy | TV-14
A philandering dentist asks his assistant to help him deal with his latest girlfriend.
Director: Gene Saks
Cast: Walter Matthau, Ingrid Bergman, Goldie Hawn

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Goldie Hawn (Goldie Hawn was not present at the awards ceremony. Raquel Welch accepted the award on her behalf.)

The drink "Mexican Missile" that figures prominently at the end of the movie actually exists, although the recipe is for more than just combining tequila and gin. A Mexican Missile Sunrise is equal parts (2 oz) gin and silver tequila, plus 6 oz. of orange juice, 1 oz. each of grenadine syrup and strawberry schnapps, stirred and served over ice. Two of them will, in fact, send you into orbit.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR -- 1960s WINNERS



8:00 PM -- The Music Man (1962)
2h 31m | Musical | TV-G
A con man, masquerading as a music professor, convinces a small town to form a brass band.
Director: Morton Dacosta
Cast: Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Ray Heindorf

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Paul Groesse and George James Hopkins, Best Costume Design, Color -- Dorothy Jeakins, Best Sound -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD), Best Film Editing -- William H. Ziegler, and Best Picture

In the high school gymnasium, at about 0:33, Mayor Shinn suggests that the reason the School Board will not be presenting a patriotic tableau is "Some disagreement about costumes, I suppose." At that moment, the School Board members are dressed quite differently. One wears a blue-grey jacket, one a dark brown jacket, and one a mildly striped medium-brown jacket. The fourth member is not present. After they begin singing as a barbershop quartet, they begin to dress more and more alike. When singing "Lida Rose," two are wearing tan jackets that almost match and two are wearing identical light grey jackets. This progression builds very cleverly on the Mayor's remark.


10:45 PM -- Oliver! (1968)
2h 33m | Musical | TV-PG
Musical version of the Dickens classic about an orphan taken in by a band of boy thieves.
Director: Carol Reed
Cast: Ron Moody, Shani Wallis, Oliver Reed

Winner of an Honorary Oscar Award for Onna White for her outstanding choreography achievement for Oliver!

Winner of Oscars for Best Director -- Carol Reed, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- John Box, Terence Marsh, Vernon Dixon and Ken Muggleston, Best Sound -- Shepperton Studio Sound Department, Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation) -- Johnny Green, and Best Picture

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Ron Moody, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Wild, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Vernon Harris, Best Cinematography -- Oswald Morris, Best Costume Design -- Phyllis Dalton, and Best Film Editing -- Ralph Kemplen

The opening sequence of "Consider Yourself" shows many food markets as being in quite close proximity. In reality, Covent Garden (produce), Billingsgate (fish) and Smithfield (meats) were many miles apart. Among the professions depicted are road levellers, bottle washers, laundresses, chimney sweeps, newsboys, and many others. The "Consider Yourself" number took three weeks to film.


1:30 AM -- Camelot (1967)
2h 59m | Musical | TV-14
The romance between Guinevere and Lancelot destroys King Arthur's dream kingdom.
Director: Joshua Logan
Cast: Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, Franco Nero

Winner of Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- John Truscott, Edward Carrere and John Brown, Best Costume Design -- John Truscott, and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Alfred Newman and Ken Darby

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Richard H. Kline, and Best Sound -- Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Studio Sound Department

The first song sung by Guenevere is "The Simple Joys of Maidenhood," in which she laments the things she'll miss once she's married. The song written for the Broadway musical includes the lyrics, "Shall I not be on a pedestal, worshiped and competed for?/Not be carried off or better still, cause a little war?" Vanessa Redgrave demanded and got these lyrics changed in the movie because, she said, she refused to sing words which glorified war.


4:45 AM -- How the West Was Won (1962)
2h 35m | Epic | TV-GThree generations of pioneers take part in the forging of the American West.
Director: John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Carroll Baker, Lee J. Cobb

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

James Stewart offered to play his own dead body in the Civil War story but was refused by John Ford, who instead used a double who bore no resemblance to Stewart. Then, when George Peppard imitated Stewart's voice during the grizzly bear reminiscence story, Ford reprimanded him, but he yelled back that he wanted the audience to remember that James Stewart had played his father. It stayed in.