TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 10 -- 31 Days of Oscar -- Most Decorated Decorator

[Staph]

Today's daytime theme is the songs of Sammy Cahn, who was nominated for a Best Song Oscar 26 times, winning four times. The evening films all have set decoration or art decoration or interior decoration by Cedric Gibbons, who was nominated for and won more Oscars as art director than anyone else. Gibbons' films continue throughout the day tomorrow. Enjoy!



5:00am -- Robin And The 7 Hoods (1964)
A Chicago gangster stumbles into philanthropic work during a gang war.
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Bing Crosby
Dir: Gordon Douglas
C-123 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "My Kind of Town", and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Nelson Riddle

Making this film should have been fun. Instead, by more than one account, it was a waking nightmare for all involved. John F. Kennedy was assassinated soon after filming started, casting a pall over the entire set. Not long after that, Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped from his dressing room at Lake Tahoe, Nevada (Upon payment of a large ransom, he was released, unharmed, a few days later). Victor Buono, who played Deputy Sheriff Alvin Potts, later observed that it was a minor miracle that filming was completed at all.


7:15am -- Rich, Young And Pretty (1951)
A rancher's daughter visits Paris to meet her mother and find love.
Cast: Jane Powell, Danielle Darrieux, Wendell Corey, Vic Damone
Dir: Norman Taurog
C-95 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Nicholas Brodszky (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "Wonder Why"

Film debuts of Vic Damone and Fernando Lamas.


9:00am -- Because You're Mine (1952)
After being drafted, an opera star falls for his sergeant's sister.
Cast: Mario Lanza, Doretta Morrow, James Whitmore, Dean Miller
Dir: Alexander Hall
C-103 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Nicholas Brodszky (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "Because You're Mine"

The older woman who asks for Renaldo's autograph is played by Mario Lanza's real-life mother; the unspeaking man with her is Mario's father.


10:49am -- One Reel Wonders: So You Think You'Re Not Guilty (1949)
A simple traffic violation turns into a 10-year jail sentence for Joe McDoakes (George O'Hanlon).
Cast: Ralph Sanford, George O'Hanlon, Art Gilmore
Dir: Richard Bare
BW-11 mins

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Gordon Hollingshead

A rare entry in the Joe McDoakes series because there is no narrator.


11:00am -- Tonight and Every Night (1945)
An American girl falls for an RAF pilot while performing at a British music hall.
Cast: Rita Hayworth, Lee Bowman, Janet Blair, Marc Platt
Dir: Victor Saville
C-92 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "Anywhere", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Marlin Skiles and Morris Stoloff

Rita Hayworth was pregnant during production. As a result, the musical numbers were filmed first, before the pregnancy began to show. As filming progressed, great care was taken to hide her growing belly with muffs, furniture and purses.


12:45pm -- Romance On The High Seas (1948)
A singer on a Caribbean cruise gets mixed up in a series of romantic problems.
Cast: Jack Carson, Janis Paige, Don DeFore, Doris Day
Dir: Michael Curtiz
C-99 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "It's Magic", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Ray Heindorf

This was Doris Day's first ever acting role, and she was extremely naive about how films were made. She wrote in her autobiography that the first scenes to be filmed would be aboard the cruise ship, and the first day she walked onto the sound stage and asked when they would be leaving for the boat? The crew broke up laughing.


2:30pm -- Anchors Aweigh (1945)
A pair of sailors on leave try to help a movie extra become a singing star.
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Gene Kelly, José Iturbi
Dir: George Sidney
C-139 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- George Stoll (On 10 September 2001 Kevin Spacey purchased Stoll's Oscar statuette at a Butterfields auction in Los Angeles and returned it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gene Kelly, Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert H. Planck and Charles P. Boyle, Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "I Fall in Love Too Easily", and Best Picture

For the most famous sequence in the film, Mickey Mouse was originally meant to be the dance partner of Gene Kelly. However, when Walt Disney refused to have his most famous character appear in an MGM film. Kelly turned to MGM's own animation studio and used Jerry Mouse of Tom and Jerry fame. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the writer/directors of MGM's "Tom and Jerry" cartoons, supervised the animation for the sequence. When this dance sequence was screened for MGM executives, someone noticed that although Kelly's reflection shone on the floor during his dancing, Jerry's did not. This required Hanna, Barbera, and their team to go back in and draw Jerry's reflection on the floor as he was dancing.


5:00pm -- Star! (1968)
Gertrude Lawrence rises to stage stardom at the cost of happiness.
Cast: Julie Andrews, Richard Crenna, Michael Craig, Daniel Massey
Dir: Robert Wise
C-173 mins

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Daniel Massey, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Boris Leven, Walter M. Scott and Howard Bristol, Best Cinematography -- Ernest Laszlo, Best Costume Design -- Donald Brooks, Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "Star!", Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation) -- Lennie Hayton, and Best Sound (20th Century-Fox SSD)

Apart from Richard Aldrich, a certain amount of dramatic license was taken with the men in Gertie's life. In the movie, her first, stage manager husband is called Jack Roper and is shown as not much older than her. In real life, his name was Frank Gordon-Howley and he was twenty years her senior. Her upper-class, Guardsman boyfriend was not called Sir Tony Spencer, but Captain Philip Astley; he later married Madeleine Carroll. And the Wall Street banker she met while on Broadway was named Bert Taylor, not Ben Mitchell as depicted here.


8:00pm -- Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
Fanciful musical biography of wild West sharpshooter Annie Oakley.
Cast: Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, Louis Calhern, J. Carrol Naish
Dir: George Sidney
C-107 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Adolph Deutsch and Roger Edens

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Richard Pefferle, Best Cinematography, Color -- Charles Rosher, and Best Film Editing -- James E. Newcom

Judy Garland and Frank Morgan, who appeared together in The Wizard of Oz (1939), were scheduled to reappear together in this film. Garland was fired because of health problems, and Frank Morgan died shortly after filming began. As a result of this, Betty Hutton took over Judy Garland's role as Annie Oakley, and Louis Calhern succeeded Frank Morgan as Buffalo Bill.


10:00pm -- An American in Paris (1951)
An American artist finds love in Paris but almost loses it to conflicting loyalties.
Cast: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guetary
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
C-114 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, E. Preston Ames, Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason, Best Cinematography, Color -- Alfred Gilks and John Alton, Best Costume Design, Color -- Orry-Kelly, Walter Plunkett and Irene Sharaff, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Johnny Green and Saul Chaplin, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Alan Jay Lerner, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Vincente Minnelli, and Best Film Editing -- Adrienne Fazan

After Arthur Freed and Ira Gershwin reached an agreement during their weekly pool game, film rights to George Gershwin's "An American in Paris - A Tone Poem for Orchestra" were purchased for $158,750, and Ira received $56,250 as a consultant to write any necessary new lyrics for songs used.


12:00am -- Too Young To Kiss (1951)
A grown woman poses as a child prodigy to advance her career as a concert pianist.
Cast: June Allyson, Van Johnson, Gig Young, Paula Corday
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
BW-89 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore

Fifth of six movies that paired June Allyson and Van Johnson.


1:42am -- One Reel Wonders: Of Pups And Puzzles (1941)
This film shows how a Ph.D., a chimp, and three dogs help design aptitude tests for men applying for work.
Narrator: John Nesbitt
Dir: George Sidney
BW-11 mins

Won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel


2:00am -- The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
A man remains young and handsome while his portrait shows the ravages of age and sin.
Cast: George Sanders, Hurd Hatfield, Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury
Dir: Albert Lewin
BW-110 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Harry Stradling Sr.

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Angela Lansbury, and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Hans Peters, Edwin B. Willis, John Bonar and Hugh Hunt

Basil Rathbone campaigned in vain for the part of Lord Henry and believed that his typecasting as Sherlock Holmes was the reason he failed to get it. MGM's loaning of Rathbone to Universal to play Holmes was very profitable for the studio, another reason for not casting him.