TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 16 -- 31 Days of Oscar -- Russia

We're spending the day in Africa and the night in Russia. Enjoy!



7:15 AM -- King Solomon's Mines (1950)
A spirited widow hires a daredevil jungle scout to find a lost treasure in diamonds.
Dir: Compton Bennett
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Stewart Granger, Richard Carlson
C- 103 min, TV-PG, CC

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert Surtees, and Best Film Editing -- Ralph E. Winters and Conrad A. Nervig

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Errol Flynn was originally cast as Quartermain, but turned it down, as he did not desire to sleep in a tent on location in Africa. Instead he did Kim, which was filmed in India, but the accommodations for the actors were at a local resort.


9:00 AM -- Sundown (1941)
An exotic woman helps the Allies fight the Germans in North Africa.
Dir: Henry Hathaway
Cast: Gene Tierney, Bruce Cabot, George Sanders
91 min, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Alexander Golitzen and Richard Irvine, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Miklós Rózsa

Debut of Woody Strode.


10:45 AM -- The Desert Rats (1953)
A desperate band of Allied soldiers fights off the Nazis in North Africa.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Richard Burton, Robert Newton, Robert Douglas
88 min, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Richard Murphy

In light of postwar revelations that Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had been complicit in the attempt to kill Adolf Hitler, there emerged a reassessment of him as a dashing and gallant officer, and this is how James Mason played him in "The Desert Fox"--in contrast to the portrayal of Rommel by Erich von Stroheim in Paramount's Five Graves to Cairo, which was Billy Wilder's first film as a director. After "The Desert Fox" came out, criticism came from veterans who had strong opinions about Rommel based on their experience of his actions during the war. In making "The Desert Rats" two years later, in reaction to this criticism, Fox brought back Mason in a cameo, and he plays Rommel more villainously than he has in "The Desert Fox", though not as much as von Stroheim.


12:15 PM -- The Four Feathers (1939)
A disgraced officer risks his life to help his childhood friends in battle.
Dir: Zoltan Korda
Cast: John Clements, Ralph Richardson, C. Aubrey Smith
C- 115 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Georges Périnal and Osmond Borradaile

Based on the novel by A.E.W Mason, and was also filmed in 1915 (with Howard Estabrook as the disgraced hero), 1921 (starring Harry Ham), 1929 (starring Richard Arlen), 1955 (as Storm Over The Nile, starring Anthony Steel), 1978 on TV (starring Beau Bridges), and 2002 (starring Heath Ledger).


2:15 PM -- The Wind And The Lion (1975)
An Arab chief triggers an international incident when he kidnaps an American widow and her children.
Dir: John Milius
Cast: Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, Brian Keith
C- 119 min, TV-MA, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- Jerry Goldsmith, and Best Sound -- Harry W. Tetrick, Aaron Rochin, William L. McCaughey and Roy Charman

According to John Milius when the film was screened for President Gerald Ford, Ford remarked that he recognized the place they filmed in Yellowstone National Park well because he used to be a ranger there. Milius refrained from informing him that the entire movie was filmed in and around Spain.


4:15 PM -- Born Free (1966)
A game warden and his wife face a wrenching decision when the lion cub they've raised becomes too big to keep.
Dir: James Hill
Cast: Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers, Geoffrey Keen
C- 95 min, TV-PG, CC

Won Oscars for Best Music, Original Music Score -- John Barry, and Best Music, Original Song -- John Barry (music) and Don Black (lyrics) for the song "Born Free"

According to the movie, Joy named the littlest lion Elsa because she reminded her of a little girl she knew at school; however, in real life, Elsa was named for the mother of Joy's second husband.


6:00 PM -- The Black Stallion (1979)
A boy and a horse forge a close friendship after being shipwrecked together in Africa.
Dir: Carroll Ballard
Cast: Kelly Reno, Mickey Rooney, Terry Garr
C- 117 min, TV-PG, CC

Won a Special Achievement Oscar Award for Alan Splet for sound editing

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Mickey Rooney, and Best Film Editing -- Robert Dalva

There is a scene in which Alec opens the door of Henry Dailey's office and looks around at all the old memorabilia Henry acquired as a winning jockey. One of the photos is a shot of a younger Mickey Rooney atop the horse that looks to be the one featured in National Velvet (1944).



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: RUSSIA



8:00 PM -- Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
In Russia before the revolution, a Jewish milkman tries to marry off his daughters who have plans of their own.
Dir: Norman Jewison
Cast: Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey
C- 181 min, TV-G, CC

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Oswald Morris, Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score -- John Williams, and Best Sound -- Gordon K. McCallum and David Hildyard

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Topol, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Leonard Frey, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Robert F. Boyle, Michael Stringer and Peter Lamont, Best Director -- Norman Jewison, and Best Picture

To get the look he wanted for the film, director Norman Jewison told Director of Photography Oswald Morris, who was famous for shooting color films in unusual styles, to shoot the film in an earthy tone. Morris saw a woman wearing brown nylon hosiery, thought "That's the tone we want," asked the woman for the stockings on the spot, and shot the entire film with a stocking over the lens. The weave can be detected in some scenes. Morris also shot the musical number "Tevye's Dream" in sepia rather than in full color. He had previously filmed Moulin Rouge with a color style made to resemble Toulouse-Lautrec's paintings and Moby Dick in a color style made to resemble 19th century engravings of life at sea.


11:15 PM -- Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Illicit lovers fight to stay together during the turbulent years of the Russian Revolution.
Dir: David Lean
Cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Julie Christie, Tom Courtenay
C- 200 min, TV-PG, CC

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- John Box, Terence Marsh and Dario Simoni, Best Cinematography, Color -- Freddie Young, Best Costume Design, Color -- Phyllis Dalton, Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Maurice Jarre, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Bolt

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Tom Courtenay, Best Director -- David Lean, Best Film Editing -- Norman Savage, Best Sound -- A.W. Watkins (M-G-M British SSD) and Franklin Milton (M-G-M SSD), and Best Picture

The film was torn apart by critics when first released. Newsweek, in particular, made comments about "hack-job sets" and "pallid photography." David Lean was so deeply affected by these criticisms (despite the popularity of the film with the general public) that he swore he would never make another film.


2:45 AM -- Comrade X (1940)
An American warms up an icy Russian streetcar conductor.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: Clark Gable, Hedy Lamarr, Oscar Homolka
90 min, TV-G, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Walter Reisch

At the time this film was released, in 1940, World War II had already begun in Europe, but the Soviet Union still had a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany. In the film, Mac is able to fool a character by pretending to hear news that Germany has broken the pact and launched an invasion of the USSR. Of course, that's exactly what happened the very next year when Germany launched Operation Barbarossa in summer 1941.


4:15 AM -- Mission To Moscow (1943)
True story of U.S. Ambassador Joseph E. Davies' attempts to forge a wartime alliance with the Soviet Union.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Walter Huston, Ann Harding, Oscar Homolka
123 min, TV-PG, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Carl Jules Weyl and George James Hopkins

This film was often mentioned during the 1947 House of Representatives Un-American Committee (HUAC) investigation of communist infiltration in the motion picture industry and was chiefly responsible for the blacklisting of screenwriter Howard Koch. Jack L. Warner defended the picture as being "made when our country was fighting for its existence, with Russia as one of our allies. ... The picture was made only to help a desperate war effort and not for posterity."