Classic Film : 31 DAYS OF OSCAR

31 DAYS OF OSCAR

IMO, this is TCM's best annual offering, with "Summer Under the Stars" a close second.
Over a month of really great, classic movies, some of which are not shown elsewhere.

This year, TCM will be showing them in alphabetical order.
I'm not sure I like that idea; I think chronological order would be better.
But, what the hey--it's still a great escape from the doldrums of February.

Re: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR

The alphabetical order is making for some unusual pairings of films, but chronological makes for some really boring stretches for me.

🎭All the world is a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.

Re: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR

Actually I don't much care for 31 Days of Oscar. There are only so many AA-nominated films TCM has access to, and most of those films are "biggies" the channel runs two or three times a year besides. It's in the "off-months" that they come up with real obscurities or seldom-seen movies. In fact the 31 Days is the most predictable and repetitive period of TCM programming throughout the year.

And as clore_2 has pointed out before, at least one film they've often run each year during these 31 days, Battle of the Bulge (1965), was not nominated for an Oscar. I believe they're confusing it with a documentary to do with the battle (clore knows the specifics), but in any case they keep showing a movie during their 31 Days that never had any Oscar nominations, despite some viewers pointing this out to them. Another TCM screw-up. However, the programming staff may have finally gotten it through their heads, since for the first time in a couple of years TCM isn't showing the un-nominated Battle of the Bulge during its Oscar celebration. Then again, it hasn't been shown every year, so there's still hope for 2018.

Now, the one I really want them to run sometime during the 31 Days is High Society -- not the 1956 musical (which did have several nominations, and which they always show), but the 1955 Bowery Boys comedy of the same title, which by some extraordinary cock-up was nominated for an Oscar for Best Story and Screenplay of 1956 -- not only the wrong year but the wrong category (since the musical was an adapted screenplay). Of course the intent was to nominate the musical, but the Academy members inexplicably mixed it up with this bottom-budget B. Allied Artists had a bit of fun with this bizarre nomination, citing it as "proof" of the quality of the Bowery Boys pictures, and the screenwriters graciously withdrew their names from consideration, but they were on the ballot and did get nominated...which is more than one can say about the oft-shown Battle of the Bulge!

Re: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR

I remember watching those Bowery Boys movies on Saturday afternoons when I was a kid.
Sure, they were bargain-basement filmmaking, but they were fun.
Huntz Hall's "Sach" was a riot!

Re: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR

TCM has been running the series for many months, one each Saturday morning, from the first Bowery Boys (after they ceased being "The East Side Kids") in 1946 through the last movie released in 1958. They just finished up last Saturday with the final two. (Obviously they wanted to wind it up before 31 Days and start a new series of something else beginning in March, so they broke their usual practice and showed two instead of one.)

I was never a real fan (for years channel 5 in NYC ran one each Saturday but I didn't watch them a lot) but they were silly, harmless fun and I did catch a few over the past year. I have to say that I always found something to laugh at. The last one of all (In the Money) had the following exchange between a Scotland Yard inspector and Sach:

"We at Scotland Yard aren't complete idiots."

"Who said anything about 'complete'?"


One I wanted to see and missed a few weeks back was the last one with Leo Gorcey, Crashing Las Vegas (1956). His father (who played Louie, the sweet shop owner) had died after an auto accident and Leo was drinking heavily. Reportedly he trashed the set in a drunken rage and showed up drunk for almost every scene. After finishing the picture he demanded more money, was refused, and quit, saying he couldn't go on without his father. Allied Artists was contractually obligated for seven more films and made them before ending the series at the beginning of 1958. I wanted to see Gorcey's last appearance because it sounded like a train wreck. Fortunately TCM ran it last night as part of their tribute to Vegas in the movies and I DVR'ed it.

Anyway, none of this has anything to do with 31 Days of Oscar...unless TCM finally gets the guts to show the Boys' High Society sometime. But for more varied film fare, you have to wait until after 31 Days.

Re: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR

I can't say that I'm that enthused, for much the same reason that hobnob mentions - it's all very common stuff that's readily available and much of it frequently shown on TCM at other times of the year (Friendly Persuasion was on last night and guess what, it's on again in a few days). It's possible I'll give All About Eve a watch because I haven't seen that in several years and the local library's copy is scratched to bits - but that's all from A-C that looks particularly interesting to me, and I doubt I will find much more from D-Z that I haven't seen, in most cases haven't seen multiple times. And it's the most well-known of the well-known that they choose to show during prime time of course. You'd think by this point there would be few people out there who need to have Casablanca, Citizen Kane or The Grapes of Wrath thrust at them, but I guess that's not how things work.

Here's to the fools who dream

Re: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR

This is very sad: the fact that classic movies are shown so often on TCM and maybe other TV stations that people have become blase about them.
That's one reason why I so miss the movie revival theaters.

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Eh, I'm only blasé about the films that are ALWAYS shown. I mean, I love Casablanca and The Third Man but do they have to each be shown half a dozen times a year? Is the TCM audience mostly made up of people who can't afford to or won't buy DVDs/BluRays, don't like or can't afford streaming services, don't have libraries? The vast majority of the films they show at the 7pm slot (CST) are films that I've seen multiple times and can access very, very easily and often for free. And I'm much less focused on classic Hollywood than most people on this forum.

But that is me. Maybe for most, TCM is offering those great old movies that they haven't already seen a dozen times - or that they would rather re-see than watch, say, an obscure Charlie Chan film or a bunch of Charlie Chase shorts. But I think that if you're a "serious" film buff who has been around a while, you've had a chance to see most of these films, and see many of them multiple times if you want to. I'm still usually more interested in seeing something new to me than something I've seen before, I'd rather see Douglas Sirk obscurities show up at 7 pm than yet another showing of All That Heaven Allows. For those who re-watch things far more often than they watch something new, it's a different story. But I know also that TCM has to make money, and programming the more obscure stuff in primetime probably isn't the best way to do that for the most part.

Anyway regardless of how often I watch things on it, I'm glad to have it; I'm not in a big city and can't get to revival theaters, and even if I did I'm not sure I really care to spend $10 or more to see Citizen Kane in a digital print that isn't really any different than the BluRay or what TCM shows.

Here's to the fools who dream

Re: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR

Well, I can't speak for the general TCM audience, but I can't afford the things you mentioned.
I'd love a flat-screen TV (not too big, maybe 24"), a DVD player, and DVDs of my favorite movies.
But, thanks to that ageist SOB Paul Ryan, there has been no cost-of-living increase in SS for the past two years!
And the prices of basic necessities keep going up all the time.
I hope and pray that in 2018, there will be a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress and Ryan will be out of a job!

I'm sorry to digress and inject politics here.
Sometimes, I just feel the need to vent.
And maybe that's why the IMDb message boards are going under.

Re: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR

Well, I feel for you. I know others in similar situations, and I myself - though currently comfortable - am almost certain to have severe problems down the road, perhaps very soon if the economy collapses (and anything can happen, especially now). I would recommend very strongly looking into your local library system if you haven't - mine is much better than I would have ever dreamed of before I moved here 3 1/2 years ago, and they can get stuff from all over the state system.

Speaking of states - and not to get TOO political myself - I live almost literally a stone's throw from Ryan's district. Ironically or coincidentally enough, across the street from me are middle-class or upper-middle-class houses in a development that is very white and was full of signs for a certain candidate last year - on my side of the street are a couple of apartment complexes (one of them mine) that are a bit lower on the socioeconomic scale and much more diverse, ethnically and otherwise - and showing generally a different political allegiance last year. It seemed amusing at the time, not so much now.


Here's to the fools who dream

Re: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR

Fair enough OA.

I look forward to 31 Days on TCM, I record more movies on TCM during it than the rest of the year combined.

Part of this is I'm a bit of an oscar-nom completist, obviously I know every movie received a nomination so I'm pretty interested.

This gets me looking at every title in the schedule for the month, and I guess like any month I'd look at in detail, I find some movies that interest me outside of their noms.
Some of those - The Fighting Sullivans, The Gazebo, Sadie Thompson, White Shadows of the South Seas.

I've got 20 films I hope to record.


Re: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR

Yeah, I can't go there - I mean, I'm down to only two Best Pic WINNERS and I don't know if I'll bother watching them this year. Turns out I've seen over 75% of the nominees in that category now so who knows, maybe I'll make that a quest down the road, after seeing every damn film noir and 50s western ever made...

But seriously even though I find the Oscars laughable many years (not this one), it's also true that plenty of worthwhile films have been "saved" in collective memory through the awards. Not every film was as famous as Gone With the Wind before the awards bestowing. I think if I were to go further than the BP it would probably be to try to check out animated short subject nominees, and best score. But the whole shebang, that's dedication.

Here's to the fools who dream

Re: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR

Oh I'm still pretty scattershot in trying to see all the noms.

I've been involved over the years with 3 Fixing the Oscars games here at imdb and elsewhere. I find those fun. 31 Days of Oscars presents a bunch of best song noms, best screenplay, or cinematography noms that take a lot of work to chase down during the full year on TCM.


Re: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR

I was thing about what might be an interesting way to do Oscar month:

Non-Best Picture nons: such as the oversight of "The Bad and the Beautiful," "Breaking the Sound Barrier" and "Singin' in the Rain" in 1952.
Best Song or Score noms
Snubbed acting performances:
Tyrone Power in "Razor's Edge" or "Nightmare Alley"

It is a shame that some people have their birthdays ignored because they were born during Oscar month.

🎭All the world is a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.
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