Saturday, February 24, 2007

31 days of Oscar: days 22-25


This month, Turner Classic Movies celebrates movies and the Academy Awards by presenting 31 Days of Oscar. Each Day from Feb.1 through March 3, a different category of the awards will be the theme of the day; featuring films that were nominated or won in that category. The Shelf will be joining in the celebration by giving you our Oscar pick of the Day!

Thursday, Feb. 22 through Sunday, Feb. 25, is a weekend-long marathon of a single category. The Category for the weekend marathon is Best Picture Winners . Although many of the films are easy selections, we’ll give you one film per day that is definitely a “Shelf Favorite”. You really can’t go wrong with any of them, but these are films that we will be sure to sit in front of with a bowl of popcorn. Here's the schedule for the weekend (all times are EST):

Thursday, Feb. 22
8:00 PM Ben-Hur (’59)
12:00 AM The Best Years of Our Lives (’46)
3:00 AM Mrs. Miniver (’42)

Friday, Feb. 23
5:30 AM Cimarron (’31)
8:00 AM Mutiny on the Bounty (’35)
10:30 AM It Happened One Night (’34)
12:30 PM You Can’t Take it With You (’38)
3:00 PM The Life of Emile Zola (’37)
5:00 PM The Great Ziegfeld (’36)
8:00 PM The Greatest Show on Earth (’52)
11:00 PM An American in Paris (’51)
1:00 AM Gigi (’58)
3:00 AM Annie Hall (’77)
4:45 AM The Lost Weekend (’45)

Saturday, Feb. 24
6:30 AM On the Waterfront (’54)
8:30 AM All Quiet on the Western Front (’30)
11:00 AM From Here to Eternity (’58)
1:00 PM The Bridge on the River Kwai (’57)
4:00 PM Lawrence of Arabia (’62)
8:00 PM A Man for All Seasons (’66)
10:15 PM Out of Africa (’85)
1:00 AM Kramer vs. Kramer (’79)
3:00 AM American Beauty (’99)

Sunday, Feb. 25
5:30 AM Hamlet (’48)
8:15 AM West Side Story (’61)
11:00 AM My Fair Lady (’64)
2:00 PM Gone With the Wind (’39)
6:00 PM Casablanca (’42)


Here are our Shelf Oscar picks:

Thursday: Ben-Hur
Friday: It Happened One Night
Saturday: A Man for All Seasons
Sunday: Casablanca

Ben-Hur is, of course, a sprawling epic is biblical proportions…literally. It was nominated for an astonishing 12 Academy Awards, of which it won 11, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. It Happened One Night is a perfect screwball comedy starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. It was nominated for 5 Academy Awards and won all, including Best Picture.
A Man for All Seasons is an excellent historical drama which was nominated for 8 Academy Awards and won 6. Casablanca is one of my favorite films of all time. It was nominated for 8 Academy Awards and won 3, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Writing.

You can watch the films this weekend on TCM, or you can order the DVD through the usual online retailers and the TCM shop. Ben-Hur is available as a single disc release, or as a fantastic 4 disc Collector's Edition. It Happened One Night is also available as a single disc release or as part of the recent Frank Capra Box Set. A Man For All Seasons was just re-released as a Special Edition this week. And Casablanca is available as a 2-disc Special Edition.

For more information on TCM's 31 Days of Oscar, visit the Turner Classic Movies website.
By the way, enjoy the Oscars this Sunday night. I don't watch them any more. I just don't have a pony in this race, unless it's for a long overdue Best Director win for Martin Scorsese or a win for Peter O'Toole. And only then because they deserve to win an Oscar.

Oh, I know it's a penny here and a penny there, but look at me. I worked myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.

Almost at the moment He died, I heard Him say, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Even then. And I felt His voice take the sword out of my hand."



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