And the Winner Is …
MOVIES!, beginning at 6 a.m.
There are still a few weeks until this year’s Academy Awards ceremony, but MOVIES! begins getting you into an Oscar frame of mind with a lineup of several films that have each won at least one of those famed statuettes. The featured titles are: Portrait of Jennie (1948), a fantasy/drama led by Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten and Ethel Barrymore that won for its special effects; the Clifton Webb/dorothy Mcguire-led romantic comedy/drama Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), which won Oscars for Best Cinematography and Best Original Song (the famous title tune by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn, performed by an uncredited Frank Sinatra); the romantic drama Love Is a Many-splendored Thing (1955), starring William Holden and Best Actress nominee Jones, which won for Best Costume Design – Color, Original Song (Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster’s memorable title tune) and Music; the romantic comedy/drama A Letter to Three Wives (1949), which won Oscars for Best Director and Screenplay (both for Joseph L. Mankiewicz); The Grapes of Wrath (1940), the adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel that won for Best Supporting
Actress (Jane Darwell) and Best Director (John Ford); How Green Was My Valley (1941), the drama that earned Ford his second consecutive Best Director Oscar, and also won Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Donald Crisp), Best Cinematography – Black-andwhite and Best Art Direction; the coming-of-age sports comedy/drama Breaking Away (1979), which earned Steve Tesich a Best Original Screenplay Oscar; The Paper Chase (1973), a comedy/drama costarring Best Supporting Actor winner John Houseman; and the Best Picture-winning drama Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), which also won for Best Director (Elia Kazan) and Best Supporting Actress (Celeste Holm). The lineup concludes with a re-airing of The Grapes of Wrath.