Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 150: More from Monty

As we've seen in our trip through the 1950s we've had a lot of stars straddle films I've done retrospectives of the fifities films of both Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando in the former's collection we found A Place in The Sun. That gently links into this next section as we look into the work of the male lead of that film, Montgomery Clift's, other work.

We kick off with just what I need, another play adaptation, this time thankfully there's enough exterior shots to counteract the scenes of people talking in rooms. That film is The Heiress and once again we find the lead actress Olivia De Havilland once again winning the Best Actress award for her tremendous performance as Catherine Sloper the titular woman of the title. The story has a simple premise would a charming young man who mishandles his money be interested in a dowdy heiress for anything more than her cash. That's the situation that Catherine finds herself in after being charmed by Clift's Morris Townsend who visits her house various times and eventually proposed much to the horror of her father played by Ralph Richardson. Richardson's character firstly quizzes Morris' family members before taking his daughter off to Europe, these scenes are especially bought alive by the film medium, realising he can't change her mind he decides to disinherit her therefore only giving her a small amount of money and when Morris finds this out he leaves her on the evening that the couple were meant to elope. It is here that De Havilland comes into her own as she becomes bitter not allowing her father to speak to her and spurning Morris' advances when he returns despite realising he now loves her she wants to humiliate him the way he did her and therefore ends up sad and alone. I did enjoy The Heiress it didn't outstay its welcome and all the leads acted their parts well. De Havilland's performance in the latter scenes were truly spectacular and she did more than earn her Oscar. Montgomery Clift does as he's told playing charming but sinister and playing on his screen idol persona to try and trick the audience into thinking that he really does love Catherine while Ralph Richardson's stoic routine lends itself well to the father. William Wyler brings the play to life and shoots outside as much as possible to give the film a life of its own all in all a good actors film but nothing spectacular.

We come now to another Best Picture winner from the 1954 ceremony starring Clift alongside Burt Lancaster and Oscar winners Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed that film is From Here to Eternity. Covering the same sort of time as 1940s nominee Wake Island, From Here to Eternity looks at army-life in Hawaii just in the run-up to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour. Clift plays Private Pruitt a soldier who has been transferred to his new unit for his boxing prowess however when he refuses to box his Captain gets the other officers to bully him and put him doing manual labour his only friend being Sinatra's Private Maggio. Meanwhile Lancaster's Sergeant Ward is romancing the Captain's wife played by Deborah Kerr their romance includes the famous beach sex scene which is the iconic plateau of the film but which had to be toned down for the censors so it wasn't implicit that the sexual act actually took place. Kerr and Lancaster's romance is thwarted by the fact that she hates it on Hawaii and he vows to earn his Captain's stripes so they can return to the States. Pruitt also falls in love with a girl he meets in a club named Lorene, later revealed to be named Alma, at first he is frustrated with the fact that her work comes first but eventually the two move in together. When Maggio goes AWOL to get drunk he is court martialled and beaten by the warden he eventually escapes but dies from his wounds this causes Pruitt to attack and kill this officer and get wounded himself and going AWOL at Alma's house. It is at this time that the Pearl Harbor attacks take place and Ward takes charge with the Captain being sacked for giving preferential treatment to his boxers. Realising that he will always put the army first Kerr leaves him and returns to America alone meanwhile Pruitt dies trying to make it back to base having been shot by one of the other soldiers. Kerr and Reed's Lorene meet in the film's final scene each realising who the other is as they throw their lays out to sea meaning that neither will ever return.

Occasionally when doing this blog I bemoan the choices of Best Picture but thankfully in 1954 the academy got it spot on with this film. There are no less than five stunning performances with Sinatra stunning me the most as the jovial Maggio who is suddenly brutally attacked and dies a tragic death. Clift is also good here playing a little against type as the stubborn Pruitt but his love scenes with Reed were obviously there for his fans to woo over him. Lancaster is particularly good holding everything together as he's the likeable man torn between love and duty. The almost completely exterior shooting means that this film also boasts great scenery and realistic backdrops and I have to say I was caught off guard by the Pearl Harbour attacks as I'd obviously left my sense of history at the door. Overall a great film and a worthy Best Picture winner and as we've seen here Montgomery Clift definitely made his mark on 1950s film by being both suave and vulnerable in both of these classics.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 149: Happy Holliday

Its not hard to make links between The Country Girl and the next film on the list - Born Yesterday. Both are based on plays and so mainly feature people talking in rooms, both star William Holden and both have the winner of that year's Best Actress award in them and in this instance it was Judy Holliday. More surprising is the fact that Holliday beat both All About Eve's Anne Baxter and Bette Davies as well as Sunset Boulevard's Gloria Swanson. Holliday's character is Billie Dawn a former chorus girl who is the girlfriend of dodgy uncouth tycoon Harry Brock and is forced to go to a Washington hotel so Harry can do a deal with a few politicians. While meeting with the upper-classes Harry realises that Billie won't be able to mix with the people that he'll be doing business with so he organises her to have some lessons with Holden's journalist Paul Verrell. Obviously as this is a screwball comedy Paul and Billie soon become romantically entwined as she learns more about the country she lives in and is able to understand more than Harry wants her to. As soon as Billie becomes more aware of some of the documents that Harry is having her sign she refuses to do his dirty work so he hits her. Eventually she gets her revenge as she and Paul leak documents of his underground shenanigans to the press before they leave together.

There was much debate on the YouTube comments if Holliday should've won the Best Actress Award at the 1951 ceremony. I have to say it's certainly a memorable performance as she makes Billie the stereotypical gangster's moll with a high-pitched voice and a funny walk. But she is captivating as the character grows and learns to stand up for herself and her final scenes where she gets one over on Harry is a fist punch in the air moment. Holliday is ably supported by William Holden as the straight man and by Broderick Crawford, himself just coming off a Best Actor Oscar win, as the brutish Harry. The main problem with the film is that again it is a play adaptation and therefore there are many scenes in Harry's hotel suite in which he welcomes his guests and has meetings with his dodgy lawyer. Obviously the medium of film allows for exterior scenes so we see Paul and Billie exploring Washington landmarks but this almost seems a little forced like the director needed to differentiate the film and the play however it all still fits together. I did enjoy Born Yesterday and found Holliday's performance extremely funny and likeable and I laughed a lot. While Davis, Baxter and Swanson all gave memorable dramatic turns and at points chewed the scenery I have to say that we all like a laugh once in a while and it's good to see a comic actress pick up the prize something that hardly ever happens these days.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 148: Amazing Grace

Imagine you're Judy Garland, I know it's an odd way to start this blog but stick with me, you've just given birth to your son and the Oscars have sent cameras to the hospital where you are about to receive your Best Actress Award at the 1955 ceremony for her role in A Star is Born and then the winner is... Grace Kelly and you're left with a bunch of flowers from Groucho Marx describing the decision as the biggest robbery since Brinks Which I think is doing Kelly a disservice as her role in The Country Girl, the next film on the Oscar list, is probably her best. Kelly was possibly one of the first glamorous actresses who learnt that if you want to win an Academy Award its best to go a bit dowdy and a play a brow-beaten character since then the method has been used as by Charlize Theron, Holly Hunter and Nicole Kidman among others. Kelly plays Georgie Elgin the wife of once great actor Frank who has become an alcoholic since the death of their young son an incident for which he blames himself. Frank is given a second chance at a career by William Holden's Bernie Dodd who was a fan of his earlier work but has to fight the show's producers and financial backers. Dodd believes that Georgie is holding back Frank and affecting his performance especially since Frank tells him stories about her suicide attempts and drunke behaviour which are actually about him. After Frank causes an incident in a bar and is arrested Dodd then realises that all of his hatred for Georgie comes from both Frank's lies and the fact that he is has feelings for her. Frank pulls himself together and becomes a star and realises that Dodd and Georgie both have feelings for each other he gives her permission to begin a relationship with him but in the final scene she decides to stay with her husband.

I hadn't really read anything about The Country Girl before watching it, which is sometimes the best way, but after viewing I was convinced it was based on a play and it turns out I was right. I had this inkling as the majority of the scenes feature characters in rooms talking to each other but because those characters are played by Crosby, Kelly and Holden you don't really care. Obviously since you've got a talented singer like Crosby you may as well use him but the context here sees him playing a man haunted by the fact that he let his son's hand go to take a promotional picture the song he sung that day is used a reason for him to start drinking again. In fact of all the films I've seen him in I feel that this is Crosby's best performance it's so much more gritty than all of the others in which he essentially plays himself and a lot better than Going My Way for which he won his Best Actor Oscar for. I feel The Country Girl was unfortunate to come up against On The Waterfront so Crosby lost to Brando but any other year I reckon he would've won the award. Kelly is also great having to play the doting wife with the alcoholic husband with her hair up and glasses on she doesn't look like Grace Kelly which is why you can really feel for Georgie and William Holden is also great basically playing another member of the audience trying to guess which of the couple is telling the truth. The only thing I didn't like was the fact that Dodd finally decided he was in love with Georgie I could see it coming but didn't think it fit with the rest of the film. Also winning an Oscar for its brilliant adapted screenplay, The Country Girl is a great film from beginning to end featuring three fine performances from a trio of the time's top stars and I would highly recommend it.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 147: Going Stir Crazy

Basically all of the films on this list are coming from either LoveFilm or various YouTube sources so if I can't reference a movie on either of those then I probably won't get to watch it. A nominee from the 1956 ceremony, Mister Roberts, was one such film which I had already banished to the unwatchable pile so imagine my surprise when it suddenly appeared on the T.V. listings for a Channel Five Saturday afternoon. Thanks to that I was able to watch the film whcih it turned out was a comedy-drama set during the final days of World War 2 on a naval Cargo Ship. To me it reminded me of The Caine Mutiny which I recently watched as it was about mundane life on a ship featuring a quartet of impressive performance from big names - Henry Fonda as Mister Roberts, James Cagney in his final MGM performance as the tyrannical Captain, William Powell in his final performance as the world-weary ship Doctor and Jack Lemmon winning the Supporting Actor Oscar here as the jovial ensign in charge of morale and laundry. For me this was one of Henry Fonda's best turns, apart of course from 12 Angry Men, playing a man who is desperate to serve properly and writes weekly letters to be let off the ship however Cagney's Captain sees him as an asset so keeps him around and he is well liked by his crew members whom he doesn't impose strict rules on. As time goes on the Captain is frustrated by Roberts and feels he isn't respecting him so he grants the crew their leave as long as Roberts tows the line and agrees with his orders. When the crew finally find out about this they decide to forge a letter from the Captain and get him transferred from the ship and he finally gets to serve in Japan the film tragically ends with the news that Roberts died when a suicide bomber killed all the crew of his new ship. While the death of your main character would usually be a downer in the case of Mister Roberts it was slightly more poignant and uplifting as he died getting what he always wanted to do and that was serve properly during the war.

I have to say I really enjoyed Mister Roberts mainly how easily it was able to demonstrate how not all men had heroic jobs during the war some of them just were there to ship cargo from one port to another and weren't happy about it. There are a lot of comic segments throughout the film demonstrating this including one where the men try and spy nurses on a nearby island while they are in the shower while one long scenes sees Fonda, Powell and Lemmon try and knock up some home-made scotch. These segments are transposed with some truly heart-wrenching moments such as Cagney opening up to Fonda about his life before he became a captain which was fairly reminiscent of Bogart's speech to his crew in The Caine Mutiny and also the scene in which Fonda goes crazy after he realises that he might not serve when peace in Europe is announced. Lemmon's performance is indeed great combining his comic timing with more dramatic moments of clarity personally his ways of getting revenge over a captain he's scared of are particularly memorable. All in all a great quartet of performances coupled with John Ford's skilled direction and a great script means that Mister Roberts is one of the better Oscar nominees never to take home the prize.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 146: Political Corruption Gone Mad

I know I've said this already but it does bear repeating that I haven't really dealt with many winners of the 1950s but the primary reason for this is that most of them lie on LoveFilm and are yet to be delivered. The third and final one of the winners that I can watch was declared Best Picture at the first ceremony of the decade that film being All The King's Men. The film also had an Oscar winning performance from Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark a man who goes from becoming a rural politician to state governor. The film is told from the point-of-view of Jack Burden, Oscar-nominated John Ireland, who is first sent to cover Stark's story in his role as a journalist. After Stark's campaign gains momentum he hires the strong willed Sadie to be his aide her straight-talk helps him get on the first rung of the ladder. But after fighting corruption at the start of the film Stark becomes corrupt himself as he has the local police in his pocket and tries to buy off a judge and blackmail a doctor by building a brand new hospital. The relationship between Stark and Burden sours after the former begins a romantic liaison with the latter's girlfriend. But everything unravels when Stark's son kills a girl in a drunk-driving accident and ends paralysed along the way, Willie is impeached and then assassinated when he is found not guilty. The final scene involves him telling Jack to carry on his work before he finally succumbs to his gunshot.

First off I do feel that All The King's Men is a film that deserves a Best Picture Oscar, it has a good subject matter and a great cast however at the same time it does have some issues. The first being pace, the film starts slow enough following Willie's life as a small-town campaigner and his first meeting with Jack. But once he starts to become a big fish the film speeds up and Willie goes from berating the corrupt from being corrupt himself in a short period of time. I also feel like some of the supporting characters were a bit weak especially Jack and Willie's romantic partner Anne played by Joanne Dru. However Mercedes McCambridge's Sadie is everything Anne is not strong-willed but fragile, straight-talking but vulnerable and she makes a great partner for Crawford in their scenes together. And Crawford himself is skilfully cast in the lead, rather than a good looking film star as the politician, Crawford looks like an everyman so it is a surprise when he gets corrupted. Also due for praise are the film's set direction and costume, the sets are beautifully drawn - the political rallies, the country mansions and the newsrooms all feel authentic while the change of costumes throughout the film reflect Willie's political standing. Director Robert Rossen obviously understood the nature of film-making and the use of space and that's one of All The King's Men's great points which do outnumber the weaker elements of the picture. Indeed it did deserve best picture but as I am yet to watch any of the nominees whether it deserved best picture that year is yet to be decided.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 144-145: A Song and a Dance in France

Some of you may've noticed that to get through as many of these films as possible I am trying to group them into different categories and I noticed that two of the winning films from the 1950s were both set in France, featured song and dance and both starred Leslie Caron. However there was also a third nominee set in France which featured a small amount of merriment so that got included as well so lets kick off with the winner from the 1952 ceremony.

That being Vincent Minnelli's An American in Paris an all singing/all dancing spectacular featuring Gene Kelly and the aforementioned Ms. Caron. The film features on two down-and-out Americans living and trying to survive in Paris, Kelly's painter Jerry Mulligan and Oscar Levant's pianist Adam Cook. Mulligan's artwork gets noticed by a wealthy American woman named Milo who agrees to sponsor Jerry and also falls in love with him while Mulligan meets Caron's enchanting Lisa and falls for her unaware that she is already seeing singer Henri Baurel an acquaintance of Jerry's through Adam. As time goes on Lisa and Jerry become more and more attached then Henri is offered a job in America and he and Lisa plan to marry but at the last moment Henri realises that Jerry and Lisa are in love and lets them be together. An American in Paris is a great old school musical but whether it deserved to win Best Picture is another debate altogether however it deserve to win Oscars for its cinematography, score, costumes and set (not sure about the screenplay award though). I enjoyed the interplay between Caron and Kelly but for me the best performances came from Nina Foch as Milo and Levant whose scene where he imagines he is conducting and playing in a concert hall was one of my favourite scenes alongside the last fifteen minutes of the film in which Jerry imagines his life alongside Lisa before she returns to him. A bright, colourful extravaganza An American in Paris has memorable songs like I've Got Rhythm and S'Wonderful and is an enjoyable ride however I don't think it is truly a classic film.

A nominee from the 1953 ceremony is Moulin Rouge, a film title most of us attribute to a 2001 film which was also nominated for Best Picture. The 1953 film does have some singing and dancing but most of it features the story of Tolouse LaTrec potrayed in the modern film by John Leguizamo and here by Jose Ferrer. The first 20 minutes or so are probably the most entertaining and vibrant showing life in the Moulin Rouge full of drinking, can-can girls and Zsa Zsa Gabor's lead singer. However LaTrec's story is one of heartbreak in flashback we learn that he left his family home to pursue a career as a painter after he found out no girl would love him because he's a cripple. In the modern day his life doesn't go much better he enters into a relationship with a prostitute which ends when he becomes suspicious of her and she keeps taking money from him. He finds solace in his offbeat paintings off the Moulin Rouge and other famous Parisian landmarks and gains a reputation for his work. He also starts a new relationship with Myriamme a lovely girl who loves him but once again he feels that she just keeps him around for amusement and leaves it too late to save her from marrying someone else. The film ends with the announcement that he will be the first living artist to have painting displayed in The Louvre and then we see him visited by images of his paintings before popping his clogs. Moulin Rouge is thematically quite a bleak film with Jose Ferrer's Tolouse being a very dour personality and one who at times I found fairly alienating. The best thing about the film is its colour cinematography, which bizarrely didn't even get an Oscar nomination, which brings the Moulin Rouge to life and the best performances in my opinion come from those who work there. The way Tolouse's pictures are transposed into the film and how they meet him as he dies are also quite splendidly done. Overall a good biopic which is often bleak and saved by the colour and opulence of its titular establishment.

Finally we have Leslie Caron on winning form yet again here as the eponymous heroine in Gigi, the winner of the final Oscar ceremony in the 1950s. The film is light and full of humourous performances which is odd giving the dark subject matter of young girls being groomed to be courtesans for wealthy Parisian men. However Gigi's training isn't going at all well as she doesn't really want to be in her lessons and instead likes spending time with Gaston who visits her and her grandmother. Throughout the film Gaston realises that Gigi is no longer a child and falls in love with her. Her great aunt then trains her up to be Gaston's cortesan but she realises she doesn't want this sort of life for herself and through a sequence of events it suddenly dawns of both of them that they want to be together and at the end of the film are happily man and wife. Narrating events for part of the film is Maurice Chevalier's Honore Lachaille after watching several of his 1930s films for this project its odd now to see him playing the supporting role of the experienced older man but in 1958 he had aged somewhat he still gets to sing the most memorable song 'Thank Heaven for Little Girls' though and did receive the Lifetime Achievement award the night Gigi swept the board. And it did indeed breaking the record for Oscar wins but only holding that record for one year before Ben-Hur came along. The film itself is OK again its fairly entertaining and Caron has improved as an actress from her time on An American in Paris here being possibly the most likeable character of the bunch. The song and dance sequences are a joy but at times I felt the pace lagged a bit especially when Caron and her female relatives were off-screen and instead we had to deal with Gaston's woes which I didn't really care about. Overall an entertaining piece of musical cinema which had some lovely costumes but wasn't a spectacular picture and again didn't feel to me like a Best Picture Winner.

That's your lot from France and as your captain I hope you enjoyed your journey.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 143: I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside

Recently on this blog I seem to have been doing a lot of moaning about the adaptation of plays into films as they almost always are restricted by the amount of interior scenes they have to have. However this didn't seem to bother me with Separate Tables which was based on a Terrence Rattigan and was set entirely in the Beauregard Hotel in Bournemouth. Like Grand Hotel, which won the Best Picture Oscar in the 1930s, it features various interweaving plots in the same establishment and features an ensemble class which includes David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Rita Hayworth and Burt Lancaster. However Separate Tables is extremely British as most of the inhabitants are long-term residents of the Guest House and are mostly there to escape life. Niven, who won Best Actor for his performance there, plays a character known as the Major and strikes up a friendship with Kerr's Sibyl something her overbearing mother doesn't agree with. When the mother finds out that Niven isn't a Major and that he has indecently exposed himself at a cinema she rallies the residents to get him out of the Beauregard. Running alongside this is Lancaster's drunk former soldier having a secret relationship with Hotel Manager Miss Cooper, played by Best Supporting Actress winner Wendy Hiller, which  is complicated when Hayworth's model turns up who just happens to be Lancaster's ex-wife. The two stories then unravel with Miss Cooper deciding that Lancaster is better off with Hayworth and Sybil standing up to her mother by getting all of the other long term residents to stick up for the Major.

Although earlier I made a comparison to Grand Hotel, Separate Tables has a lot of similarities to our own Fawlty Towers. It is a seaside hotel with several long-term residents one of whom is a Major, or at least says he is, and most of the others are mature women apart from Kerr, Lancaster and a Professor type character. The whole ensemble nature of the film means that you never get bored of one story for too long and the fact that the entire piece is set within the Beauregard didn't bother me either. I thought all of the actors did really well I especially thought Kerr was brilliant as the somewhat mental agitated Sybil who's relationship with her bullying mother changes at the end of the film, Kerr was in fact nominated for Best Actress here but was the only cast member not to win. Although I did love David Niven here I feel that he wasn't in the film long enough to get the Best Actor prize and maybe he should've been entered into the Supporting one instead. Hayworth just exudes glamour and she has some great on screen chemistry with Lancaster here but the best performance comes from Wendy Hiller as Miss Cooper stoic yet passionate when she wants to be she is the archetypal owner who keeps things ticking over for her long-serving residents. Witty, warm with well-drawn characters I feel this is a film that deserves a lot more recognition because if wasn't doing this challenge I don't think I'd ever have watched it.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 142: One Final Bogey

As I've gone through the decades so far I've seen a lot of film stars of the classic era - Grant, Gable, Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Fred and Ginger and of course Humphrey Bogart. As far as this Oscar Challenge goes we first saw Bogey back in the 1930s as a gangster in Dead End. From there we've seen him as private detective, treasure hunter and most notably the tortured Rick in Casablanca. However we don't get to see his only Oscar win for The African Queen as that didn't receive a Best Picture nomination instead Bogart's journey ends at the 1955 ceremony with his final Oscar nomination as Commander Queeg in The Caine Mutiny. The film revolves around the Caine a minesweeper-destroyer which is seen as a bit of a battered ship and not the first option for most sailors on board. Joining the crew is Ensign Willie Keith who soon strikes up a bond with would-be novelist Tom Keefer as well as ingratiating himself with the other crew members including Captain DeVriess and Lt. Maryk.DeVriess is soon replaced by Queeg who is a very regimental sort and is compared to Mutiny on the Bounty's Captain Bligh by Keefer. Keefer suggests to Maryk and Keith that Queeg is a little bit insane although Maryk refuses to report this until he has more proof so starts keeping a journal of Queeg's poor decisions. This eventual leads to Maryk taking over from Queeg on one mission a decision that is seconded by Keith and after this they are both arrested for mutiny. Lawyer Lt. Barney Greenwald reluctantly takes the case without ever agreeing with the decision made by the men but wins the case after proving Queeg is a man with paranoia however during the case Keefer doesn't stick up for his former colleagues denying the fact that he thought Queeg was insane. In the end Greenwald confronts Keefer saying that he planted  mutinous thoughts in the heads of the other officers and Keith heads off for service on a new boat once again captained by DeVriess.

I very much enjoyed The Caine Mutiny mainly because your perceptions of the characters are changed at every turn. Like Maryk and Keith I went along with Keefer's thoughts about Queeg being insane but forgot about him opening up to his officers after a poor decision. Barney's confrontation of the three men at the end of the film is one of its best scenes and he reminds them that Queeg is a military man through and through and deserves respect he ends the film not as a Bligh-esque monster but more a tragic figure driven mad through years of service. Queeg's humane side is a testament to the character that Humphrey Bogart gives to him and I think he could've easily have on a second Best Actor Oscar had he not been challenged by Marlon Brando's terrific turn in On the Waterfront. Indeed the film suffered from being up against On The Waterfront particularly when it came to the Supporting Actors in the film as Waterfront took three spots in the supporting category and Caine's only entry into that category was surprisingly Tom Tully as DeVriess who exits the film very early and didn't leave an impression on me. If I had had to put someone forward it would probably have been Van Johnson as Maryk a man who always wanted to do the right thing but took the wrong course of action after being manipulated by Keefer. Jose Ferrer as Barney was also great as the man who wanted to win a case he didn't particularly believe in and even Fred McMurray's Keefer is a good complex character. But it was Robert Francis' performance as Willie Keith which anchors the film, pardon the pun, in only his second film tragically this would be his last as Francis was being groomed for stardom but perished in an aircraft accident. The Caine Mutiny also has a great love for its naval roots being backed by the U.S. Navy the scenes aboard the ship and in its many cabins are shot perfectly and some of the minor cast, including bizarrely Lee Marvin, were cast due to their naval background.

All in all a great film which in any other year would've won Best Picture but as I said before it had the unlucky fortune of coming up against the juggernaut that was On the Waterfront. And a small battered ship like The Caine never had a chance against a Juggernaut like that.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 141: A Double Bill of Biblical Proportions

During the 1950s we saw the dawn of big pictures being made in Cinescope and Techincolor. To this effect some of the old sword and sandals epics from the early period of cinema started to be updated using these new techniques two of which are the biblical epics we will cover in this blog post.

We start with The Robe which was nominated for Best Picture at the 1954 ceremony adapted from the novel by Lloyd C Douglas it tries to tell the story of what happened to the Roman soldier who won Jesus' robe. The soldier turns out to be Tribune Marcellus Gallio, played here by Richard Burton, a well-liked man who at the beginning of the film takes on a slave Demetrius. Gallio treats Demetrius well but then one day the latter glances upon Jesus and starts to believe in him so refuses to take orders from one of the men who is overseeing the crucifixion. After winning the robe Marcellus starts to get fits and egged on by his love interest Diana and the Emperor Tiberius he starts to discover Jesus' works and his miracle and himself becomes a Christian. However when Tiberius dies and Caligula takes his place Marcellus is forced into taking trial as a conspirator against the empire as Caligula and Marcellus are enemies after Diana left the former for the latter. At the end of the film Marcellus is sentenced to his death and Diana walks with him as the screen fades out they are both walking into clouds with angelic music playing behind them. That final scene displays all you really need to know about The Robe in that its main motive is pro-Jesus and even if you die you'll find happiness in the next life. There's no denying that the film is well made and well shot and fully takes advantage of the Technicolor aspect of the picture. The opening scene in which Marcellus walks through the market just before meeting Demetrius is the film's most spectacular taking in all manner of animals and people later on however the film loses its epic feel as it becomes a lot of people talking in rooms but mind you they are well furnished rooms and all the people in them are well-costumed. Richard Burton was nominated for Best Actor here however I feel the best performances come from Victor Mature as Demetrius and Jean Simmons as Diana. Overall a good example of the 1950s swords and sandals epic that peters out towards the end of its run as its religious message really begins to kick in.

Three years after The Robe and four years after he won Best Picture, Cecil B DeMile presented his final picture The Ten Commandments a nominee in 1957. As you can probably garner from the film's title it deals with the story of Moses and how The Ten Commandments came to be. However that part of the story takes part in the film's final half hour, before that there are three and a half hours explaining Moses' entire life and his need to let his people go. As I really feel there's no need to go over the story of Moses in detail I instead want to focus on how visually spectacular this film is. From Moses discovering the Burning Bush, to the various plagues of Egypt and the famous scene in which Moses parts the water every effect is delivered perfectly which at that time was quite hard to do. In addition there was a 'cast of thousands' involved in the film as a lot of The Ten Commandments see the Egyptians whipping the Hebrews into shape in order to get their cities built. Of the main cast members Charlton Heston ages and grows hair superbly here to play Moses he has much more personality than he did in The Greatest Show on Earth and is able to carry the film although I did think Yul Brynner did a good job as Ramses making him both a forceful and later sympathetic character. However some of the supporting roles, especially Edward G Robinson's Dathan did lapse into pantomime at points as did the part of the film in which the Hebrew people are corrupted and start to worship false idols. Of course the big problem here is that the film does not need to be four hours long and there's easily an hour or so, most of it around the point where Moses meets his wife, that could be cut out to make the film flow a lot more steadily. But at the end of the day this is a visual spectacle that definitely deserves its Oscar nomination and its place in history and indeed both this and The Robe are still in the top 100 grossing films of all time including inflation adjustment. So it just goes to show that there is big money to be made from Bible-based movies so I'll have to grab my copy of The Great Book and start adapting now!

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 140: Another Trip to Tennessee

So far on the 1950s leg of the Oscar Challenge we've had two Tennessee Williams adaptations Cat on a Hot Tin Roof which saw Oscar nominations for Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman and A Streetcar Named Desire which had three acting wins and a fourth nomination. Next up another film adapted from a Williams play and once again it wins one of its actors an Oscar, in this case Anna Magnani who scooped the Lead Actress prize for her role as the fiery Serafina. The film sees Serafina's life crumble after her husband dies she becomes a recluse and then finds out that he was both a smuggler and was having an affair. At the same time she has to deal with the fact that her daughter is growing up and has started a relationship with a likeable sailor chap. After Serafina has a mini-breakdown and a confrontation with the local priest she ends up meeting Burt Lancaster's trucker Alvaro who is looking for a place to stay. The second half of the film looks at the unconventional friendship between Serafina and Alvaro and whether their flirtation would turn into something more. The finale of the film sees Alvaro accidentally end up in bed with Serafina's daughter and then after he disgraces her by shouting up on top of a telephone pole she welcomes into the house as the film ends.

Like with all adaptations of Williams' plays the film suffers from a very stagy atmosphere. True out of the three I've seen The Rose Tattoo probably has more scenes that are outside of the home including an odd scene with Serafina's daughter Rosa and her boyfriend Jack having a brief conversation by the sea which seems very out of place and slows down the action somewhat. However the best thing about The Rose Tattoo is Mangini's performance, if ever anyone wanted to see the literal meaning of screen presence then they should watch her turn as Serafina. From beginning to end she owns every scene she appears in tearing up her house, madly walking through the town or simply in a state of shock she is brilliant at everything she does in this film. On the basis of this she more than deserved her Oscar for Best Actress beating more familiar names such as Katharine Hepburn and Susan Hayward. Marisa Pavan is also fairly impressive as Rosa who has a romantic subplot and is able to hold her own in her scenes with Mangini however I was quite disappointed by Lancaster's fairly broad trucker. Overall The Rose Tattoo is another Williams adaptation which relies on its performers to carry the film as it is pretty static filmic wise however for me with the exception of Magnini's tour-de-force Serafina there isn't much to latch onto here and there is a definite reason why this hasn't stood the test of time in the same way that Streetcar or Tin Roof has.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 139: Oh What a Circus

Some critics are so harsh because I recently came over several lists which ranked the worst Oscar winners of all time and in the Top 5 of most of these lists was the latest film I watched - The Greatest Show on Earth. To give you a little background the film is Cecile B De Mille's circus-set extravaganza and is based around the Bingling Bros., Barnum and Bailey Circus. Charlton Heston plays circus manager Brad Braden who is trying to convince his bosses to give the circus another full season and to entice them he has hired famous acrobat and well known lothario The Great Sebastian. After agreeing to hiring Sebastian and getting a full season Brad has to deal with the fact that his acrobat girlfriend Holly will be bumped from the centre stage although she claims she will one-up Sebastian so the audience focuses on them. Throughout the film  a love triangle develops with Sebastian enchanting Holly with his risky attitude and his competitive spirit while Brad is more focused on getting the circus working. After Sebastian and Holly get together another performer Ginger goes after Brad but this infuriates her lover Klauss who vows to get revenge. James Stewart also appears in the film as Buttons the Clown, Buttons has an intriguing story where he never takes off his make-up clues throughout the story lead us to believe that he was a surgeon who mercy killed his own lover and is on the run from the police. During one of the journeys on the circus train a disgraced former employee along with the jealous Klauss plan to rob the train but Klauss has a change of heart when he realises he may hurt Ginger and there is a massive train crash. Brad is injured and with the Doctor unconscious Buttons operates on him but is caught by an FBI investigator who knows his suspect is somewhere in the circus after saving Brad's live Buttons is carted off to jail while Holly realises she loves Brad and Ginger and Sebastian decide to be together.

I have to say of the Best Pictures I have watched so far The Greatest Show on Earth is definitely not the worst but at the same time not the best. It does have some good points for one it is incredibly realistic with 1,400 members of the actual circus troupe starring alongside the actors accompanied by the whole ring set-up crew and a menagerie of animals. The film also lapses into documentary at times with De Mille providing a voiceover at various points to illustrate how hard it is to deconstruct and erect the tent each day and how hard the travel is on the performers. Heston provides a great leading man while the James Stewart story is very compelling and I wish I'd seen more of it while the camerawork for the most part is done well especially when focusing on the audience reactions. However at the same time it is far too long and there is no reason at all that we needed to see entire parts of some of the acts. While the acrobatics acts are pivotal to the plot everything else could be just viewed in clip form and this is one of De Mille's main problems. In addition Betty Hutton is a bit of a damp squib as Holly and Cornel Wilde is almost too much as the exotic lover Sebastian. I also didn't really get the motivation for Klaus' momentary change of heart which caused the train crash. The theory is that this film won the Oscar because of De Mille's Hollywood pull and the fact that this would be his last chance to win a Best Picture Statuette. Overall the film is spectacular but it needs about 45 minutes cut from it to make it truly memorable film.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 137-138: Mostly Marlon Part 2

And without further ado here is the second part of the Marlon Brando season.



After three years of striking out in the Best Actor category Brando finally came up trumps at the 1955 ceremony with the film that also won the Best Picture award that year - On the Waterfront. For this picture Brando reteamed with both Streetcar writer Elia Kazan and co-star Karl Malden to make a story based on real experiences that long shoremen had dealing with their mob-run environment. As the film starts Brando's Terry Malloy is instrumental in the death of long shoreman Joey Doyle who's death is interlinked with him testifying against gangster Johnny Friendly who runs the docks and trades illegally. Malloy's brother Charley works as Friendly's accountant and gets Terry to do some of the easier jobs through his guilt of making Terry throwing fights when he was a prize fighter. Events get complicated when Terry falls for Doyle's sister Evie who, along with Malden's priest Father Barry, tries to convince Terry to testify against Friendly. Worried that Terry is being swayed Friendly sends Charley out to set Terry straight where Terry delivers the still famous 'I Coulda Been a Contender' speech. Eventually Terry testifies and Friendly turns the rest of the dockworkers against him and has him beaten up but Friendly is then discredited with all the longshoremen turning their backs on him. There's so much to praise about On The Waterfront and thankfully for once a great film gets recognised by the Academy winning Best Picture, Actor, Director, Screenplay and Supporting Actress for Eva Marie Saint as Evie. Saint is great in the film so much so I think this was almost a Lead performance which would've seen the film scoop the much-touted 'Big Five'. If Streetcar was Brando's breakout then this was definitely his star-making turn playing a conflicting character wanting to do what's right but not wanting to test his loyalty against his brother and the men who have been giving him the job. There are also so many great filmic moments from the already mentioned speech, to the ending where a beaten Malloy makes his way to work despite being light on his feet and having blurred sight but my favourite scene is probably Terry telling Evie about his involvement in Joey's death which we don't hear as a big steamship comes past making their conversation inaudible. Of the supporting performances Karl Malden is probably my favourite as the priest, but Lee J Cobb also makes a convincing gangster and Rod Steiger as Charley also is strong in a couple of scenes all were nominated as Supporting Actors but to Edmond O'Brien in The Barefoot Contessa both a role and film that aren't best remembered. I also feel that the score is brilliant it stuck in my head afterwards and added to the atmospheric tone. The Oscar winning set direction and cinematography were both brilliantly handled with the shoot taking place over 36 days in Hoboken, New Jersey making all the shore scenes seem very real and the workers' silence over how badly their work is run and even some of Friendly's goons are played by real-life prize fighters. Just a brilliant film and a worthy Best Picture winner and definitely the film that made Marlon Brando.

The final Best Picture nominee that Brando starred in during the 1950s, and again he got a Best Actor nomination, was Sayonara which I feel was a bit of a departure from the roles he played in contemporary American dramas in this particular blog post. The film sees Brando play Air Force Major Ace Gruver who moves from Korea to Japan where one of his troop - Joe Kelly is about to marry a Japanese woman. A lot of people in the Air Force and the military in general aren't happy with Kelly's choice to marry a Japanese woman but despite his reluctance Gruver agrees to be Kelly's best man. Also in Japan, Gruver's superior General Webster has bought along his daughter Eileen, played by Patricia Owens, who for a long time Ace has been in a relationship with. However during the time in Japan neither feel the relationship is pretty solid with Eileen's feelings being a lot stronger than Ace's. As time goes on Gruver starts to accept Kelly's relationship with his wife Katsumi and himself becomes entranced by a Japanese dancer Hana-ogi. Things come to a head when Kelly is to be shipped back to America and his wife isn't allowed to come with him despite the fact she is pregnant. Ace is also to be sent back after his relationship with Hana-ogi is revealed but the day that Kelly is to be taken away he runs back to Katsumi and they both commit suicide deciding to be together in the next life. Ace then discovers that General Webster has made a law possible for men like Kelly to bring their Japanese wives back to America so he announces to the media that he is marrying Hana-ogi and people best get used to it. The biggest surprise in this film is probably seeing Brando in a kimono despite that this film is a little long-winded in its message of equality and that these soldiers are in love with these women rather than just wanting to be with the first woman they touch as Webster so eloquently puts it in once scene. Brando's Southern drawl adds an extra dimension to this character who is portrayed as being a natural leader but at the same time very simple in his views and he is one round by the differences that Japan and Japanese women have to offer. However the two standout performances come from Oscar winners Red Buttons and Miyoshi Umeki as Joe and Katsumi both giving spectacular performances as the doomed couple Buttons in particular is a revelation as he was much better known as a comedian than a dramatic actor but this film more than showed that he could do both. I have to say I felt the film needed to be about 20 minutes less and I didn't need to see as many of the Japanese sequences as I did and I felt James Garner was wasted in a worthless role as the military man showing Ace a different side of Japan. Overall though a film with a strong message and another great performance from Brando again displaying his range.

As I watched this quartet of films I really felt that Brando was improving as an actor as the decade went on from rough and ready in Streetcar he honed his skills for On the Waterfront before playing an almost naive character in Sayonara. Like with Elizabeth Taylor I'm looking forward to seeing more of Brando as we trek on through the decades but I guess its Sayonara for now

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 135-136: Mostly Marlon

So after my Elizabeth Taylor retrospective we have four films from Marlon Brando an actor who was considered to have changed the way actors were perceived on films. Once upon a time you had the classic 'film star' such as Fred Astaire, Mickey Rooney or Cary Grant but then Brando was a new breed of actor who really got into the character and developed the phrase method acting. Here is part one of two blogs looking at the four Brando films nominated for the Best Picture prize.

We finished the last instalment of the Oscar blog with a Tennessee Williams adaptation and we start our Marlon Brando retrospective with another Williams story - A Streetcar Named Desire. For those of you unaware with the story it sees the demure but emotionally fragile Blanche Dubouis journey to New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella and Stella's husband the brutish Stanley played by Brando. As time goes on Brando continues to resent Blanche's domination of Stella's time and her relationship with his friend Mitch so he starts to dig dirt on why she had to leave her old home. The final confrontation with ends in Stanley raping Blanche before she is carted off to a mental institution is very well done by director Elia Kazan by taking the camera around the expressions of all the characters and using the strong score to play the emotions of the two sisters with Stella finally seeing the light and leaving her husband with their new baby. As someone who read the play as part of my English literature A-Level I have to say that everybody involved did their best to recreate what this story should be. The set direction was rightfully given an Oscar for providing the claustrophobic atmosphere of both Stanley and Stella's apartment to the small area in which the characters inhabit. Vivien Leigh had previously played Blanche on the stage in London and bought both star power and incredible timing as a character who slowly loses her mind throughout the film. Kim Hunter is great as the tortured Stella while Karl Malden also stole the show in his couple of scenes as the hapless Mitch who wants to tame Blanche but realises that is impossible. Leigh, Malden and Hunter all won Oscars for their performances indeed the only person who didn't win an acting Oscar was Marlon Brando. However Brando won something else a new found fame for his great turn as Stanley he plays a man who was raised to behave a certain way and is almost tortured every time he hurts Stella and she leaves him briefly. He is brutish but at the same time doesn't go over-the-top and most importantly he becomes the character this isn't Marlon Brando as Stanley this is Stanley and you can really believe it. One more thing about the film is Alex North's great score who went against type composing short pieces of music to reflect the trauma of the characters but unfortunately he didn't win the Oscar but he did set a precedent in terms of film music as maybe Brando did with character development.

After his Oscar nomination for Streetcar, Brando was nominated for Viva Zapata at the next Oscar ceremony and then again at the Oscar ceremony held in 1954. However nobody quite expected that role to be in an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The film saw a lot of Shakespeare pros take the parts that they'd already taken on stage for example British theatrical legend John Gielgud played Cassius and James Mason who also had Shakespearian experience was Brutus here. Even producer John Houseman had Caesar experience having been involved in the classic Orson Welles Mercury Theatre production but by this time Welles and Houseman had fallen out and Welles wanted nothing to do with this production. However Brando's casting as Marc Anthony was met with scepticism to the point of Paul Scofield being on standby if Brando's screen test bombed however Brando was so good that Gielgud offered him the lead in the production of Hamlet he was directing, Brando turned this offer down. I'm really not going to retype the plot of Caesar as we all know the first half sees many of his followers conspire his demise and the second half sees Anthony's rise. While we're on Anthony Brando was brilliant even though he had very little to do in the first half of the film from the 'Friends, Romans, Countrymen' speech onwards he captures the imagination being able to deliver Shakespeare's lines with all the precision of a pro and the doubts that the 'mumbler' wouldn't be able to perform were cast aside here. I'm not sure if it was good enough to be Oscar nominated but maybe the Academy were so surprised by Brando's performance that he got the nod just for doing something different. Aside from Brando the ensemble cast are all terrific especially Mason's Brutus and Louis Calhern's Caesar. I also have to applaud the set design for giving us something grandiose and recreating ancient Rome brilliantly and also for handling the crowd scenes very well.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 133-134: A Tribute to Elizabeth Taylor Part 2

And now on with the second part of my Elizabeth Taylor tribute.

The film I previously mentioned which utilised Taylor correctly was Giant an epic with a difference going over the span of many years of the Benedict family as they become parents and later grandparents. The head of the family Jordan 'Bick' Benedict was played by Rock Hudson while Taylor played his wife Leslie. The film concentrates on old versus new as Bick is the latest in the long line of Benedicts to own the Reata Ranch and is assisted by Mercedes McCambridge's Luz and James Dean's Jett Rink. When Luz dies she leaves a patch of land to Jett and later he strikes rich after finding oil and finds a new way to get money from the land which Bick isn't too pleased with. Bick sells some of his land and gets even more rich from the oil meanwhile Bick and Leslie have three children the eldest of which, Jordy played by a  young Dennis Hopper, wants to be a doctor rather than run the ranch while the older daughter Judy wants to follow in her father's footsteps. Jordy later marries an American Indian woman and fights the prejudice that that brings meanwhile Jett buys a hotel and starts dating the younger daughter Luz II but she stops their relationship after realising he's a bitter drunk and the film ends with Bick realising how good his life is and how much he actually loves his wife. Although overlong there's no doubting that Giant is a magnificent film from the outdoor shots to the story itself I felt it flew through most of its two and a half hour run time. I have to say I could've done without some of the scenes including the one in which Leslie journeys home to see her sister get married to her former beau played by Rod Taylor. As well as a best picture nomination George Stevens managed to win Best Director with acting nominations for Dean, Hudson and McCambridge but nothing for Taylor which is a shame as she really anchors the film playing a woman who doesn't understand why she isn't allowed in Bick's inner circle of men who constantly discuss business. Even though she ages throughout the film she still looks really glamorous and so pretty this is one film in which she shines yet not even a nomination.

But she did get a nomination towards the end of the decade at the 1959 ceremony she was nominated in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof an adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play and one of a handful of Williams stories that became Oscar nominated pictures in the 1950s. The story revolves around Paul Newman's Brick Pollit a drunken ex-Football player now commentator who has come back to Mississippi for his father, Big Daddy's birthday with his wife Maggie known as Maggie the cat. The film, like the play, is centred all around the day of Big Daddy's party with Brick drunk and in his room while Maggie spends most of the time fighting with Brick's brother and his horrible wife and children. Brick is upset with Maggie because he believes she was responsible for the death of his friend Skipper. Apparently one of the things Williams hated about this adaptation was that the supposed homosexual feelings that Brick had for Skipper were cut out so his outbursts aimed towards Maggie weren't as barbed as they might have been had those themes remained in the film. This was alledgedly to do with the Hays Code, the censorship body at the time, disallowing references to homosexuality and therefore muddying this adaptation. The film also ends with a reconciliation between Big Daddy and Brick after the latter finds out the former is dying, this was another scene that was lengthened so the audience could go out with a happy ending. Despite receiving a plethora of nominations the film didn't win a single one possibly because the subject matter and Taylor's very provocative performance were a bit too risque for an Oscar Ceremony in which the Best Picture statuette went to Gigi. I have to say though this film was very good, although it was quite confined as it was used to being played on the stage the actors still gave it their all.

So in the 1950s Taylor went from young innocent daughter to full on vamp while playing the medieval heroine, glamorous socialite and many eras of the same woman in between. This voyage through five of her films has given me an insight into the career of a great actress and there's two more films from her in the 1960s section which I am yet to view and I have to say now I'm looking forward to it.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 131-132: A Tribute to Elizabeth Taylor Part 1

Sadly earlier this year we lost a big film legend in Elizabeth Taylor. Even sadder is the fact that I haven't really watched a lot of her films save National Velvet and The Flintstones when I was younger. So I have used the 1950s Oscar Hunt to watch five her films all nominated for Best Picture during this decade to kick off the first three.

Liz Taylor really made her name in the aforementioned National Velvet but then was still considered a child star but she had to wait till 1950 for what many think as her first adult role in the original version of Father of the Bride a nominee at the 1951 ceremony. Obviously I'm very aware of the Steve Martin remake but have never seen the original starring Spencer Tracy as the father and Taylor as his daughter who gets engaged to Don Taylor's Buckley. Obviously the film shares a lot with the remake but what there is much more of an emphasis on is how much the wedding will cost Tracy's Stanley Banks and his wife Ellie played by Joan Bennett. It also doesn't strike me that the relationship with the daughter is as strong as it is in the remake despite this there is a good chemistry between Tracy, Bennett and Taylor as well as the two actors playing their sons. Tracy's comic voiceover is particularly affecting including in one of the opening scenes where he tries to remember which one of Taylor's potential suitors Buckley is. Tracy is also able to show off his slapstick side in a very long scene in which he tries to try on his old suit which is far too tight for him and which he ends up ripping. From the wedding onwards I recognised most of the scenes from Stanley worrying what he has to say in the church to the fact that he never gets to say goodbye to his daughter until she leaves. I feel that the film isn't quite as funny as it thinks it is but it is still very sweet and you believe that the Banks are a real family going through with a real wedding. To be fair Taylor doesn't have a lot to do apart from look very pretty and sulk occasionally when she feels her wedding is being planned by other people. An interesting Oscar nominee in that is predominantly a comedy film but nonetheless a great film.

A year later Taylor starred opposite Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun again a film nominated for Best Picture and once again Taylor missed out on an acting nomination although Clift and fellow co-star Shelley Winters were both nominated. The film starred Clift as George Eastman a poor relation to a wealthy industrial family. George meets his uncle and cousins and is introduced to Taylor's society girl Angela Vickers instantly falling in love. However he feels he isn't good enough for her and instead starts working in the family factory and beginning a casual relationship with Winters' Al. Al and George go out a couple of times and then George is moved up the social ranks and eventually starts seeing Angela but things are complicated when Al reveals she is pregnant and wants to marry George telling him she'll reveal all to his new friends if he doesn't. Desperate for a happy ending with Angela, George sets out to kill Al while on a boat but instead he can't go through with it but when she accidentally drowns he covers it up and is eventually arrested for her murder in the end he doesn't get A Place in the Sun that he so desperately wanted to share with Taylor. As a romantic melodrama, A Place in the Sun was a great film but I'm not sure if it was Oscar-worthy while Clift and especially Winters both deserved their nominations I feel that Taylor was cruelly snubbed here as every time she breezed onto the screen it lit up. A scene in which she realises she is in love with George happens so smoothly that Taylor is able to show the audience her feelings just using her eyes. It's a bit odd to think that Taylor was only 17 here playing against Clift who was over twelve years her senior but their chemistry does work and you do really understand why George would risk everything for Angela because at the end of the day it is Elizabeth Taylor!

Another year and another Oscar nominee for Liz this time in the swashbuckling adventure Ivanhoe. This was during the time in her career when Taylor wasn't getting the roles she wanted and in terms of this film she wanted the main romantic lead Rowena which went to Joan Fontaine and instead she had to settle playing Rebecca the girl who loved Ivanhoe from afar but could never get him and was forced into a relationship with George Sanders' Norman soldier De-Bois Gilbert who knew that Ivanhoe could never love her. In fact this was Taylor and Fontaine's film both women giving strong performances making the women more than just love interests and a lot more interesting than the lead man. Yes Robert Taylor's pioneering hero who was trying to fight King John's men and reinstate Richard the Lionheart was in fact incredibly bland. 15 years removed from the Errol Flynn era this almost seemed like a back-step for the 1950s cinema. I'm sure that the studio heads wanted to revisit these blockbusters to film them in Technicolor but this did nothing for me and went downhill when Robin Hood had to step in to help Ivanhoe and introduce all his Merry Men. The final scenes in which Taylor is falsely accused of witchcraft were poorly but together and I didn't really care about any of the characters coming away from it. Taylor really wanted bigger films than a supporting role in a mediocre epic thankfully in a few years later she would get that chance.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 130: A Trip to Italy

After two pretty heavy classics I'm ready to have a bit of a break and a bit of light relief so next up are two films both featuring Americans living in Italy and, in the case of the first film Roman Holiday, what happens when a member of the royalty rocks up. That member of royalty is put-upon Princess Ann, played by Audrey Hepburn in her first major role and the only one that would get her the Best Actress Oscar, who while on an official visit to Rome escapes to see the city. Eventually finding herself tired out she is encountered by Gregory Peck's American journalist Joe Bradley who begrudgingly allows her to sleep on his couch. Bradley eventually discovers her identity and smelling a scoop decides to try and trap Anne long enough so he can write a story about it to impress his editor. But during their trip around Rome, accompanied by Joe's photographer friend Irving who is secretly taking pictures of the princess, they inevitably fall for each other and share a kiss before Anne realises that she must return to her duties and leaves Joe in the cold. Joe realises that with his new found feelings for Anne he can no longer publish the story and tells his suspicious editor that he has no idea where the princess is convincing Iriving not to sell the photos they journey to the palace for a press conference where the princess discovers that they are both members of the press. During the press conference Joe and Anne both share their feelings for each other in thinly veiled messages while Irving presents Anne the pictures he took of the three of them together. The final scene sees Joe lingering in the palace eventually leaving.

It is this final scene that stuck with me most of all as I was glad that the film ended with the two going their separate ways rather than having a happy ending. As a whole Roman Holiday was a satisfying film there were parts of it where I found myself getting a little bit bored. I thought Hepburn did very well in her first starring role and opening scenes in which she finds herself tiring of her overly-structured life were particularly endearing. Her chemistry with Peck was also one of the things that made the film work and the way she grows as a character as their relationship develops was another plus point to the film. However I just felt there was just too much dilly dallying and too many establishing shots of Rome it's like William Wyler was trying to drum home the fact that it was shot entirely on location in the Roman capital. Hepburn did indeed deserve her Oscar but I'm surprised that Peck didn't get a nomination as he was just as good as her and the closing scenes really showed a vulnerability to the character that a lesser actor couldn't have mustered. I also don't understand why Eddie Albert, as Irving, was nominated for Supporting Actor when Peck didn't get a look in as Albert had such a minor role in the film that I didn't feel an Oscar nomination was justified. Roman Holiday is certainly a very light film but the romantic comedies of today can't really hold a candle to it.

I'm not sure if the next film Three Coins in the Fountain, also considered itself a romantic comedy, but one of the problems with it was that it had no definite tone. The Fountain in question is the Trevi Fountain in Rome and the three coins belong to American women working as secretaries in the Italian capital played by Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters and Maggie MacNamara. Inevitably each find love McNamara plays Maria the newest secretary out in Rome and is told by Peters' Anita that Rome is horrible place for secretaries to fall in love. But soon both find romance Maria with an Italian prince and Anita with local boy and fellow office worker Georgio however the latter's romance is in jeapordy as the boss has a strict rule about the American girls fraternising with the Italians. Finally McGuire's Frances has been in love with her boss the reclusive writer Shadwell, played by Clifton Webb, but her coin in the fountain finally works out as the two fall in love but the hindrance here is the fact that Shadwell finds out he is dying. Three Coins is the first film since I entered the 1950s that is filmed in Technicolor and that it was one of its advantages. The colour cinematography, which one it an Oscar, allows the film to capture some of Rome's landmarks in beautiful sparkling colour and therefore does a better job of selling Italy than perhaps Roman Holiday does. The other thing the film is famous for is the Dean Martin song of the same name which is better remembered than the film and won it its second Oscar. However beautiful it might look and sound there was really not enough going on for me in Three Coins to keep me interested. I feel that if it had been One Coin in the Fountain then I may've been hooked but there wasn't enough time to cover all three romances in depth especially that between Anita and Giorgio which was almost a two-scene love affair. The corniest part of the whole film is the final scene in which each woman is at the fountain and is greeted by her respective love interest. I think if this film had been made today then it wouldn't have been nominated for an Oscar but back in the 1950s a sparkly new colour film made in Italy was probably seen as being revolutionary by the Academy.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 129: Two from the West

We trickle on down the river of the Oscar hunt as we have two westerns for your delectation and delight.

Kicking off with High Noon, a nominee from the 1953 ceremony but a film that did win four awards including Best Actor for Gary Cooper and Best Original Song for the completely annoying Do Not Forsake me My Darling which plays throughout the film. Cooper stars as Will Kane the sheriff of a small New Mexico territory who is to give up his job and leave the town with his new wife Grace Kelly's Amy. However just before he is to go he gets word that Frank Miller, a criminal that he convicted, is to return and has his mind set on revenge. Even though he is advised to leave the town he realises that things will only get worse if he doesn't take care of Miller. He desperately tries to drum up support in his help of taking down Miller and his three gang members but is met with resistance from everyone he asks some on personal reasons, others because they are scared and some because they think that it will make the town look bad if it became associated with a shootout. At noon, Miller gets in and a classic shootout begins in the deserted town between Miller's gang and Kane. I have to say I really like High Noon mainly because of its simplicity. The central theme with Kane going round the town is handled well with everybody finding different reasons not to help him even though most concede that Kane has helped clean up the town they just don't want to help him. The design of the town is also deftly handled each set is laid out well and this helps in the final scenes with the shootout. Cooper gives a good performance and is ably supported by Lloyd Bridges as his deputy who refuses to help out as he is jealous of Kane and thinks he still has designs on his ex-girlfriend now Bridges' girl. This girl is Helen Ramirez played by Katy Jurado who sizzles in the film coming across as a strong Latino woman and a lot more interesting than Grace Kelly's pacifist who has little to do for most of the film apart from hang around at the station although she does come into her own in the final scenes. As I've said I found the song completely annoying and its not perfect but as a classic western High Noon still stands up today.

Going forward one year we have Shane another fairly simplistic western seeing Alan Ladd as the titular stranger who comes to a town which is involved in a war between the homesteaders and the landowners lead by Emile Meyer's Ryker. Shane eventually moves in with Van Heflin's homesteader Joe Starrett and helps strengthen their cause while at the same time becoming a second father to Starrett's son and falling in love with his wife Marian played by Jean Arthur in her final film role. Shane incorporates several showdowns between each gangs as Ryker becomes rattled by Shane and hires ruthless gunslinger Jack Wilson played by Jack Palance. Wilson quickly takes out one of the best loved homesteaders who is able to stick to his ground. After his funeral Starrett tries to rally the homesteaders against Ryker and most agree to help him. Shane realises that the only way to help Starrett is to take down Wilson and Ryker and free the homesteaders of the threat of them losing the land once and for all. After a gun battle, witnessed by Starrett's son and his dog, Shane is wounded and goes off on his horse at the end with the audience wondering whether he is dead or not. As we are now into the 1950s colour is starting to be used more and more and that is evident in Shane which won an Oscar for its cinematography. Taking advantage of its large sweeping landscapes and exterior shots Shane is a gorgeously shot film and also is great in its themes of what it means to be a man with the juxtaposition between the classic hero Shane and the grounded family man Starrett both envy each other for different reasons and that's why each of them want to sort out Ryker. Ladd, Arthur and Hefflin all play their roles very well and Ladd in particular has a difficult job portraying a character with very little dialogue. None of these got an acting nomination instead Palance was nominated as the striking Wilson while Brandon De Wilde as Joey Starrett also got a nod despite being really annoying throughout the film like most child actors in the 1950s. The biggest problem with the film for me is Meyer whose Ryker never comes off as a viable threat appearing more as a pantomime villain but despite this Shane is a competently directed Western which capitalises on the use of Technicolor cinematography and utilises to its full extent.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 128: Faded Stars and Small Pictures

By the 1950s film-makers and screenwriters were playing around with new ways to drive the action and one way this was done was by focusing on Hollywood itself and 1951 nominee Sunset Boulevard does just that. Narrated by its lead character, William Holden's struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis, it tells the story of how he came to be living with former star of silent pictures Norma Desmond. Gillis while trying to escape from people who owes money to has a flat tyre and drives into the garage of what he believes to be a deserted mansion. It is only when he is confronted by the only member of staff, Erich Von Stroheim's Max, that he finds out that the house actually belongs to Desmond. Gillis, who owes money all over town, agrees to help Desmond edit her screenplay about Salome and bit by bit he finds himself living in the house and eventually in the room in which all of Desmond's former husbands have lived in. Although a satire the film almost becomes a horror picture with Joe feeling trapped in the house, which in itself becomes a character, and by Desmond who buys Joe expensive clothes and accessories to make him stick around. Meanwhile Joe is secretly sneaking out to Paramount Studios to work on one of his own screenplays alongside the beautiful Betty Schaefer who just happens to be engaged to one of his best friends. These nightly rendevouzes quickly turn into something more and when Desmond discovers what he's been up to she goes into a fit of hysterics. She also discovers that she is no longer wanted by any director, Cecile B De Mille pops up at one point as himself as one of Desmond's former friends and has to do something drastic for the cameras to focus on her.

Sunset Boulevard was partly successful at the 1951 Ceremony winning three awards including a very deserved prize for Best Screenplay and Story. One thing that drives Sunset forward is its narrative provided by Gillis now looking back on all the mistakes he had made throughout the course of the film. The Art Direction of the daunting house and Franz Waxman's haunting score also picked up wins. I believe though had the film not come up against the juggernaut that was All About Eve it would've triumphed even more. It is one of only a handful of films to have someone nominated in all four acting categories and I was especially surprised to see that Swanson lost to Judy Holliday rather than one of Eve's two principal actresses. Swanson is definitely the best thing about the film her Norma Desmond sticks in the mind long after you've finished watching from her manic eyes to her raspy commanding voice everything about her strikes fear in the viewer. Holden is brilliant as the down-on-his-luck everyman who thinks he spots an opportunity to exploit Desmond before seeing that it is the other way around. Von Stroheim, also nominated, adds something more to the film as Max's true identity is revealed later in the film we find out why he is devoted to Norma in the way he is. Finally the beautiful Nancy Olson as Betty was also nominated for bringing a strong presence to a character who could've just become the token love interest. I'm so glad I re-watched this film as I'd forgotten just how good it was and just how brilliant the writing is. I've not got a problem with the fact that it lost but as long as people still remember the film and still watch it then I'll be happy with that. And I think I agree with Desmond one aspect the pictures now have gotten smaller than they were when Sunset was released.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 127: My Day in Court

So finally a new decade in the Oscar challenge and we move from the tumultuous 1940s to the glorious 1950s in which the big screen came alive as Technicolor became more and more frequent and the cinemas were dominated by large, colourful epics luckily Oscar still had place in its nomination slots to honour smaller films that were well written but may've only had two or three sets to their name. And we're starting off with two such films both based in a courtroom setting.

The first of these two films is 1958 nominee Witness for the Prosecution the adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel starring Charles Laughton as the belligerent Sir Wilfred a brilliant barrister who has just returned to his chambers having suffered from health problems. It is not long before Wilfred is visited by a solicitor friend who has a new client - Leonard Vole who is accused of murdering the wealthy spinster Emily French with strong circumstantial evidence pointing towards him as the killer. The only person who can vouch for his whereabouts and act as his alibi is his German wife Christine, here played by the sultry Marlene Dietrich, but Wilfred warns that a testimony from a loving wife doesn't hold up to much. The best scenes of the film happen in the Old Bailey mainly because the set is so impressive, it had been recreated by Alexandre Trauner, and is also where the trial begins The prosecution calls several witnesses before their key witness is revealed as Christine acting as the titular Witness for the Prosecution. Anything I say from there would spoil the film and I was told specifically at the end of the film by a stern voice-over not to tell my friends anything about the film's conclusion. I will say however that I very much enjoyed Witness for the Prosecution and most of that is down to Laughton's performance a mix of drama and comedy he captures what I believe the character needed and ultimately is able to do the right thing. It is odd to see Laughton act this way after portraying a bunch of villains in the 1930s, in films such as Les Miserables and Mutiny on the Bounty, however he did display comic flare in Ruggles of Red Gap and he uses that here getting a Best Actor Nomination but ultimately losing to Alec Guinness. The other Oscar nominee here is Elsa Lanchester who plays Sir Wilfred's fussing personal nurse Miss Plimsoll with whom Wilfred clashes but by the end they have a grudging respect for what the other does while I did enjoy this performance I'm surprised Dietrich didn't get a nomination for playing her feme fatale role to great effect. Sometimes the tone doesn't feel just right, occasionally the comedy feels misjudged especially since this is a film about an old woman who has been murdered but the great ending which I didn't see coming makes up for any shifts in tone.

Also nominated at the 1958 ceremony was a film which is still my favourite of all time that being the late Sidney Lumet's classic 12 Angry Men. If you haven't seen the film then you need to as, in the words of one of my friends, it's good for you but I will indulge you with a small plot summary nonetheless. Almost all of the film takes place in a jury room in which the twelve men who make up the jury are discussing whether the boy on trial killed his father or not and if they find him guilty he will go to the chair. The boy has been raised in a slum and two witnesses attest to seeing the boy stab his father or that they heard him shout that he was going to kill him. Initially only Henry Fonda's Juror Number 8 stands up for the boy voting Not Guilty in the first round of votes so that there can be a discussion about the trial and whether all the evidence was completely accurate. Some people bring their own prejudices to the table for example one juror has a problem with people from slum backgrounds while another lets his personal issues cloud his judgment. The best thing about the film, in my opinion, is the way in which the plot unravels and the characters are given more depth as the time goes on. We only learn two of the juror's names and that only happens in the very final scene instead they are referred to simply by their juror numbers. Despite the cramped setting, filmic techniques are still employed throughout 12 Angry Men including using different shots to focus on either the whole set or one character in particular for example a close-up on Juror Number 4 who in his own words never sweats but is in fact seen perspiring during one key moment. I honestly can't find fault with this film and have seen it so many times and I'm still horrified that it didn't win Best Picture or at least Best Screenplay. The only actor nominated for his role in the film was Fonda which I think is a mistake there are plenty of strong performances most notably from Lee J Cobb as the last angry man Juror No. 3. Overall a masterpiece and that's my final word on the matter.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge: Reviewing the Ceremonies 12-21 (1940-1949)

As you know the way I have been doing this Oscar ceremony business is by watching the films by when the awards ceremonies were held rather than when the films were released so in fact the final ceremony celebrates films released in 1948 and the films released in 1949 will be reviewed as part of the 1950s selection. Anyway in this blog I will look back at all the films I have watched and give my verdict on whether or not the right film won.

Ceremony 12: 1940
Winner: Gone with the Wind
Nominees: Dark Victory, Goodbye Mr Chips, Love Affair, Mr Smith Goes to Washington,Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach The Wizard of Oz, Wuthering Heights
Did the Right Film Win: Yes
Although I do think Gone with the Wind waffles on a bit it's still an epic and rightly viewed as a classic plus the only real competition comes from The Wizard of Oz and possibly Stagecoach and Mr Smith but in terms of story and more importantly filmic qualities Gone with the Wind wins hands down.

Ceremony 13: 1941
Winner: Rebecca
Nominees : All This and Heaven Too, Foreign Correspondent, The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Dictator, Kitty Foyle, The Letter, The Long Voyage Home, Our Town, The Philadelphia Story
Did the Right Film Win: Yes
This was a tough one as I really enjoyed The Great Dictator and felt that it was really ahead of its time in terms of satire and pastiche but I do love a bit of Hitchcock and as Rebecca is the only Hitch film that ever won an Oscar I feel that its win is justified and it is a brilliant film anyway.

Ceremony 14: 1942
Winner: How Green Was My Valley
Nominees: Blossoms in the Dust, Citizen Kane, Here Comes Mr Jordan, Hold Back the Dawn, The Little Foxes, The Maltese Falcon, One Foot in Heaven, Sergeant York, Suspicion
Did the Right Film Win: No
I know in the early days of the Academy there was a lot of love for John Ford but I think they'd be forced to admit that the Welsh mining drama wasn't his finest hour. I think the award rightfully should've gone to a little movie called Citizen Kane which has had much more of a lasting effect than the winner that year.

Ceremony 15: 1943
Winner: Mrs Miniver
Nominees: 49th Parallel, King's Row, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Pied Piper, Pride of the Yankees, Random Harvest, The Talk of the Town, Wake Island, Yankee Doodle Dandy
Did the Right Film Win: Maybe
This is another case of a film winning in a year where there isn't a clear film better than the victor however there are a lot that would match Mrs Miniver personally I enjoyed Random Harvest more as a Greer Garson vehicle and as Welles lost the year before maybe The Ambersons should've taken it this year however there isn't one film that jumps out as an alternative winner so I'll let Miniver have it this time around.

Ceremony 16: 1944
Winner: Casablanca
Nominees: For Whom the Bell Tolls, Heaven Can Wait, The Human Comedy, In Which We Serve, Madame Curie, The More the Merrier, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Song of Bernadette, Watch on the Rhine
Did the Right Film Win: Yes
Nothing much to say here while there are some strong contenders Casablanca still stands up today as a brilliant film.

Ceremony 17: 1945
Winner: Going my Way
Nominees: Double Indemnity, Gaslight, Since You Went Away, Wilson
Did the Right Film Win: No
This ceremony saw the field slimmed down to five nominees which would stay that way until 2010 and while I'm aware that in the final year of the war it was nice to have a Bing Crosby film to cheer everyone up however Going my Way is such a cheesy film that just looks a bit dated as compared to the classic that is the gripping Double Indemnity or the ensemble wartime drama Since You Went Away both of which would've made ideal replacements for Crosby's singing priest.

Ceremony 18: 1946
Winner: The Lost Weekend
Nominees: Anchors Aweigh, The Bells of St. Mary, Mildred Pierce, Spellbound
Did the Right Film Win: Maybe
I do feel that The Lost Weekend had a lot going for it in terms of style and message however, from a cinematic point-of-view Hitchcock's Spellbound was better while Mildred Pierce had a more interesting story. But as Billy Wilder lost the year before I think he deserved a win and The Lost Weekend is by no means an average film it just doesn't have that quality about it that I feel a Best Picture winner should.

Ceremony 19: 1947
Winner: The Best Years of Our Lives
Nominees: Henry V, It's a Wonderful Life, The Razor's Edge, The Yearling
Did the Right Film Win: Yes
There are probably a lot of people that are startled here that I didn't pick It's a Wonderful Life as this year's worthy winner however I feel The Best Years of Our Lives is a film that a lot of people forget about which is a shame as it is full of stunning performances and a good overall feel to it, it has that big film quality to it that a Best Picture Winner deserves.

Ceremony 20: 1948
Winner: Gentleman's Agreement
Nominees: The Bishop's Wife, Crossfire, Great Expectations, Miracle on 34th Street
Did the Right Film Win: No
Again this is a year in which the winner just doesn't cut it for me and as a replacement surely David Lean's adaptation of Great Expectations is worthy full of elegance and cinematic brilliance this is one Lean that didn't get the love that Lawrence of Arabia or Bridge on the River Kwai did but deserves it just as much.

Ceremony 21: 1949
Winner: Hamlet
Nominees: Johnny Belinda, The Red Shoes, The Snake Pit, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Did the Right Film Win: No
A year in which there are two films which better deserved the award. I would call out The Red Shoes as it is one of the first films to use the Techincolor concept to its advantage, as one of these films however the best film from this year has to be The Treasure of the Sierra Madre which uses a very slight story to build up into a tense psychological drama and all three leads are terrific.

So there you go the 1940s did give us some classic winners such as Casablanca, Rebecca and Gone with the Wind but we also got How Green was My Valley and Going My Way anyway now onto the less demanding 1950s a time where film-making was getting better more colour, more depth and unfortunately a lot more singing and dancing.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 126: The Bette Quartet Part Four

So we've finally made it, it's the last film in the 1940s section of the Big Oscar Challenge and it ties in nicely with the end of the Bette Davis quartet however in Watch on the Rhine she is less of the star and more part of an ensemble including an Oscar winning turn from Paul Lukas as her German husband. The film, based on a successful Broadway play, sees Lukas and Davis' Kurt and Sara journey from Germany to Washington to stay with Sara's mother and brother. Kurt is a staunch anti-Nazi and had been involved in resistance work in both Germany and Spain and he, Sara and their three children had hoped to lie low but because of Sara's mother Fanny's other houseguests that wasn't the case. Also staying with Fanny were the Romanian count Tec and his young wife Marthe who is secretly in love with David. Tec consorts with Nazi Officers and plays poker with them and threatens to reveal Kurt's whereabouts and his desire to return to Germany unless he is given money. Instead of paying off Tec, David shoots him and then flees to Germany after not hearing from his for five months, Sara's eldest Son Joshua reveals his plans to return to their homeland and find his father and asks his mother to prepare his younger brother for the time where he may be called to do the same thing.

As always seems to be the case Bette Davis was at war with most of the people involved in the film from the very beginning. She didn't like the fact that Herman Shumlin, who had originally directed the play, had never directed a film before and also fell out with Lucile Watson who played her mother as they shared different political views. I was shocked that Davis agreed to take the role as it is so small, other actresses such as Irene Dunne had turned it down as they saw it as a supporting role, but she agreed so much with the politics and the staunch anti-fascist message that she was prepared to take the role. She also didn't agree with the fact that she was promoted as the star of the film as the role was so small and indeed I feel that we didn't see the best of Davis in this film even though she did bring her larger than life acting style to an understated role. But it is Lukas who really stood out here and did deliver a worthy Oscar nominated performance however whether it is better than Humphrey Bogart's in Casablanca is questionable. As a film itself I found it very much a piece of two halves, the first half introduces the characters and is mainly involved with getting Sara and her family to Fanny's house there is a lot of small talk about dresses, opening other people's post and polishing silverware. However when the film really gets going is when Tec gets manipulative and especially in the final scenes involving the blackmail and the shooting, which again was another contentious point for the critics as they thought Kurt should've been killed by the Nazis as revenge to get his comeuppance but eventually agreed that Tec deserved. Not so much a Bette Davis film as a Paul Lukas one this film, involving the Nazi movement, the war and how it affects the family, is a very strong one throughout the 1940s ouevre and is a perfect way to end the Davis selection and indeed the 1940s portion of the Big Oscar Challenge.