Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 61: An Almost Silent Witness

The films that I have watched from the second Oscar ceremony have all been quite interesting as they are some of the first films to be in sound. While winning entry The Broadway Melody and variety show the Hollywood Revue of 1929 were quite happy to concentrate on being able to broadcast entertaining musical numbers and comedy skits the other films tried to see how far they could push the boundaries. In Old Arizona was the first ever sound film to go outdoors and therefore it seems a little arcane now and I'm never going to be sure about The Patriot because there isn't a print of it in existence any more. However the fifth film from the list - Alibi experiments with various camera angles and sound techniques however at the same time you can really tell that it is an early sound film as the actors themselves are still getting used to having their voices recorded. The basic plot sees gangster Chick Williams released from jail, allegedly for a crime he didn't commit, and start dating cop's daughter Joan. There is then an incident where a policeman is shot and Chick is implicated however he was at the theatre with Joan at the time so he has as the title would suggest - an alibi. The film asks the audience to believe whether Chick has turned over a new leaf or if he is still in league with the old gang. Do we side with the police? Or are they just wanting to frame him especially since Joan's would-be-beau is also a policeman? I actually did get quite into the plot in the later stages of the film and it is fascinating that very little is needed to create this mood.

The acting, I have to say, isn't perfect and a lot of performances, especially those from the police informant and the cop's daughter are laughable. But in the lead role Chester Morris as Chick conveys a very morally ambiguous character who you're not sure whether to trust or not and indeed he was nominated for Best Actor that year. The way the film is shot, especially in the final scenes, is very impressive given the time when it was released and even though some of the fight scenes and the shoot-outs seem very old-fashioned this must have been really revolutionary when it first arrived at cinemas. Although The Broadway Melody is probably a better film structurally, Alibi was possibly the most ambitious of the five films nominated in the academy's second year.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 58: Two Different Houses

Back to the serious stuff once again with two films that have nothing in common apart from the word house in the title. First of we have The House of Rothschild which was nominated for the Oscar in 1935. The film is basically a propaganda film bigging up the Jews in response to the start of the Anti-Semitic movement coming from Hitler's Germany. At a time when most of the heads of the major studios were Jewish they decided to fight back in film form. It basically looks at the Rothschild family who grew up on 'Jew Street' a place where the Jews had to stay and keep in from 6 in the evening till 6 in the morning. The family is headed by patriarch Meyer who convinces his five sons to each start banks in Europe's major cities but to always consult each other on major matters. Later on the Rothschild boys are all grown-up and together helped finance the fight against Napoleon, however once Napoleon is captured, because of the Rothschilds being Jewish, their contribution to the success of the war is glossed over and they are once again ignored. When Napoleon escapes the brothers retreat back to see their mother on Jew Street they think about allying themselves with Napoleon but in the end they decide to stay on the side of the allies this portrays the Rothschilds as caring as they help the people who wouldn't help them. The final scene of the film, for some reason, is presented in three-strip Technicolor and sees Nathan Rothschild meet the Duke of Wellington who finally congratulates him on his help during the war-effort. Personally I didn't really 'get' The House of Rothschild, I thought the performances were perfectly adequate especially George Arliss in the dual role of Nathan and Meyer Rothschild. But the story itself was weak there was a horrible subplot in which Nathan's daughter wanted to marry a non-Jew which was just insipid. Also although I got the point in the films which promoted the goodness of the Jews I felt it wasn't really strong enough to constitute being considered as propaganda. I also found the three-strip Technicolor a little gimmicky and I really didn't see the point in it. This was never going to be a match for that year's winner, It Happened One Night.

A better film comes from the third ever Oscar ceremony and could possibly be considered the first ever proper prison film. The film follows Kent Marlowe as he is imprisoned, supposedly wrongly, for manslaughter. He is forced to share a cell with Wallace Beery's fearsome Butch as well as Chester Morris' sensible and good-natured thief John Morgan. Kent quickly becomes a snitch and plants a knife on Morgan. Morgan escapes anyway and meets up with Kent's sister who he falls for but the rest of the family ring the police and Morgan gets put in jail once again. He then finds out that Butch is planning a breakout and Kent is thinking of joining him but, after meeting Kent's family, Morgan tries to talk him out of it. In the end Morgan gets involved in the breakout to stop Kent breaking out but in the process also helps out the guards apprehend the escapees and his release is granted as he leaves the prison hoping to reunite with Kent's sister and live on an island. Although the plot is quite slight, The Big House seems like a revolutionary film, the scenes of the prisoners moving from their cells, to the yard, to the dining hall are filmed very well for an early talking picture. Wallace Beery was the star of the show as the menacing Butch but Chester Morris made a pretty good leading man as the likeable Morgan. This well written film was rewarded for an Oscar for its screenplay as well as being the first ever film to win the Best Sound Oscar. It's just a shame that it came up against the realistic war picture All Quiet on The Western Front because this film really did give you a feel for what life must be like in prison from the first shot in which Kent comes into prison up to the riot itself this was a very good film indeed.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 19: Shearer Delight

Having previously watched Norma Shearer overacting as one of the oldest ever Juliets ever to be seen on screen I didn't think much of her. But rewind five or so years and we have The Divorcee a film that was nominated for Best Picture at the third ever Oscar ceremony and made Shearer the third ever Best Actress. Shearer was one of the first ever silent film stars to crack through the sound barrier and make the crossover succesfsully and The Divorcee was certainly a revolutionary film. Shearer's character Jerry get married to her fella Ted at the start of the film meanwhile another admirer of hers gets drunk and ends up crashing his car with a few passengers in it. Fast forward three years later and Jerry believes her and Ted are still happily married however she later discovers that he got drunk and cheated on her and furious she does the same. However back in the early 1930s gender politics dictated that of course the husband could have an affair but how dare the wife attempt such a thing! And that's why I found this film so revolutionary. Flick forward again and Jerry and Don are both in new relationships as the years go on, Jerry again meets her admirer Paul who is now married himself but is still in love with her so they begin a relationship. Paul's wife comes to see Jerry and begs her to stop her budding romance with Paul which Jerry agrees to and then finally there is a happy ending as Jerry and Ted are reunited.

In my opinion most of the first of the talking films seem to just be obsessed by getting sound right and most of them were jolly musical fare. However The Divorcee is very dark and very before its time in terms of the fact that Shearer portrays a woman who is able to stand up to the men and play them at their own game. The only thing I have a problem is at the end she relents and ends up with the guy that cheated on her in the first place so I'm guessing the film could only go so far to say that a woman still needed a man instead of just being by herself. Despite Shearer's nomination the film didn't win that year instead All Quiet on The Western Front, a male dominated film, took the honour. The film was also nominated for its direction and screenplay and I have to say that both nominations were deserved. And I was completely wrong about Shearer, I know find her a fascinating and engaging actress and The Divorcee definitely deserves a place in the history books as well.