Matt's Big Oscar Challenge 203: So Good They Named Her Twice

It's no secret that I haven't particularly enjoyed the last couple of films that I've watched as part of this quest, mainly due to the fact that they've been all-action war films. So, for my next choice, I've decided to watch something with less guns and more character. The film I'm talking about is Rachel, Rachel, the directorial debut of Paul Newman, which also starred his wife Joanne Woodward as the film's titular heroine. I say heroine, but Rachel is much more of an ordinary woman who most would describe as a bit of a wallflower. Rachel has lived in the same house all her life, while she is now teaching to the same school she attended. While her siblings have all moved on, she has been left behind to care for their widowed mother. Rachel doesn't like to socialise with anyone and the closest relationship she has is with fellow teacher Calla. However, after the two attend a revival meeting together, Calla reveals that she is in love with Rachel and clumsily makes a move on her. After rebuffing her friend's advances, Rachel meets an old acquaintance in the form of the charming Nick Kazlik. Nick attempts to secure a date with Rachel, but once again she tries to blow him off. Eventually he wears her down and Rachel has her first sexual experience with him. She immediately plans a future for herself and Nick, but when he reveals he was only looking for something physical Rachel is distraught. Her pain worsens when she realises she might be pregnant, and resolves to move away in order to raise her child in a more comfortable environment.

Released in 1968, Rachel, Rachel is definitely one of the new breed of films which shy away from convention. Throughout the film, Newman visualises Rachel's fantasises and flashbacks, as she imagines several scenarios that never occur. In addition we hear her inner-monologue a lot of the time, which I felt became annoying towards the end. What I did like was the film's depiction of how small-town life can drag you down and how seeing the same faces every day can drive you insane. Rachel was an intriguing central character whose daydreams and flights of fancy were all in keeping with the dreary setting. One criticism I have of the film is that it seemed awfully episodic and I don't feel that the narrative flowed as much as it should've done. However, I would still recommend the film, mainly because of the brilliant central performance from Joanne Woodward. Woodward held my attention throughout the film and totally brought Rachel to life, perfecting every single little mannerism. I was shocked that Woodward didn't win the Best Actress Oscar but then saw that this way the year in which both Katharine Hepburn and Barbara Streisand won the award. Also worth a mention is Estelle Parsons as the closeted lesbian Calla, Parsons proves how great an actress she is as her performance here is a million miles away from her turn in Bonnie and Clyde. While I can't say Rachel, Rachel is perfect, it is a lovingly crafted film with a great central performance. I also enjoyed the fact that I didn't have to sit through endless scenes of gun battles and instead got to spend time with the characters, which I found to be a refreshing change.

Next time, though there won't be many battle scenes, I will be returning to a film set during wartime.

 

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.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 121: The Bette Quartet Part Two

I do think maybe I have the wrong impression of Bette Davis films in that maybe she doesn't always play the same character. So far the three films I've seen on the challenge - Jezebel, The Letter and The Little Foxes have all been directed by William Wyler and have seen Davis play manipulative or sly to at least some extent. In the second of the four film Bette Davis marathon we have Dark Victory a film which sees Davis play New York socialite Judith who likes to party and also likes to ride and train horses. After she falls from a horse Judith is taken to see Dr Steele who conducts tests and finds out she has a brain tumour which will eventually kill her. Steele operates on her to give her as much of her life as he can and at the same time they begin a romance which ends when Judith finds out that her condition will still kill her and she finds solace in the arms of horse trainer Michael. Eventually Judith comes to her senses and moves with Dr Steele to Vermont where they are married but when Judith finds her symptoms are coming back she lies to her new husband packing him off to a conference in New York where he is to give a speech about her condition then she bids farewell to her friend, her housekeeper and her dogs and goes to bed, the last scene we see is off the screen fading to grey.

Dark Victory is an odd beast and it is very hard indeed to categorise it maybe a romantic tragedy would be the best way. From about 30 minutes in we the audience know that Judith is going to die and eventually she finds this out as well and decides to marry her doctor. All the revelations and discoveries happen very quickly and arguments are resolved within about five minutes of them starting. I kept waiting for Judith to change in character and become at least a little bit evil like most of Davis' characters do, perhaps after the operation was over. I am surprised at the performance Davis gives here for the most part it is restrained, it is sympathetic and more than that for the first time her character seems human. George Brent as Dr Steele was starring alongside Davis for an eighth time and it shows as their chemistry is winning while Geraldine Fitzgerald as Judith's best friend Ann is also fairly interesting. However most surprising was the appearance of Humphrey Bogart as Michael the Horse Trainer, such a small role for an actor who would go on to great things but here has quite a minor role as the man who will always hold a flame for Judith but will never be good enough for her. While Dark Victory is completely melodramatic and over the top it is a nice change of pace for a Bette Davis film to have such a humanistic edge to it and I for one welcome the difference in characteristics between Judith and the other turns I have seen from Davis up to this point.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 113: Moors Moors Moors How Do You Like it?

So far we've seen Laurence Olivier as Shakespearian figureheads Henry V and Hamlet as well as the lead in an adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca and in the next film on the list he plays another literary antihero in Wuthering Heights' Heathcliff. For those unfamiliar with the tale, who unlike me didn't do it as part of their A-Level English Literature course, the story involves a love story on the Yorkshire Moors between Heathcliff a gypsy orphan bought to live at the large establishment of the title and Cathy the daughter of the family he's bought into. However many things come between them including the death of Cathy's father, the hatred towards Heathcliff from Cathy's brother Hindley and Cathy's love of the finer things in life when she meets the nice but dull Edgar Linton of the neighbouring house The Grange who Cathy ends up marrying. Heathcliff goes and returns later on to exact revenge on all that have wronged him by buying Wuthering Heights from a drunken Hindley and marrying Edgar's sister Isabella to get back at both Edgar and Cathy. However the book and film differ from there on out, in Emily Bronte's novel there is whole other section involving the children of Hindley, Heathcliff and Cathy but the film ends abruptly with Cathy's death and Heathcliff haunted by Kathy's ghost. The whole story is narrated by Wuthering Heights housekeeper Nelly to The Grange's new occupant Mr Lockwood but I found that the voiceover technique was lacking and Nelly's voice was often drowned out by the score or by other character's voices. The film ends, not with the uniting between Cathy and Hindley's children, but with the ghosts of Cathy and Heathcliff walking off hand in hand together. In fact it wasn't Olivier or Merle Oberon who played Cathy in this scene as both had moved on to other projects so body doubles had to be used in this final scene.

And this wasn't the only thing that went wrong with the film as nobody seemed to get on. Producer Samuel Goldwyn wanted the final scene while director William Wyler thought it would seem a bit tacky this is why the body doubles had to be used. Goldwyn claimed that this was his project and Wyler was simply the director however Wyler didn't really seem to get on with his cast. Wyler and Olivier constantly clashed because Wyler wanted Olivier to retake scenes again and again while Olivier and Oberon didn't get on either especially during their love scenes together as Olivier wanted his new love Vivien Leigh to star alongside him. Goldwyn hoped that this would be the vehicle to launch the then unknown Oberon but at that year's Oscars it was Leigh who would win Best Actress for Gone with the Wind while Oberon didn't even get a nomination. Personally I thought the best scenes in the film were the ones in which Cathy and Heathcliff clash as you can actually see the hatred between Oberon and Olivier in these scenes. Like in Hamlet, I felt Olivier was miscast here I just didn't feel the pain that Heathcliff is meant to have over never probably having Cathy. My two favourite performances came from Flora Robson as Nelly and again from David Niven as the put upon Edgar. As someone who knows the story fairly well I think I was put off by the fact that there were so many omissions in this film that it was disturbing to see the book dealt with in this way. I just hope that the people who watch this actually read the book as well or they may well think that Wuthering Heights as a happy ending, which Spoiler Alert: it doesn't.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 81: A Presidential Epic

Following one biopic with another this time about the 28th President of the U.S.A Woodrow Wilson. Ask someone from the UK to name all the presidents of America that they know and they would probably give you Lincoln, Washington, Nixon, Bush, Clinton and Obama and possibly a couple more. But only the more knowledgeable would be able to tell you about Wilson even though he served through two terms and was the President of America during World War 1 and helped forge the League of Nations. The film itself was the project of 20th Century Fox's head honcho Darryl F Zanuck who was a big fan of Wilson's however despite winning five Oscars it was a monumental flop and Zanuck was so disappointed the film was never to be mentioned in his presence again. One of the reasons that the film may not have done so well is that it is incredibly long. I think Zanuck didn't want to leave anything out about Wilson's life but that means that the film does drag from time to time. We see him originally as a Princeton professor who has written many works about politics he is encouraged to run for governor and then eventually for President. Despite not doing much campaigning he is able to get in due to earnest nature. Initially Wilson refuses that America enter the war claiming that he didn't want to be responsible for any American men losing their lives but eventually he decides to help out and even contributes to the war effort. After the war he is one of the leaders involved in the League of Nations who try to ensure that something like a World War doesn't happen again. Some of the leaders disagree but Wilson delivers a speech and eventually they all agree. That seems to be a recurring theme of the film, Wilson's long and worthy speeches which convince people of his ideas. Meanwhile Wilson's personal life is also detailed with the death of his first wife and his very quick romance and marriage to his second wife. This is one of the moments in the film that I found a bit creepy, I thought that Wilson didn't leave it too long before moving on but the film blesses Wilson's new wife because she is the favourite of Wilson's daughters.

The film's best point and possibly reason for its failure is the no-name Alexander Knox as Wilson himself. Knox doesn't look like an actor and doesn't particularly act and that's why the film works I'd go as far to say as his performance is one of the best I've ever seen by a Lead Actor of all time. Showing little emotion from the beginning to the end but still being passionate about his family and his causes, Knox's Wilson is a compelling presence without being overtly loud and over-the-top. There is a large collection of supporting characters the most famous of whom are Charles Coburn and oddly Vincent Price as one of Wilson's political aides. Supposedly the film glossed over some of Wilson's flaws his very belligerent nature as well as his inherent racism aren't mentioned at all. The film also is very pro-America propaganda, as the film was released while the war was still on and it is very support our troops and boo the Germans. Despite though this is a fairly enjoyable if overlong biopic with a stunning central performance.