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 116: Keeping the British End Up

As we spirit towards the finish line of the 1940s its time for the last winner of that decade in William Wyler's Mrs Miniver. The film, like Blossoms in the Dust, stars Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon as a happily married couple and parents to three children, two youngsters and a very upper-class lad called Vin who is off at university when the film begins. In fact Mrs Miniver is mostly about how normal families and indeed normal towns are affected by the war. So for example Vin leaves university to join the RAF meanwhile he also gets married to Carol the granddaughter of the snooty Lady Beldon. Mrs Miniver's husband Clem also agrees to volunteer the best way he can and helps in the Dunkirk evacuation. One of the most shocking parts of the film is where Mrs Miniver finds a German soldier in her house and is held at gunpoint until she provides him with food she then calmly phones the police and he is arrested. There is also a subplot involving a rose grown by the train station controller and named after Mrs Miniver which is entered in the flower show against Lady Beldon, who usually wins it. Beldon announces the winner and sees her name on the card but instead gives it to the station master and the Mrs Miniver rose as again war has changed her. The film though does have a tragic conclusion featuring the death of one of the major characters and a solemn message of the dangers and casualties of war.

For me Mrs Miniver is an odd beast and it doesn't feel like a winner in the way Gone with The Wind, Casablanca or even The Best Years of Our Lives did. One reason for that might be its awfully quaint and middle-class, the village that the Minivers inhabit is one in which everybody knows everybody else and its all lovely and cosy until those awful Nazis come along and ruin everything. I suppose one reason this may have won is because there was very little competition this year and also because it may've been the most accurate depiction of wartime yet. As well as Best Picture and Best Director for Wyler both Garson and Teresa Wright as Carol both won Oscars, again this wasn't my favourite Garson performance that was in Random Harvest but Wright is very good as the young girl married too soon and then having to contend with her new husband off fighting the war. Dame Mae Witty as Lady Beldon, Pidgeon as Clem and Henry Travers as Vin were also nominated and I like the fact that Travers actually later married his on screen mother Garson. There's nothing particularly wrong with Mrs Miniver it's a nice enough film but it just doesn't have anything about it to make a significant impact and make me believe that it should've won Best Picture.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 109: Nun of Your Business

If you ever find yourself in a tie-break at a quiz and the question is what is the first ever film sequel to be nominated for an Oscar, I have the answer - The Bells of St. Mary's. Never heard of it? Well it is the sequel to Going My Way, the winning film at the 1945 Oscar ceremony. A year later we meet Bing Crosby's Father O'Malley continuing improving the church system by moving to a flagging catholic school run by a bunch of nuns which is in dire need of repair. O'Malley clashes with the unrealistic views of the nuns who hope to convince local business owner Mr Borgadus to give them the new complex he is building to house the school. O'Malley's unconventional techniques also incur the wrath of the lead nun Sister Mary Benedict convincingly portrayed by Ingrid Bergman. We also follow the story of Patsy Gallagher whose daughter appeals to the Father to allow her to start the school as she doesn't know what to do with her. Obviously Patsy reforms her way and starts to improve her grades but Mary and O'Malley clash again when she fails her final exam and can't graduate. The ending involving Mary Benedict's removal from the nunnery is odd as it is really neither happy or sad but maybe the message just is that life goes on. Although they did succeed in moving St. Mary's after appealing to the good nature of Borgadus who was suffering from various illnesses and the next year would become an iconic figure as Clarence the Angel in It's a Wonderful Life.

Back to the Bells of St. Mary's a sequel to a film that I felt did not deserve to win the Best Picture Oscar over the tremendous Double Indemnity. But St. Mary's is only a sequel in the fact that it continues the adventures of the same characters, it doesn't really reference O'Malley's work in Going My Way and instead presents this as an entirely new story. Although it is very similar, Bing Crosby arrives at a Catholic institution the locals are suspicious but then won round and he ends up getting what he wants. After winning a Best Actor Oscar the year before, Crosby's performance really hasn't changed but that really doesn't matter. As an actor Crosby can instantly put me at ease as his style is very relaxed and that works well for the character. Ingrid Bergman was also nominated after a win for Gaslight the year previous, her sister Mary Benedict could be a clichéd stuck-up character but she can go toe-to-toe with Bing and they spark off each other with their very asexual chemistry. The film does suffer from being very overlong and also there are entire sequences that I felt could've been cut out but it is decent entertainment and if you like a good nun-based film you could do a lot worse.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 84: Lost Memories

Getting towards watching my 100th film on the list, its started me reflecting on why I started this journey in the first place. I think it was mainly to watch some films that I'd never got round to but it has become discovering others that I'd never been aware of but I really enjoyed after watching. The 1943 nominee Random Harvest falls into this latter category it deals with Ronald Colman's character a man who loses his memory several times throughout the film. Colman is initially in a mental institution when the film begins as he has lost his memory after becoming shell-shocked in the trenches. He escapes from the institution after he sneaks past the guards who are celebrating the end of World War I. He is helped out by a showgirl named Paula who helps conceal his identity and eventually the two begin and romance and then marry. As Colman went by the name John Smith, Paula starts to call him Smithy and he discovers he has a talent for writing and journeys to Liverpool to see about getting a job as a writer leaving a pregnant Paula behind. While in Liverpool he is hit by a cab, although he is physically fine he loses his memory of his time with Paula and reverts back to his original identity of Charles Rainer heir to a large business dynasty. Rainer returns to his family home of Random House the day after his father's death and it turns out that he is to inherit the house. Charles hopes to return to college but ends up taking over the family business and making it successful leading to a newspaper article calling himself the 'industrial prince of England'. Charles then gets a new secretary Margaret, Paula who is now using her real name, Margaret wants to reveal all to Charles but her friend tells her that it would just startle him so she has him declared legally dead and their marriage annulled. Charles then starts to romance Kitty, the step-daughter of one of his brothers, who has been smitten with him since she was fifteen. Charles and Kitty plan to get married however while planning the wedding Charles' memory is stirred by one of the hymns that Kitty has chosen which reminds him of his time with Paula. He then realises he is in love with someone else that he can't remember and calls off the engagement to Kitty. Later Charles stands for Parliament and succeeds thanks to Margaret's support, realising that he needs a wife he proposes to her as more of a business arrangement and she accepts. However she becomes unhappy that Charles will never remember her and decides to go on an extended holiday to South America. At the same time Charles has to go to the place he and Margaret once lived in order to deal with some unrest at a factory he owns there. While there his memory finally starts to come back to him and he returns to their old house where he finds Margaret, who is visiting the place before taking off on the cruise liner, she calls out to him as Smithy and he embraces her finally remembering their connection.

Although I'm not usually one for romantic films I thought the way that all of Random Harvest was laid out was superb. From the opening shots of the imposing gates of the Mental Institution to the grandiose splendour of Random House to the small house that 'Paula' and 'Smithy' shared every set is given the same amount of care. The two leads also make you care immensely about their characters. Although Ronald Colman has always impressed me this seems to be his best role thus far in the list, his character changes from amnesiac patient to carefree writer to prince of industry and then to a government lord and Colman is able to show all these transitions with ease. As the film's female lead Greer Garson is also able to portray a woman who has lost the two things that are most important to her, Smithy and her child who died in infancy. There is also a fine performance by Susan Peters as the spirited and ultimately heartbroken Kitty who also grows as a character as the film progresses. The film was nominated for seven Oscars but was completely unsuccessful with Garson not even nominated for this film, however she was nominated for another performance that year, Colman and Peters did receive nods but failed to win. Overall this was a thoroughly well-made and well-acted film that engaged me from beginning to end.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 77: Christmas Comes Early

They say that Christmas comes but once a year, but Christmas films can come any time you see fit. As Miracle on 34th Street was nominated at the 1948 ceremony I'd decided I would watch It's a Wonderful Life which I had to watch online, at the same time.

First up then is Miracle on 34th Street, a film I'm very familiar with but mainly due to the 1994 remake. For those who have no idea of the story it's about a department store manager, Doris Walker, who hires a new store Santa after she finds her current Santa drunk. The new Santa, Kris Kringle, believes himself to be Santa and after an altercation ends up in a mental asylum. Kringle then has to prove he is not insane and Fred Gailey, Doris' suitor, decides to defend him thanks to a batch of children's letters to Santa. Meanwhile Doris' daughter Susan is a very grown-up girl and doesn't believe in Santa but Kringle tries to change her mind. I do love this story it's all about belief and love and the true meaning of Christmas. Kringle starts to tell parents where they can get presents cheaper even if it is not in Macy's, the store where he works. The incident that leaves Kringle in a mental institution is after he is goaded by Sawyer, Macy's psychologist who believes Kringle is insane. Sawyer picks on a young Macy's employee who Kringle has befriended and once this happens Kringle strikes Sawyer with his cane and Sawyer exaggerates the injury. I felt this incident was a bit contrived and preferred the old Santa trying to get revenge which happened in the remake. Apart from that though this film is full of old-school warmth and has some great performances. As Doris, Maureen O'Hara is able to show a woman who finds it hard to trust but melts after her encounters with Kris and Fred. Edmund Gwenn won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as Kris and it is a lovely natural performance while Natalie Wood shows that not all child actors have to be annoying. This is a Christmas classic whether you watch this version or the '94 remake.

The other film in this double bill is It's a Wonderful Life a film that is always associated with Christmas however only the film's last half hour is set at Christmas time. For the three people who have never seen the film it concerns James Stewart's George Bailey who has basically helped out every member of the community in Bedford Falls but after a lot of money goes missing from his Savings and Loans business he tries to commit suicide. A kindly but dithering angel named Clarence is entrusted with helping Bailey out and showing him what he meant to everyone. However this comes at the end of the film and most of it is depicting George's life from a young boy to the present day. This is shown by Clarence's superiors in order to educate him about George. We see a man who helped his brother from drowning, his boyhood boss from poisoning most of the town and from taking over his father's business rather than going to college. It also shows him marry the love of his life Mary and have four children together and his many clashes with the greedy Mr Potter. After Potter convinces Bailey that he isn't worth anything, George goes off and that's when Clarence shows him how much he helped people. This is all done on Christmas Eve accompanied by snow and renditions of various carols. And I think this is why this film has got so much of an association with Christmas and to be fair it is feel good entertainment up to a point. This is Frank Capra's last film to be nominated for an Oscar and his third collaboration with James Stewart after You Can't Take It With You and Mr Smith Goes to Washington, the latter of those will be the next entry in this blog. By this point in his career Stewart showed that he was a more than competent leading man and gives a great turn as the extremely likeable and hard-working George ably supported by Donna Reed as the loving Mary. Stewart got the only acting nomination which is a shame as there are two other brilliant performances. The first is from Lionel Barrymore, who up to this point had mainly been seen playing kindly old men, playing the villainous and callous Potter. The second is from Henry Travers as Clarence who isn't on screen very long but steals the film most of the time he is. Stewart and the movie both lost out to The Best Years of Our Lives, but out of the five films nominated this year this has stood the test of time which can only be a good thing.