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 123: Cary on Talking

Taking a step away from Bette Davis for one minute we find 1943 nominee The Talk of the Town which I presumed from the stars, Cary Grant and Frank Capra favourite Jean Arthur, was a knockabout screwball comedy. But then I started to watch it and within the first few minutes Grant's Leopold had been arrested for arson and had escaped from prison. However after that things to take a turn for the 'comedy of errors' as Leopold arrives at the house of his old friend Nora who agrees to hide him but at the same time is welcoming Professor Lightcap who is renting her property over the summer. To protect Leopold's identity Nora agrees to become Lightcap's temporary secretary and when the Professor discovers Leopold she lies and tells him it is the gardener. Soon the three form a small family but when Lightcap discovers Leopold's true identity he rings the police but again the fugitive goes on the run. Lightcap gets to the bottom of the arson case and finds out that it was an insurance job and he and Leopold gather the evidence together. Leopold is acquitted and Lightcap is accepted to the Supreme Court and proposes to Nora however instead she decides she would rather be with Leopold and the two go off at the end of the film.

The Talk of the Town was definitely an easy film to watch and it did have it moments. All three leads were superb especially Ronald Colman playing the uptight professor who softens when he falls for Nora and Arthur is perfect as the sweet and innocent girl who may not be all she seems. I was surprised that Grant played such an aggressive role in this but again he softens when the three of them become a small family and there are definitely moments of homoeroticism between Lightcap and Leopold. The opening scene is almost done as a silent movie with scenes of the fire and newspaper headlines replacing characters explaining the plot, the mob mentality and the lack of justice in Leopold's case are also interesting themes in the film. However I just found the film a little bit too all over the place as it just really didn't seem to make its mind up what it wanted to be - crime thriller, screwball farce or romantic comedy - there were elements of all but really no genre won out which made me a little uneasy. Saying that though it was a good little film but director George Stevens would go on to produce much better work in the next decade with four of his five films from the 1950s being nominated for Best Picture. 

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 78: Frank and Jimmy Take on Congress

After watching seven of his films its time to say goodbye to Frank Capra, for his final film on the list its time to go back to the 1940 ceremony and Mr Smith Goes to Washington. The story sees Jimmy Stewart's Boy Scout Leader Jefferson Smith as the surprise choice to take over from the previous senator in his state. Originally the film had been intended as a follow up to Capra's Mr Deeds Goes to Town with Gary Cooper reviving the Deeds role and entering the senate. However when it was revealed Cooper wasn't available Capra decided it would be a perfect vehicle for him to work again with Stewart and Jean Arthur (who had been a couple in You Can't Take It With You). When Smith gets to Washington he is awe-inspired by the architecture and the history that the place has but is ridiculed by the press for being a simpleton. Smith is taken under the wing of Senator Paine, his father's oldest and best friend as well as charming over Arthur's Saunders, Paine's Chief-of-Staff. Smith proposes a new legislation to approve a government loan to allow for some land to be purchased in his state for a national Boy's Camp, and the loan will be paid back by donations from the scouts. Paine is leaned on by the manipulative political adviser Jim Taylor to quash Smith because the land is already part of a dam-building scheme constructed by Taylor. Paine decides to make out that Smith owns the land and is defrauding the scouts but by this stage Saunders is on Smith's side and uncovers Taylor's corruption. The film's most famous scene is where Smith decides to embark on a filibuster, holding the floor and speaking for as long as possible without sitting down, when all the senators leave the room. Taylor and Paine try and break his spirit by rigging the press in Taylor's state and making out that no-one is supporting him but he finds solace in a smile from the senate's president. At the end of the film Smith collapses from exhaustion and Paine tries to commit suicide when he is stopped he confesses everything and Smith's reputation is redeemed.

Just like with Stewart and Capra's most famous colaboration, It's a Wonderful Life, Mr Smith Goes to Washington is remembered for its final scenes. However before that there is a lot that no-one ever thinks about including the scene where Smith tries to punch a lot of journalists after they diss him and Smith's romance with Paine's daughter which is used as a distraction for Smith's plans. However there is a lot to like here, Capra's themes of the underdog triumphing is possibly at its most blatant here with the innocent and ultimately good Smith gets one over on the cowardly Paine and the tyrannical Taylor. Jean Arthur again proves that she is the most consistent of Capra's female leads, with Saunders she portrays a woman trying to survive in a masculine world and has almost lost all her femininity to do so. In fact there is no romantic end to her relationship with Smith however her greatest moment is when someone calls her Clarissa, her first name, which makes her feel somewhat human. Stewart himself is able to play a real, likeable if innocent character with ease. While there are some fine supporting performances from Claude Rains as the multi-layered Paine and Edward Arnold as the just plain evil Taylor. Rains, Stewart and Harry Carey (as the president of the senate) were all nominated for Oscars although none were successful. Indeed only the story won an Oscar but it did come up against Gone With The Wind, I reckon if it had been released a year before or after it may have done better. Although this is more than a fitting end to my Frank Capra education.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 69: Three's Company

As we saw in the 1930s there were a lot of Screwball comedies knocking about, these films usually revolved around a couple who weren't together for some reason and had to resolve issues - usually of class in order to become a couple by the end. That tradition seems to continue in The More the Merrier, a nominee at the 1944 ceremony which was a film that touched on the serious issue of the housing shortage during the Second World War but did it with plenty of screwball comedy-esque touches. The film revolves around Benjamin Dingle, an adviser on the housing shortage who arrives in Washington to find his hotel won't be ready for two days. Dingle then has to find an apartment and ends up moving in with a young girl named Constance Milligan. Constance and Dingle have trouble working out a routine while living together which is further complicated when Dingle rents half of his room out to soldier Joe Carter. Joe and Constance start to fall for each other but she is already engaged to the straight-laced bureaucrat Charles Pendergrass. Through several different means Dingle starts to orchestrate situations where Joe and Constance will be together and even delays Pendergrass by asking him to help with some of his duties. From there, there are romantic complications as Joe and Constance fall in love and Pendergrass then discovers the whole house-sharing mess. The final scene sees Dingle seal the fate of the two younger characters and then sings outside their door with a group of homeless men.

I really enjoyed The More The Merrier and I even found myself laughing out loud at some points, something I have rarely done to any of these films. Most of the reason for that is down to Charles Coburn as Dingle, who steals every scene he is in and the highlight is the very first morning he and Constance are together they construct an almost silent routine which is absolutely hilarious. Coburn won the Oscar for Supporting Actor that year, the only award the film received, and that was more than justified just as with Lionel Barrymore in the 1930s, Coburn is a supporting star who we will see more of throughout the decade. Jean Arthur, previously the plucky heroine in You Can't Take it With You, here plays the practical but ultimately romantic Constance with some ease and also earned an Oscar nomination. The film does suffer when Coburn isn't on the screen and the romantic scenes between Joe and Constance go on a little too long. However the film is incredibly well written and also well shot including the scenes in which Joe and Constance talk to each other through the wall which are filmed through the window so you can see both characters. A nice little comedy with a serious social issue at its heart and some good performances.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 18: Doing the Deeds

As the poster says another great Frank Capra production but unlike my two previous Frank Capra viewings (It Happened One Night and You Can't Take It With You) this did not win Best Picture but he did win Best Director for Mr Deeds Goes to Town. Made in between ITHON and YCTIWY, this is possibly the least comic of the three films but like the other two is all to do with power and status and money. As in You Can't Take It With You, Capra roots for the little guy but sees what happens to that little guy when he gives him money. Gary Cooper, nominated for Best Actor, plays Longfellow Deeds a small-town man who inherits a fortune from a long-forgotten uncle and goes to the Big City to claim it. He is then looked after by the guy who played Max in Hart to Hart who is some kind of press agent for the estate but becomes Deeds' confident. Meanwhile a female journalist decides to get the story of Deeds so she pretends to faint in front of him and then starts to romance him. The journalist is played by Jean Arthur in her big break she would later go onto work with Capra on two more occasions. After he discovers her deception he starts to lapse into melancholy but decides to start donating his fortune to farmers who lost their wealth in the great depression. Although this angers the dead uncle's lawyer who tries to prove that Deeds is insane by gathering evidence from his recent behaviour and his old home town. Obviously in the end everything works out well Deeds keeps the fortune, helps the farmers and gets the girl and Capra teaches all the rich people a lesson.

In the other Capra films I have watched there has been someone to root for or someone likeable but the main problem I found was that Deeds wasn't particularly relatable. Although Gary Cooper is a fine actor there's something lacking in the script that gives Deeds any small-town charm instead he often quite easily resorts to punching people in the face which isn't a good representation of the small guy done well. He only redeems himself in the second half of the film and Cooper is very good in the final insanity hearing scenes. Jean Arthur again handles herself well as the typical woman in a man's world she is able to wrap the newspaper editor, the cameraman and briefly Deeds round her little finger. Max from Hart to Hart is also fairly decent as Deeds' sidekick. Overall I can see why this didn't win best picture as it doesn't have the charm of You Can't Take It With You or the knockabout humour and the romance of It Happened One Night. But there are still elements of greatness as this is a Frank Capra film after all. There'll be more Capra to come as his films did garner another two nominations in the decade those films being Lady for a Day and Lost Horizon.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 12 & 13: A Load of Old Screwballs

A staple of the 1930s, the screwball comedy genre produced a couple of winners and more nominees during that decade. Having already watched the 1935 winner - Frank Capra's It Happened One Night I am familiar with the screwball comedy format - quick dialogue, one upmanship between the male and female leads and almost a clash between the upper and lower classes. In It Happened One Night Clark Gable was very much in control and had to look after Claudette Colbert's heiress however the two female leads in my next two screwballs were more than a match for their male counterparts. First up was The Awful Truth, a 1938 Best Picture nominee, which lost out to The Life of Emile Zola. Despite that loss director Leo McCarey took home that year's Best Director Oscar and overall the film had six nominations. One of those was for Irene Dunne who more than deserved to win, as she plays Lucy who decides to divorce her husband Jerry, played by Cary Grant who didn't get a nomination. Lucy is able to wrap all the men in the film around her little finger, she is able to get custody of their dog through manipulative means and then starts romancing the reliable but dull Dan (Ralph Bellamy who inexplicably was nominated for Best Supporting Actor despite having no charisma whatsoever), even though she contemplates marrying Dan she realises she still loves Jerry but then Jerry finds love and Lucy manages to ruin this relationship. Dunne is probably the strongest female lead I have seen so far, even though there is a hint that a woman needs to be married and get be the one who initiates the divorce, Lucy is definitely the more dominant of the pair. The film is perfectly timed and brilliantly executed and right up my street, the final few scenes set in a cabin are a bit odd as the pair ponder a reconciliation. Although there is no real comment on social standing or econmic wellbeing - Lucy, Jerry and Dan are all fairly well off and dress fancily and get afford servants no real mention of money apart from in the divorce.


That's a complete contrast of the other film and the last winner from a 1930's ceremony - You Can't Take It With You. It won Frank Capra his third Best Director Oscar and it was the second of his films to win Best Picture after the aforementioned It Happened One Night. I think this more than any film sees the female lead be a lot stronger than her male counterpart. The film sees Jean Arthur's Bank Worker fall in love with the boss' son played by James Stewart in one of his first lead roles. Stewart's family are straight-laced his father wants to buy up the entire town and his mother is very prim and proper. Meanwhile Arthur's family are all odd and eccentric - a father who designs and tests fireworks, a mother who rights plays on a typewriter that was wrongly delivered to the house, a sister who dances atrociously despite having a live-in Russian dance coach and a brother-in-law who likes playing the xylophone along to his wife's dancing and also likes printing slogans and sticking them inside candy. The heart of the family, and of the neighbourhood, is Lionel Barrymore's Grandpa Martin Vanderhof, who is the owner of the house that the bank wants to buy. So it is the clash between the banker and the eccentric heart of the neighbourhood as they meet as potential family members. The film is full of fancy farce and plenty of witty dialogue (the script got a nomination) and also a great ensemble cast. Surprisingly Barrymore didn't get a Supporting Actor nomination instead the only acting nomination went to Spring Byngton as the family's matriarch which was a decent performance if nothing else. But it is Arthur who decides to turn down Stewart's proposal after their families clash, Stewart indeed seems quite closeted and not as worldly wise as his female counterpart. At the time of the depression it was great for people to see a comedy which applauded the little man for leaving boring jobs and doing what they loved rather than racking up lots of money. The bankers are seen as unhappy and unfeeling while the Sycamore family are seen as loving and happy throughout, although they are not completely penniless as they can afford two members of staff in their home. Also a little side-note is that this is the first film I've seen in which the African American staff members have had a little bit more to do than simply greet their masters (seen in The Great Ziegfeld, Three Smart Girls and The Awful Truth) and instead feel more a part of the family.

Both of these films greatly cheered me up and I thought they were great, especially You Can't Take it With You which I think is better than most modern comedy films. I think we had two films with very powerful female leads - Jean Arthur and Irene Dunne, who could teach the leading ladies of today's Hollywood a thing or two about how to keep a man in his place.