Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 99-101: Catch-up Part 7

And to end two Film Noirs that possibly should've won the Best Picture award. Firstly Mildred Pierce which lost to The Lost Weekend at the 1946 ceremony. The film sees Joan Crawford's Mildred Pierce recount the story of her life after her second husband is murdered. As the story is told its seems that Mildred will do anything for her oldest daughter Veda but just can't seem to please her. When Mildred divorces Veda's father she has to become a waitress something that infuriates Veda and she can't even be pleased when Mildred starts to make money by owning her own restaurant. Mildred's second husband Monty starts to spend all the money that Mildred makes so much so that she loses her restaurant. It is then revealed that Veda and Monty have been conducting an affair but it is in fact Veda who shot Monty after she found out that he never loved her and like eveyrone else in his life he was simply using her, in the end Mildred fails to protect her daughter and Veda goes to jail. I thoroughly enjoyed Mildred Pierce and in particular Joan Crawford's central performance as Mildred a role that won her a Best Actress Oscar. Everything about the film from the story, to the camerawork, to the twists and turns made it a classic and I think it had a little bit more going for it than The Lost Weekend.

There was also One Foot in Heaven a film starring Frederic March that I actually forgot I watched originally which gives you some kind of idea how memorable it was. The long and the short of it is that March stars as a preacher who journeys to a town, clashes with the parishioners and has to face several trials with his children. While the film did have things to say about religion and family it really didn't seem like it should've featured in the Top 10 films of that year.

But possibly won of the biggest Oscar injustices happened the year before at the 1945 ceremony where Best Picture was won by the jovial but lightweight Going My Way. The film that probably should've won that year is Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity a film that is so perfectly plotted and executed that the fact it failed to win any of the six Oscars it was nominated for is a travesty. The film, like Mildred Pierce, is told in flashback by Fred MacMurray's insurance salesman Walter Neff who is confessing all that he has done to his colleague played by Edward G Robinson. MacMurray narrates the tale of how he got dragged into the murder of Mr Diectrechson so his young wife could collect on his life insurance. The plot thickens when Neff realises that the lovely Phyllis may not be the innocent victim that he once felt when he gets to know Diectrechson's daughter Lola and finds out that Phyllis may've been instrumental in the death of the original Mrs. Dietrechson. As Robinson's Barton Keyes starts his investigation Neff begins to worry more and more and in the end thanks to Phyliss' deviousness, Neff's part in the plot is finally revealed. I thoroughly enjoyed Double Indemnity and thought that even the six nominations it received were too few as there was nothing for either MacMurray who led the whole story or Robinson who has a few cracking scenes in which he acts his socks off. Although this is Barbara Stanwyck's film and she did deservedly get a nomination for her role but lost out to Ingrid Bergman for Gaslight. Stanwyck's Phyllis is the total embodiment of the classic femme fatale - innocent when she needs to be but with a dark side. Although it went home empty handed at the Oscars, Double Indemnity has certainly gone on to be a classic and is certainly a lot more well-known than the film that won that year.

Okay catch-up done, Oscar Challenge will return with more winners and nominees from the 1940s.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 17: An Afternoon at The Grand

So what did beat those two Chevalier films to become only the fifth film to win the Best Picture Oscar? The answer to that question is Grand Hotel a large Broadway production that was bought to the Big Screen with a big name cast to boot. The film is set in Berlin's Grand Hotel where, according to one of its residents, people come and go and nothing ever happens but of course a lot of things do happen or there wouldn't be anything worth watching. Certainly as far I'm concerned this was one of the first films do balance several plots all the characters linking to each other in one way or another. The first is of a stenographer (typist) played by Joan Crawford who is hired to help a belligerent businessman played by Wallace Beery, who is in Berlin to finish a business transaction. Then there's Lionel Barrymore who has just found out that he is going to die so he is finally going to start living and books into the audaciously expensive Grand Hotel in order to enjoy his last days only to run into his boss who just happens to be Beery. The third story is of a Russian ballerina, played by the Swedish Greta Garbo, who is worried that people are starting to go off her performances and her large entourage is trying to bolster her confidence, she also is staying in the hotel. Linking all these stories together is Lionel's younger brother John who plays a penniless count who tries to get by by gambling away all his money and stealing from other guests in the hotel. He then strikes up a friendship with Lionel's character, falls for Crawford and tries to steal jewels from Garbo only for her to end up romancing him as well.

Having only seen the two Chevalier films that were nominated in that year, I'm not sure what the quality of film-making was like in the early 1930s but Grand Hotel is by far the best film I've seen from that period. Mostly set within the hotel it is expertly shots and there are some brilliant long shots of the entire hotel seen from above. The hotel almost kind of becomes its own character with its frantic staff members and black and white checked design. The screenwriting is top notch as are the performances. Again it's Lionel Barrymore who's a standout for me, he did actually win an Oscar the year before this was made, but both in Grand Hotel and You Can't Take It With You his performances towered over the rest of the cast. It's strange that given her name is given top billing, Greta Garbo's role is very small, she features towards the start of the film's second third and then right at the end but the main female lead is Joan Crawford who is stunning. John Barrymore meanwhile does the charming gentleman thief role with aplomb. The thing I found strange was the jump from comedy to drama, the film changes its tone drastically in the last ten minutes, but overall a great film and a thoroughly deserving Best Picture winner.