Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 206: A Star-Studded History Lesson

As I previously mentioned in my post on The Graduate, the 1960s were definitely a decade of change when it came to film-making. At the same time, several of the old-fashioned epic style films were being made, some with bumper casts. The next two posts will deal with these star-studded epic films and we start with How the West Was Won. The film was an interesting one, as it split its story into five parts with three of these directed by Henry Hathaway and the other two by John Ford and James Marshall respectively. In addition, How the West Was Won marked itself out visually as it was filmed in a three-strip cinerama which had both post and negative affects on the viewing experience. The story itself deals with generations of the same family initially known as the Prescotts, whose daughters would both go on to marry and have children. Over time we saw how the families battled the wild rivers to get to the west, how they battled through the civil war and ultimately dealt with outlaws to claim the land for themselves. The two sisters - Eve and Lilith, had different fates with the former creating a homestead on the place where their parents died. Eve's son Zeb would later go on to fight in The Civil War and negotiate with the Native Americans. Lilith meanwhile hooks up with a gambler and inherits a run down gold mine before finally reuniting with Zeb and his growing family. The story comes full circle as the Prescott family finally settle in the west once and for all.

Seeing as it was made in 1962, How the West Was Won has a very old-fashioned feel to it and almost seems a little out of place Similarly, the big name cast are mostly wasted with John Wayne being the biggest example as his role is nothing more than an extended cameo. Indeed, the actors who have the biggest parts are Debbie Reynolds and George Peppard, neither of whom are promoted as the main stars of the piece. I felt that actors such as James Stewart, Henry Fonda and Gregory Peck popping up for two minutes did nothing to enhance the film and instead made the story feel a little flabby. That's not to say I didn't enjoy How the West Was Won and found it to be a colourful western epic which passed the time fine. The sweeping scenery and Spencer Tracy's assured narration were definitely the film's biggest strengths while I learnt a lot about the formation of America. At the same time, I was never blown away by the film and none of it really stuck with me after the DVD had finished playing. The three-strip cinerama process also made the film seem a little odd with the visible strips of paper almost looking a little messy. Overall, while not a bad film, How the West Was Won was quite unremarkable endeavour which is odd when you consider who was involved.

Next time a similar sort of film to How the West Was Won, but one that is a lot darker.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 158: Johnny Irish

It's sometimes interesting to see people outside of their comfort zone so when Johns both Wayne and Ford collaborated on The Quiet Man it was somewhat of a shock as they're primarily known for their westerns. Previously on the Oscar Search we've seen them work together on Stagecoach while later films included The Man who Shot Liberty Valace and The Searchers but in The Quiet Man it is much more of a serene affair with Wayne playing a romantic lead. The plot sees Wayne play Sean Thornton a man who was raised in the Irish town and returns ready to purchase his old family farm but raises the ire of local businessman Will Danaher when he outbids him for the property. Sean also becomes besotted with Will's sister Mary Kate and after some traditional yet bizarre courting rituals the two marry however when Will finds out that he has been duped by the pair he refuses to give her all of his dowry. Mary Kate wants her new husband to defend her honour but he keeps claiming that he didn't marry her for her money but thanks to the local town holy men he later learns that traditions mean a lot to the locals. Will challenges Sean to a boxing match however in his old life he was a boxer who quit when he killed an opponent but after getting over his nerves he battles his brother-in-law all over town before they get over their differences and end up in the pub.

The main thing I remember about The Quiet Man is the focus on traditional customs and culture with Wayne as the outsider baffled by some of them as we the audience similarly are. For example in one set piece the men ride horses to collect the Easter bonnets of the women they intend to court while the courting itself is supervised by one of the town elders. If I was someone who didn't know about Ireland and therefore thought this was accurate portrayal then I certainly would think it was a backward place where squabbles are sorted out with boxing matches and all women care about is money. Wayne also feels outside of his comfort zone here and his trademark slowed down speech doesn't suit a film in which everyone else is in high spirits with fast-paced Irish accents. Thankfully co-stars Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald and Victor McLaglen are all in high spirits and try to aide Wayne as much as they can. Though the Irish customs are rather outdated the Irish countryside is beautifully shot and the film deserved its Best Cinematography award though I'm not quite sure about Ford winning yet another Best Director prize. The best way to describe The Quiet Man is a quaint romance with an unsure male lead but some stunning camera work that beautifully captures the Irish scenery.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 147: Going Stir Crazy

Basically all of the films on this list are coming from either LoveFilm or various YouTube sources so if I can't reference a movie on either of those then I probably won't get to watch it. A nominee from the 1956 ceremony, Mister Roberts, was one such film which I had already banished to the unwatchable pile so imagine my surprise when it suddenly appeared on the T.V. listings for a Channel Five Saturday afternoon. Thanks to that I was able to watch the film whcih it turned out was a comedy-drama set during the final days of World War 2 on a naval Cargo Ship. To me it reminded me of The Caine Mutiny which I recently watched as it was about mundane life on a ship featuring a quartet of impressive performance from big names - Henry Fonda as Mister Roberts, James Cagney in his final MGM performance as the tyrannical Captain, William Powell in his final performance as the world-weary ship Doctor and Jack Lemmon winning the Supporting Actor Oscar here as the jovial ensign in charge of morale and laundry. For me this was one of Henry Fonda's best turns, apart of course from 12 Angry Men, playing a man who is desperate to serve properly and writes weekly letters to be let off the ship however Cagney's Captain sees him as an asset so keeps him around and he is well liked by his crew members whom he doesn't impose strict rules on. As time goes on the Captain is frustrated by Roberts and feels he isn't respecting him so he grants the crew their leave as long as Roberts tows the line and agrees with his orders. When the crew finally find out about this they decide to forge a letter from the Captain and get him transferred from the ship and he finally gets to serve in Japan the film tragically ends with the news that Roberts died when a suicide bomber killed all the crew of his new ship. While the death of your main character would usually be a downer in the case of Mister Roberts it was slightly more poignant and uplifting as he died getting what he always wanted to do and that was serve properly during the war.

I have to say I really enjoyed Mister Roberts mainly how easily it was able to demonstrate how not all men had heroic jobs during the war some of them just were there to ship cargo from one port to another and weren't happy about it. There are a lot of comic segments throughout the film demonstrating this including one where the men try and spy nurses on a nearby island while they are in the shower while one long scenes sees Fonda, Powell and Lemmon try and knock up some home-made scotch. These segments are transposed with some truly heart-wrenching moments such as Cagney opening up to Fonda about his life before he became a captain which was fairly reminiscent of Bogart's speech to his crew in The Caine Mutiny and also the scene in which Fonda goes crazy after he realises that he might not serve when peace in Europe is announced. Lemmon's performance is indeed great combining his comic timing with more dramatic moments of clarity personally his ways of getting revenge over a captain he's scared of are particularly memorable. All in all a great quartet of performances coupled with John Ford's skilled direction and a great script means that Mister Roberts is one of the better Oscar nominees never to take home the prize.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 102: The Soldiers Coming Back and The Women that Wait for Them

So we're back in the saddle, and as it's Oscar Weekend I'm guessing I'm going to have carry over the Oscar challenge for another year as at the moment we're still straddling around in the 1940s.

First up is The Long Voyage Home, a nominee from 1941, which looks at a group of men journeying back from service in the West Indies firstly to Baltimore and then to England. This is very much a film about men trapped in an enclosed space as one-by-one they become increasingly suspicious that the Englishman Smitty is actually a German spy. When they finally confront him and torture him it turns out that he is no more than a recovering alcoholic who has run away from his family and is concealing his true identity because he is ashamed. The scene in which he breaks down is made even more poignant when Smitty is killed shortly after by a German plane making all the other men decide not to sign up for another tour of service on the ship and instead decide to help the mild-mannered Ole return home to Sweden. However, in the final part of the film, Ole is drugged and kidnapped and forced onto another ship so his shipmates help him escape but in the confusion the ship sets sail with one of their number, their sort of leader the Irish Driscoll, on board and they soon hear that the ship was blown up by a German torpedo with all the men still on board. The film has a sort of a happy ending as Ole does return to Sweden but the rest of the men decide to travel on and return to the ship. I did enjoy this film, for the most part, especially the scenes in which the men are trying to occupy themselves on the voyage home. I loved Ian Hunter as the tragic Smitty and Thomas Mitchell as Driscoll who at times seemed like the only reasonable person on the ship. But the actor in the cast who surprised me most was John Wayne, so much so that at the start of the film I didn't even realise it was him. Wayne's Ole is completely different from most of the other parts he plays, he is understated, softly-spoken and feels very much like a real character. The film sort of falls down in the final third with the stupid stuff involving the drugging and Driscoll's death but other than that a solid film and a worthy nominee.

So while the men are journeying home what are the women up to? Well the answers to that are found in a nominee from the 1945 ceremony - Since You Went Away. The film has a mightily impressive ensemble cast headed up by Claudette Colbert, in what many consider her final great role. Colbert almost didn't take the part as a wife and mother waiting to hear news of her husband in the war, as she didn't think she was old enough to play the mother of two teenage girls. The story concerns the Hilton family and specifically Anne and her two daughters - Jane and Brig played respectively by Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple trying to cope during 1943. The Hiltons are short on money so take in the long-in-the-tooth former serviceman Colonel Smogget, in order to keep up with the rent. Smogget's grandson Bill comes to visit him to tell him he's joined the army, however Smogget isn't really interested but Bill does end up falling in love with Jane and the two begin a relationship which is cut short by Bill's tragic death. The other story concerns Anne herself who is faithful to her husband despite being wooed by long time friend Tony, she also has to consider he place in the war effort and what she is actually doing to help after being apalled by comments made by her snooty friend Emily. Since You Went Away was one of the famous 'women's pictures' of the 1940s and was absolutely tremendous making what could've been just a romantic drama and turning into a film about family, friendship, belonging and finding your place. Colbert was denied the Best Actress Oscar as it went to Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight but she is fantastic here as are everyone in the cast which, as well as the three main actress, includes Joseph Cotten, Monty Woolley, Agnes Moorhead, Lionel Barrymore and Hattie McDaniel. Although many will be unfamiliar with the film itself, the scene in which Jane chases after Bill's train has been spoofed in many films most famously in Airplane. Overall another film that deserved all the praise it got but another film that was left out in the cold so the completely average Going My Way could scoop all of that year's prizes.

Okay so we're back on the road again, more to follow.

Big Oscar Challenge Day 95-96: Catch-up Part 5

But for every light-hearted film the 1940s, unlike the decade that came before, definitely gave a lot of bleaker moments. For example John Ford's adaptation of  John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath focuses on a family who are going through joblessness and depression and have to hit the road in order to find a better life. Henry Fonda's lead performance as Tom Joad is particularly effective but he lost out to a lesser performance from Stewart in The Philadelphia Story. Ford won a deserved Best Director Oscar and the film also won a Best Supporting Actress for Jane Darwell for playing the Joad matriarch desperately trying to keep her family together.

The Grapes of Wrath didn't win Best Picture but won that did triumph was The Lost Weekend which looks at an author who is unable to control his alcoholism and goes on a bender. The Lost Weekend did seem like a bit of an odd choice because of its lead being a bit of an anti-hero and to an extent never finding redemption but a cracking script and Ray Milland's lead performance both see the piece becoming a classic. Milland, the script and director Billy Wilder all also won Oscars but the brilliant cinematography failed to capture glory despite it being one of the things that made the film great.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 88-89: Catch-up Part 2

Next to the Wild West firstly with John Ford's classic western Stagecoach which fell to the superior Gone With the Wind at the 1940 ceremony. Set primarily in the titular Stagecoach it sees a lot of disparate characters heading from Arizona to New Mexico. Among them are Claire Trevor's prostitute Dallas, Thomas Mitchell's alcoholic Doc Boone, Lucy Mallory a woman travelling to see her injured husband and a corrupt banker who is trying to abscond with $50,000 dollars from his place of employ. On their way the party pick up and arrest Wayne's fugitive The Ringo Kid but the group have to quickly bond together in order to avoid being finished off by the Apache gangs in the area. Along the way Lucy goes into labour and Doc Boone is called into action and later Ringo and Dallas form a relationship with Ringo proposing to Dallas who doesn't feel herself good enough to deserve happiness. Although some of the party don't make it all the way most of the people get their happy ending or receive their comeuppance. I really did enjoy Stagecoach finding it both a well-shot Western and a very intriguing character piece featuring some great performance especially from Trevor and Mitchell who won the award for Supporting Actor.

The other Western was a nominee from the 1944 ceremony, The Ox-Bow Incident, which didn't really have a chance up against Casablanca. Despite this it is an interesting little film about mob mentality after one of their ranchers is supposedly killed in an incident involving cattle rustlers a group of 25 set out to find those responsible. Among thsi group is Henry Fonda's Gil and his friend Art who join the group mainly to avoid suspicion themselves when three men are found they are automatically thought to be guilty. After finding the gun belonging to Kinkaide, all but seven of the group agree that the men have to be hung. As the group return they find out that Kinkaide is still alive and the men who they hung had nothing to do with it. The final scene in which all the members of the mob go to the saloon and drink in silence is particularly effective.The Ox-Bow Incident has a simple story and some good turns in a cast lead ably by Fonda, while it didn't do any particular damage at the Oscars I still think it deserved its nomination.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 71: Mine All Mine

If I asked which of these films are the least well known - Hitchcock's Suspicion, The Maltese Falcon, Citizen Kane or John Ford's Welsh mining drama How Green Was My Valley. I think most people would say the final film in that list but however that was the film that won at the 1942 ceremony beating those other four films. I would've given it the benefit of the doubt but after watching it I don't think it really deserved the credit it got in terms of its five Oscars. The film deals with the Morgan family as narrated by the youngest son Huw who is recalling his childhood and the various entanglements that his siblings got into. The main theme is old vs. new as the stuck-in-ways old school miner father Gwilym refuses to go on strike his sons, who are fed up of being paid pittance, so the majority of them move out. We are also told the story of Huw's sister who falls for the local preacher who shows kidness to her younger brother, but as he is a man of God and because of the scandal it would cause she marries and older man. However the rumours of a relationship between the two, started by her new husband's housekeeper, sees the sister disgraced and the preacher move away. As Huw grows up he briefly loses the use of his legs after rescuing his mother from drowning but soon recovers and goes away to a school for upper-class boys. Due to his humble origins he is bullied by both the other pupils and the teachers and is taught to stand up for himself by members of his town. The film ends with a large mining disaster in which all members of the family band together to rescue the father from the mine. Although they do pull him out of the mine he dies soon after and Huw recounts his funeral before the adult Huw leaves his family home once and for all.

To give the film its dues, How Green Was My Valley is directed well by Ford who won the Oscar that year and it does have a coherent narrative. There are some impressive set pieces with the mother's drowning and the final mining accident well-crafted and the scenes of family life around the dinner table are also well done. There are also some decent performances Donald Crisp won Best Supporting Actor for his role as the family's patriarch and, as the preacher Mr Gruffyd, Walter Pidgeon was also mightliy impressive as was Supporting Actress nominee Sara Allgood as Huw's sister Beth. However the film just didn't wow me and I found it incredibly ordinary, Roddy MacDowall's Huw got the lion's share of the screen time and wasn't that interesting and the camera work was also fairly mundane. There was nothing very memorable about the film and almost seventy years on from its release it isn't heralded as a classic and isn't even considered one of Ford's best. Also a lot of members of the cast do struggle to get the Welsh accents down with some of them just using Irish instead. I think if nothing else that spoils the film because if you can't do Welsh why be cast as a Welshman in the first place?

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 55: The Doctor Will See You Now

Occasionally I've come across a film that I think is incredibly average and unfortunately1932 nominee Arrowsmith is one of them. In fact only several days after having watched it I'm struggling to remember exactly what happened. The basic plot was about a man, Martin Arrowsmith, who was on his way to being a medical researcher but for some reason decides to impulsively marry a nurse called named Leora. Arrowsmith is forced to open a country practise but yearns to do better work and is eventually called upon to conduct important research following some impressive work on cows. After years of neglecting the wife that he originally changed his career to be with, he comes up with some kind of cure for bubonic plague. Then Arrowsmith is convinced by some Swedish bloke that he should go over to some Caribbean island where everybody is dying of the disease and see if his cure works. He is told only to inject half with the cure and let the rest suffer and die. Meanwhile his loving wife has decided to come over to the island where everyone is dying presumably so she can be closer to him to nag him for ignoring her all the time. Blatantly all the people that are given the cure are cured, and there is a good bit of class warfare as all the white people who live on the island obviously get to live. But Arrowsmith has to pay for his experiment as both the Swedish scientist and his wife die before they get back home.

As you can tell by resentment I really didn't enjoy this film. I found dull, meandering and downbeat most of the time. The ending really did nothing for me as I hadn't really invested any time in the characters to speak of. I didn't think Ronald Coleman did very well in the lead role and it certainly didn't suit his everyman hero image that he perfected in Lost Horizon, but then that was made years before. Similarly British actress Helen Hayes was a bit of a wet blanket here whereas she was a lot stronger in the film I'd seen her in previously, A Farewell to Arms. Again I feel Arrowsmith was simply making up the numbers the year that the far superior Grand Hotel won, but Arrowsmith did get another three nominations including bizarrely one for the incredibly dodgy script thankfully it didn't win any. Although Coleman would redeem himself in the film that I would watch the next day.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 10: The (Bad) Luck of The Irish

Another nominee from 1936, and although The Informer didn't win Best Picture it won four awards at the ceremony. The most historic of those had to be Best Director for John Ford who won his first of four awards. But unlike most of his other films this wasn't a western. Instead The Informer is quite a moody thriller set in 'Ireland' about Gypo Nolan who informs the police about his fugitive friend Frankie and gets £20 for his trouble which he intends to use for two plane tickets to America for him and his girl so they can escape the life they have. But instead he spends it on booze, girls and food and at the same time incurs the wrath of the Irish rebels who want to find out who informed on Frankie and make him pay. As John Ford is known for his big shoot outs and elaborately shot sequences The Informer is quite dark and feels quite insular as we are transported into Gypo's sad and lonely life as his guilt takes over him. Although the final sequences where he has to escape the rebels are very exciting what comes before it is very mundane and at times quite boring compared to the all-action Captain Blood and the all-singing all-dancing Top Hat this is obviously the worst of the films form that year so far. Another problem was obviously a lot of the cast members aren't Irish and the film isn't filmed in Ireland and there isn't a lot done to disguise either of these issues so in a way it felt a bit sloppy.

One Oscar I think the film did deserve was Best Actor for Victor McLaglen. In a time when leading men were dashing like Errol Flynn, charming like Clark Gable or could dance like Fred Astaie, the ordinary looking McLaglen gave a performance that was ahead of its time. Quite subtle and able to convey emotions without launching into a massive monologue this was a performance by what we refer to today as a 'character actor'. In fact he beat both Gable and Charles Laughton for that year's winning film Mutiny on The Bounty, to the award. Apart from Ford and McLaglen the other two awards were for Best Score (moody and set the tone very low-key) and Best Screenplay (not the best but then definitely not the worst from that era). As for Ford he would go onto bigger and better things but we all have to start somewhere.