Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 358-360: Days of Future Past Part One

Since I started this quest four years ago, a lot of the older movies that I once hadn't been able to track down have since popped up online. So I thought, before I left the twentieth century entirely behind, I'd look back at some of these offerings from prior decades.

I started with Smilin' Through a film nominated at the sixth Oscar ceremony back in 1934. Upon first watching it I'd forgotten just how basic some of these films from the 1930s were and it was evident that the actors were still struggling to deal with the cameras. Based on the play by Jane Cowl and Jane Murfin; Smilin' Through was the story of Leslie Howard's John Carteret who learnt to love again after adopting his young niece. John had been heartbroken after the death of his wife, at the hands of her jealous former lover, and had sunk into a deep depression. Raising Kathleen, John finds a new purpose but oddly doesn't seem perturbed by the fact that she looks exactly like his late love due to the fact both are played by Norma Shearer. The rest of the film deals with Kathleen's feelings towards Kenneth Wayne, the son of the man who killed her uncle's love and John's refusal to accept their romance. Despite Kenneth being played by the brilliant Frederic March, I still didn't feel much sympathy for the character when he was injured during the first world war. I think part of the reason for this is that I didn't buy into the romance between Kenneth and Kathleen primarily due to the lack of chemistry between March and Shearer. Furthermore I've never been a massive fan of Leslie Howard's acting and found he struggled with the filmic setting the most. Of the three key players I found that Shearer was the most engaging as she shone in the scene in which she had to perform the film's titular tune. The film is at its strongest in the flashback scenes which add some context to John's feelings and the love he had for Moonyeen. But for a lot of the times the film was confined to characters speaking in rooms and so it felt like director Sidney Franklin had simply recorded a version of the original play. Smilin' Through was a film I really wanted to like more, and it was an easy watch, but unfortunately it felt quite stagy and too melodramatic for my liking.

Nominated for Best Picture that same year, State Fair is an adaptation of Philip Strong's novel and is directed by Henry King. Many of you will know State Fair better as a Rogers and Hammerstein musical, which itself had two film adaptations, but this version predates both of those. Following the exploits of the Frake family, State Fair basically does what it says on the tin as we see the clan prepare for the titular event. The film features moments of big drama such as when Ma Frake over-brandies her mincemeat or when her husband uses her hairbrush to beautify his prize pig. The main draw for the majority of the audience would be the film's central romance between Janet Gaynor's naive Margy and Lew Ayres' newspaper reporter Pat Gilbert. Their whirlwind fling that begins on a rollercoaster is certainly the film's most involving plot but one that I felt needed more time devoted to it. It doesn't help that the story about Margy's brother Wayne's relationship with a trapeze artist basically mirrors that essential plot. Controversially Wayne's relationship troubled censors at the time as his seduction at the hands of Emily was strongly hinted at on screen which angered certain moralists. I can certainly see why State Fair later became a musical, because this straight version is a little dry and extremely dull at times. Director King at least attempted to make State Fair visually appealing and the rollercoaster scene was particularly well-executed given the time the film was released. The film certainly did its job in recreating a State Fair as I felt immersed in all of the pickle judging and hoop-tossing that came along with the event. Of the cast, Gaynor gave an incredibly breezy turn as the sweet-natured Margy whilst Will Rogers was perfectly convincing as Frake patriarch Abel. Although State Fair hasn't aged well, it was at least an interesting watch and it was clear to see that King had tried his best to visually recreate the original novel.

Our final film comes from the next year's Oscar ceremony in the form of operatic drama One Night of Love. The film features operatic soprano Grace Moore as Mary, a talented singer who journeys from New York to Italy in order to broaden her musical horizons. Whilst performing in a restaurant, Mary catches the eye of music teacher Guilio Monteverdi who agrees to tutor her as long as she does everything he says. The fact that Guilio insists that none of his pupils ever fall in love with him gives you the sort of idea as to where One Night of Love goes next. However the path of true love never did run smooth and the couple's potential relationship is tested by one of Guilio's ex-students as well as a friend of Mary's from New York who proposes to her. Although the story in One Night of Love is quite basic, the film thrives thanks to its musical scenes and the multiple performances by Grace Moore. The film climaxes with two performances as Mary stars in Carmen in Italy and then returns to New York to star in Madame Butterfly. In addition to her brilliant singing, Moore is an accomplished actress and convinces as the trainee opera diva attempting to make her mark in the world. One Night of Love won three Oscars; all of which were related to its musical score and sound recording. Aside from winning the sound and music awards, One Night of Love won a special achievement Oscar for its revolutionary use of the Vertical Cut Disc Method in order to present the musical sequences on screen. The production design throughout the film is also quite impressive given the time period and I was particularly taken by the fact that the entire Metropolitan Opera House was recreated on Columbia Studio's largest sound stage. Though it never blew me away, One Night of Love was a fun little film which was easy to watch and was ultimately a showcase for the incredibly talented Grace Moore.

I'll return soon with more films from the 1930s.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 110: Canadian Hideout

Of all the films they worked on together only two of the works from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were nominated for an Oscar. The first, which I watched much earlier, was the classic The Red Shoes which has come to the forefront of the public knowledge after the recent release of Black Swan. However the second film is the lesser known 49th Parallel, a film that Powell made to try and convince the USA to join the war. 49th Parallel sees a German U-Boat crash on the Canadian shore and tracks the adventures of the six Nazi officers as they try to traverse the land and find a way back home. On the way they come across various stereotypical Canadian characters including a French Canadian trapper bizarrely depicted by Laurence Olivier, Leslie Howard's reclusive British intellectual and Raymond Massey's soldier who has gone AWOL and in the film's final scene stops Eric Portman's Hirth, the leader of the group, from entering the partisan USA and they both travel back towards Canada where Hirth will be arrested. There also a very long scene in a commune with East German farmers who are pacifistic and live together as a family. The Nazi gang don't understand how they don't have a leader or a secret handshake and instead live in harmony without having strict rules. One of their number even decides to stay only to be found guilty of desertion and killed by his so-called friends.

I'd never thought I'd compare a Powell and Pressburger film to an episode of South Park but that's before I'd seen 49th Parallel a film which resembles 'Christmas in Canada' where the four boys travel round Canada trying to find Kyle's brother Ike and during that time they run into a French Canadian, a Mountie and a Newfoundlander. All of these can be found in this film as can the Scottish Hudson Bayer played by Whisky Galore narrator Finlay Currie who enjoys playing chess over the radio. There are plenty of stereotypes in this film for example having Olivier playing a French Canadian was a mistake and I think the classical Brit actors who play the Nazis were a little too over the top. But it also an interesting film that Powell and Pressburger spent a lot of time working on and thinking about the motivations of the Nazi party. Having the Nazis as the main characters is almost a reverse road movie as they drop off one by one, some dying and others being handed into the police. But notably none of them are credited on the poster instead it is Olivier, Massey and Howard who have been given the lead roles of the three Howard impressed me the most as the character who outwits the Nazis who believe they have a superior intellect. I feel this may've been hailed as a classic if it had got the casting a bit better but as it is it feels a bit dated unlike some of the other P and P works  such as The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and A Matter of Life and Death, neither of which were nominated which is a great shame.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 70: Getting a Bit Windy

Back to the start of the decade now with the winner of the 1940 ceremony and possibly one of the most famous films of all time - Gone with The Wind. It holds a place in Oscar history as it is the first Best Picture filmed entirely in colour and also the first film to feature an Oscar winning turn by an African American performer but more on that later. The story follows Southern Belle Scarlett O'Hara who we meet at the start of the American Civil War, Scarlett is admired by several suitors but she is in love with the debonair Ashley Wilkes but she discovers that he is to marry his cousin Melanie. Simply out of spite Scarlett decides to marry Melanie's brother Charles but he is soon killed when the Civil War starts. At the same time Scarlett meets the dashing rogue Rhett Butler who seems to have offended everyone who comes into contact with him. As the men go away to fight in the war Scarlett promises Ashley that she will look after Melanie, the two of them soon move to Atlanta to tend to sick soldiers but then a pregnant Melanie gets sick and Scarlett helps to deliver her baby. Scarlett enlists Rhett's to help transport Melanie and the baby back to Scarlett's estate which she finds in a state and her father who has since succumb to dementia and then dies just after the war finishes. Scarlett struggles to keep her estate going and soon marries her sister's suitor the middle-aged Frank Kennedy with whose money she buys a saw mill and convinces Ashley to help her run it. After Scarlett is attacked Frank, Ashley and a returning Rhett go after the attackers and Frank is fatally injured in the scuffle. Scarlett and Rhett eventually marry and have a child but Rhett realises that she is still in love with Ashley and starts to drink heavily and then asks Scarlett for a divorce however she doesn't want the scandal so instead Rhett takes their daughter away to London. They return after Rhett realises Bonnie needs her mother but then Bonnie dies after falling off a horse and then Melanie dies during her second pregnancy. After seeing how distraught Ashley is when Melanie dies she realises that he could never have loved her in the way he did Melanie and finally decides that she is in love with Rhett. However at this point Rhett has had enough and when Scarlett asks what she will do without Rhett he utters the line 'frankly my dear I don't give a damn' and this is followed by the film's other famous line 'tomorrow is another day' when Scarlett realises that the only thing that is left in her life is her family's estate and that's what her priority has to be.

It has been a while since I saw Gone With The Wind and the DVD I rented came as two discs separated by the interval which the original audience would have got. Part One of the film is definitely it's stronger half with the opening scene at the barbecue where we get the feel of all of the four principal characters followed by the war itself. You get the feel of the epic scale of the picture as we get a shot of all the injured soldiers laid out across the land there also some very interesting camera techniques and the use of colour is expertly done. The film's second half is where things get a bit flabby as director Victor Fleming takes too long telling the story of the love quadrangle that takes place but the film picks up in its final part with the marriage and separation of Scarlett and Rhett and the deaths of Bonnie and Melanie. The production itself seemed to be very fraught with original director George Cukor being fired and replaced by The Wizard of Oz's Fleming while there was about 20 actresses in the frame for Scarlett but the role went to the then unknown British actress Vivien Leigh. Leigh's performance won her an Oscar and she did a good job portraying the incredibly complex Scarlett. Clark Gable was brilliant as Rhett but he lost out to Robert Donat and Olivia De Havilland was also nominated as Melanie but she also lost. The actress she lost to was Hattie McDaniel who portrayed the O'Hara's servant Mammy, McDaniel stole most of the scenes that she featured in especially the opening scenes which without her would've been awfully melodramatic. McDaniel laid down the legacy which saw other African American performers being accepted by the academy equally impressive was Butterfly McQueen as the jittery servant Prissy.

Although I do have a lot of love for what The Wizard of Oz did in terms of its special effects and use of colour there's no denying that Gone With The Wind is weightier in terms of its tone. Although, at three and a half hours it's a bit long, at the time the audience would've appreciated this and the cinema was much more of a communal event than it is now. Although I am yet to watch seven of the other films that were nominated against it at the moment I can definitely say that Gone with The Wind was a good choice to be the first winner of the 1940s ceremonies.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 43: A Trip to China and a Fairer Lady

As we know Grand Hotel won the Best Picture prize at the 1932 ceremony, this was a film about a seemingly disparate group of people all connected by their surroundings, Shanghai Express. The surroundings are that of the Shanghai Express train which is travelling from Beijing to Shanghai during the Chinese Civil War. The passengers include an elderly English boarding house keeper, a missionary, an opium dealer, a gambler and a French soldier. Also on board is British war hero Doc Harvey who encounters his old girlfriend Magdalen who has now become a courtesan known as Shanghai Lily. The train is soon stopped by government soldiers who arrest a man and then by rebels loyal to fellow passenger Chang who turns out to be a powerful Chinese Warlord and uses Harvey as a hostage to exchange with the kidnapped passenger who is one of Chang's men. Just as Harvey is about to be blinded by Chang he is killed by Lily's courtesan companion and at the end Lily and Harvey are united. The film is impressively shot for a 1931 picture, the material is quite frank and honest about what the courtesans do for a living and it also looks at the issue of religion in terms of sex and love. I found it a very powerful picture and it also depicted the Chinese Civil War in a unique way by involving a group of outsiders in the conflict. This is also the first film on the list that features Marlene Dietrich and, as Lily, she holds the screen whenever she features while Clive Brook is a more than adequate male lead as Harvey. Thankfully the film did win cinematography and was also nominated for direction as well as picture. I don't think it was as tightly plotted and accomplished as Grand Hotel but it certainly more than deserved its place on the Best Picture contender list.

In the 1960s My Fair Lady won the award for Best Picture, this was around a time when musicals dominated the Best Picture category but the story on which the film was based, Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, was first nominated for Best Picture in the 1930s. This version starred Wendy Hiller as the eponymous heroine - Eliza Doolittle and Leslie Howard as Professor Henry Higgins. Most are aware of the story, Higgins bets fellow dialect expert Colonel Pickering that he can pass Dolittle off as a lady at a society ball and in the meantime they start to fall for each other. Having seen My Fair Lady I thought both of the leads were charming and portrayed the story fairly favourably. However I found this first version fairly jarring and most of the reason for this can lie at the feet of Howard whose Henry Higgins seemed to be overly harsh and instead of stern and bookish he came off as quite monstrous .I previously watched Howard in Romeo and Juliet and wasn't impressed by him there and that perception didn't change with Pygmalion despite this he was nominated for Best Actor. In its defence I thought Hillier, a Best Actress nominee, was fairly likeable and portrayed Eliza fairly well while the film was also shot and plotted fairly well and was rewarded with the Best Adapted Screenplay award. A fairly decent film this does seem fairly dated when compared with its fellow nominees like The Adventures of Robin Hood and La Grand Illusion.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 11: Getting a Bit Bard

In the interest of getting though this challenge I decided to group together two films which have one thing in common - Mr Bill Shakespeare. Yes two Shakespeare adaptations - A Midsummers Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet, were nominated in 1936 and 1937 respectively. First of all A Midsummers Night's Dream (the fourth of 1936's nominees) I am to watch which I was very impressed with. For a film from 1935 I was impressed by the overall design of the picture and the quality of some of the scenes especially those involving the fairies. Despite losing out in the Best Picture (and Best Assistant Director) categories the film did pick up two awards for cinematography and editing and I have to say it deserved both. I was utterly enthralled by some of the sequences involving Puck when he transformed into a cloud of smoke, even though Mickey Rooney's acting completely annoyed the hell out of me. Star of the show surprisingly was James Cagney, better known for his roles in gangster movies here Cagney played Bottom - possibly the best known character for getting turned into a donkey. Of course his performance is overblown but that's what the character has to be he is of course the comic relief. The majority of the story as all English graduates know focuses on Hermia due to marry Demetrius but really in love with Lysander the three, along with Demetrius' admirer Helena are trapped in the woods and at the mercy of the spells of Puck and fairy lord Oberon. I felt this part of the story lacked panache, it is quite boring and the two actors playing Lysander and Demetrius didn't really have a lot going for them and neither seemed to be of the leading man calibre that I believe the roles need. The other big name in the cast is Olivia De Havilland the best of the quartet - her Hermia is kind of strong yet vulnerable but I didn't feel that she should really be paired with either of the men who were pursuing her. The whole thing was enjoyable enough although I felt the pace lagged in places mainly during, fairy queen, Titania's singing and the final play performed by Bottom and co. Overall enjoyable and I thought it was better than a lot of the films in the Oscars list from this year (Captain Blood, The Informer)


So we continue onto the second helping of the Bard and George Cukor's Romeo and Juliet another film that was nominated for four Oscars but failed to pick up any. Twice losing out to The Great Ziegfeld both in Best Picture and Best Actress categories, I apologise if I was a little harsh on Luise Rainer in my previous post but her performance in The Great Ziegfeld was certainly better than Shearer's Juliet. While Norma Shearer is a fine actress I found her a little flat as Juliet and much too old to play the part. Similarly Leslie Howard's age is a problem in his performance as are his looks which I thought were rather effeminate and couldn't buy his fight scenes. Luckily there are some choice support performances which keep the film flowing along. John Barrymore as Mercutio is brilliant playing it more for laughs as an aging playboy thinking that he is still a hit with the ladies. While Basil Rathbone pops up again to flail a sword around as quite a villainous Tybalt. Although I didn't think he was as great as Barrymore, it was Rathbone who got a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Although it is a good story to tell I think the film dragged out and wasn't particularly inventive and very stagy, I was really only impressed by the masquerade ball scene, I didn't really feel anything when the lovers die or when Mercutio is stabbed and just thought it was just a bit cold and didn't offer anything particularly cinematic. So at the moment with this and Three Smart Girls, The Great Ziegfeld was definitely the right choice to win that year.