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 Though the Irish customs are rather outdated the Irish countryside is beautifully shot and the film deserved its Best Cinematography award though I'm not quite sure about Ford winning yet another Best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 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.

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?