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 84: Lost Memories

Getting towards watching my 100th film on the list, its started me reflecting on why I started this journey in the first place. I think it was mainly to watch some films that I'd never got round to but it has become discovering others that I'd never been aware of but I really enjoyed after watching. The 1943 nominee Random Harvest falls into this latter category it deals with Ronald Colman's character a man who loses his memory several times throughout the film. Colman is initially in a mental institution when the film begins as he has lost his memory after becoming shell-shocked in the trenches. He escapes from the institution after he sneaks past the guards who are celebrating the end of World War I. He is helped out by a showgirl named Paula who helps conceal his identity and eventually the two begin and romance and then marry. As Colman went by the name John Smith, Paula starts to call him Smithy and he discovers he has a talent for writing and journeys to Liverpool to see about getting a job as a writer leaving a pregnant Paula behind. While in Liverpool he is hit by a cab, although he is physically fine he loses his memory of his time with Paula and reverts back to his original identity of Charles Rainer heir to a large business dynasty. Rainer returns to his family home of Random House the day after his father's death and it turns out that he is to inherit the house. Charles hopes to return to college but ends up taking over the family business and making it successful leading to a newspaper article calling himself the 'industrial prince of England'. Charles then gets a new secretary Margaret, Paula who is now using her real name, Margaret wants to reveal all to Charles but her friend tells her that it would just startle him so she has him declared legally dead and their marriage annulled. Charles then starts to romance Kitty, the step-daughter of one of his brothers, who has been smitten with him since she was fifteen. Charles and Kitty plan to get married however while planning the wedding Charles' memory is stirred by one of the hymns that Kitty has chosen which reminds him of his time with Paula. He then realises he is in love with someone else that he can't remember and calls off the engagement to Kitty. Later Charles stands for Parliament and succeeds thanks to Margaret's support, realising that he needs a wife he proposes to her as more of a business arrangement and she accepts. However she becomes unhappy that Charles will never remember her and decides to go on an extended holiday to South America. At the same time Charles has to go to the place he and Margaret once lived in order to deal with some unrest at a factory he owns there. While there his memory finally starts to come back to him and he returns to their old house where he finds Margaret, who is visiting the place before taking off on the cruise liner, she calls out to him as Smithy and he embraces her finally remembering their connection.

Although I'm not usually one for romantic films I thought the way that all of Random Harvest was laid out was superb. From the opening shots of the imposing gates of the Mental Institution to the grandiose splendour of Random House to the small house that 'Paula' and 'Smithy' shared every set is given the same amount of care. The two leads also make you care immensely about their characters. Although Ronald Colman has always impressed me this seems to be his best role thus far in the list, his character changes from amnesiac patient to carefree writer to prince of industry and then to a government lord and Colman is able to show all these transitions with ease. As the film's female lead Greer Garson is also able to portray a woman who has lost the two things that are most important to her, Smithy and her child who died in infancy. There is also a fine performance by Susan Peters as the spirited and ultimately heartbroken Kitty who also grows as a character as the film progresses. The film was nominated for seven Oscars but was completely unsuccessful with Garson not even nominated for this film, however she was nominated for another performance that year, Colman and Peters did receive nods but failed to win. Overall this was a thoroughly well-made and well-acted film that engaged me from beginning to end.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 56: A Bit of Charlie

In what seems like a lifetime ago I watched two films based on the works of one of Britain's best loved wordsmiths, William Shakespeare, now I'm dipping back into the list and getting two films that follow a similar pattern as both were based on works written by another chap you may have heard of - Charles Dickens.

First off is George Cukor's massive adaptation of David Copperfield, Copperfield is probably one of the better known of Dickens' work and was obviously a good choice to be one of the first of his books to be adapted since the advent of talking movies. Cukor was also responsible for some of the 1930s adaptations that I've already looked at on this list, Little Women and Romeo and Juliet. For those unfamiliar with the story it shows the development of David Copperfield, from being born to being raised by a single mother with the help of Peggorty the maid. Copperfield's mother then remarries and he is sent first to a boarding school (not seen in the film) and then to a factory in London. There he meets the jovial but constantly in debt lanlord Wilkins Micawber but when Micawber is sent to the debtor's prison, Copperfield feels like he has nothing to live for and treks from London to Dover to live with his great aunt and her dotty companion Mr Dick. As David grows up he falls in love with the beautiful Dora while he also works as a trainee clerk alongside the devious Uriah Heap. David's old school friend Steerforth returns and seduces and absconds with Peggoty's niece Emily, this incident gives the film one of its most vivid scenes as Pegggoty's brother searches high and low for Emily in a windswept montage. In the end David married Dora but she dies in childbirth so he remarries the sensible Agnes while the bad guys all get their comeuppance.

For one of the earliest Dickens adaptations, Cukor has been able to fit in a lot of detail and filmed some rather superb sequences. David's trek from London to Dover is a brilliant sequence as comes ever nearer to his aunt. The scene in which Steerforth and David meet Dora for the first time is also rather cute and as previously mentioned the search for Emily. It's a shame then that the two actors in the lead role almost let the film down Freddie Bartholomew who was annoying in Captain Courageous doesn't change my opinion of him here, while Frank Lawton as the older David is fairly bland. Thankfully the colourful characters are given fitting actors to play them W.C. Fields is witty and warm as Micawber, Lionel Barrymore is as excellent as ever as Mr Peggoty and the Benny Hill-like Lennox Pawle brings the eccentric Mr Dick to life spectacularly. Although, at well over two hours, the film sometimes drags overall Cukor has done a good job of bringing the world of Copperfield to life.

Although both of these adaptations were released in the same year Copperfield qualified for the 1935 ceremony losing to Mutiny on The Bounty while A Tale of Two Cities had to wait till 1936 to lose to The Great Zigfield. This time Jack Conway, who we've previously met directing Viva Villa!, tries to adapt Dickens' account of the French revolution. The story sees Lucie Manette discover that her father is still alive imprisoned in the Bastille. Lucie brings her father back across the channel and while on the boat meets the charming Darnay who comes from one of France's most tyrannical aristocratic families. On entrance to England, Darnay is framed for treason, but is released thanks to the efforts of Sydney Carton a lawyer who is able to get a confession out of the men who frame Darnay. Carton falls for Lucie but Lucie has already fallen for Darnay and they marry and have a daughter. We are then taken back to Paris where the French underclasses rebel against the aristocrats but then a certain number of them what revenge against the families that have wronged them including Darnay. He is tricked in going back to Paris only to be arrested despite Lucie and Carton's best efforts he sentenced to be executed but the day before this happens Carton swaps places with Darnay and is able to end his life a hero.

Again a brilliant adaptation this time the scenes that resonate the most are those during the French revolution. A combination of dim lighting transposed with large amounts of fire is quite horrifying. Also the scenes in which Carton falls for Lucie are incredibly well done meaning that the terror is transposed with some humour. Ronald Colman as Carton is brilliant here, previously I wasn't sure about his acting ability especially in Arrowsmith, but in A Tale of Two Cities he brings the drunken, smitten and ultimately selfless lawyer to life. Also worth a mention are two actors who appeared in both of these films first of all Basil Rathbone who has played villains in both pieces as Copperfield's evil stepfather in the first film he terrifies every time he comes on screen while here as the heartless Marquise he is incredibly sinister. Meanwhile Edna May Oliver, who also played the aunt in Little Women and the nurse in Romeo and Juliet, played Copperfield's mad aunt and the loyal and eccentric maid in A Tale of Two Cities, in the latter role she is able to kick-ass and protect Lucie in the final scenes.

I think both of these films deserved their place on the nomination lists as they were able to bring Dickens' stories to an audience who had probably never read them. Although Copperfield probably wasn't a match for Mutiny on The Bounty, A Tale of Two Cities in some way was better than the overly-long spectacular The Great Ziegfeld. But both are examples of how adaptations of classic novels should be done.

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 36: Another World

Frank Capra is a director who keeps popping up in this decade, two of his films - It Happened One Night and You Can't Take It With You both won best picture and best director while Mr Deeds Goes to Town won Capra Best Director also. But Capra directed two more films that also were nominated for Best Picture but didn't win him any director nominations and one of those is Lost Horizon. The previous Capra films all seem to have several running themes about money being the root of all evil and culture clash romances they're all quite light in tone. However Lost Horizon deviates from this pattern as it sees a plane crash and its five passengers lead to a mysterious place called Shangri-La located in the Himalayan Mountains. The 'leader' is Robert Conway who is leaving with the others, including his brother, from China after rescuing them from the country's rebels. The other passengers are a palaeontologist, a plumber who conned shareholders out of their money and a terminally ill woman. They are eventually rescued by a man named Chang who takes them all back to Shangri-La, Conway learns that he has been picked to take over running Shangri-La by the old leader who dies soon after. However Conway is convinced by his brother to leave Shangri-La, his brother also takes a girl who he has fallen in love with only to find out that she is an old woman because people don't age on Shangri-La. The end of the film sees Conway rescued and taken back to Britain only to return to Shangri-La, without his brother who has committed suicide.

Lost Horizon is a lot different from Capra's films mainly because of the scale of the filming, it is beautifully photographed and there are some elaborate exterior shots. Ronald Colman as Conway is the dashing lead he performance is both measured and multi-layered while all the supporting cast give good turns notably Isabel Jewell as the terminally ill Gloria. However it is H.B. Warner as Chang who is the star of the show, he makes us intrigued by his character and Shangri-La as a place and his is the most interesting performance. In fact Warner was nominated for Best Supporting Actor but lost out in the end, however the film did win two awards for Best Editing and a much deserved Best Art Direction award. This film definitely proved Capra could do something different however after this, the next film on the list directed by him is You Can't Take It With You which returned to his old style.