Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 367-369: Days of Future Past Part Three

Sorry for those who are feeling a bit disorientated by the jumps in time but I'm back in the earlier days of the Academy Awards for three more films that I couldn't locate back when I covered the 1930s and 1940s.

We kick off with Alexander's Ragtime Band; a sideways look at the world of jazz and swing music directed by Henry King and co-written by Irving Berlin. As one would expect, the titular song by Berlin features quite heavily throughout the film and in fact the movie begins with a performance of it. Our central character is conductor Roger Grant who, by a coincidence, leads a performance of the song after he finds the music for it dropped by singer Stella Kirby. Roger is soon given the name of Alexander and tours with Stella even though each find the other hard work. Rather predictably they begin to fall for each other but she eventually gets signed to a record contract whilst the rest of the lads are forced to enrol in the army due to the start of World War I. Initially I believed that this film would be nothing more than another light-hearted musical like The Broadway Melody of 1936. However, it morphed into something a little darker as both Stella and Alexander fall in and out of the spotlight until the final performance of the hit at Carnegie Hall. Some of Berlin's most famous songs; including Heat Wave and Easter Parade, are included in the soundtrack and make for an incredibly enjoyable musical. In their roles of Alexander and Stella; Tyrone Power and Alice Faye both shine although I did find the supporting players didn't get much time in the spotlight. The ending was also a little disjointed as it appeared as if Berlin and his co-writers couldn't really devise a good way for Alexander and Stella to reunite. But despite this I felt the film wasn't as flimsy as it could've been and had a great soundtrack that got you through the movie's duller moments.

Moving on a year we find Greta Garbo in only one of the two films she starred in to be nominated for an Oscar, that being Ninotchka. As the majority of my knowledge of classic film stars is via this journey I'm not really aware of Garbo's back catalogue although she did have an incredibly powerful aura in Grand Hotel. Ninotchka was Garbo's penultimate film and was the first broad comedy film in which she starred hence the tagline 'Garbo Laughs.' I was particularly surprised how much the film made me laugh as well as it mocked the Soviet Union's rigid society and the way in which four of its patrons are corrupted when they arrive in Paris. Ninotchka's plot is wafer-thin as it involves the sale of jewellery which had been confiscated during the Russian Revolution and whose owner now wanted it back. Representing the Grand Duchess Swana is Melvin Douglas' Count Leon; a dashing cad who is able to corrupt the three Soviets who arrive in Paris to complete the sale. Garbo's Ninotchka then arrives on the scene; a beret-clad Soviet agent whose job is to complete the sale. I found Garbo to be utterly hilarious in her role as the strait-laced Soviet who is gradually won over by the smooth-talking count. Ernst Lubitsch's direction perfectly anchors the humour whilst the script is packed full of laugh-out-loud one-liners. At just under two hours, Ninotchka is perfectly paced as our two characters come together before being torn apart due to blackmail. The final scene is beautifully played and one more gag is included in the closing shot which I for one appreciated. But ultimately the success of Ninotchka comes down to the brilliant chemistry between Garbo and Douglas both of whom contribute to making this a thoroughly enjoyable satirical screwball comedy.

Entering the 1940s we find Sergeant York which is most famous in Academy Awards history for Gary Cooper's Best Actor win in a field that also included Orson Welles' powerful turn in Citizen Kane. Before going into Sergeant York I believed it to be a war film which chronicled the wartime exploits of Alvin York who won the Medal of Honour. Whilst there are war scenes towards the end of the film the majority of the picture is concerned with York's journey from ne'er-do-well to God-loving pacifist. Indeed, American's participation in World War One isn't even touched upon until the second half of the film and by that point I'd got a little bit bored if truth be told. York's Tennessee townsfolk were all a little bit backward and used phrases such as 'cash money' to resemble how simple they were. Meanwhile, I found Cooper's performance to be a little underwhelming and nowhere near as good as his turn as the steadfast sheriff in High Noon. There were some highlights amongst the cast namely the pretty Joan Leslie as the girl who made York change his way and Margaret Wycherly as his long-suffering mother. I feel my main gripe with Sergeant York though is its sense of American patriotism and the idea that God wanted an American to fight in the trenches in order to win the war. I think if I were a God-loving American I may feel differently about Sergeant York but overall I was a little bit bored during a film that run just over two hours. As well as winning two Oscars; Sergeant York was the highest-grossing film of 1941 and I have to say I'm not surprised as the Americans would've lapped up this patriotic nonsense during World War II. But, over seventy years later, Sergeant York is one of those films that feels awfully outdated.

Next time we return to the 21st Century where we focus on two films starring a hearthrob turned serious actor.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 80: Take Me Up to the Ball Park

Those who know me know that I know very little about sports and of that little knowledge hardly any of it is given up to the sport of baseball. However I am familiar with the name Babe Ruth who actually features as himself in the next film about another New York Yankee player Lou Gerhig. Gerhig died tragically aged only 37 and this film was made and released the year after his death. Gary Cooper was cast in the role of Gerhig which is an odd choice seeing as Lou is in his 20s for the majority of the film and Cooper was in his 40s by this stage of his career. Despite this Cooper is still a decent actor and does his best to show Gerhig from being scouted by The Yankees to becoming the most reliable player on the team. The film also concentrates on three of the most important relationships in his life. Firstly that between Gerhig and his parents, his understanding and down-to-Earth father and his interfering mother. The relationship with his mother is one of the film's most interesting as she argues with everyone that Lou should be an engineer and not a baseball player even though he has an obvious talent for him. The second relationship is between Lou and the sportswriter Sam Blake played by Walter Brennan. Blake is the man who sees potential in Gerhig and persuades the Yankees to give him a try out, Blake later becomes Gerhig's confident and always stands up for him. And finally there is Gerhig's romance with Eleanor Twtichell who he first meets when she watches one of his games. Their relationship is basically without turmoil apart from some interfering from his mother. They get married and although she does get a little tired of being a baseball star's wife she doesn't stop loving Lou. Although tragically the final third of the film looks at Lou becoming ill and gets a fatal motor neuron disease which would later go on to become known as Lou Gerhig's disease. Lou keeps on playing as long as he can but one day he realises that he has to be pulled from the team and makes a last minute decision not to play. The film ends with Gerhig's goodbye speech to the fans which must've been a fairly poignant moment to the original film audience as Gerhig had just died.

The film itself is only okay, it is a very traditional biopic however most of Gerhig's life is really without incident. A lot of the scenes depict life on the road with the baseball team, most of them playing themselves, Babe Ruth in particular sends himself up as a big-headed moron who the rest of the team play pranks on. The acting isn't too bad either, Walter Brennan is possibly the cast's MVP as Sam Blake he just plays an ordinary decent bloke. Despite being too old for the part Cooper still gives it his all and manages to give a sympathetic performance and both he and Teresa Wright, as his wife, were nominated for Oscars. But by today's standards the film is incredibly cheesy, there is an extended segment in which Gerhig promises to hit a home run for a kid in hospital which he obviously does and later in the film the kid who has now grown up comes to see Lou say his farewell. The film was nominated for a total of eleven statues but only managed to win one award, which was bizarrely for editing but it lost out to Mrs Miniver in the Best Picture category. I think this one would probably work if I understood and cared about baseball a bit more but sadly that's never gonna happen.