Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 115: It's All a Bit Mental

A while ago I did a course about the use of institutions, such as prisons and hospitals, in films which focused mainly on mental hospitals. One film that didn't feature was The Snake Pit which was nominated at the 1949 ceremony featuring a top notch performance by Olivia De Havilland. We are plunged straight into the action as De Havilland's Virginia wonders about her surroundings and what she's doing in what she believes in a prison. It turns out that Virginia has been committed into a mental institution and her story is told in flashback firstly by her husband Robert and then by Virginia herself. We find out about how Robert and Virginia met and then about Virginia's past engagement and her relationship with her parents. These flashbacks are transposed by Virginia's journey through the mental instution at different times she is in the most extreme ward and at other times she is in the low security ward with its strict nursing. Again we are never given all the information and don't often find why Virginia is shifted around to various cells although we can usually guess due to watch leads up to it. All the time you are wondering about the other characters most notably Dr. Kik, Virginia's original doctor who at some times is asked not to treat her hinting at something darker in his past. Overall Virginia seemingly recovers but there is still something lurking in the background that you're not 100% sure.

Most of what works about The Snake Pit can be attributed to Olivia de Havilland who is absolutely brilliant in this film. Virginia is paranoid at some points, normal at others and she guides as through all the gaps in between and really makes us relate to her plight. De Havilland was nominated for Best Actress but lost out to the brilliant Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda. De Havilland had previously put in a great performance in Hold Back the Dawn but this was much better however it would only be a year in which she triumphed in the same category. The story is also fairly clever cutting between time periods and different wards in the institution, Virginia's realisation and ultimate conclusion are both fairly neat and I felt the need for a neat wrap up after an interesting and thought-provoking film. The male characters also don't get a good rap although Robert seems nice enough and Dr Kik is seemingly a nice guy there's always the sense that they are manipulating Virginia. But overall this was a fantastic film that I'd never previously heard of but I'm so glad that I've seen and it would certainly suit the nature of the course I was on very well.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 114: Come Sail Away

The 1940s era are an odd mix of films it seems that going into the future we'll have a lot of big budget musicals that have won or have been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. But back at the 1946 ceremony Hollywood was still in its infancy there were a few musicals around but on the whole they weren't as grandiose as they'd become in the next couple of decades. However that's not true of our next nominee - Anchors Aweigh which features two of the best song and dance men of all time in Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. The scant plot sees Kelly and Sinatra's two able seamen get granted four days leave from their naval duties and go off to Hollywood. Kelly's Joe wants to see his girl Lola but at the same time wants to help Sinatra's Clarence find love. Together they find a lost boy, Donald and when Clarence locks eyes on Donald's aunt Susan he falls for her and the pair make up a false appointment with a music producer so they can see her again. However through the course of events it is Joe who falls for Susan meanwhile Clarence meets a girl from his hometown of Brooklyn and starts to fall for her. As you can imagine there are lots of misunderstood glances, big musical numbers along the way and everything sort of working itself out by the final number.

I had already heard of Anchors Aweigh as it is the film that includes the iconic scene in which Gene Kelly dances with Jerry of Tom and Jerry fame. The reason why he does this still really didn't become apparent on watching the film however it seemed to be some sort of fantasy sequence that Joe was making up to impress a class of kids. Obviously I recognised the films titular track and the song 'I Know Susie' was also familiar but the film is packed with songs which in my opinion outweigh the plot and I found myself almost predicting when the next song would come along from the lines that were being spoken. Gene Kelly sort of holds the film together at the time Sinatra was still a nervous screen presence and Clarence doesn't really have a lot of oomph to him and Kathryn Grayson and Pamela Britton's love interests are both fairly thinly drawn and are just there to sing and fall in love with their respective partners. Its quite a jolly film and there's nothing particularly bad about it but personally I need a bit of meat in my musicals and I think I will get that as the Oscar Challenge goes into the next decade.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 113: Moors Moors Moors How Do You Like it?

So far we've seen Laurence Olivier as Shakespearian figureheads Henry V and Hamlet as well as the lead in an adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca and in the next film on the list he plays another literary antihero in Wuthering Heights' Heathcliff. For those unfamiliar with the tale, who unlike me didn't do it as part of their A-Level English Literature course, the story involves a love story on the Yorkshire Moors between Heathcliff a gypsy orphan bought to live at the large establishment of the title and Cathy the daughter of the family he's bought into. However many things come between them including the death of Cathy's father, the hatred towards Heathcliff from Cathy's brother Hindley and Cathy's love of the finer things in life when she meets the nice but dull Edgar Linton of the neighbouring house The Grange who Cathy ends up marrying. Heathcliff goes and returns later on to exact revenge on all that have wronged him by buying Wuthering Heights from a drunken Hindley and marrying Edgar's sister Isabella to get back at both Edgar and Cathy. However the book and film differ from there on out, in Emily Bronte's novel there is whole other section involving the children of Hindley, Heathcliff and Cathy but the film ends abruptly with Cathy's death and Heathcliff haunted by Kathy's ghost. The whole story is narrated by Wuthering Heights housekeeper Nelly to The Grange's new occupant Mr Lockwood but I found that the voiceover technique was lacking and Nelly's voice was often drowned out by the score or by other character's voices. The film ends, not with the uniting between Cathy and Hindley's children, but with the ghosts of Cathy and Heathcliff walking off hand in hand together. In fact it wasn't Olivier or Merle Oberon who played Cathy in this scene as both had moved on to other projects so body doubles had to be used in this final scene.

And this wasn't the only thing that went wrong with the film as nobody seemed to get on. Producer Samuel Goldwyn wanted the final scene while director William Wyler thought it would seem a bit tacky this is why the body doubles had to be used. Goldwyn claimed that this was his project and Wyler was simply the director however Wyler didn't really seem to get on with his cast. Wyler and Olivier constantly clashed because Wyler wanted Olivier to retake scenes again and again while Olivier and Oberon didn't get on either especially during their love scenes together as Olivier wanted his new love Vivien Leigh to star alongside him. Goldwyn hoped that this would be the vehicle to launch the then unknown Oberon but at that year's Oscars it was Leigh who would win Best Actress for Gone with the Wind while Oberon didn't even get a nomination. Personally I thought the best scenes in the film were the ones in which Cathy and Heathcliff clash as you can actually see the hatred between Oberon and Olivier in these scenes. Like in Hamlet, I felt Olivier was miscast here I just didn't feel the pain that Heathcliff is meant to have over never probably having Cathy. My two favourite performances came from Flora Robson as Nelly and again from David Niven as the put upon Edgar. As someone who knows the story fairly well I think I was put off by the fact that there were so many omissions in this film that it was disturbing to see the book dealt with in this way. I just hope that the people who watch this actually read the book as well or they may well think that Wuthering Heights as a happy ending, which Spoiler Alert: it doesn't.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 112: Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel

I remember when I was still at school and pulling a sicky I was allowed to rent a couple of videos from the local shop and one I chose was The Preacher's Wife starring Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington. As a 12 year old I didn't really get it and of course at the time I wasn't aware that it was a remake of a film nominated at the 1948 Oscars starring Cary Grant and David Niven. The Bishop's Wife tells the story of Henry Brougham a Bishop with a lot of things on his mind. He needs money to renovate the cathedral, he fears he is losing his parishioners and he is worried that his wife and child no longer love him. Loretta Young's Julia the titular wife is also having problems and seems to look glum wherever she goes. So Henry prays for divine intervention and gets it in the form of Dudley the Angel played by Cary Grant. Dudley is a hit with all around him, he convinces the wealthy Mrs.Hamilton to donate the cathedral funds to the poor, he gets the atheist Professor Wutherington to open up about how he lost his faith and he also puts a smile on Julia's face but he gets a bit too close to her for comfort. The only person who isn't happy when Dudley is around is Henry who feels that Dudley is trying to outplay him and trying to steal his wife and child from him. Obviously everybody learns lessons before the film ends and the film does tackle some interesting themes about faith, love and how much we take life for granted sometimes. The end of the film sees Henry and his family reunited with Dudley wiping all the memories of him away before leaving.

For me the one fatal flaw of The Bishop's Wife was that I really didn't sympathise or like Cary Grant's Dudley. I found at times he was abusing his position for his own good at one point stopping Henry from attending a carol concert with his wife and then taking her skating. Although he does end up putting things right I just did find him a little bit slimy for an angel and someone who had too much charm. David Niven was first choice to play the angel but when Grant came on board he was the bigger star so got his choice of roles and demanded to play Dudley. However that plays to Niven's advantage as I felt sympathy towards Henry and his lot in life trying to juggle family with the ferocious women of the parish. I found one scene between him and the always excellent Monty Wooley's Professor Wutherington to be fairly compelling where they talk about outer world beings and what they need to be happy in fact if one character changes the most for me it was Wutherington. Overall the ensemble cast, with the exception of Grant, probably make the film what it is with Young also doing what is needed of her which is mainly smiling and looking beautiful. It is nice to look at as well seeing the city all done up for Christmas but the finish is almost too neat as Dudley heads off once again. I really can't cast my mind back that far to remember if Whitney and Denzel did a better job but I can't imagine they did, they certainly didn't get an Oscar nomination that's for sure.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 111: Doing it For the Kids

There are some films on this list that I read the plot of and I instantly want to watch others I have to force myself and Blossoms in the Dust does definitely fall into the latter category. The film is based around the true story of Greer Garson's Edna and how she overcomes tragedy after tragedy to set up a successful home for orphans until they are rehoused into loving families. The story starts with Edna due to be married to the boorish Damon only for Walter Pidgeon's bank clerk Sam to whisk her off her feet. Meanwhile Edna's adopted sister Charlotte is due to marry her fiancée Allen but is stopped when it turns out that Charlotte was adopted by Edna's parents. Unable to marry the man of her dreams Charlotte commits suicide but that's not the end of Edna's worries. She barely survives giving birth to her daughter only for that daughter to wind up dying about five years later on. After finding out she can no longer have children Edna and Walter set up a home for rehousing orphans which is shut down after Edna upsets one of the more important ladies of the town and the couple up roots and move. Soon Walter takes ill and dies leaving Edna to fight her own battles including one with a lowlife man who wants to get some money from the wealthy couple who adopted his son and Edna also battles to remove the stigma from those children who get adopted so they can live a normal life and not end up like Charlotte. The film ends with Edna successful in her quest but still feeling lonely in life unable to form attachments to any of the children as she knows she won't be around all their lives. Her only constant throughout the film is Max, a doctor who befriends the couple and who is Edna's confidant after Sam dies.

There's really only so much one woman can go through and blimey did Edna go through it all - the death of her friend, her child and her husband not to mention not being able to have children again and being chased out of town. This was one hell of a woman and its nice for her to be recognised but at the same time I feel like the film was just too overly melodramatic for my liking. I do like Greer Garson as an actress, especially in Random Harvest a film she was not Oscar nominated for, but here she fights an uphill battle portraying a character who demands sympathy in every scene and can't seem to catch a break. Walter Pidgeon is fine as the charming caddish Sam but once he starts to get ill he also turns into a bit of wimp and starts talking in wistful terms. In fact my favourite characters in the film were Max the doctor and Zeke the couple's loveable servant who follows them all over the country. Unfortunately if this were released today I still reckon it would get its Oscar nomination because it's one of those dreary heartfelt dramas that Oscar love to acknowledge.

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 109: Nun of Your Business

If you ever find yourself in a tie-break at a quiz and the question is what is the first ever film sequel to be nominated for an Oscar, I have the answer - The Bells of St. Mary's. Never heard of it? Well it is the sequel to Going My Way, the winning film at the 1945 Oscar ceremony. A year later we meet Bing Crosby's Father O'Malley continuing improving the church system by moving to a flagging catholic school run by a bunch of nuns which is in dire need of repair. O'Malley clashes with the unrealistic views of the nuns who hope to convince local business owner Mr Borgadus to give them the new complex he is building to house the school. O'Malley's unconventional techniques also incur the wrath of the lead nun Sister Mary Benedict convincingly portrayed by Ingrid Bergman. We also follow the story of Patsy Gallagher whose daughter appeals to the Father to allow her to start the school as she doesn't know what to do with her. Obviously Patsy reforms her way and starts to improve her grades but Mary and O'Malley clash again when she fails her final exam and can't graduate. The ending involving Mary Benedict's removal from the nunnery is odd as it is really neither happy or sad but maybe the message just is that life goes on. Although they did succeed in moving St. Mary's after appealing to the good nature of Borgadus who was suffering from various illnesses and the next year would become an iconic figure as Clarence the Angel in It's a Wonderful Life.

Back to the Bells of St. Mary's a sequel to a film that I felt did not deserve to win the Best Picture Oscar over the tremendous Double Indemnity. But St. Mary's is only a sequel in the fact that it continues the adventures of the same characters, it doesn't really reference O'Malley's work in Going My Way and instead presents this as an entirely new story. Although it is very similar, Bing Crosby arrives at a Catholic institution the locals are suspicious but then won round and he ends up getting what he wants. After winning a Best Actor Oscar the year before, Crosby's performance really hasn't changed but that really doesn't matter. As an actor Crosby can instantly put me at ease as his style is very relaxed and that works well for the character. Ingrid Bergman was also nominated after a win for Gaslight the year previous, her sister Mary Benedict could be a clichéd stuck-up character but she can go toe-to-toe with Bing and they spark off each other with their very asexual chemistry. The film does suffer from being very overlong and also there are entire sequences that I felt could've been cut out but it is decent entertainment and if you like a good nun-based film you could do a lot worse.