Peyton
Place is a name that I know mainly as a TV series of the 1960s however
before that it was a 1956 novel which was quickly bought and turned into
a film the following year. The film follows six young people who are
all to graduate from Peyton Place high school and move on with their
lives while also portraying their parents in different lights. Central
to the film is Lana Turner's Connie McKenzie a dress maker who has
returned from New York to her hometown with her daughter Allison who was
later revealed to be the product of an affair she had with a married
man. Allison's childhood has been quite sheltered but when she blossoms
as a woman her affections turn to local outsider Norman Page who also
has a parent who does allow him to grow up. Connie is pursued by new
headmaster Michael Rossi who hopes to crack her hard exterior and does
so briefly but she begins to worry about her daughter once the
revelation of her parentage gets out. Allison's best friend is Selena
Cross the daughter of the McKenzie's cleaner Nellie and whose stepfather
Lucas begins to abuse her so one night she eventually snaps and kills
him. Finally there is Rodney Harrington son of Peyton Place's wealthiest
town member who is drawn to the promiscuous Betty Anderson a match that
his father disapproves of because of her reputation in the town.
The main problem I had initially with Peyton Place was getting to the
bottom of all the stories and meeting all the characters but once I did I
started to enjoy it. I did though find it was far too long clocking in
at over two hours and I felt the Rodney and Betty storyline could've
been cut as it came to a conclusion a while before the film had
finished. There are some great performances here which is evident by the
fact that the film received five acting nominations including a Lead
Actress nod for Lana Turner who was great as the emotionally fraught
Connie. My favourite member of the cast was Hope Lange, another
Supporting Actress nominee, whose Selena is initially presented as quite
weak but learns to fight back after a horrific incident involving
stepfather Lucas. This is at its heart a melodrama and at times the
music got too much as the dramatic scenes were almost outshone by the
booming score. What I did like though was the fact that a lot of people
are afraid to let their true feelings come out in a town where there are
far too many gossips so they keep things like illegitimacy and rape to
themselves. The costumes are also well made however the hair styles
could do with some work especially in the case of Lee Phillips who has
some really bad grey hair dye applied to him when playing Michael Rossi.
Peyton Place is a good bit of trashy fiction which is over long but
well acted and unlike a lot of films in this list a deserving Oscar
nominee.
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.
For most film fans the name Joseph L Mankiewicz will be most familiar as
the director and writer of All About Eve one of the most nominated
Oscar films of all time. However one year prior to this success
Mankiewicz won the directing and screenwriting awards for another film
entitled A Letter to Three Wives. The three wives of the title are
Jeanne Crain's Deborah Bishop, Ann Sothern's Rita Phipps and Linda
Darnell's Lora Mae Hollingsworth who are all informed via a letter that
one of their husbands has ran off with mutual acquaintance Addie Ross.
The problem is that Addie's letter doesn't reveal which husband it is so
all three women, who are about to board a boat to volunteer on a picnic
for orphans, have to play the waiting game until they reach dry land.
Addie Ross narrates the piece from beginning to end showing us around
the neighbourhood and introducing the three women however she is never
seen. In flashback we see the state of the three marriages and why the
husbands may've run off with Addie. Firstly Deborah, who is married to
Addie's first love Brad, a farmer's daughter who met her husband while
they were both in the navy and is now nervous about meeting his friends
whom she feel are in a higher class than herself. In the flashback we
see her journey to her first dance with the other couples and getting so
nervous that she drinks too much and ends up throwing up just as Addie
turns up at the end. Next we see Rita's marriage to school-teacher
George, played by Kirk Douglas, who writes for the radio and is often
dominated by her boss who demands constant re-writes. George often feels
emasculated by his wife who earns more than him and we flashback to a
dinner party thrown in her boss' honour however she is so busy that she
has forgot her husband's birthday something that Addie hasn't done
giving him a record as a present. Finally Rita Mae's marriage to retail
king Porter is depicted in detail showing her living in squalor next to
the railway tracks and wanting to be a wife to someone of Porter's
status but there is a hint that he himself is also taken with Addie as
there is a picture of her on his piano. The end of the film reveals who
it is that has run off with Addie and the consequences that this
revelation has.
At first watching A Letter to Three Wives I felt that I was getting some
soppy melodrama but once I learnt that Mankiewicz was involved and I
was introduced to the characters I really got into it. I could really
see elements of All About Eve in the film including the narration from
someone who isn't necessary involved in all parts of the story as well
as a strong female presence and the themes of advancing in social
circles. Indeed the film also features two uncredited roles for All
About Eve cast-members with Thelma Ritter playing the Phipps' home help
Sadie who is very similar to the role of Birdie that she would play in
Mankiewicz's next film while Celeste Holm was also present in voice form
only giving an airy quality to the mysterious Addie. Of the six central
performances I think Kirk Douglas was brilliant as the put-upon George a
man who has to deal with his lot in life and the fact that his wife
earns a lot more money than he does. Of the wives themselves Linda
Darnell is both sexy and compelling as the woman who has come the
furthest and who secretly loves her husband even though you wouldn't
know it. The script is incredibly clever and the direction is masterful
and while this film isn't as great as Mankiewicz's classic it is
certainly a pre-cursor to what this man would produce the following
year.
This time on the Oscar Blog two films that were based on popular novels
and both that won awards for cinematography and editing as well as the
second winning many more.
But
we start with King Solomon's Mines, a nominee from the 1951 ceremony,
which was based on the novel by H Rider Haggard. Obviously this version,
which starred Raymond Massey as the explorer Allan Quatermain wasn't
the first adaptation of the book or the last but was arguably the most
successful due to its exterior locations which at the time would've
surprised audiences. The main story sees Quatermain tasked as guide to
John Goode and his sister Elizabeth Curtis played by Deborah Kerr so
that they can hope to find her husband who went on a mission to discover
the mines of the title. During their time the trio come across a
menagerie of African wildlife, a British fugitive and are almost trapped
in a cave by a dastardly African king. The end of the film sees rebel
forces try and overthrow the king while the whereabouts of Elizabeth's
husband are also revealed. King Solomon's Mines is quite a stilted film
and indeed the directorial style of Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton is
rather basic. Some of the scenes between Elizabeth and Allen feel very
cold and there is no chemistry between the pair who are supposed to be
your romantic coupling. Massey isn't a particularly commanding lead so
it isn't surprising that he wasn't the original choice for the role
while Deborah Kerr tries her best but doesn't get a lot to do other than
look frightened by what's going on. Instead the real star here is
location scout Eva Monley who picked some of the best African backdrops
to host the film which to a 1950s audience would seem quite new and
exciting as would all the African rituals and the numerous beasts that
the trio run into throughout their adventures. As a postcard from Africa
it does the job fairly well but I didn't find it very exciting and
though it wasn't particularly long it still felt baggy and lagged in
several places.
But
if King Solomon's Mines was baggy I think that Around the World in 80
Days, the winner at the 1957 ceremony, must be described as incredibly
overlong. The whole film clocks in at a whopping 183 minutes which
includes an intermission and a lengthy and well-produced end credits
sequence which in fact is one of the best things about the film. It even
has a convoluted start with journalist Edward R Murrow showing footage
of George Melies' A Trip to the Moon and linking it together with the
stories of Jules Verne. We all know the basic story of the film which
sees Phileas Fogg wager with his fellow reform club members that he
cannot navigate around the globe in eighty days. He sets off on a
mission with his new manservant Passepartout as they journey around the
world on different forms of transport including balloons, steam liners
and trains which are constantly breaking down. The film also introduces a
romantic aspect as the pair rescue Shirley MacLaine's princess from
being burnt alive while in India and she forms a romantic attachment to
Fogg while he is also being chased around the globe by Robert Newton's
Mr Fix a Scotland Yard detective who believes Fogg to have stolen from
the Bank of England. That's about all the plot as the film jumps from
set-piece to set-piece a lot of which feature Passepartout fooling
around whether it is at a bull-fight or performing on stage he is given
more spotlight than Fogg mainly because he is being portrayed by Latin
American comedian Cantinflas who was one of the main draws of the film.
To be fair Cantinflas is a lot more engaging than David Niven, who plays
Fogg, almost acting as a sort of modern day Charlie Chaplin and he does
indeed steal the film. This version of Around the World was conceived
by producer Michael Todd, the third husband of Elizabeth Taylor, who
fancied himself as a bit of Cecil B De Mille type and had a grand vision
of what he wanted this film to look like. Indeed this film is heavy on
scenery if light on plot with all the different locations being
well-scouted and well-shot so I do think it deserved that cinematography
Oscar. The film also has a cavalcade of cameos from Frank Sinatra
playing the piano to Buster Keaton as a train conductor there were about
fourty appearances of this nature so after a while this began to get a
bit tiresome. Whether it deserved the Best Picture Oscar we will
discover when I come to the end of the 1950s but this is a film that
looks stunning and has a great slapstick performance from Cantinflas
even if it is far too long and has too many unnecessary elements to it I
feel that certain elements will stick in my mind long after I have
watched the film something that can't be said about King Solomon's
Mines. So out of these two films I would say that Around the World in 80
Days is definitely the superior of the two but I don't think that's a
particularly hard battle to win.
As we've seen in the 1950s thus far that the rise of Technicolor and
cinemascope meant that a lot of big epics were being made as they now
looked spectacular on the screen. Another genre that saw a rise was that
of the musical and two big named musicals were nominated for the Best
Picture Oscar in 1955 and 1957 respectively. First up is Seven Brides
for Seven Brothers a jolly musical film that features plenty of physical
violence and the multiple abduction of women by the roguish brothers of
the title. It kicks off with Howard Keel's Adam journeying from his
mountaintop farm to find himself a wife a task he carries off with ease
hooking up with the innocent Millie and taking her back to his house to
live with his six brothers. Millie tries to hammer some civility into
these boys and it works for a while as she gets them clean and learning
proper courtship rituals but when they are provoked at a barn raising
contest they lose their temper and get into a fight losing their girls
in the process. Adam convinces his brothers to go and kidnap the women
and indeed the townsfolk can't rescue them after an avalanche meaning
that the girls and Millie end up taking the house banishing the brothers
to the stables. However as is often the case the girls soften as the
snow begins to thaw and as the title would suggest there is a mass
wedding ceremony to end the film. Obviously as you can tell I really
wasn't taken with the brutish nature of this film nor did I think that
Millie did a particularly good job civilising the men or keeping the
women from them. What I did like however were the songs and also the use
of Technicolor in particular the pastel colours that the men wore and
how they interlinked with the dresses that their intendeds were also
wearing. The songs, of which Bless Your Beautiful Hide is the most
famous, are also fairly catchy and there are some great little set
pieces including the aforementioned barn-raising however as a film I
didn't think it was particularly well constructed and I didn't warm to
any of the characters.
The
same cannot be said for The King and I which makes you feel for even
the brutish King of Siam before it comes to its conclusion. This time we
find Deborah Kerr as a widowed English teacher travelling to Siam with
her young son to become the teacher to the children and wives of the
king. Obviously when I think of this film it is Yul Brynner's King who
tries to change his attitude to women and his subjects after meeting
Kerr's Anna. In the more innocent 1950s I don't think you could use the
term sexual tension but that really was what these two displayed as they
went on in their shouting matches and eventually came to a mutual
understanding. Obviously Anna becomes disgusted after the king won't let
his 'present' the young Tuptum leave with her lover so she leaves the
king but when he falls ill she journeys back. For me The King and I
draws you in with its two lead performances with Brynner winning an
Oscar for Best Actor with other awards going to the costumes, music and
art direction. Someone who missed out on an Oscar here was Kerr whose
strong yet warm Anna anchors the film but then Kerr still holds the
record for the most nominations for an actress without a win despite the
fact her male co-stars such as Brynner, Frank Sinatra and David Niven
seem to come away with the statues. Again there are some great set
pieces with Getting to Know You and Tuptum's show for the English being
the highlights but for me romance doesn't get any more perfect than
Brynner and Kerr's routine in Shall we Dance. Obviously my favourite of
the two musicals by a country mile and one that lost out on the Oscar to
a film which some say was undeserving but as I'm yet to see it I will
reserve my judgment for now.
Part two of the catch-up with one film I remember and one that really hasn't stuck with me at all.
The film I can't really remember is Love is a
Many Splendored Thing which stars Jennifer Jones and William Holden. As
you can probably imagine from the title this is a romantic drama set in
Hong Kong in the 1940s with Jones playing it borderline racist as Han a
Eurasian doctor who falls in love with Holden's reporter Mark a man who
was previously married but is now separated. The two enjoy a love
affair which is later tarnished by racial barriers as Han is ostracised
by her Chinese community for falling in love with an American which is
further complicated by the fact he was previously married. I don't want
to give the plot away after that for those of you who may want to watch
it but for me this was a predictable melodrama that somehow was
nominated for eight awards and stopped classics like To Catch a Thief,
Guys and Dolls and Rebel Without a Cause from getting a nomination. The
only thing really memorable about this film is its award winning title
tune and that's about it both Jones and Holden have been in better films
and both should've known better.
Finally a film that I did enjoy with two Oscar nominated Best Actor
performances for both Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier in The Defiant
Ones. Curtis and Poitier play John and Noah respectively who are two
criminals that escape from a chain gang and are stuck with each other
despite their mutual loathing. As you could imagine from a film released
in the late 1950s race comes into play as John has a hatred of Noah
based on the colour of his skin while Noah hates John's prejudice
towards him. Though over time they learn a little bit about each other
and despite their differences they learn to get along for the hope of
actually escaping from their lives as prisoners. The final third of the
film sees them happen upon a young boy and his mother a lonely housewife
who falls for John and wants to escape with him leaving Noah behind to
fend for himself. But by this point in the film the two have formed an
unbreakable bond and John has to make his mind up whether to be free or
stick with his newfound friend. I really enjoyed The Defiant Ones, which
was a film I wasn't familiar with before I watched it, as it is a tense
cops and robbers film with the camera also following the police's
attempts to apprehend the two escapees. In his first starring role
Poitier really goes for it and becomes a star while Curtis is also
brilliant in a role which shows off his gritty demeanour. The fact that
this lost to the very twee Gigi just shows how wrong Oscar gets a lot of
the time but I will now be listing this as one of my favourite films
I've watched so far which I'm sure is some consolation to those
involved, or perhaps not.
So I'm in catch-up mode with three films that I watched last year but haven't yet reviewed so will start off with the absolute classic that has stayed with me long after I finished watching it.
I'm talking of course of All About Eve a glorious film and a classic which I ashamedly
hadn't watched previously. It did win the Best Picture award in 1951 but
shockingly only one acting award for George Sanders' memorable
performance as the bitchy journalist. The film starts with Bette Davis'
Margo Channing and Celeste Holm's Karen Richards both reminiscing about
the first time they met Anne Baxter's Eve Harrington as she wins an
award for her acting. Karen, the wife of a scriptwriter, introduces Eve
to star actress Margo who eventually hires her as an assistant despite
suspicions from her current helper Birdie played with vigour by the
brilliant Thelma Ritter. As the film goes on Eve plants herself into
Margo's life more with the actress now becoming paranoid it seems that
Eve has now become Margo's understudy later garnering rave reviews after
intentionally making Margo late for a performance. Eve then starts
flirting with Sanders' Addison who thinks he's figured out but then she
starts lying to him about an affair she is having with Karen's wife
Lloyd. Addison finally unravels Eve's backstory and then the whole thing
finally comes full circle when a girl like Eve comes to her doorstep
claiming admiration for her. Everything is right about All About Eve
which is evident from its fourteen nominations and only six wins. It's
always obvious to wax lyrical about Baxter or Davis but for me it's
Celeste Holm who holds everything together by not playing a person who
is part of the showbiz set and who is genuinely taken with the young
innocent Eve. This is a film that demonstrates the perils of fame and
what some people will do to get ahead but is presented in a way that
never alienates the audience by in the end letting the characters get
their just deserts. Overall a brilliant film that deserves all the
accolades it picked up at the 1951 ceremony.
