Category: Best Art/Production Design

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Cleopatra (1963)

It’s no surprise that this brought on the end of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Everything about it is overblown: the sets, the cast, the costumes, the run-time, everything. With two parts split between Cleopatra’s relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, the story just goes on and on. Edited down to an hour or two shorter and it might have held my attention better. Elizabeth Taylor is truly a beautiful woman, but she was terribly miscast in the role of Cleopatra. She lacks gravitas, cunningness, and sexiness. There’s at least the feeling of building an alliance between Taylor and Rex Harrison’s Caesar; the relationship between Richard Burton’s Mark Antony is lackluster. There must have been some love flames between them in production, but they are not seen on screen. Obviously there was no expense sparred in the visuals. Cleopatra’s arrival in Rome is a live-action version of Aladdin’s Prince Ali scene. Despite that money spent in costumes (there is one ridiculous scene where without hesitation Taylor changes between three different outfits and Burton between two), many of Taylor’s look like the same exact style just in an array of candy colors. But I did love the sets. They are lavish and beautiful, truly sights to behold. There are so many little details to be seen: wigs, clothing racks, and umpteen baths. It’s also great to see the various cast in smaller roles: Hume Cronyn, Roddy McDowell, Martin Landau and even Carroll O’Connor as a Senator.  Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Wins: Best Cinematography, Color; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; Best Costume Design, Color; Best Effects, Special Visual Effects

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Sound; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Score – Substantially Original

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The Slender Thread (1965)

I hadn’t realized before beginning this that it was set in Seattle, so I really loved the 1960s aerial scan across the city at the beginning of this film. Inspired by actual events, Sidney Poitier is an inexperienced student working for the new crisis clinic hotline when he receives a call from a woman, played by Anne Bancroft, who has taken a lethal dose of pills. He must do what he can to keep her on the line, trying to gather clues to figure out where she currently is. Over the course of the call, the viewer is given the story of how she found herself in her current situation. Telly Savalas plays Poitier’s supervisor at the clinic while Ed Asner is a detective trying to find her on the outside. It’s a compelling story, told in an interesting way, using flashbacks to illustrate the woman’s plight and drawing back to the present to portray the race against the clock mystery that must be solved in order to save her life.

Oscar Nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White; Best Costume Design, Black-and-White

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The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)

An Englishman on a Ruritanian holiday finds himself caught up in courtly intrigue. Ronald Colman is delightfully genteel in duel lookalike roles as both the Englishman and the soon-to-be coronated king. He’s helped along the way by David Niven and C. Aubrey Smith. It’s a quick adventure tale filled with romance, moats, fencing, and evil usurpers (one gleefully played by Douglas Fairbanks Jr.).

Oscar Nominations: Best Art Direction; Best Music, Score

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The Cotton Club (1984)

I watched the Encore version of this. In trying to figure out the differences between it and the original, I looked at Roger Ebert’s review and it seems that, while still flawed, Encore is the better version. The original apparently removed many scenes with Black characters, which not only removes a lot of the talent shown, but also changes the focus away from the titular Club and solely on to the trite gangster story anchored by Richard Gere. The scenes in the club are the best part of the film, filled with the all Black talent of singers and dancers, including the fabulous Gregory Hines and his brother Maurice, and the glamour of the all white clientele. There are many other great performances, both large (Bob Hoskins and Fred Gwynne’s bromance) and small (Gwen Verdon, Tom Waits, Lawrence Fishburne), and the film is beautiful too look at. It all just gets dragged down by almost all the bits involving Gere’s character.  Musical

Oscar Nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Film Editing

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The Good Shepherd (2006)

I might have seen this film about the birth of CIA counter-intelligence, but it is so dull that I barely remember it enough to write this review. Matt Damon is fine as the main character, whom the film follows from his college days being recruited by the CIA to his own son having the same experience. Most of the rest of the cast, filled with well-known names who drop relatively quickly in and out of the story, also are fine in their roles. Angelina Jolie is the exception, horribly miscast as Damon’s long-suffering wife. The story jumps back and forth between different time periods quickly and without much clarity, aside from poor aging makeup that somehow Damon managed to avoid.

Oscar Nomination: Best Achievement in Art Direction

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Richard III (1995)

I generally enjoy the resetting Shakespeare’s works to other time periods. In some ways it makes them much more accessible while also allowing for more creativity for the adapters. Unfortunately if I’m not already semi-familiar with the work, it often makes it harder for me to initially engage with the work. That was the case with this rendition of Richard III set in an alternative 1930s England including fascist elements of the era. Getting over that obstacle, I think reworking the setting added a lot of texture to the story, particularly in the visuals. There are a number of great actors in the film, being lead by a particularly oleaginous Ian McKellen as the titular character bent on murder, war, and manipulations all to ascend to the throne.

Oscar Nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Costume Design

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The Robe (1953)

By coincidence, one of the special features to the DVD of Titanic was a newsreel detailing how The Robe and Cinemascope won multiple Oscars in 1954. Indeed Cinemascope used in this film, supposedly the first ever, is absolutely gorgeous. It looks like a moving version of Raphael’s The School of Athens. I sadly maintain little interest in Biblical epics and this one about early followers of Jesus, focused on one of the Roman Tribunes at the crucifixion and his slave , definitely overstays its welcome. The acting is fine: Richard Burton is only slightly hammy as the Tribune, Jean Simmons is solid but only appears sporadically, and Victor Mature looks like he just walked off the set of Samson and Delilah.   Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Wins: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; Best Costume Design, Color

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Cinematography, Color

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Titanic (1953)

What makes a movie about the Titanic interesting is watching the change of experience for people excitedly sailing on an exotic vessel to the horrors of fearing for their lives as the ship begins sinking. Unfortunately, this movie forgoes showing much of that and instead devotes almost all of its runtime to a melodramatic family story that could literally be set anywhere. I generally enjoy Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb, but I was really hoping to see more of the ship. The best parts are played by Thelma Ritter and the iceberg itself.

Oscar Win: Best Writing, Story and Screenplay

Oscar Nomination: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White

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The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

I started this thinking that I really don’t get much out of the legend of Robin Hood and its many iterations. Watching this version, I finally understood why the story has been adapted so many times, though people should probably just watch this one. This has adventure, romance, humor, and even some dark bits. It doesn’t even overstay its welcome. The scenery and costumes are absolutely gorgeous. I imagine the budget in tights for the men was a tidy sum just in itself. Errol Flynn is excellent as Robin of Locksley: attractive, athletic, and light spirited. Olivia de Havilland captures Maid Marian wonderfully. Claude Rains, Basil Rathbone, and the rest of the supporting cast elevate the already great production.   Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Wins: Best Art Direction; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Original Score

Oscar Nomination: Best Picture

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Reap the Wild Wind (1942)

Perhaps not surprisingly, I haven’t seen many films set amongst marine salvagers in 1840s Key West. Cecil B. DeMille directs an absolutely stacked cast including John Wayne, Ray Milland, Louise Beavers, Robert Preston, Susan Hayward, and a bawdy sea shanty singing Paulette Goddard. It’s a bit long and drawn out for the story, but it culminates with an amazing underwater battle scene that might make it all worthwhile. There is also an incredibly creepy ongoing bit where Ray Milland speaks for his dog Romulus. Cutting out that alone would have done wonders for the length.

Oscar Win: Best Effects, Special Effects

Oscar Nominations: Best Cinematography, Color; Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color

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