Category: Best Picture

Posted on 2021-10-22 | No Comments |

Naughty Marietta (1935)

Jeannette MacDonald is certainly a talented singer, but her voice isn’t of a type that appeals to me. In this film, she’s a European princess who, in order to avoid an arranged marriage, flees on a ship of casquette girls to America. There she meets pirates, gypsies, and a mercenary played by Nelson Eddy whom she falls in love with. The majority of the story is rather yawn-worthy and the songs just feel thrown in to show off MacDonald and Eddy’s voices, offering little flow with the story itself.

Oscar Winner: Best Sound, Recording

Oscar Nomination: Best Picture

Posted on 2021-10-09 | No Comments |

Dark Victory (1939)

Bette Davis, as a flighty, young heiress who eventually changes her ways after receiving a fatal diagnosis, does what she can with the material here, but the story is exceptionally melodramatic and threadbare. George Brent plays her incompetent doctor who is unable to remove the tumor, then outright lies to Bette about her prognosis, and unethically falls in love and marries his patient. Humphrey Bogart also has a completely unnecessary role as a horse trainer.

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Music, Original Score

Posted on 2021-10-08 | No Comments |

The Dresser (1983)

There is a very stagey quality to this film about an aging travelling Shakespearean actor and his dresser during World War II. Albert Finney as the actor and Tom Courtenay as the dresser put their all into their performances and it’s often exhausting to watch. It remains riveting as these two men clash and spar, both entirely dependent on each other while also wanting to push the other away.

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role (2); Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

Posted on 2021-10-02 | No Comments |

A Tale of Two Cities (1935)

The only thing I knew about the Dickens novel was the opening line. Though I have no idea if it adheres closely to the Dickens’s story, this version is an engaging story of various individuals (aristocrats, hoi polloi, and Londoners) in Paris and London during the years surrounding the French Revolution. Basil Rathbone is perfectly evil as the Marquis who begins the tale, crushing everyone beneath his whims. He is paralleled by Ronald Colman who portrays a superbly clever and noble version of lawyer Carton who is willing to make great sacrifices for the one he loves.

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Film Editing

Posted on 2021-09-30 | No Comments |

Five Star Final (1931)

This is such a dark and dismal portrayal of a newspaper editor who, desperate to sell more papers, revives a twenty year old story about a murderer who has since put her life together. I found it intriguing that Edward G. Robinson, known best for portraying gangsters, is the editor and he assigns the story to Boris Karloff, whose career is filled with playing ghoulish characters. The story projects where it’s going a mile away, but that does not make the events any less heartbreaking. In a later year, I could see Marian Marsh, as the murderer’s grown daughter, winning a Best Supporting Actress nomination simply for her monologue toward the end of the film.

Oscar Nomination: Best Picture

Posted on 2021-09-05 | No Comments |

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.

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

Posted on 2021-09-02 | No Comments |

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.

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

Oscar Nomination: Best Picture

Posted on 2021-08-29 | No Comments |

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935)

Ugh, this film took me forever and more than one watching to get through. My lack of interest in the subject was not helped by a poor quality print and the fact that Franchot Tone and Richard Cromwell look a lot alike. Those two men are newcomers to a regiment of British soldiers during the days of the British Raj. One is a cocky, seasoned soldier and the other is a newly commissioned officer and son of the Colonel. Gary Cooper’s job is to guide these new recruits. The story of the three soldiers is familiar and was done much better in other films of the era, Gunga Din, The Four Feathers, and Beau Geste to name a few.

Oscar Win: Best Assistant Director

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay; Best Art Direction; Best Sound, Recording; Best Film Editing

Posted on 2021-08-22 | No Comments |

The Razor’s Edge (1946)

This story of a man searching for the meaning of life after his experiences during World War I is much stronger when his transcendence is told through the mirror of his various acquaintances rather than when it’s explicitly showing Tyrone Power’s journey. It’s a little peculiar that W. Somerset Maugham himself, played by Herbert Marshall, is a supporting character who seems to know more about the ways of the world than any of the other characters. That seems to be faithful to the source material Gene Tierney is very beautiful as usual, but her soul is very dark and conniving in this one. Clifton Webb is entertaining as a snobbish older member of Power’s circle. Anne Baxter is given more to do with a role that has her at the top of society falling to the very bottom. I’m very curious to compare the 1984 Bill Murray version to this one, despite the former’s reputation.

Oscar Win: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White

Posted on 2021-08-21 | No Comments |

Sounder (1972)

For a film named after a dog character, the dog does not have a whole lot of screen time. Reading a synopsis for the novel, which I’ve never read, I greatly suspect the movie strayed a bit from its source material, particularly the ending. That said, the screenplay as is provides a rather uplifting story of a family of sharecroppers trying to survive during the Depression. Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield are fine as the parents, but I took particular entertainment by the acting of young Kevin Hooks who carries the story.

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium