Category: Best Writing

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Melvin and Howard (1980)

Melvin Dummar didn’t think anything of it when he picked up an injured motorcyclist who claimed to be Howard Hughes in the Nevada desert. That is until years later when the real Hughes died and a will was found that claimed Dummar as one of the beneficiaries. This film is based on that true story with Paul Le Mat portraying Melvin and Jason Robards as Howard. The film concentrates mostly on Dummar’s life between those two events, constantly hustling and struggling to hold on to one marriage before moving on to the second. It feels a lot like a film made in the previous decade with a somewhat dislikable lead who some might still find charming but who is upstaged by the spirit of those around him, particularly wives Mary Steenburgen and Pamela Reed. It’s still hard not to root at least a bit for Melvin, especially when learning details of the case persisted into the next century.

Oscar Win: Best Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Oscar Nomination: Best Actor in a Supporting Role

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Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)

A teenaged Anne Boleyn catches the eye of King Henry VII and he’s willing to sacrifice almost anything for the chance to produce an heir with her. She’s willing to forego love to rise in power and esteem, but unfortunately for her what comes around goes around, especially when you’re subjected to the whims of a capricious leader. Lavish costumes and settings provide ample period style, while Geneviève Bujold’s Anne convincingly portrays a young woman caught in the crosshairs of power and rarely unable to stare it down. Richard Burton’s Henry is filled with his own self importance and lechery, overwhelming any accomplishments in other realms.  Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Win: Best Costume Design

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; Best Cinematography; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Sound; Best Music, Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical)

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A Song to Remember (1945)

The life of Frédéric Chopin is fictionalized in this account that features Cornel Wilde in the role of the well known composer. The film was less dry than I had anticipated touching on Chopin’s patriotic revolutionism in his early years while under the tutelage of Paul Muni’s Józef Antoni Franciszek Elsner to his later success and relationship with Merle Oberon’s George Sand. Whether accurate to the real woman, it is interesting to see Oberon play such a strong-willed, powerful villainous character. The film uses rich colors in set and costumes to convey the time period and complement the music.   Music

Oscar Nominations: Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Writing, Original Story; Best Cinematography, Color; Best Sound, Recording; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture

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Beverly Hills Cop (1984) – Rewatch

After childhood friend James Russo suddenly arrives in town with some mysterious German bearer bonds and is murdered soon after, brash Detroit detective Eddie Murphy takes a vacation from his job and heads to southern California to investigate his friend’s activities. This is Murphy at his absolute best. The film is an ideal blend of comedy and action taking advantage of Eddie’s natural talents, working nicely off of local, straight-laced cops John Ashton and Judge Reinhold.   Action  Crime  Comedy

Oscar Nomination: Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

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The Official Story (1985)

During the final year of the last Argentinian dictatorship, high school history teacher Norma Aleandro begins to ask tough questions regarding the adoption of her five year old daughter. A visit from a friend who had been persecuted by the regime and a student who is unwilling to just accept the party line make it impossible for her to ignore the facts despite her controlling husband’s best attempts to keep her in the dark. It’s a harsh reminder of the resonant pain and damage caused by authoritarian governments and pairs well with Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo in illustrating this reprehensible episode in Argentinian history.

Oscar Win: Best Foreign Language Film

Oscar Nomination: Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

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Broadway Danny Rose (1984)

During a lunch with a bunch of comedians, one of them shares an anecdote about Danny Rose, played by Woody Allen, a hapless talent agent who works mercilessly for his clients. It’s relatively amusing, but it heavily features Woody Allen being Woody Allen. The standout is Mia Farrow playing bawdily against type as the mistress of Rose’s top client whom he must escort to the client’s big performance dodging gangsters who are commanded by her ex-boyfriend.

Oscar Nomination: Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

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America, America (1963)

Anatolian Greek Stathis Giallelis is entrusted with the entirety of his family’s wealth and charged with travelling to Istanbul to help in a cousin’s carpet store, but he has bigger dreams of travelling to America. An immigrant epic inspired by Elia Kazan’s own family’s immigration tale, It is a never-ending recitation of the resilience, drive, and luck required for someone to even have a chance at rising above their station and reaching for something better. The film lies on Giallelis’s shoulders and he conveys the desperation and hardship of his situation with bold determination that cannot be extinguished.  Best Picture Nomination

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

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Director; Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen

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Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)

In 1933, retired schoolteacher Robert Donat falls asleep reminiscing about the last fifty plus years he served at an all-boys British public school. I generally don’t get a lot out of inspirational educator stories, but pleasantly this focuses more on Mr. Chips’s life and how he is affected by events more than being a motivational teacher. The aspects of aging Donat’s character through so many years with makeup and Donat’s own acting is quite well done. Donat’s relationship with Greer Garson is sweet and would have made a cute romance story on its own. It is clever how the same young actors were used to play generations and generations of each family, representing the constants and the changes a teacher experiences being at the same institution for years on end.   Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Win: Best Actor in a Leading Role

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay; Best Sound, Recording; Best Film Editing

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The Collector (1965)

After coming into a large sum of money, socially awkward, amateur entomologist Terrence Stamp buys a country estate and abducts Samantha Eggar, a young London art student who has caught his eye. The film disorientingly begins from Stamp’s perspective, providing a chance for the viewer to sympathize with the lonely and traumatized young man only to turn that sympathy into realization of what that trauma has created. It’s very claustrophobic and demanding with solid performances from the two leads. I’m fascinated by old homes with secret hideaways, such as priest holes.  Horror

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

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Kiss of Death (1947)

When his gang fails to look after his wife and family while he’s in prison, Victor Mature turns stool pigeon and agrees to work with the police to take the gang down. His gang, particularly enforcer Richard Widmark, are a particularly brutish lot, so it’s not quite as bothersome to root for the snitch in this case. The part that is a bit off-putting in this otherwise diverting piece of crime drama with a nondescript name is the fact that the love interest of the flick is young baby-sitter of Mature’s children.   Crime  Noir

Oscar Nominations: Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Writing, Original Story

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