Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day Eleven: Getting a bit Bard of this.

In the interest of getting though this challenge I decided to group together two films which have one thing in common - Mr. Bill Shakespeare. Yes two Shakespeare adaptations - A Midsummer's Night Dream and Romeo and Juliet, were nominated in 1936 and 1937 respectively. First of all A Midsummer's Nights Dream (the fourth of 1936's nominees) I am to watch which I was very impressed with. For a film from 1935 I was impressed by the overall design of the picture and the quality of some of the scenes especially those involving the fairies. Despite losing out in the Best Picture (and Best Assistant Director) categories the film did pick up two awards for cinematography and editing and I have to say it deserved both. I was utterly entrhalled by some of the sequences involving Puck when he transformed into a cloud of smoke, even though Mickey Rooney's acting completely annoyed the hell out of me. Star of the show surprisingly was James Cagney, better known for his roles in gangster movies here Cagney played Bottom - possibly the best known character for getting turned into a donkey. Of course his performance is overblown but that's what the character has to be he is of course the comic relief. The majority of the story as all English graduates know focuses on Hermia due to marry Demetrius but really in love with Lysander the three, along with Demetrius' admirer Helena are trapped in the woods and at the mercy of the spells of Puck and fairy lord Oberon. I felt this part of the story lacked panache, it is quite boring and the two actors playing Lysander and Demetrius didn't really have a lot going for them and neither seemed to be of the leading man calibre that I believe the roles need. The other big name in the cast is Olivia De Havilland the best of the quartert - her Hermia is kind of strong yet vulnerable but I didn't feel that she should really be paired with either of the men who were persuing her. The whole thing was enjoyable enough although I felt the pace lagged in places mainly during, fairy queen, Titania's singing and the final play performed by Bottom and co. Overall enjoyable and I thought it was better than a lot of the films in the Oscars list from this year (Captain Blood, The Informer)

So we continue onto the second helping of the Bard and George Cukor's Romeo and Juliet another film that was nominated for four Oscars but failed to pick up any. Twice losing out to The Great Ziegfeld both in Best Picture and Best Actress categories, I apologise if I was a little harsh on Luise Rainer in my previous post but her performance in The Great Ziegfeld was certainly better than Shearer's Juliet. While Norma Shearer is a fine actress I found her a little flat as Juliet and much too old to play the part. Similarly Leslie Howard's age is a problem in his performance as are his looks which I thought were rather effeminate and couldn't buy his fight scenes. Luckily there are some choice support performances which keep the film flowing along. John Barrymore as Mercutio is brilliant playing it more for laughs as an aging playboy thinking that he is still a hit with the ladies. While Basil Rathbone pops up again to flail a sword around as quite a villianous Tybalt. Although I didn't think he was as great as Barrymore, it was Rathbone who got a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Although it is a good story to tell I think the film dragged out and wasn't particularly inventive and very stagy, I was really only impressed by the masquerade ball scene, I didn't really feel anything when the lovers die or when Mercutio is stabbed and just thought it was just a bit cold and didn't offer anything particularly cinematic. So at the moment with this and Three Smart Girls, The Great Ziegfeld was definitely the right choice to win that year.

Anyway more to come.