Mat's Big Oscar Challenge Day 163: A Place to Stay in the New Decade

So I was thinking I wouldn't try and start on the 1960s as I've so many other things going on at the moment that it would be a mistake but then I never really listen to myself do I? As I ended the last decade with a winner I decided to start the sixties with one also and it's one that has been sitting on my shelf for ages now that being The Apartment. The first five minutes or so of the film establishes the plot as Jack Lemmon's CC Baxter introduces us to his life in which he rents out his apartment to various bosses from the office in which he works so they can be with their mistresses. In return Baxter hopes to get some sort of promotion so he can impress Shirley MacLaine's kindly elevator operator Fran Kubelik. When his boss Sheldrake offers a promotion it is under the condition that he too get a key to Baxter's apartment which he agrees to but later discovers that his mistress is in fact Fran. When Fran realises that Sheldrake will never leave his wife she overdoses on Baxter's sleeping pills however he finds her just in time and helps her recover growing closer to her in the meantime. So the love triangle then develops between Sheldrake, Fran and Baxter in the final third of the movie and it is essentially rooting for the underdog over the more powerful yet cowardly man.

There are no words to describe how much I love The Apartment and it more than deserved to win the Best Picture award. Once again I think it's the academy giving Billy Wilder an award just because they forgot to even nominate Some Like It Hot for Best Picture the previous year. However from the writing, to the performances and to the lovely majestic score from Adolph Deutsch everything is right about this film. For a starters there's Jack Lemmon a man that can go from slapstick comedy to full on drama in a matter of moments and this role more than suits him as he frantically tries to arrange a schedule to fit all of his philandering superiors into his abode at different times. Shirley MacLaine is equally as brilliant as the beautiful, fragile Fran who does a great job making us sympathise for the other woman who is sleeping with a married man and makes us understand that sometimes you can't help who you fall in love with even if they are already attached. There's such a great chemistry between Lemmon and MacLaine the scenes between them in the apartment are just breath-taking as he gently tries to help her get over her suicide attempt. Billy Wilder demonstrates why he is perhaps the greatest director of all time as every frame tells a story from the humdrum world of the office cubicle to the single man trying to escape his life of drudgery through watching the TV. There's nothing bad about a film that is simply about two lost souls trying to find each other which features lots of laughs, a few tears but plenty of enjoyment. I'm so glad that this is the first film that I watched from this decade and I would recommend all of you go out and watch it immediately.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Ceremonies 22-31 (1950-1959)

So here we are at the end of another decade and time for me to look through the ten ceremonies that took place in the 1950s and if any of the nominees deserved to win more than the film that actually took home the prize. However first of all I wanted to have a look at the films that weren't nominated from the 1949-1958 period classics such as Singin' in the Rain, Guys and Dolls and a lot of Hitchcock's output including Vertigo and Rear Window were cut out not to mention the films that Kurosawa and Bergman were making overseas. It just seems a bit of a shame that the stunning but shallow Biblical epics and the dreary war films were passed in favour of some of these films which have stood the test of time more than the final nominees. With that rant over let's get on with the review.

Ceremony 22: 1950 
Winner: All the King's Men
Nominees: Battleground, The Heiress, A Letter to Three Wives, Twelve o'clock High
Did the Right Film Win?: Yes
It seems that Broderick Crawford's political corruption drama was definitely the best of the bunch from the 1949 selection. Of the others The Heiress was a dreary melodrama and the two war films Battleground and Twelve O'Clock High had their moments but were ultimately unmemorable. Only A Letter to Three Wives stood out as a possible contender hence director Joseph L Mankiewicz winner the prize for Best Director and winning the Best Picture prize the year after.

Ceremony 23: 1951 
Winner: All About Eve
Nominees: Born Yesterday, Father of the Bride, King Solomon's Mines, Sunset Boulevard
Did the Right Film Win?: Yes
Not a lot of discussion here either All About Eve garnered a lot of nominations and they were all richly deserved in one of the best films of all time. If we're splitting hairs then Sunset Boulevard would be the only other real contender but Eve wins it for me every time.

Ceremony 24: 1952
Winner: An American in Paris
Nominees: Decision Before Dawn, A Place in the Sun, Quo Vadis, A Streetcar Named Desire
Did the Right Film Win?: No
Though a charming musical film I don't feel that An American in Paris has the lasting effect that some of the other nominees do. While it's probably better than espionage yarn Decision Before Dawn or biblical epic Quo Vadis it is a toss-up between the other two films for Best Picture. A Place in the Sun did have a great star-making turn from Liz Taylor but A Streetcar Named Desire just edges it for me as it grabs you from beginning to end and had three of the four acting categories sown up only a certain Mr Brando was left out in the cold.

Ceremony 25: 1953 
Winner: The Greatest Show on Earth
Nominees: High Noon, Ivanhoe, Moulin Rouge, The Quiet Man
Did the Right Film Win?: No
Possibly the first case of the Academy giving a 'last chance' Oscar to someone who won't have another chance to win one was the fact that Cecil B Demille's film won Best Picture this year. It's true that its live circus atmosphere stays with you but apart from that I'm struggling to remember many details about it. Of the other nominees it is a bit more of a dead cert this year as I would've probably chosen High Noon if I'd been picking as it is the best of a mediocre bunch has a clear storyline and some great performances.

Ceremony 26: 1954
Winner: From Here to Eternity
Nominees: Julius Caesar, The Robe, Roman Holiday, Shane
Did the Right Film Win?: Yes
Sort of a mixed bag this year with another big epic, a Shakespeare adaptation, a romantic comedy and a Western as the contenders however it is this Hawaiian war film that is still the iconic piece thanks in no small part to that beach kiss.

Ceremony 27: 1955
Winner: On the Waterfront
Nominees: The Caine Mutiny, The Country Girl, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Three Coins in the Fountain
Did the Right Film Win?: Yes
There's no going against Elia Kazan's brilliant tale of union corruption and lost dreams with Marlon Brando not a contender but an actual winner. Of the others both The Caine Mutiny and The Country girl showed promise but there was no matching this brilliant film on the night.

Ceremony 28: 1956
Winner: Marty
Nominees: Love is a Many Splendored Thing, Mister Roberts, Picnic, The Rose Tattoo
Did the Right Film Win?: Maybe
It honestly depends on your taste in films but for me Marty was the best of this bunch thanks to Ernest Borgnine's performance as the unlucky in love butcher. Mister Roberts and Picnic were also good films with one being a great war film and the other featuring possibly William Holden's greatest turn. But for me the fact that Marty was set over only 24 hours and the great ensemble cast means that it was my favourite from those on offer.

Ceremony 29: 1957
Winner: Around the World in Eighty Days
Nominees I've Watched: Giant, The King and I, The Ten Commandments
Nominees Not Available To Me: Friendly Persuasion
Did the Right Film Win?: No
Personally another poor year with this overlong mess stunning Academy members with its exotic locations, slapstick comedy and numerous cameos. Of the other three that I have seen it is Giant that I would pick for a strong turn from Liz Taylor and also from James Dean although for a musical The King and I is also captivating. For me though I'd go for Giant as an alternative winner to this overblown epic.

Ceremony 30: 1958 
Winner: The Bridge on the River Kwai
Nominees: Peyton Place, Sayonara, Twelve Angry Men, Witness for the Prosecution  
Did the Right Film Win?: Not for Me
So my reasons for saying that the River Kwai wasn't the right winner is because my favourite film of all time 12 Angry Men was up against it. It didn't really stand a chance as it was shot in black-and-white and predominantly stayed in the same set but ultimately people have remembered it more fondly than Kwai. Witness for the Prosecution is also worth a mention for Charles Laughton's great turn as the lawyer and Marlene Dietrich for playing the sultry femme fatale so well.

Ceremony 31: 1959
Winner: Gigi
Nominees I've Seen: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Defiant Ones, Separate Tables
Nominees Not Available: Auntie Mame
Did the Right Film Win?: No
Another musical set in France starring Leslie Caron wins again however the other three nominees in this category were deserved winners. I think for me I would pick Separate Tables due to the ensemble nature of the piece and the fact that it got two of the four acting awards that year. Paul Newman and Liz Taylor sparkle together in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof while Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis have a great chemistry in The Defiant Ones. For me though it's all about the British hotel drama and some great turns from Niven, Kerr, Lancaster and Hayworth.

So those are my picks for the 1950s sees you in the 1960s probably next year some time.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 162: Bridging the Gap Between the Decades

So somehow I've finished the 1950s I didn't think it would ever happen and no doubt it will take me another year before I make it through the 1960s however as I have done before I will end on a winner. The Bridge on the River Kwai is yet another war film but unlike Battleground or 12 o'clock High it doesn't feature men up in the air or down on the ground instead we journey to Thailand and a Japanese prisoner of war camp during the war. When first we get to the camp we meet William Holden's Commander Shears who has been there for quite some time and dreams of escape. At the same time Alec Guinness' Colonel Nicholson arrives with his men and his told by the camp commander Colonel Saito that all men must work on the new railway bridge including the officers. Nicholson's refusal to let his officers work results in a stand-off with the British ultimately winning as Nicholson is released and agrees to help out by using his resources in the right way. Meanwhile Shears has escaped but almost drowns thankfully he is rescued by people in a small town and taken to the nearest army hospital where he has a bit of a fling with one of the nurses. He is then commandeered by the British Major Warden to help in his commando mission to blow the bridge up at the same time as Nicholson is finishing his work and thanking Saito for co-operating. The final stand-off sees those who are trying to blow the bridge up come up against the team of Nicholson and Saito with only one surviving in the film's final spectacular scene.

I really think that The Bridge on the River Kwai is a film of two halves one in which Alec Guinness and Sessue Hayakawa verbally spar with one another over the officers issue and the other in which William Holden and Jack Hawkins creep back to the camp to blow the bridge up. It is this first half that is the better one with Guinness' British resilience earning him a Best Actor Oscar however Hayakwa is equally as compelling and one wouldn't be nearly as good as the other. Maybe I'm just suffering from William Holden fatigue but his leading role in the film was overshadowed by the other acts despite his being the star name here. There are far too many scenes of the creeping through the jungle for my liking and I wish the second film would've been more equally split as I feel that Nicholson's need to get the bridge finished on time is as important to the final scene as the men coming to blow it up. Those criticisms aside though this is a great film thanks to the work of David Lean who used to all of the elements available to him to sculpt a beautifully looking film with a captivating plot. From Jack Hildyard's cinematography to the adapted screenplay everything is on fine form here and overall there is a believable thread to the narrative especially in the relationship between Saito and Nicholson. Though I personally don't believe this should've won Best Picture, see the next post for more details, this is certainly one of the best British films of all times and any other year it would be a no-brainer for the top award. Overall a great-looking well-acted spectacularly-written war movie which is only slightly hindered by its middle section.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 161: Burning Love

We travel from the blood-soaked fields of World War 2 to Ancient Rome under Emperor Nero for our penultimate 1950s film Quo Vadis. The film is very similar to previous entries on this list such as The Ten Commandments and The Robe in so much as they try to utilise the new technicolor methods to create a vivid story while at the same time referencing parts of The Bible. In this case we have Rome just after the death of Jesus, although Peter features quite predominantly throughout, where the Christians are living in private and here are represented by Deborah Kerr's Lygia. Playing opposite Kerr is Robert Taylor as Marcus Vinicius a returning Roman soldier whose uncle Petronius is one of Nero's most trusted advisors and who becomes intrigued with Christianity through is infatuation with Lygia. When the slightly crazy Nero, played by the brilliant Peter Ustinov, decides to burn Rome and blame the Christians people start to believe that he has gone loopy while Potronious goes so far as to kill himself. Both Lygia and Marcus are arrested and then are married by Peter before he himself is crucified upside down. Nero's wife, who has been knocked back by Marcus, decides to teach the couple a lesson by setting Lygia up to be gored by a bull in the coliseum and chaining Marcus up so he has to watch. Eventually Nero is overthrown and has one of his slaves kill him as he is too cowardly to take his own life so the film ends with Lygia and Marcus able to leave Rome as we see Peter's staff and here his words being spoken to those who are lucky enough to have survived Nero's tyrannical reign.

Always when writing these reviews I try and think what I will most remember about this film after having watched it and in the case of Quo Vadis there are two points. Firstly the epic scale of it all as this is very similar to a Cecil B Demille picture complete with an entire sequence with Rome burning to the ground and then another scene featuring live animals trying to attract Nero's prisoners in the coliseum. The other memorable aspect of Quo Vadis is Peter Ustinov's performance as Nero, for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, playing this evil man in quite a child-like manner changing his ideas on a whim and often being manipulated by his devious wife whom he finally cottons onto and kills just before the end scene. It is Ustinov you always look forward to seeing because Robert Taylor is such a wooden actor and you don't believe for one minute that he is the great Roman soldier in fact he just seems like another beefcake actor while Deborah Kerr here is on poor form possibly being ill-served with a role in which she doesn't do much than follow other men's leads. So all in all this is a colourful romp through Ancient Rome which lasts far too long, its running time is almost three hours, but has a great performance from Ustinov. While this isn't a great film it does highlight a time where film-makers were using techniques to recreate these epic stories so in those terms Quo Vadis is an interesting film to watch if not just in a historical context.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 160: Up, Up and Away

Another day, another war film however at least this one takes things from the soldiers on foot to those up in the air as we join the men looking to go Twelve o'clock High. Henry King's film centres on the 918th Heavy Bombardment Group known as a 'hard luck group' to most as they often suffer fatalities and very few missions see all the men from this squadron return back safely. A lot of the blame for this can be centred on their commander Keith Davenport who is too personal with his team and has driven himself crazy with worry so those in charge believe that he needs to be replaced. They eventually decide that his replacement should be his friend Frank Savage a more level-headed gent who has been working a desk job up to this point in the war. Savage initially alienates most of the company as he chastises them for not carrying out proper security checks, wearing the wrong uniform and generally having a bad attitude. Just before most of the company are about to ask for transfers he is advised by Major Stovall, played by Dean Jagger who won a Best Supporting Actor award for his role, to try and draft in a young pilot and he does this by bringing in Jesse Bishop. Soon the group warm to Savage but like Davenport he starts to go a bit bonkers as the war begins to be fought more and more in the air and it is the task of those around him to try and keep him sane.

For a film set during the war and about flying squads, 12 o'clock High doesn't half feature a lot of men talking in rooms so much so that if it was made today you would've thought Aaron Sorkin had written in it. Of course all the procedural dialogue is important in order for the audience to know how and why the powers-that-be have chosen Savage as a replacement for Davenport but it drags down the first half an hour or so of the film. The film really starts getting going when Gregory Peck takes the helm and his performance as the initially by-the-book Savage is the greatest strength of Twelve o'clock High. He is ably assisted by Dean Jagger who gives a great performance as the former lawyer Stovall who becomes Savage's greatest ally and indeed is the person who is featured first and last in this film while I'm not sure if this was an Oscar-worthy role it is certainly a memorable one in terms of the film's ensemble cast. The most spectacular scenes are those when we are allowed up in the air with the squadron as they try and take down the superior Luftwaffe. This is also a very patriotic film as we see a German radio station mocking the bad luck squadron and the film ends with a celebration of everything these men fought for only several years prior. So an uneven film which really gets going once Peck emerges as the star and we are able to enjoy some spectacular aerial sequences but one that perhaps relies too much on patriotic feelings to get its point across.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 159: More War Stories

It seems that as I wrap up the 1950s I have left all the war films till the last minute which I'm not sure was a subconscious decision or not. The lasest one is Battleground which apparently is the first significant film to be made about World War 2 after the conflict had finished. Just like the previous film in this list, Decision Before Dawn, this is based on a group of soldiers in the latter stages of 1944. We find Jim Layton being bought in as a replacement soldier into a squad in the 101st Airborne Division who at first completely ignore him as they have no time for the new man in their unit. They are sent into the Ardennes to prepare for a surprise attack by the Germans just as Holley, star of the show Van Johnson, returns to the group and is soon given leadership after the original captain is injured. The film tries to portray a pretty realistic version of events as men are routinely injured and some don't survive their deaths being pretty quick including one young soldier who is killed when a house starts to collapse. Even big names such as Ricardo Montalaban, here playing Latin American Roderigues, don't survive in his case he freezes to death after his squad forget about him. Layton is eventually accepted as part of the team and is paired with the popular Holley and just as the squad prepare to give up hope they are replaced and able to go back but even after all their turmoil they still march in line and sing along with their commander as they leave.

For me the best thing about Battleground is the interaction between the actors so much so that I felt that this was one of the most believable war films I'd ever seen. The first thirty minutes or so establishes the relationships between soldiers during the war including the cold shoulder treatment that a lot of rookies are subjected to and the banter that flies around them. It is also interesting that none of these men are presented as heroes and at one point or another most of them think about fleeing rather than carrying out their duties of stopping the German attack. There were some great turns here including from Van Johnson as the sarcastic Holley and Marshall Thompson as the impressionable Layton however there were so many characters here that I couldn't keep up with some of them and I felt that a couple could've been cut or at least given smaller roles so I knew who to concentrate on. Like with Decision Before Dawn everything looks quite realistic from the costume design to the way that the soldiers walk around their snowy surroundings as they discover if there is someone lurking around the corner wanting to kill them. I think that all involved with the script and the making of the film did their research as I really enjoyed Battleground it painted a picture of the camaraderie or war and also the loneliness and how fleeting life can be. Apart from the overabundance of characters there's not much to complain about in a very accomplished film that has been forgotten as the years have gone by.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 158: Sour Krauts

It's interesting to watch some of these films from the late 1940s and early 1950s as the subject of the Second World War starts to produce more interesting ideas. A case in point is Decision Before Dawn a film which focuses on the closing year of the conflict when the majority of Germans had resigned to the fact that they had lost the war. It follows a group of American soldiers who recruit German prisoners of war to spy on their former allies in order to escape their camps. One of the latest recruits is a young soldier simply known as 'Happy' whose friend was killed by other prisoners of wars for spouting his ideas about the war. Happy is chosen to go on a mission with the team along with 'Tiger' a cynical man who the Americans distrust because he came back without his partner while the American chosen to go with them is Rennick one of the allies who doesn't agree with teaming up with Germans. We then see most of the mission through the eyes of Happy as he sees the differing attitudes of his countrymen at the tail end of the war with some surrendering to their ultimate fate and some still feeling patriotic. Happy then is able to infiltrate himself safely into the fold by making friends with a commander but also sees what could possibly happen to him when another deserter is executed. With Happy meeting up with Rennick and Tiger they still face adversity going back to the camp as the Germans start to cotton on to their plan.

Decision Before Dawn is a film that I struggled with but one that had its merits which was mainly creating an amount of peril throughout Happy's mission. The initial set-up of introducing the idea of what the Germans and the Americans are trying to accomplish was a little bit slapdash and I didn't understand it right off the bat but then things got interesting once the three set off. I liked the fact that there was dissension in the ranks between Tiger and Rennick and also the fact that this wasn't the main story instead it was the morally torn Happy who got the bulk of the work. To his credit Oskar Werner was able to carry the film and did a good job in an interesting role with his facial expressions speaking bundles about what Happy was going through. The only other cast member who really had an impact on me was O.E. Hasse as the brutal commander Oberst Von Ecker who was a great German villain. The other thing that impressed me were the effects and at times I really did feel that these three men were in genuine peril with bombs going off all around them and the final tense scenes were real edge-of-your-seat stuff. The main problem I had was that most of it was fairly forgettable and in terms of its place on the Oscar nominations list it almost scenes like a last minute pick as it doesn't seem to have nearly as many nods as its competitors. So Decision Before Dawn is a solid Second World War movie but there isn't a lot to mark it out from a lot of the other films based around this conflict.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 157: The Final Days of Summer

There are several stars that keep cropping up during each decade and in the 1950s it's William Holden from the brilliant Sunset Boulevard to the melodramatic Love is a Many Splendored Thing he's excelled at playing male leads and the latest film Picnic is somewhere in the middle. Set over 24 hours in an idyllic Kansas town it features Holden's Hal Carter coming into town having stowed away on a freight train and is now eager to find his old college pal Alan Benson as he believes Benson's father will give him a job. Before finding Alan, Hal first encounters Alan's sweetheart Madge Owens and her bookish sister Millie. Alan initially offers Hal a job wanting to impress the college football hero, now that he has fallen on hard times but obviously he catches the eyes of both of the sisters with Millie suddenly discovering hormones and dressing up for Alan. The title of the film refers to the Labour Day picnic which signals the end of the summer and will be the last time for Madge and Alan to announce that they're going steady. Along with Hal, Alan and the Owen sisters the picnic also comes kindly old lady Mrs Potts, the single parent of the two girls, store owner Howard and his would-be love schoolteacher Rosemary. The film's pivotal scene is where Hal and Madge are dancing and a drunken Rosemary breaks it up wanting to prove she is still young and exposes him for what he really is in what felt like a scene from a Tennessee Williams story. After being blamed for getting Millie drunk he runs away with Alan now jealous of him he decides to skip town but the question is will Madge come with him?

Of all of these films I think this is the one in which Holden is fully showing off his sex symbol status and Hal does find any excuse to remove his shirt or have it ripped from him. To be fair he does add some substance to his physique portraying the fading jock who once used his looks to help him get by but now realises he should've worked harder and not flunked out. He has great chemistry with Kim Novak as Madge with the scene in which they dance being the film's most memorable as they sizzle and create jealousy from most of the other characters. Also worth a mention is Rosalind Russell as Rosemary a woman who transfers her own fears about growing old and alone onto the unstable Hal with her diatribe directed towards him being fairly brutal. Another plus point in terms of Picnic was the idea of this damaged character coming into this small town and changing everyone's lives within a 24 hour period. The downside was the fact that as there was so many characters some of them got little time to develop and that's true of the girl's mother played by Betty Field who essentially becomes a cliché full of worry and nagging in addition the music was a bit over the top for a film which was on the whole subtly filmed. Overall a great character-led piece which should've been nominated for more acting awards which gave a story of a man languishing as he readied himself for middle age.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 156: In My Place

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.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 155: Johnny Irish

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.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 154: Just Before Eve

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.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 152-153: Opening the Book

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.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 151: Musical Mayhem

As we've seen in the 1950s thus far that the rise of Technicolour 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 Technicolour 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.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 150: Lonely Hearts

There were mixed responses to the fact that The Artist won Best Picture at last Sunday's Oscar awards as some sort is as a great film while others thought it was a fad. However isn't the greatest marker of an award winning film longevity? So films I have watched such as Gone with the Wind and Casablanca are still watched today but others such as 1956 winner Marty is now a film that barely anybody knows which is a shame. Ernest Borgnine also won the Best Actor Oscar for playing the titular character a heavy-set butcher who is the only bachelor in his family with all of his younger brothers and sisters having flown the nest after getting married. The opening scene shows us perfectly of the community's feelings about Marty as his customers, who he is perfectly civil to, tell him he should be ashamed of himself for not having got married yet. His mother convinces him to go with his friend to a ballroom where he feels out of his depth and none of the girls want to dance with him because of his size. He then gets approached by a caddish fellow who wants to pay him to look after his plain date because he has had a better offer. Marty is disgusted by this offer but later approaches Clara and the two begin dancing and spend the night walking around the city. They discover they have a lot in common as they are both looked down on by the opposite sex so essentially they find solace in each other. However Marty's friends and mother who all meet Clara try and disuade him from calling her the next day but mainly for their own selfish reasons so the question is will he try and make a date with the only girl who has ever made him happy?

Even though I'd never heard of it you can see the influence in Marty through a lot of films featuring male protagonists from The Apartment, which would win Best Picture five years later, to the Oscar nominated male menopause movies of Alexander Payne. At the heart of this film is the central performance from Ernest Borgnine who is able to convey Marty's friendliness and also his heartbreak in equal measure we get the feeling that this is a decent guy who is just misunderstood by a lot people. However Borgnine would be nothing without director Delbert Mann or especially screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky who also got Oscars for this piece. Of the other cast members I thought Betsy Blair was a great Clara some would call her mousy but she really comes out of herself after her initial meeting with Marty. I also enjoyed Esther Mincotti and Augusta Ciolli as Marty's mother and aunt with these two old Italian women representing a different time and the two scenes in which they both feature are terribly moving and funny in equal measure as I suppose is the film itself. I suppose there are many reasons that Marty hasn't stood the test of time maybe because it's a fairly quiet film and it's one of the shortest Best Picture winners of all time but perhaps some people feel it dated. But for me this is a great little character study and maybe go as far as to say that this is a forgotten gem which got me wondering will we be saying the same thing about The Artist in 56 years time?