Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day One Hundred and Twenty Two: The Bette Quartet Part Three

As I said when I reviewed Dark Victory I feel that I may've misjudge Bete Davis on the three films I have watched her in up to that point. In The Letter and especially in Jezebel and The Little Foxes she played a manipulative woman who would use what she had to get what she wanted and she didn't care who she hurt along the way. But in Dark Victory and the next film on our list All This and Heaven Too she plays the innocent in this case an English woman teaching French in an American Girls School who is victim of gossip from her students after they found out she was in a French prison. To dispel any gossip or rumors, Davis' Henrietta - better known throughtout the film as Madamoiselle, tells them the story of her becoming the governess to a Duke and Duchess played by Charles Boyer and Barbara O'Neil who are known throughout the film as Monsieur and Madame. From Madamoiselle's appointment the couple are arguing and the children are reacting to the friction in their parents' marriage luckily she is able to calm them down and quickly she becomes a friend to them. With Monsieur spending a lot of time with his children he quickly strikes up a friendship with Madamoiselle to which Madame reads too much into and becomes extremely jeaolus when the two attend a concert together along with one of the girls and their appearance gets them into the newspapers. Eventually Madame throws Madamoiselle out of the house and she goes to stay with a friend while she waits for her former employer to write her a letter of recomendation. However the letter never comes and when the Duke confronts his wife she tells him she will never write it and in a fit of rage he kills her. Madamoiselle and Monsieur are both arrested on suspicion of commiting the murder together however he poisons himself and without enough evidence to link her to the crime she is let out of prison and thanks to a friendship with the American consulate lands herself the job at the girls school. The film ends with the girls hugging their new teacher probably because they've got out of a two hour French lesson.

In my opinion All This and Heaven Too would've been better if Davis had played the Madame, jealous of her husband's relationship with the new young nanny and then she could've used her influence over the servants and the members of the town to drive the new housekeeper out. However Davis instead chose to take the more personable role of Henrietta and she does excel eventually standing up to the Madame and recieving her marching orders however it is not as commanding a performance as some of her others and it did not get her an Oscar nomination. The only Oscar nomination went o O'Neil who was absolutely superb as the paranoid and uptight Duchess who throws wild accusations all over the place and eventually recieves her commeupance. Boyer again plays one of those characters who you're not quite sure about and in the end he reveals his true colours by killing his wife and then making it look like a robbery. What I probably liked best about the film was its campy nature from the way it tried to convince us that we were really watching 19th Century France to the creepy performances from some of the suspicious servants in the hosue to the design of the Duke and Duchess' mansion itself. But what spoilt it for me was the performance of all the child actors who had pretty hefty roles and none were really good in them either coming off as precocious, annoying or both. My other criticism would be that it took far too long getting to the point where Boyer and Davis realised their feelings for one another and then the murder scenes and their fallout were rather rushed. Still a good film, All this and Heaven Too would've been much better if it had been slimmed down and if Davis was allowed to play the villainess.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day One Hundred and Twenty One: The Bette Quartet Part Two

I do think maybe I have the wrong impression of Bette Davis films in that maybe she doesn't always play the same character. So far the three films I've seen on the challenge - Jezebel, The Letter and The Little Foxes have all been directed by William Wyler and have seen Davis play manipulative or sly to at least some extent. In the second of the four film Bette Davis marathon we have Dark Victory a film which sees Davis play New York socialite Judith who likes to party and also likes to ride and train horses. After she falls from a horse Judith is taken to see Dr. Steele who conducts tests and finds out she has a brain tumour which will enventually kill her. Steele operates on her to give her as much of her life as he can and at the same time they begin a romance which ends when Judith finds out that her condition will still kill her and she finds solace in the arms of horse trainer Michael. Eventually Judith comes to her senses and moves with Dr. Steele to Vermont where they are married but when Judith finds her symptoms are coming back she lies to her new husband packing him off to a conference in New York where he is to give a speech about her condition then she bids farewell to he friend, her housekeeper and her dogs and goes to bed, the last scene we see is off the screen fading to grey.

Dark Victory is an odd beast and it is very hard indeed to categorise it maybe a romantic tragedy would be the best way. From about 30 minutes in we the audience know that Judith is going to die and eventually she finds this out as well and decides to marry her doctor. All the reveltaions and discoveries happen very quickly and arguments are resolved within about five minutes of them starting. I kept waiting for Judith to change in character and become at least a little bit evil like most of Davis' characters do, perhaps after the operation was over. I am suprised at the performance Davis gives here for the most part it is restrained, it is sympathetic and more than that for the first time her character seems human. George Brent as Dr. Steele was starring alongside Davis for an eighth time and it shows as their chemistry is winning while Geraldine Fitzgerald as Judith's best friend Ann is also fairly interesting. However most surprising was the appearance of Humphrey Bogart as Michael the Horse Trainer, such a small role for an actor who would go on to great things but here has quite a minor role as the man who will always hold a flame for Judith but will never be good enough for her. While Dark Victory is completely melodramatic and over the top it is a nice change of pace for a Bette Davis film to have such a humanistic edge to it and I for one welcome the difference in characteristics between Judith and the other turns I have seen from Davis up to this point.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day One Hundred and Twenty: The Bette Quartet Part One

I can't believe it we're almost out of the 1940s now, only seven films to go and even more unbelievable four of them star Bette Davis. With that in mind I am going to try and watch all four of these Davis films back to back in a section I'm going to call the Bette Quartet and another strange thing is we're starting with another adaptation of a Somerset Maughn work - The Letter. In The Letter, Davis stars as Leslie Crosbie the wife of a rubbert plantation manager who in the first scene shoots a man to death. As Davis' husband Robert and their lawyer friend Howard come to her house they discover the body belongs to Geoff Hammond a well-regarded member of the community. Leslie tells them that Hammond forced himself on her and when he wouldn't leave her alone she shot and killed him. Joyce's campaign to get Leslie out of jail is going well his investigation of Hammond reveals a secret marriage to one of the local Malay women and Leslie is behaving herself in prison. Then a letter comes to light that shows that Leslie asked Hammond to meet him on the night of his murder and in order to obtain it Leslie and Howard use Robert's money to buy it from his widow. From there the revelation of what really happened on that night comes to light and results in Leslie's true feelings coming to light and the death of one of the characters in the closing moments of the films.

What I liked most about The Letter was the simplicity of the plot. It all revolved around the one incident and the letter that could change it all. Of course anyone who knows Bette Davis and the roles she normally inhabits knows that her original story wouldn't be the true one however I felt that Davis wasn't as fully manipulative as she often is and Leslie prefers to weave than to go out and use her female wiles to manipulate. William Wyler again directs Bette and again falls out with her, here over a scene towards the end of the film involving Leslie and Robert each had different ideas about how the scene should play out with the director getting his own way and Bette walking out before coming back again claiming her ending would've still been better. Wyler is able to set the mood of the Malay Jungle superbly with Max Steiner's Oscar-nominated score adding to events and the lighting being one of the things that dominates the proceedings from the opening gunshot to the final death. Other than Davis the only cast member to be nominated for an Oscar was James Stephenson as Joyce the lawyer a definitive presence but he wasn't anything special and my favourite performance came from Gale Sondergaard as Hammond's local wife, she never says anything but her looks speak volumes and I think that is the mark of a great actress. As with all the Davis/Wyler colloborations this is fairly melodramatic but it is also very low key and simplistic and I very much enjoyed it and I suspect as the Bette Quartet goes on this will seem like a very tame movie in comparsion to some of the other Davis creations.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day One Hundred and Nineteen: Constantly in Maughning

While reading some background around some of the films it seems that 1940s were dominated by a lot of the studio heads and their whims. In the case of the next film, 1947 nominee The Razor's Edge, Daryl F Zanuck then head of 20th Century Fox really wanted the rights to W. Somerset Maughn's work and paid over the odds to the author who was still alive. Casting was also a problem with Zanuck's first choice Tyrone Power still serving in the marines when the film begun, Zanuck had to use an extra for some of the scenes. Meanwhile Gene Tierney was Maughn's first choice for the female lead but Zanuck had hired Maureen O'Hara under the proviso that she didn't tell anyone she had the part when she told someone, she was fired and Tierney was hired. Directing duties were originally handed to George Cuckor but he also fell fowl of Zanuck and Edmund Goulding was hired. The story in The Razor's Edge sees Power's Larry and Tierney's Isobel from the end of the First World War to well into the 1930s. Engaged at the start of the film Larry wants to find himself and travels first to France and then to India where he finally finds peace among the monks. Meanwhile Isobel marries the dependable but dull Gray and has a couple of children, Gray becomes depressed after he loses his money in the Wall Street Crash but Larry uses techniques he learnt with the monks to get him better. Larry and Isobel's old friend Sophie also appears in the story she gets married then loses her family and starts drinking, Larry rehabilitates and her and they get engaged by Isobel is jealous of their relationship and gets Sophie drinking again before Sophie finally dies. Larry finally finds out about Isobel's part in Sophie's death and leaves her for good finally finding peace.

Overall The Razor's Edge had a good story of money vs love, finding yourself and trying to get over a terrible incident. None of the characters were truly likeable and all had their baggage but at the same time they were all human they all had their own problems but none of them were true villains. There is also humour provided by Isobel's extravaggent uncle Elliot, played by the Oscar nominated Clifton Webb, and dependability is provided by Maughn himself who becomes a character here played by Herbert Marshall. My personal favourite performance came from Anne Baxter who won an Oscar for Supporting Actress as the emotinally torn Isobel but Tierney was also good as the vindictive Isobel never quite happy after Larry leaves her and never really happy with Gray. Power is able to tie everything together with a strong lead performance and is able to give Larry a very personable side. I did find the film overly talky, having never read the book I don't know how close the adaptation was to the actual book but it seemed to be very wordy and if they did use the script that Maughn used as his adaptation I'm guessing he didn't want to leave a lot out. I did find it a tad long but it was an intriguing story slightly noirish and a bit of a road trip so I think overall Zanuck did get all the elements together worthy for a great movie that ultimately was one of the five films nominated for that year's Best Picture.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day One Hundred and Eighteen: Nothing to Do with the Four Tops

Over the past couple of weeks in the Oscar Challenge we've had a bit of a religious theme whether it be Bing Crosby's priest visiting a school run by nuns or David Niven's Bishop clashing with Cary Grant's Angel its all been getting a bit too holy. So I was disheartned to learn that The Song of Bernadette was nothing to do with the 1967 Four Tops hit Bernadette, a bit impossible seeing that the film was nominated for Best Picture at the 1944 ceremony. The star Jennifer Jones also was one of the fisrt to discover that if you play a character with an illness, firstly asthma and later cancer, your chance to win an Oscar is greatly increased. Jones' Bernadette is a young innocent who while gathering logs in a cave in Lourdes ends up seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary. Obviously most people don't believe her, her parents are embaressed and want her to stop and the officials in Lourdes think that her supposed visions are doing adverse things for the town. The Town Officials are all seen as devious men as they all have ominous facial hair and are played by classical actors like Lee J Cobb and most notably a campy Vincent Price seemingly in a different film from everyone else. Eventually people start to believe her when a spring that Bernadette digs produces water that heals the residents and when the emperor uses it Bernadette is appeased. Her former headmaster suggests that she joins a convent where she comes face to face with her old teacher Sister Vazous who is jealous of Bernadette and wonders why the visions are comig to a girl who doesn't deserve rather than someone like her who has prayed and devote all her life. She feels shame when Bernadette is diagnosed and later dies from cancer of course after her death she was sainted and now everyone talks about the healing qualities of Lourdes.

If The Song of Bernadette were released today it would be seen as a traditional Oscar film. Featuring themes of faith vs religion, a lead character who is a bit dopey and then suffers from cancer and various Americans pretending to be French and of course a true story this has everything that the Academy loves. But in the less cynical 1940s I think they might just have been taken with the sweet nature of the film and Jones' naive performance as Bernadette which won her the Oscar. To be fair Jones is good as the lead having to go from playing a 14 year old school girl to Bernadette at her death she is able to demonstrate her range. Elsewhere I think Gladys Cooper possibly deserved a Supporting Actress Oscar as Sister Vazous the angry nun who shows humanistic qualities also nominated for Oscars were Charles Bickford as her headmaster priest and Anne Revere as her mother although I just loved Price's town prosecutor maybe because he was so over-the-top. For me it was a little bit too long after a while I got the point that people didn't believe Bernadette and thought the second half of her life was rushed in comparison. The general tone of the thing was very much pro-religion presenting all the non-believers as comical villains and giving them no leway whastoever basically saying if you don't believe in God, then you're wrong. So if you can overcome this strong message then you might be able to enjoy some of the performances in the film but personally I'd just stick on the best of The Four Tops album on instead.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day One Hundred and Seventeen: Orson Keeps it in the Family

I think one of the biggest Oscar surprises is that Citizen Kane never won Best Picture and instead it went to John Ford's Welsh mining drama How Green Was My Valley. Welles' next film The Magnificent Ambersons also got a nomiantion but lost to Mrs. Miniver. Unlike in Citizen Kane, Welles doesn't feature in the cast instead giving a fairly ominous voiceover telling us the story of The Ambersons an eccentric family who have all inherited money from the patriach Major Amberson. The film mainly focuses on George, the spoilt grandson of Major Amberson and his objections to his mother marrying an automobile manufacteror after his father has died. The man in question is Joseph Cotten's Eugene Morgan who was George's mother Isabel's first love. George also falls in love with and gets engaged to George's daughter Lucy however the union is doomed when George's spoilt nature comes out and he reveals he doesn't want to work instead live of the family's fortunes which are dwindling. One of the main themes throughout the film is new money vs old as the Ambersons fortune is generations old whereas Eugene has earned his money from his inventions. Eugene and Isobel are never allowed to be together as George takes his mother around Europe and then returns when she gets ill and later dies. However the future looks better for Lucy and George after George learns the error of his ways and decides to get a job and also reconcile with Eugene as the film ends.

Compared to Citizen Kane, The Maginifcent Ambersons isn't as big of a film but it still has that Wellsian style to it which is mainly seen during the scenes in the Ambersons grandiose mansion which is almost too big for its inhabitants. Possibly the best performance in the film, and the only one nominated for an Oscar, was from Agnes Moorhead as the Amberson's maiden aunt Fanny who seems a bit distressed that no-one ever finds her attractive and goes off on a rant near the end of the film in which she chastises George for never taking her seirously. Welles' longtime friend Joseh Cotten is basically just a bit handsome and debonair as the inventor Eugene while Dolores Costello and Anne Baxter are fine in their roles but are never more than just token female parts maybe this is because Moorhead has such an interesting character it but the other actresses in the shade. One of the biggest problems of the film is that Tim Holt's George is just plain unlikeable so I have no sympathy for him even when he changes his ways at the end of the film I've already given up on him. Although the film did get another nomination for cinematography, there was no Best Director nod for Welles and indeed he was so poorly treated by the Academy that when they awarded him with a Special Award he refused to go and pick it up. Overall the Ambersons is a well made film but one that suffers from a lack of likeable characters or a plot that flows particularly well.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day One Hundred and Sixteen: Keeping the British End Up

As we spirit towards the finish line of the 1940s its time for the last winner of that decade in William Wyler's Mrs. Miniver. The film, like Blossoms in the Dust, stars Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon as a happily married couple and parents to three children, two youngsters and a very upper-class lad called Vin who is off at university when the film begins. In fact Mrs. Miniver is mostly about how normal families and indeed normal towns are affected by the war. So for example Vin leaves university to join the RAF meanwhile he also gets married to Carol the granddaughter of the snooty Lady Beldon. Mrs. Miniver's husband Clem also agrees to volunteer the best way he can and helps in the Dunkirk evacuation. One of the most shocking parts of the film is where Mrs. Miniver finds a German soldier in her house and is held at gunpoint until she provides him with food she then calmly phones the police and he is arrested. There is also a subplot involving a rose grown by the train station controller and named after Mrs. Miniver which is entered in the flower show against Lady Beldon, who usually wins it. Beldon announces the winner and sees her name on the card but instead gives it to the station master and the Mrs. Mivier rose as again war has changed her. The film though does have a tragic conclusion featuring the death of one of the major characters and a solemn message of the dangers and casualties of war.

For me Mrs. Miniver is an odd beast and it doesn't feel like a winner in the way Gone with The Wind, Casablanca or even The Best Years of Our Lives did. One reason for that might be its awfully quaint and middle-class, the village that the Minivers inhabit is one in which everybody knows everybody else and its all lovely and cosy until those awful Nazis come along and ruin everything. I suppose one reason this may have won is because there was very little competition this year and also because it may've been the most accuarte depiction of wartime yet. As well as Best Picture and Best Director for Wyler both Garson and Teresa Wright as Carol both won Oscars, again this wasn't my favourite Garson performance that was in Random Harvest but Wright is very good as the young girl married too soon and then having to cotend with her new husband off fighting the war. Dame Mae Witty as Lady Beldon, Pidgeon as Clem and Henry Travers as Vin were also nominated and I like the fact that Travers actually later married his on screen mother Garson. There's nothing particularly wrong with Mrs. Miniver its a nice enough film but it just doesn't have anything about it to make a significant impact and make me believe that it should've won Best Picture.