Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 142: I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside

Recently on this blog I seem to have been doing a lot of moaning about the adaptation of plays into films as they almost always are restricted by the amount of interior scenes they have to have. However this didn't seem to bother me with Separate Tables which was based on a Terrence Rattigan and was set entirely in the Beauregard Hotel in Bournemouth. Like Grand Hotel, which won the Best Picture Oscar in the 1930s, it features various interweving plots in the same establishment and features an ensemble class which includes David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Rita Hayworth and Burt Lancaster. However Separate Tables is extremely British as most of the inhabitants are long-term residents of the Guest House and are mostly there to escape life. Niven, who won Best Actor for his performance there, plays a character known as the Major and strikes up a friendship with Kerr's Sibyl something her overbearing mother doesn't agree with. When the mother finds out that Niven isn't a Major and that he has indecently exposed himself at a cinema she rallies the residents to get him out of the Beauregard. Running alongside this is Lancaster's drunk former soldier having a secret relationship with Hotel Manager Miss Cooper, played by Best Supporting Actress winner Wendy Hiller, which  is complicated when Hayworth's model turns up who just happens to be Lancaster's ex-wife. The two stories then unravel with Miss Cooper deciding that Lancaster is better off with Hayworth and Sybil standing up to her mother by getting all of the other long term residents to stick up for the Major.

Although earlier I made a comparison to Grand Hotel, Separate Tables has a lot of similarities to our own Fawlty Towers. It is a seaside hotel with several longterm residents one of whom is a Major, or at least says he is, and most of the others are marture women apart from Kerr, Lancaster and a Professor type character. The whole ensemble nature of the film means that you never get bored of one story for too long and the fact that the entire piece is set within the Beauregard didn't bother me either. I thought all of the actors did really well I especially thought Kerr was brilliant as the somewhat mental agitated Sybil who's relationship with her bullying mother changes at the end of the film, Kerr was in fact nominated for Best Actress here but was the only cast member not to win. Although I did love David Niven here I feel that he wasn't in the film long enough to get the Best Actor prize and maybe he should've been entered into the Supporting one instead. Hayworth just exudes glamour and she has some great on screen chemistry with Lancaster here but the best performance comes from Wendy Hiller as Miss Cooper stoic yet passionate when she wants to be she is the archetypal owner who keeps things ticking over for her long-serving residents. Witty, warm with well drawn characters I feel this is a film that deserves a lot more recognition because if wasn't doing this challenge I don't think I'd ever have watched it.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 141: One Final Bogey

As I've gone through the decades so far I've seen a lot of film stars of the classic era - Grant, Gable, Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Fred and Ginger and of course Humphrey Bogart. As far as this Oscar Challenge goes we first saw Bogey back in the 1930s as a gangster in Dead End. From there we've seen him as private detective, treasure hunter and most notably the totured Rick in Casablanca. However we don't get to see his only Oscar win for The African Queen as that didn't recieve a Best Picture nomination instead Bogart's journey ends at the 1955 ceremony with his final Oscar nomination as Commander Queeg in The Caine Mutiny. The film revolves around the Caine a minesweeper-destroyer which is seen as a bit of a battered ship and not the first option for most sailors on board. Joining the crew is Ensign Willie Keith who soon strikes up a bond with would-be novellist Tom Keefer as well as ingretating himself with the other crew members including Captain DeVriess and Lt. Maryk.DeVriess is soon replaced by Queeg who is a very regimental sort and is compared to Mutiny on the Bounty's Captain Bligh by Keefer. Keefer suggests to Maryk and Keith that Queeg is a little bit insane although Maryk refuses to report this until he has more proof so starts keeping a journal of Queeg's poor decisions. This eventual leads to Maryk taking over from Queeg on one mission a decision that is seconded by Keith and after this they are both arrested for mutiny. Lawyer Lt. Barney Greenwald reluctantly takes the case without ever agreeing with the decision made by the men but wins the case after proving Queeg is a man with paranoia however during the case Keefer doesn't stick up for his former colleagues denying the fact that he thought Queeg was insane. In the end Greenwald confronts Keefer saying that he planted  mutinous thoughts in the heads of the other officers and Keith heads off for service on a new boat once again captained by DeVriess.

I very much enjoyed The Caine Mutiny mainly because your perceptions of the characters are changed at every turn. Like Maryk and Keith I went along with Keefer's thoughts about Queeg being insane but forgot about him opening up to his officers after a poor decision. Barney's confrontation of the three men at the end of the film is one of its best scenes and he reminds them that Queeg is a military man through and through and deserves respect he ends the film not as a Bligh-esque monster but more a tragic figure driven mad through years of service. Queeg's humaine side is a testament to the character that Humphrey Bogart gives to him and I think he could've easily have on a second Best Actor Oscar had he not been challenged by Marlon Brando's terrific turn in On the Waterfront. Indeed the film suffered from being up against On The Waterfront particularly when it came to the Supporting Actors in the film as Waterfront took three spots in the supporting category and Caine's only entry into that category was surprisingly Tom Tully as DeVriess who exits the film very early and didn't leave an impression on me. If I had had to put someone forward it would probably have been Van Johnson as Maryk a man who always wanted to do the right thing but took the wrong course of action after being manipulated by Keefer. Jose Ferrer as Barney was also great as the man who wanted to win a case he didn't particularly believe in and even Fred McMurray's Keefer is a good complex character. But it ws Robert Francis' performance as Willie Keith which anchors the film, pardon the pun, in only his second film tragically this would be his last as Francis was being groomed for stardom but perished in an aircraft accident. The Caine Mutiny also has a great love for its naval roots being backed by the U.S. Navy the scenes aboard the ship and in its many cabins are shot perfectly and some of the minor cast, including bizzarely Lee Marvin, were cast due to their naval background.

All in all a great film which in any other year would've won Best Picture but as I said before it had the unlucky fortune of coming up against the juggernaut that was On the Waterfront. And a small battered ship like The Caine never had a chance against a Juggernaut like that.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 140: Political Corruption gone Mad

I know I've said this already but it does bear repeating that I haven't really dealt with many winners of the 1950s but the primary reason for this is that most of them lie on LoveFilm and are yet to be delivered. The third and final one of the winners that I can watch was declared Best Picture at the first ceremony of the decade that film being All The King's Men. The film also had an Oscar winning performance from Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark a man who goes from becoming a rural politician to state governer. The film is told from the point-of-view of Jack Burden, oscar-nominated John Ireland, who is first sent to cover Stark's story in his role as a journalist. After Stark's campaign gains momentum he hires the strong willed Sadie to be his aide her straight-talk helps him get on the first rung of the ladder. But after fighting corruption at the start of the film Stark becomes corrupt himself as he has the local police in his pocket and tries to buy off a judge and blackmail a doctor by building a brand new hospital. The relationship between Stark and Burden sours after the former begins a romantic liaison with the latter's girlfriend. But everything unravels when Stark's son kills a girl in a drunk-driving accident and ends paralysed along the way, Willie is empeached and then assassinated when he is found not guilty. The final scene involves him telling Jack to carry on his work before he finally succombs to his gunshot.

First off I do feel that All The King's Men is a film that deserves a Best Picture Oscar, it has a good subject matter and a great cast however at the same time it does have some issues. The first being pace, the film starts slow enough following Willie's life as a smalltown campaigner and his first meeting with Jack. But once he starts to become a big fish the film speeds up and Willie goes from berating the corrupt from being corrupt himself in a short period of time. I also feel like some of the supporting characters were a bit weak especially Jack and Willie's romantic partner Anne played by Joanne Dru. However Mercedes McCambridge's Sadie is everything Anne is not strong-willed but fragile, straight-talking but vulnerable and she makes a great partner for Crawford in their scenes together. And Crawford himself is skillfully cast in the lead, rather than a good looking film star as the politcian, Crawford looks like an everyman so it is a surprise when he gets corrupted. Also due for praise are the film's set direction and costume, the sets are beautifully drawn - the political rallies, the country mansions and the newsrooms all feel authentic while the change of costumes throughout the film reflect Willie's political standing. Director Robert Rossen obviously understood the nature of film-making and the use of space and thats one of All The King's Men's great points which do outnumber the weaker elements of the picture. Indeed it did deserve best picture but as I am yet to watch any of the nominees whether it deserved best picture that year is yet to be decided.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 139: A Double Bill of Biblical Proportions

During the 1950s we saw the dawn of big pictures being made in cinescope and techincolor. To this effect some of the old sword and sandals epics from the early period of cinema started to be updated using these new techniques two of which are the bibical epics we will cover in this blog post.

We start with The Robe which was nominated for Best Picture at the 1954 ceremony adapted from the novel by Lloyd C Douglas it tries to tell the story of what happened to the Roman soldier who won Jesus' robe. The soldier turns out to be Tribune Marcellus Gallio, played here by Richard Burton, a well-liked man who at the beginning of the film takes on a slave Demetrius. Gallio treats Demetrius well but then one day the latter glances upon Jesus and starts to believe in him so refuses to take orders from one of the men who is overseeing the crucifixicion. After winning the robe Marcellus starts to get fits and egged on by his love interest Diana and the Emperor Tiberius he starts to discover Jesus' works and his miracle and himself becomes a Christian. However when Tiberius dies and Caligula takes his place Marcellus is forced into taking trial as a conspirator against the empire as Caligula and Marcellus are enemies after Diana left the former for the latter. At the end of the film Marcellus is sentenced to his death and Diana walks with him as the screen fades out they are both walking into clouds with angelic music playing behind them. That final scene displays all you really need to know about The Robe in that its main motive is pro-Jesus and even if you die you'll find happiness in the next life. There's no denying that the film is well made and well shot and fully takes advantage of the technicolour aspect of the picture. The opening scene in which Marcellus walks through the market just before meeting Demetrius is the film's most spectucular taking in all manner of animals and people later on however the film loses its epic feel as it becomes a lot of people talking in rooms but mind you they are well furnished rooms and all the people in them are well-costumed. Richard Burton was nominated for Best Actor here however I feel the best performances come from Victor Mature as Demetrius and Jean Simmons as Diana. Overall a good example of the 1950s swords and sandals epic that peters out towards the end of its run as its religious message really begins to kick in.

Three years after The Robe and four years after he won Best Picture, Cecil B DeMile presented his final picture The Ten Commandments a nominee in 1957. As you can probably garner from the film's title it deals with the story of Moses and how The Ten Commandments came to be. However that part of the story takes part in the film's final half hour, before that there are three and a half hours explaining Moses' entire life and his need to let his people go. As I really feel there's no need to go over the story of Moses in detail I instead want to focus on how visually spectacular this film is. From Moses discovering the Burning Bush, to the various plagues of Egypt and the famous scene in which Moses parts the water every effect is delivered perfectly which at that time was quite hard to do. In addition there was a 'cast of thousands' involved in the film as a lot of The Ten Commandments see the Egyptians whipping the Hebrews into shape in order to get their cities built. Of the main cast members Charlton Heston ages and grows hair superbly here to play Moses he has much more personality than he did in The Greatest Show on Earth and is able to carry the film although I did think Yul Brynner did a good job as Rameses making him both a forceful and later sympathetic character. However some of the supporting roles, especially Edward G Robinson's Dathan did lapse into pantomime at points as did the part of the film in which the Hebrew people are corrupted and start to worship false idols. Of course the big problem here is that the film does not need to be four hours long and there's easily an hour or so, most of it around the point were Moses meets his wife, that could be cut out to make the film flow a lot more steadily. But at the end of the day this is a visual spectacle that definitely deserves its Oscar nomiantion and its place in history and indeed both this and The Robe are still in the top 100 grossing films of all time including inflation adjustment. So it just goes to show that there is big money to be made from Bible-based movies so I'll have to grab my copy of The Great Book and start adapting now!

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 138: Another Trip to Tennessee

So far on the 1950s leg of the Oscar Challenge we've had two Tennesse Williams adaptations Cat on a Hot Tin Roof which saw Oscar nominations for Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman and A Streetcar Named Desire which had three acting wins and a fourth nomination. Next up another film adapted from a Williams play and once again it wins one of its actors an Oscar, in this case Anna Magnani who scooped the Lead Actress prize for her role as the fiery Serafina. The film sees Serafina's life crumble after her husband dies she becomes a recluse and then finds out that he was both a smuggler and was having an affair. At the same time she has to deal with the fact that her daughter is growing up and has started a relationship with a likeable sailor chap. After Serafina has a mini-breakdown and a confronation with the local priest she ends up meeting Burt Lancaster's trucker Alvaro who is looking for a place to stay. The second half of the film looks at the unconventional friendship between Serafina and Alvaro and whether their flirtation would turn into something more. The finale of the film sees Alvaro accidentally end up in bed with Serafina's daughter and then after he disgraces her by shouting up on top of a telephone pole she welcomes into the house as the film ends.

Like with all adaptations of Williams' plays the film suffers from a very stagy atmosphere. True out of the three I've seen The Rose Tattoo probably has more scenes that are outside of the home including an odd scene with Serafina's daughter Rosa and her boyfriend Jack having a brief conversation by the sea which seems very out of place and slows down the action somewhat. However the best thing about The Rose Tattoo is Mangini's performance, if ever anyone wanted to see the literal meaning of screen presence then they should watch her turn as Serafina. From beginning to end she owns every scene she appears in tearing up her house, madly walking through the town or simply in a state of shock she is brilliant at everything she does in this film. On the basis of this she more than deserved her Oscar for Best Actress beating more familiar names such as Katharine Hepburn and Susan Hayward. Marisa Pavan is also fairly impressive as Rosa who has a romantic subplot and is able to hold her own in her scenes with Mangini however I was quite disappointed by Lancaster's fairly broad trucker. Overall The Rose Tattoo is another Williams adaptation which relies on its performers to carry the film as it is pretty static filmic wise however for me with the exception of Magnini's tour-de-force Serafina there isn't much to latch onto here and there is a definite reason why this hasn't stood the test of time in the same way that Streetcar or Tin Roof has.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 137: Oh What a Circus!

Some critics are so harsh because I recently came over several lists which ranked the worst Oscar winners of all time and in the Top 5 of most of these lists was the latest film I watched - The Greatest Show on Earth. To give you a little background the film is Cecile B De Mille's cirucs-set extravaganza and is based around the Bingling Bros., Barnum and Bailey Circus. Charlton Heston plays circus manager Brad Braden who is trying to convince his bosses to give the circus another full season and to entice them he has hired famous acrobat and well known lothario The Great Sebastian. After agreeing to hiring Sebastian and getting a full season Brad has to deal with the fact that his acrobat girlfriend Holly will be bumped from the centre stage although she claims she will one-up Sebastian so the audience focuses on them. Throughout the film  a love triangle develops with Sebastian enchanting Holly with his risky attitude and his competitive spirit while Brad is more focused on getting the circus working. After Sebastian and Holly get together another performer Ginger goes after Brad but this infuriates her lover Klauss who vows to get revenge. James Stewart also appears in the film as Buttons the Clown, Buttons has an intriguing story where he never takes off his make-up clues throughout the story lead us to believe that he was a surgeon who mercy killed his own lover and is on the run from the police. During one of the journeys on the cirucs train a disgraced former employee along with the jealous Klauss plan to rob the train but Klauss has a change of heart when he realises he may hurt Ginger and there is a massive train crash. Brad is injured and with the Doctor unconcious Buttons operates on him but is caught by an FBI investiagtor who knows his suspect is somewhere in the circus after saving Brad's live Buttons is carted off to jail while Holly realises she loves Brad and Ginger and Sebastian decide to be together.

I have to say of the Best Pictures I have watched so far The Greatest Show on Earth is definitely not the worst but at the same time not the best. It does have some good points for one it is incredibly realistic with 1,400 members of the actual circus troupe starring alongside the actors accompanied by the whole ring set-up crew and a menagrie of animals. The film also lapses into documentary at times with De Mille providing a voiceover at various points to illustrate how hard it is to deconstruct and erect the tent each day and how hard the travel is on the performers. Heston provides a great leading man while the James Stewart story is very compelling and I wish I'd seen more of it while the camerawork for the most part is done well especially when focusing on the audience reactions. However at the same time it is far too long and there is no reason at all that we needed to see entire parts of some of the acts. While the acrobatics acts are pivotal to the plot everything elese could be just viewed in clip form and this is one of De Mille's main problems. In addition Betty Hutton is a bit of a damp squib as Holly and Cornel Wilde is almost too much as the exotic lover Sebastian. I also didn't really get the motivation for Klaus' momentary change of heart which caused the train crash. The theory is that this film won the Oscar because of De Mille's Hollywood pull and the fact that this would be his last chance to win a Best Picture Statuette. Overall the film is spectacular but it needs about 45 minutes cut from it to make it truly memorable film.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 134-136: Mostly Marlon

So after my Elizabeth Taylor retrospective we have four films from Marlon Brando an actor who was considered to have changed the way actors were percieved on films. Once upon a time you had the classic 'film star' such as Fred Astaire, Mickey Rooney or Cary Grant but then Brando was a new breed of actor who really got into the character and developed the phrase method acting. Over these four Oscar nominated films I will look at Brando's performances and the films as a whole.

We finished the last installment of the Oscar blog with a Tennesse Williams adaptation and we start our Marlon Brando retrospective with another Williams story - A Streetcar Named Desire. For those of you unaware with the story it sees the demure but emotionally fragile Blanche Dubouis journey to New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella and Stella's husband the brutish Stanley played by Brando. As time goes on Brando continues to resent Blanche's domination of Stella's time and her relationship with his friend Mitch so he starts to dig dirt on why she had to leave her old home. The final confrontation with ends in Stanley raping Blanche before she is carted off to a mental instution is very well done by director Elia Kazan by taking the camera around the expressions of all the characters and using the strong score to play the emotions of the two sisters with Stella finally seeing the light and leaving her husband with their new baby. As someone who read the play as part of my English literature A-Level I have to say that everybody involved did their best to recreate what this story should be. The set direction was rightfully given an Oscar for providing the claustrophobic atmosphere of both Stanley and Stella's apartment to the small area in which the characters inhabit. Vivien Leigh had previously played Blanche on the stage in London and bought both star power and incredible timing as a character who slowly loses her mind throughout the film. Kim Hunter is great as the tortured Stella while Karl Malden also stole the show in his couple of scenes as the hapless Mitch who wants to tame Blanche but realises that is impossible. Leigh, Malden and Hunter all won Oscars for their performances indeed the only person who didn't win an acting Oscar was Marlon Brando. However Brando won something else a new found fame for his great turn as Stanley he plays a man who was raised to behave a certain way and is almost tortured every time he hurts Stella and she leaves him briefly. He is brutish but at the same time doesn't go over-the-top and most importantly he becomes the character this isn't Marlon Brando as Stanley this is Stanley and you can really believe it. One more thing about the film is Alex North's great score who went against type composing short pieces of music to reflect the trauma of the characters but unfortunately he didn't win the Oscar but he did set a precadent in terms of film music as maybe Brando did with character development.

After his Oscar nomination for Streetcar, Brando was nominated for Viva Zapata at the next Oscar ceremony and then again at the Oscar ceremony held in 1954. However nobody quite expected that role to be in an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The film saw a lot of Shakespeare pros take the parts that they'd already taken on stage for example British theatrical legend John Gielgud played Cassius and James Mason who also had Shakesperian experience was Brutus here. Even producer John Houseman had Caesar experience having been involved in the classic Orson Welles Mercury Theatre production but by this time Welles and Houseman had fallen out and Welles wanted nothing to do with this production. However Brando's casting as Marc Anthony was met with scepticism to the point of Paul Scofield being on standby if Brando's screen test bombed however Brando was so good that Gielgud offered him the lead in the production of Hamlet he was directing, Brando turned this offer down. I'm really not going to retype the plot of Caesar as we all know the first half sees many of his followers conspire his demise and the second half sees Anthony's rise. While we're on Anthony Brando was brilliant even though he had very little to do in the first half of the film from the 'Friends, Romans, Countrymen' speech onwards he captures the imagination being able to deliver Shakespeare's lines with all the precision of a pro and the doubts that the 'mumbler' wouldn't be able to perform were cast aside here. I'm not sure if it was good enough to be Oscar nominated but maybe the Academy were so surprised by Brando's performance that he got the nod just for doing something different. Aside from Brando the ensemble cast are all terrific especially Mason's Brutus and Louis Calhern's Caesar. I also have to applaud the set design for giving us something grandiose and recreating ancient Rome brilliantly and also for handling the crowd scenes very well.

After three years of striking out in the Best Actor category Brando finally came up trumps at the 1955 ceremony with the film that also won the Best Picture award that year - On the Waterfront. For this picture Brando reteamed with both Streetcar writer Elia Kazan and co-star Karl Malden to make a story based on real experiences that long shoremen had dealing with their mob-run environment. As the film starts Brando's Terry Malloy is instrumental in the death of long shoreman Joey Doyle who's death is interlinked with him testifying against gangster Johnny Friendly who runs the docks and trades illegally. Malloy's brother Charley works as Friendly's accountant and gets Terry to do some of the easier jobs through his guilt of making Terry throwing fights when he was a prize fighter. Events get complicated when Terry falls for Doyle's sister Evie who, along with Malden's priest Father Barry, tries to convince Terry to testify against Friendly. Worried that Terry is being swayed Friendly sends Charley out to set Terry straight where Terry delivers the still famous 'I Coulda Been a Contender' speech. Eventually Terry testifies and Friendly turns the rest of the dockworkers against him and has him beaten up but Friendly is then discredited with all the longshoremen turning their backs on him. There's so much to praise about On The Waterfront and thankfully for once a great film gets recognised by the Academy winning Best Picture, Actor, Director, Screenplay and Supporting Actress for Eva Marie Saint as Evie. Saint is great in the film so much so I think this was almost a Lead performance which would've seen the film scoop the much-touted 'Big Five'. If Streetcar was Brando's breakout then this was definitely his star-making turn playing a conflicting character wanting to do what's right but not wanting to test his loyalty against his brother and the men who have been giving him the job. There are also so many great filmic moments from the already mentioned speech, to the ending where a beaten Malloy makes his way to work despite being light on his feet and having blurred sight but my favourite scene is probably Terry telling Evie about his involvement in Joey's death which we don't hear as a big steamship comes past making their conversation inaudible. Of the supporting performances Karl Malden is probably my favourite as the priest, but Lee J Cobb also makes a convincing gangster and Rod Steiger as Charley also is strong in a couple of scenes all were nominated as Supporting Actors but to Edmond O'Brien in The Barefoot Contessa both a role and film that aren't best remembered. I also feel that the score is brilliant it stuck in my head afterwards and added to the atmospheric tone. The Oscar winning set direction and cinematography were both brilliantly handled with the shoot taking place over 36 days in Hoboken, New Jersey making all the shore scenes seem very real and the workers' silence over how badly their work is run and even some of Friendly's goons are played by real-life prize fighters. Just a brilliant film and a worthy Best Picture winner and definitely the film that made Marlon Brando.

The final Best Picture nominee that Brando starred in during the 1950s, and again he got a Best Actor nomination, was Sayonara which I feel was a bit of a departure from the roles he played in contemporary American dramas in this particular blog post. The film sees Brando play Air Force Major Ace Gruver who moves from Korea to Japan where one of his troop - Joe Kelly is about to marry a Japanese woman. A lot of people in the Air Force and the military in general aren't happy with Kelly's choice to marry a Japanese woman but despite his reluctance Gruver agrees to be Kelly's best man. Also in Japan, Gruver's superior General Webster has bought along his daughter Eileen, played by Patricia Owens, who for a long time Ace has been in a relationship with. However during the time in Japan neither feel the relationship is prety solid with Eileen's feelings being a lot stronger than Ace's. As time goes on Gruver starts to accept Kelly's relationship with his wife Katsumi and himself becomes entranced by a Japanese dancer Hana-ogi. Things come to a head when Kelly is to be shipped back to America and his wife isn't allowed to come with him despite the fact she is pregnant. Ace is also to be sent back after his relationship with Hana-ogi is revealled but the day that Kelly is to be taken away he runs back to Katsumi and they both commit suicide deciding to be together in the next life. Ace then discovers that General Webster has made a law possible for men like Kelly to bring their Japanese wives back to America so he announces to the media that he is marrying Hana-ogi and people best get used to it. The biggest surprise in this film is probably seeing Brando in a kimono despite that this film is a little long-winded in its message of equality and that these soldiers are in love with these women rather than just wanting to be with the first woman they touch as Webster so eloquently puts it in once scene. Brando's Southern drawl adds an extra dimension to this character who is portrayed as being a natural leader but at the same time very simple in his views and he is one round by the differences that Japan and Japanese women have to offer. However the two standout performances come from Oscar winners Red Buttons and Miyoshi Umeki as Joe and Katsumi both giving spectacular performances as the doomed couple Buttons in particular is a revelation as he was much better known as a comedian than a dramatic actor but this film more than showed that he could do both. I have to say I felt the film needed to be about 20 minutes less and I didn't need to see as many of the Japanese sequences as I did and I felt James Garner was wasted in a worthless role as the military man showing Ace a different side of Japan. Overall though a film with a strong message and another great performance from Brando again displaying his range.

As I watched this quartet of films I really felt that Brando was improving as an actor as the decade went on from rough and ready in Streetcar he honed his skills for On the Waterfront before playing an almost naive character in Sayonara. Like with Elizabeth Taylor I'm looking forward to seeing more of Brando as we trek on through the decades but I guess its Sayonara for now.