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.