So when I finally finished watching the last of the Oscar-nominated films of 1935 a few months ago, I was excited to set myself down in front of a cinematic something that was NOT from the year 1935. I picked out Carol Reed's THE FALLEN IDOL, a British film from 1949. The story of a young boy caught up in a nightmare world of deceitful adults whose behavior he can't fully comprehend, the film is filled with suspenseful twists and turns that must have had Hitchcock turning green with envy—especially since 1949 was the year "the master of suspense" released one of his biggest duds, UNDER CAPRICORN (I know; neither have I).
In THE FALLEN IDOL, Bobby Henry stars as young Philip, who lives in the grandiose French embassy in London with his parents. When his father heads out of town to fetch his mother from the hospital, Philip is left in the care of the embassy servants—namely the butler, Baines, who the young boy idolizes, and the butler's cold, cruel wife, Mrs. Baines, who has no tolerance for kids. There's also a pretty young blonde thing on the embassy staff who lately seems moody. Mrs. Baines begins to suspect her husband and blondie have been having an affair. Philip soon stumbles into the middle of a private and personal conversation that he's asked to deny having heard, thereby becoming a pawn in a deadly love-triangular chess game played throughout the empty, shadow-filled embassy. (The building's expansive entryway features a large chessboard-like floor upon which the adults make their moves, as Philip observes from the balcony above.)
The film explores what happens when all sorts of various untruths—children's wildly enthralling adventure yarns; the ones people accidentally tell when they don't have all the facts; lies told to protect someone you love; the ones that are used to hide true feelings—all get mixed up in the mind of an inexperienced child who is faced with situations he intuitively knows are serious, but doesn't fully understand. The film creates tension and dread from the simplest of images—wasps crawling on a plate of pastries in a bakery window; a hairpin dropping onto a pillow next to a sleeping child—carefully calculated to casually send shivers down your spine.
THE FALLEN IDOL is one of the best films of 1949. A brief-but-memorable turn by Dora Bryan as Rose, a "lady of the night" Philip encounters at the local police station (and, again, doesn't quite fully comprehend) is worth the price of the rental all by itself! When the film ended, I looked it up on my list to see if anyone at the Oscars had paid any attention. Sure enough, Carol Reed was up for Best Director, and Graham Greene was also nominated for his terrific screenplay. I figured I might as well see what other films had been nominated that year, and voilá—The Oscar Project of 1949 was underway.
Interestingly, THE WINDOW was the last film I watched from my list of 1949 nominees, and it has a theme very similar to the theme of the film I watched first. Basically a top-drawer b-picture thriller, like THE FALLEN IDOL, this film also involves a naive young boy living in a world of lies. But since THE WINDOW is an American film instead of a European one, it's much less nuanced and it beats you over the head a little more often than THE FALLEN IDOL.
Young Tommy (Bobby Driscoll, appearing "by special arrangement with Walt Disney") lives with his working-class parents in a NYC tenement and is always running around the neighborhood telling lies. He's constantly reprimanded by his exasperated ma and pa, but they really are at their wits end and just don't know what to do with the boy. Naturally, Tommy then witnesses a grizzly murder, but when he excitedly reports what he's seen, nobody will believe him—nobody, that is, except for the seemingly normal upstairs couple who committed the heinous crime. An exciting game of cat-and-mouse is set into motion that manages to generate some thrills and suspense. THE WINDOW was up for the year's Best Editing award, though nothing about the editing stood out to me in particular. Admittedly, the events in the film did seem to have been assembled in a logical order.
The best of the bunch is TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH—though I'm embarrassed to admit that, from the title alone, I thought I would be watching a fairly dated teen drama set in an inner-city high school, with Gregory Peck as the new history professor on campus who struggles to connect with a ragtag bunch of misfit students (he eventually succeeds!). But now that I think about it, I wasn't actually that far off. The film is set not in a high school, but at the English base of the U.S. Army's Eighth Air Force, with Gregory Peck's General Savage taking over command of a ragtag group of young American airmen after Colonel Davenport (Gary Merrill, excellent) is deemed unfit to lead because he's grown way too fond of the boys. That sounded dirtier than it actually is. Basically, he was just too nice a guy.
Another terrific film I'd never heard of before is BATTLEGROUND. A fellow contender for Best Picture, the film offers a different look at American troops in Europe. According to Wikipedia, "The film is notable for portraying American soldiers as vulnerable and human. While they remain steadfast and courageous, each soldier has at least one moment in the film when he seriously considers running away, schemes to get sent back from the front line, slacks off, or complains about the situation he is in. BATTLEGROUND is considered to be the first significant American film about WWII to be made and released after the end of the war."
William A. Wellman was nominated for directing; the film also received nominations for Best Supporting Actor (James Whitmore) and Best Editing, and took home full-on awards for Paul Vogel's foggy black and white cinematography and for Robert Pirosh's excellent story and screenplay.
John Wayne earned the first of his two Best Actor nominations for SANDS OF IWO JIMA, a picture that seems to have been constructed primarily to give a backstory to the American Marines in the South Pacific who were immortalized by the monument showing the raising of the U.S. Flag on Mount Suribachi. The film even features, in small roles, three of the ex-Marines who were involved in the IWO JIMA flag-raising event—and with all due respect, fellas, I can pick the three of you non-actors out of the crowd the instant you open your mouths to deliver your lines. Sorry, but yikes!
But the award (not an Oscar) for Most Homoerotic War Film of 1949 goes to THE HASTY HEART. I'd never heard of this one either, but Richard Todd was up for Best Actor, so I sat down to check it out.
I know that probably doesn't sound very gay-sexy, but there's more. First of all, Richard Todd cuts a fine figure, and he keeps running around inside the hut without his shirt on!
For sporty audiences who were growing weary of war, there were a couple of Academy Award-nominated baseball movies at the local cinema in 1949; both were nominated for Best Motion Picture Story of the year. THE STRATTON STORY, an earnest yawn-inducer that somehow actually won the Oscar, tells of Monty Stratton (a too-old-for-this-role Jimmy Stewart), who pitched for the Chicago White Sox from 1934-1938, but then had to work super hard for a comeback after losing a leg in a hunting accident. June Allyson is cast as his impossibly pert cheer-leader wife. She's even over-acting on the movie poster:
WHITE HEAT would have taken the Oscar for Best Motion Picture Story if I'd had my pick among the five nominees. One of my favorite 1949 discoveries, the film is a thrilling and bizarre gangster movie that stars James Cagney as Cody Jarrett, head honcho of a band of outlaws that includes his girlfriend, the saucy Virginia Mayo, and his extremely protective ma, played to perfection by Margaret Wycherly. It's a shame Ms. Wycherly isn't listed among the Best Supporting Actress nominees of 1949.
SAND is another western up for the same award; the film evidently has something to do with a runaway horse. Since SAND has never been released on video or DVD, it's one of two nominated films I wasn't able to see.
Featuring a lead performance by June Allyson—once again so perky you just want to slap her—the 1949 version of LITTLE WOMEN was also up for the Best Color Cinematography award.
There are better LITTLE WOMENs out there, to be sure, but this one is of interest because it features a brilliant young cast—including Peter Lawford, Elizabeth Taylor, Janet Leigh, and also an old Mary Astor. Plus, Rossano Brazzi is irresistible! He deserves better than to end up with June Allyson, who just might have a drug problem, if you ask me. A Color Cinematography nomination also went to THE BARKLEYS OF BROADWAY, yet another pairing of Fred & Ginger, this time as a bickering song and dance couple who perform in musical comedies. The Technicolor saturation is so intense, Ginger Rogers' red nails and lipstick seem to leap at you from the screen. It borders on trashy, or maybe just like she's trying too hard. For some reason, as I watched, Melanie Griffith kept coming to mind.
[ Ginger Rogers' Technicolor nails & Fred Astaire in THE BARKLEYS OF BROADWAY ]
Nominated for Best Story and Screenplay, as well as for Best Color Cinematography, JOLSON SINGS AGAIN gets my vote as the worst motion picture up for an Oscar in 1949. "One of the most memorable musicals ever!," indeed.
But then, about eight minutes into the film, you start to slowly realize that this Al Jolson fellow is a real dick. As played by Larry Parks, he is a self-centered egotist who surrounds himself with a bevy of well-dressed older gentlemen that he's constantly ordering about: "Tom, put some things in a bag for me. I'm going to New York." "Steve, go get my car. You're taking me to the airport!" And then, in New York, when we finally get to see Jolson perform, our sympathies shift entirely over to Julie. Her ultimatum suddenly makes perfect sense! Jolson's performance, from which I've included photo excerpts below, is pure 100% honey-cured ham. It's excruciating to watch. Nobody should ever exchange marriage vows with a person who does this sort of thing in public unless they have first made a solemn promise to stop.
A few other films from overseas also received Oscar nods in 1949, like PASSPORT TO PIMLICO, a British political farce up for Best Story and Screenplay that comes to life only in the few minutes that Margaret Rutherford prances across the screen. There's a documentary feature called KENJI COMES HOME, but nobody seems to remember anything about it, aside from the fact that it was nominated for an Academy Award. Unfortunately, it's probably been lost to the sands of time. I couldn't find it available anywhere. The only other Best Feature Doc nominee—and the winner of the award—is DAYBREAK IN UDI, one of those fascinating and uncomfortable British documentaries where they show how much they're all working to help the people in Africa try to become more British-like. It's all narrated by the Brits and all the Africans are treated like funny, naughty children. Not available on DVD or video, but you can watch it online here.
[ DAYBREAK IN UDI ]
None of the fine ladies who were up for the Best Actress Oscar of 1949—Deborah Kerr; Jeanne Crain; Susan Hayward; Loretta Young— really ever stood any chance against Olivia de Havilland as Catherine in THE HEIRESS. De Havilland is commanding in her role as an insecure, naive, and awkward young (but not that young, you know) woman who couldn't...oh, I don't know...couldn't command a mouse to eat cheese. Her father (played expertly by Ralph Richardson, up for Best Supporting Actor) has been chipping away any at any self-esteem she might have developed over the course of her life as he constantly compares her to his beloved beauty of a wife who died when Catherine was born. "Only I know what I lost that day she died, and what I got in her place," he offers disdainfully at one point as an explanation for his cruel behavior. He feels certain his ugly duckling of a daughter will never marry. The only quality she has that men might find attractive is her vast inheritance, but father isn't going to let her fall for THAT one.
[ Montgomery Clift and Olivia de Havilland in THE HEIRESS ]
It's impossible to talk about the brilliance of this film any further without including, or at least suggesting at, some spoilers. If you haven't seen THE HEIRESS before and you'd like to watch it without any spoilers, please skip to the next paragraph.
No, not this one. The NEXT paragraph. Okay, if you're still with me, let me just say this is such a beautifully sad movie. It's the kind of film that, if it had been released today, the critics on Rotten Tomatoes would give it raves, whereas the "regular people" would say it was just awful, since nowadays the general movie-going public can't handle (or even understand) anything on a movie screen unless it brings them to orgasm right before the closing credits.
THE HEIRESS is about choosing to believe in the goodness and beauty of others, and in the possibilities of wild, romantic love...and then having to face the fact that that's just not something that's in store for you in life. Time passes, and you reach a point where it would be foolish to even consider hoping for such a thing. As a matter of fact, you're actually rather embarrassed when you think of how you once threw yourself toward romance, body and soul, though you do still recall the feelings, and the longing, with fondness. Okay, this is starting to sound way too much like one of my own diary entries. Anyway, let's just say the film is mesmerizing, and I felt a personal connection to the story. Olivia de Havilland, who turned 101 earlier this month, is mesmerizing. Montgomery Clift's moustache is mesmerizing. Give this film an Oscar!
Deborah Kerr earned the first of her six Best Actress nominations for EDWARD MY SON, another melodrama, this one about really bad parenting. Kerr actually has more of a supporting role in the film until about halfway through, when she's suddenly cut loose and begins a fascinating downward spiral, eventually turning into a kind of refined variety of Baby Jane Hudson. She's fun to watch.
Another trio of actresses received nominations for their work in the thoughtful and enjoyable comedy-drama COME TO THE STABLE. Loretta Young stars, with Elsa Lanchester and Celeste Holm offering delightful support, in this obscure gem about a pair of good-natured nuns (Young and Holm) who travel from France to build a children's hospital on a particular plot of New England soil, thus fulfilling a promise they made to God for helping them and a bunch of kids survive a round of bombing during the war. They shack up with a zany local religious artist (Lanchester) and set to work laying out their plans. Some thought-provoking NIMBY (Not-In-My-Back-Yard) issues are presented which, I'm sad to say, speak to struggles that communities here in Seattle continue to wrestle with today. Loretta Young is darn good as Sister Margaret, but the role just isn't flashy enough to wrest the Oscar from de Havilland's grasping hands—especially since Young had just received the statue for THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER in 1947.
[ Mercedes McCambridge in ALL THE KING'S MEN ]
The film, which traces the rise of a small-town politician named Willie Stark from grass-roots activist to powerful and corrupt bigwig, also won Best Picture, and Broderick Crawford took the Oscar for Best Actor. (The Willie Stark role had been offered to John Wayne, but he turned it down, saying he felt the picture was 'un-American.') The film is exciting and potent—and seems more relevant now than ever. Thank god it doesn't star John Wayne.
Director Robert Rossen didn't snag an award for ALL THE KING'S MEN though, since Best Director went to Joseph L. Mankiewicz for A LETTER TO THREE WIVES. The film offers a smart, fun look at three women friends who receive a letter from the fourth member of their circle, Addy Ross (voiced by Celeste Holm—it was a very good year for Celeste), just as they're setting out by boat for an all-day island camp-out with a bunch of kiddos. Addy's letter informs them that she's run off with one of their husbands. Far from the nearest pay telephone and without any cell service, the wives contemplate their relationships in turn and wonder which of the three won't have a husband to go home to at the end of the day. Mankiewicz also took the Best Writing, Screenplay award for his work. My favorite line is this, "Oh, let's stop this sudden bickering. We're beginning to behave like some movie about a women's prison."
[ Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, and Jeanne Crain in A LETTER TO THREE WIVES ]
None of the film's actors (wives Jeanne Crain, Ann Sothern, Linda Darnell...or husbands Jeffrey Lynn, Kirk Douglas, Paul Douglas) has enough total screen time to snag a Best Acting nomination. (Thelma Ritter might have been considered for Best Supporting Actress for her hilarious turn as Ann Sothern's put-upon housemaid, but she isn't even listed in the film's acting credits!) Jeanne Crain at least had her nomination for PINKY to console her, and Kirk Douglas was nominated as Best Actor for a sweaty boxing drama called CHAMPION.
Douglas is brilliant in this dark and seedy film that follows a...well, let's just say it: He's a low-down heel. But he's got a talent for fighting, is discovered on the streets, and works his way to boxing fame, developing an affinity for scheming blondes somewhere along the way.
Last, but not least, we have THE QUIET ONE. Nominated for Best Story and Screenplay, I had expected this one to be another western, probably getting it mixed up with this movie...which, now that I look at it, doesn't seem like a western either. Anyway. What I found instead of a western was a beautiful and surprising cinematic treasure—one of the loveliest films of the year.
This small indie film, narrated by Gary Merrill, seemingly under heavy sedation, was filmed in a NYC school for troubled boys. Or, as the film puts it, at a school for boys who have "reacted with grave disturbance of personality to neglect in their homes and in their community, and who for various reasons of age, religion, race, or special maladjustment, are not cared for by other agencies." Gary introduces us to Donald, the young black boy who is the film's protagonist: "In all these months, Donald has made no friends. We've never seen him smile. He has hardly spoken. He is one of the quiet ones."
THE QUIET ONE is incredibly insightful and forward thinking for the late 1940s; it feels like a prequel to MOONLIGHT, but made 70 years before. The fact that filmmakers chose to examine the life of a troubled young African-American boy is remarkable. There were troubled white boys too at the school where this was filmed; the producers could easily have decided it would be "safer" to follow one of them for their story instead. I love this film. It's simple, poetic, and moving. It is essentially a silent, and the images are stunning.
As always, thanks to Scarecrow Video for not going out of business and for making all these films available for viewing. If you live in Seattle and you watch movies but you don't go to Scarecrow Video, you suck. Just so you know.
Check out past editions of The Oscar Project here: 1953, 1936, 1935.
These are the Oscar-nominated films of 1949, with the winners in pink:
Best Picture:
All the King's Men
All the King's Men
Battleground
The Heiress
A Letter to Three Wives
Twelve O'Clock High
A Letter to Three Wives
Twelve O'Clock High
Best Director:
Joseph L. Mankiewicz for A LETTER TO THREE WIVES
Carol Reed for THE FALLEN IDOL
Robert Rossen for ALL THE KING'S MEN
William A. Wellman for BATTLEGROUND
William A. Wellman for BATTLEGROUND
William Wyler for THE HEIRESS
Best Actor:
Broderick Crawford in ALL THE KING'S MEN
Kirk Douglas in CHAMPION
Kirk Douglas in CHAMPION
Gregory Peck in TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH
Richard Todd in THE HASTY HEART
Richard Todd in THE HASTY HEART
John Wayne in SANDS OF IWO JIMA
Best Actress:
Jeanne Crain in PINKY
Olivia de Havilland in THE HEIRESS
Susan Hayward in MY FOOLISH HEART
Deborah Kerr in EDWARD, MY SON
Loretta Young in COME TO THE STABLE
Best Supporting Actor:
John Ireland in ALL THE KING'S MEN
Dean Jagger in TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH
Arthur Kennedy in CHAMPION
Ralph Richardson in THE HEIRESS
James Whitmore in BATTLEGROUND
Loretta Young in COME TO THE STABLE
Best Supporting Actor:
John Ireland in ALL THE KING'S MEN
Dean Jagger in TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH
Arthur Kennedy in CHAMPION
Ralph Richardson in THE HEIRESS
James Whitmore in BATTLEGROUND
Best Supporting Actress:
Ethel Barrymore in PINKY
Celeste Holm in COME TO THE STABLE
Elsa Lanchester in COME TO THE STABLE
Mercedes McCambridge in ALL THE KING'S MEN
Ethel Waters in PINKY
Ethel Barrymore in PINKY
Celeste Holm in COME TO THE STABLE
Elsa Lanchester in COME TO THE STABLE
Mercedes McCambridge in ALL THE KING'S MEN
Ethel Waters in PINKY
Best Writing, Story and Screenplay:
Sidney Buchman for JOLSON SINGS AGAIN
T. E. B. Clarke for PASSPORT TO PIMLICO
Alfred Hayes, Federico Fellini, Sergio Amidei, Marcello Pagliero, Roberto Rossellini for PAISAN
Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, Sidney Meyers for THE QUIET ONE
Alfred Hayes, Federico Fellini, Sergio Amidei, Marcello Pagliero, Roberto Rossellini for PAISAN
Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, Sidney Meyers for THE QUIET ONE
Robert Pirosh for BATTLEGROUND
Best Writing, Motion Picture Story:
Harry Brown for SANDS OF IWO JIMA
Virginia Kellogg for WHITE HEAT
Clare Boothe Luce for COME TO THE STABLE
Clare Boothe Luce for COME TO THE STABLE
Douglas Morrow for THE STRATTON STORY
Shirley W. Smith, Valentine Davies for IT HAPPENS EVERY SPRING
Best Writing, Screenplay:
Carl Foreman for CHAMPION
Graham Greene for THE FALLEN IDOL
Joseph L. Mankiewicz for A LETTER TO THREE WIVES
Robert Rossen for ALL THE KING'S MEN
Cesare Zavattini for THE BICYCLE THIEF
Cesare Zavattini for THE BICYCLE THIEF
Best Cinematography, Black & White:
Joseph LaShelle for COME TO THE STABLE
Franz Planer for CHAMPION
Leon Shamroy for PRINCE OF FOXES
Leo Tover for THE HEIRESS
Leon Shamroy for PRINCE OF FOXES
Leo Tover for THE HEIRESS
Paul Vogel for BATTLEGROUND
Best Cinematography, Color:
Charles G. Clarke for SAND
Winton C. Hoch for SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON
Robert H. Planck, Charles Edgar Schoenbaum for LITTLE WOMEN
William E. Snyder for JOLSON SINGS AGAIN
Harry Stradling, Sr. for THE BARKLEYS OF BROADWAY
William E. Snyder for JOLSON SINGS AGAIN
Harry Stradling, Sr. for THE BARKLEYS OF BROADWAY
Best Film Editing:
John Dunning for BATTLEGROUND
Harry Gerstad for CHAMPION
Frederic Knudtson for THE WINDOW
Robert Parrish, Al Clark for ALL THE KING'S MEN
Frederic Knudtson for THE WINDOW
Robert Parrish, Al Clark for ALL THE KING'S MEN
Richard L. Van Enger for SANDS OF IWO JIMA
Best Documentary Feature:
Daybreak In Udi
Kenji Comes Home
Special Foreign Language Film Award:
The Bicycle Thief
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