For retrospective viewing of award-winning and other notable films of 75, 50, and 25 years ago
Little Women (1933) AAW -- Best Writing, Adaptation (Victor Heerman, Sarah Y. Mason) AAN -- Best Picture, Best Director (George Cukor)
Katharine Hepburn's fourth film, and her second teaming with George Cukor, is the first sound adaptation of the classic novel. (At least two silent versions preceded it and many television and two major film adapatations followed -- check out the 1978 tv cast (!), everyone from Greer Garson to Joyce Bulifant.
The 1933 version was enormously well received, both by the public (it broke records at Radio City Music Hall) and by the critics, winding up on the New York Times end-of-year ten best list. The Times critic dutifully pointed out the film's absence of anything much resembling conflict but praised it for its wholesomeness and especially for Hepburn's performance. She really is something here, the tomboy role suits her. She's rambunctious, very funny, and ulimately touching -- Hepburn always worked best when playing up, or against, her own image of self-seriousness. The movie often threatens to dissolve into sentiment (it sometimes does) but it keeps righting itself, and the culminating scenes, in which the grown-up Jo March (Hepburn) deals with a pair of suitors are a little bit thrilling (I wept.)
The production values are first rate, the pace never slackens, and the performances are all successful, especially those of Edna May Oliver as the difficult aunt, Francis Dee and as the silly Amy, and Jean Parker as the sickly, shy Beth.
Paul Lukas, as the middle-aged professor who shows gives Jo March her New York education (a character and sequence excised from the 1994 Winona Ryder version), broke my heart.
Absolutely worth it for Hepburn (never a favorite of mine), who won the Academy Award the same year for the tiresome Morning Glory, and for a good winter's night entertainment.
Mandatory viewing for fans of Old Hollywood and its stars, MGM, slick entertainments. What anyone indifferent to these things would make of it, I couldn't say. Contemporary audiences would have eager to see the star-packed cast, which inlcuded three winners of early-year Academy Awards -- Marie Dressler, John and Lionel Barrymore, Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Billie Burke -- and to laugh at sophisticated Broadway humor. Still, it is sometimes truly boring. Scene follows scene; every scene has a about one point to make, makes it, and then lingers around about a third longer than necessary. But when it works -- the Beery/Harlow fights, Billie Burke's meltdown, every hammy moment with Marie Dressler -- it's pretty wonderful.
And it has, at the very end, that tiny bit with Dressler and Harlow (there only scene together), in which Dressler delivers one of the cinema's most memorable moments, and possibly its alltime most famous and best reaction shot.
His Double Life (1933)
Got an hour? This terrfic comedy of mistaken identity runs about 63 minutes. Maybe that's all some plots need, or deserve. Roland ("Topper") Young stars as the famous, and famously reclusive artist Priam Farrel, who assumes the identity (only part willingly) of his own recently deceased valet, Leek, allowing (only part willingly) the world to think that he himself has died. Young is hugely funny reading his own obituary and attending his own funeral. He falls in love with Alice (Lillian Gish), who thinks Farrel is Leek and doesn't seem to mind when Leek is Farrel. Gish nearly underplays a role that could easily have descended into daffiness (Gracie Fields played the role in a 1943 version (Holy Matrimony), which sounds frightening.)
The Big Country (1958) AAW, GGW -- Burl Ives, Best Actor in a Supporting Role AAN -- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Jerome Moross)
I like this movie. Hadn't seen it for years, and probably only ever did as an Oscar completist, you know, to check Burl Ives's performance off my list. Definitely the movie belongs on the big screen -- there's a running joke through the movie; characters keep telling newcomer Gregory Peck, "it's a big country!" People are dwarfed by the landscape, and their feuds are made to look ridiculous and futile. The movie works, and reportedly was intended, as a cold-war allegory.
Ives win, for his first and only nomination, in the same year he played Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, seems surprising 50 years later, but it's a very effective, and true supporting peformance.
He character, Rufus Hannassey, patriarch of the rough clan that opposes the wealthy, hypocritical Terrills, makes his first appearance in the movie's 57th minute, when he crashes a fancy Terrill party. His speech here is a classic supporting Oscar stuff; screen-dominating, invigorating.
He gets lots of great lines throughout the movie : Buck Hannassey: "You want me, Pa?" Rufus Hannassey: "Before you was born I did."
He kills, and he dies, and he looks impressive in denim.
Ives's performance was the 11th of 14 to win an Oscar in a film directed by William Wyler (the record holder)
AAW, GGW, NYFCC -- David Niven, Actor AAW, GGN -- Wendy Hiller, Supportging Actress
AAN, GGN -- Picture AAN, GGN -- Deborah Kerr, Actress AAN -- Cinematography, Charles Lang AAN -- Writing, Adatation, Terrence Rattigan AAN -- Music, Scoring, David Raksin GGN -- Directing, Anthony Mann
Based on Terrance Rattigan's two-part play, in which the lead actors played dual roles that are split up among the stars here. This is the one about the various inhabitants of a Bournemouth hotel, run by Wendy Hiller. It's kind of really boring, except when Gladys Cooper is stirring up trouble.
The love plot with Burt Lancaster and Rita Hayworth is profoundly uninteresting, inferior to an average television soap, in spite of their star wattage. The third part of their love triangle is Hiller's character, Miss Cooper, who really doesn't have much to do in this movie. She has one big scene, in which she's basically being dumped, and she's very good in it, but it's very subtle work, notable for the absence of her reaction. It's a surprising win (for what would be the second of three career nominations) -- even here, her reaction is cut away from back to Lancaster. If you were compiling an Oscar clip montage, it would be hard to pick out any one moment (she hardly ever expresses feelings of her own, more comments on others' behavior).
Niven plays Major Pollock, who turns out to be (paraphrasing a character) not only a frightful old bore and a fraud but a dirty old man, too. He gets the character right, and much of his success in the role depends on his previous screen persona, refined, upstanding, elegant. It's a supporting role, and Niven's placement in the lead category reasonably had a lot to do with old-school star management -- Niven was too big of a star to "go supporting."
This was Niven's first and only AA nomination. As for Kerr, she is one of my favorites, but here threatens to take her readings from shyness and social anxiety to something resembling mild retardation. It's weird.
Lady for a Day (1933) AAN -- Picture; Director (Frank Capra); Writing; Adaptation (Robert Riskin): Actress in a Leading Role (May Robson)
Capra's first nomination was for this Depression-era tale, based on a Damon Runyon short story, of the superstitious mobster who helps the apple peddler impersonate a society dame. The early parts of the movie, the set-up, are fast and fun. But the movie eventually gets bogged down in Runyonesque territory and the jokes aren't timed well. It goes slack.
Robson is entertaining (boozy, defiant, dignified, and disreputable) up until the moment of her transformation, at which point she's basically sent to the sidelines. She's not really a part of the conspiracy, just its object, and the movie focuses on the maneuverings among the cops, mobsters, and politicians. What makes it work is how conscious the characters are of acting out a fairy tale; they comment on it constantly, and there's a smart scene in which the mobsters rehearse a party crowd scene and begin to catch the "directing bug" -- they're naturals.
Much to admire, though. The skidrow characters are sentimentalized in a manner that makes sense); the final scenes -- at the party but especially in the limousines, provide an appropriate, and stirring and hopeful, fairy-tale conclusion.
Robson's first and only nomination. She is still the third oldest nominee ever in the lead actress category. Capra and Riskin would win their first Oscar's for their next collaboration, It Happened One NIght
The Invisible Man (1933)
Kind of a crazy movie. When the action begins, the Invisible Man is already invisible and already a psychopath. You get the feeling that you've missed the first reel, all of the stuff with the botched experiments and incomplete transformations. However, the movie is apparently quite faithful to the H.G. Wells novel (the commentary track on the DVD is super helpful).
Worth it for: Claude Rains' first sound picture (his first screen appearance, years earlier, is lost) -- Rains famously only appears in the movie's closing moments, it's his voice that made him a star; for Una O'Connor's screaming; for Whale's convincing depiction of the English countryside and its inhabitants; and for the still impressive special effects, which are lucidly explained on the soundtrack commentary.
No Oscar activity but of interest to Oscarites for the early appearance of future nominees Rains, Gloria Stuart, and Henry "Clarence the Angel" Travers (in a rare straight role).
James S. Fulton, who masterminded this movie's special effects, would win his Oscars for The Ten Commandments and 1946's Wonder Man.
AAN -- Supporting Actor, Gig Young; Writing, Original Story and Screenplay, Fay and Michael Kanin GGN -- Actor, Clark Gable; Supporting Actor, Gig Young
Screenwriters Fay and Michael Kanin trying to recreate some Tracy-Hepburn chemistry with Clark Gable and Doris Day. He's the hardbitten veteran editor; she's the journalism professor. It doesn't really work; the romantic stuff feels akward, grafted on to a more engrossing conflict about experience vs. education, and Gable's most tender scenes are with young reporters Nick Adams (the apprentice) and Peter Baldwin (the egghead). His scenes with Gig Young are great fun, too, and it's really not revisionism (I promise) to note that they'd both are really happier and more comfortable with each other than they are with Doris Day. Day does have two nice moments -- one in the classroom, where she eats some crow after having been so strangely hostile (a Day specialty), and another when she tells Gable off in an elevator; (paraprhasing) "you're stupid, and proud of it. This makes you cruel." It's pretty breathtaking
Gig Young got his second supporting nomination for his movie; he would win on his third try, 11 years later, for They Shoot Horses Don't They. He shows up at about the 57th minute and has his first lines at about the hour mark, halfway through.
Always good to see Charles Lane (who I don't think ever moves from his desk chair); fun to see a very young Marion Ross; and a treat to see a rare film appearance by stage actress Vivian Nathan, who's probably best known film role is Bree's pschiatrist in Klute
Other Oscarism : Director George Seaton won two Oscars, for screenwriting (Miracle on 34th St and The Country Girl) and was nominated three other times. He was never nominated for directing. Co-Screenwriter Michael Kanin was an Oscar winner for his Woman of the Year screenplay
I just read this on IMDB after posting --"The script by Fay and Michael Kanin was first written as a drama. When they were turned down by every studio they submitted it to, they rewrote it as a comedy. Paramount Studios immediately purchased the property." Now the whole thing makes sense!
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AAN -- Best Picture, original creenplay (Lawrence Kasdan & Barbara Benedek), supporting actress (Glenn Close)
Weird to watch, it's not a great movie, but it's a decent one. And it's dated of course, as any movie that tries to capture a moment in time would be. Sure, the theme of regret is everlasting, but still. Then again, it's not all the movie's fault -- it's been imitated so many times, by other movies, tv shows, commercials, that it looks doubly stale.
Some scenes still work -- the second-morning breakfast montage, the one with the tennis shoes; the night-of-love montage. But, gosh, the early 80s were a rough time, hair-wise, fashion-wise, for women -- poor Mary Kay Place. All of the stuff with Jo Beth Williams and Tom Berenger is hugely boring.
In her nominated role, Close does v. good work with a not flashy part (Close reveals in a documentary attached to the 15th-anniversary DVD that she wanted the Mary Kay Place role). This was the second of her five nominations. Among the other cast: Hurt would go on to earn one win and four more nominations, Kevin Kline won a supporting award for his only nomination, Tom Berenger and Meg Tilly lost their only time as a nominee.
Watching it, can't help but think that all of the actors are now in their early 60s. Feeling old today.
Busby Berkeley fun. Worth it for the opening number -- Ginger Rogers and company singing "We're in the Money" (clipped into That's Dancing) -- she ends of singing the whole thing over in pig latin. Then the plot begins -- three out-of-work actresses (Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell, and Aline MacMahon) who share an apartment (a bed, too, apparently) and their loves. Pre-production code, so it's kind of racy; people are pretty frank about their sexual histories and desires.
My own retrospective reviewing of 1933 is gathering some momentum -- I liked seeing three castmembers from Lady for a Day -- Williams, Kibbee, and the singular Ned Sparks).
I liked seeing an early version of the classic "three girls trying to make it in Manhattan" story, which they're still re-making.
I liked seeing Keeler, who I've really ever only seen in clips (I'm going to watch 42nd Street next), and a young Joan Blondell.
Oscar stuff - Blondell and MacMahon would each go on to get a single supporting nomination, Rogers, a secondary character here, would win in the lead category seven years later; Berkeley would be nominated three times, but never win, for dance direction.)
Recommended -- one question, though: why does no one ever tell Aline MacMahon to shut up?
Piling on Stanley Kramer is kind of a revisionist bloodsport. You know, all of that liberal messagemaking and pleas for tolerance make people foam at the mouth. But maybe they're just not good movies. The Defiant Ones is beautifully photographed and it has its moments, some good set pieces (climbing out of swampy hole; the iconic train scene, a black hand reaching out for a white hand), but the movie's just predictable and boring, except when it's preposterous, as when Curtis and Poitier take a left turn into Tennessee Williams territory (enter Cara Willams).
AAW (2) -- Cinematography (B/W), Sam Leavitt; Writing, Story and Screenplay, Nedrick Young & Harold Jacob Smith AAN (7) -- Picture, Stanley Kramer; Director, Stanley Kramer; Actor, Tony Curtis; Actor, Sidney Poitier; Supporting Actor, Theodore Bikel; Supporting Actress, Cara Williams; Film Editors, Frederick Knudtson
GGW (1) -- Picture (drama) -- Stanley Kramer GGN (5) -- Director, Curtis, Poitier, Williams, Film promoting international undertanding
NYFCC (3) -- Picture, director, screenplay WFA -- Win, Smith & Young DGA -- Nom, Kramer
Poitier's first of two nominations, doing what he always does; only career AA nominations for Curtis, Williams, and Bikel. First of three directing nominations and third of six producting nomination for Kramer (he never won but they gave him a Thalberg the same year as Judgment of Nuremberg);
There is a short 20th anniversary reunion-style documentary on this DVD titled "Miracles & Mercies" that would be so much fun to do a parody of. Everyone admits that there was tension on the set, between Duvall and Beresford. And the one person who doesn't seem generous and forgiving about it is Duvall, whose comments about Beresford and his fellow actors is so backhanded and really kind of unkind (and all under that peculiar guise of "this is how a true American speaks, although frankly, he comes off like a Lars Von Trier charater). Everyone loves Horton Foote and everyone takes enormous pride in artistic choices of the kind that are "better because they're real" -- something like Duvall's back being to the camera during one big emotional scene or Duvall and Harper filmed in a long shot during the big "garden" scene and all of this makes you think that these choices, though valid, are just as artificial as a dissolving close-up.
All of which is not to say that Tender Mercies isn't a good movie of the "nothing much happens to these real people" variety, because it is, or that Duvall didn't deserve his Oscar, because he really does "inhabit" the role of Mac Sledge, because he does.
I remember seeing this movie when it came out (The folks in the reunion documentary claim proudly that no one saw it) and being very impressed by it. I admire how economic the screenplay is. I guess, though, for a movie in which nothing happens that it seems like a device to kill of a character in an au-to-MO-bile accident.
Mostly, I love Betty Buckley singing "Over You" -- I remember buying the record album on which someone else sang it. And I love Tess Harper in it.
AAW -- Actor, Robert Duvall; Original Screenplay, Horton Foote AAN -- Picture; Director, Bruce Beresford; Original Song, "Over You" (I love this song.)
Duvall wins for the third of his six nominations, the second of three in the lead category. In common with many Oscar winning characters, Duvall's has problems with alcohol. He sings, too.
Beresford's directing nomination is his only one so far (he has a screenwriting nom for "Breaker Morant"
This was Horton Foote's second nomination and second win (following "To Kill a Mockingbird"), and he was nominated again for "The Trip to Bountiful"). So far, three performers have won Oscars in movies with a Horton Foote screenplay -- Gregory Peck, Duvall, and Geraldine Page, with another three nominations -- Mary Badham, Morgan Freeman and Dan Aykroyd.
Tess Harper's only acting nomination so far is for "Crimes of the Heart" -- she made a comeback of sorts this year with her role in "No Country for Old Men"
Originally posted by Gorelick: Tender Mercies (1983)
There is a short 20th anniversary reunion-style documentary on this DVD titled "Miracles & Mercies" that would be so much fun to do a parody of. Everyone admits that there was tension on the set, between Duvall and Beresford. And the one person who doesn't seem generous and forgiving about it is Duvall, whose comments about Beresford and his fellow actors is so backhanded and really kind of unkind (and all under that peculiar guise of "this is how a true American speaks, although frankly, he comes off like a Lars Von Trier charater). Everyone loves Horton Foote and everyone takes enormous pride in artistic choices of the kind that are "better because they're real" -- something like Duvall's back being to the camera during one big emotional scene or Duvall and Harper filmed in a long shot during the big "garden" scene and all of this makes you think that these choices, though valid, are just as artificial as a dissolving close-up.
All of which is not to say that Tender Mercies isn't a good movie of the "nothing much happens to these real people" variety, because it is, or that Duvall didn't deserve his Oscar, because he really does "inhabit" the role of Mac Sledge, because he does.
I remember seeing this movie when it came out (The folks in the reunion documentary claim proudly that no one saw it) and being very impressed by it. I admire how economic the screenplay is. I guess, though, for a movie in which nothing happens that it seems like a device to kill of a character in an au-to-MO-bile accident.
Mostly, I love Betty Buckley singing "Over You" -- I remember buying the record album on which someone else sang it. And I love Tess Harper in it.
AAW -- Actor, Robert Duvall; Original Screenplay, Horton Foote AAN -- Picture; Director, Bruce Beresford; Original Song, "Over You" (I love this song.)
Duvall wins for the third of his six nominations, the second of three in the lead category. In common with many Oscar winning characters, Duvall's has problems with alcohol. He sings, too.
Beresford's directing nomination is his only one so far (he has a screenwriting nom for "Breaker Morant"
This was Horton Foote's second nomination and second win (following "To Kill a Mockingbird"), and he was nominated again for "The Trip to Bountiful"). So far, three performers have won Oscars in movies with a Horton Foote screenplay -- Gregory Peck, Duvall, and Geraldine Page, with another three nominations -- Mary Badham, Morgan Freeman and Dan Aykroyd.
Tess Harper's only acting nomination so far is for "Crimes of the Heart" -- she made a comeback of sorts this year with her role in "No Country for Old Men"
This is one of those acclaimed films I could not get into. It's only around 90 minutes and seems like 3 hours. It is not quietly realistic but so damn quiet it usually comes across as false. People are not that quiet all or even most of the time. Robert Duvall may have won an Oscar but with his indecipherable accent and odd mannerisms he seemed nothing like a real person. In fact if I heard someone talking like that in real life I would believe them to have some sort of mental handicap.
Posts: 13541 | Location: Phoenix, AZ | Registered: February 02, 2003
This is one of those acclaimed films I could not get into. It's only around 90 minutes and seems like 3 hours. It is not quietly realistic but so damn quiet it usually comes across as false. People are not that quiet all or even most of the time. Robert Duvall may have won an Oscar but with his indecipherable accent and odd mannerisms he seemed nothing like a real person. In fact if I heard someone talking like that in real life I would believe them to have some sort of mental handicap.
:-) that's well said, and I love your line "People are not that quiet all or even most of the time." Except in movies that purport to show us something about the real lives of real people. Duvall talks, piously, in the documentary about Hollywood loves to ignore, marginalize, or mock real American peoople in "flyover country" and it made me want to head the nearest martini bar.
Still, I think I'm guilty of having bought into the whole thing back 25 years ago. And I try to be generous to my younger self.
One thing I'll say for it -- at least these characters watch television. Usually in movies like this the characters while away their time singing on front porches, whittling, and hitting each other with frying pans. So, I always like it when a movie depicts its characters doing what it is that people really do. We watch tv.
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I wish I'd watch this before Golddiggers of 1933 -- this movie preceded it to the theaters. It'd've helped explain why Golddiggers opens with a production number -- the sublime "We're in the Money" -- that not only has nothing to do with the plot but actually confuses things. All of the Busby Berkeley numbers in 42nd Street are backloaded -- I guess that builds up the anticipation for them, but still, it's a long time to wait.
Here again are Golddigger cast members Ruby Keeler (whose appeal remains elusive, except that she just seems so ordinary -- anyone could aspire to be her), Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers, Guy Kibbee, Ned Sparks, and, briefly, as always, Charles Lane, along with George Brent, Bebe Daniels, and Warner Baxter (a slob).
I'm enjoying the pre-production code suggetiveness of these 1933 films -- people are definitely shacking up, or at least talking about it -- Rogers plays a character named "Anytime" Annie. Keeler moves without protest into Brent's apartment after knowing him for one day.
The concluding production number holds up, especially the rhythm-of-the-streets portion, in which dancers syncopate to the song - it includes a sexual assualt and murder.
and this line: "You're going out there a youngster, but you've *got* to come back a star!" (which I think I usually hear as "you're coming back a star")
Fun from start to finish, recommended.
Oscar stuff: Baxter had already won his Oscar, Rogers would get hers 7 years later. Una Merkel would get her only nomination, for Summer and Smoke, 29 years later. (I've now scene performances, from 1933, by NY TIMES crossword puzzle perennials UNA Merkel and UNA O'Connor)
I could kick myself for missing this when it showed near me on the big screen last year. On the other hand, it was made for television, so. I remember seeing it when it came out -- I had pretty much forgotten, however, all about some of the later mystical/magical sequences in Isak's house, and I had forgotten, truly, how marginal of a character Fanny is.
In addition to the original theatrical release, Criterion has also put out a two-disk set of the original 5-hour television version as well as a two-disk set of the "Making of Fanny and Alexander" These are both sitting on the free shelf at my local library and I think I'm going to pick them up soon.
My favorite peformances were from Gunn Wallren as the family matriarch, Jann Malmsjo as the cruel stepfather, and Harriet Andersson, in the small but pivotal role as a treacherous servant.
Here's an appreciative essay from novelist Rick Moody on the Criterion web site.
AAW (4) -- Best foreign language film (Sweden), Best cinematogrpahy (Sven Nywist), Best Art Direction-Set Direction (Anna Asp, Susanne Lingheim), Best Costume Design (Marik Vos-Lundh)
AAN (2) -- Best Director (Ingmar Bergman), Best "Original" Screenplay (Ingmar Bergman)
GGW -- Best Foreign Film GGN -- Best Director
Oscar stuff:
"Fanny and Alexader" is tied with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" for the most Oscars wins for a foreign film (4) -- each won Best Foreign film plus three others. "Pan's Labyrinth" also won three competitive awards but lost Best Foreign Film.
Sweden: Three wins, all for Bergman films -- the others were for "The Virgin Spring" (1960), "Through a Glass Darkly" (1961)
Bergman: He has no competetive wins. This was Bergman's third and final directing nomination, following "Cries and Whispers" and "Face to Face" (1976), and his fifth writing nomination following "Wild Strawberries," "Through a Glass Darkly," "Cries and Whispers," and "Autumn Sonata." Bergman won the 1970 Irving Thalberg award. He has one additional nominaation, for producing the Best Picture nominee "Cries and Whisper."
Nykvist -- He won previously for "Cries and Whispers" and was nominated a third time but did not win for "The Unbearable Ligthness of Being"
Vos-Lindh -- Two previous nominations for "The Virgin Spring" and "Cries and Whispers"
Asp/Lingheim -- This was their only win and only nomination.
Future nominee Lena Olin shows up at about the three-hour mark for about 90 seconds, in the role of a nursemaid.
Not quite tortute but close. Only Oscar compeltism should compel anyone to watch this boring movie. Alright. It's not that bad, but I don't like it much. I admire one scene -- Louis Jourdan performing the title song, in the streets of Paris, which culminates in a gorgeous piece of cinema -- the cut from the courtyard to Jourdan galloping up Gigi's staircase. Why, I sat wondering, did Minnelli so resist close-ups, and what was his aversion to moving his camera once it was in place.
Gigi's changes aren't intersting. Gaston's are borderline suspect, and Maurice Chevalier is a crashing irritant. Beside the songs that everyone knows, the Lerner and Loewe score is neglible.
This ranks near the top of my least favorite Best Picture winners.
AAW (9) Best Picture, Best Director (Vincente Minnelli), Best Adapated Screenplay (Alan Jay Lerner), Best Cinematography (Joseph Ruttenburgh), Best Film Editing (Adrienne Fazan), Best Art Direction/Set Decoration (William A. Horning, E. Preston Ames, Henry Grace, F. Keogh Gleason), Best Costume Design (Cecil Beaton), Best Scoring of a Musical Picture (Andre Previn), Best Original Song ("Gigi" by Lerner and Loewe)
Picture -- "Gigi" held the record for most wins for exactly one year until it was outdone by "Ben Hur." Since then "Lord of the Rings" (11), Titanic (11), Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" (11), and "West Side Story" (10)
Minelli -- one previous nomination for "An American in Paris," which won best picture but Minelli lost the directing award to John Ford, who won for "A Place in the Sun"
Ruttenberg -- Fourth win, with previous awards for "The Great Waltz," "Mrs. Miniver," and "Somebody Up There Likes Me." Six more nominations. (I've never heard of him.)
Beaton -- 3 for 3 in Oscar competition. His two other wins were for the art direction and costumes for "My Fair Lady"
Fazan -- one previous nomination, for "American in Paris"
Horning -- One additional win, for "Ben Hur" and five more nominations Ames -- One additional win, for "An American in Paris," and six more nominations Grace -- Another 12 nominations Gleason -- Three additional wins, for "An American in Paris, "The Bad and the Beautiful," and "Somebody Up There Likes Me," and three more nominations
Lerner -- Also won a screenwriting award for "An American in Paris," plus one more screenwriting and three music category nominations. Loewe -- two more music category nominations.
Previn -- Three more scoring wins, for "My Fair Lady" "Irma La Douce," and "Porgy and Bess," plus nine other music category nominations
Leslie Caron has two Oscar nominations, one previous to "Gigi" for "Lili" and one after, for "The L-Shaped Room."
Maurice Chevalier has two Oscar nominations, both in the Academy's third year, for "The Big Pond" and "The Love Parade" He recived an honorary award the same contest year as "Gigi"
Schematic, sure, and never entirely believable, but a good time because of the good performances by Michael Caine and Julie Walters. I remember seeing this in the theater and enjoying it.
It feels like an early 80s movie because of the crummy production values and especially the Georgio Moroderesque syntho-score.
"Rita" reuninted Caine with "Alfie" director Lewis Gilbert, who also helmed (sorry) the Willy Russell project "Shirley Valentine" and, oddly a trio of Bond films. AAN -- Best Actor (Caine), Best Actress (Walters), adapted screenplay (Willy Russell)
GGW -- Best Actor, Best Actress GGN -- Foreign Film, Screnplay
This was Caine's third of four nominations in the lead Oscar category; he is 2 for 2 in the supporting category Walters was subsequently noninated in the supporting category. Russell's only nomination.
AAN -- Best Director, Mark Robson GGN -- Best Actress, Ingrid Bergman; Best Actor, Robert Donat.
An unusual instance of a movie being nominated in only the director category. (It happened more often in the early, silly years of the Academy.)
This movie is not really watchable, not on a small screen. It epitomizes everything negative meant by the "Hollywood" movies of the mid-century -- romantacized, sanitized, bloated. On the other hand, the DVD in current release is gifted with a terrific commentary track, with a trio of intelligent voices -- documentary filmmaker Nick Redman, who is also expert on the movie's biographical subject, the missionary Gladys Alward; 20th Century Fox expert Aubrey Solomon; and excitable Ingrid Bergman biographer Donald Spoto, who pronounces her name the Swedish way.
Solomon particulary helped me understand the movie's shortcomings -- he has insight into the working methods of producer and studio chief Buddy Adler and the limitations of director Robson. It's the kind of movie 20th Century made repeatedly that would prove to be very successful and perhaps win a Golden Globe for "best picture promoting international understanding."
I got through about an hour of the movie before I switched on the commentary and then really enjoyed myself. Without it, "The Inn" is a major slog, and not one minute is really persuasive. Bergman is her gorgeous self but is not believable.
This was Robert Donat's last film role. He was very sick during its production and died soon after its release, and although his casting in teh role of the Mandarin of Yang Cheng is offensive 50 years later, it's a touching performance.
plenty of Oscar pedigree -- Bergman came in with five total nominations and two wins. Donat with two nominations, one of which led to a win. Producer Buddy Adler had won for "From Here to Eternit," and was nominated for "Love is a Many Splendored Thing," and had won the Thalberg two years ago. Cinematographer Freddie Young came in with one nomiantion and would go on to earn four more, three of which led to wins. Composer Malcolm Arnold won the previous Oscar year for his score of "Bridge on the River Kwai." Screenwriter Isobel Leonart had one nomination before "Inn" and another after.
