Review of the 30s

The 30s - The Beginnings of the Oscars

With the epic technicolor dramatics of Gone With The Wind we end the first full decade of the Academy Awards (ok, technically we're talking 12 years and 13 films, but the first three needed to be tagged on somewhere!).

We began with the end of the Silent era and ended with the beginnings of mega-budget Technicolor blockbusters - a decade of many changes....

When we started I had seen three of these films before (the two Capras and Gone With the Wind). The other ten have varied from just being "historically interesting" to being surprisingly compelling and, in a couple of cases, really quite brilliant.

My Top Ten (as they stand today!) is as follows:

Film of the Decade! 

1. Grand Hotel
2. Gone With The Wind
3. It Happened One Night
4. Sunrise
5. Mutiny On The Bounty (that one surprised me!)
6. You Can't Take It With You
7. All Quiet On The Western Front
8. The Life Of Emile Zola
9. Cimarron
10. Wings

(the other three are mentioned below.....)


Here's my Awards of the decade. Apart from the "non-winners" category, only the Best Picture winning films were eligible.

Best Picture

Nominees:   
Sunrise
Grand Hotel
It Happened One Night
Mutiny on the Bounty
Gone With The Wind

And the winner is.....

Grand Hotel - it's the one that I wanted to watch again, it had great performances and a cracking story. I loved it!


Best Director

Nominees:   
Frank Capra (It Happened One Night, You Can't Take It With You)
Lewis Milestone (All Quiet On The Western Front)
Frank Lloyd (Cavalcade, Mutiny On The Bounty)
FW Murnau (Sunrise)
Victor Fleming (Gone With The Wind)

And the winner is.....

Frank Capra - of course. He was nominated five times as Director in the 30s and he won three of them. I know he's a bit marmite for film buffs, but I really like him!


Best Actor

Nominees:   
Clark Gable (It Happened One Night, Mutiny on the Bounty, Gone With The Wind)
John Barrymore (Grand Hotel)
Lionel Barrymore (Grand Hotel, You Can't Take It With You)
Lew Ayres (All Quiet On The Western Front)
Paul Muni (The Life Of Emile Zola)

And the winner is.....


Lionel Barrymore - with an honourable mention to his fabulous brother! Clark Gable is everywhere but, as Andy says, he generally just plays Clark Gable in different settings. LB on the other hand is totally different in his two roles here, and completely brilliant in both.

Best Actress

Nominees:   
Janet Gaynor (Sunrise)
Joan Crawford (Grand Hotel)
Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night)
Vivien Leigh (Gone With The Wind)
Olivia de Havilland (Gone With The Wind)

And the winner is.....

It took the Academy 14 more
years to give Joan an Oscar!

Joan Crawford AND Vivien Leigh - because ties have happened before, and they are so different and both fab. (Andy would have gone for Janet Gaynor btw). If I really had to I'd probably have to say Joan Crawford, mainly because I was really surprised at how good she was - especially as most of my reference points for her are Mommie-Dearest-era melodrama. But Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara is also an all time classic.






Best Non-Winning Picture

Nominees:    

42nd Street
Top Hat
Mr Deeds Goes To Town
A Star Is Born
Mr Smith Goes To Washington

And the winner is.....

42nd Street - mainly because of what it lost out to (Cavalcade) and because it would have meant that a properly good Broadway-based musical would have won an Oscar in a decade where there were some great ones (and two not so great winners!)

Hooray for Fanny Brice!

Worst Picture

Nominees:    
The Broadway Melody
Cavalcade
The Great Ziegfeld

Just three duds - and I'm not sure I can separate them. The Broadway Melody suffered from the time in which it was made (and was just about redeemed by Bessie Love!), Cavalcade was just too stiff and wooden and weirdly paced (and was just about redeemed by Fanny Bridges!). And The Great Ziegfeld was an hour too long with a story too slight (and was just about redeemed by Fanny Brice!)

Gone With The Wind 1939

The Film:

We've arrived at the first absolutely mega winner - there probably isn't a great deal to say about this film that hasn't already been said. But I'll give it a go.

It was the first winner in colour (and there wouldn't be another one for over a decade!) and it remains the longest film to win Best Picture - clocking in at 221 minutes (or 238 including the Overture, Interval and Exit music). It was one of the most expensive films ever made at the time and, with adjustments for inflation, remains to this day the biggest box office hit of all time.

It was nominated for 13 awards and won 8 of them - a record at the time, and this in a year with an incredibly strong field!

It is still regarded by many as a masterpiece today. Although it is criticised by some for its portrayal of African Americans, it is still praised by others for the prominence it gave to African American actors (see below).

It's important today to remember that this is a film made nearly 80 years ago about events that took place nearly 80 years before then. We're in the 2010s watching a 1930s take on the 1860s. Which is a bit difficult to get your head around.....

The Ceremony:

Bob begins his longstanding relationship with Oscar

The ceremony took place on February 29th 1940 at the Coconut Grove. New categories this year included Special Effects and the splitting of Cinematography into Colour and Black and White.

It was the first time an award was given posthumously (to Sidney Howard for his Gone With The Wind Screenplay) and the first nomination and win for an African American - and the first time attendance at the ceremony wasn't all white (see below!).

It was also the first Ceremony to be hosted by Bob Hope who went on to host it a record nineteen times - the last one being in 1978. There will be a lot more of him in this blog no doubt.....



Other Notable Winners That Night:

Hattie and her Oscar
(the Supporting categories only got a plaque in those days!)

Best Actress went to Vivien Leigh - although apparently it was a close-run thing with Bette Davis. Best Actor was Robert Donat for Goodbye Mr Chips. People tend to think Clark Gable was pipped to it, but it was actually a shock to many on the night that James Stewart didn't win for Mr Smith Goes To Washington (and having seen all three performances, I'm inclined to agree!)

But the most notable winner of the night had to be Hattie McDaniel. Aside from the fact that she was quite brilliant as Mammy in Gone With The Wind and thoroughly deserved the award on merit, it was a significant move to recognise her in this way, considering the social and political climate in the US at the time. A year earlier McDaniel and the other African American actors in the film had not been allowed to attend the premiere in Georgia because of segregation laws. The Academy had to get special permission for her to attend the Awards Ceremony, because the Coconut Grove was also segregated. She was allowed to attend but was placed at a separate table near the back of the room with just her escort - although some of the film's production team moved to sit with them.

It seems like a different world - but it's arguable that we haven't come as far as we think since then, which the #Oscarsowhite controversy a couple of years ago highlighted.

Best Song:

It really was a vintage year wasn't it? It doesn't even matter what else was nominated in this category (not a lot, actually!) - this needs no introduction to anyone pretty much anywhere on the planet:

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

It's ok Jimmy - we'll see you again next year!

I don't think there is any doubt that the Best Film won this one. It ticks all the boxes needed and is still well regarded today.

However - the field was very strong. On any other year there would have been several other strong contenders (who would have beaten last year's and probably next year's winners quite easily). I've seen most of these and they are all well regarded today. The list is as follows:
Dark Victory (Bette acting her socks off)
Goodbye Mr Chips (Heartwarming Oscar fodder)
Love Affair (the better version of An Affair to Remember)
Mr Smith Goes To Washington (Frank and Jimmy at their best - a winner in another year!)
Ninochka (Garbo laughs!)
Of Mice And Men (great version of Steinbeck classic)
Stagecoach (classic Western)
Wuthering Heights (Olivier at his moodiest)
Wizard of Oz (nuff said!)

Our Verdict:

Well - it's about the fifth or sixth time I've seen this film. Second time for Andy. I've always liked it, probably more than it really deserves. It is flawed - possibly in its politics (some of the title cards are a bit too glorifying - and the jury is out on the possible racist slant of some scenes), arguably in pacing (the second half drags a bit - particularly when you're sitting there waiting for people to hurry up and die!) and definitely in acting (a fair bit of wooden melodrama and a few dodgy accents). However - just look at the the thing! And remember that it was made in 1939!!! The technicolor is amazing and the cinematography is just stunning. There are some incredible crowd scenes and great special effects (particularly the Atlanta burning sequence). The costumes and sets are glorious and there is some really unusual and intelligent framing of some of the intimate scenes. It may be nearly four hours - but it's four hours well spent!
The thing that struck me this time was how the whole thing was really about Scarlett's relationships - and by that I don't mean her husbands (except one), but in a wider sense. Everything revolves around her inability to focus on what is actually good for her - she is blinded by her own ideas of what her life should be. Some of this makes her strong and likeable. A lot of it makes her selfish and bitchy. And in the best scenes it makes her vulnerable.

Ashley. Wet. And ever so slightly annoying
when called out to in a Southern Accent.

Firstly there's Ashley. I have absolutely no idea why she is so smitten with Ashley for so long, but there you go! He colours every other decision she makes in her life without really doing anything except exist and be married to someone else. I don't know how far it's the character and how far it's the acting (Leslie Howard was too old and too English - he was Professor Higgins the year before!) but this is the weak link and the least believable relationship for me.

Rhett. I get it, but they were both as bad as each other!

Then there's Rhett. I know we are supposed to see this as one of the greatest love affairs in film (or something) but really the only thing he had going for him (apart from the money) was that he was clever enough to get the measure of Scarlett and stand up to her early on. There's some sort of deep down decency in him (the way he is with Melanie and with Belle at the brothel) but he's still selfish and a bit too caddish - I had a lot less time for him on this viewing. The way he talks to Scarlett has shades of what (some) modern women see today in Christian Grey. And that put me right off!

A girl should always listen to her Mammy!

Scarlett needs to pay more attention to the women in her life - they are the best relationships she's got. Right from the beginning of the story Mammy always tells her exactly what she thinks and doesn't shy away from telling her off when she is behaving like a spoilt brat. And she continues to do this right through the rest of the story. Generally Scarlett takes the scoldings - although she doesn't always act on them - and there is a lot of love and respect between the two. Hattie McDaniel's performance in this role absolutely nails it and makes Mammy one of the strongest characters in the story - as well as the wisest, with the most common sense. She also stands up for herself and commands respect. All very significant.

Poor Melanie.......

And then we come to Melanie. She's Andy's favourite character. I have to admit that it takes the first hour to warm to her. I find her a bit too good and sickly sweet at the beginning of the story. When she gives her wedding ring away at the fundraiser it's all a bit vomit-inducing. However, she wins me round as she and Scarlett get closer and it becomes more apparent (to this viewer anyway!) that she knows exactly why Scarlett is hanging around her so much, and she deals with the whole thing with kindness and dignity. She is the strong one - she is far too good for Ashley!

After all, tomorrow is another day......

Scarlett should have listened to the women in her life a little more - and things wouldn't have been so complicated. However, Scarlett's real true love is revealed in the last few lines of dialogue in the film. Everyone remembers "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!" - but it's what comes next that really matters. Some viewers apparently were miffed that the story didn't end properly or that there wasn't a sequel. But it was a great ending. The only thing Scarlett truly loved, that she would do anything for, risk her life and work her fingers to the bone (literally) was Tara. This was her problem all along, and what makes her such a great character - she's a 21st Century feminist businesswoman trapped in the Deep South in the 1860s!

You Can't Take It With You 1938

The Film:

This, like our previous Capra winner, is another film that I know pretty well. It comes from being an unashamed Capra fan! Having said that, I still find it surprising that this was one of his Best Picture winners - when Mr Deeds, Mr Smith and George Bailey all lost out!

However - it's a good 'un and it gives a nice slice of Hollywood's version of American 30s family life. It's based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play and is very much an ensemble piece (Lionel Barrymore plays the lead - but he's only just the lead....). The wider cast is unusually large for a film of its style.

It's the second Capra film to win Best Picture and the third win for Capra as Best Director, all within the space of five years. He had a good decade - even though his most famous and successful film is still another eight years away. It's the first Capra film to star James Stewart (unfortunately we only get to see him once more on this challenge - in heavy make up!) and it also has an early appearance by Ann Miller, dancing her way through the film as she always did (unfortunately this is the only time we'll see her!)



The Ceremony:

It was held at the Biltmore again - on 23rd February 1939. There was no official host that year (no

Yes, it's Shirley again - so what, it's the 30s!

idea why!) and all radio coverage was banned (again, no idea why!).

It was the first year to feature a Foreign Language Film in the nominations for Best Picture (there was no separate category back then) - Renoir's Grand Illusion. It was also the second year in a row that someone won back-to-back awards. This time Spencer Tracy.

After a fair bit of outcry that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was snubbed the year before (and it would be a long time before Animated Features had their own category!) the film was given an honorary award - of one big Oscar and seven little ones!


Other Notable Winners That Night: 

Spencer and Bette - and rather a lot of feathers

Spencer Tracy took Best Actor (again), this time for Boys Town (one of my Dad's favourites!). Best Actress went to Bette Davis for Jezebel.

The other big winner was The Adventures of Robin Hood which took a couple of technical awards and Best Score for Erich Korngold - for what is generally regarded to be one of the great film scores of all time!




Best Song:

Nothing else on the list (apart from Jeepers Creepers!) rings any bells and this one's a classic, so it's probably a worthy winner. From The Big Broadcast of 1938 (which I've just found on Youtube so I'm going to have to check it out!) here's Bob Hope and Shirley Ross with "Thanks for the Memory":

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

Damn you Capra - Can't take it with you?
Well give it to me then!

I like Capra. I like You Can't Take It With You. But I like at least four other Capra films better - and there are also some absolute classics on the Best Picture list this year. I can think of three that probably deserve the award more (just as Mr Deeds Goes To Town did a few years earlier....)

Grand Illusion is now considered to be one of the greatest films ever made, certainly one of the best French films ever. But it was probably a little too French for 30s Hollywood.

Pygmalion is also a really good film. Its musical remake won the Oscar, so I suppose we can overlook this one. But it's a shame more people aren't aware of the original non-singing Eliza Doolittle!

Really though, the Oscar should have gone to The Adventures of Robin Hood. In Technicolor! With Errol Flynn! And generally considered one of the greatest swash-bucklers of all time. Yep, sorry Frank. Robin Hood was robbed!


Our Verdict:

The wonderful Lionel Barrymore!

This is a really lovely film - and a joy to watch. Even though I think it shouldn't have won, I still really enjoyed watching it again. It's a film that is very much of its time but it still has quite a lot to say about money, politics and the American Dream that is relevant to modern audiences.

Grandpa Vanderhof (played by the always excellent Lionel B!) has all the best lines, like these ones - "When things go a little bad these days you go out and get yourself an -ism and you're in business" and "Lincoln said 'with malice towards no one and charity towards all'. Nowadays they say 'think the way I do or I'll bomb the daylights outta you'". Nothing much has changed!

James and Jean - if in doubt, dance...

Lionel B is brilliant here and totally holds the film together as the eccentric head of an eccentric family who shows kindness to all and gives everyone and everything a real chance. He plays the whole thing on crutches because his arthritis was making it difficult to walk - most of his remaining film roles are wheelchair bound (such as Mr Potter in It's A Wonderful Life).

James Stewart is fab playing the banker's son who, in many ways, is like a younger version of Grandpa - with a naive acceptance of everyone and everything. He can't see why there should be a problem with him marrying his secretary, even though she's not from a wealthy family, actually from a very unusual family and, furthermore, from the family that is scuppering his father's big business deal. I love James Stewart anyway - and this early role shows clearly what was to come over the next decade or so.

Just your average day at the Vanderhof/Sycamore house...

Polly-wolly-doodle on the harmonica - it solves everything!

The rest of the extended family are also great - including Mr Poppins who quits his accounting job on a whim to make his toys because Grandpa invites him to do so, Dad and the ice man making fireworks in the cellar, Mother writing plays because they got given a typewriter one day by mistake, and sister Essie dancing all the time, with her xylophone-playing husband and her Russian dance teacher.

The characters and the situations are completely wacky and over-the-top - but the writing and acting really aren't. It works as a heartwarming comedy drama, with some funny scenes and set pieces, but ultimately a good story with nice resolution and something decent and worthwhile to say.

Grandpa, for all his determination and eccentricities, puts the needs of his family first and agrees to sell the house - only for everything to turn out right in the end when fat cat Kirby realises what he's missing out on over a rousing duet of Polly-wolly-doodle on the harmonica.

And why not!

The Life Of Emile Zola 1937

The Film:

A bio-pic won for the second year running. But Florenz Ziegfeld and Emile Zola don't really have a great deal else in common (except both their surnames begin with Z and have led to the only two winners to have a Z in their title!). I knew very little about the film before watching it - except that it would be my film of choice if there was ever a Best Picture Oscars round on Pointless!

The film itself has come under quite a lot of scrutiny in recent years as one of several from the era that are alleged to have been watered down in order to avoid offending Hitler, and there for be able to be sold to Nazi Germany. The facts of the case that the film dramatizes make it very clear that anti-semitism played a significant part. But this barely gets even hinted at - and the word "Jew" doesn't appear at all. Modern theories suggest that Hays and Breen (of Hays Code infamy) were clearly behind it all - with Jewish film-makers such as Jack Warner caught in the middle of the whole thing. As with last week, there's a whole other film to be made there....

It was proving a bit tricky to find a Region 2 DVD out there for less than about £20 - but then I found several copies of the film on Youtube. This seemed to be the best - you need to go to part two for the last half hour:

The Ceremony:

The 10th Academy Awards ceremony was postponed from March 3rd to March 10th 1938, because of the Los Angeles flood. Yet again, it was held at the Biltmore.

This was the last year for the categories "Dance Direction" and "Assistant Director" - and the first year that a colour film (A Star Is Born) was nominated for Best Picture.

It was hosted by Bob Burns who was a big radio comedy star at the time - most famous for playing an instrument he invented himself which he called the Bazooka. The wonders of Youtube bring us this little explanation:

Other Notable Winners That Night:

For the third year running Best Picture didn't win Best Director - that went to Leo McCarey for the Cary Grant comedy The Awful Truth. (Leo McCarey will be back again in a few years' time....)

Luise Rainer became the first person to win consecutive acting Oscars, alongside Spencer Tracey

Janet Gaynor (especially for Andy) -
blazing a trail for Judy, Barbra and Gaga!

 (who would repeat the feat the following year). It's generally accepted that Rainer was a bit more deserving this year than last - she plays a very dramatic role in a dramatic film (alongside Paul Muni again - there were definitely fewer actors out there back then, and they made a great many more films in a shorter space of time!)

A Star is Born won "Best Story" (the equivalent of Original Screenplay) - this was clearly well deserved as the film is currently being remade yet again - after Janet Gaynor we got Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand and now Lady Gaga!



Best Song:

We get a bit of Bing singing Best Song this year - Sweet Leilani from Waikiki Wedding. Hindsight suggests strongly that Gershwin was robbed - he was nominated posthumously for "They Can't Take That Away From Me". Maybe people wanted a bit of a break from Fred and Ginger?

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

Another excuse for a Kate pic - this time with Ginger!

There are some big films on the list, several of which I've seen before - personal favourites are Stage Door (with Kate and Ginger being fab in New York), One Hundred Men and a Girl (my other favourite Deanna Durbin film) and the aforementioned A Star Is Born. But that's because they are the sort of films I like! Also up there are Lost Horizon and Captains Courageous among others.

I think I'd rather have been watching A Star Is Born. But I've seen that already - and there's no way I would have watched Emile Zola if it hadn't won the award.



Our Verdict:

 I went into this with no preconceptions or expectations - other than that I presumed the whole thing would be well acted (or at least Zola and Dreyfus).

After a bit more hair dye and a few trims for the opening scene.

I was drawn into the story pretty much straight away. The film was essentially in three parts. The first told the main part of Zola's life story - from being a struggling writer, to meeting Nana and writing Nana and becoming notorious and famous and rich. It went at a fair pace for about half an hour - with ever growing and whitening beard - and left him feeling content and ready to settle down to a nice life and to stop rocking the political/social boat.

(Apparently Paul Muni shot the scenes in reverse order after having grown his own beard - as Zola got younger, the beard got dyed and trimmed!)

Gid moaning. I am a Fronch Poloceman.
I was jist pissing the cofe....

The story then very abruptly moves to Dreyfus and there is no further mention of Zola for another half an hour or so, until Dreyfus is languishing in his cell. If you weren't aware of the story before watching the film it would seem like a very abrupt shift of focus - one that would have been done more subtly these days, probably cutting more between the two. However, I think it works really well. We get to know both of our main protagonists separately - and they only link together when their lives do.

Here is where all the anti-semitism is shockingly missing. You see the word "Jew" on a page and someone remarks on how someone "like that" could ever have become an officer. But everything is either implied or just missing.

Almost unrecognisable Mr Muni -
and nothing like on the poster!

Anyway - Dreyfus is set up (for no discernible reason...!) and off he goes to Devil's Island. Back to Zola who is very reluctant to get involved in anything, but eventually publishes "J'Accuse" and forces the case out in the open by being arrested for libel.

The court scene is very well done - some very clear (and still relevant) statements on the difference between being loyal to your country and loyal to whatever regime is running your country and lots about Truth and Justice. And it's ridiculous that Paul Muni didn't join Luise Rainer in winning an Oscar two years running - he is brilliant throughout!

I won't give away the complexities of the ending, but it all turns out well for Dreyfus - not so for Zola, who stands as a lesson to all of us to check our carbon monoxide detectors!

Justice! And Freedom!

There is a lovely scene where Dreyfus is released and just given his papers and left by the open door of his cell. He walks through it and then back several times almost in disbelief with a growing smile on his face. It's small, subtle and really quite brilliant. And one of the reasons Joseph Schildkraut won the Oscar.

Overall, it was a very good film and definitely worth watching. Deep and moving, well written and well acted. Sadly it's become very dated, mainly for the avoidance of the anti-semitism. But it's still a very good piece of drama.