From Here To Eternity 1953

The Film:

I've (shockingly) not seen this film before. But this is what I (think I) know about it in advance:

Firstly, it's the one where Burt and Deb get sand in their knickers doing very some very Code-risky things on a beach. Much talked about, much imitated (including by Danny and Sandy in Grease, Ted and Elaine in Airplane! and Marge and Homer Simpson - and probably several more!) and probably the only bit of the film that I've seen.

Secondly, I know it's an army-thing based in Hawaii. Sort of like South Pacific without the songs. I'm possibly going to be proved very wrong on the second count there.

Thirdly, it's where Frankie won his Oscar. Doing something uncharacteristically dramatic and revitalising his career in the process. But I don't know anything more than that.

I also know it won loads of Oscars - but do I think it deserves them?

The Ceremony:

For the second year running the awards were given out in both Hollywood and New York, this time on March 25th 1954.

Frederic March did the duties again in New York while Donald O'Connor hosted at the Pantages Theater. Which gives me chance to say how great I think Donald O'Connor is. Amazing dancer, subtly great comedian and just a nice guy. Thank God he was in Singin In The Rain so that people remember him, because most of his other work appears to have been forgotten. Here he is opening the show - he comes on about 7 minutes in, and hands over to March at about 9 mins 30:

Other Notable Winners That Night:

Frankie took the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and the wholesome Donna Reed took the equivalent award for also playing against type as the not-quite prostitute Alma/Lorene. And that's all FHTE got for acting. 

Burt and Monty missed out, possibly due to All-About-Eve-like vote-splitting allowing William Holden to come through and get his Oscar. And this was the year that Audrey Hepburn made her debut and took the Oscar from Deborah Kerr.

And the Oscar actually goes to.....

Pretty much everything else seemed to go to From Here To Eternity. However, quite possibly the most significant winner of the night wasn't even mentioned at the ceremony. Dalton Trumbo wrote the Oscar-winning script to Roman Holiday but was blacklisted at the time so no one "officially" knew he had written it and the award was given to another screenwriter acting as his front. He was finally recognised as the winner in 1993 when the award was presented posthumously. Bryan Cranston was nominated for Best Actor in 2015 for playing him (and, imho, should have won!) giving him further recognition with the Academy. Cheers Dalton!


Best Song:

One of my favourite songs of all time, from one of my favourite movies. I'm going to restrain my self and resist the urge to heap loads and loads of praise on the fabulous Doris Day and the wonderful Secret Love! Just watch and enjoy...

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

Greg and Aud in the Eternal City

I am more than happy to give this one to From Here To Eternity - and particularly to Fred Zinneman who waited one year longer than he should for one of his films to win the big one!

The other nominees included two Roman epics, Julius Caesar and The Robe (the Roman epic will triumph in a few year's time) and, like High Noon, another "cerebral" western, Shane. I saw Shane a long time ago and remember quite liking it - although my lasting memory is of the little boy in it whining "Don't go Shane, come back Shane" over and over at the end. It's number three in the AFI Top Ten Westerns (one above Unforgiven) so it could possibly have been seen as a worthy contender here. 

However, my vote for runner up would have to be Roman Holiday, which won three Oscars (the other one, naturally, went to Edith Head) and introduced us all to Audrey Hepburn, which is a good enough reason to love it in my book. It's a great early example of the sort of romantic comedy that is still (just about) being made today and is still watched and loved by many.

Our Verdict:

Frankie rolls snake eyes with olives

I liked it. We both liked it. But generally we were a little bit underwhelmed by the whole thing. I think that's possibly because we knew it was a classic and were expecting to be bowled over by it, like we had been in the mid-forties with other black and white dramas. So maybe we were holding it to unfairly high standards. That said, there are a good many great things about it.

The Last Post....*sniff*

The plot is a good one and is well-adapted from what was apparently considered to be an unfilmable novel that ran to 800 pages. There are several key characters and themes and they generally work really well.

The film is set at an Army Base in Hawaii and the date is clearly set as June 1941 - which, at least for audiences in 1953, clearly signalled an imminent Pearl Harbor attack. However, the film isn't about Pearl Harbor - it is merely a plot point in the last reel. The film is about the experiences and relationships between the people that live in and around the base.

Monty gets the girl - and the girl gets the Oscar

Montgomery Clift (who, imho, should have won the Oscar!) plays Pte Prewitt, a bugler and former boxing champ who is reassigned at his request after injuring another man in the ring. He refuses to box for his new company and, as a result, is bullied mercilessly at the orders of his Captain. He forms two strong relationships while there - Pte Maggio (Sinatra) who is a wise-cracking, drinking but ultimately decent friend to Prew, until things go wrong for him; and Lorene/Alma who is one of the "girls" at the local bar (never referred to as a prostitute, for Code reasons). Lorene is played by Donna Reed who had already established herself as a wholesome American girl, but plays against type convincingly enough to grab an Oscar. These three are the heart of the film - the most interesting and likeable characters, and the best acted. Particularly Clift who shows what a great (and sadly wasted, for several reasons) talent he was with a subtle performance that sucks you right in.

They'll be finding sand everywhere for days.

However, it's Burt and Deborah on the beach that everyone remembers - mainly because of the risque nature of that particular scene at that time in Hollywood history. The fact that they are both wearing rather more than half the circus performers were in last years' winner says a lot about social attitudes at the time! Neither of these two characters really did much for me. Burt (office assistant to the Captain) and Deborah (promiscuous wife of the equally promiscuous Captain) are both perfectly fine but, ultimately, I didn't really feel for their characters the same way as I did for the others. Having said that it is interesting to see Deborah Kerr playing against type so much (as with Donna Reed) and I think the decision to go against type in much of the casting here is a great one that adds a lot to the overall effect of the film.

The closing scenes with the attack on Pearl Harbor and the impact it has on our characters is well paced and well filmed - but we have been spoilt slightly by watching the end of All Quiet On The Western Front as part of this challenge. War films are going to have to go some to beat that!

In it's favour FHTE isn't really a war film - it's a character study and it's a pretty damning look at army life. In many ways it's an anti-bullying film as much as it is anything else. Some people get their comeuppance, but not everyone has a happy ending. That (along with Monty and Frankie) is ultimately why I liked it.