Our last batch of reviews before we get into the Oscar categories themselves:
Laura
release: November
wins: Best Cinematography - Black-and-White
nominations: Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Clifton Webb), Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration - Black-and-White (Lyle R. Wheeler / Leland Fuller / Thomas Little)
dir/pr: Otto Preminger
scr: Jay Dratler and Samuel Hoffenstein and Elizabeth Reinhardt, from the novel by Vera Caspary
cin: Joseph LaShelle
A detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating. A look at how men feel entitled to defining a woman’s identity, even when she’s dead, even when they didn’t know her. Maybe it is too sympathetic to Dana Andrews’ clenched detective, but it still carries that theme beautifully. That’s thanks, too, to its ensemble of Hollywood’s best character actors playing a gallery of eccentrics, each so nasty you can easily see any and all of them being the culprit. Grisly crime, haunting score, great movie.
Mrs. Parkington
release: November
nominations: Best Actress (Greer Garson), Best Supporting Actress (Agnes Moorehead)
dir: Tay Garnett
pr: Leon Gordon
scr: Robert Thoeren and Polly James, from the novel by Louis Bromfield
cin: Joseph Ruttenberg
One of the nation's wealthiest widows reflects on her life amidst family squabbling. Always a treat when Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon team up, they bring something special out in one another. Garson especially impresses here, going from a young scullery maid working her mother’s boardinghouse to a paragon of wealth, class, and a bygone era - and the way she wrestles with that change is a thrill to watch. Pidgeon’s also terrific as a ruthless businessman who always gets what he wants, sometimes to the detriment of himself and Mrs. Parkington. Sets and costumes are lavish but true; the makeup impressed me most, aging the stars across decades without burying them…and it’s held up! Loved this.
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
release: November
wins: Best Special Effects (A. Arnold Gillespie / Donald Jahraus / Warren Newcombe / Douglas Shearer)
nominations: Best Cinematography - Black-and-White
dir: Mervyn LeRoy
pr: Sam Zimbalist
scr: Dalton Trumbo, from the book by Captain Ted W. Lawson and Robert Considine
cin: Harold Rosson / Robert Surtees
The preparation, execution, and aftermath of the Doolittle Raid, the first airstrike against Japan by the American military. Spencer Tracy is Doolittle, but the star is Van Johnson as Ted Lawson. Effects and documentary footage make the inferno come horribly alive. I’m not on either Johnson or Robert Walker (though he comes out best), and I’m not big on this movie, either.
Irish Eyes Are Smiling
release: November 7
nominations: Best Musical Score (Alfred Newman)
dir: Gregory Ratoff
pr: Damon Runyon
scr: Earl Baldwin and John Tucker Battle, from a story by E.A. Ellington
cin: James S. Hodgson / Harry Jackson
The life of songwriter Ernest R. Ball. Honestly, you’ve seen one 1940s fictionalized bio of a songwriter, you’ve seen ‘em all. Most interesting to me is the involvement of writer Damon Runyon as a producer! This is his third and final credit as such, despite signing a two-film-a-year contract with Fox in 1942. This was the same year he was diagnosed with throat cancer, which effected his speech and, eventually, led to his death in 1946.
The Princess and the Pirate
release: November 17
nominations: Best Score (David Rose), Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration - Color (Ernst Fegté / Howard Bristol)
dir: David Butler
pr: Samuel Goldwyn
scr: Don Hartman & Melville Shavelson and Everett Freeman, adaptation by Allen Boretz and Curtis Kenyon, from a story by Sy Bartlett
cin: Victor Milner / William E. Snyder
A two-bit actor somehow gets caught up with a kidnapped princess and ruthless pirates. Love Bob Hope, but this one doesn’t feel as inventive as many of the others, first time I could really feel the formula at work.
Meet Me in St Louis
release: November 28
wins: Juvenile Award for Outstanding Child Actress (Margaret O'Brien)
nominations: Best Screenplay, Best Musical Score (George Stoll), Best Original Song ("The Trolley Song"), Best Cinematography - Color
dir: Vincente Minnelli
pr: Arthur Freed
scr: Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe, from the novel by Sally Benson
cin: George J. Folsey
A year in the life of the Smith family as they anticipate the 1903 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. So perfectly does it capture a family that we feel we know every single member intimately. That helps when the mood winds down, whether it's a piano duet between Leon Ames and Mary Astor or "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” - it’s never boring, they’ve earned it, they’re family. The latter song and scene made the film a perennial favorite in December, though it's the Halloween sequence that I love best, its cinematography, editing, and performance by Margaret O’Brien capturing the excitement and eerie beauty of that holiday. And of course, Judy Garland, well, isn’t she incredible and incredibly beautiful here?
Brazil
release: November 30
nominations: Best Musical Score, Best Original Song ("Rio de Janeiro"), Best Sound (Daniel j. Blomberg)
dir: Joseph Santley
pr: Robert North
scr: Frank Gill Jr., and Laura Kerr, original story by Richard English
cin: Jack A. Marta
An American author is romanced by a Brazilian composer masquerading as twins. Killer songs, absolutely stupid storyline - but who cares? The movie knows it, the actors know it, they also know that you're here for good tunes and good times, and they deliver! The song "Brazil" is played and reprised a few times, but that's a 1939 tune from songwriter Ary Barroso - though here we get it with English lyrics! Part of a string of South American-set films made to promote FDR's "Good Neighbor" policy, promoting good relations and fewer military campaigns.
House of Frankenstein
release: December 1
dir: Erle C. Kenton
pr: Paul Malvern
scr: Edward T. Lowe, Jr., story by Curt Siodmak
cin: George Robinson
A mad scientist resurrects Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster, and also the Wolf Man is here. Really fun first half as Karloff and J. Carrol Naish take over a carnival and seek revenge against the people that wronged them, using the Monsters to help. Loses steam in the second half - indeed, it feels like two incomplete films using Karloff and Naish as a link. The sequence with John Carradine as Dracula is classy, spooky, sexy, and ends awesomely.
The Mummy's Curse
release: December 22
dir: Leslie Goodwins
pr: Oliver Drake / Ben Pivar
scr: Bernard Schubert, story by Leon Abrams and Dwight V. Babcock
cin: Virgil Miller
The mumym Kharis continues his slow reign of terror. Final installment, very creaky, though with some fun bayou atmospherics. My favorite aspect is how the mumym Kharis has become something everyone in town accepts, "Oh, yes, the ol' resurrected mummy out to kill for the love of his princess, heh-heh, yeah, that gets out of hand every now and then."
Hollywood Canteen
release: December 31
nominations: Best Musical Score, (Ray Heindorf), Best Original Song ("Sweet Dreams Sweetheart"), Best Sound (Nathan Levinson)
dir/scr: Delmer Daves
pr: Alex Gottlieb
cin: Bert Glennon
A serviceman on leave comes to the famous Hollywood Canteen, meets a bunch of stars, and romances Joan Leslie (playing herself). A collection of musical numbers and skits held together by, surprisingly, an actual plot that charms, even if it's bizarre to have an actress play herself as a romantic lead - one who may be a Hollywood star but still lives at home, where Mom and Dad can meet and approve of the young soldier! Silly, but feels good to watch. Bette Davis does a great Bette Davis, and it's fun to see how the whole operation worked: celebrities really did as depicted here: dancing with soldiers, waiting tables, washing dishes, doing their part for morale. Not a very flattering portrait of Our Boys, many of whom come across as, well, dumb.
Jack London
release: December 24, 1943
nominations: Best Score (Freddie Rich)
dir: Alfred Santell
pr: Samuel Bronston
scr: Ernest Pascal, adaptation by Ernest Pascal and Isaac Don Levine, from The Book of Jack London by Charmian London
cin: John W. Boyle
Sorry, forgot this one when I did the first post, but I did watch it! It's a bio of Jack London, author of The Call of the Wild and White Fang, though it's even more so a wartime propaganda film. Bookended by footage of the launching of the Liberty ship Jack London, the movie whips through his life as a hobo, sailor, rebellious college student, and even best-selling author, all so that we can follow his adventures as a journalist covering the Russo-Japanese War, where he first learns that Japan has a secret plan to dominate the world. It's determined that we not only hate the Japanese army, but the Japanese people as insidious, untrustworthy. That's the real reason this movie exists, with Jack London used as the symbol of America's fighting spirit. Did people still need convincing at this point?
Next time, we begin the Oscar categories, starting with Best Actor: Charles Boyer (Gaslight), Bing Crosby (Going My Way), Barry Fitzgerald (Going My Way), Cary Grant (None But the Lonely Heart), and Alexander Knox (Wilson),
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