Now that we've done the Top Ten, the first nine awards, and had some time to think, I present the exciting conclusion to our 1945 coverage with the unveiling of the final nine winners for the 1945 Retro Hollmann Awards:
Best Costume Design
A Royal Scandal
René Hubert
2. The Picture of Dorian Gray (Irene / Valles); 3. Can't Help Singing (Walter Plunkett); 4. A Song to Remember (Walter Plunkett); 5.The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Joseph Bato)
In A Royal Scandal, Catherine the Great is kept in gorgeous style, and even though much of the wardrobe is capital-c Costuming - this is a satire, after all, not entirely serious - you do get a sense of how class, country, and influence all determine what everyone is wearing. I think of William Eythe’s transformation from patriot on the fringes to queen’s consort, especially, and of Vincent Price’s foppish French ambassador. Following that, The Picture of Dorian Gray’s costumes may be the best feature of that film, I’m still thinking about Deanna Durbin’s dresses in Can’t Help Singing and Merle Oberon’s pants in A Song to Remember, and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp covers a wide range of looks across history, nations, class, and military rank.
Best Sound
State Fair
Bernard Freericks / Roger Heman, Sr., sound
2. The Body Snatcher (Bailey Fesler / Terry Kellum); 3. National Velvet (Douglas Shearer / Robert Shirley / Newell Sparks / Michael Steinore / Charles E. Wallace); 4.The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Desmond Dew / C.C. Stevens); 5. Back to Bataan (James G. Stewart / Earl A. Wolcott)
All the sounds of the farm and the fair executed wittily (the pig snorts, the judges’ atomizer spray and lip-smacking) as well as romantically (the calliope) - and the music and the singing of course - make State Fair’s sound design my favorite by far. Followed by The Body Snatcher’s sharp screams and eerie silences, National Velvet’s horses, and the battles of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and Back to Bataan.
Best Supporting Actress
Ann Savage as Vera
Detour
2. Ann Blyth in Mildred Pierce; 3. Eve Arden in Mildred Pierce; 4. Anne Revere in National Velvet; 5. Marjorie Main in Murder, He Says
The ferocity Savage brings with a single look, she’s alert, calculating the next five steps, sizing every man up for potential danger…or potential opportunity. A feral, unforgettable performance, it is she who makes Detour into the grimy classic that it is. Why isn’t she lead? Because I consider everyone in this film to be a projection of the male protagonist, and she doesn’t show up for 32 minutes. I’ve already written about my love for the performance from Blyth, Revere, and Arden, but I also want to pay tribute to Main: if you know her best as Ma Kettle, you must watch her darker spin on the “simple country momma” role…from two years before! She’s a fearsome hoot.
Best Cinematography
1. Leave Her to Heaven
Leon Shamroy
2. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Georges Périnal
3. Story of G.I. Joe
Russell Metty
4. National Velvet
Leonard Smith
5. The Spanish Main
George Barnes
Best Adapted Screenplay
To Have and Have Not
Jules Furthman and William Faulkner
from the novel by Ernest Hemingway
2. National Velvet (Theodore Reeves / Helen Deutsch); 3. The Keys of the Kingdom (Joseph L. Mankiewicz / Nunnally Johnson); 4. And Then There Were None (Dudley Nichols); 5. The Clock (Robert Nathan / Joseph Schrank)
Difficult to cull down to just these five (I’m sorry, State Fair and Mildred Pierce!), but these are the ones where I was most struck by the storytelling, the feats of adaptation, and/or the dialogue. Most especially, of course, To Have and Have Not, with its straightforward plotting, memorable cast of characters, and sexy dialogue ("You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve?" or "It's even better when you help"), all built on the loosest framework constructed out of a Hemingway novel and a dash of Casablanca.
Best Original Song
1. State Fair - "It Might as Well Be Spring”
music by Richard Rodgers
lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
2. Anchors Aweigh - "We Hate to Leave"
music by Jule Styne
lyrics by Sammy Cahn
3. State Fair - "All I Owe Ioway"
music by Richard Rodgers
lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
4. Anchors Aweigh - "I Begged Her"
music by Jule Styne
lyrics by Sammy Cahn
5. Here Come the Co-Eds - "Jumping On a Saturday Night"
music by Edgar Fairchild
lyrics by Jack Brooks
Best Actress
Gene Tierney as Ellen Berent Harland
Leave Her to Heaven
2. Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not; 3. Tallulah Bankhead in A Royal Scandal; 4. Barbara Stanwyck in Christmas in Connecticut; 5. Fay Bainter in State Fair
Apologies to Ms. Crawford, who can comfort herself with her actual Oscar. And I've already gone into what I love about Tierney's performance in Leave Her to Heaven, one containing a degree of empathy and complexity you rarely find in such femme fatale roles. Bacall is here for an electric debut, Bankhead is great fun as Catherine the Great, Stanwyck is her usual perfect self, and yes, I consider all six main performers of State Fair to be leads, and that includes Bainter, who always understands just how to meet the tone of her film.
Best Actor
Roger Livesey as Clive Wynne-Candy
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
2. Gregory Peck in The Keys of the Kingdom; 3. Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend; 4. Charles Winninger in State Fair; 5. Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not
Whatever the hell edit of Colonel Blimp made it stateside must have been dire for such a performance as Livesey's to be blanked entirely. Charming yet frustrating, pompous yet caring, a code of honor and decency sincerely lived, Livesey makes you believe in Wynne-Candy. He has 40 years of a man's life to inhabit, and he does it without letting us see the cracks in the performance. An epic star performance. Followed by Peck and Milland, whose performances I've discussed before; Winninger, who may be my favorite performance in State Fair, and Bogart, who manages to make Harry feel like more than a Rick retread.
Best Motion Picture of the Year
State Fair
produced by William Perlberg
2. National Velvet (Pandro S. Berman / Clarence Brown); 3. Leave Her to Heaven (William A. Bacher); 4. The Keys of the Kingdom (Joseph L. Mankiewicz); 5. Detour (Leon Fromkess)
6. Christmas in Connecticut; 7. And Then There Were None; 8. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp; 9. Mildred Pierce; 10. To Have and Have Not
A reminder - the first five titles are the official Best Picture nominees with their credited producers in parentheticals, while 6-10 round out the rankings of my Top Ten. Anyway, another very close call between the top three, but right now, my heart remains with my long-loved State Fair, a top-tier musical for me.
In all, 33 films were nominated, with State Fair nominated the most (9 in all), yet tying with both Detour and Leave Her to Heaven for wins (3 apiece).
And there's the year 1945, a year that saw the end of a War, the beginnings of more global conflicts, and a Hollywood that seemed relieved that it could focus on other topics. When we come back next week, we start in on a new year, and the last Hitchcock nomination: 1960, the year of Psycho.
No comments:
Post a Comment