Best Pictures #19: 1928-29 (2nd) Academy Awards Outstanding Picture Nominee, Alibi (1929)

by A.J.

Best Pictures #19: 1928-29 (2^nd) Academy Awards Outstanding Picture Nominee

Alibi (1929)

I didn’t have a very difficult time finding a copy of Alibi on VHS, but the DVD seems to have gone out of print. However, Alibi is readily available on DVD as part of the collection of early Academy Award Best Picture nominees, The Envelope Please Vol. 1 (which also includes the rare silent Best Picture nominee, The Racket). The home video cover art for Alibi bears a quote from the New York Times declaring, “It is by far the best of the gangster films.” I’m not well acquainted with other gangster films of this time period, but I think it is safe to say that audiences at the time had not seen a crime film quite like this one.

Alibi stars Chester Morris as Chick, a criminal recently released from prison who uses his date with a policeman’s daughter as his alibi for the murder of a police officer. The policeman’s daughter, Joan, believes in giving people second chances and that the police will railroad people just to get a conviction. Her view of the police comes off as rebellious until the film proves her correct, which is what sets Alibi apart from the other gangster films of this era that I have seen. The Racket had corrupt cops and good cops. Nearly every cop in Alibi is a corrupt brute, and the criminals are portrayed just as negatively. The police suspect Chick instantly of the murder of the patrolman based on no evidence, just prejudice, and go about bullying people into naming Chick as the murderer. In one scene two policemen first threaten to frame a random ne'er-do-well for the murder if he doesn’t name Chick; then they threaten to kill him.

Just about every character in Alibi is one dimensional. Once the movie reveals whether or not Chick is the murderer, he, and the movie, become far less interesting. There is one wholly good police officer named Tommy, who is also a suitor of Joan. Though his character ultimately emerges as the hero of the movie, he is also a very bland character. The only continuously interesting character in this movie is Danny, a clichéd drunk played by Regis Toomey, who is friends both with gangsters and cops. He decides to be an informant for the police and is at the center of the most tension filled scene in the movie.

Alibi indulges the new spectacle of sound with as much enthusiasm as other early sound films. Though not a musical, there are more than a few song and dance numbers in the scenes at the nightclub hangout of the gangsters. The film’s opening scene is loaded with sounds: a prison guard twirling his nightstick, a chiming bell, and every step of marching prisoners lining up for roll call. The sound quality of the DVD is mostly good, but becomes spotty at times and even cuts out completely for a moment or two.

Alibi is a visually impressive film and received an unofficial nomination for Art Direction for its bold and stylish art deco sets. City streets rush toward us in a POV of a speeding car. In one scene a character attempts to leap from the roof of one skyscraper to the next only to fall to his death and the effect is pretty impressive. The camera even moves a little bit more than the other early sound movies I’ve seen. In one shot the camera pushes through a crowded nightclub to a line of singing and dancing chorus girls. Perhaps most notable and interesting of all is Alibi's use of light and shadow giving it a look that would become a staple of crime movies and become woven into the fabric of Film Noir.

Alibi certainly feels like an early sound film, as though it is still trying to figure out the best way to use dialogue, images, and sound effects to tell a story. It feels edgy due to the harsh and blatantly negative portrayal of the police, which I admit had me stunned. This is a Pre-Code film, so the strict and puritanical Hays Code censoring and restricting a film's content was not yet being enforced. That edgy portrayal of cops and criminals is Alibi’s defining trait but also its primary flaw. With both cops and criminals equally bad and despicable (except for the one good, bland cop) there is no one to root for. Some aspects of Alibi hold up more than others making it an interesting but uneven early Best Picture nominee.

Nominee: Feature Productions, United Artists

Producer: Roland West

Director: Roland West

Screenplay: Roland West and C. Gardner Sullivan, from the play by John Griffith Wray & J.C. Nugent and Elaine S. Carrington

Cast: Chester Morris, Harry Stubbs, Mae Busch, Eleanor Griffith

Release Date: April 20^th, 1929

Total Nominations: 3, including Outstanding Picture

Win(s): N/A

Other Nominations: Actor-Chester Morris, Art Direction-William Cameron Menzies

Summer Under the Radar Preview 2016

by A.J.

Summer doesn’t officially start until about a month from now, but it has been summer at the movies since the first weekend of May. Summer at the movies is synonymous with the big budget blockbuster movies (usually superhero movies) that you’ve known were premiering this summer whether you are interested in them or not (Captain America: Civil War, X-Men Apocalypse, Ghostbusters, Star Trek Beyond). There are also some smaller scale movies coming out this summer that not everyone may be aware of, but which I think will be a nice break from epic CGI action:

May 20^th

The Nice Guys

Ryan Gosling takes a break from his roles in more experimental films to star with Russell Crowe as a pair of mismatched detectives in this action-comedy film noir set in 1970s California. The Nice Guys is written and directed by Shane Black, who wrote the screenplays for Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout (to name a few) and has directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (another great noir comedy about a mismatched pair of detectives) and arguably the best Marvel movie, Iron Man 3. So far, his track record as writer/director has been very good and, hopefully, The Nice Guys will continue his streak of clever, quality cinema.

May 27^th

Love & Friendship

This is the movie I have been looking forward to the most this year. The films of writer-director Whit Stillman have been described as "comedies of manners” that follow privileged WASP types, but the way I describe his movies when recommending one to a customer at the video store is: it’s like mixing a Woody Allen movie and a Wes Anderson movie together. His latest film, an adaptation of a Jane Austen story, is the moment when critics and fans realized that Stillman has been making modern day Jane Austen stories this whole time. Kate Beckinsale stars as widow Lady Susan who, while staying with her in-laws, seeks to find a husband for her daughter, and one for herself, too. Love & Friendship has already been released in select cities and received many positive reviews. It opens in Austin, TX on May 27^th and I can’t wait.

June 24^th

The Neon Demon

This is the most hesitant I’ve been about seeing any movie for quite a while. Writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn made one of my favorite movies of this decade so far, Drive. He followed that up with one of the most boring and excruciating movie experiences I’ve ever had with Only God Forgives. I’ve watched some of his other films and it seems like Drive might be the fluke in his filmography. However, the casting of Mad Men's Christina Hendricks got me to watch the trailer for The Neon Demon and the trailer is pretty intriguing. Elle Fanning stars as an aspiring model that finds herself in potentially dangerous surroundings. IMDB.com classifies this movie as Horror/Thriller and if the coin flips one way, an intense, psychological thriller along the lines of Black Swan might be in store; if the coin flips the other way, this movie might just be very pretty and very frustrating. I’ll wait for reviews for The Neon Demon come in before I venture out the theater, or just stay home and watch Drive again. Here is the trailer, which, on its own, I highly recommend watching.

July 15^th

The Infiltrator

Bryan Cranston finds himself in the world of illegal drugs again in The Infiltrator. This time he is on the side of the authorities, U.S. Customs to be exact, in this movie based on the true story of a drug and money laundering sting aimed at apprehending Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Cranston is paired with John Leguizamo and they have to go undercover in the dangerous world of the drug trade. The trailer plays up the action, but I’m interested to see what Cranston does with this material.

August 5^th

The Founder

I’m surprised The Founder isn’t being released later in the year, during Oscar season, since this seems like a movie the Academy would look favorably upon. Michael Keaton plays Ray Kroc, the founder (but not creator) of McDonald’s. Kroc finds the small, but fast burger restaurant run by the McDonald brothers (played by Nick Offerman and John Carrol Lynch) and expands their business into a larger and larger franchise. It’s not exactly what the brothers thought they were getting into, but Kroc is determined to make the business as big and successful as possible, and he's not going to let anyone get in his way. The Founder has an interesting subject and a great cast, so I am on board.

August 12^th

Café Society

It’s the new Woody Allen movie, so this might as well be required viewing for me. Allen’s last two films, Irrational Man and Magic in Moonlight, were way under par in just about every aspect, but Allen just keeps churning out film after film and hopefully the odds are in our favor for Café Society. As always, this Woody Allen movie features a talented cast including Jesse Eisenberg, Steve Carell, Kristen Stewart, Cory Stoll, and Parker Posey. Eisenberg plays a young man from the Bronx who movies out to Hollywood to help his uncle, who is a powerful agent (Carell), and falls in love with his uncle’s secretary (Stewart). It’s a period film, set in 1930’s Hollywood, so even if this wasn’t a Woody Allen movie I would still be very excited to see it in theaters.

Best Pictures #18: 1928-29 (2nd) Academy Awards Outstanding Picture Nominee, In Old Arizona

by A.J.

1928-29 (2^nd) Academy Awards Outstanding Picture Nominee

In Old Arizona (1928)

Based on the O. Henry story “The Caballero’s Way,” In Old Arizona is about the charming Mexican bandit, the Cisco Kid, whose unfaithful lover, Tonia, plots to turn him in for reward money to the U.S. Army sergeant assigned to capture him. The plot is simple enough for entertaining western, but that film would have to be much shorter than this one. This movie somehow just doesn’t have enough plot or substantial characters to fill out its relatively short runtime of 95 minutes. So, the film drags and drags. Its main concern is the very new and exciting spectacle of sound. It is clear that this was the big draw for audiences in 1928. The poster art advertises the film as “100% ALL-TALKING” and has the tag line “You Hear What You See While Enjoying… In Old Arizona.”

In Old Arizona, available on DVD, Blu-Ray, and, YouTube.com (for the moment), has the distinction of being the first western nominated for Best Picture (unofficially, since there were no official nominations that year) and being the first sound film shot primarily outdoors. Raoul Walsh was originally set to both direct and star as the Cisco Kid and shot some scenes but had to be replaced after a jackrabbit jumped through the windshield of his car causing him to have an accident in which he lost his right eye. He was replaced by Irving Cumming as director and Warner Baxter as the smiling, lovable Cisco Kid, for which he won for Best Actor.

I’m sure audiences would have been transfixed and excited by seeing and hearing actors talk on screen. In Old Arizona gives the audience what it wants but an unintended side effect is some scenes go on for way too long. After dialogue concerning plot points has been delivered, any given scene will carry on with extraneous dialogue. I was pretty invested in the Cisco Kid’s breakfast of ham and eggs because so much was said of the meal. When the Cisco Kid meets the comically cocksure Sergeant Dunn, who doesn’t know that the Kid looks like, they exchange some friendly words at a barbershop. That scene moves a little slow but is funny and pretty entertaining. Then they go outside and talk some more. Though this is not a musical there is a fair amount of singing from the Cisco Kid and the soldiers of the nearby army battalion. The Cisco Kid is a sort of prototype of the singing cowboy archetype that would be perfected in later western/musicals.

There are many things that make In Old Arizona feel very, very dated and it does not quite have the charm necessary to overlook those aspects. The style of acting from every character is heightened and exaggerated like it would be in a silent film. There is very little camera movement and for some scenes I thought that it must surely be bolted to the ground. The sound quality for each scene depends on how close the actors are standing to the hidden microphone, and when they speak they are projecting like they would in the theatre. Baxter and Dorothy Burgess, as Tonia, speak with heavily accented broken English. This film is most interesting, and perhaps only interesting, as an example of a film from the early sound era when talking pictures where still finding their footing.

In Old Arizona could have been a better film, or at least more entertaining, if it was shorter. There are some funny moments with heavy innuendos. The thin story is stretched to breaking and only picks up at very end for the climatic confrontation between the Cisco Kid, Tonia, and Sergeant Dunn. I suppose I can’t blame this movie too much for being so preoccupied with sound and talking, but I know from the silent films of just the previous year that filmmakers were capable of turning out interesting stories with full-fledged characters and good, steady pacing. I wish that In Old Arizona found interesting dialogue for the characters to speak and audiences to hear.

Nominee: Fox 

Producer: Winfield Sheehan     

Director: Irving Cummings, Raoul Walsh

Screenplay: Tom Barry, based on the story “The Caballero’s Way” by O. Henry

Cast: Warner Baxter, Edmund Lowe, Dorothy Burgess

Release Date: December 25^th, 1928

Total Nominations: 5, including Outstanding Picture

Win: Best Actor-Warner Baxter

Other Nominations: Director-Irving Cummings, Writing-Tom Barry, Cinematography-Arthur Edeson

Classic Movie Picks: May 2016

by Lani

Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies schedule for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

5/9, 10 PM - Two Guys from Milwaukee (1946) 
Blustery comic Jack Carson and handsome crooner Dennis Morgan were Warner Brothers' version of Paramount's popular screen duo Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Carson and Morgan made 11 films together, though not all were starring vehicles for them as a team. Reportedly friends in real life, the two have an easy chemistry which makes their films fun to watch. 
In Milwaukee, Morgan is a Balkan prince who slips away from his security detail while in New York City in order to see how the common folk live (and possibly meet his favorite starlet, Lauren Bacall). Carson is the streetwise cabbie who takes the prince under his wing after Morgan claims to be from Carson's hometown of Milwaukee. The rest of the cast is full of solid Warners contract players like Joan Leslie and Janis Paige providing romantic intrigue and S.Z. Sakall bringing his inimitable brand of comic relief. Luckily Lauren Bacall was also under contract at Warners, so she shows up for a cameo, too, alongside new husband Humphrey Bogart.

5/23: Peabody Award Winners
8 PM - Green Eyes (1977)
10 PM - Hoop Dreams (1994)
1 AM - Promise (1986)
3 AM - George Wallace (1997)
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Peabody Awards, which honor outstanding achievement in media. TCM is showing four Peabody-winning films, three of which were originally made for TV. Green Eyes stars the great Paul Winfield as a Vietnam vet who returns to southeast Asia to find the son he left behind. Made in 1977, this film was one of the first to show the effects of the Vietnam war on veterans. In Promise, James Garner stars as a man who must assume custody of his schizophrenic younger brother, played by James Woods, after the death of their mother. Woods received an Emmy and Golden Globe for his performance. George Wallace is a biopic about the four term governor of Alabama who was a proponent of racial segregation, then changed his views late in life. In award-winning performances all around, Gary Sinise stars as Wallace and Mare Winningham and Angelina Jolie play his first and second wives Lurleen and Cornelia.
The fourth film of the night is the watershed documentary Hoop Dreams. The film by noted documentarian Steve James follows two Chicago teens with dreams of playing in the NBA. Their lives don't follow the predictable path of a Hollywood plot; watching these two families confront numerous obstacles and how it affects their pursuit of the American dream will keep you riveted. Despite winning a Peabody, and being one of the most critically acclaimed documentaries of all time, Hoop Dreams was not even nominated for an Academy Award. The public outcry at the time resulted in the Academy changing its nomination process for documentaries, making it impossible for a small group of voters to skew the results in favor of their favorites, as had been the case before.

5/26, 8 PM - The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
On Thursdays this month, TCM is spotlighting the movies of American International Pictures. AIP was an independent production company in the 50s, 60s, and 70s known for low budget movies aimed at teenagers, ranging from the kooky antics of Beach Party antics to biker gang delinquents to goofy horror movies starring Vincent Price, like tonight's feature in which Price plays the titular Dr. Phibes.
The mysterious Phibes is killing off a string of doctors whom he blames for the untimely death of Mrs. Phibes. The deaths, arbitrarily based the Old Testament plagues, just get more and more gruesome and improbable. However, the film is self-aware enough to have fun with the over-the-top story and sprinkles in moments of black comedy, such when a detective arriving at a murder scene remarks, "A brass unicorn has been catapulted across a London street and impaled an eminent surgeon...words fail me, gentlemen."
It is no surprise that director Robert Fuest was also an art director; the "Edwardian England meets Swinging London" sets are a feast for the eyes, particularly Phibes' bizarre lair where he lives and with his equally enigmatic female assistant Vulnavia. (Yes, Vulnavia.) The plot is almost secondary to the unexpected and creative visuals - I would describe them in more detail, but don't want to ruin the surprise of seeing everything for the first time. 
This is a thoroughly weird little movie and probably not for everyone, but if you have an appreciation for camp and creativity, you'll find plenty to like about Phibes.

5/27, 7:15 AM - Chang (1927)
Chang is a silent pseudo-documentary from filmmaker-adventurers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack made six years before their best-known creation, King Kong. The film follows a family of Lao tribesman living in the jungles of northern Siam. The film sought to portray the day-to-day life of the Lao and the dangers they faced in the untamed jungle. Though the people are not actors, most of the scenes were staged reenactments -- a common practice of "documentary" film of the time, but one which makes the film seem less than authentic today. Much of the film concerns the wild animals encountered by the tribe -- including tigers, leopards, and elephants -- and these scenes are all extremely exciting. While the situation may have been staged for the benefit of the film, the tiger charging at the cameraman is still very real and very dangerous. These scenes give the film the feeling of a rip-roaring adventure tale. 
Chang was nominated in the first Academy Awards in the category of "Unique and Artistic Picture," a separate category from Best Picture, but one which was considered of equal prestige. It is a truly unique film and if you're interested in learning more about it, my co-blogger A.J. reviewed Chang for his best pictures series.