Best Pictures #29: 1929-30 (3rd) Academy Awards, My Pick for Outstanding Production

by A.J.

Best Pictures #29: 1929-30 (3^rd) Academy Awards

My Pick for Outstanding Production

The first time in which all Academy members voted on the selection of nominees and winners, instead of a 5-member selection board as with the first two awards ceremonies, was at the 3^rd Academy Awards. The ceremony was held in November to be closer to the end of the qualifying year (August 1^st, 1929-July 31^st, 1930). Though still in its nascent stages, the Academy Awards at this time already feels like the modern awards. There were 5 Best Picture nominees (then called Outstanding Production) that included a big budget epic, a feel good musical romance, a historical biopic, a sociopolitical drama, and a daring portrayal of adult relationships.

The films themselves feel as though they have come a long way since the switch from silent to sound just a couple years prior. The sound quality of all of the nominees is greatly improved from the 2^nd Academy Awards nominees—the sound quality of which depended on how close the actors were to a hidden microphone. Improvements with camera and microphone technology meant that actors did not have to huddle around that hidden microphone and the camera did not have to be far away and motionless—in some cases sealed in a soundproof booth—so the microphone would not pick its noises. The camera and actors could move more freely which allowed for more interesting cinematography and staging. There is still that ambient hiss that pervades throughout early sound films, but there’s no need to crank up the volume. Every sound in these films is clearly audible and the sound design and effects are used to help and enhance the story, not just dazzle the audience as a novelty. These films seem to have learned that dialing back on sound and using just images is still as effective as it was with silent movies. All Quiet on the Western Front, The Big House, The Divorcee, and The Love Parade all have memorable scenes which use the lack of dialogue for effect on the audience. The sound quality of movies with outdoor scenes is greatly improved from the 1^st outdoor talkie, In Old Arizona. With these films sound is now just another element of movies, like costumes and music. It works in the background to help tell the story. The silent era was now indeed just that, an era with beginning and end dates. There were not “talkies” anymore, there were only movies.

The films of this qualifying year seem to be more aware of and willing to deal with social issues. Every film from the birth of sound until the summer of 1934 is a Pre-Code film, made before the enforcement of the Hays Code which strictly regulated the content and subject matter of films. All Quiet on the Western Front and The Big House make their audiences confront the realities of groups of people society sends away and doesn’t think about too much afterwards. I can understand why the Academy voters selected All Quiet on the Western Front as the Outstanding Production of that year. The Great War was a major event that still weighed large on that generation. It was a daring portrayal of war that mass audiences likely had not seen and showed what veterans likely would not readily share. It is a fine classic war film, though dated, but I would cast my vote differently.

My Pick for Outstanding Production of 1929-30: The Divorcee(1930)

The film from this group of Outstanding Production nominees that I would most want to see again and would most readily recommend to anyone, classic film fan or not, is The Divorcee. The best thing about the film is its main character, Jerry, and Norma Shearer’s Oscar winning performance. I do not think the film judges Jerry for “living it up” after her divorce or for not waiting for men to come to her, but it does treat that behavior as an aberration. Jerry never becomes immoral, she only wants equality. Having a character like this as the star of a movie, no matter how the film ends, is an accomplishment of sorts. Another accomplishment The Divorcee makes is finding the right balance between social consciousness and entertainment. 

The Divorcee begins and ends as a romance, has drama in between, and never feels uneven. Whether with fun scenes of lavish parties or serious scenes between Jerry and her sister, the film maintains a steady pace. The male characters that surround her (Ted, Don, and Paul) are entertaining characters as well. The comedy in The Divorcee certainly holds up and, along with the performances, makes it a lively film. Certain camera shots and sequences keep it visually interesting too.

A modern viewer might be disappointed in The Divorcee’s view of divorce as an unacceptable social ill, but I also think a modern viewer will be far more sympathetic and understanding of Jerry and her actions. The film does not take a stand against double standards and unfairness and inequality toward women, but in simply acknowledging that such things existed The Divorcee was bold and daring for its time. Its values may be dated, but The Divorcee is no less entertaining.

Best Pictures #28: 1929-30 (3rd) Academy Awards Outstanding Production Winner, All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

by A.J.

Best Pictures #28: 1929-30 (3^rd) Academy Awards Outstanding Production Winner

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

All Quiet on the Western Front was not the first big budget war film to be nominated for or win Best Picture—that would be Wings (1927)—but it is the first antiwar film to be recognized by the Academy. This film opens with a title card explaining that it is “neither an accusation or a confession… least of all an adventure… It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war…” Wings was an adventure film about young men that dreamed of flying airplanes. In 7^th Heaven (1927) war was a fact of life that interrupts a couple’s romance. All Quiet on the Western Front has its main character telling a classroom full of boys eager to enlist in the army and go the frontlines, “It’s dirty and painful to die for your country.” The boys and their teacher call him a coward.

At the beginning of the film The Great War has just broken out and young Paul (Lew Ayers) jumps up from his desk at school to declare that he is enlisting in the army after his teacher gives an ultra-patriotic speech about the glory of war. The other young men in class follow suit and jump up and declare they will go off to war too. They all hope to go to the front and they all expect to come home in one piece. Their first experience as soldiers is the petty tyranny of the local postman turned drill sergeant. He makes sure the boys get plenty muddy and miss their leave, but that is just another school experience that in no way prepares them for real combat. The harsh realities of modern warfare overwhelm Paul and the rest of the new recruits almost immediately and their experiences only get worse and worse as the war goes on and on.

All Quiet on the Western Front had the large budget of $1.4 million (the equivalent of nearly $21 million in 2016 dollars). With the then recent stock market crash and ensuing depression less a year before, it was quite a risk for Universal and its studio head, Carl Laemlle, Jr. The risk turned out to be worthwhile. All Quiet on the Western Front was a hit at the box office and won Universal its first Best Picture Oscar. The film was less well received abroad however, most notably in Germany. Based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, inspired by his own experiences at the front, this is one of the few films about World War I to portray Germans as the main characters. Laemmle himself was a German immigrant and he and director Lewis Milestone felt they made a film that was antiwar, not anti-German. The film caused riots in Germany, most notably Berlin, where the disruptions of screenings—mice were released into theaters showing the film—and subsequent riots—the beating of projectionists and anyone that looked Jewish—were led by Joseph Goebbels and Nazi thugs. The film was ultimately banned by the German government, though the Nazi party had yet to take power. Laemmle agreed to make cuts to the film and even took out an ad in a Berlin newspaper explaining that the film was not anti-German, it just objectively showed the experience of war. The film was rereleased but memories of the Nazi riots kept audiences away. It would be banned again by the Nazi government a few years later. Interestingly, it was banned in Poland for being pro-German.

There are several shots and sequences that keep All Quiet on the Western Front visually interesting; a stark contrast to the visually dull The Racket (1928), also directed by Milestone. Milestone won Best Director, his second Oscar, making him the first person to win more than one Oscar and All Quiet on the Western Front the first film to win awards for Best Picture and Best Director. One of the most memorable scenes in the movie is an extended tracking shot that shows enemy soldiers running toward machinegun fire and being mowed down and tumbling into barbed wire. A bomb goes off in front of one enemy soldier and when the smoke clears we see a brief shot of his severed hands clutching the barbed wire. The rest of him is nowhere to be found.

I think this would have been a violent film for its time. Though there is very little blood, there are many, many dead bodies. There are explosions galore, bursting bombs, and hand to hand combat, but none of it is exciting in an adventurous way. One of the early battle scenes has the soldiers hunkered down under a prolonged bombardment. The shelling goes on and on and the roof of their bunker cracks dumping dirt on them. It is not the glorious adventure they imagined as schoolboys.

Perhaps because the characters, even the main characters, are all basic, thin archetypes, I was never fully engaged with this movie. They serve the plot just fine, but All Quiet on the Western Front feels like it is lacking full-fledged characters. The performances of Louis Wolheim and Lew Ayers may have been fine for the time that this film was released, but they do not hold up as well as the technical aspects. The heightened, exaggerated acting style of time feels at odds with the gritty realism All Quiet on the Western Front was aiming to achieve. 

All Quiet on the Western Front is impressive technically for its battle scenes and sound quality. Even more impressive is the fact that it was a big Hollywood movie that dared to acknowledge the many horrors of war at a time when sentimentality and happy endings were the order of the day. It is hard not to hold all of the antiwar film beats and clichés against All Quiet on the Western Front, however, as with its fellow Outstanding Production nominee, The Big House and its genre clichés, it must be kept in mind that this film is the source of those familiar beats and plot points. All Quiet on the Western Front is notable for being the first Best Picture winner that was more than pure escapist entertainment. Unfortunately it has not aged well.

Nominee: Universal

Producer: Carl Laemmle, Jr.

Director: Lewis Milestone

Screenplay: George Abbott, adaptation & dialogue by Maxwell Anderson, adaptation by Del Andrews, based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque

Cast: Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayers, John Wray

Release Date: August 24^th, 1930

Total Nominations: 4, including Outstanding Production

Win(s): Outstanding Production, Director-Lewis Milestone

Other Nominations: Writing-George Abbott, Maxwell Anderson, Del Andrews, Cinematography-Arthur Edeson

Best Pictures #27: 1929-30 (3rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee, The Big House (1930)

by A.J.

Best Pictures #27: 1929-30 (3^rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

The Big House (1930)

The Big House, released in 1930, is considered by classic film fans and film historians to be the first realistic prison movie produced by Hollywood. MGM production chief Irving Thalberg sent screenwriter Francis Marion to San Quentin State Prison to observe real prisoners, guards, and conditions inside prison walls. She interviewed inmates and prison staff alike. The result was a screenplay that won Marion the Oscar for Best Writing, making her the first woman to win a non-acting Academy Award.

The Big House stars Chester Morris, Robert Montgomery (who also appeared together in The Divorcee), and Wallace Beery as cellmates. Each handles prison life in a different way. Robert Montgomery plays Kent, who has just begun a 10-year sentence for killing someone while driving drunk. He is put in a cell with Morgan (Chester Morris), a thief on the verge of parole, and Machine Gun Butch (Wallace Beery), a ruthless multiple murderer that runs the cellblock. Beery had been out of work for more than a year when cast in The Big House. Though Beery had been a successful character actor during the silent era and done a successful sound test, his contract was dropped by Paramount when the studio converted to sound. Beery’s performance earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor and his career rebounded.

Directed by Francis Marion’s husband, George Hill, The Big House is well paced and well shot. The lighting design of certain scenes with low light and harsh shadows is reminiscent of Film Noir, a subgenre that is defined in part by its use of shadows and antiheroes that wouldn’t be fully developed until the mid-1940’s. As Morgan is marched from the cell block down to the dungeon for solitary confinement, the light fades and shadows envelope the frame. Morgan and Butch, also in solitary, call out to each other over the shouts, screams, and singing of the other inmates. All we see is the empty, dark hallway as the scene slowly fades out.

There is a brief respite from the bleak drudgery of prison life when Morgan escapes after losing his parole. He visits Kent’s sister, Anne, with whom he has been infatuated since seeing her picture. Anne goes from being suspicious of Morgan to falling in love with him rather quickly. It is his brief time with her that convinces him to go straight after he’s captured and taken back to prison. When Morgan won’t go along with Butch’s big escape plan, Butch thinks that Morgan has turned into an informer. The climax of The Big House is a full-blown riot and shootout between guards and prisoners. Each side has pistols, rifles, and Tommy guns. At one point army tanks roll into the fray.

The performances all around are pretty good. The first character we meet is Kent as he is being processed into the prison. As he unravels and buddies up to the prison’s main informer, Morgan emerges as our sympathetic hero. Montgomery is great playing a character that is not cut out for prison, scared, and just trying to get by and get out, misguided as he might be. Chester Morris is quite good as Morgan; when he decides to go straight we believe his change. The warden, played by Lewis Stone, is also an interesting character. Neither cruel nor corrupt, he is a reasonable, benevolent man. He sees clearly the problems of his prison and the prison system as a whole, but is powerless to make any changes to better the situation. He tells a guard that the prison was built to hold 1,800 men but has 3,000 prisoners. They want to lock them up, he says, but don’t want to provide for them after they’re locked up. The guard replies, “The whole prison system is cock-eyed.” The flaws of the prison system that Francis Marion observed and wrote into her screenplay in 1930 still remain unfortunately accurate.

Douglas Shearer, Norma Shearer’s brother, won the first Academy Award for Sound Recording for his work in The Big House, and the sound design is very good and effective indeed. The first thing we hear is the sound of marching footsteps of prisoners. That sound is repeated throughout the film, and it is also the last thing we hear over the “The End” card instead of closing music. The footsteps on hard floors and gravel, food slopping on plates, and crowd noises are all pronounced and important to the effectiveness of the images. The sound cues in The Big House do more than just match what happens on screen, they underline and emphasize it. The shots of dozens upon dozens of prisoners marching in line, often from the shoulder down, or filling the mess hall, sitting at the same time, being served at the same time, all wearing the same uniform and making the same sounds suggests that humanity and individuality have been stripped away from these men.

I think The Big House is as realistic as a film of this time could be, even during the Pre-Code era. The Big House probably would not hold up to more recent prison dramas, but it is still an entertaining film. It has good performances from all the main players, great cinematography, a great screenplay, and even a dark sense of humor. Morgan warns Butch against including a certain violent prisoner in the escape, but Butch replies, “sure, Hawk cut his mother’s throat, but he was sorry about it.”

The Big House has every prison movie cliché you would expect to see in a prison movie: escape plans, stool pigeons, riots, cruel guards, bad food. However, like many genre films from this time period, it is the source of those clichés. All of the beats and plotlines still work and are still effective and entertaining.

Nominee: Cosmopolitan, MGM

Producer: Irving Thalberg (uncredited)

Director: George W. Hill

Screenplay: story and dialogue by Frances Marion, additional dialogue by Joe Farnham and Martin Flavin

Cast: Chester Morris, Wallace Beery, Robert Montgomery, Lewis Stone, Leila Hyams

Release Date: June 24^th, 1930

Total Nominations: 4, including Outstanding Production

Win(s): Writing-Frances Marion, Sound Recording-Douglas Shearer

Other Nominations: Actor-Wallace Beery

Classic Movie Picks: January 2017

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.)

1/4, 10 PM - Reds (1981)
Scheduled as part of an evening highlighting "quadruple threats," Reds was directed, produced, and written (with the assistance of playwright Trevor Griffiths and screenwriters Robert Towne and Elaine May) by Warren Beatty. Beatty also stars as journalist/activist/adventurer John Reed, whose best-known work Ten Days That Shook the World, chronicled the Russian Bolsheviks' rise to power in 1919. The film takes us along for Reed's many exploits, while also focusing on his romance with journalist Louise Bryant (played by Diane Keaton). Reds received 12 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, screenplay, and acting nods for Beatty and Keaton, and ultimately won three awards for Maureen Stapleton's supporting performance as anarchist Emma Goldman, Vittorio Storaro's cinematography, and Beatty's direction. Beatty holds the distinction, shared only by Orson Welles (I believe), of earning Oscar nominations for acting, writing, producing, and directing in the same year. Of course, Welles only did that once, while Beatty managed it twice. (His first quadruple-threat effort, 1978's Heaven Can Wait, will be shown tonight at 8PM.) Because Beatty is a multi-talented filmmaker, and so indelibly associated with Hollywood, I was surprised to learn that he has acted in only seven films in the 35 years since Reds. And despite being an Oscar-winning director, he has only directed 3 more films since Reds. However, he hasn't retired -- his latest film, Rules Don't Apply, was released in late 2016. 

1/20: The Saint Marathon
8 PM - The Saint in New York (1938)
9:30 PM - The Saint Strikes Back (1939)
10:45 PM - The Saint in London (1939)
12:15 AM - The Saint's Double Trouble (1940)
1:30 AM - The Saint in Palm Springs (1941)
2:45 AM - The Saint's Vacation (1941)
4 AM - The Saint Meets the Tiger (1943)
Gentleman detective/vigilante Simon Templar, aka The Saint, was born from a series of stories by Leslie Charteris. As described by the author, Templar was "a roaming adventurer who loves a fight...a dashing daredevil, imperturbable, debonair, preposterously handsome, a pirate or a philanthropist, as the occasion demands." A character like that was a natural for a film adaptation, plus his backstory as a former criminal gave the Saint a morally-gray edge and left him open to using not-necessarily-legal means for bringing down his adversaries. In this series of Saint films from the 30s and 40s, our hero's varied exploits include killing NYC crime bosses, seeking vengeance for a policeman's daughter, acting a bodyguard to a stamp collector, and unmasking a gang of gold smugglers. In the films on tonight's schedule, Templar is portrayed by Louis Hayward, George Sanders, and Hugh Sinclair. Charteris felt that the actors selected to play his creation were hopelessly miscast, preferring instead a Ronald Colman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., or Cary Grant. But those were "A List" stars, and these were low budget "B" pictures. However, audiences didn't seem to agree with the author as the Saint films were quite popular. Sanders in particular was so popular as the Saint (though he hated the role), he was later cast in a similar series of detective pictures as "The Falcon."

1/26: Jane & Ross & Douglas & Rock
8 PM - Magnificent Obsession (1954)
10 PM - All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Star of the Month Jane Wyman had many phases to her long acting career, from chipper chorine to soap opera matriarch. In the 1950s, following her Best Actress Oscar for Johnny Belinda (1948), Jane was the queen of the dramatic tearjerker. The best films from this period were her collaborations with director Douglas Sirk and producer Ross Hunter who specialized in films which combined style, schmaltz, and social commentary. Young beefcake Rock Hudson got his breakthrough dramatic role in Magnificent Obsession. The team came back together for another winner the next year with All That Heaven Allows. Each film follows a similar formula -- Wyman is a widow who falls in love with the much younger Hudson, to the disapproval of society, and each finds redemption in their love -- though the details and plot twists change. The melodramatic stories are elevated through appealing performances from the leads and impeccable production design (shown in glorious Technicolor). 

1/27: TCM Remembers Debbie Reynolds
6 AM - It Started with a Kiss (1959)
7:45 AM - Bundle of Joy (1956)
9:30 AM - How The West Was Won (1962)
12:30 PM - The Tender Trap (1955)
2:30 PM - Hit the Deck (1955)
4:30 PM - I Love Melvin (1953)
6 PM - Singin' in the Rain (1952)
8 PM - The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)
10:30 PM - The Mating Game (1959)
12:30 AM - The Catered Affair (1956)
2:15 AM - The Singing Nun (1966)
4 AM - How Sweet It Is! (1968)
In tribute to the late Debbie Reynolds, TCM has pre-empted its original schedule to devote the day to her films. I intend to watch every single one. 
Reynolds was America's Sweetheart in the 1950s, and considering her pretty looks, appealing alto voice, and spunky energy it is easy to see why. Not all her films are masterpieces, but she brought vivacity and spirit to each role, which, for me at least, makes any Debbie Reynolds film worth watching. 
Today's line-up includes several films which were important to Reynolds' career and to cinema history, starting in the morning with Bundle of Joy. A musical remake of the Ginger Rogers film Bachelor Mother, the film was designed to capitalize on the publicity surrounding the marriage of Reynolds and co-star Eddie Fisher. Though the marriage didn't last, it did produce Reynolds' beloved children Carrie and Todd Fisher. In fact, Reynolds was pregnant with their daughter during filming -- a bit of trivia which seems more amazing as you watch Reynolds fly through high energy dance numbers while seven months pregnant! 
Reynolds was part of the all-star cast of How the West Was Won, the first film shot in Cinerama -- a widescreen process which required three cameras placed side-by-side to film, and three projectors to screen it on a special wide, curved screen. The complications of filming and projecting Cinerama prevented it from taking off, but I imagine it was dazzling in its day, a predecessor of today's IMAX experience. (See if you can spot the lines separating the three images in the finished film.) 
Her breakout role came in Singin' in the Rain, as Debbie proved that despite no professional dance experience she could keep up with veteran hoofers Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor. She worked tirelessly to get the steps, a work ethic which would be a hallmark of her long career, and in the film she makes it look effortless.
Reynolds would continue to star in musicals through the 50s and 60s, the most successful being The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Her performance in the title role garnered an Oscar nomination, and perhaps more impressively, inspired astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young to name their Gemini 3 spacecraft "Molly Brown." The lively and ultimately "unsinkable" Brown would come to be synonymous with Reynolds herself -- weathering life's triumphs and tragedies with an indomitable spirit.
Read TCM's tribute to Reynolds here