A Night At (ALL) The Oscars

Moving into the double digits, we have The Life of Emile Zola coming in as the tenth film to win Best Picture. Although it is based on a real person, here is a huge disclaimer at the very beginning of the film that says that even though Zola was a real person, a large portion of the story being told has been fictionalized "for the purpose of this picture." Since I know nothing about the (actual) life of Emile Zola, I am going to treat this film like a fiction and not comment on what actually happened in real life and what didn't. I thought that this movie was going to be more of an origin story; as Zola was a novelist, I was expecting more of the story of how he wrote his novels, and where he found his inspiration; that portion of the film, however, was only about 45 minutes long. The beginning of the origin story is about as one would expect: a broke artist, plugging leaking holes in his roof, trying to keep himself warm, desperate for inspiration. In the beginning, he l...

 Well, that was a lot of movie. The ninth movie to win Best Picture was The Great Ziegfeld , starring William Powell as Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., Luise Rainer as Anna Held, and Myrna Loy as Billie Burke. I say those names, but only because they are the three biggest names on the movie poster; in reality, the only lead of this film is in fact William Powell. William Powell was in, by my estimation, 98 percent of this movie, which happened to be just shy of three hours long. Was he nominated for an Oscar? Nope. Luise Rainer was nominated for Lead Actress and actually won, despite the fact that the character of Anna Held is one of the strangest characters I've ever seen. So, here's the plot, in a nutshell: there are these two guys, right? There's Jack Billings, played by Frank Morgan (famous for playing The Wizard of Oz), and there's Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., played by William Powell. In its essence, the story [looks like it] consists of Ziegfeld constantly competing with Billings...

One thing you need to know about me is that I prematurely-- and ruthlessly-- judge period films to be unbearably boring before I even press play. So, naturally, when I saw that  Mutiny on the Bounty  was set in the eighteenth century, I rolled my eyes. The next two hours, however, taught me to never judge a book by its ruffled-shirted, candle-lit, bayonet-wielding cover EVER again. The story of Mutiny on the Bounty is a long and complicated one that's based on true events that I don't want to butcher in my synopsis. Clark Gable plays Fletcher Christian, the lieutenant on a ship called The Bounty. The Bounty's captain, Mr. Bligh, is played by Charles Laughton. In my opinion, the only other character of note is midshipman Roger Byam, played by (the INCREDIBLY attractive) Franchot Tone. All you need to know is that Bligh is the manifestation of pure evil and abused power, while Christian is a compassionate and personable man with a conscience. Poor Byam is simply a bystander...

After six movies I'd never seen before, I finally ventured back into familiar territory when I turned on It Happened One Night , starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, and directed by Frank Capra. I first saw this movie right after I graduated college; I had never heard of Claudette Colbert and I thought Clark Gable was only ever in Gone With the Wind . This time around, I have still only seen Claudette Colbert in this movie, but I now know that Clark Gable has in fact been in more than Gone With the Wind . I also know who Frank Capra is now, which I must not have the first time I watched this because I was surprised to see his name in the opening credits. It Happened One Night opens on a yacht off the coast of Florida; heiress Ellie Andrews (Colbert) is arguing with her father, Alexander, about his disapproval of the man she has chosen to marry, King Westley. When he refuses to give his blessing, Ellie jumps off the ship, swims to shore, and ends up at the bus station. The sa...

 Cavalcade (n.) - A formal procession of people walking, on horseback, or riding in vehicles. I didn't want to like it. I don't know what it was about the first sixty seconds, but I said, "Yeah, I'm not going to like this," OUT LOUD to my roommates. Cavalcade  follows an upper-class British family for the first three decades of the twentieth century. The first scene takes place on New Year's Eve of 1899, shortly before the family patriarch, Robert Marryot, and the head of household staff, Alfred Bridges, head off to Africa to fight in the Boer War. The almost two hours that follow detail the personal lives of the Marryot and Bridges families; Robert and Alfred return home to their wives and families, the children grow up and find love, and we see how Jane Marryot adjusts to time reshaping her family unit. I'm beginning to feel like a broken record by saying that I was surprised by this movie, so I won't say it. What I will say is that it isn't at a...

 "People come, people go, nothing ever happens." Number five in the Best Picture lineup is Grand Hotel , directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Greta Garbo, John and Lionel Barrymore, and Joan Crawford. The story follows a melancholy ballerina (Garbo), a bankrupt baron (John Barrymore), a dying accountant (Lionel Barrymore), and a beautiful stenographer (Crawford) whose lives all converge during their stay at the Grand Hotel in Berlin.  For having as legendary a cast as Grand Hotel  has, the only actor's work I had seen prior to watching this movie was Lionel Barrymore's, and only as Mr. Potter in It's A Wonderful Life . This was my first experience seeing Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, and Joan Crawford work, and I can only say that I wish I had seen any of their work sooner. Well, the Barrymore's and Joan Crawford's, at least; Garbo's performance left me a little confused. Her work seemed the least true; she moved around so awkwardly and always seeme...