Best Picture #29: Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

We are really in the era of upbeat stories now. This is my favorite Jules Verne book so I was actually looking forward to seeing the movie version. For the most part I was not disappointed. Starring David Niven as Phileas Fogg, Mexican comedian Cantinflas as Passepartout, Robert Newton as Detective Fix, and Shirley MacLaine as Aouda, (and most of the rest of Hollywood cameoing in one way or another) it's the story of a very proper English gentleman who in 1872 makes a wager to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days or forfeit his fortune. Hijinks ensue.
Niven makes a really good Fogg; his only flaw was his total lack of chemistry with MacLaine, even at the end when they've decided to marry. Interestingly, in some countries Cantinflas was given top billing over Niven, and he really does steal every scene that he's in. There's an entire very lengthy sequence in Spain that is not in the book added just to showcase him, which includes a hot air balloon flight, flamenco dance, and a bullfight. Even though the movie is already really long (this is the same year The Ten Commandments came out, so it was the era for ginormous epics), I can't complain too much because the whole thing was very entertaining.
There are of course the inevitable uncomfortable stereotypes about non-Western people, though to be fair I think the filmmakers were embracing negative stereotypes-played-for-laughs about literally all the places Fogg visits (Including England with the exaggerated stiff-upper-lip-ness of the Reform Club members and white America with the idiotic guy in California blithely trying to get two foreign nationals to vote in the local election for mayor and the gun duel over nothing Fogg fights with a cowboy in the back of a moving train). Probably the grossest insults are having a blue-eyed white woman play Aouda, who in the book is half-English and half-Indian but in the movie is supposed to be an Indian woman only educated in England, and the feather headdress-wearing, burning-people-at-the stake Native Americans straight out of a 50s Cowboys and Indians serial. But overall it was a fun romp in the vein of other classic road trip movies I've enjoyed like The Great Race.
Watched: January 13, 2019

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Best Picture #28: Marty (1955)

Marty is a bit unusual for a Best Picture. It's not depressing, for one, nor is it just about bad people making stupid decisions. It's what I would call a romantic dramedy, about an average guy living in Brooklyn. He tries, but he can't quite seem to attract a girl even though everyone harangues him about getting married, and he is starting to lose hope of ever finding someone. Finally a girl he is compatible with drops into his orbit but once there is actually a tangible prospect and not some abstract his relatives and friends seem to change their minds (for reasons that have to do with them, and not with Marty or his prospective girlfriend) and start trying to talk him out of it, weakening Marty's already shaky confidence. It doesn't have any of the rom com tropes, though it is about a budding romance. It's sweet, but not particularly impactful. (Though a breath of fresh air from a lot of the typical Oscar fare)
Watched: December 16, 2018

Best Picture #27: On the Waterfront (1954)

This is one of Marlon Brando's two defining roles (the other being Don Vito Corleone in the Godfather). It's an interesting set of bookends, since in this movie he's a guy on the peripheral of the mob and he ends up taking a stand against them. If I'd just heard his "I coulda been a contender" line as a soundbyte, I would have guessed it was from the Godfather and not this movie. As many years separate the roles, he sounds exactly the same even though here he is young, charming and handsome.
In some ways this movie reminded me of Call the Midwife, which takes place on the London docks instead of the New Jersey docks. The work is the same, as it how it's doled out, the presence of unions, the poverty of the workers and how easily they're exploited.
I am not a massive fan of mobster movies, but as such things go this one wasn't too bad. We were supposed to sympathize with the mob, just the guy awakening to the real danger and then trying to claw his way out.
Watched: October 14, 2018

Poppies & Roses Discounted June 25-July 1!

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The ebook has been out for a year, and what a year it's been! I've gotten so much positive feedback; it's good to know I made the right call in making it available.

Enjoy!

Best Picture #26: From Here to Eternity (1953)

OK, this one was not my taste at all. I can't stand stories that are just about unlikeable people making bad/stupid decisions. And that's pretty much what this is. It follows a company of men stationed in Hawaii in the year leading up to Pearl Harbor, and 90% of the drama centers around...whether or not one of them enters some inter-Army boxing tournament. Yes, really. There's also relationship drama because he falls in love with a prostitute but neither of them really wants anything permanent but they have that niggling early 20th century "we should get married if we want to keep having sex" urge, and the company's sergeant is secretly sleeping with the captain's neglected wife, blah blah blah. Also we kill off Frank Sinatra without him singing once. Several other characters get to sing, but not him. That in itself should be listed among the movie's biggest sins. How do you have Frank Sinatra in a rather lengthy supporting role and not have him sing?
All of this hot mess gets interrupted, and you (the audience) knew it was coming given the year and location, by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It's like waiting for the Titanic to hit the iceberg (but that's a different and much more interesting Best Picture). Then it's all "oh shit we're being invaded" and everyone gets trigger happy. The End.
Thank goodness.
While this one wasn't a bad movie, per se, it left a bad taste in my mouth. I honest to goodness started laughing when the boxer asks his prostitute girlfriend to marry him and her line literally is, "Now why would you go and say a thing like that and spoil everything?" It wasn't supposed to be funny, but that's how hilariously fucked up these people are.
Watched: August 9, 2018

Best Picture #25: The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

I am really glad The Greatest Show on Earth turned out to not be the direct predecessor of The Greatest Showman. Other than being about the circus, they are completely different. The circus in The Greatest Show on Earth is well-established and huge. A large portion of the movie is just footage of the acts. I can see the appeal, since it brought the excitement and atmosphere of the circus to the moviehouses. We were entertained almost in spite of ourselves (and in spite of its ridiculous length, this being a film directed by the guy who also did the epic Ten Commandments and also starred bombastic Charlton Heston).
The plot, if it can be called that, is pretty basic. Behind-the-scenes interpersonal drama in a very large circus; love and rivalries blossom and fade between the acts and the individual performers. The draw for the most part is watching the acts perform (done for the most part by actual Ringling Bros/Barnum & Bailey acts). That in itself might have been enough to put it in Oscar contention since it brought the magic of the circus much closer to everyday life and in bright, flashy colors. There is also a very dramatic train wreck towards the end that even though it's obviously done in miniatures is still very impressive and looks less fake than some CGI.
This is supposed to be one of the least deserving Best Picture winners. There is some merit to this, since it beat out High Noon and Singin' in the Rain, both of which have endured longer in the public consciousness, and director Cecil B. DeMille's best-known work now is of course The Ten Commandments, which itself did not win Best Picture. But Best Picture awards don't measure what stands the test of time, they are in many ways a litmus test for the atmosphere of the day, and this movie was the highest grossing film of 1952. For us at least, this is definitely not one of the worst Best Pictures we've seen yet; some, like Broadway Melody, The Great Ziegfeld, Cimarron, and All the King's Men, have been downright painful to sit through. This was big, bold, and entertaining.
Watched: June 12, 2018