Monthly Archives: June 2014

How Green Was My Valley
Directed by John Ford
Written by Philip Dunne based on the novel by Richard Llewellyn
1941/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#155 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Huw Morgan: [narrating] Men like my father cannot die. They are with me still, real in memory as they were in flesh, loving and beloved forever. How green was my valley then.[/box]

This is the film that famously trounced Citizen Kane at the 1942 Oscar ceremony.  There is no denying its beauty.

Huw Morgan (Roddy McDowall) looks back through the eyes of age at his childhood home in a Welsh coal-mining village and how a traditional way of life gradually fell apart. Gwyilm Morgan (Donald Crisp) and his wife (Sara Allgood) have a brood of six children – five boys and daughter Angharad (Maureen O’Hara).  Huw is much the youngest.  Gwylim and all the older boys work in the coal mine.  As the story begins, the eldest son weds Bronwyn (Anna Lee) and Huw becomes devoted to her.

Angharad loves the local preacher Mr. Gruffyd (Walter Pidgeon) from afar.  Her great beauty attracts the son of the local mine owner.  In desperation, she reveals her love to the minister, who obviously loves her too, but inexplicably he rejects her and she is doomed to a loveless marriage.

Meanwhile, the coal economy strains the family to the breaking point.  The sons become union men in defiance of their father and move out.  Then they are gradually forced to emigrate by diminishing wages and firings.  Huw eventually goes to work in the mine at a heartbreakingly young age.  Mine disasters plague the village.  But despite everything, humor and love ties everything and everyone together in the end.  With Barry Fitzgerald and Arthur Shields.

This is a spectacular looking film.  The landscapes and textures are brilliantly composed and shot.  Most of the acting is first-rate and Roddy McDowell gives one of the best performances ever by a child actor.  The thing that mars the movie for me is the discordant presence of the pedantic and boring Walter Pidgeon at its center.  His character is self-righteous in the extreme and rubs me the wrong way throughout.  It’s a shame because I know he is meant to be sympathetic.

How Green Was My Valley won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Donald Crisp), Best Black-and-White Cinematography (Arthur C. Miller), and Best Black-and-White Art Direction.  It was nominated for Best Supporting Actress (Sara Allgood), Best Screenplay, Best Sound Recording, Best Film Editing and Best Scoring of a Dramatic Picture (Alfred Newman).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yjfCUExOH0

Trailer

Citizen Kane
Directed by Orson Welles
Written by Orson Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz
1941/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
Repeat viewing/Warner Home Video Special Edition DVD
#150 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Leland: That’s all he ever wanted out of life… was love. That’s the tragedy of Charles Foster Kane. You see, he just didn’t have any to give.[/box]

What do you say about “The Greatest Movie Ever Made”?

If you are reading this you already know the plot.  Charles Foster Kane is sent away from his parents at a tender age to be raised in the lap of luxury and spends the rest of his life trying to find love.  His overbearing personality and neediness make this virtually impossible.  Although he becomes an opinion leader and Great Man, he is ultimately unsuccessful at attaining his goal through his media empire, political career, or two marriages.

The story is told through the device of sending an inquiring reporter out to interview people who knew Kane to find out the meaning of his last word “Rosebud”.  After a mock newsreel obituary summarizing Kane’s life, we see episodes as non-consecutive flashbacks through the eyes of various people being interviewed.   The film represented the screen debuts of many actors in Welles’s Mercury Theater company:  Welles himself; Joseph Cotten; Agnes Moorhead; Everett Sloane; and Ruth Warrick, among others.  Also with Dorothy Comingore as Welle’s second wife, George Coulouris as his banker guardian; and Ray Collins as his political rival.

Before I revisited the film,  I listened again to Roger Ebert’s fantastic commentary track and more personal one by Peter Bogdanovich, who was a friend of Welles’ before his death.  The Ebert commentary points out all the special effects tricks and innovations in cinematography involved in making the film.  For example, deep focus photography did not capture the above shot.  Two separate images were made and combined using an optical printer.

Citizen Kane had a comparatively low budget.  Many of the lavish scenes at Xanadu were basically put together using smoke and mirrors.  Rooms were decorated with a few pieces of furniture and lavish use of matte painting.  The above shot shows how a hallway was made with matte paintings and live actors.

Citizen Kane remains an ever-fresh and exuberant look at what happens when a boy genius is given free-reign over all the contents of a huge magic kit.  It is not my best-loved movie by far but I don’t have any problem with its status as “The Greatest Movie Ever Made”.

Welles and Mankiewicz won an Academy Award for their screenplay.  Citizen Kane was nominated in the following categories:  Best Picture; Best Director; Best Actor (Welles); Best Black-and-White Cinematography; Best Black-and-White Art Direction-Interior Decoration; Best Sound Recording; Best Film Editing; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture (Bernard Herrmann).  I think Gregg Toland was robbed.

Original Trailer

The Lady Eve
Written and Directed by Preston Sturges
1941/USA
Paramount Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#152 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Jean Harrington: You see, Hopsi, you don’t know very much about girls. The best ones aren’t as good as you probably think they are and the bad ones aren’t as bad. Not nearly as bad.[/box]

And Preston Sturges knocks a romantic comedy out of the park!

Charles Pike (Henry Fonda), known to his friends as Hopsi, is the heir to a vast ale fortune but it more interested in snakes than in beer.  He has been on a scientific expedition up the Amazon for a year.  When he boards the ship for home, he meets Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck).  She is one of a trio of card sharks preying on rubes and immediately spots the naive Hopsi as one of them.  She seduces him to soften him up but is surprised to find herself falling in love.  The feeling is mutual.

When Hopsi gets evidence that Jean is a con artist he immediately dumps her without giving her a chance to explain.  She gets her revenge by showing up at Hopsi’s house disguised as Lady Eve Sidwich and seducing him all over again.  With the great Eugene Pallette as Hopsi’s father, Charles Coburn as Jean’s father, and William Demerest as Hopsi’s bodyguard/nanny.

I have watched this movie so many times that it is hard to talk about it.  What I know is that each time when the credits roll I get a warm feeling and spend the entire rest of the film grinning.  Barbara Stanwyck is at the absolute height of her beauty at age 34 and very funny.  And who knew Henry Fonda would be such a master at pratfalls!  He really was very multi-faceted for a “movie star.”  Needless to say, the dialogue kills me.

Trailer

Sullivan’s Travels
Written and Directed by Preston Sturges
1941/USA
Paramount Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#156 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] John L. Sullivan: I want this picture to be a commentary on modern conditions. Stark realism. The problems that confront the average man!

LeBrand: But with a little sex in it.[/box]

Hollywood made many good movies about making movies and this is one of the very best.

Given the state of world affairs, director John L. Sullivan is fed up with making comedies and decides to make a socially relevant film about the downtrodden called Oh, Brother Where Art Thou.  Studio executives, not wanting to lose their cash cow, point out that Sullivan knows nothing about the poor or their problems.  He recognizes the justice of this and sets off in picturesque hobo rags looking for trouble.  At first, due to the ever vigilant studio watch dogs, all he finds is his way back to Hollywood where he meets a struggling would-be actress (Veronica Lake) to share his journey.  When Sullivan sets out alone on his farewell venture to give money to the poor, however, he finds all the trouble he could ask for and much more.  With the regular Sturges stock company including William Demerest as a press agent, Eric Blore as Sullivan’s valet, Robert Grieg as his butler, and Jimmy Conlin as a prison trustee.

I adore Preston Sturges, Joel McCrea, and this movie.  It is more serious than most of Sturges’ comedies so it took me more than one viewing to fully warm up to it but now my admiration is unreserved.  Even the dead-pan Veronica Lake warms up a bit and gives probably her best performance.  This film has it all: razor-sharp dialogue; hilarious slapstick; romance; pathos; and a message.  It is truly a picture that should be on everyone’s bucket list.

Trailer