Oscars: Notables

I came across the Heritage Auction Galleries for 2008 and learned an interesting little tidbit about Oscars for Supporting Actors and Actresses and Alice Brady. In the early days of the Academy Awards Best Supporting Actors and Actresses did not receive a full Oscar statuette, they would receive an award like the one above. Eventually these awards were considered second rate, despite the fact that they were Awards of Merit, and the Academy stopped handing them out after WWII. All the Supporting Actor/Actress awards from the past were traded up to a full statuette.

In 1937 Alice Brady won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Mrs. O’Leary in In Old Chicago (1937). However, due to a broken ankle she was unable to attend the ceremony and in her absence a stranger walked onto the stage, accepted the award, and disappeared with it. The Academy issued a replacement but Alice Brady never got to trade her Oscar up as she died tragically of cancer in 1939 at the age of 46.

The photo above is of Charles Winninger and Alice Brady holding the replacement award, possibly shot on the set of their 1938 comedy Goodbye Broadway. Note that the plaque includes an engraving error giving In Old Chicago the date of 1837.

Tonight on TCM!

The Killers (1946)
An insurance investigator uncovers a string of crimes when he tries to find a murdered boxer's beneficiary. Cast: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Albert Dekker Dir: Robert Siodmak
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) An experienced gunman and a peace-loving tenderfoot clash with a Western bully. Cast: James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin Dir: John Ford

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Stiff Competition!

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Ziegfeld Girl (1941)

Zeigfeld Girl is a moral story told through the parallel experiences of three girls who have been chosen to perform in the Ziegfeld Follies. Susan Gallagher (Judy Garland) is the youngest and most innocent. She’s packed with talent having travelled the vaudeville circuit with her father ‘Pop” Gallagher (Charles Winninger). She will make out the best, becoming a huge star and finding true lasting love. Then there is Sheila Regan (Lana Turner) a girl who grew up poor but honest. She has the love of a great man Gilbert Young (James Stewart) but trades in all in for expensive gifts and booze. It will not end well for her despite the love and support of her friends and family. Then there is Sandra Kolter (Hedy Lamarr) a married woman caught up in the Ziegfeld show by chance. She was with her husband while he auditioned for the orchestra and the producers took note of her extraordinary European beauty. Her husband Franz (Philip Dorn) is not keen on her entering the show but Sandra knows they need money to eat and live. They argue and it takes the rest of the movie for Sandra to realize what is important to her.

Ziegfeld Girl was an interesting film and apparently an omen of things to come for Lana Turner. I have never seen Turner act before and her reputation off screen has always overshadowed her talent. It was nice to see her in one of her earlier films and refreshing to realize she was actually quite good in her craft. This movie would prove to be her star making vehicle and stamp her as the new “sweater girl” of MGM. It was also interesting to see Hedy Lamarr packed between Garland and Turner- she was over seven years older than both women and her beauty was so exotic she stood out amongst them. This must have been very difficult for Garland who was always severely self-conscious of her looks. You’ll notice in the film that she is not one of the beauties on display like Turner and Lamarr. Before her singing talent is discovered, she’s mostly in the background on stage. You’ll also notice if you have seen The Great Ziegfeld (1936) that the final shot Ziegfeld Girl is recycled footage from that film.
Packed full of wonderful musical numbers like “Laugh, I Thought I’d Split My Sides”, “Minnie From Trinidad” and “Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Steen”, Ziegfeld Girl is a movie I recommend you see if only to check out Turner’s talent and Garland’s wonderful voice.

Side note: This was James Stewart's last performance before serving military service in World War II. He would come back 5 years later to star in the classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946).

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Indiscretion Of An American Wife (1954) An American woman tries to break it off with her Italian lover. Cast: Jennifer Jones, Montgomery Clift, Gino Cervi, Dick Beymer Dir: Vittorio De Sica

The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) A young girl comes of age while hiding from the Nazis.
Cast: Millie Perkins, Joseph Schildkraut, Shelley Winters, Richard Beymer Dir: George Stevens

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Pre-Code Dip: A Free Soul (1931)

If there is one thing Stephen Ashe (Lionel Barrymore) taught his daughter it was to be a free thinker and not fall under the weight of the privileged family he and she come from. Unfortunately, Ashe cannot always practice what he preaches. Jan Ashe (Norma Shearer) loves her father more than anyone else in the world, despite the fact that he drinks too heavily and cannot get on with the rest of the family Jan would do anything for him. So when she throws over Dwight Winthrop (Leslie Howard), the ideal but slightly boring candidate for a proper marriage to start an affair with Ace Wilfong, a mobster that Ashe has defended in a murder trial; she must make a bargain with her father who vehemently disapproves. If he quits drinking, she quit Wilfong.
After three months of hiding out in the woods with both dealing with their demons, Jan and her father head into town to take the train home. Ashe succumbs immediately to his old habits and disappears. Jan returns home to find herself disowned from the rest of the Ashe family. Alone except for Eddie (James Gleason) her father’s right hand man, Jan decides to give in to temptation as her father has done and returns to Wilfong.
Unfortunately Wilfong, angry over how he has been treated by both Ashe who called him a mongrel for even suggesting he would like to marry his daughter, and Jan who left him without a word; shows his true colors by manhandling Jan and informing her she will marry him, by force if necessary. Jan manages to escape but Wilfong tracks her down the next day- there is a stand off with both Eddie and Dwight. Wilfong declares that jan has “cashed in her chips” with him already and that she belongs to him. He threatens murder should Jan and Dwight get married.
Dwight decides to take things into his own hands and shows up to Wilfong’s gambling house and murders him. His love for Jan and his need to protect her reputation force him to lie about why he killed Wilfong. In a trial to end all trials, Ashe is miraculously found and though seriously ill, he comes to Dwight’s rescue. Blaming everything that has happened to Jan and the murder of Wilfong on his bad parenting habits, he delivers an impassioned speech on his shortcomings and finally succumbs to his alcoholism when he collapses towards the close of his speech.
The movie closes on Dwight professing his love for Jan and how he would follow her anywhere.

Barrymore won his only Oscar for his performance as Stephen Ashe. I think he did a wonderful job of portraying a man fighting his drinking demons and wonder if his own brother’s addiction helped in part. This movie is also the first of the only two features that both Gable and Howard starred together in. The other being, of course, Gone with the Wind. Gable’s performance in A Free Soul made the executives sit up and take notice of him for the first time. He caused such a sensation that they expanded his role as Ace Wilfong and Gable’s career as a supporting character soon came to an end.
As for Norma Shearer, this was her at her most sensual. Complete with clingy satin dress and coy put-ons, she plays the temptress well. It’s rumored that in order for Shearer to get the role of Jerry Martin in The Divorcee, she first needed to convince her husband Irving Thalberg that she could break out her usually regal roles and be sensual. She employed the services of George Hurrell, photographer of the stars, to shoot some convincing pictures and won the role. However, I found her much, much more sensual in A Free Soul.
Overall, the film had some very touching moments but towards the end the melodrama and histrionics were a bit too much for me. However, it wasn’t too much for the Academy who awarded Barrymore an Oscar, most likely due to the long, uninterrupted and impassioned monologue he gives at the end of the film.

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Ruggles of Red Gap (1935) A Western rancher wins a British valet in a poker game.
Cast: Charles Laughton, Mary Boland, Charlie Ruggles, ZaSu Pitts Dir: Leo McCarey

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Stars! They're just like us!

They enjoy water sports!

They keep their eye on Russia when in Alaska!

They're new to tennis!

They compete in tricycle triathlons!

Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

They look down on themselves at times!

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Five Graves to Cairo (1943) A British corporal goes undercover to infiltrate Field Marshall Rommel's command. Cast: Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, Akim Tamiroff, Fortunio Bonanova Dir: Billy Wilder

The Fighting Sullivans (1944) During WWII, five brothers enlist in the Navy and are assigned to serve on the same ship. Cast: Anne Baxter, Thomas Mitchell, Ward Bond. Dir: Lloyd Bacon.

It Happened One Night (1934) A newspaperman tracks a runaway heiress on a madcap cross-country tour. Cast: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns Dir: Frank Capra

The Egg And I (1947) Newlywed city slickers decide to give country life a try as chicken farmers. Cast: Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Marjorie Main, Louise Albritton Dir: Chester Erskine

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Through the looking glass: 5 minutes to curtain!

Today on TCM! I recommend:

All the King's Men (1949)A backwoods politician rises to the top only to become corrupted. Cast: Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Joanne Dru, John Derek Dir: Robert Rossen

The Night Of The Iguana (1964)A defrocked priest surrenders to the sins of the flesh in a Mexican hotel. Cast: Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon Dir: John Huston

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966) An academic couple reveal their deepest secret to a pair of newcomers during an all-night booze fest. Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, Sandy Dennis Dir: Mike Nichols

The Goodbye Girl(1977)
A dancer discovers her runaway boyfriend has sublet her apartment to an aspiring actor. Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, Quinn Cummings, Paul Benedict Dir: Herbert Ross

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The Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)

In 1909, Robert Stroud kills a man in Alaska and is sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. He forfeits his chance for parole when he knifes another prisoner. While serving time at Leavenworth, he murders a prison guard who refuses to let his mother visit him, and he is condemned to death. Before his execution can be carried out, however, his mother visits Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, who persuades the president to commute Stroud's sentence to life imprisonment. The prison warden, Harvey Shoemaker, informs Stroud that he will spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement. One day during exercise period in the isolation yard, he finds a wounded sparrow and takes it to his cell. Secretly he nurses the bird back to health and then teaches it to perform tricks. When Warden Shoemaker is replaced by a kindlier man, Stroud is given permission to keep his pet and also to have other birds in his cell. Through endless study, he becomes an authority on caged birds and eventually writes a textbook on their diseases. After winning a prize in a magazine competition, he is visited by Stella Johnson, a lonely widow who suggests that they manufacture his remedies. A change in the prison set-up threatens to deprive Stroud of his birds, but he finds a legal loophole that will permit him to marry Stella while he is still in solitary confinement. The newspaper publicity which is created permits him to carry on his work. Then he is abruptly transferred to Alcatraz where his old nemesis, Shoemaker, is warden. When Stroud is informed that he can no longer keep his birds, he shifts his interest to caged men and writes a book on penology. Shoemaker, however, has the work confiscated. Stroud acts as a peacemaker in a prison riot and is transferred to a minimum security farm at Springfield, Missouri. As he leaves Alcatraz, he is met by Tom Gaddis, a social worker and writer who became Stroud's defender by writing Bird Man of Alcatraz in 1955. –TCM








Birdman of Alcatraz is a very absorbing biopic that starts out a little weak but before you know it has you in its clutches. This is my first Burt Lancaster film. Lancaster is one of those actors who have always been on the periphery, in sight but coming into his own in an era that I am only now willing to open up to- the fifties and sixties. It was really Karl Malden that I was interested in seeing and I ended up seeing very fine performances from both men. I have read that Lancaster got flack for being a very liberal-minded actor, choosing roles that defined his views both on and off screen. Not having seen any of his other films, I cannot confirm this. However, his role as Robert Stroud does take on a liberal view of imprisonment and its downside when it comes to conformity and rehabilitation (see video below, one of the best scenes in the film). In contrast, Malden’s Shoemaker takes on a less compassionate role and yet, at least to me, still maintains some compassion. Of all the synopsis’ of the film I read, they describe Shoemaker as vindictive, Stroud’s nemesis. I disagree. Yes, his methods are flawed but he gives Stroud a chance to redeem himself, something the young Stroud fails at and horribly so by taking another life. Understandably Shoemaker feels responsible as the guard that Stroud kills is the same guard that suggested Stroud be kept in solitary confinement due to his vicious nature. Shoemaker advises the guard that every inmate should have a chance at redemption and ignores the suggestion. Stroud’s subsequent case and the use of his mother to get a presidential pardon for his heinous crime leads Shoemaker to understandable measures, indefinite solitary confinement.
I did have some difficulty with Lancaster’s ability to portray a vicious man. He did a much better job portraying a reflective and sympathetic Stroud as his time in prison and his work with birds went on. His affection for the birds and their symbolic meaning is genuine. You see his rough exterior, his awkward handling from his first bird to the last fade as he ages and becomes more educated on the species.
Other interesting aspects of the film are Stroud’s relationship with his mother played by Thelma Ritter and his relationship with his Leavenworth prison guard played by Neville Brand. Ritter plays wonderfully at being deceptively unselfish and devoted until Stroud refuses to give up his wife. Her refusal to continue contact with him or to work on his behalf for a pardon confirms the suspicion of her growing jealousy. In contrast, Brand’s relationship to Stroud points out how true human compassion can be found even in a dark cell in solitary confinement. After several years of Stroud’s cold refusal to be more “human” yet still needy when it comes to acquiring items for his birds, there is a showdown causing Stroud deeper reflection upon his actions. Their parting when Stroud is suddenly and randomly transferred is extremely touching.


Side note:
From what I have read about the real Stroud, the movie gives us a wonderfully sugar coated vision. Apparently the real Stroud was anything but sympathetic. He was often reported being an extremely difficult and demented inmate who, though highly intelligent, was villainous. He really did form a partnership for Stroud’s Specifics and eventually married his partner. His mother did refused to contact him after he did this.






Tonight on TCM!

Lilies of the Field (1963) An itinerant handyman in the Southwest gets a new outlook on life when he helps a group of German nuns build a chapel. Cast: Sidney Poitier, Lilia Skala, Lisa Mann, Isa Crino Dir: Ralph Nelson

Breakfast At Tiffany's (1961) A young writer gets caught up in a party girl's carefree existence.
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen Dir: Blake Edwards

Hud (1963) I love an amoral Newman!
An amoral modern rancher clashes with his rigid father. Cast: Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal, Brandon de Wilde Dir: Martin Ritt

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Oscars: Best Actresses

1927 Janet Gaynor Sunrise and Street Angel

1928 Janet Gaynor 7th Heaven

1929 Mary Pickford Coquette

1930 Norma Shearer The Divorcee

1931 Marie Dressler Min And Bill

1932 Helen Hayes The Sin Of Madelon Claudet

1933 Katharine Hepburn Morning Glory

1934 Claudette Colbert It Happened One Night

1935 Bette Davis Dangerous

1936 Luise Rainer The Great Ziegfeld

1937 Luise Rainer The Good Earth

1938 Bette Davis Jezabel

1939 Vivien Leigh Gone With The Wind

1940 Ginger Rogers Kitty Foyle

1941 Joan Fontaine Suspicion

1942 Greer Garson Mrs. Miniver

1943 Jennifer Jones The Song Of Bernadette

1944 Ingrid Bergman Gaslight

1945 Joan Crawford Mildred Pierce

1946 Olivia de Havilland To Each His Own

1947 Loretta Young The Farmer's Daughter

1948 Jane Wyman Johnny Belinda

1949 Olivia de Havilland The Heiress

1950 Judy Holliday Born Yesterday

1951 Vivien Leigh A Streetcar Named Desire

1952 Shirley Booth Come Back, Little Sheba

1953 Audrey Hepburn Roman Holiday

1954 Grace Kelly The Country Girl

1955 Anna Magnani The Rose Tattoo

1956 Ingrid Bergman Anastasia

1957 Joanne Woodward The Three Faces Of Eve

1958 Susan Hayward I Want To Live!

1959 Simone Signoret Room At The Top

1960 Elizabeth Taylor Butterfield 8

1961 Sophia Loren Two Women

1962 Anne Bancroft The Miracle Worker

1963 Patricia Neal Hud

1964 Julie Andrews Mary Poppins

1965 Julie Christie Darling

1966 Elizabeth Taylor Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

1967 Katharine Hepburn Guess Who's Coming To Dinner

1968 Barbra Streisand Funny Girl

1968 Katharine Hepburn The Lion In Winter

1969 Maggie Smith The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie

1970 Glenda Jackson Women In Love

1971 Jane Fonda Klute

1972 Liza Minnelli Cabaret

1973 Glenda Jackson A Touch Of Class

1974 Ellen Burstyn Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

1975 Louise Fletcher One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

1976 Faye Dunaway Network

1977 Diane Keaton Annie Hall

1978 Jane Fonda Coming Home

1979 Sally Field Norma Rae

1980 Sissy Spacek Coal Miner's Daughter

1981 Katharine Hepburn On Golden Pond

1982 Meryl Streep Sophie's Choice

1983 Shirley MacLaine Terms Of Endearment

1984 Sally Field Places In The Heart

1985 Geraldine Page The Trip To Bountiful

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The Crowd (1928)
In this silent film, an office worker deals with the simple joys and tragedies of married life.
Cast: Eleanor Boardman, James Murray, Bert Roach, Estelle Clark Dir: King Vidor

A Free Soul (1931)
A hard-drinking lawyer's daughter falls for one of his underworld clients. Cast: Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable Dir: Clarence Brown

The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)
An invalid poetess defies her father's wishes to marry a dashing young poet. Cast: Norma Shearer, Fredric March, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan Dir: Sidney Franklin

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