Cavalcade (1933)

cavalcade [ˌkævəlˈkeɪd]

n

1. a procession of people on horseback, in cars, etc.

2. any procession a cavalcade of guests

This film is a cavalcade of English events from New Year's Eve 1899 until 1933 seen through the eyes of well-to-do Londoners through events that effected their family and friends such as the Boer War, the death of Queen Victoria, the sinking of the Titanic and WWI.


One thing is beyond reproach: Cavalcade was easily the most difficult of the Best Picture winners so far to find. It's possible that it was never released on DVD and we could not find it on ITunes, Amazon or the public library. We ended up downloading a rough copy with Spanish subtitles and wonky audio, so watching the movie was an occasionally humorous experience. Due to it being hard to find, I was braced for this to be a mediocre film. The first 30 minutes of Cavalcade played out like a "what the hell" version of Peter Pan or Mary Poppins with no fantasy or humor (intentional humor, anyway). But the movie steadily improved as it gained it's legs and the characters got older. Essentially, this film is one scene after the other of naive, boundless optimism crushed by tragic hindsight as the 20th century plays out. This is all the more depressing as WWII was right around the corner when this film was made. The major shortcoming of this movie was that in its effort to squeeze in 30+ years of history, it rushes through and trivializes many things; a scene that announces "war is here!" will be followed by a "the war is over" mere minutes later... and 90% of the acting from the female actors is awful. Katie will accurately mention that this movie is much like Cimarron (complete with full screen shots of what year it is), but where Cavalcade finds it's strength is that it does not feel nearly as overlong as Cimarron and the ending was surprisingly effective and impacting (albeit preachy), thereby giving some focus to the whole affair. Cavalcade is not the best or most memorable of the Best Picture winners, but it also certainly isn't the worst (we're talking to you, Broadway Melody) and earns it's place. 

Well, Cavalcade is basically Cimarron in British clothing.  This epic biopic spans nearly the same amount of time following a couple through all of their trials and tribulations... um.. yeah the same thing as Cimarron.  But I liked this one better.  Here's why: first of all the husband wasn't a major douche bag like the husband in Cimarron.  I would've killed that husband.  This husband was a dutiful soldier who was dedicated to his country AND his family.  Sure, the production quality was not so great and sure, some of the women's voices were enough to drive someone completely nuts, but there were redeeming qualities.  Not many, but more than Cimarron in my opinion.  This film got significantly better whenever the kids were on screen.  "Daddy!  When you go to war will you slice them into a billion bits?"  Except in a British accent.  Wonderful.. I am a sucker for making fun of children with British accents.  There were a few excellent scenes.  One of them was a newlywed couple talking about their future on their honeymoon cruise only to find out that it's the Titanic.  The problem with the movie is that it's a propaganda film about war with scenes jumping around from one disaster to the next.  While the plot line I guess is war, it just jumped around too much for me.  

Cavalcade is based on Noel Coward's play of the same name.  It is, however, one of the few Coward plays to never have been revived, probably due to the huge scale of the production. 

"There should never be any good reason for neglecting someone that you love."

Grand Hotel (1932)

Grand Hotel takes place in the ritziest hotel in all of Berlin and is the first film to have an "all-star" cast featuring Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery and Lionel Barrymore (Drew Barrymore's grandfather).  Basically it's about a whole bunch of people staying at the Grand Hotel.  Lionel Barrymore is a dying factory worker shedding his remaining dollars at a few nights living amongst the wealthy, Greta Garbo is an over-dramatic ballet dancer, John Barrymore portrays a penniless Baron, Wallace Beery plays a heartless tycoon, and Joan Crawford is the stenographer/high class hooker.  All of the following characters come together into a melodramatic ending, in the best way.

I actually really enjoyed this movie.  I found 75% of the to be an excellent character study and the last 25% booming with sudden plot.  It takes a little bit of time to introduce all the characters but it's well worth it.  Lionel Barrymore is fantastic in his portrayal of a dying lower class citizen trying to fit in with the hoity-toity upper class.  He is such an endearing character who sees only the best in the crazies around him.  But to me, Greta Garbo takes the cake.  She is a diva ballerina to the core.  And being in theatre my whole life- I know a diva.  At first she won't perform and when everyone accepts that, she becomes depressed that no one loves her.  She demands constant affection and John Barrymore is totally willing to give it to her- plus she's rich and he's not- so win/win?  Joan Crawford was sort of meh to me.  I was expecting a little more.  However, it sounds like off camera she was focusing on pissing Greta Garbo off.  Crawford was miffed that Garbo got top billing so she showed up late and played Marlene Dietrich records which Garbo loathed.  But then when I found out that they added extra scenes of Garbo so Crawford didn't shine as brightly, I was a little more understanding.  Ah, the drama! 

I don't have too much to say about Grand Hotel as Katie pretty much covered it. While I may not have liked or shared quite the same enthusiasm that Katie did for this movie, it was certainly still enjoyable and I very much appreciated it. As Katie said, this is one of the first of the all-star casts that seemed to set the template for similar ensemble pieces by the likes of Robert Altman or P.T. Anderson (and refreshingly without the pretentiousness of some, but certainly not all, of their films) and thusly the acting was very impressive. Garbo is a good actress pretending to be a bad actress that thinks she's a good actress of sorts which seems impossible to pull off but she does it marvelously, and Lionel Barrymore alternated seamlessly between pitiful to cute to sad to hilarious in the blink of an eye. A surprising plot turn near the end seems to come from nowhere (although it could have been a solid film-noir with some minor modifications except that genre had hardly been invented yet) and it takes arguably too long of a time for the lead characters' plots to converge, but the conclusion is satisfying and the movie as a whole is quite good. Grand Hotel still gets my recommendation, just not my highest one.

Grand Hotel is the only Best Picture Oscar winner not to be nominated for any other Academy Awards.

"Grand Hotel... always the same. People come, people go. Nothing ever happens."

Cimarron (1931)

At turns a Western, a romance and a sweeping historical epic,Cimarron tells the tale of Yancey Cravat (Richard Dix, or “Dick Dix” as Katie and I enjoyed calling him) and his wife Sabra (Irene Dunn) trying to carve a life for themselves in the late 19^th century frontier. After the Oklahoma territory is open to settlement via chaotic land rush (think Spielberg’s Far and Away) Yancey immediately makes himself a prominent member of the booming town of Osage by establishing a pro-Native American rights newspaper and combating the corrupt and criminal elements that arrive. Unfortunately, papa is a rolling stone and frequently leaves his wife and two children alone for years at a time to be a part of history and fulfill his roaming spirit. In his absence, Sabra must raise the children, continue the newspaper and be independent and successful in her own right while never forgetting the man she loves and wondering if he will ever return.

As a Montana boy with a father that owned countless John Wayne and Clint Eastwood films (a stereotype I know, but I never rode a horse to school and we did have FM radio, contrary to popular belief), I grew up with Westerns and have come to appreciate the regrettably dying genre. Cimarron is one of the very few films that have won Best Picture but it is only marginally above average for Westerns at large. High Noon it ain’t, folks.

The opening land rush scene is very exciting and the first half of the film is compelling, despite being loaded with cringe-inducing racism (one early scene shows Eugene Jackson with true Don King hair laying on a ceiling light fanning the wealthy, snobby white family before being called a “Boon boy” and being kicked out of the room. Yikes... Luckily, Eugene Jackson went on to an illustrious career.) The second half of the film however drags on and on, becoming scattered and indecisive on what it wants to be. One sadly thrown-away plot thread about a prostitute named Dixie temporarily makes the film into an awkward attempt at courtroom drama and much of the interesting supporting cast is not developed into anything more than a distracting curiosity from the central plot, which itself is unclear until the last half hour or so. The film ends up actually being the story of Sabra, but this welcome plot turn comes too little too late. While perhaps being the predecessor of films like Gone With the Wind or the more recent but similarly troubled Cold Mountain, Cimarron doesn’t make full use of its potential and feels far longer than it’s runtime. 

Oh boy this movie was long. For a movie that was 123 minutes, I felt like I could watch the full Gone with the Wind and maybe half of Ben Hur.  Ok, I exaggerate but man it felt long.  It was a movie with great ideas and not a lot of follow through.  The opening scene I really liked!  All these pioneers riding out and staking their land, I mean that scene cost buco-bucks.  The prostitute Tim refers to steals the main characters land in a sassy way- I dug it.  Her story, the slew's, totally fell off the planet.  Basically this movie is about a selfish man who wanted to get a lot of praise and start his own town.  He was a drifter and once Sabra refused to uproot herself and her children on a silly whim is when her character became interesting.  Yancey started a newspaper in Osage called the "Oklahoma Wigwam" and after he left Sabra continued the paper.  However, she never changed his name as editor for the paper.  Yancey refers to his wife as "Great Penelope" which refers to the faithful wife of Odysseus in the Odyssey.  Tim reminded me that in the Odyssey, Odysseus is trying to get home... not trying to leave... This movie had some decent moments but I just didn't know if it was a Western or about Native American rights or women's liberation.  It felt like three movies melded into a super movie, except that makes it sound better than it really was.  It wasn't a bad movie but if I had to place the movies we've watched so far in a top 5 style, I would have to list it as such:

1. All Quiet on the Western Front

2. Wings

3. Cimarron

4. Broadway Melody 

Good ideas, just a bit misguided. 

According to Anthony Holden's book "Behind the Oscar" (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), R.K.O. lost $5.5 million (approximately $58 million in 2003 dollars, when factoring in inflation) on the movie despite its winning a Best Picture Academy Award.

"They will always talk about Yancey. He's gonna be part of the history of the great Southwest. It's men like him that build the world. The rest of them, like me... why, we just come along and live in it."

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Based on the classic novel by Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front is one of the earliest and still one of the most powerful anti-war films ever made. The story concerns several young German men that are convinced to enlist during World War I by a highly enthusiastic and over-optimistic school teacher. After weeks dug in the trenches with little food or clothing, the disillusionment of the war sets in and the light of heroism and victory begins to die out. Paul Baumer (Lew Ayres) and Katczinsky (Louis Wolheim) highlight the cast of young men whose story is one of, "a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war..."

I stated in my first blog post that Wings was not comparable to Saving Private Ryan, a rather unfair and unrealistic statement for 1927. Just two years later, despite being far less polished and elaborate, All Quiet on the Western Front proves to be a film cut from the same cloth. While undeniably an antiwar "message" film, Front remains powerful and relevant thereby earning it's classic status. Front did not shy away from violence, as evidenced by scenes with countless soldiers being mowed down by machine gun fire and one shocking moment in which a man's severed hands were left on a barb-wire fence after an explosion. Katie and I talked during the film about how the war genre yields so many great films and retain their relevancy because we are constantly at war somewhere in the world. Front is far from perfect as there are occasional pacing issues and melodramatic acting but here is laid the template for everything from Band of Brothers to Starship Troopers. Unlike The Broadway Melody, Front includes several memorable scenes, such as Paul's dramatic classroom speech during leave and him being trapped in a hole with a dying enemy that he stabbed for many hours as well as Katczinsky stealing food and the fateful journey of a dead soldier's boots from soldier to soldier. These scenes and the tragic ends of Paul and Kat cement their way into your memory forever, making All Quiet on the Western Front the finest of the Best Picture winners so far. Unlike myself, Katie has read the book and can offer her own unique perspective...


I read this book in high school and remember liking it a great deal... at least more than Walden Pond but that's a whole other story.  I just don't really remember a ton of it.  I was impressed by how much better this movie was than Broadway Melody, which was a bit of a let down.  Tim has more expertise in the war movie genre than I do, but for the most part, it was a pretty excellent movie.  It started a little slow and there was a lull before the end climax but the middle of the movie was pretty solid.  One of the characters gets his leg amputated and this super insensitive soldier is like, "Hey dude, your foot is blown off, can I have your boots?" Well, the amputee dies and as his last request he gives his boots to the insensitive soldier.  Super nice, right?  Well because that guy was such a jerk, I feel like the boots had some bad karma attached because everyone who wears them dies.  It's like brotherhood of the traveling boots- but everyone dies.  Even though this is no longer Modern Day Imelda, I feel the need to point out shoe things because I guess I sorta like shoes.  Who knew, right?


Fun Fact: As of September 2011, Arthur Gardner is the only surviving member of either the cast or crew. 

"We live in the trenches out there. We fight. We try not to be killed, but sometimes we are. That's all."

Broadway Melody (1929)

Hailed as Hollywood's first true musical, Broadway musical definitely shows how it has aged.  However it must be looked at through the eyes of the 1920's.  It's a 100 minute movie  with sound- both music and talking- with enough of a storyline that had some good music.  The film won Best PIcture when most of the movie industry was still stuck doing silent films.  It also had a two color technicolor sequence, which is pretty bamf.  However, only the black and white version of the film remains. 

Basically the plot is pretty average.  It's about two young sisters, Hank (or Harriet.. weird, I know) and Queenie, who move to New York and try to make it big in a Ziegfield Follies-esque show.  (The Zanfield follies to be exact) It's another love square.  Queenie is the pretty sister and Hank's boyfriend, Eddie, falls in love with her.  And so does Jock, a New York socialite and pseudo-slime bag.  Queenie receives all of this attention from the Follies show as the new girl in which she sits pseudo naked onstage very still... (lame.) 

When I heard about the first musical ever, I got a little excited.  I was a little disappointed.  When the movie ended, nobody grew as characters.  Queenie ends up with her sister's boyfriend and they get married.  Hank (the ugly sister) winds up alone to pursue her dream.  Sure, this is a precursor for "Funny Girl" however, both of the girls are talentless.  Well almost... Hank can tap dance but that's about it... It was fine.  For those of you who went to Concordia and took music history, you know that the musical wasn't really fully conceptualized until "Oklahoma" in 1943.  So I understand the musical itself was still in it's early stages.  But still...it was pretty meh.  I would recommend this movie to people who love musicals and who have a strong appreciation for "Singin' in the Rain."  Which in my humble opinion, if you don't, you should.  "Singin' in the Rain" pays a lot of homage to "Broadway Melody."  The ballad from "Broadway Melody" is called "You were meant for me" which Gene Kelly's character sings to Debbie Reynolds in the airplane hanger.  With Gene Kelly singing, it will make you swoon.  And then during what Tim calls "Third-Act Slump," Gene Kelly does the Broadway Melody Ballet dance, which actually makes way more sense after seeing "Broadway Melody" but with out having that as context, it seems like a totally wtf moment...  All in all, I was somewhere between underwhelmed and just plain whelmed. 

Katie has probably forgotten more about musicals than I have ever known and she is certainly the recognized authority on the subject between the two of us. The "Third Act Slump" that she is referring to is my theory that all musicals (even the very best) when split into four parts have a third part, usually following the intermission that can feel slow or plodding. "The Broadway Melody" seemed to be perpetually stuck in this kind of slump and we are in agreement that this film is better evaluated through the lens of its historical significance than compared to the musical masterpieces that would follow decades later.
The film certainly contains the elements that make a musical great: music, dancing, enthusiasm, a love triangle... but it all comes across as an unfocused mess. For the first 30 minutes or so, the titular song is the only one featured (and repeated ad infinitum) in the film and the flimsy story is merely a formality to showcase singing and dancing that is often inexplicably unimpressive. The female leads Hank and Queenie (Queenie being one of the most useless and uninteresting characters I have come across) have some duets in the film that are frankly like nails on chalkboard and I struggle to remember most of the tunes from the movie. 
When this film ended, I said aloud, "well, I guess that was it." The film left me with a bland taste in my mouth and relied heavily upon a lot of stereotypes that were dated even in the '30's. Katie and I just went to a wonderful performance of "Noises Off" in MN presented by a theater company she used to work for that was a much more clever and humorous satire of backstage theater drama. In this film however the pretty girl was useless but much pursued and the average looking and more talented girl had to work hard for everything she got while the men just said "gee whiz" a lot and did whatever they wanted. An archetype to be sure but with an unsatisfying conclusion as none of the characters seemed to grow or change by films' end.
It would have been a treat to see the Technicolor sequence (which predates The Wizard of Oz by a few years) and there was at least one very impressive scene with what could best be described as a "ballet tap dancer" on pointe shoes. In any case, this film is undeniably important and must be given its due respect even if it represented a work-in-progress for the musical film genre and an awkward transition from silent films to "talkies." 

Fun Fact: Broadway Melody made a whopping four million dollars at the box office, which is impressive considering inflation and the fact the tickets only cost about 35 cents!  

Stage Manager: [pointing to the stage] I told you, I want a spotlight *right here*!
[a miffed electrician drops a spotlight off the rafters. It lands on the stage with a crash]
Stage Manager: [cowed] Thank you. 

Wings (1927)

Modern Day Imelda is off to Montana and corralling her loved one into writing a blog with her about his favorite hobby, movies!  We have just moved in together and are both working hard on living with each other, working on this blog, and of course, working for the weekend.  We will be writing entries for each of the Best Picture Oscar Winners throughout all time starting with the 1927 silent film winner, "Wings."  


As far as best picture winners, usually one of us has at least seen it but as far as "Wings" is concerned, we didn't really know anything about it.  For those of you who don't know, which I'm assuming is a large chunk, "Wings" is about a love triangle/square during the first World War.  Mary is in love with her neighbor, Jack.  In the first scene, Mary helps Jack fix up his car, which they name "The Shooting Star."  Jack is in love with Sylvia, a pseudo hippie (she was way ahead of her time) but Sylvia is in love with rich David.  A lot goes on in this movie with the two gentlemen going to war as pilots and Mary volunteering in the war.  

To me, Katie, the basic plot is similar to Pearl Harbor... without Cuba Gooding Jr. but c'est la vie.  It's two men fighting over a blah chick who can't really make up her mind.  Mary, the non-blah chick, is a pretty fail character for a good majority of the movie.  I mean she is this strong woman who is a mechanic and receives a leadership position in the war but all of that goes out the window when Jack comes around.  She finally grows a pair about an hour and a half into the movie and tells Jack to go to hell.  The feminist inside of me kind of digs that.  With all that said the plot of Mary is way ahead of it's time. I mean, in the twenties, you have a middle class woman becoming a well-respected person in the war, who is also a bad-ass mechanic.  If anything, that has been my biggest struggle adjusting to Montana.  Some of the men, not Tim or we'd have a big problem, are chivalrous to the point of mild sexism.  I am not a super feminist but occasionally I have an urge to just burn my bra or something.  I was impressed with the special effects for the time.  They do some weird stuff when the characters are drunk and it goes on for far too long but overall I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this movie.  



For those of you who were Modern Day Imelda readers, I am "the man from Montana." Apparently dreams really do come true outside of the movies as Katie moved out here and we are happily living together. Despite any transitional moving friction she still loves me warts and all. We share a love of films and so this blog will be the semi-autobiographical chronicle of our shot at the not-so-easy task of seeing every Best Picture winner in order. I'm new to the blogging business, so bear with my wordiness and come along with us as we take this journey together.

It seems that the tradition of historical fiction/wartime romance Best Picture winners was a trend from the beginning as Wings fits neatly into this genre that would bring future Oscar winners such as The English Patient and Gone With the Wind. Despite coming up short when compared to foreign silent  films of the time (such as Metropolis or Nosferatu) I too was surprised by how much I enjoyed Wings. The story was engaging and the war scenes were quite impressive considering the time period, and the surprisingly long runtime passed quickly for the most part. The establishing of the story took a while and there was some slow padding in the middle after Mary quits the war effort but the ending is quite poignant. This film also features Montana native Gary Cooper in an early role, a man who would go on to be one of the biggest stars of the era and all time. He went to a high school in my hometown and is one of Montana's proudest sons. 
Ultimately, the film's shortfall is that it failed to touch me personally and reminded me too much of other superior films. I don't blame the film's quality as I understand that I did not live through the time period or see the other nominees of that year. It's not Saving Private Ryan but it's a perfectly fine start to our blog. 

Interesting fact: This movie has the first man on man kiss.  It's on a deathbed and it's two friends- completely platonic. So all the controversy surrounding Brokeback Mountain's depiction of same-sex affection was really nothing new.  

"Youth, hitting the clouds! Laughing at danger! Fighting, loving, dodging death! That's "WINGS""