Observations on Oscar Honorees of Our and Other Ages

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Just for the heck of it, here are the films of which I saw a significant part so far in February during TCM's "31 Days of Oscar" Marathon, which I will divide into two posts.

8 Wednesday

11:00 p.m. FRIENDLY PERSUASION (1956)
--A peaceful Quaker family's sanctity is tested during the Civil War.
Dir: William Wyler. Cast: Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Marjorie Main.

Actually, I have seen this in entirety, but this was the first time since reading the book and getting HDTV. Unfortunately only caught about the last half. Would like to have seen the whole film. It is great, though hardly an accurate depiction of the book. It vastly dramatizes a small part of the book while leaving out the rest.

11 Saturday

7:00 p.m. HARD DAY'S NIGHT, A (1964)
--A typical day in the life of the Beatles.
Dir: Richard Lester. Cast: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr.

Again, only caught the last half, and again had seen it all several times over the years but never in HD. The funny thing about this was the Beatles broke up just about the time I was old enough to know who they were. I remember hearing "Yesterday" while they were still together, and an older girl saying about "Let it Be" that I'd be too young to understand or know about that, so I always thought of the Beatles as being older. When I finally saw the movie in the 1980s, they still seemed that way, older. Later I caught it probably in the late '90s-early Zips and remarked to the pastor of the church I was attending, who was ten years older, after catching A Hard Day's Night and Help!, "These guys used to be older than me and now it's like watching kids playing." He said, "Oh, now you're making me feel really old." Fast forward to present day and they now look impossibly young and nimble! I noticed maybe two places where a word was different than what I was used to after having played the records constantly over the years, and went on Internet Movie Database as I often do after viewing a film, to see if the movie lyrics differed at all from the album lyrics. This is when I learned the terrible and disastrous news that the message boards were closing and spent all except one night since then sitting online till 4:30 a.m.

13 Monday

7:15 p.m. JAWS (1975)
--The sheriff of an island town takes to the seas when a bloodthirsty shark invades the local waters.
Dir: Steven Spielberg. Cast: Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw.

Believe it or not, although my 14th birthday party was all Jaws themed, until a recent TCM showing I had seen practically none of the film, and what I had seen was no doubt from a censored network version. This came out when the theater was thirty miles away and you had to know a friend who was going. Either I was never invited, or was and declined, as at the time I disliked gory movies. At this point I am still nerving myself up to see The Exorcist. I remembered two scenes from Jaws near the beginning. I had never seen the end. During that viewing, I was in and out of the room and still missed a lot. On this viewing, I saw all but a few moments here and there while heating frozen entrees for my mom and me, carrying them in, and carrying things out after we ate in front of the TV. Surprisingly, I really loved this movie, I believe actually much more than I would have back in the day, as it now forms a real piece of nostalgia from that time.

17 Friday

3:15 p.m. MIRACLE OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA, THE (1952)
--Three children from a small village claim to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary.
Dir: John Brahm. Cast: Gilbert Roland, Angela Clark, Frank Silvera.

Must have seen all of this movie at some time, as it aired several times during my childhood, but had not seen it since then. The most recent depiction of this story I saw was on Unsolved Mysteries, many years ago. This time I went in during the scene of the apparition first communicating with the children, which creeped the heck out of me as a kid, and then for the climactic scene where the sun danced. I ditched the rest of the movie but considered it well done. These events will be 100 years old this year and never sufficiently explained.

 

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18 Saturday

7:30 p.m. NETWORK (1976)
--Television programmers turn a deranged news anchor into 'the mad prophet of the airwaves.'
Dir: Sidney Lumet. Cast: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch.


Of all films past or present among this latest TCM bunch, this by far had the most personal impact and served as a particularly uncanny example of encountering a certain work at the moment of most significance to the viewer. I was sitting down to the table, literally wondering when corporations had taken over the world, this time--I knew 100 years ago there was a lot of trustbusting and concern over monopolies but somehow things had been allowed to become much worse in recent years. I questioned if this happened after Microsoft became an entity around 1978, and literally just as I thought this, a promo for Network came on TCM featuring the immortal speech delivered by Ned Beatty about how there are no ideals or countries, only corporate entities.

I had heard of Network over the years, never seen more than the "Mad as Hell" scene, but just happened to know this movie came out in 1976. I thought, man, things were way worse than I thought way earlier than I supposed, and jumped up to write down the air time so as not to miss it. This one I watched every second of, as opposed to the others where I came in and out or did other things during the films. It contains several of the most memorable speeches ever composed, and its every Oscar was well-deserved.

The parts featuring William Holden and Faye Dunaway were less riveting than the rest of the film, particularly Peter Finch's stunning scenes, but were still of vital importance in depicting the human being Holden portrayed to the soulless ratings machine creepily conveyed by Dunaway, reminiscent of Jadis the White Witch, "Queen of Narnia." Had I seen it as a kid when it came out I think I would have still liked the Peter Finch scenes but lost patience with the other parts and possibly overall not liked the movie much. It was definitely much more significant now and I was so thankful to be able to see it at the perfect time.

Many movies after 40 years seem terribly dated, but Network is one of the few even more relevant now than when it originally appeared. The 2016 election had already turned me "Mad as Hell," and learning about the Internet Movie Database Message Boards closure I became Captain Ahab ready to harpoon the corporate monster! Several scenes which in 1976 would have seemed greatly exaggerated to make satirical points, in 2017 are so spot on Paddy Chayefsky emerges as a prophet of monumental proportions! The ending would seem over the top to someone unfamiliar with certain events of the 1960s and the sort of things taking place in public now, for instance two recent incidents in airports. The entire movie is believable. Uncannily believable. Too believable!

I ended up having the same feeling as with Jaws only even moreso, as Networkdeliberately uses footage of contemporary newscasts and popular TV programs, and a scene of pitching shows which could have come out of the pages of any 1970s TV Guide. Again, such an evocation of that past time, especially the appearance of Mary Tyler Moore, who had only just passed away, while being such a depiction of current events! A rarity, which manages to be both prophetic and nostalgic. One scene which might not go over as well now is when William Holden kicks his book in progress and a storm of pages erupts in a cascade. Not quite the same effect with computer files, but of course if he were printing out drafts it would be identical even now. A perfect five stars for this one!

20 Monday

9:45 p.m. POLTERGEIST (1982)
--Evil spirits abduct a suburban family's daughter causing chaos and havoc.
Dir: Tobe Hooper. Cast: Jobeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Beatrice Straight.


Again, of this one I had seen maybe the first ten minutes, the last five minutes, and perhaps a few clips and a Siskel and Ebert review of the middle, never the actual film. Liked it, but not as much as Jaws.

22 Wednesday

5:00 p.m. ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953)
--A runaway princess in Rome finds love with a reporter who knows her true identity.
Dir: William Wyler. Cast: Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert.

Well, of course I'd seen this one as it's one of my mom's favorite films and we have the VHS tape, but never having seen it with the HD picture was reason enough to watch again. The first and biggest surprise was, Dalton Trumbo wrote this film!? How could I have watched it a gazillion times and not known this? I supposed I must have just missed the opening credits but seen the rest of the film, but oddly I remembered having a conversation on one of the forums I frequented before this one, meaning at least 14 years ago, in which we speculated about who wrote the poem Audrey Hepburn quotes while lying on the bench. Someone said since it couldn't be found in any searches, it was likely the product of the screenwriter, and gave his name, which was most definitely not Dalton Trumbo!

After the movie I looked it up and learned Dalton Trumbo wrote Roman Holiday while blacklisted, which was then in full effect and lasted until he was credited for writing Spartacus although that was three years after Joseph McCarthy died. Ian McLellan Hunter took the credit before being blacklisted himself, and passed the payment, and presumably the Oscar, along to Dalton Trumbo. Screen credit for the writing was not restored until 2011 after an official appeal by the sons of Dalton Trumbo and Ian McLellan Hunter. You learn something new every day! Of course our VHS tape is much older so this was the first time I had seen this, which interested Mom very much. Now I want even more than previously to see the film about Trumbo's life.

23 Thursday

7:00 p.m. SEVEN-PER-CENT SOLUTION, THE (1976)
--Sherlock Holmes seeks psychiatric help from Sigmund Freud and gets caught up in mystery.
Dir: Herbert Ross. Cast: Nicol Williamson, Robert Duvall, Alan Arkin, Vanessa Redgrave, Laurence Olivier.

Frankly, this sounded a bit over the top and I wasn't sure how much I might like it. I was deeply disappointed in the 1959 Hammer Films version of The Hound of the Baskervilles when I saw it on TCM and would never want to see it again. I wasn't sure how much I would like this Holmes and Watson, as Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke are my definitive Holmes and Watson. I have also been unable to bring myself to watch any updated adaptations despite the great popularity of that Sherlock actor with the funny name. My mom liked the Robert Downey Jr. film reasonably well, which I have not seen, but a friend wondered about depicting Sherlock Holmes as an action hero. I told him there was an indication of such in the story "The Final Problem," and will now have to inform him the Robert Downey Jr. version did not originate this tradition on film either. Now, Sigmund Freud as an action hero, that is surprising!

Purists who insist on sticking to the canonical version of events may find fault with this, but the way it was presented was well done, the story was riveting, and the acting was great. Most amazing was Robert Duvall as Watson! I literally would not have believed it had I not seen it! What an astoundingly versatile actor! The movie was well-done and worth watching for the sets and cinematography alone. Would definitely watch again.