Oscars: Best Actors

1928 Emil Jannings The Last Command and The Way Of All Flesh

1929 Warner Baxter In Old Arizona

1930 George Arliss Disraeli

1931 Lionel Barrymore A Free Soul

1932 Fredric March Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

1932 Wallace Beery The Champ

1933 Charles Laughton The Private Life Of Henry Viii

1934 Clark Gable It Happened One Night

1935 Victor McLaglen The Informer

1936 Paul Muni The Story Of Louis Pasteur

1937 Spencer Tracy Captains Courageous

1938 Spencer Tracy Boys Town

1939 Robert Donat Goodbye Mr. Chips

1940 James Stewart The Philadelphia Story
1941 Gary Cooper Sergeant York

1942 James Cagney Yankee Doodle Dandy

1943 Paul Lukas Watch On The Rhine

1944 Bing Crosby Going My Way

1945 Ray Milland The Lost Weekend

1946 Fredric March The Best Years Of Our Lives
1947 Ronald Colman A Double Life
1948 Laurence Olivier Hamlet
1949 Broderick Crawford All The King's Men

1950 José Ferrer Cyrano De Bergerac

1951 Humphrey Bogart The African Queen

1952 Gary Cooper High Noon

1953 William Holden Stalag 17

1954 Marlon Brando On The Waterfront

1955 Ernest Borgnine Marty

1956 Yul Brynner The King And I

1957 Alec Guinness The Bridge Over The River Kwai

1958 David Niven Separate Tables

1959 Charlton Heston Ben Hur

1960 Burt Lancaster Elmer Gantry

1961 Maximilian Schell Judgment At Nuremburg

1962 Gregory Peck To Kill A Mocking Bird

1963 Sidney Poitier Lillies Of The Field

1964 Rex Harrison My Fair Lady

1965 Lee Marvin Cat Ballou

1966 Paul Scofield A Man for all Seasons

1967 Rod Steiger In the Heat of the Night

1968 Cliff Robertson Charly

1969 John Wayne True Grit

1970 George C. Scott Patton

1971 Gene Hackman The French Connection

1972 Marlon Brando The Godfather

1973 Jack Lemmon Save The Tiger

1974 Art Carney Harry And Tonto

1975 Jack Nicholson One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

1976 Peter Finch Network

1977 Richard Dreyfuss The Goodbye Girl

1978 Jon Voight Coming Home

1979 Dustin Hoffman Kramer vs. Kramer

1980 Robert De Niro Raging Bull

1981 Henry Fonda On Golden Pond

1982 Ben Kingsley Gandhi

1983 Robert Duvall Tender Mercies

1984 F. Murray Abraham Amadeus

1985 William Hurt Kiss Of The Spider Woman

1986 Paul Newman The Color Of Money

Tonight on TCM!
Seven Days In May (1964) An American military officer discovers his superiors are planning a military coup. Cast: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Fredric March, Ava Gardner Dir: John Frankenheimer

Camera Shot!

The Bride Came C.O.D.

Suspicion

Till We Meet Again

Now Voyager

Strange Interlude

North by Northwest

A Man's Castle

Tonight on TCM!

The Pink Panther (1964) In the first Inspector Clouseau film, the bumbling French police detective tries to stop a notorious jewel thief from nabbing a princess' diamond.Cast: David Niven, Peter Sellers, Capucine, Robert Wagner Dir: Blake Edwards

Johnny Guitar (1954)

Living in her saloon on the outskirts of an Arizona cattle town, Vienna (Joan Crawford) maintains a volatile relationship with the local townsfolk for her support in the railroad being laid nearby, a railroad that will make her rich when she builds up her own town and can stop depending on the “kindness” of the community nearby. Vienna is also looked down upon for permitting a suspected stage robber called The Dancin' Kid (Scott Brady) to frequent her saloon and sometimes her bed. She and The Dancin’ Kid have been ordered to leave the area as they are suspected of murdering Emma Small’s (Mercedes McCambridge) brother. Unfortunately, Emma is a bitter, frustrated leader of a nearby community with a vindictive streak. Though Vienna and The Dancin’ Kid did not murder her brother, Emma is torn between jealousy and fear about The Dancin’ Kid and his relationship with her and Vienna. She is trying to rid both of them from her life no matter how it’s done.
Vienna's ex-lover Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden), a reformed gunslinger whose real name is Logan, arrives at the saloon just in time to fulfill his new role as Vienna’s protector. As he and Vienna renew their love for one another they must contend with The Dancin' Kid and his gang robbing the town bank. Knowing the townsfolk will suspect her in the crime as well; Vienna holds her ground and refuses to leave her saloon. When the posse descends upon her, Johnny comes to her rescue and they take refuge in The Dancin' Kid's secret hideaway. When the posse tracks them down Emma challenges Vienna to a showdown.







Quite possibly the worst movie I have ever seen Joan Crawford in (I say this without having seen Trog, Beserk, I Saw What You Did, Della, etc.). It’s as if the actors knew they were performing in a mediocre vehicle and to make up for the lack of a good plot, decided that if they were gong to go down in flames, they would do it in good camp fashion. However, even this movie isn’t good enough to be camp. The over-acting, the unnecessary and often corny gestures, and the dialogue equated a hot mess I couldn’t peel my eyes away from despite the blaring Technicolor of Crawford’s shirts and kerchiefs. What's worse is that Western standards like Ward Bond and John Carradine couldn't even help this sinking ship.

Side note:

Apparently Crawford and McCambridge's duels were fought both on and off camera. One night, in a drunken rage, Crawford scattered the costumes worn by McCambridge along an Arizona highway and the cast and crew had to collect the outfits.

Fun Fact:

McCambridge was the voice of the demon in The Excorcist (1973).

Tonight on TCM! Time for crime!

Bullitt (1968) When mobsters kill the witness he was assigned to protect, a dedicated policeman investigates the case on his own. Cast: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset, Don Gordon Dir: Peter Yates

The French Connection (1971)
Two New York narcotics cops set out to bust a French drug smuggling ring.
Cast: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco Dir: William Friedkin

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
The legendary bank robbers run riot in the South of the 1930s. Cast: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman Dir: Arthur Penn

Stiff Competition!

Tonight on TCM! John Wayne!

True Grit (1969)A young girl recruits an aging U.S. marshal to help avenge her father's death.
Cast: John Wayne, Glen Campbell, Kim Darby, Jeremy Slate Dir: Henry Hathaway

The Shootist (1976) A dying gunfighter tries to set his affairs in order. Cast: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart Dir: Don Siegel

Newman's Own: Lady L (1965)

The respectable and well-known Lady Lendale (Sophia Loren) is celebrating her 80th birthday. Sir Percy (Cecil Parker), a man enchanted by her, wishes to write her biography. Lady Lendale invites him into her summer home and reveals the secrets of her past. Nothing much really- just that she was never really married to Lord Lendale (David Niven), and that she sired all her children by the anarchist Armand Denis (Paul Newman) whom she met in a whorehouse.
Though there were some spots in Lady Lendale’s lovely rags to riches tale that could use a little more polish, one should keep in mind that this is a comedy and meant to be more fun than accurate.

TCM has provided me an opportunity to check out a bit of Paul Newman’s earlier work. What I have found thus far from watching movies such as Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), Rally ‘Round the Flag, Boys (1958), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Sweet Bird of Youth (1962), The Prize (1963), The Outrage (1964), and Lady L (1965) is an actor really coming into his own. I grew up in the eighties and was familiar with the Newman from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)- a personal favorite of my parents, and The Color of Money (1986)- because who the heck wasn’t watching Tom Cruise in something in the eighties? I never gave Newman much thought, on the surface he was a very attractive man but it never really penetrated. I considered his salad dressing more of treat. It wasn’t until I was doing blogs on Hollywood marriages that I looked deeper into Newman’s personal life and career. What I saw from earlier pictures with him and Joanne Woodward enchanted me. Then I saw him in Sweet Bird of Youth (I didn’t watch it for him, but for Geraldine Page) and I was hooked. “Wow! He really is quite a gorgeous creature, isn’t he?” I thought to myself. His portrayal of Chance Wayne was so endearing, he displayed equal amounts of sensitivity, masculinity, charm, wit, and humor (Woodward said she didn’t fall in love with him for his looks but because he could make her laugh). It’s the sensitivity and humor that draw me to him most. He had this look, this pout, this certain squint to his right eye that he used much to his advantage. He never seemed to tire at poking fun at himself via his characters. No matter how serious a role he played in all the movies I have seen him in, this humor humanized him, brought him down to my level, despite his having the face of an angel.
I admit that I take guilty pleasure in seeing a younger version of Newman though he played in some pretty mediocre vehicles-I chalk it up to hazards of the trade. I like him from the fifties before smoking too many cigarettes gave him a deeper, raspier tone. It’s been noted that he really didn’t approach his pinnacle until the late sixties.

You can now see that my title makes a little more sense since this blog entry is more about Newman than Lady L- which he's good in, not great but good. He certainly could have been on the screen more, in my opinion.

Tonight on TCM! Ooooh! Exciting!
The Uninvited(1944)
A brother and sister buy a house with a ghostly secret. Cast: Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp, Cornelia Otis Skinner Dir: Lewis Allen

Oscars of the past...

Keeping with February's TCM theme, here's a list of the Oscar-winning movies from the past. There's quite a few classics I need to catch up on!

Year Movie Viewed

1927-28	Wings and Sunrise
1928-29	The Broadway Melody
1929-30	All Quiet on the Western Front
1930-31	Cimarron
1931-32	Grand Hotel	☺
1932-33	Cavalcade
1934	It Happened One Night	☺
1935	Mutiny on the Bounty
1936	The Great Ziegfeld	☺
1937	The Life of Emile Zola
1938	You Can't Take It With You	☺
1939	Gone With The Wind	☺
1940	Rebecca	☺
1941	How Green Was My Valley
1942	Mrs. Miniver
1943	Casablanca	☺
1944	Going My Way
1945	The Lost Weekend
1946	The Best Years of Our Lives
1947	Gentleman's Agreement
1948	Hamlet
1949	All the King's Men
1950	All About Eve	☺
1951	An American In Paris
1952	The Greatest Show on Earth
1953	From Here to Eternity
1954	On The Waterfront
1955	Marty
1956	Around the World in 80 Days
1957	The Bridge On The River Kwai	☺
1958	Gigi
1959	Ben-Hur	☺
1960	The Apartment
1961	West Side Story
1962	Lawrence of Arabia
1963	Tom Jones
1964	My Fair Lady
1965	The Sound of Music
1966	A Man for All Seasons
1967	In the Heat of the Night
1968	Oliver!
1969	Midnight Cowboy
1970	Patton
1971	The French Connection
1972	The Godfather	☺
1973	The Sting
1974	The Godfather Part II	☺
1975	One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest	☺
1976	Rocky	☺
1977	Annie Hall	☺
1978	The Deer Hunter	☺
1979	Kramer vs. Kramer	☺
1980	Ordinary People	☺
1981	Chariots of Fire
1982	Gandhi
1983	Terms of Endearment	☺
1984	Amadeus	☺
1985	Out of Africa
1986	Platoon
1987	The Last Emperor
1988	Rain Man	☺
1989	Driving Miss Daisy	☺
1990	Dances with Wolves	☺
1991	The Silence of the Lambs	☺
1992	Unforgiven	☺
1993	Schindler's List
1994	Forrest Gump	☺
1995	Braveheart	☺
1996	The English Patient
1997	Titanic
1998	Shakespeare in Love	☺
1999	American Beauty	☺
2000	Gladiator	☺
2001	A Beautiful Mind	☺
2002	Chicago
2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	☺
2004	Million Dollar Baby
2005	Crash	☺
2006	The Departed	☺
2007	No Country For Old Men	☺
2008	Slumdog Millionaire

Tonight on TCM! Can't wait to see Cabin In The Sky! I always some in near the end of this film.

Cabin In The Sky (1943)
God and Satan battle for the soul of a wounded gambler. Cast: Ethel Waters, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong Dir: Vincente Minnelli

Pinky (1949)
A light-skinned black woman returns home after passing for white in nursing school.
Cast: Jeanne Crain, Ethel Barrymore, Ethel Waters, William Lundigan Dir: Elia Kazan

Inherit the Wind (1960)

I'm not going to go into the synopsis of this movie for two reasons: one, it's a pretty famous case that essentially boiled down to casting doubt on the literal translation of the bible, and two, it's coming on tonight as a part of the thirty-one days of Oscar!! If you have TCM and love riveting performances, I would suggest you watch this film. Rumor has it that March's and Tracy's performances were so powerful, that other stars would flock to the set to get a seat and check out the action. On one instance, Tracy delivered a speech so effectively that applause broke out before March could deliver his next line.

I have provided a clip of what I consider one of the best scenes in the film. A lot of the dialogue in the film was taken from the transcripts of the actual trial that took place in 1925. Having heard some of the speeches delivered by both Darrow and Jennings Bryan and doing research on the Scopes Trial, you can tell those two were putting on a performance much like March and Tracy would decades later.

Gene Kelly should get an honorable mention for playing a rare serious and slightly despicable role as E. K. Hornbeck. A role he initially turned down until he heard that he would be co-starring with March and Tracy. Kelly sums up his character right from the start, "I do hateful things for which people love me and I do lovable things for which they hate me. I'm admired for my detestability."

I especially enjoyed this film (don't worry, I'm not going to say Fredric March- but he was absolutely wonderful) because as an Agnostic, I can enjoy and appreciate both sides of the debate. However, if I had to choose who gave the best argument, it would Tracy's role as Henry Drummond. You'll note that I do not mention any other members of the cast which is understandable when you have two powerhouses like March and Tracy playfully upstaging one another (March would fuss with his props during Tracy's lines, while Tracy would react to March in ways that drew the camera to him). Everyone else falls to the wayside in comparison.


Great scene!

Side note:
Robert Osborne had Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo on TCM as a guest programmer back in 2007. Motherbaugh picked Inherit the Wind as one of his movies and rightly so, the picture below is from a scene in Inherit the Wind that shows the monkey sitting in the middle of the word devolution, the letters Devo showing, thus a band name was born. I LOVE little facts like this!



Tonight on TCM! What a line up!!!
The Thin Man (1934)
A husband-and-wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts.
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton Dir: W. S. Van Dyke

The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946)
Three returning servicemen fight to adjust to life after World War II.
Cast: Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright Dir: William Wyler

Inherit The Wind (1960)
In the twenties, a schoolteacher creates a national furor when he breaks the law against teaching evolution.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly, Dick York Dir: Stanley Kramer

Sergeant York (1941)
True story of the farm boy who made the transition from religious pacifist to World War I hero.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie, George Tobias Dir: Howard Hawks