This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. Being the first Thursday of the month, we're getting another Oscar-themed edition of the blogathon, this time looking at Best Actress and Best Actor winners. This is obviously a fairly easy one, as one need only look at a list of winners. I thought for a bit about exactly how I wanted to go with this week's blogathon, and eventually decided upon three early Best Actress winners, but not the first three:
Coquette (1929). Mary Pickford got what was essentially a career award for what is frankly a pretty dire movie, an early talkie with a lot of silent film overacting and a melodramatic plot that, well, will either leave you rolling your eyes or howling with laughter. Pickford, who was pushing 40, plays a southern belle whose doctor father thinks her boyfriend (Johnny Mack Brown) compromised her, so in a fit of honor Dad shoots the boyfriend, leading to the way over-the-top courtroom climax.
Min and Bill (1930). Marie Dressler runs a rooming house on the waterfront for the fishermen, one of whom (Wallace Beery) is her lover. She's been foster mother to Dorothy Jordan, who has a well-to-do fiancé. But Jordan's biological mother (Marjorie Rambeau) shows up to spoil everything when she figures out that her daughter is about to come into a bunch of money. Dressler, who won the Oscar) has tremendous chemistry with Beery, and the finale is heartbreaking.
The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931). You may have seen or heard of the Lana Turner movie Madame X. It's a hoary story that was remade multiple times under that title, and the basic story was cribbed for several other movies with different titles, including this one. Helen Hayes wins her first Oscar, forty years before Airport, playing a rural Frenchwoman who gets knocked up by an American (Neil Hamilton) who returns home; after falling afoul of the law with jewel thief Lewis Stone the child is taken from her and she resorts to prostitution to give the kid enough anonymous benefits that he can go on to medical school. Years later, when Madelon is old and sick, she gets tended to by... Dr. Claudet, who doesn't realize that he's taking care of his mom. In the other Madame X stories, the son becomes a lawyer who defends his mom in court not knowing her true identity. And then there's the similar To Each His Own (1946), wich won Olivia de Havilland the Oscar for sacrificing her son in World War I and only meeting him decades later....
2 comments:
Pickford is one of the huge silent stars whose appeal I just don't get. I find her barely tolerable in her silent features but completely odious in all but her final talkie. Coquette contains what I think is the worst performance to ever win for Best Actress.
Marie Dressler is wonderful in Min and Bill even if her vehicle is pretty creaky.
My favorite Helen Hayes is Airport period Helen Hayes. When she was younger she comes across stiff and affected. She has her moments in Madelon Claudet, mostly after the midpoint but for the most part she's playing to the balcony.
I used Greer Garson as my linchpin to tie my three together.
Mrs. Miniver (Greer Garson-Best Actress) (1942)-Kay Miniver (Greer), her architect husband Clem (Walter Pidgeon-also Oscar nominated) and their three children are living a comfortable life in a small village outside of London until war is declared. Eldest son Vin (Richard Ney-who shortly after the film’s completion married Greer!) leaves college to join the Royal Air Force while also falling for and marrying local girl Carol Beldon (Teresa Wright-winner for Best Supporting Actress). As the war arrives on their doorstep they must endure bombing raids and many other hardships and tragedies meeting them with perseverance and fortitude.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (Robert Donat-Best Actor) (1939)-1n 1870 schoolteacher Charles Chipping “Mr. Chips” (Donat) fresh from university is a strict disciplinarian to his young students at his new public-school post making him unpopular. However, on holiday he meets and impulsively marries the feisty suffragette Katherine Ellis (Greer Garson-Oscar nominated) whose love softens and humanizes Chips until he becomes a beloved institution on campus and a source of inspiration through the tough years of World War I onward into the 20th Century.
A Double Life (Ronald Colman-Best Actor) (1947)-Legendary stage star Anthony John’s (Colman) method is to totally immerse himself in the parts he plays. This is fine when he appears in comedic roles but with more serious roles, he becomes unpredictably volatile as his real-life self slowly ebbs away leading to the end of his marriage to Brita (Signe Hasso) his frequent costar. Now despite all warning signs he has undertaken Othello partnered again with Brita, though having a young mistress, Pat Kroll (an incredibly young, very thin Shelley Winters in her first important role), and as the part overtakes him, he descends into madness. Though Greer isn’t in this film she and Colman costarred (the year she won for Mrs. Miniver) in another big success for both “Random Harvest” where Colman was again nominated for Best Actor.
I still have to see Coquette but I heard it is not the best but I still want to see it. The same goes for The Sin of M. that even Helen Hayes said it is not her best but hey...I have to see it. I do love Marie Dressler in Min & Bill.
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