This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. It's the first Thursday in August, and in several months this year the first Thursday means an Oscar-themed edition. For August, the two categories selected are Costume Design, and Makeup (and hairstyling). The Makeup category only became an official category in 1981 according to the Academy's database. Since I know a lot more about movies from before I was born, I'll stick with the Costume Design category, which became an official category in 1948. For almost 20 years, until 1966, there were two Oscars given out, one for costumes in black-and-white, and one for costumes in color. With that in mind, I looked through the winners and decided to go with three movies in the black-and-white Costume Design category:
I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955). Oscar-winner: Helen Rose. Susan Hayward plays, as only Susan Hayward can, Lillian Roth, who became a singer of torch songs on stage and in nightclubs of the 1930s. She had an extremely pushy stage mother (Jo Van Fleet) who didn't want her to have any personal life that would detract from the career, so Lillian responded by turning to drink, eventually becoming an alcoholic. After one incident too many she goes to Alcoholics Anonymous and turns her life around.
The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956). Oscar-winner: Orry-Kelly Judy Holliday plays a small shareholder in a conglomerate who goes to the annual shareholders' meeting and asks the sorts of questions that get the board frustrated, so they try to buy her silence by giving her a pushy PR job. But there, she determines that the conglomerate is trying to drive one of its subsidiaries out of business, which gets her to rally all the other small shareholders to try to stop the board. Paul Douglas plays the former head of the comglomerate who takes a job in Washington, but develops a lot of sympathy for Holliday. Narrated by George Burns.
The Facts of Life (1960). Oscar-winners: Edith Head and Edward Stevenson. Don DeFore and Lucille Ball play one married couple; Bob Hope and Ruth Hussey play another who are friends with DeFore/Ball and a third couple to the point that they always vacation together. When emergencies at home force DeFore and Hussey to miss one vacation and the third couple get six, Hope and Ball are forced to spend time together, leading them to think they're falling in love with each other and wondering whether they should get divorces. According to IMDb, both Head and Stevenson were responsible for costuming Lucille Ball; I would have guessed one was responsible for men's wardrobe and the other for women's in general or one for Hope and one for Ball.
5 comments:
I like the way you went with this but while I love two of the films I don't remember much about their costuming.
I think I'll Cry Tomorrow contains Susan Hayward's best performance, especially since she does her own singing and does well with it. She is as always beautifully dressed when necessary and frowsy when she hits the skids, perhaps it was that variation is what cinched the award.
I'm a huge fan of The Solid Gold Cadillac and think it's one of Judy Holliday's peak films but again she was smartly turned out but I wasn't struck by anything outstanding about the clothes. I'll have to give it another look and focus on that.
The Facts of Life is on the puerile side and I only watched it once, and barely made it through so I don't recall much about it.
I love intricate clothes so my three picks are films where there is some aspect to the costuming.
Les Girls (1957)-Lady Sybil Wren (Kay Kendall) writes a memoir of her time as a dancer in the Les Girl troupe headed by Barry Nichols (Gene Kelly). Upon publication she is sued for libel by Angele Ducros (Taina Elg) who along with Joy Henderson (Mitzi Gaynor) was also in the group. As the story unfolds Rashomon style it raises questions of what the truth is as both women and Barry present their versions all set to the music of Cole Porter. Nominated for three Oscars (Costume Design, Art Direction and Sound) this won Orry-Kelly the second of his three Oscars (out of four nominations) for his dazzling and stylish work.
Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)-Chronicle of the rapid rise of Anne Boleyn (Genevieve Bujold) to become Henry VIII’s (Richard Burton) second queen, nearly tearing the English Kingdom apart in the process and equally precipitous fall. Beautifully appointed and fiercely acted by the leads this received 9 other Oscar nominations (Picture, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Score and Sound Mixing) besides Margaret Furse’s (her only prize out of 6 nominations) well deserved win for Costume Design for her elaborately intricate costumes which inform and enrich the characters rather than just being wardrobe.
Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)-Sydney based drag queen Anthony (Hugo Weaving) accepts a gig in far off Alice Springs inviting fellow cross-dresser Adam (Guy Pearce) and transsexual Bernadette (Terence Stamp) to tag along. Decked out in one jaw dropping ensemble after another the trio undertake an odyssey across the Australian Outback in their lavender bus, Priscilla encountering both friend and foe along the way. Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner won the film’s sole nomination for their memorably over the top costume designs with Gardiner creating a sensation by accepting the award in a dress made entirely of expired American Express cards.
Whenever I see "The Facts of Life" I think of that old TV show. I forget a movie of the same name existed. I'm 0/3 here again. One of these days I'll be 3/3.
I've heard of I'll Cry Tomorrow but have never seen it. The others sounds interesting though.
I have never seen The Facts of Life but I just love Edith Head, so I'm certain that it's a brilliant pick!
Susan Hayward kills me because she did all she could to try and win the Oscar. Actually she was good in this film and I enjoyed it but don't recall the costumes. I haven't seen the other 2 but I love Judy Holliday and have been meaning to see that film for ages.
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