The Usual Choices
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
How Green Was My Valley (John Ford)
The Maltese Falcon (John Huston)
Sullivan's Travels (Preston Sturges)
But how about...
The Devil and Miss Jones (Sam Wood)
A real find (if you can find the bloody thing.) Jean Arthur's squeaky voice and Charles Coburn's wobbling jowls were always joys of the Golden Age and both are on front-row show here. Tolerate Bob Cummings (what did anyone see in this guy?), marvel at the wonderful collection of character actors (what faces!) and you'll breeze through this screwball / social commentary product. And then shed a wet one for the realization that WWII + McCarthyism nobbled this sort of thing in the years to come.
...and what about...
Kipps (Carol Reed)
HG Wells wrote this English class saga (the novel, anyway) and in some ways it's his biggest fantasy. Time travel and alien invasion were somehow more believable than the likelihood that a common man could progress beyond his inherited station in life and jump up a notch. Michael Redgrave is perfect in this, you can virtually see Carol Reed honing his storytelling craft, and smile at how the WWII British happily settled for frump over beauty in their movie starlets.
...not to mention...
The Wolf Man (George Waggner)
Missing the trend by a couple of years, this gem is regularly overlooked when listing the 30s horror greats by James Whale and Tod Browning. Unusually fine cast for a horror flick (Claude Rains; Lon Chaney Jr; Ralph Bellamy; Bela Lugosi), this leans more towards olde world goth (villages & fog & gypsies etc) than terrorising monster movie. Hell, it's almost romantic in mood. And the inevitable lycanthropic-transformation is, well, quaint.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks)
Hawks made some great films, but despite its reputation, this is not one of them. Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs = Gary Cooper as a grammar-obsessive & his seven live-in college professors, each one with chubby cheeks you just want to pinch. Barbara Stanwyck is a dancing strumpet called Sugarpuss; Dana Andrews is an urban crimelord; Gene Krupa does a drum solo on a box of matches. Perhaps this was another one of Howard's bets with his mates during a drinking session - y'know, "I bet I can turn a fairy tale into a screwball comedy classic and release it in the same month as Pearl Harbour." Shoulda switched to coffee.
My Top 10 Films of 1941
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| "Yes, I have been given my own postcode." |
#02 A The Lady Eve (Sturges)
#03 A Citizen Kane (Welles)
#04 A How Green Was My Valley (Ford)
#05 A- The Devil and Miss Jones (Wood)
#06 A- Sullivan's Travels (Sturges)
#07 A- High Sierra (Walsh)
#08 A- Ladies in Retirement (Vidor)
#09 A- All Through the Night (Sherman)
#10 B+ Hold Back the Dawn (Leisen)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 B+ Here Comes Mr Jordan (Hall)
#12 B+ Man Hunt (Lang)
#13 B+ The Wolf Man (Waggner)
#14 B+ Love On the Dole (Baxter)
#15 B+ That Hamilton Woman (Korda)
#16 B+ The Face Behind the Mask (Florey)
#17 B+ The Gay Falcon (Reis)
#18 B+ Charley's Aunt (Mayo)
#19 B+ Buck Privates (Lubin)
#20 B+ Kipps (Reed)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B Meet John Doe [he shoulda jumped]
> B It Started With Eve [pretty good rom-com until Deanna starts to trill]
> B Never Give a Sucker an Even Break [his last leading role - as always, his timing was perfect]
> B Major Barbara [pretty good...but Shaw needs to be pretty great to work onscreen]
> B 49th Parallel [wave that flag]
> B Mr & Mrs Smith [Alfred Hitchcock does a screwball comedy...once]
> B The Great Lie [Bette Davis out-spotlighted by...Mary Astor???]
> B I Wake Up Screaming [what's all the noise about?]
> B Suspicion [minor Hitch and the two lead performances are pretty minor too]
> B Remember the Day [a Mr Chips / Miss Dove Super-Teacher story...which means I irrationally like it]
> B The Little Foxes [can't take my eyes off Bette...just like I stare at a bad toupee]
> B Shining Victory [good acting; good premise; patronising & sexist dialogue]
> B You Belong To Me [screwball rom-com that is screwed a bit too tightly]
> B Manpower [standard Warners Bros fare: macho action + love triangle + broad comedy]
> B- Sergeant York [understandably pro-war, so therefore, not for the ages]
> B- The Devil & Daniel Webster / All That Money Can Buy [awkward folksy Americana]
> B- The Big Store [more is less...and less...and less...]
> B- Shadow of the Thin Man [some people just shouldn't have children...]
> B- Penny Serenade [tear-jerking to the point of resentment]
> B- The Bride Came C.O.D. [James Cagney and Bette Davis, trying to be Cary Grant and Carole Lombard]
> B- Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde [somehow drains the life out of the extraordinary 1931 version]
> B- Unfinished Business [a serious Irene wishing she'd been partnered with a funny Cary]
> B- Man-Made Monster [a rather tame Universal monster movie where the deaths happen off-camera]
> C Ball of Fire [A Personal Unmentionable]
> C Bedtime Story [despite the starpower, it's a nothing]
> C Swamp Water [did bayou-people really behave like bumpkins?]
> C Dive Bomber [the military is the mother of invention...oh, yeah, and death, too]
> C Hudson's Bay [Paul Muni overacting as Pepe Le Pew: Action Hero]
> C Rage in Heaven [overblown psychological thriller deflated by the last 15 minutes of melodramatic mush]
> C Lady Scarface [dull gangster pic with too many nice people making stupid decisions]
> D Love Crazy [Nick & Nora flailing about in a poor-taste screwball comedy about mental illness]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1941 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
Adam Had Four Sons (Ratoff); Among the Living (Heisler); Appointment for Love (Seiter); Blues in the Night (Litvak); Caught in the Draft (Butler); Dangerous Moonlight (Hurst); The Devil Commands (Dmytryk); The Flame of New Orleans (Clair); The Ghost of St. Michael's (Varnel); The Great American Broadcast (Mayo); H.M. Pulham Esq. (Vidor); It Started With Eve (Koster); Johnny Eager (LeRoy); Model Wife (Jason); Nothing But the Truth (Nugent); Quiet Wedding (Asquith); Road Show (Douglas); Road to Zanzibar (Schertzinger); So Ends Our Night (Cromwell); The Sea Wolf (Curtiz); The Shepherd of the Hills (Hathaway); Skylark (Sandrich); The Strawberry Blonde (Walsh); Swamp Water (Renoir); Tarzan’s Secret Treasure (Thorpe); They Died With Their Boots On (Walsh); Three Girls About Town (Jason); Tobacco Road (Ford); Tom, Dick & Harry (Kanin); Underground (Sherman); Western Union (Lang); A Woman's Face (Cukor); You're in the Army Now (Seiler); Ziegfeld Girl (Leonard)
Best Performances of 1941
Oft-Mentioned ChoicesMary Astor (The Great Lie)
Humphrey Bogart (The Maltese Falcon)
Gary Cooper (Sergeant York)
Donald Crisp (How Green was My Valley)
Henry Fonda (The Lady Eve)
Joan Fontaine (Suspicion)
James Gleason (Here Comes Mr Jordan)
Barbara Stanwyck (Ball of Fire) & (The Lady Eve)
But how about...
Gary Cooper in Meet John Doe
He won the Oscar for Sergeant York (yawn), got all the critical attention for Ball of Fire (yecch), but Coop was at his best in Meet John Doe (and Mr Deeds Goes to Town, natch). While the film itself tries hard and fails to join the masterpieces of Capra-Corn, its lead actor achieves the impossible: the creation of a boy-man character which is actually, totally, believable. With every smile, rabbit-eyed stare and simple understanding, John Doe is a childlike adult who never creeps us cynics out. As they say, if you can fake sincerity... P.S. Food for thought: imagine Coop playing the Tom Hanks part in Big.
...and what about...
Patricia Collinge in The Little Foxes
Probably the best on-screen portrayal of a domestic violence victim. Without being overt and voyeuristic, Patricia makes sure you know that she has really copped it in her life: physically, mentally, emotionally and sexually, the whole catastrophe. Have answered, once and for all, that age old ignorant question: Why does she stay? Be shown that a stare, a verbal put-down, a shut door and a turned back can be just as aggressive as a glinting blade. Then discover that you actually feel anger towards her rather than pity. Explain that.
...not to mention...
Cary Grant in Penny Serenade
Cary has been called the greatest actor Hollywood ever put out. While the comedy and romance roles are a given, Cary's dramatic roles are never really handed their deserved accolades. It took him a while to get there though (I never really accepted him as a potential murderer or cold-blooded bastard). The courtroom scene in Penny Serenade, where Cary is pleading to not have his children taken away, is his best serious performance. My God; a brick would weep through this. If you're suitably impressed, check out 1939's In Name Only: a cliched "woman's picture" which Cary turns into a tour de force.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Bette Davis in The Little Foxes
Great acting (naturally...Bette made some awful films, but that was rarely her fault), but what's with the pancake makeup and the I've-just-trodden-in-something-unpleasant sniff? A demented Casper that should have made an appearance in Ghostbusters, I keep expecting to see swarms of bees fly out of Regina's towering hairdo. and seismic cracks to open up in her face (at least as big as her pressure-cooker cleavage). Menacing, aloof, suddenly emotional, sure - it's Bette Davis - but why ruin the performance with an OTT Goth outfit?
My 10 Favourite Performances of 1941
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| Acting is smiling while a squirrel burrows into your brain. |
#02 Barbara Stanwyck (The Lady Eve)
#03 Henry Fonda (The Lady Eve)
#04 Humphrey Bogart (High Sierra)
#05 Patricia Collinge (The Little Foxes)
#06 Sydney Greenstreet & Peter Lorre & Elisha Cook Jr. (The Maltese Falcon)
#07 James Gleason (Here Comes Mr Jordan)
#08 The Preston Sturges "Stock Company" (Sullivan's Travels)
#09 Gary Cooper (Meet John Doe)
#10 Cary Grant (Penny Serenade)
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Peter Lorre (The Face Behind the Mask)
#12 Charles Boyer (Hold Back the Dawn)
#13 Walter Huston (The Devil & Daniel Webster / All That Money Can Buy)
#14 Charles Coburn (The Devil & Miss Jones)
#15 Dan Duryea (The Little Foxes)
#16 Roddy McDowall (How Green Was My Valley)
#17 Mary Astor (The Great Lie)
#18 Allen Jenkins (The Gay Falcon)
#19 Jack Benny (Charley's Aunt)
#20 James Stephenson & Geraldine Fitzgerald (Shining Victory)
#21 Joan Bennett (Man Hunt)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Gary Cooper in Sergeant York [too much of the same old same old]
> Joan Fontaine in Suspicion [too much whimpering; too pathetic; too dithery]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1941 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: The Maltese Falcon (John Huston)
SILVER: The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges)
BRONZE: Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Humphrey Bogart (The Maltese Falcon)
SILVER: Henry Fonda (The Lady Eve)
BRONZE: Humphrey Bogart (High Sierra)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Barbara Stanwyck (The Lady Eve)
SILVER: Vivien Leigh (That Hamilton Woman)
BRONZE: Deborah Kerr (Love On the Dole)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: James Gleason (Here Comes Mr Jordan)
SILVER: Dan Duryea (The Little Foxes)
BRONZE: Charles Coburn (The Devil and Miss Jones)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Patricia Collinge (The Little Foxes)
SILVER: Mary Astor (The Great Lie)
BRONZE: Joan Bennett (Man Hunt)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Sydney Greenstreet & Peter Lorre & Elisha Cook Jr (The Maltese Falcon)
SILVER: Robert Warwick & William Demarest & Franklin Pangborn & Porter Hall & Byron Foulger & Robert Greig & Eric Blore (Sullivan's Travels)
BRONZE: James Stephenson & Geraldine Fitzgerald (Shining Victory)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Roddy McDowall (How Green was My Valley)
SILVER: Douglas Croft (Remember the Day)
BRONZE: Joan Leslie (High Sierra)
The Alternate Razzies for 1941 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
Love Crazy (Jack Conway)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Paul Muni (Hudson's Bay)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Bette Davis (The Little Foxes)
