The Usual Choices
Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)
Mrs Miniver (William Wyler)
The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges)
To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch)
But how about...
The Pied Piper (Irving Pichel)
A film that's impossible to dislike. Yes, yes, it's an unabashedly sentimental / soppy story about refugee children in WWII, but so what? Where is it written that critics are supposed to be Great-Art-obsessed, hard-hearted and not prone to feelings which normal people have? The story is centred on a grumpy old Englishman (Monty Woolley at his most twinklingly-curmudgeon) who is asked to take kids back to England while Nazi-swine overrun France. Besides, the movie doesn't pull its punches: escaping families are mown down by planes & a little boy sees his parents killed in front of him & execution and torture are used as techniques of persuasion. Add some cute kids, ordinary courageous people and an amusing ending...what's not to like? And Monty has the greatest beard ever put on film.
...and what about...
Saboteur (Alfred Hitchcock)
I'm sure the only reason why this Hitchcock spy-film isn't rated as highly as, say, The 39 Steps or Notorious is that it lacks a strong leading couple (Robert Cummings & Priscilla Lane are certainly not in the same league as Gary Cooper & Barbara Stanwyck...Hitch's original choices). But Bob & Priscilla are okay and characterisation was rarely ever important to a Hitchcock film anyway. It was usually about clever individual scenes (like fighting on top of the Statue of Liberty), humour (like meeting a bearded lady & Siamese twins), sexual tension (the "I-don't-like-you-but-I-really-love-you" kind) and suspense (a given). This film ticks ALL the Hitchcockian boxes and is pretty terrific from beginning to end. And yeah, it would've been better with Gary & Barbara.
...not to mention...
Went the Day Well? (Alberto Cavalcanti)
An exciting siege-in-a-cute-little-English-village movie. WWII Nazis (in the guise of British soldiers) overtake the village so it can be used as a strategic vantage point for a German invasion by parachute. And, of course, once the ruse has been discovered, the plucky townsfolk are properly having none of it. When the violence (murders) happens, it is rightfully unexpected and appalling (the pepperpot / hatchet attack is truly shocking). To the director's credit, the Nazis are more abrupt and aloof than bestial and, despite being an understandably-needed piece of propaganda, the waving of flags & teeth-on-edge patriotism are kept to a minimum. It's rousing and human instead.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Random Harvest (Mervyn LeRoy)
Stomach-churning weepie about a WWI vet downed by that ol' bugbear amnesia...which, of course, gets turned off and on by a bump on the head. Supremely self-sacrificing Greer Garson is at her ghastliest when she does a Scottish showgirl act complete with rolling "rrrr"s...then later becomes a highly-skilled secretary to an industrial tycoon. Hollywood's version of merrie old England is on full roses 'n' cottages show, and the only positive in the whole tedious bore is somehow, Ronald Colman gives one of his very best performances...as the guy with amnesia who is fully responsible for it all. A diamond in the dung.
My Top 10 Films of 1942
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| WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS JOBS #37: Manicurist for the Statue of Liberty |
#02 A Went the Day Well? (Cavalcanti)
#03 A The Palm Beach Story (Sturges)
#04 A- Saboteur (Hitchcock)
#05 A- For Me and My Gal (Berkeley)
#06 A- The Pied Piper (Pichel)
#07 A- To Be or Not to Be (Lubitsch)
#08 A- The Magnificent Ambersons (Welles)
#09 A- The Talk of the Town (Stevens)
#10 A- Hatter's Castle (Comfort)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 B+ Kings Row (Wood)
#12 B+ Gentleman Jim (Walsh)
#13 B+ Moontide (Mayo; Lang)
#14 B+ One of Our Aircraft is Missing (Powell; Pressburger)
#15 B+ Lady Gangster (Roberts aka Florey)
#16 B+ Woman of the Year (Stevens)
#17 B+ The Man Who Came to Dinner (Keighley)
#18 B+ Thunder Rock (Boulting)
#19 B+ Grand Central Murder (Simon)
#20 B+ The Glass Key (Heisler)
#21 B+ Across the Pacific (Huston)
#22 B+ I Married a Witch (Clair)
#23 B+ The Big Street (Reis)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B Crossroads [a clever mystery movie which 1930's Hitchcock would've really made something of]
> B My Sister Eileen [frantic is not the same as funny]
> B Roxie Hart [the film is unfortunately anchored to a rare Ginger Rogers comedic fail]
> B Journey for Margaret [too blatantly designed to make you cry, but Margaret is everybody's daughter]
> B Cat People [a-bit-too-silly monster movie with fantastic shadows & reflections]
> B The Jungle Book [every version after this is better, especially Disney's]
> B Pardon My Sarong [Abbott & Costello when they were still fresh and sometimes funny]
> B The Pride of the Yankees [an American Experience movie which is a bit too much for this Aussie]
> B The Big Shot [Bogie is wonderful again but nobody else in the cast is...absolutely nobody]
> B Tarzan's New York Adventure [it's really Cheeta's movie and fortunately he/she/it is one helluva comedian]
> B Who Done It? [Abbott & Costello in obligatory murder-mystery with some good routines & some ordinary ones]
> B- Unpublished Story [OK UK WWII propaganda, featuring agents, agitators and appeasers...the swine...]
> B- The Ghost of Frankenstein [what is it with the monster and little girls??]
> B- Yankee Doodle Dandy [thank God it's in black & white so all the red, white & blue can't smother you]
> B- The Male Animal [Henry reprises his Lady Eve role while Olivia demonstrates no flair for comedy]
> B- The Major and the Minor [the subject matter leaves a vague bad-taste in my mouth]
> B- Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror [aka Sherlock Holmes Does His Bit for the War Effort]
> B- Eyes in the Night [arthritic grandparent of Columbo, Cannon and Monk]
> B- Mrs Miniver [A Public Service Announcement]
> B- Tortilla Flat [Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, John Garfield & Akim Tamiroff as, I think, Mexicans...hmm...]
> B- Life Begins at Eight-Thirty [another alcoholic who is eccentric & wry rather than self-obsessed & sick]
> B- Larceny, Inc. [gangster comedy with a too-soft centre]
> C The Magnificent Dope [wants and needs to be a Frank Capra movie]
> C Random Harvest [A Personal Unmentionable]
> C Now, Voyager [classic weepie "woman's picture" be damned...it's so earnest, it's nearly funny]
> C My Favourite Blonde [Bob Hope has the movie stolen from him by a very talented penguin]
> C Lady in a Jam [Irene Dunne at her least appealing paired off with a plank of wood standing in as leading man]
> D Night Monster [wannabe horror film but it's boring, poorly put together and just no fun]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1942 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
The Day Will Dawn (French); Desperate Journey (Walsh); The Falcon Takes Over (Reiss); The First of the Few / Spitfire (Howard); The Foreman Went to France / Somewhere in France (Frend); George Washington Slept Here (Keighley); Holiday Inn (Sandrich); In This Our Life (Huston); In Which We Serve (Lean; Coward); Invisible Agent (Marin); Joan of Paris (Stevenson); The Moon & Sixpence (Lewin); The Next of Kin (Dickinson); Once Upon a Honeymoon (McCarey); Quiet Please, Murder (Larkin); Reap the Wild Wind (DeMille); Rings on Her Fingers (Mamoulian); Road to Morocco (Butler); Son of Fury (Cromwell); The Spoilers (Enright); Star Spangled Rhythm (Marshall); Street of Chance (Hively); Take a Letter, Darling (Leisen); Tales of Manhattan (Duvivier); Ten Gentlemen from West Point (Hathaway); This Above All (Litvak); This Gun for Hire (Tuttle); The Undying Monster (Brahm); Wake Island (Farrow)
Best Performances of 1942
Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca
James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy
Ronald Colman in Random Harvest
Gary Cooper in The Pride of the Yankees
Bette Davis in Now, Voyager
Greer Garson in Mrs Miniver
Monty Woolley in The Pied Piper
Teresa Wright in Mrs Miniver
But how about...
Judy Garland & Gene Kelly in For Me and My Gal
A great musical partnership in one of the more underrated musicals. Judy outsings Gene (but he tries) and Gene outdances Judy (but she gives it a go), but together, they are an all-singin', all-hoofin' dynamite couple. Set in the old vaudeville days (y'know...where all acts dreamed of playing the Palace), Gene is a heel who just wants to be a big-time star. His saving grace is being in love with and loved by gorgeous (and she really is gorgeous in this movie) Judy. WWI comes along, upsets their plans, Gene does something stupid, redeems himself...etc etc etc. Judy & Gene's performance of the title song is one of the all-time great movie moments.
...and what about...
Claudette Colbert in The Palm Beach Story
Whilst ably supported by Joel McCrea, Rudy Vallee and Mary Astor (not to mention the Ale & Quail Hunting Club), Claudette nonetheless stands out in TPBS. She is the eye of all the screwball shenanigans which swirl about her and rather than being helplessly caught up in them, she comes across as being very much in charge...and loving every minute of it. A natural progression from her terrific performances in It Happened One Night and Midnight, Claudette is on the road to Since You Went Away and the terribly serious roles which are not too far off. Ignoring The Egg & I (in which she was okay...but it was Ma & Pa's movie), this was her last great comedic turn.
...not to mention...
Ann Sheridan in Kings Row
While I prefer Ann in her wisecrackin' / tough gal roles (the best: 1940's Torrid Zone), her performance in Kings Row (aka Blueprint for Peyton Place) is to be cherished. While every other character/actor gets hysterical (hard not to do with unnecessary amputations, madness, suicide and skinny-dipping all going on around the place), Ann is a sexy pillar of strength. Unfortunately, it takes a while for her to turn up in the movie, but once she's there, she's the one who takes charge (Robert Cummings and Ronald Reagan are definitely not worthy of her). Straight talking, unafraid to be compassionate and giving short-shrift to quitters, she is some woman.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Spencer Tracy & John Garfield in Tortilla Flat
Spencer = Irish Catholic from Milwaukee; John = Russian Jew from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Great actors should be able to play any role given them, right? Er...no. That's why the concept of "casting" was created. As Spence found out when he tried to be a Portuguese fisherman in Captains Courageous, some roles are just outside of your reach...like in Tortilla Flat, where he tries to play an indolent paisano/Mexicanish type. And John should have known better because he had already had a crack at playing Mexican in 1939's Juarez. Hey...some actors can do accents...and some can't. Right through Tortilla Flat when these two got together, I kept being reminded of those two slow-speaking Mexican crows who try to catch a grasshopper in an old Warner Brothers cartoon. Just too silly.
My 10 Favourite Performances of 1942
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| First recorded use of an emoticon. |
#02 Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca
#03 Monty Woolley in The Pied Piper
#04 Claudette Colbert in The Palm Beach Story
#05 Ann Sheridan in Kings Row
#06 Claude Rains in Casablanca
#07 Ronald Colman in Random Harvest
#08 Monty Woolley in The Man Who Came to Dinner
#09 Agnes Moorehead in The Magnificent Ambersons
#10 Charles Coburn in Kings Row
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Ronald Colman & Jean Arthur & Cary Grant in The Talk of the Town
#12 Rudy Vallee in The Palm Beach Story
#13 Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year
#14 Carole Lombard in To Be or Not to Be
#15 James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy
#16 William Powell in Crossroads
#17 Deborah Kerr in Hatter's Castle
#18 Margaret O'Brien in Journey for Margaret
#19 Mary Astor in The Palm Beach Story
#20 Michael Redgrave in Thunder Rock
#21 Robert Newton in Hatter's Castle
#22 Errol Flynn in Gentleman Jim
#23 Billie Burke in The Man Who Came to Dinner
#24 Rosalind Russell in My Sister Eileen
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Bette Davis in Now, Voyager [I can't help myself...I listen to the dialogue and cry out "oh, brother..."]
> Gary Cooper in The Pride of the Yankees [sometimes, Coop took the aw-gee-shucks man/child thing too far]
> Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca [she never seems to know what's going on]
> Ginger Rogers in The Major and the Minor [Ginger Rogers as a 12 year old schoolgirl...gimme a break, will ya?]
> Jack Benny in To Be or Not to Be [Jack Benny is Jack Benny is Jack Benny]
> Joseph Cotten in The Magnificent Ambersons [lead? supporting? significant? ordinary?]
> Betty Field in Kings Row [insanity is so difficult to play without overdoing it]
> Teresa Wright in Mrs Miniver [was she even in it?]
> Greer Garson in Mrs Miniver [a superhero before they were invented]
> Greer Garson in Random Harvest [self-sacrifice, patience, kindness and understanding that make me want to smash something]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1942 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
SILVER: Went the Day Well? (Alberto Cavalcanti)
BRONZE: The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca)
SILVER: Monty Woolley (The Pied Piper)
BRONZE: Ronald Colman (Random Harvest)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Claudette Colbert (The Palm Beach Story)
SILVER: Ann Sheridan (Kings Row)
BRONZE: Carole Lombard (To Be or Not To Be)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Claude Rains (Casablanca)
SILVER: Charles Coburn (Kings Row)
BRONZE: Rudy Vallee (The Palm Beach Story)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Agnes Moorehead (The Magnificent Ambersons)
SILVER: Mary Astor (The Palm Beach Story)
BRONZE: Deborah Kerr (Hatter's Castle)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Judy Garland & Gene Kelly (For Me & My Gal)
SILVER: Ronald Colman & Jean Arthur & Cary Grant (The Talk of the Town)
BRONZE: Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn (Woman of the Year)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Margaret O'Brien (Journey for Margaret)
SILVER: Harry Fowler (Went the Day Well?)
BRONZE: Roddy McDowall (The Pied Piper)
The Alternate Razzies for 1942 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
Night Monster (Ford Beebe)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Spencer Tracy & John Garfield (Tortilla Flat)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Greer Garson (Random Harvest)
