Best Screenplay 1952

1927/28 through 1997
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What were the Best Original and Adapted Screenplays of 1952?

The Atomic City (Sydney Boehm)
0
No votes
Breaking the Sound Barrier (Terence Rattigan)
1
4%
The Lavender Hill Mob (T.E.B. Clarke)
6
23%
Pat and Mike (Ruth Gordon, Garson Kanin)
5
19%
Viva Zapata! (John Steinbeck)
0
No votes
The Bad and the Beautiful (Charles Schnee)
3
12%
Five Fingers (Michael Wilson)
4
15%
High Noon (Carl Foreman)
3
12%
The Man in the White Suit (John Dighton, Roger MacDougall, Alexander Mackendrick)
2
8%
The Quiet Man (Frank S. Nugent)
2
8%
 
Total votes: 26

Heksagon
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Re: Best Screenplay 1952

Post by Heksagon »

I can only vote in Adapted here. And it's a tough choice between The Bad and the Beautiful, The Man in White Suit and The Quiet Man. In the end, I decided to go with The Quiet Man, which I consider to be the best film overall, even though the film's quality probably owes more to direction rather than screenplay, and even with the less-than-serious stereotypes that populate the film.

The Bad and the Beautiful has some splendid individual scenes and dialogue (and acting), but I'm not a particular fan of these episodic-type films which often have only one point to make and then repeat it three times. Furthermore, I really dislike the ending.

The Man in White Suit would be my runner-up pick. Its problem for me is that it's a rather hollow film with a lot of scenes that don't really contribute anything. But its story is very clever, and probably more so than its writers even realized. Britain at the 40s still had one of the strongest manufacturing and engineering sectors in the world. Then it fell victim to circumstances that killed off innovation, as is depicted in this film, and within a few decades, Britain's engineering might was practically dead. The writers could clearly see the institutional weaknesses, but I doubt they guessed where they were going to lead.

Five Fingers is a respectable, but hardly an outstanding, suspense film, IMHO. I'm a bit surprised to see others here like it so much.

High Noon has not aged that well. It was an innovative film for its time, and I can understand why it made an impression at its release, but for a modern viewer, its screenplay feels as clichéd as any other contemporary Western's.
The Original BJ
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Re: Best Screenplay 1952

Post by The Original BJ »

The Original nominees are a pretty meager bunch. I agree with Magilla -- the one-liners in Singin' in the Rain would have made that script my easy winner had it been nominated.

The Atomic City certainly taps into the unease of the nuclear era, but as others have said, it quickly settles into a B-level kid-in-peril kidnapping drama. Of course, there could have been some pleasures in even a minor such effort, but I found the plotting pretty uninspired -- for a suspense thriller, it's really lacking in the story twist department.

I could understand praising Pat and Mike on a dialogue level -- though I think Tracy and Hepburn's personalities carry the movie even more, they have some funny sparring scenes together, and I'll give the script credit for that. However, from a plot standpoint, I think it's pretty ramshackle. The narrative stops consistently to show us sporting events, the entire Aldo Ray subplot seems grafted on from an unrelated movie, and despite a generally likable air, the movie just never congeals into a particularly engaging story. And when it ends, it doesn't so much conclude as stop.

Breaking the Sound Barrier is minor David Lean. It's certainly written with tact, with a compelling protagonist, and some interesting ideas about the costs of pursuing technological progress. But it's not especially exciting, or much of a standout in the narrative department -- it feels like a lot of similar films of the era, which cover related terrain in much the same way this one does.

Unlike a lot of these musical and sports biopics, Viva Zapata! focuses on a historical figure who certainly merits filmic exploration. And I'd say the movie gets part of the way there -- it's clearly tackling some interesting political ground, with some well-written rousing speeches throughout. But given the pedigree of the Kazan/Steinbeck team, I expected something greater -- like a lot of biopics, it doesn't always find a good way to order its events into a strong narrative, and as history, it's pretty bogus stuff.

That leaves The Lavender Hill Mob. I agree that it doesn't have the bite or narrative invention of The Lady Killers or the non-Ealing The Captain's Paradise -- its attitude is less cynical, and its story more straightforward. But it's the one movie here that I found appealing throughout, and I think the entire extended sequence where the heroes try to recover the missing Eiffel Tower toy is full of genuine laughs. So, for telling the most engaging story without wearing out its welcome, and for displaying the most wit, it gets my vote.
The Original BJ
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Re: Best Screenplay 1952

Post by The Original BJ »

On the Adapted side, Rashomon is another movie that would have to be considered, simply based on structural innovation alone.

But I find the actual nominees quite a solid bunch -- not earth-shaking, but well above the slim pickings on the original side.

I like The Quiet Man, but it may be the movie here that relies least on its screenplay for its success -- it strikes me as more a triumph of environment (the gorgeous cinematography, the surprisingly strong chemistry between Wayne and O'Hara, the local color of the supporting characters) than verbiage. And it seems the script is really the place to dock points for the most dated sequence of the movie -- Wayne dragging O'Hara across the countryside, and the seemingly endless fight that breaks out afterwards. It's hard to award a film's screenplay when the ending wobbles the way this one does for me.

The Man in the White Suit is the kind of clever little comedy the writers have often singled out over the years, and I agree that had it been on the original side, it would have stood out a lot more easily from that pack. Because it is a bit of a small thing -- at the climax, for instance, I found myself thinking "that's all the story amounted to?" despite the pleasing wit and insight along the way.

High Noon is a strong example of narrative efficiency -- it sets its central conflict in motion pretty quickly, and there isn't a lot of fat on the bones of this story as it proceeds, with the pressure of time weighing heavily on the narrative throughout. Because of this, the film has become something of a screenwriting model in classes. But the story is spare to the point of being fairly simple, and I don't think there's a ton of great depth to the writing -- sure, there's the obvious political allegory, but does it mine this subject in any truly complex way? So, points for the gripping plot, but I hold off on giving it my vote.

Five Fingers has a lot of merits in the writing department -- it's got a decently suspenseful spy thriller narrative, some witty dialogue, and a romance that gives the film added emotional heft. Thematically, it's compelling too, creating characters who WANT connection with one another, but who learn (sometimes tragically) that they're playing a game where every person has to fend for himself, and there's no room for anything more than self-preservation in the life they've chosen. I don't think the film is necessarily a singular achievement -- it bears similarity in narrative and tone to other films of its type from this era -- but it's an effective one.

But, in somewhat rare form for me, I'm going to pick the film others wrote off right away. Because I'm way more enthusiastic about The Bad and the Beautiful than you guys are. Perhaps there's an element of narcissism to my vote, given the milieu, and that I find the central premise of the story imminently relatable -- I myself have worked for producer who I now basically detest, but who I'm still overwhelmingly grateful to for the opportunities she gave me. And I think the script does a great job balancing this dichotomy -- it never really decides whether Jonathan Shields is the hero or villain of this story, someone sold out by an industry that almost required him to resort to such ruthlessness to get ahead, or just a nasty individual with no empathy for other people, or something in between. Where others have found the movie's characters and plot elements silly, I'd say it casts a cynical eye toward an industry it recognizes as being full of grotesque and over-the-top personalities, while capturing the seductive allure of that same world. It's larger than life, for sure, but magnificently so...sort of like Hollywood itself.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1952

Post by Mister Tee »

Under original, I’d advocate for The Marrying Kind over the script for which Gordon/Kanin were actually nominated.

While The Atomic City starts as a chronicle of life among those developing the bomb, as Magilla notes, it eventually turns into a kidnapping procedural. It’s watchable enough on that basis, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Pat and Mike has Tracy’s immortal “Not much meat on her, but what’s there is cherce”, and another laugh-line that really caught me off-guard (“Physical Ed? Who’s he?”). But the rest is a ton of not especially thrilling sports footage, middling Tracy/Hepburn banter, and some comic-gangster stuff that’s pretty strained.

Breaking the Sound Barrier (sometimes known as just The Sound Barrier) is an interesting enough dawn-of-aviation story, made more interesting by the nearly pathologically-driven industrialist character played by Richardson. Not nearly enough to get my vote, but fairly engaging.

I realized when I started composing this that it might have been 50 years since I last saw Viva Zapata! So, I delayed posting till I could watch again. I find my impression matches Magilla’s almost exactly: for much of the way, I found it very well written, far superior to most movie history attempts; at the hour mark, I was ready to give it my vote. But the remaining 40 minutes or so lose the beat: the action becomes both more episodic and more elliptical. I don’t know if this was as written, or if some of that happened in the cutting room. Either way, it lessened my affection for the film. (SPOILER ALERT: And the last ten minutes – the “woman knows she’s saying farewell to her man” – echoes the hoariest Hollywood clichés.) Too bad; it turned what might have been an exceptional effort into a more middling one.

The Lavender Hill Mob is actually not my favorite of the Ealing comedies – not even my favorite of those nominated this year – but it’s the one that falls in the category where I need a winner. It’s a charming enough caper movie, with an appealingly modest Guinness performance…but it doesn’t have the out-there audacity of The Captain’s Paradise or The Lady Killers. Nonetheless, in a group about which I can’t get very excited, it secures my half-hearted vote.

Under adaptation, I’d have favored films based on a play (The Member of the Wedding), a novel (Carrie) and the series of short stories that made up Le Plaisir (though I have no doubt the latter was ineligible for one reason or another).

The Bad and the Beautiful seems a really weird winner – adapted screenplay was historically wedded to the best picture category (no non-best picture nominee had ever won the prize), so you’d think High Noon or The Quiet Man would have won on that basis. (And, for the record: the NEXT time a non-best picture nominee won the category was 1996/Sling Blade.) It might be justifiable if the film had acerbic wit, or ingenious plotting. But The Bad and the Beautiful was just a collection of “he’d do anything to get ahead in Hollywood” stories, with some purple dialogue and soap opera-ish plot developments. I realize Minnelli became one of those directors whose entire ouevre was later lionized, but I’ve always found this film pretty silly.

I’ve had my issues with other John Ford films, but The Quiet Man sticks in my craw for reasons beyond the usual. When I was growing up, Irish, I can’t tell you how much I hated the “big baboon/let’s have a brawl then make up over a pint” and “fey little pixie who matchmakes with a twinkle in his eye” stereotypes that Ford (and others) perpetuated. African-Americans, rightly, feel they grew up with only debased images of their ethnicity in popular culture, but I can’t say I felt much better about these hopelessly cornball depictions of my heritage. By the time I hit my late 20s, they made me close to actively embarrassed to be Irish. I cheered the later arrival of Liam Neeson and Gabriel Byrne – Irish guys who felt like actual human beings. All of which is a long-winded way of saying, whatever virtues The Quiet Man has for some, it irks me on such a deep level that I can’t stand to watch it.

High Noon was probably overrated in its day for its political undertones, but then it became so reviled by the Cahierists (who preferred their Westerns classical) that it might be a bit under-appreciated today. It’s a decently tight narrative, if one without much in the way of narrative or thematic flourish.

The Man in the White Suit has a great premise, and carries it out to a witty, perceptive lengths, as Guinness’ would-be-glorious creation poses an existential threat to labor and management simultaneously. A very clever movie and, were it the nominee under original, I’d go for it in an instant.

But here I’m selecting Five Fingers, a true espionage story that plays out like a fictional spy film, with an ironic (apparently completely factual) denouement that would have made a perfect finale for a caper film. The film has the then-standard Mankiewicz sheen of sophistication, achieves real suspense, and offers a well-drawn central character embodied beautifully by James Mason. 1952 is not a year where I love many films; Five Fingers is one of the few things that year that exceeded my expectations, and I salute that accomplishment with my vote here.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1952

Post by Big Magilla »

Original

The Atomic city is a thriller set in Los Alamos, not a science-fiction drama, an excellent little film setting the tone for Ransom and a myriad of other kidnapping dramas but it's a minor film for which its nomination seems reward enough.

Breaking the Sound Barrier is thought-provoking with shades of All My Sons but despite its title is more talk than action.

Steinbeck's script for Viva Zapata! is excellently written for the most part, as we would expect, but gets a bit muddled toward the end.

The winner, The Lavender Hill Mob, is an excellent caper comedy and a decent winner, but among the nominees I would pick Pat and Mike and give Ruth Gordon an Oscar 16 years before the Academy did.

The problem with this category, however, is that it is missing the year's best original screenplay, Comden & Green's scenario for Singin' in the Rain.

Also among the missing: Gordon and Kanin's The Marrying Kind and the musicals Hans Christian Anderson and the unfairly maligned With a Song in My Heart.

Adapted

I've always found The Bad and the Beautiful over-rated. It does have excellent performances but they're more a result of Minnelli's direction and their own talent rather than the written material. Its win is attributable to Hollywood's obsession with anything about themselves, whether flattering or in this case, extremely unflattering.

Five Fingers is an excellent spy drama which garnered a deserved second nomination for blacklisted Michael Wilson whose next three nominations (and win for The Bridge on the River Kwai) were granted posthumously.

The Man in the White Suit may just be my favorite Ealing comedy. Its nomination here is totally deserving.

Carl Foreman's screenplay for High Noon is strong, but the film's greatest asset is its Oscar winning editing.

My vote goes to Frank Nugent, the New York Times film critic who went to work for his favorite director, John Ford and wrote the screenplays for some of his best films including Fort Apache, She Wrote a Yellow Ribbon, Mister Roberts,The Searchers, The Last Hurrah and Two Rode Together, receiving only one Oscar nomination for his screenplay for The Quiet Man. He did win the WGA for this and again for Mister Roberts.

Nugent's screenplay, like Ford's direction, presents a fairy tale Ireland that never was except in the imaginations of second, third and fourth generations of Irish-Americans in hearing the sentimental blarney of their ancestors who left the old country for a reason. Nugent's Ireland is as magical and memorable as the fictional land of one of his favorite films - The Wizard of Oz.

Of the non-nominated contenders I'd cite the westerns Bend of the River,The Lusty Men and Rancho Notorious and the comedy The Happy Time, all of which had stronger screenplays than The Bad and the Beautiful.
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Best Screenplay 1952

Post by Big Magilla »

The poll is open.
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