My picks for 1937:
Best Picture
1. The Awful Truth
2. Make Way For Tomorrow
3. Stage Door
4. A Star is Born
5. Lost Horizon
The 6th Spot: Easy Living
Best Director
1. Leo McCarey, The Awful Truth
2. Leo McCarey, Make Way For Tomorrow
3. Gregory LaCava, Stage Door
4. William Wellman, A Star is Born
5. Frank Capra, Lost Horizon
The 6th Spot: Mitchell Liesen, Easy Living
Best Picture and Director 1937
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1937
Obviously I need to pick up the pace here; Magilla’s already got us to 1938.
Thinking about this slate and other recent ones we’ve covered, I’ve come to this thought: during the 30s – the first sound decade – the film industry was a rather backward-looking one, built on more 19th than 20th century properties. The serious films (especially the ones highlighted by the Academy) were based on literary classics going back as far as Shakespeare, and also including Dickens, Kipling, Hugo. There were prestigious biographies of historical figures, and an inordinate number of costume epics. This created an overall effect, even among the respectable films, of impersonality; an unwillingness to confront the present day. (The fact that the present was worldwide Depression may have played a role in this).
There are of course a few exceptions, like Dodsworth last year, and Make Way for Tomorrow here. But most films under consideration seem remote compared to things being done overseas -- Lang with M, Renoir with his two masterpieces just ahead. All this may explain why, in the distance of three-quarters of a century, the films most of us rate highest come from genres viewed as lower: some musicals (Lubitsch, Astaire/Rogers, Love Me Tonight); the best horror (Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll, Kong) and thrillers (especially the early Hitchcocks); and, above all, the comedies – Marx Brothers, Chaplin, Fields, and, later, with sturdier though still unpretentious plots, Capra, Lubitsch, La Cava, and McCarey. These films, commercial and crowd-pleasing though they may have been, it turned out DID reflect their time and place better than the films being passed off as “good for us”.
So, to this year:
Of course I’m in agreement that Make Way for Tomorrow is the year’s great film. I saw this back in 1981, when it was still a relative obscurity, and was absolutely floored by how honest it was about its subject – and, of course, how ultimately heartbreaking. Terribly sad it was ignored throughout Oscar-land, even among the usually more discerning writers.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, I’m guessing was initially overlooked because of its then rather new genre (feature length animation) and because people didn’t realize it would be quite the commercial sensation it ended up being. That’s the only way I can explain the excuse-me make-up award a year later, past its eligibility. My guess is, had it been among the nominees here, a lot of us might have voted for it.
I’d also throw in Lang’s You Only Live Once as more worthy than many of the honorees.
Of those honorees…I guess 100 Men and a Girl gets knocked off first. Too silly for consideration.
In Old Chicago definitely pales beside San Francisco, its clear inspiration. Lesser Fox actors didn’t help.
I don’t really dislike any of the rest, but a lot fall into that “impersonal” category I mentioned. The Good Earth has an epic frame, but the stakes of the story don’t feel epic-worthy . I’m also less enamored than some about Lost Horizon. It doesn’t feel like/have the verve of a Capra movie (unless Capra from Bitter Tea of General Yen vintage), nor does it have the sense of mystery that a more suitable director might have brought. There’s something just too prosaic about this Shanrgi-La for me.
Captains Courageous is of a genre – boys’ adventure story – that failed to truly thrill me even when I WAS a boy. But it’s one of the better examples of its kind, and Spencer Tracy’s final scene always pretty well grabs me.
I think The Life of Emile Zola is the best of Paul Muni’s biographical dramas, or, anyway, is, once the film gets past the initial rise-to-fame sequences (which clearly don’t interest the filmmakers all that much) and gets to the Dreyfuss affair. Injustice stories have always pushed my buttons, and I respond to this film quite a bit.
I’m not sure I’ve ever really loved any version of a Star Is Born. I’ve always admired the acting, both here and in the ’54 version, but the drama at the heart of the Vicky Lester/Norman Maine story feels a little too slick to me.
Stage Door, unlike most of its co-nominees, at least flirts with contemporary reality. It also offers a terrific bunch of actresses wise-cracking to a fare-thee-well, and some sense of the life of the single woman in the big city. But there’s also melodrama and contrivance – Hepburn suddenly giving an inspired performance has no credibility whatever. A good film, but one that falls short of greatness.
The Awful Truth is a genuinely funny, inventive comedy. I’m not sure I see it as quite so insightful on the subject of marriage as many of its greatest admirers seem to. For me, the film falls a bit short of the mark set by such earlier-in-the-decade comedies as Trouble in Paradise and My Man Godfrey – I see it as really really good, but not great. I don’t argue strenuously with those who voted for it, but I don’t concur, either.
Dead End falls into the dread “I can’t be objective about this one” category. When I was a kid, I took acting lessons after school with another group of early teens. There aren’t many plays with lots of roles in that age group, and Dead End was the play we worked on most extensively. I got a lesser role (Milty, played in the film by the didn’t-go-on-to-a-long-career Bernard Punsley), but I was totally taken by the play. It was a number of years before I finally saw the film, and I was startled by just how impressively it was mounted. As BJ says, the set was amazing: a technically limited space, but one filled with so many interesting nooks and crannies that it seemed of infinite variety. And what a cast…not just McCrea and Sidney, Bogart and the Kids, but such familiar faces as Claire Trevor, Allen Jenkins, Marjorie Main. The story here may be (OK, is) melodrama, but it’s so vividly rendered that I rate it one of the best stage-to-screen translations of the era. And, given that I don’t have an otherwise obvious choice among the contenders (certainly none to rank with Make Way for Tomorrow or Snow White), I invoke the personal-link clause and give it my vote.
Leo McCarey, however, does take my directing prize, both for the delicacy and humor he manages with The Awful Truth, and for the great film for which he should have been honored.
Thinking about this slate and other recent ones we’ve covered, I’ve come to this thought: during the 30s – the first sound decade – the film industry was a rather backward-looking one, built on more 19th than 20th century properties. The serious films (especially the ones highlighted by the Academy) were based on literary classics going back as far as Shakespeare, and also including Dickens, Kipling, Hugo. There were prestigious biographies of historical figures, and an inordinate number of costume epics. This created an overall effect, even among the respectable films, of impersonality; an unwillingness to confront the present day. (The fact that the present was worldwide Depression may have played a role in this).
There are of course a few exceptions, like Dodsworth last year, and Make Way for Tomorrow here. But most films under consideration seem remote compared to things being done overseas -- Lang with M, Renoir with his two masterpieces just ahead. All this may explain why, in the distance of three-quarters of a century, the films most of us rate highest come from genres viewed as lower: some musicals (Lubitsch, Astaire/Rogers, Love Me Tonight); the best horror (Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll, Kong) and thrillers (especially the early Hitchcocks); and, above all, the comedies – Marx Brothers, Chaplin, Fields, and, later, with sturdier though still unpretentious plots, Capra, Lubitsch, La Cava, and McCarey. These films, commercial and crowd-pleasing though they may have been, it turned out DID reflect their time and place better than the films being passed off as “good for us”.
So, to this year:
Of course I’m in agreement that Make Way for Tomorrow is the year’s great film. I saw this back in 1981, when it was still a relative obscurity, and was absolutely floored by how honest it was about its subject – and, of course, how ultimately heartbreaking. Terribly sad it was ignored throughout Oscar-land, even among the usually more discerning writers.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, I’m guessing was initially overlooked because of its then rather new genre (feature length animation) and because people didn’t realize it would be quite the commercial sensation it ended up being. That’s the only way I can explain the excuse-me make-up award a year later, past its eligibility. My guess is, had it been among the nominees here, a lot of us might have voted for it.
I’d also throw in Lang’s You Only Live Once as more worthy than many of the honorees.
Of those honorees…I guess 100 Men and a Girl gets knocked off first. Too silly for consideration.
In Old Chicago definitely pales beside San Francisco, its clear inspiration. Lesser Fox actors didn’t help.
I don’t really dislike any of the rest, but a lot fall into that “impersonal” category I mentioned. The Good Earth has an epic frame, but the stakes of the story don’t feel epic-worthy . I’m also less enamored than some about Lost Horizon. It doesn’t feel like/have the verve of a Capra movie (unless Capra from Bitter Tea of General Yen vintage), nor does it have the sense of mystery that a more suitable director might have brought. There’s something just too prosaic about this Shanrgi-La for me.
Captains Courageous is of a genre – boys’ adventure story – that failed to truly thrill me even when I WAS a boy. But it’s one of the better examples of its kind, and Spencer Tracy’s final scene always pretty well grabs me.
I think The Life of Emile Zola is the best of Paul Muni’s biographical dramas, or, anyway, is, once the film gets past the initial rise-to-fame sequences (which clearly don’t interest the filmmakers all that much) and gets to the Dreyfuss affair. Injustice stories have always pushed my buttons, and I respond to this film quite a bit.
I’m not sure I’ve ever really loved any version of a Star Is Born. I’ve always admired the acting, both here and in the ’54 version, but the drama at the heart of the Vicky Lester/Norman Maine story feels a little too slick to me.
Stage Door, unlike most of its co-nominees, at least flirts with contemporary reality. It also offers a terrific bunch of actresses wise-cracking to a fare-thee-well, and some sense of the life of the single woman in the big city. But there’s also melodrama and contrivance – Hepburn suddenly giving an inspired performance has no credibility whatever. A good film, but one that falls short of greatness.
The Awful Truth is a genuinely funny, inventive comedy. I’m not sure I see it as quite so insightful on the subject of marriage as many of its greatest admirers seem to. For me, the film falls a bit short of the mark set by such earlier-in-the-decade comedies as Trouble in Paradise and My Man Godfrey – I see it as really really good, but not great. I don’t argue strenuously with those who voted for it, but I don’t concur, either.
Dead End falls into the dread “I can’t be objective about this one” category. When I was a kid, I took acting lessons after school with another group of early teens. There aren’t many plays with lots of roles in that age group, and Dead End was the play we worked on most extensively. I got a lesser role (Milty, played in the film by the didn’t-go-on-to-a-long-career Bernard Punsley), but I was totally taken by the play. It was a number of years before I finally saw the film, and I was startled by just how impressively it was mounted. As BJ says, the set was amazing: a technically limited space, but one filled with so many interesting nooks and crannies that it seemed of infinite variety. And what a cast…not just McCrea and Sidney, Bogart and the Kids, but such familiar faces as Claire Trevor, Allen Jenkins, Marjorie Main. The story here may be (OK, is) melodrama, but it’s so vividly rendered that I rate it one of the best stage-to-screen translations of the era. And, given that I don’t have an otherwise obvious choice among the contenders (certainly none to rank with Make Way for Tomorrow or Snow White), I invoke the personal-link clause and give it my vote.
Leo McCarey, however, does take my directing prize, both for the delicacy and humor he manages with The Awful Truth, and for the great film for which he should have been honored.
Re: Best Picture and Director 1937
I voted for Lost Horizon, a film that ranks as one of my most rewatched movies and a key film in my cinephilia development.
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Big Magilla
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1937
Thanks for the catch. Unfortunately the poll can't be edited so Dieterle will have to stay attached ot the wrong film.Reza wrote:William Dieterle was nominated for The Life of Emile Zola and not for A Star is Born as mentioned on the poll.
Incidentally, William Wellman won his only Oscar for co-writing the original story to A Star Is Born with Robert Carson. He only recived three nominations for directing in his long and proflific career for this, Battleground and The High and the Mighty. He was not nominated for either Wings which won the first Best Picture Oscar, or The Ox-Bow Incident which was nominated soley in the Best Picture category.
Re: Best Picture and Director 1937
My choice for Best Picture was Lost Horizon, easily one of my favorite films. If only the beautiful production design were in color.
Re: Best Picture and Director 1937
William Dieterle was nominated for The Life of Emile Zola and not for A Star is Born as mentioned on the poll.
Re: Best Picture and Director 1937
I've seen two films nominated this year. One is Lost Horizon which shockingly I saw twelve years ago because I remember writing a review of it on this Board (FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!). I remember it being quite good. I could see someone like von Sternberg doing a devastatingly good job of the material though. Lord knows, it doesn't scream out Capra.
And the other is The Awful Truth, a great comedy and a great film. How it missed out on a Best Actor nomination is unforgivable. And truly how it ended up actually managing to win Best Director is a bit inconceivable. If only comedies like these won Best Director all the time. If only comedies like these were made all the time...
And the other is The Awful Truth, a great comedy and a great film. How it missed out on a Best Actor nomination is unforgivable. And truly how it ended up actually managing to win Best Director is a bit inconceivable. If only comedies like these won Best Director all the time. If only comedies like these were made all the time...
"How's the despair?"
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1937
Overall, I'm not as enthusiastic about this lineup as Magilla is, though there is at least one movie here I genuinely cherish.
Of what I've seen, my favorite movie of the year -- possibly even the decade -- is the heartbreaking Make Way for Tomorrow. Best Picture and Director all the way. I also adore Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, one of the great works of animated film. Sabotage and Shall We Dance would also certainly have made my lineup of ten.
100 Men and a Girl is the clear worst. I'll just basically rehash everything I wrote about last year's Deanna Durbin effort -- it features a nonsensical plot and Durbin's annoying arias to coma-inducing effect. I'm generally soft on musicals, but I have to draw the line somewhere.
In Old Chicago essentially just strikes me as Fox's attempt to replicate the formula of San Francisco. I think it's a big step down -- much more half-hearted story-wise, and with less talented actors. The effects aren't even as good.
The Good Earth sure is long. There are some good sequences in the movie -- the rainstorm, the locust plague -- but the narrative that surrounds the film's highlights is fairly tedious. And Paul Muni and Luise Rainer are, of course, not Chinese. As for Sidney Franklin, his direction feels faux arty -- I don't believe Asian cinema of the era had much exposure in the U.S. then, but this movie sure feels like someone's less graceful attempt to capture some of those directors' styles.
I can't say I'm terribly fond of Paul Muni's other vehicle either. The first chunk of The Life of Emile Zola feels totally false, full of scenes that reductively pinpoint how Zola got the ideas for his books. I can't stand this kind of biography storytelling -- "oh, so THAT'S where the idea for Nana came from!" Once we get to the Dreyfus affair, the narrative picks up a bit, but so much about the trial scenes feels overly-theatrical, from Muni's huffing and puffing during his speeches to the silly, mustache-twirling villains. And of course the movie butchers history so that right when Dreyfus gets released, Zola...well, I don't want to get too spoiler-y. This whole thing to me feels like a stuffy piece of seriousness that I find difficult to take seriously at all, which just about sums up William Dieterle's stiff and phony direction. Another of my least favorite winners.
Lost Horizon is a solid adaptation of material with a genuinely compelling premise. But I wonder if Frank Capra was really the right director for this project -- I'd like to see this movie as directed by somebody like von Sternberg, who might have brought out some of the more macabre elements of the story with a darker, more haunting sensibility. As it stands, I think Capra does a perfectly fine job -- the ending has a pleasing ambiguity to it -- but I don't rank it alongside his most essential work.
Captains Courageous isn't really my kind of movie, but the central relationship between Freddie Bartholomew and Spencer Tracy is observed with enough sensitivity to make it work. The kid is a pampered brat at first, but appropriately annoying, and his progression toward genuinely caring for Tracy's character doesn't feel simplistic. And the climax just puts a lump in your throat. As I've said, men-at-sea adventures tend not to be my thing, and I'd never vote for this, but it has its merits.
Stage Door has some decent laughs, and is full of a lot of fun actresses who seem to be having a great time. And it's another comedy that genuinely taps into the struggles of the Depression, through the sharpness of the comic dialogue, but also dramatically, through Andrea Leeds's plot thread. It's a movie about the joys of show business that also acknowledges the darker side of it. It isn't for me, an all-time great comedy on the level of My Man Godfrey though, and after voting for La Cava last year, I think one Oscar is plenty for a director with his resume.
I like Dead End quite a bit. For starters, the set design is amazing -- what a remarkably realistic New York city street this is! And I love the way all of the little narratives intertwine; the movie is full of colorful characters and energy, but also great sadness, as the film explores characters living life on the edge. I think the film is one of William Wyler's best works, a gritty gangster/social drama that feels exciting, lived-in and poignant.
This version of A Star is Born has been somewhat overshadowed by the first musical version (and maybe overkill on this story in general), but I think the original film holds up very well. Janet Gaynor and Frederic March make a memorable couple, the Old Hollywood milieu is a pleasing world in which to get lost, and the ending is, famously, hugely touching. I also think the early color photography is quite impressive -- there's a shadowy darkness to it that's very appropriate to the material. William Wellman is definitely more craftsman than artist, but his movie is very handsomely mounted, and has certainly become iconic.
But The Awful Truth is the clear best in my book. It's such a wonderful romantic comedy, with a sensational coupling in Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. There's something naturally hilarious about this premise -- divorced partners seek to sabotage one another's new romances...until they fall back in love all over again. (The "As long as I'm different...maybe things could be the same again...only different?" conversation is both very funny and hugely sweet.) And Leo McCarey may have deserved the Oscar more for Make Way for Tomorrow, but his work on The Awful Truth is wonderful in its own way, full of perfect comic timing (especially with that adorable dog!), narrative momentum, and the tender moments of humanity that fill so many of the director's films. So, an enthusiastic straight-ticket vote in Picture and Director for The Awful Truth!
Of what I've seen, my favorite movie of the year -- possibly even the decade -- is the heartbreaking Make Way for Tomorrow. Best Picture and Director all the way. I also adore Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, one of the great works of animated film. Sabotage and Shall We Dance would also certainly have made my lineup of ten.
100 Men and a Girl is the clear worst. I'll just basically rehash everything I wrote about last year's Deanna Durbin effort -- it features a nonsensical plot and Durbin's annoying arias to coma-inducing effect. I'm generally soft on musicals, but I have to draw the line somewhere.
In Old Chicago essentially just strikes me as Fox's attempt to replicate the formula of San Francisco. I think it's a big step down -- much more half-hearted story-wise, and with less talented actors. The effects aren't even as good.
The Good Earth sure is long. There are some good sequences in the movie -- the rainstorm, the locust plague -- but the narrative that surrounds the film's highlights is fairly tedious. And Paul Muni and Luise Rainer are, of course, not Chinese. As for Sidney Franklin, his direction feels faux arty -- I don't believe Asian cinema of the era had much exposure in the U.S. then, but this movie sure feels like someone's less graceful attempt to capture some of those directors' styles.
I can't say I'm terribly fond of Paul Muni's other vehicle either. The first chunk of The Life of Emile Zola feels totally false, full of scenes that reductively pinpoint how Zola got the ideas for his books. I can't stand this kind of biography storytelling -- "oh, so THAT'S where the idea for Nana came from!" Once we get to the Dreyfus affair, the narrative picks up a bit, but so much about the trial scenes feels overly-theatrical, from Muni's huffing and puffing during his speeches to the silly, mustache-twirling villains. And of course the movie butchers history so that right when Dreyfus gets released, Zola...well, I don't want to get too spoiler-y. This whole thing to me feels like a stuffy piece of seriousness that I find difficult to take seriously at all, which just about sums up William Dieterle's stiff and phony direction. Another of my least favorite winners.
Lost Horizon is a solid adaptation of material with a genuinely compelling premise. But I wonder if Frank Capra was really the right director for this project -- I'd like to see this movie as directed by somebody like von Sternberg, who might have brought out some of the more macabre elements of the story with a darker, more haunting sensibility. As it stands, I think Capra does a perfectly fine job -- the ending has a pleasing ambiguity to it -- but I don't rank it alongside his most essential work.
Captains Courageous isn't really my kind of movie, but the central relationship between Freddie Bartholomew and Spencer Tracy is observed with enough sensitivity to make it work. The kid is a pampered brat at first, but appropriately annoying, and his progression toward genuinely caring for Tracy's character doesn't feel simplistic. And the climax just puts a lump in your throat. As I've said, men-at-sea adventures tend not to be my thing, and I'd never vote for this, but it has its merits.
Stage Door has some decent laughs, and is full of a lot of fun actresses who seem to be having a great time. And it's another comedy that genuinely taps into the struggles of the Depression, through the sharpness of the comic dialogue, but also dramatically, through Andrea Leeds's plot thread. It's a movie about the joys of show business that also acknowledges the darker side of it. It isn't for me, an all-time great comedy on the level of My Man Godfrey though, and after voting for La Cava last year, I think one Oscar is plenty for a director with his resume.
I like Dead End quite a bit. For starters, the set design is amazing -- what a remarkably realistic New York city street this is! And I love the way all of the little narratives intertwine; the movie is full of colorful characters and energy, but also great sadness, as the film explores characters living life on the edge. I think the film is one of William Wyler's best works, a gritty gangster/social drama that feels exciting, lived-in and poignant.
This version of A Star is Born has been somewhat overshadowed by the first musical version (and maybe overkill on this story in general), but I think the original film holds up very well. Janet Gaynor and Frederic March make a memorable couple, the Old Hollywood milieu is a pleasing world in which to get lost, and the ending is, famously, hugely touching. I also think the early color photography is quite impressive -- there's a shadowy darkness to it that's very appropriate to the material. William Wellman is definitely more craftsman than artist, but his movie is very handsomely mounted, and has certainly become iconic.
But The Awful Truth is the clear best in my book. It's such a wonderful romantic comedy, with a sensational coupling in Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. There's something naturally hilarious about this premise -- divorced partners seek to sabotage one another's new romances...until they fall back in love all over again. (The "As long as I'm different...maybe things could be the same again...only different?" conversation is both very funny and hugely sweet.) And Leo McCarey may have deserved the Oscar more for Make Way for Tomorrow, but his work on The Awful Truth is wonderful in its own way, full of perfect comic timing (especially with that adorable dog!), narrative momentum, and the tender moments of humanity that fill so many of the director's films. So, an enthusiastic straight-ticket vote in Picture and Director for The Awful Truth!
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Best Picture and Director 1937
Take out One Hundred Men and a Girl and replace it with Make Way for Tomorrow and you have about as perfect a group of ten nominees as the Academy has ever given us.
Leo McCarey gave us the year's two best films in Make Way for Tomorrow and The Awful Truth. At least with these choices we don't have to choose between them.
Stage Door and A Star Is Born were next in quality and Lost Horizon and Captains Courageous weren't far behind.
Dead End; The Life of Emile Zola and The Good Earth are al worth seeing at least once. If In Old Chicago fails to impress as it did in its day it's probably because of the advances in visual effects.
The choices for Best Director are stellar but McCarey deserved that Oscar even if it was as he said "for the wrong picture."
Leo McCarey gave us the year's two best films in Make Way for Tomorrow and The Awful Truth. At least with these choices we don't have to choose between them.
Stage Door and A Star Is Born were next in quality and Lost Horizon and Captains Courageous weren't far behind.
Dead End; The Life of Emile Zola and The Good Earth are al worth seeing at least once. If In Old Chicago fails to impress as it did in its day it's probably because of the advances in visual effects.
The choices for Best Director are stellar but McCarey deserved that Oscar even if it was as he said "for the wrong picture."