I watched the truncated version of East Lynne 1931 years ago. I watched the last reel on YouTube based on Gunnar's recommendation and was as put off as much by the giggling audience as I was by the material.
There is a 1916 silent version with Theda Bara floating around. Amazon has it on DVD from several sellers. There was a well-received BBC version in 1982 that was faithful to the novel that one would think would be more widely available. Lisa Eichhorn, Martin Shaw, and Tim Woodward led the cast that also included Gemma Craen, Annette Crosby, Jane Asher, and Patrick Allen. Woodward as Levison received the best notices in the user reviews on IMDb., of which there are only 3, one of which details the entire plot.
I think Ann Harding's best early talkie was 1929's Condemned opposite Ronald Colman. She's good in 1930's Holiday for which she received her only Oscar nomination but the film as a whole is inferior to the 1938 version.
I remember her best for all those TV appearances she made late in her career and for her performance in 1947's Christmas Eve which was run incessantly on local New York TV around the same time.
The play based on Mrs. Henry Wood's novel that opened on Broadway in 1869 was revived on Broadway just once in 1926 where it only ran for 35 performances. There was a burlesque version that played Wood's Museum for five days in July 1870. I have no idea what the relationship between Wood and her husband died in 1966 was to the museum but it's interesting that the work was being made fun of that soon.
Best Picture/Director 1930/31
-
Big Magilla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19339
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
-
Mister Tee
- Tenured Laureate
- Posts: 8648
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:57 pm
- Location: NYC
- Contact:
Re: Best Picture/Director 1930/31
Having belatedly seen Gunnar's note about the film being available in full on YouTube, I finally, all these years later, got to East Lynne.
There's a lot to say about not so much the film as the entire long history of East Lynne as novel, theatrical sensation, and only in the end this film. I've always been interested in tracking it down not just because of its Oscar status, but also because the title had been in my head from an early age. In my long-ago youth, the Burns Mantle Best Plays volumes always listed Broadway runs in excess of 500 performances. East Lynne, to my recollection, was somewhere in the 600-700 performance range. I've found this impossible to verify these days, as the only long-run lists I can find stop around 1000 (so many shows having run so much longer in the half-century since my youth), and the IDBD, while acknowledging East Lynne as having a Broadway run (in a long-defunct theatre that, unlike today's prime houses, was actually located ON Broadway), offers only an opening date (1869!), not a closing one.
Nonetheless, it's clear the play (and the novel from which it was derived) had a major cultural impact. If that 600-700 number is correct, that was an extraordinary run in the 19th century. The play was said to have been so popular that it was playing somewhere every day for about the next 40 years. "Next week, East Lynne" was such a common phrase for theatres needing a crowd-pleaser that it became a punchline. Wikipedia notes it even shows up in the venerable Libeled Lady, nearly 70 years after the play's premiere.
I put that Wikipedia entry here, because it's worth reading, not just for its own self, for in how one must discuss the film:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Lynne
Any of you who've watched the version now available on YouTube and have subsequently read this plot summary offered by Wikipedia might feel like your brains have been scrambled. The bare makings of the East Lynne described there are recognizable in the film -- character names, some actions, locations -- but the emphasis is utterly different. In the novel, East Lynne is Isabelle's estate, purchased by Carlyle when Isabelle's father dies and leaves her penniless, making the marriage somewhat forced; in the film, it's Carlyle's estate, and Isabelle marries him for love. In the novel, Isabelle (wrongly) believes Carlyle is unfaithful to her and leaves; in the film, Carlyle wrongly suspects her, and casts her out. And Levison, while a negative force in each version, seems to start as genuinely loving Isabelle in the film, but is snake through and through in the novel. And the endings, while both centering around the illness of Isabelle/Carlyle's son, are very different -- and it's hard to argue which one is more go-for-baroque silly.
It's as if the filmmakers took the raw elements of the novel/play and tossed them in the air, rearranging them by wherever they landed. It's almost reminiscent of Weekend at the Waldorf -- a sort-of remake of Grand Hotel, which uses many of the same situations, but upends them, turning a tragic story into something lightweight. I still feel like I haven't seen the legendary East Lynne.
Why would the filmmakers have so gutted a piece so famous and so long beloved by audiences? The "it was dated by then" argument doesn't fly, for me. Have you seen the other movies being trotted out in the early days of talkies? Melodrama was the style of the day, not something that would have been shunned.
My theory is, the studio wanted to get better in step with the prevailing Women's Pictures mode of the day. Woman who, through misunderstanding, abandons her husband and child was not nearly so root-worthy an archetype as woman wrongly separated from her child who spends the rest of the film trying to get back to him. The latter was practically a requirement for a best actress nomination in that era (The Trespasser, Sarah and Son, The Sin of Madelon Claudet), and I think the Fox powers that be reshaped the material to fit the fashion.
So...how is the film? Engrossing enough, for the early sound era. I can't say the acting was much (I've been a big fan of Ann Harding in other films from the time, but wasn't much moved by her here). But the plot turns, even as they got sillier, certainly held my attention. By the way: anyone who watched the missing-the-last-10-minutes version owes it to themselves to watch the complete film, as the film goes over the top, 2 or 3 times inside those ten, with capital M Melodrama.
The Front Page is still, by default, the best of these 5 nominees, while nowhere near the actual best film of the year. East Lynne is just a fascinating curio.
There's a lot to say about not so much the film as the entire long history of East Lynne as novel, theatrical sensation, and only in the end this film. I've always been interested in tracking it down not just because of its Oscar status, but also because the title had been in my head from an early age. In my long-ago youth, the Burns Mantle Best Plays volumes always listed Broadway runs in excess of 500 performances. East Lynne, to my recollection, was somewhere in the 600-700 performance range. I've found this impossible to verify these days, as the only long-run lists I can find stop around 1000 (so many shows having run so much longer in the half-century since my youth), and the IDBD, while acknowledging East Lynne as having a Broadway run (in a long-defunct theatre that, unlike today's prime houses, was actually located ON Broadway), offers only an opening date (1869!), not a closing one.
Nonetheless, it's clear the play (and the novel from which it was derived) had a major cultural impact. If that 600-700 number is correct, that was an extraordinary run in the 19th century. The play was said to have been so popular that it was playing somewhere every day for about the next 40 years. "Next week, East Lynne" was such a common phrase for theatres needing a crowd-pleaser that it became a punchline. Wikipedia notes it even shows up in the venerable Libeled Lady, nearly 70 years after the play's premiere.
I put that Wikipedia entry here, because it's worth reading, not just for its own self, for in how one must discuss the film:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Lynne
Any of you who've watched the version now available on YouTube and have subsequently read this plot summary offered by Wikipedia might feel like your brains have been scrambled. The bare makings of the East Lynne described there are recognizable in the film -- character names, some actions, locations -- but the emphasis is utterly different. In the novel, East Lynne is Isabelle's estate, purchased by Carlyle when Isabelle's father dies and leaves her penniless, making the marriage somewhat forced; in the film, it's Carlyle's estate, and Isabelle marries him for love. In the novel, Isabelle (wrongly) believes Carlyle is unfaithful to her and leaves; in the film, Carlyle wrongly suspects her, and casts her out. And Levison, while a negative force in each version, seems to start as genuinely loving Isabelle in the film, but is snake through and through in the novel. And the endings, while both centering around the illness of Isabelle/Carlyle's son, are very different -- and it's hard to argue which one is more go-for-baroque silly.
It's as if the filmmakers took the raw elements of the novel/play and tossed them in the air, rearranging them by wherever they landed. It's almost reminiscent of Weekend at the Waldorf -- a sort-of remake of Grand Hotel, which uses many of the same situations, but upends them, turning a tragic story into something lightweight. I still feel like I haven't seen the legendary East Lynne.
Why would the filmmakers have so gutted a piece so famous and so long beloved by audiences? The "it was dated by then" argument doesn't fly, for me. Have you seen the other movies being trotted out in the early days of talkies? Melodrama was the style of the day, not something that would have been shunned.
My theory is, the studio wanted to get better in step with the prevailing Women's Pictures mode of the day. Woman who, through misunderstanding, abandons her husband and child was not nearly so root-worthy an archetype as woman wrongly separated from her child who spends the rest of the film trying to get back to him. The latter was practically a requirement for a best actress nomination in that era (The Trespasser, Sarah and Son, The Sin of Madelon Claudet), and I think the Fox powers that be reshaped the material to fit the fashion.
So...how is the film? Engrossing enough, for the early sound era. I can't say the acting was much (I've been a big fan of Ann Harding in other films from the time, but wasn't much moved by her here). But the plot turns, even as they got sillier, certainly held my attention. By the way: anyone who watched the missing-the-last-10-minutes version owes it to themselves to watch the complete film, as the film goes over the top, 2 or 3 times inside those ten, with capital M Melodrama.
The Front Page is still, by default, the best of these 5 nominees, while nowhere near the actual best film of the year. East Lynne is just a fascinating curio.
-
anonymous1980
- Laureate
- Posts: 6385
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 10:03 pm
- Location: Manila
- Contact:
Re: Best Picture/Director 1930/31
Yes.Greg wrote:Is Animal Crackers the movie where Groucho says, "Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How the elephant got in my pajamas, I'll never know."?The Original BJ wrote:But even among American efforts, The Public Enemy, Little Caesar, and Animal Crackers hold up far better than most of what we got.
Re: Best Picture/Director 1930/31
Is Animal Crackers the movie where Groucho says, "Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How the elephant got in my pajamas, I'll never know."?The Original BJ wrote:But even among American efforts, The Public Enemy, Little Caesar, and Animal Crackers hold up far better than most of what we got.
-
The Original BJ
- Emeritus
- Posts: 4312
- Joined: Mon Apr 28, 2003 8:49 pm
Re: Best Picture/Director 1930/31
A very lackluster slate, given the options. I'd vote for City Lights and Charlie Chaplin if I could. The rest of the best probably came from overseas -- Le Million, The Blue Angel, The Threepenny Opera. But even among American efforts, The Public Enemy, Little Caesar, and Animal Crackers hold up far better than most of what we got.
I think Trader Horn is pretty bad, a White People in the Dark Continent narrative full of silly adventure sequences and ooga-booga natives. I barely made it to the end.
I saw A Free Soul back-to-back with The Divorcee, and they've essentially blended together into one movie for me. They're both full of tepid "conflict" based on really dated ideas of morality, and feature the hideous Norma Shearer flailing her way across the screen. Needless to say, I don't consider Clarence Brown at all.
Mister Tee is spot-on about the ending of Skippy: its supposedly happy ending rings completely false for anyone who has had a pet. But I think, throughout, the tone is sort of off as well -- it feels like it should be a lot more fun than it is, and I think required a director with a lighter touch, to make some of Skippy and his friend's antics more exciting. Speaking of Norman Taurog, he's actually a really weird Best Director choice. You'd think, if Cimarron were voters' favorite movie, the sheer scope of it would have propelled Wesley Ruggles to a win as well.
Speaking of Cimarron's scope, I have to admit that that opening land rush sequence is pretty enjoyable. And the bare bones of the material are compelling -- the plot is actually not dissimilar in structure to Ferber's own Show Boat. But as the movie goes on, its execution gets worse, with everything from Richard Dix's nonsense to some overly jokey tonal elements to the slow-moving nature of the narrative weighing things down. It's another one of these early winners that's really tough to get through.
We discussed East Lynne a bit recently in one of the other threads. In the Best Picture field, it's my runner-up. Which isn't to suggest that everyone who's never seen it should feel like they're missing out on some lost classic. But, in fields like this, watchability is a big deal, and I found the story solidly engrossing and the visuals polished enough to make it no kind of chore to get through. The film definitely dips into melodrama at the end, but I don't think it ever becomes silly, which automatically sets it above most of the movies in this field.
But The Front Page is my easy choice in Best Picture. True, it's no His Girl Friday, but this material is pretty built, and the movie just breezes along, full of momentum, energetic performances, and zippy dialogue. It's not the comedy classic the later film would be, but it's a solid entertainment and the best of this batch.
Like most, though, I don't feel like Lewis Milestone's direction was at the same level as his work a year prior, particularly in the area of visual achievement. So I go with Josef von Sternberg in Best Director. I don't think Morocco is a great-great movie, but it's full of a lot of memorable moments (like Marlene Dietrich's drag performance) and images (obviously, that famous final shot of Dietrich walking into the desert). And it's certainly the most cinematic of anything nominated in either category, so von Sternberg is the clear choice for me.
I think Trader Horn is pretty bad, a White People in the Dark Continent narrative full of silly adventure sequences and ooga-booga natives. I barely made it to the end.
I saw A Free Soul back-to-back with The Divorcee, and they've essentially blended together into one movie for me. They're both full of tepid "conflict" based on really dated ideas of morality, and feature the hideous Norma Shearer flailing her way across the screen. Needless to say, I don't consider Clarence Brown at all.
Mister Tee is spot-on about the ending of Skippy: its supposedly happy ending rings completely false for anyone who has had a pet. But I think, throughout, the tone is sort of off as well -- it feels like it should be a lot more fun than it is, and I think required a director with a lighter touch, to make some of Skippy and his friend's antics more exciting. Speaking of Norman Taurog, he's actually a really weird Best Director choice. You'd think, if Cimarron were voters' favorite movie, the sheer scope of it would have propelled Wesley Ruggles to a win as well.
Speaking of Cimarron's scope, I have to admit that that opening land rush sequence is pretty enjoyable. And the bare bones of the material are compelling -- the plot is actually not dissimilar in structure to Ferber's own Show Boat. But as the movie goes on, its execution gets worse, with everything from Richard Dix's nonsense to some overly jokey tonal elements to the slow-moving nature of the narrative weighing things down. It's another one of these early winners that's really tough to get through.
We discussed East Lynne a bit recently in one of the other threads. In the Best Picture field, it's my runner-up. Which isn't to suggest that everyone who's never seen it should feel like they're missing out on some lost classic. But, in fields like this, watchability is a big deal, and I found the story solidly engrossing and the visuals polished enough to make it no kind of chore to get through. The film definitely dips into melodrama at the end, but I don't think it ever becomes silly, which automatically sets it above most of the movies in this field.
But The Front Page is my easy choice in Best Picture. True, it's no His Girl Friday, but this material is pretty built, and the movie just breezes along, full of momentum, energetic performances, and zippy dialogue. It's not the comedy classic the later film would be, but it's a solid entertainment and the best of this batch.
Like most, though, I don't feel like Lewis Milestone's direction was at the same level as his work a year prior, particularly in the area of visual achievement. So I go with Josef von Sternberg in Best Director. I don't think Morocco is a great-great movie, but it's full of a lot of memorable moments (like Marlene Dietrich's drag performance) and images (obviously, that famous final shot of Dietrich walking into the desert). And it's certainly the most cinematic of anything nominated in either category, so von Sternberg is the clear choice for me.
-
Big Magilla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19339
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
Re: Best Picture/Director 1930/31
Neither. M was a 1933 release in the U.S.Mister Tee wrote:City Lights is the clear standout US film. I don't know if M qualifies this year or next (those early half-year divides confound me a bit). If it does, I'd split film/director between City Lights/Lang.
-
Mister Tee
- Tenured Laureate
- Posts: 8648
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:57 pm
- Location: NYC
- Contact:
Re: Best Picture/Director 1930/31
Lots of voting but not much talking here. Maybe because most everyone has the same take on things. Afraid I'm not much different.
City Lights is the clear standout US film. I don't know if M qualifies this year or next (those early half-year divides confound me a bit). If it does, I'd split film/director between City Lights/Lang.
Sadly, the Academy offered nothing like that choice. Like everyone but BJ and Magilla, I'm without East Lynne, which I'd love to see, not only for Oscar completeness but also because it was one of the long-run Broadway hits of its day.
I agree with flipp that seeing Trader Horn has certain historical value -- knowing you're seeing African wildlife/location shooting from 80 years back piques one's interest. But that's offset by the dreary story. I have to confess such jungle chronicles have never had much appeal for me.
Skippy has the advantage of Jackie Cooper, the best damn crier of the era. But the film is pretty creaky, and (as I've said here before) the plot doesn't work for me: anyone who thinks losing a dog to the extinction of the pound can be offset simply by buying a new one has never had a pet.
I like the idea/scope of Cimarron -- the prospect of seeing that initial settlement grow into a city has an intrinsic appeal. But the execution, with elements like that racist scene with the servant boy, and the grotesquely bad lead performance by Richard Dix, make one wish one could see a better version of the same story. (Unhappily, the 1960 remake has its own set of failings)
So, that leaves The Front Page, which DOES have its superior remake when His Girl Friday comes along. Milestone's version isn't close to Hawks', of course. But the play is enough of a war horse to shine in any treatment, and even this lesser version is better than the other nominees.
Milestone, however, doesn't deserve two-in-a-row victories for directing. Norman Taurog won presumably for the feat of keeping a toddler cast under full control, but in the areas of directing we judge by now -- particularly visual -- he shows no particular skill. The clear class entry in that vein is von Sternberg. Morocco isn't his best work, but it displays his gifts to enough of a degree that he easily outclasses the rest of the lackluster crew.
City Lights is the clear standout US film. I don't know if M qualifies this year or next (those early half-year divides confound me a bit). If it does, I'd split film/director between City Lights/Lang.
Sadly, the Academy offered nothing like that choice. Like everyone but BJ and Magilla, I'm without East Lynne, which I'd love to see, not only for Oscar completeness but also because it was one of the long-run Broadway hits of its day.
I agree with flipp that seeing Trader Horn has certain historical value -- knowing you're seeing African wildlife/location shooting from 80 years back piques one's interest. But that's offset by the dreary story. I have to confess such jungle chronicles have never had much appeal for me.
Skippy has the advantage of Jackie Cooper, the best damn crier of the era. But the film is pretty creaky, and (as I've said here before) the plot doesn't work for me: anyone who thinks losing a dog to the extinction of the pound can be offset simply by buying a new one has never had a pet.
I like the idea/scope of Cimarron -- the prospect of seeing that initial settlement grow into a city has an intrinsic appeal. But the execution, with elements like that racist scene with the servant boy, and the grotesquely bad lead performance by Richard Dix, make one wish one could see a better version of the same story. (Unhappily, the 1960 remake has its own set of failings)
So, that leaves The Front Page, which DOES have its superior remake when His Girl Friday comes along. Milestone's version isn't close to Hawks', of course. But the play is enough of a war horse to shine in any treatment, and even this lesser version is better than the other nominees.
Milestone, however, doesn't deserve two-in-a-row victories for directing. Norman Taurog won presumably for the feat of keeping a toddler cast under full control, but in the areas of directing we judge by now -- particularly visual -- he shows no particular skill. The clear class entry in that vein is von Sternberg. Morocco isn't his best work, but it displays his gifts to enough of a degree that he easily outclasses the rest of the lackluster crew.
Re: Best Picture/Director 1930/31
Voted for The Front Page and Von Sternberg.
My picks for 1931:
Best Picture
1. Frankenstein
2. The Smiling Lieutenant
3. Le Million
4. City Lights
5. Little Caesar
The 6th Spot: Five Star Final
Best Director
1. James Whale, Frankenstein
2. Ernst Lubitsch, The Smiling Lieutenant
3. Rene Clair, Le Million
4. Charles Chaplin, City Lights
5. Mervyn LeRoy, Little Caesar
The 6th Spot: Mervyn LeRoy, Five Star Final
My picks for 1931:
Best Picture
1. Frankenstein
2. The Smiling Lieutenant
3. Le Million
4. City Lights
5. Little Caesar
The 6th Spot: Five Star Final
Best Director
1. James Whale, Frankenstein
2. Ernst Lubitsch, The Smiling Lieutenant
3. Rene Clair, Le Million
4. Charles Chaplin, City Lights
5. Mervyn LeRoy, Little Caesar
The 6th Spot: Mervyn LeRoy, Five Star Final
Re: Best Picture/Director 1930/31
I stand corrected...that description does sum up A Free Soul though.Big Magilla wrote:flipp525 wrote:The Front Page is the very definition of creaky, early-talkie. And Lionel Barrymore's performance plays to the rafters.
I think you mean A Free Soul.
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-
Big Magilla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19339
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
Re: Best Picture/Director 1930/31
[quote="flipp525"]The Front Page is the very definition of creaky, early-talkie. And Lionel Barrymore's performance plays to the rafters.[quote]
I think you mean A Free Soul.
I think you mean A Free Soul.
Re: Best Picture/Director 1930/31
I think Trader Horn is a really valuable artifact of an Africa that perhaps is no longer. There are some incredible scenes of wild animals hunting prey that are very authentic. Edwina Booth, the female lead ("the White Goddess") contracted malaria during its filming and was plagued by complications for years because of it, effectively ending her film career. They could've at least given her a nomination for almost dying!
The Front Page is the very definition of creaky, early-talkie. And Lionel Barrymore's performance plays to the rafters.
I love Skippy! One of my all-time favorites. I think calling it just "a kid's movie" really misses a lot of what's going there. There are sexual, economic, and gender politics at play in Skippy that I'd dare many movies today to attempt in one sitting. The cinematography is a beautiful encapsulation of Depression-era junk heap culture. But what the film has at its core is a beautiful, beating heart serviced by Jackie Cooper's Oscar-nominated performance. For me, it's the clear choice here for the win out of those nominated.
The Front Page is the very definition of creaky, early-talkie. And Lionel Barrymore's performance plays to the rafters.
I love Skippy! One of my all-time favorites. I think calling it just "a kid's movie" really misses a lot of what's going there. There are sexual, economic, and gender politics at play in Skippy that I'd dare many movies today to attempt in one sitting. The cinematography is a beautiful encapsulation of Depression-era junk heap culture. But what the film has at its core is a beautiful, beating heart serviced by Jackie Cooper's Oscar-nominated performance. For me, it's the clear choice here for the win out of those nominated.
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-
Big Magilla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19339
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
Best Picture/Director 1930/31
What can you say about an Oscar Best Picture race that ignored the year's four best films - City Lights; The Blue Angel; Little Caesar and The Public Enemy?
The best picture among the nominees is easily The Front Page, but I can understand why the voters of the day went gaga over Cimarron. It was big, it was sprawling with a great opening sequence that made it the most cinematic of the nominees.
The filmed in Africa Trader Horn was also highly cinematic, but with a weaker story. Skippy was a nice kid's movie. East Lynne was a hoary tearjerker.
The year's best director was easily von Sternberg for the back-to-back The Blue Angel and Morocco with Milestone (again!) also a strong nominee for The Front Page. Taurog, a former child actor himself, was a good choice for directing Skippy but was it really an Oscar caliber job? Wesley Rugles, Chalrie's brother, was an okay nominee but Clarence Brown did nothing award-worthy with A Free Soul.
The best picture among the nominees is easily The Front Page, but I can understand why the voters of the day went gaga over Cimarron. It was big, it was sprawling with a great opening sequence that made it the most cinematic of the nominees.
The filmed in Africa Trader Horn was also highly cinematic, but with a weaker story. Skippy was a nice kid's movie. East Lynne was a hoary tearjerker.
The year's best director was easily von Sternberg for the back-to-back The Blue Angel and Morocco with Milestone (again!) also a strong nominee for The Front Page. Taurog, a former child actor himself, was a good choice for directing Skippy but was it really an Oscar caliber job? Wesley Rugles, Chalrie's brother, was an okay nominee but Clarence Brown did nothing award-worthy with A Free Soul.