This belongs to James Stewart and that's coming from a Fredric March fan and a huge Sir Laurence fanboy. Whereas both Olivier and Stewart's performances in these films are iconic, Stewart's rises above as possibly the best (or second-best) of his career.
My own personal list of nominees would be the exact same but I would have replaced Larry Parks with Cary Grant in 'Notorious.'
Best Actor 1946
Re: Best Actor 1946
"Men get to be a mixture of the charming mannerisms of the women they have known." - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Voted for Olivier. I love Stewart, but I don't know if I'm gonna vote for Olivier in the future and I don't think Stewart absolutely "needs" two citations (and if he does, I'd rather his second be for Mann/Hitchcock, which of course he wasn't nominated for). And to be honest, I'm still surprised at how uniform our votes are, regardless of the perceived strength of the year.
Like March quite a bit, but I love Andrews in the same movie.
Like Peck even more as an actor, but The Yearling... meh.
I may or may not have seen Parks'.
Like March quite a bit, but I love Andrews in the same movie.
Like Peck even more as an actor, but The Yearling... meh.
I may or may not have seen Parks'.
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Big Magilla
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Uri wrote:And if I'm not mistaken, the original casting of The Yearling was Tracy and Ann Harding, not Revere, back in '40. Being on location prevented Tracy from starring in The Philadelphia Story, as Hepburn initially wanted. The filming was eventually cancelled because of the harsh conditions on the Florida locations. Ironically, these circumstances paved the way for Stewart's Oscar, since I guess Tracy was supposed to play Mike.
Tracy was unavailable for The Philadelphia Story because he was filming Northwest Passage, not The Yearling.
Harding was a bigger name than Revere, but her star had already faded by the 1940s and harsh characters were not her forte. Revere, on the other hand, would have been well suited for the part even though she was not a star. She had already worked with Tracy in a minor role in Men of Boys Town and seems the more likely of the two to have been given the role. Anyway, according to IMDb:
MGM had actually begun filming "The Yearling" in 1941 with Spencer Tracy, Anne Revere, and Atlanta native Gene Eckman (who never appeared in another film) in the starring roles, Roddy McDowall as Fodderwing, and Victor Fleming directing, but the production ran into innumerable problems, including Eckman growing too quickly during filming, his thick local accent (which conflicted with Tracy's vocal quality), swarms of mosquitoes, and conflicts between Fleming and producer Sidney Franklin. After King Vidor agreed to take over directing but then dropped out, the project was cancelled - at a loss of $500,000 - when the United States entered World War II.
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For It's a Wonderful Life to really work as a masterpiece, one must make a conceptual switch and accept that the "reality" stuff in it is a desperate fantasy and the nightmarish alternative is the actual depiction of society and people. Whether Capra was fully and willingly aware of this option I'm not sure about, but the fact that it's there for anyone who's willing to read is enough. Anyway, Stewart is way beyond any doubt here, and he gladly gets my vote for the second time too.
March is a respectable second on my list, Olivier third with reservations – grand as he is, like most of his Shakespeare on film, there's always a sense of the museum-like quality to it.
As much as I liked Dr Elia, I never really warmed up to Peck – respectable, commendable and rather dull (these adjectives can be applied to his looks too). And if I'm not mistaken, the original casting of The Yearling was Tracy and Ann Harding, not Revere, back in '40. Being on location prevented Tracy from starring in The Philadelphia Story, as Hepburn initially wanted. The filming was eventually cancelled because of the harsh conditions on the Florida locations. Ironically, these circumstances paved the way for Stewart's Oscar, since I guess Tracy was supposed to play Mike.
I haven't seen Parks, but he did have Betty Garrett as his devoted wife, so he was a winner after all.
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March is a respectable second on my list, Olivier third with reservations – grand as he is, like most of his Shakespeare on film, there's always a sense of the museum-like quality to it.
As much as I liked Dr Elia, I never really warmed up to Peck – respectable, commendable and rather dull (these adjectives can be applied to his looks too). And if I'm not mistaken, the original casting of The Yearling was Tracy and Ann Harding, not Revere, back in '40. Being on location prevented Tracy from starring in The Philadelphia Story, as Hepburn initially wanted. The filming was eventually cancelled because of the harsh conditions on the Florida locations. Ironically, these circumstances paved the way for Stewart's Oscar, since I guess Tracy was supposed to play Mike.
I haven't seen Parks, but he did have Betty Garrett as his devoted wife, so he was a winner after all.
Edited By Uri on 1299916787
ITALIANO wrote:flipp525 wrote:(p.s. You really have to strain to work the concept of "Italy" or "America" into just about every one of your posts, don't you? It's really quite remarkable.)
?!
Oh, because I called Capra "my countryman"... Well, as I don't like his movies too much - well, some are very good of course, those he made in the 30s especially - for once it wasn't a compliment.
Read more carefully what I wrote, flipp. I didn't say that I am sure that It's a Wonderful Life is sugary - just a doubt, since I saw it long ago; and doubts are healthy, trust me (and no, I'm not referring on which gay club to go to on Saturday nights). But now that I see that you love the movie, I have no doubts anymore, shoukran habibi.
I don't think I love it anymore than others who've expressed an admiration for it on this board. It's not some transcendent piece of filmmaking, but I'd say it's a solid classic with one of Stewart's best performances. Great work from Donna Reed (who I much prefer in this than I do her Oscar-winning From Here to Eternity work), Gloria Grahame, Thomas Mitchell, Beulah Bondi, etc. It's a veritable who's who of the era's best supporting stars, in fact.
Read my post more carefully. I didn't say that you said the film was, for certain, sugary. You posed the idea that it might be. That's what I was respondiong to.
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"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
?!flipp525 wrote:(p.s. You really have to strain to work the concept of "Italy" or "America" into just about every one of your posts, don't you? It's really quite remarkable.)
Oh, because I called Capra "my countryman"... Well, as I don't like his movies too much - well, some are very good of course, those he made in the 30s especially - for once it wasn't a compliment.
Read more carefully what I wrote, flipp. I didn't say that I am sure that It's a Wonderful Life is sugary - just a doubt, since I saw it long ago; and doubts are healthy, trust me (and no, I'm not referring on which gay club to go to on Saturday nights). But now that I see that you love the movie, I have no doubts anymore, shoukran habibi.
Mister Tee wrote:And, for It's a Wonderful Life in particular, something more mundane happened: the film's 28-year copyright expired in 1974, and it was thought so little of as a property that no one bothered with the standard renewal. This meant the film could now be shown for free on TV, a situation of which local networks took major advantage. A film that had barely been seen for decades suddenly started showing up routinely (a bit later, when the first video-cassettes appeared, Wonderful Life flooded that market as well). And the film's well-known emotional power, coupled with this repetition, caused a sea-change: the film was not only not obscure anymore, it was now beloved.
Once It's A Wonderful Life began flooding every major network and cable station from ABC to TNT around Christmas time—even in that hokey colorized version where the water in the pool during the dance contest scene looks green—the film became somewhat ubiquitous, almost to the point of, I'd say, saturation. On Christmas Eve, you could literally flip from one channel to the next and find the movie playing at different points. I believe it was NBC that finally acquired the exclusive rights to show the film once a year around Christmas time, usually on the Sunday before the 25th. Its beloved status was unparalleled, no more so than in my own home. My grandfather wanted all of us to put on our own production of it with him playing the Lionel Barrymore role.
Italiano, there is nothing overtly "sugary" about It's A Wonderful Life; you must be bringing some default Capra associations into your assessment of a film you saw decades ago. In several ways, in fact, it's actually quite dark. (p.s. You really have to strain to work the concept of "Italy" or "America" into just about every one of your posts, don't you? It's really quite remarkable.)
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"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
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Mister Tee
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All of which is what I meant when I said I don't care for The Yearling. There's a very common breed of melodrama in that era -- even among some movies highly rated -- which amounts to what you pinpoint: a child experiences a grueling loss, often of a pet, and that's supposed to prove he's growing up. As much as I despise many of today's movies, with their "no tradeoffs/no sacrifices" plots, I find these manipulative tear-jerkers equally irritating, and not worth the emotional pain of sitting through.dws1982 wrote:SPOILER for THE YEARLING
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That would have been the sensible thing, but if they had done that, Jody would not have Come Of Age. Pets dying = Coming Of Age (see Where the Red Fern Grows also), especially if they die at the child's own hand (see Old Yeller).
I've somehow managed to go my whole life without seeing Old Yeller, largely because I've known its outcome for decades, and simply have no interest in subjecting myself to it.
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That would have been the sensible thing, but if they had done that, Jody would not have Come Of Age. Pets dying = Coming Of Age (see Where the Red Fern Grows also), especially if they die at the child's own hand (see Old Yeller).
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That would have been the sensible thing, but if they had done that, Jody would not have Come Of Age. Pets dying = Coming Of Age (see Where the Red Fern Grows also), especially if they die at the child's own hand (see Old Yeller).
The Yearling was always a very special movie for my parents, because they saw it together on one of their early dates. (On their first date, they saw Brief Encounter.)dws1982 wrote:Reza and my mom would probably get along pretty well. She hates The Yearling too, and she always cites the kid as being the main reason she hates it. Unlike my mom, my dad is a total pushover for that kind of cheap sentimentality, so he loves it, of course.
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The thing that drives me crazy about The Yearling is that there was no good reason to shoot the damn animal. All they had to do was tie it up and it wouldn't get into things it wasn't supposed to.
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
Reza and my mom would probably get along pretty well. She hates The Yearling too, and she always cites the kid as being the main reason she hates it. Unlike my mom, my dad is a total pushover for that kind of cheap sentimentality, so he loves it, of course.
I also agree with Damien in lamenting the fact that Henry Fonda and Humphrey Bogart weren't nominated. Along with Stewart, those are three of the all-time great performances.
I also agree with Damien in lamenting the fact that Henry Fonda and Humphrey Bogart weren't nominated. Along with Stewart, those are three of the all-time great performances.
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Big Magilla
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It was The Wizard of Oz that had the theatrical revivals, not It's a Wonderful Life, but I don't know why it would have taken Hoffman until 1979 to see it for the first time, either.Mike Kelly wrote:When Dustin Hoffman was winning awards for Kramer vs. Kramer, I believe, during one of his acceptance speaches he mentioned having recently seen It's a Wonderful Life. He went on to say that James Stewart gave one of the great, great performances and that he was awestruck. I wondered at the time why it took him so long to have seen the movie, but apparently he never caught it during one of the theatrical showings that Magilla mentioned.
I really can't remember the first time I saw it, but it was before Hoffman's award. I don't think I saw it as a child. It was during this movie that some of the mannerisms of Stewart first show themselves - such as his nervous gesture of rubbing his hand across his mouth and biting his finger. That has shown up a number of times since then. His boyant run down the streen screeming Merry Christmas everyone is another highlight.