Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

I just wasn't ready to get back to this game earlier in the week. Possibly because I don't find all tht much to sy bout this year's group.

However dull the prospect of DiCaprio/Hammer as nominees this year, they looks stellar beside the Bergman/Ferrer team for the long, dreary Joan of Arc.

The Luck of the Irish isn't as bad as it sounds -- at least a good portion of the film is set in sardonic NY rather than the sentimentalized Old Sod -- and Kellaway is not s insufferable as I'd imagined going in. But that's the limit of my praise.

I'd say about the same for Oscar Homolka. The character's a real pain, but Homolka doesn't hit you over the head with it. That's really only a negative virtue, however, which is hardly what I look for in an Oscar choice.

I guess for me Charles Bickford falls into the always dependable/never exciting category, and his Johnny Belinda work is no exception to that.

I've always loved Walter Huston in this movie. Obviously it's broader than his all-time-great work in Dodsworth, but equally splendid in a different key. For me, this is a no-brainer.

I gave it a pass for being more blatant than necessary - just the style of the times.

But I did find the film tedious; the drama did not move very fast and there was not always something interesting going on.

Damien wrote:The last time I saw Treasure of Sierra Madre in September 2003, I wrote in my notes:

It's okay. The script is schematic and the irony is laid on awfully heavy. Visually, it's a bit more lively than most of the director's films, with some nicely staged use of fore- and backgrpund, but still it made me appreciate again the quote from critic Bill Krohn: ""With each new film it is as if John Huston presents the spectator a note that reads, 'Excused from mise en scene.'"

The last time I saw Treasure of Sierra Madre in September 2003, I wrote in my notes:

It's okay. The script is schematic and the irony is laid on awfully heavy. Visually, it's a bit more lively than most of the director's films, with some nicely staged use of fore- and backgrpund, but still it made me appreciate again the quote from critic Bill Krohn: ""With each new film it is as if John Huston presents the spectator a note that reads, 'Excused from mise en scene.'"

Like I said, you guys need to see it again.

Damien wrote:

ksrymy wrote:I've got to agree with Magilla here. Treasure is a great film that gets better with age and I'll agree that it contains Bogart's best performance. While Huston may be too wily in this role, he still towers above the other actors here. The film never gets stale and portrays paranoia better than most thrillers/horrors do.

Pshaw!! Give me the Bogart of The Big Sleep, Casablanca, In A Lonely Place, The African Queen and To Have And Have Not any day.

I agree !!

ksrymy wrote:I've got to agree with Magilla here. Treasure is a great film that gets better with age and I'll agree that it contains Bogart's best performance. While Huston may be too wily in this role, he still towers above the other actors here. The film never gets stale and portrays paranoia better than most thrillers/horrors do.

Pshaw!! Give me the Bogart of The Big Sleep, Casablanca, In A Lonely Place, The African Queen and To Have And Have Not any day.

I've got to agree with Magilla here. Treasure is a great film that gets better with age and I'll agree that it contains Bogart's best performance. While Huston may be too wily in this role, he still towers above the other actors here. The film never gets stale and portrays paranoia better than most thrillers/horrors do.

You guys do need to re-visit Treasure of Sierra Madre. It grows richer over time. It contains what was probably Humphrey Bogart's best performance and Huston, Tim Holt, Bruce Bennett and Robert Blake also do some of their best work. The film contains at least one immortal line that everyone should find useful at least once in their lives:

"Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges."

Reza wrote:Usually I love ''over-the-top'' but I found Huston simply unbearable and most annoying.....maybe I need to revisit Sierra Madre.

Sierra Madre is a film, the reputation of which -- like that of director John Huston -- has rightfully diminished over the years. No reason to give it another two hours of your life. It's very facile, and in terms of sheer filmmaking, can't hold a candle to what Huston's fellow Warner contractee, Raoul Walsh, was doing at the time.

Usually I love ''over-the-top'' but I found Huston simply unbearable and most annoying.....maybe I need to revisit Sierra Madre.

I like Bickford the best from this list and he is my easy choice.

My picks for 1948:

1. Edward G, Robinson, Key Largo
2. Charles Bickford, Johnny Belinda
3. Walter Brennan, Red River
4. Clifton Webb, Sitting Pretty
5. Cecil Kellaway, The Luck of the Irish

The 6th Spot: Rudy Vallee, Unfaithfully Yours

Walter Huston, definitely.

Bickford and Homolka do some nice work, and were good actors, but Huston is on a completely different level.

Yes, Walter Huston is over the top in Treasure of Sierra Madre, but deliciously os. It's a great performance in a great film, the best of the year in any category.

Of the remaining nominees, only charles Bickford is truly Oscar worthy as Jane Wyman's father in Johnny Belinda. While I agree with Damien that had I Remember Mama been released a year later, Oscar Homolka would have had more of a chance, but here he is a definite also-ran. Cecil Kellaway tries to be as lovable as his cousin Edmund Gwenn was the year before in Miracle on 34th Street but it doesn't work. He tries too hard in The Luck of the Irish. He was much better at this sort of thing in 1942's sadly neglected I Married a Witch. Jose Ferrer's nomination as the dauphin in Joan of Arc was no doubt due to his Broadway reputation. He had already done Cyrano de Bergerac (1946-47) and had earlier starred in the Broadway version of Key Largo with his then wife Uta Hagen and Paul Muni.

My picks for the other three slots: the sadly never nominated Edward G. Robinson in Key Largo, Walter Brennan in Red River and Clifton Webb in Sitting Pretty - he was nominated for lead, but like Gwenn the year before he was third billed behind Maureen O'Hara and another actor, in this case, Robert Young instead of John Payne. I have always maintained that his role, like his billing, was comparable to Gwenn's and both should have either been nominated in lead or support.

First to go, Jose Ferrer - portentous in a portentous movie. Next, Cecil Kellaway, always a likable performer but here a wee bit too twee.

Walter Huston was a great actor and usually a very subtle one, but in Treasure of the Sierra Madre, he is uncharacteristically broad, albeit nevertheless enjoyable. Guess his son was afraid to rein him in. I can't really complain about Walter Huston having an Oscar, even if I wouldn't have voted for him this year.

I have such a hard time deciding between the remaining two nominees. I can't stand the lugubrious I Remember Mama, but this is what I wrote in part upon seeing the film: "But there is one great aspect to the picture, and that is Oscar Homolka’s performance as Uncle Chris. At first you fear it’s gonna be all hamola, but instead this tis a larger-than-life performance as a larger-than-life character. He is completely charismatic and captures the contradictions of the character, a crusty man who is actually full of love, kindness and compassion, It’s a beautiful performance, and his final scene (and the moments leading up to it) are heart-rending. It’s worth sitting through the rest of this overlong bore just to have the honor of watching him. In fact this scene is probably the best sequence the dreary George Stevens ever created.

But still . . .

Charles Bickford is so wondrous and so perfect as the father in the beautiful Johnny Belinda, a role which gave him. It's probably his all-time best role and it represents the most perfect crystallization of his combing gruff and warm-hearted qualities, a feat at which he excelled.

I vote for Charles Bickford, with the wish that I Remember Mama had been released in 1949, because Oscar Homolka would have been an easy winner in that much lesser year,

My Own Top 5:
1. Charles Bickford in Johnny Belinda
2. Oscar Homolka in I Remember Mama
3. Walter Brennan in Red River
4. Edward G. Robinson in Key Largo
5. Thomas Mitchell in Silver River

Do I really need to explain why Walter Huston should win?

That's what I thought.

Those who should have been mentioned are Montgomery Clift and Edward G. Robinson keeping Huston, Homolka, and Bickford in their same spots.