5 Fingers
The Bad and the Beautiful (winner)
High Noon
The Man in the White Suit
The Quiet Man
This is a case once again where I think that the Academy did a solid job of nominating the correct films for this year. The films I really want to bring up here are all original screenplays, and thus aren’t appropriate for this award. The biggest miss, the one that I would include is Forbidden Games, which is a remarkable film. Moulin Rouge might bear some thought as well, although I didn’t like this more than I did the five nominated films. I’m tempted to bring up Orson Welles’s version of Othello, but I haven’t seen it.
Weeding through the Nominees
5: 5 Fingers is an oddball of an espionage film. The biggest issue with the film is that it starts very slowly and doesn’t really become interesting until about halfway through. It’s impressive in the sense that we have a real idea of where the film is going to go and it does get there, but it gets to the necessary conclusion in a way that is unexpected. That’s impressive, but in a very real sense, 5 Fingers is often unexpected in ways that aren’t very good. It’s not bad; it’s just not that great.
3: There’s a joy in a film like The Man in the White Suit, and most of that joy is in the role played by Alec Guinness. This is a very clever film, and one that manages to put a few digs in both the scientific community and the business world. The problem with it in terms of Best Adapted Screenplay is that it’s so short and lightweight that it’s difficult to take very seriously. Sure, it’s well written. Sure, it’s entertaining. But ultimately it comes across as pretty fluffy.
2: It would be easy to call The Bad and the Beautiful a character study rather than a film with a plot, and I think that might in fact be the truth. The genius of the film, and at least a part of why this ended up winning this Oscar is that it forces us into a position of dealing with someone who is genuinely terrible. That brings up an obvious question here—why do I accept it here and not with The Quiet Man? I think it’s because The Bad and the Beautiful doesn’t even attempt to make me sympathize with the Kirk Douglas character. It merely presents him as someone to observe.
My Choice
1: My choice is High Noon, which I think is a truly great story because it works both as the story itself and works just as well as allegory. I also like that the main action takes place in essentially real time. We’re given about an hour before the huge confrontation, and getting there takes about an hour of film time. I also think the story is economical and tight, and beautifully paced. The Bad and the Beautiful isn’t a terrible choice here, but my vote would have gone to rewarding one of the great Western screenplays in Hollywood history.
Final Analysis
I agree with you on one to four. The hatefulness of Mary Kate is exactly the problem with the quiet man, but not a problem in The Bad and the Beautiful. That one is an awesome and interesting film and was it not for Citizen Kane I would call it original as well. However High Noon is just that notch better. That is the Western you have to see.
ReplyDeleteThe Bad and the Beautiful does have a lot in common with Kane, although there are some substantial and meaningful differences as well.
DeleteAnd yes on High Noon. I rank it as one of the five best of its genre, and probably one of the three best.
I haven't seen 5 Fingers or Man in the White Suit, but I agree with you on your top 2.
ReplyDelete5 Fingers isn't essential viewing. I think you'll like The Man in the White Suit. Guinness is great, and it features Joan Greenwood, who you'll likely remember as the love interest in Kind Hearts and Coronets. I've called her voice that of a cat purring with a mouthful of butter, and she uses it to fine effect here as well.
DeleteIt was on the TSPDT list, so I tracked it down, but it dropped off in 2015. I'm sure I'll see it sometime since even if it doesn't pop back on the 2016 TSPDT list it's on a list of British films I will probably do someday.
DeleteIt's worth your time. It's short, and it's an Alec Guinness-ed Ealing comedy, so there's a lot to enjoy.
DeleteI'm inclined to say you're right. I kinda have to, though since High Noon is the only one I've seen. I need to watch more from 50s.
ReplyDeleteI think The Bad and the Beautiful is essential viewing. I can make an argument for The Man in the White Suit and The Quiet Man.
Delete5 Fingers is only must-see if you're a completist for James Mason or love espionage movies a lot.
I've never seen The Quiet Man and I'm thinking more and more that I may never watch it. It's pretty easy to see. It used to be available on Netflix streaming (and it may still be there) so I could watch it whenever I want.
ReplyDeleteBut there are certain things that I find frustrating in many films of the 1950s and early 1960s, and one of them is the over-the-top sexism. Having sexist characters is perfectly fine and realistic. But some of the classics really overload the movies with sexist stereotypes, patient long-suffering men, irrational virgins, man-hating harpies and contrived situations where the man finally has to step in a take charge because the woman has made a mess of things.
How to do it: Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House has a very funny scene where Myrna Loy's flower sink adds a huge cost to the house. It's hilarious! But there's a wonderful balance between Grant and Loy going all crazy about the house. He never steps in and fixes things because she has made a horrible mess of it.
How not to do it: That Touch of Mink, McClintock! These are both films that have a lot going for them that have scenes I like but they ultimately fail because there is just so much stupid. And I've seen McClintock! twice. I liked it enough to watch it again. And I would watch That Touch of Mink again, rolling my eyes the whole time, because Doris Day is such a great comic actress. Maureen O'Hara is so mean! She is not sympathetic at all. And Doris Day's character is so so so stupid and crazy. But both movies have the male hero patiently enduring the craziness until the right moment when they can step in and fix everything.
I don't what happened in the 1950s. I don't remember any movies from the 1930s that I find nearly as frustrating (for sexist reasons) as some of the movies from 1950 to 1965.
The Quiet Man is actually something that, while it certainly features a fairly hateful woman, doesn't really fall into that pattern. The John Wayne character doesn't wait to step in to fix a problem. He does endure, but not so patiently.
DeleteIn this case, her issue is entirely stubbornness and being mercenary. It's all money-based, not stupidity- or wackiness-based.
Don't let my ranking of it here dissuade you--it's a solid movie, and if nothing else proved that John Wayne could do more than shoot bad guys and talk tough.
I was going to add that I am in full agreement with your shout out to Forbidden Games. And I like High Noon a lot but I'd still give the Oscar to The Bad and the Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a real issue with The Bad and the Beautiful winning except that I like High Noon more.
DeleteI don't have a problem with Bad & Beautiful winning, it is well constructed and doesn't pander by trying to make us like Jonathan Shields. It provides glimpses of why he is the way he is but there only there so he is more understandable it doesn't use them to engender sympathy for him. The B&B Oscar win I begrudge is Gloria Grahame's Supporting Actress one. I am a huge fan of hers and she does her best in the part but the role is a nothing, worst of all her win here probably cost her even a nomination the next year for what is probably her best performance in The Big Heat.
ReplyDeleteAll that aside my choice for the win would also be High Noon's screenplay. Both Man in the White Suit and 5 Fingers are notable more for the excellent performances of their leads than anything else and the allure of The Quiet Man and those awful people in it has always eluded me. High Noon is wonderfully spare and tells its story with no excess baggage.
How ironic that Katy Jurado's brilliant work in this went un-nominated and she was handed a make-up nomination in her next big Hollywood film Broken Lance and Gloria Grahame won this year for a middling role and went begging in her next really deserving part. Such is crazy Oscar politics I guess.
It does seem at times that a lot of Oscar's work is "Oops! We fucked up last year!"
DeleteI very nearly put The Bad and the Beautiful as one of two possible choices with High Noon still getting the win. I try to reserve that option for moments when I really can't make a decision--and in those cases, the tie generally goes to the Academy. Like I said above, I can't really fault the win for The Bad and the Beautiful either. I just like High Noon more.