Oscar Got It Wrong: Best Adapted Screenplay 1943

The Contenders:

Casablanca (winner)
Holy Matrimony
The More the Merrier
The Song of Bernadette
Watch on the Rhine

I'd Like to Meet His Tailor

Film: Werewolf of London
Format: DVD from Cortland Public Library on rockin’ flatscreen.

As a long-time Warren Zevon fan, I think I can be forgiven for both the title and the fact that I immediately associate Werewolf of London with St. Warren. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect going into this one. The werewolf stories I know focus on the Lon Chaney Jr. persona, or are more modern takes like The Howling, An American Werewolf in London, and Dog Soldiers. This is an early look at the mythos, and one that is going to fly in the face of lycanthropic convention in a lot of ways. That’s okay—I don’t mind that too much when the film presents a consistent world, and perhaps surprisingly for a short little horror film from the mid-1930s, Werewolf of London does just that.

Dr. Wilfred Glendon (Henry Hill) is exploring in Tibet for a particular flowering plant. A renowned botanist, Glendon is hoping to bring it home and cultivate it. He is warned against entering a particular valley where the plant grows, but Glendon is a wealthy, white Englishman and such taboos and warnings are for others. Naturally, when he goes into the valley to find the plant, he is attacked and wounded by an unknown creature. If you guessed it was a werewolf, you’ve seen the title of the movie.

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actress 2006

The Contenders:

Meryl Streep: The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet: Little Children
Judi Dench: Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren: The Queen (winner)
Penelope Cruz: Volver

Blocked at Every Turn, Yeti Persisted

Film: Missing Link
Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on basement television.

I don’t know why Laika can’t catch a break. Missing Link is the studio’s fifth movie and in many ways their most accomplished. Like all of their previous movies, it has been nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars and, despite winning a Golden Globe, will almost certainly lose to Toy Story 4. For as acclaimed as Missing Link is, it’s likely it passed over you. Costing around $100 million to make, it brought in only $25 million worldwide at the box office. Laika and its movies deserve so much better than this. Missing Link deserves better than this.

We begin with Sir Lionel Frost (Hugh Jackman), who is desperate to join the Society of Great Men, a group of adventurers who are dead set against his inclusion. This comes mostly from the group’s leader, Lord Piggot-Dunceby (Stephen Fry). Unable to provide proof of his encounter with the Loch Ness Monster and suffering from the departure of his valet after that encounter, Lionel decides instead to go hunting for the Sasquatch in the American northwest. In this endeavor, he is spurred on by a letter asking him to come and find the mythical beast. He gets Piggot-Dunceby to agree to letting him into the club if he does provide proof of Sasquatch.

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actor 1949

The Contenders:

Broderick Crawford: All the King's Men (winner)
Kirk Douglas: Champion
Richard Todd: The Hasty Heart
John Wayne: Sands of Iwo Jima
Gregory Peck: Twelve O’Clock High

One Banana, Two Banana, Three Banana, Death

Films: The Banana Splits Movie
Format: DVD from DeKalb Public Library on rockin’ flatscreen.

Sometimes you just know what you’re going to end up doing with your night. Like I do a lot of days, I went to the library today, in this case to return a few things. When I walked by the display of new movies, I saw The Banana Splits Movie on the new acquires shelf. When I actually looked at it, I realized this was not a kids’ movie; this is an R-rated horror movie featuring the Banana Splits characters from the old television show as the killers. I knew immediately that I had to see it.

I won’t say that I grew up on the old television show, but by the time I was cognizant of such things, it was in regular repeats and reruns, so I’d seen a few episodes. At least I’d seen enough episodes to know the names of the four characters (Fleagle, Bingo, Drooper, and Snorky) and to know the theme song.

Serious Daddy Issues

Films: Son of Dracula
Format: DVD from Cortland Public Library on rockin’ flatscreen.

Dracula films are sort of their own thing, at least when you’re dealing with the classic Universal films. I’ve seen most of them at this point, and of all of them, Son of Dracula might well be the darkest of them. One of the rules of monster films from this era was that the monster always had to die in the end. Traditionally, this meant that Drac met his end by sunlight or stake (or, more obscurely, running water or something similar) but everyone else aside from minor characters pulled through. Son of Dracula is darker in just about every way it can be.

I’m not going to be too extensive on the plot here. Essentially, a Count “Alucard” (Lon Chaney Jr.) shows up in Louisiana, having been invited by Katherine Caldwell (Louise Allbritton), the daughter of a scion of the community. Since Alucard’s arrival, Louise has been distant from Frank Stanley (Robert Paige), her fiancé. The reason is simple and obvious: she has fallen under the spell of Alucard. And, obvious to just about anybody who isn’t actually a character in the film, Alucard is Dracula spelled backwards, which explains exactly why Katherine is enamored of him.