June 12, 2016

1949 - 22nd Academy Awards


WOOHOO!!

And The Nominees Were:
Broderick Crawford, All The King's Men
Kirk Douglas, Champion
Gregory Peck, Twelve O'Clock High
Richard Todd, The Hasty Heart
John Wayne, Sands of Iwo Jima
Jeanne Crain, Pinky
Olivia de Havilland, The Heiress
Susan Hayward, My Foolish Heart
Deborah Kerr, Edward, My Son
Loretta Young, Come to the Stable

And so it has finally come to this: the last year of a wretchedly formulaic and unadventurous decade of Oscar films and performances. By the time these are over and reviewed, it'll have been nearly two years since I ventured into the 1940's -- this is a bit longer than I was hoping (considering 1927-1939 took me a little over a year), and while I definitely can attribute some of that lag to work, I can also blame it on the fact that this entire decade's worth of nominated fare was generally dull and sparked little enthusiasm on my end to write 'em up. Here's hoping that the fifties will fare better (I'm sure it will).

It's not like we're ending on a good note either; 1949's set of offerings is pretty much more of the same--Gregory Peck, Richard Todd, and John Wayne will offer up more WWII flicks for my viewing pleasure, I feel like I've already seen Kirk Douglas in the form of John Garfield (and, to a lesser extent, Robert Montgomery), Susan Hayward is back with another character that "drinks too much", I hear Deborah Kerr is serving us with another small wife part, and we're given another person of God in the form of Loretta Young. Cannot. Wait. For. This. To. End.

So follow me as I plow through these last ten performances and put the final nail in 1949's coffin. As always, let me know which of these folks you think I'll love or hate, and tell me which ones are your fave :)!

14 comments:

  1. The only one I think you should watch is deHavilland is "The Heiress". It starts out as a familiar, sentimental deHavilland performance and then takes a great left turn that's relentless and unforgettable. As for ALL of the rest ... I will leave that up to your acute observations and add my own later. I respect your opinions and won't intrude with my own because I have no strong ones about any of them.

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  2. I think Douglas and De Havilland will be your winners. Both categories are incredibly weak in my opinion.

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  4. On the plus side, there is The Heiress, which is an excellent film!

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    1. I completely agree with that. It starts slowly but that's needed, in my opinion, because of the surprising shift the story takes. Wyler does it again, with fine performances all around.

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  5. Not the best year but think of it this way: 1950 is right ahead and it's amazing!!!

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    1. Oh trust me, I'm SO excited for 1950!

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    2. For Best Actress I agree. For Best Actor, except for Holden's cynically astute work, I think the field is rather lackluster.

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  7. Olivia will take this one quite easily, I guess. Haven't seen the rest of the nominees.

    Pinky and Come to the Stable sound pretty...uninteresting

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    1. I've seen bits and pieces of Come to the Stable. It's harmless, but it is nothing special.

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    2. Uninteresting is the theme of the 1940s, methinks.

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  8. Come to the Stable is totally watchable, though I can take religious themed stuff like a pro, unlike others. :)

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    1. Hah! You'll find out my opinion there very soon.

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