The Tall T (1957)

Film: The Tall T (1957)

Stars: Randolph Scott, Richard Boone, Maureen O'Sullivan, Arthur Hunnicutt, Skip Homeier, Henry Silva, John Hubbard

Director: Budd Boetticher

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2023 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the Golden Age western, and the stars who made it one of the most enduring legacies of Classical Hollywood.  This month, our focus is on Randolph Scott: click here to learn more about Mr. Scott (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Two weeks ago (I'm aware we missed last week-we'll catch up in the next week so that Scott gets a full slate of Saturday's, don't worry), Randolph Scott was becoming a star in B-Westerns, primarily those based on the novels of Zane Grey.  This week, we're going to discuss Scott's career as an A-Grade actor.  By the mid-1930's, Scott was a bankable star at Paramount, getting put in important films of the day with top leading actresses as diverse as Irene Dunne, Mae West, Shirley Temple, and Joan Bennett.  He was nearly cast as Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, but by the 1940's he was done at Paramount and wanted to try something new at other studios, including Fox and his old stomping grounds of RKO, where he made the 1940 hit romantic-comedy My Favorite Wife with the actor that Scott would be most associated with in modern pop culture: Cary Grant.

Though both men were married to multiple women in their lives, if you bring up Randolph Scott's name, you're probably going to hear quite a bit of speculation about his personal life, specifically in relation to his longtime friendship with Grant.  The two lived together in Malibu in the early 1930's (they made the film Hot Saturday together in 1932) & remained roommates well into both of the men being rich enough to live apart (they were still in the same house as late as 1944 when both were two of the most bankable names in Hollywood).  It has been long-rumored (though denied by both men's families) that the two were lovers, which several openly queer men who were contemporaries of the two (including fashion critic Richard Blackwell) have alleged.  No one can say what's true here (they could've just been pals, but that's a long time to live with a guy you don't need to), but if you're going to talk about Randolph Scott, you can't ignore the Cary Grant of it all.

(Spoilers Ahead) As I mentioned in our first article, we're not matching up our films with the discussion of Randolph Scott's career (i.e. no Cary Grant movies today), but instead continuing into his partnership with Budd Boetticher.  Today we are focusing on The Tall T, where Scott plays a ranchman named Pat Brennan, who takes a job escorting a newly-wed couple (O'Sullivan & Hubbard), the wife of whom, Doretta, is the daughter of the richest man in the county.  When they're stood up by a gang of stagecoach robbers, Doretta & Pat must work together to get away from the men, demanding ransom for Doretta's return...even though they have every intention to kill them both.

This is another great pairing between Scott & Boetticher (call me a convert on Scott's taste in scripts even if not on his acting late in his career).  This is one of the better performances we got from the lanky actor this month, as he plays Patt less as an archetypical cowboy who is marbled in fortitude, and instead as a flesh-and-blood man.  There's a moment where he's staring death in the eye, and the villain asks if he's afraid, and instead of some sort of bravado, he says "yes," an acknowledgement that self-preservation doesn't disappear when you just want to live.

The movie, appropriately for our conversation about Scott & Grant, is rife with homoerotic undertones.  O'Sullivan gets the only major role for an actress in the cast, and she's not implied to be a great beauty.  Instead the bandits all kind of have a type of lust for one another, particularly Richard Boone's Usher and Henry Silva's Chink, heavily flirting with Scott's Brennan...who's also a "confirmed bachelor."  The conversations between the three men are drowning in Celluloid Closet double talk, not the first time we've run into such a situation this year (The Gunfighter had a lot of that too when we discussed Gregory Peck), but definitely something new in Boetticher's films with Scott.

OVP: Penny Serenade (1941)

Film: Penny Serenade (1941)
Stars: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi, Edgar Buchanan
Director: George Stevens
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Actor-Cary Grant)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Cary Grant is an unusual star if you just look at his career from the lens of Oscar.  Grant is a true movie star, absolutely one of the best and longest-lasting stars of Classical Hollywood, running from the early sound films (in his work with Mae West & Marlene Dietrich) to being a posh romantic comedy star in the 1930's & 40's to his stint with Alfred Hitchcock reaching into the late 1950's.  His Hollywood classics list is unrivaled by pretty much anyone: The Awful Truth, Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story, Notorious, North by Northwest,...brilliant movie after brilliant movie.  Yet when it comes to Oscar, he received only two nominations, and they were for none of these films, but in fact two little-remembered (by comparison) dramas of the era, 1944's None But the Lonely Heart and today's film 1941's Penny Serenade.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie starts out as something of a light romance between Julie (Dunne) and Roger (Grant), both of whom meet by chance (Julie is a salesgirl in a record shop, Roger buys a record from her even though he doesn't have a record player), and they fall fast in love.  When they are married, though, they understand the complications that come with this as Roger's career flounders (and Julie doesn't know how to teach him to be more sensible with his money), and then an earthquake destroys their home, causing Julie to miscarry and then become infertile.  The remainder of the movie is centered around their struggles with adopting, particularly as a couple with money troubles, who fight for their adopted daughter Trina to stay in their home.

The movie, despite starring two of the great rom-com stars of the era, isn't a comedy or even that much of a "romantic" romance.  This is a straight-up melodrama, and one with a lot of sad twists.  Not only does Julie lose her first baby during the earthquake, but she & Roger are forced to give up their second child because Roger lost his job, a decision Roger eventually pleads with the judge to reverse...and then Trina still ends up dying as a young girl from a sudden illness.  The family goes through hell before eventually adopting an infant boy, willing to give their relationship & parenting another go, and the film is supposed to have a happy ending, but this film toes the line between melodrama and abject cruelty to the poor leads, and despite loving other work from these actors in the past, I couldn't get beyond this even when their movie star charisma finds ways to shine.

Grant likely won his Oscar nomination for two reasons-the first is the courtroom scene, as he's atypically dramatic, and Oscar is impressed when comedians try drama, and second, he had missed for his glorious work in The Philadelphia Story the year before, when his costars Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, & Ruth Hussey all were cited (Stewart even won).  The problem with this nomination is that Grant is one of those actors who views drama as monochromatic, and his flare in these scenes isn't what it is in his comedic work; the courtroom scene is impossible not to watch and wonder what, say, Henry Fonda could have done with it.  Additionally, he plays Roger with too many swings in his character; honestly, though it's not remotely as showy of a part, Irene Dunne is considerably better than Grant in the world of a straight drama.  While Grant might well have won my Oscar for The Philadelphia Story (he's better than Stewart), I can't count past snubs when considering the OVP, so I don't suspect Grant, one of my favorite actors, will do too well at his first Best Actor race when we get to it.

OVP: Houseboat (1958)

Film: Houseboat (1958)
Stars: Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Martha Hyer, Paul Peterson, Charles Herbert, Mimi Gibson, Harry Guardino
Director: Melville Shavelson
Oscar History: 2 nominations (Best Original Screenplay, Original Song-"Almost in Your Arms"
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2020 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress known as an iconic "film sex symbol."  This month, our focus is on Sophia Loren-click here to learn more about Ms. Loren (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

We're going to start our look at Sophia Loren's career a bit further along than when the general public might have become aware of Loren.  Loren had become something of a big name in Italy prior to 1958, with her breakout role in 1954's The Gold of Naples, directed by Vittorio de Sica, who had already made major international pictures like Shoeshine, Umberto D, and Bicycle Thieves (which is, for the record, one of my all-time favorite movies), and so headlining one of his films would've been a very big deal.  However, Gold of Naples is harder to find than you'd think considering the pedigree of both the director and his lead actress, and plus we're going to get to a collaboration between de Sica & Loren that was more pivotal to her career later this month.  So instead we're going to start with one of the films Loren made as a result of a widely-publicized contract with Paramount, which brought her to English-speaking cinema, and provided some early hits in her career, specifically today's feature Houseboat.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie focuses on Tom Winters (Grant), who works in DC at the State Department and whose estranged wife has recently died, leaving his children without a mother.  While the children want to stay with their Aunt Carolyn (Hyer), Tom refuses, taking them to his small DC apartment, and realizing pretty quickly that he'll need assistance raising them.  When his youngest son Robert (Herbert) runs away, he encounters a beautiful young woman named Cinzia (Loren), who is the wealthy daughter of a storied conductor.  Cinzia is mistaken for being poor, however, and Tom hires her as his housekeeper & a nanny to the children.  Besotted by the kids and wanting to get away from her oppressive father, she chooses to do so, and we get an opposites-attract relationship between both Tom & Cinzia until, inevitably, they fall in love and she becomes the permanent mother to the three children.

The film is one of many-such pictures that Grant made at the time.  Grant's career never really floundered throughout Classic Hollywood, though I'll argue that the standards of his romantic comedies went from all-time classics like Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story to merely fun movies that lack the sophistication of the work he was doing at the time with Alfred Hitchcock.  That said, Houseboat is a fun movie.  The script is bouncy (though repetitive), and the original song "Almost in Your Arms" is luscious and beautiful (sung by Sam Cooke of all people).  The film even won a Golden Globe nomination for actor Harry Guardino, a supporting part as the guy who owns the houseboat that the family lives in in the latter half of the picture, and who is lusting after Cinzia the whole film (side bar-I had no idea that Guardino was nominated for this performance, and honestly was stunned that such a routine performance in a stock role came so close to an Oscar nod considering this important precursor).

Loren, of course, is our star, and I don't want to skip out on conversing about her.  She's fun in this part.  Obviously English is her second language, and there's some growing pains between her trying to translate the gifts of Italian cinema (whose focus on realism in the era couldn't be more at-odds with Houseboat's feather-light romantic comedy) into a film like this, particularly against someone like Grant (with whom she'd just ended a real-life affair with on the set of The Pride and the Passion).  We're not going to spend a lot of time on Loren's career in Hollywood, as next week we'll move back to her films in Italy and largely stay there for the remainder of the month, but it's nice to have a counterweight into Loren's American career, particularly since I leave thinking she's just okay, and had I seen Houseboat in 1958, I would have liked her, but been stunned that she'd be less than three years away from winning an Oscar.

OVP: Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

Film: Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
Stars: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess, Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell
Director: Howard Hawks
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Special Effects)...there's some confusion over whether this film was also cited for Best Cinematography, and I'd love if someone reading this might help me out on what is "official" in terms of nominations, as IMDB and Inside Oscar list this as being one of ten nominees for Best Black & White Cinematography in 1939, but the AMPAS Database officially doesn't list it, saying the only official nominees were Wuthering Heights and Stagecoach.  I defer to the AMPAS database as my source-of-truth for the OVP, but if anyone has more clarification or sources, I'd love to read them.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

I'm sure there have been dozens of books and podcasts and articles about 1939, and it being the "greatest year in the history of the movies," but I always get a thrill getting to cross one of that year's movies off the list, as there's just that extra sheen of "one of the best" that comes with it.  Only Angels Have Wings is not one of the Best Picture nominees of 1939, but looking at that cast list & director, you have to assume it was close.  Jean Arthur had been on a stampede in recent years with Mr. Deeds Goes to Washington & You Can't Take it With You, while Cary Grant & Howard Hawks had made arguably one of the greatest comedies of all time the year before with Bringing Up Baby.  Combine in a "newcomer" in the form of Rita Hayworth & Thomas Mitchell the year he won his Oscar, and this is a pretty pedigreed movie.  What's surprising about it in hindsight, is how groundbreaking some of the effects are and occasionally deep the cast makes the picture.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about Geoff Carter (Grant), who runs a piloting company in South America that delivers mail.  His flyers, including a pilot in the opening scenes, regularly die-this is a dangerous job, and one that Geoff loves, even when he hates it.  Of course, you can't have a film like this without a beautiful woman, and that's spunky Bonnie Lee (Arthur), who is a piano player who comes to this corner of the world and falls in love with Geoff.  Geoff eventually hires his former nemesis McPherson (Barthelmess), who let his partner "Kid's" (Mitchell) brother die in a plane crash, and coming with McPherson is his new wife Judy (Hayworth), who used to be romantically-involved with Geoff (and yes, this is the closest that Cary Grant ever came to the "Judy, Judy, Judy" line, though he only ever says the name to Hayworth twice-in-a-row, so that's an apocryphal quote in Grant lore).  The film continues with McPherson making a daring plane landing, this time initially saving the Kid's life (though he ends up dying of injuries eventually), and Geoff not being willing to admit to Bonnie that he wants her to leave.  However, he makes a bet with her with a trick coin (that only has heads) that she should "stay if it lands on heads," and once Bonnie realizes this is the closest he'll ever get to saying he loves her, she decides it's enough and stays with him.

Only Angels has some superfluous parts.  You know me-I love me some Rita Hayworth, but she's completely unnecessary to the plot of this movie, and you have to assume she got such key billing & the scenes she did because Harry Cohn was pushing for her.  The ending is also a bit saccharine for my tastes-I don't like women who are coming across as doormats, and Arthur isn't Lauren Bacall or Joan Crawford-we don't really know that she's "choosing to stay" even though she'd be fine on her own.  She plays Bonnie as too precious for my taste.

However, I liked Only Angels a lot.  It was disturbing initially to see Cary Grant play someone other than a gentleman, admittedly.  The way he doesn't instantly charm Arthur's Bonnie, you wonder if you've entered some sort of twilight zone, but as the movie progresses, he does a good job with this part.  Geoff is probably in love with Bonnie, but he's more in love with danger & the camaraderie of these men at the outskirts of their world, a makeshift family that understands the suicidal risks they need to take to feel alive.  It's a darker film than the call sheet & director would suggest, but that darkness, that underbelly, especially in Grant's performance, is what sells it.

If the film wasn't going to get in for Best Picture, Oscar paid attention to the nomination it did deserve (Special Effects) and the category it was shortlisted for but (apparently) wasn't nominated for (Cinematography).  The cinematography here is incredible.  The aerial shots are amazing, particularly through the mountains, and they blend perfectly with the special effects.  Yes, in hindsight you can see the strings attached (metaphorically) to the plane crash sequences, but given the time these are incredible shots, and the cinematography in my opinion doesn't age at all.  Unlike many sort of "stunt" films of Classical Hollywood, where the nomination (look at something like Beneath the 12-Mile Reef for an example) came just for the impressive sequences, this is still beautifully shot on the ground too.

Oscar's 15 Biggest Snubs

We're in the heat of Oscar season, and as someone who has been writing about the Oscars for seven years straight on this blog, I have written a lot of things about the Academy Awards.  I don't have access to insider information about the Oscars (even in an era of everything being on social media almost instantly, there's still something to be said for interviewing theoretical nominees or attending press events), so it's occasionally a slight challenge to come up with unique things to say about the Oscars, especially since we spend so much time in the past here and have done so many trivia articles through the years (plug time: if you're newer to this blog, peruse the tags on the side, especially "Lists" and "Official OVP Ballot" if you want to look at hundreds of different dissections of past Oscar races).

So color me surprised when I realized I've never done a list of the biggest Oscar snubs of all-time.  It's hard to corner down the biggest snubs ever in Oscars history, so we're going to focus today on the acting races, and a Top 15 list of performances.  This is obviously subjective, but below are the 15 best performances ever that I think most definitely should have been nominated for the Oscar, and in most cases, should've won the statue.

A couple of notes before you dive in.  First, you'll notice I don't repeat any movies, and that's on purpose.  A few of these films didn't get any Oscar love in any category, and so it'd be easy to put the entire ensemble on this list, but that'd be boring (I tried, and failed, to not duplicate actors as one person gave two performances I refused to ignore).  So Kim Novak or Charles Bronson, I see you and I'm sorry-know you'll also be nominated when the time comes.  Second, there are more men than women on this list, but that has less to do with qualitative dissections of film, and more to do with me agreeing more often with the Oscars on female performances than male.  And lastly, these are old movies.  While I could just as easily have come up with a list of 15 performances from the past decade Oscar should have noticed (and might well do that if I do any "Best of Decade" lists next year), only a couple of films on this list I think have had enough time to breathe for me to realize that they're "indisputable snubs."  With that said, dive in and fight me in the comments!

15. Andy Griffith (A Face in the Crowd)

A harrowing look at a man the world wants to just be simple, but instead is a malevolent, cruel creation, only someone who could portray "sweet as pie" like Andy Griffith could shock us all as Lonesome Rhodes (the obvious correlations to Trump 50 years before he'd become president are indisputable & petrifying).

14. Rita Hayworth (The Lady from Shanghai)

I wrote once that Rita Hayworth is the greatest actor of all-time to never be nominated for an Oscar, so you knew she'd show up here.  Her Rosalie is an enigma, the kind of woman that drives men mad...and while they're entranced she gets exactly what she wants.

13. Michael Stuhlbarg (Call Me by Your Name)

Yes, he should have gotten in for the speech alone.  But the speech wouldn't work without his subtle groundwork beforehand, watching his son endure love-and-loss in the same summer.  Stuhlbarg has been a reliable character actor for a decade now, but has never been so tender as CMBYN.

12. Orson Welles (The Third Man)

Harry Lime is everything we came to expect from Orson Welles.  Possibly the greatest actor of his generation (give or take Brando & Ingrid Bergman), Welles brings a devilish charm to Harry in The Third Man, almost making you forget that he's been gone for half of the picture, and once you realize what he's been up to, you understand why "devilish" is the right term for Welles' work.

11. Cary Grant (The Philadelphia Story)

Jimmy Stewart is a fine actor and lovely in The Philadelphia Story.  He's also giving the third best performance in the movie.  The best work in the film wasn't even nominated, with Cary Grant giving the finest acting of his long career, playing the most "Cary Grant" role ever, and defining the suave, delicious persona that would keep him a star for decades.

10. Marcello Mastroianni (8 1/2)

When I sit down with cinephiles, few directors inspire more argument than Fellini.  Hell, put me in front of a mirror and bring up Fellini, and I'll argue with myself.  But I will stand no assertion that 8 1/2 isn't perfect, and no performance in his filmography is as effective as Mastroianni's, breathing life into his wandering director.

9. Jeanne Moreau (Jules and Jim)

The two title characters can easily be pushed aside, because for anyone who has seen this movie, there is only Catherine.  A picture of romance, drama, comedy, and at parts even horror, Jeanne Moreau became one of the indisputable faces of the French New Wave with this gorgeous, chaotic free spirit.

8. Anthony Perkins (Psycho)

Perkins work in Psycho so often features on these kinds of lists, it borders on cliche.  But how do you deny such a fully-realized creation, a monster whose evil is easy to identify, but impossible to forgive?  Every detail in his performance comes to light with clarity upon repeat viewings, but you are still shocked by Norman's plans thanks to his handsome uneasiness.

7. John Wayne (The Searchers)

Anyone who says John Wayne can't act needs to watch The Searchers.  John Ford's magnum opus also puts the Duke in his most challenging and effective role, Ethan Edwards.  Wayne finds the heart in a cruel, inhuman (but all-too-real) man, wandering through the desert until he no longer understands what he's looking for...perhaps his own soul?

6. Katharine Hepburn (Bringing Up Baby)

Kate Hepburn was hardly at a loss for Oscar nominations-she was cited 12 times, and won 4.  That said, it still feels weird that the best thing Hepburn ever did in her career, her kooky Susan in Bringing Up Baby, somehow didn't get her nominated.  In the same year as her classic Holiday, was the Academy just not ready to admit they had a crush on the actress yet?

5. James Stewart (Vertigo)

If Cary Grant's going to take Best Actor in 1940, one could make a sincere argument that Jimmy Stewart should have won later for his Scotty Ferguson.  Vertigo was a financial disappointment, which is still no excuse for skipping the best work of this actor's career, as a man driven insane by lust, then heartbreak, and then just madness.

4. Brad Pitt (The Tree of Life)

Terrence Malick is always the star in a Terrence Malick picture-that's what the world-famous actors who sign up for his films are aware of when they take the job.  That said, Brad Pitt still manages to give one of the best auteur vessel performances I've ever seen as Mr. O'Brien, a man who would haunt his son's adulthood for decades in ways he couldn't understand.

3. Orson Welles (Touch of Evil)

Giving Stewart a run for his money is the other grand teton of 1958's Best Actor category, Orson Welles (I swear that's not a fat joke).  By this time Hollywood had no use for the former Boy Wonder, but that didn't stop him from making a movie like Touch of Evil, essentially the Unforgiven of film noir-his racist, corrupt detective pulled the mask off of what was lurking behind the Golden Age's treatment of the genre.

2. Henry Fonda (Once Upon a Time in the West)

Imagine casting Henry Fonda as a villain.  Nwo imagine him as a vicious man in black, with those piercing blue eyes staring down on a horrified Claudia Cardinale, and a ticking clock western where it's so well-structured you genuinely don't know who is getting out alive.  In a career where Oscar rarely called, this is Fonda's best work and more than earned him a trophy.

1. John Huston (Chinatown)

Huston's performance in Chinatown may be the best Supporting Actor performance, period.  His Noah Cross is a villain for the ages, able to conceal under his peculiar vocal cadence unmitigated evil, and justification for that evil as the movie unfolds.  Look at him, his head always turning, even as the credits role-Huston dazzles in Chinatown as if acting was what he was born for.

I Was a Male War Bride (1949)

Film: I Was a Male War Bride (1949)
Stars: Cary Grant, Ann Sheridan, Marion Marshall
Director: Howard Hawks
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2019 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress of Hollywood's Golden Age.  This month, our focus is on Ann Sheridan-click here to learn more about Ms. Sheridan (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

We continue on with Ann Sheridan's run as our Star of the Month with arguably her last major hit.  In 1949, Sheridan was 34, starting to approach a dangerous age for actresses, especially those who had been marketed for the bulk of their career based on their sex appeal (which was true of Sheridan), and she had just ended her long-running contract with Warner Brothers, becoming a freelance star.  Sheridan's period as a freelancer between her time at Warner and her shorter, less-successful run at Universal resulted in one of the biggest hits of her career, I Was a Male War Bride, with Cary Grant.  Sheridan & Grant had made a few films together in the early 1930's, but that was when Grant was a major leading man & Sheridan was a bit player, taking tiny parts before she'd become a proper star.  Male War Bride, despite a troubled shoot (both Sheridan & Grant had grave illnesses during the run of the film), became the highest-grossing film for FOX that year and served as something as a career-capper for Sheridan before she slid into smaller roles and television at the end of her career.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is pretty much entirely a duet between Sheridan as Catherine Gates, a lieutenant in the American army, and Grant as Henri Rochard, a French captain who is working with the Americans (no, there's no attempt by Grant to do a French accent...Grant, as ever, has the same affectation in his voice).  Initially the two despise each other, seemingly because Henri at one point had made a pass at Catherine in a previous mission (which he denies), but are forced to find a lens maker before he is recruited by the Nazis.  Along the way, they suffer a series of mishaps, including nearly going over a waterfall and Henri crashing into a haystack, before they inevitably fall in love and get married.

The first half of the film is a bit tedious, which is a bummer because there is a lot of conviction by Sheridan to make this work.  Both actors are at their best when given patter and snappy dialogue to exchange, but they are so instantly compatible it's hard to understand why they didn't like each other in the first place.  The plot of the entire film is pretty thin, and as a result it only really succeeds when they aren't relying on the plot to drive the dialogue between the two actors, which is sparkling if they get into a good flow.

Unfortunately, that charm wears off entirely once they actually get together, and Sheridan is relegated to just being a straight woman for Grant rather than a wiseacre star in her own right.  The second half of the film is dependent on you finding it funny that Grant is constantly treated like the woman in their relationship (yes, as pictured above, Grant wears a woman's army uniform and a feminine wig), and the script is so thin here that it's a struggle to find much humor, even dated humor, in this portion of the movie.  Grant, who even at his worst is eminently watchable, occasionally finds moments of hilarity (there's a great bit with a hotel clerk who needs Grant to help her with her knitting I quite enjoyed), but by-and-large when you eliminate the patter between Sheridan & Grant, and relegate her to doting wife rather than his equal, the film loses whatever panache the first half was (slowly) leading toward.  As a result, this is arguably one of the least impressive Hawks' films that I've seen and the first proper disappointment in our Saturdays with the Stars series, though considering the leading actors involved I'm not surprised this was a hit for FOX.  Next week we will close our discussion of Sheridan's career with one of her films at Universal, where she took a role not only in front of the camera, but behind the scenes as well.

My Dozen Favorite Actors

Well I didn't quite get this out when I wanted to, but we're back with round two of my three-part look at my favorite actresses, actors, and directors.  For those unfamiliar with round one, click here, and for those that have been eagerly awaiting, let's take a look at my all-time favorite actors (listed alphabetically, as actually ranking them sounded too difficult-to-choose).

Honorable Mention: Like the actresses, there were countless names that showed up here for me.  We have a few actors who just barely missed the cut (Michael Caine, Al Pacino, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Dustin Hoffman all spring to mind, but their careers were too inconsistent for my tastes).  We have a few actors who don't work enough or don't quite have the body-of-work I was looking for, but the talent is very, very real (James Dean, Daniel Day-Lewis).  There's a few actors whom I've always thoroughly enjoyed, but for whatever reason I've still got too much missing in their filmographies to really make the jump here for them (Alec Guinness, William Powell, Robert Mitchum, and Fredric March all come to mind).  And finally, there's some younger actors I adore, but I'm not quite there yet to call them one of my twelve favorites, even though they're appointment viewing at this point for me (Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Fassbender, Michael B. Jordan, Oscar Isaac, and Channing Tatum are all actors I give myself a pass to see in pretty much any film).  That being said, here's our Top 12.

Warren Beatty (1937-Present)

Oscar History: As an actor, which is the focus here (there are several men who moonlit as directors throughout their careers on the list, but you don't get extra credit for that in the countdown), Beatty is 0/4 in terms of Oscar.  However, he is also a 14-time nominee, getting cited for writing, producing, and directing in addition to his four Best Actor nods, and won Best Director for Reds and then the Thalberg in 1999.
First Impressions: Beatty, like several actors on this list, has never really made a kids movie.  My first interaction with Beatty was strangely at a young age, though, as my brother and I would regularly play with a Dick Tracy colorform toy at my grandmother's religiously, though our focus was less on Beatty's oversized image (it always bothered me that he wasn't proportional to all of the other Dick Tracy characters), but instead on Madonna and her glamorous silhouette, which as a young gay child was far more fascinating to me.
Why the Love: Beatty is rarely onscreen (in some ways he's similar to Day-Lewis up-top), but when he is, he's always the beautiful, driven dreamer.  He somehow combines the beauty of a young Mel Gibson with the actorly determination of Montgomery Clift, and he isn't shy about making his characters flawed, potentially even unlikable, and making you uncomfortable for wanting to still pursue them (think of Splendor in the Grass or Reds).  All-in-all, he's one of those screen presences that even when he's leering into bombast, he's insanely watchable.
My Favorite Performance: Surely this is Bonnie and Clyde.  Beatty has made a lot of movies that I enjoy, but he's never been sexier, more vulnerable, or stronger than as Clyde Barrow.
Missing Piece: I would have to say Bugsy as it's perhaps the last truly significant film of his career, and a film that many people expected to win the Academy Award for Best Picture when Silence of the Lambs pulled off the upset.

Marlon Brando (1924-2004)

Oscar History: 8 nominations/2 wins (On the Waterfront and The Godfather)
First Impressions: I want to say that my first impression of Brando was either seeing him, randomly, in kitsch wall art while shopping at our local K-Mart, or perhaps it was (in fact) the first movie I really remember catching him in, which was A Streetcar Named Desire, a movie that profoundly changed my life.
Why the Love: Where to begin?  Brando was a complicated genius, one who spent long periods of his career making, arguably, crap (name a decent Brando film from the 60's or 80's-I dare you), but when he was on there really is no one in the world of the movies that can compare.  Brando, at his best, could portray a sensitive vulnerability unmatched by other actors, a combination of raw, animal lust and a brooding desire (word choice intentional).
My Favorite Performance: Streetcar contains my two favorite onscreen performances, period, and I doubt that that ever changes.  It's weird when you have Terry Malloy, Don Corleone, and Paul from Last Tango in Paris on-deck to relegate them to lower tiers on the podium since they're all landmark pieces of acting, but there's just no topping Stanley Kowalski.
Missing Piece: Like a few actors on this list, I've actually seen most of Brando's major performances, as well as a few that he'd probably wish I'd forgotten.  I'm going to go with Viva Zapata, one of only two Oscar-nominated turns of his that I'm still missing (the other being A Dry White Season), as it clearly had some ardent fans.

Robert de Niro (1943-Present)

Oscar History: 7 nominations/2 wins (The Godfather, Part II and Raging Bull)
First Impressions: My first impression of Robert de Niro was actually a film that I didn't really like, but my parents did (which was rare when I was a kid) called Awakenings, a film that I truly should watch again as I have little memory of it other than I didn't care for the picture.
Why the Love: You'll notice that Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino didn't make this list, but de Niro, the third leg in the "once brilliant, now largely coasting on our considerable movie memories" portion of their trio, does.  That's because de Niro is, when he's at his peak, the best of the three.  A marvelous actor, his streak in the 1970's and 80's is unmatched by most actors-it's hard to imagine a rawer bunlde of energy.  He's earned comparisons to Brando, but while Brando played off of his sexuality and fluidity, de Niro is nerves and live wires, electric in the way that he commands the screen at his peak.
My Favorite Performance: Taxi Driver.  I could easily say Godfather Part II and Raging Bull (you're going to have a hard-time convincing me he doesn't deserve three Oscars), but Taxi Driver is just an extraordinary piece of work, and quintessential de Niro.
Missing Piece: I have only missed one of de Niro's Oscar-nominated turns, so I will say Cape Fear, a film that I'm actually curious about as it was on the precipice of de Niro going into his "cash in on the legend" phase.

Michael Douglas (1944-Present)


Oscar History: 1 nomination/1 win (for acting, Douglas has only won for Wall Street, though as a producer he also won a second trophy for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)
First Impressions: This one is easy in terms of remembering because it was a quintessential part of my childhood.  So many of our relationships with movies are forged by our parents, and for me I saw Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile countless times growing up because they were two of my mom's favorite movies.  Hence a very early appreciation of Michael Douglas.
Why the Love: Douglas is a great everyman, and may have been the most vibrant and relevant actor of the 1990's, despite his strange lack of an Oscar nomination during that period.  Like de Niro, he kind of phones it in lately but when he was on-top of himself, he was even better than his famed father: a movie star panache combined with a wonderful, actorly approach.  Douglas will always be one of those rare male actors I loved unabashedly, even when he felt down for the count.
My Favorite Performance: Surely The American President-his Andrew Shephard isn't Jed Bartlett (few creations are, and President Bartlett had multiple seasons to grow upon me), but is more appropriate for a film setting and manages to breed that rarest of cinematic products-an intelligent, competent romance between two equally-savvy human beings without resorting to motifs, but instead keeping them smart.  It's a triumph, and shows off Douglas' rather sharp comedic skills, which are often under-utilized.
Missing Piece: I want to say Basic Instinct-there's a few holes I have in Douglas filmography (Falling Down and The China Syndrome also feel like they're toward the top of this list), but Stone at her peak with Douglas at his seems like something I'd have trouble turning down-it's coming up in the Netflix queue.

Ralph Fiennes (1962-Present)

Oscar History: 2 nominations (sadly no wins, but Schindler's List and The English Patient both are strong crutches to lean upon)
First Impressions: I think it'd have to be The English Patient in terms of actual cinema-Fiennes didn't start doing fare for younger audiences until later in his career, at which point I was an adult proper and saw all of his films anyway.  I do distinctly remember his nomination in 1996 and getting into much ballyhooed conversations with people who didn't remotely care about such things over whether it was pronounced Rafe or Ralph.
Why the Love: Ralph Fiennes is the most electric actor currently working in the cinema this millennium, save for perhaps a Shawnee, Oklahoma native we'll get into in a minute.  Fiennes is always on-point and interesting, even when he's got a film that appears to require him to be just stately and British (Harry Potter, James Bond), and when he's doing his dramatics, he's dynamite.  Think of how M. Gustave, Amon Goeth, and the murderous, profane Harry are all played by the same man-he exhibits a range that rivals Streep in the 1980's.  That Oscar consistently has looked over such wonders is a bit of a stain on their reputation, but at least we have those movies to revisit until the end of time.
My Favorite Performance: Fiennes is one of those actors I love pretty much every time he leaves his trailer, so I feel a little cheap saying that forever and always Count Laszlo de Almasy will remain, eternally, at the top of my list of favorite performances from the Brit.  And yet, his maddening, marvelous look at love and the obsession of attaining it even despite the dangers that it proposes is something I cannot deny.
Missing Piece: I've actually seen most of Fiennes' work-he's one of those actors I've given a free pass to for over a decade and rarely miss anything that he puts out.  I'd probably go with something very early in his career then, like Wuthering Heights or Quiz Show, as ones that I'm missing but I've seen over 50% of his filmography, which is something that as a general rule is hard to achieve without trying.

Cary Grant (1904-1986)


Oscar History: 2 nominations (Grant never won a competitive Oscar, but he did pick up an Honorary one in 1969)
First Impressions: Weirdly my first interaction with Grant was with one of his last films, in Father Goose.  I was visiting my aunt with my family, and my mom/aunt both were wildly excited while flipping the channels when they saw the film was just starting on a cable channel.  I remember being underwhelmed, mostly because I was very young and didn't actually get what was going on onscreen.
Why the Love: Grant eventually became a taste I couldn't get enough of, though, after that initial screening.  He may not have been a great actor in the sense of Brando or de Niro, constantly transforming himself onscreen but he was a man who knew exactly how to pick elegant and charming scripts over-and-over again, giving us decades of marvelously charming roles.  It's hard to deny that Grant, whenever he's onscreen, was a bubbly delight to view, and he seemingly did the impossible, finding ways to have chemistry with performers as diverse as Mae West, Kate Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Sophia Loren.
My Favorite Performance: Like I said, Grant's best performance seemed to be playing the same role over-and-over again, the public's persona of himself.  However, if I had to nail down one specific role it'd be The Philadelphia Story, which is my favorite of his movies and where he even outdoes eventual Oscar winner Jimmy Stewart, the rare time where the Best Actor winner wasn't better than one of his male coleads in the same picture (perhaps the only time?  Share another if you can think of it in the comments)
Missing Piece: I've seen almost every Cary Grant film of note, quite frankly, save one-somehow, in all of my years of watching movies, I've never watched His Girl Friday despite every intention of doing so.  I feel guiltier about this one than any other missing piece on this list-perhaps I'll make a point of it this week?

Heath Ledger (1979-2008)


Oscar History: 2 nominations/1 win (The Dark Knight)
First Impressions: My first impression of Heath Ledger was that he was the most beautiful man I'd ever laid eyes upon in The Patriot.  He was gloriously handsome in the film, making it one of the first times where I actually noticed someone who wasn't the star of a picture and pinpointed him to be a major player-I was right, though considering 10 Things I Hate About You had come out the year before I was beaten by a number of other people in this regard.
Why the Love: Ledger is the person on this list with the scantest filmography, but honestly-he was fast-emerging prior to his death as the quintessential actor of his generation, in my opinion, and even the body-of-work that he left behind was challenging and fascinating.  He was one of the first actors that I became obsessed with while they were working-I would go to whatever film that he made, even as young as a teenager, just because it featured Ledger.  To this day, he is one of only two cinematic images that adorn the walls of my apartment (the plane sequence in Casablanca being the other), showing how much he still means to me, nearly ten years after his death.
My Favorite Performance: Ennis is too good to ignore, a challenging look at the ways that our lusts and our loves haunt us, even as we grow old or must deny that they happened just to move on with our lives.  I still can't believe that a movie so exquisite exists
Missing Piece: Like Fiennes, I've seen well over 50% of Ledger's filmography and most of the biggest hits.  I suspect, though, because I have such a continuing fascination with him that I'll eventually see them all.  The one I'm looking most forward to is Casanova, as it was always fun to see Ledger let out his playful side.

Paul Newman (1928-2008)


Oscar History: 10 nominations/1 win (for The Color of Money, though it's worth noting that Newman is that extremely rare actor who has not one but two Honorary statues, for lifetime achievement in 1985 and the Hersholt in 1993).
First Impressions: It was The Sting, a film that I have actually not seen since I first saw it some twenty years ago (I'll surely have to revisit it for the OVP).  I remember loving it, particularly the ending, but considering my taste in films as I've gotten older I'm not confident that that would hold.
Why the Love: Paul Newman is perhaps what Heath Ledger could have aspired to become-a proper thespian in the body of a matinee idol, Newman is the quintessential guy who could act, but you couldn't get past that mug of his.  That's a shame if you think of him as just a pretty face, because Newman consistently stole most of his films, almost all of which he played the lead, and frequently brought a movie star's panache along with some genuine depth-of-character.  He's intensely watchable, outside and in.
My Favorite Performance: This is actually tricky for me, because while I love most of his work, I've never seen the performance that stands out as "this is my Paul Newman" in the way that Brando or Fiennes has for me.  I think I'm going to go with Hud, if only because that's a wonderful movie, one that combines his flare for danger with his intense sexuality, and he has a marvelous screen partner in Patricia Neal to accentuate what he's doing in the film.  I could be convinced it should be others though.
Missing Piece: I have never seen The Hustler.  I'm aware of the shame this brings to my name.

Jack Nicholson (1937-Present)

Oscar History: 12 nominations/3 wins (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Terms of Endearment, As Good As It Gets)
First Impressions: "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"  For those who get that reference, you'll know why Jack Nicholson is a lifelong affair, something challenging that also is constantly electric, a headliner with the razor-sharp focus of a persistent player on the boards.  For those that don't know the reference, they started making superhero movies before 2005-please investigate.
Why the Love: Who doesn't love Jack?  Honestly-the man is one of the most consistently watchable presences in the history of cinema, and unlike de Niro/Pacino, he actually kept challenging himself for most of the latter half of his career, scoring that third Oscar that alluded Bob (and severely alluded Al).  Nicholson may occasionally over-indulge in his reputation as a batshit crazy screen presence, but he had the bonafides from early in his career (that he occasionally brought out just to prove he still had it in places like About Schmidt) to be both a caricature and a great actor.  Also, he usually made really good movies-taste in scripts should not be discounted here.
My Favorite Performance: It feels weird not to go with something like The Shining or Cuckoo's Nest, since those are the roles that are kind of hallmarks of Nicholson's career, but I can't pick anything other than Jake Gittes in Chinatown.  This is Jack when he's still proving himself as one of the great screen presences, so he holds back in moments he later would have partook in some scenery, and that restraint adds to the menace of one of the truly perfect films.
Missing Piece: I've seen most of Nicholson's most important roles, but I am missing Five Easy Pieces, which I'm actually confident is toward the top of my Netflix queue so that's coming up pretty quickly.  After that, maybe Prizzi's Honor?

Brad Pitt (1963-Present)


Oscar History: 3 nominations (As an actor, though Pitt is 3/1 with producing, as he won for 12 Years a Slave, and had the Academy not changed the rules he should have been included as a nominee for producing The Tree of Life as well)
First Impressions: Joe.  I always pronounce that name the way that Anthony Hopkins did in Meet Joe Black. I remember being struck while watching it that Pitt was both one of the most beautiful men I'd ever seen and how much more I was enjoying this film than all of my classmates, who found it dull and listless while I found it terribly romantic and moving.  I haven't revisited it in many years, but I do believe it was one of the first times I realized it was okay to have an opinion different than the popular one, a critical moment in an appreciation for the movies.
Why the Love: Pitt, more than any other actor, gets the free pass when it comes to me seeing his movies-with two exceptions (at least one of which is on my Netflix queue), I've seen every film he's done for over fifteen years, and have just been in awe of his Adonis-like determination.  Pitt is, like Newman, an actor that perhaps is too beautiful for him to initially be taken seriously but he is also a consummate performer, finding challenging, subdued ways into all of his characters-he's the rare guy that can headline an action film and add an actor's sensibilities to the role, giving us more for our ticket price.  I'm forever in love with him.
My Favorite Performance: A few actors on this list I hadn't actually thought before about what my "favorite" performance is of theirs, and Pitt is one of them.  Argh-it's such a tossup between Assassination of Jesse James and The Tree of Life (both his peak for different reasons) that I'm not going to choose-if you force me to in the comments, I might relent in hopes of getting more interaction on the blog.
Missing Piece: I've seen, as I mentioned, almost every film of Pitt's for the past fifteen years.  However, a bit of his earlier work still alludes me (though even there it's not much), and one of those that I'm thrilled to eventually get to see is 12 Monkeys, his first Oscar-nominated turn.

James Stewart (1908-1997)


Oscar History: 5 nominations/1 win (The Philadelphia Story, though he also won an Honorary Oscar in 1984 for his general contributions to the movies)
First Impressions: Like so many of us, my initial introduction to Jimmy Stewart was as George Bailey, a worthy first chapter for pretty much anyone as Stewart was an actor I instantly fell in love with, the way he distinctly pronounced every sentence (I've said "Mary, Mary" like him for so many years that I can't even remember when it started) and found his heart at the end of the picture.  How could you not fall in love?
Why the Love: Stewart long has received comparisons to another actor that I fell in love with in my youth, though he was current at the time, Tom Hanks, but let's face facts here (with all due respect to Tom): Stewart is a more interesting performer and better actor.  While Hanks frequently traded on his nice-guy persona, Stewart found a balance between maintaining it and occasionally making us uncomfortable in it.  Look at, say, the way that he abandons all hope in It's a Wonderful Life despite him being a genuinely good guy or how he looks back with anguish on his failures in Liberty Valance.  He found a way to challenge the audience while still remaining Jimmy Stewart.
My Favorite Performance: Like Nicholson, it feels somewhat like cheating to go with Stewart's most atypical classic role, but how can you turn down Scottie in Vertigo, the film where Stewart completely abandons his nice guy image (something he likely could only do once quite effectively), but does so in such a way as to make a cinematic masterpiece.
Missing Piece: Anatomy of a Murder is the final major film of Stewart's filmography I've never seen, and was his final Best Actor nomination so the OVP will eventually steer me there.

Orson Welles (1915-1985)

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Citizen Kane, though he was also nominated for writing and directing the movie, and would win an Honorary Oscar in 1970)
First Impressions: It would be Rosebud herself as my first impression of Welles, an actor who loomed very large early on for me, but also quite small, in the same way as Vivien Leigh since his most famous role so overshadowed everything else in his filmography.
Why the Love: Welles is a champion of the screen, a truly great thespian who occasionally indulged his reputation more than he should have (remember those wine commercials, not to mention Transformers?), but when he was on (which was most of the time), he was stupendous, a consummate actor whether or not he was behind the screen directing himself.  To limit yourself to Charlie Kane might be understandable, but would deprive you of one of the great screen icons.
My Favorite Performance: I mean, it's the greatest film of all-time for a reason, so I think I have to put Citizen Kane, but it's worth noting that Oscar could have had a Swanson/Davis style match of acting master classes in 1958 had they simply nominated Stewart for Vertigo and Orson Welles for his "wilderness period" opus Touch of Evil.  Throw in Harry Lime in The Third Man, and Welles arguably should have had three acting Oscars, even though he never got one.
Missing Piece: Perhaps Chimes at Midnight, which actually just came out on Netflix disc and so this might actually happen after years of trying to track it down.

There you have it-my dozen favorite actors.  There's a lot to go over here, so head to the comments and let me know what you think-did I make the right calls in performances, missing pieces, and especially in the twelve men I listed?  Who would you have found room for?  Share below!

OVP: The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)

Film: The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)
Stars: Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Shirley Temple, Rudy Vallee, Ray Collins
Director: Irving Reis
Oscar History: 1 nomination/1 win (Best Original Screenplay*)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

It's always a little bit strange to see child stars as they grow up, especially if they aren't well-known as adult actors (the likes of Patty Duke or Jodie Foster aren't nearly as jarring as someone who largely is ingrained in our memories as a young performer).  Considering that Shirley Temple is the most iconic child star of all time, perhaps no person quite personifies this shock more than she does.  While I had seen one other of Temple's films as an adult (1948's classic Fort Apache), it's still a bit of a "whoa" moment to see her not as the little girl that saved Hollywood during the Depression but instead as a young woman not necessarily playing "Shirley Temple."  That was the case with this now largely forgotten film from 1947, which in its day managed to be a big hit and won a surprise Academy Award for best screenplay.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is rather a trifle, especially in its plot.  The movie follows Richard (Grant) a charming, boozing ladies' man (when is Cary Grant not playing this role is probably a better question?) who ends up in court in front of Judge Margaret Turner (Loy), whom he immediately takes a fancy toward but she pays him no mind as he seems like a playboy and she's a no-nonsense type that wants someone serious.  As the film progresses and through happenstance, Richard meets Margaret's younger sister Susan (Temple), who immediately swoons for him and finds him irresistible despite their age difference.  Through logic that can only be found in a movie, Margaret's Uncle Matt (Collins) convinces everyone that the best way for Susan to get over her infatuation with Richard is to let them date each other, despite the protestations of both Richard and Margaret.

As one might expect, the film falls into place in the same way that you'd anticipate.  Richard eventually wears Margaret's dislike of him down by proving to be a pretty good guy, and he wins her heart over the "more proper" ADA Tommy (Vallee), while Susan eventually wears out her crush on Richard and gets back together with her high school beau.  The film ends with Margaret and Richard randomly meeting at an airport, and suddenly we have the happy ending that a Golden Age Rom-Com demands.

The film would hardly be remembered today (it's fine, and Grant and Loy are such wonderful performers that putting them together works even if it's not nearly as funny as you'd hope), but it did receive a rather startling Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.  Considering the film was up against both the far more dramatic A Double Life and Body and Soul (not to mention the classic Monsieur Verdoux and Shoeshine) it's perplexing to wonder how a random romantic comedy managed to snag such a nomination in 1947, let alone that it took the win.  The screenplay is fine, but it's incredibly predictable and Temple doesn't really have the comedic timing that her costars do (and occasionally even Loy doesn't know how to make herself frosty enough), so this feels like a bit of a miss in terms of the Oscars actually giving out the trophy.  "Fine" is hardly what you'd consider worthy of an Oscar.  Weirdly enough, the film is written by none other than bestselling novelist Sidney Sheldon, who had a rather bizarre career starting as an Oscar-winning screenwriter (this was his first script!), then going on to writing several classic musicals (Easter Parade and Annie Get Your Gun), followed by a stint working in sitcoms (The Patty Duke Show and I Dream of Jeannie), and then finally ending his career as a massively successful novelist, writing Number One bestsellers like The Other Side of Midnight, the latter of which he is most remembered for today.  It's strange enough to think of Sheldon, a suspense novelist of the 1970's/80's, having an Oscar-it's even odder to think it happened for a Cary Grant romantic comedy.

Those are my thoughts on this picture-what are yours?  I'm positive that there are some fans out there (it's not a bad movie, just not a great one)-want to share your defense in the comments?  What phase of Sidney Sheldon's career do you most enjoy?  And what is Shirley Temple's greatest film, period?

OVP: Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942)

Film: Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942)
Stars: Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Walter Slezak, Albert Dekker, Albert Bassermann
Director: Leo McCarey
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Sound Recording)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

There are occasions when I'm watching old movies that I have to check and double check what year the movie was made.  This is because, thanks to a bit of knowledge regarding history, I'm well aware that a certain movie's mood and atmosphere will greatly influence what's happening onscreen.  This was something I was made aware of while I was watching the Leo McCarey dramedy (before that word became popular) Once Upon a Honeymoon.  The film, led by spry romantic comedy stars Ginger Rogers and Cary Grant (random fact: depending on what part of the country you were in depends on who got top billing for the film, though TCM listed Grant first so that's where we'll go too) seems at first to be a pretty distastefully light comedy, making light of Nazism and Rogers' Katie's naivete regarding such subjects before the film eventually meanders into a more traditional romantic output.  As a result, we get a good movie that works on both levels, but probably would have been considerably better if it'd just stuck with one.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film follows Katie O'Hara (Rogers), a former stripper who is pretending to be a wealthy socialite in Austria in hopes of nabbing a rich husband.  She finds one in a Baron von Luber (Slezak, in his first Hollywood role), but doesn't count on the fact that he's a Nazi sympathizer that is scouting out different locales before the Nazi invade.  As a result, we get an inappropriately hilarious (there's a LOT of black comedy in this movie, which I wasn't remotely expecting from these two prim-and-proper movie stars) series of scenes where Rogers is perplexed as to why Hitler keeps invading every country they visit on their honeymoon (this was made in 1942...that's dark).

She meets in the opening scenes a man named Pat O'Toole whom she initially distrusts (thinking he's just trying to use her husband and her marriage to sell his radio show), but eventually trusts and falls in love with, realizing that she has to leave her husband before it's too late.  Before she does that, though, she's convinced by an American spy (Dekker) to try and get information from von Luber, and in the process gets the operative killed and herself trapped.  She's eventually saved in a comic moment where O'Toole starts to talk (on-the-air) about how von Luber fancies himself the next Fuhrer, and gets in trouble with Hitler.  The film ends in an extremely black comic way, with von Luber thrown overboard off-screen by Katie, with she and O'Toole convincing the ship's captain to turn the ship around, and then her telling the captain that von Luber can't swim, resulting in him exasperatingly turning the ship around again (without the usual somberness that accompanies a classic movie death).

The film's weird shifts in tone are interesting to say the least.  I kind of wished, in hindsight, that they had just gone all-in with the black comedy, a sort of Great Dictator for the romantic comedy set, though that would have been preposterous for someone as socially conservative as Rogers in particular (who was a major star at the time so no one was forcing her to do this film-I'm surprised she signed up for it).  The two leads have tremendously fun chemistry, and when they're flirting it's glorious, but the heavy-handed shifts eventually wear on the audience and you wish they'd just pick a genre.

The film received a sole Oscar nomination, for Sound Recording, which seems very weird for a movie that has no musical numbers and minimal wartime effects (there's maybe one bomb that goes off and one water scene, which is usually how these nominations are won).  As a result, we don't see a lot of credence for this except perhaps RKO was short on contenders in this category.  Either way, I'm glad I saw this oddly-toned film even if its Oscar nomination was totally unwarranted.

How about you-have you seen Once Upon a Honeymoon?  If so, what were your thoughts on its tone and nomination?  If not, what do you think of Rogers and Grant in general, and do you ever find yourself researching what was going on around a particular film?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

OVP: Topper (1937)

Film: Topper (1937)
Stars: Constance Bennett, Cary Grant, Roland Young, Billie Burke
Director: Norman Z. McLeod
Oscar History: 2 nominations (Best Supporting Actor-Roland Young and Best Sound Recording)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

They don't make 'em like they used to do.  That's such a bizarre cliche, mostly because you frequently don't want them making them like they used to do.  In a lot of ways films have shifted to reflect modern tastes, and someone like, say, Susan Hayward wouldn't really be in place in today's modern dramas-she'd come across as too histrionic.  However, when it comes to screwball comedies, then yes, they don't make them like they used to, mostly because they don't really make them at all.  The screwball comedies, films like The Awful Truth and The Thin Man and Bringing Up Baby-they sort of exist in the past like Impressionist paintings and Baroque music.  Luckily for me, Turner Classic Movies still runs them and so I caught the charmingly daffy Topper this past week.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film stars Cary Grant and Constance Bennett as George and Marion, two Manhattan society types with a great idea for fun but not much of an idea for responsibility.  They're regularly galavanting around town, trying to find a good time, but oftentimes not taking any personal responsibility for themselves and driving cars like mad men.  They have an old friend named Cosmo Topper (played by Roland Young, and frenemy may be a better word at the beginning of the picture) who is the exact opposite-Topper is predictable and very responsible, but he receives no joy from life, and neither does his social-climbing wife Clara (Billie Burke, and yes that is Glinda the Good Witch), who spends most of her time berating Topper.

You can kind of see where this is going, with both sides needing to find an equilibrium with the other, but there's a twist-George and Marion die about a third of the way through the movie.  I knew this was coming, but otherwise would have found this a bit shocking.  Being that this is a screwball comedy, it doesn't phase them in the slightest, however, but they do realize that in order to get to heaven they probably need to do something worthwhile with their lives, and as a result they decide to help Topper to get a little bit more joy out of life and to stand up to his wife.  In the end, after a series of madcap adventures, Topper in fact does this, and the couple are granted access to heaven.

The plot of this film is probably why it couldn't work today.  Modern audiences would view George and Marion as being completely callous and dangerous with their driving, rather than an utter delight, and while a berated Topper is believable, he's hardly what you'd call a character that works as a leading man (though I can't help but cast Eddie Redmayne, Emma Stone, and Richard Jenkins for these parts in my head).  Still, that doesn't mean the film isn't totally worthwhile, because it most definitely is.  The chemistry between the two leads is absolutely wonderful.  This was the first major comedy hit that Grant had that wasn't opposite Mae West (random fact that I am guessing most don't know: Cary Grant's career actually started with Blonde Venus opposite Marlene Dietrich and a pair of major hits opposite Mae West, but he didn't become a headliner in the way he is remembered today until 1937), and it's worth noting this is probably one of the last films he would make as a leading man where he didn't get top billing (that went to the more famous-at-the-time Bennett).  It's also worth noting that during the late 30's/early 40's that Grant was incredibly smart with both his scripts and his leading ladies.  Constance Bennett is utterly charming, though largely unknown today, and has wonderfully wry chemistry with both Grant and Young.  Grant would follow up this film with performances opposite Irene Dunne, Katharine Hepburn, and Rosalind Russell, showing that his agent clearly knew what he was doing.

The film received two Oscar nominations, one for Roland Young as the title character and another for Best Sound.  Young is okay most of the time, and occasionally even fun (though in my opinion Bennett and Grant always steal the show), though I'd question a bit his supporting role.  He's not only the title character, but he seems to have more screen-time than either Grant or Bennett despite what the billing may indicate, and it seems like he got this nomination more out of the way that Hollywood operated in those days (either you were a star or a character actor).  I would have liked to have seen a little bit more either slapstick sensibility from him or appreciation for his new self as the film went on, as that would have gotten me a bit higher on the performance.  The sound nomination is surely for the effects that happen throughout the film, where Bennett and Grant are frequently speaking in a voiceover (which would have been a less common effect then than it is now), and I suppose that's impressive, though the rest of the film never really seems special in that regard and it seems weird to call it one of the year's best for a trick.

Overall though, this was a comedy delight even if it's never quite as good as Bringing Up Baby or The Philadelphia Story.  For those who have seen it-what are your thoughts?  Do you like the first film better, or are you partial to one of the sequels?  Do you think that Roland Young deserved his Oscar nomination, and perhaps even a win?  And what are your thoughts on Cary Grant's leading ladies-who is your favorite?  Speak up in the comments!

AFI's 25 Greatest Actors, Part 1

This Article is Part of a 15-Year Anniversary series commemorating the American Film Institute’s 25 Greatest Stars.  For the Actresses, click the numbers for Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

One of the things that I learned with the 25 Greatest Actresses list is that I still have a lot to learn when it comes to actresses, but for whatever reason (perhaps the length of their careers or the fact that Best Picture nominees tend to have lead actors), I do considerably better at catching the classics of the most famous actors.  In fact, there is no actor on the list that I haven’t seen one of their pictures.  Still, though, there are a number of actors that I am missing a major part of their filmography, and I’m sure this is the case for you as well, so share along in the comments.  We’ll investigate the first eight men on the list, and then explore the remaining men, the “just-misses,” and the living nominees all throughout the next week or two.  Without further adieu…

1. Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957)

Oscar Nominations: Three, with a win for Best Actor in 1951’s The African Queen

Probably Best Known Today For: Being the tough-but-sensitive man who charmed Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca.  It’s amazing how a gigantic career can come down to a single role, and indeed Bogie has had a pretty impressive set of characters throughout his career, but Casablanca and his trench-coated Rick is easily what he is most identified with today.

My Favorite Performance: Casablanca is my favorite movie, and there’s really no beating Bogart in it-his Rick is a lost soul content with living in his memories, until they come back to bring him into the present.  It’s a wonderful performance in the greatest of films.  That being said, I do adore Bogie in general when he’s playing a guy skirting the law, and any of his noir films are toward the high end on my personal list.

Glaring Miss in His Filmography: I’ve seen most of his bigger films (The Maltese Falcon, African Queen, Key Largo, Sabrina, Treasure of Sierra Madre, and of course Casablanca), but I have somehow never gotten around to In a Lonely Place where he charms the eternally sexy Gloria Grahame, despite it being high on my personal to-do list.

2. Cary Grant (1904-1986)

Oscar Nominations: Two, for Penny Serenade and None But the Lonely Heart; Grant also picked up an Honorary Oscar at the 42^nd Academy Awards

Probably Best Known Today For: Being the guy that inspired George Clooney (kidding, kidding, though Clooney frequently gets compared to him).  Grant’s known to modern audiences for his class, handsomeness, and consistent charm, even if they’ve never seen one of his movies-everyone is enchanted with Cary Grant.

My Favorite Performance: Like all things in life, it’s a tough call between Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story, though in this case I’m going to lean toward Philadelphia (the opposite of what I did with Katharine Hepburn in the same circumstance, for the record).  His C.K. Dexter Haven is just mischievous enough to charm everyone on the screen, and I find him as a cad more believable than as a loveable nerd.

Glaring Miss in His Filmography: My mom’s favorite actor is Cary Grant, and so I’ve seen basically every major Cary Grant film.  I’ve seen all of the films with the Hepburns, all of the films with Hitchcock, and most all of his screwball comedies.  Looking through his filmography, though, I do notice two misses: His Girl Friday his bouncy film with Rosalind Russell in 1940 and the previous year’s Gunga Din with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

3. James Stewart (1908-1997)

Oscar Nominations: Stewart won five Oscar nominations in his career, winning Best Actor for 1940’s The Philadelphia Story.  He also went on to win the Life Achievement Award at the 57^th Academy Awards.

Probably Best Known Today For: Being the guy that inspired Tom Hanks (again, kidding, kidding, though Hanks frequently gets compared to him).  Stewart’s the affable, awe shucks nice guy that everyone seems to admire.  A war hero in his day and one of the great stars, he’s best known to modern audiences for that Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life with Donna Reed (you know it-every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings…)

My Favorite Performance: I’m going to go against type here.  I do think Stewart is sensational in It’s a Wonderful Life, but there’s no comparing to what he did in Vertigo-it’s so jarring seeing the nicest guy onscreen play a ruthless, obsessed man torturing poor Kim Novak.  It’s Hitchcock’s best film, and Stewart’s as well.

Glaring Miss in His Filmography: I’ve seen most of his biggest hits (again-most people have, which is why the comments should be interesting here if you’ve only missed one or two films).  I’d probably go with Anatomy of a Murder, the only of his Oscar-nominated work I haven’t gotten around to, but I’ve seen basically every other major film he was in.

4. Marlon Brando (1924-2004)

Oscar Nominations: Brando nabbed eight nominations in his career, winning for 1954’s On the Waterfront and 1972’s The Godfather.

Probably Best Known Today For: Being the greatest actor of all-time?  At least to some people that is (myself included).  For others, he is one of those names you throw out when you try to benchmark great acting like Meryl and de Niro.  And of course, he is running through the street screaming "Stella!" and constantly making people offers they cannot refuse.

My Favorite Performance: Brando is so good so often he's one of those rare actors who could genuinely equal Katharine Hepburn's four wins with me for the OVP.  For me, though, he will always be the sexiest man in the history of the screen, seducing everything in his path in A Streetcar Named Desire, in my opinion a tie for the greatest performance of all-time (with Vivien Leigh...in A Streetcar Named Desire).

Glaring Miss in His Filmography: I've seen most of Brando's biggest films because he's my favorite actor, but I've never seen his musical debut in Guys and Dolls-that would probably be the one with the biggest intrigue around it.

5. Fred Astaire (1899-1987)

Oscar Nominations: Astaire only received one competitive Oscar nomination in his career (for The Towering Inferno of all things), but did receive an Honorary Award in 1950, presented to him of course by Ginger Rogers.

Probably Best Known Today For: Being the classiest hoofer of them all.  His longtime partnership with Ginger Rogers onscreen is the stuff of Hollywood legend, and even if you're someone who has never seen an Astaire/Rogers film (and I insist that you rectify this situation immediately), you'll know that Astaire is one of those actors who's "gotta dance."

My Favorite Performance: Astaire was an extremely classy dude onscreen, but he, like Rogers, frequently played himself.  I'm going to go with Top Hat in a slight nod over Swing Time (since that's always been my favorite of their films, despite modern enthusiasm being for the latter film).  Funny Face is also wonderful, but I can't list it because the age difference between Hepburn and Astaire has always given me the heebie jeebies (though it's a marvelous movie otherwise).

Glaring Miss in His Filmography: Astaire is the first actor on this list where I can say that I've got some work to do.  While I've hit a couple of his major films with Rogers, films like The Gay Divorcee and Follow the Fleet are still in the ole Netflix queue.  However, some later Astaire (including Easter Parade, The Band Wagon, and Daddy Long Legs) is still on the to view list, so this would need to be a marathon.

6. Henry Fonda (1905-1982)

Oscar Nominations: Just two for acting, but boy did he make them count: The Grapes of Wrath, for which he lost to Jimmy Stewart, and On Golden Pond, for which he won Best Actor.  He was also nominated for producing 12 Angry Men and won an Honorary Award in 1980.

Probably Best Known Today For: Being the father of an acting dynasty, as well as his work in The Grapes of Wrath, a move most high school students will sit through at some point (and he's also in 12 Angry Men, another high school movie staple).  His larger career isn't quite as consistently noteworthy as Stewart, Grant, or Brando, but the highlights are known by pretty much anyone.

My Favorite Performance: I feel really weird not listing Grapes of Wrath (Fonda is just wonderful in that movie), but for me there is no topping cold-hearted Frank in Once Upon a Time in the West, the greatest western ever made, and one where Fonda plays duly against type as a ruthless villain being challenged by good guy Charles Bronson.

Glaring Miss in His Filmography: I've seen most of his major hits, so if we're ranking by fame I'd probably have to go with something on the B-roster of Fonda movies like The Ox-Bow Incident or The Wrong Man, but personal preference would be for The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, which was one of my grandpa's favorite movies and one that I have oddly never seen.

7. Clark Gable (1901-1960)

Oscar Nominations: Gable received three, winning for 1934's It Happened One Night.

Probably Best Known Today For: Not giving a damn.  It's amazing how a single scene or line can make someone immortal amongst the public, but while Gable was once the King of Hollywood and starred in multiple classic film roles, his work as Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind will eternally be the film that he is most famous for with the general populace.

My Favorite Performance: This is a tough call, as I really love Gable in It Happened One Night, and he's probably my fourth favorite performance in GWTW.  Still, fourth in GWTW is toward the top of my personal list, and so I'll go with his "not a gentleman" work in that movie.  What I love about that film, even today, is how desperately modern both he and Vivien Leigh's work seems-the script may be dated, but the performances could work just as well today.

Glaring Miss in His Filmography: For some reason, I have never gotten around to Gable's third Oscar-nominated performance in Mutiny on the Bounty (this is also one of the extremely rare Best Picture winners that I've never seen).  That would definitely be toward the top of the list, and I honestly think it actually is-I want to say it's in my next ten movies on my Netflix queue.

8. James Cagney (1899-1986)

Oscar Nominations: Cagney received three nominations in his career, winning for 1942's Yankee Doodle Dandy

Probably Best Known Today For: He's not as well-known today, if we're being honest.  This was one of the more surprising elements of the AFI list not because Cagney didn't deserve to be on the list, or that I didn't expect him on the list (I did and would have), but because he's clearly the least well-known in the Top 10.  That said, Cagney's work today is probably most known due to his early gangster pictures.  People picture him holding a gun, not wanting to get caught, and cheering for him to get away.

My Favorite Performance: I mean, there's no really beating White Heat is there?  His demented Mama's boy is a startlingly real and powerful performance, and one that seems to get lost when you're listing the classic performances of the 1940's, but it shouldn't be.

Glaring Miss in His Filmography: I am going to say The Public Enemy.  Part of me thinks that I've actually seen this movie, but I'm not 100% certain if I have (I've seen a lot of movies...part of the reason that I started this blog was to keep track of them and my opinions on them)-maybe it's just that I've seen Cagney shove that grapefruit in Mae Clarke's face so many times that I feel like I've seen the movie.  Either way, that's the top of the list (...or, since it's Cagney, perhaps top of the world?).

Those are the first eight actors on our (what will be five-part) series on the AFI's 25 Greatest Actors list.  These are some of the most famous film stars of all-time, so I know you've got opinions on their best, worst, and the films you're most looking forward to seeing-share them in the comments!