#oklahoma premiered in 1943 so it might be that?

[emilyaxford]

i referenced how violet from the incredibles turned invisible when she's shy in my team meeting today and my coworker said (in a complimentary way) that the way i make references is unique because they're really wide-ranging. which a) i don't think the incredibles is that deep a cut, but b) i agree and i think it comes from having older parents (and in my dad's case, him being raised by older parents in turn). bedtime for bonzo (1951) and roll over beethoven (1956) get referenced all the time in my house, usually in relation to my dog, but also my dad keeps quoting the kendall roy "FAMILY THERAPY" line to me recently

[dweemeister]

Oklahoma! (1955)

Composer Richard Rodgers was in search of a new songwriting partner in the early 1940s. His previous partner, the lyricist Lorenz Hart, was devolving into an alcoholism that would soon claim his life. Wanting to transform Lynn Riggs’ rustic play Green Grow the Lilacs into a musical, Rodgers would find a new lyricist in Oscar Hammerstein II, who had not been involved in any Broadway successes for some time. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1943 adaptation of Rigg’s play was Oklahoma! and – despite widespread predictions that Broadway audiences would only flock to modern, urbane works – it became the longest-running Broadway musical for another dozen or so years. It began one of the most fruitful, important, and accomplished musical theater partnerships in the medium’s history.

Interest in a cinematic treatment from Hollywood’s major studios for the first Rodgers and Hammerstein musical came almost immediately after the initial reviews for Oklahoma!, but the rights went not to a movie studio, but a film equipment start-up known as the Magna Theatre Corporation. Magna’s owners intended Oklahoma! as a test for the Todd-AO widescreen process (a rival to Cinerama), but more on that and the film’s unique distribution history – which involves RKO and 20th Century Fox – later. Most importantly, the lack of studio executives to appease meant that Rodgers and Hammerstein could have full control over the film’s structure and musical/narrative changes for this adaptation. Directed by Fred Zinnemann (1952’s High Noon, 1953’s From Here to Eternity) – an unorthodox choice, given his expertise for morally complex dramas and no musical experience – 1955’s Oklahoma! is a harbinger for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical films to come, and an inextricable part of the duo’s legacy.

Somewhere in the Oklahoman countryside, amid corn as high as an elephant’s eye, is the clean-cut cowboy Curly McLain (Gordon MacRae). Curly is en route to the farmstead of his crush, Laurey Williams (Shirley Jones in her cinematic debut), and Laurey’s aunt, Aunt Eller (Charlotte Greenwood). There, Curly invites Laurey to the box social scheduled for later that evening. Annoyed that it took him this long to ask her out, Laurey decides instead to go the box social with the Williams’ antisocial and intimidating farmhand, Jud Fry (Rod Steiger). Elsewhere at the train station, another cowboy, Will Parker (Gene Nelson) might be singing about how much he was entranced by Kansas City, but he is searching for his sweetheart, Ado Annie (Gloria Grahame) – herself entranced by traveling salesman Ali Hakim (Eddie Albert in brownface).

No members of the original Broadway cast reprised their roles for this film, which also stars Barbara Lawrence and character actors James Whitmore, Jay C. Flippen, and Roy Barcroft.

As Curly, MacRae is like a Broadway stage version of the characters Gene Autry or Roy Rogers might have played in another decade. MacRae, who started his career as a Broadway and radio singer, had just run down the end of his contract with Warner Bros. (signed in 1947) when he appeared in Oklahoma!. At Warners, he starred in a number of musicals including Look for the Silver Lining (1949) and opposite Doris Day in On Moonlight Bay (1951), but he had only starred in a film adaptation of stage musical once before. MacRae, despite a long hiatus from the Broadway stage, is a natural here: charming and exuding a natural chemistry with co-star Shirley Jones. This exterior, however, is not without malice – as seen in the scene where Curly tries to influence Jud to commit self-harm. Cut from the same baritone cloth like contemporary Howard Keel (Frank Butler in 1950’s Annie Get Your Gun, Adam Pontipee in 1954’s Seven Brides for Seven Brothers), MacRae never achieved the popularity that other stage-to-screen musical stars of the ‘30s and ‘40s did (and, of course, Julie Andrews much later on).

The film’s surprise package for audiences in 1955 was in Shirley Jones. Jones, rather than subjecting herself to a vetting process by a director, casting director, or studio executives, was hand-picked by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Stunned by her 1953 audition for the premiere of South Pacific but wanting more experience for the then-nineteen-year-old, the songwriting duo kept Jones in mind for future productions and signed her on a contract (Jones was the first and only singer to be contracted to Rodgers and Hammerstein). With a few years of Broadway productions under her belt, Jones still came to Oklahoma! lacking an understanding on how to tailor sharper emotions to a film camera. With Fred Zinnemann’s assistance, she navigates Laurey’s light romantic comedy scenes and tumultuous friendship (if one can call it that) with Jud maturely – one could scarcely believe this is her cinematic debut. For Laurey, she accentuates the character’s naïveté, especially in respect to how she acts around men and romantic idealizations, without feeling grating or overacting (a common problem when approaching characters without much life experience) the part. Jones’ excellence in Oklahoma! would land her the lead in Carousel (1956), with other Hollywood hits in Elmer Gantry (1960) and The Music Man (1962) to follow.

As their artistic collaboration progressed, Rodgers and Hammerstein did not shy away from asking heavier questions in their musicals. Their first two projects, Oklahoma! and the musical film State Fair (1945) are relatively airy, flighty compared to their successors – the darkness of morality in Carousel, the racist beliefs of the lead character in South Pacific. Foreshadowing that later drama in successive musicals is the misanthropic (not just misogynistic) character of Jud Fry. Played by Rod Steiger, Jud is a villain without any redeeming qualities in the original musical. Steiger’s Jud remains a reprehensible character, but Steiger – as have most other actors who have played Jud in on stage in the decades since – positions Jud as more of a loner whose social ineptitude results in an unchecked covetousness over Laurey. To some reading that last sentence, that distinction between portrayals of Jud may not make any meaningful difference in one’s negative opinions about the character and his actions. Yet, Steiger’s portrayal of Jud – as sloppy, maladjusted, knowing little else about life other than farm work – is nevertheless a refinement on the character Rodgers and Hammerstein originally did not give much thought to.

Zinnemann’s dramatic tendencies needed moderation, as they sometimes threated to overshadow the musical features. Although, to Zinnemann’s credit, as a dramatist first, he imbues Oklahoma! with a dramatic fervor that came to define all Rodgers and Hammerstein musical film versions after it – something that one never received from the somewhat assembly line-like musical from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and Fox. Oklahoma! was Zinnemann’s first widescreen film, as well as the first time he shot in color.  The emotional intensity of his earlier movies would be antithetical to the sweeping rural cinematography that he and cinematographer Robert Surtees (1959’s Ben-Hur, 1971’s The Last Picture Show) and Floyd Crosby (1931’s Tabu: A Story of the South Seas, 1960’s House of Usher) needed to capture. Zinnemann, Surtees, and Crosby offer sumptuous images of the Arizona countryside (Oklahoma’s oil wells proved too plentiful and distracting for the production) and the inviting blue sky that overhangs the cornfields sweeping across the land. With widescreen cameras rather new around 1955, the cameras wisely stay further back in interior scenes (shot at MGM’s studios in Culver City, California) with numerous people, directing our gaze centrally with brilliant blocking from the actors. The staging nevertheless feels like a stagebound musical during some interior scenes, like a lower-budget MGM musical with a trivial plot.

The widescreen cinematography, of course, was purposefully a showcase – see the shots of Gene Nelson spinning his rope directly towards the camera in “Kansas City” and the shot of an overly-excited auctioneer hammering their gavel and having the gavel nearly break the camera in another. Magna Theatre Corporation intended Oklahoma! to be a demonstration of their new Todd-AO 70mm process, in hopes of competing against Cinerama (which used three synchronized projectors at once on a curved screen). Because some theaters could not support the widescreen prints, two different versions of Oklahoma! exist: one in Todd-AO and another in CinemaScope (the latter a 20th Century Fox invention). This review is based on the Todd-AO print – which I recommend over the CinemaScope print – that currently is streaming on Disney+. Another note about the Todd-AO print: the first two films shot on Todd-AO 70mm – Oklahoma! and Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) – were shot in 30 frames per second (FPS) rather than the standard twenty-four. Thus, the Todd-AO print will appear slightly smoother in motion than most all other films, including modern ones.

Why 30 FPS for film screenings in 1955? Higher frames per second result in less noticeable light flickering and more dynamic colors (these effects for movies shot at higher FPS rates only apply to films shot on film stock, not digital). However, film projectors with a Todd-AO print would run hotter, requiring simultaneous cooling of the film while it ran through the projector. All subsequent films shot on Todd-AO reverted to the standard twenty-four frames per second.

Diehard musical fans often consider Fred Zinnemann’s Oklahoma! the most faithful – narratively, musically – of all the Rodgers and Hammerstein film adaptations. Deleted from Oklahoma! are two songs: Ali Hakim’s chauvinistic “It’s a Scandal, It’s a Outrage! [sic]” and Jud’s brooding “Lonely Room”. The former has among the least musical interest in the entire musical, but “Lonely Room” might have been a helpful source of characterization of Steiger’s Jud (the limited vocal range required for the song would suit Steiger). Otherwise, some of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most iconic songs are present, starting with “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’”. Sung solo by MacRae on horseback (as opposed to being sung completely offstage in the original stage version), it serves the same purpose as the title song from The Sound of Music (1965) does. It establishes Curly’s character (mostly), and establishing the vast environs where the film takes place. The atmospheric opening shot of the camera moving through the corn and opening up into a grassy landscape might seem corny inane, but what a visual message it sends for one of the early widescreen American movies. Curly’s solo leads into “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top”, as he attempts to woo Laurey into accompanying him to the box social. A brief visual aside to allow viewers who do not know what a surrey looks like is a touch that a stage musical cannot provide, but this song – along with my choice of the best song in the musical, “People Will Say We’re in Love” (which gives MacRae and Jones a lovely duet with the production’s most romantic melodies) – exemplifies the rapport between MacRae and Jones and their two characters.

There remains charm aplenty across the musical score. Gene Nelson’s rendition of “Kansas City” is by no means essential to the plot of Oklahoma!, but it is a diverting number with some fancy footwork by not only Nelson (essentially the film’s comic relief and using a perfect, non-jarring voice for such a role), but Charlotte Greenwood and the scene’s extras as well. And then, arriving late, there is also the lively title song, delivered by MacRae with a similar energy as he employs for “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’”. “Oklahoma” became the official state song for Oklahoma in 1953, replacing a lesser-known song, “Oklahoma – A Toast”. Credit must also go to the extras and chorus for spearheading the song for its second half, as well as Robert Russell Bennett for his gorgeous (and definitive) vocal arrangement.

As its theatrical release drew near, details of the distribution of Oklahoma! would depend on which print a theater received. If a movie theater screened the Todd-AO 70mm print, Magna handled the distribution; if they showed the anamorphic CinemaScope 35mm print, the responsibility fell to RKO. RKO – the studio that gave audiences King Kong (1933), Citizen Kane (1942), and distributed all Disney movies until Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue (1954) – had fallen into turmoil by the mid-1950s and, by decade’s end, would be the first of the Big Five Hollywood studios to cease operations. The studio’s tyrannical owner, the eccentric Howard Hughes, disemboweled the studio from the inside out, and is a story for another day. Due to Hughes’ mismanagement, RKO withdrew from distribution and, in their place, came 20th Century Fox. Todd-AO and Fox shared theatrical and home media rights until Fox’s purchase by Disney in 2019; Todd-AO and Disney retain the split-ownership arrangement over Oklahoma!.

Though Oklahoma! is not usually part of most cinephiles’ and musical nerds’ pantheons of great Hollywood musicals, its contributions to the subsequent Rodgers and Hammerstein film adaptations are unmistakable. The duo’s closeness to numerous parts of the film’s production, the stunning widescreen cinematography, and the casting of actors with proven musical ability are hallmarks to be replicated, even in lesser adaptation such as South Pacific (1958) and Flower Drum Song (1961). For Rodgers and Hammerstein, they were so pleased from working with Fox that they continued to provide the rights to their musicals for all of their works’ adaptations with the exception of Flower Drum Song (which went to Universal). Like their work on Broadway, their best music and best movie adaptations of their musicals was yet to arrive. Oklahoma! marks a solid, healthy start to that run of adaptations, a hallmark of mid-century American moviemaking.

My rating: 7.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[dweemeister]

2021 Movie Odyssey Awards

With the 2021 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song in the books, the 2021 Movie Odyssey Awards are the latest they’ve ever been. As you might know, this is the annual awards ceremony to recognize a year of films that I saw for the first time in their entirety in the calendar year. Every single one of the films nominated below - with the exception of those in the Worst Picture category nominated for nothing else - are worth seeing.

The full list of every single film I saw as part of the 2021 Movie Odyssey can be seen in this link. Those are the films eligible for the below.

Best Pictures (I'm naming ten, I'm not distinguishing one above the other nine)

The Bad Seed (1956)

Chess of the Wind (1976, Iran)

The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)

Elmer Gantry (1960)

The Father (2020)

Intruder in the Dust (1949)

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

Los tallos amargos (1956, Argentina)

So This is Paris (1926)

Yi Yi (2000, Taiwan)

You either had to be rated a 9, a 9.5, or a 10 to get up here in Best Picture. Not easy to do. In this slate, you have two psychological thrillers in the form of The Bad Seed and Chess of the Wind - the former arguably innovating the evil child trope and the latter a social commentary on class and gender in pre-Revolutionary Iran. Religious tenets and fidelity are tested in The Devil and Daniel Webster and Elmer Gantry. The former a Faustian allegory in nineteenth century America; the latter an adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’ satire on evangelical Christianity in the United States.

You’ll not find many better films on aging than The Father, and not as many Southern Gothic dramas as darker or as incendiary on racial relations than Intruder in the Dust. Los tallos amargos, like a handful of films in this lineup (Chess of the Wind, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, is lucky to have received a recent restoration taking the current print to its pristine visual glory. And it’s a reminder that sometimes non-American film noir could be better than the nation the subgenre originated from. So This is Paris is premier Lubitsch romantic farce, a wonderful comedy of manners.

And in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and Yi Yi, you have two sprawling epics. The first from Powell and Pressburger on the justifications and justness of British wars, what it means to fight wars justly, and the idea of warfare as a “noble” exercise. For Yi Yi, it is a beautiful domestic drama following a Taiwanese family into the twenty-first century, as they all wrestle with others’ foibles and conflicting perspectives, the unknowable,. the misunderstood, and unspoken human truths in a place at once unmistakably Taiwanese,. but also rapidly Westernizing.

Best Comedy

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

A Chump at Oxford (1939)

Clue (1985)

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953)

Follow That Dream (1962)

Hairspray (1988)

How to Steal a Million (1966)

The Mitchells vs the Machines (2021)

Monkey Business (1952)

So This is Paris

Not necessarily the best film, but usually the one that I found the funniest this year. Sure, I laughed out loud more during The Mitchells vs the Machines, but there was a bit too much humor dating it in the 2020s for me. For simple wit and situational humor, I found Peter O’Toole and Audrey Hepburn simply a delight to watch as they attempted to steal a forged artwork.

Other honorable mentions include Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (a terrible Universal Monsters movie, but perhaps the best A+C movie) and the manic, Tim Curry-starring Clue. The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T is here and in the next category as Seussian nightmare fuel.

Best Musical

Carefree (1938)

Down Argentine Way (1940)

The Five Pennies (1959)

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T

G.I. Blues (1960)

In the Heights (2021)

Oklahoma! (1955)

Orchestra Wives (1942)

Romance on the High Seas (1948)

West Side Story (2021)

Oh what a beautiful mornin’ / oh what a beautiful day / I’ve got a sunshiney feeling / everything’s goin’ my way. And certainly it did for the adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!. A lush, CinemaScope adaptation of the R&H musical, Gordon MacRae is brilliant, as is a young Shirley Jones in her film debut (Jones was the only person ever personally contracted to the duo). Close behind were The Five Pennies (Danny Kaye as jazz cornettist Red Nichols in a musical biopic), Orchestra Wives (be still my ears whenever Glenn Miller is playing), and this year’s edition of West Side Story.

Best Animated Feature

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)

Encanto (2021)

Luca (2021)

The Mitchells vs the Machines

Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

Very meager pickings in this category compared to the usual slate of animated features I do get to see. This one wasn’t even close. A sort of spin off from Batman: The Animated Series, one could really not ask for a better animated film to add to the Batman mythos. A stunning, haunting work from those creatives at Warner Bros. animation.

Best Documentary

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927, Germany)

City Hall (2020)

Đoạn trường vinh hoa (The Glorious Pain) (2020, Vietnam)

Freedom on My Mind (1994)

Jazz on a Summer’s Day (1959)

The Kids are Alright (1979)

Les Rivières (The Rivers) (2019, France)

Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1979 short)

16 Days of Glory (1986)

Tex Avery, the King of Cartoons (1988)

Jazz on a Summer’s Day is a concert film showcasing the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island and contains performances from the likes of Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Dinah Washington, Thelonious Monk, and Chuck Berry (not a jazz musician, but undoubtedly jazz influenced). I also considered Frederick Wiseman’s City Hall and the official 1984 Summer Olympics documentary 16 Days of Glory for this award.

Best Non-English Language Film

Adoption (1975), Hungary

Chess of the Wind, Iran

The End of Summer (1961), Japan

Giòng Sông Không Nhìn Thấy (The Unseen River) (2020 short), Vietnam

Limite (1931), Brazil

Los tallos amargos, Argentina

Loving Couples (1964), Sweden

Tomka and His Friends (1977), Albania

Woman in the Moon (1929), Germany

Yi Yi, Taiwan

Best Silent Film

À Propos de Nice (1930 short, France)

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City

Fanchon, the Cricket (1915)

Limite

Madame’s Cravings (1907 short, France)

Pardon Us (1931)

The Patsy (1928)

The Red Lily (1924)

So This is Paris

Woman in the Moon

A brief shout-out to Fritz Lang’s Woman in the Moon as his second film after Metropolis. Lang’s sci-fi movie introduced a lot of ideas that would be adapted for sci-fi (and real life) later on. The movie is a bit of a drag, though, during its Earthbound scenes.

Elsewhere, Lillian Gish is amazing as the title character in Fanchon, the Cricket. Alice Guy-Blache’s short film Madame’s Cravings was one of the funnier things I saw all year, and Berlin: Symphony of a Great City is a fascinating tone poem of a documentary, and of a place in between the World Wars.

Personal Favorite Film

Clue

The Devil and Daniel Webster

Dream Horse (2020)

Evil Under the Sun (1982)

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Minari (2020)

Murder Ahoy! (1964)

Silverado (1985)

To Each His Own (1946)

Yi Yi

Yeah, I’m a sucker for the Western genre. Silverado had somewhat of an offbeat cast for a Western (Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Scott Glenn, Rosanna Arquette, Jeff Goldblum as the villain, Kevin Costner and John Cleese), but holy hell was it so much fun. And having the year’s best film score does not hurt!

Elsewhere, Dream Horse was simple but it was the first film I saw in a theater after being doubled-vaccinated. Evil Under the Sun and Murder Ahoy! are Hercule Poirot and Ms. Marple movies adapted from Agatha Christie’s books, respectively. Both treatments and performances - from Peter Ustinov and Margaret Rutherford, respectively - were immaculately done. And To Each His Own ripped my heart out and sewed it back together in two hours. What an emotional rollercoaster that was.

Best Director

Mohammad Reza Aslani, Chess of the Wind

Fernando Ayala, Los tallos amargos

Richard Brooks, Elmer Gantry

Clarence Brown, Intruder in the Dust

William Dieterle, The Devil and Daniel Webster

Ernst Lubitsch, So This is Paris

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Frederick Wiseman, City Hall

Edward Yang, Yi Yi

Picking up their first ever Best Director award here are the duo of Powell and Pressburger, whom you may know better for Stairway to Heaven (1946) and The Red Shoes (1948). The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp always tends to be relegated in conversations about the duo, but it a highwire balancing act that earns them their win here. Close behind are Edward Yang and Mohammad Rezas Aslani.

Best Acting Ensemble

The Bad Seed

Belfast (2021)

Elmer Gantry

Intruder in the Dust

The Joy Luck Club (1993)

Licorice Pizza (2021)

Man on a Tightrope (1953)

Minari

Take a Giant Step (1959)

Yi Yi

No standout performances, but on the average... the best-acted movie I saw all year. Subtle performances reflecting the loneliness and attempts to muddle through life of all of its characters involved. Challenging Yi Yi most closely were The Bad Seed, Intruder in the Dust, and The Joy Luck Club.

Best Actor

Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal (2019)

Carlos Cores, Los tallos amargos

Anthony Hopkins, The Father

Burt Lancaster, Elmer Gantry

Roger Livesey, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Fredric March, The Dark Angel (1935)

Ganjirô Nakamura, The End of Summer

Gregory Peck, The Stalking Moon (1968)

Paul Robeson, The Emperor Jones (1933)

Wu Nien-jen, Yi Yi

From my review:

For his turn as the eponymous lead, Burt Lancaster, known for his vigorous performances, provides Elmer Gantry with vigor aplenty. Modeling his performance off of the behavior of baseball outfielder-turned-evangelist Billy Sunday, Lancaster struts around the tent during revival meetings, his upper body animated in conversation and salesmanship outside those meetings. Even in stillness, Lancaster’s physicality swaggers, brimming with euphoria – his most private moments abound in sexuality molded by what his character might call the love of God. Even Lancaster’s haircut appears to be defying gravity more than usual in Elmer Gantry. The sweat on his brow, within the 1:66:1 frame, feels as if it is about to seep through the camera. As he delivers his lines, Lancaster masters the complicated beat – accelerating with certain turns of phrases and strategic pauses for emphasis – and wildly varying volume of Elmer’s sermons. “Love is like the morning and the evening stars,” he intones as Gantry (that is his signature quote), somehow making us believe in such bromides and other simplifications he sells to the revival’s attendees.

Hopkins was the only other performer I was consdering here.

Best Actress

Enid Bennett, The Red Lily

Katalin Berek, Adoption

Olivia de Havilland, To Each His Own

Nancy Kelly, The Bad Seed

Fakhri Khorvash, Chess of the Wind

Merle Oberon, The Dark Angel

Mary Pickford, Fanchon, the Cricket

Diana Ross, Lady Sings the Blues (1972)

Eva Marie Saint, The Stalking Moon

Jean Simmons, Elmer Gantry

Also from my review:

Over the course of the story’s three decades, Olivia de Havilland must transform from a naïve young adult reveling in her attractiveness to men to a hardened, middle-aged spinster who has all but put her past behind her... Everything de Havilland has done up to this point in her performance – her witticisms and pointed requests, wordless joy and sorrow – suffuses the final half-hour with Jody’s regrets and desire to be the mother she never could be. All of Jody’s frailties and inner strength pour through in the end and we, the viewers, feel every hint of embarrassment, fortitude, desire, and self-doubt. This is a masterclass leading performance from Olivia de Havilland

De Havilland was in a class of her own this year.

Best Supporting Actor

Jonathan Chang, Yi Yi.

Soumitra Chatterjee, Teen Kanya (1961, India)

Ralph Fiennes, The Dig (2021)

Juano Hernandez, Intruder in the Dust

Walter Huston, The Devil and Daniel Webster

Vassili Lambrinos, Los tallos amargos

Frank Langella, The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

Arthur Kennedy, Elmer Gantry

Paul Raci, Sound of Metal

Anton Walbrook, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Walbrook, an Austrian actor working in Britain who was often saddled with playing “continental European” roles, plays an unlikely character in a British film at a time when Britain’s existence was under existential threat. Here, he plays a “good German”, who is the best friend of Roger Livesey’s protagonist, who is torn between two lands and his duties as a soldier and that of a friend. One of the performances of the year in my book.

I was also considering Juano Hernandez and Walter Huston here as well.

Best Supporting Actress

Eileen Heckart, The Bad Seed

Estelle Hemsley, Take a Giant Step

Shirley Jones, Elmer Gantry

Deborah Kerr, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Patty McCormack, The Bad Seed

Olga Merediz, In the Heights

Beah Richards, Take a Giant Step

Aparna Sen, Teen Kanya

Gyöngyvér Vigh, Adoption

Youn Yuh-jung, Minari

Aparna Sen appears in the third part of Teen Kanya (Three Daughters), an anthology film from Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray (who worked in Bengali cinema). Sen stars as an arranged bride in what is a starmaking turn for her. It was only her second film role, one to launch a lengthy career in the film industry (mostly nowadays as a writer/director). I was also considering Shirley Jones and Estelle Hemsley here.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Francis Searle, Cloudburst (1951)

Dan Totheroh and Stephen Vincent Benét, The Devil and Daniel Webster

Richard Brooks, Elmer Gantry

Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton, The Father

Harry Kurnitz, How to Steal a Million

Ben Maddow, Intruder in the Dust

Amy Tan and Ronald Bass, The Joy Luck Club

Sergio Leonardo, Los tallos amargos

Richard Wright and Pierre Chenal, Native Son (1951)

Wendell Mayes and Alvin Sargent, The Stalking Moon

Best Original Screenplay

Paul Schrader, The Card Counter (2021)

Kôgo Noda and Yasujirô Ozu, The End of Summer

Heidi Ewing and Alan Page Arriaga, I Carry You with Me (2020)

Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Ava DuVernay, Middle of Nowhere (2012)

Lee Isaac Chung, Minari

Darius Marder and Abraham Marder, Sound of Metal

Charles Brackett and Jacques Théry, To Each His Own

Edward Yang, Yi Yi

Best Cinematography (TIE)

Houshang Baharloo, Chess of the Wind

Joseph H. August, The Devil and Daniel Webster

Lionel Lindon, Grand Prix (1966)

Georges Perinal, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Ricardo Younis, Los tallos amargos

Sven Nykvist, Loving Couples

Erik Messerschmidt, Mank (2020)

Meek’s Cutoff (2010)

Robert Surtees and Floyd Crosby, Oklahoma!

Yang Wei-han, Yi Yi

Couldn’t make up my mind here. How could I choose between the elegance of Baharloo’s cinematography amid those gorgeous sets and the nightmarish film noir camerawork from Younis (a Chilean trained by Gregg Toland, who shot Citizen Kane)? Far too difficult for me, this category.

Best Film Editing

Lasse Hallström, Malou Hallström, and Ulf Neidermar, ABBA: The Movie (1977)

Walter Ruttmann, Berlin: Symphony of a Great City

Robert Wise, The Devil and Daniel Webster

George Amy, Doctor X (1932)

Yorgos Lamprinos, The Father

Fredric Steinkamp, Henry Berman, Stewart Linder, and Frank Santillo, Grand Prix

Myron Kerstein, In the Heights

John Seabourne Sr., The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Carol Littleton, Silverado

Uncredited, Woman in the Moon

Best Adaptation or Musical Score

ABBA, ABBA: The Movie

Victor Baravalle and Irving Berlin, Carefree

Emil Newman, Down Argentine Way

Joseph J. Lilley, G.I. Blues

Alex Lacamoire, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Bill Sherman, In the Heights

Leith Stevens, The Five Pennies

Morris Stoloff, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T

Robert Russell Bennett, Jack Blackton, and Adolph Deutsch, Oklahoma!

Leigh Harline and Alfred Newman, Orchestra Wives

Ray Heindorf, Jule Styne, and Sammy Cahn, Romance on the High Seas

Matthew Rush Sullivan, West Side Story

Quite simply, the most fun musical score I heard this year. This category advantages original musicals over musical adaptations and scores that borrow heavily from existing music. If not Orchestra Wives, I might have gone for The Five Pennies here.

Best Original Score

Bruce Broughton, Silverado

Bernard Herrmann, The Devil and Daniel Webster

Germaine Franco, Encanto

Lee Holdridge, 16 Days of Glory

Fred Karlin, The Stalking Moon

André Previn, Elmer Gantry

Miklós Rózsa, Jungle Book (1942)

Shirley Walker, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

John Williams, How to Steal a Million

Hans Zimmer, Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Those horn rips. Those horn rips, man (to all other instrumentalists, a horn rip is a glissando). Silverado was a delight to watch but especially to listen to. Bruce Broughton is a perennially underrated composer and one who truly lets his themes develop in such a natural, beautifully flowing way.

Of special mention are Herrmann’s experimental, modernist score for The Devil and Daniel Webster and Shirley Walker becoming the first woman ever nominated in this category (there are not enough female composers in cinema and it’s a major problem).

Best Original Song

“Am I Blue?”, music by Harry Akst, lyrics by Grant Clarke, On with the Show! (1929)

“At Last”, music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Mack Gordon, Orchestra Wives

“Đàn Chim Di Cư (Migrating Flock of Birds)”, music by Phạm Hải Âu, lyrics by Lê Minh Hoàng and Đỗ Hoa Trà, Saigon in the Rain (2020, Vietnam)

“The Five Pennies”, music and lyrics by Sylvia Fine, The Five Pennies

“The Greatest Love of All”, music by Michael Masser, lyrics by Lila Creed, The Greatest (1977)

“(I’ve Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo”, music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Mack Gordon, Orchestra Wives

“Lullaby in Ragtime”, music and lyrics by Sylvia Fine, The Five Pennies

“The Name of the Game”, music by Benny Andersson, lyrics by Björn Ulvaeus and Stig Anderson, ABBA: The Movie

“No Time to Die”, music by Finneas, lyrics by Billie Eilish, No Time to Die (2021)

“Thank You for the Music”, music by Benny Andersson, lyrics by Björn Ulvaeus and Stig Anderson, ABBA: The Movie

Thank you to all those who participated in this year’s edition of MOABOS!

Best Costume Design

Michael Whittaker, The Black Rose (1950)

Howard Greer and Edward Stevenson, Carefree

Anthony Powell, Evil Under the Sun

Jean Louis, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T

Malgosia Turzanska, The Green Knight (2021)

Ray Aghayan, Norma Koch, and Bob Mackie, Lady Sings the Blues

Trish Summerville, Mank

Motley (Sophie Devine), Orry-Kelly, and Charles Arrico, Oklahoma!

Gaston, Philippe, and Zanel, Princess Tam-Tam (1935, France)

Kristi Zea, Silverado

I was mulling between this and Evil Under the Sun for a long time, but which one was more memorable? Of course it had to be the film with the ludicrous “Happy Fingers” hat and whatever the hell else the cast wore in this film!

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Mel Berns, Carefree

Ruth Pursley, Ray Romero, and Perc Westmore, Doctor X

Rey Medrano and Eileen Buggy,The Green Knight

Van Smith and Christine Mason, Hairspray

George Blackler, Dorrie Hamilton, and Stuart Freeborn, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Ivar Hällqvist, Sture Höglund, and Gullan Westfelt, Loving Couples

Gigi Williams, Kimberly Spiteri, and Colleen LaBaff, Mank

Paulo Carias, O Ébrio (1946, Brazil)

Heba Thorisdottir and Janine Thompson, The Suicide Squad (2021)

Uncredited, The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1961)

The two-strip Technicolor (an early form of Technicolor which brought out the reds and greens) really made Doctor X’s makeup look terrifically creepy. Outstanding work.

Best Production Design

Uncredited, Chess of the Wind

Anton Grot, Doctor X

Rudolph Sternad, Cary Odell, and William Kiernan, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T

Vincent Korda and Julia Heron, Jungle Book

Alfred Junge, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Arthur Schramm and Fritz Seyfried, Man on a Tightrope

Donald Graham Burt and Jan Pascale, Mank

George W. Davis and Lyle R. Wheeler, People Will Talk (1951)

William A. Elliott and Ida Random, Silverado

Emil Hasler, Otto Hunte, and Karl Vollbrecht, Woman in the Moon

Achievement in Visual Effects

The Black Rose

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Grand Prix

Jungle Book

Malignant (2021)

No Time to Die (2021)

The Suicide Squad

Tenet (2020)

The 3 Worlds of Gulliver

Woman in the Moon

Worst Picture

Cult of the Cobra (1955)

Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966)

Kissin’ Cousins (1964)

The Monster (1925)

On with the Show! (1929)

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)

Sanders of the River (1935)

The Senator Was Indiscreet (1947)

Two Rode Together (1961)

Honorary Award:

Paul Robeson, for his uncompromising artistry on and off camera

FILMS WITH MULTIPLE NOMINATIONS (excluding Worst Picture... 58) Eleven: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp Nine: Elmer Gantry; Yi Yi Eight: The Devil and Daniel Webster Seven: Los tallos amargos Six: Chess of the Wind Five: The Bad Seed; The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T; Intruder in the Dust; Silverado; Woman in the Moon Four: ABBA: The Movie; Carefree; The Father; The Five Pennies; In the Heights; Mank; Minari; Oklahoma!; So This is Paris; The Stalking Moon Three: Adoption; Berlin: Symphony of a Great City; Doctor X; The End of Summer; Grand Prix; How to Steal a Million; Jungle Book; Loving Couples; Orchestra Wives; Sound of Metal; Take a Giant Step; To Each His Own Two: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm; The Black Rose; City Hall; Clue; The Dark Angel; Đoạn trường vinh hoa (The Glorious Pain); Down Argentine Way; Encanto; Evil Under the Sun; Fanchon, the Cricket; G.I. Blues; The Green Knight; Hairspray; The Joy Luck Club; Lady Sings the Blues; Licorice Pizza; Limite; Man on a Tightrope; The Mitchells vs. the Machines; No Time to Die; The Red Lily; Romance on the High Seas; 16 Days of Glory; Teen Kanya; West Side Story (2021)

WINNERS (excluding honorary awards and Worst Picture; 29) 4 wins: Yi Yi 3 wins: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 2 wins: Chess of the Wind; Elmer Gantry; Grand Prix; Intruder in the Dust; Los tallos amargos; Silverado; So This is Paris 1 win: The Bad Seed; Batman: Mask of the Phantasm; The Black Rose; The Devil and Daniel Webster; Doctor X; The Father; The Five Pennies; The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T; Godzilla vs. Kong; How to Steal a Million; Jazz on a Summer’s Day; Malignant; No Time to Die; Oklahoma!; Orchestra Wives; The Suicide Squad; Teen Kanya; Tenet; The 3 Worlds of Gulliver; To Each His Own; Woman in the Moon

100 films were nominated in 26 categories.