Heaven Can Wait (1943)

So, I just assumed this was going to be the original version of the 1978 Warren Beatty movie of the same title. This was not remotely the case. Other than the title, the stories have little to nothing in common. In Beatty's version, he gets put back in a different body on Earth much to the confusion of both those in his life and that of the man whose body he inhabits.

The 1943 version, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, tells a man's life story, focusing primarily on his relationship with his wife. It is framed, completely unnecessarily, by his telling Satan (though is never called by name) of his life so Satan can decide whether to keep him or send him to heaven. The story itself was funny and engaging, but morality or salvation are hardly significant themes and the film would probably have worked better with a different title and without the bookends of the protagonist sitting in Hell's lobby.

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The Front Page (1931)

Meh.

I thought about leaving my review at that. I really couldn't get into this movie. There were a lot of characters coming in and out and without a recognizable face, I couldn't keep track of who was who (full disclosure - I may have been on my computer part of the time). I watched the 1974 version immediately after and it was a little better, but largely because it starred Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.

I will give the original some credit for having fun one-liners and giving us the cliche of the reporter shouting into the phone in a very staccato manner (it may predate this film, I suppose, but we're only a few years into talkies at this point).

The director, Lewis Milestone, did direct the best picture winning All Quiet on the Western Front of the previous year (a great movie) and won a best director Oscar in the very first Oscar ceremony for Two Arabian Knights. They actually awarded two that year and he won for directing a comedy.

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Alfred Hitchcock

Arguably the most famous movie director of all-time, Alfred Hitchcock never won an Oscar for directing, though he was nominated five times. The Academy finally honored him in 1968 with a lifetime achievement award.

Four Hitchcock movies were nominated for best picture: Rebecca (1940 best picture winner), Foreign Correspondent (1940), Suspicion (1941), and Spellbound (1945). I have seen several Hitchcock movies, but it was these three non-winning nominees that I had not seen until recently.

Spellbound stars Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman. She's a psychologist in the then cutting edge field of repressed memories. He shows up as a well-known and respected doctor before it turns out he is actually an amnesia patient who assumed the identity of the doctor without knowing when or why he did so or what happened to the actual doctor. He disappears for fear he will be implicated in the real doctor's death and she goes after him having become smitten with him and convinced he's innocent. It's a rudimentary mystery by today's standards. There are better Peck movies, better Bergman movies, and better Hitchcock movies; that being said, this one is still worth watching.

In Suspicion, Cary Grant woos a young heiress. Soon after they are married she discovers that he's just a charismatic layabout with no money of his own. The titular suspicion rises as she wonders if he's just an innocent playboy or if he's willing to kill to keep up his fast living, no working lifestyle. Overall, the movie didn't really work for me as he's not vile enough to be a villain not likable enough to be redeemable.

My favorite of these three was Foreign Correspondent. It starts in August of 1939 with a New York reporter sent over to find a behind-the-scenes scoop on whether or not Europe is really on the brink of war. It seems decidedly un-Hitchcock until the reporter discovers a captive diplomat who he thought he had just seen publicly assassinated. It's the story that will make his career if he can live to tell about it. A very good show.

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Bad Girl (1931)

"O-kay." That's the catchphrase of the husband of the titular girl and he uses it to mean everything from "that's great" to "go f*** yourself." It also perfectly describes the movie itself. It's not funny enough to be a comedy and not weighty enough to be a drama. But it's not a bad show and does serve as a nice slice-of-life piece for the early 30's.

Frank Borzage brought home the Oscar for best director.

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In Old Chicago (1937)

This movie is remarkably similar to 1936's San Francisco. So similar, in fact, I'm really surprised that this one earned a best picture nomination as well. Both deal with a growing major city and end with the major disasters that devastated those young cities. Both feature main characters with political aspirations who own night clubs. Both involve a romance with the girl who stars at the night club and the rivalries between men over the girls, politics, and economics of all of it.

The legendary source of the Chicago fire of 1871 was a cow owned by the O'Leary family knocking over a lantern. The film takes the O'Leary name and makes them major players in the city at the time.

In Old Chicago isn't a bad movie, but watch San Francisco instead.

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William Holden

I just watched Our Town (1940), the first of nine best picture nominees featuring William Holden. In it, he plays the timid boy next door, which is in starked contrast to his more confident characters of the 1950's. The story is a tad trite by today's standards, but it's not a bad movie.

Most notable of Holden's nine nominated films (of which I have now seen all) are Sunset Blvd (1950), Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), and Network (1976). Holden received Oscar nominations as a struggling writer in Sunset Blvd and the television producer in Network. He won his only Academy Award for the Stalag 17 as a prisoner of war.

Stalag 17 was one of the four films he did with legendary director Billy Wilder. It was not nominated for best picture but, as with most Wilder movies, it remains required viewing.

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William Wyler

Despite being one of the greatest directors of all-time, most modern viewers haven't heard of William Wyler even if they know of other old-time legends like Alfred Hitchcock and Frank Capra. Wyler is the Meryl Streep of directors when it comes to Oscar nominations. Or rather, we should say that that Streep is the Wyler of actors as his last nomination came 13 years before her first.

Wyler was nominated for best director twelve times from 1937-1966. Second most is Billy Wilder with 8 nominations (Speilberg is in a 4-way tie for fifth with six nominations, to give you a modern name). Wyler is pictured above (left) with John Ford, the only director who has won more directing Oscars than Wyler (though he did so on just five nominations).

Wyler has also directed more best picture nominees (thirteen) and winners (three) than anyone else. His films themselves also, not surprisingly, have garnered more total nominations (127) and wins (39) [www.filmsite.org].

His best known film is, undoubtedly, 1959 best picture Ben-Hur. He also directed Barbara Streisand's first movie Funny Girl, Audrey Hepburn's breakout in Roman Holiday, Laurence Olivier's first acting nomination in Wuthering Heights, and Bette Davis to acting nominations in four different movies. And this doesn't touch his two other Oscar winning films Mrs. Miniver (1942) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).

I had to watch two Wyler directed nominees recently to finish his thirteen - The Letter (1940) and Dead End (1937).

The Letter opens (no pun intended) with Bette Davis shooting a man to death. She explains to her husband and his friends when they arrive that the man she killed was making unwanted physical advances toward her and she was acting in self-defense. Her story seems a little too well rehearsed, but no one can poke any holes in it. Then a letter surfaces that, if revealed, would turn her open-and-shut self-defense case into anything but. The movie seems simple by the standard of modern thrillers, but is still entertaining.

Dead End is set in New York City during the Great Depression. Where the streets end and meet the river, a rich neighborhood and urban riffraff also intersect. Humphrey Bogart plays a local big-time criminal who had to flee the state but has returned after having face-altering plastic surgery. But the real story is of the kids in a small street gang and the decisions that could lead their lives to a similar dead end as the one on the street they haunt.

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