When I was a kid, I saw An American in Paris for the first time. I found the movie, boring, boring, boring. I was kinda dreading having to re-watch this film in order to properly write about it. On the opposite end of it all, my sister fell in love with the movie, and to this day still considers this movie to be her favorite.
Lets take a moment and discuss a genre that most people absolutely hate… Musicals. According to Wikipedia, a musical is a film in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into narrative. In my family, musicals were a common form of entertainment, particularly Rogers & Hammerstein musicals. South Pacific, Oklahoma, The King and I, The Sound of Music, and my personal favorite State Fair (my least favorites being a tie between Oklahoma, and The King and I… I know, I know… a guy who likes musicals. Get over it).
An American in Paris is the story of Jerry Mulligan, an ex-patriot who moved to Paris after World War II. Jerry’s story is like a starving artists’ ultimate dream, living next to cabaret singer, best friends with a (wannabe) pianist, and having an affair with a young French girl, all while being courted by a rich heiress. Jerry’s got it all… well sort of.
So how did I feel after watching this again? Well, it wasn’t bad. I would not say it’s one of my favorite films, but it was fun. However, and there’s always a however… the ending was boring boring boring. There’s a long song and dance number (that’s what Gene Kelley does afterall!) that seems to last a really long time, and then the movie just ends…
The end of the actual story portion of the movie (as opposed to the films ending) had a pretty Hollywood style ending, exactly how you want a movie from 1950 to end. Spoiler Alert!! Jerry gets the girl!!! (but I won’t tell you which girl!)
So, does a film like this deserve to win the Oscar for Best Picture? I don’t know, it’s certainly not the first musical to win for Best Picture, and it certainly won’t be the last. With that being said, I’m not saying a musical doesn’t deserve to win Best Picture, instead I’m asking what elements of this film qualify it to win Best Picture? The acting was good, but not great. The story was good, but again not great, and the same can be said about the characters.
Looking at the list of nominees from that same year, it almost breaks my heart to see that one of the other nominees that year, was A Streetcar Named Desire. A film that is a far cry better then An American in Paris, by all accounts mentioned above, the story is amazing thanks to Tennessee Williams, the characters of Blanche and Stanley Kowlaski are incendiary, and Marlon Brando is a force to be reckoned with. (Karl Malden, Vivien Leigh, and Kim Hunter all took home Oscars for their performances).
Despite the fact that I did enjoy watching An American in Paris, I do wish I was writing more in depth about Streetcar. Perhaps Americans wanted something more light hearted in 1951, after all we were just on the heels of World War II and the sun is starting to come out.
Coincidentally, one of the other pictures to come out in 1951, and to hold a nomination for Best Picture is a Place in the Sun, which will turn out to be the first film to win the Golden Globe for Best Picture, and An American in Paris wins for Best Musical or Comedy. (see continued review below).
Another film who didn’t’ even make the list of nods in 1951 was The African Queen, a film that I hope to be able to write about on it’s own some time in the future.
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At some point in this challenge, I decided that I would start to write about the Golden Globe winners for Best Drama in addition to the Academy Award winners for Best Drama.
When I started this whole thing, I put together a spreadsheet of winners, year by year, in order to easily keep track of the movies that I have watched already. I got my list of winners using Wikipedia, and it seems I’ve discovered some sort of mistake on their page for Golden Globe Winners. According to Wikipedia, the first award was given out in 1951, and in 1953 no award was given out. I thought the latter part of that must have been a mistake, and in doing research on the award websites, and on imdb I discovered, not only was The Robe the winner for Best Picture – Drama in 1953, but the Golden Globes started to give out awards in 1943.
I was a bit taken back, because my progress in all of this has taken a step back. In order to remain the completist that I am, I will of course have to watch these movies. Looking back at what the winners were, it turns out that there are only three movies that I have not watched or written about, The Song of Bernadette, Sunset Boulevard, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Coincidentally, Sierra Madre has been on my list of movies that I’ve been wanting to see for a long time, so it will be fun to finally be able to check that movie out.
So here’s the deal… I’m going to continue to move forward, while momentarily taking a step backward. I won’t be putting the blog on hold, the reviews for these will appear in and among all the other reviews I’ll be doing as I move forward. In the mean time, I’m going to write about the movie that I THOUGHT was the first winner of a Golden Globe.
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A Place in the Sun, the winner for Best Motion Picture – Drama in 1951, a film like so many others that I’ve seen, I knew nothing about it. The film stars Montgomery Clift, and Elizabeth Taylor, two radically different stars in my own mind. What I mean by this, is that I know nothing about Montgomery Clift, and I know everything about Elizabeth Taylor.
My initial response to this film was total surprise, I found myself stuck to it with a keen fascination. The entire film felt like someone’s attempt at creating a Hitchcock film… but what is it about?
A Place in the Sun, follows the story of a young man who’s family is the owner of a large department store chain. He approaches his uncle for a job in the store, but insists that he wants to start his way up from the bottom. He gets a job working in the box assembly room and quickly falls in love with a sweet, simple girl who would make him very happy, yet he seems to want more.
As he works harder at his job, his family takes notice, and starts to move him higher up on the corporate ladder. At a company party, he meets a friend of the family played by Elizabeth Taylor. She uses her womanly ways to swoon Montgomery Clift, in what I feel is a power move to join the two families.
During the entire movie, as I could see his love for Liz Taylor grow, and his love for this sweet simple girl drift away, I grew increasingly angry with Monty because I knew he was throwing away something good, for something so bad.
The movie takes a dark turn, as Montgomery Clift’s character contemplates a way to step away from his early relationship, and marry the girl that would give him power and wealth.
I absolutely loved this movie, a gripping film that I commented would make an interesting remake. Incidentally I was sort of right, this movie is a remake! It’s based on the book An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, the original version was released in 1931.
A moving film to say the least, it is quite clear why a film like this would win best picture, a worthwhile addition to my challenge.
