Snugglecub – Page 4 – Academy Award Best Picture Winners

1943 – Mickey Rooney

1943 – Mickey Rooney

The Human Comedy

Ok, wow. This was a stupid movie, but I have to ask, is that only through my modern eyes? No, I don’t think so. But here, I’m not judging the movie. I’m critiquing Mickey Rooney’s performance. And as far as that went, he did a fine job. There were actually three members of the cast who I think did a good job with the blatant propaganda dialogue in the script. Frank Morgan, Fay Bainter, and Mickey Rooney. Aside from them and a few others, we got some pretty bad acting.

Rooney played a teenage boy in fictional Ithaca, California named Homer. His father was dead, and his brother had gone off to war. So at his young age, he was the man of the house, going to school during the day and working at night to bring in some money. Rooney certainly looked like any boy you might meet anywhere. He was clean-cut and wholesome, polite, and super-respectful of his elders. He was a golly-gee-whiz kind of a youth with a good head on his shoulders. He was athletic and handsome, hard-working and intelligent, kind-hearted and generous, everything a well-brought-up American boy should be.

But what I didn’t like about the film was that it was nothing more than different characters giving a series of monologues about patriotism, duty, and dealing with the loss of loved ones during war-time. Rooney at least delivered his share of the shoe-horned pontificating with a sense of drama and heartfelt pathos. And he had to shoulder the lion’s share of the deep drama in the narrative, as he learns that his beloved older brother has died in the war. And he takes it with stoicism and bravery, knowing why his brother fought and died. And he was actually really great in that scene. The utter devastation on his face is heart-wrenching.

I actually have only one minor complaint about his performance. In one scene, he has to run in a track race at school. While running, Homer kept glancing over at his opponent, a bad practice for a real runner. Taking the time to check on the other runners is only going to slow you down. Pay attention to what you are doing, not them. But aside from that and the forced wholesomeness of the script, Rooney was good. Some have even called it one of the best performances of his career.

1943 – Katina Paxinou

1943 – Katina Paxinou

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Katina Paxinou took home the Oscar for her performance in this film. But outside of this movie, I’ve never even heard her name. She was very good and she deserved her award, but now I have to wonder what else she was in. Well, she was only in fifteen films, and I’ve never heard of any of them. She got her start doing stage work in Greece, and some of her movies were in Italian

She did a fantastic job here, playing Pilar, an unattractive and strong willed woman who wrests the leadership of a band of anti-fascist guerillas from her husband, Pablo, during the Spanish Civil War. She is a powerful woman who is ultimately disappointed with her husband who used to be a strong leader and revolutionary, but who is now a drunkard and a coward. She is quick to anger, quick to smile, and ready to hold a gun when it is necessary. And I love the way Paxinou played it. She cared for her men like a mother cares for her children. Pilar was always ready with a sharp tongue or an open smile, whatever was required. I loved the scene where she agrees to let her men execute her husband for betraying them

And it was a bit of a minor plot point that she was an unattractive woman, and she knew it. In fact she even had a pretty hefty monologue about how she was ugly, but men loved her anyway, and she joked about stealing the American away from Maria. It was the kind of scene that made you fall in love with her. But looking at a glamour photo of the actress, I can see how they had to give her a thorough makeup job to make the attractive woman appear ugly. But this was still the early days of Technicolor, and I think they were still trying to figure out color. Both Pilar and Pablo had a lot of makeup on their faces to try to make them look ethnically Spanish, and they just ended up looking dark brown, or sometimes a weird gray.

And in the last few scenes of the film, Paxinou really pulled out all the stops. She picked up a rifle and proved she was just as tough as any man, and I loved her even more for it. She completely deserved the Oscar she won. She was just that good. It’s too bad she wasn’t in more American films. I was thoroughly impressed. Paxinou really knocked this one out of the park.

1943 – Akim Tamiroff

1943 – Akim Tamiroff

For Whom the Bell Tolls

I first learned who Akim Tamiroff was when I watched him in the 1936 film, The General Died at Dawn, for which he earned himself a Best Supporting Actor nomination. I‘ve now seen him in several other Oscar nominated films. He keeps showing up where I least expect him, and he always does a great job. This movie was no exception. And He usually plays a foreign character. Here, he plays Pablo, the leader of an anti-fascist guerilla resistance cell in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. He spends most of the film as a man who was once daring and brave, but has grown into an overly-cautious drunkard that bordered on cowardice. But by the end of the movie, he regains some of his old fire.

Pablo was a complex character. He cared for his people deeply, and yet he seemed to have forgotten what they were resisting, what they were fighting for. One minute he was betraying them, the next he was fighting beside them. One minute he was against violence because it might bring their enemies down upon them, the next he was mowing the enemy armies down with a machine gun. It was often hard to tell what he stood for, what his passions would lead him to do. But in the end, he remained true to the cause. Tamiroff had to play these dualities believably.

He had several scenes that stood out to me, and must have been a challenge for him. There was one in which his woman, Pilar, stood up to the weakness of his will and wrested the leadership of the group from him. The drunken shame on his face was perfect. Another was when he allowed one of his ben to repeatedly punch him in the mouth because he’d mocked the American who had come to help his people. Tamiroff was great in that scene. And yet another scene, where he callously murdered, in cold blood, the men he brought to help in the fighting, so that his own men could have their horses to escape from the fascist army after the mission.

The only thing I didn’t like about the character wasn’t even Tamiroff’s fault. His makeup. This was the early days of Technicolor, and they didn’t seem to have color down yet. At times the skin of his face looked a weird gray. Was that intentional, or just the filmmakers trying to figure out the color of a dirty Spaniard?

1943 – Ingrid Bergman

1943 – Ingrid Bergman

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Wow, Ingrid Bergman was certainly the hot ticket in 1943. Not only was she nominated for Best Actress for this film, she was also in Casablanca, for which she did not earn an Oscar nomination, though she certainly could have been. In For Whom the Bell Tolls, she played a much more dramatic and tragic character. She played Maria, the Spanish girl who had joined a rebel band of anti-fascists because they had found her after her village had been destroyed, her parents had both been murdered, and she, herself, had her head shaved, and then had been gang raped. Her short hair was a plot point, but she still looked gorgeous. It’s a good thing, those rebel guerillas had a professional hair stylist in their rag-tag band.

For the first half of the movie, Maria didn’t really do much. She was there as eye-candy, and a love interest for Gary Cooper. And to be sure, she and her leading man had a good on-screen chemistry. But about half way through the movie, we began to learn her back-story, and this is where Bergman had the chance to bring out the heavy drama. We learn about why her head had been shaved, and why she was with the rebels. Yes, the movie could be considered an action film, but I’d say it was a drama with a bit of action in it. It was Bergman’s performance that made it so. She played the part of a victim, and it was well-written, giving her a victim mentality, that said she was somehow worthless because she had been overpowered by cruel men who sexually abused her. Bergman played that well.

And when young and handsome Gary Cooper arrived and was kind to her, she fell head-over-heels in love with him. And though there wasn’t much to that, Bergman played it well, making her a little too aggressive and obsessive with her affections, which, given the situation, was actually appropriate for the character. After being defiled, and then being rescued and being shown kindness from Pilar, Maria was desperate for love and affection.

And in the films climax, she opened herself up to some powerful crying that felt sincere, and the tears were certainly real. Even when she was put on a horse, she was leaning back in the saddle as she was carried away, wailing for her lost love.

1943 – Gary Cooper

1943 – Gary Cooper

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Cooper is back once again, and he seems to be at the top of his game. Here he plays an action hero. He was almost Indiana Jones, long before Indiana Jones was even conceived. He played Robert Jordan, called Roberto or Ingles, an American language teacher who happens to also be a dynamite expert. During the Spanish Civil War, he joins the resistance and is charged with blowing up a critical bridge. He enlists the help of a band of anti-fascist guerillas to accomplish his mission. One of them is a beautiful young girl named Maria, who becomes his love interest.

Cooper, as always, did a fine job. He handled everything with believability and a clear skill in his craft. By this time in his career, the romance scenes with Bergman must have been old hat. The two had a pretty good on-screen chemistry, and they seemed to work well-together. There seemed to be some real passion there, and the deeper dramatic scenes between them worked. And just as an incidental thought, I’ve always considered Gary Cooper a handsome man, but never an overtly sexy one. But there were a few times in this movie where he was pretty darn sexy. There was a grittiness to the character that contradicted the actor’s wholesome, nice-guy image, and allowed him to show that side of himself.

And Cooper played it perfectly. He was serious when he needed to be, but there was also humor at times. There was gravitas, and a single-minded focus on completing his mission, no matter the cost. And spoiler alert – when he is critically wounded in the end, and he has to convince Maria to go on without him, the love and the longing in his eyes really sold the moment. But for me, it was the moment after she rides away, as he is fighting to stay conscious long enough to turn the machine gun on the oncoming fascist soldiers, that Gary really gave us something special. The sweat on his brow and the glazed look in his eyes were powerful.

I’ve never seen Cooper turn in a bad performance. And this one was no exception. He was a professional who really knew what he was doing in front of the camera. Cooper played a great action hero, and he looked good doing it. And I have to say, he looked good in Technicolor as well.

1942 – Agnes Moorhead

1942 – Agnes Moorhead

The Magnificent Ambersons

Most of what I know about Agnes Moorhead comes from the TV sitcom, Bewitched. But this was long before that show from the 60s and 70s. Here, in Orson Well’s second film, she was much younger, and was a more dramatic actress. She played a fascinating character who started out just as unlikeable and spoiled as the rest of the wealthy Amberson family, and as they declined into poverty, she began to lose her hold on her sanity, displaying a bit of madness near the end.

Moorhead actually surprised me with her performance. Her character, Fanny Amberson, the spinster aunt of the film’s lead, had an arch. As she became more humbled, she gained maturity and gravitas. And when she and her nephew, George, the last two remaining members of the family, found that they had less than a hundred dollars between them on which to survive for the rest of the year, she had a powerful sobbing breakdown. Incidentally, I read that Wells had her film that climactic scene ten times, telling her to play it a different way every time. On the eleventh take, she was told to just play the scene, and all the previous takes seemed to meld into what we got on the screen: the image of a tortured and broken woman losing control of herself in the face of utter destitution. Moorhead really sold the scene and earned her Oscar nomination.

Throughout the movie, she played a mostly unlikeable character. She played the part perfectly, and with the exception of her sister Isabel, she excelled at being just as mean as the rest of her family, fighting, sniping, and hurling hurtful words and insults. But it was alright. I wasn’t supposed to like Aunt Fanny much, and Moorhead seemed to understand that. Still, there were a few scenes where she showed real affection for her nephew. In the midst of being an agony-aunt, she showed that she actually did care for him, cared about what happened to him.

And then there was her pining over the man who Isabel loved. Moorhead played it as just one more way in which poor Aunt Fanny was ignored and cast aside, unloved, unwanted. It was just another layer to her complicated character. Yes, Moorhead surprised me in this film; surprised me in a good way.

1942 – Frank Morgan

1942 – Frank Morgan

Tortilla Flat

I’ve been trying to decide whether or not I liked this movie. But what has not been in question is that I loved Frank Morgan’s performance. He was amazing. First of all, I’ve never seen him play this kind of a role. It was a completely new side of the actor for me. He played a dirty old hermit called The Pirate, whose only friends are dogs. He lives in a smelly bird-coop, and wasn’t quite sane. He is either touched, or blessed, and I think the character was a bit of both.

Morgan played The Pirate as a simpleton who is a good man at heart, a religious man. He once had a vision of Saint Francis who healed one of his dogs, and as payment for the miracle, he dedicated his life to buying an expensive candlestick for the church. I was surprised how well Morgan inhabited the crazy but harmless old man. He didn’t even show up until the second half of the film. Until then, we had been following the character of Pilon, played by Spencer Tracy. Pilon was a lazy vagabond, and manipulative con artist. And when he set his sights on the money The Pirate had secretly been saving to buy the golden candlestick, my heart began to sink. But The Pirate’s story about Saint Francis and his promise moved even the unscrupulous heart of Pilon into not stealing his hard-earned cash.

Morgan had two scenes that stood out to me. The first took place after one of Pilon’s friends moved his stash of money to a different hiding place, and The Pirate almost had a breakdown when he thinks it has been stolen. Morgan’s cries of abject despair were heart-wrenching. He really sold the moment with his wailing and the look of utter devastation on his face. The second was a little bit later when he is in the woods, giving thanks to Saint Francis with his dogs, and he has a second vision of the saint. A light shines through the trees, illuminating the altar he has constructed. Several emotions showed on his face. There was humility, fear, wonder, and exultation, all in equal measure. Morgan played it perfectly. I think he absolutely deserved his Oscar nomination, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d given the winner, Van Heflin in Johnny Eager, a real run for his money. Morgan really looked the part, and gave us a wonderfully memorable performance.

Captain Marvel Character Posters

Captain Marvel Cast Photos

Annette Benning as the Supreme Intelligence

Reggie, Archie, Rizzo, or Gonzo as Goose

Captain Marvel

Cast Photos

Character Posters

21 – Captain Marvel

Once again, this isn’t one of my favorite MCU films, though I always enjoy watching it. I just enjoy watching other MCU movies more. Of course, this is the first MCU movie with a female lead protagonist, Carol Danvers, otherwise known as Captain Marvel, played by Brie Larson. Critics really loved her performance as the title character, and I completely agree. I thought she did a fantastic job. I mean, she had it all: power, intelligence, and an indomitable will. And she looked fantastic, as well. On top of that she had humor and fierceness in equal measure.

This movie introduced a lot of low level characters among the alien race known as the Kree. And we got more of Ronin the Accuser from the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, firmly establishing that this story took place in the MCU’s past, as Ronin died at the end of Guardians. Other than him, Korath was brought back, in addition to Nick Fury, played by our beloved Samuel L. Jackson with some pretty amazing de-aging technology applied, and Phil Coulson. Then we got plenty of new characters, most of whom disappeared after this film. Jude Law played Carol’s main antagonist, Yon-Rogg, a Kree captain. The Kree supreme intelligence, the mastermind behind the Kree domination of the Galaxy played, at least in Carol’s encounters with her, played by Annette Benning. And I really loved Carol’s old friend Maria Rambeau!

But one new character who we see in several future MCU features, is the Skrull operative, Talos, played by Ben Mendelsohn. I love his character and the fact that at first we are led to believe he is the bad guy, but we later learn that the Kree are the bad guys, and the Skrulls are really the good guys who are just trying to escape oppression under the Kree. Mendelsohn did a great job and I really like what they did with his character. As it turns out, he was just trying to infiltrate Carol’s mind to find his missing wife and child.

And then there was a strange member of the cast, an alien called a flerken, which looks like a cat, but which can overpower multiple enemies with flailing tentacles that come out of its mouth. It can also swallow both objects and people, no matter what their size. I thought it was interesting to learn that this flerken, named Goose, was actually played by four different cats named Reggie, Archie, Rizzo, and Gonzo. Anyway, it was interesting to learn why Nick Fury has to wear an eye-patch. Goose scratched his eye out!

I also really liked the story. At the beginning of the narrative, Carol has no memory of her past, and thus does not know that the Kree are really the villains. But by the end of the film, she regains her memories and learns to fully control the mega-powerful abilities caused by the explosion of an experimental light-speed engine, developed by a rebel Kree scientist. And she really becomes the most powerful hero in the MCU, save for Wanda Maximoff, who comes into her own in later installments of the franchise. And how did Carol finally defeat the Kree Supreme Intelligence? By being herself, a woman who always got to her feet one more time than she got knocked down.

For the most part, I liked the 90s pop music selections use for many of the action sequences. But for one fight scene on the orbital laboratory, the film actually laid it on pretty thick with the girl-power angle, where they played I’m Just a Girl, by No Doubt. But why not? The whole movie was actually a period piece that took place in the 90s, so that was cool. And as a final thought, I really love Carol’s cosmic super-powers. They are bright and colorful, and look amazing on the big screen. She can survive in outer-space without a suit, turn herself into a cannonball, capable of smashing through things like missiles and space ships, and she can shoot energy bolts from her hands. And she is as durable as steel. Such a powerful hero!

Top 10 Favorite Parts

Carol’s escape from the Skrulls. Pretty cool fight sequence.
Carol meets Nick Fury and Phil Coulson.
Carol chases a Skrull disguised as an old lady, and fights it on a train.
Fury catches up with Carol in the dive bar. “How do I know you’re not a Skrull?”
Talos reveals himself at Maria Rambeau’s house.
The flight to the orbiting Lab. And Talos finding his family.
Carol escapes from the Supreme Intelligence through force of will.
Captain Marvel fights the Kree Squad and Goose eats the Kree soldiers.
Carol powers –up and turns back Ronin’s assault on Earth, taking out his missiles and destroying one of his assault ships.
Captain Marvel refuses to fight Yon-Rogg and just shoots him down, humbling him, and saying, “I have nothing to prove to you.”