Author: Snugglecub

1941 – Donald Crisp

How Green Was My Valley

This movie has gotten some pretty heavy flack for not being a worthy Best Picture winner.  But because of outstanding performances from the cast, I believe that not only were all the accolades deserved, I think, even today, that it was a valid winner.  In writing all my reviews for Oscar winning and nominated films, I’ve had to watch this supposedly unworthy film several times, and each time I enjoy it more.  And every time I see Donald Crisp playing Gwilym Morgan, I am reminded of just how powerful his performance was.

He was the stoic and religious patriarch of the family.  He was father to six boys and one girl.  He was stern, and yet loving, proud and passionate, and yet tender-hearted.  Not only was his performance deep and insightful, but it was written well.  This is what makes an Oscar-worthy performance and I completely agree with his win.  It was very well-deserved. 

He clearly understood the character, his motivations, and his passions.  The role allowed him to explore emotional depths that are just as powerful today as they were in the 1940s.  He was a coal miner who took pride in his work and in his family.  And when the changing times became hard on the mine, and the politics of the region pulled his family apart, he did his best to maintain his integrity and his ethics.  And yet, as would have been proper for the times, he did his best to keep his emotions contained, to be the strong rock that held his family together.

Crisp’s performance had plenty of drama and pathos.  Every time I watch the film, I am drawn in and captivated by the way he carries himself, the strong yet gentle way of him, and his love for his wife and children.  I love how the Bible was Gwilym’s anchor, and how, when dealing with conflict with his sons, he never yelled or scolded.  There seemed to be love in his every word.  It just made his death scene that much more emotional, more tragic.  When I look at the list of Best Supporting Actors for 1941, Donald Crisp stands out to me as the clear winner and I imagine that this one was a no-brainer to the Academy voters.  It certainly was to me.  It is because of this movie that I always love seeing him on the screen.

1941 – Sydney Greenstreet

The Maltese Falcon

Am I being too critical, to judgmental?  Here we are with another actor nominated for an Oscar, and once again, I am questioning his nomination.  I mean, he was good, but not great, and I want something great.  There just wasn’t much to his character.  He only showed up about half-way through the film, which doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but his on-screen time to impress me was limited. 

He only had two or three facial expressions that he kept recycling.  Playing the character of Kasper Gutman, Greenstreet went from serious to mildly amused, to frustrated, and that was about it.  He was not given a wide range of emotions to explore, nor were any of his scenes particularly intense.  He seemed personable enough for the bad guy, but his men, Joel Cairo and Wilmer Cook were more menacing than him.  But maybe that was just how the character was written.  Maybe I can’t lay that all on Greenstreet’s shoulders.

Still, he had an affable enough on-screen persona with a personable smile and a disarming attitude.  I suppose that made him interesting to watch.  But even at the climax of the plot, I think I wanted more from him.  He has been pursuing the fabled Maltese Falcon for seventeen years.  He finally has the statuette in his hands.  But within seconds, he learns that it is a fake.  Then, without missing a beat he laughs it off and says that the quest continues.  One would think that a man with such an obsession would be more angry at learning that the time and money he spent trying to find the Falcon were all for nothing.  But no.  He chuckles, shrugs it off, and leaves to return to Constantinople.  Written that way?  Yes.  But I still think I wanted a more powerful reaction than I got.

Two final thoughts about Greenstreet’s performance.  First, he wasn’t bad in the roll, but I don’t think the roll was worth the nomination.  Second, the original ending of the novel might have enhanced his character.  In both the movie and the book, Gutman leaves with Cook and Cairo.  That’s the end of it, except to imply that the police are going to arrest the trio.  But in the original novel, Cook kills Gutman, presumably because he was willing to make Cook the fall-guy for all the murders, even the ones he didn’t commit.  That could have been a cool scene, and at least Greenstreet could have had a cool death scene.

1941 – Charles Coburn

The Devil and Miss Jones

First of all, this nomination was for the wrong category.  If anything, Charles Coburn should have been nominated in the Best Actor category.  After all, he was the lead character in the story, and was in no way a supporting character.  The movie started with him, followed his character arc, and ended with him.  But all you have to do is look at the poster to see that this movie was a vehicle for Jean Arthur, even though she was by far the supporting character.  In fact, if you read the two sentence synopsis of the film on Wikipedia, Jean Arthur’s character isn’t even mentioned.  “The plot follows a department store tycoon who goes undercover in one of his Manhattan shops to ferret out union organizers…”

He started off a mean old rich man that nobody liked, and about fifteen minutes into the movie, turned into a nice enough guy that a few people liked.  But by the end, he was a happy, generous man who everybody liked.  And Coburn played it all pretty well.  Unfortunately, the script really made the transitions between these three phases too abrupt and out of the blue.  One minute he wants to fire everyone in his department store, the next, he is ready to fight for their rights.

But I’ll say again that Coburn played all three aspects of Mr. Merrick very well.  He was able to be the stern wealthy man who is angered when he learns of union workers that are protesting his treatment of them as employees.  Coburn played Merrick as grumpy, mostly coming from the eyes.  But after he takes a job as a salesman in his own store, he gets to know the union people, and actually falls for one of them.  Then his eyes got softer and more sympathetic.    And finally, once it is time for his ruse to end, he took on a wide-eyed expression that made him look like a slightly confused, kindly old grandpa.

Coburn did a good enough job, and I suppose I don’t mind his nomination.  But I just have to think that if he’d been put in the correct category, he wouldn’t have been nominated for anything, not when I consider the competition in the Best Actor category.  Gary Cooper, Carey Grant, Walter Huston, Robert Montgomery, and Orson Wells.  All that is to say that he was good, but not great, and there was no shame in losing the Best Supporting Actor Oscar to Donald Crisp in How Green Was My Valley.  That one would have been a hard one to beat.