This next set of films brings us from November through to mid-December, just before Christmas. Of the six films here, five went on to Academy Award nominations, because the end of the year has always been the time for studios to release their Oscar hopefuls. Well, one says that, but as pointed out before, four of 1952's Best Picture nominees were all released before October. The fifth nominee is among the group you see before you: John Huston's Moulin Rouge.
Moulin Rouge is not to be confused with 2001's Moulin Rouge!. The burlesque dancehall of the title is vibrantly brought to life at the start of the film, but the focus is on the artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, his art, his romantic struggles brought about by his own alcoholism and negative self-worth colored by a disability (the result of being born to parents were first cousins), and his relationship to bohemia, exemplified best by the wild, raw shows of the Moulin Rouge. A hit it was, making back eight times its budget and receiving seven Academy Award nominations - and two wins!
It is one of four "true story" films here, all of them in color, all of them up for Oscars. Here, among others, they are:
The Black Castle
release: November 20
dir: Nathan Juran
pr: William Alland
scr: Jerry Sackheim
cin: Irving Glassberg
An English nobleman investigates his friends' disappearances at the home of a sinister Austrian count. Solid Gothic horror. This is Nathan Juran's first assignment as a director; he previously won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration for, hey-hey, How Green Was My Valley. There's a grounded quality to most of the film and performances that make elements such as, oh, the door that opens directly into a sheer drop into a pit of alligators, or the torture dungeon, or the panther hunt in the Black Forest, increasingly surreal. Boris Karloff plays his role just right, a doctor whose allegiance is unclear but who seems the most sinister by virtue of that Karloffian stare. Seems like it should be adapted from a story we all grew up reading, and yet!
Hans Christian Andersen
release: November 25
nominations: Best Musical Score (Walter Scharf), Best Original Song "Thumbelina"), Best Cinematography - Color, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration - Color (Richard Day / Antoni Clave / Howard Bristol), Best Costume Design - Color (Antoni Clave / Mary Wills / Barbara Karinska), Best Sound Recording (Gordon Sawyer, Goldwyn Sound Department)
dir: Charles Vidor
pr: Samuel Goldwyn
scr: Moss Hart, story by Myles Connolly
cin: Harry Stradling, Sr.
Run out of his hometown for his fairy tales, a cobbler arrives in Copenhagen and falls in love with a ballerina. Has as much to do with the actual life of Hans Christian Andersen as, well, you or I. Buoyed by Danny Kaye's performance in the titular role. Beautiful dream ballet and actual "Little Mermaid" ballet sequences are just breathtaking, costumes and sets and visual effects, a world of magic! "Thumbelina" got the nomination, "I'm Hans Christian Andersen" is the most catchy (possibly because it's the most repeated), but the song I loved most was "Inchworm."
Plymouth Adventure
release: November 28
wins: Best Special Effects
dir: Clarence Brown
pr: Dore Schary
scr: Helen Deutsch, from the novel by Ernest Gebler
cin: William H. Daniels
The story of the Pilgrims' voyage on the Mayflower. Originally released the day after Thanksgiving. Main tension in the narrative is the romantic spark between alcoholic captain Spencer Tracy and married pilgrim Gene Tierney, whose husband Leo Genn (quietly excellent) is a well-regarded leader in their community. Storms at sea have the genuine feeling of danger, nature at its most wrathful, anything can happen. Old ports in Holland, England, and Massachusetts are recreated with practicals, miniatures, and mattes, it's gorgeous. Colorful costumes. It's also somewhat leaden when it focuses on that aforementioned romance: Tracy and Tierney have zero chemistry, the former so committed to playing the grouchy drunkard he hasn't found room for anything else. Movie's at its best, funnily, when it's more episodic - my favorite scene is one where a non-believer tries to school the faithful in how to load and fire a gun. This tale is long overdue for a Great Treatment in cinema; I wish I could say this was secretly the one, but it just comes up short...
Million Dollar Mermaid
release: December 4
nominations: Best Cinematography - Color
dir: Mervyn LeRoy
pr: Arthur Hornblow, Jr.
scr: Everett Freeman
cin: George J. Folsey
The life of turn-of-the-century swimming sensation Annette Kellerman. This only got the one Cinematography nod? Not even any Golden Globe recognition for Esther Williams' star-making performance as the titular mermaid? No praise for its costumes? Nothing for its recreation of the New York Hippodrome and the silent screen stage sets that almost killed Kellerman? What about the mattes and effects work that enhance the swimming numbers so that we, the modern audience, can appreciate the thrill of the period in a context that makes sense to us? This movie is terrific, why was it paid such dust?! Victor Mature and Walter Pidgeon are great, too.
Breaking Through the Sound Barrier
release: December 21
wins: Best Sound Recording
nominations: Best Story and Screenplay
dir/pr: David Lean
scr: Terence Ratigan
cin: Jack Hildyard
An aircraft manufacturer and his pilot son-in-law experiment with new aircraft. Based in factual science and technology, but the events are fiction. Unexpected forks in the road, narratively. Very cool sound effects: one would hope for that at the very least, and one is not disappointed. Great writing about the selfishness of "duty" and the tension between people willing to sacrifice everything and the people they leave behind. And once I tell you the actors, you'll already know how great the performances are: Ann Todd, Denholm Elliott, John Justin, Joseph Tomelty, Dinah Sheridan, Nigel Patrick - oh, and Ralph Richardson!
Moulin Rouge
release: December 23
wins: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration - Color (Paul Sheriff / Marcel Vertès), Best Costume Design - Color (Marcel Vertès)
nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Jose Ferrer), Best Supporting Actress (Colette Marchand), Best Film Editing (Ralph Kemplen)
dir: John Huston
pr: John Huston / James Woolf / John Woolf
scr: Anthony Veiller and John Huston, from the novel by Pierre La Mure
cin: Oswald Morris
The life of artist Toulouse-Lautrec. More this Friday.
Tomorrow: the last eight movies of the year, including six Christmas Day releases that are...perhaps not quite Christmassy.
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