How often does the biggest moneymaker of the year win Best Picture of the Year? Rarer than you think. Wikipedia's records only go back to 1948 while the Oscars themselves date back to 1927-28; within that narrow timeframe of 76 years, only 12 times has the Academy's choice and "the people's" choice aligned. The last time it happened: 2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The first time it happened - again, according to Wiki info - was 1952's The Greatest Show on Earth! And if cinema about the circus wasn't cross-pollination among the showbiz mediums enough, it was declared the winner in the first-ever Oscars to be broadcast on television:
Yes, this was the 25th Anniversary of the Academy Awards, held at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. Honestly, marking those 25 years by honoring not just the year's biggest hit but one of the Academy's original founders, the greatest showman cinema saw up to that point, makes a lot of sense. It's a great honor for a man without whom the town and the industry would not be what it was - for better and worse.
The behind-the-scenes circus epic was up against four other films that found themselves in the Top 10 box office hits of the year (honestly, rare that all five would be there, but they are all entertaining). There's Ivanhoe, the Medieval romantic swashbuckler; High Noon, the Western drama about a lawman standing alone against outlaws; Moulin Rouge, a biopic of artist Toulouse-Luatrec; and The Quiet Man, John Ford's romantic-comedy about an American returning to his roots in Ireland. Presented here are my takes on them, in ascending order of how I'd rank them.
5. Ivanhoe
Pandro S. Berman, producer
second and final nomination
To be clear, this is not a bad movie, it's handsomely mounted and Robert Taylor is in fine form in the titular role. Elizabeth Taytlor gives the best performance as a Jewish woman who is lusted after by Norman occupier George Sanders, though she loves our titular Scottish lord Robert Taylor. Individual scenes sing, such as Liz Taylor's witch trial or the great feast that reunites Ivanhoe with his father. But it's oddly forgettable otherwise. No ill feelings, it's fine, but Best Picture?
4. The Greatest Show on Earth
Cecil B. DeMille, producer
first of two nominations in this category; Golden Globe winner for Best Motion Picture - Drama
Up until the 78th Academy Awards, I had always heard this referred to as The Worst Best Picture Winner Of All Time. I don't buy it, frankly. Cecil B. De Mille, one of the great pioneers of Hollywood filmmaking, one of the great geniuses of Hollywood moneymaking, a man who still inspires filmmakers to this day, presented a drama full of thrills, romance, and showbiz magic. While everyone else tackles the workings of cinema or the theatre, De Mille takes us back to tents and sawdust and carnies! And because it's De Mille, it's beautifully photographed and costumed and designed. More rare for him are the subplots that don't quite work (James Stewart as a clown with a secret, gangsters muscling in on carny row) and a leading lady that is not up to the task at hand. Still, I'd call it 70% a success.
3. Moulin Rouge
Romulus Films; BAFTA Award nominee for Best British Film and Best Film from Any Source, National Board of Review's Top Foreign Films of 1953
Moulin Rouge is a great biopic because it unfolds without the pressures of a "great man" biopic while still getting across its subject's impact, why he's a significant figure in the world of the arts. As a character study of a man of great intelligence, passion, and talent, who nevertheless retreats into self-loathing alcoholic stupors, distancing himself from those who would love him even as he pines for that very love, it's tragic, yes, but empathetic and understanding - no hand-wringing tragedy or lesson on moral decay, but an adult look at tough subjects. I love the way it depicts Toulouse-Lautrec's relationship with the Moulin Rouge as hideaway and muse, a place he makes so famous as to ruin what he loved about it. I love the look of it, the rare movie to attempt and successfully execute a reflection of the artist's style in the filmmaking (could the sequence where he guides the printmakers on the specifics of the dyes and coloring he wants for his posters be inspired by the filmmakers' own attempts to get Technicolor on board with the film's more desaturated look?). It's a melancholy film, but a lovely one, one that gets under your skin.
2. The Quiet Man
John Ford and Merian C. Cooper, producers
Ford and Cooper's only nominations in this category; National Board of Review's Best Film of 1952
Let me first heap praise upon Winton C. Hoch's Oscar-winning color cinematography - I watched the movie on an old DVD from the library that wasn't of the highest quality, a little faded in fact, but there was no mistaking the majesty of the colors on screen, those greens, those reds and blues, those sunsets, Maureen O'Hara's hair! Speaking of O'Hara, let me heap praise upon her spitfire performance as a woman who's more than The Love Interest, more than a symbol of an Ireland in need of taming and understanding by the American expat, but a person, a woman of intelligence, stubbornness, eroticism. The literal push-and-pull between her and John Wayne is great to watch, they've got that chemistry, that fire. The script and direction give us passion and comedy, a rom-com that's also a great hangout movie, allowing Wayne to just exist and learn to live in this small Irish town, populated by greats like Barry Fitzgerald, Victor McLaglen, Ward Bond, and Mildred Natwick. Do some gags go a little longer than perhaps they should? Sure! But everyone looks like they're having a good time, why begrudge them that? And I had a great time!
1. High Noon
Stanley Kramer, producer
first of six nominations in this category; NYFCC Awards winner for Best Film; Golden Globe nominee for Best Motion Picture - Drama, National Board of Review's Top Ten Films of 1952
It's 90 minutes of Gary Cooper walking around trying to convince people to help him do what's right and it is riveting. Beyond the McCarthyism allegory - screenwriter Carl Foreman was blacklisted and wrote this as a response, basically calling Hollywood an industry of cowards - it's a tight film about human cowardice, a twist on the idea of mob mentality - we usually see it portrayed as a mob getting whipped up into a frenzy; here, the mob wants to see which way everyone else is going before committing, which winds up with everyone feeling pressured to just sit still. If it's not cowardice, it's greed, a "what's in it for me" that rules the day: the saloonkeeper and the hotelier enjoy big business when the outlaws are in town, they can't wait to boom and thrive again (the empty hotel lobby...ok, I understand the man's point), while the deputy wants a guaranteed promotion before he's willing to actually perform his sworn, paid-for duties! Then there's Grace Kelly as the sheriff's new bride, a Quaker who wants to leave not out of cowardice or selfishness, but because she has seen violence only beget more violence, innocents caught in the crossfire - she makes sense, even if you know she's very wrong for trying to leave alone - stand by him, girl! Through it all is Gary Cooper, walking alone through the town's empty streets, Dimitri Tiomkin's score following him, a metronome for the time passing, his hour at hand. "Do not foresake me..." What a picture!
Tomorrow, the nominees for Best Supporting Actor: Richard Burton (My Cousin Rachel), Arthur Hunnicutt (The Big Sky), Victor McLaglen (The Quiet Man), Jack Palance (Sudden Fear), and Anthony Quinn (Viva Zapata!).
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