Well, a week late, but here we are. You've seen the Top Ten, you've looked at the nominees. Now, after 77 films screened and 32 nominated, here are the winners of the 1952 Retro Hollmann Awards:
Best Sound
The Narrow Margin
Clem Portman / Francis M. Sarver, sound
2. Stars and Stripes Forever; 3. Singin' in the Rain; 4. The Greatest Show on Earth; 5. Sudden Fear
The Narrow Margin does not have the benefit of the traditional music underscore and must use diegetic sound not only to create the reality of its environs but, to creatively underscore the emotional journey within those environs. The rhythm of the train on the tracks is as effective as a ticking clock, its whistle can either go off in the background or screech with horror. And then, of course, there's the sound of a compact fight scene between two people trying to keep it discreet, as demonstrated above...
Best Supporting Actor
Joseph Wiseman as Fernando Aguirre
Viva Zapata!
2. Charles Carson in Cry, the Beloved Country; 3. Lon Chaney, Jr., in High Noon; 4. Nigel Patrick in The Browning Version; 5. Millard Mitchell in Singin' in the Rain
The performance, a clear number one with a bullet, I felt it during the film and knew it for sure once it ended, every time he showed up, I thought, "Oh, here we go!" He perfectly captures the fixation of the fanatic, the man so dedicated to The Cause that he confuses himself with it - he can reason that power must be seized, kangaroo courts be held, rivals assassinated, because it is all for The Cause, his cause. Wiseman brings the bright-eyed obsession and the smirk of the intellectual - he's educated, so he must know better - a dangerous combination in the wrong hands. It's an unforgettable performance.
Best Adapted Screenplay
High Noon
Carl Foreman
from "The Tin Star" by John M. Cunningham
2. The Browning Version; 3. Cry, the Beloved Country; 4. Viva Zapata!; 5. Rashomon
If you've been reading all month long, you've read how much I love and admire High Noon and its simple but effective story about one man left to fight alone. Yes, the allegory about McCarthyism, yes, the head-shaking about injustice and mob cowardice. Here's the other wrinkle in its storytelling I can't help but admire (and which took me a while to get because I am very slow): it's not just the marshal's story, it's also his wife's. This is a movie about a new marriage, about two people navigating their values as they embark on a new life together. He searches for someone to fight alongside him, she searches for someone who can convince him to leave; in the end - spoilers, by the way - she is the one who fights alongside him, she is the one who must decide which principles can be compromised for the future she wants, while he learns that he can't survive, he can't live out his principles, without her by his side. What genius writing!
Best Director
Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
Singin' in the Rain
2. Fred Zinnemann for High Noon; 3. Samuel Fuller for Park Row; 4. John Ford for The Quiet Man; 5. Richard Fleischer for The Narrow Margin
I was listening to This Had Oscar Buzz's 300th episode and one of them (I forget who) said that when they rate their Best Director, they think to themselves, "If anyone else had made this movie, would it have turned out like this?" Naturally, that's how I feel about my whole ballot, but as I've said before, Singin' in the Rain has so many familiar story beats, characters, and songs cobbled together from so many other films that it should feel like just another studio musical. It doesn't. There's a magic to this movie, a perfection to the craft, some insane alchemy that makes it something more. That, I think, is a testament to the work by Donen and Kelly. That shot of Kelly flying above the crowd in "Broadway Melody" is perfect: we, too, are left floating by the end of the film.
Best Original Song
1. "High Noon" from High Noon
music by Dimitri Tiomkin
lyrics by Ned Washington
2. "Inchworm" from Hans Christian Andersen
music and lyrics by Frank Loesser
3. "I'm Hans Christan Andersen" from Hans Christian Andersen
music and lyrics by Frank Loesser
4. "The Merry-Go-Runaround" from Road to Bali
music by Jimmy VanHeusen
lyrics by Johnny Burke
5. "Get Away, Young Man" from Rancho Notorious
music and lyrics by Ken Darby
Best Supporting Actress
Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont
Singin' in the Rain
2. Katy Jurado in High Noon; 3. Ethel Waters in The Member of the Wedding; 4. Glynis Johns in The Card; 5. Marie Windsor in The Narrow Margin
Simply one of the greatest screen performances of all time. When Margot Robbie says in Babylon that stars aren't made, they're born, whether they're famous or not, she's talking about the way Hagen carries herself as Lina Lamont. Lina's delusional, sure, and she's not the brightest bulb, but she's shrewd enough to have stayed on top for so long and she has the talent to back it up (she's so refined!). Everyone remembers the perfection of "I cyaaaaan't stan'im", but the line reading, for me, that makes it sing, that shows how deeply Hagen understands the character and the milieu, is the tight-lipped, "Sticks and stones may break my bones," all while selling the love scene she's filming.
Best Costume Design
Singin' in the Rain
Walter Plunkett
2. My Cousin Rachel; 3. The Greatest Show on Earth; 4. Stars and Stripes Forever; 5. The Quiet Man
I don't have any essay- or even capsule-length defense of this, I only ask that you use your eyes. There can be no other choice!
Best Ensemble
High Noon
casting by Jack Murton
2. Singin' in the Rain; 3. The Browning Version; 4. O. Henry's Full House; 5. Brighton Rock
Everyone is great. Gary Cooper, Katy Jurado, and Lon Chaney, Jr., make my personal ballots, of course, but I want to take this opportunity to shout out the performances I loved that I didn't have room for. Grace Kelly, for one, whose surprising intensity makes her arc believable. Lloyd Bridges, for another: handsome, hot-headed, and sniveling. And where else but here could I applaud the quiet regret as Eve McVeagh watches her husband fail his friend, the smug anticipation on Howland Chamberlain's face as he awaits Kane's "comeuppance", the entire saloon of Miller-ites, the congregation of debaters?
Best Cinematography
1. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
Jack Cardiff
2. The Narrow Margin
George E. Diskant
3. The Quiet Man
Winton C. Hoch
4. Bend of the River
Irving Glassberg
5. High Noon
Floyd Crosby
Best Production Design
The Member of the Wedding
Rudolph Sternad, production design
Cary Odell, art direction
Frank Tuttle, set decoration
2. Park Row; 3. Singin' in the Rain; 4. Stars and Stripes Forever; 5. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
Another one I knew once I watched the movie. Much of the film, being adapted from a play, takes place in the kitchen; owing to the soundstageiness of it, it's a bigger kitchen than you'd suppose looking at it from the outside (also a set, by the way, part of the community and still its own place, a pathway to a clubhouse not taking away from the seclusion of the backyard), but somehow that fits with it being Frankie's safe place, looming larger than it is because, even within the house, this is her home, her whole world. It's perfect.
Best Actress
Olivia de Havilland as Rachel Ashley
My Cousin Rachel
2. Julie Harris in The Member of the Wedding; 3. Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man; 4. Joan Crawford in Sudden Fear; 5. Shirley Yamaguchi in Japanese War Bride
The one I can't get out of my head, and that surprised me, especially since Julie Harris is giving so much. But Rachel is such a complex character, someone who has to be seductive and charming, yet at the same time seem dangerous. Every word out of her mouth and every expression on her face must be believable as either genuine or a lie, yet it must feel like the actor has made a very definite decision as to her guilt or innocence. De Havilland does the job - and is convincingly bewitching, the movie can't work without that.
Best Visual Effects
Plymouth Adventure
A. Arnold Gillespie / Warren Newcombe, Irving G. Ries, special effects
2. The Greatest Show on Earth; 3. Road to Bali; 4. Million Dollar Mermaid; 5. The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima
It is a visually stunning picture. The storm-at-sea feels genuinely dangerous, the Mayflower dwarfed by a merciless sea that will claim even the children. Many's a time when Spencer Tracy is on deck and there's the sky in all its glory, there's the port with those huge ships headed for who knows where - and those backdrops are miniatures, mattes, effects, yet you swear they transported Tracy to the period.
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Moulin Rouge
Constance Reeve / George Frost, makeup artists
Eileen Bates, hairdresser
2. The Greatest Show on Earth; 3. Caribbean; 4. Ivanhoe; 5. The Black Castle
In recreating not just Toulouse-Lautrec but also the subjects he painted, one could argue that the film could have benefited from a less literal interpretation - the painstakingly rendered chin and nose on the one Moulin Rouge dancer come to mind, the prosthetics seams undisguised, the color of the false appendages not matching the actor's skin, all in service of a mid-film joke about how the artist fails to capture the authenticity of his models. But I quite liked the audacity; besides, this film is about finding beauty in the garish, the unusual, the too-much - there's quite a lot of it in the makeup and hairstyles of these Moulin Rouge dancers and their boho patrons, I tell you what.
Best Score
1. Viva Zapata!
Alex North
2. High Noon
Dimitri Tiomkin
3. Hans Christian Andersen
Frank Loesser / Jerome Moross
4. Rashomon
Fumio Hayasaka
5. The Bad and the Beautiful
David Raksin
Best Film Editing
The Narrow Margin
Robert Swink
2. Singin' in the Rain; 3. High Noon; 4. Park Row; 5. Viva Zapata!
Not a moment, not a cut, is wasted, it's all bam-bam-bam from the beginning to the bitter end - a total runtime of 72 minutes, by the way. It never feels rushed or truncated. You get the full story, every hit and every twist. Masterful.
Best Actor
Michael Redgrave as Andrew Crocker-Harris
The Browning Version
2. Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain; 3. Gary Cooper in High Noon; 4. Canada Lee in Cry, the Beloved Country; 5. Charles McGraw in The Narrow Margin
Am I going to regret awarding a performer I don't always love over the ever-reliable Gene Kelly? Whatever. The point is to award to best leading male performance of the year; for me, Redgrave takes it with a performance that really leans into what's so unlikeable about the guy, asking you to sympathize not because he's secretly easy to get along with or funnier /wilder than expected, but because he's still a person. His disappointments make him human. He is unloved and does not expect to be loved, but he is genuinely surprised - and, oh, how heartbreaking to watch him process it! - to find that he is despised, when his only real crime has been being uninteresting. A clear model for much of The Holdovers, though Redgrave (and, for that matter, writer Ratigan) doesn't insist so much.
Best Original Screenplay
Park Row
Samuel Fuller
2. Singin' in the Rain; 3. Japanese War Bride; 4. The Lavender Hill Mob; 5. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
A history lesson, a valentine to journalism, a two-fisted action pic, an enemies-to-lovers romance, and a cast of characters so eccentric and unbelievable you know they must have existed in some way. There's a misty-eyed romanticism, but there's also clenched-jaw practicality: it may be beautiful to appeal to the best instincts of the public to put up the Statue of Liberty, but there are crooks who need to be taken care of so that same public is not just defrauded, but disillusioned. I'm so glad this movie exists.
Best Motion Picture of the Year
Singin' in the Rain
produced by Arthur Freed
2. The Browning Version; 3. The Narrow Margin; 4. High Noon; 5. Park Row
6. The Quiet Man; 7. Viva Zapata!; 8. Cry, the Beloved Country; 9. The Member of the Wedding; 10. Stars and Stripes Forever
Taking a break, but we'll be back next month with 1990!
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