A look back into the 1940s

We've reached the 1950s, but before I enter that decade, I'd like to take a look back into the 1940s.

The 1940s were a turbulent time, filled with world war, the dregs of a depression, and changing social times.  Beginning with Rebecca, a dark look into lies and secrets, and ending with All the King's Men--which I suppose deals with the same material.  It would seem that not much changes during this decade.  But a look at the films show an interesting arc in the popular ideology and interests of American people
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1940--The winner is a dark Hitchcock picture, Rebecca, where a young ingenue is sucked into her new husband's dark mansion, which is still haunted by the specter of his ex-wife.  Mr. de Winter is secretive, moody, and foreign.  The heroine is naive and foolish, but despite herself is drawn into the terrible mystery of Manderlay, her new home.  She survives the eventual fire, but the horror of it still lingers.  At the time this film won its award, the war was becoming increasing desperate, with America less than a year away from Pearl Harbor.  Like Mrs. de Winter, Americans were trying to stick their heads in the sand, but were still being drawn inextricably towards the fire.

1941--With How Green Was My Valley, you get the story of a Welsh mining family attempting to overcome oppression.  They aren't entirely successful, but there is a message of hope flickering, despite it all.  Even so it is again, a European tale, with a murky outcome and a depressingly disparate house and home.  America has been in the war for only a few months, but it has begun to take its toll.

1942--Mrs. Miniver is the story of, again, a British family.  It follows them as they attempt to survive World War II, while it is still years from ending.  This film has an uncertain ending, with some truly sad moments, but it is as a whole is hopeful.  It is more of a generic, crowd pleasing film than the other two, and shows there is starting to be some hope (or desire for hope) in the American psyche.

1943--Casablanca: the ultimate tale of unrequited love and heroism.  The film is about war, redemption, and the will to fight an oppressor.  The tide of war is turning.

1944--The strangest winner of the group, Going My Way is about a priest who saves a struggling parish by teaching the young boy's choir how to sing.  Wholesome, fictional, and filled with images of home and hope, this is the dream to show both to the young people fighting for their country, and the people who want them home.  The priests, the children, even the baseball----this is the dream of home.

1945--Coming on the heels of such an angelic film is The Lost Weekend, a film about a struggling alcoholic finally left along for a weekend by his family and friends.  He goes on a bender that almost destroys him, only to survive on a thread.  It's the end of the war, but this marks a darker time for returning vets.

1946--The Best Years of Our Lives explores the lives of returning veterans, who are having a difficult time settling back into their lives.  While it has the upbeat emotion (and ending) similar to Mrs. Miniver, there are darker scenes that reflect the sentimentality of The Lost Weekend.  When an airline pilot sits in an abandoned plane, he suffers the same hallucinations that an alcoholic might.  There are good times promised ahead, but the transition is a little rocky.

1947--In Gentleman's Agreement we see a man crusading for justice in a disillusioned world.  He wins out at the end, but at great cost personally, without a clear knowledge that he really changed things.  Like a few of these later 1940s films, it is depressing and confused, with a murky ending.  It depicts a morerealistic view of the world than the earlier, Capracorny films of the 1930s.

1948--Hamlet, the story of a confused prince, fighting for his father but constantly questioning himself and others.  While Shakespeare may not at first seem to fit with the flood of disillusioned veterans filling the movie theaters, the story of Hamlet--bloody, fearsome, and battle-filled while being psychologically disturbing--seems to fit right in.  These men and women are turning from the easy melodies of Going My Way and turning towards a more realistic approach to life as a coping mechanism.

1949--And lastly, All the King's Men, a story of a crusader who finds himself disillusioned as the man he thought would be the politician for the people turns out as corrupt as the rest of them.

Well, if anything All the King's Men puts a cap on the later half of the 1940s, a time when Americans were looking at more realistic films, versus the panoramas and epic dramas of the earlier years.  These movies, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly, center around the war happening at home and abroad.  They arc from frightening, to hopeful, to peaceful, to disturbed, and finally to a reality fighting against a new society.  The end of the 1940s is a dark one, but with perhaps a silver lining.  We're left with a reality that may be different, but is at least real.  These aren't showy theatricals in glittering technicolor.  They are real, at times gritty portrayals of average, unlikable men.  Well--and one prince.

Who knows what the stability of the 1950s will bring?

PS-My favorite?  The Best Years of our Lives

My obsession with Colin Firth...

Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy

The first time I ever saw Colin Firth was when I watched the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice back in the '90s.  My best friend's mom saw how much I loved the book, and offered her collection of the six or so VHS tapes that make up the mini-series.  I loved it (obviously, it is the best film version of the book in existence) and Mr. Darcy's delicious swimming scene.  Colin Firth had my love from that point on, even with the sideburns.

Poster for The King's Speech

So when I saw the previews for Firth's newest film, The King's Speech, I knew once again that I was about to see a great movie.  And I wouldn't be disappointed.  This film combines some of my favorite things, so I probably would have enjoyed it had it just been mediocre.  My love of British history, royalty, Colin Firth, and stories with an uplifting ending all predisposed me to love this film. But the performances are superior, the sets and costumes pitch perfect, and the story one of warmth and humor that definitely drew me in.

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth

The King's Speech is about the man now known as King George VI, born Prince Albert Frederick Arthur George, Duke of York (Bertie to his family.)  The film starts with Prince Albert, played by Colin Firth, attempting to give a speech at the end of the 1925 Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium.  His severe stammer makes it impossible to give the speech, and after seeing several speech therapists at the behest of his wife, Elizabeth, played by Helena Bonham Carter, he gives up in disgust.  But she gets him to try one last time, with an unconventional Australian speech therapist and failed actor named Lionel Logue, played by Geoffrey Rush.  Logue's insistence on casually calling the Prince by his first name and radical methods unnerve the Prince, but Logue finally convinces him to return and attempt speech therapy.

Duke and Duchess of York with Lionel Logue

At the same time, Prince Albert is facing a country in turmoil.  England is on the brink of World War II, and his father, King George V, has become seriously ill.  His older brother, Edward, played by Guy Pearce, is proving to be immature and wild and has struck up an inappropriate relationship with American divorcee Wallis Simpson.  Prince Albert's close relationship to his loving wife and two daughters help him remain strong, but it is Logue's continued effort as a therapist that helps him both emotionally and physically.

Guy Pearce as King Edward VIII

Eventually, the Prince's father dies, and he must try to make his brother into the King England needs.  But finally King Edward VIII declares that he will abdicate the throne in order to marry his divorcee (which he could not do as King) and Prince Albert must face his impending coronation and future.  Despite a serious fight with Logue, the two eventually reconcile and it is with Logue's help that the Duke of York manages to work through his stammer and realize just how worthy he is to become King.  After the coronation, Logue helps him make a speech over the radio to the country, announcing that England has gone to war with Germany in 1939.  Though said slowly, the speech is said clearly, and King George VI joins his family afterward to wave calmly at his people from the balcony, as Logue looks on from behind.

Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter

I think the most surprising performance was that of Helena Bonham Carter.  I'd seen her in A Room with a View, so I knew she could act like a somewhat normal person, but it's been so long that I've seen her in anything that didn't constitute a Tim Burton fantasy that I was a little shocked to see her portraying the Queen Mum so sedately.   She is the rock of this movie, determinedly and oh-so-politely doing everything she can to help her husband, whom it is clear she loves so much.  Even so, Bonham manages to let a little of her own wicked sparkle show through.  She's the Queen Mum, but as a young woman in love with a family.  Bonham does more than play the Queen; she makes you realize why the prince loves her so much.

Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue

Geoffrey Rush is another great actor moving about this film.  He is Firth's antithesis, glibly running around and poking him when he sits too stiffly.  But there is a vulnerability apparent as well.  When with his famous patient, he pretends to know everything, with all the confidence of a doctor.  But alone, and with his family, Rush makes Logue's insecurity show though.  What if he can't cure the future King?  What will his family think?  Is he, a failed actor, really worth the trust that such a man is reluctantly giving him.  Rush could have played Logue as an eccentric Henry Higgins--instead he allows the character to emerge as a much more complicated and vulnerable man.

King George VI with his wife.

Colin Firth as King George VI

Which brings me to Colin Firth.  I recently saw an interview where he mentioned that he had played two other stammerers in his life.  And they had felt very different from this character, and from each other.  The stammer, he says, is not from technique or physical issues, but from an emotional problem.  He felt that this character was frustrated by a life of wanting to say something, and being unable to.  And the stutter in this film is really part of a the Prince's bigger emotional issues.  Firth brings his eternal likability to this film, but also a deep emotional trauma that he is fighting to work through.  It all comes naturally, never once do you feel something forced.

Queen Elizabeth and King George VI

I believe Colin Firth should get the Oscar, but that is something I will address in my next post.  However, I would like to encourage everyone to see this heartwarming historical film.  It is definitely more of a book club, Sunday-afternoon-with-mom kind of film, but I loved it nonetheless.

Mrs. Miniver

"This is the People's War. It is our war. We are the fighters. Fight it then. Fight it with all that is in us and may God defend the Right." -- The Vicar (Mrs. Miniver, 1942)

I'm back!  I know I've been gone a long time, and I apologize.  It's been a wild whirlwind couple of months.  Since I last wrote, I now have a new job, a new apartment, and a new lease on life! Obviously I won't make my goal of being through all my movies by March, but I don't mind so much.  This project has always been just for myself, and if I have made an impact on others, I count that as more of a bonus than anything else.  Not that I don't appreciate my readers, in fact having my friends support me on this project has been one of the best things about it.  But the best part about writing for yourself is that you never have to feel the guilt or stress of missing a deadline.  And I knew when I watched it that this movie didn't deserve a hurried, stressed entry.  This movie was one of my favorites, and an absolute must-see by anyone who happens to have an interest in film or history.  It is emotionally stirring, entertaining, and historically fascinating.  Enjoy.

Teresa Wright and Greer Garson in Mrs. Miniver

The Plot
Mrs. Kay Miniver, played by Greer Garson, is the happy British housewife of an architect in an upper-middle class family.  The film opens as she returns home on the train, feeling guilty because she spent a little too much on a hat.  She greets Mr. Ballard, the station master, played by Henry Travers, on her way home, and discovers he has named his newly grown batch of roses after her, as she is the nicest woman in town.  Her husband Clem, played by Walter Pigeon, feels similarly guilty about the car he has bought, and when they finally both confess, they could be a normal sitcom couple along the lines of I Love Lucy or Leave it to Beaver.  Except they're British, and it's 1939, right as World War II is beginning to take effect.

The Minivers greet Vin at the station

Vin, their son, played by Richard Ney, returns from Oxford for the holidays filled the obnoxious pompousness affected by naive first-term students.  He delivers scathing speeches about the privileged nobility that are idealistic, though without much sense.  Much to their chagrin, he insults Carol Beldon, played by Teresa Wright, granddaughter of local village aristocrat Lady Beldon, played by Dame May Whitty, when she comes to ask if Kay might ask Mr. Ballard to withdraw from the annual flower show, as a loss would distress her elderly grandmother.  But at the local dance that night, Vin confesses his feelings for Carol and the two agree to write one another while they are apart.

Ballard shows his "Mrs. Miniver" rose to its namesake

A few weeks later at the village church, the vicar, played by Henry Wilcoxon, interrupts his sermon with the breaking news that England is now at war with Germany.  While the Minivers take their two youngest children, Toby and Judy, home to prepare for the coming air-raid, Vin accompanies Carol and her grandmother home and overides Lady Beldon's protests and insists they adequately prepare themselves.  Carol and Vin come to an "agreement" and kiss for the first time.  Some time later Vin leaves school to join the RAF and while the village is prepared, no one has really started to feel the effects of the war.  The men in the local pub trade jokes about a German pilot who may have been shot down in the area.  On leave that night, Vin proposes to Carol at dinner with his family, but must immediately return to the airbase and cut his leave short.  Clem, on the other hand, is called to the pub in the middle of the night as he is part of the Thames River patrol.  While everyone is annoyed at the early hour, they soon discover that as local boat owners, they have been asked to become part of an evacuation mission to retrieve British soliders from Dunkerque, France.

The Minivers congratulate Carol.

Five days have passed, and Kay still has no news from Clem or Vin.  Distressed, she strolls in her garden, only to find the boots and then the rest of the missing German pilot.  She tries to steal his gun as he sleeps, but he awakes and chases her back into her house.  He holds her at gunpoint while she brings him food, but finally collapses, weakened from his wounds.  Kay steals his gun and calls the police, and as he is carried away the German glares and tells her that England will fall, just as all the other countries have. Kay slaps him.  But after he leaves Clem finally arrives and then news of Vin's safe return reaches them as well.  Vin and Carol marry a short time later, after Kay convinces Lady Beldon, who has been hiding a secret marriage she also made when in her youth to a soldier going to war.  Though Lady Beldon wishes to spare Carol the same heartache, she realizes she must let her go, and the couple leave to honeymoon in Scotland.

Mrs. Miniver and the German soldier

While they are gone, the rest of the Minivers hide in their bomb shelter as the battle continues in the air.  While before they had managed to pass uneventful nights in their shelter reading and knitting, this time the bombing is so intense that the children wake crying and the entire family must huddle together fearfully.  When Carol and Vin return, they are shocked by the near complete destruction of their home, but Kay and Clem shrug off the rubble and talk of the upcoming flower show.

The Minivers see the wreckage of the house.

At the show, Lady Beldon is informed secretly that she has won the competition yet again, but realizes (with Kay's help) that the lowly Ballard really deserves it and announces instead that he has won the prize.  While everyone cheers at this heartwarming scene, the air raid sirens suddenly go off and everyone must scatter for home.  As Kay and Carol drive home they attempt to dodge the destruction around them, but Carol is suddenly hit by a stray bullet.  Though Kay is able to get her home, Carol dies before a doctor can arrive.  When Vin arrives home and discovers her dead, he finally loses his youthful optimism and innocence.  

Lady Beldon at the flower show.

They all attend church on Sunday, though the church has been badly bombed.  The vicar announces those who have died, including a young choir boy, Carol, and Ballard.  He delivers a stirring speech, and as he reads from the Ninety-First Psalm, Vin moves to Lady Beldon's pew to comfort her.  As everyone leaves, singing hymns, more planes take to the air.

The family together at church.

The History
William Wyler created this film for propaganda reasons.  Wyler choose a series of popular essays written by Jan Struther in 1939 and gave them a story line that he stretched into 1942.  He felt that America had too long followed a policy of isolationism, and desirous of influencing Americans against the Nazis, showed how middle class Brits were faring overseas.  Wyler himself had been born in Germany, and he took the German threat very seriously.  He wrote and re-wrote the vicar's speech at the end of the film, insisting on a perfect ending.  Although he later believed he was not harsh enough in his depiction of war, Mrs. Miniver would become a major factor in influencing American opinions.

Teresa Wright and Greer Garson on set.

Mrs. Miniver was the highest grossing MGM film of all time.  It was also the top film of the year in England.  Out of the 592 film critics polled by American magazine Film Daily, 555 named it the best film of 1942.  The final, rousing speech that Wyler had agonized over would be reprinted in popular magazines and dropped in pamphlet form as literal propaganda in Europe by President Roosevelt.  The speech would become known as the Wilcoxon Speech, after the actor who had so stirringly delivered it.  William Wyler left immediately after he finished filming Mrs. Miniver in order to join the US Army Signal Corps, where he continued to make documentaries about the war effort.

The Wilcoxon Speech

Mrs. Miniver was the first film to be nominated in all four acting categories.  It was nominated for twelve categories, of which it won six, including Best Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress, Screenplay, and Cinematography.  In 2009, it was named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.  It is #40 on AFI's list of "Most Inspirational Movies."  And while its most famous legacy today seems to be the fact that Greer Garson married Richard Ney (the actor who played her son) shortly after filming, Winston Churchill famously said that "Mrs. Miniver is propaganda worth a hundred battleships."

Four Oscar-winning actors on Awards night.

Bette Davis, nominated again, opened a free club for servicemen only run by celebrities.  Greer Garson, along with many other actresses, dedicated herself to selling war bonds.  And nearly all the movies lauded that year would be either patriotic or war-related (or both.)  Patriotism was continuing in full force.  The awards that year honored servicemen with a flag listing the over 27,000 members of Hollywood who had enlisted to fight the war and unrolled it during the singing of the national anthem. Both popular starlet Teresa Wright and the scandalous Greer Garson walked off their first Oscars.  James Cagney won for Best Actor in the stars and stripes studded film Yankee Doodle Dandy.  But the statuettes themselves were made of plaster, not gold, in a nod to the war effort.  Women were again asked to dress down (with some success) and most of the male winners of the evening had to have their statuettes accepted by their wives, as they were overseas.

Long-winded Oscar winner Greer Garson

After the ceremony was over, journelists complained the most about the lack of space.  W. R. Wilkerson, editor of the Hollywood Reporter, was so incensed he wrote three separate editorials about the event, deriding it as having "tiresome speakers voicing greater dullness" and "professional jerks of ever caliber."  Mary Pickford was miffed that she had had to sit in the back, and the New York Wold-Telegram voiced the continuing belief that had the 4,500 extras not been allowed to vote, results would have been different.  The Academy dropped hints that change was in the wind for the event next year.  But the most memorable moment of the awards came when Greer Garson delivered her 5 1/2 minute speech, the longest acceptance speech ever in Academy Awards history.  As it was the last delivered, and it was after 1am, the speech has become exaggerated in Academy urban legend, much to Garson's chagrin.  She would never win another.

Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon in Mrs. Miniver

The Verdict?
This movie is incredible for so many reasons. And it’s not because it is a cinematic masterpiece. If this movie was made either 10 years earlier or later it would not have made such an impact on me. It is such an important movie because it is not a war movie; it is a movie about living during a war.

Mr. and Mrs. Miniver in the bomb shelter.

The scariest thing about Mrs. Miniver is how normal it is. The Minivers are loving, friendly, good-natured, flawed and modern (for 1942). They could be your next door neighbors. And by the end of the movie, we’re not entirely sure they will survive. This movie violates the American middle class’s deeply ingrained belief that nothing can ever happen to them. It is those others who are bombed, those Europeans across the water. But Mrs. Miniver claims that a psychopathic German solider can crop up in your backyard, and that a stray bullet can claim your daughter-in-law. You could be buying a too-expensive hat one day and then a few weeks later be hiding in a bomb shelter with your young children. And in 1942, less than a year after Pearl Harbor, too many Americans were sticking their heads in the sand with regards to the ongoing war.

The Minivers must tell Vin his wife has died.

The atmosphere of the film feels as if someone started bombing June Cleaver’s backyard. Imagine the impact of seeing people like yourself suffering from an invasion that is actually happening in real time. I think that today we are too likely to classify wars as "other." People in head scarves roaming deserts seem so foreign to modern-day Americans that we forget wars happening in Afghanistan or Iraq involve real people and families. And of course it is much easier to sympathize with the British rather than people with a culture so different from ours. But the message to take away from this film is that war (and the devastation that follows it) can happen to anyone, at any time.

The Minivers in the bomb shelter.

The truly chilling moment comes at the end, when the Vicar gives his famous speech and the camera pans up to the sky. The planes are flying overhead, the church is crumbling around them and no one, not even the audience, knows when the violence will end or even if it will. The looked-for ending is missing—the resolution of the war. We know the ending, but how terrifying to watch this film in a theater and not be assured of a happy ending. All this film has is hope for peace; for the Minivers, and for the world.

The family looks at their ruined home.

Cavalcade

"Dignity, greatness, and peace."-- Robert Marryot in his New Year's toast to the future at the end of the film, Cavalcade

This film was almost impossible to find.  Which is sad because it is actually a fairly decent film.  What makes one decide which films are worth preserving and which should stay lost?  I can't imagine why an Academy Award winning film like this is in serious jeopardy of being forgotten.  Maybe, as Americans, we can't find the desire to save something that is so quintessentially British.  But this film has so much to offer, and while it sometimes suffers from being pompous and overly long, it has much more right to be preserved than, say, The Broadway Melody.


The Plot

Jane and Robert with their children

The film opens on the Marryots, a well-to-do British family about to celebrate the new century, 1900.  Jane and Robert Marryot, played by Diana Wynyard and Clive Brook,  gather their two sons, Joey and Edward, and toast with their servants, parlor maid Ellen Bridges, played by Una O'Conner, and the butler, Albert Bridges, played by Herbert Mundin.  Shortly thereafter, both Albert and Robert go off to fight the bloody Boer War in Africa.  Jane is distraught, hardly comforted by her friend, Margaret, and Margaret's young daughter, Edith.  When they both return, whole and safe, Jane collapses in his arms.  Albert tells his wife that he has bought a pub with Robert's help, and they will now go live there and run it.  Ellen is skeptical, liking her job "in service."  Queen Victoria dies and everyone watches the end of an era.

Albert, Jane, Robert, and Ellen

 It is 1907.  Albert has devolved into a drunken bar owner, and Ellen despairs of him.  She has tea with Jane, where their 8-year-old daughter, Fanny, shows her skills as a dancer.  Just as Jane and a grown up Edward (he appears about 18), are to leave, Albert arrives on the scene, drunk and irrational.  He smashes the new doll Jane gave Fanny, and then chases her as she runs into the street.  Albert is hit by an carriage and killed instantly.

Albert and Fanny

A few years later, Jane meets Ellen again as both families walk along the boardwalk in Brighton.  Ellen shows off the prize Fanny has just won for dancing, and says she is finally profiting from the pub without her husband.  Edith and Edward go off on their own to the beach and profess their love for one another.  Edith stares dreamily off into the water, claiming that she has always longed to go on a ship.

Edith and Edward 

In April of 1912 they are finally married and aboard a ship for their honeymoon.  Edith claims that they are perfect in that moment, but she wonders if anyone can stay happily married, especially with the world changing so quickly.  She loves Edward now, but doesn't know if it will last.  But this, she decides as she kisses him, is their perfect moment that will last forever.  They walk inside from the deck of the ship revealing the ship's name on a life preserver: Titanic.

A few years later the family is celebrating the New Year again.  Edward and Edith have drowned, and the rest of the family are on the brink of World War I.  Joey, who has been something of a careless boy living only for pleasure, tells his father that he would like to join the military and fight in the war.  His father, though retired, plans to join up again as well.  Before Joey is shipped out, he and his friends enjoy a drink at a club.  Soon a beautiful blonde comes out to perform her dance number.  Joey discovers she is Fanny Bridges, and hides in her dressing room, surprising her when she returns.  He tells her he thinks she is beautiful, and the two fall in love.

Over the war Joey writes to Fanny, and visits her as often as he can.  Fanny has become a celebrated singer, dancer, and actress, while Joey has won accolades at war.  Though neither have informed their families, they both confess their love for one another, and Joey proposes.  Fanny is troubled by the difference in their stations and doesn't immediately accept him.  They both plan to discuss the matter after the war is over.  Joey then visits his beloved mother, who is one again upset by the pointless of war.  He visits his father back at the front, who is one of the commanders.  His father informs him the war is months from an armistice.

Fanny and Joey

The armistice is to be declared any day, and Jane waits hopefully for news.  Her now wealthy in her own right, Ellen visits Jane at her home.  While Jane greets her with joy, Ellen treats her stiffly.  She tells Jane that she has discovered a letter from Joey to Fanny, and reveals their relationship.  Jane is obviously distressed when Ellen suggests they marry, but refuses to comment on her son's life.  They begin to argue, when a message arrives declaring Joey dead.  Jane faints dead away as Ellen drops her act of superiority and cares for her.

It is New Year's eve, 1932, and Margaret, Jane, and Robert have all grown old.  Margaret leaves for a date with one of her many beaus, and Jane and Robert toast the New Year, now a family tradition.  They toast to England and hope for peace.  Though they have lost so much to England, they have found solace in each other and their love for their country.  The film ends with a montage of different scenes from the film overlaid with Fanny singing and a field full of crosses.

The History
In 1933, Hollywood was having a difficult time.  The studios had been barely scraping by since the depression, and FDR's bank holiday on March 5th caused even further damage to the largely credit dependent studios.  The labor negotiating department of the Academy formed an Emergency Committee, which then recommended a 50% pay cut for all studio employees for two months.  While this might have worked for Mr. Mayer, the lowly technicians would have had difficulty getting by.  They changed to a sliding pay scale, but even this wasn't good enough for those touchy writers.  They left the Academy and formed the Screen Writers Guild in April of 1933.  When studio heads refused to restore full salaries after two months, several members resigned, including the current president.  By October, the Academy had introduced its new regulatory code, which put a ceiling on the salaries of writers, actors, and directors, but not on those of studio executives.  They also declared that talent agents had to be licensed by the producers they worked with, and that artists could not accept bids from other studios when their contracts were up for renewal until their current studio had decided to pass.  Thus the Screen Actors Guild was born and actors began leaving the Academy in droves.

Despite all the controversy, the 6th Academy Awards were as highly attended as ever.  A decision to have the awards given out by calendar year pushed the ceremony back some, and the ceremony was moved from November to March of 1934.  In a last ditch PR effort, the Academy made the event as fun as possible, encouraging people to dance to Louis Armstrong and his band before settling down to dinner and the awards.    This was also the year that the statuette got its name.  According to legend, Academy librarian Margaret Herrick said upon seeing the statue, "It looks like Uncle Oscar!"  The nickname became a derogatory word for the award until Walt Disney, winning his second consecutive award for "Best Cartoon," respectfully referred to the award as an "Oscar." The nickname took on an entirely new connotation that is still used today.

Cavalcade was originally a play written by Sir Noel Coward who then sold the movie rights to Fox for $100,000.  Veteran Hollywood director Frank Lloyd dove right into the sweeping British epic and Cavalcade was a hit with the critics, although not as much with the box office; people far preferred such apple pie American fare as State Fair.  Nevertheless Cavalcade was nominated for "Best Art Direction," "Best Picture," "Best Director," and "Best Actress," only losing the last category to Katherine Hepburn's performance in Morning Glory.  Diana Wynyard would later be have her footprints at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, in honor of her role. When the Awards host, comedian Will Rogers, announced that the winner of the "Best Director" award went to his friend, Frank, director Frank Capra jumped out of his seat, ran to the stage and waved to the spotlight, shouting "Over here!"  He was left to slink back to his table when the spotlight actually stopped on Frank Lloyd, later calling the moment "the longest, saddest, most shattering walk in my life.  All my friends at my table were crying."

Cavalcade is largely lost to audiences today, dude to its limited availability.  It is remembered as a rousing, emotionally patriotic film that sometimes dips into excessive melodrama.  So few have actually seen the film that it is distinguished as having the least number of votes of any Academy Award winning film on IMDb.

The Verdict?
When I began this project, I made sure that every film was available for viewing in some form.  For both Wings and Cavalcade, I discovered that I was able to watch both on YouTube in 10 minute increments.  Obviously this wasn't ideal, but I thought it added some funny ridiculousness to the project.  Wings was uploaded by several different people with good quality.  For Cavalcade, I found only one.  A Portuguese person by the username of  "pacocasacarra" had uploaded the entire film.  Not only did it have Portuguese subtitles, but each clip simply had the title of Cavalcade, so I had to guess which clip came after another.  I sighed, decided this was part of the adventure, and bookmarked the page.  This past weekend I settled down to make sure I could watch the film, and discovered to my horror that "pacocasacarra" had been banned from YouTube, presumably because he/she was uploading copyrighted material.  Now I was really starting to freak.  Cavalcade is only available on DVD in a Korean version, of all things.  I could buy it used as a VHS on Amazon, but I would have to wait a week to ship and then somehow figure out a way to find a VHS player (not as easy as it would have been 10 years ago).  I frantically googled, hoping someone had uploaded the movie on some of the less reputable video sites.  Nothing.  I was just about to give up hope when I decided to check a torrent site.  I never expected that among all the pirated programs and movies there would be someone who would upload a pirated, torrent version of Cavalcade.  But someone did.  One person.  I personally think it is "pacocasacarra," as I still had to endure the Portuguese subtitles.  I like to think of him as a knight of lost cinema, a renegade film pirate with a mustache who serfs the web and uploads impossible-to-find old movies.  But I digress...

VHS cover of Cavalcade (Robert and Jane)

I enjoyed Cavalcade.  It parades the Marryot family through the most important British events from 1900-1933, and pits them against a rapidly changing world.  Cavalcade endeavors to show the clash between the Victorian attitude of Jane and Robert and the more modern sensibilities of both their children and, to a certain extent, Ellen.  Jane and Robert seem confused by the changes that effect them, but manage to stay cocooned in their bubble of upper class respectability.  And while Edward seems to take for granted the happiness of his future married life, Edith is much less sure.  She questions whether love can last in a marriage, a question that would not have been a consideration for her parents generation. The egocentric reflection of the kind that Edith embarks on is a far more 21st century conversion, so much so that Edward cannot seem to come to grips with it.  Then there is Ellen, who at first is the parody of a dutiful cockney servant, directly apposed to change.  By the end of the film, her daughter is an actress, hobnobbing with the rich while dating her mother's former employer's son.  Ellen herself, all dressed in furs, approaches Jane as an equal to propose the marriage of their children.  It is unclear, however, how much we are meant to sympathize with this new world.  Every person who conforms to the new century dies or comes to a bad end.  In the end, we are left with only Jane and Robert, in their same house, following their same rituals.  All who have followed the future are gone.  And of course, though no one knew it, a new war was about to follow this one.  A war that would be much worse than the last.

Though it sometimes seems like a history lecture, and can be heavy handed when assigning the moral of the film, Cavalcade is not a film to be thrown aside.  It raises important questions, and I hope that it isn't lost forever.  I told a friend tonight that I didn't mind revealing the end of the film, because I knew she would never see it, even if she wanted to. It's so sad to me that that's true.