Skippy [Nominee ~ 1931]

"You're a tell-tale tattletale hanging on a bull's tail!"

I really dislike child actors.  For the most part, they are terrible.  But when they're actually good, they make me feel like I've done nothing with my life.  These kids are working and getting awards before they hit puberty.  What was I doing at that age?*  Probably watching The Little Mermaid for the 3000th time and thinking up ways to torture my sister.

Skippy is the story of a mischievous yet warm-hearted boy, played by Jackie Cooper.  He befriends a poor boy named Sooky, who lives in nearby Shanty Town.  When Sooky's dog is picked up by a cruel dog catcher, the boys team up to save her.  Meanwhile, Shanty Town itself is in danger of being torn down by Skippy's father, the head of the city's board of health.

Cooper is the youngest actor ever nominated for Best Actor, at the tender age of nine.  I have to hand it to him: he does do a fine job in this film (as does Robert Coogan as Sooky).  While the main plot mostly focuses on childhood hijinks's, there are a few touching scenes that nearly brought me to tears.  I could chalk this up to the fact that this is essentially a "dog movie,"** but there's more to it than that.  Even though I wasn't all that interested in this movie to begin with, the kid's made me care about their plight in the end.

Another fun fact about this film: it's the only Best Picture nominee based on a comic or graphic novel.  The idea of this happening now is unlikely, even with the field being widened to 10 nominees.  For some reason comic books just don't command the respect they deserve.  Even when there are great adaptations (Road to Perdition, Persepolis), they don't get nominated for Best Picture.  Perhaps the Academy was bolder in its youth; nominating films and actors that were unique in their source material, perspectives, and age.

Honestly, I don't think Skippy is the best example of a Best Picture nominee, but it is a cute movie.  I could definitely see myself showing it to my future kids.  Of course, I will point out that Jackie Cooper was a working actor and an Academy Award nominee when he was nine.  At the very least it might motivate my kids to clean their rooms once a week, right?

*Hell, what am I doing at this age?  Writing this silly blog, that's what.
**Anyone who has ever seen Old Yeller or Marley & Me will know what I mean by a "dog movie."

Trader Horn [Nominee ~ 1931]

"I'm not fool enough to believe any thing's impossible in Africa."

How would I describe Trader Horn?  It's part action-adventure biopic, part nature documentary, with a touch of romantic melodrama thrown in.  It's also an inaccurate, racist view of colonial Africa, which features a great deal of exploitation and real-life danger.  This is one of those films that preserves a moment in time, warts and all.

Based on the book by real life adventurer Alfred Aloysius "Trader" Horn (played by Harry Carey), the movie follows the ivory trader and his young protege as they trek through the African wilderness in search of a missionary's missing daughter.  Danger is around every corner, in the form of wild animals and angry natives.

While the plot itself is nothing special, the story behind the production is.  This was the first non-documentary to be filmed on location in Africa.  And after the ordeal the cast and crew went through making it, it's a wonder any movie was ever filmed on location again.  Many crew members contracted malaria, including female lead Edwina Booth.  It took her six years to fully recover, effectively ending her acting career.  Wildlife often attacked the crew, and led to two deaths: an African crewman was eaten by a crocodile after falling into a river, and another was killed by a charging rhino.  (Which was captured on film and included in the final movie.  Classy.)  Carey's leg was nearly bitten by a crocodile while swinging across the river by vine (also included in the final cut), and a second unit filming animal footage in Mexico allegedly starved lions to provoke vicious attacks on deer and hyenas.  Some footage also shows crocodiles and rhinos being shot at, the latter appearing to be an actual rhino death.

Along with authentic wildlife footage, this film also features indigenous tribesmen and women.  The inclusion of native peoples is a complicated issue, to say the least.  The locals are described as "savages," "monsters," or "happy, ignorant children."  Horn's gun bearer, played by Kenya native Mutia Omoolu, is the only African who receives anything close to respect, yet he's still referred to by the pejorative "boy."  The divisive issue of "ethnographic" nudity is also presented: topless native women are seen throughout the film, yet Booth's chest is strategically covered by a feather necklace.

Despite these issues, this movie is a visual gem.  The more authentic wildlife scenes are riveting.  The imagery of tribal people in costume is beautiful, especially while performing native dances.  As Africa moves into the 21st Century, tribal culture is in danger of being lost, and wildlife is threatened by industrialization.  Trader Horn captures a moment in time, when a continent was still wholly untamed, and the rules of filmmaking were almost non-existant.

East Lynne [Nominee ~ 1931]

Does anyone out there have connections at UCLA?  I could really use them to see this movie.

Only one copy of East Lynne is known to exist, and it's under lock and key at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.  A recommendation and an appointment are needed to view it.  There are no plans to release this film on DVD, mainly because restoring it will be very expensive and Fox (who owns the rights) is reluctant to fork over the money.

I'll just come right out and say it: that sucks.  Movies are meant to be enjoyed.  East Lynne and other rare films are not serving their purpose if they are left to sit on a shelf.  Shouldn't they be made available to the public for no other reason than to honor those who worked on these films?  Everyone, from the actors to the lighting crew, worked hard to create this movie, and now it can only be enjoyed by a handful of people.  Furthermore, with restoration and the creation of DVD copies, East Lynne can be spared the same fate as The Patriot.

Kudos to UCLA for preserving it, but come on Fox... pony up some of that Simpson's money you've been collecting and bring East Lynne to the masses!

(Gorgeous movie poster, by the way.  I'd love to have a framed copy on my wall.)

All Quiet on the Western Front [Winner ~ 1930]

"There are millions out there dying for their countries, and what good is it?"

Of all the books I read in high school English classes, only three were books I truly loved: The Great Gatsby, To Kill A Mockingbird, and All Quiet on the Western Front.  I remember silently crying while reading the final chapters of each of these books, and trying hard to fight back tears when watching their respective films in class.  But that was over a decade ago (oh my God...), and I've changed a lot since then.  Can these novels and films live up to my memories, or will they disappoint?

Gatsby and Mockingbird* will have to wait for their reevaluations, and if they are lucky they will be held in the same regard as All Quiet on the Western Front.  To prepare for this viewing I reread Enrich Maria Remarque's 1929 novel.  It was surprisingly just as I remembered: a beautifully written story about the futility of war.  If anything, I think I appreciated the book (and the movie, which is a surprisingly accurate adaptation) more now than I did as a high school sophomore.  War was something that I knew was wrong, but I had no real connection to.  I was too young to remember the Gulf War, and September 11 was still over a year away.  My world was peaceful.  Because of this, my view of All Quiet was skewed completely to the historical aspect.  I recognized that WWI was as futile as any conflict can get, and I mourned the loss of the men who gave their lives, but it had no real connection to my life.

My, how the world has changed.  For the past eight years American troops have been stationed in Iraq, a war that has left many as confused and disillusioned as Paul Baumer and his German comrades.  So many of the questions posed in this movie strike home with me today: Who wanted this war?  What are we fighting for?  When will it end?  Maybe the world should follow Katczinsky's suggestion: decide conflicts with a fist fight between the leaders of the countries involved, rather than fought by armies of innocent soldiers.

It's not surprising that this is one of the most banned films of the 20th Century.  Nations gearing up for war would not want this shown.  The gritty realism of life in the trenches and death on the battlefield are haunting, and enough to dissuade even the most eager youth from enlisting.  On its release, Variety magazine wrote: "The League of Nations could make no better investment than to buy up the master-print, reproduce it in every language, to be show in all the nations until the word 'war' is taken out of the dictionaries."  This is the best praise and most accurate review of a movie I've ever read.  And while I do believe there are legitimate reasons for nations to go to war, perhaps viewing this movie would at least make world leaders think twice about it.

This film is definitely on my list of favorites, and recommended viewing for everyone (after you've read the book, of course!).  The only flaw in this movie is the lack of German accents.  Yes, it's an American film starring American actors, but it is about German soldiers in WWI.  The lack of German is a little distracting at times, especially when the characters speak about the Kaiser, reference German cities, or even address each other using surnames.  Still, the fact that this movie could have been made in 1930s America-- when anti-German sentiment was still quite high-- is remarkable.  (A remake slated for a 2012 release date is in the works, so maybe it will strive for more dialectical accuracy.)

All Quiet on the Western Front is, thus far, the best movie I've watched for this blog.  It's also the most deserving of its win.  I still have many films yet to watch, but I doubt most of them will live up to this drama.  So often movies with such a strong message and point of view become quickly dated, but All Quiet only becomes more relevant with time.  As long as war is a part of the world, this film is needed to remind us of the people who are really doing the fighting, and the real sacrifices they are asked to make.

*To Kill A Mockingbird was nominated for Best Picture in 1962, so eventually I will get to that movie.  Neither the 1949 or 1974 films of The Great Gatsby were nominated for Best Picture.  Still, I'll probably rewatch the '74 version purely for my love of Robert Redford.

The Divorcee [Nominee ~ 1930]

"Marriage was the one thing in the world I thought ought to be perfect.  And when mine wasn't, I quit."

Ahhh... some redemption for the ladies of 1930.  After watching The Love Parade, I expected The Divorcee to glorify many of the same gender stereotypes.  It does, but in a much more palatable way.

Jerry (Norma Shearer) and Ted (Chester Morris) marry and share three happy years as husband and wife.  But when Ted has a one night stand, Jerry decides to balance their relationship by doing the same.  Their infidelities prove too much to overcome, and the couple files for divorce.  Jerry and Ted struggle with their lives and loves post-divorce, but ultimately find themselves in the process.  (I promise the actual movie is not as cheesy as this clunky summary.)

This movie was a surprise from the beginning.  I'm fairly certain divorce was severely frowned upon in the 1930s, and yet in the opening scene there are ladies cheerfully discussing and joking about their ex-husbands.  No stigma.  Just a piece of their lives that these women have gracefully put behind them.  Ted and Jerry are also quite the progressive couple: she has a job which she keeps after marrying, and she jokes with him about all the sex he had before they met.  Now, I'm not naive-- obviously premarital sex has always happened-- but I would think that most women in the era of this film would have just pretended their husbands were virgins on their wedding night.  Perhaps I'm just shocked at the frankness of some of the movie's dialogue?*

What I found most interesting is the film's discussion of adultery.  It feels so much like a contemporary discussion of the topic. Infidelity is still a huge barrier to couples, and how it's treated by the sexes seems to have changed little over time.  Ted explains his lapse as a meaningless tryst that should be excused because "it didn't mean a thing."  However, when his wife does the same he cannot forgive her.  Men are expected to slip up, but women must remain faithful.  Even how the two deal with the news of the other cheating is hardly surprising: Jerry pulls herself together and pretends nothing is wrong (for a few hours at least), while Ted gets drunk and makes a scene at a friend's wedding reception.  Sure, this is more flattering representation of women than men, but it still goes back to the same expectations of the sexes.  Men should get mad and fight for their woman, while women should just shrug it off and pretend nothing is wrong.  Women are intrinsically viewed as a man's property, while men are nothing more than roving sex monsters.

Despite the gender stereotypes pertaining to love and sex, I enjoyed this film for one reason: Jerry is a strong, independent woman, and remains so throughout the movie.  None of this take-everything-I-own-so-you-can-be-happy crap from The Love Parade.  Jerry tries to move on with her marriage, and when it's clear that Ted cannot do the same, she leaves him.  She comes to regret it, but she takes the time to be sure.  She sees other men, she has fun with her friends, and she even earns a promotion at work.  Her decision to divorce never comes across as a flippant one.  In fact, she even urges another not to do the same despite his own unhappy marriage.  And even though it was Ted who started all the trouble, Jerry knows they are both at fault, and she deals with her guilt admirably.

The Divorcee deals with a sensitive topic with great maturity, and for that it has stood the test of time.  Perhaps a remake is in order?

*  "I like to make love to you until you scream for help!" ~ Ted to Jerry

(Things are going to get a bit boring once the Pre-Code films end, huh?)