The Lost Weekend (1945)

Director: Billy Wilder

Cast: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Howard Da Silva, Frank Faylen
Genre: Drama
Other Nominees: Anchors Aweigh, The Bells of St. Mary's, Mildred Pierce, Spellbound

In the previous year director Billy Wilder directed the classic Double Indemnity, a film that was nominated for seven Oscar categories but failed to win a single one. It has been suggested that the success of The Lost Weekend owes a little something to its director’s snubbing by the Academy a year earlier. However, after viewing it and based on the heavy impact it had on me, I strongly feel that The Lost Weekend is a movie that, even today, stands on its own merits and deserved all the accolades it received.

Alcoholism is the subject matter dealt with in The Lost Weekend, a subject matter that is as important and prevalent today as it was in the 1940’s. The victim in this film is Don Bingham who is brilliantly portrayed by Ray Milland. Don refers to himself as being two people, Don the writer and Don the drunk. In one scene he explains to his girlfriend how these two Dons interact, and of how the writer’s lack of self esteem leaves him vulnerable to the drunk. Whenever he attempts to write, a panic seeps in and the drunk whispers in his ear, telling him that one drink will help. But as Nat, the local bartender explains “One’s too many and a hundred’s not enough!” In this way Don has never finished anything he has started writing and his self loathing keeps him stuck in a dangerous routine. “Don’t wipe it away, Nat. Let me have my vicious little cycle” he tells Nat who attempts to wipe away the condensation mark left behind by his last drink.

But as with all alcoholics no matter how disturbing their suffering is, it is the people who love them who suffer the most. In this movie we see two people suffer through Dons disease. Don has been living with his brother Wick free of charge for years and there is his girlfriend Helen St. James, who tells him “I know you’re trying Don. We’re both trying. You’re trying not to drink and I’m trying not to love you.” Both are just as much a victim as Don is. But while Helen, played by Jane Wyman, appears to be endlessly compassionate and forgiving, Wick Bingham has had enough of his brother and is seemingly beyond the point of being compassionate. When faced with the possibility that Don may harm himself over the upcoming weekend he lashes out and says:

If it happens, it happens and I hope it does. I've had six years of this. I've had my bellyful ... How often have you cried? How often have I beaten him up? Scrape him out of a gutter and pump some kind of self-respect into him and back he falls, back in every time.

The score to this film sounds as if it’s straight out of a classic sci-fi film. It is unrelenting and while it may turn some viewers off I thought it did a great job at helping to depict alcohol as a very real onscreen monster. In sci-fi/horror films the appearance of a villain is marked by a dramatic change in music, so too here is a glass or bottle of rye whiskey identified. In The Lost Weekend you are acutely aware when the villain appears to torment and destroy Don, as acutely as if an inhuman creature had just shambled onscreen and started towards him. The music confirms for us that for Don Bingham alcohol is a brutal enemy, a nemesis capable of destroying him completely.

As the weekend in question progresses and Don’s condition deteriorates some truly horrific scenes occur. After awaking to find him in an alcoholic’s ward of a hospital Don is warned of the effects of delirium tremens, or the DTs, a condition which the nurse predicts is imminent for Don given his blood alcohol levels. Don proceeds to escape the ward and return home where horrific hallucinations begin and culminate in the gruesome image of a bat biting the head off a mouse. This scene sees Don at his lowest point in the weekend, when his very sanity is threatened by his drinking.

My only argument against the greatness of this film comes with the ending. Until the final scene this film had been utterly uncompromising and as such had a profound effect on me. The notion of Don committing suicide had been foreshadowed throughout the film and, as disturbing as it is for me to say this, perhaps this film would have better sent the message it intended to send had it had a more negative ending. I will leave it for you to judge the final scene but for me, after being beaten mercilessly until then, I felt like the film pulled a punch.

Up Next: The Best Years of our Lives. 

Going My Way (1944)

Director: Leo McCarey
Cast: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Gene Lockhart, Frank McHugh
Genre: Musical/Drama
Other Nominees: Double Indemnity, Gaslight, Since You Went Away, Wilson

“Would you like to swing on a star
Carry moonbeams home in a jar
And be better off than you are
Or would you rather be a mule…”

There are some songs that will last forever. While I am hazy on the lyrics to Swinging on a Star the song is immediately recognizable from my own past. I’m sure it was on one of the many compilation records I had as a kid, right next to High Hopes and Puff the Magic Dragon. I still remember the kid friendly, and by that I mean utterly indestructible, record player that I used to play these records on. So imagine my surprise when, while I sat through Going My Way, Bing Crosby’s singing priest and his youth choir perform this song that comes right out of my childhood.

The singing priest in question, Father Chuck O’Malley, is not your typical priest. He’s the problem solver of the New York City Catholic Church, a cunning thinker with a heart of gold. Even at his young age he has displayed a knack for turning “problem churches” into successful outfits and in Going My Way the young priest is assigned as a curate to an aging Irish priest at Saint Dominic’s, an inner city New York church that’s at risk of being closed down.

Barry Fitzgerald is excellent as the elderly priest, an aging Irish immigrant who build the church from the ground up, and whose pride is perhaps blinding him from the problems that grow around him. The mortgage payments are overdue and building up, church attendance is low, while the local youth appear to already be well practiced criminals. Enter Bing Crosby to set things right.

The inspirational thing about Father Chuck O’Malley is how he goes about setting things right. Throughout his efforts he displays an unceasing kindness to others. Chuck is excellent at manipulating people but it is always done with the best of intentions towards those being manipulated. His cunning only result in people doing what is best for them and never in him profiting. When confronted with a person of malicious intent he reacts with kindness. In one early scene he deals with an irate and self proclaimed atheist by lending him his rosary beads to cover an expense owed. Throughout the movie he displays only humility in his accomplishments and a constant desire to make others happy. In short, he makes for the perfect priest, one that is made all the more perfect as Bing Crosby adds his good natured smirk along with some great songs.

While Going My Way is classified as a musical I was surprised at how little music was involved. It is more a comedy/drama punctuated here and there with songs. In total there are only three original songs here: “Going My Way”, “The Day After Tomorrow”, and the aforementioned “Swinging on a Star”. Add to that a short scene from the opera Carmen, a spattering of catholic hymns, and the repeated singing/humming of an Irish lullaby, and you will find that music takes a backseat in this “musical”. It is the characters that take center stage in this film and in my opinion Father O’Malley may be one of the better examples of a human being portrayed on screen.

Up Next: The Lost Weekend

Casablanca (1943)

Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lore, Conrad Veidt
Genre: Romance/Drama
Other Nominees: For Whom the Bell Tolls, Heaven Can Wait, The Human Comedy, In Which We Serve, Madame Curie, The More the Merrier, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Song of Bernadette, Watch on the Rhine

And so chronologically we come to the first Best Picture Oscar Winning film that I had seen before taking on this challenge to watch the entire list. This movie had an honored spot in my DVD collection beforehand and in a way my love for the film has made it more of a challenge to write a synopsis. After all I am arguably writing about the most popular Best Picture Winner of all time. I can say that, although I know that this thought is premature, I personally am not sure I will find another movie on the list that betters Casablanca.

As the name suggests Casablanca is set in the desert city of Morocco after the Germans had occupied France during World War II. The city was bustling at the time, filled with refugees of all status who were attempting to flee Europe and their Nazi oppressors. These refugees all had one destination in mind: America. As the opening narration explains most of them were on a roundabout journey to get there. This journey took them from the port city of Marseilles, France across the Mediterranean by boat to Oran, Algiers. And from there they trekked to Casablanca, Morocco hoping to continue on to Lisbon, Portugal. Lisbon was a rare European city from which ships still sailed the Atlantic to America.

But as we learn most refugees never reach Lisbon and find themselves permanently stalled in Casablana. For corrupt officials controlled the necessary exit visas required to leave and these were only exchanged for large amounts of money or even for sexual favors. Crooked gambling houses sprang up and preyed on the hopeless. In an early scene a pickpocket whispers a warning to his victim telling him to be careful, that“this place is full of vultures, vultures everywhere”!

Whether you agree with the accolades bestowed on Casablanca or not you cannot argue with its “quotability”. I have listed here the better known quotes but in my view you could take the script and have a successful social life recycling almost all of it. While some have argued that the writing comes across as corny I feel that this may be the one film that can get away with such cliched speech, which is a credit to the actors involved.

“Play it once, Sam. For old times sake..”
“Here’s looking at you, kid.”
“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”
“Round up the usual suspects.”
“Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
“Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.”
“We’ll always have Paris”
“The problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.”

While the above quotes reflect the drama and romance found in the film it is the comedy that makes this film easy to watch. Particularly funny are the conversations between Humphrey Bogart’s character and Louis Renault, the captain of the local police played with guile by Claude Rains.

Louis: What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?
Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.
Louis: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert!
Rick: I was misinformed.

Major Strasser: What’s your nationality?
Rick: I’m a drunkard.
Louis: That makes Rick a citizen of the world.

In another great moment the prefect of police is asked to find a reason to close Ricks and he announces that he is shocked to find that gambling is going on there. Right as he says this a cashier is bringing him his winnings from his nights gambling which he stuffs into his pocket. This wit and humor hardly ever lets up and helps tremendously with the films pace.

In Casablanca, Rick (Humphrey Bogart) is a cold hearted debonair whose staunch neutrality to both the war effort and to people around him is shattered when his past comes back to haunt him. Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) is his past and a woman torn between love and commitment, between what she wants and what is right. Ingrid Bergman may also be one of the most beautiful women ever captured on screen. In this film she is no less than stunning. Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) is a revolutionary, escaped from a German concentration camp and propagating resistance to the Nazi Party wherever he goes while Captain Renault is the corrupt local official profiting from the refugees plight as they flee across the globe. I should also mention Signor Ferrari (Sydney Greenstreet), the kingpin of all local criminal activities, and Rick’s main rival. It is a combination of these five characters that give the comedy, the drama, and the romance real life in this film. But while all of these characters are essential to the success of Casablanca there can be no doubt that the story rests heavily on the shoulders of the two reunited lovers, Rick and Ilsa.

The first we see of Rick is his confident signature of authority on paperwork, an ode to his “all business” demeanor. As the camera pans wide we see the owner and proprietor of Ricks Americain Café, smoking and drinking scotch by himself. He is isolated from those around him but has a magnetic swagger of coolness about him. Early on we see him reject a woman and cruelly eject her from his bar, a woman who was clearly in love with him and perhaps was led on by him. He is indifferent to her or to anyone’s feelings and his life is full with profit and loneliness. Rick is a man who “never drinks with customers” and who “sticks his neck out for no man”, two quotes that sufficiently sum him up as the film begins.

Despite his isolationism or perhaps because of it, Rick still manages to be the most sought after social companion in Casablanca and when a local thief comes into possession of “letters of transit”, letters which would allow the bearer to travel freely and unquestioned across German territory, he entrusts them to Rick before being captured and killed. As if Rick was not powerful enough to begin with he is now granted the ultimate position of power in the community, the ability to grant escape from the Nazis to anyone he wishes.

But here and there we get small hints that suggest to us that Rick was not always this greedy and self-involved. For one, he refuses to allow German bankers to gamble in his casino no matter how high they rank in society, while we also see his refusal to take German money when he tears up a check left by a German soldier. If he is not outspoken about his political beliefs it is clear that he hides some conviction on the matter. We also hear rumors that he ran guns to the resistance in Ethiopia and fought the fascists in Spain. So like the refugees that run from Europe Rick too is running from something and soon after obtaining the letters his past walks into his bar to meet him.

Victor Laszlo, a famous Czech resistance leader who had escaped a Nazi concentration camp and further evades Nazi forces across Europe, had arrived in Casablanca and seeks passage to America so that he can continue his important political work. On his arm is Ilsa and it is Ingrid Bergman’s character that comes right out of Ricks past. The impact she has sees his cool façade crumble into anger and sees him show weakness, but ultimately her arrival provides for Rick the chance for redemption.

Sacrifice is a huge theme of this film and Rick and Isla are asked to sacrifice much for the greater cause. The film has been described as an allegory to the United States own personal journey and this sacrifice, along with the changes we see in Rick, mirror the journey that the United States had just gone on. For the country had changed from the cynical and isolationist mind frame that followed the first World War to the renewal of patriotism and commitment to a greater good experienced during World War II. You may find it interesting to know that this film premiered at the Hollywood Theater in New York City on the same date that the Allied invasion of North Africa began and the city of Casablanca was captured. This was November 26th, 1942.*

I will leave you with a description of a great scene from Casablanca. While it is not the famous final scene, the one that is littered with many of the quotes I have mentioned above, it is absolutely my favorite.

The German soldiers are gathered around a piano in one corner of the bar and as the beer flows they begin to sing nationalist songs. Their voices are loud and prideful and practically beat on the rest of the bar. The people are sullen and withdrawn as they listen to the Nazi songs. They are beaten. Rick, hearing German songs being played in his bar, steps out onto the balcony but does nothing to stop the singing. He simply watches as Victor Laszlo strides to the house band and asks them to play “La Merseillaise”, the French national anthem. Rick nods his approval. At first Laszlo sings alone and is barely heard above the Germans but within seconds the patrons are stirred from their stupor and with their own patriotism rekindled they drown out the Germans with a rousing chorus. The German soldiers retreat sulkily to their beers.

The excitement in this scene is infectious and as impactful as any battle scene could be. It is both uplifting and inspiring, and summarizes what this film is about. For while the love between Rick and Isla takes center stage there is a cause far more important all around them and this cause has the potential to drown out any tears that result from whatever sacrifice is asked of them, and from whatever sacrifice they choose to make.

Up Next: Going My Way

* It officially released on January 23rd, 1943.

Mrs. Miniver (1942)

Director: William Wyler
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Henry Travers, Teresa Wright, Richard Ney
Genre: Drama
Other Nominees: The Invaders, Kings Row, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Pied Piper, The Pride of the Yankees, Random Harvest, The Talk of the Town, Wake Island, Yankee Doodle Dandy

In my commentary on the 1941 Oscar winning movie, How Green Was My Valley, I suggested that there may have been present in that film an underlying theme of the deconstruction of the family unit. I suggested that the film may have reflected fears that lived in Americans minds as they struggled with whether or not to get involved in the war in Europe, and with whether or not to risk the lives of their sons in battle. It is amazing how much had changed in a single year as there is absolutely no subtlety surrounding the themes of Mrs. Miniver. This is a film whose clear purpose was to foster an emotional bond between the middle classes of America and the suffering middle class of England. The director, William Wyler, commented quite candidly on the matter when he said:

"I was a warmonger. I was concerned about Americans being isolationists. Mrs. Miniver was obviously a propaganda film."

Mrs. Miniver follows a middle class family who live an absolute idyllic life before the bombs start falling and tear it apart. At the beginning of the film there is a very entertaining interaction between husband and wife as both anxiously fret over their overspending that day. This scene really was a joy to watch as both try to manipulate the conversation and their spouse into unknowingly justifying their purchase. The genius here is that this scene is completely recognizable as an ordinary middle class problem and I imagine many American viewers had no difficulty relating their lives to the lives of the Minivers.

I have to stress that I thoroughly enjoyed the interaction between Mrs. Miniver and her husband, played by Walter Pidgeon. There existed a genuine spark of romance and fun between the two and a real sense of joy emanated from watching them together. This film would not have been so impactful, and any suffering or sadness would not have been as hard hitting, had both Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon not had such great chemistry on screen.

In steep contrast to the everyday stresses we witness early on, towards the end of the film both husband and wife experience anxiety of a very different nature. As London is Blitzed they spend night after night in a cramped bomb shelter listening to the destruction rain down outside. The films main character, Mrs. Miniver, shows immense hidden strength as she is forced to watch both her eldest son and husband take part in the war effort. Meanwhile her two young children struggle to come to terms with that is happening around them. Much like the rose that features prominently in the plot, Mrs. Miniver stands tall and proud throughout the extreme pressure she is placed under. Having set the stage for audiences to relate to the happy couple the film shifts focus to showing the bravery of the characters involved. Interestingly though, the focus on bravery centers not on the heroes of war. In fact, we see not a single battle scene in this film. Instead focus is placed on the mother of a family who is given the staggering task of keeping a semblance of normalcy as life is thrown into chaos around her.

Winston Churchill suggested that Mrs. Miniver was "more powerful to the war effort than the combined work of six military divisions." As I stated the motive of the film is crystal clear. This was a piece made to incite patriotism in the American people but more importantly it was to help the American people understand that this fight was not just England's fight, that the battle was for civilization itself! Nowhere is that message more clearly heard than in the village vicar’s sermon towards the end of the movie (note that I have removed certain statements for risk that they spoil plot developments):

“We, in this quiet corner of England, have suffered the loss of friends very dear to us
…
Why in all conscience should these be the ones to suffer? Children, old people… Why these? Are these our soldiers? Are these our fighters? Why should they be sacrificed?
…
I shall tell you why. Because this is not only a war of soldiers in uniform. It is a war of the people, of all the people, and it must be fought not only on the battlefield, but in the cities and in the villages, in the factories and on the farms, in the home, and in the heart of every man, woman, and child who loves freedom! Well, we have buried our dead, but we shall not forget them. Instead they will inspire us with an unbreakable determination to free ourselves and those who come after us from the tyranny and terror that threaten to strike us down.
…
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.”

I cannot help but wonder how it must have felt as an American audience member to suddenly realize that the vicar was not talking just to his parish. That he was in fact speaking out to all Americans, urging them to rise up and come to Britain’s aid. One of the reasons I was interested in seeing all these Oscar winning films was to look at how they were influenced by history and to ponder if they played a part in changing that history. While it would be ludicrous to suggest that all these movies changed the world I truly believe that they represent the times that people lived in, and like all art, had the power to change their audiences perspective.

Next Up: Casablanca

How Green Was My Valley (1941)

Director: John Ford
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara, Roddy McDowall
Genre: Drama
Other Nominees: Blossoms in the Dust, Citizen Kane, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Hold Back the Dawn, The Little Foxes, The Maltese Falcon, One Foot in Heaven, Suspicion

At the time that I write this review the world has been suffering from an economic recession and it is fair to say that times have gotten harder for a lot of folk. So I found it fitting that this film deals with financially hard times and the impact those times can have on a family. The family in question is the Morgan family, whose entire life is built around a Welsh rural village and its coalmine. The father and his five sons all work in the coalmine along with all the men of the Welsh village, while the mother runs the household with the aid of her daughter. The youngest son Hew narrates the story and it is his memories of family life that we are seeing.

In the opening scenes we see a well functioning family unit. When the men return from work they pool their wages, the household expenses are taken care of, and the remainder divided for money was “made to be spent”. After the eldest son marries the celebrations are joyous, carefree and long.

But with differences in attitudes towards the coalmine management decisions and on the need to strike, and with lay-offs and wage cuts bruising morale, the family is splintered into groups. I could not help but think of the many families affected by similar financial woes over the past few years, perhaps not to the same extent but the causes of stress are the same. One by one the Morgan sons leave the valley as their futures there become unclear. Young Hew is forced to see his brothers scattered across the globe in search of work and to watch his parent’s life become more and more lonely and unpleasant. The carefree family life we see at the beginning suffers and dies little by little as the movie goes on and as you can imagine it makes for a dreary viewing.

As we witness the disintegration of this tight knit Welsh family we continually see a direct correlation being made by Hew between the natural health of the valley and the emotional health of his family. We also continually are made aware of the strong connection between the sense of community in the village and the land that the village occupies. It is clear that in this rural Welsh village all life is tied directly to the land and as the land suffers at the hands of industrial revolution both the community and Hew’s family suffer also.

I can close my eyes on my valley as it is today, and it is gone, and I see it as it was when I was a boy. Green it was, and possessed of the plenty of the Earth…. In those days, the black slag, the waste of the coal pits, had only begun to cover the sides of our hill. Not yet enough to mar the countryside, nor blacken the beauty of our village, for the colliery had only begun to poke its skinny black fingers through the green.

For all these reasons this movie is a sad and morose film to watch. In the beginning seeing the men singing together each morning as they marched to work was uplifting. But as the more experienced miners are let go in place of outsiders the same dysfunctional symptoms within the Morgan family household are seen within the village. People turn on each other and even attempt to publically shame and judge each other. Any sense of togetherness is lost and the community itself dies.

The film culminates in a mining accident and an opportunity for the community to collectively act. I mention it because again it felt relevant to the news today. I could not help but think of the recent accident in West Virginia that killed 29 miners and of the fact that the mining profession continues to be dangerous to this day. This film is set at the turn of the century and yet over a hundred years later the families of 29 coal miners were made suffer a similar tragedy that we see the characters suffer on screen.(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36183425/ns/us_news-life#storyContinued)

On a final note this movie beat out what is regarding by some to be the greatest film ever made, Citizen Kane. I was intrigued by this decision. I understand that Citizen Kane was not well received when it was first released and that it grew in stature over time. While researching this film I did come across a theory posted on IMDB.com. Remember that the second World War was well underway at this time (in fact John Ford wanted to film the movie in Wales but the situation in Europe prevented him from doing so) and the poster of this theory suggests that perhaps the audience could relate to the theme of the dissolving of the family unit. At the time the neutrality argument being made suggested that if America were to get involved in the war thousands of young men would die and thousands of family units would be destroyed. Is it possible that this fear was captured in How Green Was My Valley and that it resonated with the fearful public? (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033729/board/nest/114419234)

Next Up: Mrs. Miniver