Nominees: Orpheus (Orphée), Sunset Boulevard, Rashomon, All About Eve, The Young and the Damned (Los Olivados), Winchester ‘73, Girl with Hyacinths, Les Enfants Terribles
Oscars pick: All About Eve
Nominees: Born Yesterday, Father of the Bride, King Solomon’s Mines, Sunset Boulevard
The 50s might be my favorite movie era; it was a decade that saw great directors like Kurosawa, Hitchcock, Kazan, and Bergman in full command of their craft. It was the decade that introduced us to Fellini, Marlon Brando, and Audrey Hepburn. Westerns found a renewed vigor, sci-fi classics, and foreign masterpieces were plentiful. Movements included the birth of the French New Wave and American Method Acting.
While not everything is peaches and cream: I can't stand Born Yesterday, or Judy Holiday's adenoidal performance (which won an Oscar). And the popular Father of the Bride did little for me. Overall, the 50s opened with a bang! And dialogue was king. What quips... "I'm ready for my closeup Mr. DeMille." to "Fasten your seatbelts; it's going to be a bumpy night." and one from my Best Picture Winner.
There was Jean Cocteau's Orphee. A brooding poetic retelling of the myth of Orpheus set in modern Paris. The film provides some nice surrealistic imagery and ideas (walking through mirrors - the angels of death are leather-clad bikers, etc). In addition... Kurosawa had an international hit with Rashomon, Luis Buñuel gave realism a go (with a few Buñuelian flourishes) in his unflinching look at delinquency, The Young and the Damned (Los Olivados) And Billy Wilder offered up the smartly biting Sunset Boulevard, which saw the return of screen siren Gloria Swanson in an Oscar-nominated role (and she should have won it). A late nominee was Girl with Hyacinths, it's my first Hasse Ekman film and what a stunner. Hyacinths is haunting, tragic and beautifully shot, with scenes draped in deep shadow.
Mr. Smith Goes Ballistic
We also got to see Jimmy Stewart's darker side in the western Winchester '73, and I enjoyed the Oscar-nominated King Solomon's Mines.
All About Eve? That was a great movie, and in a lesser year, I’d have picked it in a heartbeat. But in 1950 several flicks surpassed it, including Rashomon, Sunset Boulevard, and -for me- In a Lonely Place. Directed by Nicholas Ray, the movie is like a punch in the gut. And it must have hit me hard because Ray's film actually outshines 3 from my all time favorite directors (Kurosawa, Buñuel and Wilder)
I like love stories, but for some strange reason, I'm drawn to love unrealized, unrequited or heartbroken. A few of my favorites - Casablanca, even the light Roman Holiday do not close with its star crossed lovers together. And In A Lonely Place might be the most devastating of them all. In Casablanca and Roman Holiday there was a nobility in the sacrifice. In Lonely, the man -with a violent temper- is responsible for destroying his one chance at true happiness... and it shatters me every time I see it. This was some of Humphrey Bogart's best work. World-weary, cynical – his Dixon Steele discovers a little light and optimism when he falls in love with a good -though complex- woman, played by Gloria Grahame. Grahame is ever an actress I've liked - with her mix of vulnerability and confidence- and here, she is equal to Bogart - it's a great pairing.
Of the top pictures (and they are an amazing lot), nothing packs as much an emotional wallop as this one. It’s one of the most desperate, heartbreaking love stories I’ve ever seen, and it lays claim to one of cinemas great lines... "I was born when she kissed me, I died when she left me, I lived a few weeks while she loved me."
It's also an indictment of the Hollywood star system, People are always apologizing for Dix, excusing his behavior as an artists temperament. He's special and needs to be cut some slack. That doesn’t mean the film advocates his behavior. It simply states a sad fact. People of privilege or talent are often forgiven their faults, no matter how ugly.
Note: For a better, wiser review of the film, see Imogen Sara Smith's Criterion Essay
Other movies I liked in 1950 (not mentioned above): Night and the City, Gun Crazy, The Asphalt Jungle, The Gunfighter, Cinderella, Rio Grande, Stage Fright
Honorable Mentions:
Nicole Stéphane, Les Enfants Terribles * Gloria Grahame, In a Lonely Place * Eleanor Parker, Caged * Joan Crawford, Harriet Craig * Eva Henning, Girl with Hyacinths * Claudette Colbert, Three Came Home * Ingrid Bergman, Stromboli
Best Actor: Humphrey Bogart, In a Lonely Place (pictured up top)
Honorable Mentions:
Toshirō Mifune, Rashomon, Scandal * William Holden, Sunset Blvd * José Ferrer, Cyrano de Bergerac * Sterling Hayden, The Asphalt Jungle * James Stewart, Winchester '73 and Harvey * Alec Guinness, Last Holiday * Dana Andrews, Where the Sidewalk Ends * Richard Widmark, Night and the City
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