Your Favourite Performances from 1929 to present are...

[kingrat]

One of the most interesting online discussions I've taken part in concerned Some Came Running. This was about five years ago on another site. The general split was that straight guys liked the film a lot, women and gay guys did not. Everyone liked the performances of Shirley MacLaine and Dean Martin and Minnelli's direction of the carnival scene. Several of us coveted the study that belonged to Larry Gates (Martha Hyer's professor father). Only one person liked Martha Hyer's performance. Everyone agreed that Frank Sinatra and Martha Hyer had zero chemistry, a problem because he's supposed to flip over her. Some were bothered more than others that Sinatra obviously did not grow up in a small town in Indiana and that he and Arthur Kennedy are an unlikely pair of brothers.

 

For me, this is the most misognyistic American film of the 1950s. Women are either frigid virgins (Hyer) or cold wives (Leora Dana) unless they are prostitutes. The hooker with the heart of gold is perhaps the single most cliched character in all fiction and cinema, yet one actress after another makes a big impression in the role, and Shirley MacLaine is no exception. The scene where Sinatra preaches sexual morality to his teenage niece is particularly stomach-turning. For a more enlightened view of female sexuality, we'll have to wait for two marvelous American films from 1960.

 

Poor Arthur Kennedy has the horrible two-dimensional part of the uncool "square," but the only activities the allegedly cool dudes Sinatra, Martin, and their cronies seem to engage in are drinking, gambling, and bimbo-boinking. The women around them are "pigs," as Martin's character puts it. To me, this makes the squareness of Arthur Kennedy appealing by contrast. Of course, Sinatra is supposed to writing the Great American Novel, but this is never dramatized. I think Some Came Running is interesting more for what's wrong with it that for what's right with it, which again is primarily the good work of Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine. Although Minnelli directs the exterior scenes well, he seems to be struggling with the Cinemascope ratio for the interior scenes.

[JamesJazGuitar]

One of the most interesting online discussions I've taken part in concerned Some Came Running. This was about five years ago on another site. The general split was that straight guys liked the film a lot, women and gay guys did not. Everyone liked the performances of Shirley MacLaine and Dean Martin and Minnelli's direction of the carnival scene. Several of us coveted the study that belonged to Larry Gates (Martha Hyer's professor father). Only one person liked Martha Hyer's performance. Everyone agreed that Frank Sinatra and Martha Hyer had zero chemistry, a problem because he's supposed to flip over her. Some were bothered more than others that Sinatra obviously did not grow up in a small town in Indiana and that he and Arthur Kennedy are an unlikely pair of brothers.

 

For me, this is the most misognyistic American film of the 1950s. Women are either frigid virgins (Hyer) or cold wives (Leora Dana) unless they are prostitutes. The hooker with the heart of gold is perhaps the single most cliched character in all fiction and cinema, yet one actress after another makes a big impression in the role, and Shirley MacLaine is no exception. The scene where Sinatra preaches sexual morality to his teenage niece is particularly stomach-turning. For a more enlightened view of female sexuality, we'll have to wait for two marvelous American films from 1960.

 

Poor Arthur Kennedy has the horrible two-dimensional part of the uncool "square," but the only activities the allegedly cool dudes Sinatra, Martin, and their cronies seem to engage in are drinking, gambling, and bimbo-boinking. The women around them are "pigs," as Martin's character puts it. To me, this makes the squareness of Arthur Kennedy appealing by contrast. Of course, Sinatra is supposed to writing the Great American Novel, but this is never dramatized. I think Some Came Running is interesting more for what's wrong with it that for what's right with it, which again is primarily the good work of Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine. Although Minnelli directs the exterior scenes well, he seems to be struggling with the Cinemascope ratio for the interior scenes.

 

Nice post.    As for the Kennedy character;  he doesn't view the younger women he is sleeping with as a 'pig' (or at least I don't feel he comes off as viewing her that way).     So while he was a square,  in some ways he viewed women in a better light than the cool dudes.

[Kay]

1958 - I haven't seen much this year, but there are still two overridng favorite films shadowing all the rest for me. Youssef Chahine's surreal performance his film Cairo Station; and my favorite Ingmar Bergman film so far, The Magician, has uniformly excellent performances, including uncharacteristically funny roles for Gunnar Bjornstrand and Max von Sydow, and an especially engaging, dumbfounding role for Bengt Ekerot, who gets some of the most amazing dialogue in the film- or any, no doubt.
 

Actor

Youssef Chahine - Cairo Station*****
Max von Sydow - The Magician
James Stewart - Vertigo
Jacques Tati - Mon Oncle
Orson Welles - Touch of Evil
Danny Kaye - Me and the Colonel
Tony Curtis - The Defiant Ones

 

Actress
 

Susan Hayward - I Want to Live!***

Ingrid Thulin - The Magician

Hend Rostom - Cairo Station

 

Supporting Actor

Gunnar Bjornstrand - The Magician***

Bengt Ekerot - The Magician

Dennis Weaver - Touch of Evil

Toivo Pawlo - The Magician

Akim Tamiroff - Touch of Evil

Jack Warden - Twelve Angry Men (1957) [sorry, I forgot this from last week]

 

Supporting Actress

Naima Wifstrand - The Magician***

Peggy Cass - Auntie Mame

Joanna Barnes - Auntie Mame

Cara Williams - The Defiant Ones

 

and...

 

One of the most unbelievable vocal performances I've ever heard from the Khyal singer in The Music Room. I tried to find his name but was unable to. Hunt him down and give that man the Oscar.

[speedracer5]

1958

Winner in BOLD

BEST PICTURE

Attack of the 50-ft Woman
Attack of the Puppet People
Auntie Mame
Bell, Book and Candle
The Blob
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Gigi
Houseboat
I Want to Live!
Indiscreet
The Long, Hot Summer
No Time for Sergeants
The Reluctant Debutante
Some Came Running
Teacher's Pet
Too Much, Too Soon
Touch of Evil
Vertigo

BEST ACTOR

James Stewart, Bell, Book and Candle
The Blob, The Blob
Steve McQueen, The Blob
Paul Newman, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Louis Jordan, Gigi
Cary Grant, Houseboat
Cary Grant, Indiscreet
Paul Newman, The Long, Hot Summer
Andy Griffith, No Time for Sergeants
Rex Harrison, The Reluctant Debutante
Frank Sinatra, Some Came Running
Clark Gable, Teacher's Pet
Orson Welles, Touch of Evil
Charlton Heston, Touch of Evil
James Stewart, Vertigo

BEST ACTRESS

Allison Hayes, Attack of the 50-ft Woman
Rosalind Russell, Auntie Mame
Kim Novak, Bell, Book and Candle
Elizabeth Taylor, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Leslie Caron, Gigi
Sophia Loren, Houseboat
Susan Hayward, I Want to Live!
Ingrid Bergman, Indiscreet
Joanne Woodward, The Long, Hot Summer
Kay Kendall, The Reluctant Debutante
Sandra Dee, The Reluctant Debutante
Shirley MacLaine, Some Came Running
Mitzi Gaynor, South Pacific
Doris Day, Teacher's Pet
Dorothy Malone, Too Much, Too Soon
Janet Leigh, Touch of Evil
Kim Novak, Vertigo

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Jack Lemmon, Bell, Book and Candle
Ernie Kovacs, Bell, Book and Candle
Jack Carson, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Burl Ives, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Maurice Chevalier, Gigi
Orson Welles, The Long, Hot Summer
Don Knotts, No Time for Sergeants
Arthur Kennedy, Some Came Running
Dean Martin, Some Came Running
Errol Flynn, Too Much, Too Soon
Dennis Weaver, Touch of Evil

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Joanna Barnes, Auntie Mame
Peggy Cass, Auntie Mame
Angela Lansbury, The Reluctant Debutante
Martha Hyer, Some Came Running
Marlene Dietrich, Touch of Evil
Barbara Bel Geddes, Vertigo

MOST ANNOYING CHILD ACTOR

The kid that plays young Patrick in Auntie Mame

FUNNIEST COLLECTION OF NOSES

Orson Welles' noses in The Long, Hot Summer and Touch of Evil

BEST QUOTE

***TIE***

From Auntie Mame:

MAME: Life's a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!

From The Fly:

FLY w/ man's head: HELP ME! HELP ME!

MOST UNFORTUNATE NON-DEATH

Aneta Corsaut surviving "The Blob." Man, she got on my nerves as Miss Crump on The Andy Griffith Show. Why was Andy sweet on her?

FILM I'VE NEVER SEEN BUT I FEEL LIKE I'VE SEEN IT 100 TIMES

Hot Spell

BEST FASHIONS

Rosalind Russell's various outfits, geared toward whatever phase she's in at that time in Auntie Mame.

FUNNIEST OBNOXIOUS PERSON

Joanna Barnes' Gloria in Auntie Mame. "Can you believe it?"

MOST CONFUSING FILM BUT ONE I KEEP WATCHING ANYWAY

Vertigo, so complicated

BEST CAT NAME

Pyewacket in Bell, Book and Candle

FUNNIEST SCENE

The 50-ft woman ripping the roof off of the diner and grabbing her husband in The Attack of the 50-ft Woman

CRAZIEST CHARACTER

Dennis Weaver in Touch of Evil. What drug is he on?

MOST MISLEADING MOVIE POSTER

The poster for Attack of the Puppet People. Not only does this scene never happen in the film, "The Puppet People" never attack anyone or anything!

WORST CINEMATOGRAPHY

The scenes in South Pacific changing colors! Ugh. Annoying.

MOST BORING FILM

South Pacific. Aside from Mitzi Gaynor (who I like), this film was so boring. Ugh. What a chore it was to trudge through this thing.

ACTOR WHO I LIKED WHO I NORMALLY DON'T

Maurice Chevalier in Gigi. He's pretty much the same "French Guy" in every film of his I've seen him in, but I liked him in this film. I'll look past the fact that he sang a song called "Thank Heaven For Little Girls." Not sure what he was getting at with that song. I'll presume that it's innocent.

MOVIE WHICH WAS SUSPICIOUSLY LIKE ANOTHER MOVIE

Gigi which pretty much had the same plot as My Fair Lady. I think I liked Gigi slightly more, if only because the movie isn't as long! I also like the Paris setting.

SPEEDRACER'S TAKEAWAY FROM "TOUCH OF EVIL"

Janet Leigh needs to stay out of seedy motels! First she's killed by Norman Bates in Psycho, and now she's attacked in a motel in Touch of Evil!

(I realize that 'Evil' was released before Psycho, but I saw 'Psycho' long before I saw 'Evil.')

[CoraSmith]

 

However, a HUGE SPOILER ALERT for those who haven't seen Hitchcock's apparently most personal film because I do an analysis of the film's classic haunting ending, and I'm not going to leave any secrets here in the story:

 

As Scotty, James Stewart simply gives one of the great screen performances of the movies. In the film’s closing scene he is actually quite frightening, an obsessive, angry man dragging Judy, whom he now knows had played for him a sap in her pose as Madeleine, up those church steps to confront their past and her participation in a crime there.

 

Stewart’s teeth are gritted and his eyes angry as he verbally slams her for her participation in the murder plot with Elster. But then comes that moment when the anger vanishes from Stewart’s face, as he sinks back and says, “Oh, I loved you so, Madeleine.”

 

Suddenly Stewart makes the audience feel the love sick pain of this tormented soul he is playing. This is a James Stewart we will never see in any other film he made.

 

And Novak’s performance here is a small miracle, too, touchingly bringing a vulnerability to the scene. Terrorized and frightened by Scotty’s anger, Judy, after hearing this lament from him, hesitatingly at first, moves forward and back into his arms again. Now, for the first time in the film, Judy is being completely honest with Scotty, speaking of how she had been safe after the murder but brought herself back into danger again by being with him again, because of her love for him.

 

It’s too late for them now, of course, because Scotty knows that a woman has been murdered. But this is still the woman that is the love of his life that he holds in his arms, the woman that he will always love no matter what she has done.

 

And then, suddenly, it is over. The dark outline of a nun arises from nowhere, almost like a ghost from the past, scaring Judy into rushing backward and falling to her death. As Scotty stands on the ledge, looking down at her body, now, ironically, cured of his acrophobia, Hitchcock fades the scene to black. But as it darkens Bernard Herrmann’s haunting score sweeps our emotions with the power of his music and orchestration. The often dreamlike quality of Vertigo has ended as a nightmare.

 

Elster may or may not get away with the murder of his wife after the film has ended. But the audience really doesn’t care. What we care about are Scotty and Judy. Judy is dead, and Scotty might just as well be. We know that Scotty will never recover this time, not from this second loss of his great love.

 

With Vertigo’s shattering climax, we have just watched an ending of profound tragedy presented to us by a director, then at the full peak of his powers, who was a truly great filmmaker.

 

 

Great comment on the final scene of Vertigo. The story is based on the French novel D'entre les morts ("From among the dead") by Boileau and Narcejac. They also wrote Les Diaboliques, but both of these are better known in the film adaptation. D'entre les morts starts in Western France and ends in Marseille. The story is roughly the same with different names and locations, except for the ending. [spoilerS] In the novel the man's obsession goes so far that he finally strangles the woman to death. Now at last he has complete control over her. In a sense it's a more logical ending, but it's also more predictable, visually less interesting and it makes the already flawed protagonist unsympathetic. I like the film's ending better. Scotty and Judy could have lived long and happily together if she hadn't panicked at the sight of that nun. She probably imagined it was an Angel of Death, and jumped. Somehow she had to die, otherwise she would just get away with the crime. It was fate. She wanted to be punished.

 

What makes Vertigo different from other thrillers is that it's not just about the complicated plot, but about what goes on inside a character's head. The turbulence, the obsession, the nightmares are represented by the use of the dolby zoom, color filters, animated sequences and especially Bernard Herrmann's music. The first time I saw this movie I didn't understand the plot at all, but I was swept away by the atmosphere. The second and third time I managed to get the details of the plot. Since then I've seen it several more times, and it kept fascinating me in spite of already knowing the story.

[Swithin]

Joanna Barnes - Auntie Mame

 

Love Joanna Barnes, who, as Gloria Upson, uttered that immortal line about "stepping on a ping pong ball." Barnes has become a successful writer.

[Bogie56]

The BAFTA winners for 1958 were ….

 

Best Actor (British)

Trevor Howard, The Key*

I.S. Johar, Harry Black and the Tiger

Anthony Quayle, Ice Cold In Alex

Laurence Harvey, Room at the Top

Donald Wolfit, Room at the Top

Michael Craig, Sea of Sand

Terry-Thomas, tom thumb

 

Best Actor (Foreign)

Sidney Poitier, The Defiant Ones*

Paul Newman, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Tony Curtis, The Defiant Ones

Curd Jurgens, The Enemy Below (57)

Curd Jurgens, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

Spencer Tracy, The Last Hurrah

Victor Sjostrom, Wild Strawberries (57)

Charles Laughton, Witness For the Prosecution (57)

Marlon Brando, The Young Lions (57)

 

Best Actress (British)

Irene Worth, Orders to Kill*

Virginia McKenna, Carve Her Name With Pride

Hermione Baddeley, Room at the Top

 

Best Actress (Foreign)

Simone Signoret, Room at the Top*

Giulietta Masina, Nights of Cabiria (57)

Elizabeth Taylor, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Tatyana Samoylova, The Cranes Are Flying (57)

Ingrid Bergman, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

Joanne Woodward, No Down Payment (57)

Karuna Bannerjee, Aparajito (56)

Anna Magnani, Wild Is the Wind (57)

[TomJH]

 I like the film's ending better. Scotty and Judy could have lived long and happily together if she hadn't panicked at the sight of that nun. She probably imagined it was an Angel of Death, and jumped. Somehow she had to die, otherwise she would just get away with the crime. It was fate. She wanted to be punished.

 

 

Thanks for the writeup, Cora. I see that you, too, are fascinated by Vertigo (as are so many others).

 

We have slightly differ interpretations of what would have happened to Scotty and Judy if not for her death. To me, obsessed with Judy - well, okay, Madeleine, or not, I think there would have been no going back on a murder she was involved in for Scotty. Still, he would have tried to stand by her as best he could even though I think he would have reported the crime.

 

It's watching Stewart being emotionally torn apart in that final scene, the crime and his resentment of her duping him, as opposed to his still burning love for her, that brings so much power to the final scene. But without Bernard Herrmann's wondrous musical score playing upon our emotions the film just wouldn't have the same impact either, though.

[Bogie56]

Here are Danny Peary’s Alternate Oscar choices for 1958.  Winners in bold.  

 

Best Actor

Alec Guinness, The Horse’s Mouth*

Rock Hudson, The Tarnished Angels (57)

Spencer Tracy, The Last Hurrah

 

Best Actress

Susan Hayward, I Want to Live!*

Ingrid Bergman, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

Kim Stanley, The Goddess

 

 

And here are Michael Gerbert’s Golden Armchair choices for 1958:

 

Best Actor

James Stewart, Vertigo*

 

Best Actress

Rosalind Russell, Auntie Mame*

[kingrat]

There are so many fine films from 1958 to talk about.

 

Bonjour Tristesse has one of the best screenplays ever, but Arthur Laurents doesn't even mention it in his memoirs. The decision to leave the present in black and white but the flashbacks in color was--I don't know if this was Preminger's idea--is one of those decisions that makes everything else fall into place. A fashion expert has said that Jean Seberg's short haircut and little black dress would be just as chic today as they were in 1958.

 

Now that we understand more about PTSD, The Key becomes easier to grasp. It dramatizes a little-known aspect of WWII, when barges were used to tow in supply ships from America in the early stages of the war. German U-boats always lurk for the ships and the poorly armed barges. The mortality rate for barge captains, like Trevor Howard and William Holden, is high. Sophia Loren, having lost her fiance in this way, is so traumatized that she lets herself be passed from one man to his designated successor. This can't be said quite openly in 1958, but is obvious. WWII film, PTSD film, romance between two damaged people. I think The Key is one of Carol Reed's best films.

 

BAFTA named Trevor Howard best British actor, with Irene Worth winning for best British actress in Orders to Kill, one of Anthony Asquith's best films. The little-known American actor Paul Massie, who had only a short movie career but is fine here, is sent in to occupied France to kill a man suspected of being a traitor to the Resistance. Irene Worth is superb as a dedicated member of the Resistance. Is the suspect a traitor or not? Should he be killed anyway, because those are the orders?

 

When people make films about the South who don't know much about the South: The Defiant Ones is probably Stanley Kramer's best film, if still a few rungs below the films mentioned above. But really, Tony Curtis as a Southerner? The southernmost part of Brooklyn, maybe. Theodore Bikel does not look Southern, either, but Curtis is the bigger problem. Curtis works very hard and does his best. The script is totally wrong in another regard: Curtis talks about being called a "bohunk." Not if he grew up in the South. That kind of ethnic slur, as oposed to racial slurs, was unknown in the South until All in the Family came along. Not one Southerner in a thousand would ever have heard "bohunk" or could have defined it. Life in the South was literally a matter of black and white. White Southerners, with the exception of some Catholics, had no identification whatever with the countries their ancestors came from. All that mattered was that you were white and American and Southern. The Hispanic migration of the last two decades has changed all that, of course.

 

The Defiant Ones does have its heart in the right place, and it's a great showcase for Sidney Poitier.

 

 

[Bogie56]

The Golden Globe Awards for 1958 were …

 

Best Actor in a Drama

David Niven, Separate Tables*

Tony Curtis, The Defiant Ones

Sidney Poitier, The Defiant Ones

Robert Donat, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

Spencer Tracy, The Old Man and the Sea

 

Best Actress in a Drama

Susan Hayward, I Want to Live!*

Jean Simmons, Home Before Dark

Ingrid Bergman, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

Deborah Kerr, Separate Tables

Shirley MacLaine, Some Came Running

 

Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical

Danny Kaye, Me and the Colonel*

Maurice Chevalier, Gigi

Louis Jourdan, Gigi

Cary Grant, Indiscreet

Clark Gable, Teacher’s Pet

 

Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical

Rosalind Russell, Auntie Mame*

Leslie Caron, Gigi

Ingrid Bergman, Indiscreet

Mitzi Gaynor, South Pacific

Doris Day, The Tunnel of Love

 

Best Supporting Actor

Burl Ives, The Big Country*

Efram Zimbalist, Jr., Home Before Dark

Harry Guardino, Houseboat

David Ladd, The Proud Rebel

Gig Young, Teacher’s Pet

 

Best Supporting Actress

Hermione Gingold, Gigi*

Peggy Cass, Auntie Mame

Cara Williams, The Defiant Ones

Maureen Stapleton, Lonelyhearts

Wendy Hiller, Separate Tables

[TomJH]

Now that we understand more about PTSD, The Key becomes easier to grasp. It dramatizes a little-known aspect of WWII, when barges were used to tow in supply ships from America in the early stages of the war. German U-boats always lurk for the ships and the poorly armed barges. The mortality rate for barge captains, like Trevor Howard and William Holden, is high. Sophia Loren, having lost her fiance in this way, is so traumatized that she lets herself be passed from one man to his designated successor. This can't be said quite openly in 1958, but is obvious. WWII film, PTSD film, romance between two damaged people. I think The Key is one of Carol Reed's best films.

 

 

Trevor Howard is particularly effective in The Key.

 

But the same year that this film was released he was equally good when he travelled to French Equatorial Africa to appear under John Huston's direction in THE ROOTS OF HEAVEN. Based on a novel by Roman Gary, he played Morel, an idealist determined to stop the extinction of the African elephant by poachers, who will resort to unusual measures to try to accomplish his mission, surrounding himself with an odd ball collection of followers, some believers in his cause, others trying to exploit him for his growing fame.

 

This muddled, at times philosophizing film (the extinction of the elephant at one point compared to the extinction of mankind through nuclear war) was dismissed by both critics and public at the time of its 1958 release. Even though many consider the film an ambitious failure, it remains an intriguing one, though perhaps more so for what happened during the production and its live African shoot than for what finally appeared on screen. For starters it was William Holden, to become a real life conservationist, who was originally cast as Morel. When those negotiations fell through Howard stepped into the role, receiving third billing in the film even though he is clearly the star.

 

Top billing went to Errol Flynn, once again cast as a souse, and Juliette Greco, girlfriend of the film's producer, Darryl Zanuck. It was a troubled production, with dysentery rampaging much of the cast. Only Howard and Flynn seemed to be spared illness on the African location, with their heavily stocked alcohol supply.

 

Flynn is effective in his role but has relatively little to do. However, Greco, beautifully understated, gives the kernel of what might have been an outstanding performance as a tavern girl/prostitute, world weary and bitter, who is attracted to Morel because of his idealism and becomes a follower. Unfortunately her character is allowed little to do in the film's second half.

 

However, Huston's film has a supporting cast noteworthy for its names: Orson Welles as a celebrity news correspondent who sees Morel as a news winner for himself, Paul Lukas, Herbert Lom and Eddie Albert. (I've read a report that Albert was near death due to illness while making the film). Huston's film has the most exasperatingly ambiguous of endings in which it is impossible to know what is going to happen to its surviving characters next.

 

With the passage of time and more concerns than ever today about the future of the elephant, The Roots of Heaven is a project worthy of a remake, in my opinion. I don't know if they could come up with a cast quite as interesting as the 1958 version had, but it would be lovely to think that a really good film might yet be made on this subject matter.

 

 

Flynn, by the way, while making The Roots of Heaven wrote a letter in which he stated he had the odd feeling that this would be his last film. He was almost correct, as there would be only one more film in which he would appear before his heart attack death the following year.

[kingrat]

Tom, thanks for writing about The Roots of Heaven, a film I've never seen. It certainly sounds interesting, if not fully satisfying.

[LawrenceA]

Tom, thanks for writing about The Roots of Heaven, a film I've never seen. It certainly sounds interesting, if not fully satisfying.

 

It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I had never read anything very positive about it, and then I read a recent John Huston biography that detailed the troubled production and Huston's dissatisfaction with the film. The ending was ambiguous partly because Huston basically quit the film without actually quitting, putting forth the least amount of effort possible in the final weeks, and leaving many, if not all, production decisions to Zanuck and the AD. This was an increasingly frequent occurrence with Huston at this point in his career, where he would grow tired of a film before finishing it, and would spend his time pondering his next film or some other adventure, often to the detriment of whatever film he was supposed to be finishing.

 

It plays fairly frequently on the Fox Movie Channel, which is where I watched it sometime in the last couple of years. The first half is excellent, and Howard is very good, but it kind of rambles on a bit, and the non-ending is a bit of a letdown. I found Flynn to be a sad sight, a shell of his former self, even if his natural charm shone through a few times. 

[speedracer5]

Love Joanna Barnes, who, as Gloria Upson, uttered that immortal line about "stepping on a ping pong ball." Barnes has become a successful writer.

It was just ghastly!

[Bogie56]

The 1958 Berlin International Film Festival winners were…

 

Best Actor

Sidney Poitier, The Defiant Ones

 

Best Actress

Anna Magnani, Wild Is the Wind (57)

 

——————————————————————————————

 

The 1958 Cannes Film Festival winners were…

 

Best Actress

Paul Newman, The Long, Hot Summer

 

Best Actor

Bibi Andersson, Eva Dahlbeck, Babro Hiort af Ornas, and Ingrid Thulin, Brink of Life/Nara Livet

 

—————————————————————————————

 

The 1958 Venice Film Festival winners were:

 

Best Actors

Alec Guinness, The Horse’s Mouth

 

Best Actress

Sophia Loren, The Black Orchid

[TomJH]

It plays fairly frequently on the Fox Movie Channel, which is where I watched it sometime in the last couple of years. The first half is excellent, and Howard is very good, but it kind of rambles on a bit, and the non-ending is a bit of a letdown. I found Flynn to be a sad sight, a shell of his former self, even if his natural charm shone through a few times. 

 

You can see potential in The Roots of Heaven, thus my reason for stating that I would like to see a remake.

 

The film is about trying to prevent the extinction of the elephant. Perhaps Huston wasn't the right director for the project since, as well known in anecdotes about the making of The African Queen, he took time off the set of that film to hunt an elephant (whether he killed one or not, I'm not certain).

 

Flynn wrote, ironically, in a letter that he did shoot an elephant while making the film, indicating that he felt pressured into going on a hunt (by Huston?) and, in retrospect, "felt like an assassin" for having done so.

 

Speaking of Flynn, have you seen his performance as John Barrymore in Too Much, Too Soon? It was another 1958 release, and I think it has one of his most effective performances. Again, as you stated about Roots of Heaven, it's sad to see the physical decline, but, largely because he channels his own battles with the bottle into his characterization here, he is wonderfully effective in portraying his old Hollywood friend's decline. I think that this may be Errol's most nakedly vulnerable portrayal on screen because his performance reflects so much of his own story.

 

His final scene in the film is heart breakingly poignant. He is sitting in a chair staring into a fireplace, a bottle in his hand, looking tired and ancient, making a plea with his daughter standing behind him to give him one more chance and not leave him. As he hears the door close behind him, signalling she is gone, Flynn's head sadly settles back into his chair. He does not cry but he looks lost, painfully alone, the bottle his only companion. The scene fades to black. It's difficult to think that the painful truth Flynn brought to that scene about broken relationships due to the devastation of addiction was not a variation on moments from his own life.

 

Joanne Woodward, who met Flynn close to the end, said in a documentary about his Barrymore performance, "I have a feeling that, rather than playing Barrymore, he was playing the reality of himself. And it was a very knowledgeable realization of what he had done to his own life. Not only to his own life but to the people in his life.

 

There's a long closeup of him (his final scene) as he just sits there and his daughter leaves. It is the final realization of what he has done, and it is unutterably tragic."

 

[Bogie56]

My favourite supporting performance of 1958 was Joseph's Calleia's Police Sgt. Pete Menzies in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil.  Calleia (1897-1975) was born in Malta and as we well know played lots of one-dimensional heavies in the 1930's.   Menzies is anything but one-dimensional.  He begins the film as Hank Quinlan's less than intelligent toad then has his world turned upside down when he comes face-to-face with a lifetime's worth of corruption he has helped perpetrate.

Not far behind, Calleia in my supporting actor favourites was Akim Tamiroff's Papa Joe Grandi, also from Touch of Evil.  The scene where he duels Janet Leigh's pointed brassiere with his phallic cigar is quite hilarious.  And I have to say I didn't mind one bit Tamiroff's Russian accent when playing a Mexican.  I guess I'm not that much of a stickler for accent accuracy.  Like Tamiroff, Anthony Quinn made a career out of using the same relative accent when playing Mexicans, Italians, French and Spanish characters.  I can even live with Sean Connery's brogue when playing a Russian.  Yes, I admire Meryl Streep's adeptness at getting the accent right but on the other hand Tony Curtis' southern accent in The Defiant Ones didn't bother me one bit.  Now, when it comes to period films it is a different matter.  Curtis' "yonder is the castle of my fadder" makes me chuckle.  And hearing an actor say "okay" in a medieval film or western throws me right off.

[Bogie56]

Here are some performances from 1958 that will be recognized in subsequent years …

 

Laurence Harvey will be nominated for the Best Actor Oscar in 1959 for Room at the Top (1958).  He will also be nominated for the 1959 NY Film Critics Best Actor Award.  Both the imdb and wikipedia use 1959 as the release date for Room at the Top but as we have seen it was up for the 1958 BAFTA Awards.

 

Simone Signoret will win the Best Actress Oscar in 1959 for Room at the Top (1958).  She will also be nominated for the 1959 NY Film Critics Best Actress Award, will win the 1959 Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award, will win the 1959 National Board of Review Best Actress Award, and will be nominated for the Golden Globe Best Actress Award in 1959.

 

Hermione Baddeley will be nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1959 for Room at the Top (1958).

 

Zbigniew Cybulski will be nominated for the BAFTA Best Foreign Actor Award in 1959 for Ashes and Diamonds (1958).

 

Jean Gabin will be nominated for the BAFTA Best Foreign Actor Award in 1959 for Maigret Lays a Trap (1958).

 

Jean Desailly will be nominated for the BAFTA Best Foreign Actor Award in 1959 for Maigret Lays a Trap (1958).

 

Kay Walsh will be nominated for the BAFTA Best Actress Award in 1959 for The Horse’s Mouth (1958).

 

Rosalind Russell will be nominated for the BAFTA Best Foreign Actress Award in 1959 for Auntie Mame (1958).

 

Susan Hayward will be nominated for the BAFTA Best Foreign Actress Award in 1959 for I Want to Live! (1958).

 

Ellie Lambeti will be nominated for the BAFTA Best Foreign Actress Award in 1959 for A Matter of Dignity (1958).

[kingrat]

Best Juvenile Performance: June Archer, INNOCENT SINNERS

 

Innocent Sinners is a little-known but very good film directed by Philip Leacock. June Archer plays the main character, Lovejoy Mason, all but abandoned by her mother. All the little girl wants to do is plant and tend to a garden in the bombed-out ruins left by the Blitz. Neither adults nor the neighborhood boys see the value in this. Flora Robson has a fairly small role as one of the neighbors. Forbidden Games may have provided part of the inspiration for this adaptation of a Rumer Godden novel called An Episode of Sparrows.

 

Although this subject could certainly have been treated sentimentally, it is not. June Archer is no Shirley Temple; she is rather plain and not very charming, just the kind of little girl many people would ignore. TCM showed Innocent Sinners about three years ago, and I hope they will show it again.

 

Another film I wrongly expected to be sentimental is The Inn of the Sixth Happiness. Ingrid Bergman as a missionary, lots of children, and "This old man, he played one": I feared the worst. Instead, I discovered a well-made, intelligent film about a strong-willed woman who insists on becoming a missionary to China, and who against all odds achieves her goal. This is one of Bergman's best performances, and Athene Seyler is wonderful as an old woman who has spent her life as a missionary. Robert Donat plays an old Chinese man. One of Mark Robson's best films.

[TomJH]

 

Another film I wrongly expected to be sentimental is The Inn of the Sixth Happiness. Ingrid Bergman as a missionary, lots of children, and "This old man, he played one": I feared the worst. Instead, I discovered a well-made, intelligent film about a strong-willed woman who insists on becoming a missionary to China, and who against all odds achieves her goal. This is one of Bergman's best performances, and Athene Seyler is wonderful as an old woman who has spent her life as a missionary. Robert Donat plays an old Chinese man. One of Mark Robson's best films.

 

Robert Donat was dying while making Inn, a fact of which everyone on the set was aware. The final line of dialogue of his career was, ironically, "We shall not meet again, I think." Bergman's tears in that scene were real.

[TomJH]

Tom, thanks for writing about The Roots of Heaven, a film I've never seen. It certainly sounds interesting, if not fully satisfying.

 

It's party time during the making of The Roots of Heaven. Juliette Greco doesn't smile very much during the film but she sure seems to be having a good time here. Boyfriend producer Darryl Zanuck is right behind her, and that's director John Huston, of course, in the background. A shame Huston wasn't as interested in the film itself.

 

[Bogie56]

Italy’s David di Donatello Awards for 1958 were …

 

Best Foreign Actor

Jean Gabin, Les Grandes Families*

 

Best Actress

Anna Magnani, And the Wild Wild Women/Nella Citta Linferno*

 

Best Foreign Actress

Deborah Kerr, Separate Tables*

[TomJH]

With the discussions on this thread as to whether an actor or actress is a real leading performer in a film or, in fact, a supporting player, I'm surprised that everyone who has nominated David Niven in Separate Tables has him as a lead (except myself).

 

It's been a while since I last saw the film, I admit, but I'm hard pressed to think of any actor who won the Oscar as best actor who had less screen time than Niven in this film. Seriously, does he have any more screen time than, say, Burl Ives in The Big Country?

 

[Bogie56]

With the discussions on this thread as to whether an actor or actress is a real leading performer in a film or, in fact, a supporting player, I'm surprised that everyone who has nominated David Niven in Separate Tables has him as a lead (except myself).

 

It's been a while since I last saw the film, I admit, but I'm hard pressed to think of any actor who won the Oscar as best actor who had less screen time than Niven in this film. Seriously, does he have any more screen time than, say, Burl Ives in The Big Country?

 

 

I don't always go by screen time alone.  For me it also depends on who's story it is.