Hamlet 1948

What can you say about Hamlet. It is just a film version of the Shakespeare play with very few changes. Although it is the only film version that eliminated Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Laurence Olivier's version from 1948 is considered one of the best versions of Hamlet on film which is saying a lot because there have been many versions. But as far as I am concerned it is one big snooze fest. If you have insomnia and need something to watch to fall asleep this would be my suggestion. Maybe I am just not into Shakespeare but I find it very boring. It doesn't bring anything new to the story, I feel like once you have seen one version there is no need to see another. Took me like five restarts to finally finish the movie because it kept putting me to sleep. I don't know how this movie beat The Treasure of the Sierra Madre for best picture. That was a great movie.

Other Facts
Laurence Olivier was the first person to Direct themselves to a Best Acting Academy Award. Roberto Benigni is the only other person to do that for Life is Beautiful in 1997. They both lost the best directing Oscar.

Eileen Herlie was 28 when she played Hamlets mother Laurence Olivier was 41.

Dentist Movies

Well I found this blog about the 5 movies not to watch before going to the dentist. And while I agree with most of it I really think that the scene from Castaway where he removes his tooth with an ice skate should be on that list. Five Flicks to Avoid Before Dental Work

Since they already had the scary movies I tried to come up with the 5 funniest movies with dentists.
Here is what I came up with.

Little Shop of Horrors-While it is on the list of movies not to watch the Dentist song is hilarious.


Bill Cosby Himself. -Some of the funniest stand up about Dentists.


The Whole Nine Yards-Fun to watch the dentists go crazy.


The Hangover- He is such a good dentist he can pull his own tooth out.

Gentleman's Agreement

I have been trying to get these out every Thursday but this one didn’t quite make it. The 20th movie to win Best Picture and the third in a series of socially aware movies Gentleman's Agreement is about a writer’s investigation into anti-Semitism in post WWII America. It took me a few tries to watch the whole movie because it's a little boring and I kept falling asleep. Gregory Peck plays a magazine writer who moves to New York from a rural town. His first assignment at the magazine is to write a piece on anti-Semitism. He tries to come up with a new angle and decides the only way he can write something different is to experience it himself and he pretends to be Jewish for six months. During the six months he experiences different types of prejudice even some from other Jews, and the whole experiment puts a strain on his relationship he just started with a young woman and also his family and friends.

The movie seems kind of dated as anti-Semitism is not a prevalent nowadays or at least not as obvious. Or maybe I am just being naïve in thinking that. Either way the movie just doesn’t resonate with me and just felt preachy. Gregory Peck gives another amazing performance as he usually does. Elia Kazan was considered one of the Best Directors of the time he had 5 nominations and 2 wins for best director. He did win best director for this movie, but I read that he did not like the movie. He felt that if lacked passion and that the romance was too forced. I agree with that. The romance in the movie was kind of forced. He meets this girl and the next day they are engaged. It appears that another girl likes him but nothing happens and it just seems like it was an after thought. The studio execs at the time did not want this movie made. Most of them were Jewish and they thought that making this movie would just stir up a hornet’s nest, but producer Darryl F. Zanuck thought it was a good topic to talk about after the revelations of what happened in German Concentration Camps. While the movie did cause some problems wjen it was released for the most part it was widely accepted and was one of the highest grossing movies of the year. It appears to me that it was a bad year for film and there were not many good movies released that year and this might have been the best movie of the year. The only other movie I saw that was released in 1947 was Song of the South and while that is notable for other reasons I would not consider it a great movie. I never did see Miracle on 34th Street even though it is played every year at Christmas time I am not much into Christmas movies.

Other Facts
Beat Miracle on 34th Street for best picture.
The first special award for foreign film was given to Shoeshine, although it was not made an official competitive category till 1956.
James Baskett received an Honorary Award for playing Uncle Remus in Song of the South making him the first African American male win an academy award, (the first African American Male to win a competitive award would be Sidney Poitier for The Defiant Ones in 1958). Song of the South also won best song for “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” and oddly enough Song of the South was never released on DVD in the United States because of what is seen as racial stereotyping of African Americans.

The Best Years of our Lives

This was an amazing movie about returning veterans from WWII. When I first got it in the mail from Netflix, I saw that it was 2 hours and 45 minutes, I was thinking another long movie. But once you start watching it sucks you in. Its about 3 WWII veterans who return home, each to a different family situation. One is married for 20years with two kids, one just got married right before he left for the war, and one had his hand badly burned that they had to be amputated and replaced with hooks. He is returning home to his girlfriend. Each men have different issues to deal with and need to readjust to home life. What is amazing about this film is how well it holds up over time. Maybe its because no matter what war it is the soldiers always have to come home and adjust. Doesn't matter if it is WWII, Vietnam, or the Iraq war, there is a period of adjustment when soldiers come back. Their are plenty of other movies that deal with returning veterans from the other wars, but what I found eye opening about this movie is that you always hear about the heroic welcome that soldiers got at the end of WWII, and how they are the greatest generation, but you don't hear about the struggles they had when they got back. The struggles to find work, to get a loan, to realize that your kids are different people now, or how to deal with feeling like a monster with hooks for hands. It shows that now matter what the war these will always be issues that are faced.

The Director William Wyler is the most nominated director of all time. He has 13 Best Directing nominations and 3 wins. Like Billy Wilder the year before he is one of the best directors of the time. Personally I think this is one of his best movies. Really captures the humanness of the soldiers and makes the story feel very real, even when it starts to get a little melodramatic at the end. Also, what makes the story feel real is Harold Russell who is a real life returning vet who lost his hand in the war. His character Homer Parish is one of the most memorable of the film. Maybe because he had lived it but for a non actor he brought such a presence to the screen and out shined some of the other actors. For that he won the Best Supporting Actor award for one of his only acting roles. He also won an honorary award "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance in The Best Years of Our Lives." This honorary award was probably given to him because the Academy did not think he would win the competitive Best Supporting Actor award, thus becoming the only actor win two Oscars the same year for the same role.

Other Facts
Second in a series of best picture winner that had a socially responsible message
Beat Its a Wonderful Life for best picture.
Was ranked at number 37 on AFI Greatest Films of all time.
One of the quotes I found most prophetic in the movie was when Fredric March's character comes home and his son asks him about the war.

Rob: Say, you were at Hiroshima, weren't you Dad?..Well, did you happen to notice any
of the effects of radioactivity on the people who survived the blast?
Al: No, I didn't. Should I have?
Rob: We've been having lectures in atomic energy at school, and Mr. McLaughlin,
he's our physics teacher, he says that we've reached a point where the whole
human race has either got to find a way to live together, or else uhm...
Al: Or else...?
Rob: That's right. Or else. Because when you combine atomic energy with jet
propulsion and radar and guided missiles, just think of the...

The Lost Weekend

After watching the previous years feel good best picture winner Going My Way 1945's The Lost Weekend is a complete 180. Instead of being feel good it's a depressing story about an alcoholic. Basically the Lost Weekend is about an alcoholic who despite the best efforts of his brother and his girlfriend manages to steal some money and go on an alcoholic binge(its amazing how drunk $10 could get you in the 40's). We get to see his slow descent into despair and desperation. It just starts with one drink, then he is having a good time spouting some drunk philosophy. Talking about how he met his girlfriend and his aspirations to become a famous writer. Then with each drink he moves closer to desperation. He finally ends up in a hospital full of drunks where he begins to hallucinate and slowly goes mad.

This is a great movie. In my opinion one of the most underrated movies to win best picture. It's one you never hear about but has such an emotional impact. What I like about the movie is it gets right into it. There is hardly any back story, just starts with him hiding a bottle of liqueur from his brother then moves from there. Each minute going further down the abyss. The two things I didn't like about the movie was the end and the music. I thought the end could have been a little darker. Not as feel good. And the music just didn't fit the mood of the movie. The score sounded like something out of a 50's sci-fi movie not a serious dark movie. But overall it was a great movie.

Billy Wilder who wrote and directed the movie is one of the most nominated directors and screenwriters. He has a total of 8 directing nominations with 2 wins and 12 screenwriting nominations with three wins. What is amazing about Billy Wilder is the scope of his movies. You have dark movies like this one then you have flat out comedies like Some Like it Hot(AFI ranked it #1 funniest movie of all time) and film noir movies like Sunset Boulevard. Almost everything the guy did turned out great. Only two of his movies won best picture(The Apartment in 1960 is the other one) but most are considered classics.

Other Oscar Facts
The Bells of St. Marys a sequel to the previous years winner Going My Way became the first sequel to be nominated for Best Picture and Bing Crosby became the first Actor to be nominated twice for playing the same character in different films.
Joan Crawford won her only Oscar for Mildred Pierce. Accepting it at her home because she was too "sick" to attend the ceremonies.
Set a precedent for socially-responsible movies to win best picture in the late 40's

Going My Way

Going My Way won Best Picture in 1944. It was the only comedy nominated that year against two darker movies(Double Indemnity, Gaslight), a patriotic film(Since you Went Away) and a biopic (Wilson). The movie is about a young Priest Father O'Malley(Bing Crosby) who helps and older Priest Father Fitzgibbon(Barry Fitzgerald) bring some life back into an old Church. Along the way Father O'Malley starts a boys choir, writes songs, and is very generous to those in need. Of course staring Bing Crosby there is lots of singing. He helps the boys get off the street and find something better to do then cause trouble, then he writes a song that he sells to a record company to make enough money to get the church out of financial trouble. He also helps the poor and the misguided. He is kind of like an Angel that comes and solves everyone's troubles then leaves everything better then he found it. It is a very uplifting story.

Similar to You Can't Take it With You, I feel you have to look at the mood of the country to see why this movie was so popular. In 1944 FDR got re-elected for his unprecedented fourth term. FDR signs the GI bill to help returning veterans financially. But the biggest story of 1944 was the continued fighting in WWII. On D-Day June 6Th 1944 the Allies invaded Normandy, France. This battle would change the course of the war. There was also the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944.(Also in 1944 an important event for me personally. My dad was born).

You can see that with all the war news and battles going on, people were just trying to look for an escape. So, along comes this very inspiring movie that is not about war but about people looking out for other people. I don't know if its because I watched it after I didn't sleep well the night before or just because it's a different time we live in, but it really didn't do much for me. It does have it's funny parts and it does have the inspiration factor but I just wasn't feeling it. It is interesting how you are feeling when you watch a movie affects how you respond to it. Who knows if I watch it again on a different day I might like it better. For me I would have enjoyed the darker movies. Double Indemnity is considered one of the first and one of the best film noir movies. I would have enjoyed watching that again. But there is nothing wrong with Going My Way it is a good movie and it inspired a sequel(The Bell's of St. Marys) and a TV show and was well like at the time.

Interesting Oscar Facts
This was the first year that they standardized the Best Picture list to 5 at least until 2010.
For the first and only time the same person was nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for the same role. Barry Fitzgerald was so well liked as Father Fitzgibbons they nominated him twice because they couldn't decide if he was a lead or supporting actor. He ended up winning supporting actor then the next year the Academy changed their rules so it could not happen again.
Bing Crosby won his only Oscar for his Father O'Malley part. He was also nominated the following year for the same part in The Bells of St. Mary's.
Leo McCarey was the first person to receive three Oscar Awards for the same picture (as producer, director, and writer) It has only been done four other times. (Billy Wilder for The Apartment (1960), Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather, Part II (1974), James L. Brooks for Terms of Endearment (1983), and James Cameron for Titanic (1997).]