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

How Green Was My Valley

How Green Was My Valley a.k.a. The movie that beat Citizen Kane for Best Picture.
I tried watching this on a week I was working and that didn't work out so well. I kept falling asleep. I did get through the first hour of it before I stopped it and then finished it a couple of days later. And, I have to admit that by the end of it I stopped paying much attention to it.

The movie is about a boy Huw growing up in a valley in Wales. They had a coal mining plant and all his relatives worked there. The movie is narrated by the adult Huw as he relives his memories of his childhood. He watches the town transform from a happy little town to a town that is full of gossip and corruption. It starts as a nice place where people are happy and no one complains. Then the owners of the coal plant start lowering wages and firing people. So, the coal miners form a union with the help of Huw's older brothers much to the objection of their father. Then Hews Sister falls in love with the priest but marries the coal mines owner's son. Which then causes all the older women to start gossiping. We watch as Huw becomes the first of his family to go to a state school and deals with trying to fit in. Finally the movie ends with his father dieing in the coal mines.

The movie is just under 2 hours but it is one of the most boring movies. The narration is slow and just puts you to sleep. If anyone has trouble sleeping just watch this movie and it will knock you right out. Originally the producer Darryl F. Zanuk wanted to make this movie a four hour epic like Gone With the Wind. Thank God he didn't. It would have taken me a week to watch the whole thing. The one funny scene comes after Huw gets beaten at school by his teacher with a wooden ruler. Two guys from his valley come in and smack around the teacher in front of the class.

How green was his valley we will never know because it was shot in Black and White. The reason for that is because they shot it in California and flowers wouldn't match the Welsh landscape. The reason they had to shoot in California was because of World War 2 and the Nazi's continued bombing of England. Would it have made a difference I don't know but I think it still would have been boring.

One of the controversies with the movie was the pro-union message in the first part. While the father is against the union the union ultimately is formed and portrayed as a good thing. I wonder how the movie would be received today in our political landscape. I bet all the conservative pundits would trash the movie and call it anti-American.

The main question with this movie is how did it beat Citizen Kane a movie now called the best movie of all time, for Best Picture? I have no idea. While I think Citizen Kane is over rated an not even close to the best movie of all time I have to agree that it is way better then this movie. I haven't seen all the movies nominated for best picture that year but I know Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion, and The Maltese Falcon were both better then this one. John Ford was nominated for his 3rd Directing Oscar in a row and Won his Second in a row. He won the previous year for The Grapes of Wrath and was nominated the year before that for Stagecoach. As far as I am concerned this is the worst of the 3 and think he should have stuck to Westerns. A young Roddy McDowall does a good job at playing Huw but too bad its just a bad movie.