MORE 1001 MOVIES FROM THE 30's
(Post 19 of 20)
Clive Brook and Dana Wynyard
in Cavalcade
On Noel Coward…
When I was a kid, I’d sometimes hear jokes about some
slapstick or low rent comedy skit or movie being criticized as “not exactly
Noel Coward.” I always got the
impression from this that a Noel Coward
comedy was probably about a group of rich people in tuxedos sitting in a room
sipping martinis, puffing on pipes and making caustic observations about the monarchy or the
working class. I’m not sure if this was quite right and realized I haven’t really
seen that many Noel Coward movies or
plays over the years to confirm or reject this impression.
Coward’s theater input spans from World War I all the way up to the 1960’s, with Blithe Spirit being the one I’m most familiar with. He also wrote many musical revues beginning in the 1920’s of which I confess to not being familiar with any of the titles.
Many of Coward’s plays have been adapted for film over the
years, including David Lean’s Brief
Encounter and Ernst Lubitsch’s Trouble
in Paradise. He also contributed
screenplays to the works of others including Our Man in Havana and Around
the World in 80 Days.
Coward’s only original play that was adapted to a film that
won Best Picture was Frank Lloyd’s Cavalcade
in 1933. It has to rank as one of the least seen (I’m just guessing with this observation, but I’ll
bet I’m right) of all the Best Picture winners over the years. The film’s plot
involves the lives of a well-to-do (naturally) London family over the years
whose life is dramatized amid the backdrop of important historical events. The film starts during the Boer War in 1899
and proceeds to the sinking of the Titanic, World War II and culminates to
modern times (1933 modern times, of course). It is largely a well done film (If
not exactly riveting) and the presentation of a multi-generational drama has
been done many times since.
Oscar Note:
According to the book Inside Oscar by Mason Wiley and Damien Bona, the voting totals for Best Picture of 1933 was actually announced at the ceremony! Cavalcade won the vote by nearly fifty
percent over the runner up A Farewell to
Arms. I think it would be interesting
if the Academy would do that today, but doesn’t seem very likely.
And the Elisha Cook
Jr. supporting player award goes to Una O’Connor. The diminutive, high
strung Miss O’Connor served as comic relief in at least every movie I’ve seen
her in. She may be best known for The Bride of Frankenstein (providing some memorable
screaming), but she had many others, including as the maid with the shaky
testimony in her last film, Witness for
the Prosecution in 1957 .She has some amusing and a couple of poignant moments as the
maid (I wonder how may times she played a maid) in Cavalcade.
Una O'Connor makes a point
in Cavalcade
Una O'Connor in a lighter moment from
Bride of Frankenstein
Man, was this movie dull. Rather than showing us world events, it shows us people in a room talking about world events.
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