Worst of 2006 ~ Hoot~ #10

What was Luke Wilson thinking? Apparently Wil Shriner must not like him. As Director/Producer of this film, Shriner should go back to acting, or whatever he was doing before. And Luke should realize he is not the funny Wilson brother. This movie was just plain–poor. The acting, the dialogue, the premise, every aspect of this film feels rooted in another world. Even though this movie was to take place in the here and now, the main characters don’t even use cell phones or instant messages, or wear clothing from this century. This very forgettable message movie never succeeds in engaging the audience. Plus, the robotic looking owls at the center of the story only get a couple of minutes of screen time. That’s just cheating the audience. Didn’t this movie go straight to DVD? D

4 ~ Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs

The first, and by far most memorable full-length animated feature from the Disney Studios, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” may have been superseded technically by many of the films that followed it. But its simple story of a charming little princess saved from the evil deeds of her wicked step-mother, the queen, by a group of seven adorable dwarfs made history when it was first released in December, 1937 and has since become an incomparable screen classic.

5 ~ Bette Davis ~ Jezebel

She is legend. She is Bette. She was the Golden Queen of the Golden Era of Hollywood. Jezebel was her 37th film role in only 6 short years since first debuting in 1931’s The Bad Sister. Bette took over the screen in any role she played. I love this role better than any other, as it was my first experience in seeing Bette Davis on film, other than her stint id Disney’s On Witch Mountain. I was mesmerized. Jezebel was made for Bette Davis. Bette Davis was made for Jezebel.

Jezebel was Davis’ 2nd and last Oscar win (she was nominated 11 times) Personally I feel this performance was her best until her 1950 role in All About Eve (which was also made for her, and had the Oscar nabbed) If you have never seen this Bette Davis classic, you must. It is classic Bette, powerful, resentful, brash and over the top. Pure Bette.

5 ~ Ray Bolger ~ The Wizard of OZ

He starred in only 4 movies prior to his stint as the Scarecrow in the now classic Wizard of Oz. However he had started years earlier in vaudville and moved to Broadway. Wizard would be his shot to stardom. He never garnered an Academy Award nomination, or even a Golden Globe, but his face and his dancing style would become legendary.

As a kid I loved the Scarecrow and even as a teen and later as an adult anytime I saw or heard ray Bolger on TV or in magazines I would be immeresed in it. There was no one else that could be the scarecrow. He was the scarecrow. His dancing, his acting and his screen presence in this movie was undeniably one of the best performances of the classic.

Nominations Are In

Nominees have been announced, go check out my Oscar blog, Regarding Oscar for all the latest!

5 ~ It Happened One Night

In one of the first and best “screwball” comedies of all time, It Happened One Night went on to win all five major Academy Awards. This feat would not be matched until One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and later by The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Even though the title is called It Happened One Night, the movie spans several days and nights, and in one scene when Clark Gable’s character takes of his shirt and reveals a bare chest, undershirt sales plummet.

A Spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews, played perfectly by Claudette Colbert marries fortune-hunter ‘King’ Westley against the wishes of her extremely wealthy father. He retrieves his daughter before the marriage can be consummated, but then she runs away.
She boards a bus, where she meets Peter Warne (Gable), an out-of-work newspaper reporter. He recognizes her and gives her a choice: if she will give him an exclusive on her story, he will help her reunite with King, otherwise he will tell her father where she is and collect the reward. She agrees.
Various adventures follow. One of the most famous scenes on film, happens when they have to hitchhike. Peter claims to be an expert on the subject, but nothing works and eventually, out of frustration, he ends up thumbing his nose at passing cars. The sheltered Ellie then shows him how it’s done. She stops the next car dead in its tracks by lifting up her skirt and showing off a shapely leg.

Both Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert were “loaned” out to Columbia Pictures, against their wishes, but later came to love the film, and it’s director, Frank Capra. They both went on to win Oscars for their role in what would become one of the 100 Greatest Films.

6 ~ Greta Garbo ~ Ninotchka

In her next-to-last film and her fourth and last unsuccessful Oscar nomination, Great Garbo shunned the glamourous image of her roles of past and played her first American comedic role. This role was almost a satire of her former roles and on screen personalities of the past. MGM’s film promotions and publicity used the slogan: “Garbo Laughs!” capitalizing on the legendary Garbo persona and promising to humanize it. She succumbs to laughter in the film when her co-star falls clumsily from a cafe chair after a joke he has told fails to produce a response. This was shades of an earlier campaign for her talkie debut in Anna Christie (1930) – “Garbo Talks!”

Garbo played this role just as she did her many other roles, splendidly, and went on to be nominated for Best Actress. One of her best on-screen performances, it was a shame she didn’t make more comedies.

6 ~ Leslie Howard ~ Gone With the Wind

Who ever heard of a man named Ashley? Today, Ashley is more suited for females, but in 1939 the name Ashley was one of the top names in America for little boys born that year. Why? Because of Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind, played by Leslie Howard.

Howard had been around the theater and film for sometime, but this role would ultimately be the one everyone would remember. The patient, loving, compassionate Ashley. Always the gentleman, and Scarlett’s first love. Even though Clark Gable’s Rhett Butler had more screen time, and was the leading man, Leslie Howard’s Ashley Wilkes was the true hero of the film.

Leslie Howard played this role the way William Powell played his in the Thin Man, perfectly. Leslie would not even be granted an Oscar nomination for his Gone With the Wind role, even though every other role received one. Actually Leslie Howard was only nominated twice in his career, both for leading roles, and he never won.

6 ~ Frankenstein – 1931

Is there anyone alive that has NOT seen this movie? Well I am sure there may be someone. This film has been re-told and re-tooled many times, but the 1931 classic starring the ultimate Hollywood Horror star, Boris Karloff is by far the best. In the same year when another horror classic was made (Dracula), Frankenstein ruled the box office. The film’s most famous scene is the one in which Frankenstein befriends a young girl named Maria at a lake’s edge, and mistakenly throws her into the water (and drowns her) along with other flowers.

Bela Lugosi, who starred as Dracula, was first cast as the “monster” but ultimately turned it down, and an unknown Karloff was cast. Karloff’s performance is remarkable, try acting in that get-up and still come across as somewhat human underneath the hideous face and stitched together body. I remember as a child seeing this on TV for the first time, and I actually felt sorry for the monster, wishing that they would just leave him alone.

7 ~ Wuthering Heights

With the current flux of hollywood remakes, it is time for Hollywood to reamke this classic. However there has been many made (poorly) and even though today’s adaptation would not compare to the 1939 classic starring Lawrence Olivier and Merle Oberon, it would be good to see this tragic love story re-told.

One of the best films ever made, and a classic William Wyler directed movie earning eight Academy Award nominations in one of the most hotly-contested years ever – often called “the greatest year in motion picture history.” Wuthering Heights is considered one of Hollywood’s all-time most romantic/drama classics. Filmed beautifully, it is the first film dramatization of Emily Bronte’s passionate 1847 best-selling literary masterpiece.

This is by far Merle Oberon’s best work in her entire film career, and it established Lawrence Olivier as a dashing, leading international film star (he was nominated as Best Actor for his role). And it brought Vivien Leigh (who was engaged to Olivier at the time) to Hollywood where she met David O. Selznick and tested – successfully – for the role of Scarlett O’Hara.