Gone with the Wind and other Epic movies

Introduction

There have been many epics throughout film history. A lot of talent, time, money and effort went into these films. They were not without production problems. They have endured time because despite their length and vast casts, the screen stories are engaging and usually, unforgettable. Their vastness doesn’t lose the viewer. It involves them. Despite their grandeur, there are many stories told within an epic film. Plus, like all classic movies, one never tires of watching them over and over.  {This blog intends to give some background stories on how they were made derived from sources such as IMDb and or Wikipedia.}

Gone With the Wind 1939

I started this particular blog before the controversy of GWTW came about in 2020. To start off, I have to say -I love “Gone with The Wind”. Regarding Hattie McDaniel’s performance as Mamie, she portrayed a strong, smart, memorable and endearing character. She may have depicted a slave, but she portrayed her role with dignity and with a strong enough personality to stand up to the selfish, capricious ways of Scarlett O’Hara played by Vivien Leigh. She herself recognized, that if she were not being paid well to be an actress portraying a slave or a maid, she would be paid very little wages for actually being a maid. The other slaves may have been depicted as lazy and dumb but that was a reflection of how Blacks were seen in the old South and in Hollywood and in many parts of this country at the time the movie was made and for many years after. Despite McDaniel’s wonderful performance, she was not able to attend the movie debut in Atlanta, Georgia due to Jim Crow segregation laws that were still in effect at the time. Leading man, Clark Gable threatened to boycott the premiere, but McDaniel encouraged him to attend anyway. She did get to view the movie in Hollywood and producer David O. Selznick had her picture featured in the movie program along with the other leading actors of the film. McDaniel was the first Black actress to be nominated and to win the Oscar for Best Supporting role. However, despite the acknowledgment of her great work, when she won, she was obliged to sit at the back of the Awards ceremony near the kitchens. (Pictured below: Hattie McDaniel as “Mammy” in “Gone With the wind” 1939)

I love old Hollywood movies but with all its great movies there was a lot of racism in front of the screen and behind. Films were usually full of stereotypes. Very few movies from that time confronted racial issues. GWTW is an epic historical romantic drama based on the very popular novel of 1936, and it has always been surrounded by controversy even during its debut. It shows how Blacks were treated, in the South and how they were depicted on film. It was never right but the movie needs to be seen so that we may know how things were, so that they may never happen again. GWTW should be a learning tool. It should help us realize how blacks were portrayed on film and it gives us some idea of how slaves were treated. Although, it may not be the complete accurate picture.

To actually begin this blog, in honor of epic films: (For any reader who might not know) “Gone With the Wind” 1939 is a historical, romance, Civil war film. It is also a beautiful but sad story about a very attractive, head strong, selfish young woman -Scarlett O’Hara (played unforgettably by Vivien Leigh) and how she pursues the love of Ashley Wilkes in vain (played romantically by Leslie Howard). The movie takes us through her marriages and the eventual one to Rhett Butler (played strongly by Clark Gable).  It is set against the Civil War and the Reconstruction era from the point of view of the South. It was a phenomenon in its day. However, the year it came out- 1939, was a watershed year for movies. It was in competition with a lot of other excellent films that filled the movie theaters, like “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, “Goodbye, Mr. Chips”, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”, “The Women”   and so many more. In the following years to come many other epic movies, made history and became Hollywood classics.

GWTW can be compared to other epic films to determine the answer to the question “Is GWTW the best movie of all time?” There is not a definite answer because it usually is an opinion and subjective.  Its scope encompasses epic drama, unforgettable main characters with depth and development; the cinematography for its time was innovative. It has multiple layers in its story: a love story, war story, and other characters’ stories.  It has the personal romance of the main characters and secondary characters. It has humor intertwined with pathos. It reflects the tragedy of war and its effect on civilians. On the negative side it depicts the treatment of Blacks during that time in the South and it reflects how they were actually looked upon by Hollywood.

Someone once commented to me, that Scarlett O’Hara is an example of what you don’t want to be. She followed a self-destructive path for herself. She threw everything away for the love of a man she couldn’t have. It can be seen as an example of what should not be done, because it brings misery. However, Scarlett also shows how she survives the war, the poverty, the tragedies and even her own capriciousness. It is among one of the strongest female characters on film.

It’s memorable because it was so well done despite all of the problems in production (it went through several directors and script rewrites) and other obstacles. The novel was so popular at that time that it lead to a grand scale national search for the main character of Scarlett O’Hara. It was the top grossing film for the year 1939 earning: $198,676,459.

It received mostly positive reviews but because of the depiction of Blacks, it also received heavy criticisms. It won 10 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screen play, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress-Hattie McDaniel who was the first African-American actress to be nominated and win. “The film is regarded as one of the greatest films of all time; it has placed in the top ten of the American Film Institute’s list of the top 100 American films since the list’s inception in 1998. In 1989, the United States Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.”(Wikipedia)

Another reason, I think it is an important movie is because it keeps classic old movies alive in contemporary conversation. It’s remembered as one of the best of classic films along with others like “Casablanca” and many others. In addition, if we follow the careers of each and every actor in that movie, then they would lead to their performances in other fantastic movies.  The title “best movie of all time” is relevant within film history, but thinking about “it is the best movie of all time” can also be based on a person’s preference.

{Pictured Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland and Leslie Howard}

As you will see these epic films, in many cases they turned out to be the masterworks of the directors. A lot of attention was paid to details as the movie makers strived for authenticity. They employed big budgets, huge casts and a lot of time. However, on many occasions, there were a lot setbacks like director changes, script changes and casting changes. To compare GWTW, in terms of epic drama to other epics: GWTW has a running time of 3 hours 58 minutes. Here are other epic movies that came out before 1969:

The Sound of Music 1965       Pictured (LtoR}: Nicholas Hammond, Kym Karath, Angela Cartwright, Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Charmian Carr,  Heather Menzies, Debbie Turner and Duane Chase.

“The Sound of Music” 1965 with a running time of 2 hours and 54, is a musical drama by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. It’s the story of young novice nun (Julie Andrews) who becomes a nanny to the 7 children of an Austrian military captain (Christopher Plummer). It also costarred Eleanor Parker as the Captain’s other love interest. It’s an engaging and entertaining movie with extraordinary music. What makes it special is Julie Andrews’ performance as the nanny and how she wins the hearts of the children and the Captain through music and manages to change their lives.  The Rodgers’ and Hammerstein musical score, the cinematography and of course the performances of the rest of the cast-including the children, make it an all-around pleasing experience. The children were played by Charmian Carr as Liesl, Heather Menzies as Louisa, Nicholas Hammond as Friedrich, Duane Chase as Kurt, Angela Cartwright as Brigitta, Debbie Turner as Marta, and Kym Karath as Gretl von Trapp.

“The Sound of Music” story is based on Maria von Trapp’s memoir, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, published in 1949 to help promote her family’s singing group following the death of her husband Georg in 1947.” (Wikipedia) It first became a West German movie entitled The Trapp Family consisting of traditional Austrian songs. It was a success in Europe and South America. From there the film rights were purchased by Paramount Pictures, but that idea fell through. Then it was secured for a stage play and Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II were hired for one song, but they found it difficult to integrate the other Austrian folk songs. They decided to write a brand new musical score for the play. Their many songs from the musical have become standards, including “Edelweiss”, “My Favorite Things”, “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”, “Do-Re-Mi”, and the title song “The Sound of Music”. 

It was the work of screen writer Ernest Lehman, who turned the stage play into a movie. “In December 1962, 20th Century Fox president Richard D. Zanuck hired Ernest Lehman to write the screenplay for the film adaptation of the stage musical. Lehman reviewed the original script for the stage musical, rearranged the sequence of songs, and began transforming a work designed for the stage into a film that could use the camera to emphasize action and mood, and open the story up to the beautiful locations of Salzburg and the Austrian Alps.” (Then Lehman was able to get director Robert Wise for the movie, after receiving the first draft of the script.) “Wise shared Lehman’s vision of the film being centered on the music, and the changes he made were consistent with the writer’s approach.”-Wikipedia

“It was released in 1965 but by “November 1966, “The Sound of Music” had become the highest-grossing film of all-time—surpassing “Gone with the Wind”—and held that distinction for five years. The film was just as popular throughout the world, breaking previous box-office records in twenty-nine countries. It received five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. In 1998, the American Film Institute (AFI) listed “The Sound of Music” as the fifty-fifth greatest American movie of all time, and the fourth greatest movie musical. In 2001, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant ” (Wikipedia)

Ben-Hur 1959               {Pictured Charlton Heston}

“Ben Hur” 1959 was 3 hours and 54 minutes. It’s a religious drama, originally made in 1925. The story centers on a wealthy Jewish prince played by Charlton Heston, who is unjustly accused of a crime and then is sentenced to be a slave by his Roman childhood friend (Stephen Boyd). He then becomes a Roman charioteer and seeks revenge.  It was directed by William Wyler who was successful in focusing on the personal drama within the vast epic action.  It cost  ($15.175 million), and 8 months to make.

The original silent version of “Ben-Hur” was remade in order to use the 65mm format that many movies were using in order to entice audiences back into the movie theaters when television was taking over as the national past time in the 1950’s.  This movie like many epics, is grand in scope but manages to have an engaging, intimate drama that keeps the story going. That is the contribution of director William Wyler. The acting  by the rest of the cast is superb – Martha Scott, Stephen Boyd, Cathy O’ Donnell and Jack Hawkins.

Like most epics, it has great cinematography. Its highlight is a 9 minute chariot race that took a lot of money and time to make. To clarify: “The chariot race required 15,000 extras on a set constructed on 18 acres of backlot at Cinecitta Studios outside Rome. Eighteen chariots were built, with half being used for practice. The race took five weeks to film.” (IMDb) It is great in action and grand in scale. It set the standard for other action epics to follow. William Wyler knew what he could accomplish and what he couldn’t:  “William Wyler selected all the camera angles for the chariot race, but left all the details of its actual shooting in the hands of his second-unit directors Andrew Marton and Yakima Canutt. When he saw Marton and Canutt’s work, Wyler remarked that it was “one of the greatest cinematic achievements” he’d ever seen. Wyler then supervised the editing of the sequence.”

Everything about the making of Ben-Hur was big: “It had the largest budget ($15.175 million), as well as the largest sets built of any film produced at the time. Costume designer Elizabeth Haffenden oversaw a staff of 100 wardrobe fabricators to make the costumes. A workshop employing 200 artists and workmen provided the hundreds of friezes and statues needed in the film. Filming began on May 18, 1958, and wrapped on January 7, 1959, with shooting lasting for 12 to 14 hours a day and six days a week. Pre-production began in Italy at Cinecittà around October 1957, and post-production took six months. Under cinematographer Robert L. Surtees, executives at MGM made the decision to produce the film in a widescreen format. Over 200 camels and 2,500 horses were used in the shooting of the film, with some 10,000 extras. The sea battle was filmed using miniatures in a huge tank on the back lot at the MGM Studios in Culver City, California. The nine-minute chariot race has become one of cinema’s most famous action sequences, and the score, composed and conducted by Miklós Rózsa, is the longest ever composed for a film, and was highly influential in cinema for over 15 years.”-IMDB

“In 1998, the American Film Institute named it the 72nd best American film and the second best American epic film in the AFI’s 10 Top 10. In 2004, the National Film Preservation Board selected Ben-Hur for preservation by the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”-Wikipedia

“Bridge on the River Kwai” 1957             {Pictured Alec Guinness, William Holden and Jack Hawkins}

“Bridge in the River Kwai” 1957 directed by David Lean, is a war drama with 2 hours and 41 minutes. It’s the story of POWs -a British army troop, who are forced to construct a train bridge connecting Rangoon and Bangkok by the Japanese. Their head officer (Alec Guinness) is tortured for refusing the work at first but then decides to have his troop build the bridge in earnest, to help boost morale. It has great acting, suspense, and cinematography. It costarred William Holden as Lt. Shears -a POW who escapes, Jack Hawkins as Major Warden who convinces Shears to return to the bridge to blow it up and Sessue Hayakawa as the Japanese colonel Saitu who runs the prison camp. Guinness’ performance as a stubborn, proud, and courageous officer is unforgettable.

“The film uses the historical setting for the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–1943. “It was initially scripted by screenwriter Carl Foreman, who was later replaced by Michael Wilson. Both writers had to work in secret, as they were on the Hollywood blacklist and had fled to the UK in order to continue working. As a result, Pierre Boulle, who wrote the original French novel, but did not speak English, was credited and received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Many years later, Foreman and Wilson posthumously received their Oscar.  The film was widely praised, winning seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture) at the 30th” awards ceremony.

In 1997, the film was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress. It has been included on the American Film Institute’s list of best American films ever made. In 1999, the British Film Institute voted The Bridge on the River Kwai the 11th greatest British film of the 20th century.(Wikipedia)

The Ten Commandments 1956                            {Pictured (1st photo)Anne Baxter and Yul Brynner; 2nd photo (Yvonne de Carlo, Charlton Heston and John Derek }

“The Ten Commandments” 1956 runs for 3 hours and 39 minutes. This religious drama directed by Cecil B. DeMille, is based on the story of Moses. Charlton Heston played the title role. It included a stellar cast: Anne Baxter as Nefertiri, Yul Brynner as Ramses, Sir Cedric Hardwick as Pharaoh, Edward G. Robinson, Vincent Price, Debra Paget, John Derek, Yvonne DeCarlo, Nina Foch, Martha Scott, and Judith Anderson.  “It is also one of the most financially successful films ever made, grossing approximately $122.7 million (equivalent to $1.15 billion in 2019) at the box office during its initial release; it was the most successful film of 1956 and the second-highest-grossing film of the decade. According to Guinness World Records, in terms of theatrical exhibition it is the eighth most successful film of all-time when the box office gross is adjusted for inflation.
In 1999, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. ” (Wikipedia)

The acting of the intimate story of this epic holds our interest in the story of Moses and the Egyptians. Moses as a baby is rescued from the river by the Pharaoh’s sister. He is raised as a Prince of Egypt, along with Ramses. When he becomes of age, he becomes a key helper in the building of the cities of Egypt and gains favor in the eyes of Sethi the Pharaoh. Just as he is about to wed Princess Nefertiri and inherit the throne, the slave servant who saw him rescued reveals that he is actually Hebrew and not Egyptian. He sets out to find out who his family is. He works and suffers along with the other Hebrew slaves. Ramses discovers the secret too and exiles him to the desert which he manages to survive and finds a tribe. Having married one of the daughters of a tribal leader, he builds a family and one day while farming goes to Mt. Sinai and discovers the burning bush. The voice of God tells him to return to Egypt and help free the Hebrew slaves from bondage.

“Although the film crew travelled to Egypt to shoot significant portions of the Sinai, Exodus, and Red Sea sequences, most of this movie was actually shot at Paramount Pictures’ soundstages in Hollywood, California. Footage from Egypt was also used for backgrounds.

This film was innovated in its special effects like the parting of the sea. “The illusion of the Red Sea parting was achieved by large “dump tanks” that were flooded, then the film was shown in reverse. The two frothing walls of water were created by water dumped constantly into “catch basin areas”, then the foaming, churning water was visually manipulated and used sideways for the walls of water. Gelatin was added to the tanks to give the water a consistency like sea water. The dump tanks have long since been removed, but the catch basin still exists on the Paramount Pictures lot, directly in front of the exterior sky backdrop, in the central portion of the studio. It can still be flooded for water scenes. When it’s not being used in a production, it is an extension of a parking lot.”(Wikipedia)

The filming of the hailstorm as one of the plagues, that covers Egypt was filmed in this way: “The approaching hailstorm that is seen on the sky was created with travelling mattes, while animation was used for the lightning. The hailstones that fell onto the pavilion of Rameses II’s palace were actually pieces of popcorn that had been spray-painted white. Popcorn was extremely convenient as it was light, wouldn’t hurt Yul Brynner, and could be swept up and used again. The fire that emerges from the hailstones required another special effect process, double exposure. The set was cleared of all hailstones, actors, and actresses, the camera remained in the same spot (for both angles and shots), and the crew set portions of the set on fire. Footage of the two shots (the hail falling on Rameses II and the fire burning on the ground) were then superimposed to achieve the effect of flames emerging from the hail.”-IMDB

The Greatest Show on Earth 1952     {Pictured Charlton Heston and James Stewart}

“The Greatest Show on Earth” 1952 is the story of traveling circus and its people. Like most epics its cast was as epic as the film itself. It starred Charlton Heston, Betty Hutton, James Stewart, Gloria Grahame, Dorothy Lamour, and Cornel Wilde. It was produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille. “In addition to the film actors, the real Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Circus’ 1951 troupe appears in the film, with its complement of 1400 people, hundreds of animals, and 60 railroad cars of equipment and tents. The actors learned their respective circus roles and participated in the acts. The film’s story line is supported by lavish production values, actual circus acts, and documentary, behind-the-rings looks at the massive logistics effort which made big top circuses possible. The film won two Academy Awards, those being for Best Picture and Best Story, and was nominated for Best Costume Design, Best Director, and Best Film Editing. It also won Golden Globe Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Director, and Best Motion Picture – Drama.” (Wikipedia)

In order to obtain authenticity in the movie, director Cecil B. DeMille requested great effort from his cast: “He was always demanding of his actors and actresses. He insisted that everyone truly learn to perform the circus stunts they were supposed to be performing. This meant that Betty Hutton really learned the trapeze and Gloria Grahame had to let an elephant rest its foot an inch from her face. Cornel Wilde probably had it the worst, since he was portraying a high-wire artist. He was seriously afraid of heights.”-IMDB

However the stunts were all done safely: “The film’s promotional materials trumpeted the fact that each star had to master elements of his or her featured spot. This was no gimmick. The rivalry sequences between Holly (Betty Hutton) and Sebastian (Cornel Wilde) use doubles only in the long shots, while Hutton and Wilde are clearly performing the myriad stunts on their respective wires in close-ups, albeit only several feet off the ground.”

“In the decades since this film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, there has been a backlash of criticism from movie fans who believe that either High Noon (1952) or The Quiet Man (1952) should have won the Oscar for Best Picture. This is hindsight; at the time, there was no such debate. “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952) was a popular win, an epic melodrama that had swept both critics and audiences away, with a smashing set piece at its climax. To get a sense of the context, see Bosley Crowther’s rhapsodic review in the New York Times when the film opened; he points out the broad acting and the film’s overlength, but he is still over the moon about the essence of roustabout life that DeMille has so spectacularly captured.”-IMDB

The Great Escape 1960   {Pictured: Steve McQueen, Nigel Stock, Tom Adams and James Coburn}

“The Great Escape” 1963: a war drama has running time of 2 hours and 54 minutes. Like many epic films, this one employs the many talents of various actors including Steve McQueen, Nigel Stock, James Coburn, James Garner, Donald Pleasence, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, and David McCallum. The actors’ performances contributed greatly to the huge appeal of the movie. “It is based on Paul Brickhill’s 1950 nonfiction book of the same name, a firsthand account of the mass escape by British Commonwealth prisoners of war from German POW camp Stalag Luft III in Sagan (now Żagań, Poland), in the province of Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany. It was based on real events but deviated significantly from the historical record, depicting a heavily fictionalized version of the escape, including numerous compromises—such as featuring Americans among the escapees—in order to boost its commercial appeal.” (Wikipedia)
The film became very popular and emerged as one of the highest-grossing films of the year, winning McQueen the award for Best Actor at the Moscow International Film Festival and is now considered a classic. The Great Escape is also notable for its motorcycle chase scene and famous jump scene, which is considered one of the best stunts ever made.” (Wikipedia)

Interesting information on the actors: “Several cast members were actual POWs during World War II. Donald Pleasence was held in the German camp Stalag Luft I, Hannes Messemer in a Russian camp, and Til Kiwe and Hans Reiser were prisoners of the Americans. Pleasence said the set was a very accurate representation of a POW camp.”-IMDB

The barbed wire that was featured throughout the movie was created by the cast and crew members during idle periods between filming. They would take thin, five-inch strings of black rubber and knot them around other thin strings of black rubber of enormous length. The finished results of all of this knotting were the coils and fences of barbed wire we see in the film.

This movie was shot on-location in a German forest because the Bavaria Studio’s backlot was too small. The production team obtained permission from the German government to shoot in this national forest adjoining the studio. To make room for the camp set, several trees had to be bulldozed. Director John Sturges had to show the West German Minister of the Interior his plans and, to get permission to bulldoze, he had to promise to plant two seeds for every tree felled. when production was over.

“After two months shooting in the camp, the production moved to the town of Fussen near the Austrian border for post-escape scenes. Because he was already running out of money, Sturges decided to cut back on his original plan to film in several locations. Fussen had all of the elements he needed to simulate the various places where the escapees run, including nearby meadowlands to shoot the required motorcycle sequence.

“United Artists corporation wanted to shorten the film to increase the daily tickets sales. John Sturges was livid. But UA decided to make a loan on the one million dollars overage. So Sturges and Harold Mirish – UA executive – went to the Pacific National Bank. The bank board agreed, provided they could see the film before. They did and loved it but could not understand how the men got the civilians clothes before the escape. The answer to this issue was contained in the scene that UA wanted to delete from the editing. So the sequence was kept to please the bank executives and get the loan.”-IMDb

According to Sturges, the screenplay went through six writers and eleven versions, and was still a work in progress during filming. “I’m not proposing that’s a good way to make a picture, but it was the right way to make this one”, he later said.

“It is said that John Sturges did not get any Academy nominations because he was not the Hollywood type at all. He did not get votes by attending night dinners and parties. No one remembers him going to a business party. He was not gregarious.”

“Some aspects of the escape remained classified during production and were not revealed until well afterward. The inclusion of chocolate, coffee, and cigarettes in Red Cross packages is well documented, as is their use to bribe Nazi guards. Other materials useful for escaping had to be kept secret and were not included in the novel or screenplay. Also not revealed until many years later, was the fact that the prisoners actually built a fourth tunnel called “George”. “The real-life escape preparations involved six hundred men working for well over a year. The escape did have the desired effect of diverting German resources, including a doubling of the number of guards after the Gestapo took over the camp from the Luftwaffe.”-IMDb

“The real camp can be visited today in Sagan, Poland. It’s a ruin now, that’s mostly used for archaeological purpose. A replica of the camp is located forty kilometers (twenty-five miles) south, where you can enter a model of tunnel “Harry” yourself. In the movie, they confused the actual names of the tunnels.”(IMDB)

Fact: One of the masterminds for the real “great escape” was Wing Commander Harry Day. He isn’t directly portrayed in this movie, however the book, on which this movie was based, by Paul Brickhill, correctly tells his story. Arguably, his story is the most impressive of the lot, having participated in at least four other mass breakouts and two solo attempts prior to the “great escape” (twice getting free from the camp before recapture). He was one of the first out of the tunnel, but was recaptured in Stettin trying to get help to gain passage out of Germany. He was spared execution and sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp with three other escapees. There they dug another tunnel and escaped with another British officer. It’s widely believed they were the only people ever to survive an escape from that camp. All were recaptured and held in solitary confinement until being used as hostages at the end of the war. Escaping from his captives, he reached allied lines and was instrumental in securing the safe release of the other hostages.” (IMDb)

Doctor Zhivago 1965            {Pictured: Omar Scharif and Julie Christie}

“Doctor Zhivago” 1965 runs at 3 hours and 13 minutes. It’s the story of two people whose lives are changed by the Russian Revolution and the civil war that followed. One  story is that of an idealistic doctor-Dr. Zhivago played by Omar Sharif. The other is the story of Lara played Julie Christie, a young woman who is involved with a rich man (Rod Steiger), then marries a young man who is a member of the Russian reform.  Doctor Zhivago and Lara meet later and fall in love. Their story transcends the Russian Revolution, World War 1, and the Russian Civil War. Its sweeping cinematography didn’t overshadow the personal love story. It was directed by David Lean with a screenplay by Robert Bolt. “It is based on the 1957 Boris Pasternak novel Doctor Zhivago. While immensely popular in the West, the book was banned in the Soviet Union for decades. For this reason, the film could not be made in the Soviet Union and was instead filmed mostly in Spain”.  The supporting cast includes Geraldine Chaplin, Alec Guinness, Rod Steiger, Tom Courtenay, Ralph Richardson, Siobhán McKenna and Rita Tushingham.

“Contemporary critics of the time were generally disappointed, complaining of its length at over three hours and claiming that it trivialized history, but acknowledging the intensity of the love story and the film’s treatment of human themes. Over time, however, the film’s reputation has improved greatly. At the 38th Academy Awards, Doctor Zhivago won five Oscars: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design; it was nominated for five others (including Best Picture and Best Director), but lost four of these five to The Sound of Music. It also won five awards at the 23rd Golden Globe Awards including Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for Sharif.
As of 2016, it is the eighth highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. In addition, it is also one of the top ten highest-grossing films worldwide after adjusting for inflation. In 1998, it was ranked by the American Film Institute 39th on their 100 Years… 100 Movies list, and by the British Film Institute the following year as the 27th greatest British film of all time.”-Wikipedia

Spartacus 1960

{Pictured: (clockwise): John Gavin, Laurence Olivier, Peter Ustinov, Tony Curtis, Jean Simmons and Kirk Douglas.

“Spartacus” 1960 is 3 hours is 4 minutes, is about a roman gladiator played by Kirk Douglas. It is an epic historical drama film directed by Stanley Kubrick, written by Dalton Trumbo, who had been blacklisted earlier by Hollywood but brought back by Douglas. It’s based on the 1951 novel of the same title by Howard Fast. It is inspired by the life story of Spartacus, the leader of a slave revolt in antiquity, and the events of the Third Servile War. It is recognized as an intelligent epic that bring into play political machinations and slave rebellions. It stars Kirk Douglas in the title role, Laurence Olivier as the Roman general and politician Marcus Licinius Crassus, Peter Ustinov, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, as a slave trader Lentulus Batiatus, John Gavin as Julius Caesar, Jean Simmons as Varinia (spartacus’ love interest), Charles Laughton as Sempronius Gracchus, and Tony Curtis as Antoninus.

Like most epics here, it is grandiose and spectacular in scope and sequence. It is phenomenal how the directors and the rest of the crew handled the large cast and still managed to balance it out with the personal stories of the characters.

However, from the beginning there were problems: “Douglas, whose company Bryna Productions was producing the film, removed original director Anthony Mann after the first week of shooting. Kubrick, with whom Douglas had worked before, was brought on board to take over direction. It was the only film directed by Kubrick where he did not have complete artistic control. Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was blacklisted at the time as one of the Hollywood Ten. Douglas publicly announced that Trumbo was the screenwriter of Spartacus, and President-elect John F. Kennedy crossed American Legion picket lines to view the film, helping to end blacklisting by saying it was a good movie.“-IMDB

There were problems between the cinematographer and director: “Cinematographer Russell Metty walked off the set, complaining that director Stanley Kubrick was not letting him do his job. Metty was used to directors allowing him to call his own shots with little oversight, while Kubrick was a professional photographer who had shot some of his previous movies by himself. Subsequently, Kubrick did the majority of the cinematography work. Metty complained about this up until the release of the movie and even, at one point, asked to have his name removed from the credits. However, because his name stayed in the credits, when this movie was released, Metty won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, although he actually didn’t shoot most of it.”-IMDB However, Kubrick did a spectacular job.

“Stanley Kubrick spent $40,000 on the over-ten-acre gladiator camp set. On the side of the set that bordered the freeway, a 125-foot asbestos curtain was erected in order to film the burning of the camp, which was organized with collaboration from the Los Angeles Fire and Police Departments. Studio press materials state that 5,000 uniforms and seven tons of armor were borrowed from Italian museums, and that every one of Hollywood’s 187 stuntmen was trained in the gladiatorial rituals of combat to the death. Modern sources note that the production utilized approximately 10,500 people.”-IMDB

“Contrary to what the book and movie portray, the historical Spartacus was born free in Thrace, a region divided amongst modern-day Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey. He may have served in the Thracian Army or the Roman Army in Macedonia. Rome often incorporated soldiers of armies it had defeated into its own army. It is thought that he was either captured in battle, or deserted the army, and was later captured, and then sold into slavery.”-IMDB contrary to this it is mentioned that he was born free at the beginning of the film but it says he was sold into slavery at the age of 13.

“The original version included a scene where Marcus Licinius Crassus (Sir Laurence Olivier) attempts to seduce Antoninus (Tony Curtis). The Production Code Administration and the Legion of Decency both objected. At one point Geoffrey Shurlock, representing the censors, suggested it would help if the reference in the scene to a preference for oysters or snails was changed to truffles and artichokes. In the end the scene was cut, but it was put back in for the 1991 restoration. However, the soundtrack had been lost in the meantime and the dialogue had to be dubbed. Curtis was able to redo his lines, but Olivier had died. Dame Joan Plowright, his widow, remembered that Sir Anthony Hopkins had done a dead-on impression of Olivier and she mentioned this to the restoration team. They approached Hopkins and he agreed to voice Olivier’s lines in that scene. Hopkins is thanked in the credits for the restored version.”-IMDB Not knowing this one would have thought it was Sir Olivier’s voice.

The film won four Academy Awards and became the biggest moneymaker in Universal Studios’ history, until it was surpassed by Airport (1970). In 2017, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”-Wikipedia

Giant 1956   {pictured: Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor}

“Giant” 1956, an epic Western drama film is 3 h 17 minutes, directed by George Stevens from a screenplay adapted by Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffat from Edna Ferber’s 1952 novel. The film stars Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean and features Carroll Baker, Jane Withers, Chill Wills, Mercedes McCambridge, Dennis Hopper, Sal Mineo, Rod Taylor, Elsa Cardenas and Earl Holliman. Giant was the last of James Dean’s three films as a leading actor and earned him his second and last Academy Award nomination – he was killed in a car accident before the film was released. Nick Adams was called in to do some voice dubbing for Dean’s role. In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” It is an epic story about a Texas family that spans from the 1920’s to the 50’s. Its setting is in the vast Texan desert. It portrays a powerful Texas ranch family that is “challenged by changing times and the coming of big oil”.  “A major subplot concerns the racism of many Anglo-European Americans in Texas during the mid-twentieth century and the discriminatory social segregation enforced against Mexican Americans. In the first third of the film, Bick and Luz treat the Mexicans who work on their ranch condescendingly, which upsets the more socially conscious Leslie. Bick eventually comes to realize his moral shortcomings. In the last part of the movie, in a climactic scene at a roadside diner, he loses a fistfight to the racist owner but earns Leslie’s respect for defending the human rights of his brown-skinned daughter-in-law and grandson. Another subplot involves Leslie’s own striving for women’s equal rights as she defies the patriarchal social order, asserting herself and expressing her own opinions when the men talk. She protests being expected to suppress her beliefs in deference to Bick’s; this conflict leads to their temporary separation” midway through the film. (Wikipedia)

About the house: “When the production moved to Marfa, Texas, on June 6 for location filming, the Victorian mansion set was shipped from California on six train cars. The set was built on the Evans Ranch, twenty-one miles outside of Marfa, and lashed to four telephone poles to hold it upright. It was really just a façade – three walls with no back, no roof, and no interior. Interiors at the mansion and other Texas locations were filmed at Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank, California.”-IMDB

“Location filming took place for two months outside of the tiny Texas town of Marfa. Producer and director George Stevens did not have a closed set but actively encouraged the townspeople to come by, either to watch the shooting, visit with the cast and crew, or take part as extras, dialect coaches, bit players, and stagehands.”-IMDb Shooting in Texas during the summer was far from comfortable, with temperatures rising as high as one hundred twenty degrees Fahrenheit (49o C) in the shade. Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor bolstered each other’s spirits as much as possible, often staying up late drinking together. She also got along very well with James Dean and became good friends.

It was hard to work with director George Stevens, because sometimes he demanded extra takes but offered no explanation or any direction for the actors. This is one of the things that Elizabeth Taylor quarreled with him about.

“Bosley Crowther of the New York Times wrote that “George Stevens takes three hours and seventeen minutes to put his story across. That’s a heap of time to go on about Texas, but Mr. Stevens has made a heap of film.” He continued to write that “Giant, for all its complexity, is a strong contender for the year’s top-film award.”-Wikipedia

Judgement at Nuremburg 1961 

{Pictured: (clockwise) Spencer Tracy, Ray Teal, Maximillian Schell and William Shatner}

Judgment at Nuremberg is a 1961 courtroom drama film directed by Stanley Kramer, written by Abby Mann and starring Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, William Shatner, and Montgomery Clift. The acting, the writing and the directing are excellent. It’s story is full of tension and emotion. Its running time is 2h58mins.

“Set in Nuremberg, Germany in 1948, the film depicts a fictionalized version of the Judges’ Trial of 1947, one of the 12 U.S. military tribunals during the Subsequent Nuremberg trials. It centers on a military tribunal led by Chief Trial Judge Dan Haywood (Tracy), before which four German judges and prosecutors (as compared to 16 defendants in the actual Judges’ Trial) stand accused of crimes against humanity for their involvement in atrocities committed under the Nazi regime. The film deals with non-combatant war crimes against a civilian population, the Holocaust, and examines the post-World War II geopolitical complexity of the actual Nuremberg Trials. In 2013, Judgment at Nuremberg was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.”(Wikipedia)

“The film is notable for its use of courtroom drama to illuminate individual deceit and moral compromise in times of violent political upheaval; it was the first mainstream drama film not to shy from showing actual footage filmed by American and British soldiers after the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps.”(Wikipedia)

Each actor came to the set with their own issues. Spencer Tracy was able to help some of them all the while turning in, as always, a strong performance. He was already suffering from a kidney ailment and other health problems brought on by his alcoholism.  “According to numerous sources, Tracy’s climactic monologue was filmed in one take using multiple cameras. On the day Spencer Tracy gave his eleven-minute summation speech, the set at Universal Pictures was packed to the rafters with celebrities and studio executives. Stanley Kramer shot it in a single take, not because he thought breaking it up would necessarily lessen the impact of the words but because he knew he would get the maximum emotional payoff out of Tracy without having to start and stop. To be sure he had the coverage he needed without scheduling a reshoot, Kramer had the speech filmed with two cameras simultaneously from two different angles.”-IMDB

Tracy also changed his own rule of not working after 5pm. Staying on the set so that Maximilian Schell was able to deliver his lines to Tracy, as the presiding judge of the trial. He helped Montgomery Clift in the delivery of his lines. Clift was having a tough time because of his own alcoholism and Spencer understood this, having gone through it himself. “It was Spencer Tracy who eventually helped Clift through it. Perhaps drawing on his own years of alcoholism, Tracy spoke to the younger actor with sympathy but with firmness, even relaxing his own dictum about sticking strictly to the script: “Just look into my eyes and do it. You’re a great actor and you understand this guy. Stanley (Kramer the director) doesn’t care if you throw aside the precise lines. Just do it into my eyes and you’ll be magnificent.”-IMDB

Montgomery Clift Had come to the set with several problems. “He had a habit of cutting his hair very short when he was between films and would not work until it had grown back. In fact, his scene in this film was shot right after getting one of those haircuts. Kramer did think that his condition was just the right fit for his character. Clift also had so much trouble remembering his lines, the scene had to be re-shot many times. Kramer finally gave up and told Clift to ad lib his lines, saying that this would help to convey the confusion in his character’s mind while he was being questioned on the witness stand. Monty seemed to calm down after this,” Kramer later recalled. “He wasn’t always close to the script, but whatever he said fitted in perfectly, and he came through with as good a performance as I had hoped. Clift spent four days getting through the seven-minute sequence, stumbling through and performing each take differently. At the end of his last take, the set broke out into spontaneous applause. “Monty’s condition gave the performance an aura as though it were being shot through muslin, the way the words tumbled out and the disjointed, sudden bursts of lucidity out of a mumble,” Kramer said later. “It was classic! It was one of the best moments in the film!“-IMDB Clift had been very eager to do the role and offered to do it for expenses only, unfortunately most of those expenses were for alcoholic drinks. 

While Marlene Dietrich was very concerned about her age and had already had many plastic surgeries. The lighting for her was not flattering and accentuated the angles in her face. Almost every day she would march on the set and gave instructions on how she wanted to be lighted. “Marlene Dietrich had a great deal of trouble performing in the scene between Mrs. Bertholt and Judge Haywood when she claims German civilians did not know of the atrocities the Nazi government committed during the war. Dietrich, who during the war had worked for the Allies against the Nazis, found the sentiment so repulsive that she could not keep her concentration. Only after counseling by Spencer Tracy was she able to complete the scene. According to an interview with her grandson Peter Riva on the “Icons Radio Hour, “Dietrich would get physically ill (to the point of vomiting) in the evenings over this part. In a conversation with her daughter Maria Riva, Maria told her to “simply play her mother.” The fictional Mrs. Bertholt is a representation of the mother of Marlene Dietrich.”-IMDB

“On Judy Garland’s first day on the set, cast and crew greeted her with warm and lasting applause. It was a welcome return to films for her, and her mood was further elevated by the lower pressure of acting in a cameo, rather than carrying a picture as she had done in almost every film she made since childhood. Still her joyful attitude made it difficult for her to perform her dark emotional scenes. “Damn it, Stanley, I can’t do it. I’ve dried up. I’m too happy to cry,” she said. He gave her a ten-minute break before continuing to great effect. “There’s nobody in the entertainment world today, actor or singer, who can run the complete range of emotions, from utter pathos to power…the way she can,” Kramer said.”-IMDB

Judy Garland had heard of the role of the though her business partners, who also had contact with Marlene Dietrich. At first Kamer was reluctant to hire her, having heard of her inconsistent and irresponsible behavior. The difficulties in working with her due to her drug addictions but he went to see her at a concert in Dallas. He realized that she had an incredible emotional range in her performances and her audiences adored her. He reasoned that her small role would not take many films to film. She came through. She arrived on time to the set and remembered all of her lines. This film was her first since “A Star is Born” 1954 and had gained some weight but the director encouraged her not to change a thing.

Around the World in 80 Days 1956

{Pictured: Shirley Maclaine, David Niven, Mario Moreno “Cantinflas”, and Buster Keaton}

“Around the World” 1956 in 80 days is 2h 55min. It starred David Niven, and all star cast . It is an epic adventure-comedy directed by Michael Anderson and produced by Mike Todd, with Kevin McClory and William Cameron Menzies as associate producers. The screenplay, based on the classic novel of the same name by Jules Verne, was written by James Poe, John Farrow, and S.J. Perelman. The music score was composed by Victor Young, and the Todd-AO 70 mm cinematography (shot in Technicolor) was by Lionel Lindon. The film’s six-minute-long animated title sequence, shown at the end of the film, was created by award-winning designer Saul Bass. The film won 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It had many cameos from many stars.

At the time, the film was considered the biggest Hollywood project. It took 75 days to film. In order to promote the film director Mike Todd went to extremes. “To ensure that his film would stand out among the current crop of screen epics, producer Mike Todd implored theater owners to promote Around the World in 80 Days (1956) “exactly as you would a Broadway show,” i.e. reserved seats, distributing playbills before the film started, stocking soundtrack albums and hardcover souvenir programs (priced at an unfathomable $1 apiece!) for sale in the lobby, removing clocks from the theatre, and banning the sale of popcorn and concessions to prevent audiences from leaving their seats.”-IMDB

“This movie used one hundred forty sets built at six Hollywood studios, as well as sets in England, Hong Kong, and Japan. It also set several records. The cast and crew flew over four million miles. Casting included 68,894 extras in thirteen countries, and 74,685 costumes were designed, made or rented for the movie. The 1,243 extras listed on the IMDb page (and in the original program book) were only the extras who worked on the movie in Hollywood. Ninety animal handlers managed 8,552 animals (3,800 sheep, 2,448 buffalo, 950 donkeys, 800 horses, 512 monkeys, 17 bulls, 15 elephants, six skunks, and four ostriches).”

It was not filmed all over the world though. “Contrary to popular belief, production reports show that most of the movie was shot in Hollywood. A lot of exterior second unit locations were used, but most scenes were shot on soundstages in Hollywood, on the backlots of over seven major studios, including: RKO-Pathe, RKO, Universal-International, Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, and Twentieth Century Fox.”-IMDB

A Star is Born 1954    {Pictured:  Tommy Noonan and Judy Garland}

“A Star is Born” 1954 is 2 hours 34 minutes It is a dramatic movie musical starring Judy Garland and James Mason. Judy’s performance was heart breaking as a young woman whose star is rising but her husband’s own acting career is going downhill because of his drinking. It is all the more poignant because Judy was 32 and was battling her own demons of alcoholism and drugs. It is written by Moss Hart and it was directed by George Cukor. Hart’s screenplay is an adaptation of the original 1937 film, which was based on the original screenplay by Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell, and from the same story by William A. Wellman and Carson, with uncredited input from six additional writers—David O. Selznick, Ben Hecht, Ring Lardner Jr., John Lee Mahin, Budd Schulberg and Adela Rogers St. Johns. In 2000, the 1954 film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” The film ranked #43 on the American Film Institute’s 100 Years…100 Passions list in 2002 and #7 on its list of greatest musicals in 2006. The song “The Man That Got Away” was ranked #11 on AFI’s list of 100 top songs in films.”-Wikipedia

Garland had not made a film since she had negotiated release from her MGM contract soon after filming began on Royal Wedding 1950, and the film was promoted heavily as her comeback. For her performance in A Star is Born, Garland was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. NBC, which was televising the ceremony, sent a film crew to the hospital room where she was recuperating after giving birth to her son Joey in order to carry her acceptance speech live if she won, but she lost to Grace Kelly for The Country Girl.”-Wikipedia

Director George Cukor drove Garland hard to get the right emotional response but alleviated the tension with a bit of humor at the end. Judy started out fine at the beginning of the movie shoot but slowly started to lose control and started missing many days of work. Because of this it took 9 months to film. However, it was the performance of a lifetime for her.  Garland’s musical mentor Roger Edens from MGM came to help out to set up the musical numbers.

‘Groucho Marx called Judy Garland’s not winning an Oscar for A Star Is Born (1954) “the biggest robbery since Brink’s.” Hedda Hopper later reported that her loss to Grace Kelly for The Country Girl (1954) was the result of the closest Oscar vote up till that time that didn’t end in a tie, with just six votes separating the two. In any event, it was a heartbreak from which she never really recovered, and which has remained a matter of some controversy ever since.”-IMDB

It was not a box-office success and Sidney Luft (Garland’s husband at the time) and Warner Bros. lost money and the studio sued the Lufts. However, it seems that it was the fault of the studio making many cuts without the directors’ input. “In October 1954, after the film had opened and been reviewed, Harry Warner, head of the studio’s business side in New York, decided that the picture was too long. He ordered another half-hour of cuts so that exhibitors could get in one more showing per day. By this time, George Cukor was in India filming Bhowani Junction (1956), so he was unable to influence the re-editing of the film. The cuts included an entire sequence in which Norman and Esther lose touch with each other while Norman is on location. A comic scene of her getting sick on the way to her first preview was also deleted, along with two complete numbers, “Here’s What I’m Here For,” the song Esther is recording when Norman proposes to her, and “Lose That Long Face,” the number she does before and after she breaks down in her dressing room. The cuts represented most of the scenes that developed Norman and Esther’s relationship. To make matters worse, the studio melted the negative from the cut scenes to retrieve the film’s silver content. Word of the cuts hit the press and generated such a strong backlash against the film that attendance dropped precipitously. As a result, despite the film’s promising opening, it ended up losing money.”-IMDB

Lawrence of Arabia 1962    {Pictured: Peter O’Toole and Omar Schariff}

“Lawrence of Arabia” 3 h 48 mins. 1962 British epic historical drama film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence and his 1926 book Seven Pillars of Wisdom. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel, through his British company Horizon Pictures, and distributed by Columbia Pictures.  The screenplay was credited to Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. It stars Peter O’Toole in the title role and Alec Guinness as Prince Faisal. The film, a British -Horizon Pictures and American (Columbia Pictures) co-production, depicts Lawrence’s experiences in the Ottoman Empire’s provinces of Hejaz and Greater Syria during World War I, in particular his attacks on Aqaba and Damascus and his involvement in the Arab National Council. Its themes include Lawrence’s emotional struggles with the personal violence inherent in war, his own identity, and his divided allegiance between his native Britain and its army, and his new-found comrades within the Arabian desert tribes. (Some critics disagreed with the inaccurate portrayal of the Lawrence.) The film also stars Jack Hawkins, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quayle, Claude Rains and Arthur Kennedy.

“Upon release, Lawrence of Arabia was a huge financial success and was widely acclaimed by critics and audiences alike. The film’s visuals, score, screenplay and performance by Peter O’Toole have all been common points of praise; the film as a whole is widely considered a masterpiece of world cinema and one of the greatest films ever made. Additionally, its visual style has influenced many directors, including George Lucas, Sam Peckinpah, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Brian De Palma, Oliver Stone, and Steven Spielberg, who called the film a “miracle”.

The American Film Institute ranked Lawrence of Arabia 5th in its original and 7th in its updated 100 Years…100 Movies lists and first in its list of the greatest American films of the “epic” genre. In 1991, the film was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 1999, the film placed third in the British Film Institute’s poll of the best British films of the 20th century, and in 2001 the magazine Total Film called it “as shockingly beautiful and hugely intelligent as any film ever made” and “faultless”. It was ranked in the top ten films of all time in the 2002 Sight & Sound directors’ poll. In 2004, it was voted the best British film of all time by over 200 respondents in The Sunday Telegraph poll of Britain’s leading filmmakers. Additionally, O’Toole’s performance is often considered one of the greatest in all of cinema, topping lists from both Entertainment Weekly and Premiere. T. E. Lawrence, portrayed by O’Toole, was selected as the tenth-greatest hero in cinema history by the American Film Institute.

However, some critics have deemed it as “a long and tedious movie about the hero. It has beautiful cinematography, but Peter O’Toole’s acting is dull and uninspiring. He’s charismatic but a mirage. Which makes the character enigmatic, and it appealed to audiences of the time because people didn’t trust movies any longer. Its sprawling cinematography could only be appreciated on the big screen. The music added to the impressiveness of the movie. Omar Scharriff and Anthony Quinn lend strong and aggressive performances. ”

Maurice Jarre was given just six weeks to compose two hours of orchestral music for Lawrence. At the time he was an unknown composer. “The score was performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Sir Adrian Boult is listed as the conductor of the score in the film’s credits, but he could not conduct most of the score, due in part to his failure to adapt to the intricate timings of each cue, and Jarre replaced him as the conductor. The score went on to garner Jarre his first Academy Award for Music Score—Substantially Original and is now considered one of the greatest scores of all time, ranking number three on the American Film Institute’s top twenty-five film scores.”-Wikipedia

“The desert scenes were shot in Jordan and Morocco, as well as Almería and Doñana in Spain. It was originally to be filmed entirely in Jordan; the government of King Hussein was extremely helpful in providing logistical assistance, location scouting, transportation, and extras. Hussein himself visited the set several times during production and maintained cordial relationships with cast and crew. The only tension occurred when Jordanian officials learned that English actor Henry Oscar did not speak Arabic but would be filmed reciting the Quran. Permission was granted only on condition that an imam be present to ensure that there were no misquotations.

The Plaza de España, Seville appeared as Britain’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force Headquarters in Cairo, which included the officers’ club.

Director Lean planned to film in Aqaba and the archaeological site at Petra, which Lawrence had been fond of as a place of study. However, the production had to be moved to Spain due to cost and outbreaks of illness among the cast and crew before these scenes could be shot. The attack on Aqaba was reconstructed in a dried riverbed in Playa del Algarrobico, southern Spain; it consisted of more than 300 buildings and was meticulously based on the town’s appearance in 1917. The execution of Gasim, the train attacks, and Deraa exteriors were filmed in the Almería region, with some of the filming being delayed because of a flash flood. The Sierra Nevada mountains filled in for Azrak, Lawrence’s winter quarters. The city of Seville was used to represent Cairo, Jerusalem, and Damascus, with the appearance of Casa de Pilatos, the Alcázar of Seville, and the Plaza de España. All of the interiors were shot in Spain, including Lawrence’s first meeting with Faisal and the scene in Auda’s tent. The Tafas massacre was filmed in Ouarzazate, Morocco, with Moroccan army troops substituting for the Turkish army; however, Lean could not film as much as he wanted because the soldiers were uncooperative and impatient.”

As with many epic films there were manysnags. “The film’s production was frequently delayed because shooting commenced without a finished script. Wilson quit early in the production, and playwright Beverley Cross worked on the script in the interim before Bolt took over, although none of Cross’s material made it to the final film. A further mishap occurred when Bolt was arrested for taking part in an anti-nuclear weapons demonstration, and Spiegel had to persuade him to sign a recognizance of good behavior to be released from jail and continue working on the script.

“O’Toole was not used to riding camels and found the saddle to be uncomfortable. During a break in filming, he bought a piece of foam rubber at a market and added it to his saddle. Many of the extras copied the idea and sheets of the foam can be seen on many of the horse and camel saddles. The Bedouin nicknamed O’Toole “‘Ab al-‘Isfanjah” (أب الإسفنجة), meaning “Father of the Sponge”. During the filming of the Aqaba scene, O’Toole was nearly killed when he fell from his camel, but it fortunately stood over him, preventing the horses of the extras from trampling him. Coincidentally, a very similar mishap befell the real Lawrence at the Battle of Abu El Lissal in 1917.”

Lawrence of Arabia was nominated for ten Oscars at the 35th Academy Awards in 1963; it won seven, including Best Picture and Best Director. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama and the BAFTA Awards for Best Film and Outstanding British Film. In the years since, it has been recognized as one of the greatest and most influential films in the history of cinema. The dramatic score by Maurice Jarre and the Super Panavision 70 cinematography by Freddie Young are also highly acclaimed.

The Greatest Story Ever Told 1965     {Pictured: Max von Sydow}

“The Greatest Story Ever Told” was directed by George Stevens. It took 2 years to write the screenplay. It was adapted from a 1947 radio series  which was from adapted a 1949 novel by Fulton Oursler, a senior editor at Reader’s Digest.  “Max von Sydow said that the hardest part about playing Christ was the expectations people had of him to remain in character at all times. He could not smoke between takes, have a drink after work, or be affectionate with his wife on the set.”-IMDB

“Producer and director Stevens habitually took at least one whole year over the editing of his movies, once he had achieved complete artistic control over them. He usually shot dozens of takes of each scene, varying his camera angles from take to take, so that he would have a great deal of choice in the editing suite. In this case, so much footage was amassed that the movie’s opening date, originally planned for Christmas of 1964, had to be postponed because the editing was not completed, even though he had finished shooting in the late summer of 1963. The movie opened at Easter of 1965 with a running time of three hours and forty-five minutes, making it one of the longest movies of all time. It was re-cut several times subsequently, and this version has not been seen since the 1960s.”-IMDB

“Stevens shot this movie in the American Southwest, in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah. Pyramid Lake in Nevada represented the Sea of Galilee, Lake Moab in Utah was used to film the Sermon on the Mount, and California’s Death Valley was the setting of Jesus’ forty-day journey into the wilderness. Stevens explained his decision to use the United States rather than in the Middle East or Europe in 1962. “I wanted to get an effect of grandeur as a background to Christ, and none of the Holy Land areas shape up with the excitement of the American Southwest”, he said. “I know that Colorado is not the Jordan, nor is Southern Utah Palestine. But our intention is to romanticize the area and it can be done better here.” Forty-seven sets were constructed, on-location and in Hollywood studios, to accommodate Stevens’ vision.”-IMDB

However, “during filming, the first snowstorm to hit Arizona in decades buried the whole Jerusalem set. Several hundred cast and crew members, including producer and director George Stevens, went out with snow shovels, wheelbarrows, bulldozers, and butane flamethrowers to clear the set. Just as they were done, it snowed again, even harder than before. Production moved to Desilu Studios in Hollywood.”-IMDb

The major roles in the movie were these:

• Max von Sydow as Jesus
• Dorothy McGuire as the Virgin Mary
• Charlton Heston as John the Baptist
• Claude Rains as Herod the Great
• José Ferrer as Herod Antipas
• Telly Savalas as Pontius Pilate
• Martin Landau as Caiaphas
• David McCallum as Judas Iscariot
• Donald Pleasence as “The Dark Hermit” (a personification of Satan)
• Michael Anderson Jr. as James the Less
• Roddy McDowall as Matthew
• Joanna Dunham as Mary Magdalene
• Joseph Schildkraut as Nicodemus
• Ed Wynn as “Old Aram”
• Many well-known actors participated in this film, even in smaller roles. Among the notable names included were: Carroll Baker, Robert Blake, Pat Boone, Richard Conte, Jamie Farr, Van Heflin, Angela Lansbury, Robert Loggia, Sal Mineo, Nehemiah Persoff, Sidney Poitier, Paul Stewart, John Wayne, and Shelley Winters. Richard Bakalyan and Marc Cavell, in uncredited roles, played the thieves crucified with Jesus.

Fiddler on the Roof 1971 {Pictured: Paul Michael Glaser, Michele Marsh and Chaim Topol as Tevye}

Although “Fiddler on the Roof” 1971 was made in the after years of the studio years, it still stands as a great musical comedy drama epic. “It was directed by Norman Jewison from an adaptation of the 1964 Broadway musical of the same name, with music composed by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and screenplay by Joseph Stein based on stories by Sholem Aleichem. Starring Chaim Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Molly Picon, and Paul Mann, the film centers on Tevye, the father of five daughters, and his attempts to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences encroach upon the family’s lives. He must cope both with the strong-willed actions of his three eldest daughters, who wish to marry for love – each one’s choice of a husband moves further away from the customs of his faith – and with the edict of the Tsar who evicts the Jews from the town of Anatevka.”

“Throughout the film, Tevye talks to God and directly to the audience, breaking the fourth wall. In these monologues, Tevye ponders tradition, the difficulties of being poor, the Jewish community’s constant fear of violence from their non-Jewish neighbors, and important family decisions.”

“The film was released to critical acclaim and won three Academy Awards, including Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score for arranger-conductor John Williams. It was nominated for 8 awards,  including Best Picture, Best Actor for Topol as Tevye, and Best Supporting Actor for Frey, who played Motel Kamzoil the Tailor. Topol and Frey had performed in stage productions of the musical; Topol as Tevye in the London production and Frey in a minor part as Mendel, the rabbi’s son, on Broadway.”(WIKIPEDIA)

Filming the play opened the possibilities of making the scenes more real. “Director Norman Jewison was brought into the project by executives at United Artists who thought he was Jewish. His first words to the executives upon meeting them were, “You know I’m not Jewish, right?”(IMDB)

“It was shot in an unusual way. “To get the look he wanted for the film, director Norman Jewison told director of photography Oswald Morris, who was famous for shooting color films in unusual styles, to shoot the film in an earthy tone. Morris saw a woman wearing brown nylon hosiery, and thought; “that’s the tone we want,” and asked the woman for the stockings on the spot (and shot the entire film with a stocking over the lens). The weave can be detected in some scenes.”(IMDB) As a result Morris won the Oscar for Best cinematography. However ‘he was unable to attend the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles as the producers of the film he was currently working on would not give him any time off. He was awakened in the early hours of the morning in London by a telephone call from producer Walter Mirisch who told him he had just won.”-IMDb

“It was only because President Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia was a huge movie fan that he allowed the film to be made in his country. His Russian counterparts were less pleased, as the film is openly critical of the pogroms.”(IMDB) “Principal photography was done at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England. Most of the exterior shots were done in Yugoslavia—specifically in Mala Gorica, Lekenik, and Zagreb within the Yugoslav constituent republic of Croatia. Though the area was under heavy snow during location scouting in 1969, during the filming the producers had to ship in marble dust to stand in for snow. Three hundred extras conversant in various foreign languages were used, as were flocks of geese and pigs and their handlers. Isaac Stern performed the violin solos.”-Wikipedia

“Topol was only in his mid-30’s when he performed the role of an older Tevye”. So, “in order to make Topol look older, the makeup team clipped 15 white hairs from director Norman Jewison’s beard and applied them to Topol’s eye brows (seven on the left, eight on the right).”-IMDB

“Fiddler on the Roof was theatrically released on November 3, 1971, by United Artists to critical and commercial success. Reviewers praised Jewison’s direction, the screenplay, and the performances of the cast, while the film grossed $83.3 million worldwide on a $9 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1971. -Wikipedia

“The Longest Day” 1962

“The Longest Day” 1962 is an epic war film based on Cornelius Ryan’s 1959 non-fiction of the same name.” It covers the invasion of Normandy on D-Day by the allies on June 6, 1944. “The film was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, who paid author Ryan $175,000 for the film rights. The screenplay was by Ryan, with additional material written by Romain Gary, James Jones, David Pursall, and Jack Seddon. It was directed by Ken Annakin (British and French exteriors), Andrew Marton (American exteriors), and Bernhard Wicki (German scenes).

Of all of the epics so far, I think this one was by far the more complicated to make.

The Longest Day features a large international ensemble cast including John Wayne, Kenneth More, Richard Todd, Robert Mitchum, Richard Burton, Steve Forrest, Sean Connery, Henry Fonda, Red Buttons, Peter Lawford, Eddie Albert, Jeffrey Hunter, Stuart Whitman, Tom Tryon, Rod Steiger, Leo Genn, Gert Fröbe, Irina Demick, Bourvil, Curd Jürgens, George Segal, Robert Wagner, Paul Anka, and Arletty. Many of these actors played roles that were essentially cameo appearances. In addition, several cast members had seen action as servicemen during the war, including Albert, Fonda, Genn, More, Steiger, and Todd; Todd was among the first British officers to land in Normandy in Operation Overlord, and he participated in the assault on Pegasus Bridge, in real life.”-Wikipedia

The film employed several Axis and Allied military consultants who had been actual participants on D-Day, and many had their roles re-enacted in the film. These included Günther Blumentritt (a former German general), James M. Gavin (an American general), Frederick Morgan (Deputy Chief of Staff at SHAEF), John Howard (who led the airborne assault on the Pegasus Bridge), Lord Lovat (who commanded the 1st Special Service Brigade), Philippe Kieffer (who led his men in the assault on Ouistreham), Marie-Pierre Kœnig (who commanded the Free French Forces in the invasion), Max Pemsel (a German general), Werner Pluskat (the major who was the first German officer to see the invasion fleet), Josef “Pips” Priller (the hot-headed pilot), and Lucie Rommel (widow of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel).

One of the first World War II films made by an American studio in which the members of each country spoke nearly all their dialogue in the language of that country: the Germans spoke German, the French spoke French, and the Americans and the British spoke English. There were subtitles on the bottom of the screen to translate the various languages. There were two versions of this movie, one where all the actors spoke English and the other (the better known one) where the French and German actors spoke their respective languages.”-Wikipedia

“Zanuck’s editor friend Elmo Williams wrote a film treatment, which piqued the producer’s interest and made him attach Williams to “The Longest Day” as associate producer and coordinator of battle episodes. Cornelius Ryan was brought in to write the script but had conflicts with Zanuck as soon as the two met. Williams was forced to act as a mediator; he would deliver Ryan’s script pages to Zanuck, then return them with the latter’s annotations. While Ryan developed the script, Zanuck also brought in other writers for cleanups for the various nationalities, including James Jones for the Americans, Romain Gary for the French, Noël Coward for the British and Erich Maria Remarque for the Germans. As their contributions to the finished screenplay were relatively minor, Ryan managed to get the screenplay credit after an appeal to the Writers Guild arbitration, but the four other writers are credited for “additional scenes” in the closing credits.”

The film won two Academy Awards -one for Best Special Effects Robert MacDonald and Jacques Maumont and the other for Best Black and white Cinematography Jean Bourgoin and Walter Wottitz and was nominated for three others-Best Picture, best Black and White Art direction, and Best Film Editing.

“Cleopatra” 1963

“Cleopatra” 1963 was a huge epic and by some accounts a huge disappointment. It was deemed too long, costly and it took a long to make with a lot of production problems along the way. It runs at 4 hours 11 minutes. It was a box office success but it was so costly, Fox studios only recouped their loss by selling the television rights to ABC in the 60’s: “This movie is widely regarded as one of the biggest flops of all time. It actually was the highest-grossing movie of 1963, making it and “The Bible: In the Beginning…” (1966) the only two movies to be the highest-grossing of their respective years, yet still ran at a loss. Once it opened, it was sold out for the next four months. In 1966, ABC paid Twentieth Century Fox a record $5 million for two showings of the movie, a deal that put the movie in the black. If it hadn’t suffered all of its false starts, reshoots, and delays, the movie could have been brought in for less than half of what the studio ended up spending. If its final cost had been in the $15-24 million range (which would have bought all of the production value that did end up on-screen), it would have been enormously profitable. In the end, production was a debacle because the studio, under the leadership of Spyros P. Skouras, was inept and unprepared. Television and home video revenue finally allowed the movie to turn a profit.”

“It was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, with a screenplay adapted by Mankiewicz, Ranald MacDougall and Sidney Buchman from the 1957 book The Life and Times of Cleopatra by Carlo Maria Franzero, and from histories by Plutarch, Suetonius, and Appian. It stars Elizabeth Taylor in the famous role.”(Wikipedia) Richard Burton is Mark Antony, Rex Harrison is Julius Caesar, Roddy McDowall is Octavian, and Martin Landau is Rufio.

The making of the film wallowed in rewrites, delays, production costs, Liz Taylor, at one point had to be hospitalized for exhaustion. Initially, they had been filming at Pinewood studios, England. The idea for the movie started when producer Walter Wanger had thought about for a long time making a biographical film about Cleopatra. “In 1958, his production company partnered with Twentieth Century Fox to produce the film. Following an extensive casting search, Elizabeth Taylor signed on to portray the title role for a record-setting salary of $1 million. Rouben Mamoulian (director of “Blood and Sand”) was hired as director, and the script underwent numerous revisions from Nigel Balchin, Dale Wasserman, Lawrence Durrell, and Nunnally Johnson. In the end Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed and helped to write the script with Ranald MacDougall and Sidney Buchman. Mamoulian walked off of the project.

Adding to the production delays, “the cold winter made Taylor sick and she contracted pneumonia.” so the filming was moved to Cinecittà, where filming resumed on September 25, 1961, without a finished shooting script. Then rumors broke out that Taylor was having an affair with Richard Burton. “The Vatican denounced her for it.”(Wikipedia) Flocks of fans came to view the making of the movie and to see them, which hindered the filming.

‘The scene showing Cleopatra’s navy required huge numbers of boats and ships. It was said at the time that Twentieth Century Fox had the world’s third largest navy.”

Writer and director Joseph L. Mankiewicz was fired during post-production, due to the quarrels with the then-newly reinstalled Fox President Darryl F. Zanuck over the nature of editing the movie’s length. Since he wrote the script as he was shooting, Twentieth Century Fox soon realized that only Mankiewicz knew how the story fit together. He was then brought back to complete the project.” Later, he quipped that it was “the toughest 3 pictures” he ever made.”

“It received nine nominations at the 36th Academy Awards, including for Best Picture, and won four: Best Art Direction (Color), Best Cinematography (Color), Best Visual Effects and Best Costume Design (Color).”-Wikipedia

Exodus 1960

Exodus 1960 is an “epic historical drama film based on the founding of the State of Israel. Produced and directed by Otto Preminger.” The movie was based on the 1958 novel Exodus by Leon Uris. The screenplay was written by Dalton Trumbo. It features an ensemble cast, and a celebrated music soundtrack written by Ernest Gold.

While it has been usually labeled a “Zionist epic”, the film has been identified by many commentators as having been enormously influential in stimulating Zionism and support for Israel in the United States. While Preminger’s film softened the anti-British and anti-Arab sentiment of the novel, the movie remains controversial for its depiction of the Arab Israeli conflict. Preminger openly hired screenwriter Trumbo, who had been on the Hollywood blacklist for over a decade for being a Communist and forced to work under assumed names. Together with Spartacus, also written by Trumbo, Exodus is credited with ending the practice of blacklisting in the US motion picture industry.”-Wikipedia

“Exodus” was filmed on location in Israel and Cyprus. Although filming key elements of the movie on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus was authentic, as it was the location of the British internment camps for Jewish refugees trying to reach Palestine, it was difficult because the island was in the middle of a Greek insurgency against British rule, led by the Greek nationalist organization EOKA. EOKA was considered a terrorist organization by the British authorities in Cyprus, who were opposed to the filming of a movie on an island that seemed to combine anti-British sentiments with a storyline that appeared to show that terrorist action could be successful. As a result, the British authorities refused to help Preminger with the logistical side of filming. The only assistance given by the British authorities was the placement of an armed guard on the large number of decommissioned rifles used as props in the film, to prevent them from falling into the hands of EOKA and being recommissioned.”-Wikipedia

“Relations between the director and actors were difficult, particularly with the male lead,” Paul Newman. Newman had made some suggestions to the script, but they were rejected by the director Preminger. In addition, Preminger had chewed him out for making the suggestions. so in retaliation, “Newman hid a mannequin on a high balcony on which he was due to play out a fight scene. At the end of the scene, Newman pretended to stumble, and threw the mannequin over the balcony. Not realizing this was a practical joke, Preminger collapsed and required medical attention. At other times, Preminger and Newman were barely on speaking terms.

Uris was originally signed to write a screenplay of the film, but Preminger rejected his script as excessively anti-British and anti-Arab. Preminger instead hired blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo, with whom he collaborated on a script in forty days. Trumbo who had never visited Israel, had some errors, such as locating the site of the Acre prison break, located in a coastal city, as taking place in the middle of the desert. Trumbo also made fewer use of Biblical themes than Uris had wanted. His biographer wrote that Trumbo refused “to go back to Old Testament times and follow the Jews through the centuries of the Diaspora and the horror of the Holocaust.” Trumbo and Preminger did not share Uris’s preoccupation with history as molding the Israeli national character.”-Wikipedia

40 Strong Women’s Roles by AJ Sosa

Women’s roles…sometimes when people think of women’s roles in old movies, they think of women as being portrayed as dumb blondes, ditsy dames, scatterbrained heiresses, weepy and weak willed, always dominated by men, the proverbial damsel in distress or just sex symbols. Well, I would like to prove those ideas wrong. Now, if you have seen enough of these old movies, you know as well as I do that this is not necessarily the case. There were many strong actresses during that time and many strong roles that left an indelible impression on the viewers. While on the silver screen, they were dressed in stylish, glamorous, elegant fashions, a lot of these actresses showed the inner strength of their character.  Their roles varied; they portrayed reporters, unmarried mothers, head of households, intelligent career women, conniving femmes fatales, women struggling through life, and of course women in love. In this article, I will focus on these roles, not necessarily the actress herself, that is another topic altogether. Some of these roles are memorable and some unfortunately have been forgotten. Some actresses were fortunate, they had many strong roles. Sometimes, most times it wasn’t just luck. It was hard earned. Regardless, it was a difficult choice to make but these are the roles that left an everlasting impression:

 

1.

Norma Shearer as Queen “Marie Antoinette” in the film of the same name released in 1938. In this film Norma portrays the ill fated queen of France as a young romantic girl who is married off to King Louis XVI, who is not really social or bright in politics. Norma’s interpretation of this role is touching. She goes from an ingénue to the life of the party in the French court all the while ignorant of the anger and hatred building up in the people. She is able to show the mature growth of the Queen, as her world crumbles around her. As you watch this film you can’t help but feel that she truly embodies the spirit of Queen Marie Antoinette. Perhaps, this is because she herself, was queen of the MGM lot while her husband-Irving G. Thalberg was alive. When he died at the young age of 37 in 1936, Norma was determined to see his last and final project through. “The film was the last project of Irving Thalberg who died in 1936 while it was in the planning stage. His widow Norma Shearer remained committed to the project even while her enthusiasm for her film career in general was waning following his death.”-Wikipedia It was her favorite role.

2.

“His Girl Friday” 1940: If there ever was a film from the past that presented an intelligent, career woman, it would be that of Rosalind Russell as Hildy Johnson, ace reporter trying to leave journalism in order to have a “normal” married life. However that is easily said than done. Her former boss and ex husband Cary Grant refuses to give her up. As she inadvertently gets involved in a death row case, she realizes that being a journalist really is her life. Her character is intelligent, strong willed and street smart. In real life, behind the scenes, Rosalind had to hire her own writer in order to out banter Grant’s character who seemed to be getting better lines. Many actresses were offered the role, but turned it down.  “Howard Hawks then turned to Rosalind Russell. During filming, Russell noticed that Hawks treated her like an also-ran, so she confronted him: “You don’t want me, do you? Well, you’re stuck with me, so you might as well make the most of it.”-Wikipedia

3.

“The Good Earth” 1938: It must be a challenge to play a woman so different from yourself, especially if she is of another ethnicity and from another time. Luise Rainier did a beautiful job of portraying a Chinese peasant woman who lived in the days when China was ruled by emperors. Her interpretation and that of her costar Paul Muni as well, was never comical, never stereotypical and always respectful, so that all you see is the humanity of this couple as they try to survive poverty, migration, droughts, revolution, starvation and other love interests. In the end, she is honored by her husband as he realizes that without her he could have done nothing in life. She epitomizes the sacrifice a lot of women have made for their husbands and or families. Her performance is  moving.

4.

When Jane Wyman received the Best Actress Oscar for her role of a deaf mute girl, who is raped in “Johnny Belinda” 1948, she reportedly said, “I accept this award gratefully for keeping my mouth shut for once. I think I’ll do it again.” Indeed, it was a well received award. This is a woman who struggles to survive in her silent world. No one really seems to understand her or what she is living through. Her portrayal is sensitive without being overly melodramatic nor weak.  Tragedy befalls her but in the end she triumphs. She was the first person in the sound era to win an acting Oscar without speaking a line of dialogue.”-Wikipedia

5.

As a change of pace, and also because it truly is an unforgettable role- the beautiful Gene Tierney starred as the ice cold, selfish, murderess in the Technicolor film noir- “Leave Her to Heaven” 1945. Who could forget how she idly sits in a row boat as she lets her first victim drown? You could almost see the wheels turning in her mind as this beauty deviously plans her next move to keep her husband to herself. It is truly astounding. It was a a change of pace for her after having been played mostly nice women.

6.

 

Bette Davis as “Jezebel” 1938 some say that this role was given to Bette as an audition for Scarlett O’Hara, other stories say that it was a compensation for her, for not winning the role.  Another story says that David O. Selznick never really considered her. Nevertheless, this was one of Davis’ many strong roles. It was actually based on a 1933 stage play. “It’s about a head strong young southern woman whose actions cause her to lose the man she loves.”-Wikipedia She goes against societies’ norms of the antebellum period. Her fiancée played by Henry Fonda, does not stand for her capriciousness and leaves her.  She tries to win him back but it is too late. It is said that this film finally established Bette as a leading lady. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for this role.

7.

If there ever was an example of an injustice of not receiving the Oscar for Best Actress it would be the case of Gloria Swanson, Queen of the silent films who made a comeback in the film noir “Sunset Boulevard” 1950 for which she was nominated. While Judy Holliday, the recipient of the Oscar, gave a very funny performance as the not -so- dumb, dumb blonde in “Born Yesterday”, it was Swanson’s tragic yet memorable performance as the secluded ex film star  that haunts you after you’ve seen the film. She sits in her old mansion, longing for the days of her fame as the world passes her by. She embroils a young screen writer, played by William Holden, into her delapidated world. She becomes possessive of him. She wants to be loved and accepted so she plans her come back.

8.

At the same time in 1950, Judy Holliday gave a very funny performance as the not-so-dumb, dumb blonde. She played the Oscar winning role in “Born Yesterday” 1950, in a very endearing and charming way. By sheer coincidence William Holden, who had costarred with Gloria Swanson, her rival for the Oscar, in “Sunset Boulevard, was also Judy’s leading man. This time he’s hired by her bullying boyfriend (Broderick Crawford) to be her tutor and of course they fall in love. Not only does she gain book smarts but she also gains a sense of self worth, which she didn’t have before, thus enabling her to fight back against her loud mouthed boyfriend and stand up for herself.

9. 

Sometimes the best roles are the roles that aren’t glamorous. Case in point, Olivia de Havilland had two such roles. The first one as Catherine Sloper in “The Heiress” 1949. She may have been an heiress but she was extremely shy and plain. Her father’s talk of how beautiful her mother was and how she isn’t, contributes to her low self esteem. He believes no man could love her for her personality alone, that is why he doubts Montgomery Clift’s attentions and intentions, when he comes courting her. He sees that he is a fortune hunter. Catherine only sees her love, her hope, the man that could set her free from her emotionally abusive father. She wants to believe she is lovable. However, things go very wrong for her when her father threatens to disinherited if she elopes. In the end de Havilland’s character turns cold and cruel, just like her father.

10.

The other amazing role for Olivia de Havilland was in “Snake Pit” 1948. De Havilland gives a powerful performance as a woman who doesn’t know why she’s in an insane asylum. She doesn’t remember her erratic behavior. She struggles to understand her situation with the help of her doctor. It’s an astounding look at mental institutions and how patients were handled. The rest of the cast is just as astounding because their portrayals are just as realistic.

11.

Lana Turner best known as the sweater girl, or for being discovered at a counter at Schwabb’s Pharmacy had her best and memorable as the icy cool femme fatale in “The Postman Always Rings Twice” 1945 with John Garfield.

12. Ingrid Bergman is one of those great actresses who gave a lot of memorable performances. It’s hard to choose which of her roles was the best example of a portrayal of a strong woman but if I had to really choose, it would come down to this one: as Paula in 1944’s “Gaslight”. Based somewhat on the British stage play, “Gaslight” is about a woman who is slowly and systematically being driven insane by her husband (Played by Charles Boyer-also in one of his best roles, as well). Bergman as Paula goes from a romantic young woman to a confused and unstable wife to a nervous and unwitting victim of mental and emotional abuse.

13.

“Caged” 1950 with Eleanor Parker is another movie that shows the metamorphosis of a woman. This time it’s a young woman going through the prison system after being accused of a petty crime. Parker’s performance is very  sympathetic. You know she’s guilty but you can’t help but root for her. You want her to get out and you want her to do well in life after prison but the system has changed her and not helped her much. It’s brutal and sometimes harsh to watch. If I’m not mistaken, it was the first time the women’s prison system was featured on film.

14. 

“Of Human Bondage” 1934, the film that finally justified Bette’s talent as an actress and gave her, her breakthrough role. Before this role, she had been given light roles in light films. She was under contract to Jack L. Warner and she harassed him to let her do this film at RKO. Warner was “afraid” it would ruin her “glamourous image”. “An evil heroine such as Mildred was really unheard of in that day. J.L. could not possibly understand any actress who would want to play such a part”, Davis said.” finally, the studio traded Davis for Irene Dunne for a musical film. She hired a Cockney maid, so that she could learn the accent. The British cast did not like that an American had been cast and Leslie Howard was not really interested until he was informed that Davis was doing an excellent job.  “Davis designed her own makeup for the scenes depicting the final stages of Mildred’s illness, changed from syphilis to tuberculosis to satisfy the demands of the Hays Code.
“I made it very clear that Mildred was not going to die of a dread disease looking as if a deb had missed her noon nap. The last stages of consumption, poverty and neglect are not pretty and I intended to be convincing-looking. We pulled no punches and Mildred emerged … as starkly real as a pestilence.””-Wikipedia Davis was so nervous about her performance, she couldn’t go to the premiere. Her mother and her husband went and the performance was so intense that they weren’t sure if the role would make or break her. The critics hailed her acting. Meanwhile the studio was embarrassed that it was made at another studio.

15. 

Anna Magnani was stupendous in “The Rose Tattoo” 1955 as a widow who is having a hard time getting on with life after the death of her husband. She has to deal with nosy and gossipy neighbors, a daughter who is ready to leave the nest, the idea that her husband may have been unfaithful to her, and the prospect of starting over with another man.

16.

“The Children’s Hour” 1961 with Audrey Hepburn, James Garner and Shirley MacLaine. Based on the 1934 play, about two school teachers having a lesbian relationship, just that subject matter was surprising. The sensitive portrayals of Hepburn and MacLaine made the movie unforgettable.

17. 

Jane Darwell as the strong matriarch trying to keep her family together in “The Grapes of Wrath” 1940. She is every mom. When the father’s strength gives out, she’s the one that keeps the family together in the face of adversity.

18. 

Norma Shearer as “A Free Soul” 1931 is described as “pre-Code drama film that tells the story of an alcoholic San Francisco defense attorney (Lionel Barrymore) who must defend his daughter’s (Shearer) ex-boyfriend (Leslie Howard) on a charge of murdering the mobster (Clark Gable) she had a relationship with, a mobster whom her father had previously got an acquittal for on a murder charge.” Perhaps because it was a pre-code film, Shearer’s portrayal of a sexually liberated woman was daring for its time.

19. ”

“Safe in Hell” 1931 Dorothy Mackaill as the runaway fugitive trying to escape justice for a crime she thinks she committed. Unfortunately Mackaill is almost forgotten now but she was one of the best and most popular actresses of the 20’s and early 30’s.

20.

Another strong role for Bette Davis was in “Now, Voyager” 1942 as an introverted, painfully shy, dominated daughter of a possessive mother who ends up in therapy and afterwards becomes self assured and confident and of course glamourous and finds true love.

21.

Shirley Booth in “Come Back, Little Sheba” as the long suffering wife of a recovering alcoholic. She has a lot to deal with but she never fails to keep her optimism.

22. 

Both Bette Davis and Anne Baxter in “All About Eve” 1950. Davis as the diva who will not be unseated from her “throne” in the theater and Baxter as the conniving new actress.

23. 

Janet Gaynor whose role in “A Star is Born” 1937 as a star on the rise. It is ironic because at the time of this film, she had lost box office appeal, whereas her character’s was on the way up. This film was a comeback for her but after 2 or more films she retired to get married and have a family. Back in the 1920’s and early  1930’s, her career was at its peak then it started to go down because of lack of good parts from her studio 20th Century Fox, who had more interest in Shirley Temple and Loretta Young. In this film she is funny and dramatic. The other irony is that her costar’s, Fredric March, career was at its height.

24. 

Linda Darnell, Jeanne Crain and Ann Sothern, all three ladies have memorable roles of their own but in this film of “A Letter to Three Wives” 1949 they show how funny they can be and what good dramatic actresses they are.

25. 

Joanne Woodward’s role as a woman with multiple personalities disorder was surprising and well done in “The Three Faces of Eve” 1957. She won her only Academy Award for this memorable role.

26.

“The Women” 1939 was a funny, glamourous, dramatic and remarkable movie. The ultimate women’s movie…a movie about women with an all star female cast. Among the talent: Paulette Godard, Joan Crawford, Rosalind and Russel and Norma Shearer.

27.

“Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife” 1938 Claudette Colbert was one of the few actresses who could handle comedy as well as drama. This screwball romantic comedy is one of the best examples of her ability to do comedy.

28. 

“The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek” 1944 Betty Hutton was a great comedy actress and she was at her best in this very funny film by Preston Sturges. she had great physical ability.

29. 

Lauren Bacall won Humphrey Bogart’s heart and ours with her sultry look. The perfect heroine in many film noir but it was her introductory role in “To Have and Have Not” 1944 that set her up. Her maturity in handling the role was perfect, she was only 19 and she was nervous that’s why she would give that look to the camera.

30.

Audrey Hepburn in “Roman Holiday” 1950 was charming and beautiful as the runaway princess. In later roles she cemented her acting ability.

31. 

Dorothy McGuire was heartbreaking as the mother and sole bread winner of a tenement family in New York at turn the turn of the century in “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” 1945. But it was Peggy Ann Garner as the dreamy young girl wanting a better life that gives the movie its emotional depth. The relationship between mother and daughter is turbulent and sad.

32. 

Barbra Stanwyck had many good roles, why this one? Because just like Claudette Colbert, she was equally adept at comedy and drama. In “The Lady Eve” 1941, Stanwyck was hilarious as the conniving con artist out to get shy scientist Henry Fonda, who couldn’t win against Stanwyck’s feminine wiles.

33.

But in “Sorry, Wrong Number” 1948 Barbra Stanwyck is unsurpassable as the terrified woman who overhears a murder plot on a telephone. This film showcases clearly her emotional range.

34.

“Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” 1936 Jean Arthur usually played career girls. In this film as well as in many others she brought warmth to her tough girl image. She was charming and intelligent.

35. 

“Song of Bernadette” 1943 Jennifer Jones gentle and believable as Bernadette Soubirous, the young girl who saw the vision of the Virgin Mary over the course of several months in 1858. This was not the first film for her. “Jones had made other films before this, but only under her real name, Phyllis Isley. In an effort to make the public believe that she was “discovered” for this film, her screen credit reads “and introducing Jennifer Jones as Bernadette.””-IMDB

36.Aca

“I want to Live” 195 when Susan Hayward won the Academy Award for Best Actress, it is said that her director said “Now, we can all relax Suzy won the Oscar. Hayward had many great performances but this one was her best as the convicted prostitute of a murder she insists she was not a part of. Her portrayal was intense and heart breaking as she says good bye to her son. “Hollywood writer Robert Osborne, who later became the host of Turner Classic Movies, interviewed Hayward and asked whether or not she believed Barbara Graham had been innocent. According to Osborne, the actress seemed hesitant to answer at first, but ultimately admitted that her research on the evidence and letters in the case led her to believe that the woman she played was guilty.”Wikipedia

37. 

“Kitty Foyle” 1939 was the dramatic role that helped Ginger Rogers move away from musicals. She played the role of a working girl, who’s in love with a rich young man who won’t commit because he’s afraid of his family. He purses her for many years until she finally meets a doctor who saves her from continuing down the wrong path with the wrong man.

 

38.

“The Miracle Worker” 1962 Both Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke had played their respective roles as Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller on stage. Their film director fought for both of them to reprise their role in the movie. Their roles were emotionally and physically demanding. They brought intensity to the story.

39.

Joan Crawford as “Mildred Pierce” 1945 was her comeback role. At the time she had already been labeled box office poison and had left MGM by mutual agreement. She campaigned hard for the role and the director Michael Curtiz tried to get other actresses but no one would sign. It is said she came into the audition with shoulder pads. After seeing the screen test the director gave in. This film also showcased the strong performance of Ann Blyth, who at that time had participated in musicals and good girl roles for Universal. Blyth’s turn as a cold hearted, conniving, spoiled brat really stole the show.

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Last but not least Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara the role that many actresses -established as well as newcomers- auditioned for and nobody got. In “Gone with the Wind” Leigh portrayed Scarlett as a coquette, a young woman in love, selfish,  fighting for survival and strong despite all of the obstacles. The story of how she got the role; “Hollywood was in the midst of a widely publicized search to find an actress to portray Scarlett O’Hara in David O. Selznick’s production of Gone with the Wind (1939). At the time, Myron Selznick—David’s brother and Leigh’s American theatrical agent—was the London representative of the Myron Selznick Agency. In February 1938, Leigh made a request to Myron Selznick that she be considered to play the part of Scarlett O’Hara.
David O. Selznick watched her performances that month in Fire Over England and A Yank at Oxford and thought that she was excellent but in no way a possible Scarlett because she was “too British”. Leigh travelled to Los Angeles, however, to be with Olivier and to try to convince David Selznick that she was the person for the part. Myron Selznick also represented Olivier and when he met Leigh, he felt that she possessed the qualities that his brother was searching for. According to legend, Myron Selznick took Leigh and Olivier to the set where the burning of the Atlanta Depot scene was being filmed and stage-managed an encounter, where he introduced Leigh, derisively addressing his younger brother, “Hey, genius, meet your Scarlett O’Hara.” The following day, Leigh read a scene for Selznick, who organized a screen test with director George Cukor and wrote to his wife, “She’s the Scarlett dark horse and looks damn good. Not for anyone’s ear but your own: it’s narrowed down to Paulette Goddard, Jean Arthur, Joan Bennett and Vivien Leigh”. The director, George Cukor, concurred and praised Leigh’s “incredible wildness”. She secured the role of Scarlett soon after.”-Wikipedia

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