Movies I Watched in February

 

 

Drums Along the Mohawk

February is 31 Days of Oscar month on TCM and it is usually a rather slow month for me as I've already seen a majority of the films or they are ones that air several times a year anyway. However, this time I made an effort to finally watch some of the films I say I'm going to watch every time TCM shows them but never actually get around to viewing (three that have been on my watchlist for some time are A Midsummer Night's Dream, Dark Victory, and Separate Tables). This month also ended up being a Robert Taylor (5) and Greer Garson (7) month for me, as you will see. And I enjoyed Madame Curie so much I am currently reading the biography of the same name by her daughter Eve Curie as well as A Rose for Mrs. Miniver: The Life of Greer Garson by Michael Troyan.  I also just announced The Rose of MGM: The Greer Garson Blogathon.

1. The Painted Desert (1931) - Bill Boyd, Helen Twelvetrees, Clark Gable
2. A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) - James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Anita Louise, Dick Powell & Olivia de Havilland. Joe E. Brown, Ian Hunter, Frank McHugh
3. The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) - Gary Cooper, Franchot Tone, Richard Cromwell, C. Aubrey Smith
4. Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) - Jack Benny, Eleanor Powell & Robert Taylor, Buddy & Vilma Ebson, Una Merkel
5. Born to Dance (1936) - Eleanor Powell & James Stewart, Virginia Bruce, Una Merkel, Buddy Ebson 
6. Three Comrades (1938) - Margaret Sullavan & Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone, Robert Young
7. *The Cat and the Canary (1939) - Bob Hope & Paulette Goddard, Gale Sondergard
8. Dark Victory (1939) - Bette Davis & George Brent, Geraldine FitzGerald, Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Reagan 
9. Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) - Henry Fonda & Claudette Colbert, Edna May Oliver, Ward Bond
10. *The Ghost Breakers (1940) - Bob Hope & Paulette Goddard, Willie Best, Paul Lukas, Richard Carlson, Anthony Quinn
11. *Pride and Prejudice (1940) - Greer Garson & Laurence Olivier, Ann Rutherford, Marsha Hunt, Frieda Inescourt, 
12. Blossoms in the Dust (1941) - Greer Garson & Walter Pidgeon, Marsha Hunt
13. *Mrs. Miniver (1942) - Greer Garson & Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, Richard Ney, Dame May Whitty, Henry Travers, Reginald Owen
14. Madame Curie (1943) - Greer Garson & Walter Pidgeon, Henry Travers, Dame May Whitty, Robert Walker, Van Johnson
15. None Shall Escape (1944) - Marsha Hunt, Alexander Knox, Henry. Travers
16. The Valley of Decision (1945) - Greer Garson & Gregory Peck, Marsha Hunt, Preston Foster, Jessica Tandy, Gladys Cooper, Donald Crisp, Lionel Barrymore, Marshall Thompson, Dan Duryea, Reginald Owen
17. Danger Signal (1945) - Faye Emerson, Zachary Scott, Rosemary DeCamp
18. That Forsyte Woman (1949) - Greer Garson, Errol Flynn, Robert Young, Janet Leigh, Walter Pidgeon 
19. Quo Vadis (1951) - Robert Taylor & Deborah Kerr, Peter Ustinov
20. All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953) - Robert Taylor, Ann Blyth, Stewart Granger, Keenyn Wynn, Betta St. John, James Whitmore, Lewis Stone
21. *River of No Return (1954) - Robert Mitchum & Marilyn Monroe 
22. On the Waterfront (1954) - Marlon Brando & Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, Rod Steiger
23. Magnificent Obsession (1954) Rock Hudson & Jane Wyman, Agnes Moorehead 
24. Executive Suite (1954) - William Holden, Barbara Stanwyck, June Allyson, Walter Pidgeon, Fredric March, Nina Foch, Dean Jagger, Shelley Winters, Paul Douglas, Louis Calhern, Tim Considine
25. Written on the Wind (1957) - Lauren Bacall, Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone
26. Separate Tables (1958) - Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Burt Lancaster, Rita Hayworth, Wendy Hiller, Gladys Cooper, Rod Taylor, Audrey Dalton
27. The House of the Seven Hawks (1959) - Robert Taylor & Nicole Maurey
28. Pepe (1960) - Cantinflas, Shirley Jones, Dan Daily
29. The Facts of Life (1960) - Bob Hope & Lucille Ball, Ruth Hussey, Don DeFore 
30. The Rare Breed (1966) - James Stewart & Maureen O’Hara, Juliet Mills, Brian Keith
31. A Warm December (1972) - Sidney Poitier & Esther Anderson
32. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton
33. Mrs. Soffel (1984) - Diane Keaton & Mel Gibson
34. Spaceballs (1987) - Mel Brooks, John Candy, Bill Pullman
35. Double, Double, Toil and Trouble (1993) - Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen, Cloris Leachman
36. *Maverick (1994) - Mel Gibson & Jodie Foster, James Garner, James Coburn
37. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019) - Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Michelle Phieffer, Chiwetal

Least Favorite Film: Didn't like how Three Comrades ended...

Favorite Film: Lots of solid films but I really loved Madame Curie.

 

 

Three Comrades

 

What Oscar winning films did you finally watch this month? Was there a CLASSIC that you enjoyed more than you expected? Was there a star you watched more than any other?

New Photos of 101 Year Old Olivia de Havilland

At 101, Olivia de Havilland is the oldest Oscar-winning actress still living. And, at 101, she still isn't afraid to fight for her rights.

After the airing of the mini-series Feud: Bette and Joan last year, Olivia began a lawsuit against FX for using her name without consent and portraying her character in a negative light and potentially damaging her public image.

When ‘Feud’ was first being publicized, but before it went on the air, I was interested to see how it would portray my dear friend Bette Davis. Then friends and family started getting in touch with me, informing me that my identity was actually being represented on the program. No one from Fox had contacted me about this to ask my permission, to request my input, or to see how I felt about it. When I then learned that the Olivia de Havilland character called my sister Joan ‘a bitch’ and gossiped about Bette Davis and Joan Crawford’s personal and private relationship, I was deeply offended.

Olivia explains her reasons for initiating the lawsuit:

A large part of the reason I decided to move forward with my action against Fox is that I realize that at this stage of my life and career I am in a unique position to stand up and speak truth to power — an action that would be very difficult for a young actor to undertake. I believe in the right to free speech, but it certainly must not be abused by using it to protect published falsehoods or to improperly benefit from the use of someone’s name and reputation without their consent. Fox crossed both of these lines with ‘Feud,’ and if it is allowed to do this without any consequences, then the use of lies about well-known public figures masquerading as the truth will become more and more common. This is not moral and it should not be permitted.

Both of these quotes and more about the lawsuit can be read in this article published yesterday in the New York Times. The most exciting part about the article however, was the inclusion of two new photographs of our beloved Olivia that were taken at her home in Paris last month. She is absolutely stunning! I just had to share them ♥♥♥

Countdown to the Oscars: Bringing the Series Back After Three Years

During the second year of my blog I started a Countdown to the Oscars series for the month of February. I wrote several posts covering the very first Academy Awards ceremony up through 1945. I've linked them below:

Announcing the Countdown to the Oscars

The First Academy Awards, 1927-28

2nd to 6th Academy Awards

1934

1935 - 1938

1939

The War Years, 1940-1945

Throw an Oscars Viewing Party

The following year, 2016, I intended to continue my series. I hosted a Costume Awards for the years before it became an official category but not many people participated. I also participated in a couple of Oscar-themed blogathons:

Timeline of Academy Award-Winning Costumes: 1949-1960

The William Powell Oscar Snubs

Last Year I wrote up a post for the Post-War period but never finished adding photos to it. My only Oscar contributions was a part 2 to my Costume Timeline for the same annual blogathon.

Timeline of Academy Award-Winning Costumes: 1961-1977

This year I am going to try to finish my series.  I also hope you'll check out some of my early posts, as I was quite proud of them but didn't have many followers back then.

Timeline of Award Winning Costumes Part 2: 1961-1977

Piero Gherardi and actress Ann Jeffreys accepting for Irene Sharaff (who was in Rome working on Cleopatra) with their Oscars at the 1962 Academy Awards (with presenters Dina Merrill and Eddie Albert).

The category for Costume Design at the Academy Awards came rather late - 1949 (for movies released in 1948). The Awards had already been going on for 20 years without any recognition to the talented people who designed the clothes that women and men alike coveted and that transported the viewer to another time and place, or at least, away from their dreary existence as the films of the 1930s did or from violence and war in the 1940s.

Naturally, every costume designer in Hollywood was delighted when a category just for them was announced. Since the Awards were so well established by then, and the suspense that the use of the Envelope brought, it made it all the more exciting.

Last year I covered the years 1949 - 1960. You can view that post here. This year, once again for the Fifth Annual 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon hosted by Paula's Cinema Club, Once Upon A Screen, and Outspoken & Freckled, I bring you the years 1961 - 1977.

      *I have not seen all of these films so if you see a costume that doesn't belong, please let me know.

1961 (the 33rd Academy Awards Ceremony)

From 1961 to 1967, the Academy would continue to give a Costume Award in the two categories of color and black and white. The Oscar for the best black and white costume went to Edith Head and Edward Stevenson for the 1960 film The Facts of Life starring Lucille Ball and Bob Hope (remember, the awards ceremony were held in February of 1961 and honored films from the previous year). Edith Head wouldn't win another award until 1974. It would be her last win (two more nominations in 1976 and 1978).

 

 

  

Spartacus, costumed by Arlington Valles and Bill Thomas and with Kirk Douglas leading the star-studded cast, would win the color category. The winner of color costumes almost always came from a period film or musical, while the black and white category was usually a contemporary film.

 

 

1962

The winner in the black and white category the following year went to Piero Gherardi for the Italian film La Dolce Vita starring Anita Ekberg. It was his first Oscar.

 

 

 

 

When your sunglasses are on point ;)

 

The color award went to Irene Sharaff for the now classic West Side Story starring Natalie Wood. It was Sharaff's third of five wins (10 more nominations).

 

1963

It was the macabre costumes of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? that took the Oscar the following year in the black and white category. Famously starring Hollywood rivals Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, Norma Koch created the costumes of the iconic film.

The color category winner was Mary Wills in The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm.

Barbara Eden & Yvette Mimieux

1964

It was another foreign film in the black and white category that won at the 36th Academy Awards with Piero Gherardi winning his second Oscar for 8½.

 

As had been the case two years earlier, Irene Sharaff also won another Oscar, along with Renie Conley and Vittorio Nino Novarese for Cleopatra starring real-life lovers Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

 

 

1965

It was Dorothy Jeakins for The Night of the Iguana that won black and white the next year. The film starred Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, and Deborah Kerr.

Beating out Mary Poppins and the 85+ costumes (for Shirley MacLaine alone) in What a Way to Go!, the winner in the color category was My Fair Lady. Nearly everyone knows and loves the costumes to this iconic film. They were designed by famed photographer Cecil Beaton (photographed many many movie stars as well as famous people like Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the Royal Family), who also won and Oscar for his costumes in Gigi a few years earlier.

Cecil Beaton and Hepburn

I love Mrs. Higgins hat ♥

1966

Darling, starring Julie Christie and with costumes by Julie Harris won black and white.

Phyllis Dalton won the color award for her costumes in Doctor Zhivago, which takes place in Russia (we're talking lots of fur coats) and stars Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, and silent star Charlie Chaplin's daughter Geraldine.

 

1967

The black and white film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? brought Irene Sharaff yet another Oscar. It would be her fifth and final win with three more nominations.

A Man for All Seasons with costumes by Elizabeth Haffenden and Joan Bridge won the color category.

1968

The 1968 Academy Awards, honoring films made in 1967, was the first year that the color and black and white categories were combined. This meant that there were less nominations, down from 10 to 5. The winner at the 40th Academy Awards was John Truscott for Camelot, beating out the classic costumes in Bonnie and Clyde and the eye-catching costumes of Thoroughly Modern Millie. The film starred Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave as King Arthur and Guinevere.

Truscott with the wedding gown

 

The cape had hundreds of bleached pumpkin seeds sewn on like pearls. The dress was covered by crocheted lace.

Final Notes:

I am going to stop here merely because as the sixties came to a close, the last costume designers of the Golden period of Hollywood were nearing retirement. Edith Head would win her final Oscar for The Sting at the 1974 Awards and be nominated twice more for The Man Who Would Be King (1975) and two years later for Airport '77 (Star Wars with costumes by John Mollo won). That same year would also give Irene Sharaff her final nomination for The Other Side of Midnight (1977).

You can view the Costume Design winners for every year of the Academy Awards here.

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3