Editorial
Front Page - Friday, February 11, 2011
Are we there yet?
The movie year
Jay Edwards
Scarlett: Atlanta!
Mammy: Savannah would be better for ya. You’d just get in trouble in Atlanta.
Scarlett: What trouble are you talking about?
Mammy: You know what trouble I’s talkin’ ‘bout. I’s talking ‘bout Mr. Ashley Wilkes. He’ll be comin’ to Atlanta when he gets his leave, and you sittin’ there waitin’ for him, just like a spider.
- “Gone with the Wind” (1939)
With the Academy Awards coming up later this month I thought I’d comment on what was probably the greatest ever year in film – 1939. In researching I found that Wikipedia gave an article to the subject – “1939 in film.”
The premiers for two of the best from that year were held from one end of the country to the other when “The Wizard of Oz” opened August 15 at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles and then on December 15, a three-day long festival in Atlanta brought back memories of the old south when “Gone with the Wind” opened.
One night during the festival was the “Gone With The Wind” Ball, an event hosted by the Junior Chamber of Commerce. The guest list was truly remarkable, and as long as you were a Hollywood celebrity, a southern politician or wealthy you were invited. But noticeably absent were Hattie McDaniel (Mammy) and Butterfly McQueen (Prissy), black actresses with major roles were not welcome in the white side of the segregated Atlanta society. Noticeably present was a young Martin Luther King, Jr., who sang in a choir from his father’s church, Ebenezer Baptist.
Oscars for the film went to Vivien Leigh, writer Sydney Howard, director Victor Fleming, and producer David O. Selznick (Best Picture). Oh yes, and to the wonderful Hattie McDaniel, the Best Supporting Actress award for her role as Mammy.
So what movies didn’t win best picture in ’39? Well for starters there was “Stagecoach,” the western that turned someone who had begun life as Marion Mitchell Morrison into a star as John Wayne.
“Wuthering Heights” didn’t win either, but Heathcliff (Lawrence Olivier) did marry Scarlett O’Hara later that year.
In “Dark Victory,” it was those Bette Davis eyes that looked upon rising stars Humphrey Bogart and Ronald Reagan while dealing with her brain tumor as socialite Judith Traherne.
There was a happier ending in nominee “Love Affair,” even though Irene Dunne’s character got hit by that car on her way to the Empire State Building. Love Affair has been redone twice, starring Deborah Kerr and Annette Bening as Terry McKay.
My favorite movie from the year was “Goodbye, Mr. Chips.” It didn’t win either but Robert Donat did receive Best Actor. And now that I’m thinking of it I’ll probably watch it tonight.
The only nominee from 1939 I have never seen is “Ninotchka.” After the credits, the film’s prologue is viewed over a long shot view of the Place de la Concorde in Paris:
“This picture takes place in Paris in those wonderful days when a siren was a brunette and not an alarm – and if a Frenchman turned out the light, it was not on account of an air raid!”
How could it be I’ve never seen this? I love brunettes!
“Mr Smith goes to Washington,” called Director Frank Capra’s best, was more than controversial. It was attacked by the Washington press, and politicians in the U.S. Congress, as anti-American and pro-Communist for its portrayal of corruption in the American government. While Capra claims in his autobiography that some senators walked out of the premiere, contemporary press accounts are unclear about whether this occurred or not, or whether senators yelled back at the screen during the film.
The critical response to the film was more measured than the reaction by politicians, domestic and foreign. The critic for the New York Times, for instance, Frank S. Nugent, wrote that
“[Capra] is operating, of course, under the protection of that unwritten clause in the Bill of Rights entitling every voting citizen to at least one free swing at the Senate. Mr. Capra’s swing is from the floor and in the best of humor; if it fails to rock the august body to its heels – from laughter as much as from injured dignity – it won’t be his fault but the Senate’s, and we should really begin to worry about the upper house.”
“Of Mice and Men” is another nominated 1939 classic, but I liked the newer version with Gary Sinise and John Malkovich better.
And finally, the last nominee was “The Wizard of Oz.” Only “GWTW” could have ever made this film a runner-up.
There were other movies in 1939. Some notables are “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “The Little Princess,” “The Oklahoma Kid,” “Only Angels Have Wings,” “Young Mr. Lincoln,” “Jesse James,” “Dodge City” and “Beau Geste.”
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