Day 42: The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music: 1966; Winner of the 38th Academy Awards

Starring:

• Julie Andrews as Maria von Trapp


• Christopher Plummer as Captain Georg von Trapp,

• Richard Haydn as Max Detweiler,

• Eleanor Parker as Baroness Elsa Schraeder,

• Charmian Carr as Liesl von Trapp,

• Nicholas Hammond as Friedrich von Trapp,

• Heather Menzies as Louisa von Trapp

• Duane Chase as Kurt von Trapp, the fourth child

• Angela Cartwright as Brigitta von Trapp,

• Debbie Turner as Marta von Trapp,

• Kym Karath as Gretl von Trapp,

• Peggy Wood as Mother Abbess,

• Anna Lee as Sister Margaretta,

• Portia Nelson as Sister Berthe,

• Daniel Truhitte as Rolfe,

• Ben Wright as Hans Zeller,

Oh Julie Andrews I love you so. You and that stupid song that once started I can’t get out of my head. “You are sixteen going on seventeen” That song is way catchy. Ok I love the idea of a nanny/nun going to take care of six crazy ass brats, but then she forgoes her vows and falls in love with the count. But wait it isn’t finished then they get married and have a wonderful life but they do not like the Nazi’s so they preform and they try to escape and wait there is more, the young man who falls in love with the oldest daughter is a German officer and he is not in love with the girl enough to not let the official’s know they are escaping, so he gives them out. Now it’s done. Apparently they escape, but still you never will be quite sure. The whole story is beautiful, even though it is inexplicably long. The songs are very catchy and you can hear them in many other movies, this is a classic example of epic movies making a mark in American History. Even though the leads were British. This joined the ranks quite quickly with “Gone With the Wind” “Wizard of Oz” and “Ben-Hur” A staple of American Media that you just had to watch if you wanted to be considered anyone in the Cinema Industry. Personally I watch this movie every Christmas with my Grandmother, she loves it so I know it by heart, but I also understand how it can get tiresome. Furthermore I really hate Lisel’s boyfriend. He’s a real jerk. If you don’t like musicals I don’t recommend this.

It also won awards for:

Best Sound (James Corcoran, Fred Hynes)

Best Director – Robert Wise

Best Scoring of Music – Adaptation or Treatment

Day 22: Mrs. Miniver

Mrs. Miniver: 1942: Winner of the15th Academy Award

Starring:

Greer Garson as Mrs. Kay Miniver

Walter Pidgeon as Clem Miniver

Teresa Wright as Carol Beldon

Dame May Whitty as Lady Beldon

Reginald Owen as Foley

Henry Travers as James Ballard

Richard Ney as Vin Miniver

Henry Wilcoxon as Vicar

Christopher Severn as Toby Miniver

Brenda Forbes as Gladys - Housemaid

Clare Sandars as Judy Miniver

Marie De Becker as Ada - Cook

Helmut Dantine as German Flyer

John Abbott as Fred

I liked this movie, it was about a wonderful, super nice, super British lady named Mrs. Miniver. She was a symbol of everlasting hope and dream for the country she was in because she was kind and was the way a woman should be. Even under the pressures of war. Well she gave her husband and her son up for the war, let them be the soldiers God intended them to be. In the end the truth is that like the pastor said, the truth is that no one suffers like the innocent casualties of war, they are the true victims, women children and the old who are defenseless.. did you get bored yet? I did, it was pretty much how the movie went down, I understand why it won an award, because people got to talk like that, but it was tedious, and slow and I hated that .. had to die. It wasn't fair! It wasn't fair I tell you. But props to Greer Garson, she was soo on the spot. And I love the banter but cute lovey dovey banter between Mr.and Mrs. Miniver. It is one of those must watch once, but lets keep it to just once, shall we. 

It also won awards for;

Best Director: William Wyler

Best Actress: Greer Garson

Best Writing, Screenplay: George Froeschel, James Hilton, Claudine West, Arthur Wimperis

Best Supporting Actress Teresa Wright

Best Cinematography, Black-and-White Won Joseph Ruttenberg

Day 21: All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front: 1929: Winner of the 3rd Academy Award.

Starring 

Richard Alexander as Westhus

Ben Alexander as Franz Kemmerich

Lew Ayres as Paul Bäumer

William Bakewell as Albert Kropp

Edmund Breese as Herr Meyer

G. Pat Collins as Lieutenant Bertinck

Owen Davis, Jr. as Peter

Russell Gleason as Müller

Harold Goodwin as Detering

Scott Kolk as Leer

Arnold Lucy as Professor Kantorek

Beryl Mercer as Mrs. Bäumer, Paul's mother

Walter E. Rogers as Behn

Slim Summerville as Tjaden

Louis Wolheim as Stanislaus Katczinsky

This movie was brilliant. It was the war movie made for me. I know that sounds stupid but I loved it. It neither glorified nor bashed the idea of war. It put it in plain terms. You fight you die, for your country and for those who run it. That’s it. For a group of young brash German boys, the war could mean anything, what they never thought it to mean was death. Not death from a bullet, but of starvation, indecent sanitation, cold and insanity. The main character of the story paul is a brash young man who is fallen in with a war veteran named Kat. He befriends him while they watch their friends die in the trenches. Paul is witness to the many ways soldiers dies in war. Mostly by watching his friends as they slowly diminish in numbers. He himself is taken to the hospital when he is struck by a bomb with hihs friend. There in the hospital you see the soldiers who are dying and who are taken to places to die because after awhile fighting proves futile. Paul is relieved to go on break after he gets better and there he finds everything almost the same as when he left. He goes to visit his old school master and is asked to give a speech about war, where he delivers the famous line of the movie. He is heart broken by the war and he realizes that he can't just come back to normalcy, he too has gone off the looney bin in more than one way. He decides to go back. He is reunited with Kat and they are to go get some wood and Kat is killed by enemy fire. But Paul brings him to the surgeon nonetheless to try to fix him but is only devastated. The last scene is of Paul in the trenches and a butterfly. This movie was awesome and sad. It was beautiful and tragic, it was the realness which made it that much more believable. I don't think I could watch it everyday but I definitely love everything about it.

It also won awards for:

Best Director Lewis Milestone

Day 19: The Grand Hotel

The Grand Hotel: 1932: Winner of the 5th Academy Award

Starring:


Greta Garbo as Grusinskaya - The Dancer
John Barrymore as The Baron Felix von Gaigern
Joan Crawford as Flaemmchen - The Stenographer
Wallace Beery as General Director Preysing
Lionel Barrymore as Otto Kringelein
Lewis Stone as Dr Otternschlag
Jean Hersholt as Senf - The Porter
Robert McWade as Meierheim







The movie for today was the Grand Hotel, and I liked it! Its from the 1930's, with an ensemble cast of the biggest actors of the time, Greta Garbo, Lionel Barrymore, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery and Joan Crawford. I loved Crawford in the movie, I had seen only one other movie with her in it but this was the one that has possibly sold me to her. As for Garbo, well I liked her better when I hadn't seen her act. The movie itself was pretty good, it was about five very different people who, come together in this hotel, this grand hotel of glamour and fame. The thing was it keeps one invested in the story and there is an unexpected twist thrown in. I loved it! It was like watching Sunset Blvd and All About Eve but with a little quirkyness... This was a good movie, and like 'Ordinary People', its on my too get list. I think what most sold me about the movie was that i couldnt really slot it. Like the movies mentioned above it was in a class all it's own.