Day 34: Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind:1938: Winner of the 12th Academy Award

Starring:

Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara

Clark Gable as Rhett Butler

Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes

Olivia de Havilland as Melanie Hamilton

Hattie McDaniel as Mammy

Thomas Mitchell as Gerald O'Hara

Barbara O'Neil as Ellen O'Hara

Evelyn Keyes as Suellen O'Hara

Ann Rutherford as Carreen O'Hara

George Reeves as Stuart Tarleton

Fred Crane as Brent Tarleton

Oscar Polk as Pork

Butterfly McQueen as Prissy

Victor Jory as Jonas Wilkerson

Howard Hickman as John Wilkes

Alicia Rhett as India Wilkes

You will at one point in your life watch this movie. Guaranteed, if you don’t watch it at school then you shall watch it on AMC. If you don’t have cable you will most surely see it on Netflix. And if you don’t have that you may watch it on some other movie. Maybe not all of it but enough to strike your fancy and so then you shall watch it in entirety. I watched it when I was 13 after I read “Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.” The movie was so riveting and so new for its  time no wonder it won a bajillion awards. Although true “The Wizard of Oz” was also nominated for the Best Picture award it lost. There was no competition for this.  This movie not only sweeps in awards it sweeps in time. It also provided America with it’s exit line. “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”  Rhett Butler don’t we all want him, nobody wanted that pansy of an Ashley! Scarlett was out of her damn jealous mind. And Milly that kind hearted soul.  The story of how the civil war riveted the south how it changed it people and the struggle of one beautiful girl who with determination and a helping of ugly prevailed and got to keep her land.

It also won awards for:

Best Director: Victor Fleming

Best Actress :Vivien Leigh

Best Adapted Screenplay: Sidney Howard

Awarded posthumously

Best Supporting Actress: Hattie McDaniel

Received a miniature "Oscar" statuette on a plaque

Best Cinematography, Color: Ernest Haller and Ray Rennahan

Best Film Editing :Hal C. Kern and James E. Newcom

Received a miniature "Oscar" statuette on a plaque, replaced with a regular statuette in 1962

Best Art Directiion : Lyle Wheeler

Day 14 : In the Heat of the Night

In the Heat of the Night: 1967: Winner of the 40th Academy Awards

Starring:

Sidney Poitier as Detective Virgil Tibbs

Rod Steiger as Police Chief Bill Gillespie

Warren Oates as Sergeant (Patrolman) Sam Wood

Lee Grant as Mrs. Leslie Colbert

Larry Gates as Eric Endicott

James Patterson as Lloyd Purdy (Delores' brother)

William Schallert as Mayor Webb Schubert

Beah Richards as Mama Caleba (aka Mrs. Bellamy)

Peter Whitney as CPL. George Courtney

Kermit Murdock as H.E. Henderson (banker)

Larry D. Mann as Watkins

Quentin Dean as Delores Purdy

Anthony James as Ralph Henshaw (diner counterman)

Arthur Malet as Ted Ulam (mortician)

Scott Wilson as Harvey Oberst (murder suspect)

Matt Clark as Packy Harrison

Eldon Quick as Charlie Hawthorne (photographer)

Jester Hairston as Henry (Endicott's butler)
 

Here’s the thing, I really hate to watch movies where there is an “I hate you but have to live with you” sort of relationship, because I feel its an overused copout. However in this case I think it seems to work. The dynamic of the relationship between the two main characters in this movie, chiefly being, Virgil Tibbs and Bill Gillespie. Officer Bill is the new sheriff and has a fresh murder on his hands. Sergeant Tibbs is  #1 in homicide in his department back home in Philadelphia, what separates these two men from embracing each other as fellow officers of the law? Race, the color of their skins, however through this they have to find the real killer and they make friends. Isn’t that nice? It was kind of annoying, to watch Tibbs attempt to get manhandeled by annoying racist dudes, but his accuracy and his efficiency and that slap on the richest white man in the land, is worth watching this movie. I can’t count it as one of my favorites, but definitely one I don’t regret watching. I should also mention that Portier was set to win, he had another movie for best picture running against it, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, and it also won out “The Graduate”  and “Bonnie and Clyde”.

It also won awards for:

Academy Award for Best Actor – Rod Steiger

Academy Award for Film Editing – Hal Ashby

Academy Award for Best Sound – Samuel Goldwyn Studios

Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay – Stirling Silliphant