Crash (2004)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
2006	Won	Oscar	Best Achievement in Film Editing Hughes Winborne
			Best Motion Picture of the Year Paul Haggis Cathy Schulman
			Best Writing, Original Screenplay Paul Haggis (screenplay/story) Robert Moresco (screenplay)
	Nominated	Oscar	Best Achievement in Directing Paul Haggis
			Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song Kathleen York (music/lyrics) Michael Becker (music) For the song "In the Deep".
			Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Matt Dillon

Lions Gate Films
Directed by Paul Haggis
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, DVD, Lions Gate)

Paul Haggis exposes bigotry, racism and hatred in Los Angeles by examining a series of intertwined events one snowy day. Cops abuse their power and harass an innocent couple, said couple is carjacked, the carjackers become innocent victims of cops... an imperfect circle, if you will, and that is just one example. The screen play is exceptional, every thread complete, every character connected in some way. It is a masterful use of audience manipulation, which I began to realize about half way through the film, and since I knew I was being set up some of the final scenes lost their emotional impact. Nonetheless, I was not expecting much from this film, but was pleasantly surprised.

Cats' Play (1974)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1975	Nominated	Oscar	Best Foreign Language Film Hungary

Directed by Karoly Makk
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Facets Video)

An old woman lives in a cluttered apartment filled with photographs and letters from her past. She has long telephone conversations with her sister and a tempestuous relationship with an old lover. The film attempts to weave these threads together in a dreamlike style that shifts between the past and the present, the line between the two frequently blurred. It is somewhat successful, but the lack of a coherent narrative leaves it occasionally adrift, perhaps on purpose. Beautifully photographed by Janos Toth, who succeeds brilliantly in bringing the old photographs to life.

On Any Sunday (1971)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1972	Nominated	Oscar	Best Documentary, Features Bruce Brown

Directed by Bruce Brown
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Monterey Video)

Bruce Brown's documentary on motorcycle racing is thorough, well-photographed and fun. However, it did not make me want to go out and buy a bike, quite the opposite in fact, given that I do not want to experience a "flying W" or slide across pavement at over 100 mph. Apparently for other people this provides the meaning for their lives, and more power to them.

Pete 'n' Tillie (1972)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1973	Nominated	Oscar	Best Actress in a Supporting Role Geraldine Page
			Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium Julius J. Epstein

Universal Pictures
Directed by Martin Ritt
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Universal Vault Collection)

Walter Matthau impresses Carol Burnett on a blind date with his bad jokes, really, really bad jokes. She plays the "straight man" just as well as she did on her TV show. Afraid of becoming an old maid, she resigns herself to marrying him, despite his alcoholic tendencies and suspected infidelity even before marriage. Fast forward to married life with a 10-year-old kid, it turns into a soapy melodrama with an unexpected illness that does not work at all. Carol just does not convince in her dramatic turn, with at least two embarrassing moments: a back yard conversation with God that turns into a yelling match, and a cat fight with her best friend involving a trash can and water hose. And Matthau? The site of him sitting naked at a piano and playing ragtime may have scarred me for life.

Come to the Stable (1949)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1950	Nominated	Oscar	Best Actress in a Leading Role Loretta Young
			Best Actress in a Supporting Role Celeste Holm
			Best Actress in a Supporting Role Elsa Lanchester
			Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White Lyle R. Wheeler Joseph C. Wright Thomas Little Paul S. Fox
			Best Cinematography, Black-and-White Joseph LaShelle
			Best Music, Original Song Alfred Newman (music) Mack Gordon (lyrics) For the song "Through a Long and Sleepless Night"
			Best Writing, Motion Picture Story Clare Boothe Luce

Twentieth Century-Fox
Directed by Henry Koster
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(VHS, Fox)
(Turner Classic Movies)

Contrived story of two nuns who follow up on their promise to God to build a hospital in New England after WWII. Despite arriving with no money, no land and no plan, they get "help" every step of the way. Coincidence, and more often guilt, is their real secret weapon. Filled with soaring choirs, violins and the angelic face of Loretta Young as the nun who won't take no for an answer.

Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
2005	Won	Oscar	Best Achievement in Directing Clint Eastwood
			Best Motion Picture of the Year Clint Eastwood Albert S. Ruddy Tom Rosenberg
			Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Morgan Freeman
			Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Hilary Swank
	Nominated	Oscar	Best Achievement in Film Editing Joel Cox
			Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Clint Eastwood
			Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay Paul Haggis

Warner Bros.
Directed by Clint Eastwood
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, DVD, Warner Bros.)

Emotional story of female boxer Hilary Swank persuading a cranky, aging Clint Eastwood to become her trainer. It doesn't take long for them to replace the relationships missing in their lives with each other: he becomes her father and she his daughter. Well, old Clint is an exceptional trainer and he takes her all the way to the title bout. This part of the film is simply Rocky revisited with a different gender. Cliches abound, including gravelly-voiced, folksy narration which provides a running commentary on the real meaning of what we are watching. The plot takes a detour into weepy hospital melodrama, including an impassioned plea for assisted suicide. I'm reminded of another Best Picture winner, 1984's Terms of Endearment, a good film, but not necessarily one I look forward to revisiting.

Underworld (1927)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1929	Won	Oscar	Best Writing, Original Story Ben Hecht

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Josef von Sternberg
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

Macho gangster Bull Weed (George Bancroft) tries to impress his girlfriend by converting a bum from the gutter into his manservant. He thinks a rival gangster is after her and kills him one night in a jealous rage. Little does he realize it's really his servant that she has fallen in love with. Sitting on death row, they hatch a plan to spring him at the last minute. In a final shoot out with the police, the gangster shows that he is really a softie at heart. Sternberg's first film is not a hard boiled gangster drama at all, but rather a love story that just happens to involve gangsters.

First Love (1970)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1971	Nominated	Oscar	Best Foreign Language Film Switzerland

Universal Marion Corporation
Directed by Maximilian Schell
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, VCI Entertainment)

Schell's directorial debut is a meditation on young love between a 16-year-old boy and his beautiful neighbor who is 5 years older. A self-described "heartless flirt", she leads him on but never allows him more than a kiss. She revels in the attention of every man around her, indifferent to their age or marital status, so it isn't surprising to find out his father has been paying her nightly visits. Dominique Sanda is lovely to look at, after all she made a career out of getting naked in European art films, but hardly has anything else to do. The real attraction, though, is the cinematography of Sven Nykvist, moody, detailed, expressive as any of his greatest works, but the story fails to match it's creativity. Instead, we get love poetry spoken over images of pig butts.

Report from the Aleutians (1943)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1944	Nominated	Oscar	Best Documentary, Features (U.S. Army Pictorial Service).

Directed by John Huston
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, GoodTimes)

Matter-of-fact account of life on a remote Alaskan island which served as an air base for American bombers in WWII. We watch infantrymen build an air strip in a matter of days from scratch, using prefabricated steel parts for the runways. Rows of tents belch smoke in an otherwise barren landscape. It all leads to a bombing run over Kiska, another Aleutian island where the Japanese have dug in for the long haul. An uncredited John Huston directs and narrates.

Platoon (1986)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1987	Won	Oscar	Best Director Oliver Stone
			Best Film Editing Claire Simpson
			Best Picture Arnold Kopelson
			Best Sound John Wilkinson Richard D. Rogers Charles Grenzbach Simon Kaye
	Nominated	Oscar	Best Actor in a Supporting Role Tom Berenger
			Best Actor in a Supporting Role Willem Dafoe
			Best Cinematography Robert Richardson
			Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen Oliver Stone

Orion Pictures
Directed by Oliver Stone
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, DVD, MGM)

Oliver Stone's depiction of the Vietnam war, based on his own experiences, is realistic but unfocused. It follows one platoon through the eyes of Charlie Sheen. The leadership of the platoon alternates between the evil Tom Berenger (you know he is evil because of the facial scars) and the good William Dafoe (hangs out and smokes pot with the guys). When they raid a Vietnamese camp, Berenger murders an old woman because she won't stop talking, while the men of the platoon murder and rape other residents. Sheen watches in horror. Dafoe confronts Berenger, but without proof he escapes punishment. More fighting follows, the platoon is decimated by casualties, until they are overrun by the enemy in the final battle. Sheen gets retribution for Berenger's atrocities in a rather contrived scene, proving that the real enemy was ourselves all along. This is the weakest of the three great Vietnam war movies, behind Coppola's Apocalypse Now and Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.

What Price Hollywood? (1932)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1932	Nominated	Oscar	Best Writing, Original Story Adela Rogers St. Johns Jane Murfin

RKO Pathe
Directed by George Cukor
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Familiar story of Hollywood waitress Constance Bennett discovered by a director and made into a star. The director is a drunk, but at least he is a friendly drunk, and all of his predictions about her future eventually come true. She marries a wealthy Hollywood outsider who despises her friends. It's no surprise when their marriage disintegrates. The lone unexpected plot twist involves murder and suicide, precipitating her fall from fame. The happy ending is insincere and inappropriate, but completely Hollywood.

The Strip (1951)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1952	Nominated	Oscar	Best Music, Original Song Bert Kalmar Harry Ruby Oscar Hammerstein II For the song "A Kiss to Build a Dream on"

MGM
Directed by Leslie Kardos
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Mickey Rooney has a good job as a bookie with Hollywood mobsters. He makes the mistake of falling in love with a cigarette girl at the local Dixieland jazz club, leading him to quit the gang and become the drummer of the house band. The only problem is that his girl falls in love with his old gangster boss. If that were all the film had to offer it would be just another B picture, but the presence of jazz legends Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden and Earl Hines elevates it to must-see for jazz fans, even Rooney gives a spirited performance on the drum set, though subtle he is not.

Amadeus (1984)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1985	Won	Oscar	Best Actor in a Leading Role F. Murray Abraham
			Best Art Direction-Set Decoration Patrizia von Brandenstein Karel Cerný
			Best Costume Design Theodor Pistek
			Best Director Milos Forman
			Best Makeup Paul LeBlanc Dick Smith
			Best Picture Saul Zaentz
			Best Sound Mark Berger Thomas Scott Todd Boekelheide Christopher Newman
			Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium Peter Shaffer
	Nominated	Oscar	Best Actor in a Leading Role Tom Hulce
			Best Cinematography Miroslav Ondrícek
			Best Film Editing Nena Danevic Michael Chandler

Orion Pictures
Directed by Milos Forman
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, DVD, Warner Bros.)

Antonio Salieri has his world turned upside down by the arrival of a young, impetuous composer by the name of Mozart. Court composer Salieri attends every performance of every opera, yet at the same time plots his ruin, eventually turning to murder. As for Mozart, he's a vulgar drunk with an obscene laugh. "Vulfie", as his wife calls him, likes to spend his nights drinking with harlots while she stays home with the kids. He writes operas in his spare time with little to no effort. After more than two hours, I was beginning to despise him as much as Salieri. Still, there is the music, brilliantly realized by Neville Mariner, which saves this from being a complete bore.

Cain and Mabel (1936)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1937	Nominated	Oscar	Best Dance Direction Bobby Connolly For "1000 Love Songs".

Warner Bros.
Directed by Lloyd Bacon
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Predictable story about a prize fighter and Broadway star who concoct a fake romance in the newspapers to advance their careers but eventually fall in love for real. Only the star power of Clark Gable hold this together. Marion Davies relies on her pretty face and little else, as she can't sing or dance. The key scene where they realize they are in love occurs in an instant over a kitchen stove. Gable finds out she is really a waitress, and a few minutes later they are talking about white picket fences. Ugh.

Pieces of Dreams (1970)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1971	Nominated	Oscar	Best Music, Original Song Michel Legrand (music) Alan Bergman (lyrics) Marilyn Bergman (lyrics) For the song "Pieces of Dreams".

United Artists
Directed by Daniel Haller
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM Limited Edition Collection)

Robert Forster is a young priest in New Mexico. While counseling a pregnant teenage girl, he meets pretty young social worker Lauren Hutton. They are at odds over contraception and abortion, and have a respectful debate. Later, they fall in love, leading to his spiritual crisis. He is torn between his love for her and his love for the church, though he cannot follow its strict rules of celibacy. Forster lacks emotional range, but it fits his character, a matter-of-fact, intelligent man appealing to logic, however misguided in his very illogical, emotional situation. I found myself sympathetic to his plight, wondering how he would resolve so many conflicting responsibilities. Sadly, the Catholic church has yet to resolve any of these issues in the nearly 50 years since this film was released, and as a result its themes are still relevant today.

Sister Kenny (1946)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1947	Nominated	Oscar	Best Actress in a Leading Role Rosalind Russell

RKO Radio Pictures
Directed by Dudley Nichols
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(VHS, RKO)
(Turner Classic Movies)

Historical account of the Australian nurse and her lifelong pursuit of a new treatment for polio. The most interesting aspect is not necessarily the nursing, but rather the resistance she meets from the scientific community. Her lack of formal training leads her to be labelled a quack, despite the obvious benefits from her treatment. The scene which takes place between her and a leading doctor during one of his lectures is enough to make you want to stand up and scream. She leaves Australia for England and then America, meeting similar resistance. Amazingly, her work is still not fully accepted today, which only goes to show the "walls of Jericho" still abound in scientific circles.

The Last Command (1928)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1929	Won	Oscar	Best Actor in a Leading Role Emil Jannings Also for The Way of All Flesh (1927). Emil Jannings received his award early due to the fact that he was going home to Europe before the ceremony.
	Nominated	Oscar	Best Writing, Original Story Lajos Biró

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Josef von Sternberg
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

The great Emil Jannings is the Grand Duke of Russia. He falls in love with pretty revolutionary Evelyn Brent, half his age and bent on his destruction. However, after she realizes they both are driven by the same thing, a love for Russia, she falls in love with him as well. She saves him from a lynch mob during the revolution. Years later, he is an extra in Hollywood, working for dollars a day. He gets chosen for a part by a director, who recognizes him from Russia. It is none other than a revolutionary, only their positions of power are now reversed. Sternberg's attention to detail, and the clever script, are fascinating as always, but it drags a bit in the middle with the love story.

The Chocolate Soldier (1941)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1942	Nominated	Oscar	Best Cinematography, Black-and-White Karl Freund
			Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture Herbert Stothart Bronislau Kaper
			Best Sound, Recording Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD)

MGM
Directed by Roy Del Ruth
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(VHS, MGM)
(Turner Classic Movies)

Nelson Eddy and Rise Stevens are married singers who constantly bicker, on and off stage. Eddy comes up with a plan to test her loyalty by disguising himself as a Russian opera star and pursuing her. Eddy is simply ridiculous as the stereotyped Russian. Although it is played for laughs it comes off as silly rather than funny. Rise's constant side glances and smug laughter don't help matters.

The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
2005	Won	Oscar	Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song Jorge Drexler For the song "Al Otro Lado Del Río".
	Nominated	Oscar	Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay Jose Rivera

Focus Features
Directed by Walter Salles
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Focus)
(Starz)

Two Argentinian medical students embark on a journey across South America by motorcycle. The first half is an episodic look at the people they meet and places they stop along the way. It is not until they reach Peru, in particular a leper colony at which they volunteer their medical help, that the story finds itself. The young Che Guevara, who would later become a Cuban revolutionary and murdered by the CIA, finds his calling in the broken down people he meets on the trip. I was not particularly moved by his speech calling for the unification of South America which seemed to be where all of this was leading. Still, an interesting story of youthful idealism with magnificent location shooting throughout South America.

So This Is Washington (1943)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1944	Nominated	Oscar	Best Sound, Recording James L. Fields (RCA Sound)

Post Pictures
Directed by Ray McCarey
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Lum and Abner are rednecks who run a general store in Arkansas. One of them invents synthetic rubber in response to a radio program, and head off to Washington to submit it. They become park bench philosophers and offer their homespun advice to politicians. When the big day comes to present their invention, Abner gets hit on the head and develops amnesia. They go back to Arkansas to try to cure him. More dumb than funny, it would be in the running for worst Academy Award nominee ever.

The Red Danube (1949)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1951	Nominated	Oscar	Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White Cedric Gibbons Hans Peters Edwin B. Willis Hugh Hunt

MGM
Directed by George Sidney
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)
(Turner Classic Movies)

The Danube in Austria runs red not from blood but from Russian communists. Walter Pidgeon and Peter Lawford are British officers assigned to Vienna for the purpose of cooperating with their Russian "allies" in the months after WWII. Their main duty is to round up "subversives" to be handed over to the Russians for repatriation. When one of them turns out to be the latest romantic conquest of Lawford, it gets personal. Ethel Barrymore is a nun who debates ethics and religion with Pidgeon. Janet Leigh is the pretty ballerina at the center of it all. One particularly memorable scene is a walk through a boxcar full of refugees on Christmas Eve, when Pidgeon realizes what the Russians are really doing to the people he turns over to them.

Torpedo Run (1958)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1959	Nominated	Oscar	Best Effects, Special Effects A. Arnold Gillespie Harold Humbrock

MGM
Directed by Joseph Pevney
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(VHS, MGM)
(Turner Classic Movies)

Glenn Ford is a submarine commander hunting a coveted Japanese carrier in the Pacific. The Japs use a transport ship full of American POWs, including the wife and child of Ford, as a screen and it gets destroyed in the battle. The tragedy only makes Ford more determined than ever to sink the elusive ship. The submarine manages to enter Tokyo Bay through a mine field and nets, but misses the target and must return for repairs. A final battle between the two enemies includes a dramatic underwater escape. It's intelligently written, with good rapport between Ford and his chief officer Ernest Borgnine, and a classic of the submarine genre.

Lili (1953)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1954	Won	Oscar	Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture Bronislau Kaper
	Nominated	Oscar	Best Actress in a Leading Role Leslie Caron
			Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color Cedric Gibbons Paul Groesse Edwin B. Willis Arthur Krams
			Best Cinematography, Color Robert H. Planck
			Best Director Charles Walters
			Best Writing, Screenplay Helen Deutsch

MGM
Directed by Charles Walters
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(VHS, MGM)
(Turner Classic Movies)

Leslie Caron plays a 16-year-old orphan in France who ends up with a carnival. She falls in love with a dashing magician, unaware that he is really married. A puppeteer builds a new act around her, and also falls in love with her, but she is unaware of his feelings. In a final daydream-fantasy sequence, she dances with life-sized versions of the puppets, causing her to suddenly realize she too is in love and rush back for the happy ending. Caron is too old for the role, French stereotypes abound and the whole puppet thing was just plain creepy.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
2008	Won	Oscar	Best Achievement in Costume Design Alexandra Byrne
	Nominated	Oscar	Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Cate Blanchett

Universal Pictures
Directed by Shekhar Kapur
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, DVD, Universal)
(Starz)

Cate Blanchett reprises her role of Queen Elizabeth, this time facing invasion from Spain while looking for a suitor to marry. More of the former and less of the latter would have been preferred, as the love triangle between Elizabeth, a handmaiden and Sir Walter Raleigh is tiresome. The Big Action Finale is a letdown as well, consisting of a CGI sea battle between the huge Spanish and English armadas. Nonetheless, the period detail is impressive and location shooting in churches, including Westminster Cathedral, provides plenty of opportunities for gazing at historical settings and artifacts.

Joan of Paris (1942)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1943	Nominated	Oscar	Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture Roy Webb

RKO Radio Pictures
Directed by Robert Stevenson
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)
(Turner Classic Movies)

Downed British flyer Paul Henreid and Paris barmaid Michele Morgan fall in love while avoiding the Gestapo in occupied Paris. More a sentimental love story than wartime thriller, it leans a little too much on stereotyped characters. I did not buy into the theme of Morgan as a latter-day saint and martyr in the vein of Joan of Arc.

The Last Station (2009)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
2010	Nominated	Oscar	Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Christopher Plummer
			Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Helen Mirren

Sony Pictures Classics
Directed by Michael Hoffman
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, DVD, Sony)
(Encore)

A story of two love affairs, one just beginning and the other ending. Leo Tolstoy is a cult hero in Russia. His followers live on a commune while Tolstoy lives down the road in a mansion. A young "Tolstoyan" arrives, an idealist who meets his hero but soon discovers the man and his writing are not the same. Meanwhile his celibacy is threatened by pretty Kerry Condon. He gives in, they fall in love, while at the same time he is privy to the disintegrating marriage between Tolstoy and his wife of nearly 50 years. A little too self-conscious in the beginning, but gets better as it goes along. The director is overly fond of sweeping camera movements to the point of distraction.

The Kansan (1943)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1944	Nominated	Oscar	Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture Gerard Carbonara

United Artists
Directed by George Archainbaud
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Instead of a sidekick and hero, this western features a reluctant sheriff of a dusty Kansas town dealing with a corrupt banker and his gang. It's more adult than the B-westerns of the time, but not nearly as much fun. The story plods along with few breaks for action until a final shoot-out and chase across a bridge which is blown up with dynamite. Jane Wyatt is a hotel owner and love interest. Academy Award nominee for the music score, which is a real head scratcher because it was completely unmemorable.

Stand by for Action (1942)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1944	Nominated	Oscar	Best Effects, Special Effects A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic) Donald Jahraus (photographic) Michael Steinore (sound)

MGM
Directed by Robert Z. Leonard
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)
(Turner Classic Movies)

Retired WWI destroyer is refurbished and sent into action against the Japanese. Her crew includes Robert Taylor as a skeptical officer and Walter Brennan as a veteran who served on the ship in the first war. At sea, they are summoned to protect the flank of a convoy, but get sidetracked rescuing a lifeboat filled with babies and pregnant women. The plot almost sinks in the ensuing cuteness, but a final naval battle pits the rag tag destroyer against a Jap battleship and saves the day.

The Madness of King George (1994)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1995	Won	Oscar	Best Art Direction-Set Decoration Ken Adam Carolyn Scott
	Nominated	Oscar	Best Actor in a Leading Role Nigel Hawthorne
			Best Actress in a Supporting Role Helen Mirren
			Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published Alan Bennett

Samuel Goldwyn
Directed by Nicholas Hytner
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM)
(Encore)

Nigel Hawthorne gives an over-the-top performance as King George III. Suffering from a nervous disorder at a time in which medicine was primitive at best, he is sent away by a son to be cured by a "doctor" who resorts to torture. In his absence the son, the Prince of Wales, attempts to gain control of the government by appointing himself regent, king in all but name. Helen Mirren is the queen, loyal to her husband through it all. Wonderful music by Handel and impeccable period detail boost this above mere costume drama, but the plot does tend to dwell on the more insignificant details of the king's medical condition and often relegates the more interesting political drama to the background.

Man on Wire (2008)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
2009	Won	Oscar	Best Documentary, Features James Marsh Simon Chinn

Discovery Films
Directed by James Marsh
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Magnolia)
(Sundance)

A French street magician and tightrope walker decides to walk across the newly built World Trade Center towers in NYC. He enlists the help of his friends and girlfriend, who recall the event over 30 years later. The excitable Philippe Petit claims his motivation was to "do something beautiful", but after watching the film it seemed more a like a self-centered stunt. Petit and friends find immense pleasure in sneaking into the towers, hiding from security guards and thwarting the police. Only the actual act, or at least the description of it by friends, elicits any kind of emotional reaction. The rest of it seemed like a bunch of kids on drugs doing very risky, very dumb things. If he had fallen and died, he would not be a hero, but an idiot, possibly a murderer if he had landed on someone.

The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
2010	Won	Oscar	Best Foreign Language Film of the Year Argentina.

Sony Pictures Classics
Directed by Juan Jose Campanella
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, DVD, Sony)
(Starz)

A rape and murder that happened over 25 years ago haunts the lives of all involved. An attorney assigned to the case, now retired and writing a book, recalls the event in detail. The film shifts from the past to the present in a rather confusing narrative structure. It tends to get bogged down in the day-to-day relationships in the attorney's office, the central mystery of the story getting lost for long stretches of time. It also seems unnecessarily graphic, did we really need to see the suspect take his pants down? The film does finally gain some momentum in the end when it settles down in the present day, leading to a not unpredictable plot twist.

Sally (1929)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1930	Nominated	Oscar	Best Art Direction Jack Okey

First National Pictures
Directed by John Francis Dillon
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

A familiar plot in which Marilyn Miller is an aspiring dancer working as a waitress waiting for her big break on Broadway. A secret admirer who watches her through the window turns out to be a wealthy society man and helps her get her first big break. She goes incognito to a society dance as a fictional Russian princess. Spotted by a Broadway producer, she ends up in the Ziegfeld Follies. Skimpy on plot, which provides the basic framework for numerous song and dance routines, including one in badly faded and battered Technicolor. Joe E. Brown nearly steals the film as Grand Duke Connie, particularly his hilarious scenes as a waiter.

One Potato, Two Potato (1964)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1965	Nominated	Oscar	Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen Orville H. Hampton (screenplay/story) Raphael Hayes (screenplay)

Directed by Larry Peerce
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Explosive look at interracial marriage in the 1960s. Barbara Barrie and Bernie Hamilton give superb performances as the couple who meet and marry in a typical small town. Their relationship reveals deep-set prejudices in friends, family and coworkers. Things get really complicated when her ex-husband shows up and takes her to court for custody of their child. The emotionally devastating final scene condemns a court system just as flawed as the society it supposedly protects.