Pride and Prejudice(1940).

A film adaptation of Jane Austen's novel of the same name. Robert Z. Leonard directed. Cast: Greer Garson, Mary Boland, Maureen O'Sullivan. The film begins when the girls are out shopping for new dresses when they see two gentlemen and a lady in a beautiful carriage. They learn that the men are Mr. Bingley, who is renting the estate of Netherfield and Mr. Darcy, both wealthy, eligible bachelors. After the Bennets return home, Mrs. Bennet tries to talk Mr. Bennet, into seeing Mr. Bingley, but he refuses, saying that they have already met.

At the ball, Elizabeth overhears Mr. Darcy talking about not wanting to dance with her. She also meets for the first time Mr. Wickham. Later, as it turns out.. Mr. Darcy does ask her to dance, but she refuses, when Mr. Wickham asks her right in front of Darcy, she accepts.

 

The Bennets' cousin, Mr. Collins, arrives, looking for a wife and sets his sights on Elizabeth. Mr. Darcy, sees her distress and asks her to dance. After seeing the obnoxious behavior of her mother and younger sisters, he leaves again.

The next day, Mr. Collins asks her to marry him, but she refuses. He then asks her best friend, Charlotte Lucas, to marry him.

When Elizabeth visits Charlotte in her new home, she is introduced to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and also sees Mr. Darcy there.

Later, he asks her to marry him, because she believes he stole Wickham's fortune, and also because he broke up the romance between Mr. Bingley and Jane, she refuses.

When Elizabeth returns to Longborn, she learns that Lydia has eloped with Wickham. Mr. Darcy tells her that Wickham will never marry Lydia and that Wickham had tried to elope with his 15-year-old sister, Georgiana. Elizabeth, soon realizes that she is in love with him, but believes he will never see her again because of Lydia's disgraceful elopement. Lydia and Wickham, do return home married. Lady Catherine, tells the family that Mr. Darcy found Lydia and forced Wickham to marry her. Will Darcy and Elizabeth ever admit their love for each other?

Greer Garson, did a wonderful job playing the feisty, high spirited.. Elizabeth. In this light and humorous classic film adaptation. Laurence Olivier, performed well as the prideful Darcy. The supporting cast also is good, especially Edmund Gwenn, as the very eccentric Mr. Bennet.

 Fun Facts:

The studio's first choice for Darcy was Clark Gable.

Vivien Leigh was passed over for the role of Elizabeth Bennett in favor of Greer Garson.

According to Edward Maeder, Adrian, the costume designer, asked director Robert Z. Leonard to place the film in a later time period than that of the novel so that the costumes might be more opulent than those of Jane Austen's time.

Initially scheduled to start pre-production in 1936, under the supervision of Irving Thalberg with his wife, Norma Shearer as Elizabeth Bennett, but pre-production was put to a halt after Thalberg's death.

MGM considered Robert Donat and Robert Taylor to play Mr. Darcy, and Norma Shearer supposedly wanted MGM to borrow Errol Flynn from Warner Bros. for the role.

Laurence Olivier ( 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) career as a stage and film actor spanned more than six decades and included a wide variety of roles: Shakespeare's Othello and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night to the sadistic Nazi dentist Christian Szell in Marathon Man and the Nazi-hunter in The Boys from Brazil.

A High church clergyman's son who found fame on the West End stage, Olivier became determined early on to master Shakespeare, and eventually came to be regarded as one of the foremost Shakespeare interpreters of the 20th century. He continued to act until the year before his death in 1989.

Olivier played more than 120 stage roles: Richard III, Macbeth, Romeo, Hamlet, Othello, Uncle Vanya, and Archie Rice in The Entertainer.

 He performed in nearly sixty films, including: William Wyler's Wuthering Heights, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus, Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing, Richard Attenborough's Oh! What a Lovely War, and A Bridge Too Far, Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Sleuth, John Schlesinger's Marathon Man, Daniel Petrie's The Betsy, Desmond Davis' Clash of the Titans, and his own Henry V, Hamlet, and Richard III.

He also preserved his Othello on film, with its stage cast virtually intact. For television, he starred in The Moon and Sixpence, John Gabriel Borkman, Long Day's Journey into Night, Brideshead Revisited, The Merchant of Venice, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and King Lear, among others.

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1960: Results

5. Gene Kelly in Inherit the Wind- Kelly plays with his type once again playing a loud showman, but this time with a deep rooted cynicism.

4. Charles Laughton in Spartacus- Laughton gives a nice enjoyable performance that creates a believable portrait of a politician who uses quiet methods of persuasion.

3. Fred MacMurray in The Apartment- MacMurray is quite good in role giving a commanding presence that revels to just the right degree in his character immorality.

2. Laurence Olivier in Spartacus- Olivier as usual gives a great performance here as the main villain of the film. He is effectively a tremendous force of evil, but as well still creates a three dimensional character out of the tyrant that is his character. 

1. Eli Wallach in The Magnificent Seven- This was a very close one for me, and yes I was ready to give Olivier by lead and supporting for this year. Wallach though is equally excellent in his role in the Magnificent Seven, and manages to do basically anything he possibly could with his role. Even with his role being very limited Wallach never makes it feel that way giving an extremely entertaining as well as being appropriately menacing as well.

Overall Rank:

1. Eli Wallach in The Magnificent Seven
2. Laurence Olivier in Spartacus
3. Peter Falk in Murder, Inc.
4. Peter Ustinov in Spartacus
5. Fred MacMurray in The Apartment
6. Steve McQueen in The Magnificent Seven
7. James Coburn in The Magnificent Seven
8. Peter Ustinov in The Sundowners
9. Roger Livesey in The Entertainer
10. Charles Laughton in Spartacus
11. Sal Mineo in Exodus
12. Gene Kelly in Inherit the Wind
13. Arthur Kennedy in Elmer Gantry
14. Martin Balsam in Psycho
15. Trevor Howard in Sons and Lovers
16. Herbert Lom in Spartacus
17. Jack Kruschen in The Apartment
18. Woody Strode in Spartacus
19. Ray Walston in The Apartment
20. Alan Bates in The Entertainer
21. Harry Morgan in Inherit the Wind
22. Brad Dexter in The Magnificent Seven
23. David Lewis in The Apartment
24. Albert Finney in The Entertainer
25. Richard Conte in Ocean's Eleven
26. Laurence Harvey in The Alamo
27. Charles Bronson in The Magnificent Seven
28. Tony Curtis in Spartacus
29. Richard Widmark in The Alamo 
30. Robert Vaughn in The Magnificent Seven 
31. Dick York in Inherit the Wind
32. John Wayne in The Alamo
33. Alan Young in The Time Machine
34. Joseph Wiseman in The Unforgiven 
35. Cesar Romero in Ocean's Eleven
36. Albert Salmi in The Unforgiven
37. Horst Buchholz in The Magnificent Seven
38. Charles Bickford in The Unforgiven
39. John Dall in Spartacus
40. Dean Jagger in Elmer Gantry
41. John Gavin in Psycho
42. John Gavin in Spartacus 
43. Sammy Davis Jr. in Ocean's Eleven
44. Dean Martin in Ocean's Eleven
45. Michael Anderson in The Sundowners
46. Akim Tamrioff in Ocean's Eleven
47. Chill Wills in The Alamo
48. John Ireland in Spartacus
49. Claude Akins in Inherit the Wind
50. Vladimir Sokoloff in The Magnificent Seven
51. The Rest of the Villagers in The Magnificent Seven

Next Year: 1999 Supporting 

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1960: Laurence Olivier in Spartacus

Laurence Olivier did not receive an Oscar nomination although he did receive a globe nomination for portraying Crassus in Spartacus.

Crassus is the main villain of the film a powerful Roman military commander who tries to seize all the power in Rome. He is a powerful man who tries to manipulate all to get the power he desires. Laurence Olivier here takes on the part with a forceful presence. He is very different from Laughton's Gracchus in that Olivier shows that Crasssus is one who directly forces his will on another through his own incredible force of will, something Olivier is simply incredible at doing. In every scene that he is in Olivier leaves not questions to who the commanding presence is, he is always controlling in almost every way as Crassus.

Olivier conveys especially well the pompous superiority in Crassus, that almost never ceases, especially since he is never truly defeated in the film. Even though Crassus repeatedly claims that he is a Roman true and true, and his passion for Rome comes from his own heritage as a patrician, Olivier is keen in showing that really his since of honor is entirely about himself. Olivier is terrific because he tells both a lie and the truth when telling others about his belief in Rome, and his love of his heritage. Olivier appropriately puts the conviction that makes it believable to all others would buy his sentiment, but Olivier brilliantly in his eyes suggests the truth that Crassus only cares of himself. 

As a villain Olivier is excellent in portraying the brutal intelligence of Crassus quietly. He is able to create the brilliant strategist that is Crassus in both quiet and louder moments. In the louder moments he is the dominate personality that makes Crassus a true dictator who has absolute sway. In the quieter moments Olivier never fails to still pull you in with a great intensity. In the final battle scene for example Olivier almost barely moves but nevertheless the intelligence, conviction, and even is brutality is all shown in Olivier's pronounced and unwavering expression.  He make Crassus simply a force that is not to be reckoned, Olivier actually makes Spartacus's eventual defeat an inevitability.

Now importantly Olivier never plays Crassus as just a one dimensional evil tyrant, he certainly portrays him as an evil tyrant but never a one note one. Olivier does this best in the scenes where he interacts with Spartacus's love interest and later wife Varinia (Jean Simmons). Olivier who so perfectly showed the power of the man in the political arena now just as effectively portrays the weakness of the man in the personal arena. Olivier is astounding as he honestly brings to light the pain in Crassus over his inability to understand how she can love Spartacus and not him. It is a entirely genuine struggle and fear in Crassus that Olivier conveys within Crassus over her inability to love him in that same way.

This is just a brilliant performance from the great Olivier. He only succeeds in the role of Crassus creating a fascinating villain that can't help but be a villain. One of my favorite moments of this performance is when Crassus is trying to woo Varinia, and he threatens his child. Olivier plays it so wonderfully because he doesn't pile on the menace like Crassus is just trying to be evil, no instead he does it entirely casually as if Crassus do to his life as a Roman can't help but be evil. This is a terrific work by Olivier as he masterfully creates Crassus into an overpowering villain, and he never once fails to be the worthy adversary needed for the film, but just as well always succeeds in making Crassus a three dimensional character as well as a villain.

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1960

And the Nominees Were Not:

Fred MacMurray in The Apartment 

Eli Wallach in The Magnificent Seven

Charles Laughton in Spartacus

Laurence Olivier in Spartacus

Gene Kelly in Inherit The Wind

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN

 Written by Adrian Hodges

Directed by Simon Curtis

Starring Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh and Judi Dench

Marilyn Monroe: All people see is Marilyn Monroe. As soon as they realize I'm not her, they run away.

In 1956, one of the biggest stars and sex symbols the world has ever known travelled to England to make a movie with one of the world’s most respected stage actors. Somewhere in the middle of the inevitable chaos and drama that ensued, a young man named Colin Clark was embarking on his first job in the movie business. The star was Marilyn Monroe; the actor was Sir Laurence Olivier; and the movie was THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL. Clark’s budding film career never took off but his unique experience would one day become a book (“The Prince, the Showgirl and Me”), which in turn has now become a movie called, MY WEEK WITH MARILYN.

The shoot itself actually went several weeks long but when it comes to spending time with Monroe, the experience is so fleeting that it can feel like an instant that has ended long before it should. There was nothing Clark, portrayed here by fresh faced, Eddie Redmayne, could have done to prepare himself for the magnitude of Monroe’s magnetism. And as the splendid Michelle Williams demonstrates with her finely nuanced performance, there was very little Monroe could do to tame that pull either. Though Clark is just a glorified gopher on set, his innocence and honesty grab Monroe’s attention and before long she latches on to him to use as a shield from the multitude of things that frighten her in general. Her near crippling fear and anxiety in turn threatens the success of the shoot, which causes a serious rift with Sir Laurence, who is played with great exuberance by Kenneth Branagh.

Director, Simon Curtis and writer, Adrian Hodges, both relative unknowns in the world of Hollywood feature filmmaking, infuse MY WEEK WITH MARILYN with a delicate subtlety that allows for simple but sympathetic insight into the mind of the infamous starlet. Bolstered by the almost always brilliant Williams, Monroe comes across here as part frightened little girl, lost in a world she barely understands and part experienced woman, aware of her position and unafraid of abusing her power if it means alleviating her own distress temporarily. She enjoys the attention but also doesn’t know what to do with it when she has it. Most importantly, she is aware that she is more commodity now than person, yet seems more or less content to play along. This might perhaps be because she has no idea how to change the direction of her life or it might be because she no longer remembers who the real Marilyn is anymore.

The Boys From Brazil

“The Boys from Brazil” (1978) is a terrific thriller, feature a pair of powerhouse performances courtesy Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier. Add the great James Mason to the mix, and it’s triple the enjoyment. I caught it on TCM a few weeks ago, and liked it so much I went out and bought the DVD. I had forgotten how good it was.

No need to go into the story, based on a novel by Ira Levin, but I think everyone knows that The Boys from Brazil refers to Hitler clones. Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck), a real character, is among the refugee Nazis in South America busy hatching a diabolical scheme for a Fourth Reich using the clones. Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier), an elderly Nazi hunter, gets wind of the scheme and tries to put a stop to it.

I remember when the movie came out and critics and audiences were pretty evenly split on the lead performances. Some thought Peck was laughably miscast as Mengele, while others thought the casting of good guy, All-American Peck in such a role was chilling and effective.

I can remember Peck appearing on “The Tonight Show” one night and pulling out clips of reviews from his pants, quoting the raves his performance had received from some critics. Apparently the barbs he took did not sit well with him.

For myself, I think Peck is quite good in the role. Not great, but better than I would have thought. It’s as amoral a role he ever played. Mengele was one of the great monsters of the 20th century, and Peck wisely does not try to humanize him.

Some found Olivier’s performance as Lieberman to be embarrassing and one-note, accusing him of doing an Albert Basserman impression. Others found him brilliant, and the Academy awarded him a Best Actor nomination that year.

I think Olivier is absolutely dazzling in the role. By turns warm and sarcastic, cynical and caring, aloof and tender, this is multi-dimensional character. It’s one of my all-time favorite Olivier performances. He lost the Best Actor Oscar to Jon Voight that year for “Coming Home.” I would have given it to Olivier, or Gary Busey for the wonderful “The Buddy Holly Story.”

Critics who didn’t like the movie made jokes about Peck and Olivier during their final fight scene, but let’s face it, the characters are old men, and they’re not going to be throwing each other across the room like Sean Connery and Robert Shaw. I have no problems with the scene as it plays out.

There’s some eerie imagery on display here. Mengele is not above genetically experimenting on the locals in his jungle compound, and the sight of those brown skinned, blue-eyed natives is chilling without being over the top. One of my favorite scenes occurs when Mengele returns to his old laboratory and he flashes back to his cloning experiments. No dialogue here, but the chilling operation scenes and the scenes of the mothers in the maternity ward are greatly helped by Jerry Goldsmith’s ominous music.

I love the score to “The Boys from Brazil.” Love it, love it, love it. The main waltz is one of Goldsmith’s great themes. It’s like another character in the movie. About 15 years ago I saw Goldsmith conduct the Milwaukee Symphony in a concert of his music and they played the waltz as part of a suite. It was wonderful to hear this music live. What a thrill that was.

(For my birthday following my initial viewing of the movie, my dad surprised me with the LP recording of the soundtrack, because he knew how much I liked the music. There aren’t many fathers who would have encouraged their son’s strange listening habits.)

Goldsmith’s score was nominated for an Oscar that year. but lost. So did John Williams’ score to “Superman.” Who did they lose to, but Giorgio Moroder for “Midnight Express.” In full disclosure, I’ve never seen that film or heard the score, so maybe it is a masterpiece. But I sure thought “Superman” was going to take the Best Score Oscar that year.

I can vividly remember the first time I saw the film. It seems like it was only yesterday.

My dad and I went to see the film on a Friday night at the Dolton, the second-run theater in my home town where I spent a large portion of my youth. It was the second show of the evening, and we were standing in the lobby waiting for the first show to let out. The doors opened as the end credits were rolling and we could hear that glorious Goldsmith score. I liked it the minute I heard it, and I couldn’t wait for the movie to start so I could hear it again.

Coming out of the theater with her family was Mary, a pretty, freckle-faced cute-as-can-be girl I had gone to grammar school and junior high with. We were going to separate high schools at the time, but I still saw her when she would come into the grocery store where I was working. We said hello to each other and she said it was a real good movie, that I would like it.

I saw her at the store the next week and agreed that yes, it was a terrific movie, my dad and I liked it a lot. Of course I wanted to tell her how much I liked the music but I learned very early on that there are some things –i.e. film scores – that you don’t discuss with girls. Still, I always wondered what she thought of the score to “The Boys from Brazil.” She probably didn’t even notice it. Her loss.

Rating for “The Boys from Brazil”: Three and a half stars.

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