Best Original Story 1941

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Mister Tee
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Re: Best Original Story 1941

Post by Mister Tee »

I’ve been laboring over this for a week or two, and now find that BJ’s already said half the stuff I’ve written. But I’ll post anyway.

This year’s Original Story category is better by several orders of magnitude than its 1942 counterpart -- once again citing off-the-main-track entries rather than best picture hopefuls. And, by the way, offering a stellar tribute to Barbara Stanwyck, three of whose films show up here.

Meet John Doe is one of my least favorite Capras. Perhaps by then I was just tired of the nice-guy-almost-done-in-by-slick-cynics formula (It’s a Wonderful Life is refreshing not least because it broke new narrative territory for Capra). The film goes on way too long, and doesn’t have near the impact of the earlier “Mr.” movies.

It’s been a while since I saw Night Train (called Night Train to Munich on my copy), but I don’t recall it matching Magilla’s “all over the place” description. I found it a gripping enough piece of wartime suspense. It’s not enough to win over the remaining witty efforts, but recommendable enough.

Here Comes Mr. Jordan didn’t deserve its double-wins here, but it’s a very cleverly conceived and witty fantasy – with, I’d say, the best plot of any movie involving an angel (how’s that for a category?), and snappy dialogue delivered beautifully by Montgomery and company. I could have voted for it in many years, but not in this stellar crew.

Ball of Fire is one of the funnier non-Preston Sturges comedies of the era. As BJ notes, its structure has been widely copied (by Sister Act, for openers) -- and it itself was of course modelled on Snow White. But we can still appreciate it for its cleverness of both plot and dialogue.

But The Lady Eve is Preston Sturges – all right, a Preston Sturges film, with the story credited to one Monckton Hoffe (such a Sturges-like name I assumed it was a pseudonym till I ran it through the IMDB). Like many Sturges efforts, the film has a nifty, surprising narrative structure – taking us down one road, then veering in a new direction for the final reel that takes the film to a new level. And it offers laughs galore, some so off-beat you marvel (a personal favorite, when Eric Blore says “Know them? I positively swill in their ale” – I have no idea why that line makes me laugh as hard as it does). Among numerous stellar choices the writers offered this year, The Lady Eve stands out as the best.
The Original BJ
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Re: Best Original Story 1941

Post by The Original BJ »

This has got to be the best ever lineup in this often-pitiful category, right? These are five movies still widely enjoyed by cinephiles today, irrespective of their nominations in this archaic Oscar category.

I’m a little surprised Magilla described Night Train (to Munich) as being all over the place. I found it, typical of Carol Reed, to be a fairly economic thriller, genuinely suspenseful at times, and possessing a witty sense of humor throughout. In tone and setting, it’s almost a sort-of sequel to The Lady Vanishes, with several characters reprising their roles, though, interestingly, the same leading lady playing a different character in both. The reason it doesn’t get my vote here, though, is that the plot is a bit linear – it could have used an out-of-the-blue story turn or two to goose the narrative into more unexpected directions, I think.

I discussed Here Comes Mr. Jordan in the other thread. I assume, given the movie’s Picture/Director/Screenplay nominations, it was the runaway winner in this category. But I rate the Barbara Stanwyck trio higher.

Meet John Doe isn’t at the level of It’s a Wonderful Life/It Happened One Night/Mr. Smith on the list of all-time great Capra movies. But it shares with many of his films a knack for taking a seeming story of populist uplift and using it to mask more complicated undercurrents beneath the surface. Because the premise—the nation becomes inspired by a fictional man who nearly killed himself over the social ills of the day—is actually pretty dark, and even though the original downbeat ending was scrapped for something sunnier, the script makes a lot of compelling observations about class, politics, and the role of the press in mid-century America along the way.

But if the remaining comedies are the lightest films of the bunch, they are easily the most inventive pieces of writing on offer. I didn’t know much about Ball of Fire before I saw it, some time in film school, and was completely delighted by the narrative that unfurled before me. The premise is an archetype that has been used countlessly over the decades -- an innocent person hides from the police in a total fish-out-of-water environment -- but the formula works for a reason, and this contemporary riff on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is one of the fizziest and funniest of opposites-attract romantic comedies around. For Wilder himself, this is almost a warm-up for Some Like It Hot, and comes close to getting my vote.

The Lady Eve, though, is one of the crown jewels of Golden Age romantic comedies. I find the early portion of the movie just blissfully enjoyable, a battle-of-the-sexes romance full of witty innuendo (all that talk about studying snakes) and a level of bite (“I need him like the axe needs the turkey”) that gives the movie as much snap as any comedy of the era. But when the Lady Eve shows up, I think the movie kicks into an even higher gear entirely, as the plot heads in a direction I didn’t remotely anticipate, becoming even more deliriously funny as it goes on. It’s too bad a vote here isn’t a vote for Preston Sturges himself -- the movie has his stamp all over it, it’s hard to separate a portion of the writing he apparently wasn’t involved with -- but it’s a wonderful comic plot and deserves the honor.
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Best Original Story 1941

Post by Big Magilla »

Combined with Best Screenplay 1941.

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