Best Picture Winners I don't like: Grand Hotel and Green Book, plus Round Midnight

I recently caught up with two Best Picture Winners for the first time; both of them I didn't like!

Grand Hotel is a movie I've known about forever but never saw --- finally I had a chance to watch recently, but realized I wasn't missing much. I felt the characters were introduced to the audience too quickly and I kept trying to follow with what everyone's purpose in the hotel was. Joan Crawford shows up as a stenographer/reporter needing to interview Wallace Beery for some reason but gets distracted for about 20 minutes fighting off flirtatious advances from John Barrymore's character. Beery has a German accent in this film and his character is different from other tough-guy roles I've seen him in. Lionel Barrymore comically plays a doctor but is ultimately un-interesting. Greta Garbo also shows up but also was really un-interesting to me.

This movie didn't work for me! Apparently it was turned into a musical about 30 years ago but I can't imagine how better or worse it would be with songs. 

I also did not like Green Book.  I didn't find the Viggo Mortensen character very likeable or believable at any stage of the film. At the very start of the movie he is shown throwing two glasses in his garbage can at home because two Black workers drank from them. If he hates Black people so much I can't believe that he would ever take the job as a driver for Mahershala Ali's jazz musician character, which is almost made to be slightly comical when more seriousness should have placed on his character, I felt. And the movie should have focused more on him instead.  

The movie as a whole just didn't work for me. The blogger and former TV personality Bobby Rivers wrote about Green Book and I tend to agree with his assessment; he explains a bit better than I can - Blog post from Bobby Rivers' blog talks about Green Book

I also recently watched another movie about a Jazz player and his white friend -  Round Midnight - it's been on my "to-see" list for years and I finally watched it for the first time, and I liked it. Liked it much better than Green Book. Like Green Book, Round Midnight is also about a Black jazz musician (Dexter Gordon) in the 1950s-early 60s era, but in a different country and in a neighborhood with less racial prejudice. Instead of at the prime of his career, Dexter Gordon is at the end of his career - and life. He's a heavy drinker. 

The film shows how he befriends a white Parisian man who has idolized him all his life. When they meet and become friends, the white man becomes his caretaker and lets him live in his home with his daughter.

It's similar to Green Book in that it is ultimately a bout how an artist inspires another man's life. But in Round Midnight there's lots of jazz and musical performances from start to finish. I was convinced that Dexter Gordon was this jazz musician in Paris, and that he really was an alcoholic. It was almost difficult to watch because I really felt I was watching a real person disintegrate on film. 

Malibu Beach Party (1940) with Jack Benny and friends

(A Warner Bros. cartoon) Lampooned this time: radio comedian Jack Benny and a few regular players from his program, including his real-life spouse Mary Livingstone, the show's bandleader (and jokester) Phil Harris (called "Pill Harris"), and Jack's "porter" Rochester (Eddie Anderson) (called "Winchester"). Jack is throwing a beach party in Malibu, and among those to show up include fellow radio pals Bob Hope and Baby Snooks. Some movie stars stop by too, including Bette Davis, Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford, and James Cagney. Oh and you can't have a cartoon loaded with celebrity caricatures without Clark Gable and Greta Garbo. For sure! (Directed by Friz Freleng) l-r: Carole Lombard, Don Ameche, Fred MacMurray, Joan Crawford, Robert Taylor, Charles Boyer, Adolph Menjou, Claudette Colbert Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone, stars of the popular and long-running radio comedy The Jack Benny Show Regular Jack Benny Show players Phil Harris (pictured with his wife Alice Faye) and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, Deanna Durbin, and Mickey Rooney. Rik Tod, in his blog post on this cartoon, observed how all of the heads of the celebrities are slightly too large for thier bodies, giving them a bobble-head feel. I've identified no less than 30 stars, and they are listed below. See how many you can recognize. Out of all the celebrities, only Mickey Rooney and Deanna Durbin are still living. Sorry, I couldn't find a version that would allow me to embed it in this page, so you'll have to go to the You Tube site to watch the clip. Watch "Malibu Beach Party" (1940) (opens in a new tab) Caricatures, in order of appearance: Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone Bob Hope Bette Davis (as Queen Elizabeth from Warner Brothers' 1939 "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex") Andy Devine (yelling "Hiya Buck" - a reference to the movie "Buck Benny Rides Again from 1940 which starred Benny and Devine) Spencer Tracy (in his Henry Stanley garb from the 1939 movie "Stanley and Livingstone") Kay Kyser Robert Donat (with a reference to the 1939 movie "Goodbye Mr Chips") Carole Lombard/Don Ameche/Fred MacMurray/Joan Crawford/Robert Taylor George Raft Clark Gable Greta Garbo (surfing!) Caesar Romero and John Barrymore Ned Sparks and Fanny Brice as Baby Snooks Charles Boyer/Adolph Menjou/Claudette Colbert/James Cagney/Alice Faye Eddie "Rochester" Anderson Phil Harris Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Deanna Durbin, singing soprano Mickey Rooney Cary Grant This cartoon is available on DVD; it's one of the extras to the movie "Dance Girl Dance" (1940), which is part of the Lucille Ball Film Collection.

Mickey's Gala Premiere (1933) - With Celebrity Appearances!

Another classic cartoon short featuring caricatures of Hollywood celebrities of the day. I just discovered this classic Disney cartoon, and had fun trying to recognize all the celebrities. Couldn't recognize some of them, though. Here's a good little synopsis of the cartoon, written by Jon Reeves (imdb.com): Mickey's film is having a premiere, and all the stars turn out at the Chinese Theatre. Among those shown: Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, Jimmy Durante, Clark Gable, Sid Grauman, Mae West. The picture, Galloping Romance (Pegleg Pete kidnaps Minnie, and Mickey gives chase on a variety of animals), starts, and everyone in the audience sways along to the music, then rolls in the aisles with laughter. After, everyone comes on stage to congratulate Mickey; Garbo smothers him with kisses. Celebrities, in order of appearance: 1. Keystone Cops (L-R: Ben Turpin, Ford Sterling, Mack Swain, Harry Langdon, Chester Conklin) Getting out of limo: 2a. Wallace Beery & Marie Dressler 2b. Lionel Barrymore (in beard as Rasputin), John Barrymore (as Prince Paul Chegodioff), Ethel Barrymore (as Czarina Alexandra) all in costume from the film they were in "Rasputin and the Empress". (Read the Wikipedia post on the film) And more trivia: John Barrymore is the grandfather of Drew Barrymore. 2c. Laurel and Hardy 2d. Marx Brothers 3. Maurice Chevalier 4. Eddie Cantor 5. Jimmy Durante 6. (L-R) Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Constance Bennett 7. Clockwise: Harold Llyod, Clark Gable, Adolph Menjou, Edward G. Robinson 8. Ticket Taker: Sid Grauman (of Grauman's Chinese Theater fame) People entering the theater: 9a. George Arliss 9b. Joe E Brown 9c. (crawling on floor) Charlie Chaplin 9d. William Powell 9e. Marx Brothers (over-stuffed coat) 9f. Mae West ("Come up and see me some time!") 9g. Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Clarabell Cow 10 Seated in theater, front row: Chester Morris, Gloria Swanson, George Arliss Back Row: Helen Hayes, Edward G. Robinson, William Powell 11 Jimmy Durante 12. Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery 13. Caricature of "censorship czar" Will H. Hays (of the "Hays code") 14. Eddie Cantor with Joan Crawford 15. Greta Garbo 16. Front: Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, and Will Rogers Back: Groucho, Charlie Chaplin, Lionel Barrymore 17. Ed Wynn 18 Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey ("Wheeler & Woolsey" comedy duo) 19. Laurel and Hardy 20. Dracula (Bela Lugosi), Mr. Hyde (Frederic March), Frankenstien monster (Boris Karloff) 21. Buster Keaton and Joe E. Brown 22: Falling out of seats: Douglas Fairbanks and Jimmy Durante 23. Rolling in isles: Oliver Hardy, Chaplin, Groucho, Joe E. Brown, Marie Dressler 24. On stage: Will Rogers (pulling Mickey by rope) 25. Shaking hands: Marie Dressler, Joe E Brown, Jimmy Durante, Laurel and Hardy, Edward G, Eddie Cantor, Chaplin, Wallace Beery, George Arliss, William Powell, Douglas Fairbanks, Clark Gable, Fatty Arbuckle, Harold Lloyd, Lionel Barrymore. 26. Getting onstage: Greta Garbo 27. Walt Disney and 2 other men (one of them Warner Baxter-dont' know who the other guy is supposed to be), with Groucho. 28. Pluto the dog Source: 2719hyperion.com a post about classic Disney animation.