The Oscar Project Interlude #3: Best of the 1950s

by Chris Marshall:

Holy schlamoly, it’s time for the 1960s! It feels like I’ve been doing this project my entire life, but I’ve actually been watching the movies for only a month a half. I’ve watched a lot of movies this year in addition to The Oscar Project, though. In fact, as of the time I’m writing this post, I just watched my 100^th movie of the year!

I thought about dedicating a post just to that milestone, but I ultimately decided to incorporate it into this interlude post. I figured I’d already said everything I have to say about the 1950s as a whole; it had the beginning of modern musicals, some pleasant surprises, a lot of long/overlong films, and a couple of major disappointments. For those of you who don’t want to read about my year of movie watching in excruciating detail, my Best of the 1950s list is at the bottom of the post.

The Oscar Project #23: All About Eve (1950)

by Chris Marshall:

The 1950s are here at last! That means we’re about halfway through the Hays Code era, and we’re moving toward a period where there’s more innovation and risk-taking in cinema than ever before. But not as far as the Oscars are concerned! I’m in for two decades dominated by musicals (An American in Paris, Gigi, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Oliver!) and huge, sprawling epics (The Greatest Show on Earth, Around the World in 80 Days, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia). The good news is that it will lead into the 1970s, perhaps the finest of all Oscar decades.

More good news is that 1950’s winner, All About Eve, is an absolute classic, and although I’d seen it before, it was a pleasure to watch again. In some ways, it feels like a (better made) companion piece to All the King’s Men. Both Willie Stark and Eve Harrington rise to power—in politics and theatre, respectively—and along the way they both abandon all scruples, assuming they had any to begin with.

Despite all the villainy that Willie Stark was responsible for, though, I believe that Eve is actually the more sinister of the two. In his early years, Stark was portrayed as an honest, genuine man, one who actually believed in the ideals he promoted; he was just particularly susceptible to the trappings of power. Eve, on the other hand, was sinister and manipulative from the very beginning. From the moment she first met Margo Channing (Bette Davis), she was plotting her rise to the top.