One Survivor Remembers: A Review (Review #2175)

ONE SURVIVOR REMEMBERS

When one looks up "memorable Oscar acceptance speech", what comes up is the Best Documentary Short Film Oscar winner One Survivor Remembers. Gerda Weissmann Klein, the titular survivor, approached the podium after the film's director, Kary Antholis, gave his acceptance speech. Mrs. Klein gave a simple yet eloquent statement that put a focus on true victory. Winning the Oscar is nice. However, a greater victory is to live and survive an unimaginable horror. It would be tempting to add "unspeakable" to "unimaginable". The horrors that Gerda Weissmann survived, however, must be spoken of. One Survivor Remembers, in its simple and direct telling, tells of how simple, small decisions let one Holocaust survivor live to speak for the millions who could not.

One Survivor Remembers is a blend of archival footage and a single closeup of Gerda Weissman's interview conducted by Sandra W. Bradley. There is narration from Peter Thomas, who fills in historical information. 

Gerda Weissmann was 15 years old in August 1939. She, her father, mother and brother Arthur lived in Bielsko, Poland and made up the Jewish community there. Then, the Nazis invaded. The Weissmanns were initially more fortunate than some of their neighbors. While they were forced to live in their basement, they at least were in their home. That, however, would not last. There was a forced roundup of Jewish citizens. "There was a feeling of betrayal," Weissmann reflects. "Suddenly you were home and you were not at home anymore". The Nazis and their collaborators first took now-19-year-old Arthur, whom she never saw again. June 28, 1942, Gerda Weissmann calls the worst day of her life. 

It was the last time that she saw her parents. 

The men and women were separated, then separated between young and old. Gerda had been taken from her mother. Desperate to get to her, Gerda jumped out of the truck she had put in and rushed to where her mother's truck was. A Jew working alongside the Nazis grabbed her and forced her back. "You are too young to die," he hollered.

Fate kept turning in turns cruel and kind. The female commandant at the first camp Gerda and her new friends were in looked fierce and barked out her orders. Gerda, however, states that this Frau Kugler was "decent, wonderful, warm, caring human being" who saved her life. Gerda kept living. She honored her promise to her father to not commit suicide even at her most desperate and despairing. As the war was coming to a brutal end, she and the rest of the women were forced onto a death march. "Is it to liberation or to doom", she recalled. 

The death march was the last brutality of the dying Third Reich. Gerda, however, found that fate kept her alive. She avoided being massacred when she opted at the last minute to not make an escape attempt. Her father's insistence that she take her ski boots when they were rounded up saved her from the frostbite that was destroying the others. Finally arriving at Volary, Czechoslovakia, she was one of 50 women liberated by the incoming American army. 

She weighed 68 pounds. She had white hair. She was a day away from her 21st birthday. 

The first American soldier that she saw spoke both English and German. He was Lieutenant Kurt Klein, who by coincidence had been born in Germany but who was sent to America when the Nazis rose to power. His parents had been unable to flee. Lieutenant Klein was shocked by what he saw. He was equally shocked that Gerda quoted the poem The Divine by Goethe as she showed him her fellow survivors. "Noble be man, merciful and good", she recited, still holding out hope for humanity. Gerda and Kurt eventually married and had three children and eight grandchildren.

The details that Gerda Weissmann Klein shares in One Survivor Remembers are said simply but will shock the viewer to their core. She talks about how she saw the other women on the death march snap their frozen toes like twigs. Other details will leave a heartbreaking impression. On the 28th of June 1942, Gerda recalls that her mother prepared the cocoa that she had saved all those years. She remembers that it did not taste as sweet that morning as it would have. She also tells us that in those ski boots, she hid photos of her father, mother and brother Arthur. They will be remembered because of a simple, quick action.

One is left to ponder how many others were erased from history. 

The importance of One Survivor Remembers cannot be overemphasized. She was a witness to a monstrous act of evil. We see early on the footage of the corpses found in Volary. We learn via Peter Thomas' narration that out of 2,000 women on that death march, only 50 survived. We do not know if the other 49 ever shared their stories. We do one person that did. Gerda Weissmann, in sharing her story of survival, became the voice of those 1,500 women who were found dead at Volary. She became the voice of those killed in the camps. She became the voice of those taken away, never to be seen or heard from again.

Gerda Weissman Klein bore witness. She speaks clearly, sadly and simply. One Survivor Remembers does shake one after viewing. Still, one leaves with a tinge of hope. Weissmann lived to tell her tale. In doing so, we must carry on to not forget how close man can come to doing evil. We also know that we can choose to do good.   

One Survivor Remembers mixes Mrs. Klein's interview with archival footage and photographs. The only contemporary footage that I remember is when we see the cemetery where those found at Volary were buried. Seeing the moments to her friends who did not make it is hard but needed viewing. This is especially true when we recall that one friend of hers who died the day of their liberation.  

I have at least two regrets in my life. The first is the day that my mother died. I regret and will regret to my dying day that my final words to her were "Call me when you're ready" instead of "I love you". I was waiting for her to finish what was expected to be a simple medical exam that triggered a medical emergency leading to her death. 

The second was when I attended a soccer match with a coworker and his female companion. During the match, I was overhearing but not participating in their conversation; he asked her who her favorite Muppet character was. When she replied "Gonzo", his surprisingly cheerful reply was, "Oh, so you're a Zionist". I regret not telling him to shove his antisemitism up his ass. 

Other circumstances have terminated our association, and he no longer speaks to me at work going on three months as of this writing. Yet, in retrospect, I see it as no loss. Regretful, hurtful, but no loss. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says it best: "Do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character" (New International Version). I work to have good character. He and his cohorts are bad company. Yet, I digress.

One Survivor Remembers is a documentary that while short will leave a permanent impact on the viewer. We each have dignity by virtue of birth. We each can choose good or evil. We also have the blessings of life. Freedom is a gift. At a time of rising antisemitism, One Survivor Remembers is now more vital than when it was released. We are not so far away from what came before. Sadly, we can end up returning to seeing such horrors come again.

Here is the complete text of Gerda Weissmann Klein's Oscar statement*:

Kary, Sheila, Sandy, Michael, my beloved husband and my family. I have been in a place for six incredible years where winning meant a crust of bread and to live another day. Since the blessed day of my liberation, I have asked the question, "Why am I here? I am no better". In my mind's eye, I see those years and days and those who never lived to see the magic of a boring evening at home. On their behalf, I wish to thank you for honoring their memory; and you cannot do it in any better way than when you return to your homes tonight to realize that each of you who know the joy of freedom are winners. Thank you on their behalf with all my heart.

*Based on the credits, I take that those mentioned in Mrs. Klein's speech are the following individuals. Kary is Kary Antholis, One Survivor Remembers' director. Sheila is Sheila Nevins, the senior producer. Sandy is Sandy Bradley (listed as Sandra W. Bradley), the interviewer. Michael is Michael Fuchs from HBO, which produced and presented the documentary short.

DECISION: A+

Oppenheimer (2023): A Review

OPPENHEIMER (2023)

"Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds". These words from the Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita came to J. Robert Oppenheimer upon seeing the successful nuclear bomb test. Oppenheimer, the biopic of the "father of the atomic bomb" is a brilliantly acted and directed film. It is filled with remarkable images and insight into this complex figure. 

Oppenheimer flows back and forth between the past and what would be current-day events in the film. American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) is being questioned by a small board over whether or not to renew his security clearance. That clearance was already hard to get when Oppenheimer headed up the Los Alamos section of the Manhattan Project during World War II. This project involved building a nuclear bomb both safely and before the Nazis could.

Oppenheimer's personal life is fraught with personal and political troubles. He has had a liaison with Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh). He also keeps a friendship with their mutual friend, Berkeley professor Haakon Chevalier (Jefferson Hall). Both Chevalier and Tatlock are openly committed Communists, as is Oppenheimer's brother Frank (Dylan Arnold). While Robert is sympathetic to Leftist causes, he never joined the Communist Party and oftentimes urged caution about political activism/agitation. 

One person that Oppenheimer did not have caution with was with Kitty (Emilie Blunt). She may have been married when she met Oppie. However, that did not him from knocking Kitty up. He and Kitty do marry, and he stays mostly loyal to her. It is not, however, his marital fidelity that bothers high-ranking military officials now that the Second World War has begun. It is his fidelity to the United States.

Despite misgivings, Manhattan Project head General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) ultimately recruits him. Oppenheimer gathers a hand-selected group of scientists to come to his remote New Mexico ranch at Los Alamos to begin work. He gets everyone he wants except for Albert Einstein (Tom Conti), despite Einstein being the impetus for the creation of the Manhattan Project. Now, Oppenheimer must navigate the scientific, professional and personal among all his men (and women). 

Not that there are not people who distrust Oppie. There are Major General Kenneth Nichols (Dane Dehaan) and Colonel Boris Pash (Casey Affleck). They believe that Oppenheimer would give nuclear secrets to the Soviets. There is a spy among the scientists, but it is not Oppenheimer. Post-war, one of Oppenheimer's fiercest enemies is Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey, Jr.). Despite his curious pronouncing of his surname as "Straws", Strauss tries to build up rapport with Oppenheimer through their shared Jewish ancestry. Oppie won't bite. Now that the war is over though, Strauss becomes convinced that Oppenheimer is a security risk. He also holds a grudge when Oppenheimer publicly humiliated him at a congressional hearing. Finally, Strauss and Oppenheimer are at fierce odds about the development of a hydrogen bomb.

Strauss is the mastermind of the hearing that Oppenheimer is facing. Strauss is also up for Commerce Secretary. Will Strauss manage to outflank Oppie and achieve his great ambition? Will Oppenheimer continue living with guilt over his successes?

Oppenheimer runs three hours long. Upon rewatching the film, however, I wondered exactly what if anything could have been cut out. Perhaps a bit of the extramarital liaison between Oppenheimer and Tatlock could have been trimmed. Tatlock's suicide could also have been trimmed. Overall, though, I was surprised at how well Oppenheimer held together. This is especially true given two elements that distinguish it from other films.

The first is that the film is not structured linearly. Oppenheimer goes back and forth from the board hearing to his work pre-and-post Los Alamos and to Strauss' Cabinet hearings. The second is that in almost all the sections that center around Strauss, Oppenheimer is in black-and-white. There are a few moments when Strauss is featured in color. There are a few moments when Oppenheimer is featured in black-and-white. For the most part though, we have color for the title character, black-and-white for his antagonist. 

That the balance never comes across as gimmicky or jarring is a credit to the production team. Jennifer Lame's editing never felt confusing or out of place. Hoyte van Hoytema's cinematography made the separate sections look incredible. Both would rightly win Academy Awards in their respective fields, two of the seven Oscars that Oppenheimer would receive. 

Van Hoytema's cinematography was used effectively and brilliantly in the film. Sections were downright beautiful visually. The film shows various scientific visions that on screen look exceptionally breathtaking. Curiously, Oppenheimer was not nominated for Best Visual Effects and lost Best Sound to The Zone of Interest. I can see a case for why and how that happened. However, the Trinity test sequence is a brilliant use of visual effects and sound (or lack thereof). While watching, I heard in my mind Marvin the Martian. "Where's the kaboom?! There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!". Oppenheimer uses that silence to build up anticipation for a brilliant and terrifying sequence.

Oppenheimer also won for Best Director. Christopher Nolan, in terms of directing actors, more than merited the recognition. He directed three actors to nominations, with two wins. Robert Downey, Jr. is brilliant as Lewis Strauss. He makes him into a confident figure, cool under pressure, yet burning with quiet rage. Downey's Strauss is not a man to trifle with. We see someone who, despite his success, is still fearful that he will not measure up. I did not hate Lewis Strauss. I did not pity him either. Instead, I saw him as an effective man, driven by a curious mix of sincere belief and petty vindictiveness. He does have one moment of rage. That makes what has come before almost jarring.

Cillian Murphy is brilliant as J. Robert Oppenheimer. He maintains the calm demeanor, in keeping with how the real Oppenheimer was in public. This is a man who never rages or grows belligerent. Instead, Oppenheimer is calm and rational. His soft voice adds to the overall manner of making Oppenheimer into a deliberate man.

One scene sticks out. Oppenheimer is giving a short speech after the war is declared over. We see him say what he thinks his hardworking Los Alamos group wants to hear. The words are upbeat and even a touch jingoistic. What we see both in terms of Murphy's performance and Nolan's directing is that his heart is not in his statements. They are performative. In fact, we see Oppenheimer very alarmed and guilt-ridden by what he has brought about.

Oppenheimer's third acting nomination and only acting loss was for Emily Blunt as the fiercely loyal but equally sharp Kitty Oppenheimer. She is no shrinking violet, able to stand up against her and her husband's accusers when she testifies. However, she is also aghast and angry at Oppie for continuously not appearing to fight. Kitty endures Robert's tryst with his former mistress. She also stays besides him despite whatever doubts that she might have.

Oppenheimer is filled with top notch performances from the entire cast. This film embodies the adage of "there are no small parts, only small actors". We get small roles for a wide variety of established actors and young talents. This film features Josh Hartnett and Josh Peck as Oppenheimer's colleague Ernest Lawrence and Kenneth Bainbridge, the man who literally pushed the button at the Trinity test site. There are cameo roles from other Best Actor Oscar winners (Cillian Murphy winning for this performance). Gary Oldman appears as President Harry Truman. In his small role, we see Truman as one thoroughly unimpressed with what he sees as Oppenheimer's self-flagellation and self-righteousness. Dismissively waving his handkerchief at Oppenheimer, he tells the sad scientist that those in Hiroshima and Nagasaki do not care who built the bomb, just who dropped it. 

There are other cameo appearances in the film, each leaving a strong impression.  Among them are Kenneth Branagh as Danish physicist Niels Bohr, Casey Affleck as the cold Colonel Pash and Ramy Malek as David Hill, another physicist who dares stand up against Strauss in his confirmation hearings. Tom Conti appears briefly as Einstein, making him a serious figure versus the common idea of Einstein as brilliant but a bit wacky. 

While they are not cameo roles, actors as varied as David Krumholtz, Jason Clarke and Alden Ehrenreich work well in their roles of fellow Manhattan Project scientist Isidor Rabi, de facto prosecutor Roger Robb and Strauss' Senate confirmation aide.  

Matt Damon is probably the weakest as General Leslie Groves. He seemed to be one note, almost always raging. It was not a bad performance, but I was not enthusiastic about it.  I could also question how Alex Wolff could play fellow Berkeley scientist Luis Alvarez. Granted, Alvarez was of Spanish descent. However, it is doubtful that such casting would not raise eyebrows if done now.

A lot of Oppenheimer's power comes from Ludwig Gorasson's Oscar-winning score. It has a tense and gripping manner that also blends genuine mourning for his emotional plight. The film is almost totally filled with Gorasson's score. There are very few moments when we do not hear music. However, the score is so strong that it is not a flaw.

Every element in Oppenheimer works brilliantly (no pun intended). On every level, Oppenheimer meets its goal of being an intelligent and entertaining film. "It's paradoxical, but it works", J. Robert Oppenheimer observes to a colleague in the film. That could be a good description of the American Prometheus. 

1904-1967

DECISION: A-

2024 Best Picture Winner: Anora

Pressure (2026): A Review

PRESSURE (2026)

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows". So rapped Bob Dylan in Subterranean Homesick Blues. That might be true. However, you did need a weatherman to know whether or not to invade Europe. Pressure, based on the stage play of the same name, attempts to wring drama out of the weatherman who forecast conditions on D-Day. Veering close to parody, Pressure manages to hold on. 

England, 1944. Group Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott) has been hurriedly summoned to Southwick House. Here, Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) informs Stagg of his important task. Stagg is the preeminent meteorologist in Britain, a genius according to Churchill (or so Ike tells others). Stagg, married with a child on the way, is a prickly Scotsman. He finds the joint British/American team far too jolly for their important task. He quickly takes a dislike to his American counterpart, Colonel Irving Krick (Chris Messina). 

Krick and Ike have been together for years. Krick has accurately predicted the weather at every major battle in the African campaign. Krick predicts that the planned date of June 5, 1944, will be sunny and bright. Stagg scoffs and is adamant about how wrong Krick is. Krick has been lucky, Stagg insists. Historical patterns will not hold. He is dead set that June 5 will have massive storms raging across Europe and insists on postponing the planned Normandy invasion.

Krick is dismissive. Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery (Damien Lewis) is downright enraged. Monty demands that the invasion go ahead on schedule come literal hell or high water. "IF D-DAY IS CANCELLED, WE WILL LOSE THIS WAR!" Monty bellows when not throwing shade at Ike for him technically having no battlefield experience. Krick and Monty, as well as the military at Southwick, say to go. Stagg is adamant that it is a No. Ike, haunted by a dress rehearsal of the invasion that went disastrously wrong, must make a choice.

To everyone's surprise, he decides to wait. Stagg has his own dramas involving his wife, their unborn baby and Germans bombing hospitals. In all this, Ike's loyal Girl Friday Kay Summersby (Kerry Condon) attempts to keep everyone and everything in order. Stagg, already distracted by personal matters, is ultimately proven right. He earns the respect of everyone. In turn, Stagg becomes more cooperative with others. Together, he and Krick find a brief window where the invasion can safely take place sooner rather than later. With that, D-Day commences on June 6, 1944.

While I have yet to see The Six Triple Eight, I think that particular film got a lot of online mocking due to its subject matter. I figure that, despite its good intentions, The Six Triple Eight left some people with the vague suggestion that sorting mail was somehow equivalent to landing on Omaha Beach. That suggestion of "postal workers won World War II" became an unfortunate punchline. It also suggested that filmmakers were scraping to find hereto "untold stories" of the Second World War. In a similar vein, Pressure, I think, has been diminished by the dismissive "the weatherman won World War II" tagline. Again, I think there are many stories left to tell of courage during one of humanity's darkest hours. Whether audiences will embrace stories of courageous postal workers or weathermen, let alone whether such stories merit such lavish praise and productions remains to be seen. 

Pressure, with its pun of meteorological and emotional pressure, initially invites the viewer to mock it. The overall production does not help. Volker Bertelmann's score continuously attempts to push how dramatic everything is supposed to be. Bertelmann is no stranger to scoring war music, having won an Oscar for the 2022 version of All Quiet on the Western Front. I suppose that his Pressure score is better than the All Quiet on the Western Front score. At least with Pressure, he is not dry humping the same three notes for the entire film like he did for All Quiet on the Western Front. Yet, I digress. 

David Haig adapts his play with director Anthony Maras. Again, I have never seen the play version of Pressure. I figure, however, that it would play better than it does on film. A play would keep things to fewer locations. A film would let the story open up. In terms of locations, it does. In terms of characters and performances, it does not.

Andrew Scott is pretty remote as Stagg. I suppose that might be how the character is. However, because there is something distant in Scott's performance, one does not feel much when he faces personal crisis. The relationship with his wife would be ripe with drama. Unfortunately, Pressure uses them almost as if they were built to create drama. We see her heavily pregnant and then we see her at the end. Pressure does not go in to making Stagg a whole person. Instead, he is just there to look down on everyone except Ike, who towers over him.

As a side note, Pressure does give Andrew Scott a chance to issue a height joke. When he first arrives, Krick seems pretty dismissive of him. "I thought you'd be older," I think he says. "I thought you'd be taller" is Stagg's curt reply. Andrew Scott is 5'8" and Chris Messina is 5'7". 

Try as Pressure does, one never truly feels like these are people. I did not sense a change in Stagg's manner even when the film suggested it. I also had trouble accepting that Krick and his men would be happily dancing a jitterbug while working on their weather predictions. Stagg seems appalled at the others dancing to Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. Part of me thinks that yes, people working under extreme pressure should let off a little steam. Part of me also wonders if such a thing would happen so often. An exchange between Stagg and Krick about how the former had never seen (or apparently even heard of) Gone with the Wind did not work either. It seemed more for forced drama than for realism.

The performances were respectable though not great. Kerry Condon is the standout as Kay Summersby.  One can give Pressure some credit in that it does not suggest any liaison between Eisenhower and Summersby. She plays Summersby as sensible, loyal and trustworthy. Kay Summersby is the cool, rational figure able to stand up and stand for Eisenhower and Stagg. I would also say that Chris Messina did a good job as Irving Krick. He plays him as someone confident in his abilities and sure of himself. When he is proven wrong, he at least makes Krick's bitterness relatable. 

Andrew Scott was not particularly good as Group Captain James Stagg. His scenes of domesticity looked forced. His interplay with others looked equally forced. Again, that might be the character. However, I would think that Pressure would make the case for why we should care for and about this man. It did not.

Brendan Fraser did his best as General Eisenhower. I would say that he is frankly too big physically to play Ike. He did not sound like Eisenhower. He tried to look like Ike. In fairness, he did have good moments, such as when he told Montgomery to never undermine him again in front of the men. However, one struggles with Ike flying off the handle at another meeting.

Damien Lewis was hilarious as the future Viscount Montgomery. He chewed the scenery with naked abandon. As he raged and pontificated, Lewis continuously made Monty look in turns unhinged and theatrical. He might have been. He just did not have to be that way here.

I will say that the actual D-Day invasion scene was well-filmed. I do not think that it will rank among the great battle sequences. However, it worked within the film's story and left a strong impact.

Pressure is good but not great. It has some good performances and some bad ones. Overall, Pressure does not make a good case for why we needed to know about the weatherman who saved the world.

1900-1975

DECISION: C+

Unsung Hero: A Review

UNSUNG HERO

Family bonds stretch and strain but do not break in Unsung Hero. The true-life story of a foreign family that brought not one but two of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)'s biggest names will ultimately move the viewer regardless of the viewer's background. 

David Smallbone (codirector and cowriter Joel Smallbone) has a highly successful music promoting career in his native Australia. He also has a very large family. He and his wife Helen (Daisy Betts) have six in total (a seventh comes in later). David and Helen are Christian, with David specializing in bringing Christian music acts Down Under. However, his efforts to bring in Christian music superstar Amy Grant bomb big time. Ticket sales are lukewarm at best. While he was able to sell out Stryper at the Sydney Opera House, Grant couldn't even muster a fifth of the opera house's capacity.

That, along with a major national economic downturn, brings the Smallbone family to financial ruin. David thinks that he has a potential deal with Carman, another Christian music superstar. However, that requires him to move to Nashville, Tennessee. Helen will not stay behind, so the entire family leaves all they know to go to the States. They go to the land of opportunity with little in terms of opportunity or money. Worse, they come dangerously close to being deported when one of the kids says that they plan to stay two years instead of the six months their visas say that they will stay. 

Fortunately, they do make it to Nashville. Unfortunately, the hoped-for deal falls through. Now strangers in a strange land, the Smallbones now have to adjust. David continues working to build up and provide for his family. He accidentally creates a lawncare business. He is quietly irritated to depend on the kindness of church members. Church choir director Jed Albright (Lucas Black) and his wife Kay (Candace Cameron Bure) are kind. However, David quietly chafes at their repeated benevolence. David's father James (Terry O'Quinn) does his best to remind his son that family is not in the way. It is the way. 

James, however, cannot help David and Helen overcome other issues. There is David's very fraught relationship with Christian music performer Eddie DeGarmo (Jonathan Jackson). DeGarmo still holds a bit of a grudge over when David rejected his group DeGarmo and Key for an Australian tour in favor of Grant. Now, David has to do DeGarmo's yardwork while his oldest daughter Rebecca (Kirrilee Berger) cleans his toilet.   

Rebecca, however, has natural singing talent. While shy, she can rally enough to perform. She and the other Smallbones put their faith in God. David puts his in himself. When Rebecca finds that DeGarmo has created his own music label, she and the others think this could be a sign. Will David swallow his pride enough to let Rebecca's natural talent outweigh his growing depression? Will Joel be forever condemned to sing alongside his brother Luke?

One of Unsung Hero's greatest flaws is that the audience is expected to know everything about everyone in the film. The film has an early scene of Stryper taking the stage. In quick succession, there is mention of Stryper, DeGarmo & Key and Amy Grant. At the end of the film, there is something of an inside joke about how Joel has to sing with Luke. The inside joke is that Joel and Luke Smallbone make up the CCM group For King & Country. People familiar with both For King & Country and Rebecca St. James (Rebecca Smallbone's stage name in tribute to her grandfather) might find the quip amusing. Those unfamiliar with For King & Country might be downright puzzled by this seemingly offhand remark. 

As a result, some of Unsung Hero is a bit too much "inside baseball". It is almost as if Joel Smallbone (cowriting and directing with Richard L. Ramsey) did not fully trust their potential audiences. They could trust the Christian audience (or at least most of them, as I would not recognize a For King & Country song off the bat). They could not trust a more secular audience. There are other curious elements in Unsung Hero that I found a bit off.

The film starts with the Smallbones awaiting possible deportation to Australia, then we go back 15 years earlier only to come back to where we started about 21 minutes into the film. Once there, Unsung Hero goes in a straightforward manner. I was puzzled over why Smallbone and Ramsey did not opt for a totally straightforward story. It also has some drama when Helen suffers complications when giving birth to their last child. The film comes dangerously close to suggesting that she will not make it. Spoiler alert: she does and so does baby Libby (who cameos as the nurse who brings baby Libby to her parents). We also get a cameo from St. James herself as a Quantas airline stewardess.

No cameo from Joel Smallbone, who plays his own father in Unsung Hero. Joel Smallbone is working hard to build up an acting career to go along with his music career. He had a role in Journey to Bethlehem and will appear in the upcoming George Washington biopic Young Washington. I will say that Joel Smallbone did a very good job playing his father. Granted, no one outside the Smallbone circle knows how close or far the younger Smallbone was in accurately portraying the Smallbone family patriarch. Still, one does feel for this proud man brought low, but who eventually pulls through. 

A nice touch is how David never fully integrated into American culture. He would keep to his "G'day" to greet people. He would refer to having a family large enough to field a cricket team. These two things would be mostly a mystery to the Southerners that he dealt with. 

Unsung Hero is supposed to be about the matriarch, Helen. However, in a curious turn, it seemed that the film focused more on David than on Helen. That is not to say that Daisy Betts gave a bad performance or that Helen Smallbone was shunted off to the side. It is just that I think Unsung Hero looks upon David's problems more than on Helen's. 

In other roles, I think that Joel Smallbone still harbors a bit of resentment towards Eddie DeGarmo. Why else portray him as a bit whacked-out and wigged out? DeGarmo looks odd to where one might think he was on substances. He did not look good and seemed surprisingly bitter about being ditched in favor of Amy Grant all these years later. That is how Jonathan Jackson played Eddie DeGarmo. 

Lucas Black and Candace Cameron Bure were underused as the Smallbone family friends. However, they did well enough in their small roles.

Terry O'Quinn and Kirrilee Berger for their parts were the unsung heroes of Unsung Hero. The former kept a solid Australian accent. He also kept to the more spiritual, hopeful aspect of Unsung Hero, working to remind his son of how important family is. Berger's Rebecca Smallbone/St. James was equally moving. Her rendition of You Make Everything Beautiful at her second audition will move the viewer. That scene includes footage that the Smallbones had shot throughout their lives. That was a very nice and well-crafted touch. 

Curiously, for a film that is geared as "faith-based", I would argue that Unsung Hero has little to do with Christ. It takes over half an hour for the family to so much as sing a hymn. There is little in terms of church attendance. I did not have to have them shout "JESUS MAN!" all over the place. I was, however, a bit surprised that Christ was not as big in Unsung Hero as I thought He would be. 

Unsung Hero takes its time to work its way to the viewer. A bit of a rocky start does not take away from the overall effect of the film. A tribute to parents who sacrifice for their children, Unsung Hero is a love letter to a mother and father from their children. It is true: too often our parents are our unsung heroes and heroines. Unsung Hero does well in reminding us of the power of love, mixed with faith. 

David and Helen Smallbone

DECISION: B+

Peter O'Toole Oscar Nomination Number Two: An Analysis

PETER O'TOOLE OSCAR NOMINATION NUMBER TWO: AN ANALYSIS

It is a curious thing that Peter O'Toole's second Oscar nomination would feature not one, not two, but three great actors who would never win an Oscar. O'Toole would also face off against his costar for the prize neither ultimately ever won. 

The 37th Academy Awards were in great tune as two musicals dominated the nominations. The original musical Mary Poppins was the frontrunner at 13 Oscar nominations, one shy of the all-time record. Its closest rival was the film version of My Fair Lady at 12 nominations. That year, another film had 12 nominations. That other film was the historical epic Becket. 

Not one but two of those 12 nominations belong to our perennial Oscar bridesmaids. As stated, this was Peter O'Toole's second nomination for Best Actor. This was Richard Burton's third overall Oscar nomination. Like O'Toole, Becket was the second nomination for Burton in Best Actor. Unlike O'Toole, Burton's first nomination had been as Supporting Actor for My Cousin Rachel. 

Out of the three other nominated men, only one was a previous winner. Anthony Quinn had won twice in the Supporting Actor category for Viva Zapata! and Lust for Life. His nomination for Zorba the Greek was his first in the Leading Actor category. 

The others were still on the hunt for their first competitive win. My Fair Lady's Rex Harrison, like O'Toole, was on his second nomination. He had been nominated the year before for Cleopatra. Peter Sellers, the final nominee, is a curious case. This is technically his second Oscar nomination but his first acting nomination. Sellers had a previous nomination for Best Live-Action Short Film for The Running Jumping and Standing Still Film.

In terms of this Best Actor race, Peter O'Toole faced good though not great odds to win on his second nomination. There were some hurdles. All of his fellow Best Actor nominees were in Best Picture contenders. Therefore, the competition was strong overall. There was nothing, however, that could break O'Toole out from the pack.

The biggest hurdle this time around was Richard Burton. It is almost always the case that when two actors from the same film are nominated in the same category, they cancel each other out. That is not always the case. The Godfather Part II had three actors nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Robert De Niro, Michael V. Gazzo and Lee Strasberg). Despite having three performances from the same film, De Niro won over his costars. More recently, both Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu were nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Curtis managed to beat out her costar. Those however are the exceptions rather than the rule.

Up to this point, only once had someone won Best Actor over his costar/fellow Best Actor nominee. That had happened three years earlier to this year when Maximillian Schell beat his Judgement at Nuremberg costar Spencer Tracy. The other four times when two or even three actors from the same film had been nominated, they all lost. 

Technically, Bing Crosby managed to beat his fellow Going My Way Best Actor nominee Barry Fitzgerald the second time that costars faced off against each other in this category. However, Fitzgerald had been nominated in both Lead and Supporting Actor for the same role in the same film. Making things more bizarre, Fitzgerald won Best Supporting Actor for Going My Way. As such, he both won and lost for playing the same role in the same movie! There could have been a curious situation where Barry Fitzgerald could have won two Oscars for the same role in the same film. 

In short, history was very much against Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton winning Best Actor for Becket. O'Toole and Burton's chances to win this time were hampered by having to compete with his Becket costar. O'Toole also faced surprisingly strong competition from the other nominees. No one was a frontrunner nor completely out of the running. It would be a fight to the finish to see who would walk off with the Oscar.

And now, let us look at the five men vying for this prize. The nominees for Best Actor in a Leading Role of 1964 were:

Richard Burton in Becket

Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady

Peter O'Toole in Becket

Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek

Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove 

O'Toole's first turn as the mischievous monarch Henry II was no match for the elocution professor. He would have no luck the second time he was nominated as this lusty Plantagenet king.

As stated, it is more than probable that Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton knocked each other out of contention. This would happen five years later to two of his rivals when Midnight Cowboy's Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight both lost Best Actor to John Wayne in True Grit. 

That would leave three men in contention: Rex Harrison, Anthony Quinn and Peter Sellers. How did Harrison end up triumphing over everyone?

I think we can put that down to two numbers. Twelve and eight. 

Zorba the Greek had seven nominations. Dr. Strangelove had four. My Fair Lady had twelve. Zorba the Greek won three Oscars: Best Supporting Actress, Best Black-and-White Cinematography and Best Art Direction. Dr. Strangelove won none. Curiously, My Fair Lady also won Cinematography and Art Direction but in the Color category when the Academy split them into two separate categories. One wonders which would have won had Cinematography and Art Direction been combined.

My guess is that Zorba the Greek would have received only Best Supporting Actress, curiously enough beating out My Fair Lady. Interestingly enough, Becket won only one of its twelve nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay. More interestingly, Becket's sole Oscar win came by beating Dr. Strangelove, My Fair Lady and Zorba the Greek.

This 1-12 record, one of the lowest in Oscar history, is important to see how Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton lost while Rex Harrison won. Becket was highly appreciated. However, it was almost totally rejected. Prestige could not beat out popular. 

Out of the ten categories where they were in direct competition, My Fair Lady cleaned out Becket's clock, beating it in seven out of those ten. As stated, Becket won over My Fair Lady in only Adapted Screenplay (Becket's sole Oscar win). In the remaining two categories, both Becket and My Fair Lady lost to another film. One was when Topkapi's Peter Ustinov won Best Supporting Actor over Becket's John Gielgud and My Fair Lady's Stanley Holloway. The other was Film Editing, where Mary Poppins triumphed over them.

Becket, and to a lesser extent Mary Poppins, were swamped by My Fair Lady. Mary Poppins had the most overall nominations at 13. It did walk away with a respectable five. However, My Fair Lady had a better record: eight out of twelve. With My Fair Lady dominating so much, Rex Harrison's win seems all but certain. However, while the dual nominations knocked Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton out, what about the other two nominees?

Anthony Quinn already had two Oscars. Would they give him a third? At that time, it would have been almost impossible to have one actor winning three Oscars. I think Walter Brennan had been the only one to do so, all for Supporting Actor. The rarity of having one actor take three Oscars knocks Quinn out. What then about Sellers? Dr. Strangelove was less popular with Academy members. It had a mere four nominations. It was not well-supported by Columbia Studios, certainly less so than Warner Brothers supported My Fair Lady. The latter was a prestige production, opulent, the film version of a wildly popular Broadway hit. The former was a Cold War comedy about the end of the world.

Seller gave a bravura performance. Unfortunately, he did not have Lerner & Lowe songs to talk in pitch to. The mad scientist, egghead President and stiff upper lipped British officer were also no match for the elocution professor.

And now, for my ranking from Best to Worst:

Peter Sellers

Richard Burton

Peter O'Toole

Anthony Quinn

Rex Harrison

Will Rex Harrison rank among my worst Best Actor Winners whenever I opt to do that retrospective? He's teetering on the edge of being on that list. I figure that people do remember Harrison's recreation of his Broadway performance. However, I think more people remember Sellers' triple turn in Dr. Strangelove.

Peter Sellers did not falter in any of his three performances in Dr. Strangelove. Each of them was true to the character. I figure that perhaps Sellers' final scene where the mad scientist really goes all out in the cray-cray might have put some Academy voters off. However, I think that Dr. Strangelove himself was supposed to be so insane. That scene, that performance, has become iconic. One need only say, "MEIN FUHRER, I CAN WALK!" and know you what you mean. I do not think that the same can be said about Rex Harrison's poor, fussy, misogynist Professor Higgins.

I put Richard Burton second because I found the transformation of St. Thomas Becket to be well-acted and quite moving. Burton's character was something of a libertine who had a religious conversion. Burton was not grandiose or over-the-top. Instead, he was remarkably quiet and still for almost all of the film. I will concede that his death scene was slightly over-the-top. However, it is a minor detail to the overall performance. 

He edged out Peter O'Toole, who was brilliant in the role. His Henry II was conflicted, sometimes crazed, even contradictory. This was a man unapologetic about the delights of power. He also was someone who genuinely loved Thomas Becket until he stopped being his drinking buddy and started being a moral adversary. In his rages both for and against Becket, Peter O'Toole showed himself a powerful but flawed figure.

Putting Anthony Quinn low does not mean that I thought he did not merit the nomination. I would have been fine if Quinn had won that third Oscar as the lusty Hellenist. Zorba is now one of Anthony Quinn's most iconic roles. It is more impressive when you think that the embodiment of Greek exuberance was in real life of Mexican and Irish ancestry. 

Now, we come to Rex Harrison. His performance as the pompous, arrogant Professor Henry Higgins was...fine. It is not terrible. It is correct. It is exactly what the role was supposed to be. However, is it really the best out of the five? I figure that it is probable that most people remember Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady than they do either Peter O'Toole or Richard Burton in Becket. I do not think, however, that being remembered makes one better. Moreover, I think more people do remember Peter Sellers and Anthony Quinn in Dr. Strangelove and Zorba the Greek respectively than they do Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady. 

I do not think that Rex Harrison was terrible or that his win was a travesty. I just think that all four of his fellow nominees that year were better. 

Peter Sellers should have won Best Actor for Dr. Strangelove over Rex Harrison for My Fair Lady.

In conclusion, the Academy made the right choice in not awarding Peter O'Toole the Best Actor Oscar on his second nomination.

House of Dracula: A Review (Review #2171)

HOUSE OF DRACULA

Poor Dracula. Few monsters have been so powerful, yet so powerfully misused. Despite having his name in the title, Dracula disappears halfway through House of Dracula. This film is perhaps the weakest entry in the Universal Frankenstein franchise (and probably in the Dracula and Wolf Man franchises too). House of Frankenstein is a B-Picture, just barely passing acceptable.

Potentially mad scientist Franz Edelmann (Onslow Stevens) has two potential patients seeking his cure. The first is Count Dracula (John Carradine). He no longer wishes to be a vampire and wants the bad doctor's help. Dr. Edelmann thinks that a series of blood transfusions will reverse the Count's vampirism. That treatment, however, makes it hard for Edelmann to see another patient: Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.). He has come to end his life as the Wolf Man. It takes the persuasive powers of both Inspector Holz (Lionel Atwill) and Edelmann's beautiful assistant Miliza (Martha O' Driscoll) to keep Talbot at Edelmann's home.

Talbot rejects the idea that his lycanthropy is more mental than chemical. In his despair, Talbot attempts suicide. This attempt, however, has some positives. It leads to the discovery of a cave. Here, Edelmann can grow the plants that could help Talbot reverse his curse. Here, Edelmann also discovers the frozen remains of Frankenstein's Monster (Glenn Strange). Edelmann will keep the Frankenstein creature around but will not revive him.

One being who is revived is Dracula. He has hypnotic eyes only for Miliza. He does not notice Edelmann's hunchbacked assistant Nina (Jane Adams). Nina notices that Dracula craves Miliza. Edelmann thinks that he can deceive Dracula into releasing his hold on the luscious Miliza. However, it will take the sun to end this threat.

Pity that in the transfusions it is Edelmann now who can be the new Nosferatu. The mad doctor becomes madder. He will revive the Frankenstein Monster. Will Talbot be freed from his curse? Will Edelmann turn to the dark? Who will live and who will die in the House of Dracula?

Again, for a film titled House of Dracula, the title character seems almost an afterthought. In fairness, he does start out the film. He also is the catalyst for Edelmann's transformation. However, just like in House of Frankenstein, he is disposed of halfway through this 67-long film. 

Come to think of it, we get a very curious continuity question with House of Dracula. In House of Frankenstein, Dracula had been vaporized by the Sun as a distraction to let the last mad scientist and hunchback escape. One would have thought that Dracula was no more. However, here is the undead once again undead again. We can also go into how Lawrence Talbot had been apparently shot to death in House of Frankenstein. Now, we see him back and in perfectly good health for someone who had silver bullets pumped into him. 

We can see here that House of Dracula is not interested in keeping to the already-established storyline. Instead, we either have to ignore or forget what had come before. Edward T. Lowe's screenplay seems to be doing a variation of what had come before. About the only real change is making the hunchback a woman. I guess that having a female hunchback was an effort at diverse casting. Little girls too should aspire to be hunchback nurses to mad scientists. 

House of Dracula also has some very curious to pointless moments. Having Miliza play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata for Talbot and Baron Lantos (Dracula's other name) is a bit on-the-nose for the goings-on here. There is a dream sequence where Dracula appears to beckon the transforming Edelmann to revive Frankenstein's Monster. I admit that this sequence is interesting. It is probably one of the few good parts in Erle C. Kenton's direction.

The worst part of House of Dracula is what it does to poor old Frankenstein's Monster. We get a repeat of Frankenstein being frozen. I think this is the second or even third time such a fate has befallen our monster. However, Frankenstein's Monster essentially popped up at the end and that was it. I would be surprised if Frankenstein's Monster was in more than three minutes in House of Dracula. One finishes House of Dracula thinking, "Frankenstein's Monster pops out at the end for what?"

The performances overall are acceptable. I would put Jane Adams as one of the stronger performances as Nina the Hunchback. She is a blend of empathetic and frightened. Adams balances being serious with being slightly comical. John Carradine has improved as Count Dracula/Baron Lantos. He is not as laughable as he was last time. To be fair, we did not get a closeup of his eyes. Onslow Stevens, like Adams, kept a balance between serious and silly. He did lean in more on the latter, but nothing that was embarrassing.

Our beloved Lionel Atwill returns for the last time in a Frankenstein film as yet another police official. I briefly thought that he had a metal arm. I was mistaken. Atwill is the unsung hero of the Frankenstein franchise. He appeared in five of the eight Frankenstein films. He might have appeared in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein had he lived (this would be his film released in his lifetime, with his final two films released posthumously). To his credit, Atwill never camped out the increasingly whacked-out scripts. 

I thought well of Lon Chaney, Jr. as our perpetually tormented Wolf Man. He did what he could with the script. Martha O'Driscoll was pretty but not particularly impressive as Miliza. Poor Glenn Strange probably got the worst of the deal. He was in House of Dracula so briefly that they might as well have resorted to using clips from past Frankenstein films. 

House of Dracula is not a good film, let alone a great film. It is passable entertainment, an acceptable way to use up a free hour. 

DECISION: C+

UNIVERSAL FRANKENSTEIN FILMS

Frankenstein (1931)

The Bride of Frankenstein

Son of Frankenstein

The Ghost of Frankenstein

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

House of Frankenstein

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein