Catch up with the idea behind this series here.
A thousand apologies to everyone for the lack of a Sunday Cents column. With a respected actor/director duo putting in numbers as disappointing as “Green Zone,” there was definitely a lot to talk about but I just didn’t have the time or the access to my computer that I needed here at South by Southwest. I have managed to sneak a way for a few precious moments to finalize and post this article, which I’m very happy to see got a good response last week. So here we go again.
1929 – “The Love Trap” (William Wyler)
If there was one film that best represented the awkward transition from silents to talkies, then William Wyler’s early screwball comedy is it for me. The story is typical American silent melodrama, with a down-on-her-luck chorus line girl falling in love with a wealthy gentleman and facing the wrath of his disapproving family, but the kicker comes in the last reel when the previously silent film starts talking. It’s a jarring moment and Wyler uses the transition during an important story beat, similar to Dorothy opening that door to a wildly colorful Oz. While many films from this era featured sporadic dialogue, none felt as carefully manipulated as this instance. Wyler was only 26 when the film was released but his unobtrusive, economic style was already firmly in place. He would, of course, go on to become one of the most successful men ever with the Oscars, earning three Best Director trophies and guiding more actors to Oscar nominated performances than anyone else in history.
In exactly one week’s time, we’ll have a brand new list of Oscar nominations to pore over, pick apart and eventually file away in our subconscious with the other 81 editions of this annual collective. For Oscar geeks, nomination day is in many ways more exciting than the ceremony itself, celebrating a broader spectrum of work and throwing up far more surprises along the way.