ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[Meryl]

Napoléon is a 1955 French historical epic film directed by Sacha Guitry that depicts major events in the life of Napoleon I of France.

The film is notable for its use of location shooting for numerous scenes, especially at the French estates of Malmaison and Fontainebleau, the Palace of Versailles, and Napoleonic battles including Austerlitz and Waterloo.

Daniel Gélin plays Napoléon Bonaparte as a young general, while the older emperor Napoleon I is portrayed by Raymond Pellegrin. Guitry himself played Talleyrand, narrating the story from a drawing room as if just having heard of the death of Napoleon in 1821 on Saint Helena. Napoleon himself is played by two actors, Daniel Gélin as a young man and Raymond Pellegrin in later life; the wry, inevitable switch takes place during a scene at a barber.

Yves Montand appears as Marshal Lefebvre and Maria Schell as Marie-Louise of Austria. The film also has cameo appearances by a number of notable actors, particularly Erich von Stroheim as Ludwig van Beethoven, and Orson Welles as Napoleon's British jailor, Sir Hudson Lowe.

[Fran]

From Wikipedia:  "Olive Oyl for President" is a 1948 entry in the Popeye the Sailor animated short subject series, produced by Famous Studios and released on January 30, 1948, by Paramount Pictures. The short is a reworking of a 1932 Betty Boop cartoon, "Betty Boop for President," and depicts what Popeye imagines the world would be like if Olive Oyl were president.

I found the image on an animation blog that started out like this:  "Usually flat as a board, here's proof that Olive has breasts!! They made guest appearances in only 3 Popeye cartoons that I am aware of...."   LOL

[southendmd]

If Olive Oyl can do it...

[oilgun]

IMDb Plot Summary:   A documentary about Maurice Duplessis and the quebec nationalism which rose to new levels after the death of this Premier of the Province of Quebec. The director used the electoral campaigns of 1936 and 1970 and the Durham report of 1838 to illustrate his subject.

[Fran]

From IMDb:  Middle-aged school teacher Nora Trinnel comes to a Washington D.C. hotel in the summer of 1940 to see Dewey Robinson, presidential candidate. While she waits, her thoughts flash back to the time when she first started teaching at the Auburn, where Robinson was in her eight-grade class, and the star pitcher on the school baseball team. The young boy falls in love with his teacher, mainly because she knows all about boats. Nora and Dan Hopkins, the school's baseball coach, are in love, but a scandal develops when they spend their summer vacation at the same place, and Dan is dismissed from his job at the school. Nora and Dan secretly marry two weeks before he sails for France, in 1916, with Canadian troops in World War I and is killed, and passes out of her life. Now, she is in Washington to see her former student, who has also passed out of her life. Her presence inspires him to stick to his ideals despite outside pressure.

Nora (Claudette Colbert) and Dan (John Payne)

[southendmd]

Plot: In the small town of Crown Port local attorney Bill Adams is trying to break up the ring of corrupt town officials by running for mayor. The cards seemed stacked against him when he gets help from a visiting hunter who, unknown to Adams and the rest of the town, is actually vacationing supreme court justice John Josephus Grant [Frank "Wizard of Oz" Morgan].

[oilgun]

IMDb:   In 1953 Wolfgang Koeppen wrote a novel about a fictive member of the then young German parliament who resisted the Adenauer politics concerning the rearmament and the East-West policy, and the political corruption already present in the young democracy. It became a hit and a classic.

This clever retelling of the novel is done as documentary annex feature film and contains an interview with the writer and historic newsreel footage to enhance the story; moreover, in trying to do more than retelling the story the film maker links the original story up with (late 1980's) political events, trying to show that not much has changed over the years. The whole endeavour is interesting viewing, very literary (part of the story is told by a voice-over), though not easy to get involved with and certainly not for every taste; the link up with the 1980's is not very convincing and maybe too simple. The film is quiet, sympathetic, but should have been less cerebral. Some of the acting is no more than average.

For a big part the film's atmosphere depends on the very good use of Richard Wagner's music from "Das Rheingold".

[Fran]

From IMDb:  Tom Morgan (Tom Tyler) is seeking revenge for the killing of his father (John Elliott) by bandits instigated by a San Diego politician named Frank Cleyburn (William Gould), also the head of a gang of cattle rustlers. Tom begins to court Helen Cleyburn (Lillian Gilmore), Cleyburn's niece, planning to use the girl as a pawn on the chessboard of revenge he plans to take on her uncle.

[Meryl]

The movie is set in Great Britain in the near future. Under the guise of several terrorist acts, a totalitarian government is elected to Parliament under Chancellor Adam Sutler (John Hurt) to save the country from these terrorists.

[southendmd]

Plot:  A chronicle of the political career of US President Woodrow Wilson.

IMDb:  This was, perhaps, the only box office disaster in the history of Hollywood to have received so many Oscar nominations (10), to have won as many Oscars as it did (5), and to have received so much critical acclaim.