Cavalcade (1933)

Cavalcade is probably the most obscure film to ever win a Best Picture Oscar. I heard once that its seldom scene status owes to the fact that no one in the film ever went on to be a big star, but I think it probably has more to do with the fact that its bad. Adapted from the Noel Coward stage play of the same name, Cavalcade covers two British families over the years 1899-1933, with a special emphasis on watching them react to various historical events. The first part of the film is practically unbearable, with stilted, stagy acting, one note characters and Diana Wynyard wailing (which she continues to do through the picture), it improves with time, but not that much.

The main story is mostly choppy and episodic, all segments melodramatic, and most far too talkie and seemingly aware of the audience. Wynyard is the much suffering matriarch of the Marryot clan, she gets quite tiresome and doesn't seem to warrant her hysterics until late in the picture. The films moderately somber, melancholy ending leaves lightly bitter taste. All but one of the four children in the film die, and the one who lives sings a song called 20th Century Blues, and that's one the films lighter, more engaging moments. This movie does have a few well done montages, and fair musical moments that almost awkwardly intrude on the action. There's a moment where you see a young girl dancing, unaware that her father just died nearby, that should have been more effecting, as should the whole picture. You can see some genesis of things that would later be done much better in subsequent movies, the concept I think was right enough; but this picture just couldn't quite pull of its Edna Ferber like story structure, though it did try. Grade: D