Best Picture Winners: 1937 - 1938

The Life of Emile Zola (1937)

Paul Muni was one of the Golden Age’s greatest actors. His performances during the 1930s earned him five Oscar nominations. He won for The Story of Louis Pasteur (1935). Muni totally inhabits the role of French author and activist Emile Zola – his voice work, his body language, and his mannerisms. It is a totally captivating performance. I absolutely loved this movie.Emile Zola is a struggling author in Paris who becomes a major success with his book “Nana,” based on the life a professional woman he meets at restaurant one evening. His future published works are critical of the government, the military, and any and all powerful institutions. When his career is threatened to be derailed for his inflammatory writings, he settles down into a less controversial approach and becomes a rich and famous author.But one evening Zola is visited by Lucie Dreyfus (Gale Sondergaard), whose husband (Joseph Schildkraut) was convicted for treason. She offers evidence that not only is her husband innocent, but that the military knows this and is covering up their mistake. Zola’s crusading batteries now recharged, he embarks on a campaign to free Dreyfus and expose those responsible for his false incarceration.The Life of Emile Zola is an engrossing, rousing, and ultimately moving story of something that we’d all like to believe: that one person can make a difference. But it is Muni’s enthusiastic performance that drives the film. He speechifies, argues, investigates, writes, and does everything else with so much passion and conviction that he’s like a force of nature. Muni, virtually unrecognizable here under curly wig and behind glasses, brings such incredible energy to every scene, without ever becoming hammy, that Zola truly comes to life.Muni is such a joy to watch that we miss him when he disappears from the action so the film can set up the Dreyfus story. Luckily these moments are well handled by director William Dieterle, who builds up the suspense and tension while documenting the circumstances surrounding Dreyfus and his false conviction. Sondergaard and Schildkarut are very good and sympathetic as the wronged couple. (The film makes it clear that the final “proof” of Dreyfus’ guilt is his being Jewish.) They have a truly emotionally wrenching scene as they say goodbye before his incarceration.But this is Muni’s show, and brings Zola to life in a way that very few bio-pics able to do. While it is true that the story is set up so that we know who the villains are which makes it easy to know who to cheer for, Muni has already captivated us with his performance before this story thread is introduced. We are well aware of Zola’s intolerance for injustice. Watching Zola react to Lucie’s story, trying but being unable to ignore it, is just one of many great moments that the film provides.The Life of Emile Zola is a great story with a classic lead performance. It’s a movie I was sorry to see end.

You Can’t Take It With You (1938)

Frank Capra won his third and final Oscar for directing You Can’t Take It With You, based on the popular stage play. The story has an eccentric family that makes ends meet by making and selling firecrackers and chocolates, butt heads with wildly successful businessman Anthony Kirby (Edward Arnold) who wants to buy their home. But when Kirby’s son (James Stewart) falls in love with a member (Jean Arthur) of the flamboyant clan, a whole new set of complications presents itself.For the first hour or so, You Can’t Take It With You is a delightfully goofy comedy. Grandpa Martin Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore) who owns the house and oversees the family (his daughter and her family) lets everyone do as they please, whether it’s tinkering with inventions, taking ballet dancing lessons, or playing the xylophone. Everyone has fun, and this leads to madcap, juxtaposed scenes of merriment on the first floor while things explode in the cellar. These are complimented by sweet romantic scenes between Arthur and Stewart, who genuinely likes the Vanderhof family.But then the “crisis” arrives, and the film switches from outlandish comedy to heart-wrenching drama. And even though the film ultimately rebounds and regains its footing, the initial switch is so jarring that one is taken out of the film for a while. Suddenly no one is happy anymore, sobbing and moping about. It’s just too dramatic a shift in tone.Capra has balanced these elements successfully before in films such as It Happened One Night and It’s A Wonderful Life. But these films perfectly blend the laughs with the more emotional moments. It Happened One Night focuses on the budding romance between Gable and Colbert so we know exactly where the relationship is heading. We are told right at the beginning of It’s A Wonderful Life that George Bailey is contemplating suicide, so we know that, in spite of many laughs and pleasantries, that we are in store for a dark turn.But the turn in You Can’t Take It With You is not as smoothly played as in the aforementioned films. It such a hard dose of reality that invades the Vanderhof family that it feels like we’re suddenly in a different movie. Luckily, Capra is able to regain his footing and the finale is wonderfully moving.The main cast is uniformly excellent – Arthur, Stewart, Barrymore, and Arnold all turn in the expectedly fine performances. But the film also boasts terrific supporting turns from Mischa Auer as a Russian ballet dancer who always shows up in time for dinner, and the wonderful Donald Meek as a frustrated officer worker who quits and comes to live with the Vanderhofs. They are all so much fun to watch and/or listen to that they carry the film through the missteps.You Can’t Take It With You is still a very good film from a director who loved to make us laugh and cry. It’s just that this time out he fumbles a bit during the change over. But the film is filled with many great moments and a memorable finale that make You Can’t Take It With You an easy recommendation.