365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 324 -Cavalcade

Cavalcade was nominated for and won the Best Picture Oscar in 1933. If it was not for that distinction Cavalcade probably would have disappeared into the history of film long ago. The movie is an early epic that tells the story of the British Marryot family at the turn of the 20th century. The film opens a few minutes to midnight on December 31, 1899 and as it unfolds, we follow the family as their lives are touched by the significant events of the first 30 years of the new century.

Based on the play by Noel Coward the movie is very stagy and has the unique acting style present in films during the early days of talkies. The actors speak in an overly dramatic style, that makes them appear as if they are over acting. They frequently talk into the camera and out to the audience, instead of to each other, just as they would do in a live theater production. This style is especially notable in the closing monologue by Diana Wynyard, who plays the mother and is the main star of the film.

The film is episodic in style with title cards used to depict the passing of the years. We see everything that happens through the reactions of Mrs. Marryot as the family is touched by death, disaster and war. The movie is essentially a high-class soap opera. Two notable items of mention are the movies attention to period detail and the unique montage used to depict the optimism that turned to the horror of WWI. Cavalcade is also one of the first Hollywood films to feature the Titanic disaster. The movie also stars Una O'Connor the great character actress familiar to audiences today for her work in The Bride Of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man and The Adventures of Robin Hood. Herbert Mundin, who appeared in Robin Hood with O'Connor, also stars in Cavalcade as her husband, the family butler and later on, a pub owner.

Without the notoriety of an Oscar win Cavalcade would have slipped into obscurity long ago, while other films from the same year have endured and gone on to become classics and standards by which other films are measured.

Other movies nominated for Best Picture in1933 that have proven to be more enduring include:

I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang

42nd Street

Little Women

There are also a few films that were overlooked by the Academy in 1933 but have become classics and been loved by audiences ever since:

King Kong

Babes In Toyland (aka March Of The Wooden Soldiers)

The Mummy

Dinner At Eight

Duck Soup

The Invisible Man

At The Movie House rating **1/2 stars.