Cavalcade

The winner of the 1932-33 Best Picture Oscar went to Cavalcade, the first indication that the Motion Picture Academy has a fetish for all things British. Based on a play by Noel Coward, the film follows two British families from New Year's Eve, 1900, to the same date in 1933.

The Boer War, the death of Victoria, the Titanic, World War I and the onset of the jazz age are all experienced by an upper-class married couple and their two sons. The father, played by Clive Brook, goes off to fight against the Boers, as does his butler. His wife, Diana Wynyard, deplores the idea of war, and throughout the picture she longs for peace but war is constantly interfering.

Though this is Noel Coward, there is little to laugh at. It's an unapologetic bit of nostalgia about the glory of the British Empire. Coward seems to long for the days of Victoria, and sees her death as the end of a way of life. The horrors of the Great War and the decadence of the flapper era seem to curdle his blood. At the end of the picture an entertainer sings a song called "Twentieth Century Blues," which would make a fine alternate title to this picture.

If Coward's characters are appalled at what goes on around them, they soldier on with characteristic British resolve. After thirty-three years go by they are toasting yet another new year. Both of their sons are dead (sorry if I'm spoiling, but this film is over seventy-five years old) but they still have each other, and it is a little touching.

The director, who also won an Oscar, is Frank Lloyd, and compared to today's cinema his work is stodgy and static. Almost all of the events of consequence take place off-stage, betraying the stage origins of the piece. There is a war montage that may have been cutting edge for its day, but I was impressed by only one scene, when a young girl dances at a street fair, not knowing that her father has been killed in a carriage accident just a few feet away.

Cavalcade is perhaps the most obscure Best Picture winner, it's only one of two (Wings is the other) that is not available on Region I DVD. I have a friend who has a VHS copy of a rather distressed print. The only reason to really seek out this movie is precisely the same reason I did--to say that you've seen all the Oscar-winning Best Pictures.