CAVALCADE – Clive Brook, Diana Wynyard
Cavalcade (1933)
Direction: Frank Lloyd
Screenplay: Reginald Berkeley, Sonya Levien; from Noel Coward’s play
Cast: Clive Brook, Diana Wynyard, Herbert Mundin, Una O’Connor, Beryl Mercer, Irene Browne, Merle Tottenham, Frank Lawton, Ursula Jeans, Margaret Lindsay
Synopsis:
- Upstairs (Clive Brook, Diana Wynyard) and downstairs (Herbert Mundin, Una O’Connor) in a British household, from 1900 to 1933.
The Pros:
- Cavalcade won best picture and best director Oscars for the period 1932-33 (basically from Aug. 32-Dec. 33) and was reportedly the biggest box-office hit of the year. That makes it a historical curiosity.
- Best actress Oscar nominee Diana Wynyard has one good moment, walking among armistice revelers but not feeling at all like celebrating after having lost a son to the Great War. (Noel Coward, for his part, called her performance "magnificent.")
- One of the last scenes, showing the decadent 1930s, features a gay couple. Another historical curiosity.
The Cons:
- Most of the cast is highly theatrical, while the generally capable Frank Lloyd’s direction is mostly stagebound. True, this is based on a Noel Coward play, but a little more naturalism would have greatly enhanced the melodrama’s effectiveness.
- Cavalcade is an unabashed paean to the indestructibility of Mother England: mere people fight and love, work and play, live and die; tribal wars and World Wars come and go, ships hit icebergs and sink, beloved queens die and turn to dust just like their lowliest of their subjects — but Forever England. If that’s your cup of afternoon tea, then Cavalcade is the movie for you.
The Question Mark:
- If you can spot Betty Grable in this one, let me know.
In Sum:
- I’d say that Cavalcade wouldn’t be much appreciated today chiefly because its theatricality is too stolid to have much camp value. But you can always check it out because of its place in Oscar history.
3 Academy Award Wins
Best Picture
Best Director: Frank Lloyd
Best Art Direction: William S. Darling
1 Academy Award Nomination
Best Actress: Diana Wynyard
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Tags: Cavalcade, Classic Movies, Clive Brook, Diana Wynyard, Film Reviews, Frank Lloyd, Noel Coward, Oscar 1933, Oscar Movies, Reginald Berkeley
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