Turner Classic Movies wraps up their "31 Days of Oscar" this week, with 20 of the 78 past Best Picture honorees taking a bow. It's clear that picking the best film of the year has always been something of a crapshoot. Winners range from classic (Casablanca, Sun., Feb. 27, 3 p.m.) to entertaining (Ben-Hur, Weds., Feb. 23, 8 p.m.) to schlocky (Rain Man, Sat., Feb. 26, 11 p.m.), with little rhyme or reason as to how they were chosen. After all, Rocky (Fri., Feb. 25, 10:30 p.m.) beat out Taxi Driver; and Mrs. Miniver (Sat., Feb. 26, 3 a.m.) triumphed over The Magnificent Ambersons. Watching these films works better as a refresher course in the fleeting passions of the moment than as a history of the great American films.
Each winner possesses a one-size-fits-all, crowd-pleasing mentality. Whether a widescreen epic like Lawrence of Arabia (Thurs., Feb. 24, 8 p.m.) or a small-bore domestic drama like Kramer vs. Kramer (Sun., Feb. 27, 1:30 a.m.), they generally avoided a niche audience. Even Midnight Cowboy (Sat., Feb. 26, 1 a.m.), the X-rated 1969 winner that emerged from the Academy's brief infatuation with the counterculture, seems positively tame by today's standards.
The biggest crowd-pleasers of all were the musicals, and TCM is showing five of the past Best Picture winners: An American in Paris (Thurs., Feb. 24, 2 a.m.), Gigi (Thurs., Feb. 24, 4 a.m.), My Fair Lady (Fri., Feb. 25, 12 a.m.), West Side Story (Fri., Feb. 25, 3 a.m.), and Oliver! (Sun., Feb. 27, 9:15 a.m.).
An American in Paris features an appealing performance from Gene Kelly as an aspiring painter, and a hilarious comic turn from perennial second banana Oscar Levant as his best friend. American was the first musical to ape "serious" dance by finishing with an extended closing ballet—a nice idea, and one that helped win it the Oscar, but executed with far greater wit and flair in The Band Wagon's "Girl Hunt Ballet."
Gigi is immodestly pleasurable, starring Leslie Caron (Kelly's love interest in American) as a young girl in training to become—well, the film can't really say what, but readers of the Colette novel or in between the lines will know it is to become a courtesan. Gigi also stars the endlessly charming Maurice Chevalier, significantly older and more shopworn here than in his iconic 1930s roles with Jeanette MacDonald. If seeing Chevalier sing "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" doesn't bring a smile to your face, nothing will.
