Showbiz History: With a Song in My Heart instead of 'in the Rain'. Plus a shocking Oscar moment.
Friday, February 26, 2021 at 9:00AM 5 random things that happened on this day, February 26th, in showbiz history...
1953 The 10th annual Golden Globes are held with The Greatest Show on Earth (Drama) and With a Song in My Heart (Comedy/Musical) winning Best Picture. In today's world, With a Song in My Heart would not be eligible as it was a biopic of a musician, which the HFPA almost always places in Drama now. It's a pity because it's a dull movie and it was up against... wait for it... Singin' in the Rain...
Why couldn't people see Singin' in the Rain's brilliance in 1952 ?!?
The Academy couldn't either. It did have a tiny bit of awards play, snagging a DGA nomination for co-directors Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen and was one of over a dozen nominees for BAFTA's now defunct category (which included everything from foreign-language films to Hollywood pictures called "Best Film from any source". That category eventually became their main category "Best Film" when they began to focus more on US pictures than UK films.
2005 Halle Berry's ill fated star vehicle Catwoman wins the Razzies for Worst Picture and Worst Actress. In what is surely the coolest moment of her career, Halle Berry accepts her award with hilarious comic timing and teary gratitude.
2010 Hill Harper and Anika Noni Rose host the 41st NAACP Image Awards where Precious cleans up with several prizes. It later overperforms at the Oscars too with a surprise win for Best Adapted Screenplay
2012 The 84th Oscars are held. The Artist and Hugo both win 5 Oscars but The Artist takes the big ones: Picture, Director, Actor. A few years back we were so proud to host a guest blog from the actress Missi Pyle who recalled that Oscar night for us as part of that film's cast.
2017 The 89th Oscars are held honoring 2016 cinema. It's a night everyone remembers, primarily for the once in a lifetime Best Picture confusion when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced La La Land but the winner was actually Moonlight... and it wasn't corrected until La La Land was already up on stage accepting!
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 42nd birthday to Veronica Ngo, who we became huge fans of this year. She was excellent in Da 5 Bloods as "Hanoi Hannah" (and one of our nominees for Best Actress in a Cameo or Limited Role... the category is still being announced). She also kicked much ass in Furie, Vietnam's Oscar submission in 2019, and promised major drama in the Old Guard sequel (if it gets made) with her brief dangerous appearances in that action hit (all three films are streaming on Netflix). She's already a major star in Vietnam but is ready for international fame. She's trilingual too, speaking both Norwegian (lived there for ten years) and English fluently.
Hollywood should cast her in everything. She's a fine actor and, I mean, look at her!
Other showbiz birthdays: Oscar favourite production designer Dante Ferretti (Hugo, Sweeney Todd), Teresa Palmer (Lights Out, Discovery of Witches), Mark Dacascos (John Wick 3, Only the Strong), Director James Wan (Saw, Insidious), Sweden's Alicia Ageson (The Courier, Vikings), Greg Germann (Ally McBeal, Grey's Anatomy), Bill Duke (Mandy, Commando), producer Drew Goddard (Lost, The Martian), Max Lloyd-Jones (War for the Planet of the Apes, Switched at Birth), Shalim Ortiz (Grand Hotel, Heroes), singers Michael Bolton and Eryka Badu, Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska (Never Gonna Snow Again, In the Name of), and Mrs Lily Tomlin herself writer/director Jane Wagner (Search for Signs of Intelligent Life, Moment by Moment)
BETTY HUTTON CENTENNIAL TODAY
And late greats like centennial cutie Betty Hutton (Annie Get Your Gun, The Greatest Show on Earth) who is just brilliant in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943) which you should see whenever you get the chance, Oscar nominee Jackie Gleason (The Honeymooners, The Hustler), Oscar nominee Margaret Leighton (The Go-Between, Dr Kildare), animation giant Tex Avery (Magical Maestro, A Wild Hare), Oscar nominated director Jean Negulesco (Johnny Belinda, Three Coins in the Fountain), Madeline Carroll (The 39 Steps, Prisoner of Zenda), Dub Taylor (You Can't Take it With You, Bonnie & Clyde), and Golden Globe favourite Tony Randall (Pillow Talk, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?), Emmy nominee William Frawley (I Love Lucy, Miracle on 34th Street), and country star Johnny Cash.
Reader Comments (32)
While I love both movies, it is weird that the Oscars and Golden Globes both went all in for An American in Paris in 1951 but then shafted Singin’ in the Rain the following year. I wonder if there was some “we just awarded a Gene Kelly musical last year” resistance among voters?
Edwin -- that sounds like a reasonable theory but it's a pity because SINGIN' IN THE RAIN is so superior in every way.
Singin' in the Rain has to be one of the best films of all time - it's 2021 and still feels fresh and engaging, even "modern"... it should have sweep the Awards season any given year.
Re: La La Land vs Moonlight. I LOVED that it was announced that way. I dislike La La Land because of its message and how fake it feels... Moonlight feels honest, pure, humble. So I love that the Goliath "won" only to see David take the much deserved award.
Jesus -- i dont know if you read the piece i linked to in this article but I also think it was somewhat perfect what happened... for similar reasons (though i personally love LA LA LAND) but it reflects the film themselves in an interesting way. i'm actually shocked at how much i liked rereading that piece. Really proud of it -- especially given that it's hard to write with clarity after a long night of awarding.
@Jesus I had not thought about Moonlight 's win that way. I used to feel they were sort of cheated as they did not have the night to themselves but your interpretation puts it a much better place.
Also my favorite memory of Singing in the Rain is when the nursing home my aunt lives staged a sing along performance with the residents. My aunt had a speaking part and even stripped of the dancing and the cinematic elements, the strength of the script and songs still shine. My aunt and everyone really enjoyed, (this is a real joyous musical).
Also Jean Hagen should have won best supporting actress.
Biden is already bombing foreing countries. Hallelujah.
Has anyone ever done Jean Hagen on Snatch Game.
Wait a second, looking at those photos of Veronica Ngo, I'm almost certain I've seen her in something else. Was she the evil stepmother in Cam Tam (or was it Tam Cam) which started out as a straightforward Cinderella retelling and morphed into an action film starring the interestingly beautiful Isaac in the leading role? Let me google... wait, that movie was DIRECTED by Veronica Ngo? Wow, color me impressed.
Oh, and Jean Hagen gave one of the best comic non-musical performances ever in a perfect movie musical. Now that's talent!
Now hey now while I'm glad to admit that Singin' in the Rain is a great film I LOVE With a Song in My Heart. I don't think it was the best picture of the year (my vote for that would go to another Susan Hayward starrer-The Lusty Men also where her Best Actress nomination should have come from rather than Song) but it's got very fine work by Susan and Thelma Ritter and is loaded with great music. I don't think it was designed to be a film for the ages but an inspirational salute to Jane Froman's fortitude in fighting her way back from that catastrophic plane crash.
I love Betty Hutton!! She was a troubled, complex, difficult woman who survived a Dickensian childhood and surely had an undiagnosed bipolar condition as well as drug and alcohol problems but she's a live wire onscreen and could sing both with wild abandon and when she calmed down beautiful sensitivity. Her autobiography "Backstage, You Can Have" is a fascinating read.
She didn't make a lot of films-only 18, with some are very hard to find but I'd say her top 10 would ran this way:
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
Somebody Loves Me
The Perils of Pauline
And the Angels Sing
Annie Get Your Gun
Let's Dance-She and Fred Astaire are an odd but not awful match
Incendiary Blonde
Let's Face It
Red, Hot and Blue
The Greatest Show on Earth
I love conspiracy theories suggesting that AMPAS messed up the envelopes on purpose to give "more excitement" to that night where everything goes so predictably. 😂😂😂
The death blow to Singin' in the Rain's Best Picture chances was when MGM decided to put its muscle behind Ivanhoe instead as their big-budget candidate.
Susan Hayward remains an acquired taste. I think my favorite performance of hers is in Valley of the Dolls versus Patty Duke, even though it’s a shame we we were denied Judy‘s Helen Lawson (and her Annie Oakley, but that’s another story).
Best facial reactions to the La La Land/Moonlight mix-up as pictured above:
1. Busy Phillips
2. Dwayne Johnson
3. Salma Hayek
4. Meryl Streep
5. Matt Damon
With a Song in My heart is one of Susan Hayward's greatest moments. Singin' in the Rain at the time was just another routine movie on the MGM assembly line. It only gained great work status in future reviews like other greats like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Bringing Up Baby, Johnny Guitar and The Searchers.
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek is another funny masterpiece by Preston Sturges (The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels) and after that, I suggest a look at The Great Mcginty, equally good where he seems to be satirizing - a good part of his films are satires - the universe of Frank Capra and his vision of politics. This film gave him his only (deserved) Oscar for the original screenplay.
@Feline Justice
no one is saying that it was done on purpouse (it was an embarrassment for the AMPAS and not the kind of publicity they wanted), but we're pointing out that it was kind of poetic justice, and thus, we loved that it happened that way...
... I feel bad for the La La Land cast and crew, though, but for the film as a concept... not so much. It's horribly overrated and to me it's like an ultra extended Superbowl comercial with zero soul and a message that removes any value of the sacrifices they made for their career (I've talk with this with artists and felt exactly the same, just saying)
i think both MOONLIGHT and LA LA LAND are flat-out masterpieces! the specific oscars that each film won were all richly deserved, and we're the lucky ones to have both films to treasure. plus THE LOBSTER, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, 20th CENTURY WOMEN, Isabelle Huppert, Viggo Mortensen...what a year 2016 was.
Jesus Alonso, sorry. I should've made myself clearer. I wasn't talking about the talk here. I was talking about the "social networks conspiracy theories": Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and likes. Walking through the choppy streets of the Internet you can trip over a lot of them.
@EricB
for a love song to L.A., check out Mick Jackson's "L.A. Story" (1991), written (it took him 7 years to get to that final draft) by a Steve Martin in state of grace. Probably "La La Land" would level down its rating when you compare them both. I wouldn't be surprised if Chazelle would recall that film as one of the main inspirations for his film. "L.A. Story" isn't perfect by any means but it is a delight of surrealism, with moments that moves you to ecstasy (and honestly there is nothing in La La Land that comes even close to it, in my opinion, even if it is technically speaking a more accomplished film on technical aspects).
I would have nominated "L.A. Story" in 1991 for Picture, Actor, Original Screenplay and Film Editing, probabl.
La La Land... maybe song and cinematography, even Film Editing, maybe. But that's it.
Interesting that the next post is about a biopic of a real life singer. Hoping for Oscar glory. And this post contains, as one of the subjects, a biopic of a real life singer. 69 years separate The United States vs. Billie Holiday from With a Song in My Heart. We can say that Susan Hayward and her career(the roles she played and the movies she starred in) are the perfect definition of "Oscar bait". Without wanting to denigrate either one or the other. Susan, in addition to being beautiful and sexy a la Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor, was as talented as the two and in the hands of good directors and with great material, she reached the maximum in quality. And it's already been proven that it's possible to make quality Oscar baits, there are several examples.
Gwen -- i actually love Hayward but i dont think WITH A SONG is very good.
Feline -- wow. the internet realy is a crazy place, I agree. why would the Oscars ever do something like that on purpose. LOL. they were so embarrassed about it.
People will clearly never forget that night, and by default the films involved in the incident, but it still feels like a gut punch not to have experienced, "And the Oscar goes to... Moonlight."
Its sad that many will remember it as 'how sad for La La Land' - but honestly, i think it is more 'how sad for Moonlight' because they kinda lost their moment in the sun because everyone was sooooo sad for La La Land (which is a horrible movie - and Emma Stone needs to give her Oscar to Isabelle Huppert) - but in the end, the BEST movie prevailed that year (Moonlight is a masterpiece - wish If Beale Street Could Talk could have been recognized for the masterpiece it is as well) - so i take solace in the fact that Moonlight won Best Picture, whatever the trail to get there may be.
I forgot that Rosemarie DeWitt (who is unfortunately easy to forget was in La La Land) was very visible onstage when the chaos ensued!
Can I just say, she should be the American Olivia Colman, I don't understand why she hasn't been cast in every movie made since 2008. There is honestly no compliment too generous I could give her, she's one of the BEST BEST working actresses and just thinking about her makes me happy.
Will you be reviewing Clarice the series and the horrendous Allen v. Farrow thing?
"Singing in the Rain" is the movie that made me fall in love with movie musicals ever since I first saw it as kid. It should have won a couple of Oscars at least for art direction - who am I kidding it should have won for Best Picture.
Maybe "An American in Paris " was a more prestige musical- it's about art, has a Gershwin score and a scrip by Alan J. Lerner- not too mention the Ballet
Fadhil - no and hell, no.
Not bad, but still reeling from Claudio's piece on The Father. Think I'll take a few hours off TFE so every other (great) piece doesn't feel so flat.
Anon - DeWitt is nice enough looking, but bland. A Colman is a face you remember after one great performance Dewitt isn't.
With a Song in My Heart (1952) reminds me of two other films that also fell into the arms of the Oscars, in the same category "biography of a famous singer with dramatic life that can give a nomination to the leading actress".
With a Song in My Heart (1952): 5 nominations (including Best Actress - Susan Hayward) / 1 award (Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture)
Love me or Leave me(1955): 6 nominations (including Best Actor - James Cagney) / 1 award (Best Writing, Motion Picture Story)
[The omission of Doris Day in the group of Best Actress today is considered one of the major injustices in Oscar history].
Interrupted Melody(1955): 3 nominations (including Best Actress - Eleanor Parker)/1 award (Best Writing, Story and Screenplay)
@ Rafaello
Also: Lady Sings the Blues (1972): five nominations (including Best Actress - Diana Ross)
Walk the Line (2005): five nominations (including Best Actor - Joaquin Phoenix); one award (Best Actress - Reese Witherspoon)
Working stiff,
Coal Miner's Daughter(1980): 7 nominations/ 1 award (Best Actress - Sissy Spacek)
Judy(2020): 2 nominations/ 1 award (Best Actress - Renée Zellweger)