Cavalcade (1933)
Directed By: Frank Lloyd
Written By: Frank Lloyd, Winfield R. Sheehan
Starring: Diana Wynyard, Clive Brook, Una O'Connor, Herbert Mundin
Length: 112 min.
Genre: Family Drama
Based On: The play "Cavalcade" (1931) by Noël Coward
1934 Oscar Nominee - Best Actress in a Leading Role, Diana Wynyard
1934 Oscar Winner - Best Art Direction, William S. Darling
1934 Oscar Winner - Best Director, Frank Lloyd
1934 Oscar Winner - Best Picture
Wow, look at all them oscars.....it's a shame the movie sucked.
The story of two London families, told over the span of 30+ years. This movie puts characters from the same family into some of history's biggest moments, and in the end, a lot of them have died. A movie with a lot of death in it. Once again, a movie I should have enjoyed...
The movie starts off on a positive note in a way. The two main families are the Marryots, the well-to-do family, and the Bridges, Alfred Bridges is the Marryots's butler and his wife also works for them. Robert Marryot and Alfred Bridges head off to fight in the Second Boer War. And good news, they both come back alive.
A few years later, Alfred is owner of a pub and a stinkin' drunk. His daughter, Fanny, is around 8 or 9 now, and she loves to dance. In one of his drunken outbursts, Fanny runs out of the house and sees people dancing in the streets. She joins them. Alfred also runs out, and gets hit by a horse drawn carriage and is killed. His daughter dancing not far from his dead body, blissfully unaware.
Okay, that got my attention.
And then it all goes to hell.
Let me ask you this. If a title card came up showing the date "April 14, 1912" and the scene you see is of two people on a large boat....where would you think this scene was taking place? Yeah, I would have said The Love Boat too, but apparently that's not it, because as the scene ends, the characters move away to reveal .... a life preserver with the name "TITANIC" on it! (*dramatic music*)
Okay, that's a minor complaint, but by the time we got to that scene the movie was losing me again. And then World War 1 happens. And wouldn't you know it, one of the main characters dies on one of the last days of the war. Right after he had fallen in love, no less. One son dies on the Titanic on his honeymoon, the other in the last week of the Great War. What crappy luck this family has.
Every character talks very dramatically with their very dramatic lines. In all seriousness, that's one of the biggest issues with this movie. Every line is very dramatic, and it's delivered very dramatically. Times certainly have changed in what we view as good and bad acting. The shoehorning of people into major historic events could be forgiven, or even a plus if done right, but it was clumsily done here. And there really wasn't much a of a plot to speak of. Stuff happened...but it didn't feel like it told a cohesive story. More like bits of story here and there.
If it weren't for Crash, I'd say this was the worst Best Picture winner ever. It'll have to settle for second place (for now).
My Rating: 3/10
IMDB User Rating: 6.0/10 (3.8k votes)
Rotten Tomatoes: 61% of Critics (14-9), 26% of Audience (2.9 / 5 ; 1k votes)