Oscar Nominee of All Time Tournament: Round 1, Group A

(info about nominees under the poll)

ROBERT REDFORD (1936-)

NOMINATIONS:

Lead- 1973 for The Sting

--

MERLE OBERON (1911-1979)

NOMINATIONS:

Lead- 1935 for The Dark Angel

Favourite stuff from the past year:

I was tagged by @norashelley and @womansfilm for best films and books of the year but i was already putting together some lists and I can't contain it to just 9! Here are my favourite things of the year, in chronological order:

Films:

The Great Gabbo (1929)

Madam Satan (1930)

Min and Bill (1930)

Hell's Angels (1930)

Street Scene (1931)

Million Dollar Legs (1932)

Hoopla (1933)

Alice in Wonderland (1933)

I'm No Angel (1933)

Death Takes a Holiday (1934)

Hips, Hips, Hooray! (1934)

The Old Fashioned Way (1934)

First a Girl (1935)

Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)

Poppy (1936)

It's Love I'm After (1937)

Give Me a Sailor (1938)

Never Say Die (1939)

Hellzapoppin' (1941)

Stage Fright (1950)

Richard III (1955)

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Carry On Cleo (1964)

A Warning to the Curious (1972)

Favourite actors: Sylvia Sidney, W.C. Fields, Bert Wheeler, Marie Dressler, Joan Blondell, Dirk Bogarde, Greta Garbo, Fredric March, Jessie Matthews, Harpo Marx, Martha Raye, John Barrymore, Vivien Leigh & Laurence Olivier

Books:

Dream Story (Arthur Schnitlzer, 1926)

Ex-Wife (Ursula Parrott, 1929)

Deep Water (Patricia Highsmith, 1957)

Groucho and Me (Groucho Marx, 1959)

Listening Walls (Margaret Millar, 1959)

Harpo Speaks! (Harpo Marx, 1961)

The Collector (John Fowles, 1963)

The Sunne in Splendour (Sharon Kay Penman, 1982)

Eleven (Patricia Highsmith, 1994)

I Who Have Never Known Men (Jacqueline Harpman, 1995)

Empress (Shan Sa, 2003)

Junji Ito’s Cat Diary (2009) (a re-read but truly one of the greatest books about cats)

Dark Matter: A Ghost Story (Michelle Paver, 2010)

A Head Full of Ghosts (Paul Tremblay, 2015)

I’ve read 73 books this year. Many many books I did not finish and abandoned (i always get between 50-200 pages in to give it a real chance but I don’t believe in reading things I don’t enjoy), so ive actually consumed quite a bit more than 73 books. I did read a lot of dumb, trashy horror and thriller novels. Sometimes I don’t have the energy to read something intelligent and just need something easy. But that really bumps up my read count.

Favourite Albums:

Every year all I listen to are the same albums on repeat and I have a really hard time getting into new music. But this year I was especially into:

Joanna Newsom - Divers (previously I did not enjoy this album of hers but I have come around to it)

Shirley Collins - Adieu to Old England

Shirley Collins - Sweet England

Horrible new!

I uh, I'm Normal I prommy, I don't write out entire timelines i prommy

[Timeslines in text under cut, spoilers for Batim, Batdr and Dreams come to life]

Timeline of Joey Drew's Studio:

1925-28: Henry creates the bendy concept and shares it with Joey

1928: Joey Drew Studios is founded and Little Devil Darling starts production

1929: Little Devil Darling releases to stellar reaction

1930-32: Sammy Lawrence, Jack Fain, Wally Frank's, Grant Cohen, Susie Campbell and Norman Polk are all hired

1930: Joey drew Claims Henry left the studio

[Theory: Joey is a prolific liar, there is a news paper clipping in the files for Joey's Apartment, "Animator dies at desk from pushing too hard", along with a postcard to Henry sent to JDS with a 1940s military stamp]

1933: Shawn Flynn and the Heavenly Toys crew is hired and begin work on bendy toys

1935: Sammy Notes tensions an annoyance with Joey, such as asking the music department to be quite and giving ridiculous deadlines

1935: Thomas Connor is hired to assist with the Ink machine

1925-39: Allison Pendle is hired to replace Susie campbell as the voice of Alice Angel

•Ink demon is created

•Susie is turned into Twisted Alice

•Many experiments are conducted on JDS staff

1940: Joey drew begins work on BendyLand and hires Amusement Park designer Bertum Piedmont to assist

1941: A large amount of JDS staff are drafted into WW2, Joey begins hiring women to replace then

1945: Sammy expresses his annoyance with the ink flooding, ink addiction likely began here

1946 [Dreams come to life book]:

-Buddy Lewek is hired

-Thomas Connor and Allison Pendle are fired after demanding the patent for the ink machine is returned to Tom

-Sammy falls fully into Madness, praising the ink demon bendy, killing staff including Norman Polk, before being knocked out with a projector

-Buddy is killed by Ink bendy, Joey revives Buddy as a Boris clone

-World Herald brings Light to Joey's Finacial issues

1946-48: Thomas and Allison are rehired

1948: Joey Drew Studios files for Bankruptcy, closes in 52

1952: Allison Pendle and Thomas Connor get married

1963: Bendy and the Ink machine and Boris and the Dark Survival take place, beginning the cycle

1971: Joey drew Passes away

1972: Archgate films buys the rights to bendy, Wilson discovers the ink machine

1973: The events of Bendy and the dark revival take place

Timeline of the Ink Machine and Cycle:

[Note: alot of this is headcanons and theories]

1930-1935: The ink machine is bought from GENT

•Wally Franks in the only person allowed to be around it

•Wally notes the ink acts alive

1935: Pipes are installed, causes constant ink floods, especially in the music department much to Sammy's displeasure

1935: Thomas Connor is hired from GENT to assist with the Ink machine, before Joey steals the patent

1935?: The soulless ink bendy is created, Joey locks it away and berates Thomas on the failure

193?: Joey Drew sacrifices Susie Campbell to create an Alice Angel, creates Twisted Alice

•Thomas Connor and Sammy Lawrence were likely present or at least involved in manipulating Susie to agree to the transformation

1940: Joey drew begins experiments on souls to created living toons for BendyLand

1945: Sammy's spiral into Maddness begins, consuming ink and becoming Disjointed from his coworkers

1940-46: Joey created the Cycle, likely putting Twisted Alice inside

1940-45: Henry passes away [likely 1941] and Joey puts his soul in the machine

1946: Buddy Boris, Ink Bendy, Norman Polk, Grant Cohen, Sammy lawrence and others are killed/Transformed and placed into the Cycle

1952: Allison Pendle and Thomas Connor get married, likely put into the Cycle shortly after by Joey

1952-70: Joey begins experimenting to create a child, succeeding with Audrey

1963: Henry comes to the "studio", marking the beginning of the Cycle

1970: [Purely headcanon for Batdr] Joey creates a memory of himself that is kinder and remembers a better form of the past, so that he can be remembered better. This memory is placed in the Cycle

1971: Joey Drew passes away

1972: Archgate films gains access to the Ink machine, Wilson Arch discovers the Cycle and begins to toy with it

•Creates the keepers to fight the Ink Demon and inprison the Cycle breakers

•Puts the Cycle on pause after imprisoning Henry

•Experiements on the ink demon with the keepers, trapping him in a toon bendy form

•The Cycle destabilizes, becoming larger and changing

•Sammy, Twisted Alice, the protectionist and Bertum are all imprisoned as Cycle breakers

-Twisted Alice Escapes

1973: Audrey enters the Cycle

•Accidently frees the Ink Demon from his bendy form

•Kills Wilson and fights Shipahoy Wilson before being fatally injured

•Fuses with the Ink demon before taking control and with the help of Allison Angel, Tom and Henry, restarts the Cycle

•Takes toon bendy out of the Cycle

1973: GENT Corp takes the ink machine, holding control of the cycle

The Unsolved Killing of Georgette Bauerdorf

Georgette Bauerdorf was a young socialite with a grand future—until 1944, when her life was cut short in the dead of the night. Born to an oil tycoon in New York City in 1924, Georgette lived a life of privilege. She and her older sister attended a convent school on Long Island, where they were trained in goodness and propriety. When the girls’ mother died in 1935, the Bauerdorf siblings and their father moved to California, where Georgette was once again enrolled in a school that befit her place in society—alumnae of the Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles included Shirley Temple and Myrna Loy.

Upon graduation in 1941, Georgette moved to West Hollywood to pursue an acting career. By the age of 20, she found work at the Los Angeles Times in the Women’s Service Bureau and at the Hollywood Canteen—a dining and dancing club that catered to young men in uniform. Georgette called El Palacia her home, a grand Spanish-style house that played host to numerous celebrities. Her evenings were filled with nights out on the town; she was courted often and enjoyed the attention of her many suitors. 

Exactly what happened on the night of October 11, 1944 remains a mystery. It was a Wednesday; Georgette was at the Canteen, where her role as a Junior Hostess meant she danced with and entertained the servicemen on layover in Los Angeles. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary that night. At the end of her shift, she climbed into her sister’s Pontiac coupe and drove home. At 11:00 a.m. that following morning, Georgette’s maid and a janitor arrived to clean her apartment. They were met with an unlocked front door. The cleaners entered and found Georgette’s lifeless body face down in her bathtub, the water still running.

She was wearing the top part of a pajama set. Her hair floated in the water. When police surveyed the scene, they found little evidence of a struggle—though the coroner later confirmed the bruises on Georgette’s body suggested she put up a fight before her death. A partially unscrewed light bulb outside her front door led investigators to believe that her killer had hidden in the darkness, perhaps even entering the apartment before Georgette arrived, lying in wait to make a move.

Police assembled a rough timeline of Georgette’s final moments: They believe she came home late, ate a snack in her kitchen, and was then killed by someone who may or may not have been a stranger. A downstairs neighbor heard screaming at about 2:30 a.m., along with shouts of “Stop! You’re killing me!” The neighbor assumed it was a domestic dispute and returned to sleep. The janitor himself claimed he heard the sounds of high-heeled footsteps from Georgette’s apartment, and then a crash—as if something had been dropped—yet he couldn’t confirm if there had been a second person in her apartment. Whatever occurred, Georgette’s last moments were certainly a desperate attempt to save her own life.

In the days following the murder, police received a letter from a Sergeant Gordon Aadland. Aadland claimed that a woman matching Georgette’s description gave him a lift through Hollywood on the night of October 11. In the letter, he described the woman as appearing quite nervous, though he would downplay this claim in later years. The killer, meanwhile, vanished into the night after the slaying, driving off in Georgette’s car. The vehicle was found some distance away, abandoned and out of gas. It was the last trace of the killer in a case that quickly went cold. Georgette 

Some speculators associate Georgette’s death with that of Elizabeth Short, a.k.a. the Black Dahlia, claiming that the same man murdered the two Hollywood hopefuls. Implicated in this theory is a tall individual with a limp named Jack Anderson Wilson, who plays a part—although peripherally—in both stories. The murder remains a mystery to this day. Seventy years from that fateful night, there’s little chance that Georgette’s death will ever be solved.

Merle Oberon

Merle Oberon (born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson; 19 February 1911 – 23 November 1979) was a British actress who began her film career in British films as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). After her success in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), she travelled to the United States to make films for Samuel Goldwyn. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Dark Angel (1935). Oberon hid her mixed heritage out of fear of discrimination and the impact it would have had on her career.

She was perhaps best known for her portrayal of Catherine Earnshaw in the 1939 film adaptation of the novel Wuthering Heights, directed by William Wyler.

Her other notable films are These Three (1936), A Song to Remember (1945), Berlin Express (1948), and Désirée (1954).

A traffic collision in 1937 caused facial injuries that could have ended her career, but she recovered, and remained active in film and television until 1973

The 100 Best Films of the 1930s

The most magical decade in all of cinema, ranked and rated high-to-low:

1. City Lights (1931) ★★★★★★★★★★ 2. It Happened One Night (1934) ★★★★★★★★★★ 3. Duck Soup (1933) ★★★★★★★★★★ 4. The Invisible Man (1933) ★★★★★★★★★★ 5. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) ★★★★★★★★★★ 6. The Wizard of Oz (1939) ★★★★★★★★★★ 7. The 39 Steps (1935) ★★★★★★★★★★ 8. The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) ★★★★★★★★★★ 9. Ninotchka (1939) ★★★★★★★★★★ 10. The Cat and the Canary (1939) ★★★★★★★★★★ 11. Horse Feathers (1932)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   12. Frankenstein (1931) ★★★★★★★★★☆   13. Pygmalion (1938) ★★★★★★★★★☆   14. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   15. My Man Godfrey (1936)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   16. Animal Crackers (1930)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   17. Monkey Business (1931)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   18. A Night at the Opera (1935)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   19. The Lady Vanishes (1938)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   20. The Thin Man (1934)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   21. Top Hat (1935) (1935)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   22. The Most Dangerous Game (1932)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   23. The Port of Shadows (1938)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   24. The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)  ★★★★★★★★★☆      25. Love Me Tonight (1932)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   26. The Merry Widow (1934)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   27. One Hour with You (1932)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   28. Trouble in Paradise (1932)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   29. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   30. Nothing Sacred (1937)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   31. Oliver the Eighth (1934)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   32. Midnight (1939)  ★★★★★★★★★☆  33. Towed in a Hole (1932)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   34. Gone with the Wind (1939)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   35. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   36. La Grande Illusion (1937)  ★★★★★★★★★☆   37. Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932)   ★★★★★★★★½☆     38. La Chienne (1931)   ★★★★★★★★½☆     39. The Petrified Forest (1936)  ★★★★★★★★½☆   40. M (1931)   ★★★★★★★★½☆   41. King Kong (1933)   ★★★★★★★★½☆           42. The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936)    ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 43. Pépé le Moko (1937) ★★★★★★★★☆☆   44. Topper (1937)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   45. Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   46. Queen Christina (1933)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   47. Freaks (1932)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   48. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   49. The Music Box (1932)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   50. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   51. Modern Times (1936)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   52. Baby Face (1933)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   53. The Miracle Woman (1931)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   54. The Awful Truth (1937)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   55. The Scarlet Empress (1934)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   56. Young and Innocent (1937)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   57. Jewel Robbery (1932)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   58. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   59. Way Out West (1937)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   60. A Tale of Two Cities (1935)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   61. Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   62. Island of Lost Souls (1932)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   63. The Gay Divorcee (1934)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   64. Busy Bodies (1933)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   65. History Is Made at Night (1937)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   66. Stagecoach (1939)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   67. Morocco (1930)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   68. Bringing Up Baby (1938)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   69. Marie Antoinette (1938)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   70. Dracula (1931)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   71. Bizarre, Bizarre (1937)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   72. Let's Make a Dream (1936)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   73. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   74. Wuthering Heights (1939)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   75. Grand Hotel (1932)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   76. L'Age d'Or (1930)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   77. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   78. Blonde Bombshell (1933)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   79. Scarface (1932)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   80. Under the Roofs of Paris (1930)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   81. À Nous la Liberté (1931)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   82. Block-Heads (1938)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   83. Public Enemy (1931)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   84. Destry Rides Again (1939)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   85. Lady for a Day (1933)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   86. Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939)   ★★★★★★★★☆☆   87. A Star Is Born (1937)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   88. Shanghai Express (1932)  ★★★★★★★★☆☆   89. The Sign of The Cross (1932)  ★★★★★★★½☆☆       90. Christine (1937)  ★★★★★★★½☆☆     91. Platinum Blonde (1931) ★★★★★★★½☆☆   92. Sabotage (1936)  ★★★★★★★☆☆☆   93. Kongo (1932)  ★★★★★★★☆☆☆   94. Lost Horizon (1937)  ★★★★★★★☆☆☆   95. The Old Dark House (1932)  ★★★★★★★☆☆☆   96. Design for Living (1933)  ★★★★★★★☆☆☆   97. The Blue Angel (1930)  ★★★★★★★☆☆☆   98. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)  ★★★★★★★☆☆☆   99. Death Takes a Holiday (1934)  ★★★★★★★☆☆☆   100. The Story of Temple Drake (1933)  ★★★★★★★☆☆☆  

The Unsolved Killing of Georgette Bauerdorf

Georgette Bauerdorf was a young socialite with a grand future—until 1944, when her life was cut short in the dead of the night. Born to an oil tycoon in New York City in 1924, Georgette lived a life of privilege. She and her older sister attended a convent school on Long Island, where they were trained in goodness and propriety. When the girls’ mother died in 1935, the Bauerdorf siblings and their father moved to California, where Georgette was once again enrolled in a school that befit her place in society—alumnae of the Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles included Shirley Temple and Myrna Loy.

Upon graduation in 1941, Georgette moved to West Hollywood to pursue an acting career. By the age of 20, she found work at the Los Angeles Times in the Women’s Service Bureau and at the Hollywood Canteen—a dining and dancing club that catered to young men in uniform. Georgette called El Palacia her home, a grand Spanish-style house that played host to numerous celebrities. Her evenings were filled with nights out on the town; she was courted often and enjoyed the attention of her many suitors. 

Exactly what happened on the night of October 11, 1944 remains a mystery. It was a Wednesday; Georgette was at the Canteen, where her role as a Junior Hostess meant she danced with and entertained the servicemen on layover in Los Angeles. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary that night. At the end of her shift, she climbed into her sister’s Pontiac coupe and drove home. At 11:00 a.m. that following morning, Georgette’s maid and a janitor arrived to clean her apartment. They were met with an unlocked front door. The cleaners entered and found Georgette’s lifeless body face down in her bathtub, the water still running.

She was wearing the top part of a pajama set. Her hair floated in the water. When police surveyed the scene, they found little evidence of a struggle—though the coroner later confirmed the bruises on Georgette’s body suggested she put up a fight before her death. A partially unscrewed light bulb outside her front door led investigators to believe that her killer had hidden in the darkness, perhaps even entering the apartment before Georgette arrived, lying in wait to make a move.

Police assembled a rough timeline of Georgette’s final moments: They believe she came home late, ate a snack in her kitchen, and was then killed by someone who may or may not have been a stranger. A downstairs neighbor heard screaming at about 2:30 a.m., along with shouts of “Stop! You’re killing me!” The neighbor assumed it was a domestic dispute and returned to sleep. The janitor himself claimed he heard the sounds of high-heeled footsteps from Georgette’s apartment, and then a crash—as if something had been dropped—yet he couldn’t confirm if there had been a second person in her apartment. Whatever occurred, Georgette’s last moments were certainly a desperate attempt to save her own life.

In the days following the murder, police received a letter from a Sergeant Gordon Aadland. Aadland claimed that a woman matching Georgette’s description gave him a lift through Hollywood on the night of October 11. In the letter, he described the woman as appearing quite nervous, though he would downplay this claim in later years. The killer, meanwhile, vanished into the night after the slaying, driving off in Georgette’s car. The vehicle was found some distance away, abandoned and out of gas. It was the last trace of the killer in a case that quickly went cold. Georgette 

Some speculators associate Georgette’s death with that of Elizabeth Short, a.k.a. the Black Dahlia, claiming that the same man murdered the two Hollywood hopefuls. Implicated in this theory is a tall individual with a limp named Jack Anderson Wilson, who plays a part—although peripherally—in both stories. The murder remains a mystery to this day. Seventy years from that fateful night, there’s little chance that Georgette’s death will ever be solved.

Oldies but Goodies Masterlist

Angel On My Shoulder (1946)

Casablanca (1942)

Captain Louis Renault Prompt (You do what you need to do so you and your younger sibling can survive in Casablanca)

Captain Louis Renault Prompt (You’re Rick’s younger sister and in a forbidden romance)

Captain Louis Renault Prompt (You’re Louis’ illegitimate daughter)

Captain Louis Renault Prompt (You fall in love on a train)

Captain Louis Renault Prompt (You find your grandmother’s wartime love letters)

Captain Louis Renault Prompt (Cinderella-esque AU)

Captain Louis Renault Prompt (Your husband bets more than he can afford to lose)

Captain Louis Renault Prompt (You fall asleep and wake up a spy for the French Resistance during WWII in a black and white world)

The Clairvoyant (1935)

Deception (1946)

Four Daughters Trilogy (1938-1941)

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

Mr. Skeffington (1944)

The Invisible Man (1933)

The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935)

The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1957)

The Unsuspected (1947)

The Wolf Man (1941)

Crossovers

Crossover Prompt (You get a job as a cook at Rick’s, but you have ulterior motives which may or may not complicate your blossoming romance with Captain Renault)

Crossover Prompt Part 1 (You were an auxiliary nurse and fell in love with Louis Renault while he was serving in WWI, but he was already married.)

Crossover Prompt Part 2 (Years after WWI ended, you and Captain Louis Renault were still very much in love. You finally confessed to him your dark past which you kept secret.)

Crossover Prompt Part 3 (It was World War II and you and Captain Louis Renault reunited in Casablanca. You made it out together, and your actions have led you to where you are now.)

Crossover Prompt Part 1 (You’re Fanny Skeffington’s daughter, but are something of a “problem child” and sent to Cascade due to your emotional and behavioral problems.)

Crossover Prompt Part 2 (Fanny snoops through your diary and realizes just how far back your affiliation with Jim Masters goes and just how deeply emotionally attached you are to him.)

Crossover Prompt Part 3 (Fanny tries to arrange a marriage between you and Sir John Talbot, but this is the final straw for you and you’ve had enough.)

Crossover Prompt Part 4 (You and Jim travel the world, keeping Fanny and Uncle George up to date about your adventures.)

Fredric March, Merle Oberon, and Herbert Marshall star in Sidney Franklin’s THE DARK ANGEL, released #OnThisDay in 1935.

Cartel película "El ángel de las tinieblas" (The dark angel) 1935, de Sidney Franklin.

Starting a little earlier than I'm supposed to, but new fic for Jayvik AUgust! It's Los Angeles in 1935, Jayce is a desperately lonely private eye, and Viktor is a photographer with a dark past. They just stumbled onto a double murder. Of course they're going to fall in love.

95th Academy Awards nominations reaction

I got up early this morning, typed some of these just after the nominations came out, and left it sitting in the drafts. Some personal reactions from me about today’s nominees:

Of the ten Best Picture nominees, I have seen five of them. This is the furthest ahead I’ve been at this point in awards season since 2019 (Avatar 2, Banshees, Elvis, EEAAO, Fabelmans). I do have my work cut out for me here. As of right now, I’m pretty much on the EEAAO train, but perhaps not as energetically as I’ve been for other movies in previous years. Partly due to the fact I can understand why people might dislike EEAAO intensely and partly because there are no 9/10 or 10/10 movies for me from 2022. At least from those I’ve seen. Fabelmans my second choice from those I’ve seen.

And now I have to watch two Top Gun movies. I’ve been avoiding the first for a long, long time having heard way too much about it and people saying it’s just not gonna be my thing. We’ll see over the next month.

Whoa. Where did Triangle of Sadness come from with both Picture and Director? That movie was divisive in some parts, and I’ve heard that it felt like an overlong lecture. The directors’ branch gonna directors’ branch, though - they always nominate one director out of left field. And this year, Ruben Östlund was that man.

Say it with me: in the Year of Our Lord, Anno Domini MMXXIII, we take Steven Spielberg and John Williams for granted. I think Spielberg has a shot at Director (and, as of this moment if I was a member of the Academy, I might just vote for him) and John gets his record-extending 53rd nomination (behind Walt Disney’s 59, and most by a living person). John’s count of five total Oscars (having last won 30 years ago) is too low. But the Academy members, I think, I have Oscar winners’ envy. John also becomes the oldest Academy Award nominee ever.

In any case, the other Original Score nominees this year are amelodic electronic background noise. Where is Simon Franglen for Avatar? Alexandre Desplat for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio?

All Quiet overperformed here, compared to what I expected. I know its haul of 14 BAFTA nominations was ridiculous, but I chalked that up to WWI being more prominent than in the U.S. - where most people don’t think about it much at all. I’ve not seen it, but I must say I have a lot of admiration for the 1930 original that won Best Picture. That All Quiet was the first sound masterpiece at a time when the silent-to-sound transition was still going on. I’m not sure how this one will stack up, having heard about some of the narrative changes they made to it.

Despite what has been widely reported, Michelle Yeoh becomes the second Best Actress nominee of Asian descent since Merle Oberon for The Dark Angel (1935). Oberon had to hide her Indian and Maori heritage due to safety reasons and we didn’t learn about this until after her death.

Also overjoyed to see Nighy, Michelle Williams, Ke Huy Quan, Hong Chau, and Stephanie Hsu all in the mix for acting. Best Actor features five first-time nominees for the first time in 88 years. Also, that’s four actors of Asian descent getting nominations! That’s a record!

Cartoon Saloon finally has the first blemish on their Academy Award nominations record. They were previously nominated for all of their movies - The Secret of Kells (2009), Song of the Sea (2014), The Breadwinner (2017), and Wolfwalkers (2020; which should have beaten Soul). My Father’s Dragon (2022) definitely was their weakest movie yet and, yeah, that didn’t deserve to be here. Hoping to see a return to form for the Kilkenny-based studio. You’ve got to think GdT’s Pinocchio now. No contest. I need to check out The Sea Beast, though.

What happened to RRR? Original Song only? Not a movie I’ve seen because I insist on watching it in the original Telugu, but my sense was that there was a divide in how it was received. In the West, with critics and audiences having very little idea about the nature of Indian cinema and its history, it was something different and refreshing and was well-received. In India, its use of Hindu iconography struck a chord of Modi-esque Hindu nationalism that has muted critical plaudits there. It’s an interesting dynamic, one that I doubt Westerners picked up at all.

I am so excited to see the short films, as always (and I write up on them too, you can see last year’s edition for Animated Short here). Those last two Animated Short nominees though? My Year of Dicks (not people named Richard, afaik) and An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It? What titles. Can’t wait! As I understand it, no major American studios were in play for Animated Short at the shortlist stage. So this should be a fun, independent filmmaker-driven slate.

The Batman should have found its way into cinematography.

Never count Diane Warren out for Original Song, no matter how obscure the movie! She’ll, of course, lose - as she unfortunately always does. 14 nominations for Warren. Glad she picked up the Honorary Oscar last year, though.

Lots of clamor about the decision to leave Decision to Leave out in International Feature. But the International Feature branch usually does very funny things, and I don’t think there has been a consensus at all in this category. All Quiet the odds-on favorite due to its significant haul of nominations, however.

Well, this should be a fun month! On this blog, “31 Days of Oscar” - my marathon based on Turner Classic Movies’ (TCM) marathon of the same name featuring only Oscar nominees and Honorary Oscar winners through the 95 years of Oscar history - is coming on March 1st!

Reinhold Schünzel, Ivan Triesault, and Claude Rains in the final scene of Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946) Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Leopoldine Konstantin, Louis Calhern, Reinhold Schünzel, Ivan Triesault, Alexis Minotis, Moroni Olsen, E.A. Krumschmidt. Screenplay: Ben Hecht. Cinematography: Ted Tetzlaff. Music: Roy Webb. The critics canonized Vertigo (1958) as the greatest film of all time, but I don't think it's even Alfred Hitchcock's greatest film. That would have to be Notorious, with Rear Window (1954) close behind, and North by Northwest (1959) and maybe Psycho (1960) edging up in the pack. I have a theory that Hitchcock threw himself so whole-heartedly into Notorious because it was begun under the infernal meddling of David O. Selznick, who was forced to sell the project to RKO in order to devote himself full-time to the impossible task of making Duel in the Sun (1946). Hitchcock had just suffered through making Spellbound (1945), with Selznick and Selznick's shrink, May Romm, breathing down his neck throughout the filming, and he must have felt such a great relief at being freed from Selznick's control that he was determined to make Notorious as good as it could be. He succeeded: It's a tight, witty, suspenseful showcase of everything that Hitchcock could do well. It has two or three of his most impressive directorial touches, specifically the two minute, 40 second single-take kissing scene that follows Devlin (Cary Grant) and Alicia (Ingrid Bergman) from room to balcony and back again, and the great crane shot that begins on the balcony of Sebastian's entrance hall and swoops down to the key clutched in Alicia's hand. But technical mastery is only part of the glory of Notorious. It begins, after the sentencing of Alicia's father, with a film noir moment: "bad girl" Alicia entertaining her rather dubious friends as Devlin, whom we see only from behind, watches. And it ends, not with a lovers' clinch, but with the villain being summoned to a talk we know will be very unpleasant. Hitchcock trusts the audience to feel a little bit sorry for Alex Sebastian (Claude Rains) at that moment when the door shuts him inside with his mother and some very angry Nazis. But the whole film is full of masterly touches, including the characteristic concentration on objects like wine bottles and coffee cups and keys, which play almost as important role in the narrative as the actors. Not that the actors are ignored: Hitchcock was one of the few directors* who saw and exploited the dark side of Grant, who effectively lets his mouth grow tense and his eyes grow cold in his first scenes with bad-girl Bergman, so that he can loosen up as they fall in love and then resume the icy tension when Devlin is forced into virtually prostituting Alicia to Sebastian. Hitchcock also invents great business for Leopoldine Konstantin as the sinister Mme. Sebastian, such as the wonderful moment when, awakened by her son with the bad news that Alicia is a spy, she sits up in bed and calmly lights a cigarette before getting down to business. I also love that when Devlin comes to confer with his boss, Prescott, over Alicia's plight, Hitchcock has the usually debonair Louis Calhern stretched out in bed insouciantly eating cheese and crackers. In short, Notorious is a showcase for everything Hitchcock had learned in his first 20 years of moviemaking, as well as a demonstration of the great things to come. When Alicia overhears the argument between Sebastian and his mother, it's a foreshadowing of Marion Crane's hearing the argument between Norman and Mrs. Bates. *The others would be Howard Hawks in Only Angels Have Wings (1939) and George Cukor, who was the first to glimpse Grant's darkness in Sylvia Scarlett (1935), but I think Hitchcock exploited it best.

Secret Nazi Camp

Nazis in Los Angeles? Why would such evil choose to make its home in the land of dreams ad make-believe? The truth is not simple, and it is surprising. There is much more to this brush-choked canyon than a sun-baked offshoot of National Socialism.

Rustic Canyon, a gouge in the Los Angeles coastline, has a history of nonconformity. Bohemians flocked there after World War II. Will Rogers bough into the area, and by 1928 his property extended all the way to the beach. The folksy Rogers famously said he never met a man he didn’t like. But if he had survived past 1935, he might have run into a few people who would’ve tested that friendly thought.

In 1933, a widow named Jessie Murphy made plans to build a formidable home in the canyon. The widow Murphy, for some reason, seemed intent on ensuring her self-sufficiency. Her home would include a 295,000-gallon spring-fed water tank and a 20,000-galloon tank for diesel fuel, as well as electric generators, and a twenty-two-bedroom mansion. Just when the basic amenities were finished, there was a disastrous fire, and in 1938 Murphy abandoned her project, depressed and disgusted. The property passed to Norman and Winnona Stephens, who located Murphy’s original blueprints and, by 1942, had finished the work.

At this point, the story begins to play out like some spy thriller from the 1940s. One of the workmen at the property saw “troops dressed in paramilitary outfits” and someone running the show, whom he referred to as “an overbearing German named Herr Schmidt.” Seems Herr Schmidt had either convinced Mrs. Stephens that the Third Reich would win the war, or that the United States would be turned into a post apocalyptic nightmare. Whichever, with her acquiescence he began teaching survivalist classes. Unfortunately, Schmidt was also caught sending secret messages to his Nazi contacts and was arrested by the government. The Stephens were later cleared of any charges.

If you venture to the snow derelict Stephens House, it’s best to allow a full day for exploration. The hike begins from the end of Queensferry Road in Pacific Palisades, among multimillion-dollar homes that hug the hillside, many with elaborate security systems and high walls to keep out the hoi polloi. Head up the fire road to a fence bordering the street, which hides a staircase that disappears down the steep slopes of the canyon. An ornate wrought-iron gate is easily bypassed, and the descent into heart of darkness begins. The massive concrete water tank appears on the right, littered with charcoal that used to be a gargantuan wooden cover.

Farther down, the overgrown asphalt road divides several times. More narrow stairways lead up and down, seemingly going nowhere. Ruins of the old Stephens complex are not to find, although all are overgrown with trees, brush and ivy. The entire length is lined with cypress and eucalyptus trees, and it’s not difficult to imagine a shiny black Model T’s and Pierce-Arrows making their way through the compound, dropping off more recruits for Herr Schmidt. Keep an eye out for square concrete holes along the way. They’re entrances to underground passageways full of debris, seemingly leading nowhere.

Everything is covered in graffiti. (One’s that particularly strange: “Bart Simpson is an agent of the international Zionist conspiracy.”) Orange and avocado groves planted in the early twentieth century still bear fruit in the spring and summer months. What looks like to be an old hotel blocks the path farther on. Stop and add a piece from the rusting metal building to an impromptu sculpture in the driveway.

Hikers in Rustic Canyon have all commented on the brooding and sinister nature of the place. Almost all have said not to try it alone, if only to have a partner along when bitten by one of the many rattlesnakes living in the valley. Happy exploring!

Updated Timeline

Decided to make an updated timeline for the King's Heavy Heart AU since the last one I made was quite a while ago.

Here's the link to the original

Now includes BATDR events!

1895: Esther Drew is born

1901: Joey Drew is born

1902: Henry Stein is born

1913: Esther graduates from high school and begins working as a secretary at a law firm to put herself through law school

1919: Joey runs away from home after graduating high school to pursue a career in the arts

1920: Joey and Henry meet at college and become friends.

1921: Esther graduates from law school and begins working full-time as a lawyer at the firm.

1923: Esther meets the man who will become her husband, Robert Klein.

1924: Joey and Henry graduate college and begin to try and raise money to start their studio, working numerous odd jobs to do so. 

1927: Henry meets the woman who will become his wife, Linda. This is also the year Esther marries Robert. 

1928: Esther has her first child, Rachel. 

1929: Joey and Henry start Joey Drew Studios at ages 28 and 27 respectfully

1930: Fed up with Joey’s controlling nature and the unrealistic demands placed on him, Henry quits and leaves the studio, moving to Pasadena with Linda.

1931: Esther has her second child, Isaac. This is also the year Henry marries Linda. 

1932: Henry and Linda have their first child, Abigail.

1933: The character of Alice Angel is introduced and the role is given to Susie Campbell.

1934: Henry and Linda have their second child, Sarah. 

1935: Joey begins working with the GENT company and Tom. 

1936: The creature that later becomes the Ink Demon is birthed from the Ink Machine. Joey becomes upset by its imperfections and locks it away.

1937: Susie is replaced by Allison as the voice of Alice Angel. Susie is naturally distraught and Joey offers her the chance to become Alice. A ritual is performed to turn Susie into Alice. However, she turns out not as perfect as Joey had hoped and is hidden away.

1937-1943: Joey and Tom work together on the experiments to create ink creatures. Joey visits Susie/Alice every so often to reassure her that he hasn’t forgotten about her. He visits the Ink Demon as well, although not as much. He can’t stand to look at its failure. Some part of him feels guilty for what he’s done to Susie, but he pushes it down, determined to succeed at any cost. 

1943: Norman discovers Susie/Alice in her cage and Joey kills him to keep the secret from getting out and runs him through the machine. Jack comes across Joey in the middle of disposing of Norman and is killed as well. Sammy discovers Joey standing over Jack’s body and Joey threatens him into staying quiet. He forces Sammy to help him run Jack through the machine as well. 

Joey begins a visible downward spiral after this, his behavior becoming increasingly erratic. He has nightmares about Norman and Jack. Sammy begins a downward spiral as well, haunted by the hand he had in his friend’s death. 

1944: Esther hears about the financial problems Joey’s studio is having through her firm and heads over to try and negotiate with Joey. Joey lashes out against her, insisting that he doesn’t need her help.

1945: Bertram and Lacie threaten to leave, leading Joey to panic and kill them, running them through the machine. Grant also threatens to quit and Joey panics the same way again. Shawn comes looking for Grant and Lacie and meets the same fate. 

It is also during this year that Joey, drunk and in a particularly dark place, creates an inky clone of Henry and sleeps with it. A few months later, a baby (Audrey) pops out of the machine. Joey gives her to Esther, begging her to take care of his daughter because he knows he can't.

1946: Joey is sued by Esther’s firm and forced to declare bankruptcy. Joey holds a big going away party for his employees during which he poisons them all with ink and turns the employees and himself into ink creatures. He ends up trapped within the consciousness of the Ink Demon, unable to affect the world around him. As far as the outside world is concerned, all the employees of Joey Drew Studios vanished off the face of the Earth and the studio was abandoned.

1954: Esther and Joey’s father Ethan Drew dies from lung cancer. 

1958: Esther and Joey’s mother Miriam Drew passes away in her sleep.

1963: Audrey graduates high school and decides to go to college for animation.

1967: Audrey graduates college and begins working as an animator at various small cartoon studios.

1968: Henry returns to the studio, called back by a letter from Joey. He destroys the large Ink Machine and frees the employees, including Joey. GENT repossesses all the equipment in the building once everyone has been evacuated.

1969: Nathan Arch and Arch Gate buy the rights to the Bendy cartoons, as well as a smaller version of the Ink Machine that was salvaged from the old studio building. Audrey begins working at Arch Gate after being offered a job by Nathan Arch.

1970: Wilson discovers the ink world within the Ink Machine and begins to subjugate its denizens.

1971: Wilson drags Audrey into the ink world, prompting Joey to go in after her and face his mistakes.

A poem by Frances Horovitz

New Year Snow

For three days we waited, a bowl of dull quartz for sky. At night the valley dreamed of snow, lost Christmas angels with dark-white wings flailing the hills. I dreamed a poem, perfect as the first five-pointed flake, that melted at dawn: a Janus-time to peer back at guttering dark days, trajectories of the spent year. And then snow fell. Within an hour, a world immaculate as January’s new-hung page. We breathe the radiant air like men new-born. The children rush before us. As in a dream of snow we track through crystal fields to the green horizon and the sun’s reflected rose.

Frances Horovitz (1938-1983)

Image: The Shortening Winter's Day is near a Close by Joseph Farquharson (1846–1935) Lady Lever Art Gallery