Bellamy and Ameche

The Oscar winner featuring Don Ameche from 1937 was In Old Chicago, which won the award for Best Supporting Actress (Alice Brady), and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Ameche himself was not nominated for the film, but don't feel too bad, as he eventually went on to win the award for Best Supporting Actor in 1986 for Cocoon. Feel bad for Alice Brady, however. She missed her winning moment at the Oscar ceremony, providing an opportunity for an unknown man to somehow get on stage and accept the award on her behalf. The man's identity was never discovered, and the Oscar statue was never seen again.

Brady won her Oscar for playing Molly O'Leary, the owner of the cow that supposedly started the great Chicago fire of 1871. In the days leading up to the tragedy, O'Leary's sons find themselves political rivals, Jack running for mayor and pledging to clean up the city's corruption, while Dion is a master of dirty backroom deals. Elected as mayor, the virtuous brother, of course, works to reform the unsuitable waterways and rebuild the firetrap slums of the city, while the manipulative brother schemes to prevent the rebuilding. The fight delays the needed reforms long enough to allow the tragic fire to occur.

The film cost $1.8 million to make, one of the most expensive films ever made at the time. The fire that made up the climactic scene blazed for three days of filming. So, although it was a follow-up to the previous year's San Francisco, which chronicled the earthquake that almost destroyed that city in 1906, In Old Chicago was, in a way, decades ahead of its time, clearly an inspiration to the disaster movie trend of the 1970s (though the later films were, for the most part, not nearly as respected, more of a guilty pleasure for audiences and an opportunity for the stars to slum it a bit and grab a big paycheck). It was also, however, clearly a film of its own time, packed with 1930s film staples such as unnecessary musical numbers and "comical" stutterers. The writing was hackneyed and predictable, with lots of references throughout the film to fire, as a clumsy way of foreshadowing the climactic event. The story was ridiculously melodramatic, with the evil Dion mostly acting evil for the sake of being evil, and the virtuous Jack refusing to accept payment for the first case that he wins as a lawyer because he's just so gosh-darn gee-whiz excited about winning that that is reward enough in itself.. Even Alice Brady's Oscar-winning performance, while not bad, was not particularly memorable. The special effects paid of, given the limitations of the time, as the big fire did look like an entire city burning to the ground. But, other than that, there is not much to recommend about this film.

Movie trivia question: What Oscar-winner for Best Screenplay has the distinction of being the only short film to ever win an Oscar outside of the short films categories? The answer is my next review.