OVP: Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)

Film: Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
Stars: Claudette Colbert, Henry Fonda, Edna May Oliver, Eddie Collins, John Carradine, Ward Bond
Director: John Ford
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Supporting Actress-Edna May Oliver)...there's some confusion over whether this was also cited for Best Cinematography, and I'd love if someone reading this might help me out on what is "official" in terms of nominations, as IMDB and Inside Oscar list this as being of the nominees for Best Color Cinematography in 1939, but the AMPAS database officially doesn't list it, saying the only unofficial nominees were Gone with the Wind and The Private Lives of Elizabeth & Essex.  I defer to the AMPAS database as my source-of-truth for the OVP, but if anyone has more clarification or sources, I'd love to read them.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

We're continuing on our week devoted to the Best Supporting Actress category with Drums Along the Mohawk, a massive hit from that year that seemed to sprout a classic every week: 1939.  The film might have major, Oscar-winning stars headlining it (Fonda & Colbert), but it was actually character actress Edna May Oliver who won her sole Oscar nomination for her work in the film.  Oliver was not that old when she played Mrs. McKlennar in the film (she was just 56, and was clearly made up to be much older in the picture), but at that point she'd had a long career in both the stage & in pictures.  She originally made her name in the Hildegarde Withers films (about a spinster sleuth, and yes, please sign me up to watch all of those as "spinster sleuth" is about as much of a calling card as I can get), but if you recognize her today at all it's probably from the 1940 Pride & Prejudice where she played the quintessential Austen villain, Lady Catherine De Bourgh.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is set during the Revolutionary War, and follows a young couple who are trying their hand at frontier life.  Lana (Colbert), is from a wealthy family, while her new husband Gil (Fonda) comes from more modest means.  Initially when they move out, Lana struggles, even screaming when a Native American that is friends with Gil shows up at her door.  She starts to adjust to life working the land, and they begin a family (though of course there is the initial miscarriage that seemed to always happen in movies of this era).  When the family becomes unable to stay on their land (due to raids from unfriendly Native Americans, who are led by an Englishman played by John Carradine), they move in with Mrs. McKlennar (Oliver), a spinster who enjoys their company, though during a late raid she is shot by an arrow & killed, leaving her farm to the young couple.  The film ends with a gigantic fight that the men win, aided in no small part by Gil, and the announcement of a new country (America) when Cornwallis surrenders to Washington.

The movie was John Ford's first Technicolor movie, and if you know me at all, you know that I love John Ford, and the man knew how to make a beautiful film in Technicolor (just look at something like The Quiet Man or Fort Apache), and this looks gorgeous.  As I mentioned above, this was kind of nominated for Best Cinematography (the best I can tell it was on what would have been the 1939 equivalent of a bakeoff), and it deserves it-Colbert, in particular, looks radiant in the moonlight.  That said, the movie ages badly (and probably wasn't progressive even at the time) for their depictions of the Native Americans, somehow both portrayed as cruelly cunning & as oafish, and it pulls you out of the movie.  The leads, two I generally like, don't help at all.  Fonda plays the character too flat, and Colbert's part was somehow written by a woman (Sonya Levian) & still she behaves like a damsel-in-distress every chance she gets, screaming & fainting & whining.  It's a pretty ugly, dated movie, and one that has little enjoyment save for the Cinematography.

That includes Oliver's work.  Her Mrs. McKlennar is welcome relief, to be sure-this film needs a jolt, and she's the kind of comic icing that provides such relief, but I don't know that it's fine acting in any capacity.  She rarely gets quiet moments, and her body & face are used as derision without it being earned (we don't feel she, or even the writers, are in on the joke).  It's a loud, brash performance that was pretty par for this category in its first decade, but even adjusting for modern tastes, this isn't all that funny or fun.