OVP: Louisa (1950)

Film: Louisa (1950)

Stars: Ronald Reagan, Charles Coburn, Ruth Hussey, Edmund Gwenn, Spring Byington, Piper Laurie

Director: Alexander Hall

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Sound Recording)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

An unexpected theme over the last month on this blog has been me revisiting the very strange Best Sound Recording nominations of the 1940's & 50's at the Oscars.  I've talked about this a few times, but sound nominations today seem to have a logic, even if it's not a solid one.  Musicals, action films, Best Picture nominees...it's pretty easy to understand the why behind each sound nomination that happens at the Oscars.  That wasn't the case in the 1950's, though, as we'll see once again today with Louisa, a romantic-comedy that has literally nothing special about its sound design, and at the time its sound designer (Leslie I. Carey) had only even been nominated once before.  As for the film itself?  Let's find out!

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about the Norton family.  Hal (Reagan) has had his widowed mother Louisa (Byington) move into their home, much to the chagrin of the rest of the family.  Louisa frequently critiques his wife Meg (Hussey) as well as his two children, particularly daughter Cathy (Laurie, in her film debut), and is deeply opinionated about everything.  She eventually apologizes to a green grocer, Henry (Gwenn), she yelled at, seeing how persnickety she has become, and they start dating.  This makes Hal upset, not wanting to see his mother with a new man, but things take a turn when during a social event, Louisa meets Hal's boss Abel (Coburn), who also takes a fancy to Louisa, setting up a rivalry between Abel & Henry that ends with Henry ultimately winning Louisa's affections, and in the process also winning over Louisa's family.

The film is fun, especially in 1950's Hollywood, because the focus isn't really on the romantic adventures of the headliners.  In most movies it'd be Reagan & Hussey whose romance would take central stage, but instead we have Byington, Gwenn, & Coburn, scene-stealers all, get the central romance.  This works better in theory than execution though.  None of the actors seems to take advantage of this new centerstage the way you'd hope (Coburn comes across the best), and while Reagan, a generally limited actor, is better at comedy than he ever was at drama, he has little chemistry with either Hussey or Byington, and as a result the film drags as we hit the last 40 minutes or so.

The Sound recording nomination, as I said, is bizarre.  Nothing stands out from the sound work.  The score is minimal (and not memorable), and while there is a western-themed dance sequence, it's not outstanding & really just involves a couple cheating at the limbo.  Other than that...it's literally just talking.  Nothing noteworthy or technically challenging...I have no explanations as to how this got nominated, and shall stop ruminating on it as it's been driving me bonkers since I saw the film how the Academy even noticed it (it's the film's only nomination!)