On C List of Movie Reviews
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The Country Girl (1954)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
7/26
7/26:
After seeing Golden Boy and The Country Girl, I have
to conclude that people who wrote books about showbiz of the 30's through the 50's overrated Clifford Odets.
Despite his plays being rewritten for the screen, the lines are cheesy and melodramatic. I always sighed
when either Bing Crosby or Grace Kelly set off to do a long-winded monologue. The projection of themes through
different platforms such as violin-playing and stage musicals is simply outdated. Even the title
The Land Around Us is ridiculous.
Initially, I picked up The Country Girl because of Grace Kelly winning the Oscar for Best Actress. My
verdict was ready five minutes later: she didn't deserve it and was pretending to be Ingrid Bergman, right
down to her hair. In fact, Grace Kelly is an all-time bad actress, and it's a good thing she retired two years
afterwards. The movie title doesn't make sense for her character.
On top of belting out tedious musical numbers, Bing Crosby's acting style is stuck in the 40's while William
Holden's is very much so contemporary, being the only one to keep going and going in every decade of
filmmaking. When the latter admonished the former repeatedly about his drinking problem, it's ironic, I must
say, because everybody including his lovers such as Audrey Hepburn, Stefanie Powers, and Pat Stauffer did that
to him and he wouldn't listen. It's laughable that Grace Kelly plays Bing Crosby's wife when they should be
treated as father and daughter (they were 26 years apart in age).
All in all, the Academy Awards made a serious mistake by giving the Oscar to Grace Kelly.