Cavalcade

CAVALCADE (PG)

D: Frank Lloyd

Fox Film Corporation (Winfield Sheehan)

US 🇺🇸 1933

112 mins

Drama

W: Reginald Berkeley [based on the play by Noël Coward]

DP: Ernest Palmer

Ed: Margaret Clancey

Mus: Peter Brunelli, Louis de Francesco, Arthur Lange & J.S. Zamecnik

Diana Wynyard (Jane Marryot), Clive Brook (Robert Marryot), Una O’Connor (Ellen Bridges), Herbert Mundin (Alfred Bridges), Irene Browne (Margaret Harris)

The sixth winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture really isn’t much to write home about.

Based on a play by Noël Coward, it follows a well-to-do, upper class family as they bear witness to various historical events from the turn of the 20th century until the early 1930s, including the death of Queen Victoria, the First World War & the sinking of the Titanic, with each event affecting the family dynamic in some way.

It’s all very prim & proper, but isn’t particularly entertaining, and whilst some may say it’s a product of its time, it’s very much worth noting that some bonafide cinema classics were also released the same year, such as ‘42nd Street’, ‘King Kong’ and even ‘Flying Down To Rio’, any of which would have been a far more deserving choice for Best Picture.

Worth watching for historical interest only.

6/10