- Squonk
- Great One
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- Registered: March 19, 2014
- Posts: 325
Re: General Popularity of Male Crying Scenes Today?
Ah, "Route 66" just missed my publishing deadline. 
That's two for the 1960s (the other was "Bonanza.")
Climbing to a high chamber in a well of houses, he threw himself down in his clothes on a neglected bed, and its pillow was wet with wasted tears. -- A Tale of Two Cities
- Tristana
- Great One
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- Registered: February 17, 2016
- Posts: 221
Re: General Popularity of Male Crying Scenes Today?
caircair wrote:
I suspect it may be mostly due to the cultural shift in the acceptability of male crying, however, I also suspect it may be in part because actors are looking for more varied roles/experiences than were available before. Nowadays you're pretty much guaranteed an Oscar nom if you're male and you have a good cry scene.
I found an article about Cary Grant's crying scene in Penny Serenade.
the article was published in Family Circle Magazine 1941 -- the year the film was released -- and advocates for Grant to receive an Oscar nomination on the strength of the crying scene alone. It's interesting that critics were thinking this way as early as the 40s. (He did get a nomination, but lost to Gary Cooper in Sergeant York.)
It also praises the director's choice to shoot the scene in an understated naturalistic fashion without close-ups, all in one take. Although Cary Grant admits that he would have liked a close-up -- "After working myself up to that pitch, I didn't want to waste any of it."
I'll post a link to the scene in the video section.
Last edited by Tristana (July 15, 2016 5:25 pm)
- White Tulip
- Great One
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- Registered: February 12, 2016
- Posts: 337
Re: General Popularity of Male Crying Scenes Today?
I suspect it may be mostly due to the cultural shift in the acceptability of male crying, however, I also suspect it may be in part because actors are looking for more varied roles/experiences than were available before. Nowadays you're pretty much guaranteed an Oscar nom if you're male and you have a good cry scene.
I found an article about Cary Grant's crying scene in Penny Serenade.
the article was published in Family Circle Magazine 1941 -- the year the film was released -- and advocates for Grant to receive an Oscar nomination on the strength of the crying scene alone. It's interesting that critics were thinking this way as early as the 40s. (He did get a nomination, but lost to Gary Cooper in Sergeant York.)
It also praises the director's choice to shoot the scene in an understated naturalistic fashion without close-ups, all in one take. Although Cary Grant admits that he would have liked a close-up -- "After working myself up to that pitch, I didn't want to waste any of it."
I'll post a link to the scene in the video section.
As someone who knows quite a few movies, plays, etc. from the 1940's, I'm continually surprised by how "modern" the '40's often seem.
A scene I would post, if it were only on Youtube, is one from the 1947 movie Gentleman's Agreement, in which the character played by John Garfield is humiliated in public and looks as if he might cry from embarrassment and shock; he looks so shaken up that his friend, played by Celeste Holm, actually puts her hand on his shoulder. Maybe some of you here know the scene I'm talking about.
Last edited by White Tulip (July 15, 2016 10:16 pm)
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