The 1952 Retro Hollmann Awards: The Winners

Well, a week late, but here we are. You've seen the Top Ten, you've looked at the nominees. Now, after 77 films screened and 32 nominated, here are the winners of the 1952 Retro Hollmann Awards:

The 1952 Retro Hollmann Awards: Nominees

Following my Top Ten, I took a few days to consider, very carefully, what I consider the best in 1952 cinema. Here they are, 32 films across 18 categories, the nominees for the 1952 Retro Hollmann Awards:

My Top Ten of 1952

Wish I could get these posts done on time, but one does have a full-time job and a social life. Anyway, A few days later than I wanted, but here we go.

Anyway, here are the 77 films I watched for 1952:

Actor's and Sin

Affair in Trinidad

The Atomic City

The Bad and the Beautiful

Because You're Mine

Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla

Bend of the River

Big Jim McLain

The Big Sky

The Black Castle

Breaking the Sound Barrier

Brighton Rock

The Browning Version

The Bushwhackers

The Card (aka The Promoter)

Caribbean

Carrie

Clash by Night

Come Back, Little Sheba

Cry, the Beloved Country

Deadline - U.S.A.

Five Fingers

Flat Top

A Girl in Every Port

The Greatest Show on Earth

Hans Christian Andersen

The Harlem Globetrotters

High Noon

Ivanhoe

Jack and the Beanstalk

Japanese War Bride

The Jazz Singer

Just for You

The Las Vegas Story

The Lavender Hill Mob

Lure of the Wilderness

The Lusty Men

Macao

Man Bait

The Man in the White Suit

The Medium

The Member of the Wedding

The Merry Widow

Million Dollar Mermaid

The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima

Monkey Business

Moulin Rouge

My Cousin Rachel

My Six Convicts

My Son John

Navajo

The Narrow Margin

O. Henry's Full House

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman

Park Row

Pat and Mike

Plymouth Adventure

The Pride of St. Louis

The Quiet Man

Rancho Notorious

Rashomon

Red Planet Mars

Road to Bali

Scandal Sheet

Singin' in the Rain

The Sniper

The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Son of Paleface

The Star

Stars and Stripes Forever

Steel Town

Sudden Fear

The Thief

Viva Zapata!

Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie

What Price Glory

With a Song in My Heart

Ironically, given the delay, this was one of the quickest Top Tens I've ever made. With apologies to the briefly-considered The Bad and the Beautiful, The Black Castle, Brighton Rock, Million Dollar Mermaid, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, Rashomon, and especially the two that did almost make it, My Cousin Rachel and Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie, here are my ten favorite films of 1952, in alphabetical order:

Oscars 1952: Best Director

This is the last of the Oscar Retrospectives in the mini-series "The Winner Is John Ford," focusing on the cinematic years for which John Ford won three of his four Oscars for Best Director (we already looked at 1935, the year he won his first for The Informer).

The Quiet Man was John Ford's passion project. It's the movie that he'd been wanting to make since 1933, constantly researching, rewriting, and re-developing. First, it was a politically-tinged drama, something more akin to The Informer; by the time it hit the big screen, it was a fish-out-of-water romantic-comedy; in every iteration, however, it was a valentine to his parents' homeland, Ireland. Ford was born in Maine, but his parents were both Irish (his mother, according to Searching for John Ford, only really knew Gaelic). Throughout his life, he clung to his heritage and gave time and attention to Irish causes and stories. His Westerns and war films would usually have at least one "stock" Irish character - Barry Fitzgerald dependably on hand, as he is in The Quiet Man; an admirer of the playwright Sean O'Casey, he directed an adaptation of the work The Plough and the Stars and produced a biopic, Young Cassidy; and any criticism people have of How Green Was My Valley is usually directed at how the Welshmen are written as, played by, and treated like Irishmen. But that was Ford. The Quiet Man was finally, finally, his chance to tell an Irish story in an Irish setting with Irish actors - and in color, showing off the beauty of the land. They say passion projects can be doomed to failure, but not only has The Quiet Man maintained its status in cinema - it won Ford his record-breaking fourth Oscar:

It is a feat not likely to be bested any time soon. Only two other directors have even won three, and both of them - Frank Capra and William Wyler - are long dead. Another interesting point: Picture-Director splits are rare, but How Green Was My Valley is the only time Ford won Best Director and the movie Best Picture. The Quiet Man, as we know, lost the big honor to The Greatest Show on Earth, produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille.

DeMille was also up for Best Director. In 1950, he was given an Honorary Oscar for "37 years of brilliant showmanship"; if the intention was to salute a man at the twilight of his career, it was premature. That same year, his Samson and Delilah became the highest-grossing film; two years later came The Greatest Show on Earth, again, the highest-grossing film of its release year. So, finally, the brilliant showman became a Best Director nominee for the first and only time. He joined a slate that included not only his old friend Ford, but John Huston, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and Fred Zinnemann. 

This slate, in fact:

Oscars 1952: Best Actress

Best Actress 1952 was a year with a clear runaway favorite to win, as only one performance had won the New York Film Critics Circle Award, the Golden Globe, the National Board of Review - and, hell, even the Tony Award! The Oscar was just the last step in an inevitable march for Shirley Booth:

Her competition included Susan Hayward, the only actress anyone considered a viable threat; Julie Harris, who also recreated a role she played on Broadway; and, in their only direct competition against each other, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. The nominees:

Oscars 1952: Best Actor

What to say about this crop of Best Actor nominees except to say that they are unusually great, all of them? How about this: 1941 and 1952 are in conversation with each other. John Ford wins in 1941, never nominated again until 1952, where he wins again. John Huston's directorial is in 1941; by 1952, he's nominated against Ford...and a veteran Oscar winner. For unnominated films, Swamp Water is remade as Lure of the Wilderness. And, if we're talking repeat winners, Gary Cooper finally wins an Oscar in 1941...only to repeat, once again uncontested, in 1952:

But who do you even vote for in this lineup? The Academy spoiled us this year, as witness:

Oscars 1952: Best Supporting Actress

Oscars 1952 was about 25 years of the Academy Awards, about Cecil B. DeMille (in addition to Best Picture, he also received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award), and, interestingly, about Gloria Grahame. Five years after her Oscar nomination for Crossfire, Grahame found herself with her busiest slate yet, four films that showcased her range. In The Greatest Show on Earth, she's the straightforward but good-hearted elephant tamer, a tough cookie but vulnerable - and knows a good man when she sees one. In Macao, she's a gangster's opportunistic sidepiece who tosses in with the hero when she realizes how expendable she might be. In Sudden Fear, she's a gal on the make who realizes, alongside Jack Palance, there's a potential fortune to be made in murder. And in The Bad and the Beautiful, she's the dizzy Southern wife of an author wooed to Hollywood by Kirk Douglas's manipulative producer, who entices her away from hubby and into the arms of a Latin lothario... More comic in pitch than the other roles, it's the one that got her the Oscar:

How does it stand against the others in this category? That's why we're here...