The final three Best Picture nominees are briefly glanced herein, and one of them, tragically, lost every single one of its nominations. But when I tell you that, and then when I tell you the five nominees were Double Indemnity, Gaslight, Going My Way, Since You Went Away, and Wilson, I bet you won't correctly guess who the sole "loser" was...
The Canterville Ghost
release: August
dir: Jules Dassin
pr: Arthur L. Field
scr: Edwin Harvey Blum, from the short story by Oscar Wilde
cin: Robert H. Planck
Like The Hairy Ape and Between Two Worlds, this is a work that takes an older text - in this case, Oscar Wilde's short story about an American family moving into a haunted British castle - and transplants the events to wartime. This time, it's an entire battalion of American troops taking up residence, and one of them is, surprise surprise, a distant descendant of the titular ghost, whose soul must remain trapped and in anguish until someone of his bloodline commits an act of true courage, something he lacked in life. An often funny, very sweet fairy tale about the possibility of redemption, and one that actually considers the switch our men had to flip to go from ordinary citizen to kill-or-be-killed soldier. Laughton's performance displays the full range of his abilities in a way that reminded me of his similar showcase in Ruggles of Red Gap. A triumph, too, for Robert Young and six-year-old leading lady Margaret O'Brien. The effects hold up - the whole movie does!
Dragon Seed
release: August
nominations: Best Supporting Actress (Aline MacMahon), Best Cinematography - Black-and-White
dir: Harold S. Bucquet / Jack Conway
pr: Pandro S. Berman
scr: Marguerite Roberts and Jane Murfin, from the novel by Pearl S. Buck
cin: Sidney Wagner
The reactions of a farming family in a small village invaded by the Japanese during the Chinese War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (there's significant overlap with WWII, but indeed, China had been fighting their battle against Japan for, oh, quite some time indeed). Lot of white folks in bad wigs and taped or painted eyes to "be" Chinese, including Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston, Akim Tamiroff, Agnes Moorehead, the nominated Aline MacMahon, and many more! Well, Hollywood didn't (and doesn't) invest in Asian stars qua stars, leading them to "whitewash" such stories of national identity, causing a bit of dissonance. It's one of those works that serves first and foremost as a reminder of all our Allies, but despite the best intentions of all involved, it's difficult to get into. It doesn't help that everyone is written so stiltedly!
Going My Way
release: August
wins: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Bing Crosby), Best Supporting Actor (Barry Fitzgerald), Best Screenplay, Best Original Story, Best Original Song ("Swinging on a Star")
nominations: Best Actor (Barry Fitzgerald), Best Cinematography - Black-and-White, Best Film Editing (LeRoy Stone)
dir/pr: Leo McCarey
scr: Frank Butler and Frank Cavett, story by Leo McCarey
cin: Lionel Lindon
A forward-thinking young priest comes to a struggling parish and works to win over the community and the traditional old priest currently in charge. No real plot, more a series of scenes that see the slow crumbling of walls between young and old.
Director-writer-producer Leo McCarey was known for his comedies through the 1930s, working with Laurel & Hardy, the Marx Brothers, Eddie Cantor, and W.C. Fields, among others, culminating in his Best Director win for the screwball comedy The Awful Truth in 1937. Earlier that same year, he flirted with more socially conscious filmmaking with Make Way for Tomorrow. Going My Way, seven years later, was the perfect blend of his expertise with music, comedy teams, and socially-conscious themes. Here he was able to explore our responsibilities to our church, our community, and our Nation - and if we had a few laughs and learned some new songs along the way, why not?
America loved it. It was the #1 box office hit of the year, spawned a sequel (The Bells of St. Mary's, to be discussed next month), and helped make Bing Crosby the top movie star of the 1940s. The film's success was buoyed by the success of the soundtrack: among the four singles that charted, "Swinging on a Star" topped Billboard for nine weeks, becoming a classic of Crosby's repertoire. The album, Selections from Going My Way, was the top-selling album of October 1945. Even decades later, it inspired a short-lived television series starring Gene Kelly, and "Swinging on a Star" was used cleverly in the 1991 jaunt Hudson Hawk.
But we were brought here because of the Oscars, which it dominated just as much as it did the box office and music charts: seven wins, including Best Picture, from ten nominations, including two for actor Barry Fiztgerald. We'll get into all that next week...
Minstrel Man
release: August 1
wins
nominations: Best Musical Score (Leo Erdody / Ferde Grofé, Sr.), Best Original Song ("Remember Me to Carolina")
dir: Joseph H. Lewis
pr: Leon Fromkess
scr: Irwin R. Franklyn & Pierre Gendron, original story by Martin Mooney & Raymond L. Schrock
cin: Marcel Le Picard
Stay with me here: a musical entertainer is forced to perform the night his wife is in labor, missing not just his daughter's birth but his wife's death. Devastated, he abandons his child with old friends, and she grows up to become an entertainer. He returns to the city just in time for his daughter to revive "dearly departed" dad's old show: a minstrel act. I don't think much of this kind of plot, which sentimentalizes self-centeredness, and I think even less of the "art" of minstrelsy. I mean, look at that pic above. Ridiculous.
Double Indemnity
release: August 10
nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Barbara Stanwyck), Best Screenplay, Best Score (Miklós Rósza), Best Cinematography - Black-and-White, Best Sound (Loren L. Ryder)
dir: Billy Wilder
pr: Joseph Sistrom
scr: Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, from the novel by James M. Cain
cin: John F. Seitz
An insurance investigator begins an affair with a woman who ensnares him in a plot to murder her husband.
Naturally, the two thrillers - Gaslight and this - would be the Best Picture nominees with the longest cultural life. I dare say there are people who've never heard of Double Indemnity who have nevertheless seen its plot referenced or spoofed in a thousand different cartoons, movies, commentary, news items, etc. It's mentioned in teen TV dramas Gossip Girl and Riverdale, the score was remixed in Ratched and The Big Lebowski, shot compositions were wunk at in Breaking Bad, and of course, there are the numerous ripoffs and homages, including 1981's Body Heat. It is a mainstay on movie "Best Of" lists: the American Film Institute included it among their Top 100 Movies in both 1997 (at #38) and 2007 (shooting up to #29). When modern programs "spoof" film noir, it's self-consciously in the hardboiled, rapid-fire style of Double Indemnity. The film's success also meant James M. Cain adaptations, often optioned but not always executed, became Big Hollywood Business, including Mildred Pierce the very next year and The Postman Always Rings Twice in 1946.
As we came to this year because of Alfred Hitchcock, it's worth noting that he himself wrote a complimentary letter to director Billy Wilder, saying, "The two most important words in motion pictures are 'Billy' and 'Wilder'." The two wound up facing off at the Academy Awards, the first of four times this would occur - 1944, 1945, 1954, and 1960. They both lost to Leo McCarey. Indeed, despite seven nominations, Double Indemnity was the only Best Picture nominee to go home empty-handed.
But we'll get into that next week.
Wilson
release: August 10
wins: Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography - Color, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration - Color (Wiard Ihnen / Thomas Little), Best Film Editing (Barbara McLean), Best Sound (Edmund H. Hansen)
nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Alexander Knox), Best Score (Alfred Newman), Best Special Effects (Fred Sersen / Roger Heman Sr.)
dir: Henry King
pr: Darryl F. Zanuck
scr: Lamar Trotti
cin: Leon Shamroy
Woodrow Wilson goes from the president of Princeton University to President of the United States, spending much of his time in office trying to establish the League of Nations.
Darryl F. Zanuck's passion project was the most expensive film his 20th Century Fox Studios had produced at the time. While looked at nowadays as a famous flop, that was mainly due to the expense; indeed, it had the highest per-screen average at the time during its initial run, though it was, ultimately, difficult to maintain. Mixed critical reviews came up against well-placed ads from "independent" sources like Sid Graumann praising the film's qualities not just as a motion picture, but as a moral good in American society. In centering its final third around Wilson's controversial organization of the League of Nations, it is not merely a biopic of a significant individual, but a timely reminder - remember, we are still a year away from final peace ratification for World War II - that perhaps all war could be prevented if people were willing to put aside personal pettiness and politics aside for the Greater Good. That's really the crux of Wilson.
It seemed to resonate with the Academy, which awarded it five Oscars, including Best Original Screenplay, and nominated it for another five, including Best Picture. Which we'll discuss more next week.
Mr. Skeffington
release: August 12
nominations: Best Actress (Bette Davis), Best Supporting Actor (Claude Rains)
dir: Vincent Sherman
pr: Julius J. Epstein / Philip G. Epstein
scr: Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein, from the novel by Elizabeth von Arnim
cin: Ernest Haller
Bette Davis, putting on one of the most insane voices in her repertoire, is hot and rich and spoiled and realizes she needs to marry up if she's to preserve her way of life and the reputation of her family, so she marries her brother's boss, a Jew. Well, I suppose one can take the obviousness of the moral tale with a roll of the eyes and a heavy sigh, especially its finale where the couple, long estranged, becomes reconciled after significant disfigurements. To that, I would counter: you really want to begrudge yourself two hours of Bette Davis and Claude Rains? A movie that promised one or the other is already worthwhile, but both? Get out of here. Handsomely mounted, one of those decades-spanning intimate epics that takes place almost entirely in the same parlors with subtle tweaks (or not, depending on the frustrations and delusions of the leads) to allow for passage of time.
In Society
release: August 18
dir: Jean Yarborough
pr: Edmund L. Hartmann
scr: John Grant and Edmund L. Hartmann and Hal Fimberg, story by Hugh Wedlock, Jr. and Howard Snyder, additional material by Sid Fields
cin: Jerome Ash
Abbott & Costello play plumbers who, through some misunderstanding, are invited to a party at the very mansion of a client whose work they botched. Very slight collection of gags.
Black Magic
release: August 19
dir: Phil Rosen
pr: James S. Burkett / Philip N. Krasne
scr: George Callahan, from characters created by Earl Derr Biggers
cin: Arthur Martinelli
Charlie Chan must clear his daughter when she is one of eight witnesses present at a seance that ends in murder. The Chan films usually boast great atmosphere and phenomenal setups, but the rest tends to get bogged down in Sidney Toler and Mantan Moreland wandering and gagging, respectively, in similarly-dressed sets. Some hypnosis that beggars belief. More daughter installments, please!
When Strangers Marry
release: August 21
dir: William Castle
pr: Frank King / Maurice King
scr: Philip Yordan & Dennis J. Cooper, story by George Moskov
cin: Ira H. Morgan
A newlywed comes to suspect that her salesman husband may be a murderer. I just can't imagine what would entice a woman to have a whirlwind romance with reliably wooden Dean Jagger, of all people, at least to the extent that she couldn't be sure how he stands in regard to murdering people. A cautionary tale against, as I said, whirlwind romance. Robert Mitchum is here, too, yowza and wowie to everything he brings!
Tomorrow, we take a look at one of the year's most popular films that received no Oscar nominations.
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