With the Top Ten posted, we can finally start the grand finale. Here are the first nine categories for my Retro Hollmann Awards honoring the films of 1945:
Best Ensemble
A Royal Scandal
2. Christmas in Connecticut; 3. And Then There Were None; 4. Murder, He Says; 5. A Medal for Benny
The deciding factor for this category, for me, is not just the brilliance of the marquee names, but the memorability of the bit players. With that in mind, I believe A Royal Scandal, boasting hilarious if brief turns from Sig Rumann, Mischa Auer, and Grady Sutton, in addition to leading players Tallulah Bankhead, Charles Coburn, Anne Baxter, and William Eythe, deserves the top spot, though it was a tough call between that and Barbara Stanwyck's network of conspirators in Christmas in Connecticut. Followed, of course, by the suspects/victims balancing scares and jokes in And Then There Were None, the family of homicidal hillbillies in Murder, He Says, and the deeply felt community ties of A Medal for Benny.
Best Supporting Actor
Howard Da Silva as Nat
The Lost Weekend
2. S.Z. Sakall in Christmas in Connecticut; 3. Burgess Meredith in Story of GI Joe; 4. Robert Mitchum in Story of GI Joe; 5. J. Carrol Naish in The Southerner
Da Silva's is my favorite performance in The Lost Weekend, the bartender who seems to like Don enough but can't just cut him off, even as he recognizes that he's helping to slowly kill him. He's a man who's just doing his job, even when he looks disgusted with both himself and his customers. But he does try, doesn't he? I also adore "Cuddles" Sakall as the sweet and crotchety chef who enables Barbara Stanwyck's decit. Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum are the rocks upon which Story of GI Joe is built, both tasked with difficult roles to play. And I am a sucker for J. Carrol Naish, and I'm glad he was nominated for A Medal for Benny, but I found his performance in The Southerner to be complex and fascinating, a relatable antagonist.
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
George Blackler / Dorrie Hamilton / Stuart Freeborn, makeup artists
2. The Body Snatcher (Mel Berns); 3. A Song to Remember (Clay Campbell / Helen Hunt); 4. Murder, He Says (Wally Westmore); 5. The Lost Weekend (Wally Westmore / Doris Rowland)
Spanning 40 years of British military history, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp gives the makeup department just as much to keep up with as the costumers and set designers, as they capture period details like mustache trends and hairstyles, and depict the differences in aging between, say, a distinguished-looking batman, and a career officer who can become a walrus with dignity. The Body Snatcher portrays period detail with an added seediness, while A Song to Remember does fine character work to transform Paul Muni into Jozef Elsner and Merle Oberon into George Sand. As far as overlooked makeup work that must be praised, Murder, He Says uses hair to really tell a story of an unkempt and uncouth family, and The Lost Weekend gets the sweat and stubble of the binge-hangover cycle just right for maximum effect.
Best Production Design
Leave Her to Heaven
Maurice Ransford / Lyle R. Wheeler, art directors
Thomas Little / Ernest Lansing, set decorators
2. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Lyle R. Wheeler / Thomas Little); 3. Christmas in Connecticut (Stanley Fleischer / Casey Roberts); 4. Murder, He Says (Hans Dreier / William Flannery / George Sawley); 5. And Then There Were None (Ernst Fegté / Edward G. Boyle)
I'll probably regret leaving Colonel Blimp off in the morning, but here we are! Yes, I chose films where the set was the plot: the ramshackle apartment in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the dream countryhouse in Christmas in Connecticut, the decrepit labyrinth of Murder, He Says, and the house of horrors in And Then There Were None. And #1, Leave Her to Heaven, a tale of romance and horror whose leads keep trying to change the scenery to get away from the unsettling feeling engulfing them: the vast ranchhouse, the lakeside cottage, the floral dream house - even the train is glamorous! Their Maine is a suspiciously, suffocating cozy one, even the courthouse. No wonder they dare not speak aloud the fears and hatreds boiling under the surface...
Best Editing
Detour
George McGuire
2. State Fair (J. Watson Webb, Jr.); 3. Leave Her to Heaven (James B. Clark); 4. To Have and Have Not (Christian Nyby); 5. National Velvet (Robert J. Kern)
I was torn for a while between those top three, what with State Fair's magically assembled musical numbers and Leave Her to Heaven's perfect timing of suspense; kudos, too, to the action of To Have and Have Not and the steadiness of National Velvet. But Detour is edited in such a way as to convey the nightmare of its protagonist's experience, making you feel you've seen much more than you actually have - plus it moves at a clip without feeling rushed, just enough to get you alongside our pathetic hero: out of control.
Best Visual Effects
A Thousand and One Nights
Lawrence W. Butler, special effects
Ray Cory, process photography
2. The Three Caballeros (Ed Aardal / Ub Iwerks / Richard Jones / John McManus / Joshua Meador / George Rowley); 3. Anchors Aweigh (William Hanna / Joseph Barbera / Al Grandmain / Bill Littlejohn / Ray Patterson / Irven Spence / Mark Davis / Warren Newcombe); 4. Story of GI Joe (Barney Wolff); 5. Flame of Barbary Coast (Howard Lydecker / Theodore Lydecker / Gordon Schaefer)
A Thousand and One Nights borrows ideas from previous films, especially The Thief of Bagdad, but it executes them on its own, and impressively. A giant chases Phil Silvers and Cornel Wilde through a cave, a wisecracking lady genie appears and disappears, visions are seen in rocks and crystals - and, of course, matte paintings! I am also clearly a fan of the combination of animation and live action in The Three Caballeros and Anchors Aweigh, the battles in Story of GI Joe, and the earthquake in Flame of Barbary Coast.
Best Score
1. Spellbound
Miklós Rózsa
2. Leave Her to Heaven
Alfred Newman
3. A Royal Scandal
Alfred Newman
4. National Velvet
Herbert Stothart
5. State Fair
Richard Rodgers / Charles Henderson / Alfred Newman
Best Original Screenplay
Christmas in Connecticut
Lionel Houser and Adele Comandini
story by Aileen Hamilton
2. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell / Emeric Pressburger); 3. Lady on a Train (Edmund Beloin / Robert O'Brien / Leslie Charteris); 4. Isle of the Dead (Ardel Wray); 5. The Affairs of Susan (Thomas Monroe / László Görög / Richard Flournoy)
This had to be Christmas in Connecticut, I don't think anything else even came close. The impossible setup of the broad pretending to be a homebody, the meticulousness with which it establishes both her and the hopeful soldier yearning for a traditional Christmas, the fair play with which it teases the audience's funny bone and heart: it's almost too perfect! Also, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a full epic on how a nation sees itself, Lady on a Train is a clever comedy whodunnit, Isle of the Dead is a haunting horror tale whose greatest monster is human prejudice, and The Affairs of Susan is a fun romp through the male ego.
Best Director
Edgar G. Ulmer
Detour
2. John M. Stahl for Leave Her to Heaven; 3. Walter Lang for State Fair; 4. Clarence Brown for National Velvet; 5. Michael Curtiz for Mildred Pierce
Toughest category to narrow down, I am currently pouring 'em all out for Howard Hawks (To Have and Have Not), Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger (The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp), and William A. Wellman (Story of GI Joe). The top two were always solid, while the rest kept fluctuating, but I'm comfortable with my current ranking for Lang's musical work, Brown's coming-of-age work, and Curtiz’s melodramatic work. But it's the thrillers that have a hold of me this year, and between Stahl's dramatic, suspenseful handling of his criminal melodrama and Ulmer's blunt nightmare...well, you can see. I went with Ulmer.
Well! We have nine more categories tomorrow, but so far, Detour is the only film to win more than award - and it's one of my Top Ten. Hmm....
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