The Tough Choice: Best Supporting Actress, 1945

The most difficult category of the year, because it truly is a murderer's row. Three of these actresses were nominated for their first and only time: Eve Arden, who went on to fame and fortune on television; and teenage actresses Ann Blyth and Joan Lorring, both playing "bad girls" in different degrees and accents. The other two were returning nominees. Angela Lansbury had just made her film debut the year before and already found herself a two-time nominee. Anne Revere had been nominated for The Song of Bernadette two years prior, but it was her role as the mother in National Velvet that won her the Academy Award:

She was nominated again for Gentleman's Agreement two years later, but the Red Scare effectively blacklisted her for twenty years. What a stupid time. Anyway, here are the nominees for 1945's Best Supporting Actress:

Eve Arden, Mildred Pierce

Ann Blyth, Mildred Pierce

Angela Lansbury, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Joan Lorring, The Corn is Green

Anne Revere, National Velvet

In Mildred Pierce, Eve Arden is the wisecracking friend and co-worker, while Ann Blyth is the traitorous, ungrateful daughter. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Angela Lansbury is the saloon singer who maintains her innocence and, disastrously, falls in love with the titular heel. In The Corn is Green, Joan Lorring is the uncouth daughter of a schoolteacher's housekeeper who presents a challenge for the household and its hopes for the young Welshman they hope to make a writer of. And Revere is Momma to Liz Taylor.

My rankings, from fifth to first:

The Sure Thing: Best Actor, 1945

If you were paying attention and betting against Ray Milland for 1945's Best Actor Oscar, you deserved to lose your money. 

The versatile Canadian actor had done light comedy, musicals, horror, spy thrillers - and that was just his 1944 slate!  With Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend, he took on the role of a writer who spends his days and nights getting boozed up, and when he isn't, he's scheming how to score the next drink. Not exactly the most commercial of plotlines, Paramount had insisted Wilder cast the reliable Milland to at least guarantee some butts in seats. From its first screenings in London, the seats were filled and the critical praise effusive; by the time it reached the United States, trade columns were already calling him the favorite for the Academy Award. And the year seemed to bear that out, as he won plaudits from the New York Critics, the National Board of Review, and the Hollywood Foreign Press. And yes, eventually, finally, the Oscar itself:

That wasn't even the end of his run, by the way. Six months later, The Lost Weekend was one of 44 films selected to compete at the 1st Cannes Film Festival. Not only was the film one of 11 to share the Grand Prix (this was before Palme d'Or), but Milland was named Best Actor - and didn't have to share at all.

But back to matters Oscar. These were the nominees for Best Actor:

Bing Crosby, The Bells of St. Mary's

Gene Kelly, Anchors Aweigh

Ray Milland, The Lost Weekend

Gregory Peck, The Keys of the Kingdom

Cornel Wilde, A Song to Remember

Bing Crosby was back in his Oscar-winning role of Father O'Malley in The Bells of St. Mary's, which, like its predecessor, was the highest-grossing film of the year. Gene Kelly made a surprise splash, and his only nomination, for Anchors Aweigh, a musical comedy about horny Navy men getting domesticated. There's Milland. Gregory Peck was only 28 when he played the Catholic missionary priest in The Keys of the Kingdom, which takes place over 50 years. And, finally, because Oscar law states someone has to be nominated for a biopic, there's Cornel Wilde as Chopin in A Song to Remember.

My rankings, from fifth to first:

Joan Gets Hers: Best Actress, 1945

Joan Crawford did not show up to collect her Academy Award in person. 

By 1945, Crawford had been in the industry for 20 years. She'd been a critical and box office darling since 1928's Our Dancing Daughters, was one of the "all-stars" in the 1931-32 Best Picture winner Grand Hotel, and was even dubbed Queen of the Movies by Life in 1937. But, as happens, her star waned, especially when she was listed among other notables as being "box office poison" in a Hollywood Reporter ad taken out by an independent exhibitor. Oh, she worked, yes, but to increasingly dismal results, and she parted ways with longtime home studio MGM. 

At Warner Bros., she begged Michael Curtiz for the lead role in Mildred Pierce, about a working woman who sweats and slaves to provide her children with perhaps more than they can afford, and who is rewarded with a booming business...and an ungrateful daughter and a scheming new husband. He wanted Barbara Stanwyck, and forced Crawford to audition. Which she did. And won the part. And the movie was a hit. And now, for the first time ever, she was nominated for an Academy Award.

But she did not show up. Blame those first-time jitters, perhaps, but Crawford begged off from appearing, claiming illness. Still, she had the show playing on the radio, and when she heard she won, she jumped into action. By the time the morning papers came out, there she was: in her sickbed, full face of makeup, clutching her Academy Award for the suddenly summoned photographers.

She had to face off against another first-timer and three previous winners. The nominees being:

Ingrid Bergman, The Bells of St. Mary's

Joan Crawford, Mildred Pierce

Greer Garson, The Valley of Decision

Jennifer Jones, Love Letters

Gene Tierney, Leave Her to Heaven

Ingrid Bergman had just won last year, and here she was playing the leading lady in the sequel to last year's Best Picture winner, Going My Way: she plays a nun who occasionally butts heads with Bing Crosby's Father O'Malley. Greer Garson was nominated last year, too, and here she was for the fifth time in a row, having won once for 1942's Mrs. Miniver: she plays the daughter of an embittered former worker who works for, and falls in love with the son of, the man her father worked for and hates. Jennifer Jones was nominated for Supporting Actress last year, but this was her third nomination in a row, having won for 1943's The Song of Bernadette (she came back the next year, too): she plays an amnesiac who may have murdered her husband. Gene Tierney is the only nominee who got a one-and-done, but it's worth noting that her role in Leave Her to Heaven came about due to the success of last year's Laura, in which she played Laura: here she plays a woman so obsessed with her husband, she tries to isolate him by any means necessary.

My ranking, from fifth to first.

The Comeback: Best Supporting Actor, 1945

These are your nominees for Best Supporting Actor at the 18th Academy Awards:

Michael Chekhov, Spellbound

John Dall, The Corn is Green

James Dunn, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Robert Mitchum, Story of GI Joe

J. Carrol Naish, A Medal for Benny

Let's go through them one by one.

Michael Chekhov was a Russian actor and director who studied under the legendary acting teacher Stanislavski; he was also the nephew of the playwright Anton Chekhov. As an acting teacher, his work influenced Marilyn Monroe, Elia Kazan, Yul Brynner, Clint Eastwood, Johnny Depp, and more. Spellbound was his fourth Hollywood film, having come to America when "tensions" broke out in Europe. He plays Dr. Alexander Brulov, an old mentor of Ingrid Bergman’s heroine, who provides a safe haven and professional advice to help her.

John Dall was a young American stage actor who starred in both the touring and Broadway productions of The Eve of St. Mark, a performance that earned him a screen test with Warner Bros, which led to his film debut, The Corn is Green. He plays Morgan Evans, a young Welsh miner who seems consigned to a life of work and drink until he starts taking classes with the new schoolteacher Miss Moffat, who sees in him a preternatural gift for writing.

James Dunn was a born-and-bred Manhattanite who, as a child, cut classes to go to the movies; as an adult, he joined theatrical troupes and eventually landed the lead in Sweet Adeline on Broadway, which led to his contract with Fox. He made his debut as the leading man in Frank Borzage's Bad Girl, which was nominated for Best Picture and won Best Director and Best Adaptation. Despite this and a trio of hits with Shirley Temple, his star waned as he sank deeper into alcoholism. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was his comeback film, playing the loving patriarch of an impoverished family, a struggling actor who drinks too much. He won the Academy Award.

A boxer, a steelworker, a writer, a lyricist, and an actor, Robert Mitchum had already established himself with 25 films between 1943 and 1944, including Cry 'Havoc' (uncredited), When Strangers Marry (as Bob), and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. Loaned by RKO to Lester Cowan, he was cast as Captain Bill Walker, a character inspired by Captain Henry T. Waskow, the subject of one of war correspondent Ernie Pyle’s more famous columns. It and many others were adapted to make up the  Story of GI Joe.

J. Carrol Naish was the definition of a character actor. Despite his purely Irish heritage, his dark, swarthy looks saw him cast as every ethnicity except Irish - Italians, Mexicans, Native Americans, Chinese, Arabs - which he portrayed in supporting parts and cameos, credited and uncredited, in a prolific career that spanned over 40 years and over 128 films! In A Medal for Benny, he plays a Paisano - "of mixed Indian and Spanish Blood" - whose ne'erdowell son is awarded a posthumous medal of bravery.

My ranking of these nominees, from fifth to first:

The Last of It: 1945, Part Nine

November and December 1945. By the end of the year, the Nuremberg Trials begin, revolution breaks out in Indonesia, and 51 nations join the United Nations. The year began with a world at war and ended with a world determined to find peace, even as some nations were still struggling to establish their independence from colonial rule (not just Indonesia; India was also trying to get the Brits out, while civil war continued in China).

Hollywood-wise, the heavy-hitters at the Oscars all came from the last two months of the year. Deliberately saved 'til the last minute by the studios, or just recency bias from weary voters momentarily looking up from post-War news? Whatever the reason, eleven of the twelve following films wound up nominated for Academy Awards:

Strike!: 1945, Part Eight

October 1945. Now that the war's officially over, there's some tidying up to do. Remaining Japanese troops in Taiwan surrender, the Nazi Party is officially dissolved, and 29 countries come together to establish the United Nations, making Woodrow Wilson's dream a reality; throughout the year, more will join. 

In Hollywood, a six-month strike by the Set Decorators' union came to a head as a fight broke out between scabs, police, Warner Bros. security, and 300 strikers. The fallout contributed to the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1946, limiting the power of labor unions, and the slow dissolution of the Conference of Studio Unions, which spearheaded the strike.

Though the strike caused delays on films like Duel in the Sun, for the most part, studios had a backlog of films to release. The month Hollywood Black Friday occurred, here's what the output looked like:

Bangers, All: 1945, Part Seven

August and September 1945. This is the end of the War. In August, the atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Emperor Hirohito steps down in acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration. That same month, the British government is lobbied by the Zionist World Congress regarding the creation of Israel, while in Vietnam, the Viet Minh takes over Hanoi, sparking the August Revolution. The French are driven to the South by September, dividing the country in two. September also sees this happening in Korea, where in the North, the Soviets begin trumpeting Kim Il Sung as a war hero, while in the South, an American Military Government is established. The stage is now set for the next century of conflicts. War, it never ends...

Stateside at the movies, meanwhile...: 

Wives and Lovers: 1945, Part Six

July 1945. Berlin is divided between East and West, a situation that will remain in place until 1990. The Philippines are officially liberated. The Japanese begin peace negotiations, and the Potsdam Conference avers that there will be no negotiations, but rather unconditional surrender. And the first atomic bomb is successfully tested in New Mexico, ushering in the atomic age.

And at the cinemas, we were celebrating Christmas in July:

Good and Bad Propaganda: 1945, Part Five

May and June 1945. The War in Europe is over. The enemies have surrendered, high-ranking Nazi officials have killed themselves, prisoners are taken...some, like the rocket scientists, are adopted, their skills being of use to the Allies. But the War in the Pacific is still going, though by June 21, the US scores a victory at Okinawa. It will take some time before the production of war films slows down, and they'll never really go away, not for this war. Still, you can sense that Hollywood saw the end was near, for even considering when things must have filmed before their release dates, only five of the thirteen films below deal with the war, even ephemerally...

Death of a Dictator: 1945, Part Four

April 1945. The Battle of Okinawa begins. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies, and Harry S. Truman becomes President of the United States. Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen are liberated. Mussolini and his intimates are publicly executed. Hitler privately commits suicide in his bunker. That's one month: April 1st, Battle of Okinawa; April 30th, Hitler's suicide. 

And in this single month with all this history...here are the movies we got:

A Director's Debut: 1945, Part Three

February and March 1945. Overseas, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin meet for the Yalta Conference, where they plot not just peace but how to carve up the world to best satisfy their respective empires once the war ends. On his return, Roosevelt addresses Congress for what will be his last time. The Battle of Iwo Jima rages across five weeks, while the Battle of Manila lasts exactly one month and ends in liberation for the Philippines' capital. Secret negotiations between the SS and the CIA for the surrender of Axis areas begin. Tokyo is devastated in a two-day bombing raid that kills 100,000 citizens, the most destructive air attack of the War.

And back in Hollywood? Well, in March, the 17th Academy Awards are held, resulting in Going My Way winning Best Picture (and more, as you know). March also saw the feature film debut of Elia Kazan.

Kazan was no stranger to Hollywood, he already had at least two films under his belt, including Blues in the Night...but as an actor. That's what he studied at Yale, and that's what he pursued when he joined the Group Theatre in 1932 - he continued in that vocation even as he began his career as a stage director. After appearing in the film Blues in the Night in 1941, he directed the legendary original production of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, starring Tallulah Bankhead and Fredric March. So, he becomes a greater director than actor, and takes the Hollywood job that still keeps him close to the spirit of New York, even if it's filmed on the Fox soundstages: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. His first film, and it wins an Oscar. But we'll get into that later this month.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn came out amid a Disney anthology, a "prestige horror" production, and Universal programmers for Abbott & Costello and Holmes & Watson. See for yourself:

The Horse and His Girl: 1945, Part Two

January 1945. Seven months after Allied forces land on the beaches of Normandy, the War continues, but the end is nigh. The Nazis are running. France hasn't been overrun by the Vichy collaborators since the previous August. MacArthur's returned to the Phillippines. And halfway through the month, Hitler's in the bunker.

And Hollywood? The entertainment continued, as did the war films, as did the not-war-but-totally-wink-wink-The War films. As you can see:

The Burn-Off: 1945, Part One

These are films that qualified for the 1945 Academy Awards but for which I could only find 1944 release dates. Nine in all - consider this our last hurrah for '44 and our first bit of '45:

Right After That: 1945, An Intro

Our look at film years wherein Alfred Hitchcock was Oscar-nominated for Best Director continues with 1945. Just last week, we wrapped up 1944, a year in which Hitchcock lost to Leo McCarey for Going My Way, a juggernaut that took home seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. 

The 1944 Retro Hollmann Awards, Part Two

With my Top Ten decided, and Part One already posted, it's time to put 1944 to bed. Here are my winners and nominees for the 1944 Retro Hollmann Awards:

The 1944 Retro Hollmann Awards, Part One

With my Top Ten decided, it's time to put 1944 to bed. Here are my winners and nominees for the 1944 Retro Hollmann Awards:

(Figuring Out) My Top Ten of 1944

I have been going back and forth with this Top Ten for days. I miss deadlines constantly, but that's usually laziness; this one has been an actual struggle. How do I narrow my list of thirteen down to just ten - and what do I say about them?

The 1944 Longlists

Semi-finalists in 17 categories, 10-15 each. For Best Picture, refer to the Top Ten.

Hitch Limits Himself: Best Director, 1944

The 17th Academy Awards' nominees for Best Director are:

Alfred Hitchcock, Lifeboat

Henry King, Wilson

Leo McCarey, Going My Way

Otto Preminger, Laura

Billy Wilder, Double Indemnity

Hitchcock is the reason we're here. This month, next month, and the month after that, I'm focusing on 1944, 1945, and 1960, years where he was nominated for Best Director (we've already covered 1940 and 1954). 

Having read Patrick McGilligan's Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light - and perused, without finishing, Leonard J. Leff's Hitchcock and Selznick - earlier this year, I...won't say I'm expert on Hitchcock, but I have some context. Context I hope to share, accurately, with you, dear reader. Both tell of how Hitchcock was the wünderkind of British cinema, having worked his way up from title writer and art director to film director, even learning the ropes from the visionaries of German Expressionism. But by the 1930s, those German visionaries had been run out by the Nazis, while British cinema was famously very limited regarding resources. It was difficult for a man of Hitchcock's vision to get the films he wanted to make, made in the way he wanted to make them, and already by the mid-1930s, he was looking to Hollywood. He secured the services of Myron Selznick as his agent and, would you believe, the best offer came via Myron's brother David O. Selznick and his independent Selznick International - amazing!

Hitchcock came to the United States with a New York Film Critics Circle Award (for The Lady Vanishes) and 26 films already under his belt. He was no novice. Yet, apparently, there was little joy in the making of his first American film, the very British Rebecca, since David O. had a very heavy hand in production, and Hitchcock was used to doing his own thing. Fortunately, it was possible to be loaned out to other studios - thus 20th Century-Fox and the making of Lifeboat.

Hitchcock makes a cheeky cameo

This was Hitch's half-realization of his dream project, which was to explore the tensions and joys among sex and race and class in a single space (the full realization would have been a film about twelve hours in one of those famous London parks, either Kensington or Covent, I forget). The desire was retooled a few times throughout his career, but he was able to scratch that itch within a timely wartime milieu with Lifeboat, an original concept that saw a glamorous journalist, a tycoon, several shipmates, a mother, a nurse, and a Nazi, all thrown together for 97 minutes. Execs, and some critics, balked at what they saw as noble treatment of the Nazi (as always, a critique says more about the viewer than about the filmmaker), and the film was dropped at the end of January 1944 to disastrous box office. Nevertheless, it managed three Academy Award nominations, a spot in the National Board of Review's Top Ten Films of 1944, and the NYFCC Award for Best Actress for Tallulah Bankhead in her first real screen performance since 1932.

Were those accolades all due to Hitchcock? Did he deserve this nomination? I've ranked the nominated directors from fifth to first:

Five Is Enough: Best Picture, 1944

The 1st Academy Awards had three nominees for Outstanding Production (plus another three for Artistic Quality of Production, though the Academy only acknowledges Outstanding Production as the first Best Picture nominees). The field expanded very shortly after: the 2nd-4th Academy Awards had five nominees; the 5th had eight; the 6th had ten; the 7th and 8th had twelve; and things seemed settled when the ten-wide Best Picture lineup lasted from the 9th Academy Awards through the 16th Academy Awards. 

Come 1944, a new shakeup: five nominees for Best Picture, no more and no less, a tradition that lasted over 60 years and ended with the ten-wide selection of the 82nd Academy Awards. This, even as the individual Music categories (Score, Musical Score, Song) were tallying anywhere between 11 and 21 nominees! For the inaugural year of this new standard, which for many of us is still the standard (damn the past 18 years!), these were the nominees:

Double Indemnity

Paramount Pictures

Gaslight

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Going My Way

Paramount Pictures

Since You Went Away

Selznick International

Wilson

20th Century-Fox

A noir about an insurance agent who is wrapped up in a murder plot with an undeniable dame. A thriller about a newlywed whose husband may be purposely driving her mad for his own purposes. A light comedy about a young priest and an old priest clashing. A wartime drama about the experiences of the wives and children back home. A biopic about the President of the United States who dreamed of a united world and was castigated for it.

We’ve discussed elements of each of these films, and so I’ve linked their tags so that you can see everything I had to say about them beforehand. And now, my rankings, from fifth to first:

The Winner Changes All: Best Supporting Actor, 1944

Presenting the 17th Academy Awards' nominees for Best Supporting Actor:

Hume Cronyn, The Seventh Cross

Barry Fitzgerald, Going My Way

Claude Rains, Mr. Skeffington

Clifton Webb, Laura

Monty Woolley, Since You Went Away

Cronyn is a man in Nazi Germany who must choose between protecting himself and helping a friend, a political refugee. Fitzgerald is an old and old-fashioned priest with a crumbling parish. Rains is a successful Jewish businessman who marries a woman who loves his money more than him, but he's hopeful that'll change. Webb is a bitchy columnist whose protege's murder is investigated. Woolley is a stuffy retired colonel boarding with a middle-class family, nursing a strained relationship with his grandson.

This was always going to be Fitzgerald's Oscar:

The fact that he was nominated for the exact same performance in Best Actor tells you so. At the time, Academy bylaws permitted an actor to be considered for whatever category, and he happened to score enough votes to place in both categories. Afterward, rules were changed so that an actor could only be nominated in the category submitted by their studio, but that got confusing, too: a clerical error in 1963 led to the entire cast of Cleopatra being submitted as leads, while Peter Sellers' multiple roles in 1964's Dr. Strangelove led to four simultaneous campaigns: one in Lead for all three roles together, and three in Supporting for each role individually. So then the rules were changed again: you could vote for a role in whichever category, but the category they got the most votes in first would be their nomination: thus, Kate Winslet in The Reader went from being campaigned all 2008 as Best Supporting Actress, only to wind up in Best Lead Actress.

So that's how a Supporting Actor won the Oscar and changed the rules.

It's not, admittedly, the best lineup. My rankings, from fifth to first:

Almost All Winners: Best Actress, 1944

Presenting the 17th Academy Awards' nominees for Best Actress:

Ingrid Bergman, Gaslight

Claudette Colbert, Since You Went Away

Bette Davis, Mr. Skeffington

Greer Garson, Mrs. Parkington

Barbara Stanwyck, Double Indemnity

The Oscar ceremony honoring the films of 1944 took place on March 15, 1945. By that time, Going My Way was enough of a hit that a sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's, was already filming, reteaming director-writer Leo McCarey and star Bing Crosby, and adding Ingrid Bergman as a nun. When the Best Actress category for this year was announced, both McCarey and Crosby had already won their Going My Way Oscars, so when Ingrid Bergman was named the winner for Gaslight, she quipped, "I'm afraid if I didn't have an Oscar, too, they wouldn't speak to me." She needn't have worried.

Some Old Hollywood fans bemoan the win, not because she wasn't good, but because (a) she wound up getting two more anyway, and (b) this was probably the strongest chance Double Indemnity's Barbara Stanwyck had at winning. The other three were all former winners, with both Davis and Garson perennial favorites during this period. And in retrospect, certainly, it makes sense: Stanwyck's portrayal of Phyllis Dietrichson entered the public consciousness in a way none of the other performances have, the grande dame of all femme fatales. She even has her own Wikipedia page, which no other character here, or even in Double Indemnity, can claim!

The one who won, the one who left a legacy, or one of the others - who would you choose? My rankings, from fifth to first:

A Reluctant Return, A Distinguished Debut: Best Supporting Actress, 1944

Presenting the 17th Annual Academy Awards' nominees for Best Supporting Actress:

Ethel Barrymore, None But the Lonely Heart

Jennifer Jones, Since You Went Away

Angela Lansbury, Gaslight

Aline MacMahon, Dragon Seed

Agnes Moorehead, Mrs. Parkington

Barrymore is a widow whose ne'erdowell son returns after years away, and now both are tempted into crime. Jones is a young woman whose father is at war, now falling in love with the grandson of her mother's boarder. Lansbury is a young housemaid whose indolence makes her unaware of (or accessory to?) Boyer's schemes. MacMahon plays the elder matariarch of a Chinese family navigating life under the occupation of the Japanese. And Moorehead is a French aristocrat who becomes the best friend and closest confidante of her ex-lover's new wife.

A prominent and prestigious stage star, Barrymore's film work before None But the Lonely Heart is scattered, comprised mostly of pre-20s silent films and one talkie team-up with screen star siblings John and Lionel, 1932's Rasputin and the Empress. Her return to film, a medium she disliked, was financially motivated and meant as a one-off, but she wound up doing more and more of them in her last years. Maybe winning the Oscar for her performance here helped, even though she did not attend the ceremony and later described the win as “very pleasant.”

On the other end of this stage veteran and reluctant screen actress, is Angela Lansbury in her film debut. Lansbury was born and raised in London, but the Blitz led her mother, actress Moyna Macgill, to bring the family to the United States in 1940. Lansbury studied acting, began performing professionally (albeit while lying about her age), and so she was ready when Macgill moved the family to Los Angeles. At a party, the 17-year-old Lansbury met the screenwriter John van Druten, whose adaptation of Gaslight was casting for the role of a cockney maid...and here we are today, discussing her first nomination for her first screen role in a career that would last eighty years.

Two great stories, and three others besides. So who would I vote for? My rankings, from fifth to first, after the jump... 

The Crooner Crowned: Best Actor, 1944

Presenting the 17th Academy Awards' nominees for Best Actor in a Leading Role:

Charles Boyer, Gaslight

Bing Crosby, Going My Way

Barry Fitzgerald, Going My Way

Cary Grant, None But the Lonely Heart

Alexander Knox, Wilson

Boyer is a villain, mentally torturing his wife for reasons to be revealed. Crosby is a chill, hands-in-pockets priest come to shake things up at a crumbling parish. Fitzgerald is the old and old-fashioned priest who runs that parish, and has done so for a long time, perhaps too long. Grant is a Cockney who can't help getting into trouble. And Knox is the President of the United States who spearheaded the establishment of the League of Nations.

There were fewer "precursors" at this time, and the ones from that period that still remain were not as we know them. Knox and Fitzgerald won the Golden Globes for Lead and Supporting Actor, respectively, but at that time, there were no nominees, only winners - and no distinction between Drama and Musical/Comedy. Fitzgerald was named Best Actor by the New York Film Critics Circle, but that organization did not even introduce Supporting prizes until 1969. And Crosby's performance was cited by the National Board of Review for Best Acting...alongside eight others, male and female, lead and supporting (among the names: Eddie Bracken in Hail the Conquering Hero and Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not, which was eligible for the next year's Oscars). 

Crosby himself claimed he did not expect to win, that Knox would be unbeatable. Indeed, he had to coaxed off the golf course by studio publicity people and his mother just two hours before the ceremony started - which explains the hat in photos from that night, hiding his toupee-less scalp. It's a good thing he went, because it meant Gary Cooper didn't have to present the Oscar to nobody.

Yes, despite his own doubts (or insecurities?), Crosby won, and he'd even be back the very next year for the very same role. Would he get my vote? Read on:

Crime and Christmas: 1944, Part Nine

Our last batch of reviews before we get into the Oscar categories themselves:

How You Like Me Now?: 1944, Part Eight

We're coming to an interesting point of 1944. The most famous film of today's collection was made three years before its release, did OK at the box office, and received no Academy Award nominations. And yet! It has endured! That and more, just below...

The Long Game: 1944, Part Seven

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...

Page to Stage to Screen: 1944, Part Six

Mark Twain, Anton Chekhov, Eugene O’Neill: July 1944 was a month of literary giants. 

A New Favorite: 1944, Part Five

Summer 1944 gave us our second Best Picture, as well as one of my favorites of this year...

First of the Best: 1944, Part Four

January saw our first Best Director nominee, and now May has our first Best Picture nominee!

The Brooders: 1944, Part Three

A movie that haunts me, a movie I’ve memory-holed, and a movie beloved by Steven Spielberg:

Embattled Broads: 1944, Part Two

Whether stationed abroad, entertaining the attentions of the troops, going to therapy, or committing MURDER, the films of 1944 truly believed women could play it all. I'm reminded that a frequent frustration of Old Hollywood fans is the dismissal of women’s roles at the time, despite there being so many varied, complex parts - in this lineup alone! As in:

The Imitation and the Real Thing: 1944, Part One

Of our first eleven films that qualified for the Academy Awards honoring the films of 1944, five were released in late 1943. Of the six released in 1944, one of them is the reason we're here - Lifeboat, the second film for which Alfred Hitchcock was nominated for Best Director. We'll get more into the specifics of Lifeboat's production and Hitchcock's nomination when we discuss the Best Director category in a couple of weeks. For now, let us just take in these eleven releases, from November 1943 through January 1944, running the gamut from musical to thriller, original to remake, Hitchcock himself to Hitchcock proteges. 

One thing you'll see, as I mentioned yesterday, is how some films referenced the War even when they didn't have to. Sure, The Fighting Seabees is specifically about a military unit, and Lifeboat is a tale of survival on the Atlantic - but Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman includes a visual joke, The Desert Song rewrites its plot to accommodate the times, and our first flick even gives a tongue-in-cheek apology for being a fantasy:

We're Back!: An Intro to 1944

If you're here, chances are you've been here before. I started retrospective Oscar years in 2011; my last one was in September of last year, the next one begins right now - the longest I've gone between retrospectives in three years.

But here we are! As voted on by you, the next three retrospectives will all focus on the years in which Alfred Hitchcock was nominated for Best Director. 

Despite being heralded as one of the greatest (and certainly most influential) filmmakers of all time, Hitchcock never won a competitive Academy Award, despite five nominations (he did win the non-competitive Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1968). All five nominations came within a 20-year period, beginning with his first Hollywood feature, 1940's Rebecca (as we covered in 2024), and ending with his most famous film, 1960's Psycho (which we will cover in July). 

In addition to Rebecca and the films of 1940, - which, by the way, include Hitchcock's second Hollywood production, Foreign Correspondent - we've also already looked at his nomination for Rear Window and the films of 1954. Which means only three years to cover, beginning with his second nomination: Lifeboat, 1944.

Now, recall - or learn, if it's your first time here - we don't just focus on just the one film or the one category or even the one ceremony. No, I've watched 89 films released in 1944, and we're going to look at all of them, the good and the bad. We're gonna look at Charlie Chan films. We're gonna look at almost-nominated buzzworthy films. And, of course, we're gonna talk about World War II, still ongoing, though this would be the final full year of the war. Of the 89 films I screened, at least 49 either depict or reference - or are an allegory for - the War.

We'll get into it, starting tomorrow. But I do want you to know what we're talking about, so here are the 90 films we'll cover:

Too Early Oscars: Next Year's Nominees Could Be...

It's the beginning of April, which means it's once again time to try to predict next year's Academy Award nominees - way too early!

Last year, on April 23rd, I accurately predicted four Best Picture nominees, two Best Director nominees, seven Acting nominees (albeit one in the wrong category), and three Screenplay nominees. Among my proudest predix: Sentimental Value in Original Screenplay, Supporting Actor, and Actress. Sometimes I get lucky like that...

This year, who knows? Here's what I think could be up for the Oscars in Picture, Director, Acting, and Screenplay:

Who's Gonna Win at the Oscars?

Another Oscars ceremony is upon us. I didn't do so poorly with my nominee predictions, and I hope I don't do too poorly with my winner predictions, either. 

Lots of hemming and hawing and handwringing over whether One Battle After Another or Sinners will win the Big Prize, or, indeed, how much each is going to win. Makes sense: the former's been racking up one industry award after another, with top prizes from the British Academy, Producers Guild, Directors Guild, even the Art Directors and Costume Designers Guilds, while the latter is one of the Top Ten highest-grossing films of the year and the nomination leader. They're both great movies, career highs for their helmers: Paul Thomas Anderson, who's been nominated 14 times in various capacities for seven of his ten films, and Ryan Coogler, nominated for the first time as a writer-director despite this being his fifth film serving in such capacity (he's also up for Best Picture as a producer; previously, he was nominated as a producer for Judas and the Black Messiah and as a songwriter for "Lift Me Up" from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever). The feeling is that, despite the wave of precursor awards for One Battle After Another, there's no denying the passion for Sinners, especially in the actors branch: peep the standing ovations for the film's wins at The Actor Awards, mirroring other triumphant Best Picture longshots like Parasite and Crash, both of which went on to win Best Picture. Could its record-breaking sixteen nominations mean an equally impressive haul? Or is Hollywood eager to crown one of its most beloved and acclaimed indie auteurs, proving himself with a mega-budget studio picture tackling issues of The Day?

Speaking of the Actors Branch! Sean Penn and Jessie Buckley seem locked up, but what do we do with Supporting Actress or, even more so, Actor? The buzz all year seemed to suggest Timothée Chalamet would easily sprint his way to the Oscar for his best work yet, but, significantly, only the Golden Globes and Broadcast Film Critics have come through for him. Otherwise, the industry's been split, and of Oscar's five nominees, only Leonardo DiCaprio - the only previous winner and the lead of the Best Picture favorite! - has no precursor honors to his name. As for Supporting Actress, it could be another field of battle in the One Battle vs. Sinners war, or Weapons' Amy Madigan could continue her streak and win for a role that actually crossed into pop culture. Skeptics say horror roles rarely win Oscars and she's her film's only nomination, but if a role like that is popular enough to be nominated in the first place...

 

Anyway, all that is juggling about in my brain as I make these final predictions:

My Winners: The 2025 Hollmann Awards, Part Three

Our third and final day of the 2025 Hollmann Awards. You've seen the Longlists, the Top Ten, the Nominees, and Parts One and Two of the winners - now, let's wrap this year up!

Best Cinematography

5. 28 Years Later

Anthony Dod Mantle

4. The Testament of Ann Lee

William Rexer

3. Realm of Satan

Gerald Kerkletz

2. Resurrection

Jingsong Dong

1. Grand Tour

Gui Liang / Sayombhu Mukdeeprom / Rui Poças

The final awards after the jump...

My Winners: The 2025 Hollmann Awards, Part Two

Continuing from yesterday, here are more of my picks for the best in 2025 cinema:

Best Score

5. The Ugly Stepsister

John Erik Kaada / Vilde Tuv

4. Highest 2 Lowest

Howard Drossin

3. Sinners

Ludwig Göransson

2. Frankenstein

Alexandre Desplat

1. The Testament of Ann Lee

Daniel Blumberg

My Winners: The 2025 Hollmann Awards, Part One

For the next three days, I present my winners for the 2025 Hollmann Awards, finally putting a button on last year.

Beginning with:

Best Original Song

5. Sinners - "Pale, Pale Moon"

music and lyrics by Brittany Howard and Ludwig Göransson

4. Highest 2 Lowest - "Highest 2 Lowest"

music and lyrics by Aiyana-Lee Anderson and Daciana-Nicole Anderson

3. KPop Demon Hunters - "Golden"

music and lyrics by EJAE and Mark Sonnenblick

2. Freakier Friday - "Baby"

music and lyrics by Sarah Aarons

1. Highest 2 Lowest - "Trunks"

music and lyrics by Rakim "A$AP Rocky" Myers

Best Actor, Best Director, and more, after the jump...

My Nominees: The 2025 Hollmann Awards

After 101 movies, a Top Ten, and yes, even Longlists, I present my ballot: in eighteen categories, these are the nominees for the 2025 Hollmann Awards:

Oscar’s Nominees: My Predictions

Habit? Tradition? All I know is the 98th Academy Awards will announce their nominees tomorrow and I must, I am compelled, to predict the outcome:

The Longlists of 2025

Following my Top Ten, the longlists - the 15 finalists in the 17 other categories...

My Top Ten of 2025

This year, I've decided to try something different. On my Letterboxd, I have, alphabetically, the 23 movies I considered for this list. I have finally whittled that number down to this Top Ten, which I present here, not in alphabetical order, nor ranked, but in the order in which I saw them:

The 101 Movies of 2025

While it’s been quiet here since September, believe it or not, I have been watching and writing and working on things - including catching up with 2025 releases! After all, the nominees for the 98th Academy Awards will be announced January 22nd, just eight days hence….