The 1941 Retro Hollmann Awards Nominees

After 82 films and my Top Ten, here are my nominees for the 1941 Retro Hollmann Awards - 34 films across 18 categories:

My Top Ten of 1941

I watched 82 movies for 1941:

All That Money Can Buy

All-American Co-Ed

Aloma of the South Seas

Appointment for Love

Back Street

Ball of Fire

The Big Store

Billy the Kid

Birth of the Blues

Blood and Sand

Blossoms in the Dust

Blues in the Night

Buck Privates

Cheers for Miss Bishop

The Chocolate Soldier

Citizen Kane

The Devil and Miss Jones

The Devil Pays Off

Dive Bomber

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Dumbo

Fantasia

The Flame of New Orleans

Flight Command

The Great Lie

Here Comes Mr. Jordan

High Sierra

Hold Back the Dawn

Hold That Ghost

How Green Was My Valley

Hudson's Bay

I Wanted Wings

Ice-Capades

The Invisible Woman

King of the Zombies

Ladies in Retirement

Lady Be Good

The Lady Eve

Las Vegas Nights

The Little Foxes

Louisiana Purchase

Lydia

Major Barbara

The Maltese Falcon

Man Hunt

Meet John Doe

The Men in Her Life

Mercy Island

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Moon Over Miami

Night Train to Munich

One Foot in Heaven

Penny Serenade

Pépé le Moko

The Reluctant Dragon

Ridin' on a Rainbow

The Sea Wolf

Sergeant York

Shadow of the Thin Man

Sis Hopkins

Skylark

Smilin' Through

So Ends Our Night

The Son of Monte Cristo

The Strawberry Blonde

Sun Valley Serenade

Sundown

Sunny

Suspicion

Swamp Water

Tall, Dark and Handsome

Tanks a Million

That Hamilton Woman

That Night in Rio

That Uncertain Feeling

This Woman is Mine

Tobacco Road

Topper Returns

When Ladies Meet

The Wolf Man

A Yank in the R.A.F.

You'll Never Get Rich

And now I finally give you a Top Ten. A hat tip to the movies that almost made this list: Blues in the Night, Dumbo, Fantasia, Major Barbara, and my #11, That Hamilton Woman.

In alphabetical order:

Oscars 1941: Best Director

Today, we look at Best Director of 1941, which John Ford won, accomplishing two rare feats: the three-time Oscar winner and the back-to-back Oscar winner:

Ford was not the first to pull off three: Frank Capra was when he won in 1938 for You Can't Take It with You, following his triumphs for It Happened One Night and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. He was, however, the first to get two of them back to back, a feat only accomplished by two other filmmakers: Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Alejandro González Iñárritu. Ford of course deserved the Oscar for The Grapes of Wrath and The Informer - but what of How Green Was My Valley? My thoughts:

Oscars 1941: Best Supporting Actor

The Supporting Acting categories began in 1936, making this the sixth ceremony to award them. This was also only the third time someone other than Walter Brennan won - in this case, Donald Crisp for How Green Was My Valley:

Two things you undoubtedly noticed. Both Crisp and presenter James Stewart are in their military uniforms - the War had finally come to the United States, and Hollywood stars were doing their part same as any American citizen (except John Wayne). The other thing: Crisp is holding a plaque with a miniature Oscar as part of it. Yes, though good enough for an award, the character actors nominated in Supporting did not initially receive Oscar statuettes, but rather this more cradleable honor. It wasn’t until two years later, at the ceremony honoring the films of 1943, that the Academy would put everyone on an equal winning field.

These were the performers competing for the plaque:

Oscars 1941: Best Supporting Actress

1941's Best Supporting Actress lineup has all the category's favorites. You have not just one devoted mother, but two; not just one tragically good conscience, but two; of those two, one is a beautiful ingenue making a strong debut; and then you have the scene-stealing diva, who walks away with the prize:

Can't blame them. It's a role and performance that's better than the film it's in. Besides, Astor was a genuine star, and she had her role in The Maltese Falcon for viewers to consider, too. But even if it's not surprising, was it deserving? Let's talk:

Oscar 1941: Best Picture of the Year

It's taken me a long time to figure out how to write this one. Ranking the Best Picture nominees of 1941 is tough because, truthfully, I don't think any of these are bad. There's at least one movie I dislike but, even that one is well-mounted and, I think, well-meaning enough that one can't just dismiss it out of hand. Too, there are a few that I personally like but think a Best Picture nomination is a little much...even if I can't quite put a finger on why. My Top Three are no-brainers but, in what order? And, admittedly, there are some I know I admire but do not necessarily recall specifics as to why. How does one rank that?

I did my best. Here are the ten nominees for Best Picture, in ascending order of how I like them:

1941: Men and Monsters

What was it about How Green Was My Valley that spoke to Oscar voters? The genuine quality of the film itself? Was it that it was the last of the Best Picture nominees to come out, recency bias doing its thing again? Maybe both - maybe, too, its story of a boy growing up in a close-knit family in a close-knit town learning that the world can be cruel and home was being wrecked in a way that wouldn't make it home ever again struck a chord with a country that just found itself thrust into the war they'd all been watching.

One watches all the movies from this year and last and figures America was gearing up anyway. All the films about our heroic Navy men, our pilots, the comedies about registering for the draft or being enlisted, the brave pseudo-comedies about rebels who went overseas, the imports about our British cousins fighting the good fight. But it is one thing to make movies about how we'll enter the War on our terms, to watch movies about other people's war; it is quite another thing altogether to wake up to an attack - one that, even at the time, people spoke of being preventable, had the government actually paid attention and acted on its suspicions and intelligence.

And so this December, the cinema is full of meditations on the end of innocence, alienation, government nincompoopery...there's even a ball of fire, though that one's a much more fun one to consider than the infernos that were to come: