Review and Analysis of the 16th Academy Awards

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Review and Analysis of the 16th Academy Awards

The 16^th Academy Awards ended up being solid despite the year itself being quite mediocre due to the ongoing World War II. Too many movies that they nominated are now forgotten and quite dated due to their war subject matter, but there were genuine classics and underrated gems represented here. The Academy also did honor most of the deserving people for the acting and directing wins while the technical aspects were as usual a mixed bag.

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OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION

Casablanca ended up taking the Best Picture award and it ranks among the greatest BP winners of all time and one of the best movies ever made. It’s an iconic masterpiece that is still quotable and incredible to this day. Of the other nominees, the beautiful Heaven Can Wait, the sophisticated Song of Bernadette and the unexpectedly phenomenal Ox-Bow Incident were the best ones on the slate while others ranged from solid to downright mediocre. You can read my full ranking of the nominees here.

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BEST DIRECTOR

Ernst Lubitsch and Henry King both deserved their noms and both did amazing work on their respective movies, but there is no denying that Michael Curtiz was the only possible choice for the win this year and thankfully the Academy did not mess things up this time around. His work on Casablanca was incredible and this is his definite magnum opus.

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BEST ACTOR

This is a strange category that led to the win for Paul Lukas for the movie Watch on the Rhine. Just like the next category, this was a rare year for the Academy where they went with unexpected choices that I did respect, but still I would have gone with different winners myself. Lukas was excellent in that mess of a movie and I have no problem with him winning here, but it is sad that Bogart lost his Oscar here for his most iconic role. Gary Cooper and Walter Pidgeon deserved their nominations and both were terrific, but Mickey Rooney had no business being here as he was terrible in The Human Comedy and so overrated.

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BEST ACTRESS

Again, this was an unexpected choice where they went with the newcomer Jennifer Jones, who ended up being one of the youngest winners in this particular category. She was fine as the titular Bernadette, but a bit one-note and undeserving when all is said and done. It’s crazy that she won over all these older movie stars. Garson was great and deserved to be here, but I would have personally gone with either Ingrid Bergman who was incredible in Casablanca or Jean Arthur who was just lovely in The More the Merrier.

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BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Wow, this slate is surprisingly strong. This is by far the best slate for this category up until this point with everybody deserving their nominations. Charles Coburn deserved his win for his very charming turn in The More the Merrier, but Charles Bickford was just as incredible in a very important role in The Song of Bernadette while Claude Rains was wonderful as Louis in Casablanca and Akim Tamiroff stole the show as Pablo in For Whom the Bell Tolls. All of these would have been deserving choices.

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BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

This was also a strong slate and I would make the case that this was the year where the supporting performers were better than the lead ones. Lucile Watson stole the entire Watch on the Rhine from everybody else while Gladys Cooper was quite impactful in The Song of Bernadette. Eventually, Katina Paxinou won for her turn as Pilar in the Hemingway adaptation and this was a phenomenal choice that feels right as her performance was titanic in that film.

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BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

I haven’t seen the winning movie here, so I cannot comment whether or not it deserved it, but judging by the category’s slate, I doubt it. The entire slate is terrible as it’s filled with too many mediocre war movies.

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BEST SCREENPLAY

This is basically the adapted screenplay category and clearly Casablanca rightfully won here. That film was based on a stage play, which is a little known fact. The only other truly worthy nominee was the superbly written and executed Song of Bernadette.

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BEST ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE STORY

Shadow of a Doubt from Hitchcock actually landed in the nominations here and that film along with The More the Merrier were the only good movies on this terrible slate. The winning film is so mediocre that it’s ridiculous how it could have won for its terrible, syrupy storyline.

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BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

This was the first year where they honored documentaries and obviously the list ended up being suffocated by all the WWII pictures. I have seen the winning Desert Victory and it’s a technically polished, but slim movie that is not as insightful as documentaries should be.

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BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

1943 was a strong year for animated shorts, but the Academy did not honor the best ones as they snubbed so many iconic Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry shorts released this year. Of the nominees, only Disney’s Reason and Emotion is memorable as it’s a great early Disney flick that is artistic and thematically rich. Others all range from solid to forgettable as the slate is quite weak here. You can read my full ranking of the nominees here.

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BEST SCORING OF A DRAMATIC OR COMEDY PICTURE

Casablanca easily could have taken this one, but I am quite happy with the eventual outcome nonetheless as The Song of Bernadette does have a beautiful orchestral score that accompanies its spiritual and emotional tale so well.

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BEST SCORING OF A MUSICAL PICTURE

All of the musicals nominated in this odd category are war musicals, which are not my cup of tea. I haven’t seen any single one of them besides the Disney flick Saludos Amigos that had a pretty strong score. It’s a very weak slate overall.

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BEST ORIGINAL SONG

This was a pretty bad year for musicals as this is the era when they waned in popularity quite a bit. This resulted in a very mediocre slate where I only know about one song – Saludos Amigos from the eponymous movie. Others are not familiar to me. The winning song is well sung and solid enough, but hardly as memorable as many of the other winners from this category.

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BEST SOUND RECORDING

I’ve never even heard of the winning war movie here. The best nominees in this slate were Saludos Amigos and Phantom of the Opera, both would have been excellent choices for this category.

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BEST ART DIRECTION, BLACK-AND-WHITE

The Song of Bernadette is particularly iconic in the cave sequence. That landscape looked beautiful and authentic, though it was a set. As a result, the film definitely deserved its Oscar for production design, so no qualms from me in this instance.

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BEST ART DIRECTION, COLOR

I disliked Phantom of the Opera, but it winning here was a solid choice as the sets in that movie were phenomenal. For Whom the Bell Tolls was another solid nominee that also could have taken it here.

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BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY, BLACK-AND-WHITE

This slate was quite huge as it consisted of ten nominees. Only a couple were worthy. While I absolutely loved the black-and-white cinematography in The Song of Bernadette, especially how well the outdoors sequences looked, Casablanca is an absolute masterpiece of striking imagery and atmosphere, so it should have won here as well.

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BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY, COLOR

1943’s Phantom of the Opera is a very flawed movie that I did not care for at all. But it does look great, there is no denying that, so I’m not mad about it winning here. The other two worthy nominees were For Whom the Bell Tolls and Heaven Can Wait, both gorgeous-looking pictures.

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BEST FILM EDITING

This was a poor slate with only Casablanca being a deserving nominee. That film is wildly entertaining and holding attention from beginning to end, so it should have won here instead of the actual winner that is an unfamiliar WWII flick that I’ve not seen myself.

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BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS

This particular bad slate was a perfect encapsulation of everything that was wrong with this cinematic year – an overabundance of WWII pictures. Literally every single nominee for VFX this year was a war movie and very obscure ones at that as I haven’t seen any one of them. It was a pretty poor year for fantasy and sci-fi, so obviously they had to populate it with war films.

 

Overall, this was an uneven year for the Oscars. Some of the winners, especially the acting and directing ones were very much deserved. The overall slates were mostly fine, but the year itself was simply not that great, which resulted in the Academy’s choices ranging from great to solid to downright poor.