Review and Analysis of the 14th Academy Awards

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Review and Analysis of the 14th Academy Awards

The 14^th Academy Awards for the most part turned out all right. This wasn’t the strongest year for cinema, but the Academy mostly chose to nominate the right movies, though it did honor some questionable ones. The acting winners were all actually incredible and well deserved, but the BP winner remains forgettable while some technical categories’ winners were also not the greatest.

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OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION

Everybody talks about How Green Was My Valley beating out Citizen Kane for Best Picture this year, and yes, that was a hilarious turn of events. But the Academy obviously gravitated strongly toward this typically maudlin Oscar fare, so I am not surprised a bit that this happened. In my book, the best nominee was The Little Foxes while the worst was definitely One Foot in Heaven. You can read my full ranking of the nominees here.

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BEST DIRECTOR

This was a difficult category. Hawks and Wyler were particularly strong nominees, but Welles losing an Oscar to Ford was very problematic, and that is coming from a guy who has never been a big fan of Citizen Kane. But he simply did a terrific job directing that masterfully constructed movie, so the fact that he lost to a man who’d already gotten the award the previous year remains very controversial.

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BEST ACTOR

The actual best actor of the year was not nominated ridiculously so. I am talking about Joel McCrea whose turn in Sullivan’s Travels was beautifully human and just so endearing. But the Academy wholly snubbed that film unfortunately. As for the actual nominations slate, some could say that Orson Welles should have won for playing Kane, but I would honestly have to agree with the Academy’s choice here. You could say a whole lot of bad things about Sergeant York, but Cooper’s performance isn’t one of those. He is wonderful in the role, he was so well cast and ultimately I am quite glad that he won this year.

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BEST ACTRESS

Wow, is this an amazing slate or what? Here we have yet another stronger actress race than their male counterpart. Every single nominated lady this year deserved it and it is honestly very difficult to choose a winner between them. Greer Garson singlehandedly saved Blossoms in the Dust from being terrible; Barbara Stanwyck delivered one of her career-best turns in Ball of Fire; Olivia de Havilland was so charming in Hold Back the Dawn; Joan Fontaine was terrific and entirely believable in Suspicion; Bette Davis was iconic in The Little Foxes. My pick would have to be Davis as she was just born to play villains, but Fontaine winning her only Oscar was more than deserved and I am glad that they made that choice. It is very funny how she beat her sister this year.

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BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Sidney Greenstreet and Walter Brennan were pretty strong contenders in this particular category, but ultimately Donald Crisp unquestionably deserved his win as he was the heart of How Green Was My Valley. If there was one thing that that overly bestowed movie by the Academy actually deserved to win, it was this one.

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BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Believable, energetic and emotionally driven, Mary Astor was truly astounding in her Oscar-winning turn in The Great Lie, but the movie itself is so bad and preposterous that I was still left puzzled that it could lead to any Oscar wins at all. My favorite of the nominees has to be Teresa Wright who was fantastic in the terrific The Little Foxes.

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BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

This is the sole Oscar that Citizen Kane actually won, which is a crazy fact but apparently the Academy did not gravitate toward that movie as much as you’d think they would. It was the best-written movie of the nominees as this year’s slate was truly mediocre, but I am not a big fan of this densely written, overly ambiguous script. The snubbed Sullivan’s Travels would be my personal pick for this year as that classic comedy has an unforgettable, inspiring story.

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BEST SCREENPLAY

Again, I do not know the difference between these two. This must be the equivalent of the adapted screenplay category of its time. It’s a somewhat better slate and the winner is solid as by far the best part of Here Comes Mr. Jordan is its screenplay. Still though, I would have gone with The Little Foxes as that movie is deftly written and so engaging.

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BEST ORIGINAL STORY

Here Comes Mr. Jordan somehow ended up winning in this category as well, which is ridiculous. The slate is also odd with the inclusion of Ball of Fire being particularly interesting. I love that screwball comedy, but I wouldn’t call its riff on Snow White all that original myself.

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BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

1941 was an incredible year for animated shorts as evidenced by this amazing slate that is so diverse in subjects and number of studios represented. While Lend a Paw is definitely a wonderfully endearing Pluto flick, this was one of the times when Disney should not have won as three movies were actually better. Rhapsody in Rivets is an immensely artistic Merrie Melody, Superman is incredibly entertaining to this day and The Night Before Christmas is the quintessential, most emotional Tom and Jerry short. You can read my full ranking of the nominees here.

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BEST SCORING OF A DRAMATIC PICTURE

This was the year when the Academy decided to split scoring into two categories, which was totally unnecessary, but it happened. It isn’t the strongest of slates, but York and Kane would be my personal picks for the win as both movies are so well scored. The winner ended up being this entirely unknown picture, which is ridiculous.

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BEST SCORING OF A MUSICAL PICTURE

Dumbo actually won this one! I love that they gave this Disney classic a win for its truly terrific, still classic and entertaining soundtrack. All of the other nominees here are these totally obscure flicks, so this must have been an easy pick for the Academy.

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BEST ORIGINAL SONG

The Last Time I Saw Paris is one of those storytelling songs that are sweet in lyrics, but clearly not deserving of a freaking Oscar. How Baby Mine, the most beautiful song from Dumbo and an all-time classic lost is baffling to me.

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BEST SOUND RECORDING

I haven’t seen the winner in this category, but again Kane and York losing to this obscurity was beyond ridiculous. Both of these films are technical masterpieces, so it’s really crazy that they lost again here.

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BEST ART DIRECTION, BLACK-AND-WHITE

How Green Was My Valley does look gorgeous and its production design is one of the things responsible for that wonderfully old-fashioned feel to it. Still though, it winning over Kane was ludicrous as that movie is littered with detailed backgrounds and fascinating symbolism.

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BEST ART DIRECTION, COLOR

Blossoms in the Dust really looks indistinguishable from other color movies of the period. It’s all very forgettable and bland as is that whole movie. The fact that the Academy got from the previous year’s miraculous Thief of Bagdad to this mediocrity is truly something else.

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BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY, BLACK-AND-WHITE

How Green Was My Valley also got this one, which again is a solid choice and I am not too mad about it as that movie is superbly shot. However, Citizen Kane losing was very problematic as its revolutionary deep focus technique ushered in a whole new era of cinematography.

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BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY, COLOR

I have yet to see the Blood and Sand remake, but I do guess that it looks pretty good, so it doesn’t surprise me that it won for best color cinematography. I also have not seen the other nominees here.

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BEST FILM EDITING

Sergeant York won for editing this year, which is definitely deserved as that film is technically masterful all-around, but I do still think that Citizen Kane was even better edited. But this would be a toss-up for me overall.

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BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS

Apparently this year wasn’t the best for blockbusters as no fantasy and/or science fiction movie was nominated for VFX. A war movie ended up winning, which I have not seen. I also do not know anything about any other nominees, so yes; this year had way too many obscure movies nominated if you ask me.

 

Overall, this was another solid year for the Oscars, though not up to par with the previous two years. The winners of some categories were questionable, but a whole lot actually deserved to win. You could argue that some slates overall weren’t the greatest, but there weren’t too many terrible omissions here, which is commendable.