Review and Analysis of the 20th Academy Awards

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Review and Analysis of the 20th Academy Awards

The 20th Academy Awards were mostly pretty solid. While some slates were questionable, most of the winners were deserved, especially from the visual technical categories and some of the main awards. The Academy snubbed some of the best movies this year, so the eventual slates weren’t as strong as they could have been, but they still chose to honor the best movies or people out of the nominees for the most part, making this year overall satisfactory.

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OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION

The Best Picture slate for 1947 is not the greatest, but it’s still quite solid. Of the five nominees, none are bad or questionable choices, but in actuality three are solid to pretty good and two are truly phenomenal. Two movies on this list are social dramas dealing with anti-Semitism – the inferior but important Crossfire and the better and superbly acted Gentleman’s Agreement. We also got a pair of spiritual holiday films – The Bishop’s Wife is the inferior, but charming crowd-pleaser while Miracle on 34^th Street remains the best-known of these movies for a reason as it’s a true Christmas classic. The fifth spot belongs to the very strong, but flawed David Lean adaptation of Dickens’ seminal work. Gentleman’s Agreement ended up winning and it was a valid choice for the Academy with which I wholeheartedly agree. You can read my full ranking of the nominees here.

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BEST DIRECTOR

This wasn’t the best category, but it’s a serviceable one. Elia Kazan ended up winning for his excellent, though understated work on Gentleman’s Agreement. That is a wonderful, underrated flick, so I am quite fine with this choice. But if it were to me, I’d personally go with David Lean. Although his movie wasn’t the best of the bunch, his directing was phenomenal and he made one of the most cinematic and polished films of this entire year. As for Powell and Pressburger, they were clearly the best directors of the year, but they sadly weren’t even nominated.

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BEST ACTOR

This year’s Best Actor slate was far from great. John Garfield’s turn in Body and Soul was only solid and he should have been nominated for his supporting role in Gentleman’s Agreement instead. Speaking of that drama, Gregory Peck should have won as he was by far the best out of the five nominees. This was one of his best roles for sure. But it ended up being Ronald Colman for his complex role in A Double Life. While I found his work there pretty good, I also thought that he was a bit too hammy and silly at times, thus this win wasn’t deserved at all. My choice for the win would be the actor who wasn’t even nominated and that is Tyrone Power. What he did in Nightmare Alley was truly remarkable and it’s a shame that he was snubbed by the Academy.

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BEST ACTRESS

This was a weak year for this category and Loretta Young ended up winning for The Farmer’s Daughter, but there must have been better choices than this. Don’t get me wrong, Loretta Young is perfectly solid as this charming, earnest young woman who somehow becomes involved in politics. But it’s just a weakly written role, thus her acting was limited by it. Joan Crawford was quite good and the excellent Dorothy McGuire would have been the best choice out of these nominees, but the best performance of the year belongs to Deborah Kerr’s exceptional work in the masterpiece that is Black Narcissus. The fact that she wasn’t even nominated is insane to me.

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BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

This was a weak slate, so Edmund Gwenn easily walked away with a win. It was only fitting to reward a Santa Clause himself during Hollywood’s most holiday-centric era in terms of storytelling. Gwenn was so lovely and he was the heart and soul of that iconic charmer, so he most definitely deserved this win. As for the snubs, John Garfield’s moving turn in Gentleman’s Agreement should have been noticed by the Academy.

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BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Celeste Holm won in this category and she was definitely quite good in her smaller, but important role in Gentleman’s Agreement. The other nominees weren’t so great, so I am quite fine with this particular choice.

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BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

This was a very weak slate as the Academy chose to honor a rather forgotten movie. Of the nominees, Body and Soul and A Double Life would have both been acceptable albeit not great choices.

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BEST SCREENPLAY

Miracle on 34^th Street took this one, but the snubbed Black Narcissus should have won if we are to view this category as adapted, which I am sure it must have been. But of the nominees the best screenplay probably won, so I am quite glad that this wonderful classic ended up winning more than one Oscar.

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BEST MOTION PICTURE STORY

But giving two screenplay awards to one movie was and still remains a ludicrous decision and I continue to find the existence or true nature of this particular category truly baffling.

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BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

1947 was another strong year for animated shorts and this slate was quite good. While Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse is an undeniably classic, the right flick ended up winning and that was Tweetie Pie, one of the best Tweety movies and one of the better Looney Tunes of its era. This was a very good list and the best movie of the five won. You can read my full ranking of the nominees here.

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BEST SCORING OF A DRAMATIC OR COMEDY PICTURE

Miklos Rozsa’s work on A Double Life was terrific – the movie sounded intense and quite dramatic. It’s a great score, so I am happy that it won. My choice would be the snubbed Black Narcissus as that movie was an audio-visual marvel all-around.

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BEST SCORING OF A MUSICAL PICTURE

I haven’t even heard of most of these movies, but of the nominees Disney’s Song of the South was the only worthy one and I would put my vote for that underrated, wonderfully scored flick.

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BEST ORIGINAL SONG

I am so glad that Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah won for best song as that movie is needlessly maligned just for being a product of its time, but this number is among the best Disney songs of the forties that is still delightfully charming to this day. The other nominees are mostly forgotten these days.

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BEST SOUND RECORDING

The Bishop’s Wife won in the sound category, which was a solid choice, but not a great one. I would go for Black Narcissus myself, but the Academy’s slate for this category this year was definitely not great.

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BEST ART DIRECTION, BLACK-AND-WHITE

Great Expectations took this one, which was undeniably earned as that movie’s production design looked quite impressive and every single sequence was gorgeous to behold. It’s such a strong choice.

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BEST ART DIRECTION, COLOR

Yes, Black Narcissus did win something this year as the Academy shamelessly snubbed it for the major awards. The sets done for this movie were incredible, so it winning here was quite warranted.

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BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY, BLACK-AND-WHITE

By far the best-shot black-and-white movie of 1947 was David Lean’s Great Expectations, so the Academy made the right choice here as well. That film looks impressively artistic and polished to this day. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir was another worthy nominee.

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BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY, COLOR

Black Narcissus features some of the greatest Technicolor that I’ve ever witnessed. The colors just popped off the screen and how they tell the story symbolically was also admirable. The movie was shot artistically and in such a modern fashion, giving it a timeless look and appeal. It’s probably the single most earned Oscar this year.

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BEST FILM EDITING

This wasn’t the best slate for this category, but I have no qualms with Body and Soul winning. That was an important, but flawed movie that was probably at its best in the editing department, especially during the superbly executed boxing scenes.

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BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS

I haven’t seen the winner of this category and it’s quite a quaint movie that was pretty much lost to time. This wasn’t the best year for VFX spectacles, so this award was almost meaningless this time around.

 

Overall, this was a fine year for the Academy. They did snub some of the best movies of the year, but thankfully they chose the best movies or people out of the nominees to honor with the actual win, at least for the most part. Most of the major categories and the technical ones of the visual type fared the best this year.