1951 is one of those years where — you can’t understand why they chose the way they did. Sure The American in Paris is an enjoyable movie, but, is it a Best Picture winner? That’s the main question we have for this year. Fortunately I don’t have to answer it now, I only have to deal with Best Director.

Best Actor 1951 was Humphrey Bogart for The African Queen. Kind of a makeup Oscar, kind of a career achievement Oscar. Also kept Brando from winning one. We’ll get to that. Best Actress was Vivien Leigh for A Streetcar Named Desire. Best Supporting Actor was Karl Malden, also for Streetcar, and Best Supporting Actress was Kim Hunter, also for Streetcar. I guess four people winning for the same film would have been a bit much. Especially when they weren’t going to award it Best Picture.

BEST DIRECTOR – 1951

And the nominees are…

John Huston, The African Queen

Elia Kazan, A Streetcar Named Desire

Vincente Minnelli, An American in Paris

George Stevens, A Place in the Sun

William Wyler, Detective Story Read the rest of this page »

1943 is another one of those years. You can’t really fault their choice, because it’s widely regarded as one of the best films of all time. And even if you did want to say, “Well, it’s not that great,” there’ not really another nominee you could point to as being more worthy. Which is great, because, less I have to write.

The Best Picture of 1943 was Casablanca. Best Actor — surprisingly — went to Paul Lukas, for Watch on the Rhine. I believe this is widely considered to be one of the worst choices of all time. Raise your hand if you know who Paul Lukas is. No cheating.

Best Actress was Jennifer Jones for The Song of Bernadette. Best Supporting Actor was Charles Coburn for The More the Merrier, and Best Supporting Actress was Katina Paxinou for For Whom the Bell Tolls.

I’ll sum up 1943 by saying, when Casablanca is involved, is there really any question what should win?

BEST DIRECTOR – 1943

And the nominees are…

Clarence Brown, The Human Comedy

Michael Curtiz, Casablanca

Henry King, The Song of Bernadette

Ernst Lubitsch, Heaven Can Wait

George Stevens, The More the Merrier Read the rest of this page »

1939. The “Golden year.” This one will be a quick one. I think we can all agree that — whomever the “director” was — Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood or David O. Selznick, that Gone With the Wind was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, directorial achievements of all time. Nothing was going to beat it, as nothing should have. I also think it should be mentioned — do you see this Murderer’s Row of directors we have here? That’s impressive, isn’t it?

Also, for context’s sake, Gone With the Wind won Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress this year, while Best Actor was Robert Donat for Goodbye, Mr. Chips, and Best Supporting Actor was Thomas Mitchell for Stagecoach.

BEST DIRECTOR – 1939

And the nominees are…

Frank Capra, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Victor Fleming, Gone With the Wind

John Ford, Stagecoach

Sam Wood, Goodbye, Mr. Chips

William Wyler, Wuthering Heights Read the rest of this page »

1938 feels like a “motions” year. One of those ones where you just feel the Academy going through the motions. The Oscars feels a lot like Hollywood itself a lot of the time. That is, they find a formula that works, or one they like, and they ride that formula for a while until they transition to something else. You notice it with the type of films they make, and in their Best Picture choices as well. You really can notice a pattern in what they nominate and what they vote for.

I’ve already said that 1928-1933 were the Academy figuring itself out. I’d also say that 1934-1938 were the Academy counteracting the Depression. Of course, as is always the case with AMPAS, you’ll see the standard “Oscar” picture thrown in as well, as well as a choice that defies all logic. But, there are choice years that really point out what the “trend” was at that point in film history. This is a huge reason why I love the Oscars. You can really get a snapshot of what the prevailing trend in — well, not Hollywood overall, but, this portion of it.

So, 1938. You Can’t Take It With You wins Best Picture. Now it’s perhaps thought of as a weak choice. And unlike most of the years they consider poor choices, this one isn’t directed so much at the quality of the film but rather at how “safe” a choice it was, and how generic a Best Picture it is. And that’s the reason I see it as part of the “Depression” trend, because, after this year, Hollywood transitioned to the “war” picture era, 1940-1946. It feels like when someone pulls back to reference a joke that was funny the first three times it was referenced, but now it feels as though people are going through the motions. Sure, it’s funny, but lets not beat it into the ground. Read the rest of this page »

1936 is a tough year. There are a lot of good films that were nominated. I’d say, of all the Best Picture nominees, there were only three I didn’t care for. And even of those three — two of them were just monotonous for me, and the other was, whatever. 7 out of 10 is pretty good.

The only thing is, it’s tough to guess what should have won, because — the Best Picture choice, The Great Ziegfeld, is the first biopic to ever win an Oscar. That’s one thing it had going for it. Two is that it’s actually a good movie. It’s a nice mixture of drama, comedy, and larger than life musical numbers. (Larger than life meaning not like Busby Berkeley, but rather — literally larger than life. The sets are fucking huge.) The downsides to it are — it’s long, three hours, and, there are much more “watchable” films on the list. By that I mean, they’re films you’d want to watch more often than the film that won. So ultimately the decision is, which do you vote for? Because the film is a standard “Oscar” film, and an enjoyable one at that (at least, compared to some other epic Best Picture winners), but, on the other hand — there are alternatives.

That aside, we have this category, which, strangely, split from Best Picture. I feel it says a lot when the Best Picture winner and Director split. It’s like they were compelled to vote for the film that seemed most obvious, then went with what they liked for the other choice.

Oh, yeah, Best Actor was Paul Muni for The Story of Louis Pasteur, and Best Actress was Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld. Oh, yeah — the Supporting categories are here. First time ever. The first Best Supporting Actress winner was Gale Sondergaard, for Anthony Adverse, and the first Best Supporting Actor winner — very fittingly too — was Walter Brennan, for Come and Get It. Read the rest of this page »