1940

The Grapes of Wrath (Director: John Ford)
Nominees: Foreign Correspondent, Rebecca, The Philadelphia Story, His Girl Friday, The Shop Around the Corner, Pinocchio, Nartaki

Oscars pick: Rebecca
Nominees: All This and Heaven Too, Foreign Correspondent, The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Dictator, Kitty Foyle, the Letter, The Long Voyage Home, Our Town, The Philadelphia Story

The Academy spread the wealth this year. They gave Best Director to John Ford, Best Screenplay to Philadelphia Story and Best Picture to Rebecca.

I love Hitchcock's gothic Rebecca and his other nominee, Foreign Correspondent. While it’s not as elegant as Rebecca, Correspondent is good, solid suspenseful fun.  One of Disney’s best from their classic era is just behind them, the freaky Pinocchio. I also enjoyed Lubitsch's Shop Around the Corner with Jimmy Stewart and Howard Hawk's brilliant comedy His Girl Friday, with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell trading quick and clever quips.

But the best of the best was John Ford's adaptation of John Steinbeck's sociopolitical dust bowl drama The Grapes of Wrath. While Jane Darwell can get a bit weepy as Ma Joad, Ford and screenwriter Nunnally Johnson keep things sober and relatively unsentimental. Gregg Toland's cinematography delivers a natural authenticity to the picture and is marked by deep shadows and low key lighting.

The driving force behind the film was Henry Fonda's unforgettable turn as Tom Joad. His famous speech near the end of the movie was one of cinema's most stirring and powerful moments. It's remarkable that he didn't take home the Oscar for Best Actor. I like winner Jimmy Stewart, and he was good in The Philadelphia Story, but even he thought his good friend Fonda deserved the golden statuette.

Best Actress: Rosalind Russell, His Girl Friday
Honorable Mentions:
Bette Davis, The Letter * Margaret Sullavan, The Shop Around the Corner * Valerie Hobson, Contraband * Ingrid Bergman, June Night * Katharine Hepburn, The Philadelphia Story * Ginger Rogers, Kitty Foyle * Joan Fontaine, Rebecca

Best Actor: Henry Fonda, The Grapes of Wrath (pictured top)
Honorable Mentions:
Laurence Olivier, Rebecca * Conrad Veidt, Contraband * James Stewart, Shop Around the Corner & Philadelphia Story * Cary Grant, His Girl Friday & The Philadelphia Story * Edward G. Robinson, Brother Orchid

Supporting Actress: Judith Anderson, Rebecca

Supporting Actor: John Carradine, The Grapes of Wrath (pictured above)







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