1937

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Director: David Hand)
Nominees: Pépé le Moko, The Life of Emile Zola, You Only Live Once, Street Angel, Humanity and Paper Balloons, Make Way for Tomorrow, The Awful Truth, Captains Courageous, Vidyapati

Oscars pick: The Life of Emile Zola
Nominees: The Awful Truth, Captains Courageous, Dead End, The Good Earth, In Old Chicago, Lost Horizon, One Hundred Men and a Girl, Stage Door, A Star is Born 

Though a few folks see it as an Oscar blunder these days, I thoroughly enjoyed the Life of Emile Zola. Paul Muni gives one of his best performances playing the feisty Zola, who goes on a tireless crusade to defend the wrongly accused Alfred Dreyfus. It’s an idealized account, but still an edifying bio-drama. 

Better than Zola was Disney’s seminal feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Disney’s folly (as it was called by critics during its making) wound up changing the animation world. Proving that an animated full-length feature could be both commercially and artistically viable. Snow White doesn't feature the company’s best art, and our heroine isn’t a great feminist role model - wanting only to marry her Prince and cook for dwarfs (and to make sure the filthy gits wash their hands). In fact Snow -with her irritating baby-woman voice- and her Prince are the least interesting figures in the movie. The Dwarfs and the evil Queen are the personalities that drive the film. Nitpicks aside: The slight story still charms, the primitive art is frequently striking and the music is as wonderful as ever.

Of the other Oscar nominees: I enjoyed The Good Earth and Lost Horizon. Stage Door had a stellar cast playing its collection of struggling actresses -among them, Kate Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, and Eve Arden. I liked it, though parts didn’t click for me (it’s a little stagy and too impressed with its own quick banter, it’s overly melodramatic at times, and actress Andrea Leeds - who got an Oscar nom - was terrible).

My nominees included Captains Courageous with Spencer Tracy and his bad accent. Leo McCarey’s The Awful Truth, a romantic comedy that featured standout performances from Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. McCarey also pulled at the heartstrings with Make Way For Tomorrow. A film which anticipates Ozu’s Tokyo Story in its tale of an old couple having to stay with their children (who don’t really want them there).

The movie that came closest to unseating Disney's classic was  Pépé le Moko. This French production was a tense, romantic flick about a master criminal (Jean Gabin) hiding out in the Casbah in Algiers. It's an influential film, the proto-type for Noir, and an inspiration for a few elements in Casablanca.

Best Actor: Jean Gabin, Pépé le Moko 
Honorable Mentions: 

Henry Fonda, You Only Live Once * Cary Grant, The Awful Truth * Paul Muni, The Life of Emile Zola * Fredric March, A Star is Born * Victor Moore, Make Way for Tomorrow * Humphrey Bogart, Black Legion * Robert Montgomery, Night Must Fall * Ronald Colman, The Prisoner of Zenda

Best Actress: Irene Dunn, The Awful Truth
Honorable Mentions: 
Jean Arthur, Easy Living * Sylvia Sidney, You Only Live Once * Beulah Bondi, Make Way for Tomorrow * Katharine Hepburn & Ginger Rogers, Stage Door * Michiko Kuwano. What Did the Lady Forget? * Kenan Devi, Vidyapati * Barbara Stanwyck, Stella Dallas

Supporting Actress: Flora Robson, Fire Over England
Runners up: Xuan Zhou, Street Angel & May Whitty, Night Must Fall

Supporting Actor: Victor McLaglen, Wee Willie Winkie

Tough choice at Best Actress as the year features my favorite performances from Jean Arthur and Dunn.


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