1951

Diary of a Country Priest (Director: Robert Bresson)
Nominees: A Streetcar Named Desire, Strangers on a Train, A Place in the Sun, Ace in the Hole, Day the Earth Stood Still, Miss Julie, The Browning Version, Cry Danger

Oscars Pick: An American In Paris
Nominees: Decision Before Dawn, A Place in the Sun, Quo Vidas, A Streetcar Named Desire

Bresson's stripped down austere style doesn't always appeal to me. While the cinematography and blocking are impressive, I dislike the way he drains emotion from his actor's performances. It's like watching Vulcan's do Shakespeare. And yet, when he focused his camera on the saintly and the trials and cruelty they endure, as he does here and with Au Hassard Balthazar, he does create empathy and emotion, he does draw me in. Diary of a Country Priest. Which is about a sickly, depressed young Priest who is assigned to a Parish in a town full of dickweeds, is unrelentingly bleak and -as with most Bresson films- wordy. It also manages to be expressive and left its mark on my mind and soul.

It's my winner among a stable of rock-solid nominees -

There was Hitchcock's tense and chilling Strangers on a Train. Followed by the polarizing movie based on a true crime story, A Place in the Sun. Billy Wilder's harrowing Ace in the Hole, Alf Sjöberg's Miss Julie, and Robert Wise's sci-fi classic, Day the Earth Stood Still.

Neck and neck with Priest was Elia Kazan's A Streetcar Named Desire, which is an acting tour de force... though for my awards, I elected to go with other great lead performances (at Best Actor, it was a close race between 3, Brando, Redgrave and Walker).

Oscars pick is okay, but not the best Gene Kelly musical and far from the best film. I'm surprised they ignored The African Queen; it seems a film suited to them. I'm also surprised Streetcar, which got so much acting love form the Academy, was bypassed as Best Picture. Odds at the time had A Place in the Sun as the favorite. When Paris won, some critics charged that the fix was in, while others demanded a recount.

Best Actor: Robert Walker, Strangers on a Train
Honorable Mentions:

Marlon Brando, Streetcar * Michael Redgrave, The Browning Version * Kirk Douglas, Ace in the Hole * Alastair Sim, Scrooge * Montgomery Clift, A Place in the Sun * Trevor Howard & Robert Morley, Outcast of the Islands * Robert Ryan, On Dangerous Ground * Canada Lee, Cry the Beloved Country * Humphrey Bogart, The African Queen

Best Actress: Anita Björk, Miss Julie

Honorable Mentions:
Michèle Morgan, The Strange Madame X * Vivien Leigh, A Streetcar Named Desire * Patricia Neal, The Day the Earth Stood Still * Ida Lupino, On Dangerous Ground * Nargis, Awaara * Ulla Jacobsson, One Summer of Happiness * Maj-Britt Nilsson, Summer Interlude * Katharine Hepburn, The African Queen

Supporting Actor: Karl Malden, A Streetcar Named Desire

Supporting Actress: Kim Hunter, A Streetcar Named Desire

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1950

In a Lonely Place (Director: Nicholas Ray)
Nominees: Orpheus (Orphée), Sunset Boulevard, Rashomon, All About Eve, The Young and the Damned (Los Olivados), Winchester ‘73, Girl with Hyacinths, Les Enfants Terribles

Oscars pick: All About Eve
Nominees: Born Yesterday, Father of the Bride, King Solomon’s Mines, Sunset Boulevard

The 50s might be my favorite movie era; it was a decade that saw great directors like Kurosawa, Hitchcock, Kazan, and Bergman in full command of their craft. It was the decade that introduced us to Fellini, Marlon Brando, and Audrey Hepburn.  Westerns found a renewed vigor, sci-fi classics, and foreign masterpieces were plentiful. Movements included the birth of the French New Wave and American Method Acting.

While not everything is peaches and cream: I can't stand Born Yesterday, or Judy Holiday's adenoidal performance (which won an Oscar). And the popular Father of the Bride did little for me. Overall, the 50s opened with a bang! And dialogue was king. What quips... "I'm ready for my closeup Mr. DeMille." to "Fasten your seatbelts; it's going to be a bumpy night." and one from my Best Picture Winner.

There was Jean Cocteau's Orphee. A brooding poetic retelling of the myth of Orpheus set in modern Paris. The film provides some nice surrealistic imagery and ideas (walking through mirrors - the angels of death are leather-clad bikers, etc). In addition... Kurosawa had an international hit with Rashomon, Luis Buñuel gave realism a go (with a few Buñuelian flourishes) in his unflinching look at delinquency, The Young and the Damned (Los Olivados)  And Billy Wilder offered up the smartly biting Sunset Boulevard, which saw the return of screen siren Gloria Swanson in an Oscar-nominated role (and she should have won it). A late nominee was Girl with Hyacinths, it's my first Hasse Ekman film and what a stunner. Hyacinths is haunting, tragic and beautifully shot, with scenes draped in deep shadow.

Mr. Smith Goes Ballistic

We also got to see Jimmy Stewart's darker side in the western Winchester '73, and I enjoyed the Oscar-nominated King Solomon's Mines.

All About Eve? That was a great movie, and in a lesser year, I’d have picked it in a heartbeat. But in 1950 several flicks surpassed it, including Rashomon, Sunset Boulevard, and -for me- In a Lonely Place. Directed by Nicholas Ray, the movie is like a punch in the gut. And it must have hit me hard because Ray's film actually outshines 3 from my all time favorite directors (Kurosawa, Buñuel and Wilder)

I like love stories, but for some strange reason, I'm drawn to love unrealized, unrequited or heartbroken. A few of my favorites - Casablanca, even the light Roman Holiday do not close with its star crossed lovers together. And In A Lonely Place might be the most devastating of them all. In Casablanca and Roman Holiday there was a nobility in the sacrifice. In Lonely, the man -with a violent temper- is responsible for destroying his one chance at true happiness... and it shatters me every time I see it. This was some of Humphrey Bogart's best work. World-weary, cynical – his Dixon Steele discovers a little light and optimism when he falls in love with a good -though complex- woman, played by Gloria Grahame. Grahame is ever an actress I've liked - with her mix of vulnerability and confidence- and here, she is equal to Bogart - it's a great pairing.

Of the top pictures (and they are an amazing lot), nothing packs as much an emotional wallop as this one. It’s one of the most desperate, heartbreaking love stories I’ve ever seen, and it lays claim to one of cinemas great lines... "I was born when she kissed me, I died when she left me, I lived a few weeks while she loved me." 

It's also an indictment of the Hollywood star system, People are always apologizing for Dix, excusing his behavior as an artists temperament. He's special and needs to be cut some slack. That doesn’t mean the film advocates his behavior. It simply states a sad fact. People of privilege or talent are often forgiven their faults, no matter how ugly.

Note: For a better, wiser review of the film, see Imogen Sara Smith's Criterion Essay

Other movies I liked in 1950 (not mentioned above): Night and the City, Gun Crazy, The Asphalt Jungle, The Gunfighter, Cinderella, Rio Grande, Stage Fright

Best Actress: (tie) Gloria Swanson, Sunset Boulevard & Bette Davis, All About Eve
Honorable Mentions:
Nicole Stéphane, Les Enfants Terribles * Gloria Grahame, In a Lonely Place * Eleanor Parker, Caged * Joan Crawford, Harriet Craig * Eva Henning, Girl with Hyacinths * Claudette Colbert, Three Came Home * Ingrid Bergman, Stromboli

Best Actor: Humphrey Bogart, In a Lonely Place (pictured up top)
Honorable Mentions:
Toshirō Mifune, Rashomon, Scandal * William Holden, Sunset Blvd * José Ferrer, Cyrano de Bergerac * Sterling Hayden, The Asphalt Jungle * James Stewart, Winchester '73 and Harvey * Alec Guinness, Last Holiday * Dana Andrews, Where the Sidewalk Ends * Richard Widmark, Night and the City

Supporting Actors: George Sanders, All About Eve & Maria Casarès, Orpheus


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1949

The Third Man (Director: Carol Reed)
Nominees: Distant Journey, Stray Dog, White Heat, Late Spring, Bitter Rice, The Set-Up, Thieves’ Highway, Flame of My Love

Oscars pick: All the Kings Men
Nominees: Battleground, The Heiress, A Letter to Three Wives, 12 O’clock High

Finally, an easy pick... not that my other choices were bad. Among the best: The nightmarish, sometimes surreal holocaust picture, Distant Journey, and Kurosawa's Stray Dog, a sweat-soaked, gripping detective story wrapped around sociopolitical issues.

I don’t mind Oscar's pick, though its story of the rise and fall of a politician is sporting a few cobwebs these days.

But The Third Man, written by Graham Greene, is in a world of its own.  I'm a sucker for a good mystery, and this politically drenched tale is a gripping mystery (at first), but it's also a keen examination of moral bankruptcy with a wry sense of humor. Joseph Cotton is rock solid as the dogged Holly Martins - and while Orson Welles' part is small, it's iconic: From his first appearance in the shadows to the speech about cuckoo clocks – he makes an impression. The atmospheric direction features Reeds best work and hey, zither music!

I recently watched it again and was surprised at how fresh and contemporary it has remained. Like Citizen Kane or Casablanca, the film only gets richer, offering new revelations with each viewing. I loved it when I first saw it as a teenager, and while it didn’t seem possible, my admiration for it grew stronger after watching it 30 years later.

Roger Ebert described it perfectly, as being like the exhausted aftermath of Casablanca. Ahh, and what a brilliant double feature that would be.

Best Actor: Dennis Price, Kind Hearts and Coronets
Honorable Mentions:
Toshiro Mifune & Takashi Shimura, Quiet Duel & Stray Dog * James Cagney, White Heat * Joseph Cotten, The Third Man * John Wayne, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon * Alec Guinness, Kind Hearts & Coronets * Kirk Douglas, Champion * Sydney Greenstreet. Flamingo Road * Robert Ryan, The Set-Up * Chishū Ryū, Late Spring

Best Actress: Setsuko Hara, Late Spring
Honorable Mentions:
Kinuyo Tanaka, Flame of My Love * Judy Garland, In the Good Old Summertime * Linda Darnell, A Letter to Three Wives * Katharine Hepburn, Adam’s Rib * Marie Windsor, Hellfire * Joan Crawford, Flamingo Road * Olivia de Havilland, The Heiress * Susan Hayward, My Foolish Heart

Supporting Actress: Joan Greenwood, Kind Hearts and Coronets
Runner up: Ethel Waters, Pinky

Supporting Actor: Orson Welles, The Third Man

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1948

Bicycle Thieves (Director: Vittorio De Sica)
Nominees: The Red Shoes, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Red River, Portrait of Jennie, Spring in a Small Town, Johnny Belinda, Les Parents Terribles, Oliver Twist

Oscars pick: Hamlet
Nominees: The Red Shoes, Johnny Belinda, The Snake Pit, Treasure of the Sierra Madre

At first, I wasn't buying it. I remember the first time I sat through Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes –which tells the tale of a ballet dancer who is torn between the man she loves and her dream to become a prima ballerina. The first reel plays and the look is garish and the acting theatrical. John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre appeared secure in its place as the years best.

I loved Huston's tale of gold fever – the acting (Humphrey Bogart was so good) and complex character study - scene after memorable scene, filled with quotable dialog - all of it makes for a brilliant and entertaining yarn. But as Red Shoes unfolds, I find myself drawn in deeper and deeper. Yes, it was over the top, garish and melodramatic, but gloriously so. The colors were of a rich vibrancy I'd never experienced (No less than Martin Scorsese considers it the most beautiful color film of all time) I began to buy into the emotion and become completely immersed in the story. I was transported, awed by the surreal ballet sequences. And suddenly I was no longer so certain that Madre was the best picture of the year. In fact, the only thing I was sure of was that I'd just discovered something special.

And then entered a new player, an influential piece of Italian neorealism, DeSica's powerful Bicycle Thieves.  The complete opposite to the Red Shoes in every way imaginable – while the line between theater and reality was blurred in the Archer’s film, and fantasy embraced to the full - Bicycle was raw, cast with nonprofessional actors and as unflinchingly real as the dirt under its protagonist's fingernails*. It tells of a working-class man in post-war Rome, who searches for his stolen Bicycle, which he has to have in order the keep his much needed and hard won job. And while the setting and circumstances are specific to the age, it hasn’t lost its capacity to move.

The acting by these non-professionals was heartfelt and honest. I was especially impressed with 7-year-old Enzo Stailo, who played Antonio's son, Bruno. Who, according to Godfrey Cheshire in his Criterion essay, could be the key element in this feature. He writes... "Though it starts out focused closely on Antonio’s poverty and desperate need to recover his bicycle, by the latter sections what most concerns us is not what happens between Antonio and the bicycle or his social position but what transpires between the man and his son. Indeed, a second viewing of the film might suggest that this has been the main drama all along, that Bruno has been “looking after” Antonio in several senses that point us toward the film’s justly famous final moments, when a touching gesture of filial solidarity replaces the class solidarity that De Sica and (Screenwriter) Zavattini evidently saw as receding in Italy."

It's an embarrassment of riches, and I mean come on 1948, I love having these delights to watch (and those such as Howard Hawks unforgettable western, Red River, the romantic Portrait of Jennie (one of Bunuel's favorites), Lean's Oliver Twist, marked by Guy Green's stunning cinematography, or that classic tale of a love triangle set in post-war China, Fei Mu's restrained and delicate, Spring in a Small Town). But making me pick just one, that’s plain cruel.

As for Oscar's choice? Hamlet is a decent movie. Decent, but not within spitting distance of these giants.

Acting Note: Bogart and Huston gave incredible performances. Among their best ever. However, they have awards (and Bogart is due another for what I feel is his finest effort). If I was going to spread the wealth, I needed actors who were equally amazing, equally charismatic or -as in the case of my lead- with equal levels of psychological intensity. And I think I found 2 who fit the bill. Note: There several top-notch supporting performances in '48, but I wanted to give a shout out to Sydney Greenstreet and Agnes Moorehead in "The Woman in White", who's work in this film is not often spoken of

Best Actress: Yvonne de Bray, Les Parents Terribles
Honorable Mentions:
Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda * Siobhán McKenna, Daughter of Darkness * Wei Wei, Spring in a Small Town * Lizabeth Scott, Pitfall * Moira Shearer, The Red Shoes * Irene Dunn, I Remember Mama * Nargis, Aag * Joan Fontaine, A Letter from an Unknown Woman * Olivia de Havilland, The Snake Pit

Best Actor: Anton Walbrook, The Red Shoes
Honorable Mentions:
Humphrey Bogart & Walter Huston, Sierra Madre * Takashi Shimura & Toshirō Mifune, Drunken Angel * Lamberto Maggiorani & Enzo Staiola, Bicycle Thieves * Van Heflin & Robert Ryan, Act of Violence * Edward G. Robinson & Humphrey Bogart, Key Largo * Orson Welles, Macbeth * John Wayne, Red River

Supporting Actor: Thomas Gomez, Force of Evil

Supporting Actress: Claire Trevor, Key Largo








* Post script to Thieves: Saying that, it too is accomplished mise-en-scène filmmaking. De Sica described his directorial style as, "Transposing reality into the realm of poetry". Unlike other neorealists like Rosellini and early Visconte, De Sica coached his non-actors and didn't allow for improvisation. He also carefully staged and organized sequences, with multiple cameras and angles, so that they were not merely documentary-like in look and style. There is a strong directorial hand at work here.

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1947

Black Narcissus (Directed by Michael Powell)
Nominees: Out of the Past, Monsieur Verdoux, Odd Man Out, The Ball at the Anjo House, Daisy Kenyon, The Lady from Shanghai

Oscars pick: Gentlemen’s Agreement
Nominees: The Bishops Wife, Crossfire, Great Expectations, Miracle on 34th Street

Kazan's Gentlemen's Agreement is about a writer (Gregory Peck) who pretends to be a Jew in order to report on the prejudice he faces. While it was a significant picture in 1947, today it seems soft, it doesn't pack the punch it could have. Crossfire also addresses anti-Semitism, but it's wrapped around a murder investigation, and I liked it a bit more. I nominated Great Expectations in the year before, upon its British release and I think that's the best of Oscar's 5.

My nominations include Chaplin's controversial Monsieur Verdoux - controversial because the central character is a lady-killer. It’s a funny flick, and Martha Raye as one of Verdoux’s wives and intended victims is a hoot and a half (I love the scene in the boat). But of course, as often happens with Chaplin, the film stops being about Verdoux and becomes about Chaplin. And when he steps on his soapbox and blames society, eh, I wanted to puke. I hate when he goes down that self-aggrandizing path. And while it doesn't ruin the picture it does ruin his shot at winning the Felix.

Just behind Verdoux is Carol Reed's political thriller, Odd Man Out - It's Roman Polanski's favorite from Reed, he even prefers it to the Third Man. I don't agree, as it has a more theatric air to it than 3rd Man, but it's still a great one - a taut character study about an I.R.A operative on the lam. It stars James Mason in a breakthrough role.

In the end, it came down to two: Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus and Jacques Tourneur's film noir masterpiece, Out of the Past. As I've often done when things are this close, I had a little marathon… and came away from it none the wiser. Narcissus has the sheen of an art piece; it’s an erotically tinged, psychological story about Nuns who set up a hospital and school on a remote mountaintop in the Himalayas. The film is gorgeously shot by Jack Cardiff, and superbly acted, especially by Deborah Kerr. Who plays it reserved, but one can see the little cracks start to show.

Out of the Past is less art (though it is artistically photographed, by Nicholas Musuraca) and more steeped in rougher, B-movie roots. While not as elegant as Narcissus, it's just as amazing a picture. Robert Mitchum is at his coolest playing a guy who is trying to live a normal quiet life when his past comes back to haunt him. Loaded with tough guys (Kirk Douglas) and one of Noir's best femme fatales (Jane Greer), Out of the Past is worthy of the Felix. But when I try them both out in that top spot, Narcissus simply feels like the better fit, the better film. 

For the second year in a row, I had an impossible choice, and it gets no easier on me next time as I have 4 bona fide classics to choose from, with yet another Powell and Pressburger movie in the middle of it.

Other movies I liked from 1947 (Not mentioned above): Nightmare Alley, Angel and the Badman, Kiss of Death, Body and Soul

Best Actor: Robert Mitchum, Out of the Past
Honorable Mentions:
Richard Attenborough, Brighton Rock * Pierre Fresnay, Monsieur Vincent * Ronald Colman, A Double Life * James Mason, Odd Man Out * Tyrone Power, Nightmare Alley * Charlie Chaplin, Monsieur Verdoux * Michel Simon, Panic * Sydney Greenstreet, That Way with Women * Charles Ruggles, It Happened on Fifth Avenue

Best Actress: Deborah Kerr, Black Narcissus (pictured up top)
Honorable Mentions:
Jane Greer, Out of the Past * Setsuko Hara, The Ball at the Anjo House * Joan Crawford, Possessed & Daisy Kenyon * Ann Sheridan, Nora Prentiss * Carol Marsh, Brighton Rock * Rita Hayworth, The Lady from Shanghai * Susan Hayward, Smash Up

Supporting Actor: Richard Widmark, Kiss of Death

Supporting Actress: Kathleen Byron, Black Narcissus (pictured above)

Note: I'm seeing conflicting release dates for Brighton Rock. IMDB says it premiered Jan 8th 1948, whereas Tomatoes puts it Nov 7th, 1947, while another source has it Dec 12 '47. Since it doesn't affect the winner either way, I'll nominate Attenborough & Marsh here.

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1946

The Best Years of Our Lives (Director: William Wyler)
Nominees: Notorious, A Matter of Life and Death, Great Expectations, Beauty and the Beast, Under the Bridges, It's a Wonderful Life, My Darling Clementine, Shoeshine, Pastoral Symphony, The Killers, The Big Sleep

Oscars pick: The Best Years of Our Lives
Nominees: Henry V, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Razors Edge, The Yearling

Oscar didn't get it wrong in 1946. William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives is deserving of every accolade. The film –about soldiers returning home from war- is poignant and wise, and while some films of this ilk become dated, "Years" remains powerful and relevant, even with its tidy ending (which by no means indicates it’ll be a tidy life from here on out). At the time, Billy Wilder called it the best directed movie he'd ever seen.

William Wyler was shooting for authenticity with this picture -- he had his principal actors purchase their own clothes, and he filmed in life-sized sets. He wanted the movie to play out in a realistic, naturalized way. Cinematographer Gregg Toland, with his deep focus techniques, and Oscar-winning editor Daniel Mandell, aid in this endeavor. As do the performances - lead by Dana Andrews, Myrna Loy, Fredric March and real life war vet, Harold Russell.

I see a few bloggers and the like will place the Christmas perennial It's A Wonderful Life in their top spot. And while it’s a goodie, I seem to be allergic to overreaching sentimentality and corn (my hang-up with Chaplin). It's A Wonderful Life has its dark edges, true - but that sticky Capra-Corn is had in heaping mouthfuls (and I mean, come on: So if George Bailey had never been born, the women in his life would have become prostitutes or librarian spinsters?)

I believe "Years" holds up better than "Wonderful" but is it the overall best? Its stiffest competition comes from Hitchcock's masterfully directed, wartime romance, Notorious, Powell and Pressburger’s ethereal A Matter of Life and Death, in which a pilot goes to Heavenly court to plead for his life. Jean Cocteau's surreal and soulful (as Tomatoes put it) Beauty and the Beast, Helmut Käutner's Under the Bridges and David Lean's fantastic adaptation of Charles Dickens Great Expectations - a UK production that won't be considered by the Academy until next year, as it didn't play in L.A. until June of 47.

Not only that but the year offered up gems like Howard Hawk's The Big Sleep, John Ford's My Darling Clementine, an adaptation of Ernest Hemmingway's The Killers, and the Postman Always Rings Twice with Lana Turner and John Garfield.

Difficult decision here but If I twist my own arm and force myself, it comes down to two: Notorious and The Best Years of Our Lives. And while I’m a Hitchcock man and find Notorious a nearly flawless production, I see no reason to kick Oscar simply for the sake of being contrary. Best Years of Our Lives is a brilliant motion picture (Roger Ebert called it "Modern, lean and honest." when he named it one of the all-time great movies in 2007).

Acting? I like all my winning and nominated performers, and I had a tight race at supporting actor - some real treats here... Claude Rains in Notorious, Lionel Barrymore in It's A Wonderful Life, Robert Livesey & Marius Goring in A Matter of Life and Death. In addition, I decided to give one of my rare, special Felix's to the stellar cast of The Best Years of Our Lives. Not only because they were taking up all the slots on my list of nominees, but because they deserved some kind of awards recognition.

Best Actor: James Stewart, It's a Wonderful Life
Honorable Mentions:
Pierre Blanchar, Pastoral Symphony * Humphrey Bogart, The Big Sleep * Alastair Sim, Green for Danger * Cary Grant, Notorious * James Baskett, Song of the South * Franco Interlenghi & Rinaldo Smordoni, Shoeshine * Sydney Greenstreet & Peter Lorre, Three Strangers & The Verdict

Best Actress: Ingrid Bergman, Notorious
Honorable Mentions:
Michèle Morgan, Pastoral Symphony * Olivia de Havilland, The Dark Mirror & To Each His Own * Donna Reed, It’s a Wonderful Life * Rita Hayworth, Gilda * Setsuko Hara, No Regrets for Our Youth * Joan Crawford, Humoresque * Lauren Bacall, the Big Sleep

Supporting Actor: Henry Travers, It's a Wonderful Life

Supporting Actress: Jean Simmons, Great Expectations

Special Award - Best Ensemble: Best Years of Our Lives
Dana Andrews, Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Harold Russell, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Cathy O'Donnell, Hoagy Carmichael, etc








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1945

Children of Paradise (Director: Marcel Carné)
Nominees: Scarlet Street, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Rome, Open City, Brief Encounter, Red Meadows, Leave Her to Heaven

Oscars pick: The Lost Weekend
Nominees: Anchors Aweigh, The Bells of Saint Mary, Mildred Pierce, Spellbound

While it's showing its age, Billy Wilder's Lost Weekend was an important picture about alcoholism, and for the time, a solid choice by Oscar. However, aside from it and Mildred Pierce, I felt the Academy’s remaining nominations were a bit weakish. I prefer Rossellini’s neorealistic Open City (co-scripted by Fellini), David Lean's Brief Encounter, and Fritz Lang's second feature with the trio of Robinson, Bennett and Duryea, Scarlet Street. In which an older, rather pathetic Edward G. Robinson goes ga ga over trashy young Joan Bennett.

I would have chosen the Lang film, if not for the poetic genius of Children of Paradise, which many consider the greatest French film of all time. Carné’s masterpiece is set in the theatrical world, and thus an artificial air hangs over the entire production. With truth and illusion bleeding into both the onstage and offstage goings on. Despite its dreamy charms, there is something real in it. An honesty – as Terry Gilliam notes in his DVD introduction- that you don’t find in U.S. studio productions. As poetic as it is, Paradise doesn’t ring false, it’s not the gritty realism of a later French film like the 400 Blows, but it comes off just as authentic.

The story concerns a woman who draws the attention of several men, causing the ruination of a couple of them. The characters are based on real people. In fact, the real-life thief and killer in this film was the inspiration for Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov in Crimes and Punishment. The picture has a kind of melancholy magic to it, especially in the scenes with the pantomime (which I liked best). It runs about 3 hours, with the first half brighter and moving at a quicker pace - the second half, set several years later, has a darker, more leisurely style.

Watching them back to back, Scarlet Street is still something special, but Paradise is in another stratosphere. To select anything else would be akin to taking "How Green Is My Valley" over "Citizen Kane".

Best Actress: Gene Tierney, Leave Her To Heaven
Honorable Mentions:
Celia Johnson, Brief Encounter * Joan Bennett, Scarlet Street * Arletty, Children of Paradise * Maria Casarès, Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne * Peggy Anne Garner, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn * Joan Crawford, Mildred Pierce * Judy Garland, the Clock * Wendy Hiller, I Know Where I'm Going * Greer Garson, The Valley of Decision

Best Actor: Jean-Louis Barrault, Children of Paradise

Honorable Mentions:

Ray Milland, The Lost Weekend * Edward G. Robinson. Scarlet Street * Pierre Brasseur, Children of Paradise * Aldo Fabrizi, Rome, Open City * Trevor Howard, Brief Encounter * Boris Karloff & Henry Daniell, The Body Snatcher * Dick Powell, Cornered * Robert Livesey, I Know Where I'm Going

Supporting Actor: Michael Redgrave, Dead of Night

Supporting Actress: Anna Magnani, Rome: Open City
also liked Angela Lansbury in the Picture of Dorian Gray and María Casarès in Children of Paradise

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1944

Henry V (Director: Laurence Olivier)
Nominees: The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, Woman in the Window, Laura, Jane Eyre, Murder, My Sweet, Gaslight, Lifeboat

Oscars pick: Going My Way
Nominees: Double Indemnity, Gaslight, Since You Went Away, Wilson

I don’t do schmaltz, and the warmly received Oscar winner Going My Way with Bing Crosby was pure, unfiltered schmaltz. I do however dig Noir, and Noir hit Hollywood in a big way this year. These pictures –cynical, drenched in shadow, and often featuring voice-over narration- are about murder and mystery, and feature quick-talking guys who lose their heads over a captivating femme fatale. Film noir wasn't new but it was hot stuff in ’44.

There was Billy Wilder's dark sardonic Double Indemnity with Fred MacMurray as insurance salesman Walter Neff who falls for icy Barbara Stanwyck. Fritz Lang offered up Woman in the Window, with its nail-biting plot that breaks like a cold sweat. It stars Edward G. Robinson as the older man who takes a shine for a younger Joan Bennett, which gets him tangled up in murder. Otto Preminger's Laura, where sweet Gene Tierney bewitches Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, and Vincent Price, in a tale of jealousy and obsession. And Murder, My Sweet saw crooner Dick Powell changing his image playing Philip Marlowe.

But the movies I liked best went for laughs and drama over murder.

The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek was Preston Sturges’ hilarious poke in the eye to the Hays office. With Miracle, he demolishes the censorship code, while keeping to it. It’s beautifully subversive and marked by madcap screwball antics as well as Preston’s sharp tongue and rapier wit. The film I rank slightly above it is Henry V.

Cinema's first great Shakespearean adaptation, was also jingoistic war propaganda, meant to rally English spirits during turbulent times. Though there's irony in the fact that Henry V casts Britain as an invading force – the dialog and performances, the music and camerawork (in particular the tracking shot that follows French horsemen riding into battle). The bright technicolor, and the sets and painted landscapes that were inspired by - and sometimes directly mimicked art from the Book of Hours - is so dazzling, so brilliantly realized that I willingly, and happily, went along with it... Even if there were times when I'd bristle at its romanticism (the French seem so delighted with their conqueror at the end), I appreciate that we are at least shown the human cost in scenes where we see bodies strewn across the battlefield.

In addition, I like the framing device Olivier employs which gives us a movie within a play. And though he takes liberties with the source material (not a big deal for me), I like that Laurence remembers the humor in Shakespeare; remembers that he was not a dry, deadly serious storyteller. Including these broad brushstrokes keeps things lively, especially in those scenes set within the confines of the Globe Theatre.

Acting: I know these are odd, non-traditional picks, but honestly I'm not overly fond of Double Indemnity (it's alright), and the leads didn't generate any heat between themselves to my eyes. Stanwyck was rather flat a femme fatale. Whereas Raines was a knock-out in Phantom Lady. Cherkasov? I find the performance, and those darting, bird-like movements of his, weirdly intoxicating.

Best Actor: Nikolai Cherkasov, Ivan the Terrible, Part I
Honorable Mentions:
Laurence Olivier, Henry V * Charles Boyer, Gaslight * Edward G. Robinson, The Woman in the Window * Dick Powell, Murder, My Sweet * Hans Albers, Great Freedom No. 7 * Laird Cregar, The Lodger * Clifton Webb, Laura

Best Actress: Ella Raines, Phantom Lady (also, Hail the Conquering Hero)
Honorable Mentions: Tallulah Bankhead, Lifeboat * Judy Garland, Meet Me in St. Louis * Betty Hutton, Miracle of Morgan’s Creek * Joan Bennett, Woman in the Window * Ingrid Bergman, Gaslight * Lauren Bacall, To Have and Have Not * Ann Carter, Curse of the Cat People * Ilse Werner, Great Freedom No. 7

Supporting Actor: Edward G. Robinson, Double Indemnity

Supporting Actress: Diana Lynn, The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek







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1943

The Ox-Bow Incident (Director: William A. Wellman)
Nominees: Day of Wrath, Shadow of a Doubt, Ossesione, The More the Merrier, Cabin in the Sky

Oscars pick: Casablanca
Nominees: For Whom the Bell Tolls, Heaven Can Wait, The Human Comedy, In Which We Serve, Madame Curie, The More the Merrier, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Song of Bernadette, Watch on the Rhine

Denied Casablanca, I struggled to find a suitable replacement. I considered Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. Featuring Joseph Cotton in a chilling, Oscar-worthy performance. Cotton himself was enough to get it a nomination... but other elements didn't work as well, even when allowing for the "Our Town" vibe of it. The romance with the cop --- heck, the cop, in general, didn't jibe. A minor quibble but enough to relegate the film to runner-up status. George Steven's wartime comedy/romance The More the Merrier, is another good one. But again, I just can’t see it as my Best Picture.

The top candidates I weighed in with were Luchino Visconti’s Ossesione – a rather Neo-realistic adaptation of the "Postman Always Rings Twice".  And Carl Theodor Dreyer's stunning Day of Wrath. (Edit: Watched the musical Cabin in the Sky on Oct 2018 and added it to my nominees. Some of it hasn't aged well, but the performances, from its all-black cast, are out of this world).

Wrath is a piece that explores forbidden love, repression, and paranoia, all wrapped around the matter of faith. I have to believe when Ingmar Bergman made the Seventh Seal, he had to have been inspired in some way by Dreyer. The camera work and deep, shadowy black and white cinematography bring to mind Bergman's work in the 50s. The story is a slow brewing one, and its psychological and sociological explorations left an indelible impression. I went back and forth between it and the Ox-Bow Incident, watched both again, and I feel they are each are worthy of the top prize. Ultimately I elected to go with the Wellman film.

Ox-Bow Incident is one of the saddest westerns I've ever seen. The movie has its humor, especially the opening scene where things are light-hearted and funny, but as it steamrolls towards its tragic end, it gets darker and more terrible. This stinging indictment against mob rule features an all-star cast, including Henry Fonda, Harry Morgan, and Anthony Quinn. Also, fans of the TV comedy, Mystery Science Theater 3000 might be interested in seeing Mary Beth Hughes (I Accuse My Parents, Last of the Wild Horses) in a small part.

Note: A few years after publishing this post, IMDB changed their date of release to Dec 4th 1942 (in St. Louis, Missouri) but they do not cite their source, or the circumstances or length of the showing (was it a day, a week? Was it a test screening?) Harry Morgan once spoke of the lukewarm response at a premiere viewing for industry insiders, was this in reference to the Dec 4th showing? The film was shelved for several months, before being shown in New York on May 8th, 1943. It was released to the rest of the U.S. on the 21st. I'm sticking with 1943 as that's when it played wide.

Best Actor: Joseph Cotten, Shadow of a Doubt
Honorable Mentions:
Victor Sjöström, Ordet * Roger Livesey, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp * Henry Fonda, The Ox-Bow Incident * Joel McCrea, The More the Merrier * Charles Laughton, This Land is Mine * Pierre Fresnay, Le corbeau & La main du diable * Orson Welles, Jane Eyre

Best Actress: Lisbeth Movin, Day of Wrath
Honorable Mentions:
Jean Arthur, The More the Merrier * Ida Lupino, The Hard Way * Ethel Waters, Cabin in the Sky * Joan Fontaine & Alexis Smith, The Constant Nymph * Ginette Leclerc, Le corbeau * Teresa Wright, Shadow of a Doubt

Supporting Actress: Jean Brooks, The Seventh Victim

Supporting Actor: Dana Andrews, The Ox-Bow Incident

I also liked Sydney Greenstreet in "Background to Danger"

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1942

Casablanca (Director: Michael Curtiz)
Nominees: Sullivan's Travels, Magnificent Ambersons, To Be or Not to Be, This Gun For Hire, Cat People, Talk of the Town, Bambi, The Glass Key

Oscars pick: Mrs. Miniver
Nominees: 49th Parallel, Kings Row, Magnificent Ambersons, The Pied Piper, The Pride of the Yankees, Random Harvest, Talk of the Town, Wake Island, Yankee Doodle Dandy

Okay, here’s where it gets weird. As mentioned The Oscars go by Hollywood rules, a Best Picture nominee has to play in Los Angeles for a week to be eligible. The Felix's go by international rules: If you had a substantial run somewhere in the world, you’re eligible. Because of this, there will be a few oddballs. And here’s a biggie.

Casablanca had showings (primarily) in NY in Nov 1942 and ran for 10 weeks, but didn't get to L.A. until it was reissued later in 1943. That’s why you'll see Casablanca on critic's top 10 lists for 1942, though it was not acknowledged by the Academy until 43.  I'm sticking with its official release date of 1942.

So here we go. Even in acknowledging its plot holes, Casablanca was so clearly the best movie of the year, as well as one of the best of any year - though believe it or not, its win was seen as a bit of an Oscar upset over the dry Watch on the Rhine in 1943. Regardless, whether you put it in 1942 or 1943, no movie from either year offered the sublime craftsmanship of Casablanca.

Casablanca was a film that so captivated my 8 or 10-year-old mind (I was somewhere in that age bracket when I happened upon it) that instead of going out to play with my siblings and the neighborhood children, I stayed with the picture. It was a tough choice, those kids looked like they were having a blast - but I couldn’t tear myself away from this story, and that cool Bogart and that captivating Ingrid Bergman. I remember my parents and grandparents coming home and finding me watching TV (this was a day and age before computers and video games), “What in the world are you doing indoors?” my father asked, a bit amused that his son was watching some old black and white movie that was probably over his head -- But not so much. I got it and was enthralled by the melodrama, the wartime intrigue and the dialog that bubbled with wit, irony, and heartache. When an old flame walks back into Ric's life, the rush of longing, hurt and anger was palpable. It haunted me, and I point to that moment as the day I fell in love with motion pictures. Not simply as entertainment, but as an art form. 

Among my nominees: Magnificent Ambersons. Orson Welles’ follow up to Citizen Kane lost back-story and richer characterizations due to a studio mandated butchering, done while Welles was overseas. They even filmed and added that extra happier scene at the end while his back was turned. Despite this asshattery, Ambersons still manages to be magnificent.

Ernst Lubitsch's controversial political comedy To Be or Not to Be. Which is about a troop of actors who foil a Nazi plot. It’s an odd mix of the serious and the silly and it really comes to life whenever Jack Benny and Carol Lombard are on screen.

Aside from those two I also nominated the moody Cat People, as well as Ladd and Lake's first pairing in the noir hit This Gun For Hire, Disney's Bambi, and Talk of the Town, which starred Cary Grant.

The Academy's best picture winner, Mrs. Miniver is a good, though dated propaganda film. I wonder how she would have fared against Casablanca during the awards?

Note: Sullivan's Travels was first screened exclusively for critics in 1941 and later had a showing in Jackson, TN on Dec 29, but wasn't given a wide release until Feb 1942 in Canada and the U.S. (it had a limited run in Jan), which is why I consider it a 1942 release. Veronica Lake's smart and likable performance in this film is one that is oft praised, but nobody (who does this thing we do) can quite bring themselves to take her. It's a tight race, but Veronica had a hell of a year. In addition to Sullivan's she teamed with Alan Ladd in twin noirs, This Gun For Hire and The Glass Key, and starred in the romantic comedy I Married a Witch. Yohana Desta, writing for Vanity Fair, called her performance in this picture, "Buoyant and effortless, with a deft ability to add just the right punctuation to all her punchlines.". I agree and have no qualms about giving her the Felix.

Best Actress: Veronica Lake, Sullivan’s Travels & I Married a Witch (also This Gun For Hire, The Glass Key)
Honorable Mentions: 

Ingrid Bergman, Casablanca * Carole Lombard, To Be or Not to Be * Ginger Rogers, The Major and the Minor * Simone Simon, Cat People * Ida Lupino, Moontide * Michèle Morgan, Joan of Paris * Ilse Werner, We Make Music * Greer Garson, Mrs. Miniver

Best Actor: Humphrey Bogart, Casablanca (pictured on top)
Honorable Mentions:
Monty Woolley, The Pied Piper & The Man Who Came to Dinner * James Cagney, Yankee Doodle Dandy * Joel McCrea, Sullivan's Travels * Jean Gabin, Moontide * Ronald Colman, Random Harvest * Ichirô Sugai, Mother Never Dies

Supporting Actor: Claude Rains, Casablanca (pictured above) also Moontide, Kings Row, and Now Voyager (he had a great year)

Supporting Actress: Agnes Moorehead, The Magnificent Ambersons

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1941

Citizen Kane (Director: Orson Welles)
Nominees: The Lady Eve, The Maltese Falcon, Ball of Fire, Blind Venus, The Devil and Daniel Webster, Little Foxes

Oscars pick: How Green Was My Valley
Nominees: Blossoms in the Dust, Citizen Kane, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Hold Back the Dawn, The Little Foxes, the Maltese Falcon, One Foot in Heaven, Sergeant York, Suspicion  

Are you kidding me? This is a no brainer. How Green Was My Valley is a fine film, but fine vs. timeless all world classic one of a kind masterpiece? I wouldn't even rank the overly maudlin "How Green" as one of John Ford's top 5 or 7 movies, and its win is an example of Oscar politics. Since he lost for the ‘much superior’ Grapes of Wrath last year, they gave it to the lesser film the following ceremony. Again, not a bad film, but not as good a film as John Huston's Maltese Falcon, or Preston Sturges' delightful The Lady Eve, or even Howard Hawk's snappy Ball of Fire.

And none of them -no matter how wonderful they are- can hold a candle to the colossus that is Citizen Kane – not only for its breadth of technical achievement but for the wise and resonating human story that is as poignant and perceptive today as it was 70 years ago.

Citizen Kane. Nuff said!

Acting! Bette Davis was killer in Little Foxes, it's one of my favorite performances from the actress. But Stanwyck owned 1941 with a pair of delightful comedic femme fatale roles. And while Bogart is incredible in Falcon - with that amused, confident smile - I prefer Welles as my lead actor, simply because I think he's asked to do more. He ages from 25 to 70; which he convincingly conveys both physicality and emotionally. We see him arrogant, tender, playful, cruel, and regretful.

Supporting is where it gets interesting. I had some difficulty finding a lone, standout actress. And there was a crowded field at actor, with Arnold & Huston in The Devil and Daniel Webster, Lorre & Greenstreet in the Maltese Falcon. And the troubling Van Helfin in Johnny Eager. Troubling? Oh, it's stellar work from the actor, but where do you place him? Oscar gave him the award in '42. But a few sources (IMDB) say it had a premiere in L.A. in Dec '41 (if true it must have been that single showing, and didn't include the minimum weeks run. Which would have made it eligible in '41 instead of '42).

Regardless, Lorre and Huston have their Felix's. So I'll go with the magnetic Greenstreet, making his film debut at age 62. He's a real character among characters.

Best Actress: Barbara Stanwyck, Lady Eve (also Ball of Fire & Meet John Doe)
Honorable Mentions: Carole Lombard, Mr. & Mrs. Smith * Jean Arthur, the Devil and Miss Jones * Betty Field, The Shepherd of the Hills * Viviane Romance, Blind Venus * Bette Davis, Little Foxes * Ida Lupino, Ladies in Retirement

Supporting Actress: Patricia Collinge, Little Foxes

Best Actor: Orson Welles, Citizen Kane (pictured top)
Honorable Mentions: Humphrey Bogart, The Maltese Falcon, High Sierra * Edward G. Robinson, The Sea Wolf * Charles Coburn, The Devil and Miss Jones * Henry Fonda, The Lady Eve * John Wayne & Harry Carey, The Shepherd of the Hills * Cary Grant, Suspicion * Peter Lorre, The Face Behind the Mask

Supporting Actor: Sydney Greenstreet, The Maltese Falcon (pictured left)


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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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