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.
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
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
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Supporting Actor: Dana Andrews, The Ox-Bow Incident
