World War II broke out this year so you see a theme in most of the films. We have 4 movies dealing with the war, 1 about WWI, 2 patriotic films, what's more American than baseball? and then...3 movies I really didn't care for. Mrs. Miniver wins Best Picture which makes sense, it's about a family dealing with the onslaught of war. It's not one of the most well remembered Best Picture winners but it's a fine addition to the list. My top 2 have held up better and would be worthy winners but Miniver, just makes sense I guess. That's how I feel about every category this year. There's nothing really exciting, nothing that would make my top 10, but everything just makes sense.
You can see my GABBY winners and nominees HERE
BEST PICTURE
10. The Magnificent Ambersons - Ok, Citizen Kane is a masterpiece. This is not. You can tell me all you want that Orson Welles lost control of the editing and this is not the version he wanted released, but the problem with the movie for me lies in the story. I don't think this is a story worth filming. A bunch of rich people complain about their rich people problems and their decline in wealth has to do with the automobile being invented. Who cares? The movie looks great, the cinematography and costumes and art direction are on a higher level than any other movie of the time but this movie just bored me to tears. There's no way this movie should win, if Citizen Kane doesn't win the Oscar then this winning would make the Oscars meaningless. It's like if they didn't give the Oscar to Annie Hall and then gave a consolation prize to The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion.
You can see my GABBY winners and nominees HERE
BEST PICTURE
10. The Magnificent Ambersons - Ok, Citizen Kane is a masterpiece. This is not. You can tell me all you want that Orson Welles lost control of the editing and this is not the version he wanted released, but the problem with the movie for me lies in the story. I don't think this is a story worth filming. A bunch of rich people complain about their rich people problems and their decline in wealth has to do with the automobile being invented. Who cares? The movie looks great, the cinematography and costumes and art direction are on a higher level than any other movie of the time but this movie just bored me to tears. There's no way this movie should win, if Citizen Kane doesn't win the Oscar then this winning would make the Oscars meaningless. It's like if they didn't give the Oscar to Annie Hall and then gave a consolation prize to The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion.
9. Kings Row - This is a movie I have seen multiple times and then keep forgetting that I have seen. Every few years I come across it on cable and think, "I've never seen that". Then I watch it and go, "Oh that's right, I've seen this before, I don't like this movie". It's very melodramatic and slowly paced. It's kind of a soap opera plot where a bunch of characters are going about their lives in a town and I guess the main conflict happens when a doctor amputates Ronald Reagan's legs even though he didn't have to. Reagan is depressed at first and his friend doesn't know whether or not he should tell him that the doctor was in the wrong. He eventually does and then Reagan is happy. I really didn't care for it but I can see why people at the time enjoyed it. It's a romantic drama with a happy ending.
8. The Talk Of The Town - I liked this film but was let down by it, probably due to high expectations. This has Cary Grant, Jean Arthur and Ronald Colman, it was directed by George Stevens, it got nominated for Best Picture and somehow I didn't love it. It's a perfectly fine movie, Grant is accused of burning down a mill, he hides out at Arthur's house and meets Colman who is a reporter. Colman investigates the fire and exonerates Grant. I liked it but not sure why it showed up in the top 10, there were certainly better comedies this year. To Be Or Not To Be and Sullivan's Travels leap out as alternatives.
7. Wake Island - This is my 4th favorite Oscar nominated film of the year dealing with WWII. It's a really well made film but for me it is missing a human element. The battle scenes are fantastically filmed, I'm constantly surprised by some of these early war movies of how authentic they look. The reason this movie didn't stick with me as much as, say, Battleground or Sands Of Iwo Jima is because I really didn't feel for the characters. I mean, yes it is sad when they die and if I was seeing this in 1942 it would probably make me want to run to the nearest recruitment post but they're all really just cannon fodder. The movie is also kind of set up where you know they're all going to die and each one gets his own little thing that makes him sympathetic.
5. 49th Parallel - This is a good film but it is a straight up propaganda film. There's a Nazi U-boat off the coast of Canada and several of the men go to land to fetch supplies. While there, the boat is bombed and destroyed so now there's a bunch of Nazis in Canada and they're making their way to the U.S. which was neutral at this point. So now there's Nazis at our border, they're murdering a bunch of people, trying to spread their propaganda, what are we going to do? If you take all the propaganda out of it, it's a really good film, but it's hard to separate the art from the intent. It's like watching Reefer Madness as a real movie and not just a film designed to scare people off pot.
4. Random Harvest - This is a really interesting movie because it didn't go where I thought it was going to go and I loved where it went. Ronald Colman is an amnesiac after WWI. He's in an institution and one day he wanders off and meets Greer Garson. They fall in love, get married, have a son and then he gets hit by a car and regains his memories but forgets everything about his life with Garson. He goes back to his pre-war life and Garson takes a job as his secretary, hoping that he will one day remember her, all the while he is romancing someone else. I thought we were going to get a movie about something in this guy's past that he can't remember affects his present life but instead we got a bizarre love triangle involving a guy not knowing he's living two lives.
3. Mrs. Miniver - This is one of the least well known Best Picture winners. It's just kinda sitting there right next to Casablanca and not getting any love. It's not a bad film but it is kinda weak as a winner. It's just about this British family living their lives, there's a yearly flower competition, the son's in love with a girl whose parents don't approve, the whole family lives happily and then World War II breaks out. At first they still try to go about their lives, except now they're reading the kids bedtime stories in a bunker. Still, they have the flower competition and talk about issues but then the war hits them close. The son goes off to war, their neighbors are getting killed and it's a really great look at life during the time. It's all the more interesting because it was made at the time, like if a movie about life after 9/11 came out in October 2001.
2. Yankee Doodle Dandy - With all these war movies we get some nice escapism with a musical biopic of George M. Cohan. James Cagney is on fire here winning the audience over with his charm and his impressive dance skills. It's mostly just a standard biopic but it's also a musical and it's just fun. I never thought of it as a patriotic movie before but watching it in the midst of movies like Mrs. Miniver and Wake Island, I think this was the perfect movie for the people at the time. It celebrates the American dream, a guy starts out in Vaudeville with his family and becomes a success.
1. The Pride Of The Yankees - I love a movie about baseball but I don't think that is a prerequisite to enjoy this film. It starts with Lou Gehrig starting out his baseball career, the team makes fun of him because he's a bit of a rube, then he meets a lady, they fall in love, he becomes a baseball icon and then...bam! the guy falls over in the locker room and the movie drastically changes tones. The second half of the movie is about a man dealing with a life threatening illness and leaving behind the sport he loved so much.
Mrs. Miniver seems like the right choice for the time. It's about the war but more than that it's about the human side of the war. The normal everyday people affected by it on a daily basis. I'm voting for The Pride Of The Yankees because it's my favorite of the nominated films and I think it has stood the test of time. I was never around when Gehrig played ball but the movie makes me feel like I was and honors the man who wasn't anything extraordinary, he was just a hard worker who had his life pay off, until he got hit with some bad breaks.
Oscar Winner: Mrs. Miniver
My Vote: The Pride Of The Yankees
GABBY Winner: Road To Morocco
BEST ACTOR
5. Walter Pidgeon - Mrs. Miniver - Mrs. Miniver is a really good movie about a family thrust into World War II and Walter Pidgeon...is in it too. He doesn't really do much in the film. He's the patriarch of the family and is appropriately stoic but the role doesn't really require much of him.
4. Monty Woolley - The Pied Piper - I love Monty Woolley, he was a great character actor who specialized in curmudgeonly old coots. In this movie he smuggles children across a Nazi occupied border. He doesn't care much for children and more children keep joining his pack. It's a really good performance that would rank much higher in a weaker year. He was also great in The Man Who Came To Dinner this year so that earns him points.
3. Ronald Colman - Random Harvest - Colman plays a WWI veteran with amnesia. He then regains his memories but forgets everything that happened to him while he had amnesia. During that time he got married and had a kid. It's a nice performance where he gets to play 2 characters, the life he had before and after the war. Colman will go on to win in a few years but I actually like this performance more than the one he won for.
2. Gary Cooper - The Pride Of The Yankees - Cooper won last year so I can't vote for him this year but this is the performance that I most respect him for. I never cared for Cooper as an actor. He was always himself but he was not that charismatic. Cooper plays Lou Gehrig, the Yankees ballplayer who held the record for most consecutive games played and then got diagnosed with ALS, popularized as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Cooper's "aww-shucks" mannerisms really work for the character. He's just kind of a country bumpkin who can hit a baseball well and has a workhorse attitude towards being a ballplayer, then he gets diagnosed and is living with the disease. His final speech to his fans is hard to watch without getting a lump in your throat.
1. James Cagney - Yankee Doodle Dandy - Cagney plays George M. Cohan in a musical biopic of his life. He's really great in the film but I find it hard to believe that this was the performance he won for. Look at his filmography, Angels With Dirty Faces, White Heat, The Public Enemy, the guy was a gangster actor and he won for a role that Gene Kelly could have played. Still, the guy deserved an Oscar and this was his best chance to win one so I gotta give him my vote.
If Gary Cooper didn't win in 1941 he would be my vote here based on performance alone. Cagney deserved a win for many performances at this point so he's my vote here. Cagney also gives a great performance that was completely different for the roles he was known for. This guy is the quintessential gangster and here he is singing and dancing, and he's terrific. This way Cagney has an Oscar, Cooper has an Oscar, Colman has an Oscar, it would be nice if Monty Woolley had one but not everything can be perfect.
Oscar Winner: James Cagney
My Vote: James Cagney
GABBY Winner: Gary Cooper
Cagney won a GABBY in 1938 that's why I went with Cooper this year.
BEST ACTRESS
5. Bette Davis - Now, Voyager - Bette Davis is only my number 5 this year because she already won twice. Based on performance alone, if everything was equal, she would run away with this category. She plays a frumpy and shy spinster with an oppressive mother. When she is close to a nervous breakdown her mother sets her up with a psychiatrist and she discovers that all of her mental problems are caused by her evil mother. It's a really great performance but she's up against 3 actresses who deserve a 1st Oscar before she gets a 3rd.
4. Katharine Hepburn - Woman Of The Year - Speaking of actresses who have too many accolades. Hepburn only had 1 Oscar at this point in her career but would go on to win 3 more, so it's impossible to vote for her here even if she does give an enjoyable and charming performance. This was her first pairing with Spencer Tracy. He is a sports writer and she is a free spirited and educated woman. It's a funny and wonderful romantic comedy but Hepburn doesn't need 5 Oscars, does she?
3. Teresa Wright - The Pride Of The Yankees - Calling Teresa Wright the lead actress in The Pride Of The Yankees is a bit generous. She plays Lou Gehrig's wife and is really good in the role. She stands by her man during his illness and is very charming during their courtship. If this performance was in the supporting category I would definitely consider voting for it, but she was nominated in that category this year for Mrs. Miniver, becoming the 2nd person to receive 2 nominations in the same year. It's a solid performance but is really supporting and isn't something I can vote for lead.
1. Greer Garson - Mrs. Miniver - Garson received 7 Oscar nominations during her career, including 5 consecutive ones. This was the absolute best time to honor her. She's starring in a Best Picture winner, it's a movie about the war during war time, and she gives a really good performance. Garson plays the titular Mrs. Miniver who is a mother and a wife in London during the outbreak of World War II.
Based on performance alone the vote is between Garson and Davis and since Davis already won twice, I gotta pick Garson. Throw in the fact that Garson gave just as good a performance this same year in Random Harvest and she's an unstoppable force. Her winning here means that they didn't have to give her a makeup win for a lesser performance so, it's a win win.
Oscar Winner: Greer Garson
My Vote: Greer Garson
GABBY Winner: Ginger Rogers for The Major And The Minor
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
5. Walter Huston - Yankee Doodle Dandy - Huston was a tremendous actor and if you look over his Oscar nominated performances you will find some of my favorites. The Devil And Daniel Webster, Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, Dodsworth. All great roles. This nomination seems like he's just along for the ride. He plays George M. Cohan's father and doesn't really do much of anything in the film. His character isn't that important to the plot and if any other actor played him I doubt they would have gotten a nomination. This just feels like we want to give him a win so let's just nominate him for whatever and see if something sticks. He's gonna win for a far superior performance so it doesn't even cross my mind to vote for him.
4. William Bendix - Wake Island - Bendix was a great character actor. He just had an every man look about him and in the way he carried himself. You just always believed he was a normal guy who could live next door or be your best drinking buddy. Here he plays one of the soldiers. The movie is really an ensemble film so to pick someone out of the crowd seems silly but he does give a nice performance and I'm glad he got an Oscar nomination during his career.
3. Frank Morgan - Tortilla Flat - Morgan deserved so many more nominations than he got. I singled him out for The Wizard Of Oz, The Shop Around The Corner and The Human Comedy. This was one of only 2 Oscar nods and it's for playing a Mexican. Morgan is actually really sweet in the role and is the best thing about a fairly boring John Steinbeck adaptation. There's no way I could ever vote for him though. He's a white guy in what's basically blackface. He only ranks this high because I want to give him a win based on career achievement.
2. Henry Travers - Mrs. Miniver - Travers is a kindly old man who has grown a beautiful rose that he has named "Mrs. Miniver" and he is entering it into the town's flower competition. He's just a sweet guy that you want to root for and then he gets so happy when his rose wins. Then he dies off screen. It's not that much of a part but he's good in the film. Plus, he was Clarence Odbody in It's A Wonderful Life, it's nice that he got an Oscar nomination during his career.
1. Van Heflin - Johnny Eager - This is a straight up 1940s gangster film noir. It's not bad but there are better movies of the genre and time period. It was a fun film to watch as a counter balance to all the other movies this year. Heflin plays the main character's drunk friend. He's basically drinking himself to death in that Leaving Las Vegas kind of way. He knows it's gonna kill him and he doesn't mind. He's also very poetic so he has some nice monologues too.
5. Walter Huston - Yankee Doodle Dandy - Huston was a tremendous actor and if you look over his Oscar nominated performances you will find some of my favorites. The Devil And Daniel Webster, Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, Dodsworth. All great roles. This nomination seems like he's just along for the ride. He plays George M. Cohan's father and doesn't really do much of anything in the film. His character isn't that important to the plot and if any other actor played him I doubt they would have gotten a nomination. This just feels like we want to give him a win so let's just nominate him for whatever and see if something sticks. He's gonna win for a far superior performance so it doesn't even cross my mind to vote for him.
4. William Bendix - Wake Island - Bendix was a great character actor. He just had an every man look about him and in the way he carried himself. You just always believed he was a normal guy who could live next door or be your best drinking buddy. Here he plays one of the soldiers. The movie is really an ensemble film so to pick someone out of the crowd seems silly but he does give a nice performance and I'm glad he got an Oscar nomination during his career.
3. Frank Morgan - Tortilla Flat - Morgan deserved so many more nominations than he got. I singled him out for The Wizard Of Oz, The Shop Around The Corner and The Human Comedy. This was one of only 2 Oscar nods and it's for playing a Mexican. Morgan is actually really sweet in the role and is the best thing about a fairly boring John Steinbeck adaptation. There's no way I could ever vote for him though. He's a white guy in what's basically blackface. He only ranks this high because I want to give him a win based on career achievement.
2. Henry Travers - Mrs. Miniver - Travers is a kindly old man who has grown a beautiful rose that he has named "Mrs. Miniver" and he is entering it into the town's flower competition. He's just a sweet guy that you want to root for and then he gets so happy when his rose wins. Then he dies off screen. It's not that much of a part but he's good in the film. Plus, he was Clarence Odbody in It's A Wonderful Life, it's nice that he got an Oscar nomination during his career.
1. Van Heflin - Johnny Eager - This is a straight up 1940s gangster film noir. It's not bad but there are better movies of the genre and time period. It was a fun film to watch as a counter balance to all the other movies this year. Heflin plays the main character's drunk friend. He's basically drinking himself to death in that Leaving Las Vegas kind of way. He knows it's gonna kill him and he doesn't mind. He's also very poetic so he has some nice monologues too.
So here we have 5 great character actors that all deserve an Oscar but none of the performances are really win worthy. Sometimes when I pick a winner I like to think of what the Academy Award montage will look like. What clip would they play for this year? Van Heflin falling over drunk? Henry Travers winning the flower competition? William Bendix saluting? Frank Morgan in a sombrero petting a dog? The one that makes the most sense is Travers, he's in the Best Picture winner and has some really sweet moments. I'm siding with the Academy and picking Heflin. He really had the meatiest role of the 5 but I could accept any of these guys winning.
Oscar Winner: Van Heflin
My Vote: Van Heflin
GABBY Winner: Sig Ruman for To Be Or Not To Be
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
4. Dame May Whittty - Mrs. Miniver - Old English ladies get Oscar nominations really easily. Mrs. Miniver is half a movie about World War II and half a movie about a flower competition. Whitty runs the flower competition and has also won every year. This year there's a kindly old man who grew a really nice rose. She's nervous that she'll lose this year and when she announces the winner she sees she has won but says the name of the old man instead because it would give him joy. So she starts out as kind of a mean old lady and then has a redemptive moment. Not the most exciting part of the film but she does her job adequately.
3. Gladys Cooper - Now, Voyager - Cooper plays Bette Davis's mother and she is a stone cold icy bitch. Davis is a sad, lonely spinster and her mother is the root to all her problems because she is unfeeling and just plain mean. Turns out that Davis was born later than her siblings and Cooper has resented her since she was born. She's really good in the part and you just want her to die the whole movie.
2. Teresa Wright - Mrs. Miniver - This is Wright's 2nd nomination of the year. She plays the girl who falls in love with Mrs. Miniver's son. She's also the granddaughter of May Whitty who is at odds with the Miniver family. Mrs. Miniver's son goes off to war and Wright gets shot by a stray bullet during an air raid. She has a touching death scene that provides the movie's biggest emotional punch.
1. Agnes Moorehead - The Magnificent Ambersons - In the middle of this boring 90 minute film that felt like 3 hours was an exceptional performance by Agnes Moorehead. She plays Aunt Fanny who looks after her nephew and is very thin skinned. She spills the beans to her nephew about an affair his mother had and later in the film she breaks down and has a tremendous scene that doesn't seem like it belongs in a 1940s film. Acting in the 40s was much different from acting today, actors then seemed more concerned with how they looked or their diction rather than letting themselves be taken over by a character. Every now and then you see a performance like this and go, holy hell this lady was way ahead of her time.
Wright winning here was probably the right decision. It would stink to get nominated twice and leave empty handed. I don't think there was any way she could beat Garson in the lead category so this is her consolation prize. She's really great in her movie and combined with her performance in The Pride Of The Yankees earned her at least one statue. I'm voting for Moorehead for a couple reasons, she was a tremendous actress who never won an Oscar despite a handful of nominations and this was her best performance, she's fantastic in the movie and she was Endora on Bewitched. Can't beat that.
Oscar Winner: Teresa Wright
My Vote: Agnes Moorehead
GABBY Winner: Agnes Moorehead
Best Director
William Wyler wins for Mrs. Miniver which is fair. None of the nominees really deserved a win. Michael Curtiz for Yankee Doodle Dandy probably would have been my choice but he's gonna win next year. I thought Sam Wood should have been nominated for The Pride Of The Yankees, if he had he would have been my vote, but he got in for Kings Row.
Best Original Screenplay/Adapted Screenplay/Story
Just when I think I have these writing categories figured out. We have Original Screenplay, ok, I understand what that is, we have Adapted Screenplay, good, that's all we need, right? A screenplay can only be either original or adapted, what else could we need? Best Story? What the hell could that mean? Anyway, the Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn comedy Woman Of The Year wins original over the wildly funnier Road To Morocco. I understand picking Woman Of The Year for the better script but if you're gonna pick a comedy might as well go for the funnier one. Mrs. Miniver wins adapted over some heavy competition from Random Harvest and The Pride Of The Yankees. Best Story goes to 49th Parallel which only makes sense because it was the only war film nominated. I would have gone with The Pride Of The Yankees.
Best Dramatic Score/Musical Score/Song
We're still in the time period where they just gave each studio a nomination in this category. There's no way I'm listening to 26 film scores to judge my favorite. I'll just assume that the score to Now, Voyager was superior to Bambi or the re-release of Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush, which had a new score written by Chaplin. Yankee Doodle Dandy is a fine winner in the musical category. Holiday Inn wins Best Song for White Christmas. Very rarely do the Oscar winning songs hold up as classics, I'm surprised they didn't go with I've Got A Call From Kalamazoo from Orchestra Wives. Sometimes the Oscars make the right call.
Best Sound Recording
If you are a musical nominated for Best Picture then you will probably win this category and Yankee Doodle Dandy takes it easily. It would make sense if they went with a war movie, something like Wake Island or 49th Parallel but neither of those films were nominated.
Best Art Direction - Black And White/Color
This is the one category I will fight for The Magnificent Ambersons to win. The set decoration was beautiful to look at, kinda makes you forget that the plot is so dull. They actually built a mansion with movable walls so the camera could go in and out of rooms. Instead the Academy went with This Above All, maybe there was still some Orson Welles resentment held over from last year. For the color category they picked My Gal Sal and since I've never seen any of the nominees, why not?
Best Cinematography - Black And White/Color
Mrs. Miniver wins black and white, which makes sense since it's the Best Picture winner. If I'm being completely un-biased I have to pick The Magnificent Ambersons here. The movie is gorgeous to look at and seeing as how Citizen Kane lost this category last year this would be a perfect excuse for a makeup win. The movies did have different cinematographers, but I think you get what I'm saying. The Black Swan wins the color category which is the only nominee I have seen, so I completely endorse this win.
Best Film Editing
The Pride Of The Yankees wins. The legend was always that they filmed Gary Cooper, who was right handed, wearing a backwards jersey and running the bases backwards so he appeared to be left handed. If that's the case then I say give them the award here for ingenuity. Turns out that is a myth and Cooper never batted backwards and they used stunt doubles for scenes where he had to throw. Still, the movie is pretty seamless and you feel like Cooper is doing all the work, so good job editors.
Best Special Effects
Not sure what counts as a special effect in a 1942 film. The way they composed the airplanes flying overhead in Mrs. Miniver was impressive though. The win went to Reap The Wild Wind an action adventure film starring John Wayne and Ray Milland.
Up Next
5. Susan Peters - Random Harvest - Ronald Colman has amnesia and falls in love with Greer Garson, then he regains all his memories, forgets about Garson and moves back to his old town. There he meets Susan Peters who has had feelings for him all these years. She's perfectly fine in the film but the role doesn't ask much for her. It's also a little creepy that she's so much younger than Colman and refers to him as "Uncle" for most of the movie. Once her character was introduced I kept waiting for that one scene that got her the nomination and it never came. Peters had a very tragic life. 2 years after this film she suffered a gun shot wound that left her paraplegic. She would continue to act from a wheelchair but suffered from depression and died in 1952 at the age of 31.
4. Dame May Whittty - Mrs. Miniver - Old English ladies get Oscar nominations really easily. Mrs. Miniver is half a movie about World War II and half a movie about a flower competition. Whitty runs the flower competition and has also won every year. This year there's a kindly old man who grew a really nice rose. She's nervous that she'll lose this year and when she announces the winner she sees she has won but says the name of the old man instead because it would give him joy. So she starts out as kind of a mean old lady and then has a redemptive moment. Not the most exciting part of the film but she does her job adequately.
3. Gladys Cooper - Now, Voyager - Cooper plays Bette Davis's mother and she is a stone cold icy bitch. Davis is a sad, lonely spinster and her mother is the root to all her problems because she is unfeeling and just plain mean. Turns out that Davis was born later than her siblings and Cooper has resented her since she was born. She's really good in the part and you just want her to die the whole movie.
2. Teresa Wright - Mrs. Miniver - This is Wright's 2nd nomination of the year. She plays the girl who falls in love with Mrs. Miniver's son. She's also the granddaughter of May Whitty who is at odds with the Miniver family. Mrs. Miniver's son goes off to war and Wright gets shot by a stray bullet during an air raid. She has a touching death scene that provides the movie's biggest emotional punch.
1. Agnes Moorehead - The Magnificent Ambersons - In the middle of this boring 90 minute film that felt like 3 hours was an exceptional performance by Agnes Moorehead. She plays Aunt Fanny who looks after her nephew and is very thin skinned. She spills the beans to her nephew about an affair his mother had and later in the film she breaks down and has a tremendous scene that doesn't seem like it belongs in a 1940s film. Acting in the 40s was much different from acting today, actors then seemed more concerned with how they looked or their diction rather than letting themselves be taken over by a character. Every now and then you see a performance like this and go, holy hell this lady was way ahead of her time.
Wright winning here was probably the right decision. It would stink to get nominated twice and leave empty handed. I don't think there was any way she could beat Garson in the lead category so this is her consolation prize. She's really great in her movie and combined with her performance in The Pride Of The Yankees earned her at least one statue. I'm voting for Moorehead for a couple reasons, she was a tremendous actress who never won an Oscar despite a handful of nominations and this was her best performance, she's fantastic in the movie and she was Endora on Bewitched. Can't beat that.
Oscar Winner: Teresa Wright
My Vote: Agnes Moorehead
GABBY Winner: Agnes Moorehead
Best Director
William Wyler wins for Mrs. Miniver which is fair. None of the nominees really deserved a win. Michael Curtiz for Yankee Doodle Dandy probably would have been my choice but he's gonna win next year. I thought Sam Wood should have been nominated for The Pride Of The Yankees, if he had he would have been my vote, but he got in for Kings Row.
Best Original Screenplay/Adapted Screenplay/Story
Just when I think I have these writing categories figured out. We have Original Screenplay, ok, I understand what that is, we have Adapted Screenplay, good, that's all we need, right? A screenplay can only be either original or adapted, what else could we need? Best Story? What the hell could that mean? Anyway, the Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn comedy Woman Of The Year wins original over the wildly funnier Road To Morocco. I understand picking Woman Of The Year for the better script but if you're gonna pick a comedy might as well go for the funnier one. Mrs. Miniver wins adapted over some heavy competition from Random Harvest and The Pride Of The Yankees. Best Story goes to 49th Parallel which only makes sense because it was the only war film nominated. I would have gone with The Pride Of The Yankees.
Best Dramatic Score/Musical Score/Song
We're still in the time period where they just gave each studio a nomination in this category. There's no way I'm listening to 26 film scores to judge my favorite. I'll just assume that the score to Now, Voyager was superior to Bambi or the re-release of Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush, which had a new score written by Chaplin. Yankee Doodle Dandy is a fine winner in the musical category. Holiday Inn wins Best Song for White Christmas. Very rarely do the Oscar winning songs hold up as classics, I'm surprised they didn't go with I've Got A Call From Kalamazoo from Orchestra Wives. Sometimes the Oscars make the right call.
Best Sound Recording
If you are a musical nominated for Best Picture then you will probably win this category and Yankee Doodle Dandy takes it easily. It would make sense if they went with a war movie, something like Wake Island or 49th Parallel but neither of those films were nominated.
Best Art Direction - Black And White/Color
This is the one category I will fight for The Magnificent Ambersons to win. The set decoration was beautiful to look at, kinda makes you forget that the plot is so dull. They actually built a mansion with movable walls so the camera could go in and out of rooms. Instead the Academy went with This Above All, maybe there was still some Orson Welles resentment held over from last year. For the color category they picked My Gal Sal and since I've never seen any of the nominees, why not?
Best Cinematography - Black And White/Color
Mrs. Miniver wins black and white, which makes sense since it's the Best Picture winner. If I'm being completely un-biased I have to pick The Magnificent Ambersons here. The movie is gorgeous to look at and seeing as how Citizen Kane lost this category last year this would be a perfect excuse for a makeup win. The movies did have different cinematographers, but I think you get what I'm saying. The Black Swan wins the color category which is the only nominee I have seen, so I completely endorse this win.
Best Film Editing
The Pride Of The Yankees wins. The legend was always that they filmed Gary Cooper, who was right handed, wearing a backwards jersey and running the bases backwards so he appeared to be left handed. If that's the case then I say give them the award here for ingenuity. Turns out that is a myth and Cooper never batted backwards and they used stunt doubles for scenes where he had to throw. Still, the movie is pretty seamless and you feel like Cooper is doing all the work, so good job editors.
Best Special Effects
Not sure what counts as a special effect in a 1942 film. The way they composed the airplanes flying overhead in Mrs. Miniver was impressive though. The win went to Reap The Wild Wind an action adventure film starring John Wayne and Ray Milland.
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1961
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