1947 Oscar Watch

This was not a great year by any means, not just with the Oscars but with movies in general.  I looked through all the eligible films and had a real hard time filling out my top 5.  There are some fine films but nothing to get really excited about.  There is really only one category this year where I have a definitive winner.  Gentleman's Agreement is a fine movie and feels like an important film but it's not much for entertainment.
You can see my GABBY winners and nominees HERE

BEST PICTURE

 

5. Great Expectations - I'm not a big reader so I have no idea how close to Dickens's novel this adaptation is but it's a pretty good watch.  It's beautiful to look at, the acting is really good, it feels like a British Gone With The Wind, but there's no way I can vote for it.  Filming books was all the rage in the 40s so going to Dickens and Shakespeare seemed like a logical step.  It's a classy film that wouldn't look out of place as a Best Picture winner but they're going to give Hamlet the win next year so if we had Great Expectations win followed by Hamlet it would make the Oscars look more like the Pulitzer Prize.

4. Gentleman's Agreement - A writer gets assigned a story about antisemitism.  He can't figure out what angle to take so he decides to pose as a Jew for a couple weeks to see what prejudice is like first hand.  It's a message movie and is kind of hard to watch purely for entertainment value, it feels like going to school or church more than it does going to the movies.  Gregory Peck changes his name and tells people he's Jewish and people just look at him weird.  You think it's going to hit a little harder but scenes just play out with Peck telling someone he's Jewish, they hem and haw and then he makes a speech about how prejudice is bad.  My favorite part of the film was Dorothy McGuire who plays his girlfriend, she discovers that her casual prejudice, like laughing at an off-color joke or going to an exclusive club, is just as bad as outright bigotry.  It's not a bad movie but the message is definitely better than the film.

3. The Bishop's Wife - I had this as my winner before watching the films just because I remember really loving this as a kid.  A bishop asks God for help in building his church and he gets sent an angel played by the incredibly suave Cary Grant.  The angel is helping the bishop but not to build a huge church he's really here to make him realize that he's better suited in the small church he came from and spending time with his wife.  There's a subplot where everyone thinks Grant is going to romance the bishop's wife and it takes place at Christmas so it has a sweet feel to it that makes you feel good.  While it's a really good film with terrific special effects for the time I kept thinking that it could have been more fun.  It's really preachy at times but still a fun watch.

2. Crossfire - This is the other 1947 movie about antisemitism but this one is a dark film noir about a murder.  A man is killed and there's a detective trying to solve the case, he interviews all the suspects to get their version of what happened on the night of the murder and starts to put together that it was done because the victim was Jewish.  The original script was about homophobia instead of antisemitism but the production code of the time wouldn't allow references to gay people in a film.  It's weird to think that Hollywood wanted to change people's minds about how we treat certain people while at the same time pretending another group of people doesn't even exist.  The movie gets really preachy near the end when the detective has to give a big speech about how Jewish people have the same rights as everyone else but it's a good watch.  My only problem with it was that it wasn't the best film noir or detective story of the year.  I watched Out Of The Past, Kiss Of Death, Odd Man Out, Boomerang! and Brute Force and liked them all better than this.

1. Miracle On 34th Street - This is the film that has probably stood the test of time the best.  A man gets hired as a department store Santa Claus and instead of telling kids and parents to buy toys at the store he works for he sends them to other stores with better prices.  Christmas shouldn't be about commercialism it should be about doing the best for people.  The store at first is upset but then uses it as a marketing strategy because the customers love this Santa Claus.  It also turns out that this guy believes he is the real Santa so he gets committed and then there's a big trial to prove whether he's really Santa or just insane.  You can tell a movie's good by how much it gets parodied.  Putting Santa on trial or questioning Santa has been done numerous times since this movie but this is where it all stemmed from and set the standard for Christmas movies to come.  It's also one heck of a fun movie and makes you feel warm and gooey inside, like a cup of hot cocoa in movie form.

So it comes down to Jews vs Christmas.  We have 2 movies about antisemitism against 2 Christmas classics.  My mind tells me that I should pick Gentleman's Agreement or Crossfire but no movie had me smiling more than Miracle On 34th Street.  Now, I think all religion is silly and pointless so my vote isn't based on any kind of preference or prejudice I just think Miracle On 34th Street has the best story.  Crossfire, Gentleman's Agreement and even The Bishop's Wife get too bogged down in their message while Miracle, from beginning to end, is just a good story that no matter what your beliefs should work.  It's less about Christmas and God than more about the power of belief and imagination.  My favorite part of the film on this most recent watch is that they never come out and say that this man is Santa Claus.  He doesn't fly off to the North Pole at the end, they win the case based on the law and he goes away.  We as the audience assume he's Santa because it's a movie but in reality he could have just been a really convincing wacko.

Oscar Winner: Gentleman's Agreement

My Vote: Miracle On 34th Street

GABBY Winner: Miracle On 34th Street

BEST ACTOR

 

5. Gregory Peck - Gentleman's Agreement - I've said this before but Gregory Peck was less an actor and more a guy with a really deep baritone voice that lent gravitas to whatever he was saying.  Here he plays a writer who poses as a Jew to write a story.  He delivers a bunch of monologues about how prejudice is wrong but his character comes off as kind of dumb.  He gets assigned the story and then he's like, how do I write about this?  I know I'll call my friend, he's a Jew.  Then he gets the idea to pose as a Jew himself and he's like, I don't even have to disguise myself.  Like how?  Was he gonna put on a fake nose or wear a yarmulke?  Then people look at him funny when he says he's Jewish and he's like, wow, I didn't know being persecuted would feel bad.

4. Michael Redgrave - Mourning Becomes Electra - I try to go into every movie with an open mind but sometimes it's hard when I'm sitting down to watch a 2 1/2 hour movie based on a play that takes place mostly in one house.  I was completely surprised at how captivated I was with this story and a lot of that credit goes to the actors.  The movie is about a family, the men are coming back from war and everybody has a secret.  The mother and daughter hate each other and are both trying to get the men on their sides.  Secrets get revealed, there's backstabbing and murder.  It's a pretty good film.  Redgrave plays the son, he was injured in the war, he loves his mother and his sister but is easily manipulated.  I could never quite tell if his performance was bad acting or good acting as a man with brain damage.  Either way there was something strangely captivating about his performance.  He's just a little off and you're never quite sure what to think of him, that's probably because he goes from side to side based on who the last person he talked to was.

3. Ronald Colman - A Double Life - Colman won his Oscar for playing an actor who is so good that he literally disappears into his roles.  He's very respected and is mulling over what his next role will be and he's offered Othello.  The only problem is that this guy is such a dedicated actor that he becomes the character he's playing.  Othello is fueled by jealousy and the actor is partnered with his ex-wife.  Othello eventually lets jealousy get the best of him so this guy, so in character, goes trolling for women to murder.  I felt that the movie was a little overdone, Colman is a little too hammy in the part, it works for the character because he's playing a hammy actor but sometimes a ham is still a ham.

2. William Powell - Life With Father - This feels like a sitcom pilot more than a movie, the main character even has a catchphrase, "Oh, Gad!".  It's a very episodic movie about this family headed by Powell who is a lovable curmudgeon.  He's loud, opinionated and stuck in his ways so the fun comes from him being wrong pretty much all the time.  He's like Archie Bunker without the racism.  The movie is basically a collection of subplots, the main one involving Powell's wife, played by Irene Dunne, wanting him to get baptized so they can go to heaven together.  Powell is, as always, extremely watchable and the only reason to sit through the movie.  This isn't the movie he should have won for but seeing as how he hasn't won an Oscar yet, this category is weak and this would turn out to be his last nomination, he definitely warrants consideration.

1. John Garfield - Body And Soul - This is your standard boxer noir.  A dumb palooka is good at boxing but is easily manipulated by the wrong people.  As I was watching the movie I was unfairly comparing Garfield's performance to other actors in the same role like Kirk Douglas in Champion, Robert Ryan in The Set-Up, Paul Newman in Somebody Up There Likes Me and Anthony Quinn in Requiem For A Heavyweight, but then I remembered that this movie came first so Garfield wasn't taking anything from those performance that came later.  This isn't the best of the genre but it was one of the first and Garfield is really good in the role.  The ending fight scene where he refuses to take a dive is one of the best boxing scenes ever filmed, you feel like you are in the ring.

Colman makes sense as a winner because he was overdue at this point but if that's the reason you're voting then you should instead go with William Powell.  I think this category is really weak which is why I put Edmund Gwenn here where he belongs for my awards.  I don't feel the need to vote for anyone, Powell was good and my favorite actor in the bunch but his movie wasn't that great, Peck is pretty wooden in his performance, Colman is way too over the top, Redgrave is good but I would rather give Powell and Oscar over him, that leaves John Garfield and he's the only person where I can't think of a reason not to vote for him.  It's not a performance that screams Oscar winner but he's very good in the film and the movie is probably my favorite of the ones nominated.  Add that to the fact that Garfield was also very good in Gentleman's Agreement this year and he gets my vote.

Oscar Winner: Ronald Colman

My Vote: John Garfield

GABBY Winner: Edmund Gwenn for Miracle On 34th Street

BEST ACTRESS

 

5. Joan Crawford - Possessed - Much like Gregory Peck, I always found Crawford a better movie star than an actor.  She's always good and watchable but I'm always more focused on how she's lit than the performance she's delivering.  Possessed starts off really strong and then turns into typical melodrama.  We first see her walking down the street in a daze all crazy looking.  She gets taken to a hospital and then we see in flashback how she got there.  There's a love story, she cries a lot and she ends up killing a man.  They come to the conclusion that she was legally insane when she did the murdering and the movie's over.  Crawford is committed as always but she won an Oscar recently so there is no need to consider her for a vote.

4. Loretta Young - The Farmer's Daughter - I go into every movie with an open mind.  All I knew about this movie was that many people consider this the worst Best Actress decision of all time.  I really wanted to love this movie and be able to defend it but I ended up agreeing with the consensus.  Young is a Swedish woman who moves to the city and takes a job as a maid to a congressional aide.  Her down to Earth and no nonsense attitude turns everyone on their heads and she ends up running when she disgraces their nominee.  It's a perfectly cute romantic comedy but nothing I would call Oscar worthy.  This isn't the strongest category ever but Young doesn't really stack up to her competition.  Her accent is also a little inconsistent.

3. Dorothy McGuire - Gentleman's Agreement - I don't really see this performance as being a lead but I understand why they put her here.  She definitely has more screen time than the two extras that got nominated in the supporting category from this film but the movie's not really about her.  She plays Gregory Peck's girlfriend and at first goes along with his story but then starts to feel guilt when she discovers that she is a bit antisemitic herself, not in an overt hatred kind of way but in the way where she will laugh at a Jewish joke or understand that her friends wouldn't want to rent their home to Jews.  She's actually my favorite part of the film but it's hard to vote for her in this category.  If she was in the supporting category, maybe, but her part is almost too big to be supporting.  She straddles that line between lead and supporting.

2. Susan Hayward - Smash Up: The Story Of A Woman - First off, pretty horrible title.  This was the 1st of 5 nominations for Susan Hayward and you really notice a pattern in the roles she was nominated for.  She almost exclusively played women with loose morals who usually drank too much.  Here she plays a singer with a promising career who gets married and starts a family.  As she is beginning to adapt to motherhood her husband's singing career takes off.  Now she is left with the kid while her husband lives the dream she wanted.  She doesn't know how to cope so she turns to the bottle and becomes a big sloppy drunk.  The movie is a little melodramatic but I really enjoyed it and her performance.

1. Rosalind Russell - Mourning Becomes Electra - I was completely prepared to hate this movie because it's a 2 1/2 hour filmed play but I was incredibly surprised by how briskly the story moved even at a long running time.  Russell hates her mother and the feeling is mutual, she suspects that her mother is having an affair and plotting the murder of her father so she enlists her brother, who is returning from the war with a head injury, to plot against her.  Russell is really good here, so good that she reportedly started to rise from her seat before the winner's name was called only to have to sit back down when they announced Loretta Young.

So I'm voting for Rosalind Russell because she was a terrific actress who never won an Oscar and she gave a really great performance.  I gave the GABBY to Susan Hayward because I liked her performance and movie just a little better.  It's one of those instances where if I was going to recommend you watch one movie over the other I'd tell you to check out the 90 minute movie about a drunk lady over the almost 3 hour filmed play.  Also I wanted to get honoring Susan Hayward out of the way.  The Oscars finally gave her a win in 1958 for I Want To Live and ironically I gave the win that year to Rosalind Russell for Auntie Mame.  The bottom line is Loretta Young really shouldn't have won here.  I usually always side with a win for a comedic performance but she's just not that great in the film.  I can completely see why someone would have fallen in love with her though.  She's playing a naive farmhand who comes to the big city and finds love and success.  I gotta look at this historically though and Russell should have an Oscar more than Young.

Oscar Winner: Loretta Young

My Vote: Rosalind Russell

GABBY Winner: Susan Hayward

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

 

5. Charles Bickford - The Farmer's Daughter - This movie is about a Swedish farmhand who gets a job as a maid to a congressional aide.  Bickford plays the butler of the house who hires Young and then kind of looks out for her.  He's perfectly fine in the film but doesn't do much of anything.  You think he's going to be an obstacle or a support figure but he's just a butler.  He has a good moment near the end when he stands up to a bigot but other than that he's just kind of in the background of scenes.

4. Thomas Gomez - Ride The Pink Horse - This is a film noir starring and directed by Robert Montgomery.  He comes into a New Mexico town looking for revenge and meets Pancho, a friendly carousel operator.  Gomez was the first Hispanic actor ever nominated for an Oscar so it's hard to say he doesn't deserve consideration.  He does steal the movie and is the best part of it but the movie's not that great.  It's fine but in a year that gave us Out Of The Past, Nightmare Alley, Crossfire, Dark Passage and Kiss Of Death this was not my favorite entry into the film noir genre.  It's much better than the other 1947 Robert Montgomery directed film, The Lady In The Lake, which takes place entirely in 1st person.  It's not really even worth watching just for curiosity.

3. Robert Ryan - Crossfire - Spoiler alert, Robert Ryan murdered the Jew.  He's good at playing a villain, my only problem with the performance was that he was so obviously the villain.  They figure out that he did it about 20 minutes before the movie ends but I figured out he did it because he's basically twirling his mustache the whole time.  I feel that's the movies fault more than Ryan's.  Everyone's playing their character a little shifty eyed it's just that Ryan is doing it the most.  A fine performance but not worthy of a win.

2. Edmund Gwenn - Miracle On 34th Street - Gwenn plays Kris Kringle, a man who says that he is Santa Claus.  This performance is down right perfect, he doesn't hit one false through the whole film.  You believe he is Santa Claus because he believes he is Santa Claus.  It wasn't until this viewing that I realized they never explicitly say that he is Santa.  He could just be an insane man but because he is so perfect at playing Santa he possibly tricked us as the audience as well.  The only thing keeping me from voting for Gwenn is the next actor on this list and the fact that this is really a lead role.  Even though John Payne is billed higher in the credits, the movie is about Kris Kringle.

1. Richard Widmark - Kiss Of Death - When I think of iconic movie villains I always think of Richard Widmark as Tommy Udo in Kiss Of Death.  I'd be hard pressed to find a performance that came before this that was so joyfully evil.  Tommy Udo is an unrepentant sociopath.  The movie isn't great, mostly because the lead Victor Mature is not very charismatic but the movie moves up in quality because of Widmark.  He's actually not in the movie enough but every time he's on screen you can't turn away because you don't know what he's going to do next.  Of course the most iconic scene is when he ties up a woman in a wheelchair and pushes her down a flight of stairs but my favorite scenes are his more quiet moments just before he explodes.

This is an incredibly hard decision.  Widmark is so iconic as a villain in Kiss Of Death but Gwenn is equally iconic as Santa Claus.  I'm glad Gwenn won because he had a good career that deserved an Oscar and the performance is great.  I wish Widmark would have gotten another role that got him an Oscar too because he was a fantastic character actor.  It's more astonishing to know that this was his first major film role.  I'm voting for Widmark even though I'm very happy with the actual outcome.

Oscar Winner: Edmund Gwenn

My Vote: Richard Widmark

GABBY Winner: Richard Widmark

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

 

5. Ethel Barrymore - The Paradine Case - Huh?  It's so bizarre watching a movie specifically for a single performance and then seeing that she's only in 2 scenes and not important to the plot.  The Paradine Case is an Alfred Hitchcock trial film with an all star cast.  Ethel Barrymore is in it, barely.  I got about half way through the movie and forgot why I was watching it.  Was Charles Laughton nominated for this?  No, Ethel Barrymore was.  I haven't seen her in the movie yet.  Oh, there she is.  Is that all she's gonna do?  She had a better and much more substantial role this year in The Farmer's Daughter but this nomination isn't based on merit, this is purely Ethel Barrymore was in a movie this year, let's nominate her.

4. Anne Revere - Gentleman's Agreement - Anne Revere played a lot of supportive moms in her day.  She was nominated for playing a mom in The Song Of Bernadette, she won for playing a mom in National Velvet, she plays a mom here and also showed up this year as John Garfield's mom in Body And Soul.  Here she plays Gregory Peck's mother, she's ill and you think she's going to die the whole movie.  She ends up living so I'm not sure why her character is here.  This character usually only exists to die when our hero hits rock bottom so he can get sympathy but here she lives to the end of the movie to read the article that her son wrote.  It's a fine performance but she just won an Oscar so we don't have to consider her.

3. Celeste Holm - Gentleman's Agreement - Speaking of being confused about how a character fits into the plot, Celeste Holm plays a socialite who really doesn't do much of anything.  I kept waiting for her big Oscar scene or for her character to fit into the plot, because she won this category, but nothing ever happened.  About ten minutes before the movie ends she has a monologue that kind of sums up the entire film but she's not in the movie enough for me to consider voting for her.

2. Marjorie Main - The Egg And I - This is a bit of a bizarre nomination.  The Egg And I stars Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert as two city folk who start a farm.  Their next door neighbors are the homespun couple of Ma and Pa Kettle.  I was familiar with these characters for some reason, I think they were referenced in another movie or TV show.  They apparently were so popular that they got 10 spin-off movies.  She definitely steals the movie, which isn't that hard, the movie itself is like a lame feature length episode of Petticoat Junction, but this would be like if Larry The Cable Guy got an Oscar nomination.

1. Gloria Grahame - Crossfire - I love Gloria Grahame, she's so good that they gave her an Oscar for a movie she's barely in.  Unfortunately she's barely in this movie either but, unlike Celeste Holm, she left an impact.  She plays a prostitute that could be an alibi for a murder suspect.  She's only in 2 scenes of the movie but they are important to the plot and she's fantastic in them.

What a terrible category.  I almost voted for Ma Kettle.  Usually I wouldn't vote for an actress with such little screen time but here Gloria Grahame is really the only person I can vote for.  Looking at this historically, it would have been better if she won here because she ended up winning in 1952 for The Bad And The Beautiful, which is a great film but, like I said, Gloria Grahame is barely in it.  If she wins this year then Jean Hagen could win in 1952 for Singin' In The Rain.

Oscar Winner: Celeste Holm

My Vote: Gloria Grahame

GABBY Winner: Kathleen Byron for Black Narcissus

Best Director

Elia Kazan wins for Gentleman's Agreement which is a decent decision.  I would have gone with Henry Koster for The Bishop's Wife just because I was constantly asking myself how they pulled off some of the special effects in that film.  Kazan winning is good because he also directed a really great movie this year called Boomerang! about a trial to get an innocent man accused of murder freed.

Best Original Screenplay/Screenplay/Motion Picture Story

Once again I don't pretend to know what the difference between these categories is.  The Bachelor And The Bobby Soxer wins Best Original Screenplay, I'm sure this movie was more innocent in its day but the plot is probably very icky to current audiences.  A man is sentenced to date the younger sister of a judge.  Monsieur Verdoux would have been a better choice.  Miracle On 34th Street wins both Best Screenplay and Best Motion Picture Story which is fine but they could have spread the love around and honored either Boomerang!, Crossfire or It Happened On Fifth Avenue.

Best Music Score Of A Dramatic Or Comedy Picture/Musical Picture

A Double Life wins Best Drama or Comedy Score and Mother Wore Tights wins in the musical category.  I really don't have any thoughts one way or the other.  Both categories were pretty weak.  A Double Life does have a very good score by Miklos Rozsa, Mother Wore Tights is a fairly forgettable Betty Grable musical.

Best Song

You know that movie Disney refuses to release to home video because it is so notoriously racist?  It won an Oscar.  Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah from Song Of The South wins.  It's a great song, the movie actually isn't as offensive as you might think.  I mean, it's racist but it's racist in the same way that Gone With The Wind is racist.

Best Sound Recording

The Bishop's Wife wins which is the only nominated film I've seen.  I skipped Green Dolphin Street and T-Men.

Best Art Direction (Black And White)/Art Direction (Color)

Great Expectations wins for black and white and Black Narcissus wins for color.  Both are fantastic choices as both are beautiful motion pictures.  There were only 4 nominees between the two categories so they probably could have combined them, but then again I like that both of them won.

Best Cinematography (Black And White)/Cinematography (Color)

Again Great Expectations and Black Narcissus win.  The two most beautiful looking films of the year.

Best Film Editing

Body And Soul rightfully wins.  The ending boxing scene is incredibly staged and cut together.  Watch the movie just for the final 15 minutes, you can see what inspired Martin Scorsese to make Raging Bull.  Odd Man Out would have been a worthy winner too but it's not as good.

Best Special Effects

Green Dolphin Street beats Unconquered.  I haven't seen either film but I'm a little surprised that The Bishop's Wife didn't get a nod.

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1999