1946--The Year in Review

Three stunning tales of fantasy led the film parade in 1946, and the one that should have emerged victorious--a notorious box-office flop by Frank Capra--would still land a number of nominations from the Academy (including a Best Picture nod) but would have to settle, in future years, for an eternal place among the most beloved movies ever made. It's a Wonderful Life is a much darker and cynical picture than many assume (its once-ubitquitous appearance as a Christmas-time TV staple has craftily fooled people into thinking it's a goopy batch of sentimentality, but when they finally really watch it, minds are changed). It is a film, however, that can reduce even the hardest heart to tears, so the sentiment is definitely there. Same goes for the UK's A Matter of Life and Death (known for many years on US shores as Stairway to Heaven); Powell and Pressberger's magical, realm-hopping romance, shot in both black-and-white and color by master cinematographer Jack Cardiff, remains today a philosophically challenging look at mortality and morality. And Jean Cocteau's gorgeous La Belle et la Bete would land as the most dynamic adaptation of that oft-told story (even today, only Disney's animated version from the '90s comes close to besting it, and even then, it's not a close contest). Film noir continued to take hold of cinema with Gilda, The Big Sleep, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Stranger, The Blue Dahlia, and The Killers dominating screens. Even with the myriad of great female leads in those films, it would be The Spiral Staircase's Dorothy McGuire who'd emerge with the most effective showing this year, and without having to utter a sound in Robert Siodmak's suspense classic. The western genre would see two of its landmark offerings, John Ford's exciting My Darling Clementine and King Vidor's wildly hallucinogenic Duel in the Sun. And David Lean would continue his rise to the top of the film world with a ridiculously entertaining adaptation of a Charles Dickens novel, adorned with a superb ensemble cast. As far as the Oscars were concerned, it was all about paying tribute to those who returned home from World War II, and so William Wyler's respectful but slightly ponderous The Best Years of Our Lives took all the top awards. In the shorts categories, Maya Deren contributed another eerie experimental piece in the live-action category, while the animated film industry exploded with the now unhinged work at Warner Brothers' Termite Terrace, where Bugs Bunny continued to reign supreme; this team's output would be so huge that the category could barely contain the limit of ten nominees. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold.

PICTURE: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (US, Frank Capra)
(2nd: A Matter of Life and Death (UK, Michael Powell), followed by:
La Belle et la Bete (France, Jean Cocteau)
Great Expectations (UK, David Lean)
My Darling Clementine (US, John Ford)
The Best Years of Our Lives (US, William Wyler)
The Big Sleep (US, Howard Hawks)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (US, Tay Garnett)
Shoeshine (Italy, Vittorio de Sica)
Paisàn (Italy, Roberto Rossellini)
The Killers (US, Robert Siodmak)
Notorious (US, Alfred Hitchcock)
Gilda (US, Charles Vidor)
Ivan the Terrible Part Two: The Boyars Plot (USSR, Sergei Eisenstein)
Green for Danger (UK, Sidney Gilliat)
The Spiral Staircase (US, Robert Siodmak)
Duel in the Sun (US, King Vidor)
The Yearling (US, Clarence Brown)
The Stranger (US, Orson Welles)
To Each His Own (US, Mitchell Leisen)
The Blue Dahlia (US, George Marshall)
Anna and the King of Siam (US, John Cromwell)

ACTOR: James Stewart, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (2nd: John Garfield, The Postman Always Rings Twice, followed by: Fredric March, The Best Years of Our Lives; Henry Fonda, My Darling Clementine; Nikolai Cherkassov, Ivan the Terrible Part Two: The Boyars Plot; Alastair Sim, Green for Danger; Humphrey Bogart, The Big Sleep; David Niven, A Matter of Life and Death)

ACTRESS: Dorothy McGuire, THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (2nd: Olivia de Havilland, To Each His Own, followed by: Myrna Loy, The Best Years of Our Lives; Donna Reed, It's A Wonderful Life; Lana Turner, The Postman Always Rings Twice; Ingrid Bergman, Notorious; Barbara Stanwyck, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers; Rita Hayworth, Gilda)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Finlay Currie, GREAT EXPECTATIONS (2nd: Roger Livesey, A Matter of Life and Death, followed by: Bernard Miles, Great Expectations; Lionel Barrymore, It’s a Wonderful Life; James Baskett, Song of the South; Claude Rains, Notorious; Harold Russell, The Best Years of Our Lives; Victor Mature, My Darling Clementine) 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Martita Hunt, GREAT EXPECTATIONS (2nd: Jean Simmons, Great Expectations, followed by: Lillian Gish, Duel in the Sun; Ethel Barrymore, The Spiral Staircase; Kim Hunter, A Matter of Life and Death; Martha Vickers, The Big Sleep; Rosamund John, Green for Danger; Linda Darnell, My Darling Clementine)

DIRECTOR: Frank Capra, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (2nd: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, A Matter of Life and Death, followed by: David Lean, Great Expectations; Jean Cocteau, La Belle et la Bete; John Ford, My Darling Clementine; Vittorio de Sica, Shoeshine)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Jo Swerling, Philip Van Doren Stern, and Frank Capra, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (2nd: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, A Matter of Life and Death, followed by: Ben Hecht, Notorious; Sergio Amidei, Adolfo Franci, Cesare Giulio Viola, and Cesare Zavattini, Shoeshine; Charles Brackett and Jacques Thiery, To Each His Own)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: David Lean, Ronald Neame, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Cecil McGivern, and Kay Walsh, GREAT EXPECTATIONS (2nd: Samuel G. Engel, Winston Miller and Sam Hellman, My Darling Clementine, followed by: Robert E. Sherwood, The Best Years of Our Lives; Anthony Veiller, John Huston, and Richard Brooks, The Killers; Sidney Gilliat and Claude Guerney, Green for Danger)



LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME (Maya Deren) (2nd: A Bird in the Head (Eduard Bernds; The Three Stooges), followed by: Tall Tan and Terrific (Bud Pollard); Rhythm and Weep (Jules White; The Three Stooges); Frontier Frolic (Lewis D. Collins))

ANIMATED SHORT FILM: HARE-RAISING HARE (Chuck Jones; Bugs Bunny) (2nd: Baseball Bugs (Friz Freling; Bugs Bunny), followed by: The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (Bob Clampett; Daffy Duck); Northwest Hounded Police (Tex Avery; Droopy Dog); Peter and the Wolf  (Clyde Geronimi and Walt Disney); Walky Talky Hawky (Robert McKimson; Foghorn Leghorn); Book Revue (Bob Clampett); Rhapsody Rabbit (Friz Freling; Bugs Bunny); Lonesome Lenny (Tex Avery; Screwy Squirrel); John Henry and the Inky Poo (George Pal)

BLACK-AND-WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY: Henri Alekan, LA BELLE ET LA BETE (2nd: Guy Green, Great Expectations, followed by: Rudolph Maté, Gilda; Nicholas Musuraca, The Spiral Staircase; Arthur Miller, Anna and the King of Siam) 

COLOR CINEMATOGRAPHY: Lee Garmes, Ray Rennahan, and Harold Rosson, DUEL IN THE SUN (2nd: Charles Rosher, Leonard Smith, and Arthur Arling, The Yearling, followed by: Jack Cardiff, A Matter of Life and Death; Andrei Moskvin and Edouard Tisse, Ivan the Terrible Part Two: The Boyars Plot; Eduard Cronjager, Canyon Passage)

BLACK-AND-WHITE ART DIRECTION: GREAT EXPECTATIONS, Beauty and the Beast, Anna and the King of Siam, It's a Wonderful Life, The Spiral Staircase 

COLOR ART DIRECTION: THE YEARLING, Duel in the Sun, Ivan the Terrible Part Two: The Boyars Plot

BLACK-AND-WHITE COSTUME DESIGN: ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM, Great Expectations, Beauty and the Beast, Gilda, The Spiral Staircase 

COLOR COSTUME DESIGN: CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA, Ivan the Terrible Part Two: The Boyars Plot, Duel in the Sun 

FILM EDITING: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, The Killers, My Darling Clementine, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Postman Always Rings Twice 

SOUND: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Jolson Story, Duel in the Sun, Great Expectations 



ORIGINAL SCORE: Dimitri Tiomkin, DUEL IN THE SUN (2nd: Georges Auric, La Belle et la Bete, followed by: Miklós Rózsa, The Killers; Bernard Herrmann, Anna and the King of Siam; Franz Waxman, Humoresque)

ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Morris Stoloff, THE JOLSON STORY (2nd: Ray Heindorf and Max Steiner, Night and Day, followed by: Lennie Hayton, The Harvey Girls)



ORIGINAL SONG: "You Make Me Feel So Young" from THREE LITTLE GIRLS IN BLUE (Music by Josef Myrow, lyrics by Mack Gordon) (2nd: "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah: from Song of the South (Music by Allie Wrubel, lyrics by Ray Gilbert), followed by: "Put The Blame on Mame" from Gilda (Music by Allan Roberts, lyrics by Doris Fisher); "Personality" from Road to Utopia (Music by Jimmy Van Heausen, lyrics by Johnny Burke); "On The Acheson, Topeka and the Santa Fe" from The Harvey Girls (Music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Johnny Mercer))

MAKEUP: LA BELLE ET LA BETE, Great Expectations, Ivan the Terrible Part Two: The Boyars Plot

1943--The Year in Review

Of course, World War II had a tremendously negative effect on the film output this year, as many of the planet's most talented movie artists were deeply preoccupied with the battleground. If you subtract Casablanca from the running (as I did--it's really a 1942 release, despite what the Academy determined), then Alfred Hitchcock's own favorite of his own works, Shadow of a Doubt, hits the top spot quite easily in most areas. I revel in both the darkness of Carl Dreyer's radically silent-flavored Day of Wrath--an incisive dramatization of ancient witch hunting--and the stirringly patriotic work of UK auteurs Powell and Pressberger, whose magnificent wartime character study was confidently led by the vibrant, unforgettable Roger Livesey. But Hitchcock's first uncontestably brilliant foray away from British shores wryly dramatized the fascination with violence that would continue to eat up the United States (I consider this his first resolutely American film, and a precursor to Psycho). I adore Shadow of a Doubt--it's easily the most entertaining movie of the year, and how great is it that Thornton Wilder, the penman of the iconic Our Town, lended his own unique cornfed-America-flavored voice to the screenplay? Best Actress was won at the Oscars by Jennifer Jones (mainly because her husband David O. Selznick campaigned vociferously on her behalf). But previous winner Joan Fontaine was simply dazzling playing both a bouncy young girl and a mature woman in the little-seen The Constant Nymph (a lost film only recently revealed again on Turner Classic Movies around 2012). On the craft level, the remake of Phantom of the Opera marked a colorful notch for the horror genre, but then so did the evocative black-and-white work in Jacques Tourneur's I Walked With a Zombie and Mark Robson's The Seventh Victim (each working under the aegis of legendary producer Val Lewton, who also contributed The Leopard Man this year). As for short films, we received two of the most spirited ever made: Maya Deren and Alexander Hamid's Meshes of the Afternoon and Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood. Meanwhile, the Best Song category was as hotly contested as ever in this tuneful era. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold.

PICTURE: SHADOW OF A DOUBT (US, Alfred Hitchcock)
(2nd: Day of Wrath (Denmark, Carl Th. Dreyer), followed by:
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (UK, Michael Powell)
The More the Merrier (US, George Stevens)
I Walked With a Zombie (US, Jacques Tourneur)
The Ox-Bow Incident (US, William A. Wellman)
The Human Comedy (US, Clarence Brown)
Hangmen Also Die (US, Fritz Lang)
Heaven Can Wait (US, Ernst Lubitsch)
Air Force (US, Howard Hawks)
The Song of Bernadette (US, Henry King)
A Guy Named Joe (US, Michael Curtiz)
Five Graves to Cairo (US, Billy Wilder)
The Seventh Victim (US, Mark Robson))

ACTOR: Roger Livesey, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (2nd: Joseph Cotten, Shadow of a Doubt, followed by: Joel McCrea, The More the Merrier; Don Ameche, Heaven Can Wait; Orson Welles, Jane Eyre)

ACTRESS: Joan Fontaine, THE CONSTANT NYMPH (2nd: Jean Arthur, The More the Merrier, followed by: Teresa Wright, Shadow of a Doubt; Jennifer Jones, The Song of Bernadette; Lisbeth Movin, Day of Wrath)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Charles Coburn, THE MORE THE MERRIER (2nd: Henry Travers, Shadow of a Doubt, followed by: Vincent Price, The Song of Bernadette; Frank Conroy The Ox-Bow Incident; Anton Walbrook, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Patricia Collinge, SHADOW OF A DOUBT (2nd: Anne Svierkier, Day of Wrath, followed by: Katina Paxinou, For Whom the Bell Tolls; Edna May Wonacott, Shadow of a Doubt; Gladys Cooper, The Song of Bernadette)



DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock, SHADOW OF A DOUBT (2nd: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, followed by: Carl Th. Dreyer, Day of Wrath; Jacques Tourneur, I Walked With a Zombie; George Stevens, The More The Merrier)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (2nd: Robert Russell, Frank Ross, Richard Flournoy and Lewis R. Foster, The More The Merrier, followed by: John Wexley, Bertold Brecht, and Fritz Lang, Hangmen Also Die; Dalton Trumbo, Chandler Sprague, David Boehm, and Frederick Hazlett Brennen, A Guy Named Joe)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Thornton Wilder, Alma Reville and Sally Benson, SHADOW OF A DOUBT (2nd: Lamar Trotti, The Ox-Bow Incident, followed by: Carl Th. Dreyer, Poal Knudson, and Mogens Skot-Hansen, Day of Wrath; Samson Raphelson, Heaven Can Wait; Howard Estabrook, The Human Comedy)

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (Maya Deren and Alexander Hamid) (2nd: The Silent Village (Humphrey Jennings); They Stooge to Conga (The Three Stooges; Del Lord); Dizzy Pilots (The Three Stooges; Jules White); Heavenly Music (Sam Coslow))

ANIMATED SHORT FILM: RED HOT RIDING HOOD (Tex Avery) (2nd: Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarves (Bob Clampett); A Corny Concerto (Bob Clampett); Yankee Doodle Daffy (Friz Freleng); An Itch in Time (Bob Clampett))

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Karl Andersson, DAY OF WRATH (2nd: J. Roy Hunt, I Walked With a Zombie, followed by: Hal Mohr and W. Howard Greene, Phantom of the Opera; George Perinal, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp; Leonard Smith, Lassie Come Home)



ART DIRECTION: PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, Shadow of a Doubt, Day of Wrath, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Five Graves to Cairo

COSTUME DESIGN: PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, The Song of Bernadette, Day of Wrath, Jane Eyre, The Constant Nymph 

FILM EDITING: SHADOW OF A DOUBT, The Ox-Bow Incident, Air Force, Five Graves to Cairo, The Song of Bernadette 

SOUND: AIR FORCE, Hangmen Also Die, Shadow of a Doubt, Phantom of the Opera, The Song of Bernadette


 
ORIGINAL SCORE: Alfred Newman, THE SONG OF BERNADETTE (2nd: Roy Webb, I Walked With a Zombie, followed by: Allan Gray, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp; Bernard Herrmann, Jane Eyre; Hanns Eisler, Hangmen Also Die)



ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Ray Heindorf, THIS IS THE ARMY (2nd: Edward Ward, Phantom of the Opera, followed by: Dimitri Tiomkin, Shadow of a Doubt; Leigh Harline, The Sky's The Limit; Frederic E. Rich, Stage Door Canteen)



ORIGINAL SONG: "That Old Black Magic" from STAR SPANGLED RHYTHM (Music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Johnny Mercer) (2nd: "You'll Never Know" from Hello, Frisco, Hello (Music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Mack Gordon); "They're Either Too Young or Too Old" from Thank Your Lucky Stars (Music by Arthur Schwartz, lyrics by Frank Loesser); "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" from Something to Shout About (Music and lyrics by Cole Porter); "Happiness is a Thing Called Joe" from Cabin in the Sky (Music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by E.Y. Harberg))

SPECIAL EFFECTS: AIR FORCE, Crash Dive, So Proudly We Hail!