Friday, April 1, 2016

Oscar Got It Wrong: Best Picture 1944

The Contenders:

Double Indemnity
Gaslight
Going My Way (winner)
Since You Went Away
Wilson

What’s Missing

For a dozen years before 1944, the Academy nominated between 8 and twelve films for Best Picture every year. In 1944, the Academy reverted to five nominees, which means this seems likt the first year in more than a decade where there are plenty of possible additional nominees. We don’t need to stray that far to find a few worthy nominations that belong here more readily than one or two of the actual nominations, in fact. Both Laura and Lifeboat seem like films that could belong here. While it’s not a film I like much, Meet Me in St. Louis does seem like something that would normally snag a nomination as well. To Have and Have Not and Murder, My Sweet could be argued as well, as could Olivier’s version of Henry V. How about Arsenic and Old Lace?

Weeding through the Nominees

5: Wilson is the film that most clearly doesn’t belong here. While it’s certainly pretty to look at in terms of how it was film, it’s too long, too dull, and far too willing to treat Woodrow Wilson as a saint. This is less a biography than it is a hagiography, and the canonization of Saint Woodrow, frankly, isn’t that interesting. Trim this down by a third and I might be a lot more amenable to it. As it is, I’d like all of the films I mentioned above—including Meet Me in St. Louis--over this one in the mix. Some of those might still end up in fifth place, but they’d deserve it more.

4. I have a similar complaint about Since You Went Away. I like this film better, but it suffers from at least one problem in common with Wilson: it’s far too long for the story it tells. This is a two-hour story told in three hours. Another problem is that it’s terribly predictable. I guessed the fate of virtually every character in the film correctly and did so far in advance of the film’s conclusion. I get the desire to make an American version of Mrs. Miniver, but it could stand some more interesting events and a serious trim to make it worth being on this list.

3. With Gaslight, we’re getting to the films here that I actually like pretty well. I was surprised that I liked this as much as I did, since I expected nothing from it going in. It’s pretty engaging, though, almost in spite of itself. It benefits greatly from having Joseph Cotten in a main role and from being an entertaining costume drama with a good amount of suspense. I don’t think it deserves to win, but it’s the first nomination that I’m happy with, even if I still might replace it with some of the other choices I listed above.

2: No one was more surprised than I was that I liked Going My Way. I also understand precisely why it won—in a country mired in war, tired and wanting only to have a few hours of peace, Going My Way served that role perfectly and beautifully. It helps that Bing Crosby is almost immediately likeable on screen. It helps that the songs are really good. It’s a feel-good film and it’s a film that genuinely makes the view feel good while and after watching. I get it. It might even well have been my choice in 1944 because of what the film really meant to the people at the time. But it’s not my choice now.

My Choices

1: Objectively—and I say that rarely—there is no film from 1944 that has had a bigger impact on film and on filmmakers than Double Indemnity. For as good as Going My Way is at temporarily curing the ills of a weary country, for as entertaining as Gaslight is, for as much as Laura or Lifeboat earned the right to really be here, Double Indemnity is the only real choice. It’s not only my favorite film from 1944, I think I could argue that it is truly the best film from this year. It should have won, even if I fully understand the reasons it didn’t.



Final Analysis

15 comments:

  1. Just for the record, Olivier's Henry V did get nominated for Best Picture.... for 1946, somehow getting nominated two years after its initial release. Same thing with Great Expectations getting bumped back a year and getting nominated anyway; I'd gone through my list of Best Picture noms and noticed the discrepancy with these two just yesterday; I hadn't even had them linked to the 1001 reviews I'd done for them due to how off they were from their release years.

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    1. That's a completely fair point about Henry V. I don't usually look more than a year outside of the one I'm addressing, which is why I missed it. This also explains why I didn't mention National Velvet, which was nominated for Best Director in 1945 despite being the 12th-highest grossing film of 1944.

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  2. This year was given. In hindsight you just cannot argue against Double Indemnity. I like Murder My Sweet a lot, it is just not Oscar material.

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    1. In hindsight, I agree. At the time, though, Going My Way was more or less the movie everyone needed. I completely understand its win.

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  3. I completely agree that Wilson, which I didn't hate but I can't honestly say I liked much either, should never have made the cut. I do however really like both Gaslight and Going My Way, though I think GMW is nothing more than highly enjoyable sentimental pap, but I wouldn't place either in the five finalists either.

    Though it would come in fifth I'd include Since You Went Away not so much for its story as for its cinematic techniques. It would be followed by Meet Me in St. Louis, almost as sentimental as Going My Way but with darker underpinnings and more cinematic and directorial breath. Than the brilliant Laura which like Casablanca pulls all the standard elements of a studio product together and by some lucky alchemy turned out to be a completely unique piece of art. Which would leave the decision between Double Indemnity and Lifeboat both worthy and I wouldn't argue that Indemnity's reach has been the greater and that of the actual nominees it should have been the undisputed winner but Hitchcock's allegorical microcosm is the one I return to far more often and would be my choice.

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    1. For what it's worth, I watch Double Indemnity about once a year (although I think I missed last year). Along with Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon, it's by far the film from the '40s I watch more than any other.

      I ended up enjoying Going My Way far more than I figured I would. That in and of itself, considering the basic plot and characters, is surprising enough to make it noteworthy in my opinion. I genuinely dislike Meet Me in St. Louis.

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  4. 1944 - The first film from 1944 that popped into my head that wasn't already nominated was ... House of Frankenstein!
    I checked my IMDB list for best movies year-by-year and my choice was Double Indemnity. Clearly I was thinking straight when I made the list. But I do like Murder My Sweet, Laura, Gaslight, Going My Way and Meet Me in St. Louis a lot!

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    1. We'll disagree on Meet Me in St. Louis, but I won't disagree on the others. This is a nomination list that could stand a lot of improving.

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  5. You won't get any argument from me! Some films that you haven't mentioned and I like better than some of the actual nominees, but wouldn't have had a chance at Oscar time, were The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, A Canterbury Tale, The Children Are Watching Us, and To Have and Have Not.

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    1. I'm not sure The Miracle of Morgan's Creek had the gravitas for Best Picture...and then I remember that Going My Way won, so who am I to say? That and Hail the Conquering Hero are two I considered for the first paragraph, but I don't think there's enough there for them to really be considered. Still, both are worth watching.

      I'm of the opinion that To Have and Have Not is a bit overrated--its reputation comes from its stars, not from the film itself.

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    2. I love the part where Bacall says "What's Vichy? A kind of perfume?"
      And Steve, er, Harry just says "yeah" and moves on.

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  6. It doesn't take too much for me to prefer a movie to a nominee given that I could never even finish watching Since You Went Away and only finished Wilson by using every last ounce of my will power!

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    1. I can't disagree, as those are clearly the two that I'd get rid of for other, better, films.

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  7. I'd rate the five nominees in the same order you did, and for much of the same reasons. I'd definitely have nominated Laura and it would be my number 2 choice for the year.

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    1. I don't know if Laura would be my number 2, but it would be in my five...and almost certainly top 3.

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