Best Picture: A Critical Look at the Academy Award-winning Films 1927-2022

By Laurence E. MacDonald

About the Book
This book is a fascinating look at the history of the Oscars that dates back to 1927. Every Best Picture winner is profiled in the book. Although there have been many books listing the Oscar winners, there has never been one like this that looks in depth at every film that has been awarded the Oscar for Best Picture. The author evaluates each film and then presents at the end of each article his personal choice for the year's best film. In about two-third of the films, he selects a Best Picture that is different from the Academy Award-winner. He also includes sections of “Memorable Moments” that make each film special. The book will be of great value to movie fans, but it will also be enjoyable to anyone who has ever wondered what the fuss is about when a film is awarded Best Picture.
About the Author
Laurence E. MacDonald is a Professor Emeritus from Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan, where he taught music history, literature, appreciation, film music, and private piano study. He is also a former church choir director and author of several books, including The Invisible Art of Film Music and 100 Greatest Film Scores. MacDonald is a performing member and newsletter editor of the St. Cecilia Society of Flint. He is also former music critic of the Flint Journal and film reviewer of Michael Moore’s newspaper the Flint Voice. For over twenty years he hosted Music from Movies, which ran weekly on Flint’s public radio station WFBE.
MacDonald has six children, three of whom are Catholic priests and avid movie fans. He has been married to Carolyn McDonough since 2013. Together they have worked to update an old colonial home in Flint’s East Village neighborhood, and have recently adopted a fun-loving beagle named Emmy, who also likes old movies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Company
• Release date: Feb 19, 2024
• ISBN: 9798887298696

Book preview

Other Works

by Laurence E. MacDonald

The Piano Music of Charles-Valentin Alkan

The Invisible Art of Film Music: A Comprehensive History

A Musical Legacy: The St. Cecilia Society from 1890 to 2015

(Based on the original text by Alice Lethbridge, with revisions, corrections, and

additional material by Laurence E. MacDonald)

100 Greatest Film Scores (co-authored with Matt Lawson)

PREFACE

Considering the fact that I saw Bambi at a theater in Illinois when I was five, my infatuation with movies goes back a long way. My mother always loved going to the movies, ever since she played the piano for silent films as a high-school student growing up in Minnesota. When my family re-located to Columbus, Ohio in 1948 when I was seven, I became my mother’s steady film-going companion.

It didn’t take long for me to become aware of the Academy Awards, and after purchasing an almanac I found myself memorizing the lists of Oscar-winners in the Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Actress categories. By the time the first Oscar show was broadcast on television on March 19, 1953, I was totally enthralled with the idea of seeing all the Academy Award-winning Best Pictures. Thanks to the fact that by the mid-1950s the major movie studios were packaging many of their classic films for TV showings, I was able to view at home many of the award-winning films made prior to 1950. This is how I first saw the back-to-back winners from 1936 and 1937 – The Great Ziegfeld and The Life of Emile Zola. Fortunately, when they appeared on a local channel at 8 p.m. as part of a continuing Saturday night series, my mother allowed me to stay up past my normal bedtime so I could watch these films, which thankfully were shown without commercial interruptions.

Other TV viewings of classic Oscar-winning films were not in prime time. In fact, a regular late show devoted to old movies, called Armchair Theater, started at 11:30 p.m., after the late local news broadcast. During my teens I somehow avoided being forced to turn off the TV after the news, so I got to see Rebecca, which with commercials ran to around 2 a.m. Even more sleep-depriving was The Best Years of Our Lives, which ran until 3 a.m.

I first saw Casablanca as a sophomore in college, when it ran on daytime TV. My parents were at work and since it was summertime, I saw Bogie kissing Bergman even though I was supposed to be mowing the lawn and washing my mother’s car.

A special movie-going experience of my youth came when Gone With the Wind was re-released around 1953. My mother, who worked all day as a secretary, planned for my older brother and me to meet her after work, have dinner downtown, and see Selznick’s immortal classic in the evening. Mom had seen it when it first came out, but she thought her boys should be exposed to one of the Academy Awards’ biggest Oscar winners. Although I have seen GWTW in many later theatrical re-releases, this showing remains one of my favorite movie memories.

These are only a few of the treasurable film viewings of my youth. As I progressed into adulthood, I never stopped going to the movies, and never stopped memorizing the lists of Oscar winners. When Robert Osborne, the late host of TCM’s prime-time film telecasts, produced his first book on the Oscars in 1964, I was given the opportunity to learn not only the winners in all the various categories, but also the other nominees as well. I still have a lasting devotion to the Oscars even though, as I have aged, I have come to learn that not all the winners may have been worthy of the awards they won.

My recent multiple viewings of the films included in this book have led me to appreciate several Oscar-winning films much more, but also to conclude that many other award winners do not truly represent the most outstanding films of their respective years. The contents of this book will hopefully guide readers in forming a better awareness of all the Best Pictures, many of which remain lasting cinema classics.

Introduction

1: THE MOVIES’ ANNUAL BIG NIGHT

For avid film enthusiasts, one of the most highly anticipated events of the year is the annual Academy Awards telecast. After the usual parade of celebrity hosts and award recipients, the latter of whom often thank almost everyone they know when they receive the golden statuettes, the evening’s most eagerly awaited moment arrives with the announcement of the nominees for Best Picture. When the envelope is opened and the name of the year’s best film is proclaimed, the newly selected Oscar-winning film joins a roster that has grown to include more than ninety Best Pictures since the Academy Awards began.

2: ALL ABOUT THIS BOOK

This book has evolved as an attempt to critically evaluate all the movies that have won the Best-Picture Oscar. The first step in this project is an examination of the process used in determining how the films discussed in this book have been chosen as Best Pictures. Out of the thousands of movies that been released since the Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, came into existence in 1927, the Best-Picture award has been bestowed on films that have exemplified qualities of both artistic excellence and social significance. Some of these films, such as The Godfather and Titanic, became box-office blockbusters, while others, such as Annie Hall and The Last Emperor, although highly praised by critics, had a more limited popular appeal.

Some films, such as Gone with the Wind and Lawrence of Arabia, seemed destined to win the Best-Picture award from the moment of their release, while An American in Paris and Crash entered their respective Oscar races in 1951 and 2005 as true underdogs that shocked many predictors of the Academy Award winners when they were both honored as Best Picture.

Timing has often been a significant factor in the winning of Oscars. In 1944, while World War II was still raging, several substantive dramas were among the five Best-Picture nominees, but Going My Way, a pleasant feel-good film with the year’s top box-office star, Bing Crosby, as a singing priest, dominated the awards with seven Oscars, including one for Best Picture.

Timing had everything to do with the win by Broadway Melody in 1928-1929. Advertised as MGM’s first all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing picture, this film was a real novelty for filmgoers who had not previously seen a talkie, but now its appeal has almost completely vanished.

In retrospect, many Best-Picture Oscars have gone to films that were trendy when they were first released but now seem dated. For example, Gentleman’s Agreement was considered controversial back in 1947 because it daringly attempted to expose the evils of antisemitism. Now it remains a well-acted but slow-moving film with lots of preachy dialogue.

It may indeed be difficult for today’s movie enthusiasts to appreciate films made decades ago. With that thought in mind this author has attempted, through recent viewings of all the Best Pictures, to re-evaluate them. By presenting the entries included in this book in chronological order, it is hoped that the reader may gain a better awareness of the many changes in filmmaking that have taken place over the last nine decades that have significantly impacted the choices made by Academy voters.

3: ALL ABOUT THE MOTION PICTURE ACADEMY

Since the advent of the Academy Awards, all of the Oscar winners have been chosen by ballots cast exclusively by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a Los Angeles-based entity that was founded in 1927 by Louis B. Mayer.

Mayer, then head of production at MGM, conceived the idea of a professional organization that could mediate labor disputes and promote harmony among the various branches of movie-studio employees. The Academy’s founding members consisted of thirty-six film personnel that included a consortium of actors, producers, directors, writers, and technicians.

The first members of the Academy soon found other reasons to exist besides the resolution of labor issues. After being elected the Academy’s first president, Douglas Fairbanks announced the creation of awards of merit for distinctive achievement.¹

Membership in the Academy grew quickly, with a roster that reached around 230 voting members as of the Academy’s initial banquet held on May 11, 1927. The first awards ceremony occurred during a similar banquet held two years later on May 16, 1929. Interestingly, the first awards presentation lasted for only five minutes. Over the years the Academy’s membership has grown to around 10,000 members and the length of the annual Oscar ceremony has also mushroomed greatly, as those who faithfully watch the show every year undeniably know.

There was little doubt about which films would win Oscars during the Academy’s early years, since all of the winners were notified ahead of time and many of the early winning films were made by highly esteemed Academy members, who may have had some sway in the balloting. Secrecy came later, along with the mystery concerning the origin of Oscar, a nickname that came into popular use sometime during the first decade of the Academy Awards’ existence. Three people have claimed credit for this nickname: Academy librarian Margaret Herrick; Oscar-winning actress Bette Davis; and columnist Sidney Skolsky.²

There is no guarantee that the most critically-acclaimed films will always be awarded Oscars, but there is still the expectation that cinematic excellence will be recognized by Academy voters.

4: ALL ABOUT SHIFTING ELIGIBILITY PERIODS

The first Oscar race was limited to films released between August 1, 1927 and July 31, 1928. The Academy used this same split-year period for each of the next four years. For the sixth year the eligibility period was extended to include films released from August, 1932 to the end of 1933, so that starting in 1934 the Oscars would reflect the calendar year. This eligibility rule has been in place ever since.³

There is an additional qualification: to be eligible for the Oscar, a film must be publicly shown for at least one week in a theater in Los Angeles during a given year.

A little-known fact concerns the name assigned to the Best-Picture category. The original designation was Best Production, but after the first three Academy Award races the category was renamed Best Picture, the official designation for all subsequent best-film Oscar winners.

5: ALL ABOUT NOMINEE LIMITS

Another variable about the Best-Picture category is the allowable number of nominees in any given year. The fewest nominees occurred in the very first Oscar race of 1927-28, when three films were nominated for either Best Production or for Artistic Quality of Production (a category that was dropped after that first year). For the next three years the number of nominees was set at five, but in 1931-32 there were eight nominees. In 1932-33 the number reached ten, while in the following two years the nominee list reached an all-time high of twelve.

In 1936 the list of nominees was stabilized at ten, a number that persisted until 1945, when the list was reduced to five. This number remained in place until 2009, when a complicated point system was introduced that allowed between five and ten films to be nominated. As this book has reached its final editing, yet another rule has been announced that standardizes the Best-Picture nominee list at ten, beginning with the 2021 film year.

6: ALL ABOUT AN EXTRA OSCAR-WINNING FILM

Since there have been ninety-four Academy Award competitions through the beginning of 2022, the official number of best-film winners is currently ninety-four, but in the first year of the awards, as indicated above, when Wings won as the Best Production, there was a second Oscar-winning film, in a category called Artistic Quality of Production. The winner, F. W. Murnau’s Sunrise, is in my estimation such a classic film that I decided to discuss it in the forthcoming pages. Thus, with the inclusion of two winners from 1927-1928, there are in all ninety-five film articles featured in this book.⁴

7: ALL ABOUT THE STRUCTURE OF THIS BOOK

These ninety-five films are presented as individual entries arranged in chronological order. Each entry begins with the title and year of the film, with my personal rating from 1 to 10 (with 10 the best) placed under the date. beneath the rating comes the film’s director and producer, followed by the studio where the picture originated, or in many cases the company that released it. Next comes a listing of the film’s screen credits, with each category featuring the persons responsible for a particular craft, such as writing, cinematography, art direction, editing, sound, and music.

Be mindful of the fact that not all of the technical categories were recognized by the Academy in the early years of the Oscars. For instance, there were no music awards until 1934, and costuming awards were not handed out until the 1947 film year. Also note that some categories have gone through name changes, particularly in the area of production design. In the visual areas of costuming, cinematography, and production design (aka Art Direction-Set Decoration), for many years there were awards for both black-and-white films and those made in color. This distinction remained in place until 1966, when these crafts were merged into single categories. In this book the citations that refer to black-and-white films include the letters b/w in parentheses, while all other visual awards and nominations refer to color films.

Following these technical credits comes a list of the film’s principal cast members, with the character names appearing in parentheses. For example, the listing in Casablanca includes the following: Humphrey Bogart (Rick Blaine); Ingrid Bergman (Ilsa Lund). The film’s running time comes next, with the film’s length listed as in It Happened One Night (105 minutes).

The next listing includes the Academy Awards won by each film, followed by Additional Nominations. Each entry features both the total number of Oscars the film won and the number of any additional nominations earned by that film.

After the Oscar citations there is a listing of Other Accolades awarded the film by such organizations as the National Board of Review, New York Film Critics Circle, and the British Academy Awards (known as the BAFTAs).

Following all of these listings comes the primary part of each entry, beginning with BACKGROUND, which includes information about the picture’s origin, followed by PLOT, a short synopsis of the film’s story. Next comes a series of comments on certain scenes collectively called MEMORABLE MOMENTS. Each entry also includes a SUMMATION, in which the film is appraised as a whole. The final section of each entry includes two lists, THE OTHER BEST-PICTURE NOMINEES and OTHER WORTHY CONTENDERS, followed by WHAT FILM SHOULD HAVE WON? Here I compare and contrast many of these films and present my personal choice of the year’s Best Picture.

8: SOME FINAL THOUGHTS:

You will not find in this book a list of films ranked from best to worst or vice versa. The purpose of this book centers on aiding the reader in viewing the Oscar-winning films more thoughtfully, and with the idea that a really good film is worthwhile no matter how many times you watch it. One’s personal estimation of certain films may change significantly through repeated viewings, so I encourage you to watch the films included in this book more than once.

Also keep in mind that Oscar balloting reflects only the preferences of Motion-Picture Academy members, so don’t feel obligated to like a film just because it won lots of awards. Your preferences, as with mine, are just as valid as those made by the Academy.

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¹ Anthony Holden, Behind the Oscar: The Hidden History of the Academy Awards (New York: Plume Books, 1994), p. 88

² Ibid, p. 84

³ Robert Osborne, 75 Years of Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards (New York: Abbeville Press, 2003), p.16

⁴ Charles Matthews, Oscar A to Z: A Complete Guide to More Than 2,400 Movies Nominated for Academy Awards (New York: Doubleday, 1995), p. 840

WINGS

1927-28

Rating: 7

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Director: William Wellman; Producers: Lucien Hubbard and B.P. Schulberg; Studio: Paramount; Original Screenplay: Hope Loring and Louis D. Lighton; Story: John Monk Saunders; Titles: Julian Johnson; Cinematography (b/w): Harry Perry; Interior Decoration (b/w): Hans Drier; Costume Design (b/w): Travis Banton and Edith Head; Film Editing: E. Lloyd Sheldon and Lucien Hubbard; Musical Score: J.S. Zamecnik; Engineering Effects: Roy Pomeroy; Cast: Charles Rogers (Jack Powell); Richard Arlen (David Armstrong); Clara Bow (Mary Preston); Jobyna Ralston (Sylvia); Gary Cooper (White); Running Time: 144 minutes; Academy Awards (2): Production; Engineering Effects; Additional Nominations: None; Other Accolades: Added to the National Film Registry in 1997; Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2002.

BACKGROUND: Wings is the first winner of the Best Picture award (then called Best Production), and the single totally-silent film to win in that category. It tells the story of two Americans who join the U.S. Army Air Service during World War I and became members of the American Expeditionary Force in France. Wellman, the film’s director, had been a flyer in the Lafayette Escadrille prior to becoming a film director, and thus he used his own experiences to help make the aviation scenes in Wings look authentic. Although Clara Bow is top billed, the role of Mary is relatively small, but she adds a likeable perkiness as the girl next door.

PLOT: Two young men from the same American town become daredevil pilots in France during World War I. Before the war they are not good friends, largely because Jack Powell comes from a lower social class than David Armstrong, who is the son of the town’s wealthiest family. Another point of contention is their mutual affection for Sylvia, who actually loves David. Jack’s next-door neighbor, Mary, also dates David, although she truly loves Jack, who treats her simply as a friend.

Mary seems infatuated with Jack’s sporty car, which he restores and then drives crazily around town. When Jack leaves for the war he asks her to look after his car while he’s away.

When Jack and David are assigned to the same flight-training unit, at first they don’t get along, but after a contentious boxing match they drop their petty rivalry and become best friends.

After they arrive in France, they both become flying aces and engage in several air battles against German pilots. In the first aerial battle of the film, they both show extreme bravery and are subsequently awarded medals by a French military officer.

In the film’s climactic aerial battle, they both attempt to shoot down a German pilot named Kettering (a character that is possibly based on the Red Baron). Jack luckily avoids being shot down, but David suffers a cruel fate after his plane crashes behind enemy lines.

When David steals a German plane and attempts to fly back to the French airfield, Jack spots the German cross on the plane’s fuselage, and starts firing at it. David’s plane is hit, his plane crashes, and he is killed.

As a survivor of the war, a guilt-ridden Jack returns to his town and is greeted with a victory parade. In an attempt to deal with his guilt, he then goes to David’s home to seek atonement from David’s grieving parents, who find a way to forgive Jack. At film’s end Jack and Mary are last seen driving off in his sporty car.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS: Early in the film, once they are assigned to the same unit, Jack and David move into a tent that is already occupied by a more experienced flyer who is currently asleep. When they meet Cadet White the next morning, we see that this tall, good-looking flyer is played by Gary Cooper. Although Cooper’s performance takes up only about two minutes of screen time, when White flashes a big smile at the new recruits, it is obvious that this young actor is headed for screen stardom.

During an aerial sequence, Jack flies in pursuit of a giant German plane called the Gotha. While this huge plane downs a lot of French planes and kills their pilots, Jack gets the upper hand by flying at a higher altitude, from which he is able to shoot down the German plane, which ends up crashing spectacularly to the ground. An added point of interest in the flying scenes is the yellow tinting used for the gunfire and flames coming from both German and Allied planes.

One of the film’s most humorous scenes occurs when Jack becomes inebriated while hanging out at a nightclub in Paris. He is so hung over that he doesn’t even recognize Mary, who has joined the war as an ambulance driver. She attempts with little success to get him to look at her, despite her rather skimpy dress that she teasingly flaunts in front of him.

SUMMATION: It is the film’s vivid battle sequences that ultimately make Wings worth watching. These scenes, which were expertly photographed by Harry Parry, are significant compensations for the rather sentimental story that takes up much of the film. The non-war scenes add some humor to Wings, although the Paris sequence goes on far too long.

The Paramount studio DVD contains two versions of the film, one with an organ score played by Gaylord Carter, and the other with a restored 2012 print that includes a re-recorded version of the film’s original score by J. S. Zamecnik. Not only does the Zamecnik score include a robust main theme, but it features several familiar tunes, especially My Buddy, which is heard in scenes that feature Jack and David when they become friends. At the end of the film, this song adds an emotional flavor to Jack’s homecoming, when he has to face David’s parents, who have just learned of their son’s death.

THE OTHER BEST-PRODUCTION NOMINEES: The Racket, 7th Heaven.

OTHER WORTHY CONTENDERS: The Jazz Singer, The Circus

While Howard Hughes’s production of The Racket is a crime melodrama of no great distinction, 7th Heaven is a sweet romantic film with a fine performance by Janet Gaynor, whose Best-Actress Oscar was based on three films, also including Street Angel and Sunrise (see next entry). The sensational popularity of The Jazz Singer as the first talkie doesn’t negate the fact that the film is not all that memorable, except for its musical sequences that benefit from Jolson’s charismatic performing. On the other hand, Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus is a delightful silent film in which the tramp character gets hired to perform at a traveling circus. Both Jazz Singer and The Circus were removed from eligibility as the Best Production but received honorary awards (see next entry).

WHAT FILM SHOULD HAVE WON?: Today Wings is primarily memorable for its action scenes, which were impressively filmed and remain worth watching. In comparison, The Racket is a silent film of little distinction apart from good performances by Thomas Meighan as a police chief and Louis Wolheim as a gangster.

7th Heaven, which deservedly won three Oscars, including one for director Frank Borzage, is a highly romantic film that includes a beguiling first hour, but with subsequent war scenes that interfere somewhat with the film’s overall charm. 7th Heaven’s chances of winning a Best-Production Oscar may have been compromised by the fact that the Academy also awarded a second production award that year, and the recipient, F. W. Murnau’s hauntingly memorable Sunrise, has many connections with Borzage’s film. Not only are both romantic in style, but they both feature Janet Gaynor, who portrays a damsel in distress in both films. Thus the similarity between the two films may have resulted in Academy voters preferring to choose Wings as Best Production. After comparing the films nominated in the Best-Production category, it is without question that 7th Heaven should have won the award over Wings.

SUNRISE

1927-28

Rating: 10

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Director: F. W. Murnau; Producer: William Fox; Studio: Fox; Screenplay: Carl Meyer, based on the story The Excursion to Tilsit by Hermann Sudermann; Titles: Katherine Hilliker and H. H. Caldwell; Cinematography (b/w): Charles Rosher and Karl Struss; Interior Decoration (b/w): Rochus Gliese; Film Editing: Harold D. Schuster; Musical Score: Hugo Riesenfeld; Cast: George O’Brien (The Man); Janet Gaynor (The Wife); Margaret Livingston (The Woman of the City); Bodil Rosing (The Maid); J. Farrell MacDonald (The Photographer); Running Time: 94 minutes; Academy Awards (3): Artistic Quality of Production; Actress (Gaynor); Cinematography (b/w); Additional Nominations (1): Interior Decoration (b/w); Other Accolades: In 2002: Added to the National Film Registry; In 2012 ranked no. 5 on the list of greatest films of all time in Sight and Sound critics poll.

BACKGROUND: This was the only time when a film won an Academy Award in a category called Artistic Quality of Production. In doing so, in the first year of the Oscars, the Academy effectively awarded two prizes for Best Picture. Director F. W. Murnau, who had already achieved wide recognition in his native Germany for the 1922 horror film Nosferatu, came to Hollywood in 1927 in search of the artistic freedom to make films his own way. It was his good fortune that William Fox, head of the Fox studio, offered him a contract that allowed him to make films without any studio interference (an arrangement much like that of Orson Welles when he made Citizen Kane at RKO in 1940). The first product of Murnau’s Fox contract was Sunrise, which was a remarkable artistic success but not a huge box-office champion.

PLOT: Murnau’s film features two main characters, a humble wife and her unfaithful husband. They live as farmers in a village near a lake across from The City. As the film begins, the man is having an affair with a seductive woman who has come to the village for a vacation. During their tryst she convinces him to kill his wife so that they can run off together.

When he returns home from his tryst, he cannot get the woman off his mind, and shortly thereafter he invites his wife to join him for a boat ride across the lake. During their boating sojourn, he appears conflicted about carrying out his plan. When she sees her husband stand up in the boat and menacingly approach her, she becomes greatly frightened. He doesn’t harm her, but when they reach the opposite shore, she runs off, with her husband in close pursuit. He follows her onto a trolley where he attempts to apologize for his frightening behavior.

He attempts to console her by taking her into a restaurant, but once again she runs off. As he continues to follow her, they approach a church, where they observe a young couple about to be married. As the wedding takes place, the wife finally forgives her husband, and they are reunited.

As though they are on a second honeymoon, the happily reunited couple walks through a huge passageway that leads into an enormous amusement park. They dance together in a large hall, and also enjoy an arcade with various games. At one point he becomes a hero by chasing after a small pig that has escaped from one of the arcade stalls. At this point the couple seems to be in love again. On their return boat trip, danger arises when a huge storm causes the capsizing of the boat. Ironically, the man fails to rescue his wife, but after he despairingly returns to their home, a fellow villager announces that the wife has been found. The film ends with the city woman being rebuffed and the farm couple is reunited once more.

.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS: Early in the film, after the husband returns from his rendezvous, He lies in bed while his wife feeds the chickens outside the door. As he watches her, he has visions of himself kissing his lover. Later, when the reconciled couple enters the amusement park, the camera follows them through the archway and soon the viewer sees a vast expanse, with a roller coaster among the many spectacular sights.

One of the film’s most amusing scenes occurs when the husband chases the pig, which runs under the legs of dancers in a large indoor hall. His recovery of the animal helps to endear him even more to his wife, who by now seems to have totally forgiven him for his indiscretions. Another impressive moment occurs when the storm begins, with a beautifully shot moment of a city street with furious winds and horizontally blowing rain.

SUMMATION: Sunrise, which director Murnau subtitled A Song of Two Humans, contains one memorable scene after another. The photography by Charles Rosher and Karl Struss is a huge asset, especially in the central amusement-park episode and the subsequent storm scene.

The film’s synchronized music also plays a special role in the film, most notably when the husband and wife enter the dance hall and begin doing a folk dance together. As this scene continues, the jazzy music from a nearby hall begins to be superimposed over the folk tune.

Despite the fact that there is no spoken dialogue in the film, its use of recorded music and sound effects adds a great deal to its charm.

THE OTHER BEST UNIQUE-QUALITY-OF-PRODUCTION NOMINEES: Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness; The Crowd

OTHER WORTHY CONTENDERS: The Jazz Singer, The Circus

Both of the other nominees in the Artistic Quality category are impressive in different ways. The little-seen Chang remains a noteworthy precursor to the 1933 King Kong, which was made by the same filmmaking team that shot Chang. Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper traveled with a film crew to Siam (now Thailand) to shoot a visually impressive documentary about rice farmers.

King Vidor’s The Crowd is an emotionally involving drama about two New Yorkers who meet, fall in love, get married, and have children. The story is filled with both happy and sad moments as the couple deals with lack of money and the loss of a child.

Both The Jazz Singer and The Circus were removed from competitive contention by the Academy, whose members voted that honorary awards should be given to both films. In the case of Jazz Singer, it was decided that a talking picture should not compete against silent films. A special award went to Warner Bros. for its efforts in producing a film which has revolutionized the [film] industry. With regard to The Circus, Academy members voted to honor Chaplin for "writing, acting, directing and producing The Circus. The collective accomplishments thus displayed place you in a class by yourself."¹

WHAT FILM SHOULD HAVE WON?: Sunrise. By making the distinction between Best Production and Best Artistic Quality of Production, Academy members inadvertently enshrined Wings with a distinction that it really didn’t deserve, since over the years the Academy has disregarded Sunrise as one of the two Best Pictures of 1927-28 and allowed Wings to be recognized as the sole winner as that year’s Best Picture. Many prominent film critics have long considered Sunrise a masterpiece of cinematic art, and their appreciation has remained steady – and even increased – over the years.

One additional bit of recognition on behalf of Sunrise is the film’s inclusion in the 10th Anniversary edition of the American Film Institute’s 1998 made-for-TV program 100 Movies...100 Years. In the AFI’s updated list, Sunrise placed at no. 82 on a list of the 100 greatest films of all time.

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¹ Jim Piazza and Gail Kinn, The Academy Awards: The Complete Unofficial History, Revised and up-to-date (New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2014), p. 13

THE BROADWAY MELODY

1928-29

Rating: 3

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Director: Harry Beaumont; Producer: Harry Rapf; Studio: MGM; Story: Edmund Goulding; Continuity: Sarah Y. Mason; Dialogue: Norman Houston and James Gleason; Titles: Earl Baldwin; Cinematography (b/w + color): John Arnold; Interior Decoration (b/w + color): Cedric Gibbons; Costume Design (b/w + color): David Cox; Film Editor: Sam S. Zimbalist (sound version), William Levanway (silent version); Sound Recording: Douglas Shearer; Music Director: Nacio Herb Brown; Songs: Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown; Cast: Charles King (Eddie Kerns); Anita Page (Queenie); Bessie Love (Hank); Jed Prouty (Uncle Jed); Kenneth Thomson (Jock Warriner); Eddie Kane (Francis Zanfield); Running Time: 100 minutes; Academy Awards (1): Production; Additional Nominations (2): Actress (Love); Director; Other Accolades: Ads for the film proclaimed it to be the first 100 % ALL TALKING! 100% ALL SINGING! 100% ALL DANCING! movie sensation.¹

BACKGROUND: In the wake of The Jazz Singer, which was released in October of 1927, several other talking pictures were quickly put into production. When MGM started filming The Broadway Melody in late 1928, the entire industry was on the brink of completely abandoning silent filmmaking. By the time Broadway Melody’s premiere occurred on February 1, 1929 in Hollywood, the transition to sound films was almost complete.

PLOT: In Broadway Melody, Harriet Hank Mahoney and her younger sister, Queenie, return to New York from a stint on the road as a sister act to perform in a Broadway musical that features Hank’s boyfriend Eddie as one of the stars.

When Eddie rehearses the song Broadway Melody, which he has written, he insists that the Mahoney sisters join him on stage. At first the show’s producer, Francis Zanfield, seems interested only in Queenie, but Queenie convinces Zanfield that both sisters should be included in the scene. Unfortunately, after Zanfield witnesses the rehearsal, which has been sabotaged by a jealous female member of the cast, the sister act is cut from the show.

Queenie then lands a lead role in a stage revue as a replacement for a woman who has been injured during a rehearsal. Subsequently, Hank and Eddie try to prevent Queenie from marrying Jock Warriner, a notorious playboy. At first she refuses to quite seeing Jock, but she comes to her senses when Jock tries to seduce her. By this time Eddie realizes he loves Queenie and the two get married. Hank decides to form a vaudeville act with another female performer. Shortly before she boards a train to go on the road, she tells Queenie and Eddie that she will be back on Broadway within six months.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS: The only real highlights of Broadway Melody are its musical numbers. Among the several renditions of the title song, the best moment occurs in the dress rehearsal scene, with Eddie standing in front of a chorus line, with both Mahoney sisters joining in the singing and dancing.

Also memorable are two other songs, including You Were Meant for Me, which is sung by Eddie to Queenie as his infatuation with her begins to take hold. The film’s most famous scene is The Wedding of the Painted Doll, which features a large cast of performers, with dancers doing acrobatic leaps while a chorus of female voices accompanies the lead singer. Regrettably, although early two-tone Technicolor was used in the shooting of the Painted Doll scene, color prints of this scene seem to be out of circulation.

SUMMATION: A basic problem with this musical film is that it has too little music. In the film’s first hour only ten minutes are devoted to the songs written for the film by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown. The extensive non-music scenes, which have little humor in them, become tedious to watch. The film’s story reflects the troubles the Mahoney sisters have with the various men in their lives, including Eddie, who first seems to love Hank, but then gradually develops feelings for her younger sister. Hank spends lots of time trying to keep Queenie out of trouble, especially when Warriner makes big promises about promoting Queenie’s career.

The film’s musical numbers look dated by comparison with the skillfully choreographed dance scenes in such later films as Gold Diggers of 1933 and 42nd Street. Also, the film’s story is trite, with acting of little distinction, even though Bessie Love was nominated for playing the long-suffering Hank. The film deserves to be seen by film enthusiasts, but for those familiar with later film musicals, especially those starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, this film offers scant entertainment.

The popularity of Broadway Melody led to three subsequent films that also used the original film’s title, but with dates added. This is the derivation of MGM’s Broadway Melody of 1936, which curiously was released in 1935 and became a nominee for Best Picture of that year. Two further films in the Broadway Melody series were released in 1938 and 1940. All three of these later films benefited from vast improvements in sound recording, plus bigger budgets and big-name MGM-studio performers, which include Judy Garland, Fred Astaire among many others. Yet another spinoff came when the basic storyline of Broadway Melody was recycled in 1940 for the film Two Girls on Broadway, in which a young Lana Turner had the role based on Queenie.

THE OTHER BEST-PRODUCTION NOMINEES: Alibi, The Hollywood Review of 1929, In Old Arizona, The Patriot

OTHER WORTHY CONTENDERS: The Divine Lady, On with the Show

With the advent of sound, the Hollywood studios had to grapple with the idea of completely overhauling the technical aspects of filmmaking to take into account the use of sound-recording equipment. Placement of microphones was a huge problem, and the results are obvious in both Alibi and In Old Arizona. The former is a gangster film of little distinction, other than a good performance by Chester Morris as a murderous gang leader. Arizona was touted as the first outdoor talkie, with Oscar-winning actor Warner Baxter adopting a thick Mexican accent as the Cisco Kid. The film has little action, and is marred by an annoying performance by Edmund Lowe. Its only real attribute is its surprise ending.

Ernst Lubitsch’s The Patriot features Emil Jannings, who had won Best Actor the year before, as the mad Czar Paul I of Russia. This was the last silent film ever nominated for Best Picture, and sadly has not survived. The other nominee, Hollywood Revue of 1929, is one of many variety-show entertainments made to show off the use of sound, and is mostly forgettable. In terms of the quality of these nominated films, none of them really deserved an Oscar as Best Picture that year.

WHAT FILM SHOULD HAVE WON?: One non-nominated film worthy of mention is the Warner Bros. production On with the Show. As with Broadway Melody, this film focuses on the idea of staging a new show on Broadway. It is not really a better film than Broadway Melody, but it was filmed in Technicolor and includes two songs performed by Ethel Waters that are truly delightful.

The first of these, Am I Blue, is utterly charming, while Birmingham Bertha features Waters in a lively song impressively performed in an upbeat jazzy tempo. These two scenes provide the most entertaining moments of the 1928-29 film year. If any film discussed in this entry were to have been picked for Best Production, it should have been On with the Show. Even with its mediocre script, On with the Show at least comes to life whenever Ethel Waters appears onscreen.²

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¹ Danny Peary, Alternate Oscars (New York: Delta Books, 1993), p. 6

² No color prints of the film seem to have survived

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

1929-30

Rating: 10

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Director: Lewis Milestone; Producer: Carl Laemmle, Jr.; Studio: Universal; Writing: George Abbott, Maxwell Anderson, and Del Andrews, based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque; Cinematography (b/w): Arthur Edeson; Interior Decoration(b/w): Charles D. Hall, William R. Schmidt; Film Editing: Edgar Adams and Milton Carruth; Sound Recording: C. Roy Hunter; Musical Score: David Broekman; Cast: Lew Ayres (Paul Baumer); Louis Wolheim (Kat); John Wray (Himmelstross); George Slim Summerville (Tjaden); Arnold Lucy (Professor Kantorek); Raymond Griffith (Duval); Running Time: 140 minutes (130 minutes on restored-version DVD of 2001); Academy Awards (2): Production; Director; Additional Nominations (2): Screenplay; Cinematography (b/w); Other Accolades: In 1990 the film was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry; In 2002, named by the American Film Institute as seventh-best American epic film.

BACKGROUND: War movies have been around since the beginning of filmmaking. Less frequently made have been anti-war movies. All Quiet on the Western Front represents one of the most famous examples in the latter category, in which