Best Picture 19/27/28-1937

[Big Magilla]

Our votes during Oscar's first decade agreed 4 1/2 times out of 10 with the voters of the day. The half is for the first winner.

Sunrise is a bit of a ringer in that it technically wasn't nominated for Best Picture or Production as it was called then, but for Artistic Quality of Production which was meant to be an award of equal merit. It was, however, viewed upon by many as a slap in the face to quality over box-office and was abandoned after the first year.

Sunrise remains an influential film, worthy of consideration as the best of the decade.

Alibi does not hold p very well. It is neither as good as the late silent gangster films Underworld and The Racket nor half as good as the gangster films around the corner - Little Caesar; The Public Enemy; Scarface - it is at best a better film than Oscar's choice of The Broadway Melody.

All Quiet on the Western Front remains one of the great war and anti-war films with few rivals eighty-four years later.

The Front Page was fine in its day, but it has long since been topped by its gender-reversal 1940 remake, His Girl Friday.

Grand Hotel has its moments but its claim to fame is that it was the first all-star cast film though the following year's Dinner at Eight was the first great all-star cast film.

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang had a great influence on laws in its day and remains a powerful film, certainly one of the best of the decade.

It Happened One Night was a wonderful film in its day and holds up well today but there are better choices.

Mutiny on the Bounty was a rousing adventure film and remains the best of several versions of the tale.

Dodsworth was a brilliant ahead-of-its-time exploration of the end of a bad marriage.

The Awful Truth is one of the greatest, if not the greatest of the screwball comedies that proliferated in the day, but the Academy still gets a black eye for honoring Leo McCarey's direction here while ignoring his superior work on Make Way for Tomorrow.

My vote goes to All Quiet on the Western Front.