Best Original Story 1947

[Precious Doll]

I've finally seen A Cage of Nightingales so I can vote in this line-up.

Nearly 70 years later Miracle on 34th Street & Kiss of Death are long considered classics and deserved nominee's. Its a long time since I've seen either but I do at least have Kiss of Death high on my want to review list already.

Smash Up is I recall fine for what it is but it really only memorable for Susan Hayward's performance.

A Cage of Nightingales is certainly watchable though its framing devise feels forced and phoney. Also, none of the characters other than the lead are remotely fleshed out. The 2004 The Chorus is certainly a better film though not something I'd ever want to see again.

My choice is It Happened on Fifth Avenue a film I am very fond of. Lots of terrific character actors doing great work. Certainly the set-up is somewhat ridiculous but the whole enterprise is so charming and winning to me. Its also high on my list of films to view again, given that it was released by Warners and a number of the discs from about 2005 to 2009 are starting to fail, so I expect to get around to this again in the next month or two.

[Mister Tee]

I'm going to stick to the honesty route and pass on voting till A Cage of Nightingales turns up somewhere. (It could happen!)

It Happened on Fifth Avenue is a fairly generic romantic comedy/blended with social consciousness. Its main distinction is being one of the few Hollywood movies whose leading man was Don Defore. (Loved you on Hazel, Don!)

Smash-Up was kind of an inside joke between my wife and me. In the early days of VCR's, it was always listed as available at our video store, but somehow never in the store when we tried to rent it. Finally, we found out the one copy they had was for Betamax (nostalgia alert), so it was never going to be there for us. We finally saw it years later on TV, and found it, unsurprisingly, A Susan Hayward Picture, with Susan slipping down the drain for two hours in unmemorable ways.

Kiss of Death will always linger in film history for Richard Widmark's definitely evil Tommy Udo. But, beyond that character, it's a pretty routine "ex-con trying to go straight" melodrama.

Miracle on 34th Street is a movie many of us will never be able to evaluate with full objectivity, since, like with The Wizard of Oz, we were introduced to it at such an early age, and impressions formed that are not easily dislodged. (I even saw the Broadway musical Here's Love!, which was based on it, while I was still in grade school.) I gave it a relatively recent re-viewing (last decade or so), and it still seems top-tier-ish among the holiday classics -- sentimentally conceived, but with enough bitters in the mix it's not hard to take. It's no It's a Wonderful Life, but I'd certainly take it over The Bishop's Wife any day. And it gets my vote in this rather undistinguished field. (My phantom vote, since I'm not checking off anything right now.)

[Big Magilla]

A bit of trivia regarding this year's writing awards:

Until this year no other voting body in the U.S. gave awards for screen writing. Switzerland's Locarno Int'l Film Festival began giving screenplay awards in 1946 and expanded to a distinction between original and adapted in 1948 when they, too, considered the then eligible Miracle on 34th Street and Kiss of Death to be adaptations.

The Globes began honoring screenplays this year with its first award going to Miracle on 34th Street. The National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics and the WGA would all start awarding screenplays for the year 1948. It is notable that no other body other than the Academy ever gave a writing award to the original story although they would later recognize the story writer along with the writer of the actual screenplay.

[Big Magilla]

Something of minor note: The 2004 French film The Chorus directed by Christophe Barratier was nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Song was based on the same source material as A Case of Nightingales.

I vaguely remember that one. Interestingly the blurb on Amazaon refers to it as in the tradition of Music of the Heart and Mr. Holland's Opus which is hardly a stirring recommendation for me.

[Precious Doll]

Something of minor note: The 2004 French film The Chorus directed by Christophe Barratier was nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Song was based on the same source material as A Case of Nightingales.

[Big Magilla]

I may be the only regular contributor who thinks this way, but the reason I put in the ability to change one's vote in these polls was for situations like this, where one can change one's mind after seeing a missing nominee. In my opinion one shouldn't vote if one has not seen all available nominees, but abstaining because of the inability to find one obscure nominee should not be a deterrent. OK, end of rant.

Bosley Crowter's April 3, 1947 N.Y. Times review of A Cage of Nightingales was short and fairly dismissive, calling it reflective of Boys Town and Going My Way, but also calling it quite ridiculous in its romantic sub-plot involving French comedian and star, Noel-Noel. No Spencer Tracy or Bing Crosby he, I presume.

It Happened on Fifth Avenue is a cute comedy with a message about a homeless man who takes over a fifth avenue mansion. Much of its charm comes from the lead performance of Victor Moore, not the basic story which is derivative of numerous other films of the period. Think The Young in Heart or The Cheaters.

The screenplay for Kiss of Death written by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer is quite strong, as is the performance of villain Richard Widmark, but how much of the film's eventual strength was in the original story I don't know.

Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman was a thinly disguised biography of Dixie Lee, Bing Crosby's first wife whose alcoholism contributed to her death (officially attributed to ovarian cancer) in 1952 at the age of 40. I have no idea of the contributions of either of the writers connected with the "original" story. Dorothy Parker had been there, done that, with A Star is Born and Frank Cavett was a co-writer of the screenplay on Going My Way so presumably had first-hand information on the Crosby-Lee marriage which was public knowledge anyway. Where the originality comes in, I have no idea.

Miracle on 34th Street, which also won the Oscar for its screenplay, was indeed an original story full of imagination which still manages to enthrall to this day no matter if you're experiencing it for the first time or the fiftieth. It's an easy pick for me.

[Precious Doll]

Yes, the category is now called Original Story and the poll is open.

Anyone waiting to see A Cage of Nightingales before voting will probably have a long wait. Not only have I never seen it, I don't know anyone who has.

I recall in an earlier post in relation to these nominations I stated that I had seen every screenplay nominee from about 1930 onwards.

Incorrect!!! I have not seen A Cage of Nightingales. However, for those who are fluent in French there is a French DVD available (no English subtitles).

I'll abstain from this poll until such time as I can view A Cage of Nightingales with English subtitles.

[Big Magilla]

Yes, the category is now called Original Story and the poll is open.

Anyone waiting to see A Cage of Nightingales before voting will probably have a long wait. Not only have I never seen it, I don't know anyone who has.