1949 Oscar Shouldabeens

[Kellens101]

Best Picture: Bicycle Thieves
Best Director: Vittorio DeSica for Bicycle Thieves
Best Actor: James Cagney in White Heat
Best Actress: Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress
Best Supporting Actor: Ralph Richardson in The Heiress
Best Supporting Actress: Mercedes McCambridge in All the King's Men
Best Original Screenplay: Germany Year Zero
Best Adapted Screenplay: Bicycle Thieves
Best Score: The Heiress
Best Art Direction: The Heiress
Best Costume Design: The Heiress
Best Editing: The Fallen Idol
Best Cinematography: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Best Sound: Champion
Best Foreign Film: Bicycle Thieves

[ksrymy]

BEST PICTURE
01. The Small Back Room (dirs. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
02. Late Spring (dir. Yasujiro Ozu)
03. Begone Dull Care (dirs. Norman McLaren & Evelyn Lambart)
03. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (dir. John Ford)
04. The Set-Up (dir. Robert Wise)
05. Kind Hearts and Coronets (dir. Robert Hamer)
06. Stray Dog (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
07. The Third Man (dir. Carol Reed)
08. I Shot Jesse James (dir. Samuel Fuller)
09. Adam's Rib (dir. George Cukor)

BEST DIRECTOR
01. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, The Small Back Room
02. Yasujiro Ozu, Late Spring
03. Norman McLaren & Evelyn Lambart, Begone Dull Care
04. John Ford, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
05. Robert Wise, The Set-Up

BEST ACTOR
01. John Wayne, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
02. Robert Ryan, The Set-Up
03. David Farrar, The Small Back Room
04. Chishû Ryû, Late Spring
05. Claude Rains, The Passionate Friends

BEST ACTRESS
01. Setsuko Hara, Late Spring
02. Patricia Neal, The Fountainhead
03. Doris Dowling, Bitter Rice
04. Susan Hayward, Tulsa
05. Joan Bennett, The Reckless Moment

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
01. Frank Lovejoy, Home of the Brave
02. Robert Ryan, Caught
03. Luther Adler, House of Strangers
04. Sydney Greenstreet, Flamingo Road
05. J. Edward Bromberg, I Shot Jesse James

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
01. Kathleen Byron, The Small Back Room
02. Valentina Cortese, Thieves' Highway
03. Audrey Totter, The Set-Up
04. Judy Holliday, Adam's Rib
05. Noriko Sengoku, The Quiet Duel

BEST SCREENPLAY
01. Late Spring (Kogo Noda & Yasujiro Ozu, based on the novel "Chichi to musume" by Kazuo Hirotsu)
02. The Small Back Room (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, based on the novel by Nigel Balchin)
03. Adam's Rib (Ruth Gordon & Garson Kanin)
04. Kind Hearts and Coronets (John Dighton, Robert Hamer, based on the novel by Roy Horniman)
05. Le Silence de la mer (Jean-Pierre Melville, based on the short story by Vercors)

BEST FILM EDITING
01. The Small Back Room (Clifford Turner)
02. The Set-Up (Roland Gross)
03. Champion (Harry W. Gerstad)
04. Stray Dog (Toshio Gotô, Yoshi Sugihara)
05. Bitter Rice (Gabriele Varriale)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
01. Border Incident (John Alton)
02. The Small Back Room (Christopher Challis)
03. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (Winton C. Hoch)
04. Reign of Terror (John Alton)
05. Le Silence de la mer (Henri Decaë)

BEST ART DIRECTION
01. Jour de Fête (René Moulaert, André Pierdel)
02. Reign of Terror (Edward L. Ilou, William Cameron Menzies, Armor Marlowe, Al Orenbach)
03. The Heiress (John Meehan, Harry Horner, Emile Kuri)
04. Caught (Edward G. Boyle, Frank Paul Sylos)
05. Madame Bovary (Cedric Gibbons, Jack Martin Smith, Edwin B. Willis)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
01. The Heiress (Edith Head)
02. Prince of Foxes (Vittorio Nino Novarese)
03. Madame Bovary (Walter Plunkett, Valles)
04. Reign of Terror (Jay A. Morley, Jr.)
05. The Queen of Spades (Oliver Messel)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
01. The Third Man (Anton Karas)
02. Jour de Fête (Jean Yatove)
03. The Red Pony (Aaron Copland)
04. The Fountainhead (Max Steiner)
05. Prince of Foxes (Alfred Newman)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
01. I Shot Jesse James ("The Minstrel Song," music and lyrics by Albert Glasser, performed by Robin Short)
02. The Third Man ("The Third Man Theme," music and performance by Anton Karas)
03. Come to the Stable ("Through a Long and Sleepless Night," music by Alfred Newman, lyrics by Mack Gordon, performed by Ken Darby dubbing for Hugh Marlowe)
04. My Foolish Heart ("My Foolish Heart," music by Victor Young)
05. Andaz ("Tod Diya Dil Mera," music by Naushad, lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri, performed by Lata Mangeshkar)

BEST SOUND
01. Battleground (Douglas Shearer)
02. Twelve O'Clock High (W. D. Flick; Roger Heman, Sr.; Thomas T. Moulton)
03. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (Patrick Kelley, Clem Portman, Frank Webster)
04. The Small Back Room (Alan Allen)
05. Mighty Joe Young (John L. Cass, Walter Elliott, Clem Portman)

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING
01. The Queen of Spades (Frank Cross)
02. The Heiress (Wally Westmore)
03. Under Capricorn (Charles E. Parker)
04. Kind Hearts and Coronets (Barbara Barnard, Harry Frampton, Pearl Orton, Ernest Taylor)
05. Reign of Terror (Jack P. Pierce, Joan St. Oegger, Gwen Van Upp, Ern Westmore)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
01. Tulsa (John P. Fulton)
02. Mighty Joe Young (Linwood G. Dunn, Harold E. Stine, Bert Willis, Marcel Delgado, Fitch Fulton, Ray Harryhausen, George Lofgren, Willis O'Brien, Peter Peterson)
03. The Lady Takes a Sailor (Roy Davidson, Hans F. Koenekamp)
04. The Fountainhead (Edwin B. DuPar, John Holden, Hans F. Koenekamp, William C. McGann)
05. Samson and Delilah (Farciot Edouart, Devereaux Jennings, Gordon Jennings, W. Wallace Kelley, Paul K. Lerpae)

FINAL TALLY
8 nominations: The Small Back Room (4 wins)
5 nominations: Late Spring (2 wins), The Set-Up, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1 win)
4 nominations: Reign of Terror
3 nominations: Adam's Rib, The Fountainhead, The Heiress (1 win), I Shot Jesse James (1 win), Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Third Man (1 win)
2 nominations: Battleground (1 win), Begone Dull Care, Bitter Rice, Caught, Jour de Fête (1 win), Madame Bovary, Mighty Joe Young, Prince of Foxes, The Queen of Spades (1 win), Le Silence de la mer, Stray Dog, Tulsa (1 win), Twelve O'Clock High
1 nomination: Andaz, Champion, Come to the Stable, Flamingo Road, Home of the Brave (1 win), House of Strangers, The Lady Takes a Sailor, My Foolish Heart, The Passionate Friends, The Quiet Duel, The Reckless Moment, The Red Pony, Samson and Delilah, Thieves' Highway, Under Capricorn

[dws1982]

Daniel, glad to see J. Edward Bromberg on your list. In a year filled with memorable Supporting Actor performances, he was a runner-up for me who was as worthy as the 5 i ultimately went with, as were Alec Guinness is Kind Hearts And Coronets, Paul Douglas in A Letter To Three Wives and Paul Stewart in Champion.

Alec Guinness and Paul Douglas would've been sixth and seventh on my list as well. Eighth probably would've been Juano Hernandez in Intruder in the Dust, although he was better in a similar role in Stars in My Crown the following year. Somehow I still haven't managed to watch Champion, despite TCM airing it all the time. (Netflix doesn't carry it, for some reason.)

I am surprised, though, that Madame Bovary didn't show up more prominently in your round up.

On another day, it--and Kind Hearts and Coronets, and On the Town--would've made my top ten. If I were doing the list today I'd probably put one of them over Passport to Pimlico. Madame Bovary was pretty close in several other categories too--Actress and Adapted Screenplay especially. It was probably one of those movies that suffered a bit just because it was one of the very first ones I saw for this marathon, and I had others on my mind when I was making the list.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1274411782

[Johnny Guitar]

I saw The Small Back Room in 2005 too (but we were at different screenings for that one, right Damien?) and I loved it. For my own top ten of 1949, it would be in the upper half.

[Damien]

Powell references the Lincoln Center retrospective in an audio excerpt from a 1992 interview on the DVD. "A few years ago" was 17 years ago - 1991 to be exact.

Actually. I saw it in 2005 -- I guess they like Powell so much at Lincoln Center that they did him again.

[Big Magilla]

I saw The Small Back Room a few years ago as part of a Michael Powell retrospective at Lincoln Center.

I liked it, although I'm not nearly as enthusiastic about it as Daniel. The film contains some instances of Powell's tendency to be over-emphatic in character and theme and excessive in his visual style, (one expressionistic scene innvolving a whiskey bottle comes across as a parody of The Lost Weekend). And some of the supporting charcters are overly-broad. But the relationship between David Farrar (wonderful performance) and Kathleen Byron is beautifully handled, and the film works well as a rumination on people's inability to communicate. Plus, there's a cat featured -- Snowball.

Powell references the Lincoln Center retrospective in an audio excerpt from a 1992 interview on the DVD. "A few years ago" was 17 years ago - 1991 to be exact.

Powell in seeing the film himself at the retrospective after all those years found it to be a cold movie. Although the film was well received by the British critics in 1949 (it didn't open in the U.S. until 1952), it was not a success at the box office. The public perceived it to be a war movie and war movies were out at the time. Those who saw it as a love story couldn't understand why a woman as intelligent as the one played by Kathleen Byron would stay with such as a whiner as the character played by David Farrar for most of the film. Powell agreed with this in hidnsight, saying the he should have lightened Farrar's character up, that the problem was that he tried too hard to adhere to the original novel.

I think the film is a nice discovery. It's closer to A Matter of Life and Death aka Stairway to Heaven in tone than any other Powell/Pressburger film. There's real suspense in the 17 minute bomb defusing segment near the end. There's the treatment of alcoholism as a disease though Farrar sobers up a bit too quickly to be totally realistic. That dream sequence, though it evokes The Lost Weekend, was actually stolen from Hitchcock. Powell wanted a sequence like the one Salvador Dali designed for Spellbound.

The film is a real eye opener in its casual treatment of sex. Though you could no more show an unmarried couple living together in British films than you could in Hollywood films of the era, Powell gets around it by having Byron living "across the hall" from Farrar though it's clear from the way the two move in and out of each other's apartments so frequently that they are more than neighbors who just happen to work together.

Finally there's the cast, a rather strong one for such a "little" film. It's a treat to see Farrar and Byron in roles so different than the ones they played in Black Narcissus and the supporting cast is a veritable who's who of the British film industry from the 30s (Leslie Banks, Anthony Bushell) to actors still relevant in the 50s and 60s (Jack Hawkins, Robert Morley, Cyril Cusack) to ones still around today (Michael Gough). All of them and a few others, including Renee Asherson blend in extremely well, but it's Farrar and Byron's show. It's a pity they didn't interview Byron, who is still acting in her 80s, for the DVD.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1274411798

[Damien]

Daniel, glad to see J. Edward Bromber on your list. In a year filled with memorable Supporting Actor performances, he was a runner-up for me who was as worthy as the 5 i ultimately went with, as were Alec Guinness is Kind Hearts And Coronets, Paul Douglas in A Letter To Three Wives and Paul Stewart in Champion.

I am surprised, though, that Madame Bovary didn't show up more prominently in your round up.

[Damien]

It didn't make my Top 10 list, but I like Under Capricorn a lot -- it may be Hitchcok's most under-valued picture.

There are some dull sequences in the middle of the film and the pacing is sometimes off, but it’s also filled with lovely moments and real passion. In fact, this is one of the times when Hitchcock seems most connected to his characters and their problems are really expressed in a heartfelt manner. It has an especially memorable performance by a very forceful Joseph Cotton, who superbly conveys the tenderness, longing, anger and bitterness of his character.

Ingrid is a bit of a problem – her character’s Irish background is such an integral part of the woman that she's ludicrously miscast -- and she’s also too strong a presence to make some of her character's actions believable. Margaret Leighton is an even bigger problem – she overdoes the Mrs. Hickerson. Danvers-esque housekeeper and belongs more in a tawdry little horror film. Another flaw is the too rapidly changing personalities of the characters.

This is relatively low-keyed Hitchcock – though there are some marvelous tracking shots – but what’s impressive is the emotionalism, not any visual pyrotechnics. And the shot of Cotton’s holding the rubies behind his back is one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking scenes any director ever shot. Gorgeous score by Richard Addinsell.

[Reza]

Also, the Hitchcock intrigues me. I have never given a thought to watching it, but now will have to check it out.

Maybe I need to review Under Capricorn. Isn't Bergman doing a rehash of her Gaslight performance?

[FilmFan720]

It is lists like these that make me feel greatly underviewed. I love all the mentions for I Shot Jesse James, but I don't remember being that bowled over by any of the individual performances. Maybe I will have to throw it in again. Also, the Hitchcock intrigues me. I have never given a thought to watching it, but now will have to check it out.

[Okri]

I love the movie, though not quite as much as dws. I'm more intrigued by the Alfred Hitchcock mention.

[Damien]

I saw The Small Back Room a few years ago as part of a Michael Powell retrospective at Lincoln Center.

I liked it, although I'm not nearly as enthusiastic about it as Daniel. The film contains some instances of Powell's tendency to be over-emphatic in character and theme and excessive in his visual style, (one expressionistic scene innvolving a whiskey bottle comes across as a parody of The Lost Weekend). And some of the supporting charcters are overly-broad. But the relationship between David Farrar (wonderful performance) and Kathleen Byron is beautifully handled, and the film works well as a rumination on people's inability to communicate. Plus, there's a cat featured -- Snowball.

By the way, Daniel, I love your list! (And not just because we overlap quite a bit ) Great to see Virginia Mayo there.

[Precious Doll]

1- The Small Back Room (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)

I've never heard of this one. Is it one of the "buried treasures?"

That would be a fair description of the film - and I say that without having seen it myself.

It's certainly not one of the better known Powell/Pressburger films from that era and the fact that Criterion has recently released the film on DVD and dws1962 has the film as his best of the year should be justification enough to seek the film out for oneself.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1274411841

[Greg]

1- The Small Back Room (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)

I've never heard of this one. Is it one of the "buried treasures?"



Edited By Big Magilla on 1274411818

[Big Magilla]

Good to see someone else appreciates The Hasty Heart and I Was a Male War Bride.

By the way, it's Ann, not Anne, Sheridan.