We'll Always Have Oscar

Paul Lukas:
Best Actor for Watch on the Rhine

TUESDAYS WITH OSCAR: 1943

The 16th Academy Awards had some firsts and lasts.  It was the last time there were ten Best Picture nominees until 2009, a good sixty-six years later.  It was also the first time Supporting Actors/Actresses received statues rather than plaques, which always struck me as a bit odd.  It might be that now the Academy recognized that these actors who were dubbed supporting were also moving up in name recognition.  Whatever the case may be, we find that the Academy Awards were now striving to recognize the best of film.

That isn't to say they got it right in the long term, since at least with regards to the male winners, they are not remembered as well as those they beat.  It isn't to say they didn't deserve to win, just that people don't know the name 'Paul Lukas' or 'Charles Coburn' today. 

Especially Paul Lukas.

As always this is just for fun and should not be taken as my final decision. I should like to watch all the nominees and winners before making my final, FINAL choice. Now, on to cataloging the official winners (in bold) and my selections (in red). Also, my substitutions (in green).

THE 1943 ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Gladys Cooper (The Song of Bernadette)
Paulette Goddard (So Proudly We Hail!)
Katina Paxinou (For Whom the Bell Tolls)
Anne Revere (The Song of Bernadette)
Lucille Watson (Watch on the Rhine)

I can't say that any of the nominees would be familiar with people today, which is a small criteria for those deemed 'worthy'.  We do have another case of two nominees from the same film cancelling each other out, which happens more often than not. 

Out of those that survive, the winner was Greek actress Paxinou playing a Spaniard, which given the odd castings for Hispanics in other films (say, casting British Ben Barnes as a Colombian in The Big Wedding with only an orange tan to suggest 'ethnicity' or Ben Affleck casting himself as the very Hispanic Tony Mendez in Argo), having a Mediterranean playing an Iberian isn't as egregious as other choices I've seen. 

Gladys Cooper (The Song of Bernadette)
Paulette Goddard (So Proudly We Hail!)
Katina Paxinou (For Whom the Bell Tolls)
Anne Revere (The Song of Bernadette)
Lucille Watson (Watch on the Rhine)

For the moment, I don't see any of the other nominees knocking Pilar out of the running.  I truly cannot remember either Cooper or Revere from The Song of Bernadette, so that doesn't bode well for their chances.  Actually, I can't say ANY of them were particularly memorable, so by default the Greek gets her gift.

Susanna Foster (The Phantom of the Opera)
Paulette Goddard (So Proudly We Hail!)
Miriam Hopkins (Old Acquaintance)
Lena Horne (Cabin in the Sky)
Katina Paxinou (For Whom the Bell Tolls)

Well, this was unexpected.  For the longest time I had Lena Horne taking the prize for her temptress in Cabin in the Sky, then decided the role might be too slight for a legitimate win.  Then I turn to Miriam Hopkins in Old Acquaintance, thinking that maybe playing Bette Davis' rival would do wonders.  I now got spooked thanks to a mix of brutal reviews and am unsure whether Hopkins was MEANT to be over-the-top.  I turned briefly to Foster for I think she played the part of the ingénue correctly, but find myself back with Paxinou. 


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Charles Bickford (The Song of Bernadette)
Charles Coburn (The More The Merrier)
J. Carroll Naish (Sahara)
Claude Rains (Casablanca)
Akim Tamiroff (For Whom the Bell Tolls)

Time has not been kind to Coburn's Oscar-winning turn insofar as recognition goes.   I think it pleased audiences back then, and it might be a charming turn as a match-maker.  Also, given that Coburn won for a comedy, it puts him in rare company for comedies are rarely rewarded.  However, Coburn has two strikes against him as of right now.  First, The More The Merrier isn't remembered (one shudders to think if it had won another of its nominations).  Two...

Charles Bickford (The Song of Bernadette)
Charles Coburn (The More The Merrier)
J. Carroll Nash (Sahara)
Claude Rains (Casablanca)
Akim Tamiroff (For Whom the Bell Tolls)

He isn't Claude Rains' Captain Renault.  I freely confess that Renault is my favorite character, and Rains one of my favorite Old Hollywood actors.   Rains is gleefully corrupt, aware that he is playing a game where he has to stay one step ahead of everyone in order to survive.  He goes wherever the wind blows, be it Vichy or Free French.  Rains and Bogart make a great double-act, and I simply can't think of anyone who deserved to win as much as Rains for the moment.

Dana Andrews (The Ox-Bow Incident)
Nelson Eddy (The Phantom of the Opera)
J. Carroll Nash (Sahara)
Claude Rains (Casablanca)
Vincent Price (The Song of Bernadette)

I think it helps that Rains' performance has become iconic. 

BEST ACTRESS

Jean Arthur (The More The Merrier)
Ingrid Bergman (For Whom the Bell Tolls)
Joan Fontaine (The Constant Nymph)
Greer Garson (Madame Curie)
Jennifer Jones (The Song of Bernadette)

We have the fixation on biopics again, as Jones won for playing a real-life figure.  Oddly, Jones' win for playing Saint Bernadette Souibirous is only the second biographical performance by a female to win and the first in seven years.   It is surprising that The More The Merrier was Arthur's only Oscar nomination, but again, when you're battling a literal saint no amount of laughs will get you anywhere.  The Swedish Bergman playing it Latina?  OK.  Granted, Bergman to her dying day insisted that she thought more of her work in For Whom the Bell Tolls than Casablanca (considering the former a more 'important' film than the latter, whose status as one of the "Great Films" always puzzled her).  Curiously, Bergman also I think said that after seeing Jones' performance, she cried because she thought it a beautiful performance...and realized she had just lost the Oscar.

Jean Arthur (The More The Merrier)
Ingrid Bergman (For Whom the Bell Tolls)
Joan Fontaine (The Constant Nymph)
Greer Garson (Madame Curie)
Jennifer Jones (The Song of Bernadette)

For the moment, I'm leaning heavily towards Fontaine's work as the embodiment of youth and innocence in The Constant Nymph.  So far the news about her has been highly positive, and I think that given that she was older than what she played I think Fontaine managed to get away with passing herself off as younger. 

Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca)
Joan Fontaine (The Constant Nymph)
Jennifer Jones (The Song of Bernadette)
Ethel Waters (Cabin in the Sky)
Teresa Wright (Shadow of a Doubt)

Screw Bergman's assessment of herself: I LOVED her in Casablanca as Ilsa the divided heroine.  For now though, I think Wright's performance as Charlie, the adoring niece who slowly discovers her beloved namesake uncle is a psychotic killer, is the performance that is the standout of 1943.

BEST ACTOR

Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca)
Gary Cooper (For Whom the Bell Tolls)
Paul Lukas (Watch on the Rhine)
Walter Pidgeon (Madame Curie)
Mickey Rooney (The Human Comedy)

Can we say that no one remembers Paul Lukas, let alone his performance in Watch on the Rhine?  Is it a bad performance?  I can't say.  However, when I think "Paul Lukas" the only thing that comes to mind is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, where he played Professor Aronnax.  I thought he was great in 20,000 Leagues, but again...Paul Lukas?

Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca)
Gary Cooper (For Whom the Bell Tolls)
Paul Lukas (Watch on the Rhine)
Walter Pidgeon (Madame Curie)
Mickey Rooney (The Human Comedy)

So, out of all the nominees, which one do YOU remember?  You must remember this...it's Bogie who is the icon in perhaps his most iconic role.  Casablanca did something for Bogart that he hadn't done before: be the romantic lead.  His hard-edged yet sentimental Rick was a wounded soul.  See his "Gin Joints" scene, and hear that quiver in his voice as he attempts to drown his heartache about 'that woman'.  Cynical, sarcastic, yet noble, I can't find a greater or more memorable performance among the nominees than that of Humphrey Bogart.

Sorry, Paul Lukas...

Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca)
Joseph Cotten (Shadow of a Doubt)
Henry Fonda (The Ox-Bow Incident)
Mickey Rooney (The Human Comedy)
Orson Welles (Jane Eyre)

Note I said, 'among the nominees'.  If we go outside the official nominees, I find one whose performance could trump Bogie.  In more recent years, killers and psychopaths have earned their way to Oscar glory (Kathy Bates in Misery, Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs, Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight).  Not so in the past, where darkness rarely reigned.  Think about it: the year's Best Actress was a SAINT!  How then would you reward someone playing a murderous monster?  As noir begins to creep its way into film, it might have been possible to have given the never-nominated (or Honorary Oscar-awarded) Cotten his due, but I think that we have a case where his villainous Uncle Charlie is still thought of as one of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest characters. 

BEST SONG

A Change of Heart (Hit Parade of 1943)
Happiness is a Thing Called Joe (Cabin in the Sky)
My Shining Hour (The Sky's the Limit)
Saludos Amigos (Saludos Amigos)
Say a Pray'r for the Boys Over There (Hers to Hold)
That Old Black Magic (Star Spangled Rhythm)
They're Either Too Young or Too Old (Thank Your Lucky Stars)
We Mustn't Say Goodbye (Stage Door Canteen)
You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To (Something to Shout About)
You'll Never Know (Hello, Frisco, Hello)

I hate having to write so many nominees and don't understand why the Academy had to nominate so many songs.  Granted, this was during the height of the movie musical, so they were rather spoiled for choice. 

I have nothing against You'll Never Know, a song I associate less with a film than with a time and particular performer.  This nostalgic number was made much more famous during World War II by Dame Vera Lynn (who is as of today still alive at 97, along with Doris Day the last singers who are so intertwined with the Second World War era). You'll Never Know became a standard for that era, where the longing of the men at war and women waiting and praying for them seemed so well-captured by both the song and Dame Vera's rendition.  I recommend listening to it (it's beautiful).  One can see how it won, but for myself, I think time has dimmed You'll Never Know.  There are at least three nominated songs that have stood the test of time, three that are now American standards.  This is why I am making my choice...

From Star Spangled Rhythm, That Old Black Magic, music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Johnny Mercer.   

However, I am taking my privilege and making my own selection from a song not nominated.  I picked this number because I think it's extremely funny, with clever lyrics and a joyful feel.  Granted, it is also one of the weirdest musical numbers I've seen (the lyrics are open to suggestion, those bananas in the extended sequence are phallic symbols gone mad, and only the Is There Anyone Here For Love? number from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is more, well, subversively overt in its suggestiveness of homoeroticism).  Still, I find it endlessly amusing.  Therefore, my choice for Best Song and my FIVE nominees are...

 

Happiness is a Thing Called Joe (Cabin in the Sky)
The Lady in the Tutti-Fruitti Hat (The Gang's All Here)
That Old Black Magic (Star Spangled Rhythm)
They're Either Too Young or Too Old (Thank Your Lucky Stars)
You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To (Something to Shout About)


BEST DIRECTOR

Clarence Brown (The Human Comedy)
Michael Curtiz (Casablanca)
Henry King (The Song of Bernadette)
Ernst Lubitsch (Heaven Can Wait)
George Stevens (The More The Merrier)

I think Curtiz as a director was underappreciated then and now.  However, I think we have a rare case of the Academy going with the right choice.  As Steven Spielberg observed, Curtiz brings the scene just as its getting interesting and leaves as soon as its over.  Credit should be given to him in that he kept things flowing and sensible despite the film not making sense if one thought about it.

Clarence Brown (The Human Comedy)
Michael Curtiz (Casablanca)
Henry King (The Song of Bernadette)
Ernst Lubitsch (Heaven Can Wait)
George Stevens (The More The Merrier)

Oh yes, Casablanca is also one of if not my favorite film of all time.  That might color my view on the subject.

Michael Curtiz (Casablanca)
Alfred Hitchcock (Shadow of a Doubt)
Vincente Minnelli (Cabin in the Sky)
William Wellman (The Ox-Bow Incident)
Billy Wilder (Five Graves to Cairo)

My love for Hitchcock remains solid and true...but did I mention my love for Casablanca?

And now, The Best Picture of 1943

Casablanca
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Heaven Can Wait
The Human Comedy
In Which We Serve
Madame Curie
The More the Merrier
The Ox-Bow Incident
The Song of Bernadette
Watch on the Rhine

There are few films that I would watch more than the winner for 1943.  There are some good movies here, some that are pretty much forgotten (Madame Curie, where art thou?), but one still stands out, still holds a special place in the heart of all cineastes and casual filmgoers, still evokes great passion. 

Casablanca
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Heaven Can Wait
The Human Comedy
In Which We Serve
Madame Curie
The More the Merrier
The Ox-Bow Incident
The Song of Bernadette
Watch on the Rhine

Mercifully, the plethora of Best Picture nominees gets whittled down to five from hereon out, or at least for the next sixty-six entries in this painfully long retrospective.  Again, I truly can't think of a better choice from the official list.  I can't. 

And Now, MY Choice for the Best Picture of 1943 Based on MY Choices...

Cabin in the Sky
Casablanca
Five Graves to Cairo
The Phantom of the Opera
Shadow of a Doubt

Oh, Shadow of a Doubt comes very close, painfully close but my heart and mind still whisper to me...Casablanca.

Casablanca.

Casablanca.

Lowenstein, Lowenstein...oh, wait, wrong film.


Next time, the 1944 Oscars.