Oscars: What Should Have Won Best Picture 1940-1949
Welcome to part 2 of this exercise. As a reminder, we’re going through every year at the Oscars and looking at which film should’ve won Best Picture. I’m only sticking to the films that were nominated. I haven’t seen enough films from every year to choose from all available films, at least not yet.
Today we’re looking at the Academy Awards of the 1940s.
1940 – The Thirteenth Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: Rebecca
What Should Have Won Best Picture: The Grapes of Wrath
Alfred Hitchcock didn’t win an Oscar for this film but he did win Best Picture, his only film to do so. Between these two you cannot go wrong either way. Rebecca is phenomenal and could only be improved by not being under the thumb of the Hays Code.
The Grapes of Wrath is a brilliant book that was adapted into a profound film. One of the most important American films ever made. It’s the main reason I would pick this film to win the big prize. Surprisingly, but deservedly, John Ford won his second Oscar for The Grapes of Wrath.
The Great Dictator, The Long Voyage Home, and The Philadelphia Story are all great and worth watching too.
1941 – The Fourteenth Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: How Green Was My Valley
What Should Have Won Best Picture: Citizen Kane
Widely considered one of the worst choices by the Academy is giving Best Picture to How Green Was My Valley over Citizen Kane. A couple of big reasons this actually happened.
First, many believe the Academy and people in the industry took umbrage with an outsider (Orson Wells) coming in and doing what he did.
Secondly, William Randolph Hearst made it his personal mission to bury Citizen Kane after its release because he believed it was a personal attack on him. So his papers didn’t cover it and the film didn’t do well in theaters because of this.
Therefore, with context it’s not surprising Kane lost Best Picture, but it obviously should have won. It was way ahead of its time and brought new filmmaking techniques that changed the industry forever, and it’s a brilliant film.
How Green Was My Valley is another underrated BP winner though. I recommend this very good film to any cinephile or Oscar completest.
1942 – The Fifteenth Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: Mrs. Miniver
What Should Have Won Best Picture: Mrs. Miniver
One of the greatest patriotic films I’ve ever seen. So good it not only inspired its home country of Britain but every moviegoer in the United States. What makes this movie so good is it is an ode to the people, mainly women, who had to stay home while their husbands and sons went to war.
Greer Garson became a symbol of a country’s strength and helped show what these wives and mothers had to go through. It’s the best film to ever do this, anchored by a great Greer Garson performance.
A couple of other films to recommend here are The 49th Parallel, and The Magnificent Ambersons.
1943 – The Sixteenth Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: Casablanca
What Should Have Won Best Picture: Casablanca
This might be the smallest entry in the entire 95 years of this Oscar writing exercise. Casablanca is one of the rare perfect films and of course, it won Best Picture. It deserved to win and it’s a top-five all-time Best Picture winner.
The Ox-Bow Incident from this year is an excellent Western that remains prescient today.
1944 – The Seventeenth Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: Going My Way
What Should Have Won Best Picture: Double Indemnity
Going My Way was one of those films Hollywood loved to make in the 1940s and 1950s that were about Nuns or Catholic Priests, in this case, Priests, in which they need to raise money for something. There’s never really any real conflict in the film.
It’s light fare the two films from this year could have and should have won Best Picture are Double Indemnity and Gaslight. Both are masterpieces from this year. I went with Double Indemnity simply because it’s the best noir film ever made.
This was the first year until 2009 that the Academy only nominated five films for Best Picture.
1945 – The Eighteenth Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: The Lost Weekend
What Should Have Won Best Picture: Mildred Pierce
One of the earlier films to deal with addiction, specifically alcoholism, is also one of the best. Ray Milland deservedly took home Best Actor this year. Joan Crawford took home Best Actress for an all-time performance in what should have won Best Picture.
Less about The Lost Weekend not being adequate. It’s a 4.5 out of 5-star film. But Mildred Pierce is a five-star perfect film. It’s a complex and tragic film with Crawford centered in a brilliant performance.
1946 – The Nineteenth Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: The Best Years of Our Lives
What Should Have Won Best Picture: It’s a Wonderful Life
1946 is another case as the year prior. Two films, one near perfect and the other perfect. Not only perfect but It’s a Wonderful Life has had a more significant cultural impact. That doesn’t mean The Best Years of Our Lives isn’t a great film.
Capra’s seemingly cheesy film about appreciating life is so much more. However, I cannot totally argue with what the Academy did here. With the war raging it was much more urgent and resonated more with audiences. Still does to this day.
1947 – The Twentieth Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: Gentlemen’s Agreement
What Should Have Won Best Picture: Crossfire
Two films in this lineup deal with the same issue, anti-Semitism. Crossfire is the cleaner and quicker film. But it is also the more thrilling of the two films. The one thing that could make it better is if dealt with the novel’s issue it is based on, homosexuality.
I’d love a remake of Crossfire that deals with this subject, although now it may feel outdated. It could’ve been timely if it were not for the Hays Code silencing everything and everyone in sight. Even still, Crossfire is a great film that everyone should check out.
1948 – The Twenty-First Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: Hamlet
What Should Have Won Best Picture: The Red Shoes
Leave it to the Academy to go for the classical Shakespeare film. This feels important so it must be and we must reward this film. The fact is the other four films in this lineup are great and far superior to Hamlet.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a masterpiece and would be a worthy winner. But my personal choice is The Red Shoes. Powell and Pressburger’s Technicolor masterpiece about being an artist is incredible. The Snake Pit and Johnny Belinda are both worth your time as well.
1949 – The Twenty-Second Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: All the King’s Men
What Should Have Won Best Picture: The Heiress
Probably one of the weaker Best Picture lineups. Not in terms of quality but in the enthusiasm I have for the lineup. All are competent films, but even looking at the year as a whole there isn’t a lot of great stuff that came out in 1949.
The Heiress hosts a great Oscar-winning performance by Olivia de Havilland about a woman self-actualizing. Battleground and A Letter to Three Wives are also good. Being forced with a choice from these five, I’d pick The Heiress. Opening it up to all films from 1949, Ozu’s Late Spring should take it in a cakewalk.
Lookout for Part 3 tomorrow!
