It is untenable to think that, although the tides of time are near-impossible to define, the grand old Academy Awards have not changed as much as we might believe. I mean, surging back to the first year of the roaring forties, and the Oscar participants were not all that different. For starters, both Judy Garland and Adolf Hitler would be talking points one way or another, both then and now.
Acting Spoils
Having received the Academy Juvenile Award for her breakout in last year’s The Wizard of Oz, Garland would not be an actress nominee in 1940. Though she does sing right before dinner. However, she would feature in Strike Up the Band, the recipient of Best Sound Recording award.
And then The Great Dictator would display Charles Chaplin at his most controversial. Garnering five Oscar nods for his efforts, including Best Actor. Chaplin was considered something of a sneaky entry into the Best Actor race. Especially having recently won the prize with the New York film critics.
Hitler – or Adenoid Hynkel if you prefer – would be in stellar company in the Best Actor race. With Abraham Lincoln being portrayed by Raymond Massey in Spirit of the People. Although he would have to wait forty years for his win, Henry Fonda represented the much fancied The Grapes of Wrath.
The other chaps in the line-up were The Philadelphia Story‘s James Stewart (having a blinder year with Destry Rides Again, No Time for Comedy, The Mortal Storm, and The Shop Around the Corner) – but no Cary Grant. And Laurence Olivier (Rebecca). Both actors nominated the previous year in the same category, but lost. When even Clark Gable couldn’t claim one of Gone With the Wind‘s ten Academy Awards, as Robert Donat trumped all for his role in Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
O. Selznik There For Art Thou
Producer, David O. Selznik, though, was surely still buzzing following the blizzard of Oscars the previous year for Gone With the Wind. And his Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. This year, 1940, he was back with the adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s novel, Rebecca.
A potentially-cursed early release in 1940, but it is amazing what word of mouth can do. And a Hollywood Boulevard screening after the nominations. With Rebecca, there was plenty to talk about.
The Gone With the Wind links were extraordinary. Vivien Leigh auditioned for the role of the new Mrs. de Winter, but Selznik was not convinced. Instead, the part went to the far meeker and suitable Joan Fontaine. The sister of none other than Olivia de Havilland – also Oscar-nominated for Gone With the Wind in 1939.
A Whole New World
Meanwhile, having ran off to marry Laurence Olivier, the very same Vivien Leigh was also unable to fulfill Alexander Korda’s wishes that she play the Princess in his production of The Thief of Bagdad. A breakthrough in Technicolor cinema and visual production, The Thief of Bagdad won three of its four Oscar nominations.
Impressively, this was the most awards won by any film on the night. More than Rebecca, more than The Grapes of Wrath, more than The Great Dictator, more than The Philadelphia Story. In fact, even with ten films nominated for Best Picture (that’s right, ten), The Thief of Bagdad was not among them.
As well as Best Color Cinematography, and Best Color Art Direction for Vincent Korda (Alexander’s little brother), The Thief of Bagdad won the Oscar for Best Special Effects (a newer award than the establishment itself). Bringing together the magic and wonder of what we might relate to Arabian Nights or Aladdin, the film is a visual splendor.
Remember, this is 1940, audiences are still coming to terms with the sumptuous fall-out of The Wizard of Oz and all its success. The Thief of Bagdad is kind of swamped by the phenomenon of Dorothy and her friends. And will continue to do so. But that fantasy adventure is still a sight to behold – with its shipwreck, and that mechanical flying horse. Not to mention the towering genie and our little thief soaring off the ground on that magic flying carpet.
Hepburn Holds Onto Hollywood
Not too far away, with her feet firmly on the ground, the spunky personality of Katherine Hepburn was infectious in Hollywood. But not always for the most advantageous of reasons. The 1930s for Hepburn was hardly a joyful period for the actress with unwitting attitude to spare and masculine sartorial choices. Which played a part in her being turned down for the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind. I wonder if things will ever change.
For Hepburn, there were sporadic financial failures and poorly received pictures in the latter half of the decade. Way too much by Tinsel Town standards. Before re-launching her career by appearing in Philip Barry’s play, and then the film version of The Philadelphia Story, Hepburn was now looming with obscurity. Soon to be considered classics from 1938, both Bringing Up Baby and Holiday crashed with audiences. As did Stage Door in 1937, where she was billed ahead of her co-star, Ginger Rogers, no less.
Although Hepburn was hailed as the true star of The Philadelphia Story, it was her co-star James Stewart who was victorious at the Academy Awards, winning Best Actor. Beating, incidentally, Henry Fonda for The Grapes of Wrath. He and Hepburn would win Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively, for On Golden Pond four decades later in 1981.
And it was not the illustrious Bette Davis (The Letter) who took gold over Katherine Hepburn, as she did five years earlier. Nor was it the breakthrough Joan Fontaine for Rebecca. Or Martha Scott for another Best Picture challenger Our Town. Which was one of three films from United Artists to grab Best Picture nominations this year.
Directors On The Double
Our Town also marked the incredible feat of having three film directors that each had two films in contention for the Best Picture of 1940. Making his first feature in the United States, English filmmaker, Alfred Hitchcock, directed Rebecca to Best Picture glory, while also having Foreign Correspondent in the line-up. But he didn’t win Best Director. Nor did he ever.
Hitchcock had recently directed Jamaica Inn (1939), also adapted from a Daphne du Maurier book. He would later stumble upon her fiction collection, The Apple Tree: A Short Novel and Several Long Stories. In particular one short story of birds that attack and kill the locals with the tide. Sounds terrifying.
At the 13th Academy Awards, the Best Director prize would go to John Ford. Not for one Best Picture nominee, The Long Voyage Home, but for the John Steinbeck adaptation, The Grapes of Wrath. And then Sam Wood, director of Our Town, also made Kitty Foyle, which would also win an Oscar.
Swing Time For Ginger
That gold statuette would be earned by the rare transition from the lighter side of the movies into drama. After dancing her merry way through a marvelous era of Broadway productions, and then RKO musicals with Fred Astaire – like Top Hat (1935) and Swing Time (1936) – the winsome Ginger Rogers toned her acting muscles in dramatic motion pictures.
And has to be said, Rogers is terrific as Kitty Foyle, and was a more than worthy Best Actress Oscar winner. The newly-crowned winner claimed it was the greatest moment of her life, and it was all down to her mother – who was her date for the evening. Kitty Foyle balances legitimate lifestyle choices and social classes, with a woman at the forefront, and the star’s name above the title on the poster.
The supposed spats between Ginger Rogers and Katherine Hepburn were paper-thin, and much more likely the stuff of Hollywood propaganda. Though it seems Hepburn turned her nose up at the suggestion she should play Kitty in the film version. When Rogers won, then, Hepburn was gracious enough to praise her former co-star, the eventual four-time Best Actress winner apparently cared little for awards.
Oscar Firsts For A New Decade
Elsewhere, another victorious woman was Anne Bauchens, winning Best Film Editing for North West Mounted Police. The writing categories were broken into Best Screenplay and Best Original Screenplay for the first time, with The Philadelphia Story and The Great McGinty winning, respectively.
God only knows why it’s taken this long to mention that “When You Wish Upon a Star” won Best Original Song for Pinocchio – this would pretty much become Disney’s anthem. The film also won Best Original Score, setting the ball rolling on animated films starting an infamous, timeless awards collection.
What was also pretty revolutionary, was the sealed envelopes of the Academy Awards winners. That’s right, nobody would know the winners beforehand. Imagine. You can thank Los Angeles Times for their big mouths last year.
Like Father, Like Son
Maybe nothing much has changed, then, since 1940. Hard to fathom what fortunes the next year will bring. With film scores in three of this year’s hopefuls, Foreign Correspondent, The Mark of Zorro (nominated), and Tin Pan Alley (winner), the legendary composer, Alfred Newman, would return to score John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley in 1941. I’ve heard it’s pretty good.
Newman would go on to win a whopping nine Oscars from a record-breaking forty-three nominations for Best Original Score. Something that no doubt inspired a legacy in the Newman musical family to emulate for years and years to come. You could argue, though, that it is not the number of Oscars, but rather the stories behind them. Just ask Thomas.
