Oscar Goes Any Way the Wind Blows

Vivien Leigh:
Best Actress for Gone With the Wind

TUESDAYS WITH OSCAR: 1939

*UPDATE: The Best Supporting Actor category left off a nominee whom I declare the winner, replacing the previous selection.

1939 is the greatest year in film history.  A reading of the Best Picture nominees for the 12th Academy Awards looks like a gallery of The Art of Motion Picture Essentials.  The winner, a sweeping epic, might have overpowered all the other nominees, but this is a rare year when the Best Picture winner did not eclipse the nominees in film history or where even those who didn't take home the Oscar could be said to have been slighted. 

In fact, 1939 is about the only year I can find where the Great Films that WEREN'T nominated weren't because they were overlooked for inferior films.  It simply is because there would be no room for them.  For those of us who love film, 1939 is the apex of the medium, where the winners deserved to win, the losers deserved to win, and even the non-nominated films deserved to win. 

Last year, three of the four acting winners had won previously.  This year, all four acting winners were not just first-time winners, but three of them were first-time nominees, a total reversal.  This year also has the first African-American to win an Oscar and the first posthumous Oscar winner.  Sydney Howard, the credited screenwriter of Gone With the Wind (though more hands were involved in the script), had died before the film premiered.  The 1939 Academy Awards also had Bob Hope host for the first time and the first color film to win Best Picture.  Finally, a press preemptive release of the winners prompted the Academy to enforce a strict silence on the winners.  From now on, the winners would not be announced until the envelopes were opened live.  Given that with the wide number of pre-Oscar awards, the mystery of the eventual winners is pretty much gone, but between 1940 and maybe 2000 or slightly earlier there would be many gasps. 

In fact, for my Substitutions I have opted for a different tact.  As much as possible, I have avoided renominating certain people/films.  Frankly, I don't have to: I simply have too many choices from which to draw on.

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 1939 ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Olivia de Havilland (Gone With the Wind)
Geraldine Fitzgerald (Wuthering Heights)
Hattie McDaniel (Gone With the Wind)
Edna May Oliver (Drums Along the Mohawk)
Maria Ouspenskaya (Love Affair)

Recent reevaluations have been quite divisive on McDaniel's role as Mammy in Gone With the Wind.  Some have bemoaned the stereotypical role of a subservient slave who speaks badly and is big and bossy and inferior to "Miss Scarlett".  Others have championed McDaniel as the smartest character in the film, one who had a conscience and common sense (two things that the ever-willful Scarlett and the ever-sacrificial Melanie didn't).  Even now, the negative connotations of Mammy still haven't disappeared.  Not being African-American, I cannot say how it affects a black viewer.  For myself, I side with the latter group.  Mammy is nobody's fool and is not only able to see through people but call things for what they are.  She may be a slave, but she is also a strong and wise woman.

Olivia de Havilland (Gone With the Wind)
Geraldine Fitzgerald (Wuthering Heights)
Hattie McDaniel (Gone With the Wind)
Edna May Oliver (Drums Along the Mohawk)
Maria Ouspenskaya (Love Affair)

Again, out of all the performances listed it is McDaniel who steals the show.  She can make Mammy comic, but she is also someone who can push others without showing her hand.  McDaniel may have played a domestic, but in reality out of all the characters in this sprawling epic Mammy is the one who knows what's going on and if allowed to be truly free would be able to get people to do the right thing.  It might be stereotypical, but with her win it is a step in the right direction.

Geraldine Fitzgerald (Dark Victory)
Margaret Hamilton (The Wizard of Oz)
Mary Nash (The Little Princess)
Rosalind Russell (The Women)
Claire Trevor (Stagecoach)

Really, is there a more iconic performance than that of Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West?  What is interesting about Hamilton is that in real life, she was from a prominent Cleveland family and a really nice and sophisticated lady.  Far from her screen image as a fiendish foil to children everywhere, she was actually quite fond of children, devoting much time and energy to charities.  In some ways, she is playing a stereotype in the way McDaniel played one: Hamilton's Wicked Witch is a figure straight out of childhood.  However, she is someone who relishes being evil, who is ruthless and will stop at nothing to defeat and destroy Dorothy and her friends, and who gets what she deserves.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Brian Aherne (Juarez)
Harry Carey (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington)
Brian Donlevy (Beau Geste)
Thomas Mitchell (Stagecoach)
Claude Rains (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington)

This was not just the greatest year in film history, but it was also Thomas Mitchell's greatest year in film too.  He won the Oscar for Stagecoach, but he also had featured roles in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington AND Gone With the Wind.  For all we know, he was the janitor at the Emerald City too!  Mitchell's turn as the alcoholic doctor I think has become a cliché in Western films, and I can't say whether he created the image of the boozing doc for future Western films.  However, he isn't playing some happy drunk for comic relief.  Mitchell is a flawed man, who wants to do right, on occasion does, but has this terrible illness that constantly gets at him.

Brian Aherne (Juarez)
Harry Carey (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington)
Brian Donlevy (Beau Geste)
Thomas Mitchell (Stagecoach)
Claude Rains (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington)

As the well-intentioned but hapless Maximilian, erstwhile Emperor of Mexico, Aherne carries a tragic role and makes him almost good.  I say almost because Aherne plays Max as someone for whom duty and honor, all those grand European values from grand European royals, blocks him from realizing that he isn't really wanted in Mexico.  Instead, the Mexicans would rather rule themselves under an elected government.  The fact that Empress Carlota (Bette Davis) understands things better than her well-meaning but somewhat clueless husband makes all this the more tragic.

Sam Jaffe (Gunga Din)
Bela Lugosi (Son of Frankenstein)
Burgess Meredith (Of Mice and Men)
Thomas Mitchell (Gone With the Wind)
Frank Morgan (The Wizard of Oz)

After due consideration, I have named Bela Lugosi, an actor who never got the recognition he deserved in his lifetime, as the Best Supporting Actor for his now-iconic role of Ygor in Son of Frankenstein.  Lugosi always bristled when people said he couldn't work with make-up, and with Ygor, he created two iconic figures in the horror genre.  Lugosi also made Ygor a more compelling character and one almost sympathetic. 

BEST ACTRESS

Bette Davis (Dark Victory)
Irene Dunne (Love Story)
Greta Garbo (Ninotchka)
Greer Garson (Goodbye, Mr. Chips)
Vivien Leigh (Gone With the Wind)

Really?  How to choose between some iconic and definitive performances of the respective nominees careers?  You have Davis dying, Dunne loving, Garbo laughing, and Garson emoting.  Yet out of all of these performances, all as good and brilliant as they are (and which are memorable), it is Leigh, the British beauty, as the fiery Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara that is I think one of if not the greatest female performance captured on film.  In turns frivolous, spiteful, lovelorn, passionate, strong and weak, Scarlett is neither villainess or heroine.  She's a survivor, one who does what she can to overcome all the obstacles presented to her.  Despite everything that has happened to Scarlett, she still believes that 'tomorrow IS another day', and that in the end, she will get her man.

Bette Davis (Dark Victory)
Irene Dunne (Love Story)
Greta Garbo (Ninotchka)
Greer Garson (Goodbye, Mr. Chips)
Vivien Leigh (Gone With the Wind)

Again, every single one of these performances would be worthy of winning.  In this group, there truly are no losers, no "how'd THEY get nominated" questions.  I can't ever turn away from Leigh, who was so convincing as this Georgia beauty with the iron will and steel heart.  Let's remember that the very definition of Southern femininity is actually British.  However, it isn't just that she kept an amazing American accent but that with how terrible she was, Scarlett was still the woman we cheered for and even admired for her refusal to give in.

Jean Arthur (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington)
Joan Crawford (The Women)
Judy Garland (The Wizard of Oz)
Merle Oberon (Wuthering Heights)
Shirley Temple (The Little Princess)

Again, the ones left off for Best Actress don't appear to have been sacrificed for lesser performances.  In fact, there were too many good performances that I could make a whole group of them without including any of the actual nominees.  Looking over those not nominated but worthy of one, I think the one that really stands out is Joan Crawford as Crystal Allen, the bitch with the heart of brass who is unapologetic about being a golddigger.  Crawford was asked by her boss, MGM head Louis B. Meyer, why would she want to play such a loathsome character.  Crawford replied she'd play Wallace Berry's grandmother if the part was good, and Crystal was perhaps the best part she had so far.  Even though she's the villainess, the one we're not suppose to be cheering for, in the end we almost end up rooting for her.  Her final kiss-off line to Norma Shearer and all those ladies who lunch is brilliant.

"Well girls, I guess it's back to the perfume counter for me.  And by the way, there's a name for you ladies, but it isn't used in high society...outside of a kennel.  So long, ladies."

BEST ACTOR

Robert Donat (Goodbye, Mr. Chips)
Clark Gable (Gone With the Wind)
Laurence Olivier (Wuthering Heights)
Mickey Rooney (Babes in Arms)
James Stewart (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington)

Of all the winners, this one was probably the one that came as a genuine surprise, up to a point.  Donat's turn as the quintessential teacher I think wasn't expected to win, given that it was rather quiet compared to the acting fireworks of all the other nominees.  They were surrounded by massive sets, titanic themes, and splashy musical numbers.  And here, among these, was a simple English schoolmarm.  However, the early release of winners by newspapers had the unfortunate effect of having the other nominees, like Gable, go to the ceremony knowing they'd lost to the absent Donat.  As a result, we had the strict enforcement of not revealing winners until that very night.

As I look at the list of nominees, again I am so spoiled for choice.  How can I choose between the rogue who ends up with a broken heart and the idealistic young man fighting against the sleazy government corruption?  When we think of Clark Gable and James Stewart, their performances in Gone With the Wind and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington respectively come to mind.  Frankly, I simply cannot say one is greater than the other.  It is too much to single one but not the other.

In this case, I simply cannot declare ONE winner.  Therefore, I'm exercising my prerogative and declaring a tie (my first). 

Robert Donat (Goodbye, Mr. Chips)
Clark Gable (Gone With the Wind)
Laurence Olivier (Wuthering Heights)
Mickey Rooney (Babes in Arms)
James Stewart (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington)

Lon Chaney, Jr. (Of Mice and Men)
Melvyn Douglas (Ninotchka)
Henry Fonda (Young Mr. Lincoln)
Cary Grant (Only Angels Have Wings)
John Wayne (Stagecoach)

Oh, talk about a nightmare of making a choice.  Here again, we have some brilliant performances, especially those of Fonda and Wayne, whose Ringo Kid made him into the icon he became.  However, when I think of simply great performances, I think of Chaney, Jr. as the simple Lenny in Of Mice and Men.  We see what a good man Lenny is, despite his disability, and his performance has become iconic...to the point of parody.  I've often thought that the monster in those Warner Brothers cartoons who picks up Daffy Duck and says that he will "squeeze him and hug him and pet him and call him 'George'" comes from Chaney, Jr.'s turn.  I have no proof of this, but I can't help thinking that.

BEST SONG

From The Wizard of Oz, Over the Rainbow.  Music by Harold Arlen, Lyrics by E.Y. Harburg.

What else really needs to be said? 

Over the Rainbow is not just the best Best Song Oscar winner, but I think the best song ever written for film (sorry, Adele...your crappy little ditty isn't even in my Top Seventy Best Song Oscar winners, and there have only been 79 winners) .  In turns wistful and mournful, optimistic and despairing, Over the Rainbow is a song about wishing for something wonderful and also about realizing that those dreams may never come true.

Over the Rainbow was cut at one point, executives complaining that it slowed the film down...and that it was undignified for an MGM star to sing in a barnyard.  Intense lobbying on the part of producer Mervyn Leroy,  MGM producer Arthur Freed, and director Victor Fleming had the song restored.  Fro myself, Over the Rainbow ranks as one of the Songs of the Century, ranking alongside Ol' Man River from Show Boat, Strange Fruit, Hello, Dolly!, Like a Rolling Stone, Blue Monday, Smells Like Teen Spirit, and Hey Jude among others. 

BEST DIRECTOR

Frank Capra (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington)
Victor Fleming (Gone With the Wind)
John Ford (Stagecoach)
Sam Wood (Goodbye, Mr. Chips)
William Wyler (Wuthering Heights)

Again, really?  Just HOW hard is it to draw just one?  However, in this case I have to give to the man credited with helming this monstrous epic, keeping the story flowing despite its massive length and who brought out great performances from this titanic cast.  While Fleming didn't start or really finish Gone With the Wind, we have to give him credit for putting the chaotic production in some order. 

Frank Capra (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington)
Victor Fleming (Gone With the Wind)
John Ford (Stagecoach)
Sam Wood (Goodbye, Mr. Chips)
William Wyler (Wuthering Heights)

Again, I really don't see a need to replace Fleming as the winner.

Busby Berkley (Babes in Arms)
George Cukor (The Women)
Victor Fleming (The Wizard of Oz)
Ernst Lubitsch (Ninotchka)
Lewis Milestone (Of Mice and Men)

Given how he managed to keep the dueling egos and bitter rivalry between Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford at bay to create a catty adaptation of the hit Broadway play, Cukor is probably the only man we think of when we think of The Women.  For better or worse, Cukor was thought of as a 'woman's director', and whether it was because he could direct women so well or was a sly comment about his homosexuality I don't know.

And Now, the Best Picture of 1939...

Dark Victory
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Gone With the Wind
Love Affair
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Ninotchka
Of Mice and Men
Stagecoach
The Wizard of Oz
Wuthering Heights

Well, how to choose?  Each of these films has gone on to be a definitive classic.  You have fantasy, comedy, drama, romance, adventure.  Fortunately, you have all these elements in Gone With the Wind, what I have always called the Rose Bowl of Epic Films...the Granddaddy of Them All.  Epic in scope, intelligent in story, Gone With the Wind, the longest Best Picture winner as of today, cannot be denied.  The rare film to have not aged since its premiere, it is simply among the greatest films ever made.  The discussion of racism in the film I'll leave at this: for the times, showing the African-American characters with a certain dignity was progressive, though you still had Butterfly McQueen's Prissy (I don't know nothing 'bout birthin' babies!)

Dark Victory
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Gone With the Wind
Love Affair
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Ninotchka
Of Mice and Men
Stagecoach
The Wizard of Oz
Wuthering Heights

Well, I'd be happy with any of these films winning Best Picture.  Each of them deserves it, but at the moment I will stick with the Epic Of Epic Films.  By the way, the book is pretty good too.  It is unfortunate that they cut the cracker Will Canteen, my favorite character from the book.  Still, from the wisdom of Mammy to the fiery passions of Scarlett to the tough-but-tender Rhett and the eternal suffering of noble Melanie, Gone With the Wind is just an Essential Film that every person who claims to love film simply has to see.

Now, it might be good to look over just a few of the films that were not nominated for Best Film.  Again, how to choose among these:

Destry Rides Again
Drums Along the Mohawk
Babes in Arms
Beau Geste
Golden Boy
Gunga Din
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Little Princess
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
The Women
Young Mr. Lincoln

And those are the ones I could think of.

Sorry, while I made ONE choice (a witty take down of battling divas), I still love the sweetness of The Little Princess, the sincerity of Young Mr. Lincoln, the action of Beau Geste, the Sherlock Holmes adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles, the swashbuckling nature of The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.  Really, even the losers and the non-nominees are all among the greatest films of all time. 

Yes, 1939 was the Greatest Year in Film History, never to be equaled or matched.  They just don't make 'em like they used to...

As God as my witness,  I'll always watch this movie again!

Next week, the 1940 Oscars.