by Allan Fish
Here we go again…
Best Picture It’s a Wonderful Life, US (12 votes)
Best Director Frank Capra, It’s a Wonderful Life (8 votes)
Best Short The Great Piggy Bank Robbery & Northwest Hounded Police (2 votes each, TIE – have to say, criminally undervoted category this week/year, to tie with two is pathetic!)
Best Actor James Stewart, It’s a Wonderful Life (17 votes)
Best Actress Ingrid Bergman, Notorious (13 votes)
Best Supp Actor Claude Rains, Notorious (12 votes)
Best Supp Actress Martita Hunt, Great Expectations (7 votes)
Best Score Dimitri Tiomkin, Duel in the Sun (4 votes)
Best Cinematography Jack Cardiff, A Matter of Life and Death (7 votes – has to be said, colour will out)
and my own best choices…
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Best Picture IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, US
Best Short NORTHWEST HOUNDED POLICE, US, Tex Avery
Best Director Frank Capra, It’s a Wonderful Life
Best Actor James Stewart, It’s a Wonderful Life
Best Actress Michèle Morgan, La Symphonie Pastorale
Best Supporting Actor Marius Goring, A Matter of Life and Death
Best Supporting Actress Martita Hunt, Great Expectations
Best Cinematography Henri Alekan, La Belle et la Bête
Best Musical Score Dimitri Tiomkin, Duel in the Sun
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and on to 1947
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Best Picture/Director
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The Actress (Japan…Teinosuke Kinugasa)
Along the Sungari River (China…Jin Shan)
Angelina (Italy…Luigi Zampa)
Antoine et Antoinette (France…Jacques Becker)
The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer (US…Irving Reis)
The Ball at the Anjo House (Japan…Kozaburo Yoshimura)
Black Narcissus (UK…Michael Powell)
Body and Soul (US…Robert Rossen)
Boomerang (US…Elia Kazan)
Born to Kill (US…Robert Wise)
Brighton Rock (UK…John Boulting)
The Brothers (UK…David MacDonald)
Brute Force (US…Jules Dassin)
Caccia Tragica (Italy…Giuseppe de Santis)
Captain from Castile (US…Henry King)
Cinderella (Czechoslovakia…Nadezhda Kosheverova, Mikhail Shapiro)
Crossfire (US…Edward Dmytryk)
Dark Passage (US…Delmer Daves)
Desperate (US…Anthony Mann)
Le Diable au Corps (France…Claude Autant-Lara)
A Double Life (US…George Cukor)
8,000 Li Under the Clouds and Moon (China…Shi Dongshan, Wang Weiun)
The Exile (US…Max Ophuls)
The Farmer’s Daughter (US…H.C.Potter)
Farrebique (France…Georges Rouquier)
Fear in the Night (US…Maxwell Shane)
The Fellows Who Ate the Elephant (Japan…Kozaburo Yoshimura)
The Fugitive (US…John Ford)
The Gangster (US…Gordon Wiles)
The Ghost and Mrs Muir (US…Joseph L.Mankiewicz)
In Our Days (West Germany…Helmut Kautner)
It Always Rains on Sunday (UK…Robert Hamer)
Ivy (US…Sam Wood)
Les Jeux sont Faits (France…Jean Delannoy)
Jubilation Street (Japan…Keisuke Kinoshita)
Kiss of Death (US…Henry Hathaway)
Krakatit (Czechoslovakia…Otakar Vavra)
The Lady from Shanghai (US…Orson Welles)
The Last Stage (Poland…Wanda Jacubowska)
Life With Father (US…Michael Curtiz)
The Love of Sumiko the Actress (Japan…Kenji Mizoguchi)
Les Maudits (France…René Clément)
Mine Own Executioner (UK…Anthony Kimmins)
Miracle on 34th Street (US…George Seaton)
Monsieur Verdoux (US…Charles Chaplin)
Monsieur Vincent (France…Maurice Cloche)
The Murderers Are Among Us (Germany…Wolfgang Staudte)
Nicholas Nickleby (UK…Alberto Cavalcanti)
Nightmare Alley (US…Edmund Goulding)
Nora Prentiss (US…Vincent Sherman)
The October Man (UK…Roy Ward Baker)
Odd Man Out (UK…Carol Reed)
Out of the Past (US…Jacques Tourneur)
Panique (France…Julien Duvivier)
Paris 1900 (France…Nicole Vedrès)
Passion (Finland…Teuvo Tulio)
The Pearl (Mexico/US…Emilio Fernandez)
Pour une Nuit d’Amour (France…Edmond T.Gréville)
The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (US…Albert Lewin)
Pursued (US…Raoul Walsh)
Le Quai des Orfèvres (France…Henri-Georges Clouzot)
Ramrod (US…André de Toth)
Record of a Tenement Gentleman (Japan…Yasujiro Ozu)
The Red House (US…Delmer Daves)
Ride the Pink Horse (US…Robert Montgomery)
The Secret Beyond the Door (US…Fritz Lang)
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (US…Norman Z.McLeod)
Le Silence est d’Or (France…René Clair)
Somewhere in Europe (Hungary…Géza von Radványi)
The Spring River Flows East (China…Cai Chusheng, Zheng Junli)
The Strike (Czechoslovakia…Karel Stekly)
T-Men (US…Anthony Mann)
Take My Life (UK…Ronald Neame)
They Made Me a Fugitive (US…Alberto Cavalcanti)
They Won’t Believe Me (US…Irving Pichel)
A Village Schoolteacher (USSR…Mark Donskoi)
The Voice of the Turtle (US…Irving Rapper)
Voyage Surprise (France…Pierre Prévert)
Warriors of Faith (Czechoslovakia…Vladimir Borsky)
Woman Without a Face (Sweden…Gustaf Molander)
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Best Short
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The Cage (US…Sidney Peterson)
The Cat Concerto (US…William Hanna, Joseph Barbera)
The Cumberland Story (UK…Humphrey Jennings)
Fireworks (US…Kenneth Anger)
Five Towns (UK…Terry Bishop)
King Size Canary (US…Tex Avery)
Motion Painting Number 1 (US…Oskar Fischinger)
People of the Po Valley (Italy…Michelangelo Antonioni)
La Tempestaire (France…Jean Epstein)
Tweetie Pie (US…Friz Freleng)
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Best Actor
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Dana Andrews Boomerang
Pedro Armendariz The Pearl
Richard Attenborough Brighton Rock
Charles Chaplin Monsieur Verdoux
Ronald Colman A Double Life
Douglas Fairbanks Jnr Sinbad the Sailor
Pierre Fresnay Monsieur Vincent
John Garfield Body and Soul
Cary Grant The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer
Trevor Howard They Made Me a Fugitive
Louis Jouvet Le Quai des Orvèvres
Burt Lancaster Brute Force
James Mason Odd Man Out
Victor Mature Kiss of Death
Burgess Meredith Mine Own Executioner
Robert Mitchum Out of the Past
Robert Mitchum Pursued
Gregory Peck Gentleman’s Agreement
Gérard Philipe Le Diable au Corps
Tyrone Power Nightmare Alley
Michael Redgrave Fame is the Spur
Edward G.Robinson The Red House
George Sanders The Private Affairs of Bel Ami
Michel Simon Panique
Artur Somlay Somewhere in Europe
Barry Sullivan The Gangster
Osamu Takizawa The Ball at the Anjo House
Ken Uehara Jubilation Street
Michael Wilding An Ideal Husband
Robert Young Crossfire
Robert Young They Won’t Believe Me
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Best Actress
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Joan Crawford Possessed
Joan Fontaine Ivy
Coleen Gray Nightmare Alley
Sally Gray They Made Me a Fugitive
Jane Greer Out of the Past
Setsuko Hara The Ball at the Anjo House
Susan Hayward Smash-Up
Choko Iida Record of a Tenement Gentleman
Deborah Kerr Black Narcissus
Veronica Lake Ramrod
Myrna Loy The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer
Dorothy McGuire Gentleman’s Agreement
Anna Magnani Angelina
Lilli Palmer Body and Soul
Eleanor Parker The Voice of the Turtle
Micheline Presle Le Diable au Corps
Micheline Presle Les Jeux sont Faits
Ann Sheridan Nora Prentiss
Kinuyo Tanaka The Love of Sumako the Actress
Gene Tierney The Ghost and Mrs Muir
Claire Trevor Born to Kill
Gunn Wallgren Woman Without a Face
Googie Withers It Always Rains on Sunday
Bai Yang The Spring River Flows East
Loretta Young The Farmer’s Daughter
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Best Supp Actor
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Glenn Anders The Lady from Shanghai
Charles Bickford The Farmer’s Daughter
Raymond Burr Desperate
Morris Carnovsky Dead Reckoning
Edward Chapman The October Man
Lee J.Cobb Boomerang
Ray Collins The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer
Jimmy Conlin The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
Elisha Cook Jnr Born to Kill
Hume Cronyn Brute Force
Cyril Cusack Odd Man Out
Kirk Douglas Out of the Past
Alfred Drayton Nicholas Nickleby
Charles Dullin Le Quai des Orfèvres
John Garfield Gentleman’s Agreement
Thomas Gomez Ride the Pink Horse
Marius Goring Take My Life
Edmund Gwenn Miracle on 34th Street
Alan Hale Pursued
Cedric Hardwicke Nicholas Nickleby
Taylor Holmes Nightmare Alley
Dean Jagger Pursued
Griffith Jones They Made Me a Fugitive
Ian Keith Nightmare Alley
Paul Kelly Crossfire
Charles Laughton The Paradine Case
John Laurie Mine Own Executioner
Canada Lee Body and Soul
F.J.McCormick Odd Man Out
Duncan Macrae The Brothers
Masayuki Mori The Ball at the Anjo House
Robert Newton Odd Man Out
Robert Ryan Crossfire
George Sanders Forever Amber
Sinoël Voyage Surprise
Everett Sloane The Lady from Shanghai
C.Aubrey Smith An Ideal Husband
Houseley Stevenson Dark Passage
Francis L.Sullivan Take My Life
Paul Valentine Out of the Past
Jack Warner It Always Rains on Sunday
Richard Widmark Kiss of Death
Harcourt Williams Brighton Rock
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Best Supp Actress
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Yumeko Aizome The Ball at the Anjo House
Judith Anderson Pursued
Eve Arden The Voice of the Turtle
Zsusza Banki Somewhere in Europe
Ethel Barrymore The Farmer’s Daughter
Joan Blondell Nightmare Alley
Kathleen Byron Black Narcissus
Constance Collier An Ideal Husband
Suzy Delair Le Quai des Orfèvres
Gloria Grahame Crossfire
Coleen Gray Kiss of Death
Joan Greenwood The October Man
Jane Greer They Won’t Believe Me
Celeste Holm Gentleman’s Agreement
Rita Johnson They Won’t Believe Me
Catherine Lacey The October Man
Marjorie Main The Egg and I
Mary Merrall They Made Me a Fugitive
Marguerite Moreno Les Jeux sont Faits
Una O’Connor Ivy
Annette Poivre Voyage Surprise
Martha Raye Monsieur Verdoux
Simone Renant Le Quai des Orfèvres
Anne Revere Gentleman’s Agreement
Viviane Romance Panique
Kathleen Ryan Odd Man Out
Sybil Thorndike Nicholas Nickleby
Alida Valli The Paradine Case
Irene Von Meyendorff Film ohne Titel
Helen Walker Nightmare Alley
Wu Yinyan The Spring River Flows East
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Best Score
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Georges Auric It Always Rains on Sunday
Charles Chaplin Monsieur Verdoux
Benjamin Frankel Mine Own Executioner
Hugo Friedhofer The Bishop’s Wife
Bernard Herrmann The Ghost and Mrs Muir
Darius Milhaud The Private Affairs of Bel Ami
Cyril Mockridge Nightmare Alley
Alfred Newman Captain from Castile
David Raksin Forever Amber
Miklós Rózsa A Double Life
Miklós Rózsa The Red House
Max Steiner Life With Father
Roy Webb Crossfire
Roy Webb Out of the Past
Charles Williams While I Live
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Best Cinematography
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John Alton Bury Me Dead
John Alton T-Men
Norbert Brodine Boomerang
Norbert Brodine Kiss of Death
Jack Cardiff Black Narcissus
Charles Clarke, Arthur E.Arling Captain from Castile
William H.Daniels Brute Force
Robert de Grasse Born to Kill
George E.Diskant Desperate
Gabriel Figueroa The Fugitive
Gabriel Figueroa The Pearl
Lee Garmes Nightmare Alley
Max Greene Brighton Rock
Russell Harlan Ramrod
Osmo Harkimo Passion
Otto Heller They Made Me a Fugitive
James Wong Howe Body and Soul
James Wong Howe Pursued
J.Roy Hunt Crossfire
Robert Krasker Odd Man Out
Milton Krasner A Double Life
Charles Lawton The Lady from Shanghai
Russell Metty Ivy
Bentsion Monatsyrsky The Last Stage
Nicholas Musuraca Out of the Past
Franz Planer The Exile
Leon Shamroy Forever Amber
Douglas Slocombe It Always Rains on Sunday
Armand Thirard Le Quai des Orfèvres
Geoffrey Unsworth The Man Within
Has to be said not a vintage year for Best Score, but Cinematography more than makes that up.
Yay for “It’s a Wonderful Life” winning best movie, best director for Frank Capra and best actor for James Stewart in 1946.
I vote “The Cat Concerto” for best short in 1947.
Another year that’s painful to decide for the top category. Autant Lara’s LE DIABLE AU CORPS, the great noir OUT OF THE PAST and Carol Reed’s masterful ODD MAN OUT come within a whisker of my top choice:
Best Picture: Black Narcissus
Best Director: Michael Powell (Black Narcissus)
Best Actor: Robert Mitchum (Out of the Past)
Best Actress: Jane Greer (Out of the Past)
Best Supporting Actor: Edmund Gwenn (Miracle on 34th Street)
Best Supporting Actress: Kathleen Byron (Black Narcissus)
Best Short: The Cat’s Concerto
Best Score: Charles Williams (While I Live)
Best Cinematography: Jack Cardiff (Black Narcissus)
Beyond:
Best Screenplay: Daniel Mainwaring (Out of the Past)
Best Editing: Fergus McDonall (Odd Man Out)
Best Art Direction: Alfred Junge (Black Narcissus)
Best Picture; Black Narcissus
Best Director: Powell
Best Actor: Power, Nightmare Alley
Best Actress: Kerr, Narcissus
Supporting Actor: Sloane, Lady From Shanghai
Suporting Actress: Byron, Narcissus
Cinematography: Cardiff, Narcissus
Score: Brian Easdale, Narcissus — makes the year a little better, no?
Short: King Size Canary
If this be narcissism make the most of it.
Picture: Monsieur Verdoux
Director: Charles Chaplin, Monsieur Verdoux
Actor: John Garfield, Body and Soul
Actress: Deborah Kerr, Black Narcissus
Sup. Actor: Griffith Jones, They Made Me a Fugitive
Sup. Actress: Joan Blondell, Nightmare Alley
Cinematography: Jack Cardiff, Black Narcissus
Picture: Body and Soul
Director: Jacques Tourneur – Out of the Past
Actor: John Garfield – Body and Soul
Actress: Lilli Palmer – Body and Soul
Supporting Actor: Raymond Burr – Desperate
Suporting Actress: Wanda Hendrix – Ride the Pink Horse
Cinematography: Nicholas Musuraca – Out of the Past
Score: Roy Webb – Out of the Past
Screenplay: Abraham Polonsky – Body and Soul
Not half as exciting as the year prior but still loaded with gems.
Here goes:
BEST PICTURE: OUT OF THE PAST
DIRECTOR: Jacques Tourneur (OUT OF THE PAST)
SHORT: THE CAT CONCERTO
LEAD ACTOR: Richard Attenborough (BRIGHTON ROCK)
LEAD ACTRESS: Deborah Kerr (BLACK NARCISSUS)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Hume Cronyn (BRUTE FORCE)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Martha Raye (MONSIEUR VERDOUX)
SCORE: Bernard Herrmann (THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR)
PHOTO: Jack Cardiff (BLACK NARCISSUS)
Dennis, I salute you for voting for the unsinkable Martha Raye, one of the greatest non-Chaplin, non-Keaton slapstick turns.
Best Picture: Out Of The Past
Best Director: Carol Reed (Odd Man Out)
Best Actor: (((((tie))))) Robert Mitchum (Out Of The Past) James Mason (Odd Man Out)
Best Actress: Jane Greer (Out Of The Past)
Best Supp Actor: Ian Keith (Nightmare Alley)
Best Supp Actress: Helen Walker (Nightmare Alley)
Top Five: 1. Out Of The Past 2. Odd Man Out 3. Nightmare Alley 4. Brighton Rock 5. The Lady From Shanghai
This is a tough year for me in that I’m not as crazy about some of these movies as others – more respect than love from me regarding a number of classics.
Feature: Kiss of Death
Short: King Size Canary
Director: Jacques Tourneur (Out of the Past)
Actor: John Garfield (Body and Soul)
Actress: Deborah Kerr (Black Narcissus)
Supp. Actor: Richard Widmark (Kiss of Death)
Supp. Actress: Jean Simmons (Black Narcissus)
Score: Monsieur Verdoux (I don’t remember it too well, but I remember it’s impression better than any of the others this year)
Cinematography: Out of the Past
Screenplay: Body and Soul
Editing: Brute Force
honorable mention: The Last Stage
My votes:
PICTURE: Odd Man Out
DIRECTOR: Ozu
LEAD ACTOR: this is a very hard decision – I’ll go with James Mason over Robert Mitchum, by the narrowest of margins.
LEAD ACTRESS: Kinuyo Tanaka (not that this is easy, taking her over Iida)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Kirk Douglas, Out of the Past
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Kathleen Ryan
SHORT: IMDB lists School for Postmen in 1947 – if that’s not right, I’ll defer to your information… if so – Tweetie Pie
SCORE: Webb, Out of the Past
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Krasker, Odd Man Out
Plus bonus picks::
Script: Mainwaring, Out of the Past
Best Picture: Body and Soul
Best Director: Michael Powell
Best Actor: John Garfield
Best Actress: Jane Greer
Best S. Actor: Edmund Gwenn
Best S. Actress: Joan Blondell
Best Score: Roy Webb
Best Cinematography: Jack Cardiff
I haven’t seen enough from this year to justify me in voting for most of the categories, but I have watched several of the shorts, so will cast a vote for ‘People of the Po Valley’.
Best Picture: Out of the Past
Best Director: Jacques Tourneur (Out of the Past)
Best Actor: Tyrone Power (Nightmare Alley)
Best Actress: Jane Greer (Out of the Past)
Best Supporting Actor: Ian Keith (Nightmare Alley) & Kirk Douglas (Out of the Past)
Best Supporting Actress: Joan Blondell (Nightmare Alley)
Best Cinematography: John Alton (T-Men) & Nicholas Musuraca (Out of the Past)
Best Score: Roy Webb (Out of the Past)
Best Script: Charlie Chaplin (Monsieur Verdoux)
Top 5:
1. Out of the Past
2. Nightmare Alley
3. T-Men
4. Monsieur Verdoux
5. Dead Reckoning & Ride the Pink Horse
Not to get all Grouchy Smurf up in here, but I swear to god I hate IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE more than I hate puppies. Keeping totally in character with the statement I have just made, I’d cast my vote for THE MURDERS ARE AMONG US. For real. Honorable mentions to THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, THE GHOST AND MRS MUIR, and DARK PASSAGE.
Picture- Black Narcissus
Director- Powell (Black Narcissus)
Actor- Robert Mitchum (Out of the Past)
Actress- Deborah Kerr (Black Narcissus)
Supp. Actor- Hume Cronyn (Brute Force)
Supp. Actress- Kathleen Byron (Black Narcissus)
Score- Roy Webb (Out of the Past)
Cinematography – Jack Cardiff (Black Narcissus)
I think that’s the most votes I’ve ever given to one single film.
Re-watched Black Narcissus last night, but no ‘Blimp efect’, even in cinematography.
Best Picture: Out of the Past
Best Director: Jacques Tourneur (Out of the Past)
Best Actor: Robert Mitchum (Out of the Past)
Best Actress: Jane Greer (Out of the Past)
Best Supporting Actor: Kirk Douglas (Out of the Past)
Best Supporting Actress: Kathleen Byron (Black Narcissus)
Best Score: Roy Webb (Out of the Past)
Best Cinematography: Nicholas Musuraca (Out of the Past)
Best Picture: Black Narcissus. I also like Nightmare Alley, Out of the Past , Miracle on 34th Street.
Best Director: Powell & Pressburger for Black Narcissus
Best Short: The Cat Concerto (US…William Hanna, Joseph Barbera)
Best Actor: Robert Mitchum for Out of the Past.
Best Actress: Rita Hayworth The Lady of Shanghai. I think she is much better here than in Gilda. I also think that Welles overdid the narration.
Best Supp Actor. Edmund Gwenn Miracle on 34th Street
Best Supp Actress: Kathleen Byron Black Narcissus. I also like Helen Walker in Nightmare Alley
Best Cinematography: Jack Cardiff Black Narcissus (color wins over noir this time).
Just to clarify, had a couple of people message and email me asking why I only list Michael Powell as director for the Powell-Pressburger films. For whose who don’t know, the umbrella credit for the two for producer, director and writer was agreed between them, but essentially Powell directed, Pressburger wrote the scripts and they both produced. Hence on the topbar extended awards, when The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp won best screenplay, Emeric Pressburger was listed rightly alone.
Though Chaplin should be seen and not heard (those flowery speeches, ornately enunciated, the rift between seriousness and slapstick brought on by sound), I’m still going for ‘Verdoux’ because Chaplin was a genius and this is the closest thing to a masterpiece I know in 1947, a lean year. Even Welles was off his A-game, hamming it up with an Irish brogue in ‘The Lady From Shanghai’.
Film: ‘Monsieur Verdoux’
Director: Chaplin
Actress: Deborah Kerr (‘Black Narcissus’ — what’s black-and-white, and black-and-white, and black-and-white? A nun rolling down a hill).
Actor: Robert Mitchum (‘Out of the Past’ — and stoner of the year)
S. Actress: Martha Raye (‘Monsieur Verdoux’)
S. Actor: Robert Ryan (‘Crossfire’)
Photography: James Wong Howe (‘Body and Soul’)
You must not like film noir then Mark because 1947 has at least 4 masterpieces from that genre alone.
Well, Maurizio, I do like noir, I don’t know, it’s just probably one of my quirks but I’ve always considered most but not all noir, or crime pictures – wrongly probably – a guilty pleasure. The French (those French and their auteurists) consecrated the genre of the hard, fast and lucid American crime thriller, derived from hard, fast, laconic American crime fiction, with words like angst, nihilism, oneiric, all terms that can be applied to any number of films from any number of genres. In short, I’ve never understood the parameters of noir. To me, ‘The Maltese Falcon’, ‘The Asphalt Jungle, ‘Kiss Me Deadly’, ‘The Killing’, ‘Touch of Evil’ etc. are good crime dramas, and to hell with all the dawn-to-dusk chiaroscuro and freakish camera angles (‘La Notte’ shares a lot of cinematic elements with noir, but no sane person would call it Film Noir). I also like some of the spoofs of all those pictures featuring private eyes, hardboiled dialogue and the venality of characters both high and low, patrician and skid-row bum — Huston’s ‘Beat the Devil’ and Altman’s ‘The Long Goodbye’. Even a few of the neo-noirs like ‘Chinatown’ and L.A. Confidential’ appeal to me. But I can’t take seriously films like ‘Gun Crazy’, ‘Laura’, ‘The Blue Dahlia’, ‘The Lady from Shanghai’ or ‘Gilda’, enjoyable as they are, because they’re nothing more than crime melodramas devoid of any quasi-Marxist expose of the dark side of American capitalism (In the crime genre, ‘The Asphalt Jungle’ may be the high point of overt leftism). Why does anyone watch ‘Gilda’? Two words — Rita Hayworth. And the better the fatale, the better the garden variety noir, cf. Claire Trevor in ‘Born to Kill’ , Jane Greer in ‘Out of the Past’ or Audrey Totter and Marie Windsor in most anything.
I hope this makes some sense Maurizio. Fact is there’s good and bad noir, with ‘Out of the Past’ surely one of the former, but I just can’t rank it ahead of Chaplin’s film.
Mark S., take a quick jaunt to Maurizio’s piece on GILDA and the conversation underneath. Rita is a distant, distant reason why one should watch GILDA…
(It can be had here: http://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/41-gilda/)
But I agree with a bit of your real thrust here, that the ethos of a criminal, and those that use shady tactics to get them, is a philosophical bent know to many genres, and even more works of art… But since it is so predominate in films of this sort is why I like so many Noirs.
Jamie, there’s definitely a homoerotic subtlety to ‘Gilda’, but it gets buried because the film (thankfully) keeps throwing Rita Hayworth cheesecake at you. Remember Morgan Freeman in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’? “Are you decent, Gilda?” Groin-tingling hair toss. “Who, me?”
As for ‘The Fight Club’, I didn’t realize Fincher had bowdlerized the book, which I haven’t read, but even without the swimsuit scene there’s no mistaking the homosexual ambience here, hell the whole film’s a fisticuffs variation on Greco-Roman nude wrestling, probably a landmark in gay cinema, though mainstream audiences probably don’t catch it, even with all those displays of naked, sculpted male flesh.
Great year for noir, but a little disappointing for the rest of the scene…
PICTURE: Monsieur Verdoux (followed by Miracle on 34th Street, Black Narcissus, T-Men, Nightmare Alley, Body and Soul, Out of the Past, Brute Force)
DIRECTOR: Charles Chaplin, Monsieur Verdoux (2nd: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, Black Narcissus)
ACTOR: Charles Chaplin, Monsieur Verdoux (2nd: Tyrone Power, Nightmare Alley)
ACTRESS: Deborah Kerr, Black Narcissus (2nd: Susan Hayward, Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Edmund Gwynne, Miracle on 34th Street (2nd: Richard Widmark, Kiss of Death)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Marjorie Main, The Egg and I (2nd: Gloria Grahame, Crossfire)
ORIGINAL SCORE: Alfred Newman, Captain from Castile (2nd: Miklos Rosza, A Double Life)
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jack Cardiff, Black Narcissus (2nd (color): Life With Father)
SHORT: King-Sized Canary (2nd: Motion Painting No. 1)
FURTHER:
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: George Seaton and Valentine Davies, Miracle on 34th Street (2nd: Charles Chaplin and Orson Welles, Monsieur Verdoux)
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Jules Furthman, Nightmare Alley (2nd: Geoffrey Homes, Out of the Past)
B&W CINEMATOGRAPHY: John Alton, T-Men (2nd: James Wong Howe, Body and Soul)
B&W ART DIRECTION: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
COLOR ART DIRECTION: Black Narcissus
B&W COSTUME DESIGN: Monsieur Verdoux
COLOR COSTUME DESIGN: Life With Father
FILM EDITING: T-Men
SOUND: T-Men
ORIGINAL SONG: “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” from Song of the South
SCORE FOR A MUSICAL: Daniele Amitheatrof, Paul Smith and Charles Walcott, Song of the South
Not an exceptionally good year to my eyes either, but last year was a truly incredible year. Everything balances out.
Best Pic: Verdoux
Runner-ups: Black Narcissus, Body and Soul, Odd Man Out, Out of the Past
Best Dir: Chaplin
Best Actors: Deborah Kerr-Narcissus, Garfield-Body&Soul
Best Scr: Polonsky-Body&Soul
Best Cin: Cardiff-Narcissus
Film: Black Narcissus
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Actor: John Garfield
Actress: Jane Greer
Sup. Actor: Edmund Gwenn
Sup. Actress: Kathleen Byron
Score: Roy Webb
Cinematography: Jack Cardiff
Short: Cat Concerto
Pic: Out Of The Past
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Act: Tyrone Power
Actress: Deborah Kerr
Supporting Act: Edmund Gwenn
Supporting Actress: Helen Walker
Score: Roy Webb
Cin: Nicholas Musuraca
Hope all is well with everyone! It’s been a busy time for Sue and I.
Some great movies in 1947.
Best Picture: Out of the Past
Best Director: Jacques Tourneur (Out of the Past)
Best Actor: John Garfield (Body and Soul)
Best Actress: Deborah Kerr (Black Narcissus)
Best Supporting Actor: Richard Widmark (Kiss of Death)
Best Supporting Actress: Kathleen Byron (Black Narcissus)
Best Score: Roy Webb (Out of the Past)
Best Cinematography: Jack Cardiff (Black Narcissus)
Best Shor Film: King-Size Canary