1940 Academy Awards® Winners and History "The Philadelphia Story" , Alfred Hitchcock for "Rebecca" , Sam Wood for "Kitty Foyle", William Wyler for "The Letter" The accounting firm of Price Waterhouse was hired to count the ballots, after the fiasco of prematurely-leaked voting results in 1939 by the Los Angeles Times. Therefore, the year 1940 was the first year that sealed envelopes were used to keep secret the names of the winners. In fact, this was the first year in which the winners remained secret until the moment they won their awards. It brought about the famous phrase: "May I have the Envelope, please." A new category was added: Writing: Original Screenplay. Independent producer David O. Selznick, who had produced the previous year's big winner Gone With The Wind (1939) , also produced the Best Picture winner in 1940 - and campaigned heavily for its win. Selznick was the first to produce two consecutive winners of the Best Picture Oscar.

Rebecca was based on Daphne du Maurier's popular novel about a shrinking, child-like bride (Fontaine) who lives in the shadow of her enigmatic widower husband's (Olivier) first wife at a somber estate named Manderley (run by a mad, steely-eyed and devoted housekeeper (Anderson)). Although Rebecca had eleven nominations, it only won for Best Picture. The film's studio - United Artists - was the last of the original film studios (the others were MGM, Columbia, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Universal, and Paramount) to win the Best Picture Oscar. Rebecca was the first American-made film directed by British suspense master Alfred Hitchcock.

Other strong nominees for Best Picture in 1940 included the following - two of which were very deserving comedies --The Great Dictator and The Philadelphia Story : director Anatole Litvak's version of Rachel Field's best-selling novel, All This and Heaven Too (with three nominations and no wins) about an 1840s governess in a Parisian aristocrats home director Hitchcock's second-nominated film Foreign Correspondent (with six nominations and no wins), another thriller - an espionage tale set during World War II in Europe that endorsed US entrance into the war effort director John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (with seven nominations and two wins - Best Supporting Actress and Best Director), an adaptation of John Steinbeck's classic novel about migrating Okies during the Great Depression producer/actor/writer Charles Chaplin's first "talkie", The Great Dictator (with five nominations and no wins) - a slapstick satire on Nazism director Sam Wood's Kitty Foyle (with five nominations and one win - Best Actress) about a secretary whose involvement with a married, upper-class man leads to tremendous conflicts director William Wyler's melodramatic The Letter (with seven nominations and no wins) based on W.

Somerset Maugham's novel about a woman who commits murder director John Ford's second nominated film - the screen adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's four one-act plays titled The Long Voyage Home (with six nominations and no wins) about merchant steamer crew members on shore leave director Sam Wood's second Best Picture-nominee - the film adaptation of Thornton Wilder's Our Town (with six nominations and no wins) about the lives and loves of the inhabitants of a small town in New Hampshire director George Cukor's classic sophisticated romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story (with six nominations and two wins - Best Actor and Best Screenplay) John Ford received the second of his Best Director Awards for The Grapes of Wrath . The Best Picture winner - Rebecca was the first American film of British director Alfred Hitchcock, already known for earlier classics such as The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938) (both unnominated), but Hitchcock failed to win the Best Director Award on his first - and on all subsequent attempts.

[In his entire career, Hitchcock was nominated five times but never won a Best Director Award.] James Stewart, after making 24 films over a five year period in Hollywood, won the Best Actor award (with his second nomination - it was his sole Oscar win in his entire career) for his performance as Mike Connor - a young Spy Magazine reporter sent to cover the marriage of a socialite (Katharine Hepburn) in The Philadelphia Story . His award was seen as compensation for his loss the previous year for his performance as Jefferson Smith in The other deserving nominees for Best Actor included: Henry Fonda (with his first nomination) as impoverished Tom Joad, part of a migrant family in Rebecca Charles Chaplin in dual roles as a Jewish ghetto barber with amnesia who is mistaken for a Hitlerian dictator (of Tomania) named Adenoid Hynkel in the political satire The Great Dictator. [Chaplin was the first to receive simultaneous nominations for producer (Best Picture), actor (Best Actor), and writer (Best Original Screenplay).

This feat was duplicated, and actually topped, the next year when Orson Welles was nominated for the same honors (and also Best Director!) for Citizen Kane (1941) , and co-won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar with Herman J. Mankiewicz.] Ginger Rogers never won an award for her best-remembered dancing partnership (she had performed in nine musicals with Fred Astaire by 1939), but the dark horse did win (with her sole career nomination and Oscar win) the Best Actress award for her dramatic role in the classic 'woman's picture' Kitty Foyle as the title character/heroine. In an adaptation of Christopher Morley's novel, she starts out as a white-collar working girl who becomes a businesswoman and is forced to make a romantic choice between a rich, married Philadelphia socialite and a lower-class young doctor. After she loses a baby son, she decides to strike out alone.

The other exceptional nominees for Best Actress included: Bette Davis (with her fourth nomination) as the murderous plantation owner's wife Leslie Crosbie in The Letter Katharine Hepburn (with her third nomination) as socialite Tracy Lord in Martha Scott (with her sole career nomination) as Emily Webb in Our Town Joan Fontaine (with her first nomination) as the "second Mrs. de Winter" - the confused young bride in Rebecca [Joan Fontaine's loss was compensated the following year by her Best Actress win for a similar role in Hitchcock's thriller Suspicion.] Walter Brennan won a Best Supporting Actor award (it was his third nomination and his third award in five years) for his performance as the notorious Judge Roy Bean in love with Lily Langtry (Lilian Bond) in director William Wyler's The Westerner (with three nominations and one win). Brennan was the first performer to win three Academy Awards - an unprecedented record he held for twenty-eight years until Katharine Hepburn won her third Oscar in 1968 for The Lion in Winter (1968).

The Best Supporting Actor winner was nominated only once more in the next year - for Sergeant York (1941) - but he lost the award to Donald Crisp. The other Best Supporting Actor nominees included: Albert Basserman (with his sole career nomination) as kidnapped Dutch diplomat Van Meer in Foreign Correspondent William Gargan (with his sole career nomination) as foreman Joe who is romanced by Carole Lombard in director Garson Kanin's They Knew What They Wanted (the film's sole nomination) Jack Oakie (with his sole career nomination) as Napaloni, Dictator of Bacteria (resembling Mussolini) in The Great Dictator James Stephenson (with his sole career nomination) as Howard Joyce, Bette Davis' defense lawyer in The Letter Though the Best Supporting Actress award could have gone to Australian-born actress Dame Judith Anderson (with her sole career nomination) as the sinister, malevolent housekeeper Mrs.

Danvers ("Danny") who dies within the flames of Manderley mansion in Rebecca , it was awarded to Jane Darwell (with her sole career nomination) for her outstanding, memorable portrayal of strong and understanding earth-mother and migrant farm worker Ma Joad in an adaptation of John Steinbeck's The other three Best Supporting Actress nominees were: Ruth Hussey (with her sole career nomination) as magazine photographer Elizabeth Imbrie in The Philadelphia Story Barbara O'Neil (with her sole career nomination) as co-star Charles Boyer's neurotically-disturbed, possessive wife Duchesse de Praslin in All This, and Heaven Too Marjorie Rambeau (with the first of two career nominations) as wrong-side-of-the-tracks Mamie Adams - co-star Ginger Rogers' mother in director Gregory La Cava's melodrama Primrose Path (the film's sole nomination) Preston Sturges won the first Original Screenplay Award for the political screwball comedy spoof The Great McGinty (the film's sole nomination and award) about city hall graft, Sturges' directorial debut film. Walt Disney's animated Pinocchio won the Best Original Score and Best Song Awards (for "When You Wish Upon a Star").

Oscar Snubs and Omissions: A few of the most notable, unaccountable omissions of the awards and nominations were: W. C. Fields, a hapless, henpecked husband and the unemployed town drunk named Egbert Sousè in his hilarious The Bank Dick producer/director Howard Hawks' fast-moving, quintessential screwball comedy His Girl Friday with an un-nominated Rosalind Russell (as ace news reporter Hildy Johnson) and Cary Grant (as Russell's ex-husband and ex-boss, fast-talking big-city newspaper editor Walter Burns) in a superior remake of the 1930/1 nominated Best Picture The Front Page Unbelievably, Cary Grant was also snubbed and not even nominated for his role as divorced, but dashing, colorful, pompous, playboyish husband C. K. Dexter Haven in the screwball comedy The Philadelphia Story .

Although The Great Dictator, Chaplin's first all-talking, all-sound film received five nominations: Outstanding Production/Picture, Best Actor (Chaplin), Best Writing (Original Screenplay) (Chaplin), Best Supporting Actor (Jack Oakie) and Best Music (Original Score) (Meredith Willson), it went away empty-handed. Although James Stewart was successful in the Best Actor category this year, he was not nominated for another great role in The Shop Around the Corner - co-stars Margaret Sullavan and Frank Morgan (as the tormented store owner) were also overlooked. Rebecca (1940) - Film on Freeview @ viewfilm.net Our listings are provided by our friends over at nextfilm.co.uk . Rebecca (1940) 13:30-15:35 Sat 3rd Dec 2016 125m BBC2 Synopsis The only Alfred Hitchcock film to win an Oscar for Best Picture, this mystery stars Laurence Olivier as Maxim de Winter, a widower whose hapless second wife (Joan Fontaine) moves into his mansion only to find the memory of his first wife still governs the household.

Intimidated by the home's hostile staff, the living Mrs. de Winter begins to go mad in Hitchcock's eerie adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's Gothic classic. Our Users Recommend Best Picture Oscar Winners of the 1940s Best Picture Oscar Winners of the 1940s Best Picture Oscar Winners of the 1940s Academy Hits and Misses in the Golden Age of Hollywood By Laurie Boeder Updated March 02, 2016. As the Best Picture Oscar winners of the 1940s prove, sometimes the Academy hits – and sometimes it misses by a mile. 1941 may have seen the most controversial Best Picture dust-up of all time, when the immortal Citizen Kane was beaten by the merely excellent How Green Was My Valley. Nevertheless, the 1940s were part of the Golden Age of Hollywood, hits and misses alike - a decade packed with stupendous films. Rebecca.

United Artists Buy from Amazon Alfred Hitchcock’s first American-made film captured the top prize, beating out such wonderful competitors as Charlie Chaplin’s first “talkie," The Great Dictator ; the funny, sophisticated Philadelphia Story; and the dust-bowl epic The Grapes of Wrath. Another of Hitchcock's films lost out the same year: Foreign Correspondent, a tense spy thriller that urged American entry into World War II. Also snubbed on a long list of nominees were The Letter, the Long Voyage Home, Our Town, Kitty Foyle and All This and Heaven, Too. Check Amazon rating » continue reading below our video Great Singers Gone too Soon How Green Was My Valley. 20th Century Fox 2. 1941 Best Picture – ‘How Green Was My Valley’ John Ford’s touching coming-of-age story in a Welsh mining village is a fine movie from a lovely novel, but history has rightly judged Orson Welles' Citizen Kane as the better movie. A masterpiece of film noir, The Maltese Falcon , also missed the prize, along with the charming biopic Sergeant York ; the melodramatic stage hit The Little Foxes; and Hitchcock’s spellbinding Suspicion.

Other movies that lost in 1941 were the delightful Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Blossoms in the Dust, Hold Back the Dawn and One Foot in Heaven. Mrs. Miniver. MGM 3. 1942 Best Picture – ‘Mrs. Miniver’ The sweet, sentimental tale of wartime bravery and sacrifice in Great Britain Mrs. Miniver beat out another Orson Welles masterwork, The Magnificent Ambersons, the story of a family’s decline. Other standouts that year were George Stevens’ smart, lively, comedy-drama The Talk of the Town; the melodrama King’s Row; George M. Cohan biopic Yankee Doodle Dandy; and The Pride of the Yankees, about the life of Lou Gehrig. Also nominated in 1942 were Random Harvest, Wake Island, The Pied Piper and The Invaders. Casablanca. Warner Brothers 4. 1943 Best Picture – ‘Casablanca’ Thanks to Casablanca , we’ll always have Paris.

Michael Curtiz’s cherished story of wartime love and sacrifice was the clear winner in 1943, beating out William Wellman’s gritty western allegory The Ox-Bow Incident; the frothy comedy The More the Merrier; and the Spanish Civil War tearjerker For Whom the Bell Tolls. Also falling that year were The Human Comedy, Heaven Can Wait, In Which We Serve, Song of Bernadette, The Watch on the Rhine, and Madame Curie. Going My Way. Paramount 5. 1944 Best Picture – ‘Going My Way’ Another injustice here as the crowd-pleasing story of a priest in a tough parish (crooner Bing Crosby) vacuumed up seven Oscars, including the top prize. The film earned millions, and beat out the far superior Double Indemnity, Billy Wilder’s film noir to end all film noir, with its crooked insurance agent, deadly dame and murder plot gone wrong. Also snubbed was the psychological thriller Gaslight, along with the largely forgotten soap opera Since You Went Away, and the obscure biopic Wilson (as in President Woodrow). The Lost Weekend.

Paramount The History of the Academy Awards: Best Picture – 1940 | News from the Boston Becks News from the Boston Becks The life and times of Erik, Veronica and Thomas 23 May, 2010 The History of the Academy Awards: Best Picture – 1940 [2] Comments David O. Selznick triumphs again with Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940) The 13th Academy Awards, for the film year 1940. The nominations were announced on February 10, 1941 and the awards were held on February 27, 1941. Best Picture: Rebecca All This and Heaven Too Most Surprising Omission: Arise My Love Best Film Not Nominated: His Girl Friday Rank (out of 82) Among Best Picture Years: #50 The Race: David O. Selznick was back at it and very quickly. Rebecca was in theaters just a few short months after Gone with the Wind had its magnificent release and Selznick had a second straight smash hit from a beloved best-seller.

But by the time it was released, Darryl F. Zanuck already had The Grapes of Wrath in movie theaters, just before the novel it was based on would win the Pulitzer Prize. Not everything was completely serious as Charlie Chaplin had released his first film in four years: The Great Dictator, his first all-talking film. Katharine Hepburn had also returned from box office failures, this time with The Philadelphia Story, which she personally had brought from the stage to the screen. Bette Davis was also not to be left behind as she had two big films: The Letter, re-uniting with William Wyler, her director from Jezebel, and All This and Heaven Too, a big budget costume drama. Ginger Rogers was even getting in the fray, going serious with Kitty Foyle. The National Board of Review kicked things off by giving Best Picture to The Grapes of Wrath. Their top 10 included two 1939 films (Gone with the Wind and Of Mice and Men), as well as The Great Dictator and Rebecca, as well as smaller films from potential Best Director nominees Alfred Hitchcock (Foreign Correspondent), John Ford (The Long Voyage Home) and Sam Wood (Our Town).

The New York Film Critics followed up by agreeing with the NBR on Grapes, giving John Ford their Best Director for both Grapes and Voyage and giving their top acting awards to Chaplin and Hepburn. The Results: Hitchcock, Ford and Wood were all nominated (along with Wyler and George Cukor for The Philadelphia Story). All five films were in, as well as the smaller Hitchcock, Ford and Wood films. Rounding out the nominees were All This and Heaven Too and The Great Dictator. Rebecca took the early lead with 11 nominations, the first time one film had ever had at least 4 more nominations than any other film. The Letter tied The Grapes of Wrath for second with 7 nominations, but the real race had come down to Rebecca and Grapes. When Ford won Best Director, it looked like a show at Grapes winning the big prize. However, no film had won more than one award and when Best Picture was announced a few minutes later, it was Selznick who again took home the Oscar.

His film won, but Hitchcock didn't for Rebecca (1940) Rebecca Release Date: 12 April 1940 My Rating: **** My Rank: #2 (year) / #75 (nominees) / #28 (winners) Nighthawk Nominations: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actor (Olivier), Actress (Fontaine), Supporting Actor (Sanders), Supporting Actress (Anderson), Editing, Cinematography, Score, Art Direction, Visual Effects, Sound Editing The Film: It’s not the film where she won the Oscar. It’s not one of his Shakespeare roles or the smoldering role which won him film stardom. It is not one of the 1950’s suspense thrillers that is worshiped by film critics, especially those that want to be taken seriously. It is not the production that made him king of the world, with record setting box office and Oscar recognition.

But it is a magnificent triumph for all of them, a brilliantly produced film, with again, a house made famous in a well-loved book that had to match up to the public’s imagination, a fantastically directed film that was a good (if not the best) choice for Best Picture in one of the best years in film history, a fantastically acted film by one of the best actors in film history and by a young woman trying to come out of the shadow of her younger sister and succeeding magnificently. So what if it isn’t Suspicion (it’s better and Fontaine is better), Wuthering Heights (Olivier tones down the brooding and gives one of his best screen performances), Vertigo (long over-rated — this is a better film) or Gone with the Wind (too long, too dumb). Rebecca is one of the greats in the long treasured Hitchcock film library (I rank it third behind Strangers on a Train and Rear Window), a magnificent film that is at once a romance, a drawing room mystery and a thriller. It has one of the single best supporting performances in history in the person of Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers.

It has a wonderful performance, late in the film, from George Sanders, who almost steals the film away. It has a great script that begins with one of the most treasured lines in literary or film history and only gets better and perfect chemistry between its two stars. It’s everything you could hope for in a Best Picture. the best film of one of the best film years - The Grapes of Wrath (1940) The Grapes of Wrath Release Date: 15 March 1940 My Rating: **** My Rank: #1 (year) / #30 (nominees) / #56 (all-time) Nighthawk Nominations: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actor (Fonda), Supporting Actor (Carradine), Supporting Actress (Darwell), Editing, Cinematography, Sound, Art Direction The Film: “A fella ain’t got a soul of his own; just a little piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody.” – Tom Joad Looking at it, Tom Joad’s Oklahoma doesn’t look all that different than Dorothy Gale’s Kansas.

His is a bit darker, a bit more black-and-white as opposed to her sepia. He’s not necessarily itching to leave, but doesn’t have a choice. She desperately wants to leave, but actually leaves by accident. But his promised land, as Springsteen would say after reading Steinbeck, is tinged with the darkness on the edge of town. Even accounting for wicked witches and winged monkeys, there is nothing so dark in Oz as what Tom finds in California. I remember my own experience of packing things up and heading out to that promised land. Watching the last moments of packing things up into the truck and then climbing in with the family reminds me of that. But we had a job and a house waiting for us, nothing like the uncertainty of the Okies in the Depression. I can understand why Grandpa refuses to leave and why he seems to have the tenacity to die on the way. He’s not going and that’s that. He belongs there. Land is land and there’s nothing more important than land. That’s only the beginning of this amazing film. This film, better than any other, documents the hardships of the Great Depression, of the lengths that people were willing to go through in order to stay together and to survive.

It is perhaps the best film ever made in the amazing career of John Ford, the most internationally respected of all the great American directors. It somehow didn’t get nominated for Cinematography that perfectly captures life in the dust, life in the fruit, life in the shadows. It somehow didn’t win Best Actor for the performance that would forever define Henry Fonda as one of the great under-appreciated actors in American film history. There are a lot of great American films with a powerful social message. But what makes this film so amazing is that it is one of the best adaptations of a great novel, of, in a fact, one of the best novels. It is one of the best message films, precisely because the cast and crew concentrated on making a great film and let the power come out of the film itself. It, like the novel that it sprang from, is an uncontested American classic. Then there is the speech. There are few like it in film history, speeches that go beyond the words spoken on screen, that become a part of American history. Study it. Remember it. They are words worth remembering.

one of the great satires of all-time - The Great Dictator (1940) The Great Dictator Stars: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Godard, Jack Oakie Oscar Nominations: Picture, Original Screenplay, Actor (Chaplin), Supporting Actor (Oakie), Original Score Length: 125 min Release Date: 15 October 1940 My Rating: **** My Rank: #3 (year) / #79 (nominees) Nighthawk Nominations: Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actor (Chaplin), Supporting Actor (Oakie), Editing, Cinematography, Score, Sound, Sound Editing, Costume Design The Film: One look at his films and you can see that there are two things at play here. The first is that Charlie Chaplin was opposed to war. He would prove this later in his diatribe against governments in Monsieur Verdoux. He thought it the great waste of mankind. But, on the other hand, we have Adolf Hitler, the unstoppable evil of the twentieth century.

So Chaplin decided to thread a very fine line and make a film that absolutely ridicules Hitler, satirizing him in every way possible (would Inglourious Basterds be possibly without this film?) and yet is, at heart, an anti-war film. We have here a tale straight out of Shakespeare and Twain – of the switching of two people and the hilarity that can ensue. But here, the hilarity has already ensued. We have seen Chaplin’s poetic ballet with a globe, his race in the barber chair against his rival dictator, Napaloni (a brilliant performance by Jack Oakie), the early slapstick war scenes and one of the funniest scenes in all of film history – the way the poor barber leaps into the chest when the soldiers come knocking at the door. By the time the characters actually switch places, the film has grown serious. It has been argued by many people, including Roger Ebert, that the final speech doesn’t belong in the film, that it grins the comedy to a halt. But the film is done being a comedy at this point.

Chaplin has pushed the humor as far as it can go, the same way that mediation and appeasement had been pushed as far as they could go. The time had come to draw the line in the sand and we have this brilliant speech, this plea to the common root of love at the core of humanity. It is one of the great film speeches and it is to Chaplin’s credit how he pulls it off so magnificently and made sure to keep it in. It belongs there. It should be listened to. It should echo in the ears as you walk away from the film. “Look up, Hannah.

Look up.” it would be #1 or 2 in a lot of years - in 1940 The Philadelphia Story sits at #4 The Philadelphia Story Release Date: 26 December 1940 My Rating: **** My Rank: #4 (year) / #85 (nominees) Nighthawk Nominations: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actor (Stewart), Actress (Hepburn), Supporting Actor (Grant), Supporting Actress (Hussey), Art Direction The Film: On the one hand, this is the film Jimmy Stewart won his Oscar for, an Oscar that even Stewart conceded he didn’t deserve. He himself figured (as do most Oscar enthusiasts) that they really were rewarding him for his work on the previous year’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It is also the film that won Best Screenplay and while the script is smart and funny and quick-moving, it, like Stewart, should have lost to The Grapes of Wrath. It’s unfortunate to have those associations. Because look at the rest of the film. It’s got one of the best, maybe the best performance in the long, brilliant career of Katharine Hepburn.

She won the New York Film Critics Award and should have won her second Oscar. But, she was still considered box office poison at the time and her NYFC win was clouded over by claims that she wasn’t favored until late in the voting because of one voter who essentially fillibustered until she won. But here she is smart, saucy, funny, beautiful and vulnerable all at once. As she flitters from George to Mike to Dexter, she is absolutely believable in every moment. Then there is Cary Grant in of his best performances as C.K. Dexter Haven, billed first, but really the third role (and I place him in supporting), a magnificent partner to his other great un-nominated performance of 1940 in His Girl Friday. There is Ruth Hussey, who gets so many wonderfully witty lines and is so perfect as the girl who is almost left behind. There is even the great performance of Virginia Weidler, as young Dinah Lord, who always wants to know what’s going on and always seems to be dragged away at the most interesting moments. This is one of the best of the screwball comedies, perhaps because it is a little less screwy and a little more romantic.

It has everything that a great romantic comedy should have: great writing, impeccable timing and directing, wonderful acting, a perfect ending. The Letter - in 1940 it became the first film to go 0 for 7 at the Oscars The Letter My Rank: #9 (year) / #213 (nominees) Nighthawk Nominations: Actress (Davis), Supporting Actor (Stephenson), Cinematography, Score The Film: This must have been aggravating. Luise Rainer had beaten Davis to the punch of being the first actress to win a second Oscar. But here she was, in a brilliant role that had earned an Oscar nomination for poor Jeanne Eagels (the first posthumous Oscar nominee). She not only had to act, she had to portray a woman who was acting herself, trying desperately not to let, first her lawyer, and then later, her husband, the truth about her relationship with the man she has killed. Katharine Hepburn had won the New York Film Critics Award, but there were whispers that all was not right in the voting and besides, Hepburn was still considered box office poison. Joan Fontaine was brand new.

Martha Scott could hardly be considered serious competition. But then, of all people, Ginger Rogers wins the damn award. It’s too bad because The Letter is a great film and Davis is great in it. For that matter, there was also James Stephenson, also much better than the actual Oscar winner (Walter Brennan), but who also went home empty handed. The Letter had been a great reunion for William Wyler and Bette Davis, considerably better than Jezebel, their previous collaboration. The Letter is a little bit of everything. In some ways it’s a mystery, as we try to figure out the actual details of the relationship that Davis is hiding. Then there is the courtroom drama aspect of it, which doesn’t last as long as you might remember. Then there is the suspense of it all, as we try to figure out where it is all going to go. Then it gets quiet, dark and deadly as we head into the conclusion, with great photography and direction and a suitable ending. All together, it is one of Davis’ most satisfying performances, in one of the best films she would ever star.

The Long Voyage Home: John Ford's other 1940 Best Picture nominee The Long Voyage Home My Rank: #12 (year) / #273 (nominees) Nighthawk Nominations: Sound The Film: Like Foreign Correspondent, this is the “other” film. In this case, it’s John Ford, whose main 1940 film, The Grapes of Wrath, would win Best Director and is widely (and correctly) hailed as a classic. But what about this film? Well, it is a very good film, on the lower edge of ***.5. It has some good moments of drama, some good moments of comedy, some good performances (well, really, one good performance — that of Thomas Mitchell, who had so many good performances in just a few short years it’s a wonder that Walter Brennan won three Oscars and not Mitchell). It has also has some quiet tragedy, an ending that tears at your heart, in two different ways as we see what happens to these characters. This is what Eugene O’Neill was the best at — showing the pathos that lay at the pit of the human heart. Like Arthur Miller after him, he captured the dramatic tragedy of the American experience.

It’s too bad that O’Neill focused on drama, because if he had written novels, we might have had someone to document the American experience of the working class to offset the novels of Henry James and Edith Wharton. O’Neill was born into money, became the most celebrated playwright in the entire world – winning three Pulitzers and becoming only the second American to win the Nobel Prize in literature. This film takes several of his shorter plays and manages to combine them in a way to tell a coherent tale of men at sea and how they feel about the lives they have left behind and ahead of them. It is not one of Ford’s major accomplishments, but it is a very good film in a truly brilliant year for film. Foreign Correspondent: Hitchcock's other 1940 Best Picture nominee Foreign Correspondent My Rank: #14 (year) / #288 (nominees) Nighthawk Nominations: Original Screenplay The Film: This is the ignored child of Hitchcock, overshadowed by Rebecca. Of course, it’s lesser Hitchcock. It’s a good film, suspenseful, with good international intrigue, kidnapping, a man suddenly in over his head, a lovely lady that he falls for.

It’s got Joel McCrea, who wasn’t your typical Hitchcock star, but was a good enough actor and good enough at seeming an everyman that he was perfect for the part. But it is lesser Hitchcock. Of course, that’s not really a complaint. After all, when you look at the list of Hitchcock films, pretty much anything that doesn’t reach the level of four stars becomes lesser Hitchcock. But the things just don’t click as well as they do in other Hitchcock films. It’s not quite as suspenseful, not quite as well acted, not as interesting. Part of the problem might be what came before (The Lady Vanishes and Rebecca) and what was to come after (Suspicion and Mr. and Mrs. Smith). But it is a good film, certainly not an embarrassment, even if it didn’t deserve its nomination in a year as loaded with great films as 1940. Our Town: not the last time a Pulitzer Prize winning play is made into an okay film Our Town My Rank: #28 (year) / #389 (nominees) Nighthawk Nominations: none The Film: Some plays work better on stage than they do on film.

Not that Our Town is a bad film. It is a perfectly decent film. But it worked better on stage, partially because of the function of the narrator, partially because of the minimalist approach. But as a film it never really gets off the ground. So why is that? Well, it’s not all that well acted. Yes, Martha Scott was Oscar nominated, but she really didn’t deserve it, especially not over Greer Garson in Pride and Prejudice or Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday. She is no more than serviceable (in fact, in her whole career she was never more than serviceable). William Holden was never really well cast as the All-American Boy. He had a much better career after Billy Wilder freed the cynic within. And then there’s just the film itself. It seems a bit too stagey. Never really seems to get off the ground. Perhaps that’s why neither the play or the film have the reputation that they used to. You don’t find a whole lot of revivals of the play and you won’t find a whole lot of people claiming that it deserved its nomination over Pinocchio and His Girl Friday. It’s just another Best Picture nominee that didn’t deserve it.

one of the least deserved Oscars in history: Ginger Rogers for Kitty Foyle (1940) Kitty Foyle My Rank: #60 (year) / #438 (nominees) Nighthawk Nominations: none The Film: Ginger Rogers deserved her Oscar. Well, anyway, that’s what the back of the DVD says. Which is stupid because the DVD is put out by Warner Bros., the same company that put out The Letter on DVD (they even have the same trailer for The Aviator). Was it just hyperbole? Or did those idiots really believe that Rogers was better than Davis was? And neither was better than Katharine Hepburn. Let’s face it. Ginger Rogers was a capable actress. She was very charming and affable in her films with Fred Astaire. But she was never a particularly good dramatic actress. Of course, it didn’t help that this film is really rather boring, simple, and let’s face it, stupid. Rogers isn’t bad. She just really isn’t all that good. She’s a working woman who is forced to choose between a poor doctor or a rich bore.

She spends most of the film putting off the decision and we can’t help but wonder why either of them would want her in the first place. So let’s just skip it. It’s a bore, it’s proof that Dalton Trumbo, for all his reputation, had several films that weren’t worth remembering, and it contains one of the least deserving Oscar winning performances in history. all this and boring too All This and Heaven Too Director: Anatole Litvak My Rank: #65 (year) / #466 (nominees) Nighthawk Nominations: Costume Design The Film: According to information on the Net, this was designed as a response to Gone with the Wind, a big budget Warner Bros. costume drama with their big female star who been denied a role in the biggest film of all-time. I am as dubious of these claims as I was of the ones that say that Jezebel was given to Davis because she wasn’t cast as Scarlett. The latter claims are easy to disprove with help from the book Inside Warner Bros.

(1935-1951), where the documentary evidence (say yay for archivists!!!) proves that Jezebel was being approved for Davis at a time when Gone with the Wind hadn’t even been published. Nothing about this film is mentioned in the book, so we can’t know for certain. But look at the film itself. First, if they truly wanted a response to Wind, they would have made it in color to show off their sets and costumes (don’t claim that Warners didn’t have the money for that – their color film version of Robin Hood just two years before had been a huge success). Second, they would have gotten more of their stars involved in it. They had the stars available, they certainly would have use of them if this was their big production of the year. Third, they would have pushed it a lot more like they eventually would The Letter, which earned seven nominations to this film’s four. Then there is the film itself. For all the problems with Wind, for all the melodrama and white-washing of history and bad lines, Gone with the Wind is never boring. This film is dreadfully boring.

Not because it deals with a strange murder that might have helped bring about the 1848 Revolution in France, whereas Wind was dealing with the biggest story in American history: The Civil War. But because it is just so simply dull. The performances are dull (rarely has Bette Davis been so flat in a performance as she is here). The story is fairly uninteresting. Nothing about the way the film is made earns any kudos from me. And the whole framing device — the idea of Davis telling the story to her young charges, is so overwhelmingly stupid, that I can’t believe they would even conceive of it. Just watch Bette Davis in The Letter and remember 1940 that way instead. Share this: The Oscar Quest: Best Picture – 1940 | B+ Movie Blog The Films I’ve Watched Since Graduation The Oscar Quest: Best Picture – 1940 It’s hard to follow up 1939. But 1940 makes a real go of it. This is, while not in 1939 territory, an exceptionally strong Best Picture list. And the decisions they made this year were really strong too.

Which is a bit of a shame, since it’s sandwiched between the strongest year in film history and the biggest Best Picture screw job in Academy history. Rebecca wins Best Picture, which isn’t a great decision based on the category, but is lessened by the fact that the film that should have won Best Picture, The Grapes of Wrath, won Best Director for John Ford (talked about here ). If John Ford didn’t win Best Director, then we’d be talking about how weak a choice Rebecca is (if some people don’t already do that). It’s a great film (and a Hitchcock, which is what leads people to defend it so vehemently), but it’s just not on the level The Grapes of Wrath is. And the split does help alleviate some of that tension (kind of the way the Shakespeare in Love/Saving Private Ryan split does), because at least then you can say, “Well, at least they recognized one was superior, but they just preferred the other.” So I can accept it. Jane Darwell also won Best Supporting Actress for The Grapes of Wrath (talked about here ), which is awesome, since she is the “Ma” of cinema.

Best Actor this year was Jimmy Stewart for The Philadelphia Story (talked about here ), which is the most blatant makeup Oscar perhaps in the history of cinema. It’s terrible. He should have won the year before this. But, it gave him an Oscar, and for that, it’s okay. Even though he did beat both Charlie Chaplin and Henry Fonda, depriving Chaplin of an Oscar and delaying Fonda’s win for 41 years. Best Actress was Ginger Rogers for Kitty Foyle (talked about here ), which I love as a decision. Joan Fontaine, to me, gave the best performance, but Rogers was likely to never have another shot at winning, so I support the win (plus Fontaine got her makeup Oscar the year after this anyway. For a Hitchcock again, no less). And Best Supporting Actor was (surprise, surprise), Walter Brennan, for the third time in five years, for The Westerner (talked about here ). This was actually the strongest of the three performances he won for (in a terribly weak category too), so he deserved it. Overall, 1940 is a strong year, and anything weak about it is actually alleviated in context.

Jimmy Stewart shouldn’t have won, but he should have won the year before this, so it’s understandable. Ginger Rogers never had another shot at an Oscar, so the win makes sense. And Rebecca isn’t as good as The Grapes of Wrath, but Grapes of Wrath won Best Director. So, to me, 1940, while not being a standout year, is still a damn good one. BEST PICTURE – 1940 All This, and Heaven Too (Warner Bros.) Foreign Correspondent (Wanger, United Artists) The Grapes of Wrath (20th Century Fox) The Great Dictator (Chaplin, United Artists) Kitty Foyle (RKO Radio) The Long Voyage Home (Argosy, Wanger, United Artists) Our Town (Lesser, United Artists) The Philadelphia Story (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) Rebecca (Selznick, United Artists) All This, and Heaven Too — This is actually a Bette Davis melodrama that I like. There aren’t many. It’s like, this and Now, Voyager. I can’t really think of many others. This film is a frame story melodrama.

Bette Davis is working as a teacher and all her students make fun of her behind her back because they heard she has a crazy past. And one day they call her our on it, so naturally she tells them the entire story (because that’s what you do). And the story involves her working as a governess for Charles Boyer and Barbara O’Neil and their children. And the gist of it is, O’Neil is slightly crazy and not a very good mother. And Davis is a very good mother figure for the kids, so they fall in love with her. And Boyer, seeing how good of a mother Davis is, starts to fall for her too (since O’Neil is pretty cold toward him most of the time). And then O’Neil, upset that Davis is so close to the rest of the family (especially Boyer) fires her, but refuses to give her a letter of recommendation so she can work elsewhere. And Boyer is furious about this, so he kills her. And then during the trial, Davis is suspected in being a part of it. And Boyer refuses to say he did it or say he loves Davis, to protect her. And eventually Boyer poisons himself. That’s the film.

It’s good. I liked it. I really liked Barbara O’Neil’s performance. It’s a solid film. I was surprised how much I liked it, specifically given the sample size of Bette Davis movies that I just don’t like at all (or am completely indifferent toward). Though, in terms of this category, it shouldn’t have won at all. Not at all. There are American classics on this list. Foreign Correspondent — Hitchcock had two films nominated for Best Picture this year. That’s gotta be a pretty exclusive list, huh? This is definitely the lesser of his two nominees, but it’s still a really good film. Joel McCrea is an American correspondent covering whether or not there will be a world war. And there’s a big delegate event being held, and McCrea goes to cover it. And while he’s there, one of the diplomats is assassinated very suddenly. But McCrea follows the assassin’s getaway car and follows him to a secluded windmill in the country, where the real diplomat (who is not dead), is being held. And the rest of the film is basically them figuring out a plot to start the war and whose behind it, and — it’s Hitchcock, it’s great.

Just watch it. It’s a really solid film, and that windmill scene is awesome. Though, Rebecca is better, so that right there eliminates this as a choice. The Grapes of Wrath — It’s The Grapes of Wrath. You need to have seen this. The Great Dictator — Again, another film you need to have seen. Kitty Foyle — This is the film that won Ginger Rogers her Oscar. The film is, as Katharine Hepburn put it, “a drama about a shopgirl.” The film is about Ginger, as a shopgirl, who is forced to make a decision, marry a doctor, or run away with a married man she’s been in love with for years. And we sit with her as she has to decide between these two, and we flash back to how she got there. And in the flashback, we see that the doctor is the more stable choice, and will be the better husband, and that the married man is not a particularly great guy, but she’s really got a thing for him, and jumps at him pretty much whenever he looks her way. There’s really not much to say here — it’s a good film. I really liked it.

I’m sure some won’t, but I really did. I love Ginger Rogers. I’ll see pretty much anything she does. Though it’s clear that this was never going to win. It’s good, but not that good. Not up against the classics on this list. The Letter — This is the movie where Bette Davis gets shanked by a Chinese woman. This blog might have been leading up to this moment from post #1. The film is a remake of the 1929 version starring Jeanne Eagels (who was unofficially nominated for Best Actress that year for it, since there were no official nominees). It’s about a woman who shoots a man and claims it’s in self-defense. That’s Bette Davis. And everyone believes her, until a letter surfaces that implies that she was in love with him (which would make the killing murder rather than self-defense), and she works to suppress the letter, which leads to her getting shanked by a Chinese woman (the man’s wife). It’s not a film I liked. But she does actually get shanked by a Chinese woman. Still, not winning amongst these other nominees. Not happening. The Long Voyage Home — Oh hey, look at that.

John Ford has two films nominated for Best Picture this year too. This film is actually kind of like a John Ford version of In Which We Serve. That film was about the boat, and the history of the boat. This one is about the men on the boat. Ford is all about the community. The film is self-explanatory from its title. The men are traveling home from the West Indies to England (it’s actually one of the triangle trade routes, though slavery isn’t involved). And basically we just hang out on the ship with the men. That’s actually pretty much the entire film. It’s just showing the men on this voyage. Not much actually does happen. In fact it was kinda boring for me. I don’t know why. Maybe because John Wayne was playing a Swede. This is no Grapes of Wrath. It had no shot. Our Town — Ah, Our Town. I really loved this one. I guess because it’s largely plotless. The first two-thirds of this film is basically just life in a small town, floating from event to event. And then the final third is this weird dreamlike state where one of the characters dies and then floats around, watching everyone else go about their lives after her death.

It’s a very unique film. I really, really liked it. Wouldn’t vote for it though, since, again — Grapes of Wrath. (I love when there’s an obvious winner. It makes it so much easier to be like, “Yup, not winning.” I don’t have to explain why I’m not voting for it.) The Philadelphia Story — This is a classic comedy. I don’t love it as much as some other ones like some people do (for instance, I don’t think this is anywhere near Bringing Up Baby or His Girl Friday (anywhere being the key word), even though it is a really great romantic comedy), but it is a terrific, terrific film. The film begins with the divorce of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. And we fast forward to the weekend where she’s gonna be remarried. And a couple of reporters (Jimmy Stewart and Ruth Hussey) show up to cover the wedding, mostly because Hepburn’s father has pretty much left her mother and is with another woman in the city, and since they’re a big socialite family, they want the scoop.

So Hepburn and the family try to cover for him by passing off their uncle as their father, and then Grant shows up to mess with them (and also get Hepburn back, in a way), and there’s a whole series of incidents, and eventually Hepburn leaves her fiancé and remarries Grant, and Jimmy Stewart marries Hussey. It’s a great movie. I should have just said you need to see it, but, I gave a synopsis. So, there. It’s good, but, not The Grapes of Wrath. It’s just not. Rebecca — This film is about Joan Fontaine, a young naive girl, who meets and falls in love with Laurence Olivier. After a whirlwind courtship, she goes to live at his estate, where the memory of his dead ex-wife lingers over the entire grounds. And at first she’s overwhelmed by it, but soon she takes ownership of it and becomes lady of the house. But then she starts looking into how the wife died, since it’s this big secret, and then she finds out, and — well, just see it. It’s Hitchcock and it’s pretty classic. I don’t want to ruin it if you haven’t seen it.

(If I haven’t already in one of the other articles.) It’s a great film. It really is. Though again, this shouldn’t have beaten The Grapes of Wrath. I’m actually amazed that it did. But it’s not so bad, given that Ford won Best Director, but still — I can’t vote for this no matter how much I like it. Grapes of Wrath is an unquestioned classic. You can’t not vote for those. My Thoughts: Rebecca is a great film (so is Great Dictator), but The Grapes of Wrath is an American classic. That’s the only choice here. My Vote: The Grapes of Wrath Should Have Won: The Grapes of Wrath Is the result acceptable?: This is hard to say, but no. I love Rebecca, but The Grapes of Wrath is such a better movie. It’s close. It’s one of those, “I don’t like the choice, but I can live with it.” I think Ford winning Best Director is what saves it. I can understand it because of that. Ones I suggest you see: If you haven’t seen The Grapes of Wrath or The Great Dictator, you don’t really love movies and you’re dead to me.

Rebecca is a film you really need to see. It’s a Best Picture winner, a Hitchcock film and is incredible. That makes it essential. See it. The Philadelphia Story is also essential, given its stature. You need to see that too. I love Our Town so much. It’s so laid back, and the structure is so unlike anything else, Oscar-wise. And I love that. I really liked this and highly, highly recommend it. Kitty Foyle is a really great movie. Ginger Rogers. And her movies are pretty much all worth watching. This is the movie she won an Oscar for. It’s really good. Highly recommended. All This, and Heaven Too — I actually really liked this one. I don’t typically like the Bette Davis melodrama, but I liked this one. I can’t explain it, but, the fact that I don’t do these types of movies and liked this one should be enough. Highly recommended. Foreign Correspondent — another Hitchcock. All of his films should just be essential. So I’m declaring this essential. Not one of his absolute best, but even Hitchcock at simply very good is better than most. So see this.

The Long Voyage Home — John Ford and John Wayne. I don’t love it, but it is considered a classic, and the Wayne/Ford films are all essential in their own way. It’s one of the most famous collaborations of all time. You should probably see it. The Letter is the film in which Bette Davis gets shanked by a Chinese woman. I rest my case. Rankings: 9) The Long Voyage Home 8) Foreign Correspondent 7) All This, and Heaven Too 6) The Philadelphia Story Rebecca (1940) for Rent on DVD - DVD Netflix Rebecca 1940 NR Rated NR 2hr 10m The only Alfred Hitchcock film to win an Oscar for Best Picture, this mystery stars Laurence Olivier as Maxim de Winter, a widower whose hapless second wife (Joan Fontaine) moves into his mansion only to find the memory of his first wife still governs the household. Intimidated by the home's hostile staff, the living Mrs. de Winter begins to go mad in Hitchcock's eerie adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's Gothic classic. Rent DVDs for only $4.99 a month.

Rebecca (1940) - IMDb IMDb 18 January 2017 5:37 PM, UTC NEWS There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error A self-conscious bride is tormented by the memory of her husband's dead first wife. Director: a list of 25 titles created 16 Jul 2011 a list of 45 titles created 16 Dec 2011 a list of 37 titles created 10 Mar 2013 a list of 21 titles created 07 Jul 2013 a list of 29 titles created 13 Sep 2014 Search for " Rebecca " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 2 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 10 nominations.

See more awards » Videos A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them? Director: Alfred Hitchcock An ex-tennis pro carries out a plot to murder his wife. When things go wrong, he improvises a brilliant plan B. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A psychotic socialite confronts a pro tennis star with a theory on how two complete strangers can get away with murder - a theory that he plans to implement. Director: Alfred Hitchcock Two young men strangle their "inferior" classmate, hide his body in their apartment, and invite his friends and family to a dinner party as a means to challenge the "perfection" of their crime. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A young woman discovers her visiting uncle may not be the man he seems to be. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A psychiatrist protects the identity of an amnesia patient accused of murder while attempting to recover his memory. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A spoiled heiress running away from her family is helped by a man who is actually a reporter in need of a story.

Director: Frank Capra A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive. Director: Alfred Hitchcock While traveling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A shy young heiress marries a charming gentleman, and soon begins to suspect he is planning to murder her. Director: Alfred Hitchcock 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X A man in London tries to help a counterespionage agent. But when the agent is killed and the man stands accused, he must go on the run to both save himself and also stop a spy ring which is trying to steal top secret information. Director: Alfred Hitchcock An ingenue insinuates herself into the company of an established but aging stage actress and her circle of theater friends. Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz Edit Storyline A shy ladies' companion, staying in Monte Carlo with her stuffy employer, meets the wealthy Maxim de Winter.

She and Max fall in love, marry and return to Manderley, his large country estate in Cornwall. Max is still troubled by the death of his first wife, Rebecca, in a boating accident the year before. The second Mrs. de Winter clashes with the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, and discovers that Rebecca still has a strange hold on everyone at Manderley. Written by Col Needham <col@imdb.com> See All (142) » Taglines: The shadow of a remembered woman came between their lips... but these two had the courage to hope... and to live their love! See more » Genres: 12 April 1940 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording) Color: Did You Know? Trivia Some of the exteriors at Manderley were filmed at Del Monte, California, while the beach scenes were filmed on Santa Catalina Island. See more » Goofs When the new Mrs. De Winter first enters the room to do her correspondence, there are three books on the table. An establishing shot shows that the book on the left is labeled "menus", and the one in the center is labeled "addresses". Mrs.

de Winter picks up the one on the left, and it is now revealed in a close-up to read "addresses" on the cover. See more » Quotes See more » Crazy Credits The original 1940 credits read "Selznick International presents its picturization of Daphne Du Maurier's 'Rebecca'". The credits on the re-issue version read "The Selznick Studio presents its production of Daphne Du Maurier's 'Rebecca'". See more » Connections

Question: Which is the only Hitchcock film to win a Best Picture Oscar (in 1940)?
Answer: Rebecca