Friday, November 24, 2017

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Director 1934

The Contenders:

Frank Capra: It Happened One Night (winner)
Victor Schertzinger: One Night of Love
W.S. Van Dyke: The Thin Man

What’s Missing

I’m a bit lacking in my viewings of 1934 films, so I don’t have a lot of suggestions here. Frankly, I’m kind of glad that there are only three nominees. I think a case could be made for bringing in Cecil B. DeMille for his work on Cleopatra, although the sets and the costumes are the real standouts for this film. I think I might also suggest Mark Sandrich for The Gay Divorcee, a musical that demonstrates the best thing about what a musical should be. I’m sure there are some others. Honestly, it would be a stretch in 1934 to give a nomination to Yonggang Wu for his work on The Goddess.

Weeding through the Nominees

3. In a year with only three nominees where I don’t really have a lot of suggestions, there’s no clear reason why Victor Schertzinger was nominated for a drippy mess like One Night of Love. For whatever reason, this film got a great deal of play come Oscar time. I guess it was a popular film when it was made, but there’s no really good reason to watch this one any more. It’s the sort of film where love is indicated by singing a lot of high notes really loudly. It gave me a headache and I kind of wish I didn’t have to talk about it.

2. I understand the win for Frank Capra and It Happened One Night. In many ways, it was the right film in the right place to sweep the big categories. I like the film pretty well and I have a hard time arguing against it. It’s iconic in a lot of ways, a film that has still got a great deal of legs in terms of entertaining a general audience. In a lot of other years, I wouldn’t have a problem with this win and I absolutely don’t have a problem with the nomination. The truth is that I just like another film more.

My Choice

1. W.S. Van Dyke wins this for me with his work on The Thin Man, which is probably my favorite movie from this decade. Everything I said about It Happened One Night could be just as easily said about The Thin Man and with more intensity. This is a movie that plays entirely on the perfect chemistry between its two leads and the whipcrack speed at which the insanely clever dialogue is ripped through. The Thin Man has dialogue for days, and it never misses a beat. Van Dyke tells the story as well as it could be told, and I’d give him the statue.


Final Analysis

10 comments:

  1. W. S. Van Dyke is not a name you hear a lot in Great director discussions, but his directorial credits during the 30's were still more impressive than most. He definitely gets bonus points for teaming Powell and Loy.

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    1. It's not that often one would suggest a guy nicknamed "One-Shot Woody" for this award, but the proof is in the film.

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  2. It Happened One Night and The Thin Man are both great movies. And as I seem to like Cleopatra a lot better than most people, I could certainly see getting considered for this award.

    But I looked at my IMDB list for Favorite Movies Year By Year to remind me of what else is from 1934 and I find W.C. Fields' It's a Gift.

    It's directed by Norman McLeod, no stranger to great movies as he also directed Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Topper and quite a few others.

    Now I'm not saying I would give this award to McLeod. I'll have to think about it.

    As far as I'm concerned, much as I like The Thin Man, I believe this particular award should be classified "Oscar Did Okay," but I can see why you couldn't resist the temptation to use the Myrna Loy pic.

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    1. I thought about the "okay" rating, but I really think The Thin Man deserves it.

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  3. I'm with Tony in thinking that Oscar did okay this time out though you'd hear no quibble from me if The Thin Man had taken it. In both cases the fact that either film works as well as it does can be laid at the director's feet with a very able assist from their perfectly cast performers.

    As far as One Night of Love goes I'm sure it was seen as a prestige picture at the time. Grace Moore was a huge opera star and the patina of class associated with that world surely put a bright shiny edge on the film. That said I think the film is crap and totally forgettable today except for opera lovers. I'm not one of those though as these things go Moore did have a fine voice.

    As to who is missing I'd add Howard Hawks for Twentieth Century and Josef von Sternberg for The Scarlet Empress. I do like the suggestion of Mark Sandrich for The Gay Divorcee. Even then musicals did get the respect they deserved. But even with them in the race it would still come down to being between those first two films for the prize.

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    1. I think it's fair to suggest that It Happened One Night was a worthy winner, and I'm not totally against that position. It's a bit of a hard sell for me to essentially give the award to two-thirds of the nominees, although I've done that before.

      And yes, I agree--no matter the number of the nominees, it really will ultimately come down to those top two.

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  4. I like L'Atalante more than you do and I love The Thin Man but I would have given it to Capra for creating the definitive romantic comedy.

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    1. I can see that. I can't, heart-of-hearts, say it's a wrong choice.

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  5. I like both It Happened one Night and The Thin Man, so both of them worked out, at least to my liking. Since this is a best direction award I need to ask which director got the most out of the material. You can argue that Powell and Loy drove The Thin Man, but it is the director who is responsible for the comedic timing of the movie and it is knife sharp. I am not sure I would credit Capra to the same extent for being responsible for the movie's success. It could have gone real sappy, but it isn't. Is that good enough to beat the knife sharp direction of The Thin Man? I do not think so.

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    1. It's a tough call. For me, it really just came down to the fact that, given a choice, I'm watching The Thin Man 9 times out of 10.

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